The 22-year-old Wu Li is no longer young. In the past, Huaping was just fine. But in today's Huaping, which has been extremely involved, objectively speaking, the situation is not as good as that of Liang Kunpeng and Gao Mingyuan. After all, the latter two are more than a year younger than him, and they have at least entered Chinese National Table Tennis Team, and have tried their best in the world competition.
As for him, the trajectory of his career is simple to the point of rudimentary. He used to be in Jiangcheng City Team, and now he is in Spade Q. Apart from that, he has no other resume. He has never even produced Northern Hubei Province.
If he hadn't been abducted by Wang Chao at the beginning of the year, he would probably be in Hubei Provincial Team now, receiving personal training from Jiang Tiansheng, and most likely appearing in the mid-year exam in the imperial capital that has not yet ended, competing with the five little ones and Jiang Shan.
But now, he has gained nothing, and his record with Spade Q in the first half of the year was also bleak. In the spring split, he and Geng Shuai were the fixed single and double players in the team, and they were beaten to shit by their opponents many times. Now in the autumn split, they have lost two games in a row since the start of the season.
So that afternoon, Wang Chao asked Wu Li privately, "Do you blame me?"
Wu Li shook his head.
He has a habitual expressionless face and is not a person who likes to joke. He speaks in a serious and matter-of-fact manner, "Even if you never take care of me, I am only grateful to you. Besides, I know you will never forget me."
In fact, these words are a bit ambiguous, much like a confession between a boyfriend and a girlfriend, but Wu Li actually means very simple: You asked me to come to Spade Q and you must have a follow-up plan. Although you went to Huaping immediately afterwards and there was no news for half a year, I believe that with your careful thoughts and thorough plans, you will never forget your follow-up plans about me.
Wu Li is a football madman, but not a football idiot. He doesn't care about most external affairs, but he still understands everything he should understand.
If he came to Spade Q with Wang Chao at the beginning of the year just because he urgently needed to make money, then by the time August came, through so many live broadcasts of the world championships and related table tennis news reports, he had completely understood what kind of person Wang Chao was.
This is a man who is smarter than he could ever imagine.
Wu Li directly compares Wang Chao to Qin Huachang. Let me ask, if Qin Huachang picked a team member at the beginning of the year and put him in a professional team to train, would he forget about it because he is too busy with work?
"You're not panicking at all?" Wang Chao was actually a little surprised. "You are already 22 years old. If I don't take the initiative to find you, will you really keep waiting? You can actually call me. I gave you my contact information."
Wu Li shook his head and said nothing.
He is actually purer than most people imagine. For example, he actually has no interest in lofty goals such as "bringing glory to the country." He just likes to play and wants to keep playing. He also instinctively pursues better skills and wants to compete with stronger opponents. This is a very simple interest, just like a child playing a mud contest to see who is better, and has no interest in the slightest.
If he didn't urgently need to make money, he would not have taken the initiative to ask Wang Chao about the income of the professional league at the beginning of the year, nor would he follow Wang Chao to Spade Q.
He lost countless games in the first half of the Spring Split. Everyone was talking about him, and many people ridiculed him because his talent "Hundred Refinements" was revealed at the beginning of the year. A lot of people thought he would soar into the sky, but he died before he even started flying. This is a typical story of starting high and going low, hurting Zhongyong.
A relatively delicate female team leader like Fan Xiaoxian even deliberately prevents Wu Li from being exposed to too many forums and sports tabloids, for fear that he will see bad content that will affect his mood and condition.
But Wu Li is actually not depressed at all. On the contrary, he feels that these six months have been extremely fulfilling, because in the past he could not lose at Jiangcheng City Team and had no fun at all. But in Table Tennis Super League, he can go to different In this place, he saw all kinds of different players, different playing styles, and different routines. He thought hard, fought with all his strength, and had a clear conscience even if he lost. Then he would quietly think about it, find ways to improve, and accumulate bit by bit. In fact, he has definitely improved in the past six months.
At least his current strength is above that of Geng Shuai. It is only because of the classification of athletes that he can only be in the second single position.
Therefore, if Wang Chao does not contact him, he really does not intend to contact Wang Chao. As long as Fan Xiaofan does not drive him away, he can stay here for the rest of his life.
"Come, let's play a game." Wang Chao invited him enthusiastically.
Wu Li gladly accepted.
The game ended quickly, and Wu Li lost miserably, 11:0, without scoring a single point.
Because today's Wang Chao is much stronger than at the beginning of the year. Not only did he understand the heart of the king, but he also completed a super evolution. He also recently learned Great Python Turn. Even Lin Zijun's new Super Speed Defense Mode was learned by him in a decent manner. All he lacked was speed.
"Come again." Wu Li was obviously excited.
In the past six months, he has only been able to spar with Geng Shuai in the team. Lu Jia Gao Ming Tian Zhengguang is completely out of control, but even Geng Shuai can no longer put pressure on him. Not only can he not beat him in a single game, but he also loses power after practicing for a while, so Wu Li is really in a state of dissatisfaction with the amount of training for a long time.
He needs to be squeezed hard, he is a piece of iron that needs beating, and needs to be beaten hard with a heavy hammer, but in Spade Q, it is difficult for him to even warm up.
At this moment, Wu Li's only feeling is: I finally feel good today!
Please ravage me hard!
He threw the ball to Wang Chao, with a rare emotion in his tone. "Let me try your serve."
Wang Chao put the ball away and said with a smile, "I'm not here to train with you. Come on, follow me to meet someone."
Seeing Wu Li's reluctant look, he added, "I promise, your trip is definitely worth it."
An hour later, Wang Chao and Wu Li appeared in the training base of Jiangcheng City's other Table Tennis Super League team, Jiangcheng University Team.
Speaking of which, the relationship between the two teams is quite subtle. They were supposed to be rivals in the Derby, but the ace players on both sides were brothers from the same school, and they had a very good relationship.
The most amazing thing is that Wang Chao also helped Jiangcheng University Team bring back a world-class foreign aid player. On the first day he joined the team, this player clamored to go to Spade Q to visit Wang Chao. It took a lot of effort for the translator to make him understand that it turned out that Wang Chao did not usually stay at Jiangcheng City, but in the imperial capital.
In fact, Hook had some complaints at one time. He felt as if he had been cheated by Wang Chao - until Luo Jiu soon returned to the team.
So Hook was satisfied, because in terms of hard power, he knew that Luo Jiu was stronger than Wang Chao.
What makes Wang Chao so powerful is the endless means and surprises that may appear at any time, but the power of Luo Jiu is obvious and real. There is no need for surprises. His forehand loops and backhand bounces have almost been praised by the world table tennis circles as the best in both events in the world today.
The world's number one forehand loop.
The world's No. 1 backhand bounce.
Of course, everyone recognizes the backhand, but many fans don't recognize the forehand, because there are too many players with strong forehands in the table tennis world. Do you dare to say that Sun Tianlong's forehand rhythm is not as good as Luo Jiu? Do you dare to say that the forehand lethality of Xiao Fei is not as good as that of Luo Jiu? Do you dare to say that the forehand heavy artillery of Hook and Lin Li is not as good as Luo Jiu?
But at least, the whole world recognizes that Luo Jiu's forehand is No. 1 in connection and change. This is not because his technique is better than Sun Tianlong, but because he uses Number One Attacker in the World's double-sided looping attack system has no blind spots in Taiwan. This system naturally comes with countless permutations and combinations of offensive changes. Coupled with the sudden switch of "turning or not turning" his forehand and backhand, even the strongest opponent will be confused by him.
From April to August, Luo Jiu did not participate in a single open league. Except for World Cup, he played in the league throughout the whole process. After Hook entered Jiangcheng University Team in July, he and Luo Jiu practiced for a full month.
He was very happy because he had never experienced such long-term, high-intensity, and high-level training, whether in Brazil or Germany. He had the illusion that if he continued to practice like this, he would probably become a god.
How cool is it? It was so exciting that he didn't even attend Brazil Open in August. In fact, the Brazilian Table Tennis Association had contacted him many times and tried its best to persuade him to participate.
——At that time, the Brazilian Table Tennis Association did not know that China Table Tennis would give Wang Chao the exam at Brazil Open. They thought that Brazil Open would not have any masters sign up. They expected Hook to take advantage of the opportunity and win a gold medal.
But just recently, Luo Jiu went to the imperial capital, which happened to be staggered with Wang Chao's schedule, because Luo Jiu was going to participate in World Table Tennis Championships, so he had to go to Chinese Table Tennis base to prepare, and then he had to prepare to participate in "Top 12 Invitational".
So Hook, who had been a little bored in the past two days, was very surprised after seeing Wang Chao. However, he had no interest in Wu Li who came with Wang Chao, because he really didn't know Wu Li and didn't care about Hundred Refinements. After all, he was also a pure player.
"Have a fight?" Hook has good language learning ability. Although there was a translator on site at this time, he did not need it. He enthusiastically invited Wang Chao in broken Chinese.
Wang Chao shook his head. "No fight."
"Why?" Hook was puzzled.
"Because I have learned a lot of new things. If you are familiar with it now, it will be difficult when World Table Tennis Championships comes." Wang Chao didn't hide it either.
This sentence was too long, so a translator was needed. When the translation was completed, Hook laughed and shook his head, "Wang Chao, you can't do it. Your senior brother Luo Jiu is much braver. He practiced with me for a whole month."
Wang Chao also laughed, "Then can you beat him?"
Hook suddenly showed a frustrated look. "I can't beat him... We were evenly matched at first, but then the fight got worse and worse, and now it's hard to win."
Wang Chao looked at him with a smile and did not answer.
Hook himself understood.
Luo Jiu dares to practice with him, naturally because Luo Jiu is confident and knows that he will get stronger as he plays, and is not afraid of Hook becoming familiar with his own routines. In fact, Luo Jiu is getting better and better as he plays, and now, Hook is basically a master of it.
This is not because Hook has become weaker, but because Hook's play style tends to be wild and unconstrained, and there are many Unreasonable Shot. He is actually very afraid of being familiar with others.
The nature of his playing is similar to Xiao Fei. The important thing is that you are not familiar with it. When you don't know how he is going to play, every ball he hits is unexpected, and of course you can't catch it.
And as you become more and more familiar with him, his Unreasonable Shot will become reasonable, because you are too familiar and accustomed to it, so as you fight, you will naturally become less and less afraid of Hook.
There is a special term for this phenomenon in Hua Ping, which is called "killing familiarity".
The smarter a player is, the better he is at being familiar with it, because when you two are sparring, you will continue to become familiar with each other's routines and find ways to target each other. But the other side is not as smart as you, so he will not target you and will still fight as you should.
One month is enough time for Luo Jiu to get to know Hook so well that he even knows the color of the underwear he wears every day. It can be said that no matter how unrestrained Hook is, the shots he plays have no secrets in front of Luo Jiu.
Hook looked at Wang Chao's smiling face, his mouth gradually opened wide and his eyes gradually rounded, obviously he had figured out the reason.
He is just pure, not stupid. He used to be a fan of the authorities, but now he has become a bystander after being nudged by Wang Chao.
"Have you figured it out?" Wang Chao said, "My senior brother has a month to get to know you. Of course he is willing to fight you. But I am going back to the imperial capital soon and have no time to get to know you. How can I fight you?"
What Wang Chao is talking about is actually a truth known to everyone within Huaping, which is the simplest "Kings do not meet kings". In fact, even though he and Luo Jiu are both disciples of He Jingping, after entering Huaping for half a year, He and Luo Jiu have never played a single game in private. He has been practicing with He Jingping, while Luo Jiu has his personal partner Zhu Ding. Even the specific training places of the two parties are separated from each other.
At this time, Hook clearly had a lot to say, but after thinking about it, he finally sighed, "Okay, what you said makes sense... Luo is indeed smarter than me."
It can be seen from this sentence that Hook is indeed a pure person.
If not, Wang Chao would not have taken the initiative to call him in April.
He asked Hook to come to Table Tennis Super League to play. Although there were many complicated calculations hidden behind it, in his heart, he still hoped that Hook could improve. In fact, Hook has indeed improved very quickly this month. He has stabilized his condition at a higher level.
He just couldn't beat Luo Jiu more and more. It was easy to beat others with his hands. Otherwise, how could he easily defeat last year's Table Tennis Super League champion "Shanghai Fire Phoenix Club" in the opening match of the Table Tennis Super League autumn competition a few days ago?
Wang Chao also naturally pushed out Wu Li who came with him at this time. "But don't be disappointed in a hurry. I won't fight you, but I brought him here to fight you."
Hook shook his head repeatedly. "Wang Chao, I know this guy is in your team, but he doesn't play well, and I don't want to fight him."
"Let's try it." Wang Chao smiled.
Hook frowned and said, "Are you serious?"
Wang Chao nodded. "Of course."
Thanks to "Zhong Er Muppet Boy" for the reward.