Let's Go Play Ping Pong!

"If you don't study hard, you won't get into university."

"If you don't get into university, you won't find a good job."

"If you don't find a good job, you won't earn money."

"This is the worst..."

Wang Mei spread her hands and sighed. The cheap ladies' cigarette, now only half-smoked, had picked up the color of the equally cheap lipstick on her mouth. It bobbed up and down, looking rather comical.

"You brat, if you can't earn money, how are you going to support me in my old age?"

Wang Chao blinked, his expression a little complicated.

He really wanted to say, I'm eighteen this year, and you're thirty-five. You're only seventeen years older than me.

According to the principle that women generally live longer than men, it's still up in the air who will see whom off first!

The woman before him was his biological mother.

More accurately, she was the biological mother of the body he had transmigrated into.

Wang Mei had been a delinquent girl back in the day. She got pregnant at seventeen, her boyfriend ran off, and her parents disowned her. In her desperate situation, Wang Mei had a profound realization. She changed her rebellious and flamboyant personality, settled down, and worked hard to earn money. She managed to raise Wang Chao to the doorstep of eighteen.

She had been quite attractive back then, but now her hands were covered in rough calluses.

A single-parent family, an empty house, and a life of extreme hardship had led Wang Chao to harbor a hidden resentment towards his mother.

"Why do I have to live such a tough life with you?"

"If you weren't capable, you shouldn't have had me in the first place."

"Since you gave me such a lousy start, don't blame me for giving up."

—These were the thoughts of the original Wang Chao. But the forty-year-old old man now inhabiting this body felt that his cheap mom had actually had a pretty tough time.

She was just a bit too naggy...

Just then, his phone rang. Wang Chao quickly used it as an excuse to go out, escaping his still-chattering mother.

The mock exams had concluded. Although there were good and bad results, with the holidays already here, even the students who had performed poorly couldn't hide a sliver of joy amidst their worry.

This was true for the three people waiting idly on the street: Han Feng, Liu Yue, and Hou Xiaojian.

They were Wang Chao's three best friends from school.

"Wang Chao, how did you do on the exam?"

"I guessed around three hundred. You?"

"I got three-fifty."

"I got two-fifty."

"I... I won't brag about anything else, but I definitely got a three-digit score."

"Tch~~~"

The topic of exam results among the four academic underachievers concluded. Han Feng excitedly suggested, "Let's go play table tennis. My annual pass at Mingyue Stadium expires in three days, so we should get some more use out of it."

No one objected.

Wang Chao seized the opportunity to urgently sort through the overwhelming amount of information in his mind, lest he reveal any flaws in his responses.

He guessed that transmigration, in some unfathomable way, must follow certain unspoken rules.

For instance, this body had a height of 1.83 meters, which was more suited for basketball or soccer. Yet, the original owner inexplicably preferred playing table tennis.

And as for himself, before transmigrating, he had actually been a coach for the Chinese national table tennis team.

How to put it... a fated encounter, perhaps.

This wasn't a meeting across a thousand miles, but across worlds.

It's just that the specific method of meeting was rather violent, akin to a perfect soul possession...

Mingyue Stadium was quite large. In terms of its standing in the local scene, it was a top-tier venue in Jiangcheng City, occasionally partnering with official bodies to become a designated venue for certain city-level competitions.

From this, it could be inferred that Han Feng was the wealthiest among the four, a minor second-generation rich kid, which allowed him to afford a membership here.

Perhaps due to high school students being on holiday, the stadium was unusually crowded today. There were no available courts, and they had to wait.

While waiting, Liu Yue persistently brought up the topic that underachievers disliked the most.

"Hou Xiaojian, what are you planning to do in the future?"

"My family has already made arrangements. I'll spend money to attend a vocational school. I've tentatively decided to study culinary arts." Hou Xiaojian was tall, burly, and dark-skinned, with exceptional strength in his hands. This was his specialty. If he studied cooking, he could likely lift those large woks with ease. Coupled with his naturally dark skin, he wouldn't be afraid of smoke and soot.

Liu Yue looked somewhat envious. He glanced at Han Feng and suddenly remembered that Han Feng was a rich kid whose family owned a factory, so he wisely gave up and turned to Wang Chao. "What about you?"

"Me?"

Wang Chao smiled. "I haven't decided yet."

Regarding what to do in the future, Wang Chao had indeed thought about it after transmigrating...

His first instinct was to speculate in real estate and stocks, but he quickly realized that this world was not similar to Earth. His memories of housing prices and stock market history were meaningless here.

Then he thought again, could he use his forty years of accumulated knowledge to become the top scorer in the college entrance examination and soar to success?

He briefly recalled the history exam paper he had just finished yesterday.

One of the questions was like this...

"How many emperors were there in the Great You Dynasty, and what were their posthumous titles?"

Wang Chao was stunned.

The Great You Dynasty?

Where did the Great You Dynasty come from?

The history of this world seemed quite different from Earth's...

Then he recalled the Chinese language exam paper, after all, they spoke Chinese here, and this glorious and brilliant traditional Chinese culture must have common ground!

He remembered another question.

"The celebrated poet Zhang Songfei of the Mian Dynasty has a popular work, praised as 'the first half is incomprehensible, the second half is a stroke of genius'. Given that the second line of the work is 'The water is warm and the ducks are fat, quacking loudly', please provide the first, third, and fourth lines."

His heart felt so tired...

In this damned place, wasn't there anything like "The Yellow River water comes from the sky" or "When did the bright moon appear"?

"System, System, are you there?"

"Don't hide inside and stay silent, I know you're there."

His mind was quiet, and he didn't hear a "beep."

"Alas..." Wang Chao sighed, accepting reality: "I've made up my mind, I'll become a table tennis coach in the future."

Well, a transmigrator without benefits, returning to his old profession, it's nothing to be ashamed of!

But his friends all laughed.

"We're talking seriously." Liu Yue punched him: "Be serious."

"Exactly." Hou Xiaojian chimed in with a grin: "With your lousy skill, you're not even qualified to be a sparring partner, and you want to be a coach?"

Han Feng also sarcastically added from the side: "Isn't being a coach as good as being a player? Winning a world championship then, bringing glory to your ancestors and honor to the country, how cool is that... Oops, sorry, I forgot, you're already eighteen. Others start learning table tennis at seven or eight, attending specialized sports schools. You, you're too old, no one even wants you as a ball boy!"

Wang Chao felt a mix of amusement and exasperation.

He actually didn't like being a coach. His dream in his previous life was also to stand on the competition stage and become a world champion, and he had successfully entered the provincial team.

However, during a provincial team internal assessment, an unexpected accident caused permanent damage to his left wrist, ending his professional career.

Helplessly, he had to transition to coaching.

But even as a coach, he had a natural disadvantage. Due to his wrist injury, he couldn't personally spar with his players.

To compensate for his weakness, he had to work harder than other coaches, thinking and researching, focusing on various technical and tactical theories.

It turned out that his talent for playing was only average, but his talent for coaching was exceptionally good.

In the following decade, he was seconded from the provincial team to the national second team, then promoted to the national first team, then worked one-on-one with a top player in the national team, and finally even helped that player achieve a Grand Slam, which represented the highest honor in the table tennis world.

He became the most unique person in the national team coaching staff, and was even hailed by the international table tennis community as "the wise one," "the renowned coach," and "the person who understands table tennis the most on this planet."

But whenever he was alone in the quiet of the night, he would recall the scenes of his disciples standing on the podium, and their words of gratitude to him in interviews. While he felt honored, there was still a faint sense of regret.

Why... wasn't it me... standing there?

Now he had transmigrated.

When suddenly asked about the future and dreams, his heart was actually stirring faintly.

"Can I stand on the stage again?"

"Eighteen is indeed a bit old, but... how will I know if I can do it if I don't try?"

Liu Yue didn't press further, as someone came over with a number tag at that moment, saying a table was available, and the topic ended there.