The Head Coach's Thoughts

Wang Bin found it amusing and joked, "Why don't you two draw lots?"

Tian Qi immediately grew a little anxious. "Coach Wang, we've always gone by the rankings. Tian Zhengguang has been ranked third for three consecutive months. No matter how you look at it, it should be his turn. At a critical moment like this, you can't play favorites."

"That's true." Wang Bin's smile faded. "All right, then this time it'll be Jiang Shan and Tian Ye..."

"How is that playing favorites?!" Li Zhenguo became anxious, and his voice rose as he forcibly cut Wang Bin off. "We may have always followed the rules before, but the third-place player had never lost to some civilian player before!"

The moment those words left his mouth, the meeting room suddenly fell quiet.

Wang Bin asked curiously, "What happened?"

Tian Qi's expression turned rather unpleasant. In his view, his competition with Li Zhenguo had been healthy internal competition, but Li Zhenguo suddenly exposing this embarrassing matter was simply unsportsmanlike.

Li Zhenguo was also somewhat embarrassed. He had gotten anxious just now and acted on impulse.

Then it was Zhao Fuqiang's turn to explain with a smile, as though enjoying the show. "It's nothing much. After yesterday's round-robin matches, the owner of that stadium had our players play a few casual games with ordinary fans. Then a high school student played a match against Tian Zhengguang and happened to win."

But Wang Bin was not fooled by his casual explanation. Frowning, he said, "Tell me properly. How did he win? How was that high school student's game? What style did he play? What school of play? What racket did he use?"

For a moment, Zhao Fuqiang was at a loss for words. After a long while, he said, "It was pretty noisy in there, so I didn't watch closely. Still, I think he was just average. Tian Zhengguang was simply playing too casually."

At a moment like this, he still did not want to offend Tian Qi too badly. After all, they were colleagues.

Yet Wang Bin's frown only deepened. "Where's the recording? Let me see it."

The three coaches looked at each other, then shook their heads together. "There's no recording."

"As table tennis coaches, shouldn't recording valuable matches for later analysis be standard practice?"

Wang Bin's expression darkened. "You all happened not to record anything yesterday? What a coincidence."

Once the head coach got serious, the three of them felt immense pressure. Even Li Zhenguo no longer dared to stir things up. "Please don't bother with some amateur player. That kid looked eighteen or nineteen already. He has no future."

Tian Qi hurriedly added, "Right, right. Let's discuss the important matter. I agree to let Tian Zhengguang and Li Mu play another match."

But Wang Bin sighed, disappointed in the three of them. "You people..."

He could not be bothered to say more. He took out his phone and began searching for local table tennis videos.

After all, this was an age when everyone filmed everything. In a place like Mingyue Stadium, if yesterday's match had truly been exciting, he refused to believe no one had filmed it and posted it online.

The facts proved him right.

Only three minutes later, a video appeared on his phone.

The video was noisy. A blurry teenage voice could faintly be heard saying, "If you're playing, then stop fooling around. Let's play seriously. One match to decide it. Dare to do it?"

Tian Qi was in despair. From an angle where no one could see, he shot Li Zhenguo a vicious glare. Knowing he was at fault, Li Zhenguo could only smile apologetically.

The video was less than ten minutes long. Wang Bin quietly watched as the boy in the blurry footage first fell behind 0–8, then won ten consecutive points, before finally using a beautiful Penhold Backhand Loop to leave Tian Zhengguang utterly shaken.

The person filming clearly knew how to create drama. They had not even stopped recording after the match ended, capturing the boy's final words as well.

"This is the gap between professionals and amateurs?"

"This is what you meant when you said penhold had no future?"

"Ha!"

When the video ended, the meeting room was oppressively quiet.

Wang Bin's gaze returned to the three men.

"So this was what you meant by... just average? Some amateur player? Eighteen or nineteen, with no future?"

His knuckles tapped lightly against the tabletop as he calmly announced what would happen next.

"Tian Zhengguang: poor conduct. A professional player bullied and provoked an amateur player, and the key was that he still lost! He lost both the match and his dignity. His behavior was extremely disgraceful. Fine of ten thousand yuan, a major demerit, no contact with a ball in training for one week, and he will not be allowed to participate in this promotion and relegation tournament."

"Long Tao: instigated by others and damaged the team's reputation. Likewise, he lost both the match and his dignity. Fine of five thousand yuan. Write a self-criticism of no fewer than two thousand words, read it aloud publicly, and have it placed on file."

"Coach Tian Qi: knew about it but failed to report it, shielding a player. Fine of five thousand yuan. A demerit... we'll hold off on that for now."

"Coaches Li Zhenguo and Zhao Fuqiang: likewise knew about it but failed to report it, forming a clique to shield them. Fine of three thousand yuan each."

He paused. His fingers struck the tabletop with increasing force, and the tap, tap, tap made the three men's hearts tremble.

"Gentlemen, don't forget that we are first and foremost coaches of the Jiangcheng City Table Tennis Team. Only after that are we the older brothers, uncles, and relatives of these kids on the team."

"What we need to do is send the best talent to the main team, which then sends the best talent to the provincial team, which then sends the best talent to the national team. Only when every level selects the best prospects can China Table Tennis remain strong."

"I don't demand that you be completely impartial, because I can't do that myself. If my son played table tennis, I would definitely give him extra coaching."

"But at the very least, the public interest must outweigh private interests. You can do that much, can't you?"

"The kid in that video, with even a little professional training, would certainly be no weaker than Tian Zhengguang. Yet with such a promising prospect, none of you even thought of trying to discover him?"

"Go find him and bring him here for a trial!"

Early in the morning, Yan Feng, the owner of Mingyue Stadium, received a phone call.

"Coach Tian Qi! Haha, hello, hello. What can I do for you?"

"What? Head Coach Wang Bin is looking for me?"

"He wants to find that kid who played at my stadium the day before yesterday? Let me think, let me think..."

"All right, please wait a moment. As soon as I find out anything, I'll call you immediately."

Yan Feng hung up and immediately called Han Tiande.

"Haha, Old Han, it's been a long time..."

"Yes, yes, the day before yesterday. Your son even came to play at my place. Ah, he really is a fine-looking young man. By the way, there was another kid with him, and he was incredibly good. He even beat a professional player from the city team. Now Wang Bin, the city team's head coach, is looking for him."

"Your son has good judgment too. Even his friends are so extraordinary... Um, could you ask your son for that kid's contact information? His home address would work too."

"Haha, no, no, no. Just ask for me directly. I won't speak with your son myself. You see, there were a lot of people there the day before yesterday, and things were a bit chaotic. I may have neglected him somewhat, so he probably has a bad impression of me..."

After all that fuss, Wang Bin successfully obtained Wang Chao's information.

"The person who tied the knot must untie it. The three of you will go together. Invite him to our training base, and consider it a chance to make amends for your mistakes."

"Whether we recruit him can wait. Invite him here first. Then everyone can take a look and see whether this kid is truly worth cultivating."

Although Head Coach Wang Bin was eager for talent, he was also holding back a breath of frustration, mainly because Wang Chao's words—"Who says amateurs can't beat professionals?"—had rubbed him the wrong way.

He had to make that brat, who did not know his own limits, understand one thing.

The dignity of professional players was not something some civilian player could trample on at will!