"Coach Wang, let Zhao Ge give it a try." Zhao Fuqiang seized the opening. "After all, Wang Chao beat Tian Zhengguang. We have to send someone strong."
Li Zhenguo cursed that old fox inwardly, but he refused to give ground verbally. "I think Li Mu would be better. Li Mu scored better than Zhao Ge in the last assessment, after all."
"Zhao Ge plays with more passion!"
"Li Mu plays more steadily!"
"I guarantee Zhao Ge will win if he goes up."
"Tch, you say that like Li Mu would lose if he went up."
Wang Bin was rather speechless. He shot the two of them a warning glare, then made his decision. "Let Zhao Ge go first. If he loses, then Li Mu, who ranks higher, can go."
Zhao Fuqiang immediately beamed, while Li Zhenguo cast a resentful look at the head coach and said nothing.
In his eyes, Wang Chao was already tired as a dog. Even Long Tao could win against him. How could there be any chance of losing?
So the head coach was blatantly playing favorites!
Zhao Ge quickly stepped onto the court. He was a short-haired youth with sharp, lively features. Standing before the table, he bounced on his feet from time to time, as if he had energy overflowing from every part of his body.
Wang Chao slowly got up, walked to the table, gripped his paddle, and steadily assumed his stance. "How are we playing?"
"Best of three. Otherwise, I'm worried you won't have the stamina."
As he spoke, Zhao Ge tossed the ball to Wang Chao. "I won't take advantage of you. You serve first."
Wang Chao did not stand on ceremony. He served immediately and began playing Zhao Ge.
Of the first five points, Wang Chao lost four. Zhao Ge killed two with early attacks, killed one by moving him sharply from side to side, and won another with a lucky edge ball.
The only point Wang Chao won came from a Sneak Long Serve that caught Zhao Ge off guard.
After five points, Zhao Ge led 4:1.
Everyone felt that the outcome had already been decided, because they could all see that Wang Chao really could not run anymore.
Since he could not run, when Zhao Ge forced an attack, Wang Chao had no way to move his feet quickly enough to save the ball.
And when Zhao Ge successfully spread the angles wide, Wang Chao could not keep up either.
Wang Chao looked as though he were simply planted in front of the table.
But what future was there in playing table tennis while standing still?
Yet soon afterward, the match began to take a strange turn.
Wang Chao served. It looked utterly ordinary, yet Zhao Ge misread the backspin, and the score became 4:2.
On the change of serve, Zhao Ge sent over a high-toss serve with heavy spin. Wang Chao held his paddle flat and flicked the ball into Zhao Ge's middle area. Zhao Ge had not expected it at all. In his haste, he stepped half a pace back, failed to get his movement into position, and his attacking return failed. The score became 4:3.
Zhao Ge continued serving. This time, it was a fast long forehand serve. Wang Chao lacked the strength to step back and could only twist his wrist to block it stiffly with his paddle. The ball made it over, but it floated slightly high, and Zhao Ge immediately swung for a drive.
Zhao Ge had scored two points earlier through this simple method.
But this time, Wang Chao shifted his feet slightly. The movement was tiny, yet it put him perfectly in position, and he blocked the ball back again.
Zhao Ge drove again.
Wang Chao made another tiny adjustment with his feet, yet somehow he was once again in position. Still relying mainly on wrist movement, he adjusted the paddle angle and blocked the ball back.
Zhao Ge's style had always been passionate. Faced with this, he hit each shot harder than the last. The ball struck the paddle with loud bang bang sounds. In the blink of an eye, he had driven seven shots, yet Wang Chao blocked them all.
At that moment, Wang Bin let out a soft "Huh."
He could tell that Wang Chao had completely abandoned attacking.
His stamina had been exhausted, so Wang Chao was now playing pure defense.
Normally, even while defending, players tried to add subtle wrist movements to put spin on their returns and force mistakes from their opponents. But Wang Chao was not even adding spin now. He was simply placing his paddle in the right position at the right moment, adjusting it to the right angle, and letting the ball rebound at the proper angle after contact.
This was actually very difficult.
A table tennis ball was too small, and the force an opponent applied to it was too subtle. Under normal circumstances, it was impossible to read everything perfectly. Thus, the proper response for players was to apply greater force of their own to the ball and return it along a trajectory they had redesigned themselves.
So Wang Chao's current style was not the orthodox path, but an unorthodox one.
Not only was this incredibly difficult, but the error rate was extremely high. More importantly, what future could pure defense possibly have?
In table tennis, the defender was always more likely to make mistakes than the attacker.
Wang Bin felt regretful, but he could not say anything. He had to admit that with his stamina depleted, Wang Chao had no strength left to do much else. He could only defend like this until his opponent broke through him.
Wang Bin waited for Wang Chao to be broken through and lose the point.
But Wang Chao stubbornly held on. While Wang Bin was thinking, he had already endured another four shots. Zhao Ge had reached his eleventh drive, and the people around the court began loudly counting to cheer him on.
"Twelve!"
"Thirteen!"
"Fourteen!"
"Fifteen... wow!"
"This guy is awesome! He actually tied it up!"
Everyone erupted, because under Zhao Ge's increasingly fierce attack, the one who ultimately won was Wang Chao.
He stood there beside the table in the most ordinary way, without taking a single step back. He merely made slight adjustments to his posture and borrowed force from Zhao Ge's shots. He looked like a lone boat in raging waves, swaying as if about to capsize, yet in the end, the waves shattered on their own, while the little boat remained unharmed.
Wang Bin let out another "Huh."
He did not quite understand how Wang Chao had done it. Did he predict the landing point of every ball before receiving it?
Otherwise, how could he possibly keep up with Zhao Ge's rhythm?
But how could anyone possibly do that?
He shook his head and laughed at himself, feeling that he was scaring himself.
It was merely a coincidence, wasn't it?
He still believed Zhao Ge would win, but he admired Wang Chao's perseverance and mentality.
"He's a good prospect."
"It's just a pity... he wasn't trained from childhood."
"He's already too old now. His physical foundation is too poor. He missed the golden period..."
The players were also grumbling among themselves.
"What is Zhao Ge doing? He keeps driving at the same spot. Can't he move him around?"
"Exactly. The guy doesn't even need to move, and he blocks every ball back."
"He knows that guy can't run, but he still doesn't know how to adapt."
"He'd win if he just changed the line slightly. What a pity."
"That's just how he is. He always plays violently, without using his brain."
The noise around him did not affect Wang Chao, but it made Zhao Ge somewhat uncomfortable. He gestured for silence toward the crowd, then continued the match.
The next phase of the match became even stranger.
On Wang Chao's serve, he served two balls and somehow won two points. Zhao Ge misread one backspin serve and one topspin serve, looking as though he had lost his mind.
The score immediately swung around to 6:4.
When it was Zhao Ge's turn to serve, he used another Sneak Long Serve, then looked for an opportunity to launch an immediate attack.
Then the situation turned into exactly what it had been before.
Zhao Ge began attacking madly, while Wang Chao continued with the simplest blocks. Somehow, he blocked another four shots. Then Zhao Ge grew angry and made a huge sidestep, stepped back, crouched, twisted his hips, rotated his waist, and drove with his entire body in an all-out explosive smash.
Seeing that exertion of force, Zhao Fuqiang nodded repeatedly from the sidelines in great satisfaction. The posture was truly standard, bringing out every bit of strength.
Unfortunately, it was still blocked.
And because that shot carried too much power, Wang Chao borrowed its force and sent it back just as fast. Zhao Ge himself could not receive it, and Wang Chao caught him with a beautiful return to the opposite direction.
7:4.
"What the hell, is Zhao Ge an idiot?"
"He's still hitting at the same spot!"
"Does he not understand how to change directions at all?"
"Where's Coach Zhao? Call a timeout! Your nephew's brain is malfunctioning, so hurry up and remind him."
"Hahahaha, call your ass. This isn't an official match. Do you have the nerve to call a timeout? Wang Chao came alone to face them all, you know."
The players watched with both anxiety and frustration, wishing they could go up and play for Zhao Ge themselves. Yet the four coaches by the court had instead fallen silent.
Of course Zhao Fuqiang would not call a timeout.
He was a coach, after all. He could tell that there was nothing wrong with Zhao Ge's mind.
It was not that Zhao Ge did not want to change directions. He simply could not.
Before you continue