If this man had seen the recording of Wang Chao's match at Mingyue Stadium, he might have realized that Wang Chao had said something similar when he "bullied" Tian Zhengguang back then.
Unfortunately, he had not seen it, so he was delighted and nodded. "Come on!"
Wang Chao pointed to a table at the far end. "Let's go over there, so we don't disturb anyone else."
The man was even happier. He had originally been worried that the coach would scold him for crushing a noob, but if they went all the way to that remote corner, then nothing could possibly go wrong.
At that moment, Wang Chao glanced toward Jiang Shan in the distance. The scoreboard showed 2:1 in games and 7:5 in points. Jiang Shan held the absolute advantage; it seemed victory was only a matter of time.
"Hurry up. What are you dawdling for? Don't look at that little brat taking the lead for now—the final winner will definitely be Li Fang." The man was impatient. "I want to finish up and come back to celebrate with my brother."
Wang Chao smiled.
He felt this match needed a little ceremony, and the man's words had reminded him of just that.
Wang Chao went to a nearby dispenser and filled a disposable paper cup with boiling water. He came back and set it steadily on a chair. "Let's go."
"What are you doing?" the man asked, puzzled.
"The water's too hot. By the time we finish, it'll be perfect to drink."
The man froze for a moment, then cursed, "What a lunatic."
He did not understand.
It was an Earth meme.
This move.
This move was called Warm Water Slices the Stinky Mouth.
There was no wine here, and this world had nothing to do with Second Master Guan either. Wang Chao could only use water in place of wine and this man in place of Hua Xiong, borrowing flowers to offer to Buddha. He was just showing off a little, indulging his nostalgia for the past.
A striking figure entered the training base.
"You stubborn old fossil!"
"You mule-headed jerk!"
"You can't beat anyone, and you still won't let me interview anyone!"
"Hmph! If I can't find any material today, just watch how I complain to Mom!"
Luo Xiaoyu, an intern reporter from Jiangcheng City TV Sports Channel, muttered nonstop as she quietly slipped inside.
She had mixed feelings.
On the one hand, she wanted to use her father's influence to secure a feature interview with the city football team. On the other, she did not want people to take special care of her at work just because she was Luo Zhihong's daughter.
Young people about to enter society were often this conflicted. They wanted to prove themselves, yet they did not want to give up the natural advantages their parents provided.
So after struggling fruitlessly for a long time, Luo Xiaoyu still obediently chose to come to the city table tennis training base and complete her first field report.
But she did not want to contact her father directly, because that would mean a group of table tennis players obediently waiting in an office to be interviewed by her.
What would be the fun in that?
She had come incognito, wanting to see how the team her father had always been so proud of conducted its daily training when Comrade Luo Zhihong was not around.
The guard at the base was easy to deal with. She just called him "Uncle" in a sweet voice and slipped him a pack of cigarettes, and he let her through.
The older woman at the training hall was easy to deal with too. Luo Xiaoyu merely claimed she was looking for someone, then gave the name of a player she had specifically memorized beforehand, and easily blended in.
"Dad's base has terrible security..." The girl was smug, convinced she had spotted the crucial flaw.
What she did not know was that, after she left, Old Li the guard and Auntie Wang immediately reported the situation to Luo Zhihong. "Coach Luo, Coach Luo, your daughter has already gone in."
Luo Zhihong was quite pleased. After hanging up, he straightened his back even more and stared ahead without looking aside. He wanted his daughter to see how imposing and authoritative he was as head coach on the court.
Unfortunately, the training base was simply too large. Luo Xiaoyu went the wrong way from the start. Instead of finding the official match between Jiang Shan and Li Fang, she wandered over to Wang Chao's side.
From afar, she saw two people standing beside a table with no one around them. Farther away, she saw a large crowd gathered around another match, watching and cheering. A sense of comparison immediately rose in her heart.
She knew that true experts were usually lonely.
Only weaklings fought in the middle of bustling streets. Experts always chose places rarely visited by people, staging their Decisive Battle at the Summit of Zijin.
Why the Summit of Zijin? Because ordinary people generally could not get up there, so whether they won or lost, outsiders would never know.
So... these two should be experts, right?
Although Luo Xiaoyu knew nothing about table tennis, she lived in a table tennis powerhouse and had a father who was a head coach. Even by osmosis, she had picked up a few stories.
For example... table tennis teams had never lacked World Champions. Every table tennis base was filled with countless hidden masters and unassuming geniuses.
So she reasonably guessed that she had stumbled upon a secret battle between experts?
She crept closer and happened to hear one of them speaking in an extremely cocky tone.
"Wang Chao, what's with you? You don't like what I'm saying, do you?"
"Don't tell me that just because you beat Tian Zhengguang and then Gao Ming, you really think you're a professional player now?"
"Have you ever attended a sports school?"
"Have you ever hit two thousand balls in a single day?"
"Do you know how many different forms there are for just a forehand loop?"
"You don't know anything!"
Wang Chao was getting a little annoyed.
Of course he understood what the man was saying. The greatest gap between amateur masters and professional players truly was not their current match ability, but their fundamentals.
The fundamentals of China Table Tennis players were so solid that they were practically insane.
When young players from Sakura Country began competing, Chinese players were practicing fundamentals.
When young players from Kimchi Country entered the World Table Tennis Championships, Chinese players were practicing fundamentals.
When young European players entered the European Championships, Chinese players were still practicing fundamentals.
Others said, "Make a name for yourself early." Chinese coaches said, "Build a solid foundation."
In a sense, China Table Tennis players did not actually practice "moves" before graduating from school. Their major was "inner power."
Because of that, many sports school students were often left flustered when facing amateur masters. Amateur masters were all practical fighters. They did not follow the rules—strange serves, strange postures. Though unstandardized and unscientific, they could still confuse their opponents senseless.
Once the opponent was confused, their game naturally fell apart full of holes.
But once those formally trained players from table tennis schools entered professional competition and built their own systems under their coaches' guidance, they could improve rapidly in the shortest possible time, becoming transcendent figures that amateur masters could never hope to match in their lifetimes.
That was why the international circuit often displayed a strange phenomenon. Our young players' results at youth championships such as U13, U15, and U17 were always rather ordinary, and they were frequently defeated by young players from Sakura Country, Kimchi Country, and Beer Country.
But once those players made the national team, they needed only one or two short years to be reborn, becoming top-tier powerhouses standing at the pinnacle of the world.
Many foreign counterparts cried out in alarm: China's national team coaching staff was terrifying!
But what was the truth?
The coaching staff was certainly terrifying, but when all was said and done, it was because our players themselves possessed incomparably solid fundamentals.
In their youth, you might see two players evenly matched and think they started at the same point, but in truth, there was a gulf between their cores.
—These ideas had long been deeply ingrained in the heart of every professional table tennis player.
To the point that even a world-class coach like Wang Chao had fallen into the old trap of fixed thinking after transmigrating. He believed that he was too old and his foundation too weak to become an athlete.
He had originally wanted to become a coach. It was only after being provoked by his three friends that he suddenly came to his senses and decided to give playing a try.
Everything you said is right, but I already know all of it, so why the hell should I listen to you ramble?
Wang Chao urged him, "If you don't serve, I'm leaving."
What he actually wanted to say was, If you don't serve, that cup of water is going to get cold.
Li Shaoqin was getting a little annoyed too.
You were just some amateur master who knew nothing. I was explaining basic knowledge to you, so why couldn't you listen properly? Why did you have to put on such a lofty act?
Fine. I'll bagel you in a moment and show you that the main squad was not so easy to join.
His gaze fell on the paddle in Wang Chao's hand, and he snickered again.
"Your paddle has a problem too," he said.
Before you continue