Shrimp and Pork Heart

Li Shaoqin fell silent.

At this point, anything he said was useless; he had already embarrassed himself.

He stopped looking at Luo Xiaoyu. His previously restless mind gradually calmed down. He focused entirely on the game, lowered his stance, and decided to play properly.

It was just a pity… it was no use.

The outcome of a match was always decided by skill, not by attitude or a sudden burst of inner power.

Wang Chao didn't play any tricks this time. He served a proper backspin ball. Li Shaoqin blocked it short, Wang Chao blocked it short again. Li Shaoqin went for an attack, Wang Chao counter-looped, and Li Shaoqin counter-looped again. They each retreated two steps, forming a frontal rally that tested their basic skills the most.

The small ball flew back and forth. "Pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa." After seven consecutive loops, Li Shaoqin lost his feel for the ball and his loop went off the table.

Wang Chao scored another point. The score became 6:0.

Luo Xiaoyu also fell silent. She watched the players' movements on the camera feed with concentration, feeling an inexplicable sense of beauty in their mid-to-long distance loop drives.

She even felt a certain aesthetic in their looping actions, perhaps due to some principle of sports biomechanics, or perhaps the impact of concentrating all their strength on one point was very satisfying.

She suddenly felt that her dad's profession wasn't as boring as she had imagined.

In a sense, the arc of the small silver ball flying through the air was remarkably similar to the arc of a world-class goal in soccer.

But because the table tennis ball was small, it lacked the passionate wildness of soccer, possessing instead more finesse, control, and delicacy.

If soccer was a game of sweat, passion, and emotion.

Then table tennis was a great art form that pushed precision, technique, and strategy to their absolute limits.

Li Shaoqin didn't want to play anymore.

He was always foul-mouthed and liked to show off, making him unpopular in the team. He had encountered a formidable amateur player this time and had witnessed firsthand the tough six-game battle between this amateur and Gao Ming. He thought this would be someone he could bully.

In the internal assessment for the main team, there were sixteen participants. He was ranked thirteenth, just one spot away from the relegation match.

He broke out in a cold sweat, feeling both fear and relief. This then gave rise to an extreme sense of frustration, and he needed an outlet to vent.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have provoked Wang Chao.

But now he knew he was wrong.

This amateur player was outrageously strong!

Whether it was serving, receiving, strategy, or even the frontal rallies that tested basic skills the most, Wang Chao was superior in all aspects.

He just couldn't understand why this guy had taken six games to defeat Gao Ming, who was such a weak player.

Was he throwing the match?

What was the point?

He couldn't comprehend it.

"I'm not playing anymore!" He threw his paddle onto the table. "I forfeit."

"Don't do that," Wang Chao said with a smile. "Remember what we agreed on earlier?"

He reminded Li Shaoqin, "No resting, no forfeiting. Whoever breaks the rules is a pig."

"Ah!" Li Shaoqin remembered…

At the time, he thought Wang Chao was out of his mind. Now he understood. Wang Chao had set a trap for him back then.

"The cameras are rolling now," Wang Chao added, pointing to Luo Xiaoyu beside them. "If you really don't want to play, admit on camera that you're a pig."

Luo Xiaoyu's pretty face flushed red with excitement. She felt the match was getting more and more interesting. She clapped her hands and said, "Okay, okay!" The camera hanging from her full chest swayed with her movements, drawing considerable attention.

Li Shaoqin picked up his paddle again, gritted his teeth, and crouched down, frantically trying to figure out what kind of serve to use.

Finally, he decided to serve a long ball to the baseline on the left side, but Wang Chao immediately returned it with a beautiful backhand loop using a shakehand grip.

"Wow!" Luo Xiaoyu exclaimed again. "What is that move? So cool!"

This paparazzi girl's professionalism is lacking, Wang Chao thought to himself. She doesn't even recognize the signature move of national player Bai Feng…

Li Shaoqin felt a bit desperate.

Damn it!

My father is dead!

This amateur player was only playing mind games with me earlier, and now he's even using the most advanced techniques. What other sinister tricks is he still hiding?

I don't want to eat Shrimp and Pork Heart…

Li Shaoqin wasn't exactly a saint either. He quickly changed his train of thought: Since he couldn't forfeit, he could at least play passively, right?

When the ball came to him later, regardless of its difficulty, he would just kill himself. In short, he wouldn't give Wang Chao a chance to show off. He just wanted to finish the match 4:0 quickly.

He made up his mind, calculating how to make this "suicide" look more convincing. Then, he served a very unskilled ball, waiting for Wang Chao to attack.

Then, he watched in disbelief as Wang Chao gently lifted the ball over…

Yes, he lifted it, not a lift-and-hit, just a lift…

This is the posture a seven or eight-year-old child would use when first learning to play, taught by their coach what "getting it on the table" means.

The ball was high and slow, with no spin or variation. It bounced right in front of Li Shaoqin, at the perfect height, as if it were intentionally fed to him.

Should he hit it?

As a professional player, seeing a ball like this made his hands itch. Not attacking it would be a betrayal of his own conscience.

Li Shaoqin's body was more honest than his mind; he ultimately went for the attack.

If he didn't attack this, his play would be too fake.

After all, there were cameras filming...

Li Shaoqin glanced at Luo Xiaoyu and suddenly found her utterly detestable.

If it weren't for her camera, what would it matter if he cheated?

He took half a step back and unleashed a smash with twelve-point power!

"I'll smash you to death!"

"Smash you to death, smash you to death, smash you to death!"

"No matter how you toy with me later, I'm going to hit you hard first!"

Li Shaoqin thought it, and he did it. As soon as he made contact, he knew: this was it.

The power penetrated, the rubber's elasticity was fully utilized, and the feel was incredible.

He had been playing for over a decade and had never missed a shot in such a situation.

But today, his decade of common sense was about to be overturned.

Wang Chao retreated three steps to receive the ball.

The ball had immense power. After landing on the table, it flew high, and by the time it reached Wang Chao, it was still above his head, appearing impossible to return.

Theoretically, to return this ball, Wang Chao would have needed to retreat another seven steps.

But Wang Chao leaped high, raised his racket, and smashed it down with tremendous force.

This wasn't a smash; it was a spike.

If he hadn't been holding a racket, it would have looked more like a volleyball player jumping at the net.

The ball's speed was even faster than when it came, returning along the same path and smashing down in front of Li Shaoqin with an astonishing sound.

The score became 8:0, and Li Shaoqin's face turned pale.

He had never seen anyone play like this in his life!

Only Wang Chao's voice echoed in the empty stadium: "My serve now."

Wang Chao served, tossing the ball high, but it wasn't a standard high toss. Instead, he suddenly crouched down, holding his racket vertically like a knife, and chopped down forcefully. The racket's edge lightly brushed the ball, sending it flying in a bizarre arc.

"Wow! What a cool move," Luo Xiaoyu exclaimed, utterly impressed. "What kind of serve is that?"

Li Shaoqin wanted to curse.

"That's a chopping serve, even rarer than a high toss! How many more damn tricky moves does this guy know? Why didn't I see any of them before, and now they're all coming out against me?"

He scrambled to return it, but he had never encountered such an uncommon serve. In his haste, he didn't even notice the wrist movement Wang Chao made when chopping, mistaking a left spin for a right spin.

The ball and racket barely touched before, under intense friction, it shot out sideways like a playful cat, almost at an exaggerated ninety-degree angle.

9:0.

This scene, which seemed to defy the laws of physics, was so visually impactful that Luo Xiaoyu was stunned. She stared intently at the footage on her camera, feeling as though a whole new world had opened up before her eyes.

Was the world of table tennis truly this wondrous...

Thanks to "Star Controller" for the tip, thanks to "Butter Cat" for the monthly ticket, thank you, thank you!