Mistaken Identity

All the coaches had specifically called out names today, and everyone was present, except for Wu Li, who was off practicing by himself.

"Huh, so he's the strongest player at your base? No wonder he's so good."

Luo Xiaoyu, however, felt a bit uneasy. "Dad, if he's this strong, he must be your base's secret weapon, right? Then the videos I worked so hard to film can't be shown anymore?"

"Show them! You absolutely must show them!" Luo Zhihong fully supported his daughter's work. "At our base, there's nothing we can't say or do openly. Show whatever you filmed; it'll be great publicity for our base. Dad couldn't ask for more, but there's one thing: don't include me. Just show the players; I don't want to steal the spotlight."

Luo Xiaoyu naturally wouldn't refuse. After all, she hadn't filmed Luo Zhihong at all, so she couldn't include him even if she wanted to.

After the call ended, Luo Zhihong summoned several coaches for a meeting, primarily to discuss one matter: who would be Wu Li's sparring partner.

The main players had suffered enough over the past two years and no one was willing to play with Wu Li. For the last two months, the newly arrived brothers Xiao Ping and Xiao Jian had been rotating as sparring partners. However, now, the parents of both brothers had come to cause trouble. Luo Zhihong couldn't bring himself to force the two brothers into sparring again, as it would be too unethical.

Therefore, the sparring partner had to be found among the newly promoted substitute players.

Thinking this, Luo Zhihong felt a pang of regret. Why hadn't Tian Ye played against Zhou Bo?

Tian Ye, that kid, was a quality sparring partner he had his eye on for a long time.

Now, the choice was limited to Wang Chao and Jiang Shan.

"Jiang Shan definitely can't be the sparring partner. This kid is still too young, and Wu Li hits too hard. I'm afraid he'll get seriously injured," one coach immediately voiced his opinion.

"I agree," another coach chimed in. "Jiang Shan should have been in the main team. We kept him in the substitutes for a year because he was too young. He's a truly promising talent who could have a chance to be selected for the provincial team. I absolutely forbid Jiang Shan from being a sparring partner."

Luo Zhihong had no objections. As usual, he polled everyone, and finally said, "So, we've decided on Wang Chao?"

The head coach of the substitute team, Wang Bin, was present as an observer today. He bowed slightly, seeming like he was about to speak, but then held back.

Only he knew that Wang Chao wasn't at all like how everyone saw him today. But the problem was that Jiang Shan was indeed a promising talent.

And then there was the matter of choosing between a thirteen-year-old child from a sports school, with a clean background and solid fundamentals, and an eighteen-year-old folk expert, with extremely poor stamina and fundamentals... no one knew how solid they were.

Choosing either was wrong. A thousand words were not as good as silence.

The meeting concluded, and Comrade Lao Luo was very satisfied. Today was truly a double celebration: he had mended his relationship with his daughter and found a new sparring partner for Wu Li. In a rare good mood, he gave himself the afternoon off, went home, and after dinner, comfortably lay on the sofa waiting to watch the evening sports news. Before the news started, he pondered how to approach Wang Chao mentally.

"I heard Coach Wang say this kid's family conditions aren't great. Maybe I should increase his subsidy?"

"If he's willing to be Wu Li's sparring partner long-term, I don't mind giving him double the subsidy. That little bit of extra money, I'll just pay it out of my own pocket."

"After all, Wu Li's training is the most important. I'm still expecting this kid to help me secure a spot in the provincial team in the latter half of next year."

Just then, a familiar melody sounded on the television, and the Jiangcheng City Evening Sports News began.

This program had never had many viewers, and the competition wasn't fierce. Plus, Luo Xiaoyu had her father working in the sports circle, so even though it was a news report from an intern reporter working alone, the TV station aired it in its entirety, which was quite considerate.

The match between Wang Chao and Li Shaoqin was thus shown on the screen.

Because it was a news report, various conversations interspersed during the match, and Li Shaoqin's arrogant remarks, were naturally all cut.

However, it was heard that the editing staff at the TV station were laughing hysterically while cutting, and even got reprimanded by their superiors.

These were all behind-the-scenes details, so we'll skip them.

Speaking of the present moment, as soon as the two appeared, Lao Luo sat up from the sofa, exclaiming, "Huh."

He felt something was off because this wasn't Wu Li as he had expected.

After all the formalities, the match was played very quickly. And the Evening Sports News didn't have much else to broadcast, so these ten goals in five minutes were shown in full.

Luo Zhihong felt increasingly that something was wrong. His upper body, initially slumped, straightened up, then he leaned forward, and finally, he stood up and moved closer to the TV screen.

When Wang Chao executed his volleyball-style spike, he was completely taken aback, letting out an unintelligible "Ya."

Then Wang Chao served a very high-quality slice. Luo Zhihong took off his glasses, rubbed them vigorously, put them back on, and continued watching.

This time, he saw the super shot.

Luo Zhihong was stunned.

He understood.

His daughter's phone call that morning wasn't some kind of hint.

She had actually seen the super shot!

He suddenly remembered his brief conversation with Wang Bin before the match that morning.

He had asked Wang Bin why this kid was playing so poorly.

Wang Bin had replied, "This kid has too many thoughts; I can't figure him out."

He had asked Wang Bin, "Is this kid even stronger than Wu Li?"

Wang Bin had said, "Why don't we see?"

And in the final meeting, Wang Bin had chosen to remain silent.

"Wang Bin, you sly dog! You knew perfectly well, so why didn't you just say it?" Luo Zhihong was now a bit resentful. He took a few deep breaths, ignoring that it was already almost ten o'clock. He quickly went to his study, closed the door, and immediately called Li Shaoqin.

"Li Shaoqin, tell me, is Wang Chao really that strong?"

Li Shaoqin was silent for a long time on the other end. Just as Luo Zhihong thought the signal was bad, he heard faint sobbing.

"Are you still there?" Luo Zhihong asked. "What's wrong?"

Li Shaoqin finally broke down, crying, "Coach Luo, you can't bully me like this! I've heard everything. That girl this morning was your own daughter, right? You must have seen the original footage, haven't you? You must think I'm a disgrace, right? You look down on me now, don't you? You want to kick me out of the training base? Wuwuwu..."

Luo Zhihong looked utterly bewildered.

He could understand Li Shaoqin's pain.

Being toyed with by Wang Chao, Li Shaoqin's psychological trauma was no less than being Wu Li's sparring partner. After all, Wu Li's bullying relied on straightforward offense, unlike Wang Chao, who was practically performing acrobatics.

But as a veteran of the table tennis world, he bore distinct imprints of his era. For example, they wouldn't abuse their power or engage in corruption, but they also certainly didn't believe in treating everyone equally or upholding fairness and justice.

In their eyes, talented children who performed well were always right, and whatever they did could be forgiven. As for the underachievers… as long as they didn't disrupt the good kids' learning, that was fine.

In his mind, Wu Li had always been the best kid at this training base, but now, Wang Chao might be another one to add to that list.

As for who was better, that would only be known after they competed.

Therefore, even though he sensed Li Shaoqin's mindset was problematic, he didn't plan to address it immediately. Instead, he offered a few perfunctory words of comfort, hung up the phone, and began calling the coaches under him one by one: "Everyone out, everyone out! Get online, let's have a video conference to re-discuss the matter of Wu Li's sparring partners!"