Hard Work

"You have no idea, that lunatic acted like we had a deep-seated hatred for each other!"

Jiang Shan finally calmed down and started pouring out his grievances to Wang Chao. "Whenever I made even a slight mistake on my serve, he'd seize the opportunity and smash the ball. I'm telling you, when he charged forward, he looked like he was going to kill someone. The look in his eyes, his stance, the sound of the wind his racket kicked up... Tsk tsk, brother, I swear, if it were you, you'd be just as scared as I was and wouldn't dare return his shots."

Wang Chao asked, "Why?"

"Because I was afraid he'd beat you up in real life!" Jiang Shan made a look of lingering fear. "At first, I retreated whenever he attacked. Later, the coach yelled at me from the sidelines, saying he wasn't going to eat me, so what was I afraid of? I told him I was afraid he'd swing his racket and hit me."

Wang Chao chuckled, nearly spitting out his food.

"Brother, I hate you," Jiang Shan said, looking at him mournfully. "The news yesterday clearly said you were going to be the practice partner, but it suddenly became me. I'm serving time in jail for you."

Wang Chao could only pat his shoulder. "Study hard, practice hard. I have high hopes for you."

Jiang Shan rolled his eyes, lost the mood to talk, and started eating meat heartily.

Wang Chao also lowered his head to eat. As he ate, he suddenly felt like someone was staring at his back. He quickly turned around and saw the cook's gaze, which had just been averted, in the distance.

The lunch break passed quickly, and training continued in the afternoon.

Wang Chao didn't continue with multi-ball training. Instead, he found an open space and started practicing shuttle runs, letting Li Shaoqin do as he pleased.

The next day, the third day, the fourth day...

Wake up, train, eat, train, rest...

This is the life of an athlete, both monotonous and rich. Every day, they repeat seemingly identical actions, yet countless details and insights are unconsciously integrated into their hearts.

Everyone who has ever reached the pinnacle of the world has grown through such tedious, day-in-day-out training.

In this life, Wang Chao wanted to reach for the moon, so he naturally wouldn't be content with being a master in this small city-level base.

Every day after dinner, he didn't return to the dormitory. Instead, he went back to the court for extra practice, only returning home with a weary body at ten o'clock at night.

Li Shaoqin didn't want to do extra practice, not because he was afraid of hard work, but because he wanted to catch up on dramas, play games, browse forums, and chat with girls. Evenings were his precious time, and he had plenty of things to do.

But Wang Chao wasn't so friendly at this time. Wang Chao directly reported him to Luo Zhihong. Luo Zhihong was stunned at first and even advised Wang Chao not to work too hard. However, after Wang Chao insisted, Luo Zhihong, without any principles, chose to support Wang Chao.

The head coach was just that kind of person, always favoring players with good skills and openly admitting his double standards.

He called Li Shaoqin over and gave him a large dose of motivational talk, essentially saying, "People who are better than you are working even harder. Don't you feel ashamed?"

Li Shaoqin sighed, wanting to die, but was helpless. Unless he left this base, he could only obediently practice with Wang Chao.

After a week passed, Wang Chao felt his stamina had greatly improved. The original training volume was no longer enough to completely exhaust him, so he began to plan even more insane things.

"How about we wake up at five in the morning and train for two hours first? I can go get the spare key to the stadium from Old Luo," Wang Chao discussed with Li Shaoqin.

Li Shaoqin immediately knelt down...

It wasn't an exaggeration; he genuinely knelt. He knelt by the table tennis table, his body propped on it, and cried, "Big brother, I was wrong. I was foul-mouthed, I was stupid, I shouldn't have offended you. Please be magnanimous and let me go, go torment someone else!"

Wang Chao didn't understand. "Don't you have plenty of stamina? Besides, you serve and I loop. It's clearly me who's more tired."

Li Shaoqin also didn't understand. "Is your phone just for decoration? There are so many good dramas, so many games, so many beautiful girls. Why don't you check them out, big brother! Life isn't just about table tennis!"

Wang Chao understood.

He didn't try to persuade him anymore, only feeling a bit regretful.

He realized then that Li Shaoqin was not on the same path as him.

To achieve extraordinary accomplishments in any field, one must inevitably sacrifice countless things. The moment he picked up a racket in Mingyue Stadium for the first time, he had already decided to let go of the countless joys in the lives of ordinary youths.

Just like in the classic film he watched in his previous life, when the Monkey King put on the golden fillet, he could no longer touch any of the earthly desires, only to wholeheartedly, bravely advance, journeying west until he passed the eighty-one tribulations and achieved enlightenment.

The things Li Shaoqin couldn't let go of were precisely those earthly desires.

And the enlightenment Wang Chao sought was to stand at the pinnacle of the table tennis world.

There are gains and losses; that's how it should be.

He sighed.

Li Shaoqin thought he had given up and cautiously advised, "Let's just maintain things as they are, okay?"

But Wang Chao shook his head. "I don't care. You're my practice partner, and you have to cooperate with me, or I'll report you to Old Luo."

Li Shaoqin's eyes turned red with anger.

It was too much bullying, truly too much bullying.

"We're all adults. Isn't it better to resolve conflicts like men? Why do you have to report me?"

He wasn't wrong; Wang Chao was indeed bullying him.

With his past status as a world-class coach, he wouldn't seriously pick a fight with Li Shaoqin, but if it was convenient, he had no psychological burden in subtly teaching the other party a lesson.

Wang Chao had already decided that as long as he was in this base, his practice partner would only be Li Shaoqin.

Of course, on the surface, he would never speak ill of Li Shaoqin. Instead, he would praise him profusely to Comrade Luo, saying how effective and cooperative his practice partner was, and how satisfied he was.

In short, starting the next day, two figures appeared in the stadium at four in the morning: one listless, the other full of drive.

Time passed day by day, like flowing water, with only the shining sweat on the table recording the youths' hard work.

Under Wu Li's intense pressure, Jiang Shan gradually stabilized. Not only was he not crushed, but his strength had also subtly improved. It was said that initially, he could only win seven or eight balls a day, but now he could win over twenty. This made all the coaches feel gratified.

Wang Chao's progress was equally significant. Through his almost self-abusive training, his stamina gradually broke through its bottleneck and began to increase slowly.

It's worth mentioning that Wang Chao finally had a custom racket exclusively made for him.

The company responsible for crafting the custom racket was Hongshuangli, a renowned domestic manufacturer of table tennis equipment. They had a long and excellent history of cooperation with the national table tennis team and were also responsible for customizing personal rackets for the main players of several provincial and municipal official teams.

The customization fee was covered by the training base, meaning Wang Chao didn't have to pay anything personally. Yes, this point was quite important.

However, given that Wang Chao was still only a city team player, Hongshuangli had no intention of letting him participate directly in the design process. They certainly wouldn't allow him to follow the production team step-by-step to adjust the racket's various specifications.

They simply sent someone over to inquire about Wang Chao's specific requirements for the racket and then conducted a detailed examination of his physical metrics before leaving with a large amount of data.

Thanks to "Xiao Bing Ling" for the monthly ticket.

Thanks to "Menphisto" for the tip.