Qinmen Civil War

Oh, I was impulsive after all!

Why couldn't I resist becoming a chuunibyou myself?

I'm so embarrassed, so embarrassed...

As expected, men are boys until the day they die...

Emerging from the cafeteria, feeling the countless excited and expectant gazes from behind, Wang Chao noticeably quickened his pace, quite in the mood to "be mortified once and flee quickly."

Jiang Shan, however, was extremely excited. In his opinion, the exchange between Wu Li and Wang Chao just now was absolutely electrifying!

Wasn't it classic lines from a hot-blooded anime?

Didn't it give off the vibe of a showdown at the peak of Mount Zijin?

This was exactly the kind of scene a little kid would dream of!

But why didn't they say a few more words?

Why did they run off so quickly after speaking?

It was a golden opportunity...

Countless melodramatic lines flashed through the little kid's mind.

"My paddle is 4.68 inches long and 4.5 inches wide, weighing 175 grams. It's made with a century-old ebony base, lined with 'Eagle Falcon A36' sponge. The forehand has a long pips rubber, and the backhand has a reverse rubber, both specially made by Hongshuangli. They have incredible tackiness and elasticity. You should be careful!"

"Heh, in all of table tennis, no move is unbreakable, only power is unbreakable. No matter how you change your tactics, I will blast you with one shot."

"I've been on the team for over two years, but you're just arriving. Since that's the case, I'll let you serve first, four times."

"My serve will always score, you don't need to be like this."

"I should be."

"You don't need to be."

"Yes, yes, you should."

"No, no, you don't need to."

"Are you going to fight or not, damn it?"

"Since that's the case, please, please strike, please use your deadliest moves."

Alright, I was daydreaming...

In reality, Jiang Shan was very enthusiastic, the type to be more anxious than the emperor. He kept asking on the way, "Those few words you just said, someone secretly recorded them, and they'll definitely spread throughout the base tomorrow."

Wang Chao smiled without saying a word.

He dared to speak like that because he was confident of victory.

Some of his trump cards, he had originally wanted to keep hidden for longer, but since he had already said the words, there was no harm in showing them off boldly.

But others clearly didn't think so.

As soon as Wang Chao returned to the dorm, Xiao Ping and Xiao Jian immediately came over. The brothers, with excited expressions, mysteriously asked him, "Brother Chao, are you going to unleash a super move tomorrow?"

"Huh?" Wang Chao was surprised.

"Stop pretending. If you didn't have a super move, how could you possibly beat Wu Li?" The speaker was another group who had just entered, led by Li Shaoqin, along with Zhou Bo and a few other rookie players at the bottom.

Before Wang Chao could even speak, a third group pushed open the door. This time, it was several top players from the team, led by Liu Heng: "Quick, quick, quick, Wang Chao, tell us how you're going to play tomorrow! Don't worry, we're the most tight-lipped, we absolutely won't leak anything."

Even Jiang Shan was impatient: "Brother Chao, stop being coy. I'll go close the door, you hurry up and tell us. Is there anything we need to prepare? We can all help!"

But before the door was even halfway closed, several more people squeezed in, still shouting, "Wait, wait, wait, what's the hurry? Wait for us to come in before you close the door."

The small two-person dorm was packed with people, with more than half of the main team gathered, all cheerful, as if it were New Year's.

"Brother Chao, let me tell you, when you play Wu Li, you need to target his backhand short corner area."

"Wang Chao, let me tell you a secret, Wu Li's backhand isn't as good as his forehand."

"Nonsense! Wu Li's backhand is very strong, I've played against him before."

"Don't lose too badly tomorrow, I heard the women's team next door is planning to form a team to watch the match."

"Brother Chao, let me tell you, you can lose the match, but your posture must be cool. There's a really pretty girl on the women's team."

Amidst the cacophony and flying saliva, after a long time, Wang Chao finally managed to interject, "Are you guys really not optimistic about me? Don't forget, last time, even with my stamina exhausted, I still managed to win a game 11:8."

Everyone laughed, and the dorm was filled with a joyful atmosphere.

"Brother Chao, you're so humorous."

"Don't forget, your total score last time was 4:0."

"You don't actually think you can beat that freak, do you?"

Finally, Liu Heng stepped forward to summarize technically: "Wang Chao, you lack power."

"We all know that. Your shot placement is very accurate, your prediction ability is very strong, and your fake shots are also very good. But, what's the use of all that?"

"If you don't have the power, you can't break through Wu Li!"

"Your predictions, your calculations, they can fool Wu Li a few times, we saw that last time."

"But most of your feints were still resolved by Wu Li."

"He's just that fast. Even if he didn't predict where the ball would land, he could still force it back. He can run without limits, he won't get tired even if he runs all day, but how long can you keep attacking?"

He summarized on behalf of everyone: "Defense won't beat Wu Li. Only offense can beat Wu Li. Your offense is too soft; even with sufficient stamina, you're doomed to lose."

"Undoubtedly!"

The youngsters were all professional players, and none of them had poor judgment. After just half a month together, they had seen through Wang Chao's game completely. After some playful teasing to expend their excess energy, they quickly changed the subject. They moved a 21-inch widescreen laptop from the next dorm room, opened the live stream page for the "Silver Ball Dance" website, and prepared to watch together.

This was considered a rare collective activity for the team members outside of training.

The 27th Table Tennis World Cup, being held in Germany, was being broadcast live. Up to this moment, the China national team had achieved extremely impressive results, once again causing table tennis circles worldwide to exclaim: Chinese table tennis is invincible!

The women's top four were all swept up by the Chinese team, pre-securing gold, silver, and bronze medals.

In the men's singles top four, there were also three Chinese players: Sun Tianlong, Bai Feng, and Lin Li. All three were ranked in the top ten, with Sun Tianlong holding the number one spot.

The only outsider in the top four was the host nation's German player, Hans Bayer. Bayer was a renowned evergreen of table tennis, and also held the reputation of being the strongest in Europe. However, looking at this top four lineup, Chinese spectators felt no worry at all, already considering this most significant men's singles gold medal as already in their grasp.

Bayer would surely fall before Chinese table tennis!

This wasn't blind confidence; there was a reason behind it.

Although Bayer was strong, Sun Tianlong was almost his destined nemesis. According to official statistics, Bayer and Sun Tianlong had clashed a total of twenty-seven times in their history, winning only once. That was a story from eight years ago, back when Sun Tianlong wasn't yet "Dragon Team," hadn't won any world championships, and hadn't evolved into his current invincible form.

So, in reality, Sun Tianlong had achieved a bloody twenty-six consecutive wins against Bayer over the past seven years.

It was practically like a father beating his son!

The top four matchups had already been determined: Bayer vs. Bai Feng, and Lin Li vs. Sun Tianlong.

If Bayer wanted to face Sun Tianlong, he would first have to defeat Bai Feng.

However, how could Bai Feng, the current leader of backhand loop with shakehand grip, the spirited "World's Number One Penholder," be so easy to deal with?

As for the other match, there wasn't much suspense. Both Lin Li and Sun Tianlong were disciples of the Qinmen school. In their fellow disciples rivalry, Sun Tianlong held an absolute advantage in past encounters, with almost no possibility of defeat.

So, in fact, today's two semifinals held little suspense. The main purpose for the team members watching wasn't to cheer them on, but to learn something from the national players.

But after a long hour, the noisy dormitory fell silent.

Shock and disbelief were written on the young faces of the players.

They saw Lin Li struggle through seven games in this internal match between fellow disciples, ultimately defeating his senior brother Sun Tianlong and advancing to the finals.

Lin Li certainly didn't play poorly, but everyone could see that he hadn't reached that level.

It wasn't that his skill had improved; it was just that Sun Tianlong had played below his usual standard.

Following the bizarre "power outage" at the World Table Tennis Championships last October, Sun Tianlong had another bizarre "power outage" this time. From a commanding lead of three games, Lin Li staged a comeback, winning four consecutive games. The final game even saw an astonishing score of 11:1, with Sun Tianlong barely able to put up any resistance.

"What happened to Dragon Team?"

"Why did Dragon Team 'power out' again?"

"Is Dragon Team injured?"

"I heard Dragon Team got an injection of anesthetic before the match."

"Is Dragon Team intentionally losing?"

"Is Dragon Team planning to retire?"

"Dragon Team, you can't do this! I'm still waiting for you to win the Double Grand Slam!"

Countless bullet comments, filled with shocking exclamation marks and question marks, floated densely across the screen, almost obscuring all the visuals. This forced Liu Heng to turn off the comments again.

After a long while, someone quietly said, "It's okay, the gold medal is ours anyway... Bai Feng won't lose to Uncle Bayer, right?"

Thanks to "Du Shui De," "Shu Tong 23333," "CETLOUY," and "Shi Yun a" for their monthly votes.