Chapter 245: Remove the Obstacles
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Kun Shen changed the specialized competition trainers, looking hesitant.
"Tingshan Chen managed to find us some opportunity after he made a scene," Yueyang Zhu said as he tied his shoes. "I will not show you mercy during the competition. Try your best if you want to make it to the relay team."
"They didn't say we can join the relay team if we win." Kun Shen didn't seem happy.
"At least this is an opportunity. We have to seize the opportunity that Tingshan Chen fought to get us!" Yueyang Zhu said.
Kun Shen felt sorry for Tingshan Chen whenever he heard Tingshan Chen's name. Tingshan Chen was going to have a tough time after this, no matter what the result was.
Not far away from them, Tingshan Chen looked immensely proud. He didn't realize what kind of situation he was in. He quickly walked over to Kun Shen, smiling. "Brother Shen, I did a great job, huh? You have to buy me meals soon."
"Sure, the meal is on me!" Kun Shen smiled awkwardly, judging Tingshan Chen silently. This fool thinks he is some kind of hero. He would be counting money for the guy who sold to him. He made his bed; let him lie in it.
Dong Qian and Yihao Wu, representatives for the relay team, were ready for the competition.
"Hey Coach Li, are there only two athletes in the competition. Are the other two not coming?" Xiaochun Gao groaned.
"The relay team is for relay games. Two athletes for the curves while the other two run the straightaways. We are having a 100m sprint race, so the two athletes in charge of straightaways will take part in it. The other two athletes are practicing for the curves. I wouldn't mind having them participate if we were having a curve race," Dai Li answered.
Xiaochun Gao didn't argue. He understood nothing about professional sports terms, so he just kept his mouth shut in case he made another mistake.
Weidong Chu felt diffirent about this though. He surely supported Dai Li, but he didn't have faith in the two athletes Dai Li had picked for this race. If it had not been Dai Li, but another guy dealing with this, this ridiculous competition would not even be happening.
Dai Li still looked confident. As he had predicted, Dong Qian and Yihao Wu were way better than their three opponents, including Tingshan Chen. And this was his big achievement from the latest three months.
The moment when Dai Li had picked Dong Qian, he knew Dong Qian had potential. His weaknesses would be easy to overcome, and once he overcame them, he would improve a lot.
In the three months of training under Dai Li, Dong Qian had continued correcting his shortcomings. Dong Qian was not bad in the beginning, and over time he became better. It was only because Dong Qian was one of the members of the relay team and didn't get involved in self-testing programs that people didn't know he had improved to a higher level.
Yihao Wu, on the other hand, was in a different situation. Dong Qian was already mature in some skills even though he had some shortcomings, while Yihao Wu had not formed his own technique yet.
Yihao Wu was one year older than Tingshan Chen, and he had just gotten promoted from the youth team. The "mixed up" training style of the youth team would not help athletes grow.
To Dai Li, Yihao Wu was like a blank sheet of paper that welcomed all possibilities. Because of this, when they were first starting out, Dai Li taught Yihao Wu the technique system of the national team. Compared with the other athletes on the provincial team, Yihao Wu was at a higher starting point, and avoided unnecessary detours.
Young people were better at learning new things, so in the following few months, Yihao Wu grew a lot. And with a top coach like Dai Li, Yihao Wu got chances to improve faster. He was now just as good as Tingshan Chen. With the help of the explosive force halo, Yihao Wu could even be better than Tingshan Chen. Also, because they were all training for the relay team, Yihao Wu hadn't attended the most recent competitions in the past three month either. This meant that no one knew about his progress.
…
Altogether there were five athletes in the match. The rest of the members of the relay team didn't join the match.
The younger athletes, as well as the average ones, thought the relay team wouldn't achieve anything even if they were going to the games, so they didn't want to embarrass themselves. The experienced athletes who had practiced for years also didn't want to get involved in the race either, as they knew it was a competition that had excellent athletes.
It was not an official match, so they didn't use an electronic timer to keep time; instead, they found five coaches to time the race, holding stopwatches in their hands and standing at the finish line.
Although there wasn't an electronic timer involved, they used an electronic starting gun. A starting gun was usable, safe, and economic, as it could be used for a long time once it was charged.
The old fashioned starting gun was no longer popular these days. The existing starting guns had been produced years ago. This country had a strict rule about guns, so even though they were only used for races as starting guns, bullets were banned. In addition, the approval process for production was extremely strict; manufacturers wouldn't bother making them, and decided to make electronic ones. The electronic guns now didn't look like guns at all, but game handles.
The announcer shot the starting gun and shouted, "Everybody, get ready…" The five candidates were all ready to run.
With the sound of the gunshot, the five athletes shot out from the starting line like bullets.
…
"Wow…" The crowd was in awe.
"How come?"
"Dong Qian is in first place!"
"Yihao Wu runs so fast!
In the race, Dong Qian was first among the runners. The other four were at similar positions.
Kun Shen, Yueyang Zhu, and Tingshan Chen were all good sprinters, so it wasn't strange for them to run at the same speed; it was to everyone's surprise that Yihao Wu was running so fast that he had caught up to them.
It hadn't even been one year since Yihao Wu had been promoted from the youth team. He was still considered a freshman on the track and field team, and hadn't been given opportunities to attend formal games. Freshmen like him had to practice for two or three years before they could compete publicly.
But now, Yihao Wu's performance was surprising everyone watching. Dong Qian had surprised people even more, as he was currently in first place.
On the sprint team, Dong Qian wasn't the worst, but he was not the best either. However, Dong Qian was running faster than Kun Shen and the other three, and the gap between them widened as the race went on.
…
Dong Qian is ahead of me! How did that happen? Am I running too slow today? Kun Shen looked around and noticed that Yueyang Zhu and Tingshan Chen were running at the same pace as him.
Yueyang Zhu and Tingshan Chen are around the same speed as me. It's not that I'm running slower than usual, Dong Qian is just running faster! Kun Shen realized this, but also found that Yueyang Zhu and Tingshan Chen were not the only two running with him. There was a third guy.
Another one! Kun Shen turned around again and saw Yihao Wu.
Yihao Wu? Can he catch me? Kun Shen felt frightened. Dong Qian is faster than me, and Yihao Wu is running as fast as I am. How could this be happening?
However, the next minute, Kun Shen realized that Yihao Wu seemed to be ahead of them.
I feel like Yihao Wu is faster than me. Is this an illusion? Ku Shen looked around and found that Yihao Wu was slightly ahead of him.
How could this be possible! Yihao Wu is also faster than me!
…
Weidong Chu watched the race. The match was about to finish, and it was pretty clear who was going to win. Dong Qian without doubt had an advantage, and Yihao Wu had also emerged as second. As for Kun Shen, Yueyang Zhu, and Tingshan Chen, they were going to be the last three.
That's Dong Qian and Yihao Wu, right? I didn't even notice them in the beginning, and I didn't expect them to be so fast. No wonder Dai Li was so confident!
Weidong Chu looked at Dai Li, and suddenly realized that Dong Qian and Yihao Wu were faster because of Dai Li's training.
I didn't pick up the wrong guy! Weidong Chu thought. The athletes ran to the finishing point in a row.
Dong Qian was first, and Yihao Wu was second. The two candidates on the relay team had won the game, which surprised everyone.
"Dong Qian won first place! He beat Kun Shen, Yueyang Zhu, and Tingshan Chen!"
"Yihao Wu was second. When did he become so fast?"
"The members of the relay team are really something. No wonder they were willing to have a match with Kun Shen, Yueyang Zhu, and Tingshan Chen. They have the ability to."
"I used to think I was way better than the people on the relay team, but now I know that was just an illusion. I am much worse."
"I went to Coach Li, what a shame! I can't even run faster than them. No wonder Coach Li turned me down!"
There were discussions going on in the crowd.
I remember that Yihao Wu is one year younger than Tingshan Chen, and now he can beat him. It seems that Yihao Wu is more worthy of training, and he is obedient! Tingshan Chen is such a troublemaker. He just brought a lot of trouble to me, Weidong Chu thought silently. He thought about making Yihao Wu the focus of development on the track and field team.
In Weidong Chu's position, although scores mattered, he would not want troublemakers on his team for sure. The most important thing to Weidong Chu was to obey the coach and never bring trouble to the team.
Xiaochun Gao looked so embarrassed standing next to them. He stared at Tingshan Chen with resent.
And you call this one of the best? Bullsh*t! What a bullsh*t excuse that the excellent athletes were not selected and the average ones were! And the bribe? Bullsh*t! I thought it was a big case, but it was just a few athletes that got jealous of others because they were not good enough to be selected. What a false accusation! Such a waste of time.
Seeing this result, Xiaochun Gao realized that he had been used.
Xiaochun Gao suddenly came to the realization that it was actually very simple. He was just so obsessed with achieving something big that he had made things complicated.
Weidong Chu glanced at Xiaochun Gao coldly as he thought of ways to get revenge.
I remember Xiaochun Gao said he had evidence on Dai Li's case... Weidong Chu squinted his eyes and decided to do something for Dai Li.
…
As soon as Xiaochun Gao left, Weidong Chu dialed the number of Director Wang, the director of the sports bureau, and began complaining.
Helping his employees out was management skill of the boss. If the employee was mistreated and the boss paid no attention to it, the employees would not respect him, and the bully might gather the courage to continue mistreating the employee in the future. That was why Weidong Chu reported this to his boss.
Words like "framed,""treated as criminals," and "abuse of power" came out of Weidong Chu's mouth. And of course he exaggerated a bit here and there. From Weidong Chu's description, the track and field team had been mistreated, and Xiaochun Gao was made out to be very evil and mean.
Director Wang was not easy to deal with, as he was the vice director of the Provincial Sports Bureau. When he heard the news that the track and field team was bullied, he would surely defend them. This was not only for the sake of Weidong Chu, but also to show his power to lead coaches on other teams.
Director Wang called the boss of the Discipline Inspection Dispute Group. He wanted to complain about this as well.
…
"Xiaochun Gao, I asked you to investigate; I didn't ask you to cause trouble! I received a complaint!" a middle aged guy in his 40s yelled excitedly. "You should be faithful to the truth when I send you to investigate. And what did you do? You said you had the evidence to prove he was guilty? I am asking you now, what made him guilty?"
Xiaochun Gao lowered his head and said in a low voice, "Secretary Zhao, I was just using it as an interrogation tactic. I thought that if there was anything wrong, they would be frightened and tell me everything if I lied."
"Lie? Xiaochun Gao, how old are you? Are you still using the tricks that we used ten years ago? Were you asleep when we were having the training lecture? We deal with things more civilized now, without threatening anyone. Haven't you learned anything? The moment you saw them, you assumed they were suspicious. If you had evidence, fine. But did you think maybe they were framed? How are you going to get things done if you say things like that? Do you have an idea how much trouble you have caused our group? We aim to serve justice, but now, after this scene you made, the outsiders might take us as the imperial guards of the Ming Dynasty, which eventually became some version of SS troops!"
Xiaochun Gao still had his head lowered, not arguing back. Secretary Zhao continued, "Xiaochun Gao, I've seen your CV. You worked diligently during that time, and I was wondering why you never received a promotion. Now I finally understand—it was because you suck! No wonder you were never promoted, you troublemaker!"
Secretary Zhao breathed heavily and calmed down, then he said, "Well, to save you the trouble, there is no need for you to stay with the investigation group. Manager Li in the archives office happens to need some help, so you can go there and meet up with him tomorrow!"
"I've been transferred to the archives office?" Xiaochun Gao almost cried.
The archives office sorted out files and papers, which was dull and required no intelligence. More importantly, staying at the archives office was like being exiled. He would not be able to deal with regular cases anymore, let alone the big case he had always wanted.