147 Pembroke Cup

◎No one should be a copy of anyone else.◎

Ren Xinhua called all the men's team members over for psychological education again. This time it took a long time. They talked for almost a full hour before letting them out.

Initially Zhu Qi didn't take it seriously, but as soon as the men's team entered, he saw Ah Shui standing next to the table with a dazed look on his face.

Zhu Qi threw over a few balls, and Ah Shui was obviously a little distracted when he received them.

Zhu Qi thought it was about Ah Shui's family matters, so he didn't say much. Ah Shui, however, kept muttering to Maomao, "Why did you take so long to call the men's team? They seem to be doing pretty well lately. The last time I passed by, I heard Coach Shi praising them. What happened to make our chairman angry again?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's just some ideological education," Maomao said as she picked up balls near the backboard. "Everyone performed well in this Asian tournament. Sasa, Youyou, and the others weren't nervous either. They should participate in more competitions and gain more competition experience."

Zhu Qi felt that Maomao was right.

After all, Sasa and Youyou have been in the same team for so long. It has been at least seven years since she finished the Tokyo World Games.

Xiao Lingdang joined the team the latest, but she started from the round-robin matches of the first and second teams to the sparring partner of the first team, and now has won a place in the Asian Championship at the age of 19. Her progress in all aspects is obvious to all.

After A Shui secured his position as the absolute main player, he has been focusing on practicing right-handed ball.

Xiao Lingdang became Zhu Qi's main sparring partner.

Zhu Qi's training volume has always been recognized as the highest in the women's team, and she almost has four training sessions a day.

Originally, everyone got up at 7:30 for a morning run, then had lunch, and officially started training at 8:30.

As a result, since Zhu Qi first came to the national team, he liked to get up half an hour earlier to go to the training hall for a "snack". Later, many people followed suit, which led to him getting up earlier and earlier in the morning and going back later and later at night.

No matter how long Zhu Qi practices, Xiao Lingling will accompany him.

Over time, Xiao Lingling's playing style began to resemble Zhu Qi's in many aspects, including the loop shots that she later improved upon, which also had many traces of Zhu Qi's influence.

When He Qianlu took the time to go to Xu Dong's house for dinner on Sunday, he showed Zhu Qi the newspaper.

Xiao Lingdang defeated Yuan Xiang [4:3] in the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup, which caused quite a stir in China.

Some people call Xiao Lingdang "Little Zhu Qi" and say that she has the same drive as Zhu Qi when he first joined the national team.

Many people say that Zhu Qi’s golden age was during the Moscow and Riyadh cycles.

But in fact, Zhu Qi herself knew that the real golden period of her physical fitness should be between the ages of 15 and 18.

At that time, Zhu Qi had no obvious external injuries on his body, and his recovery ability was very strong in all aspects.

But now it's different.

After the body is worn out, it also means that many old injuries have not yet healed and are superimposed with new injuries. This overlaps and repeats, and many times the players have to play on the field with injuries.

Many times, in the later stages of your career, it all comes down to who has fewer injuries.

Zhu Qi and Maomao sat on the lounge chairs nearby, with elastic bandages wrapped all over their bodies. They looked like mummies that had just walked out of the hospital.

The players of the men's team came out of the head coach's office on the second floor in a crowd, looking as if they had received spiritual baptism, and walked towards their training base in a listless manner.

A few gossipy young players ran over to ask, wanting to find out what the head coach had said, but Qin Xiaoba waved them away: "Go away, what does this have to do with you? If you're so curious, you'll be criticized next time..."

Zhu Qi was sitting next to him wiping his sweat. Seeing Qin Xiaoba's complicated expression, he also felt strange.

Qin Xiaoba has been acting very strangely lately.

Hardworking beyond imagination.

In the past, after practicing for a while, I liked to run to the side and talk and laugh with others. Only when Gao Xiaofeng was watching could I practice from beginning to end.

Now he even finds work for himself and picks young players to practice with him.

And they are very frugal.

On weekdays, after training, I would run to the store to buy two bottles of soda, and then take a few packets of cookies back home for a midnight snack. But now I don't buy anything and just show up at the cafeteria at the same time every day.

The more Zhu Qi thought about it, the more strange it seemed to him. Including in various competitions in the first half of this year, Qin Xiaoba had tried his best to win gold medals.

Even in the direct-to-finals tournament that just ended, Qin Xiaoba played every game to the extreme. There was even a game in the middle where he was fighting with Daxiong and he stretched a tendon in his waist. As a result, he went to the infirmary for an injection in the evening and continued to play the next day.

At that time, Qin Xiaoba's score was already in the top three. If he had been like Qin Xiaoba before, he would probably have just played two games casually on the second day. After all, he would have a place in Riyadh.

For this, Zhu Qi also specially praised Qin Xiaoba.

"If you had worked harder like this earlier, I wouldn't have had to waste all these years scolding you. You might even have a spot in Moscow for an event."

Qin Xiaoba was deeply moved after hearing this and almost burst into tears in front of Zhu Qi: "I have lived for more than 20 years, and this is the first time you have praised me."

Zhu Qi said with a smile: "Nonsense, I praise you all the time, don't I? You just don't know it."

Qin Xiaoba knew.

His sister is just a pure tsundere.

I never like to praise people in person.

Ah Shui had told Qin Xiaoba that Zhu Qi felt his life hadn't been easy. He'd been Zhu Qi's sidekick from childhood, and no one had expected him to succeed. The four adults in the family prioritized cultivating Zhu Qi, focusing all their attention on him. Even the neighbors only knew that Zhu Qi played table tennis and had made it to the provincial and national teams.

Even when Zhu Qi returned to the village to visit relatives after playing in the mixed doubles in Tokyo, a neighbor asked Qin Xiaoba where he had been.

As a result, my aunt told the neighbors, "He also plays in the national team with his sister." Only then did the neighbors know that both of the Zhu family's children were in the national team.

In the first two years after Qin Xiaoba joined the national team, he didn't even have his own name in the team. Even Qin Xiaoba's head coach at the time liked to call him "Zhu Qi's younger brother."

Qin Xiaoba himself might have gotten used to it. He couldn't win the World Cup at 15, nor could he win two gold medals at the World Games at 17, let alone a Grand Slam at 21. So, subconsciously, he felt that surpassing Zhu Qi was a rare feat, and he accepted his mediocrity and lay low for a long time.

But now... Qin Xiaoba held the Suzaku racket in his hand. It was exactly the same as his sister's racket, except that it was slightly heavier due to its different gram weight.

The bats are the same, but the results you achieve are all earned through your own efforts...

This time playing in the Asian competition made him feel even more strongly.

When he and Ah Shui won the Asian Cup mixed doubles gold medal, while waiting for the interview after getting off the podium, Ah Shui jokingly said to him: "Actually, I think our mixed doubles is no worse than the Qilin combination, what do you think?"

"Of course." Qin Xiaoba answered without thinking.

But after saying this, Qin Xiaoba fell into deep thought again.

Zhu Qi is better than him, this fact has been deeply rooted in his mind. Since when did Qin Xiaoba start to want to get rid of his sister's halo?

Qin Xiaoba himself doesn't know.

But by the time he realized this, he had already packed up everything and rushed to the next men's doubles match without even having time to change his jersey.

The applause and lights are addictive.

When Qin Xiaoba stood on the highest podium and looked down at the audience, the flowers in his hands and the gold medal on his chest made him extremely excited.

Actually... he can do it too.

Ren Xinhua didn't actually say much when he called the men's team over. He just briefly described the men's team's recent performance and how he wanted to recruit another candidate mixed doubles combination to replace Zhu Qi and Song Linzhou.

After all, when we play in Riyadh next year, Song Linzhou will be 28 years old.

Song Linzhou's training and competition volume has always been the highest in the team, and he practices the straight-blade horizontal hitting, which is the most physically demanding. His knees and shoulders have always been the areas where injuries often occur.

Almost 99% of the players in the national table tennis team retire around the age of 30. If nothing unexpected happens, Riyadh should be the last World Games for Song Linzhou and Daxiong.

Ren Xinhua also mentioned this when speaking to the men's team, comforting these "older" veterans: "Of course, it's not easy for the national team to train an athlete capable of winning gold medals. Prolonging their careers would be ideal, but the new generation of young players should also know their role and when to take over. I won't dwell on many of the old-fashioned issues; I believe you all understand them. But what I want to say is that as a member of the national team, every day you spend is given by the people. You're not fighting for yourself, but for the entire country. You should learn to control your own personal emotions..."

The topic was brought back to the "love" issue that gave the coaches the most headaches.

Many people in the millennial generation still retain the mindset of "starting a family first and then building a career."

As the oldest member of the men's team, Daxiong had actually been urged by his family several times.

Boys from ordinary families will probably have children running around the streets when they are twenty-seven or twenty-eight.

In fact, the coaching staff has had several internal discussions on this issue. After all, times have changed. It is no longer the conservative 1970s and 1980s when people would blush just holding hands.

Especially after He Qianlu and Xu Dong got married, the coaches realized that there was no way to restrict things like dating.

This is human nature. After all, athletes are not old monks who have eliminated human desires.

So the coaches did not announce it, but still assumed that athletes could date outside after the age of 22.

But the team still strictly prohibits it, and this is also Ren Xinhua's only concession on this matter.

If it affects one's own performance, the athlete will have to take responsibility for his or her own career.

Think of this.

Ren Xinhua added, "...I hope you can control any thoughts you shouldn't have. Some of you have found girlfriends outside, and many coaches have turned a blind eye to it because you didn't report it. But you all know in your hearts that reaching this position is not easy. You must think clearly about what you want and don't let yourself down or the country..."

People who don’t have such thoughts naturally don’t think anything of it, but people who have such thoughts naturally lower their heads secretly.

Ren Xinhua knew she was getting old. At 57, she had to carry a bunch of medicine bottles with her every day, taking them while watching the kids practice. Normally, someone her age would have retired long ago, but the nature of Ren Xinhua's work meant she'd been able to stay retired until now.

When I was young, I had the energy to compete with these kids in wits and courage, but when I get older, it’s really easy to lose the energy.

It's time to retire...

But Ren Xinhua always felt that there was no suitable player in the team who could take over his job, and he wanted to hold on and wait a little longer.

I just don’t know if God will give me this opportunity.

/

After the direct admission quotas are released, the competition for the Riyadh quota will begin.

Zhu Qi and Maomao could both feel that A Shui also wanted to compete for a spot in an individual event. After all, A Shui had participated in a World Games and had experience in major competitions.

The most direct way is to achieve good results in this year's National Table Tennis Championships.

Zhu Qi also felt the pressure.

Now our main competitors are no longer just outsourcing.

The competition in women's singles is fierce, and the competition in men's singles is even more brutal.

As a loyal reporter "stationed" at the national table tennis team, Sen Qiaobei has been following the team all the way and has discovered that Qin Xiaoba has performed exceptionally well this year. From the beginning of the year to now, Qin Xiaoba can be seen in almost every game.

And every time he got Qin Xiaoba’s declaration of victory.

After going from 64 to 32, to 16, to the quarterfinals, and then to the semifinals, defeating Daxiong, he met Song Linzhou in the final.

As a good brother who has been following Qin Xiaoba since he joined the national team, Qin Xiaoba actually knows Song Linzhou's playing style in all aspects very well, and the two often practice various skills together.

Song Linzhou was amazed by Qin Xiaoba's growth, and suddenly felt that Qin Xiaoba's balls became hard.

Every ball is full of murderous intent.

Specifically attacking the opponent's weaknesses.

His every move has the demeanor of his older sister, but he has also been able to maximize his own shortcoming, which was previously considered impatience, by paying more attention to the quality of the board.

This is also the third time that Song Linzhou has reached the finals of the National Table Tennis Championships.

He successfully won the "Pembroke" Cup twice before. If he can continue to win the "Pembroke" Cup for the third time this time, he will be able to receive a "Pembroke" Cup replica cup awarded by the International Table Tennis Federation.

but……

Qin Xiaoba was like an adult wolf coming down the mountain at the other end of the table, with sharp teeth. Every time he pounced, he could add enough spin to the ball to drag Song Linzhou.

In the end, after a tug-of-war, we successfully won the final decisive game with a score of [15:12].

Qin Xiaoba won the first singles championship in the three major tournaments in his life, and also hindered Song Linzhou's path to winning the "Pembroke" Cup replica cup.

The game lasted a long time and the result exceeded many people's expectations.

Qin Xiaoba never thought that he could snatch the "Pembroke" Cup from his big antelope brother, but when the final result was revealed, Qin Xiaoba's knees went weak and he fell to the ground.

Then... it was as if a huge burden had been lifted from his shoulders, causing him to clench his fists and shout to the sky.

He shouted out the voice that had been pent up in his body for years, one after another.

Qin Xiaoba didn't know why he indulged himself in venting his emotions, but a voice in his head told him.

He has waited for this gold medal for too long and wanted to prove himself for too long.

This is not just a victory, but a chance for him to secure a ticket to the men's singles tournament in Riyadh.

Also, for the first time, Qin Xiaoba felt what it felt like to be able to control his own future.

After the game.

Reporter Sen, holding the microphone, said something very emotional during the interview with Qin Xiaoba: "This is your first time winning the Pembroke Cup. Congratulations. Before this National Table Tennis Championships, many domestic fans expressed concerns about the development of men's table tennis, fearing that the new generation of players would not be able to hold up after the retirement of the veterans. But in this match, you defeated all your opponents who had defeated you before. Is there anything you want to share with everyone about this?"

Qin Xiaoba took a deep breath and let the sweat drip down his body. He stretched out a finger and pointed at himself in the camera.

"What I want to say is, tell my family, I'm not a coward."

Everyone who heard this couldn't help laughing out loud.

Sen Qiaobei also laughed, but later when describing the game in "Table Tennis World", he still expressed high praise for Qin Xiaoba.

"No one knows what the young man who has been groping for his way behind his sister, who has such a strong aura, has been through. Perhaps many people think that if he plays well, it's his due, after all, he has been given so many high-quality resources since he was young. If he plays poorly, he should be criticized because he is bringing shame to the national team."

——"But actually, every time I interviewed him, I could always sense that this young man possessed a kind of vitality of his own."

——"No one should be a copy of anyone else, because they all have their own path."