Hazelnuts (Part 4)

What a boring life! These are Zhou Zeyu's thoughts during her first month of full-time rest.

Before, I was always busy every day. I was either playing a game today or training tomorrow. I was spinning like a top, and I would spin on my own without anyone whipping me. I was completely turned into a crazy person who couldn't stand not having something to do.

Therefore, suddenly having an abundance of time was not happiness for Zhou Zeyi, but rather strange and eerie. She no longer needed to rush to rinse her mouth and put on her shoes, nor did she need to desperately squeeze in time to go to the toilet. Free time was thrown at her like it was free, and she couldn't handle it at all.

But to be fair, she's not completely idle now. Professor Elberlint has encouraged her to try many new things, such as cooking, yoga, and fishing. Unfortunately, after doing all of these, she realized that choosing to play ball was the right decision, because she really doesn't seem to know anything.

Cooking was a mess; she almost blew up the oven while baking egg tarts; yoga was canceled due to a sprained ligament; not to mention fishing, which felt like imprisonment to her—she sat by the lake all morning, counting over five thousand ants before realizing the bait had fallen off from the start.

So after going around in circles, Zhou Zeyu had no choice but to slump on the sofa and pretend to be dead. Then he painfully collapsed onto the carpet and rolled around, all the while vividly reporting to Coach Xu how incredibly fulfilling his day had been.

"Great job!" a deep male voice came from the phone. "I always say fishing is wonderful; it builds patience and cultivates character. Keep it up!"

Zhou Zeyu mumbled "uh-huh" for a while, but she really couldn't understand how sitting on a stool with a fishing rod all day could cultivate one's character.

However, Coach Xu couldn't refuse her kind invitation and enthusiastically told her a lot about fishing. He also told her to let him know if she had any catches so that he could make up for the regret of not being able to fish because he was always working.

Since she had nothing else to do, she figured she might as well fulfill the old man's wish. So, Zhou Zeyu carried her fishing rod out for the second time. There seemed to be a lot of people fishing in Belgrade, so it wasn't uncommon for her to carry such a large rod. She put on her rubber boots and left without a care in the world.

She deliberately chose a spot by the lake where there weren't many people. On a relatively secluded shore, she leisurely set up a deck chair, tossed her fishing rod aside haphazardly, and began to lie down and read a magazine.

The professor suggested that she read magazines, saying that she should spend less time on her phone to reduce external information interference and read more political and financial magazines to broaden her horizons.

However, she didn't care about the Serbian election or the domestic economy at all. She replaced the serious magazine she was holding with one she bought randomly on the street, simply because the cover had a huge sexy male model on it. The contents were a bunch of celebrity gossip, such as divorces, feuds, and mistresses, which she found boring after a while.

So she took out her phone and started scrolling through her WeChat Moments. She saw that Fang Xiaocan was posting about where she had gone to have a big meal, and then she forgot to block Coach Huang from being scolded. She started writing a self-criticism in a miserable state, and after finishing, she sent her a message with deep sorrow: "I miss the days when we were arrested together!"

She chuckled and continued scrolling, but her finger suddenly paused as she saw Feng Yifan's profile picture.

There was no text, only a group photo with the rest of the team.

Zhou Zeyu's smile froze. She had no doubt that Feng Yifan could make it into the national team. Given her strength and hard work, it was something that could be expected. It was what she deserved for all her efforts.

She just stared quietly at the group photo, looking at the familiar and unfamiliar faces, and uncontrollably recalled how she was with them back then, training together, getting into trouble and being scolded, then hiding in a corner and crying, and then picking up her racket and getting back to work.

Although it's a relatively recent memory, at most three or four years old, when I recall it again, it seems to be shrouded in the shadow of an old era. Come to think of it, so much has changed in the last few years.

She herself was injured and no longer in good form, the captain Cen Zheng was getting older and began to step down, the seniors retired one after another and the newcomers were of varying quality, the women's team was fiercely competitive and constantly fighting, the men's team was full of ups and downs but ultimately ended up in a gloomy mood, everything was too unpredictable.

Even if everyone tells her to give up her interest in table tennis, it's completely unrealistic. She will always think of Beijing, thousands of miles away, and that dormitory that felt like home but wasn't warm enough. She doesn't want to give up completely; she still wants to go back.

However, Zhou Zeyu is also keenly aware that her biggest task right now is not to think about how to reach the pinnacle of women's singles, but to resolve the embarrassing situation of still having zero points after a whole morning.

But fishing is ultimately a matter of luck, and no matter how much she begged and pleaded, she couldn't rush it. Once she understood this, Zhou Zeyu let it go, put down her phone and continued looking at the magazine. It's said that people's language skills improve rapidly when they gossip, but she still felt dizzy staring at a bunch of English characters.

Never mind... let it be. She covered her face with the magazine and closed her eyes to pretend to sleep.

Remembering Coach Xu's cheers and his unwavering anticipation despite being tens of thousands of kilometers away, Zhou Zeyu pondered whether to go to the supermarket to buy a few fish to make up the numbers. After all, he would take a photo with the fish by the lake, figuring that Coach Xu, being so insightful, wouldn't be able to tell.

She was happily planning her next move, her mind completely absorbed in thinking about what kind of fish to buy, which one would be the most tender, and how to make a grilled or barbecued fish. She didn't even notice when the fishing rod moved.

"They've taken the bait."

"Oh." She mumbled reflexively, then realized something and suddenly sat up with a jolt, staring incredulously at a head that had somehow appeared in the lake. She stammered for a long time before finally managing to speak.

"No, you, what are you doing here?"

Sorkov seemed amused by her overly surprised expression, but only gave a very brief laugh before quickly reverting to his expressionless, sour face. "I swim."

Zhou Zeyu clutched her head. The safety education she had received since childhood had set off alarm bells. The drowning prevention propaganda she had watched every summer suddenly came to mind, causing her to recall the tragic drowning cases of previous years. She turned pale with fright and felt it was absolutely necessary to educate this audacious foreigner about safety.

"Listen, this is very dangerous!" She rushed to the lake in a few strides, but after saying only a few words, she realized that her English vocabulary was ridiculously limited. In order for him to understand, she could only use gestures and expressions, almost performing with great emotion.

“Water plants, they’ll entangle you,” she gestured at her ankle, “and then, you’ll die.” She made a horizontal cut across her neck with her hand and vividly rolled her eyes.

“If I get a cramp,” she hopped on one foot a few times, then made a distress gesture, “but no one comes to help, I will die.” She lowered her hand from the cramped position and then made a cut on her neck.

“And there are whirlpools,” she said, first making a spinning motion with her hands, “lots of big fish,” then sliding her hands around a few times as if to imitate the action, “and even human hypothermia.” Finally, she hugged herself as she shivered.

After completing the set of movements, Zhou Zeyu's face was already covered in sweat. She went to the side to get a tissue to wipe her sweat and saw that the other person seemed to be stunned. She felt that this lesson was not so successful.

"Most of the accidents are caused by self-righteous professionals," Zhou Zeyi added bluntly.

He paused, seemingly still trying to figure out how to refute her, but in the end he just shook his head helplessly, "Okay, then what should I do?"

Zhou Zeyi was busy reeling in his line when he glanced at him with a puzzled look: "Of course we're going ashore. Otherwise, what have you been doing in the lake, catching fish?"

Then she ignored him and continued to quickly reel in the cable. She heard a soft splashing sound from the side, followed by the sound of something suddenly falling into the bucket.

She turned around and saw him standing in front of the bucket. After meeting her questioning gaze, he calmly explained, "The fish got away, so I caught it for you."

Zhou Zeyu leaned over for a look and saw that it was a fat fish that she wouldn't dare to buy, so big that it made the bucket look small. It was struggling very hard inside the bucket.

"Thank you so much!" Zhou Zeyu immediately bent down, took a quick photo with the fish, and happily packed up his equipment before heading home.

"Are you Professor Elberlint's client?" he suddenly asked out of the blue.

"What's wrong?" Zhou Zeyu asked him, but he shook his head and didn't say anything.

Under the shade of the tree, Sorkov was looking down at something. He didn't look up immediately after hearing Zhou Zeyu's words, but Zhou Zeyu felt that his expression was becoming more and more sarcastic, and even a little bit gloating.

“The Sun,” he bent down to pick up the magazine, pointing the muscular man with abs at her with a mocking grin, and asked with visibly ill intent, “Did you drop this?”

Zhou Zeyi gasped and took a few steps forward to retrieve the magazine, but with a recliner in one hand and a bucket in the other, it was inconvenient to use both hands. He could only stretch out his little finger to reach the magazine, and he even kindly handed it to her.

She frowned, confused about what he was up to, and muttered as she accepted the magazine. However, her hand suddenly slipped, and as she instinctively reached to catch the falling magazine, the bucket of water flew up in an arc and splashed all over him.

It was a completely undeserved disaster...

She hurriedly apologized, then frantically reached into her bag for tissues and pressed them against his wet chest muscles.

The tissue was soaked in an instant, and belatedly realizing it, her face turned bright red, and she quickly withdrew her hand.

Sorkov opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word. He stood rooted to the spot, staring at her with an incredulous and helpless look, like a respectable woman being harassed by a thug. "What are you doing?"

All the words could be summed up in one sentence: "You are a magnanimous man." Zhou Zeyu was almost kneeling before him. Finally, he hurriedly grabbed the broken bucket and the recliner and fled from the place of trouble as if he were escaping.

After returning to his room, Zhou Zeyu collapsed onto the sofa, exhausted. Just then, Coach Xu called, and Zhou Zeyu answered cheerfully, "I had a very fruitful day!"

Coach Xu laughed heartily, "He truly is my student!"

The two of them complimented each other for a while in high spirits. Then Zhou Zeyu asked about the recent situation of the others. Coach Xu said that everything was fine, so she felt relieved. She lifted the fish by the tail from the bucket, pressed it on the cutting board, and picked up a knife to prepare to kill the fish.

She swiftly and decisively killed the fish with her knife, while her phone was on speakerphone and placed aside. She chatted casually as she processed the scales: "Although I'm not very good at other things, I'm quite good at killing fish. I remember when the team went on a spring outing to catch fish by the lake, Fang Xiaocan, that coward, was too scared to kill fish, but I learned how to kill fish in five minutes by following that old man."

She was reminiscing with great enthusiasm when Coach Xu on the phone also beamed: "Did you take pictures? How big was the fish? Send them to me."

Zhou Zeyu responded, then remembered the photo he had forgotten to send, quickly wiped the fish blood off his hands, and sent it over.

"How about it, isn't it big enough?" she said with a hint of pride.

Coach Xu was probably startled by the size of the fish and remained silent for a while. Only after repeated questioning did she mumble a reply, "Indeed."

Zhou Zeyu sensed something was wrong, dropped the fish, and hurriedly went to look up the old photo.

Sure enough, ninety percent of the footage showed her grinning foolishly, with only half of the fish's tail showing, and the remaining ten percent showed Sorkov standing to the side with a forced smile, who happened to be looking in the direction of the camera.

Coach Xu suddenly spoke up, "This young man... you caught him too?"

Zhou Zeyu abruptly put down her phone, as if she had heard something very stimulating. Her eardrums started to burn, and she could keenly detect a lot of loud banter coming from the phone. Coach Xu must have been playing it out loud in the table tennis hall. She could even hear Fang Xiaocan's distinctive dolphin-like voice.

She chuckled coldly a few times and quickly hung up the phone before things got completely out of control.