The Road Back (Part 5)

When she pushed the door open, Fang Xiaocan was lounging comfortably on the sofa, legs crossed, drinking juice. He glanced at her with a teasing look.

"Oh, the philanthropist has arrived?"

Zhou Zeyu rolled his eyes speechlessly, threw the fruit he was holding at her with annoyance, and plopped down on the hospital bed. "I'm already so annoyed, and you're still making sarcastic remarks?"

Fang Xiaocan chuckled as she rummaged through the plastic bag, pulled out an orange, and started peeling it. "Isn't this praising your selfless dedication to the organization? Anyway, I'm broke. Asking me to donate such a large sum of money for no reason is worse than just killing me."

Zhou Zeyu was speechless and even began to regret why he hadn't put some medicine in the orange. The more he thought about it, the more painful it became. After hesitating for a while, he finally came up with a reason.

"At least I was pretty tough back then... I didn't lose face."

“Ah,” Fang Xiaocan said matter-of-factly, “I didn’t lose face, but I lost a lot of money.”

"Don't bring this up again!"

Zhou Zeyu glared at her angrily until the culprit shook her head repeatedly to indicate that she would never dare to do it again. She then let out a long sigh of dejection and shrugged in a resigned manner.

"You're just spouting nonsense. If you had been there, do you think you could have escaped unscathed?"

Fang Xiaocan sighed, knowing that what he said was true, so he refrained from making any further comments, and simply spoke softly.

"He's using both soft and hard tactics, preparing for both possibilities, and imposing ideological pressure on you. He's afraid the money will go back into your hands."

Zhou Zeyu remained silent.

The atmosphere suddenly fell silent. Even Fang Xiaocan stopped chewing on her orange. The two of them stared at each other in different places, their expressions heavy.

After a moment of silence, Zhou Zeyu decided to speak first, pretending to be nonchalant, and casually asked, "And you? Are you still able to pay your salary?"

Zhou Zeyu rubbed his temples: "How did it turn out like this..."

Actually, a few years ago, the team was far from being in this chaotic situation. Although there were occasional cash flow problems, at least there were no instances of unpaid wages. It's simply unbelievable that members of the national team would have to ask for their wages.

It seems that the overall situation has deteriorated in recent years. Although Zhou Zeyu doesn't know much about it, he has heard about it. The recent economic downturn, coupled with the adjustment of the Olympic cycle and the policy of allocating resources to new projects, has resulted in the budget allocated by the higher authorities decreasing year by year. This is a major reason.

As the saying goes, some things don't show when things are comfortable. Although the higher-ups have cut the budget, it's far from the point where we have to tighten our belts. As for why the team has no ability to withstand risks and why the slightest change has led to the current situation, there are unknown reasons for that.

Zhou Zeyu became increasingly agitated. "No wonder they were in such a hurry to kick me out. It turns out they're broke and just want to kick out as many people as they can."

Fang Xiaocan nodded: "Yeah, I guess I'll be soon too."

Hearing her words, Zhou Zeyu knew she wasn't making things up, and almost laughed in anger: "If you're kicked out too, what about his competition next year? Is he just relying on those kids?"

The problem of a lack of young talent has never been solved. A large number of veteran players have retired, so middle-generation players like Zhou Zeyu and Fang Xiaocan have to step up and take the lead. However, now that Zhou Zeyu is gone and even Fang Xiaocan is about to leave the team, the team will really only have Feng Yifan leading a group of inexperienced young players.

Thinking of this, Zhou Zeyi couldn't help but shake his head: "I understand what you mean. I'm starting to feel sorry for Feng Yifan now."

"So you could say you've turned misfortune into blessing. If you were still in the team, you might be the one doing this now, and I guess I'd have to dig you out of the ground."

One person carries half the team, having to deal with a bunch of problems in management and take on the responsibility of mentoring newcomers. In the long run, even Superman might need to seek psychological counseling.

Zhou Zeyu shuddered, and had to admit that Fang Xiaocan's words, though rough, were not without merit. Luckily, she hadn't taken over this mess.

"This can't go on. If the team's performance declines, the prize money for competitions and endorsements will definitely decrease. Wouldn't that be a vicious cycle?"

Fang Xiaocan sneered, "How can you be so sure that the results will definitely decline? I think those management members are quite confident. They dare to do this, so they must be very confident. Do we need to worry about it?"

"If the management were truly capable, the team wouldn't have fallen into such a state."

Fang Xiaocan clapped his hands, "So, I guess it'll be difficult for this group of people to win prize money through competitions. That's why Coach Huang has started taking on endorsements again recently. Feng Yifan's face has already taken over advertisements across land, sea, and air. I heard he'll be endorsing Brain Gold someday."

This is ridiculous! Zhou Zeyu slapped her thigh in disgust. She had been through this herself, so she knew how energy-consuming these things were. Not only did they affect the performance in the competition, but what was worse was that they would put her in the spotlight.

In fact, when Zhou Zeyu first joined the national team, a highly respected senior once warned her that she must never get involved with the entertainment industry. He said that having high commercial value was not a good thing, as it could easily lead to her being tainted by scandal. This was truly a wise saying, but Zhou Zeyu never took it to heart.

Many times, people are forced into it. For example, she was forced to accept so many endorsement deals and variety shows. Of course, the main reason was the team's instruction. The huge commercial value brought high endorsement fees and sponsorships. No one would be stupid enough not to take advantage of such resources.

She couldn't escape it back then, and neither could Feng Yifan. It's like a mantis trying to stop a chariot; after all, not many people can do that.

The market trends change so quickly, with policies shifting from morning till night. Today, sponsors may favor you, but tomorrow they may look for someone else because of your loss. Ultimately, it's all about profit, but in the end, the team behind the scenes always benefits.

"But relying solely on sponsorship fees... is not a long-term solution."

Fang Xiaocan shrugged. "That's not something we need to worry about. Anyway, if we ask ourselves honestly, we've already done our duty. The rest is neither our responsibility nor our obligation."

Seemingly noticing the worry in her eyes, Fang Xiaocan thought for a moment and then said reassuringly.

“I know you can’t let go of feelings. So many years have passed, who doesn’t have feelings?” She sighed, a rare hint of sorrow showing on her face. “But you also have to understand that you’ve done more than enough.”

"Zhou Zeyu, you're still too soft-hearted."

I'm too soft-hearted...sigh...too soft-hearted.

Zhou Zeyi knew, of course, that the money was gone forever. If it had ended up in someone's pocket, she would not let it go and would make a huge fuss to get it back. But she also knew perfectly well that it was more likely used to fill a gap in some emergency, such as equipment purchase, venue rental, or other minor details.

What can we do? What else can we do?

Just like Fang Xiaocan said, she had been in the team for so many years. The arguments and unpleasantness were real, but so were the cultivation and tolerance. People's hearts aren't made of stone, so how could she convince herself to turn a blind eye to all of this?

In fact, Zhou Zeyu also felt guilty towards the team, guilty for not winning the most important game that year, and for never recovering after that until now.

That's why she gave up that money; it wasn't charity, she just wanted to do her best to repay the organization for all the years of training she had received.

A clean break is the best possible outcome.

She knew that Fang Xiaocan definitely understood her intentions. In fact, they were thinking the same thing, but Fang Xiaocan was never good at expressing those emotions. She always seemed open-minded to the point of being unrestrained, but Zhou Zeyu knew that she couldn't actually be that carefree.

No one can completely sever ties with the past and move forward, and these two people sitting in the hospital room are no exception. Or rather, people like them are always the ones who can never forget the past.

Zhou Zeyu lowered his head, stared at the broken tiles at his feet for a while, then composed himself and looked up to ask her.

When was the surgery? Was it the last one?

Fang Xiaocan nodded, "Tomorrow afternoon will be the last time. I estimate that after the procedure and a few more days of observation, I can be discharged from the hospital."

"Did the doctor say it's serious?"

"No, it's nothing serious," she seemed hesitant, but ultimately said nothing. "It's a minor surgery, don't worry about it."

Zhou Zeyu couldn't help but worry. She knew better than anyone how deadly injuries could be for an athlete. Some people were lucky enough to recover from their injuries and maintain their original level, but most people weren't so lucky, and she herself was one of them.

The problem is that injuries are unavoidable, so we can only work on other aspects, such as doctors, materials, surgery, and rehabilitation. Every link must be perfect, and we must do our best in each one. Only in this way can the impact of injuries on athletic performance be minimized.

“I can’t help but worry about it,” Zhou Zeyu said. “The sooner you get treatment, the better. Of course, I don’t want you to end up like me.”

She delayed for too long. The surgery should have been scheduled much earlier, but it was delayed due to repeated revisions to the treatment plan and the lack of imported materials. There was nothing that could be done about it, since no one could have predicted what would happen next.

"If you ask me, you ruined your knee by dragging it out all that time. You kept saying you wanted to wait for imported German medical equipment and knee materials, but I think you should have just switched to domestic ones. How much worse could the results be? You wasted so much time."

Zhou Zeyi smiled helplessly, "What can we do? At the time, we only thought about getting better, and we wanted to use the best of everything. We went through seven or eight versions of the treatment plan. The intention was good, but the result was bad."

So, it was really just bad luck.

"Don't overthink it. Try to recover as soon as possible." Zhou Zeyu sighed, patted her shoulder, and tried to make his expression look less worried.

However, Fang Xiaocan's expression changed, and she seemed somewhat hesitant. Zhou Zeyu found this strange and was about to ask her for clarification when she shook her head, shrugged her shoulders, and smiled bitterly.

Zhou Zeyu knew that she was trying to make herself feel less sad and to be more carefree, but after all, no athlete can talk about this topic with a smile.

"Actually, I'm planning to retire," Fang Xiaocan suddenly blurted out.