Chapter 11 Ren Xiyao sat alone in the athletes' cafeteria...
Ren Xiyao sat alone by the window in the athletes' cafeteria. The SBS television broadcast of the Solomon Islands Winter Olympics played in her ears. The good news was that the Chinese women's team had achieved their fourth consecutive championship in the 500m event. The Solomon Islands 500m was full of drama, but at the moment China won, Ren Xiyao felt tears welling up in her eyes. It was as if divine intervention had intervened; the 500m gold medal had fallen to China in a dramatic way, marking the Chinese women's team's fourth consecutive victory in this event.
There's an internal test competition this afternoon. The training camp continues its cyclical schedule of morning land training and afternoon on-ice training. Besides Ren Xiyao, the other three Chinese athletes training abroad are from the Lan Hai Club. Li Enjing has already departed for the Winter Universiade. Lin Shan and her teammates are preparing for the World Junior Championships, and Rita has returned to China for competition. This training camp will end in a month. Generally, short track speed skating training camps begin summer training at the end of April and end at the end of March of the following year with the World Championships. Afterwards, there's a relatively long adjustment period, ranging from two weeks to a month.
In the locker room, athletes gathered in twos and threes. Ren Xiyao's slender neck was reflected in the mirror, her sweat-dampened hair clinging to the back of her ears like spider silk covered in morning dew. Outside the locker room came the laughter of other athletes, their conversations in Korean mixed with English echoing against the poorly soundproofed door.
"Get ready, almost there." The assistant coach came in to inform everyone, and casually patted her on the shoulder. Ren Xiyao nodded. The zipper of her speed skating suit was zipped all the way up. A half-masked face peeked through the crack in the half-open locker room door. Ren Xiyao paused, her hand busy fixing her hair.
The air conditioning in the ice rink was too strong, so Ren Xiyao hugged her arms and huddled in the corner of a bench.
"Group 3, prepare!" The announcement pierced the stagnant air.
This group consisted of three South Korean skaters and two Chinese skaters. At the sound of the starting gun, Ren Xiyao's start was slightly slow, placing her in third. Her speed increased until around the eighth lap, when she entered a corner. A skater from the Chinese Lan Hai Club, who was training with her, grazed her right glove with his skate, tearing a small gash in the cut-resistant fiber. This put her in second place. Next to her was a South Korean skater pulling on the outside track. At the third-to-last corner, the South Korean skater moved into first place. Just as Ren Xiyao tried to move up from the outside track, the Lan Hai Club skater also pulled on the outside track, blocking her path. The simultaneous exposure of their inside tracks allowed the South Korean skater behind her to overtake and move into second place. At the last corner, Ren Xiyao picked up speed again, tightening her lap and using momentum to almost run parallel to the third-place Lan Hai Club skater as she exited the corner. At the finish line, her skate tip was slightly faster than the skater next to her, but a sudden, strong force caused her to lose her balance.
She fell off the track, her goggles landing on the ice. A sharp pain shot through her left shoulder when she hit the safety mat. A referee skated over and asked how she was feeling. She slowly got up. Shaking her head, she knelt down to retrieve her goggles. As she went off the ice, she heard Lee Sang-jae, the South Korean head coach of the training team, pat the three South Korean girls on the shoulder, saying they had good teamwork and timing.
Ren Xiyao looked around the ice rink, adjusting her protective gear, when she suddenly squinted at a spot. She noticed the silver-haired "staff member" huddled behind a tripod, trying to blend in. The phone camera reflected the light from the overhead lamp. Closer, she saw that the person's knuckles were white from gripping the phone so tightly.
Ren Xiyao changed out of her skates off the ice. She picked up her down jacket and walked towards the camera. Through the gap in the camera tripod, she made eye contact with the person. Then, glancing around, she noticed everyone's attention was focused on the fourth group of matches on the ice. So she whispered, "Go out through the door on the right-hand side, diagonally behind."
When they met in the corridor, the man was wearing a black down jacket, a black mask, and a baseball cap. He exuded an aura that was hard to ignore. Ren Xiyao led him towards the players' passage.
"Coach Kim is taking the day off?" Kwon Ji-yong took off his mask. His breath condensed into white mist in the cold air. His gaze, however, was fixed on Ren Xiyao, who was walking a little ahead of him on his left.
Ren Xiyao unconsciously tugged at the zipper of her speed skating suit, trying to cover her suddenly burning ear tips: "How did you get in?"
"I told them I was a DJ during a competition, and they actually believed me. Do I really look like a DJ?" He tugged at his mask, a look of incredulous absurdity in his eyes. He then shook the plastic cup in his hand: "Want some? Hot lemonade."
The moment Ren Xiyao turned around, the plastic cup was in her left hand, and her bright red right hand was quietly slipping into her down jacket pocket.
"Hand." Ren Xiyao pushed open the door to the emergency exit, gesturing for him to come in.
Kwon Ji-yong instinctively hid his hands behind his back, the down jacket rustling as it rubbed together: "What hands?"
"During the performance rehearsal," Kwon Ji-yong curled his fingers, trying to pull them back, "too much dry ice was sprayed on the stage."
Ren Xiyao took out a heat patch from her down jacket pocket, and a faint scent of mugwort wafted out as she tore it open. Quan Zhilong was about to reach out when the heat source was pressed against him.
“You need to warm this area for frostbite.” Ren Xiyao pressed her index finger against the throbbing vein on his wrist: “Only when the blood flows there can it warm up.”
Kwon Ji-yong stared at her adjusting her gloves and suddenly laughed out loud: "Coach Im, do you still take on students?"
“Five million won per hour.” She crossed her arms, leaned against the wall, and stared up at Kwon Ji-yong.
Are there discounts available for monthly subscriptions?
This time, no one answered, only a short, soft chuckle. The two stood facing each other in the silent stairwell.
Ren Xiyao pulled open the collar of her speed skating suit to let in some fresh air, her sweaty bangs sticking to her forehead: "Kwon Ji-yong, I've found you to be a really interesting person."
Kwon Ji-yong suddenly bent down, getting close to Ren Xiyao: "Oh, really?" His voice held an indescribable allure, like a feather or a hook. It was hard to tell if it was coquettishness or seduction: "Not pretending to call me Oppa anymore?"
Ren Xiyao narrowed her eyes at the face that suddenly loomed close. Avoiding eye contact, she said evasively, "The way you hid behind the tripod really looked like a mouse stealing oil from a lamp." The person's eyes seemed to swirl. One more glance, and you'd be swept away by reason.
His gaze suddenly deepened as he looked at the girl's exposed neck. Kwon Ji-yong abruptly reached out and touched her neck, the warmth from his fingertips making her shudder: "You're sweaty here. Won't you catch a cold?"
The instant they made contact, Ren Xiyao felt a shiver run down her spine. Instinctively, she grabbed the towel she used to wipe her ice skates and hastily wiped them clean. Her instinct was to avoid the person in front of her and leave this somewhat dangerous place. Kwon Ji-yong's voice trembled close at hand: "There are water droplets on your eyelashes."
Ren Xiyao suddenly yanked open the emergency exit door. She strode out and said, "Your hands are frostbitten, remember to apply medicine."
"What medicine? I don't have any. What should I do?" Ren Xiyao had her back to Quan Zhilong, so she couldn't see the increasingly obvious smile on his lips. Her thoughts were about to be exposed, but she still spoke pitifully.
At the locker room door, Kwon Ji-yong raised an eyebrow at the "No Men Allowed" sign. Ren Xiyao rummaged through her locker for a first-aid kit, turned around, and saw him using his knee to brace the door and stretching out his arm to catch the ointment she tossed to him.
"I can do it myself? But how do I use it? Do I just apply it directly to the wound?" Kwon Ji-yong examined the ointment closely, trying to find the instructions, but it was all in Chinese, and he couldn't understand a single word. Ren Xiyao stared at him for a long time. Finally, she took out iodine and cotton swabs from her first-aid kit. She walked up to him, unscrewed the iodine bottle cap, and muttered in Chinese, "Which family's young master are you?"
Kwon Ji-yong instinctively felt it wasn't a kind remark and pretended not to hear it. Leaning against the wall outside the women's changing room, he looked down at her hair whorl swaying gently as she applied medicine. As the sterile cotton swab wiped the chilblains on her hand, he suddenly hissed, "Be gentle."
"If you know it hurts, why didn't you treat the injury immediately?" She pressed his hand down and placed it on the ground.
"Too much trouble." He flicked his wrist. "I don't want to move."
Ren Xiyao paused, the aluminum tube clicking softly as she twisted the ointment. Quan Zhilong watched her eyelashes cast fine shadows beneath her eyes and suddenly said, "Colder than ice."
"What?" Ren Xiyao frowned.
"The look in your eyes when you went off the ice just now." He shook his hand, which was wrapped in gauze.
Ren Xiyao turned and walked into the changing room, slamming the first-aid kit shut: "Don't come here again."
"Why?"
"It affects training."
Kwon Ji-yong stood up and moved his hands: "Then I'll bring some hand warmers."
"It's not needed."
"Shall we make some ginseng soup?"
"It has a strong smell."
He suddenly walked into the dressing room and stood behind Ren Xiyao. He leaned close to her ear, his chin almost touching her shoulder, and whispered in her ear, "Afraid of me?"
Ren Xiyao whirled around, took a half-step back, and bumped into the storage cabinet, the metal door making a dull thud. Quan Zhilong reached out to protect the back of her head, his palm separating the cold, hard metal: "Your heart is beating so fast."
"I just finished skating 1500m." She pushed him away and shooed him towards the door: "Men are not allowed in the women's changing room, didn't you see?"
"Ren Xiyao." He grabbed her wrist and stared intently at her: "Don't be afraid, please don't be afraid."
Ren Xiyao stood frozen in place, afraid to look up or move. Only her increasingly rapid breathing remained. After a long while, she finally calmed down: "Thank you." She didn't know what he had understood. But in truth, he hadn't understood anything either. It was just a kind of inexplicable feeling. She needed those words.
A sharp whistle pierced the air on the ice rink and echoed into the locker room. Ren Xiyao broke free from his grip and said, "You should leave."
Kwon Ji-yong's tone was unusually gentle: "I'll wait for you at the back door we used to come in through last time. Let's eat together after we've finished gathering." He then picked up Ren Xiyao's sports water bottle, poured in some hot lemon water that was lying nearby, and placed it in her hand. He then turned and left the locker room.
The ice rink's overhead lights refracted dappled light onto the glass. Ren Xiyao forced herself to concentrate on listening to the coach's summary of today's competition and training. Her eyes, however, unconsciously drifted towards the sports water bottles on the side of the rink.
Migrating birds bring news of spring. An athlete's life cycle begins a new four years with that cry. And the gears of fate turn to a new point in the life cycle. A new chapter begins in the story of life.
A note from the author:
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