2 Past Life Memories
◎【Xiu】When she woke up again, she returned to the year when she was six years old.◎
The team points competition is over and the results are out.
There is a row of road poles with yellow lights on both sides of the empty playground, and the large speakers hanging above them emit a very standard CCTV broadcast tone.
China's national table tennis team narrowly lost to Athens, Russia, and Japan at the London Open. They failed to reach the semifinals in the men's singles, women's singles, and team events. I hope our athletes will not be discouraged, give up, or get impatient. They will actively prepare for the Macau World Championships in October...
This sound is rendered in a slightly empty environment, and has an indescribable sense of the times.
Several girls from the provincial team were on their way to training, all looking at Zhu Qi who was standing in the middle with a smile.
"Baobao, if you make the national team, could you please get me an autograph from Chang Hongxia?" a girl asked excitedly. "I heard she's now the captain of the women's national table tennis team, and she's also my lifelong idol! I watch her videos before every match."
"Hey, hey, hey, the national team leader came to inspect yesterday. He might have seen your match with Xiaosong. After all, you are now a famous minor grand slam player, and you can be directly recommended to the national second team."
"If I go to the national team, will I be unable to go home?" another person asked.
"Of course, once you join the national team, you will live in Beijing. The national team is different from the provincial team. We only have three days off during the Chinese New Year. It's not like the provincial team which has winter and summer vacations." A girl on the left answered.
"Then what about your family? Even though they're not your biological parents...your uncle and aunt care so much about you, they're definitely going to be reluctant to let you go."
Zhu Qi has no father and mother.
To be precise, neither in this life nor in the previous one.
In Zhu Qi’s previous life, his mother died of illness when he was four years old.
Not long after the seventh day, the so-called father called a woman holding a baby boy in her arms and asked Zhu Qi to call her "Mom".
Then, Zhu Qi began a nightmare life that lasted for more than 20 years.
She became the babysitter, the maid who cleaned the house, the punching bag for her stepmother, the human punching bag for her father when he was drunk, and the future ATM for her younger brother.
The only lucky thing in my previous life.
When she was fifteen years old, she applied to the local sports technical school because of the free canteen and state subsidies. After learning table tennis from a teacher for five years, she also passed the table tennis coach qualification exam. Only then did she have the ability to survive.
But a hemp rope always breaks at the thinnest part, and misfortune always finds the unfortunate.
Her coaching journey was very bumpy.
No one would hire a coach with no experience and low education.
She lowered her expected salary again and again before she got a job as a lowly coaching assistant at a private table tennis club.
On weekdays, he is ordered around by the coaching staff, served tea and water, and works 24 hours a day for a meager salary.
Zhu Qi, who had been traveling for a long time, was hit by a drunk driver and sent to the hospital at the age of 35. He died shortly afterwards.
When she woke up again, she returned to the year when she was six years old.
The drunk man held an iron rod in one hand and grabbed Zhu Qi's hair with the other, pulling her off the sofa and preparing to fight her. He could hear his stepmother's harsh curses in his ears.
"I took a nap and couldn't even watch the stove properly. The chicken soup I made for our son turned into a mess! You're just a worthless, rotten ghost asking for your life. Am I giving you food or drink to ruin the family's food?!"
This was the worst beating Zhu Qi had ever received in his previous life.
The beating lasted for two hours, her ankle was dislocated, her ribs were broken, and she had a five-centimeter scar on her head. She didn't grow any hair until the year she died, and was ridiculed every day for her alopecia areata and baldness.
The intense pain woke Zhu Qi up instantly, and she used almost all her strength to rush out.
A six-year-old girl ran three kilometers to the police station in the pouring rain. After pushing open the door, she knelt in the hall and kowtowed to the two policemen in front of the reception desk.
"Help me, my dad wants to kill me!"
The police quickly pulled the six-year-old girl over to the heater.
Those who are wiping away the rain wipe away the rain, those who are pouring hot water pour hot water, and those who are using a hair dryer use a hair dryer.
Then they called in the scar assessment personnel to take photos of Zhu Qi's new and old injuries for evidence collection.
The police found her mother's relatives. Not long after they made a phone call, her uncle and aunt's family rushed over and hugged Zhu Qi, who was shaking like a sapling in the winter wind in the police station.
In Zhu Qi's few memories before the age of four, she actually saw her uncle and aunt often.
They also knew that their second sister was not doing well, so they often came to help her.
But in his previous life, because Zhu Qi was too young, he was deceived by his father's brief warmth and was instigated by his stepmother. After his mother passed away, his relationship with his uncle and aunt became increasingly distant, and they even became enemies with each other in the end.
After being reborn, Zhu Qi was clear and had strong descriptive skills.
She told the story of an orphan who was almost killed.
With the scars on his body and the testimony of the neighbors, the man was soon taken away.
Afterwards, the man who abused the child was detained and deprived of custody. She changed her previous name to her mother's surname and lived with her uncle.
Zhu Qi.
It means that this time she has a new name and a new life.
And that man completely disappeared from Zhu Qi's life, no different from a dead person.
So theoretically, she really can be considered to have neither a father nor a mother.
Everyone said that Zhu Qi was the "Martial Star" sent from heaven.
However, the career path of "Wu Quxing" is not smooth.
When I was thirteen, I thought I would definitely make the national second team, but it took until I was fifteen.
She has won all the individual championships available at her age, but there is only one reason why she still cannot join the national team.
When Zhu Qi saw Coach Wang take out the registration form for the national youth team training, he had already expected it.
"What does this mean?" Zhu Qi said expressionlessly.
Coach Wang looked at the most promising girl on the provincial team and felt a little guilty. "Well... the selection of players for the National Second Team depends on the team's composition. If the team is short of left-handers, the probability of picking left-handers is relatively high. If the team is short of granular players, the probability of picking granular players is relatively high... Of course, if you perform well in the National Youth Team training camp, you can also join the National Youth Team, and then move from the National Youth Team to the National Second Team... Although it may take two more years, it will allow the players to practice their basic skills more solidly..."
Zhu Qi sneered, "So I, the World Youth Champion, didn't get a spot on the national team, right?"
"You can't say that. The national team relies on individual qualities and comprehensive considerations. You said you wrote self-criticisms every day in the provincial team..."
"Even if I beat the runner-up 4:0 in the final?"
"The national team's selection process isn't solely based on performance; it also looks at compatibility. If the national team already has a player with a similar playing style to yours, you'll be put aside..."
"According to this logic, there's no point in me participating in the training camp, right? The national team will still use 'compatibility' as an excuse to select the more 'suitable' players."
Zhu Qi thought the training registration form in front of him was ridiculous.
The U15 champion and the top three in the World Youth Championship can be directly promoted to the national second team.
According to normal procedures, she should have already set off for Beijing.
So now none of this is normal at all.
What Coach Wang is talking about is that the top three teams in the provincial team will submit their scores, enter the youth training camp, undergo a two-month closed training, and be managed by the coaching staff of the national second team.
After the final week of the round-robin competition, the top three men's and women's teams will be selected to enter the second national team.
It can also be regarded as a way to enter the national team.
But the problem is that the cost of youth training camps is also very high.
In two months, the training and coaching fees alone will cost 500 yuan, which does not include accommodation and three meals a day.
All sportswear, sports shoes, rackets, rubbers, and all daily necessities are to be paid for by the applicants.
In this era, when the average wage is only 80-120, it is not an amount that ordinary families can afford.
Zhu Qi obviously didn't have to pay this money!
"When I was thirteen, I won the U15 championship, and they said I wasn't old enough to join the national team. When I was fourteen, two of the top three players at the Asian Youth Championship made the national team, but I didn't. And when they asked me about it, they said I was violating discipline by playing street ball. Can't you just say I wasn't part of the plan? You know how painful it is to say this. If I'm not even part of the plan, what's the point of participating in this crappy training camp? You're trying to get more training fees out of me, right?"
Coach Wang blushed and slammed his hand on the table. "Zhu Qi! I'm telling you this in a gentle tone, only because I'm doing my job as a coach! What's with that attitude?! Who are you kidding?! I don't have the final say on the spots for the national team, so why are you trying to be so tough with me?! The national team doesn't want you, don't you think about your own reasons? If you really have what it takes, then make the national team beg you to join! If you don't have that ability, then just listen to the instructions! What a jerk!"
He tore the last piece of fig leaf to shreds.
The quota is like a business, selling the days and nights of hard work of countless athletes by the pound.
He thought that the little girl in front of him would cry, feel wronged, and collapse after being scolded by him.
But she didn't react at all, just looked at him coldly and with contempt, which made him, an adult, angry and guilty in the face of such a winter-like gaze.
Zhu Qi picked up the training table in front of him, pinched one end with each hand, and pulled it back and forth.
Hiss——
The thin paper was torn into two, four, eight... countless pieces.
The girl threw it up and turned away.
She took away all her personal belongings from the provincial team, including her racket, clothes, and toiletries from the dormitory, threw away her various certificates from the provincial team, and left the team.
When he was a club coach in his previous life, what Zhu Qi envied most were the athletes who could stand in front of the table and sweat.
I envy them for being able to stand on the podium and be honored.
But she started to learn too late, so her upper limit is limited.
Afterwards, she witnessed the peak and also the decline of Chinese national table tennis.
In Chinese history, there is a record called the "Dark Twelve Years of Chinese Table Tennis."
Three cycles.
Tokyo.
Moscow.
Riyadh.
In the past twelve years, the entire Chinese table tennis team has not won a single gold, silver or bronze medal in the three major competitions.
The best result is the semi-finals, and reaching the quarter-finals has become the norm.
Chinese fans, who were once very proud of the table tennis dream team, no longer dare to declare that table tennis is China's national sport.
The Chinese national table tennis team's external explanation is that the International Table Tennis Federation changed the competition system and the material of the ball for the Chinese team, causing a talent gap in the Chinese team, and it will take time to cultivate new talents.
If you can’t catch up in one year, you will not catch up every year.
The further you go, the bigger the gap becomes with outsourcing.
But the common people don’t care about your bullshit reasons.
If you don’t win a gold medal, you are a loser.
In sports, being a loser is the original sin.
No matter what you are, just curse!
At first people were angry, cursing, spitting and ridiculing, then they became indifferent, apathetic and calm, and finally accepted that the national ball that was once admired by everyone had fallen to the same level as the Chinese national football team.
After her rebirth, she and her uncle sat in the gallery and watched the man being taken away by the bailiffs, feeling very happy.
She knew that not everything was set in stone and irreversible.
At the end of this reform and opening up, we are about to enter the great changes of the millennium.
There are many opportunities to start a business and get rich quickly. You can also take the civil service exam and wait for retirement. If that doesn't work, you can use your academic qualifications to find a job in a big company in the future and make a lot of money.
But she continued to choose the little white ball when the sports industry was about to enter a cold winter.
Even though there were twelve dark years for Chinese table tennis afterwards, perhaps the gears of fate chose her to be reborn just to change some things.
But in his previous life as a coach he was ostracized and despised, and in this life he is also oppressed as an athlete.
The life of an ordinary person seems to have a foreseeable end. She thought she could change it all, but unexpectedly, no one wanted her to change it at all.
Can passion outlast the passage of time?
Oh.
This is a fucking stupid life.
【Author’s words】
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