8 Macau Palace World Cup ④
◎【Xiu】Only one step away from the Golden Throne◎
He Qianlu's back was straightened like a frozen stick, as if he would hit Han Taiyang in the next second.
Standing next to He Qianlu, Zhu Qi could clearly feel the sudden drop in air pressure around him.
ah?
Do they... have any conflict between the two of them?
Zhu Qi thought about it and found that there was no relevant information in his few memories.
As far as I can remember, the only thing I've read is Han Taiyang's extensive publicity campaign in South Korea about his three years in China, using every possible means to smear China's backwardness and conservatism. This garnered him immense attention in South Korea and catapulted him to fame as a leading public figure, reaping the benefits of an era of limited information access. After the turn of the millennium, he cultivated close ties with the heirs of South Korea's chaebols, quickly becoming a member of South Korea's upper class and earning a comfortable living.
At that time, even the local people wrote several letters to the General Administration of Sport, asking whether the foreign friends who came to exchange and study were really treated harshly, and demanding a strict investigation of the national table tennis team.
It was later confirmed that all of them were malicious and distorted rumors. This guy even happily took a photo with all the members of the national team the day before returning home, and added the words "forever partners".
Fairy tales tell children that a liar has to swallow a thousand needles.
Zhu Qi didn't know whether Han Taiyang swallowed the needle or not.
She only knew that many years later in her previous life, Han Taiyang, who had been promoted to Deputy Minister of the Korea Sports Administration, was exposed for a series of crimes including bullying players in the team, buying and selling rosters, manipulating Korean domestic competitions to draw black tickets, and pre-determining champions.
At that time, this incident was on the domestic hot search for more than a month, and everyone lamented that "the thing that South Korea should apply for world heritage the most is bullying."
The trending search also included details about how Han Taiyang dragged some players who disobeyed his management into a small dark room and beat them up, and was reported by a group of young players under their real names.
But it's a pity.
At that time, it was an era when chaebols were rampant.
Han Taiyang is the external image ambassador of many chaebols, and he owns many companies that have cooperated with the chaebol groups. In the end, South Korea's broken laws couldn't do anything to him.
Zhu Qi didn't expect that he would become a hot topic in his first world-class competition.
Several Koreans covered their mouths, glanced at He Qianlu, and then looked at Zhu Qi who was standing behind He Qianlu.
A disgusting and nauseating smile appeared on their faces at the same time.
It's like the embodiment of a smelly and rotten sewer.
This reminded Zhu Qi of five years ago when he and He Qianlu came to the Jianghuai Provincial Team at the same time.
The unkempt man stood in the gym, leaning against a tattered table. The sunlight outside the window stopped just in front of him, not even a millimeter away, and was reluctant to shine on him.
His empty and dead eyes only became a little more lively when they rested on the table.
No one knew that He Qianlu had two letters in his pocket that day.
One was a letter of recommendation from Ren Xinhua, and the other was his own letter of resignation.
He doesn't want to be a coach or play table tennis anymore.
I want to leave this industry completely.
But for him to give up table tennis, which he had persisted in for his whole life, was as painful as cutting off his arm.
When Zhu Qi stood at a distance and looked at him, he walked over subconsciously. The girl's crisp voice was like ethereal music.
"Coach He, my name is Zhu Qi. I think you're the only one in the entire provincial team who can coach me. I'm a very capable fighter, so you'll definitely win if you hire me."
His eyes at that time immediately touched Zhu Qi's heart.
It’s hard to describe the feeling. It’s like a drowning person with only one hand sticking out of the water. Anyone with a little compassion would want to go up and pull him out.
After spending more time together, Zhu Qi became more certain of his judgment of He Qianlu.
They are all hot-blooded idiots who are obsessed with their dreams.
This was in stark contrast to Han Taiyang, who was standing in front of him at this moment and looked like a decent human.
Han Taiyang tilted his head to glance at the girl following behind He Qianlu and said with a smile, "I heard that she's become a coach. Is this the player you coach? Not bad, she's already made it to the women's singles final. But our Keshan is really strong this time. How many balls can this little girl handle? This is an adult match. Will she cry playing with Keshan? If so, it would be too embarrassing..."
Because his expression is so mean.
Zhu Qi also wanted to be mean. She glanced at Oliver not far away and said deliberately: "Ah, compared with contestant Li Keshan, my competition experience is definitely not as rich as hers. But -"
Zhu Qi changed the subject, "The biggest pity is for Oliver. She beat Li Keshan at the National Championships. If I hadn't luckily won the seventh game and advanced, Oliver would have been the winner of this World Championship."
This sentence means.
Li Keshan lost to Oliver.
And she beat Oliver.
She is not afraid of Li Keshan.
Han Taiyang scoffed. "That was just a scare at the last National Championships. How can a champion who immigrated to the United States from Niger be compared to a player from the Republic of Korea?"
In order to flaunt its political correctness, America will give black people some worthless championships, letting the world know, "Look, our free country is so inclusive, and everyone can show their personal charm here!"
Who knows how much this champion contains?
Zhu Qi suddenly raised his hand, pointed at Han Taiyang's face, and suddenly switched from Chinese to English and shouted, "How can you insult Oliver like this?! Are you a racist?!"
Oliver was not far away. She was covering her face and explaining to foreign media how difficult it was for her to play this game, what preparations she had made to enter the finals, and how heavy a blow this failure was to her.
The little girl's voice was very clear, as if she was deliberately making it loud for them to hear.
Foreign reporters, tired of Oliver's crying, were immediately attracted by this sensitive word.
The beacons of freedom came here just by smelling the scent.
What? !
racism? !
who? !
Who dares to discriminate against race?!
Han Taiyang glanced at the foreign reporters approaching and immediately retorted, "What racial discrimination?! I haven't done that!"
"I heard exactly what you said about Nigger. I demand that you apologize to Oliver immediately!"
Zhu Qi had a cold face, fearing that the African-American Ms. Oliver next to him couldn't hear him. He pointed at Han Taiyang and then at Oliver.
Niger's English name is Niger, which is very similar to Nigger, a very dirty and insulting word for black people.
Therefore, except for black people, no one else will call Niger directly, but will use the general term "Africa" instead, for fear of being accused of racial discrimination by accident.
"What?! My God! You actually..." Oliver looked at Han Taiyang in shock.
This word rarely appears in American and Western textbooks.
Standard discrimination against all black people.
Han Taiyang felt that he had fallen into a trap, and the girl was deliberately leading him to say bad things.
In that distant country, the American hawks who have political correctness ingrained into their bones will never allow such words to appear!
Han Taiyang loudly defended himself in English: "I absolutely did not say that! She is talking nonsense! NO! NO!"
His English is not very good, and he can only repeat this sentence when explaining.
Moreover, all the reporters were gathered around Oliver, and no one paid attention to the confrontation between the two groups of Asians next to them.
Even Han Taiyang's own teammates began to get confused.
"Did Brother Sun really say that just now? It sounds to me like there is such a word."
"I don't know. They were speaking Chinese the whole time."
"Brother Sun usually likes to make fun of black people. Did he just say that casually?"
The fifteen-year-old girl in front of him was clear and fluent in English. In her narration, she not only set traps for Han Taiyang but also used the fact that Han Taiyang was not good at Chinese to criticize him indirectly.
With his age advantage, Zhu Qi put on a weak and regretful expression as he looked at the group of foreign media in front of him. "He just mocked crying after losing a game, which made me feel very uncomfortable. Crying doesn't mean being weak, or do you think that those who cry during a game are just weak children?"
Starting from the World Cup.
Only Oliver felt ashamed of losing to a fifteen-year-old child, and cried in front of the media in order to gain sympathy from most people after returning home.
This directionality is even more obvious.
"This is unbelievable, you are such a rude and low-class guy!" Oliver covered his mouth and screamed.
Once this sentence was spoken, it basically meant that Oliver believed what Han Taiyang said.
The Korean teammates behind him all looked a little strange and slightly moved away from Han Taiyang.
In the United States, many students are asked to fill out a form after graduation.
There will be a questionnaire on it, asking you to mark whether you have experienced sexual/assault, school violence, or racial discrimination during your school years.
In the eyes of those lighthouses, racial discrimination is as serious as sexual assault and school violence.
This is a big deal!
"On the contrary, I don't think Oliver neglected the competition because of my age. It's precisely because she takes every match as seriously as I do that she felt sad after losing, because she poured her heart and soul into the competition. She's a respectable opponent, and I'm very much looking forward to meeting her next time." Zhu Qi sighed and expressed her approval of Oliver to the reporters in her childish English. "I'm deeply saddened and upset that the Korean players are so undemocratic, so unfree, and so politically wrong."
She is only fifteen years old.
Can she lie?
Seeing more and more reporters gathering around, the Korean coach thought it would be best to leave first, so he pulled Han Taiyang outside.
Foreign journalists swarmed over.
"Contestant Han Taiyang, are you biased against Oliver because she is black?"
"As an active athlete, how do you view racial discrimination?"
"Han Taiyang, your use of the word 'Nigger,' which is an extremely egregious insult to black people, was it your own behavior or was it representative of the entire Republic of Korea?"
After the noisy crowd had almost dispersed.
He Qianlu, who had been trying to suppress his laughter for a long time, lowered his head and asked, "Do the old white people care about this? I see them all looking like they want to eat people. That Oliver almost reached out to hit someone."
"It matters a lot. Students accused of this will drop out, teachers will be fired, employees will be expelled, and civil servants will be detained. The attitude of the US and the West towards racial discrimination is just as serious as the regional discrimination and Hong Kong and Taiwan sedition here."
"How did you know that?"
"I saw it in the newspaper."
"What newspaper?"
"Bili Weibo little red mouse, slow foot Tik Tok little plane."
"I don't understand. Are you scolding me?"
“You can think so.”…
When they arrived at the hotel, the two of them boiled a pot of hot water and cooked instant noodles.
While waiting for the water to boil, Zhu Qi saw that the story had spread from person to person: "Korean athletes ridiculed black athletes for crying after losing a game."
In the early morning of the next day, Han Taiyang was even pulled out by the Korean team coach to post an apology video.
I'm truly sorry. There was a misunderstanding when communicating with the Chinese team members. I didn't mean to insult Oliver maliciously. The dispute at that time was personal and had nothing to do with the Korean team or other teammates...
Although the answer was ambiguous, he neither admitted to being racist nor completely denied it.
Zhu Qi took a sip of his noodles, surprised: "He just admitted it so easily?"
"Maybe it was pressure from within the team," He Qianlu said, peeling a sausage for the girl. "That guy even insisted on speaking Chinese. There were a bunch of foreigners there, and we were the only three who could understand. Plus, the Korean team is incredibly competitive, and he originally joined the Chinese team to escape the bullying. As he got older, he went back and started bullying the younger players, so no one was willing to speak up for him. South Korea didn't want to offend the Americans, so they pushed him out to apologize first."
Zhu Qi thought the matter was over, but when he went to the gym to warm up in the morning, he took a look at the results of the men's singles final.
Han Taiyang actually lost.
If her memory served her correctly, the men's singles champion of this World Cup was Han Taiyang.
When she saw Han Taiyang yesterday, she thought this guy was sure to win, so she wanted to say a few words.
The one who defeated Han Taiyang was the new player of the Chinese team, Lu Yaohan.
Han Taiyang actually lost?
This year's champion is actually the national table tennis champion?
ah?
Standing under the results board, He Qianlu poked Zhu Qi in the face: "Why do you look like that? You looked like you saw a ghost when the Chinese team won?"
"Nothing, I just think Han Taiyang's character is not good but his skills are advanced. I thought he was determined to win."
"He played well, but the kid from the Chinese team played beyond his level today." He Qianlu pulled her to the post-match interview replay area.
There was a boy about eighteen or nineteen years old on the screen, wearing the Chinese national team jersey, with a truly auspicious look.
When communicating with reporters, his answers were also very appropriate.
Yesterday, when Han Taiyang and the Chinese female competitor, competing under her own name, were arguing, I happened to be nearby and heard some unpleasant things. Perhaps he was holding on and wanted to vent his anger on the Chinese kids, so he performed exceptionally well.
"This kid's nickname is Big Bear, and he really played well today. I remember he had just joined the national team when I was about to retire. His forehand system wasn't very mature back then, but it's much more refined now." He Qianlu pinched his chin in thought. "By the way, did you know? Han Taiyang was carried off the court. He didn't even shake hands with the referee."
"Oh." Zhu Qi expressed disinterest.
Why was he carried out of the arena?
Because I lost an opportunity to be exempted from military service.
After the interview with Lu Yaohan, it was Han Taiyang who came next.
He was dragged off the court by his coach and teammates, and he was so exhausted that he didn't even have the strength to stand.
I really wanted to win the gold medal for the South Korean team, and that was my wish. But we lost. There was nothing we could do. The other team played so well today, without any mistakes or chances.
Some people are alive.
But the spiritual world is dead.
Han Taiyang sat outside the lounge, feeling almost dead.
People passing by would glance at him and then hurry away.
None of his teammates spoke up for him, and some even took advantage of his misfortune.
I don’t know who told the coach, “It seems that Brother Sun did say something that was too harsh,” and the coach asked him to record an apology video regardless, fearing that the American side’s opinion of him would decline.
I thought no matter what.
After returning home with the Golden Throne, people will surely forget their apology video soon.
But he spent the whole night explaining that he didn't say anything, got scolded by the coach, backstabbed by his teammates, and had to record an apology video.
He went on stage while still in a daze.
Why is this happening...
Clearly only one step away from the Golden Throne...
Why……
"Brother, you're really too childish." Li Keshan changed into her sportswear and sneered at Han Taiyang, who looked like he was about to die. "How can you say that in public?"
"I didn't say that." Han Taiyang looked at Li Keshan weakly.
This sentence has been said countless times from yesterday afternoon until now.
No one believed him.
He was wronged.
Li Keshan's smile became even more mocking. "Anyway, no matter what, you lost the gold throne this time, and the coach will deal with you when he gets back. Seriously, it's made me afraid to accept interviews with American reporters. This is all my brother's fault."
"Do you think you can win?" Han Taiyang suddenly sat up, gritting his teeth. "She was taught by He Qianlu! She beat Oliver!"
"That little girl who didn't even make the Chinese national team? Brother, I think there's something wrong with your mind."
Li Keshan laughed and left.
Han Taiyang looked at the woman's back fiercely as she left. He resisted the urge to rush forward and punch her, and finally smashed his fist against the wall.
【Author’s words】
The next book I'll be publishing is "My Playing Table Tennis in the 1970s." Click here to bookmark it in advance! We'll also be notified when the book is published!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
