Turning Point (Part Four)
"Don't say that," Zhou Zeyu said, turning around with an awkward smile, perhaps out of consideration for certain reasons, but perhaps simply out of a sense of moral obligation not to look at what is improper. "You're making me sound like some kind of pervert."
"If you dare to nod, you're finished," she added coldly, as if she had foreseen everything.
Sorkov let out a strange, cold snort. "Is this your room? Or am I the one who barged in while someone was changing clothes?"
Knowing she was in the wrong, Zhou Zeyi inevitably felt a little guilty, but her thick skin, honed over the years, made up for it. So, after a half-second of silence, she still retaliated without batting an eye.
"I'm sorry, you know I didn't mean it. Besides, you really are something else."
She mumbled the last sentence, intending only to ease the awkward atmosphere and assuming the guy wouldn't hear her. However, the next second, something resembling a plush toy hit her squarely on the back of the neck.
She screamed, grabbed the furry black monkey, and examined it closely for a long time. The more she looked at it, the more familiar it seemed: "You have a penchant for collecting these plush toys?"
She heard the sound of the wardrobe door slamming shut behind her, accompanied by the rustling of fabric. She guessed he must have finished changing and was about to turn around when she was ruthlessly reprimanded back.
For some reason, she even felt that Sorkov was about to cry at any moment. "Do you really want to see that?"
In fact, Zhou Zeyi could have easily refuted him, saying that he was making a mountain out of a molehill. After all, she had seen it before, and even took the opportunity to touch him several times while learning to swim. He didn't seem like such a stingy person. She wondered what was wrong with him now, acting so coy and afraid that she would see anything.
But Zhou Zeyi would never dare to say that. She knew that people can become very extreme when they are extremely tired. Normally, neither of them would do such a strange thing. One of them barged in without explanation, while the other hesitated and became coy. The two of them maintained a delicate balance in such a bizarre way.
Sorkov let out a heavy sigh. "This is the only one I have."
"Huh?" Zhou Zeyu hadn't expected to hear his reply and was lost in thought about other things when he suddenly heard him say that, and he didn't react at all.
"Your taste is quite interesting, why do you like this silly monkey?"
The wardrobe door was slammed open again, and he seemed to be searching for something, casually remarking, "My aesthetic sense has always been terrible."
A towel was thrown over her head, instantly blocking Zhou Zeyu's entire vision. She struggled to pull it off, but was held down firmly by a pair of unseen large hands.
It's purely retaliation.
Zhou Zeyu could only stand there, enduring the haphazard ravaging of his hair. He clearly treated it as some kind of perverse game, kneading it back and forth like playing with clay.
Having finally broken free from his grip, she felt as if her brain had been shaken to its limit. She stumbled and sat down at the foot of his bed. But the next second, when she realized what she had done, she jumped up as if her pants were on fire: "I'm sorry!"
Sure enough, when Zhou Zeyu turned his head to look, there was already a wet buttocks mark on Solkov's clean bed sheet.
Sorkov stood with his hands on his hips, frowning as he looked her up and down, giving Zhou Zeyu the illusion that she was about to be kicked out.
Why didn't you change your clothes?
Zhou Zeyu shrank back, "My suitcase is still soaking in the water at the airport."
Sorkov seemed to want to laugh: "Why didn't you take it then?"
Zhou Zeyi asked matter-of-factly, "Would you take your home safe with you when you're running for your life?"
"Okay, that's a valid reason."
He had already changed into dry clothes, only his hair was still wet. When he turned around neatly, Zhou Zeyu even felt water droplets fly onto his face.
"I'll go see if there are any clothes you can wear."
Zhou Zeyu nodded: "I will wash it clean and return it to Madam."
Sorkov glanced back at her, puzzled. "Of course it's not her clothes."
In fact, it wasn't that Sorkov was talking nonsense. Mrs. Elberlint was a tall woman, strong and a head taller than Professor Elberlint. If we really look at body size, it seems that Sorkov's clothes were more suitable for her.
After frantically rummaging through the closet for a long time, Sorkov finally found a smaller tracksuit and tossed it to her from three meters away.
Zhou Zeyu gestured to indicate the size, then looked at him strangely for a few moments: "You really like wearing tight-fitting clothes?"
The other person raised an eyebrow. "These are clothes I wore five years ago."
“I told you, you don’t seem like the type to go down this path.”
She gave a few awkward laughs, trying to make her question seem less strange, but it didn't work. For some reason, she unconsciously brought her nose to her clothes and sniffed them.
It smelled very strong and rich in laundry detergent, with the scent of clothes that had been stored in a wooden wardrobe for a long time. She hadn't smelled this simple and comforting scent in a long time, just like the smell her mother used to take out of the pile of clothes when she was a child.
She looked nostalgic, buried her head and took a few more deep sniffs, then asked without looking up, "What brand of laundry detergent do you use? Why does it still smell so good after being stored for so long?"
The other person remained silent for a long time before Zhou Zeyu belatedly looked up and saw that Sorkov had silently distanced himself from her at some point, almost shrinking into a corner, staring at her with an expression that was clearly one of fear and disbelief.
"My God, do you know you're acting like a thug right now?"
Zhou Zeyi smirked. "Am I a hooligan? Do you really think I look like a hooligan?"
Seeing the confident expression on his face, and to avoid causing any trouble, she decided not to dwell on the matter too much. She cleared her throat and, in a pretentious manner, picked up the plush monkey and continued to examine it.
"This looks really familiar, I'm sure I've seen it somewhere before."
"Your memory is that good?"
“Not good, but I’m sure I’ve seen a monkey this ugly before.” She squinted, trying hard to remember, and finally a flash of inspiration struck her. “Ah! It’s the mascot of the Belgrade World Youth Championship that year!”
"Why did you still keep it?" she laughed. "I knew I'd seen this somewhere before."
It's truly hard to forget that after she won the championship and received her award, the giant monkey mascot insisted on taking a photo with her. At that time, she didn't know what kind of mascot it was and was so frightened that she ran away. The black monkey chased after her relentlessly. Coach Xu even has a candid photo of the two of them chasing each other on her phone.
"I stayed after watching the game," he said casually.
"Really?" Zhou Zeyu held up the monkey's right hand. "There's a red string tied to its wrist. You've put a lot of thought into this."
Sorkov showed no sign of anger or embarrassment at being exposed. "Yes, how well did I make it up?"
Zhou Zeyu nodded. "A tough guy with a soft heart, I never would have guessed you were such a die-hard football fan."
The monkey in his hand was snatched away, and Sorkov said bluntly, "Aren't you going to change your clothes or not?"
She finally remembered that she was still holding her clothes, and just as she was about to take them off, she caught a glimpse of him standing in front of her and clicked her tongue, "You're the one who's a pervert."
Sorkov, unable to bear it any longer, pulled open a door from somewhere and shoved her inside without saying a word.
Zhou Zeyu was vaguely pushed into the small room, which was similar to a dressing room. However, it was clear that the outer wardrobe was enough for Sorkov's total amount of clothes, so the small room was converted into a study.
She quickly changed her clothes, draped her wet clothes over her arms, and before leaving, she noticed that the window in the room seemed to be not closed properly. Out of kindness, she went over to close the window, but her elbow accidentally touched the mouse, causing the computer screen to light up.
Then, she saw a familiar face on it.
Zhou Zeyu had no habit of snooping on other people's privacy, nor did he intend to investigate further. He quickly turned his head away after the screen lit up.
But it seemed to be a pre-programmed program that started playing videos automatically as soon as the screen lit up. A clear female voice suddenly rang out, and she frantically tried to pause the video. However, the next second, she heard her own name again.
"Hi, Seeyou. Long time no talk, how about you"
Zhou Zeyu stopped abruptly. She had only felt that the face looked familiar, but she couldn't immediately remember who it was until the moment the voice rang out, at which point she belatedly realized who it was.
The person on the screen has a head of exquisite brown curls and is dressed impeccably from head to toe. She sits gracefully on the sofa, smiling and looking at the camera. This is a video that was recorded in advance and made especially for her.
"Are you surprised to see me?" After that opening line in English, she smiled and switched to broken Chinese, "You probably didn't expect it to be me, did you?"
Of course, Zhou Zeyu hadn't guessed. She thought with a wry smile, "How many years has it been since they last saw each other? Five years? Eight years? Or even longer?"
She herself couldn't remember how long it had been since she last saw Lee Sun-hee. It seemed like she hadn't heard from her since the World Table Tennis Championships that year. Later, the media said that after being defeated, she was depressed and retired to get married. And then... it seems like it's now.
The woman in the picture clearly guessed her current reaction and showed a very typical smile, which, in Zhou Zeyu's words, was half sarcastic and half friendly.
"I heard you've been having a rough time lately? Looks like you're not doing so well either, getting yourself into this state."
Zhou Zeyu hastily squeezed out a sound that resembled laughter, but she showed no joy, only helplessness, and her throat was very sore from not drinking water for a long time.
"What a cruel thing to say," Zhou Zeyu thought, touching her nose. She was glad that this girl wasn't in front of her, otherwise she really would have used her super long manicured hands to assassinate her.
Li Shanxi is that kind of person—ambitious and sharp-tongued. This makes Zhou Zeyu much more sarcastic when he's with her. They haven't seen each other for so many years, and Zhou Zeyu thought he had become more mild-mannered, but it seems that he hasn't.
"I really don't understand you. You were so ruthless when you hit me, how could you lose to that Angelica?!"
Li Shanxi frowned, her lips twitching sharply. Zhou Zeyu felt that her Chinese had deteriorated significantly over the years. When she came to Beijing for training, her spoken Chinese seemed passable, but now it sounded like a robot speaking.
The robot spoke ruthlessly, but its accent was so bizarre it was almost comical, which greatly diminished the harshness of its words, making it sound like it was performing a stand-up comedy routine.
Zhou Zeyu wanted to laugh, but she held it in. For some reason, even though she knew the other person couldn't see her, Zhou Zeyu still had a feeling of unease, as if if she laughed, the other person would crawl out of the screen and beat her up.
With an exaggerated facial expression, Lee Sun-hee dramatically rubbed her forehead. "Ah, are you so weak that you can't even beat this little guy? Where did this guy come from? If I had known, I wouldn't have made a fuss about retiring back then. Now I could definitely beat you and win the championship."
Zhou Zeyu shrugged. Who told this guy to be so ambitious? Back then, he always saw her as his rival and always used her as his target. When he couldn't achieve his goal, he would get furious and do anything when he was angry. In the end, he retired at a young age.
She sighed, "Who told you to retire? You think you can just retire because you can't beat me? Your mental fortitude is too weak."
"Who could beat you back then? You must be joking."
Zhou Zeyu was startled, thinking that she could really hear him. He quickly moved the mouse and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the video play button.
The other person was looking down at their shiny nails, and without looking up, said, "It's so annoying. You were number one in the world back then. I never thought I could beat you, but I actually lost, and lost so badly. Who can accept that?"
Zhou Zeyu seemed speechless for a moment, "I'm the world's number one, so it's not a loss for you to lose to me."
However, Lee Sun-hee suddenly erupted in anger, slapping her thigh and exclaiming, "Hey! Well, I'm at least second in the world! Ugh, you're talking like I'm some second-rate nobody. You have such an unbearable temper!"
Zhou Zeyu took two steps back: "Oh no, you can't actually hear me, can you?!"
She probably couldn't hear her, because he didn't reply; he just kept looking down and fiddling with his nails.
She was silent for a while, then, as if she had finally made up her mind, she sighed almost imperceptibly.
"I haven't heard from you in a long time. I thought you were going to retire. You're really useless, aren't you? You just got beaten down like that."
Zhou Zeyu waved her hand, "You watch too many Korean dramas, don't you? What am I supposed to do? Get plastic surgery, change my clothes, and then make a glamorous comeback to take back everything that belongs to me?"
Then the other person slapped their thigh and said angrily, "I knew without even thinking that you'd be indifferent right now, it's infuriating!"
Zhou Zeyi felt completely overwhelmed. Did this guy have mind-reading abilities or some other kind of magic? How could he predict her reactions every time? It was supposed to be telepathy, but the two of them didn't seem to be that close. This situation felt more like seeing a ghost.
"So what do you mean? Are you really going to give up?"
Rather than questioning, this statement seemed more like a question of confusion. Not only Li Shanxi, but even Zhou Zeyu himself felt puzzled.
She couldn't even give herself an answer, so how could she tell others?
"Don't give up like this!" the other party shouted. "Hey, after being your defeated opponent for so many years, you should at least do better to make up for my failure! You're making me lose face."
Zhou Zeyu pursed his lips, his thoughts surging, yet he couldn't utter a single word.
Is it just about making her lose face? Zhou Zeyu has already lost all face herself. She has long lost the passion and enthusiasm she had when she first failed, and she doesn't even have righteous indignation anymore. With such a lack of fighting spirit, what right does she have to persist?
Moreover, many things cannot be achieved simply by persisting. Li Shanxi doesn't understand this, but Zhou Zeyu should.
"I heard you beat Angelica the other day. That makes sense. If you had lost to her twice in a row, would the world have gone crazy?"
Lee Sun-hee rolled his eyes without any attempt to hide it, and made a face in a very sarcastic way.
"If you ask me, back in the day, she wouldn't even have been qualified to fight you. I really hate her smug look. What's so great about beating a cripple like you? She really thinks she's the best in the world."
Zhou Zeyu chuckled. Sometimes she actually admired this guy; he could always express his dislike for someone in such a fresh and unconventional way.
"I hate her too."
To be fair, Angelica is by no means a respectable opponent. After defeating her, she has been making a big fuss about it, creating a lot of hype and turning all the originally neutral media into her admirers. Of course, just admiring her is not a problem, but she always tries to put down her own side while praising herself, which is unbearable.
She kept making small moves both on and off the field, holding press conferences to grab attention and then inexplicably tagging her on Twitter to apologize. In fact, Zhou Zeyu didn't care about those old stories and admitting that she was inferior to others wasn't that difficult, but her repeated entanglements were really beneath her dignity.
She had probably endured too much, and found her behavior completely acceptable. Since she had nothing to say to such a shameless person, she simply ignored her.
However, Lee Sun-hee guessed her thoughts once again and suddenly said, "You don't really think you're worse than her, do you? If so, I'll look down on you."
“But I lost,” Zhou Zeyu said in a low voice.
No sooner had he finished speaking than Li Shanxi waved his hand vigorously in front of him, as if shooing away some flies, his face full of disdain.
"Then why are you so dejected?" Lee Sun-hee shrugged matter-of-factly. "Just this and you're all down? Who hasn't failed? Take me, for example. Haven't I been your defeated opponent since my debut? Did I give up the first time I lost to you?"
Her expression was calm, no longer showing the indignation she had back then. It makes sense, after all, many years have passed.
From the moment they first emerged, these two players of similar age and playing styles have been constantly compared, and this kind of competition between different countries is hard to avoid.
Lee Sun-hee burst onto the scene in South Korea, hailed as a once-in-seventy-years prodigy. She fought her way through the competition to reach the World Junior Championships finals, where she encountered Zhou Zeyu and suffered a crushing defeat. She cried and said that next time she would crush Zhou Zeyu.
Then, in the next World Cup, the next World Table Tennis Championships, and even the next Olympics, in every match they faced, Zhou Zeyu always dominated her. Over time, the media stopped talking about the "two stars shining together" nonsense, and Lee Sun-hee gritted her teeth and became the perennial runner-up behind her.
In general, Zhou Zeyu never seemed to regard her as an opponent, but Li Shanxi regarded her as a lifelong nemesis. Not only did he come to Beijing for training, but he also studied her playing style day and night, all for the sake of one day avenging his humiliation.
Unfortunately, she lost the last match as well. But there's not much to say about that one. Zhou Zeyu won, but she wasn't happy. At that time, her troubles far outweighed her joys, and the fatigue and pain she had accumulated were increasing day by day. This victory seemed no different from the previous ones, but in fact, there were already vague signs.
After the match, a disheartened Lee Sun-hee finally gave up and considered retiring. Before the two said goodbye, Zhou Zeyu seemed to say something to her unconsciously.
Zhou Zeyi's memory may indeed be poor, but it's more likely that she herself doesn't know what she vaguely said back then, but there's no doubt that Li Shanxi remembered it.
The person on the screen shifted to a more comfortable sitting position, their eyes seemingly containing a mix of indescribable emotions—a hint of jealousy, but more of a sense of empathy, and of course, an undeniable sense of compassion.
"Zhou Zeyi, why have you become so insecure? I remember you were so arrogant back then, remember? You told me that there could only be one genius in this era, and that person was standing right in front of me. Damn, that was unbearably arrogant! So who's been holding you hostage now?"
"Really?" Zhou Zeyu seemed a little dazed. That time when he was so arrogant and high-spirited must have been a long, long time ago. At least at that time, he probably hadn't experienced much, had little knowledge, and had become shallow. Therefore, it was only natural that he was overly confident.
But it seems... she did say that. At least she remembers how she stood out from a bunch of geniuses. There are billions of people in the world, and it's not illegal to use the word "genius." Every day, thousands or tens of thousands of geniuses are discovered, but only she fought her way out from so many people.
That must have been the most brilliant time of her life. Who wouldn't want to be praised and lauded? A teenage girl burst onto the scene and swept all the champions that year with unstoppable momentum. This in itself is a romantic story full of heroism.
So often she herself would unconsciously fantasize about how wonderful it would be if she could stay in that time forever.
But this won't last forever. People are swept along without warning, moving forward, not knowing what awaits them ahead.
For example, the genius girl back then could never have imagined that ten years later she would become so hesitant and cautious.
Recalling those things in a daze seemed to only bring her pain now, so she simply shook her head palely, "Lee Sun-hee, is this what I told you back then?"
But she forgot that Lee Sun-hee couldn't hear her at all, so her words seemed more like she was talking to herself.
Fortunately, after a period of silence, just when Zhou Zeyu thought the video had ended without him realizing it, a sound came out again.
"The last time we fought, I was heartbroken. When I met you, I thought you would say some harsh words like before, but do you know what you said to me?"
Zhou Zeyu looked up and met her gaze.
"You know, becoming a genius isn't necessarily a good thing."
"But Zhou Zeyi, I didn't understand why you said that back then, and even after all these years, I still don't understand why you had such thoughts?"
"I thought you would at least be proud of your achievements, but why do you always deny yourself? Dear Seeyou, I am actually very fortunate that you have been my opponent for so many years. I have no complaints about losing to the best table tennis player of my generation in my mind."
"So you shouldn't have any complaints."
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