September 20, 2018

Translated & Edited by Ery

The weather after October in Z city hasn't been very good, continuous drizzling and the wet and cold atmosphere made the whole city appear as if it had fallen into the gloomy and hazy impressionist paintings; people's moods also were like the rain poured water, wet and heavy.

This type of weather continued until the day that Yun Duo came to Z city, after which the sky suddenly cleared up and the sun that had disappeared rose and hanged up high, enveloping everything, instantly transforming the city into a bright oil painting.

"What a hospitable city!" Yun Duo can't help but sigh. She was carrying a large backpack, a camera in one hand hanging over her chest, and the other hand holding a plastic bag that had a tea egg in it. The tea egg were leftovers from breakfast and she couldn't bear to waste food, hence carrying it till now.

Alongside her was a short middle-aged man, whom Yun Duo addressed as "teacher Sun". After graduating from college this summer, she joined "Sports Weekly" for work and it had always been teacher Sun guiding her ever since. Currently, she had just pa.s.sed the probation period.

Teacher Sun turned his head, glanced at her, and smiled. He is the type of person who liked to smile and laugh, always being warm and affable to others. Teacher Sun teased her, "Yun Duo, what's the deal with bringing tea egg to a swimming compet.i.tion?".

Yun Duo smiled awkwardly, tied a knot on the plastic bag, and conveniently dropped it into large pocket on her jacket.

Teacher Sun asked her again, "the first official interview, are you nervous?".

Yun Duo carefully pondered about her mood at the moment and replied, "not nervous ah, you'll cover for me anyways!".

"Look at you!" Teacher Sun shook his head, "next time there is such an event, I'll let you interview alone".

Yun Duo knew that he was joking. Such a big occasion, how can they let her such a small shrimp go alone to interview.

Yes, a big occasion. Because inside the swimming pool ahead, the annual national swimming champions.h.i.+ps was being held.

All along, swimming hasn't always been a sport that has received widespread attention in China. A world champions.h.i.+p swimming champion is worth far less than an ordinary soccer player, although the latter may not have made any achievements in his field.

This slightly awkward situation continued until it was broken at last year's Olympics. Because from that Olympics emerged China's gifted Qi Rui Feng, winning one gold and two silver medals in swimming as well as breaking the world record, making China proud.

Such good results naturally set off a popular wave of swimming across the country.

* This translation is only hosted at ethereal novels. Appearance of it at other sites besides ethereal novels is an infringement to the translator *

When Yun Duo arrived, the swimming pool was already packed and the enthusiasm of the ma.s.s was high. At the west stands, a large number of people were holding a banner and the slogan of the banner is: Qi Rui Feng, jia you (come on).

Additionally, there were many swaying posters and signs with drawings and words of encouragement … from this atmosphere, it resembled attending a star reception.

The actual swimming compet.i.tion only lasts for a short while, going through a lot of trouble yet not considering the value for all the cheering and enthusiasm – it must be the power of true love.

Worthy to be an Olympic champion ah, Yun Duo lamented. Even the fan love is at a greater scale compared to others'.

It's not surprising that these die hard fans were so high-profile because today's compet.i.tion featured Qi Rui Feng's partic.i.p.ation: men's 100 meter freestyle in the preliminary, semi-finals and final round.

Thinking about it, Qi Rui Feng is good at long-distance swimming, his Olympic gold medal also came from the 1500m freestyle swimming. As for why he signed up for the 100m this time around, most likely because he just wanted to challenge himself.

Of course, in the eyes of the fans, even if their Qi Rui Feng partic.i.p.ated in the 100m freestyle, he is invincible.

In fact this confidence wasn't without no reason because for the following results, Qi Rui Feng was ranked first in the preliminary and semi-final round.

Worthy to be an Olympic champion ah, Yun Duo sighed again.

Unfortunately this Olympic champion was rather pompous, after the semi finals he left through the athlete's route. The reason is because he didn't want to be affected by the press for the subsequent races.

If wanting to interview him, then can only wait after the finals.

The reporters dare not to complain, all obediently waiting in the conference room. The final race was about to begin and Teacher Sun had already prepared to head over to the seating area for the press with Yun Duo. He worried that Yun Duo wouldn't be able to run fast enough while carrying such a big backpack, hence taking the initiative to place the backpack onto his own shoulder.

Yun Duo stretcher her neck and watched the athletes enter. All the athletes were pretty unrestrained, stripping off their clothes as they went along. Broad shoulders, abs, and long legs is the standard for these swimmers. Although having seen this scenario multiple times, she still was dazzled by the sight.

Almost all the reporters stared at Qi Rui Feng who was in lane four. From the moment he appeared, the fans shouted and screamed nonstop, " Qi Rui Feng! Champion! Qi Rui Feng! Champion!".

Several of the athletes were ready, similar to a string on a bow being pulled back. Along with the sound of the gunshot, they dived into the water breaking open the surface like a swordfish and making their way through the waves.

Yun Duo wasn't very attracted to the charm of swimming. The strongest impression she got from this race is: fast, too fast.

And, noisy, too noisy.

From the moment the athletes entered the water, the shouting inside the venue rose a notch – leaving Yun Duo's ears humming for a long time.

A hundred meters freestyle swimming were all completed within a minuted, Yun Duo's ears still ringing and Teacher Sun patting on her shoulders, "Duo Duo, get ready!".

Teacher Sun of course was very anxious because the athletes were all out of the pool, Qi Rui Feng was just heading this way. What time more suitable than now to rush and fight for it!

The reporters swarmed past, without exception the target is Qi Rui Feng. Qi Rui Feng had recently became the most heated topic, first about exposure of girlfriend then about a contradiction with the coach … the reporters eyed him hungrily.

Because Yun Duo's reaction was slower, she was already on the outside of the circle and hasn't been able to find Teacher Sun.

As the other athletes walked by, Yun Duo – thinking that she would be idle anyways – casually stopped one of them to interview. Just as she was about to speak, she suddenly noticed that her eyes was dazzled.

This man, uh, is too handsome…

He had already taken off his swimming cap and goggles, at this moment there were water droplets on his face. Perhaps it's because from constantly being soaked in the water, his skin was particularly pale. His face was small and he had a high, attractive nose. Straight eyebrows, slightly raised lashes, and a pair of eyes as bright as the stars – at this moment he was earnestly looking at Yun Duo, looking at her to the intent that it made her feel quite embarra.s.sed.

Under his clean and candid gaze, Yun Duo couldn't help but lower her head a little. Her gaze fell upon his chest, and the crystal-clear droplets of water trickled down his broad, muscular chest. Instinctively, her eyes followed the droplets, slowly moving downward. Droplets of water trickled through his abs, and his white pale skin were firm and had a well-balanced texture. They were neat and beautiful like white chocolate, but they had great strength.

For the first time in her life, Yun Duo had looked so close at a man's belly that she felt a flurry of panic as she distanced herself from the line of site, just happened to see the edge of the lines on his black swimming trunks.

* This translation is only hosted at ethereal novels. Appearance of it at other sites besides ethereal novels is an infringement to the translator *

"Ke (cough)", she felt the heat creeping up her face.  

"h.e.l.lo?" He tilted his head slightly, to arouse her attention.

"…" She had forgotten what to ask, her brain blanked out.

Just when he was about to leave, Yun Duo finally recovered back to normal hurriedly looked up at him and blurted: "How do you feel about your swimming?". The words came out, however she still remained embarra.s.sed like earlier.

"Not bad".

"Hmm, are you satisfied with your results?". After taking a deep breath, Yun Duo felt a lot more calm.

"Satisfied". He replied simply, silently looking into Yun Duo's eyes while waiting for her next question.

The gentle but firm line of sight made Yun Duo inexplicably guilty again, "that … well, what's the next training goal?".  Finally awkwardly throwing out another question. She felt that the questions she asked were too standard, despising herself!

He didn't reply, but softly smiled. With a smile, his eyes became more vivid. The upper corners of his eyes resembled those who seduced innocent women; yet his eyes were clean, too clean to be considered crooked.

Yun Duo was ashamed of the level of her questioning. The only bit of confidence she had left vanished, similar to a fully dressed soldier ready to march to battle yet the result ended up to be a big loss. Helplessly, she said with a red face, " sorry this is my first time interviewing".

"It's ok, I haven't been interviewed in a long time too".

This was a strange remark but Yun Duo didn't want to dig around. She scratched her head and asked, "What's your name?".

This wasn't a very polite question, answering a few questions to realize that the other party didn't know who you are, too hurtful … after asking this question, Yun Duo immediately regretted.

Really a pig's brain, how can she ask such a question! Her performance today was too lame! ~~~~(>_<>

Unexpectedly, he didn't react with displeasure but replied earnestly, "my name is Tang Yi Bai".

Yun Duo still was immersed in distress. She bowed her head and didn't want to speak again.

"Good luck. You're the first person to interview in years," he said, pausing, as if suddenly remembered something. After a momentary trance, he reached over handing something over, "this is a souvenir for you, please accept it".

It was his goggles. Yun Duo thought that he was probably consoling her, making her heart warm up and her nervousness eased a bit. But… this man is too generous…

She didn't want to casually accept other people's things, but she saw that his bright clear eyes were sincere, leaving no rooms to reject. For a moment, it was hard to refuse it. Hence, she could only bite the bullet and stiffly took the googles. "Thank you … you're the first person I've officially interviewed, I also want to give you something to commemorate".

"Ok", he readily answered.

Yun Duo wanted open up the backpack, suddenly remembering that the backpack was being carried by Teacher Sun, a bad feeling crept up. She dug through her pockets inside out and it was even more embarra.s.sing because her pocket was empty. In the end, she pulled a tea egg out of her jacket pocket. A humble tea egg.

* This translation is only hosted at ethereal novels. Appearance of it at other sites besides ethereal novels is an infringement to the translator *

Yun Dow lowered her head even more, the weeping face looking towards the tea egg.

Then she heard his laughter, a slow, low voice softly tapping on her eardrum, a very pleasant and comfortable sound. But Yun Duo had no intention of appreciating because she only thought of wanting to die right now.

A fair hand reached over and took her tea egg. The sweet laughter continued. "Thank you… ", he paused, glancing at the media pa.s.s on her chest, "Yun Duo".

Yun Duo stood there like a sculpture for a long time and by the time Teacher Sun came over, all the athletes had left. Teacher Sun patted Yun Duo on her shoulder and comforted her with a few words. Yun Duo looked up, vaguely glancing and her sight fell on the huge electronic screen which still held the results of the race that just happened.

First place, Tang Yi Bai, results 48.52 seconds.