Why is this happening?! Isn't Pengfei Cui a slow starter? Harimoto Hisashi stared at the 10-0 score, and was totally bewildered . Pengfei Cui was about to win the first round, while Harimoto Hisashi hadn't gotten any points yet .
To Harimoto Hisashi, the plot had completely digressed . Pengfei Cui didn't start slow, but on the contrary, had been in an extremely good condition since the game began, and had performed several high-difficulty technical moves with ease .
There were levels in 10-0 score, but the audience was not surprised by the result . In their eyes, it was the embodiment of the normal competence of both sides .
It was Pengfei Cui's serve again . At this moment, Pengfei Cui remained wearing a sleepy poker face, with his eyelids dropped .
"Ahem!" Sitting in the coach seat, Zhizhong Gu suddenly cleared his throat loudly . However, it was done in such a deliberate way that everyone could tell that he merely pretended to cough . Television cameras turned to Zhizhong Gu right at this moment, successfully catching him coughing .
He is ordering to concede points! The audience witnessed Zhizhong Gu's action, and so they all knew what was going to happen, too .
It was the Chinese National Ping-Pong Team's traditional to concede points to the opponent, especially in embarrassing moments like a score of 10:0 . They did this so that the opponents could save some face .
Zhizhong Gu was worrying that Pengfei Cui was so over-enjoyed in the game, that he had forgotten to show mercy, so he cleared throat loudly as a reminder . Pengfei Cui hated facade project, as in his mind, people who were inferior to him deserved an egg . But his coach ordered him to "show mercy", so he had to obey the command .
Therefore, he casually served a ball into the net, which changed the score into 10:1 . Finally, Harimoto Hisahsi received his first point!
"Uh, Pengfei Cui finally conceded a point after the score reached 10:0 . "
"Yeah, but isn't it humiliating? Such a casual serve into the net, even a fool could tell he did so on purpose . "
"Right . Although conceding points is a facade project, he should at least make several rounds, rather than just a serve . Such an obvious fake . "
The audience whispered to one another . The crowd even applauded . The applause might have been celebrating Harimoto Hisashi's first point in this game, or Pengfei Cui's concession . However, when the claps came into Harimoto Hisashi's ears, they sounded like deliberate mockery .
Although he had gained his first point, Harimoto Hisashi's face flushed . Things had developed unexpectedly, which was totally different than what he had imagined before the game started . He came here with confidence, hoping to win the first round, to prove that he indeed obtained top-level professional competence . Unfortunately, life was so cruel, and it slapped him so hard that it threw him into endless pain .
Concession? How come I received a concession?! Am I not even able to win one point? How poor I am, to win a point through his almsgiving!
The concession came as a heavy hammer, which directly smashed Harimoto Hisashi's confidence . At this moment, Harimoto Hisashi was unbalanced . He made a stupid mistake in his next serve .
Harimoto Hisashi's serve into the net ended the first round with 11:1 . However, Harimoto Hisashi was not conceding a point to Pengfei Cui, as he had made a real mistake .
. . .
Zhizhong Gu looked relaxed, he didn't even give Pengfei Cui any instruction during the interval . But Kimura Juichi's face was cloudy . Although he had predicted Harimoto Hisashi's failure, he never expected such a fiasco .
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Moreover, Pengfei Cui's high-enthusiasm immediately messed up Kimura Juichi's strategies soon after the game began . Kimura Juichi's plans were all useless . In fact, the gap between the two players was huge, and even the best strategy could not make it up .
In the second round, soon the score changed into 8:0 . Now, Pengfei Cui was a little bit loose, and Harimoto Hisashi caught the chance to gain his second point .
Finally the second round ended at 11:2, then the gap remained impossible to cross .
After the third round started, Pengfei Cui took a lead again, with a 5:0 score .
Harimoto Hisashi stood still with eyes glazing . He was about to cry .
Is there indeed a huge gap between Pengfei Cui and I? I'm right here facing him, but I can't fight back . There's not even a chance!
Helplessness raised from his heart, then gradually spread over his body, like a dandelion being blown away by a breeze, its seeds dancing in the air and spreading all over the land .
At this moment, Harimoto Hisashi even distrusted himself . He began to doubt whether he was the right person for playing ping-pong or not .
Because of his parents, Harimoto Hisashi started practicing ping-pong since he was two years old . When he was seven, he showed up prominently, not only among his peers, but among seniors as well .
No one his age could defeat him, even seniors were often beaten by him . At that time, he was called "The Gifted Child" by Japanese media, and was predicted as being the hope of Japanese ping-pong .
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With a title of so-called genius, he stood at the international stage when he was only twelve, and was praised as the youngest player in the ITTF open . In the next couple of years, Harimoto Hisashi kept participating in various kinds of contests, defeating adult opponents one by another . Meanwhile, his world rank gradually raised, and finally, he was listed in the Top 50 ping-pong players in the world .
The rank convinced Harimoto Hisashi himself that he was capable to challenge the world's best ping-pong players . However, from today's scores, he awakened to the realization that he was not only one step away from being the world's best, but instead, there was a huge chasm blocking his way .
At the end of the third round, again, Harimoto Hisashi lost many points . Such hopelessness brought Harimoto Hisashi much pain, that he even began to shrink back, for he feared being in the field facing Pengfei Cui .
He prayed that the game could finish as soon as possible . To make it worse, deep in his heart, he had an impulse to run away from here .
However, in international ping-pong contests, individual singles knockouts usually had four-wins out of seven games, which meant that Harimoto Hisashi must complete the fourth round before he left . But in his eyes, the fourth round was only a torment of pain!
Harimoto Hisashi never had such a miserable loss before . When standing against Pengfei Cui, who had already been on the pitch, fighting back was an extravagant hope .
At last, in the fourth round, after losing three rounds, Harimoto Hisashi was completely unbalanced . He even performed technical deformation in the basic serve actions .
Harimoto Hisashi is having a breakdown .
Zhizhong Gu's face lit up with a satisfying smile . That was what he wanted .
For young athletes like Harimoto Hisashi, their biggest defect was not technical problems, but psychological immaturity . A fourteen to fifteen year old teenager was definitely not as mentally mature as adults .
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Especially when they suffered setbacks, adults were able to bear a certain degree of frustration, while teenagers might have a shadow remaining from the bad experience . At this moment, the hormones produced by puberty were also disastrous substances .
What we called psychological shadows, were produced in adolescence . TV shows often displayed similar plots, like an individual who turned out to be a psycho killer after going through a miserable childhood .
Being whacked in today's match apparently left an enormous psychological shadow in Harimoto Hisashi's heart . He was only fifteen, so he might probably need a long time to get rid of the shadow, or in the worst case scenario, he might live under the shadow for the rest of his life .
Perhaps from the very beginning, if Harimoto Hisashi set a rather low goal for himself to achieve, things would be better . But he thought highly of himself, and the goal was set too high, which brought the reverse effects .
Puny boy! What gifted child? I was way stronger than him when I was fifteen .
Pengfei Cui curled his lip with disappointment in his eyes . Actually, when Pengfei Cui was fifteen, he was already recruited into the National Team One, and had defeated the team's main force several times . By contrast, the current Harimoto Hisashi barely met the standard of getting into the National Team Two .
. . .
The fourth round was ongoing . Standing in the field, gazing at the 10:0 score, tears fell from Harimoto Hisashi's eyes involuntarily . The current situation exceeded Harimoto Hisashi's mental summit .
Argh, why he is crying? Did I do anything wrong?
Pengfei Cui finally felt a sense of guilt about bullying a boy . "I'd better concede another point to calm him down!" Pengfei Cui told himself .Please download our sponsor's game to support us!