Chapter 74
When Tang Yi-Bai sent Yun Duo home, he said, "I'll be heading to Australia for external training a few days after going back to Beijing . We won't be able to see each other for more than a month . " He was a little down as he said this .
Honestly, as a professional athlete, they really did not have a lot of time to spend together . However, while he was at the national team's training base, Yun Duo could still visit him on her days off . Even if the two of them could not spend much time together, at least they could still see each other .
This time, they would only be able to rely on their cell phones to transmit how much they missed each other .
The next night, Tang Yi-Bai boarded a flight back to City-B . Qi Rui-Feng arrived back at the team slightly earlier than he did . The two of them set down their luggage and then went off together to get some supper . As they ate, Qi Rui-Feng observed Tang Yi-Bai in a mysterious way, seeming as if he wanted to say something .
Tang Yi-Bai found it odd . "Feng, what exactly do you want to see?"
"Tang Yi-Bai, on the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, who do you think I dreamt of?"
Tang Yi-Bai raised an eyebrow . "Xiang Yang-Yang?"
Qi Rui-Feng snickered . "Tch, why would I dream of her? I dreamt of Lin Sang!"
Tang Yi-Bai stared at Qi Rui-Feng contemplatively and then asked him, "Feng, are you trying to tell me that you have had a crush on Lin Sang for many years, and you're now finally ready to confess?"
Qi Rui-Feng shook his head like a rattle . "No, no, no, how could I like Lin Sang? She's such a princess . " He rubbed his jaw and frowned, looking hesitant . "But in the dream, she asked me to tell you to be a little more careful these days . Tang Yi-Bai, you better take a little more care . "
Tang Yi-Bai was bewildered . "It was just a dream . Why take it so seriously?"
"But I feel like this time is different . Ever since she disappeared, this is the first time I dreamt of her . "
Tang Yi-Bai did not think much of it . "Even if she wanted to warn me, why didn't she tell me herself? Why go through you? Your thoughts in the day feed into your dreams at night . You must have seen something to do with her during the day, and that's why you dreamt of her at night . "
Qi Rui-Feng considered this carefully and nodded . "That's possible . On Chinese New Year's Eve, the team doctor called me about the doping list . Isn't that annoying? Talking about this over the new year . . . I didn't feel like listening at all . "
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Tang Yi-Bai nodded and after musing for a while, he asked, "Feng, has Lin Sang really not been in touch with you all this time?"
"She did . "
Tang Yi-Bai looked at him in surprise . "When?"
"On Chinese New Year's Eve . Didn't I just tell you? She came to me in a dream . Sigh, that sounds like something a dead person would do?" Qi Rui-Feng covered his mouth . He had erred, he had erred .
Tang Yi-Bai sighed and said, "If she contacts you in real life, please let me know . I want to apologise to her . "
Qi Rui-Feng stared at him incredulously . "Why should you apologise? She should be the one to apologise, right? She hurt you so badly, causing you to be banned, causing your broken leg, almost making it so that you wouldn't be able to swim anymore for the rest of your life . You . . . "
Tang Yi-Bai waved, signalling Qi Rui-Feng to not say any more . He said, "Feng, actually, there's one thing I've never told you before . "
"What?"
"The day I got hurt, Lin Sang confessed to me . "
Qi Rui-Feng's eyes widened in surprise . He spent nearly half a minute digesting this news and then he lamented, "Does every single girl we both know like you?"
Tang Yi-Bai cited a strong example of an exception . "Yang-Yang doesn't . "
"Stop bringing her up! Tell me now, what happened then? How did you respond?"
Tang Yi-Bai dropped his gaze to the table and said somewhat helplessly, "I scolded her away . I said some very hurtful things . "
Qi Rui-Feng patted him lightly on the shoulder, sighed and said, "I can understand . Don't blame yourself . " After a pause, he asked, "Do you hate her a lot?"
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Tang Yi-Bai slowly shook his head . "Not really . Frankly, she's not fully to blame for all that happened . There were many other factors . If anything's to blame, it's just my terrible luck . But at that instant when I found out that my bone was fractured, it really felt like the sky was falling down . Maybe because there was too much negative energy building up within me, I wasn't able to control my emotions and ended up venting all my anger on her . Even if she had done wrong, even if my leg had been broken because of her, even if I really wanted to teach her a lesson, I still shouldn't have done it that way . Girls are emotionally vulnerable . The way I scolded her must have been especially heartbreaking . "
Qi Rui-Feng did not know how to comfort him . After a brief moment of silence, he said, "I feel like you don't need to apologise . She definitely wouldn't blame you . You saved her life . So what if her saviour yelled at her a bit? Forget it, it's all in the past . Stop thinking about it . "
"Yes, I'll stop . It's been so long . She must have gotten over it by now . I hope she's living a happy life right now . "
On January 8th, while Yun Duo was still living like a pig at home, Tang Yi-Bai had already flown to the Southern end of the globe to begin his four weeks of external training . This time, he was again in contact with Coach Frank . Even after a year apart, Coach Frank was not at all awkward when he met Tang Yi-Bai again, embracing him warmly . Coach Frank said, "I saw you in the Asian Games . You performed extremely well . This has given me even more confidence in you . "
"Thank you, Frank . I will swim even better in this year's World Championships . "
Frank formulated a very strict training plan for Tang Yi-Bai, keeping a close eye on every detail of his training and making adjustments as necessary . Coach Frank's demands on him were stricter than anyone else training under him .
After several days like this, Frank remarked to Tang Yi-Bai with some surprise, "Your condition this year is even better than last year . "
Tang Yi-Bai bowed his head and smiled . "I'm in love . "
"You really made your decision? Have you forgotten my advice to you?"
"I did not forget . I want to thank you . But what I want to say is that I cannot let this girl pass me by . I cannot say that I will definitely win the gold medal after being with her, but I can say with absolute certainty that if I let her go, I will definitely lose the gold medal, because I will be so sad that I will have no heart to compete . "
Frank smiled . "Then I give you my blessing . "
No one would find it in themselves to withhold their blessings in the face of such love .
Tang Yi-Bai trained hard every day, practically to the bone, so he could only use that little bit of free time he had at night to seek solace from his girlfriend on his cell phone . Qi Rui-Feng only got to speak a handful of Chinese words every day, and Tang Yi-Bai was ignoring him at night, so it went without saying how bored he was . He could only go look for the translator to chat with, chattering on non-stop, annoying the translator to no end . . .
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It was currently summer in Australia, the most beautiful season on the Gold Coast . Young men and women in swimwear could be seen almost every day on the beach . Tang Yi-Bai only needed to stand on the sands to attract a considerable number of fervent butterflies . His body was just too good — not only were his proportions lovely, his muscles were well-formed and balanced, completely different from the rigid muscles built within a gym . Besides that, he had a good face as well . Even if the foreigners could not properly appreciate Eastern-style beauty, aesthetics tapped into a part of humanity's shared mentality . Therefore, many of the European ladies still found Tang Yi-Bai's face pleasing to look at, just different from the good looks of European hunks .
On one occasion, Tang Yi-Bai was walking by the sea when two blonde-haired blue-eyed bikini-clad beauties sashayed over to him . He turned a blind eye to them, bypassing them to continue his stroll . In the end, the two ladies continued to follow him around sneakily, conversing in English as they did so .
A: "He has such a great body . So sexy!"
B: "Let's play with him, shall we? 3p? Yeah~!"
A: "He might not like us . He hasn't even looked at us . Could he be gay?"
B: "That's very likely . We could get Smith to go hit on him . "
A: "Then what about Blake? He won't be happy . "
B: "They can all play together . Oh, 3p, yeah~!"
Tang Yi-Bai: " . . . " You foreigners really know how to play . . .
That night, when Tang Yi-Bai video-called Yun Duo, he said to her cheekily, "I was targeted by some bikini beauties today . "
Yun Duo glared at him . "The next time you tell me something like this, please cry as you speak to prove that you really don't like being hit on by bikini beauties . "
Tang Yi-Bai laughed and said, "I really don't like them hitting on me, but I like seeing you jealous over me . "
Yun Duo blushed and huffed, "Who's jealous? You're thinking too much . "
But Tang Yi-Bai suddenly said, "Duoduo, let me teach you how to swim?"
Yun Duo shook her head . "I don't want to learn . "
"But I want to teach you . " Tang Yi-Bai suddenly imagined what Yun Duo would look like in a bikini . Oh no, that image was way too exciting — he was about to get a nose bleed .
Yun Duo had not realised his aim yet; she merely felt a little speechless . "Who does things like that . . . ?"
Tang Yi-Bai's eyes were unprecedentedly solemn . "Promise me . You must learn how to swim . It can save your life in a critical moment . "
"Uh . " He was being so serious about this, so Yun Duo could only nod . "Okay, I'll go learn at a swimming hall on my own . You're busy with your own things . "
"No!"
Yun Duo jumped, startled . "You . . . there's no need to be so worked up, right . . . ?"
"The public pools are unhygienic . All sorts of human waste and secretions may appear in a pool . Saliva, sweat, urine, feces, dandruff, all kinds of infectious skin bacteria . . . I've even heard of condoms being fished out of pools . "
Yun Duo's scalp was crawling as she listened to this . "Don't say anymore . . . "
Tang Yi-Bai nodded with satisfaction . "So, don't go to a swimming hall . "
"Then how can I learn how to swim? In a bathtub?"
"Let me think of a way . "
"Alright . "
Tang Yi-Bai thought, 'When my Duoduo wears a bikini, of course only I am allowed to see that . ' (@￣︶￣@)