I Wasn't Born a Champion - Chapter 1

“Coach Pei!! Congratulations! Congratulations to the Chinese team!!”

“Congratulations on leading the Chinese track and field sprint group to achieve such excellent results in this Beijing World Athletics Championships!”

“After twelve years, the World Athletics Championships have returned to Beijing. On Chinese soil, you have led China’s sprinters to multiple breakthrough results. As the meritorious coach of the Chinese sprint project, may I ask how you are feeling at this moment?”

In the live broadcast interview on CCTV, the reporter was beaming with joy as they questioned Pei Dingshan, the head coach of the Chinese national track and field sprint team.

In the frame, Pei Dingshan looked to be barely over thirty years old. He had a serious face that suggested, at a single glance, that he was not someone to be trifled with. Even though he possessed good looks that wouldn’t lose to an entertainment star, it was difficult for anyone to harbor thoughts of offending him.

Pei Dingshan responded to the reporter’s questions calmly, his wording concise. However, from his attitude, it was impossible to tell whether he was satisfied or dissatisfied with the Chinese team’s performance.

In a graduate student dormitory at a university in B City, Su Yu was watching the live interview on the dorm TV with his roommates. The roommate beside him was currently lamenting with emotion.

“Handsome Pei is truly badass. Ever since he started coaching the national team, our team’s results in the 100m, 200m, and 400m have all seen substantial progress. In this World Championships, Zhou Yuang even historically took the bronze medal in the 200m! This is a record-breaking result for our Chinese team at the World Athletics Championships!”

“Isn’t it? Zhou Yuang’s talent is also truly insane. I heard he was discovered by Handsome Pei while attending a summer camp in junior high. After that, he fought his way up from the domestic U-series competitions and followed Handsome Pei all the way to the national team.”

“Hey, speaking of which, Little Brother, isn’t Zhou Yuang also from S City? He’s about the same age as you. Back then, maybe you even had a chance to know him?”

The ‘Little Brother’ they were referring to was Su Yu, who was sitting to one side. His medium-length hair was tied behind his head. Looking only at his face, he was even more exquisite than those idol stars on TV, but his face—much like Pei Dingshan’s—bore no expression. One look and you could tell he didn’t have a very good-tempered personality.

Su Yu looked at the live broadcast, pursed his lips, and said after a moment: “I do know him.”

“Huh?”

The two roommates around him were shocked by this answer: “Good lad, you actually know him? Oh, right, I almost forgot. Your sprint results were also quite famous back then. You weren’t in the same school track team as Zhou Yuang before or something, were you?”

Su Yu looked at the TV broadcast and didn’t answer.

But in his heart, he silently said: We weren’t on the same school track team. We were in the same summer camp.

And it wasn’t just the same summer camp. Even the national team’s head sprint coach, Pei Dingshan, who was currently being interviewed on TV, had approached him first back then.

In his blurred memories, it was on the third day of the summer camp when an assistant coach found him and said, “Su Yu, you are very talented. Are you willing to train for the sprints with me?”

At that time, he had just finished a day of training at the camp and was as tired as a dead dog. Since his health hadn’t been very good since childhood, he had rarely experienced such high-intensity training. Even the summer camp was this exhausting, let alone being a professional athlete.

Pei Dingshan’s inquiry was something he simply could not accept.

The next day, he heard that another classmate in the camp named Zhou Yuang had accepted an invitation from an assistant coach to train for the sprints together.

Afterward, the summer camp ended, and the trajectories of his and Zhou Yuang’s fates moved in two completely different directions.

When he first left the camp and returned to his familiar environment, he only felt a sense of relief that he didn’t have to do such tiring training anymore. But as time went on, there always seemed to be voices coming from different directions reminding him of that hot summer camp and his younger self, who—though exhausted—ran as light as air.

—Yo, Su Yu, a perfect score on the sprint test? Badass!

—You run pretty fast, kid!

—Tsk, with your speed, it’s a pity you didn’t become an athlete.

Driven by these voices, he had once impulsively run to the provincial sports team to find Pei Dingshan, wanting to ask if he could still train with him. But the answer he received was, “It’s too late.”

“You’re in your third year of high school, right? If you want to take the exam as a recruited student-athlete, your talent is fine.”

“If you want to go professional, it’s too late.”

That was the last time he and Pei Dingshan met. From then on, Pei Dingshan was transferred to the national team, taking Zhou Yuang and those other young athletes he had discovered to achieve one great result after another.

Eventually, Pei Dingshan stood with these athletes on one podium after another, breaking the Chinese records that had been shackled for many years and shattering the Yellow Race Limit theory within the sprinting circle.

On the TV, Pei Dingshan’s interview was still ongoing.

The reporter asked: “Coach Pei, during your coaching career, have there been any regrets?”

Hearing the reporter’s question, Pei Dingshan’s brow furrowed slightly.

In the dorm, Su Yu’s roommates were still discussing.

“This reporter’s question is pretty low-level.”

“Yeah, with Handsome Pei’s personality, it feels like if he has a grudge, he settles it on the spot. Regrets or whatever just don’t exist…”

Just as the words left his mouth, Pei Dingshan on the TV said: “There is.”

Clearly, even the reporter asking the question was stunned: “Uh, your regret is?”

For a rare moment, a look of reminiscence appeared in Pei Dingshan’s eyes. After a long while, he said: “Years ago, there was a very talented sprinting prospect. I missed out on him…”

Su Yu, immersed in his own thoughts, did not hear any more of the interview between the reporter and Pei Dingshan. He was remembering the scene when he was fourteen years old, riding the school bus to the S Province Sports Team to participate in the summer camp.

He had asked himself countless times: Su Yu, are you really feeling regretful because of a missed opportunity?

Or is it simply because others’ praise made you develop unconscious expectations for yourself?

He could not answer.

While he was immersed in his thoughts, for some reason, he felt a daze as something was stuffed into his arms.

When he looked down, he saw a blue-and-white leather sports handbag.

“…This is?”

“What is this? Su Yu, have you turned stupid or are you motion sick?”

A very familiar voice sounded in front of him. When Su Yu looked up, he saw the figure of his childhood friend, Jiang Yuan, who had shrunk by at least 10 years.

Likely because he was used to taking care of Su Yu since they were young, Jiang Yuan sighed when he saw Su Yu’s furrowed brow. He resignedly snatched the blue-and-white sports bag from Su Yu’s arms and said, “Alright, my Great Ancestor, I’ll carry it for you.”

As he spoke, Jiang Yuan placed Su Yu’s sports bag on top of his own suitcase, prepared to personally transport the luggage for his “Little Ancestor.”

“Let’s go, why are you just standing there?”

Jiang Yuan steadied the suitcase with one hand while looking back at Su Yu. After Su Yu seemed to snap out of it and followed him expressionlessly, Jiang Yuan began to chatter incessantly: “Sigh, with your physical constitution, Great Ancestor, I said your mom and dad shouldn’t have been in such a hurry to send you to this summer camp.”

“It’s not some easy leisure activity. I’ve heard that the ones in charge of us are all assistant coaches from the provincial team, and there’s a head coach who is a senior coach from the provincial team. Last year’s batch who came to the camp went back wailing like ghosts and howling like wolves, saying that after a day of training, they’d want to eat two giant bowls of food in one meal…”

“With your constitution, wouldn’t it be better to stay home and recover during summer break?”

Jiang Yuan and Su Yu had grown up together; their families lived across from each other. Having watched Su Yu be hospitalized several times due to health issues since childhood, Jiang Yuan had been repeatedly instructed by his own parents to take good care of Su Yu.

Jiang Yuan chattered as he walked, then turned back to see Su Yu furrowing his brow and holding his forehead with one hand.

“Holy shit, are you okay?”

Su Yu frowned, scanning the environment around him that was a mix of strange and familiar, then shook his head: “I’m fine, just a little dizzy.”

Jiang “The Nanny” Yuan’s face immediately crumpled. He stopped in his tracks and pulled out his phone: “Hey, I say Xiao Yu, how about we tell Teacher Liu we aren’t participating anymore? Let’s just go back, okay?”

In the past, Su Yu had been pampered quite a bit because of his health issues. Taking leave from school PE classes was a daily occurrence. Just when Jiang Yuan thought Su Yu would nod in agreement, Su Yu shook his head.

Jiang Yuan: ?

Su Yu stood in place, thought for a moment, and then said: “I want to participate in the summer camp.”

By the time Su Yu followed Jiang Yuan to the provincial team’s youth dormitory, Jiang Yuan was still looking at him worriedly from time to time, probably thinking his Little Ancestor’s brain had been damaged by feeling too unwell today.

Su Yu ignored him; he was still immersed in the reality that he seemed to have been reborn.

So he… really came back?

Back to ten years ago, to the day he participated in the school summer camp at age 14?

Beside him, Jiang Yuan looked at his childhood friend with concern and asked him, “Xiao Yu, are you really okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Hearing Su Yu’s answer, Jiang Yuan sighed helplessly: “Fine, you’re my Great Ancestor, if you say you’re fine, you’re fine.”

“Hey, but let me tell you, if you feel uncomfortable anywhere later, you must remember to say so!”

Listening to Jiang Yuan’s nagging, Su Yu suddenly looked up and asked him, “Jiang Yuan, what is your dream?”

Jiang Yuan was stunned for a moment, then laughed: “Probably to be a great hero?”

After saying that, Jiang Yuan laughed at himself: “Hehe, don’t listen to my nonsense, actually I don’t know what my dream is either.”

A moment later, seeing Su Yu staring straight at him, Jiang Yuan began to change the subject: “Oh man, although this dorm is a triple room, the conditions are really quite ordinary. We have to live here for a month, can you get used to it? Hey, Great Ancestor, you sit first, I’ll go tidy up the room.”

As Jiang Yuan spoke, he started moving, still muttering: “I wonder which school our third roommate is from and if they’re easy to get along with…”

The third roommate…

Su Yu actually knew exactly who their third roommate was.

As they spoke, a knock sounded on the dormitory door. While Jiang Yuan was cleaning, Su Yu stood up to open the door.

When the door opened, there stood the guy who—right before Su Yu’s rebirth—had just taken China’s first World Athletics Championships sprint medal under Pei Dingshan’s leadership.

Outside the door, a youth about half a head taller than Su Yu froze slightly upon seeing him, then gave him a hearty smile that showed eight bright white teeth: “Hello, roommate! I’m also in this dorm. My name is Zhou Yuang!”