I Wasn't Born a Champion - Chapter 2

Su Yu looked at the big guy in front of him in silence, gave a muffled “Mm,” and went back to sit on the edge of his bed.

Zhou Yuang had a good temperament, he wasn’t angry at being ignored. He opened the door, lugged his belongings inside, and finally came face-to-face with Jiang Yuan, who was cleaning the dormitory.

“Hello, I’m Zhou Yuang.”

“Hello, Jiang Yuan.”

Two big guys who were already 180cm tall at age fourteen stood together, making Su Yu—who was the same age but barely 170cm—feel as if even the air in the dorm was being thinned out by them.

After the two big guys greeted each other, Zhou Yuang placed his luggage on the only empty storage rack and rummaged through it for his daily necessities.

With Jiang “The Nanny” Yuan in front and Zhou Yuang behind, both were experts at organizing chores. This made Su Yu, sitting alone on the bed, feel quite idle. But before he could stand up to tidy his own bedding, Jiang Yuan jumped up first.

“Hey, Great Ancestor, leave it, leave it. I’ll do it in a bit.”

Amidst Jiang Yuan’s protests, Su Yu stopped his movements. Looking at the corner of the quilt pinched in his hand, he felt a bit irritable again.

To be honest, he didn’t really want to see Zhou Yuang.

Logically, the two were roommates in the same dorm during the summer camp back then, so their relationship shouldn’t have been too bad. However, he had heard the news of Zhou Yuang being chosen by Pei Dingshan from the discussions of other classmates. After that, Zhou Yuang said the assistant coach would be giving him extra training and, fearing he would disturb his roommates, moved out to a single room.

The intersection between the two of them was probably just those two or three days of plastic roommate friendship.

So, Zhou Yuang likely felt that this roommate bond was dispensable as well.

However, the events of back then were ten years in the past, after all. Su Yu couldn’t clearly remember the specifics of those few days of interaction. He just felt a sense of irritability looking at the Zhou Yuang before him.

This irritability was hard to define—whether it stemmed from the thin, plastic friendship or the sense of frustration brought by their different life trajectories.

Earlier, when he suddenly asked Jiang Yuan what his dream was, it was because of a day much later in life. Jiang Yuan had dragged him out for barbecue and, after getting drunk, muttered to him—

“Heh, at the company sports meet today, those guys in the office couldn’t beat me at sprinting, high jump, or long jump.”

“But they don’t think about it—your brother here was the record holder for the youth high jump in S City back in the day. If I hadn’t skipped going professional, they wouldn’t even be able to jump a fraction of my height.”

It was only then that Su Yu remembered that Jiang Yuan was different from his childhood sickly self. Jiang Yuan had possessed great athletic talent since he was little. Not just in track and field, even the soccer and basketball coaches in his childhood interest classes said he was a prime prospect for sports.

Back then, because of his health, Su Yu had rejected Pei Dingshan’s invitation. He vaguely remembered seeing Jiang Yuan quite excited after returning to the dorm, but upon hearing Su Yu say he had rejected Pei Dingshan, Jiang Yuan had quickly calmed down as well.

Looking back later, he vaguely heard that the head coach of this provincial track and field summer camp had once taken a fancy to a student, but was rejected by that student when inviting them for professional training.

The main event that head coach led was the high jump.

It was Jiang Yuan who had rejected the provincial head coach’s invitation, and he hadn’t mentioned a single word of it to Su Yu.

Later, when Jiang Yuan sobered up, Su Yu asked him why he had rejected the provincial coach. Jiang Yuan laughed and said—”Too tiring, no interest.”

The words were so fake Su Yu couldn’t even be bothered to expose them.

So at that moment, he once again wondered how much the fate of others had been affected by his single rejection.

“Great Ancestor, what are you thinking about now?”

While Su Yu was reminiscing about the past, Jiang Yuan had already nimbly organized the dormitory and turned back to make Su Yu’s bed.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Yuang leaned over too: “Making the bed? Want some help?”

“…No need.”

Su Yu rejected instinctively. Although he had been pampered since childhood, he wasn’t so incompetent that he couldn’t even make a bed. It was purely because Jiang Yuan saw he was unwell and pressed him down to keep him from moving.

He wanted to do it himself, but Jiang Yuan truly wouldn’t let him move today, calling over the chatting Zhou Yuang to help.

“Come, come, one on each side.”

The two big guys over 1.8 meters tall were actually quite nimble with their hands. Before Su Yu could intervene, they had already spread the sheets for him.

“Thanks, brother.”

Beside him, Jiang Yuan was thanking Zhou Yuang, and Su Yu followed with a “Thank you” as well.

“No need for thanks!” Zhou Yuang’s skin was on the darker side, a wheat-colored tan that showed he was someone who spent countless hours under the sun. When he smiled, he always showed eight bright white teeth, appearing exceptionally cheerful and reliable.

As they joked, Zhou Yuang turned his gaze back to Su Yu and continued smiling: “Hey, classmate, aren’t you going to introduce yourself? Seeing you not talking just now, I thought you hated me!”

Only then did Su Yu remember he hadn’t introduced himself since Zhou Yuang entered the door. After a pause, he said: “Twelfth Middle School, Su Yu.” After another pause, he forced a supplement: “I don’t hate you.”

Zhou Yuang was someone who would take an inch if given a mile, and he immediately grinned: “Su Yu? As in ‘Rain’?”

“…As in ‘Mountain and Island’ (Shan yu Yu).”

“Mountain and Island? Su Yu? Su-Xiao-Yu? Heh, your name sounds pretty good.”

Su Yu no longer remembered what the first meeting with Zhou Yuang in the dorm was like, but how come he didn’t remember Zhou Yuang being this talkative?

“Alright.” Jiang Yuan saw the expression on Su Yu’s face and knew his Little Ancestor was getting a bit irritable again. He pulled Zhou Yuang away, saying: “Xiao Yu has a weak constitution, and he’s feeling unwell after the long car ride. Let him rest a bit, let’s chat.”

Su Yu didn’t like to talk, but both Zhou Yuang and Jiang Yuan had the personalities of teenage boys and loved sports. They hit it off very quickly.

Su Yu sat alone by the bed in a daze, thinking about the past.

When he was a child, before junior high, his health was quite poor. Small problems would crop up from time to time, scaring his parents half to death. He was a frequent visitor to the school clinic in elementary school, so much so that the school doctor once lamented that this child might not grow up.

Due to his health, his family never allowed him to get too tired. Later, a doctor suggested he participate more in exercise to improve his constitution. His parents overcorrected a bit and sent him to this provincial track and field summer camp during the summer break after seventh grade.

Though called a summer camp, while students strengthened their bodies, it was actually a time for provincial and municipal coaches to scout for good prospects. Therefore, the entire camp followed the intensity of the provincial youth team’s training—watered down slightly, but only slightly.

Just as the previous camp members said—after a full day of training, you’d want to swallow two giant bowls of rice.

Because Su Yu’s health was poor, the camp coaches had received requests from the Su family parents early on and reduced a lot of his workload. However, he still couldn’t withstand it. Having never experienced such systematic training, three days of training almost made him shed a layer of skin.

Pei Dingshan had approached him then.

For the exhausted Su Yu at that time, it was naturally impossible to agree to an invitation for separate extra training.

Beside him, Zhou Yuang and Jiang Yuan were chatting happily. As they talked, somehow the topic turned to Su Yu.

“Hey, Yuan-zi, with our Little Ancestor’s build, how can his parents feel safe letting him come to summer camp?”

Hearing this, Jiang Yuan let out a long sigh and whispered: “Safe? I bet Uncle Su and Auntie Lin won’t be able to get a single good night’s sleep this month.”

This was the first time since childhood that Su Yu had left home for such a long period. If Jiang Yuan hadn’t been following him, let alone Su Yu’s parents, even Jiang Yuan’s parents wouldn’t have felt safe letting Su Yu participate.

Speaking of which, Jiang Yuan felt his head growing large: “This damn weather is insane. I see tomorrow is 33 degrees with direct sun, and it’s outdoor training…”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. If our Little Ancestor really can’t hack it, those teachers aren’t stupid.” Zhou Yuang patted Jiang Yuan on the shoulder, comforting his new roommate.

“I hope so.” Jiang Yuan sighed, glancing toward Su Yu with lingering worry.

Su Yu ignored the conversation between Jiang Yuan and Zhou Yuang. He was digging through his memory for information related to the summer camp back then.

Since childhood, he didn’t have a very good personality. His health was poor, but he was stubborn. Although he rejected Pei Dingshan back then, he didn’t flee from the summer camp courses. Despite his physical weakness, he gritted his teeth and finished the month-long camp without missing a single day. Later, he fell seriously ill upon returning home, scaring his parents, but from then on, his health improved significantly.

Looking back, this summer camp was also a turning point in his life. It was just that in later memories, it gradually became filled with regret.

Broadly speaking, the entire summer camp was specially organized by the provincial team in collaboration with various middle schools in S City to select athletic prospects. Based on the provincial team’s recruitment needs, the theme and focus of the summer camp differed each year. The curriculum for their season was focused on “Sprints, Hurdles, and Jumps.”

The S Province provincial team was considered middle-to-upper-tier in the country. The team had ample funding and the coaching level was high. They had produced several world-class athletes in throwing events, but they weren’t outstanding in sprints, hurdles, and jumps. The provincial team had always wanted to find a breakthrough, but so far, the best results were a few high jumpers successfully funneled to the national team by the camp’s supervisor, Xia Zhouquan.

The provincial team hoped to make progress in sprints, hurdles, and jumps—especially sprinting. But the reality was that the famous sprinters and masters in the country basically came from G Province. As China’s number one sprinting province, G Province’s sprinting talent essentially occupied half of the domestic sprinting circle. Outside of G Province, teams like H, F, and J Provinces were all strong sprinting teams; S Province was simply not among them.

In short, for the sake of building the provincial team’s pipeline and developing in the desired direction, S Province set up an Athletics Green Shoot Plan, and one of the key targets was placed on Sprints, Hurdles, and Jumps.

This summer camp was one link in their Green Shoot Plan.

Over the 40-day cycle of the summer camp, the coaching staff would conduct a complete training cycle for the students, covering youth physical training, strength training, and sprint/hurdle/jump techniques.

To better categorize the students, after the two days of adaptive physical training at the start, there would be a round of unified testing for all students on the third day.

Pei Dingshan had set his sights on him after that test.

However, his sprint results back then were actually quite mediocre. Su Yu didn’t understand how Pei Dingshan had picked him out after that test.

Thinking of this, Su Yu felt irritable again.

Beside him, while Jiang Yuan chatted with Zhou Yuang, he was secretly watching Su Yu. Seeing him immersed in his thoughts with a cold little face, Jiang Yuan felt worried—he wondered what was wrong with his Little Ancestor today.

Early the next morning, Su Yu was woken up by Jiang Yuan.

The summer camp training schedule had been distributed early on. Morning training started at 5:20 AM. There was no time for a leisurely breakfast. Breakfast was arranged only after morning training ended.

Su Yu had remembered a lot of the training content yesterday, but he happened to forget the agony of morning training.

He had a habitual morning temper. When he was woken by Jiang Yuan just five minutes past 5:00 AM, he felt as if his entire head was buzzing. Even though he knew it wasn’t Jiang Yuan’s fault, he still couldn’t help but feel as if his whole body was wrapped in a layer of ice shards.

Just as Jiang Yuan was worrying whether he could get up, Su Yu gritted his teeth, kept a tense little face, and climbed out of bed.

Next came brushing teeth, washing up, and changing into sportswear. Finally, he followed the crowd toward the training field with Jiang Yuan and Zhou Yuang. The students participating on the first day were still full of energy. Their chirping voices made Su Yu’s already irritable brain ache.

Upon walking to the designated stadium, they saw a young coach standing by the field. His face was excessively handsome. He didn’t look like a coach from the provincial sports team, but rather like a star who had come here to film a TV show and experience life.

Su Yu recognized him at a glance.

It was Pei Dingshan.

Many students around let out gasps because of Pei Dingshan’s exceptionally outstanding appearance. But this meritorious national sprint coach—who ten years later could keep a straight face in front of CCTV reporters—possessed an aura of releasing cold air that was no less potent now than in the future.

A few minutes after Su Yu and the others arrived, Pei Dingshan pressed his stopwatch and signaled the students already present to begin warm-up laps around the track.

“Hey, Coach, what about us?”

The students blocked by Pei Dingshan were somewhat confused.

Pei Dingshan ignored them, simply pointing to the area marked “1” among several lines on the ground labeled 1, 2, 3, and 4, signaling the students to stay there.

After the students stood there in confusion, he registered them one by one in the training manual in his hand. Finally, he put down the manual and scanned the students present: “One lap per minute, ten laps for ten minutes. Tonight before bed, I will accompany you until you finish the makeup laps.”

In an instant, the students in that area looked as if they were attending a funeral. One second they thought the coach was handsome beyond reason, and the next second, only the words beyond reason remained.

Some bold ones wanted to ask “By what right?”, but the courage they usually used to cause trouble vanished the moment they met Pei Dingshan’s eyes. They were so intimidated their fire was extinguished.

On the stadium, the students who were already warming up were half-celebrating that they weren’t late and half-miserably running laps.

Jiang Yuan and Zhou Yuang could originally run quite fast, but right now both were looking back worriedly at the pale-faced Su Yu.

“Yuan-zi, you think our Little Ancestor is okay?”

Jiang Yuan’s face was also full of sorrow: “…This is lethal. It’s only the first day of camp.”

Su Yu could no longer hear the other voices around him. This body that had rarely exercised in the past felt exhausted all over, even just during the warm-up jog to loosen the joints. Many times he couldn’t help but harbor the thought of giving up, but—whether it was an illusion or not—he felt that Pei Dingshan’s gaze from outside the field would sweep over him from time to time.

So, driven by some unknown stubbornness, he gritted his teeth and continued to persevere. The only thought in his head was—”I can’t lose.”