I Wasn't Born a Champion - Chapter 3

Even after finishing the three warm-up laps, Su Yu hadn’t figured out who exactly it was in his heart that he couldn’t lose to.

Perhaps it was his past self, perhaps his once-regretful self, or perhaps it was Pei Dingshan, who, in his imagination, always kept a sweeping gaze over him.

For the reborn Su Yu, it had been a long time since he experienced such a frail physical state. From the very first 100 meters, he felt his body gradually becoming heavy. Later on, every step he took made his breathing sound like a worn-out old bellows. The heavy gasping made his chest and trachea feel as if they were being scorched by fire.

For the other students participating in the summer camp, a three-lap warm-up jog was not easy but wouldn’t go this far. However, for Su Yu at this stage, this level of activity could already be called “violent.”

By the time he finally finished these three laps, his hands were propped on his knees, and he couldn’t hear what the people around him were saying.

Jiang Yuan was terrified by his appearance. He supported him with one hand while cautiously stroking his back with the other to help him catch his breath.

“Xiao Yu? Xiao Yu, are you okay?”

Zhou Yuang was also scared out of his wits but didn’t quite dare to get close, so he just circled around them.

“Holy shit, Yuan-zi, is our Little Ancestor okay?”

Jiang Yuan’s face was full of anxiety and worry as he couldn’t help but start nagging: “I said we should have just gone back yesterday. How can your body handle the intensity of this summer camp, Great Ancestor? If Uncle Su and Auntie Lin saw you like this, they’d be heartbroken. My parents would also blow my head off…”

Su Yu’s hands were propped on his knees. Because he was too tired, when he first stopped, aside from the sound of his own bellows-like panting and the “thump-thump” of his heart beating so hard it felt like it would jump out of his throat, his entire head was buzzing, unable to hear any other sounds.

With great difficulty, he managed to catch a breath and finally hear some other noise, only to hear Jiang Yuan nagging anxiously in his ear.

Su Yu: …

Su Yu raised a hand and covered Jiang Yuan’s mouth.

“Stop nagging. My head hurts.”

With his mouth blocked by Su Yu, Jiang Yuan obediently shut up. He was about to help his Little Ancestor to the side to rest for a bit, but before they could move, the coach who had just been lecturing the late students appeared right there.

As Pei Dingshan approached, Su Yu—who was being supported by Jiang Yuan—actually let go of Jiang Yuan’s hand and stood up on his own. Even though it was obvious he was in poor condition, he looked much better than the about to faint state he was in right after the run.

Pei Dingshan nodded to the two of them, then focused his attention back on Su Yu, sizing him up: “Your physical foundation is very poor. Did you rarely exercise in the past?”

Beside him, Jiang Yuan instinctively answered for Su Yu: “Xiao Yu’s health hasn’t been great since he was little…”

Pei Dingshan remained non-committal, only looking at Su Yu: “Can you persevere?”

Under Pei Dingshan’s gaze, Su Yu unconsciously straightened his back, like a newborn beast using instinct to confront a powerful enemy in his subconscious.

Facing Pei Dingshan’s inquiry, Su Yu gasped for breath twice, swallowed the metallic, rust-like discomfort in the back of his throat, and looked him straight in the eye: “I can.”

The morning light was just rising, hitting Su Yu’s face. His fair skin, nurtured at home due to illness, looked translucent under the sun. The slight sheen of sweat on his forehead made his skin look even better. Combined with Su Yu’s natural good looks, he currently looked like a stubborn porcelain doll—clearly fragile, yet refusing to bow his head and admit defeat.

Pei Dingshan gave him an extra look and nodded: “Good. Your resilience is decent. However, your physical condition needs to be adjusted slowly. For the training later, you will do two sets fewer than the others.”

Hearing this, Su Yu pursed his lips, wanting to say “I can do it,” but he was cut off by Jiang Yuan, who noticed his movement.

Jiang Yuan spoke first to thank him: “Thank you for looking out for him, Coach!”

Pei Dingshan nodded and then went on to look out for those late students standing in the numbered circles.

Only after Pei Dingshan left did Jiang Yuan start coaxing his Little Ancestor again: “Oh, Great Ancestor, these provincial team coaches are not easy to talk to. It wasn’t easy to get him to make an exception. Don’t be stubborn with him!”

“Right, Xiao Yu, don’t be stubborn with him.”

Zhou Yuang also came to Su Yu’s side, offering the information he knew: “You probably don’t know about this Pei Dingshan. I specifically looked into him when I was asking around about the summer camp. Pei Dingshan comes from a sports family. There are three people surnamed Pei in his family who are head coaches for different national team projects. Originally, Pei Dingshan had excellent athletic talent and was trained for professional sprinting. But then there was an accident—although it doesn’t affect his normal life, he can’t go professional in sprinting anymore. After that, he insisted on switching to the direction of sprint teaching and training.”

“His undergraduate and graduate degrees are both in Sports Training, majoring in sprinting. During his graduate studies, he went to Bradley College in the U.S. to study sprinting pedagogy under Bradley Bromell himself, obtaining a certification from Bradley College—that’s one of the three most prestigious certifications in the industry, recognized globally.”

“Currently, even in the coaching staff of the national team’s sprint group, there aren’t many who hold one of the three major certifications.”

“Originally, Pei Dingshan was supposed to be recruited directly by the national team after coming back, but he personally wanted to observe and learn more in grassroots teams for two years. That’s how the S Province provincial team managed to pick him up.”

“At this stage, the provincial team happens to want to develop sprints, hurdles, and jumps. Although Pei Dingshan only holds the title of assistant coach, that’s because domestic coaching levels have requirements for years of coaching experience. Anyway, for sprint training, he has the final say in our S Province team now; even the old coaches in the team are learning the latest international frontier concepts from him.”

Zhou Yuang had previously had the flighty demeanor of a teenage boy, but he seemed exceptionally solemn when talking about Pei Dingshan and his series of titles.

Jiang Yuan’s mind was entirely on Su Yu’s physical condition, so he didn’t notice, but Su Yu saw it.

He looked up at Zhou Yuang: “You want to apprentice under him?”

Zhou Yuang nodded decisively: “Yes! I came to this summer camp just to see if I’d have the chance. I like sprinting, and I want to go professional. Coach Pei is the best coach I have a chance to come into contact with.”

Hearing this, Su Yu gave Zhou Yuang a long, steady look, then turned his face away, dropping a soft sentence: “You can do it.”

Hearing these four words from Su Yu, Zhou Yuang started laughing. Casting aside his previous solemnity, he leaned in toward Su Yu with concern: “Enough about that. Hey, Little Ancestor, are you okay? You scared Yuan-zi and me to death just now.”

Su Yu didn’t want to talk to him and turned his head away, but Zhou Yuang was quite bold, raising his hand to give Su Yu’s head a vigorous ruffle.

“Yuan-zi was right, Xiao Yu, you are adorably awkward.”

Su Yu was frozen in place from being rubbed. He raised his hand to swat Zhou Yuang’s claw away, but Jiang Yuan beat him to it, slapping Zhou Yuang’s hand away first.

In the end, Su Yu returned to the group feeling sullen and alone.

When Jiang Yuan dragged Zhou Yuang in front of him to apologize, Su Yu still had a cold face and didn’t want to acknowledge them—Hmph, what’s there to apologize for? We aren’t close.

Jiang Yuan had no choice but to lead Zhou Yuang to line up behind Su Yu, planning to see how to coax his Little Ancestor once training ended in the evening.

Fortunately, after that little commotion, Su Yu’s state seemed much better. The “about to die” look from before was gone. After the three warm-up laps, his skin was now slightly flushed, making him look much more spirited than before.

Seeing this, Jiang Yuan felt for the first time that Uncle Su and Auntie Lin’s decision to send Su Yu to the summer camp was the right one.

After the hundred or so students finished their warm-up runs in batches, the second stage of morning training had just begun.

This wasn’t the formal training course yet. Morning training mostly focused on jogging to loosen joints, supplemented by several sets of basic drills like single-leg high knees, switching skip-steps, and small-step running in place.

Most of the junior high students participating in the summer camp had never participated in serious training. Running three laps around the track early in the morning was already tiring, so when doing these seemingly low-skill movements, they were more or less just going through the motions.

Standing at the very front, Pei Dingshan watched the scattered students performing their strange, distorted training movements. His expression didn’t change at all, making it impossible to tell if he was truly unaffected or if he just wasn’t angry.

On the entire field, under the rising sun, the students seriously performing the training movements could be described as one in ten.

Su Yu was one of them.

His body was weak, and Pei Dingshan had just told him to do two sets fewer, but he didn’t use his weak body as an excuse to slack off. Everyone could see that these basic drills were quite a burden for him, yet he meticulously completed his training volume according to the movement breakdown and rhythm Pei Dingshan had just explained.

His movements weren’t fast, and since it wasn’t easy to keep them standard, some people had already finished all the required sets by faking it, while Su Yu was only halfway through his sets.

Besides Su Yu, Jiang Yuan and Zhou Yuang had the most standard rhythm in their movements among all the students. Their physical conditions were good, and their personalities were too. Jiang Yuan had a “nanny” personality honed by Su Yu since childhood—patient and meticulous. Zhou Yuang had the mindset of listening to his idol, plus his own passion for sprinting, making him very focused and serious during the training process.

Beside the field, Pei Dingshan stood from beginning to end. Except for training instructions, he barely spoke at other times. Even when students blatantly slacked off right in front of him, he didn’t say a word.

It wasn’t until everyone had finished their designated sets that Pei Dingshan began to call out names one by one.

“Zhang Yuheng: 3 sets of single-leg high knees, 4 sets of switching skip-steps, 3 sets of small-steps in place. Pi Qiujun: 2 sets of single-leg high knees, 4 sets of switching skip-steps, 3 sets of small-steps in place…”

Pei Dingshan’s voice and tone were very calm, but the content he read out from the manual—like he was reciting a textbook—left the students whose names were called stunned.

These students were shocked not only because their laziness was pointed out, but even more so because Pei Dingshan had not only remembered their names but also accurately recorded the details of their slacking for different training items?!

Among the students present—whether their names were called or not—the same sentence echoed in their hearts: “Is this something a fucking human can do?”

Pei Dingshan ignored the shifts in the students’ emotions. After finishing the list in his manual, he put it down and said calmly: “Except for the aforementioned personnel, everyone else return to the dorms to shower. Breakfast at the canteen at 7:30, formal classes at 8:30.”

“Aforementioned personnel: unified makeup training. Dismissed.”

As the words fell, those whose names hadn’t been called first looked at each other, then quickly began looking around, only to realize that every single person who had excessively slacked off during training had been called out by Pei Dingshan.

“Holy shit… it’s only the first day of training, and he’s already matched all of our names to our faces?!”

“Hell is empty; the Devil is among us!”

In reality, the workload of morning training wasn’t too hard for these energetic fourteen and fifteen-year-olds; even makeup training was no big deal. But compared to the makeup training itself, the memory Pei Dingshan demonstrated was a form of shock education for these students. This directly established the status quo: during the rest of the summer camp, no student dared to slack off or go through the motions again.

“As expected of Handsome Pei, so badass.”

On the way back to the dorm, Zhou Yuang couldn’t help but sigh with emotion.

After marveling at Pei Dingshan, Zhou Yuang suddenly turned the topic to Su Yu: “Hey, Xiao Yu, you really haven’t participated in track-related training before, right?”

This question seemed to be Zhou Yuang’s own self-answered riddle. After muttering that, he suddenly thought of something, scratched his hair, and gave Su Yu a big grin showing eight white teeth: “Heh, I’m being stupid. With your constitution, Xiao Yu, you definitely wouldn’t have had the chance to train.”

As he spoke, Zhou Yuang added regretfully: “It’s a pity. Your training movements are very standard, and your body shows excellent elasticity when doing those movements. If you could participate in sprint training, maybe your results would be very good.”

Su Yu heard Zhou Yuang’s words but didn’t respond. Instead, Jiang Yuan, who was beside them, was beaming with pride: “Aung-zi, don’t look at Xiao Yu’s weak body. He’s been stubborn as hell since he was little. As long as a task is given to him, he’ll finish it perfectly without a single mistake.”

“But he’s just too stubborn. Whatever is assigned to him, he’ll stay up all night to get it done perfectly if he has to. He’s gotten sick from exhaustion like that many times. His health was poor to begin with, so later my Uncle Su and Auntie Lin didn’t dare let him work too hard. My parents also nag me every day, telling me to keep an eye on Xiao Yu and not let him get tired…”

Listening to Jiang Yuan’s nagging, Zhou Yuang had an epiphany: “No wonder you were the one tidying the dorm yesterday.”

“Yeah, Xiao Yu’s face looked bad the moment he got off the bus at the provincial team yesterday. I told him we should just report to our school teacher and skip the summer camp, but he wouldn’t agree.”

“Even when you just walked in yesterday, his face was still looking quite terrible.”

Zhou Yuang smiled with realization: “Heh, I thought our Little Ancestor was annoyed with me yesterday.”

Su Yu, walking between the two big guys, listened to them blabbering. The exhaustion from waking up early and morning training made him feel irritable all over. Hearing Zhou Yuang’s self-satisfied explanation, he said in a muffled, impatient voice: “I am annoyed with you.”

Hearing Su Yu’s words, Zhou Yuang wasn’t annoyed in the slightest; he even nodded along beside him, saying, “Okay, okay, okay.”

While responding to Su Yu, he continued to lament to Jiang Yuan: “It’s a pity. I think our Little Ancestor’s innate talent might actually be quite good. He learns and masters techniques very quickly. It’s just that his body is too weak.”

Su Yu, walking in the middle of the two, remained silent and did not respond to Zhou Yuang’s words.

If one were to be honest, he never thought his innate talent was that great—perhaps compared to ordinary people, the later him had decent talent, but back when he felt regretful about his choices, someone had also poured cold water on his head to extinguish his regrets.

—”Su Yu, right? Your talent is quite good, but you can’t compare to those genuine geniuses.”

—”I was also the champion in provincial competitions back in the day, but compared to those ‘animals’ in the national youth team later on, I couldn’t even beat the lowest-ranked one in the youth team.”

—”Those animals are truly so strong they aren’t even human.”

It was precisely such evaluations that made him withdraw the excessive expectations he held in his heart regarding his own talent.

Good innate talent?

Among the few of them, the one who truly had good innate talent should be none other than Zhou Yuang.

At the same time, Pei Dingshan, who had finished dealing with the slacking athletes, stood outside the training field.

Another assistant coach from the provincial team approached Pei Dingshan and asked him: “Brother Pei, did you find any good prospects?”

As he spoke, he saw Pei Dingshan tap two names on the training manual—Su Yu and Zhou Yuang.

Among them, Su Yu’s name had been heavily circled by Pei Dingshan.