Chapter 43: I'll Wait for You at the Provincial Team

Zhou Tao, who came from the provincial team, actually... "messed up".

To be honest, the teachers at the sports school had no idea how to smooth things over.

Some coaches could not believe their eyes.

Other coaches secretly complained about why Zhou Tao had to show off like that.

Now look at this.

He had messed up his grand entrance, leaving coaches who had already set the rules wondering what to do.

As for Ning Debao, despite her current "composed" expression, she was actually suppressing a wave of intense shock inside, refusing to let the male coaches read her true feelings.

Through these two duels with top-tier opponents, Su Shen had successfully taken down his rivals, and in both cases, accomplished it with a clear gap in strength.

So, what was this called?

This was called "challenging opponents of a higher rank."

Ning Debao understood.

In other words... as long as the opponent was initially unaware and off guard, this trick could be used in many scenarios to achieve unexpected results. Her mind raced, quickly analyzing Su Shen's technique, ready to use it as a trump card when the time came.

It would be a waste not to use such a gifted ability.

In competitive sports, strategy, techniques, and tactics had always been of paramount importance.

Used well, the weak could defeat the strong.

Hmm.

Suddenly, she felt that this Zhou Tao character was just mediocre—like eating tasteless food, yet a pity to discard.

How could he possibly compare to her very own Su Shen?

Young, full of potential, and crucially, an "academic star"—with all these attributes combined, no coach could possibly dislike him.

At that moment, she truly felt she should find a day to properly treat Yang Yongqiang to a dinner in the ancient town.

The kid he had sent over was simply the best disciple she had ever coached.

Looking at it this way, the provincial team really was, just as this kid had said, not a big problem.

It was even entirely possible for him to reach even greater heights in the future.

At this moment, Ning Debao's heart was a whirlpool of emotions—surprise, joy, and anticipation. If she hadn't forced herself to maintain a "calm" facade, she was afraid her facial expressions would have instantly betrayed her.

Yet no one expected that the race was not yet over.

With the big shot from the provincial team eliminated, it indirectly meant one thing—

Wasn't a spot going to open up?

This realization energized everyone, making them look as if they had been injected with adrenaline.

Zhou Bing secretly cursed in his heart, wondering why his older brother simply wouldn't listen to him. Why on earth did he have to compete with Su Shen for a future spot? Wasn't that just a brain-fart moment? They were stride-length runners; there was simply no need for this, right?

He probably forgot what kind of mindset he had when he first laid eyes on Su Shen.

He wasn't doing any better than Zhou Tao.

However, since Zhou Tao had already been eliminated ahead of time, he had to give it everything he had now and force his way in no matter what.

Aside from Su Shen and Zhou Bing, there was only one upperclassman running ahead.

They formed the leading group.

Zhou Bing had thought he still held an advantage, but unfortunately, he had underestimated the speed of Su Shen's progress.

By the mid-race phase, Su Shen had actually pulled away from the runners on both sides by a body length and a half, shocking everyone.

Especially in the final stretch, because Su Shen had won the championship at the Pearl River Delta Invitational Tournament, his endurance stat had increased by another point, reaching 35 points.

Combined with his progress over the past few months, his current explosive burst made everyone face reality.

This guy was already in the fastest tier of the entire sports school.

As a result, even in the closing stages, Zhou Bing and that older senior could only slightly close the gap by a tiny margin.

In the end, they were still defeated by Su Shen by about half a body length.

The crucial part that made everyone twitch their eyebrows was...

Su Shen clearly hadn't even used the lean-finish technique.

Otherwise, his time would have been even faster.

However, propelled by Su Shen's pace, Zhou Bing managed to follow closely behind and was dragged along for a strong finish, ultimately sprinting into second place.

Once they crossed the finish line, all the coaches looked at the scoreboard.

Cheng Jun: 10.88 seconds.

Hiss—————

Goodness gracious, the third-place finisher had already broken into the 10.88 range, and the ones ahead...

Zhou Bing: 10....87 seconds.

Ning Debao smiled faintly. In truth, it was also partly due to good luck; some of the strongest competitors had either been disrupted and eliminated by Su Shen during the start phase in the first round, or, like Zhou Tao, had inexplicably "blown their engines" in the finals. She had never imagined that these internal school qualifiers would ultimately turn into a one-man show for her own stable.

The top two spots had both been swept up by her disciples.

This was something she wouldn't have even dared to dream of beforehand.

Finally came Su Shen. When everyone saw his numbers, they couldn't believe their eyes.

This digit.

Had directly surged to... 10.85 seconds.

If he had used a lean finish, there was a high probability he would have broken even faster than 10.85 seconds!

With a result like this, if pushed just a bit further, it would be extraordinary.

Considering his age, he wasn't even 16 yet.

Looking back as everyone gathered to check the results, the way they looked at Su Shen had undergone a subtle transformation.

10.85 seconds, without even a lean finish—this notorious "freak" who spent all his time buried in the library had actually broken into the sub-10.85 territory in one go? How long has he even been here? Is this really how speed progresses?

Were the rest of them just wasting their time training?

When Zhou Bing and the others returned and caught sight of the time, they stared at Su Shen with wide eyes.

"You hit 10.85 directly?" Zhou Bing had previously thought about bullying Su Shen a bit while he hadn't fully matured yet, but now? Forget it, any chance of that was completely gone. And when Zhou Bing heard nearby coaches still discussing whether Su Shen could have been even faster with a lean finish...

Hearing that, Zhou Bing practically turned to stone.

The few "provincial team techniques" he had learned from Zhou Tao over the past few days didn't seem so appealing anymore.

With this rate of progress... no wonder he hadn't been very impressed by his older brother's provincial team status.

The guy wasn't arrogant; he genuinely thought it wasn't anything special.

Barring any accidents, after this year's three major provincial competitions, Su Shen would undoubtedly become a member of the provincial team.

Thinking back to what the guy had said earlier about planning to enter the provincial team at 16, Zhou Bing finally understood the true meaning of the word "genius."

Growing up alongside someone like this was nothing short of pure, unadulterated "torture."

At that moment, Zhou Tao also walked over, and the atmosphere grew slightly awkward.

You were told not to participate, yet you insisted on joining; and after joining, you messed up and failed to take first place—what were the rest of them supposed to do now? Spilled water could not be gathered back up, and now it was the coaches' turn to feel at a loss. In the end, Zhou Tao walked over himself, checked the scores, and upon seeing Su Shen's time, his pupils constricted slightly as he suddenly said, "A loss is a loss. I forfeit. Let Su Shen and Ah Bing go instead."

Despite his previous pride, he was still a spirited youth after all. It was just a matter of refusing to yield to anyone, with no malicious intent whatsoever. He had never thought of cheating or demanding a second chance. Even if they ran it again, even if Su Shen had pushed himself to the absolute limit right now, the margin was still razor-thin, but Zhou Tao could still have secured second place, which meant...

The person who would be replaced... would be his own younger brother, Zhou Bing.

When all was said and done, Zhou Tao still looked out for his brother. Perhaps his methods had been a bit off earlier and he had acted too much like an overbearing older authority figure, but he cared deeply for Zhou Bing. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been so furious the moment he returned and heard that Zhou Bing had left Gou Zhiqiang.

The coaches exchanged glances and could only speak up first to stabilize the situation, deciding to hold a brief meeting with the principal.

This was not a matter they could make unilateral decisions on.

Seeing that the team trials were temporarily paused, a few people crowded around and asked Su Shen:

"How can you run so fast?"

"Did you start training from inside your mother's womb or something?"

"Su Shen, honestly, did you alter your age? How else could you improve this fast?"

What surprised Su Shen the most, however, was when Zhou Tao walked up and dropped a sentence: "You're strong, and your talent is extremely high. Ah Bing following you for training might not be a bad choice after all."

"Still, today I lost not just to you, but to myself," Zhou Tao said. "Next time, I won't lose."

"I'll be waiting for you on the provincial team."

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone was astonished. Every single person here wanted to get into the provincial team, but in reality, the Xiangshan Sports School rarely sent anyone there, sometimes going several generations without a single sprinter.

Of course, by saying this, Zhou Tao was acknowledging Su Shen's strength, believing that he would be worthy of battling against him in the future.

It could be said that after today, Su Shen had become one of the biggest hopes in the school's sprinting world, and everyone would give him three points of respect because of today's events.

He had achieved fame in a single battle within this modest sports school.

Although Zhou Tao had previously possessed a degree of arrogance, being able to face his own failure head-on showed that he knew how to take things in stride.

He was a real man.

...

When the coaches returned from their meeting, they ultimately decided... to let Zhou Tao go and have Zhou Bing step aside.

There was no help for it; the school also needed better results to build its reputation, which in turn would attract more resources and student enrollment. Though Zhou Bing was dejected, he had no alternative, knowing full well that his older brother's spot had originally been an internal decision. He could only stand to the side with lingering reluctance.

Zhou Tao saw all of this in his eyes, and he had already made up his own mind.

...

Compared to Su Shen's astonishing performance in the 100 meters, his 200 meters left much to be desired.

In Zhou Tao's words—this, right here, was normal.

It was fine if his late-stage disadvantage wasn't obvious in the 100 meters, but if it wasn't obvious in the 200 meters either, then he might as well quit right on the spot.

He wouldn't even run anymore.

Su Shen only clocked a 22.85 in the 200 meters. While it was a huge improvement from his 23.13 at the Pearl River Delta Invitational, it still wasn't outstanding enough—at least, compared to his 100 meters, it was currently at the level of "standard sports school competency."

Upon seeing Su Shen's 200-meter time, Zhou Bing finally chimed in with a snarky remark from the sidelines—

At least you're still human.

You left the rest of us a path to survive.

Otherwise, the pressure of hanging around you every day would simply be too much.

Two words.

Suffocating.

However, Su Shen hadn't planned on making the provincial team for the 200 meters this time anyway; with no expectations, there was no disappointment.

He was simply satisfied that his 200 meters had improved.

Innate physical shortcomings weren't something that could be bridged overnight, and he wasn't in a rush.

With the 200-meter roster finalized, Zhou Tao took one spot, while the other was claimed by an upperclassman in the school who was about to turn 18.

Zhou Bing actually ran a decent 200 meters; late-stage runners naturally possessed an advantage in this regard, and he could currently run around 22.55.

This time was much better than Su Shen's current level, but it still wasn't enough to secure an entry spot.

Over the course of several days of team trials, events like the high jump, long jump, shot put, discus, and weightlifting also successively determined their internal quotas.

What surprised Su Shen the most was Coach Ning's female athlete, Chen Juan. She unexpectedly secured qualification for the 200m, 400m, and 800m events in these trials, turning out to be the biggest winner.

This left Zhou Bing with a resentful expression, kicking stray objects around the playground to vent his lingering gloom.

"Xiao Juan, are you planning to switch to sprinting?" Su Shen caught onto the clue. In his memories, Chen Juan had always specialized in long-distance events, but upon returning this time, she had clearly been shifting more and more toward sprint training.

"Mm. Coach Ning said my sprint absorption is very fast, and the training methodology you and the coach use suits me very well. I feel like sprinting might suit me better, so I wanted to give it a try." Chen Juan was still somewhat introverted, her face blushing slightly as she spoke.

Su Shen offered words of encouragement while secretly thinking to himself—it seemed the ripples of his arrival had already begun to take effect.

Chen Juan and the others were relatively close to him, had the most contact, and were naturally the earliest batch of people to be influenced.

After the team trials concluded, just before leaving, Zhou Tao inexplicably tossed another remark at Su Shen—the exact same words he had said days ago:

"I'll be waiting for you on the provincial team."

Then, after giving Zhou Bing a few parting instructions, he boarded a vehicle and departed from the school gates, presumably heading back to the provincial team's training base.

"Tian, please don't hold any grudges against my brother. He's actually a pretty good guy, it's just that sometimes..."

"Yeah, I know, Ah Bing," Su Shen watched the provincial team's car gradually vanish outside the school gates, speaking softly, "I have a younger brother too. I know what it feels like to be an older brother."

"By the way, don't stop training. Who knows, there might be a surprise waiting for you."

Tossing out another enigmatic sentence, Su Shen turned on his heel and headed back to the library to enjoy his study time.

Postscript: Thanks to big shots rg1969, Book-Loving Little Dirty Sprite, Qin Rumeng, Author Body Third Master, AnnE,

and China Medium for the tips~~~~~~
Little Zi bows deeply to you all~~~ New books need watering, everyone come sprinkle some water~