Chapter 47: Running the Semifinal Like It’s the Final? Oh, I Know That One (A Big Chapter Coming Up~)

In the semifinals, Su Shen had actually been placed in the same heat as Zhao Haohuan?

It was nothing short of a thunderbolt from a clear sky.

Although everyone kept silent about Zhao Haohuan’s circumstances, no one had ever doubted his ability. At least for the time being, the national youth record belonged to him. His 10.32 was a mark no other teenager had even come close to.

This was simply brutal.

And that was not all. There was also Wang Qing from Formosa, a fairly capable runner who could break 10.65 and was regarded as a supernova of the Formosan team. On top of that, Liang Jiahong from Sanshui was in the same heat.

Guangdong Province had produced many famous sprinters, and Liang Jiahong was unquestionably the brightest of them at present. He had been recruited into the provincial team at the end of 2003, run 10.70 in 2004, and only a month ago had posted an impressive 10.68 in Xiangshan City. He was now Guangdong’s undisputed rising star, known as the Pride of Sanshui and the Flying Man of Sanshui.

He had also originally been one of the mainstays of the domestic team for the 2006 World Junior Championships.

He was already close to 184 centimeters tall. Though still somewhat thin, he was clearly a star of promise.

With that, Su Shen found himself besieged on all sides. The situation was extremely unfavorable, and his chances of advancing had suddenly shrunk considerably.

Since Zhou Bing had already been eliminated, he was instead completely relaxed. He began offering strategies from the sidelines, acting as their “master tactician.”

He only quieted down after Ning Debao grew tired of his pestering and threatened to throw him out.

“Forget Zhao Haohuan for now. We’ll give up on him and think about how to take down the others.” Ning Debao rubbed his forehead. “Xiaotian, you’re in lane three. Wang Qing from Formosa is in lane two beside you, Liang Jiahong is in lane four, and Zhao Haohuan is in lane six. This is the strongest heat. It might even be tougher than the previous one. But don’t place your hopes on scraping through by luck. That isn’t reliable.”

“What you need to do now is disrupt the people beside you as much as possible at the start. You can’t do anything about those farther away, but for anyone close by, find a way to throw them off. Once they lose their rhythm, your chance will come.” Ning Debao continued, “Given how poor the draw is, you have no choice but to run the semifinal as if it were the final.”

“Don’t hold anything back in the semifinal. Explode with everything you have and treat it like the final.”

Run the semifinal like the final.

That, Coach, was something Su Shen knew very well.

On semifinal day, Chen Juan had just finished competing. Astonishingly, she had reached the finals in the 200 meters, 400 meters, and 800 meters alike.

Ning Debao was so delighted that he kept nodding. Zhou Bing, meanwhile, did not dare say a word. He felt utterly humiliated. He was the oldest among them, yet he had been eliminated the fastest. It was a devastating blow.

For the rest of the day, it seemed he could only serve as a cheerleader, handing out towels and water while shouting himself hoarse.

This was the first time Su Shen had faced Zhao Haohuan. It was also the first semifinal heat. Looking at the “number-one genius in the country,” Su Shen greeted him amiably.

Zhao Haohuan froze. He seemed not to have expected anyone to speak to him first. After staring blankly for a moment, he nodded and returned Su Shen’s greeting.

An introverted personality.

Su Shen reached that conclusion immediately. Without proper guidance, someone with such a temperament could easily be crushed beneath all kinds of pressure.

Zhao Haohuan stood 185 centimeters tall and was reputed to be the finest finisher of the under-eighteen era, possessing extraordinarily powerful closing speed. But he was far too thin. Even the joints wrapped beneath his clothing seemed to show signs of injury at a glance.

His coaches were not highly competent, and his injuries had not been treated promptly.

That was Su Shen’s second impression.

As for Wang Qing of Formosa, he was simply an arrogant fool. He carried the pride of the “Four Little Dragons” that had characterized Formosan people at the beginning of the twenty-first century, looking down on the mainland even more than people from Hong Kong did. That kind of pride would not gradually collapse until around 2010.

In those years, idol dramas and pop songs from Hong Kong and Formosa were everywhere, and they had grown up with an innate sense of superiority.

Compared with Hong Kong, which had already returned to the motherland, Formosa in those days was truly…

Asking for a beating.

“The guy in lane six is supposed to be the mainland’s number-one genius, right? He doesn’t look like much to me.” Wang Qing had posted some decent results in mainland competitions, and it had gone to his head. In truth, Formosa was somewhat like Japan: strong tailwinds were everywhere, so the moment their athletes left the island, their performances plummeted. Yet they remained completely unaware of it.

Su Shen could not be bothered with him. He adjusted his starting blocks and loosened his body.

When he saw that the boy was ignoring him entirely, Wang Qing grew annoyed and opened his mouth again. “Look at you. You must have changed your age too, right? That’s what you mainlanders like to do. You have no sense of class at all.”

Su Shen still paid him no attention, proceeding methodically with his preparations.

How arrogant.

“Hey! I’m talking to you! Can’t you hear me?”

Wang Qing was not tall either, standing around 174 centimeters—slightly shorter than Su Shen. Formosan athletes were generally not particularly tall, as could be seen from the young runners who would emerge in later years.

For once, Su Shen possessed a height advantage. As he loosened his hips, he finally spoke.

“I heard you.”

“Then why didn’t you answer me?” Wang Qing demanded.

“Because I didn’t want to.”

Su Shen’s reply was direct and blunt. Wang Qing was so choked by it that he nearly coughed.

“I think you’re—”

Before he could finish, Su Shen flexed his powerful upper arm.

“What are you looking at? You little chick, with barely two ounces of meat on you. Aren’t you suffering from malnutrition?”

“It’s fine. After the race, I’ll give you some tea eggs and Fuling mustard greens to take home and build yourself back up.”

Wang Qing wanted to say something, but when he saw Su Shen’s thick arm, his confidence immediately faltered. He could only glare and say, “Mainland boy. As expected, you have no idea what manners are. You’ve disgraced the land of propriety.”

Su Shen: “...?”

Wasn’t he the one who had started provoking people? How had this suddenly become a question of Su Shen’s manners? Was this his idea of etiquette?

“Classmate, Confucius said that resentment should be answered with uprightness. If I treated you politely after you spoke to me like that, wouldn’t I be betraying the teachings of our ancestors?”

“What’s wrong? Never studied? I’ll send you a few copies of the Analects someday. I guarantee that reading them will improve your bearing by several levels.”

Wang Qing had never encountered an athlete capable of crushing someone with words so thoroughly. Compared with Su Shen, a veteran who had spent decades absorbing future internet jokes, Wang Qing’s little bag of tricks was nothing. A few casual remarks were enough to leave him cursing and sputtering, unable to produce a single civilized sentence.

“Fine. I’ll see whether your ability is as impressive as your mouth.”

Unable to win the verbal contest, Wang Qing could only adopt the posture of someone who would crush his opponent through sheer ability. In his mind, this unknown nobody was merely here to make up the numbers and could not possibly be his match. Once he said that, the other boy would surely have nothing left to say and would obediently shut up.

Instead, Su Shen merely raised the corners of his mouth.

“Fine. Then I’ll give you one piece of advice as well.”

“Whatever you do, don’t race me through the opening stages. You’ll die horribly.”

The instant he heard this, Wang Qing burst out laughing.

“You? Then I insist on trying. I’ll make you admit defeat completely.”

What an idiot.

Su Shen had led him straight into the trap. That took care of one opponent in advance.

Liang Jiahong, listening from beside them, found himself secretly delighted when Su Shen rendered the arrogant Formosan runner speechless and furious. But Liang was not good with words, so he could only cheer for Su Shen inwardly.

After the exchange ended, he finally managed to add, “Well done, brother. Let them keep their precious superiority.”

“Not bad.”

Su Shen’s attitude toward Liang Jiahong was much friendlier. Out of curiosity, Liang asked, “Was the advice you just gave him actually true?”

“It was.” Su Shen kindly warned him, “Don’t make the same mistake. Once my opening speed gets going, I recognize neither friend nor family.”

Liang Jiahong shivered.

Still, he was a young man. Though he had taken great pleasure in watching Su Shen verbally demolish Wang Qing, he was unwilling to show weakness when it came to the race. Among the younger generation, he was one of Guangdong’s leaders. He had joined the provincial team back in 2003. How could he be an ordinary runner?

In fact, aside from Zhao Haohuan in lane six, he did not believe he was inferior to any other genius.

Among his peers, he was virtually without an opponent.

Su Shen had no idea that a single well-intentioned warning had hooked Liang Jiahong as well.

Had he known, he would have been both amused and exasperated.

He had still underestimated the pride of youth.

“On your marks.”

Everyone lowered themselves into the crouched starting position and waited for the next command.

“Set.”

Su Shen slowly raised his hips. His fingers pressed lightly into the track, forming an arch, creating an elastic support for the launch.

From any angle, Su Shen’s position was the most elegant of the eight runners.

Bang!

“And they’re off!”

“We can see—”

The announcer had instinctively been preparing to say that Zhao Haohuan was in front, but the words died in his throat. The runner who had surged into the lead was not anyone he recognized. It was the athlete in lane three.

There was no time to search for his name, so he quickly continued, “The runner in lane three has taken the lead and established an advantage. Very fast—very fast! The gap is widening!”

Indeed, the gap was widening.

Su Shen’s explosive first step had made its debut at a provincial-level competition.

No one could have imagined that such speed could come from a boy who had not yet turned sixteen. Aside from Su Shen, the youngest runner in this heat was already nearly seventeen. One of them had even altered his age and was already beyond the U18 limit.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

In only five or six steps, Su Shen had opened a full stride on everyone. His explosion dragged Liang Jiahong and Wang Qing, who were watching him, straight into his rhythm.

But if you tried to accelerate through the opening stages alongside Su Shen, there was only one possible outcome: your rhythm would grow faster and faster until it exceeded your capacity, and then everything would collapse.

Wang Qing and Liang Jiahong refused to concede. They believed that being fast out of the blocks meant nothing and that they still had a chance.

What chance?

Su Shen had not been talking about the start.

He had been talking about the opening stages.

If you insisted on matching Su Shen step for step through the entire opening section, sooner or later your body would be unable to endure it.

Wang Qing was the first to run into trouble. He was chasing too desperately and failed to realize that his rhythm had already fallen apart. He lost his balance, toppled to the left, and let out a howl like a slaughtered pig.

The slow-motion replay made the answer clear.

He had failed to plant his foot securely and twisted his ankle. He could forget the semifinal; he would not be taking part in the 200 meters afterward either.

Even more absurdly, his fall also brought down the runner in lane one.

Good grief. Two runners had been eliminated in one stroke.

Zhou Bing grew more and more alarmed as he watched from the side. He had never expected Su Shen’s “rhythm-dragging technique” to remain so terrifying at a provincial-level meet. The higher standard of competition had not weakened his opening-stage skill in the slightest.

Could this skill package still work at a national-level competition?

The thought seemed absurd. How devastating would his opening speed have to be for that to remain possible?

Only six runners were left on the track.

Lanes one and two had gone out early.

Liang Jiahong ignored everyone else. He was stronger than Wang Qing and had stabilized his stride. If he adjusted quickly and returned to his own rhythm, he could still rely on his raw ability to overtake Su Shen later.

But young men were young men. None of them liked to admit defeat. Each believed he could do it.

So Liang continued accelerating and battling Su Shen through the opening stages.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

It was not until around the thirty-meter mark that Liang Jiahong realized his rhythm had been completely dragged along. The pace was simply too fast, and his body had no experience handling it.

All he could do was grow more and more ragged.

By the time Liang tried to adjust, it was already too late. His stride faltered. He did not fall as Wang Qing had, but in a hundred-meter sprint, a single stumble was fatal. Even the slightest disruption of rhythm was unacceptable.

In that instant, every other runner passed him.

By the time he tried to accelerate again, it was too late. The extra process of rebuilding his speed had already sealed his defeat.

At best, his current ability was around 10.68, and most of the time he ran in the 10.70 range or slower. To catch up now, he would have needed at least the ability of a national-level elite athlete.

“See that, Coach? That’s the move.” Yi Xiaoqiang watched from the side with his coach and the Hong Kong athletes.

“An extraordinary opening speed. Never try to race him through it,” the coach said quickly.

Wang Qing had been foolish to challenge him in the opening stages. Still, since he had not known what he was getting into, it could be forgiven. The coach himself had suffered the same lesson once.

If Yi Xiaoqiang had known that Su Shen had warned Wang Qing beforehand—and that Wang Qing had still stubbornly leapt into the trap—he would have thought Wang Qing was not merely foolish, but hopelessly thick as well.

Now only five runners remained on the track.

Ning Debao clenched his fist on the sidelines and shouted inwardly:

It worked.

With those two gone, aside from Zhao Haohuan, Su Shen would not be inferior to any of the remaining runners in pure ability.

Whether he could advance now depended entirely on himself.

At the six-second mark, Su Shen exploded once more, unleashing a tremendous burst of speed. The smoothness and suddenness of his acceleration caught everyone off guard, and he surged into the temporary lead.

Su Shen steadied his breathing and maintained his maximum speed.

“The runner in lane three has taken first place! Who is he? Zhao Haohuan is chasing!”

“The gap is shrinking. The latter stages are Zhao Haohuan’s territory.”

“It’s still shrinking.”

“Still shrinking.”

“Zhao Haohuan has overtaken him!”

As Zhao Haohuan crossed the finish line, the announcer shouted, “As expected of the number-one genius! Truly incredible! Unbeatable below the age of eighteen!”

There was nothing surprising about it. Even with his ability already declining, Zhao Haohuan still possessed 10.50-plus speed. Against such an athlete, unless you could disrupt him at the start, you had virtually no chance of winning.

Even if you did affect his start, the difference in raw ability was still considerable, and there remained a high chance that he would overtake you later.

Su Shen had run 10.80 in this heat. Breaking 10.80 was now clearly only a matter of time.

He had also set a new personal best.

Zhao Haohuan had indeed proved an excellent pacemaker. Because his speed through the finish was so high, Su Shen had been forced to draw out his own potential and give everything he had in the duel.

That was when personal bests were easiest to break.

That was why athletes needed to compete in more high-level meets. High-level competition was the best path to improvement.

If you played chess every day against hopelessly bad players, your own game would only deteriorate along with theirs.

For a competition-oriented athlete like Su Shen, extensive real-world racing was even more essential. Only through repeated battles could he polish himself and turn the accumulation of training into genuine combat strength.

Zhao Haohuan had run 10.65. His extraordinary finishing speed truly was impossible to catch. He was a stride-based runner, blessed with exceptional natural gifts.

But Zhao Haohuan’s labored breathing and obvious exhaustion were not what one would expect from a runner capable of 10.32.

Everything indicated that this super-genius was already struggling desperately to hold himself together.

At present, he had no more than roughly 10.55 ability left—a decline of four or five levels.

If he were still in his 10.32 form, he could have defeated Su Shen in the semifinal by two or three full strides, even without exerting himself fully.

Zhao Haohuan’s decline had therefore reached its limit. He was merely forcing himself onward.

Perhaps he was even throwing himself into the start despite his poor physical condition simply to preserve his identity as the “number-one genius.”

No one cared how he was really doing, just as no one would care about Liu Xiang for a long time afterward.

Once you lost, the world immediately turned into a scene of everyone pushing down the fallen wall.

As Zhao Haohuan braced his hands against his knees and breathed faintly, a voice drifted over.

“Don’t push yourself too hard. Your body is already showing a lot of problems. Forcing yourself through it isn’t a good idea.”

Zhao Haohuan turned around in surprise and saw that it was the boy who had greeted him earlier.

For some reason, Su Shen seemed to glimpse a trace of mist in his eyes.

But it vanished in an instant.

The introverted Zhao Haohuan nodded and shook Su Shen’s hand.

“You were excellent too.”

Then he dragged his exhausted body away from the track.

Su Shen watched his retreating back, unable for a moment to guess what the young man was thinking.

“Oh, right. I should go over to the Formosan team and offer them a little humanitarian concern. How could I have forgotten?”

With that thought, Su Shen prepared to go outside and buy several more tea eggs, which he would leave at the Formosan team’s door that evening.

He would thoroughly put his humanitarian spirit into practice.

P.S. The plot is gradually unfolding. Here is a nearly five-thousand-word chapter. Hopefully it can earn me a few more votes from everyone—la la la!