Chapter 24

That weekend, Yun Duo was moving. Originally, Chen Si-Qi was planning to come and help, but Yun Duo told her that it was fine. In fact, the 'moving' part of the work was all handled by a moving company, she only had to put her things together and ready them for the move. Chen Si-Qi was currently tracking some major superstar; Yun Duo didn't want to hinder her work in the entertainment industry.

Both the husband and wife of the landlord couple were there. Yun Duo called them 'Uncle' and 'Auntie'. Auntie's surname was Lu, Uncle's surname was Tang.

What a coincidence ... the same surname as Tang Yi-Bai.

Yun Duo scratched her head — where had this random thought come from?

Auntie Lu was leaning back into the sofa leisurely watching the TV. The sofa was very soft, enfolding her body, and her propped up legs seemed extraordinarily long and slender. One of her hands was resting on the arm of the sofa, and her expression was lazy and relaxed, but she still had a commanding presence.

It was a pity that the dumb dog lying at her feet did nothing to help — its face was silly, directly undermining the flair of its lady owner.

Er-Bai saw so many people visiting its home and was extremely happy. He immediately wandered over, tail wagging. However, the moving staff's attention was all on the large boxes. The staff did not see the dog and accidentally stepped on a paw.

With a yelp, Er-Bai scrambled back to his lady owner's feet.

Yun Duo could not help laughing; she really felt like petting him.

She spent the entire afternoon organizing things in her new room, and when she was partway through, Er-Bai bumped the door open and walked in. A woven wicker basket hung around its neck, and there was a white ceramic plate inside the basket. And then ... there was nothing more to it.

Yun Duo did not know what this was supposed to be.

Er-Bai wagged his tail and sniffed her lightly, very clearly trying to curry favour with her.

Yun Duo was unable to communicate cross-species, so she took the basket from Er-Bai and walked to the living room. She asked Auntie Lu, who was still seated on the sofa, "Auntie, this ..." She lifted the basket in her hand and took the white plate out with her other hand, "Does this mean something?"

At this moment, Uncle Tang walked out from the kitchen with a plate of fresh strawberries in his hands. Seeing the empty plate Yun Duo was holding, he said in surprise, "Oh, you finished eating it all so quickly? Very unexpected! How skilful, little lady."

Auntie Lu said blandly, "Er-Bai ate it all."

So there had actually been strawberries on the plate originally? Yun Duo sweatdropped. She turned to glance at Er-Bai behind her — he was currently flopped on the floor with his face turned to one side, pretending not to see them or perhaps hoping they could not see him.

Auntie Lu's brow furrowed slightly, "How many times has he eaten food instead of delivering it? Why do you still trust in this stupid dog?"

Uncle Tang chuckled and walked over to place the strawberries before her before sitting down beside her. "That's the love of a father."

Yun Duo pressed her lips together in a small smile as she went to put the things back in the kitchen.

Out here, Auntie Lu asked Uncle Tang, "Why didn't you go send it yourself? Letting a dog do it?"

"I was worried you'd overthink it." A menopausal woman is not to be trifled with!

Auntie Lu found it funny yet exasperating, "Look in the mirror before saying such things. You're already an old man, what's there for me to worry about?"

"If I'm an old man, then you're an old woman."

"... You're asking for it!" She made as if to hit him.

"Honey, it's my mistake," he said with a laugh, "My wife is forever 16 years old."

These words were too sickeningly sentimental — Auntie Lu could not take it and gave him a shove, "Shoo!"

Uncle Tang came back again after being pushed away.

Yun Duo washed up the plate which had held strawberries at one point. As she passed by the living room, she saw that the couple was happily chatting and laughing. Their faces were filled with the special familiarity and rapport only married couples had. They have such a great relationship, marvelled Yun Duo.

Auntie Lu suddenly called out to her, "Yun Duo."

"Aye!" Yun Duo turned around sharply, almost blurting out, "What are your orders?"

Don't blame her, okay? The force around this auntie was rather powerful, always reminding her of her leaders in the agency ... she subconsciously wanted to obey.

"What's your rush? Stay and eat some fruits."

"Okay." Yun Duo nodded, walked over, and leaned over to pick up and eat a small strawberry.

"Why don't you sit down?"

Yun Duo replied, "I still have dust on me."

Auntie Lu did not ask her to sit down again. Uncle Tang said to Auntie Lu in between bites of strawberry, "Now you've rented out the room, where is Doudou豆豆: I struggled over whether to translate this into 'Bean-bean'/'Beanie'/'Little Bean', because that's pretty much what it means. It's a cute nickname. :3 In the end, I decided to just stick with 'Doudou' because who knows if the author will provide an explanation for the nickname later that provides some other reasoning for it? going to stay when he comes back?"

Auntie Lu said huffily, "Let him squeeze in and sleep with Er-Bai."

Yun Duo was puzzled. "Is Doudou a cat?"

"No," Uncle Tang shook his head helplessly, "Doudou is our son." He paused at this point, unsure how to explain the irreconcilable conflict between his son and wife. Every family has their problems — it's better not to air their dirty laundry in front of outsiders. At this thought, he sighed and said nothing more.

Yun Duo was very considerate and did not continue to press for answers.

After eating a few strawberries, she thanked the couple and returned to her room to continue unpacking.

After Yun Duo left, Uncle Tang said to Auntie Lu, "This little lady is quite nice." A person's personality could be determined from the little things — this saying was true. Such as how she only picked out the smaller strawberries of others' to eat, and how she refused to sit on the sofa when she knew she had dust on her, or how she tactfully changed the topic when she heard a hesitant tone in the other person's voice ... all these little things showed that she was a very polite and educated child.

Auntie Lu raised a brow when she heard this, "If not, would I have let her come and stay? Who do you think I am? I've never misjudged a person."

Uncle Tang only smiled and heaped on another serving of praise upon her. When he was done praising her, he asked carefully, "Should I add a foldable bed in the study? The dog house is so small, it won't be able to hold one of Doudou's legs ..."

"Do as you like."

He then asked, "Then, should I tell Doudou about this?"

"No need," Auntie Lu sneered, "Let him find out this surprise for himself!"

********

On the 25th of March, the National Champions Tournament, which also functioned as the qualifying rounds of the Asian Games, were held in City-Q.

Of the important international swimming competitions, the World Championship was held once every two years, the Asian Games were held once every four years, and the Olympic Games were held once every four years. The four major competitions formed a four-year cycleT/N: I'm really unsure what the author is trying to say here since there are only 3 competitions listed. Just know that the major international tournaments usually don't fall on the same year.; as such, the annual Champions Tournament would always be used as the selection rounds for the corresponding major event occurring that year.

This year was the year of the Asian Games. China was a indomitable presence in the Asian Game, so the stress of preparing for the Asian Games was considerably less than when preparing for the Olympics. Consequently, many of the famous athletes were in a relatively relaxed state of mind — Xiang Yang-Yang had not really been joking when she had said 'simple swimming' would do.

These people did not include Tang Yi-Bai.

Tang Yi-Bai's training during this time was very serious. Well, fine, he had also been very serious even before this, but Qi Rui-Feng really felt that he had become even more serious recently. He could not help saying to Tang Yi-Bai, "Your place is already guaranteed. There's no need to work so hard, right?"

"I have too little experience competing. I need to hone my skills more," replied Tang Yi-Bai.

Qi Rui-Feng sighed and said nothing more.

The duration of the Champions Tournament was about double the time of the Spring Championship. As such, the events did not seem very packed together or rushed — there would not be awkward cases such as the 50-metre free and the 100-metre free being held on the same day. Tang Yi-Bai's main event, the 100-metre free, was spread out over two days. The preliminaries and the semi-finals were on one day, with the finals on the day after that. Before his main event would begin, Ming Tian and Zheng Ling-Ye's respective events were carried out first.

Ming Tian obtained a gold medal in the men's 100-metre breaststroke. His results in the finals was 59.65 seconds, setting a new personal best record. However, this result only nipped lightly at the Asian record but did not break it. The Asian record was held by a Japanese swimmer at 58.95 seconds; it had remained unbroken for 5 years. This record had at one point been the world record as well, which had then been broken by an English swimmer. So it was understandable that Ming Tian was unable to break such a strong record.

Compared to Ming Tian's erratic performance, Zheng Ling-Ye's results have always been very stable. He also gained the gold medal in the 100-metre butterfly this time, and his time was also just slightly short of the Asian record for his event. And the holder of that Asian record was also a Japanese swimmer ...

That's right, even though Japanese athletes are short, they are very good at swimming — it was rather miraculous.

But this miracle would never occur in short-distance freestyle. They are very good at the backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke — in the World Championship, Olympic Games, and other similar competitions on the world stage, during the 4x100 medley relay, the first three swimmers of the Japanese team would often build up a great lead, but when it came time for the final freestyle leg of the relay, they would be instantly overtaken. It was really rather tragic. The short-distance freestyle was an event that required great explosive power, but the Japanese would often underperform here.

There was nothing, completely nothing they could do about it. It wasn't just them either, all Asians could do nothing.

Before Tang Yi-Bai's emergence, the short-distance freestyle was the dead knot of the Asians, an unsolvable problem.

And now after Tang Yi-Bai's emergence?

A crazy possibility came to Yun Duo's mind, and she could not help but feel her heart leap in excitement, like sunlight on a bright spring day, like a sailboat on a calm sea, like a white dove soaring into the skies in the early dawn ...

She giggled foolishly to herself for a moment, looking through a glass wall towards the verification hall.

In the verification hall, Tang Yi-Bai was waiting to be verified. He was wearing ordinary sportswear, leaning casually against a wall and looking down at his phone. Even from such a distance and with so many people inside the hall, Yun Duo was still able to locate him with one glance. She just felt that he always stood out in a crowd, more outstanding, and with a better figure than anyone else.

As if sensing something, Tang Yi-Bai raised his head. Through the glass wall, he also saw her and so he waved at her and smiled.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Yun Duo heard the squeals of the girls from the audience behind her. They had their hands clapped to their flushed faces, and they said blissfully, "He's smiling at me!"

"No, at me!"

"Me!"

"It's me!"

Alright, they could even begin fighting over this.

Yun Duo turned back to look at Tang Yi-Bai again, and made an encouraging fist pump at him. When one fist did not feel like it was enough, she raised up both her fists — at that moment, it was like a mighty sailor had possessed her.

Tang Yi-Bai smiled radiantly. He looked down again and his fingers moved, and Yun Duo very quickly received a WeChat message from him:

Like a gorilla.

Yun Duo: =.=

Yun Duo: You have a phone now?

Tang Yi-Bai: It's Bro Feng's.

Yun Duo: Already learned how to change log-ins. O.O

Tang Yi-Bai: ~(^_^)~

Yun Duo: Don't act cute! You're a male god! Have a bit more class!

Tang Yi-Bai: ...

Yun Duo: Prepared?

Tang Yi-Bai: Just wait to scream!

---

Previous: Chapter 23
Next: Chapter 25

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