Chapter 28

Tang Yi-Bai's arrival caused a small commotion.

The entire agency was working within the sports industry — even the cleaning ladies could chat a little about the NBA Champions League — so everyone here was much more sensitive to the trends within the sports industry than the average person. Tang Yi-Bai's record time of 47.88 seconds had already become widespread news. Quite a number of those working in the sports circle were keeping an eye on the situation — now, seeing Tang Yi-Bai here today, how could they let the opportunity just slip by?

Wefie, wefie!

The female colleagues were particularly wild. They had never ever seen such a handsome man!!! With a figure even better than a model's!!!!!

And so, Tang Yi-Bai was intercepted as soon as he entered the doors of the agency. When Yun Duo went downstairs to look for him, she saw him standing in the main hall, with a never-ending line of people taking turns to take wefies with him.

He was taking it well, at least, refusing no one and still smiling easily.

As if reacting to her presence, as soon as Yun Duo appeared at the second floor, Tang Yi-Bai immediately raised his head to see her. Subsequently, he said 'excuse me' to the crowd around him and turned to go upstairs. Ah, the benefit of having long legs — taking the stairs three steps at a time took almost no effort at all.

Yun Duo barely had time to focus her stare when he had already arrived upstairs. He made his approach towards her gracefully and finally stood before her. "Hi."

Strictly speaking, it had only been 3 days since they last saw each other, but Yun Duo actually felt a little emotional upon seeing him, as if they were being reunited after a long time. She knew that he must have endured a great deal of pressure to so wilfully reserve an exclusive interview for her. Within the industry, she was only a small fry with hardly any presence who had been working in the field for about six months — what right did she have to secure an exclusive interview with him?

Her eyes suddenly felt a little warm, "Tang Yi-Bai, thank you."

Her lips trembled slightly from emotion, and her wavering voice wormed its way into his ear. He saw the glimmer of tears in her bright black eyes, which brought to his mind the image of spring rain as apricot flowers fluttered through the air — lovely and refreshing, pure and gentle.

He smiled, feeling an overwhelming urge to pat her head.

However, he managed to hold back in the end — there were still so many people downstairs who had yet to disperseT/N: Hahaha, way too many witnesses. :p.

"No need to be so polite," he said suavely, thrusting his hands into his pockets. "Where shall we go now?"

"Follow me."

Yun Duo led him to the reception room. In the reception room, there was a tempered glass table surrounded by three armchairs. She let Tang Yi-Bai settle into one of the armchairs and brought him an unopened bottle of mineral water. She then poured herself a cup of coffee.

Tang Yi-Bai sniffed overtly and commented on her coffee, "Smells very good."

Yun Duo, "Even so, you can't have any." He was an athlete after all — his dietary intake was exceedingly strict. She did not want him to accidentally consume anything unclean while here.

Yun Duo sat down and placed a voice recorder on the table. She then spread out the two sheets of A4 paper and a notebook. Even though she had the voice recorder, she was still used to using pen and paper to jot down key points. She said, "Let's begin ... Eh, where's my pen?"

She searched around for a moment without finding it, and then she suddenly smacked the table gently in realisation. "Oh right, here it is."

And then, Tang Yi-Bai saw her reach a hand behind her head, and with a gentle tug, her head of black hair slipped loose, spilling down like a glossy black waterfall. The strands of her hair were soft and clean, and they smelled faintly of lemons, which must have been the scent of her shampoo. Her hair curled gracefully like thick moss about her shoulders, half obscuring her fine-featured face. Several strands were unruly, slipping out from behind her ear to sway about the sides of her face. She seemed a little bothered by them, lifting a hand to tuck those strands back behind her ear.

Tang Yi-Bai's lips twitched as his eyes dropped, his long lashes shaking just once, imperceptibly.

Yun Duo did not notice, head bowed as she scratched the pen over her notebook several times. Not bad, it was perfectly intact and usable. She raised her head to say something, only to see Tang Yi-Bai with his eyes lowered in deep contemplation. Yun Duo belatedly realised that her previous actions were a little too casual and informal ... sheepishly, she explained, "Um, that, my hairclip broke. I temporarily used a pen to replace it. I hope you don't mind it."

Tang Yi-Bai suddenly smiled, his lips turned up in a light curve as he looked at her. His eyes seemed to glimmer endlessly. "Not at all."

Yun Duo turned on the voice recorder and began with her first question. "Well then, let's talk about how your swimming career started."

Tang Yi-Bai very quickly shifted into official business mode. He cleared his throat and answered, "I saved a person once when I first learned how to swim. After that, I keep remembering that feeling of accomplishment when I fought against and conquered the water. That was the beginning of my interest in swimming. Later, I became rather obsessed with it, and so gradually found my way onto the path of becoming a professional athlete."

Yun Duo smiled. "This reason is rather uncommon. Are your parents supportive?"

"Back then, they were very supportive. Because all children would pursue some kind of extracurricular interest — my parents felt that anything would do, and so they let me learn swimming as I wanted to."

Yun Duo astutely picked up the key phrase 'back then'. She pried, "And now?"

"Now ..." Tang Yi-Bai sighed helplessly, "Frankly, there was some disagreement with my family when I chose my career path. My mum felt that the life of a professional athlete was too harsh and difficult, so she did not approve of my decision to walk this path. Of course, I managed to persuade her in the end. And then after that, I received some injury, making them even more worried. My mum is actually quite anxious over this issue. She just doesn't want to show it. In addition, because training takes up so much time, I have very little time to meet up with my family. I honestly feel bad for my parents."

Yun Duo looked at him in surprise, "You've been injured before?"

"Yes," he nodded, and gave her a reassuring glance, "Most athletes will have been injured at some time."

"When did this happen? Is there still any lingering effect on you now?"

"It was three years ago, and it's completely healed up now." Here, Tang Yi-Bai paused, then added, "You don't have to worry."

"Okay," Yun Duo nodded, "How were you injured?"

He was silent for a beat. "While saving someone."

... Again with the people-saving. This fellow was truly a warm-hearted person ... Yun Duo felt that the General Administration of Sport should award him a 'Most Helpful Athlete' medal.

Since the discussion had touched upon three years ago, Yun Duo could not help but bring up another incident. She asked, "Three years ago, you gave up on your main specialization, the butterfly stroke, and switched to focusing on freestyle. Why did you make this decision back then? What were your main considerations?"

"It's just because freestyle is freer. There aren't as many restrictions on one's movements, so I'm able to swim faster. Back then, I really wanted to be able to swim faster, and so I chose the speediest freestyle. As for considerations, there really wasn't much consideration involved at all."

Yun Duo gaped a little, looking at him uncertainly. "The butterfly was your main specialization. You had already obtained a gold medal in the Asian Games with that, defeating your Japanese opponent. This is a great success. Suddenly making such a critical and rather risky decision, did you really have no concerns?"

Tang Yi-Bai carefully reviewed his memories for a moment before replying, "There really wasn't. Back then, if I had truly stopped to consider it, I might not have made this decision. It was a rather hasty decision."

So you do know that it was hasty ... Yun Duo snarked internally, but she had to admit, "Based on the actual results, this decision was the right one."

Tang Yi-Bai said with feeling, "If I had not made this decision, it still might not have been a mistake. I think the important thing was sticking to a decision once it has been made. The actual decision itself may be very important at times, but sometimes, it may not really matter much in the long run."

Yun Duo nodded. These words were truly deep. She asked, "So you have never regretted this decision?"

"Why should I regret it? Regret would be entirely useless. It would only bring more negative things."

"Not even during difficult times?"

"When times are hard, it's better to focus on solutions. There should always be more solutions than problems."

Yun Duo was amazed. "You are very rational, but also very fanatical. So, you're a rational madman. This is the type of person most likely to succeed."

Tang Yi-Bai smiled. "It's much too early to talk about success."

Yun Duo looked at him, head tilted. "You don't think you're successful? Breaking the Asian record two times in a row, becoming the first yellow-skinned person to achieve a time within 48 seconds."

Tang Yi-Bai shook his head. "No. I haven't even swam in the World Championships before. How is that successful?"

"So, you have a higher goal?"

"Yes. Every athlete has dreams of becoming a world champion. I am no exception."

After that, Tang Yi-Bai and Yun Duo continued to chat for a while about the struggle of having high ambitions yet staying grounded. And then, Yun Duo looked down at the two sheets with their lists of questions and asked, "I heard that you are roommates with Qi Rui-Feng?"

"That's right."

"How do you two get along? Is there any pressure? He's an Olympic champion, as well as the only person in China at present who has won an Olympics championship in a men's swimming event."

"We get along very well. Brother Feng is a very sincere person. He is the pride of us Chinese people, and also the role model for many athletes. I will learn from him and use him as a measuring stick. There is no pressure."

He said all this very serious and earnest manner; Yun Duo inexplicably felt like laughing. She held back the urge to laugh, and glanced again at the lists of questions.

When she raised her head once more, she saw Tang Yi-Bai staring at her hair. She found it a little strange, and tugged on her hair a little. "Is there something on my hair?"

"No. I just think that," he suddenly covered the voice recorder on the table with his hand, and then lowered his voice and said, "You look prettier with your hair down."

This straightforward compliment did not come off as profound due to its direct delivery, but Yun Duo still found herself blushing. "Thank you."

Tang Yi-Bai leaned back against the sofa, relaxed, eyes closing softly for a moment. "Continue."

And so the interview continued. Since Tang Yi-Bai did not call for a stop, Yun Duo shamelessly continued to find new topics to discuss. When she finally checked off all the questions on the lists, she set down her pen and closed her notebook. "Alright, we're done. Thank you." As she said this, she turned off the voice recorder.

However, Tang Yi-Bai pointed at the last item on her question sheet. The question there had already been scribbled out till it was completely unintelligible. "What's that?"

"Nothing. Just a discarded question."

"I know what it is. Let's discuss the issue."

"No." Yun Duo shook her head. That incident three years ago was taboo. He had always avoided talking about it before reporters — she did not want to pick at his scars.

Tang Yi-Bai smiled and said, "Yun Duo, this incident will become known sooner or later. Rather than giving this news to someone else, I'd rather give it to you."

He said all this in such a gentle and candid manner, but Yun Duo could not help but feel her heart ache for some reason. No one liked having an old wound prodded — it had already caused such hurt once, why was it necessary to feel the hurt once again? If possible, she wished that his past wounds would never be disturbed — at the very least, she did not want to be the one to prod them.

She silently shook her head, her eyes damp yet stubborn as she looked at him.

This kind of gaze was unbearable. Tang Yi-Bai wavered, and abruptly raised a hand. "Don't be sad. It's all in the past." His large palm covered the top of her head, the warmth of it seeping into the smooth, cool strands of her hair.

Finally able to indulge the urge to touch her head, Tang Yi-Bai actually had a sense of satisfaction. He gently caressed her hair, and smiled softly when he saw her moue of disapproval. "I'll still talk about it even if you don't ask about it."

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Previous: Chapter 27
Next: Chapter 29

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