Chapter 77

Tang Yi-Bai scurried back to the national team and worked like a dog; he did not have time to even leave the premises of the training base. Meanwhile, Yun Duo was also very busy lately. The news agency was always short-staffed and there was a lot of mobility within the new hires. As such, she was transferred to another team every so often to put out fires, and she still had to ensure her own work was completed well. One person doing the job of two people — it was exhausting.

It wasn't until two days before the Champions Tournament that she was able to relax a little and end work a little earlier to go meet Tang Yi-Bai.

She left her office and went to buy two cups of freshly squeezed juice, one cup of orange juice and one cup of pomegranate juice.

After that, she hailed a taxi while holding the two cups of juice.

Lin Zi happened to be driving by. He rolled down his car window and said, "Yun Duo, where are you going? I'll give you a ride if it's on the way."

Yun Duo shook her head. "Thanks, but I'm going to the swimming training base. It's not on your way so it's fine."

Lin Zi tilted his head and asked, "Going to see Tang Yi-Bai?"

Yun Duo ducked her head and smiled, shy and sweet like a flower bud about to bloom. Lin Zi's gaze shimmered slightly, and he smiled and said, "Let me give you a ride. I'm free anyway."

"Thank you then."

"No need for pleasantries. You're my boss!"

After Yun Duo got in, she placed both cups of juice in the cup holders. Lin Zi looked at the cups and asked, "For him?"

"Mhm."

"Yun Duo, you've never treated me to any food or drinks," he complained, an slightly disgruntled look on his face.

Yun Duo laughed. "Is that so? I'll treat you next time."

"No need for next time. Why not now? I want some snow pear juice."

"Huh? Oh, ok. Wait a moment, I'll go buy it for you."

Lin Zi was going to give her a ride, so she felt that it was perfectly justified for her to buy him a drink. She decisively got out of the car to go buy it.

Inside the car, Lin Zi watched her leave and when she was a distance away, he reached into his coat to take out a packet of white powder. He opened up the lids of both cups to see that one cup held a red liquid while the other was yellow.

Sang's voice rang out in his mind: "Brother, Yi-Bai actually likes to drink pomegranate juice! Haha, it's so odd for such a grown boy like him to like pomegranate juice, isn't it?" "Brother, I bought some pomegranate juice for him today. He was very happy. He even obediently ate all the medicine." ...

Lin Zi's expression was dark as he poured all of the white powder into the red pomegranate juice.

When Yun Duo returned with the snow pear juice, she did not notice anything strange. However, after she got out of the car, as she was heading towards the gates of the training base with the cups of juice, her old quirk reared its head again.

Pomegranates ripened in autumn and it was already spring now. For pomegranates to be preserved from then till now, how much preservatives had to be added to the fruit? It must be particularly bad for the body. What if Tang Yi-Bai got diarrhoea from the pomegranate juice? He was going to race in two days...

Boo hoo hoo, she had better not let him drink it. There was no room for error now with Tang Yi-Bai's diet — no mistakes could be made.

At the thought, Yun Duo threw away the pomegranate juice into the trash can by the side of the road. Sigh, it felt like a crime to waste food.

Still, so what? For Tang Yi-Bai's sake, she was willing to commit a crime.

Since Yun Duo had already come over to visit many times before, the guards would not stop her as long as Coach Wu gave them a heads up in advance. As a reporter, Yun Duo blatantly entered the training room.

Tang Yi-Bai had just finished his afternoon training — his face was covered in sweat, and his T-shirt was drenched. When he saw Yun Duo, he bopped her lightly on the nose and said with a smile, "Let me take a shower."

Yun Duo said, "Blow your hair dry before coming out."

"Okay."

Coach Wu tsked from the sidelines, shaking his head. "Oh my, things are different with a girlfriend around."

Refreshed from his shower, Tang Yi-Bai led Yun Duo away. Yun Duo did not want to delay his evening training later, so the two of them chose to have dinner at the team canteen.

See, dating a professional athlete was just that troublesome. They could only have a date at a canteen.

Of course, since they were at the training base, how could she and Tang Yi-Bai have a date all on their own? Dp-boys onlookers were unavoidable...

Xiang Yang-Yang was very excited; she ordered many dished for Yun Duo. Tang Yi-Bai frowned at this. "Yang, my girlfriend is here to see me. Why are you so excited?"

Qi Rui-Feng said, "Xiang Yang-Yang has a crush on your girlfriend." He was attacked by Xiang Yang-Yang after this declaration.

Tang Yi-Bai stared at Xiang Yang-Yang through narrowed eyes. "Yang, is this true?"

Xiang Yang-Yang raged, "Are you crazy? I'm a girl too! How could I have a crush on another girl?!"

Ming Tian slapped his own head in sudden enlightenment. "Oh, so big sis Yang-Yang is a girl? Geez, I've known you for so long and only now know you're a girl! Big sis Yang-Yang, hide your wee-wee quickly! You're a girl, you know!"

"Ming! Tian!!!!!"

And then Xiang Yang-Yang hunted Ming Tian all over the canteen.

Yun Duo was greatly amused by the antics of this group of living treasures, and thus unconsciously ate more than she usually would.

There was some break time after dinner, so Tang Yi-Bai brought Yun Duo back to his dorm room. Before going back, he warned the dp-boys several times to not follow them, and he even asked Qi Rui-Feng to go play with someone else and stay away from the room. This made the 4-man team stare at them with salacious looks. Yun Duo did not know how she could explain. She really only wanted to spend some time alone with her boyfriend!

Tang Yi-Bai's dorm room was very spacious. The minimal furniture in the room just made the room appear even more spacious. As a well-known athlete, he and Qi Rui-Feng were actually both eligible for single rooms. However, neither one of them had any plans to change their current living arrangement. After all, they were already used to it. Qi Rui-Feng accidentally mentioned this once, and, well, the bee's nest was stirred. The shippers were more high than if they had taken stimulants...

Forget it, let's not go there.

Tang Yi-Bai dragged Yun Duo into the room and first got his fill of kissed. After Yun Duo called a stop to it, he moved two chairs to the balcony and the two of them sat there watching the scenery outside the window. There were people walking outside, and there were even some children among them. Yun Duo asked, "There isn't really a 'national team-affiliated kindergarten', right?"

"Well, there is a kindergarten nearby, but it's not affiliated with us. See there, that's the family apartments. The families of the coaches and the athletes live there, so it's not surprising if there are kids around." He paused and then gave her a look. "In fact, you can go live there too."

Yun Duo blushed. "I don't want to. It's too far from my workplace."

"Wait, you can't live there." Tang Yi-Bai suddenly shook his head. "There are forms to fill to live in the family housing. We aren't married yet so they won't approve the application. Once we're married, you'll be able to move in, and then our children will be able to attend the nearby kindergarten..."

Yun Duo quickly interrupted him. "What children now?"

Tang Yi-Bai nodded. "Right, our child cannot go to the kindergarten here. Our child would probably only be able to attend kindergarten a few years later. By that time, I should already be retired and we can't be sure what I'll be doing then."

"Big brother, you are thinking a little too far ahead..."

"Duoduo, my training every day is very boring. This is what I think about to ease my boredom. A little fantasy can help reduce my fatigue."

Yun Duo suddenly felt some sympathy for the athletes. Such arduous training, and they can only rely on their imaginations to entertain themselves. Their quality of life was on par with that of mental patients. Thus, how could she deprive him of his only source of entertainment? And so she gave him a decisive thumbs-up. "Good thinking!"

Tang Yi-Bai squinted at her for a moment and then he suddenly said, "Duoduo, I think I ate a little too much earlier."

Yun Duo was a little anxious. "Ah, so what should be do? Do you have any antacid pills?"

"Nope. Why don't you help me rub my tummy?"

"Okay, but I'm not very good at it. If it doesn't help, you should go see the team doctor."

"Okay," said Tang Yi-Bai, pulling up his shirt to expose his belly.

Yun Duo was a little embarrassed. "I can do it over your clothes."

"It's better this way."

With that, she did not say anything more. She quickly found his stomach area and began kneading it gently. It did not feel very hard, so she was less concerned and focused on kneading to make him feel better. Naturally, her gaze was on his abdomen. His lovely neat abs made her her pound, and there was a sparse trail of hair from his belly button which stretched all the way to the edge of his trousers.

She felt flustered looking at it and quickly turned her eyes away. When she raised her head, her eyes met his heated gaze. He was staring at her face, his lips slightly parted, exhaling warm puffs of air. Yun Duo perceptively noticed something unusual in the flush stealing over his cheeks. She looked down, and — boo hoo hoo — he was playing the rascal again!

Tang Yi-Bai grabbed her hand and pushed it downwards. After having had a taste, he had taken a liking to it. How could he let this opportunity slip by?

Yun Duo hurriedly pulled her hand away. "You have a race in a few days. Can you first focus properly on your race!"

Tang Yi-Bai held her hand and said to her, panting, "If you don't help me, I'll hurt myself from holding back too much. How can I race properly then?"

"You..." What rubbish reason is this?!

Yun Duo still ended up helping him in the end. He had stared at her longingly, his eyes pleading desperately, like a fish out of water, as if he would die of thirst if she did not help him... She had been taken in by his behaviour and could not find it in herself to refuse, and so... she helped him...

Yun Duo exited the dorm room with a red face, trailing behind Tang Yi-Bai. Tang Yi-Bai wanted to send her home, but he really could not delay his training. So he thought of a compromise — Yun Duo should watch him as he trained, and he would send her home when he was done.

Yun Duo asked Tang Yi-Bai, "I'll be seen by many people then. I was already seen by many people earlier in the canteen. How will you explain it to them?"

"No need for explanations. They can all guess that you're my girlfriend."

Yun Duo was shocked. "What should we do then? Will we be exposed?"

Tang Yi-Bai rubbed her head to comfort her. "Most likely not."

Yun Duo found that even more surprising. "Are all athletes so tight-lipped? I remember that some are pretty gossipy."

"Even if they gossip, it'll be internally. They won't gossip to outsiders. The team has made it a rule that no one can talk about my love life with outsiders. If they're caught violating this rule, they might be punished."

Yun Duo was stunned. "The national team is really very strict, even controlling things like this."

Tang Yi-Bai smiled and said, "They don't control everyone's private matters like this. It's mainly because I have commercial value right now and can bring in a lot of revenue to the team. So the team is paying a little more attention to things like this."

The two of them arrived at the pool as they were talking. Wu Yong was not surprised to see Yun Duo, and he just asked Yun Duo to observe from the side.

And so Yun Duo watched as Tang Yi-Bai swam around in the clear blue water of the pool like a mermaid. Wu Yong felt that Tang Yi-Bai's condition in training this time round was very good. He turned his head to look at Yun Duo, realising something. Having a girlfriend around really made a difference... Wu Yong mused once again.

Another lap down, Tang Yi-Bai stopped by the edge of the pool and made eyes at Yun Duo as he leaned against the pool wall. Yun Duo smiled through closed lips and pretended not to see him.

Wu Yong stood by the side of the pool and sneered at Tang Yi-Bai who was inside the water. "You punk. You're not using your hands to move through the water. You're only relying on your wiles to coast through life!{臭小子划水不用手，全靠浪！: This statement is honestly a puzzle to me. I tried looking it up and the closest I could get was 划船不用桨，一生全靠浪, which refers to how a person gets through life by relying on others instead of working hard for themselves. That doesn't obviously apply to this scenario though, hence my confusion. If anyone has any thoughts on this, please share in the comments section below.}"

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