Chapter 78

This year's Champions Tournament was to be held at City-S. As a national idol, Tang Yi-Bai already had a crowd of fans. The tickets for all of his events had long been snapped up. Some fans who did not manage to obtain tickets waited in droves outside the swimming hall, unwilling to leave. Heaven knows what miracle they were hoping for, or perhaps they only wanted to be just a little closer to their idol.

Yun Duo snapped a picture of the long line outside the ticketing window to prove that "swimming is still as popular as ever; the future is bright". After taking the photo, she mused cheekily that if she were to resell the tickets she had for Tang Yi-Bai's and Qi Rui-Feng's events, she would most certainly make a small fortune.

Tang Yi-Bai's time in the men's 100-metre freestyle finals at the Champions Tournament this time was 47.91 seconds, slightly worse than his best time of 47.74 seconds last year. However, this was not indicative of a problem. The time of 47.74 seconds had been achieved at the Asian Games. In fact, if his time in the medley relay then had also been taken into account, 47.74 seconds would not have been his best time either. But the Asian Games and the Champions Tournament were at completely different levels, and so it was natural that they would produce different ranges of performance. For the Chinese athletes who had already received a ticket to the World Championships, the Champions Tournament was just an opportunity for them to fine-tune their condition. The real challenge would be the World Championships this summer. Their best condition should of course be reserved for that important event.

Still, from an international perspective, 47.91 seconds was ranked third in the global ranking and could be considered a very good result. The two people ahead of him were the famous Sanger from Australia and the former Olympic champion Arbussy. Sanger was the runner-up in the 100-metre freestyle at the last Olympic Games; he was exceedingly skilled. Arbussy's condition was slipping due to his age — after all, he had already won two Olympic gold medals before; his best time this year was only faster than Tang Yi-Bai's by 0.06 seconds. Besides those two, the French swimmer Bayard was ranked fourth at 47.90 seconds, only slightly behind Tang Yi-Bai. There had been some unpleasantness between Bayard and Tang Yi-Bai in Australia last year; of course, Tang Yi-Bai was not at all concerned about such a small matter.

Among these three, the most competitive rivals for Tang Yi-Bai would have to be Arbussy and Bayard. Their times were comparatively closer. Whenever Tang Yi-Bai's name was mentioned alongside Arbussy's, many people could not help but recall the ruckus at that press conference a year ago. At that time, how many people had believed that "Tang Yi-Bai challenges Arbussy" was a publicity stunt? And now, this Chinese athlete carried the hope of countless people, just a step away from that world-famous figure.

Perhaps not even a full step away.

When a reporter brought up the matter again in front of Tang Yi-Bai, Tang Yi-Bai merely smiled and said, "The one I want to challenge now is Sanger. My aim is to be world champion, as always."

The reporters were surprised at his response. It seems like Tang Yi-Bai had become even cockier ...

Tang Yi-Bai's fans were thrilled when they saw this interview clip: Wow, wow, wow, my young master Bai was crazy cool, handsome, swag! Young master Bai, show me your cool love! Marry me!

When Wu Yong found out, he chided Tang Yi-Bai, "Why are you so loose-lipped now too? Sanger is at his peak right now. It's not going to be that easy to beat him. Now you've outright boasted and raised expectations, if you lose later, it'll be a smack in the face."

Tang Yi-Bai was unconcerned. "If I'm smacked, let me be smacked. I have thick skin. I'm not afraid."

Tang Yi-Bai's goal was too high and time was too short. Wu Yong did not even dare to give him any more time off. Immediately after the Champions Tournament, they returned straight back to the team and were back at the pool as soon as possible. In the past, Tang Yi-Bai would have been able to take a trip back home first. This time, he desperately wanted to see Yun Duo, so he humbled himself to plead with Coach Wu. However, Coach Wu chuckled coldly, beard quivering, and asked, "Do you or do you not want to beat Sanger? If you want to, then set aside your puppy love for the moment! Your girlfriend will be there waiting for you, but the gold medal might sprout wings at any moment and fly away!"

Thus, Tang Yi-Bai did not have any opportunity to go home to see Yun Duo and could only wait for Yun Duo to come find him instead.

But then, eating together in the canteen, strolling about on the exercise field, at most just stealing a moment of intimacy in the dorm rooms... what kind of dates were these?!

After several such sad and miserable days, even Wu Yong could not bear to watch this go on anymore. Tang Yi-Bai's schedule would only become even tighter after this. Going up to the highlands in May, then off again to Australia for more external training in June, team training in July, and the World Championships would officially begin in August... if he did not have the time to have a date with his girlfriend now, he would just have even less time later on. More than three months in a row, and counting the previous month before that, it will be more than four months. Not giving them even one day?

That's too cruel. This king cannot do it!

And so, when Tang Yi-Bai came out of the pool today, Wu Yong told him with a straight face, "You get a day off tomorrow. Note that it's just one day. And then, for the next three months, I want you to buckle down and train properly with no distractions. You hear me?"

Tang Yi-Bai was overjoyed. "Okay, definitely! Thank you, Coach Wu!" And with that, he turned and ran off.

Wu Yong shouted, "You are only off for tomorrow. What's your rush now?"

"I'm going to go home tonight!"

"Tsk!" Wu Yong rolled his eyes in contempt, but then shook his head with a smile.

Tang Yi-Bai did not tell Yun Duo in advance. He wanted to give her a surprise. He hailed a taxi home, but when the car was nearing his destination, it suddenly stopped. Tang Yi-Bai asked, "What's going on?"

The taxi driver was resigned. "Some road work ahead. We can't go any further. It's so strange, why is there road work here? We can only go around it. Let me see how we can detour."

Tang Yi-Bai said, "It's fine. This isn't too far from where I'm going, just let me out here. Mister, you can go ahead and turn back."

Tang Yi-Bai felt a little bad that he had made the driver come into a dead end, so he gave him a tip of five dollars.

He got out of the car and went around the "Construction Ahead, Please Detour" sign, but he had not walked far when he suddenly heard a woman crying. Tang Yi-Bai turned his head to peek into the nearby alley, and the scene he saw inside gave him a fright.

Two men were rough handling a girl. One of them was holding her down, his hands groping at her under her clothes, while the other man was trying to take off her pants. The girl was crying, begging for mercy, but the two scum were unwilling to let her go.

Tang Yi-Bai was enraged. He was just about to step forward to help, when, after some thought, he took out his mobile phone to call the cops first. After that, he grabbed a brick from somewhere behind him and walked over, shouting loudly, "What are you doing?! Let her go!"

One of the men turned to see Tang Yi-Bai and he spat, "Busybody!"

Only then did Tang Yi-Bai notice that the two men were wearing masks. Only their eyes and mouths were exposed. He clenched his hand around the brick behind him and said calmly, "Let go of her, and I can pretend I did not see anything."

As expected, the man released the girl. The other man also let go when he saw his partner do so. This man then stared at Tang Yi-Bai and suddenly pulled an iron bar out from his waist. "Attack! Beat him dead!"

Armed with iron rods now, the two men lunged at Tang Yi-Bai.

They had greater numbers and they also had weapons, while Tang Yi-Bai only had a brick. Thus, he did not fight them head on, turning instead to run away, hoping to lead the two men out onto the street. He had an obvious height advantage so he was confident he could outrun them.

However, at that moment, another person appeared at the mouth of the alley. He was also wearing a face mask and carrying an iron rod, and he blocked Tang Yi-Bai's way out.

This setup made Tang Yi-Bai wonder if they had come prepared.

But he did not have time to pursue the thought. The three armed men were charging at him and as soon as they got close, they started swinging their iron rods.

Tang Yi-Bai had quick reflexes. He managed to dodge many of the attacks, but still got hit two times. He could not stop to nurse the pain. As soon as he a chance, he pulled one of the men into a chokehold and slammed his brick onto the man's face till it was bloody.

Unfortunately, the man did not lose consciousness. The three men became frenzied. Two of them, including the one with the bloody face, threw aside their iron rods and then grabbed hold of Tang Yi-Bai to prevent him from dodging and shouted to the last man, "Get him!"

The only man left with an iron rod did not attack Tang Yi-Bai's head or his belly, swinging it hard at his wrist instead.

Tang Yi-Bai struggled in an attempt to dodge but was unable to avoid it. The rod struck his wrist and a penetrating pain pierced his brain. He could not help but grunt.

Despair enveloped him, but not because of the pain. His hand had been injured. It was the most important body part for a swimmer.

Right then, police sirens could be heard coming from the near distance. The three goons quickly picked up their iron rods and ran.

Tang Yi-Bai's entire face was covered in sweat from the pain, and he was leaning against a wall as he gasped for breath. His right hand hurt anytime he tried to move it — it wasn't looking good. He used his left hand to carefully cradle his right and then shouted at the police coming towards the alley, "Police, over here."

Several policemen soon came over. They saw Tang Yi-Bai covered in blood and his face was pale, so they thought he had been seriously injured. One of the policemen asked, "Were you the one who called the cops?"

"Yes, that's me. The bad guys have already run away, and there was also a girl around." As he said this, he looked towards where the girl was last but saw nothing. "Uh, she has also gone away."

The police asked, "Can you walk? I'll call an ambulance for you."

"No need. This blood isn't mine. I've injured my hand and may need to go to the hospital."

"We'll take you there."

"Okay, thank you. Also, I'm an athlete..."

"Ah!" The policeman suddenly realised. "It's you. You're Tang Yi-Bai!"

Tang Yi-Bai nodded and explained, "It's like this. I'm an athlete so I need to inform my coach and team doctor about this situation. Can you help me make a call?"

"Yes, of course!"

The policeman fished out Tang Yi-Bai's phone from his pocket. Right at that moment, a call came in. The policeman lifted the phone to Tang Yi-Bai's face and asked, "This person is calling you? Should I answer it?"

"Please. That's my girlfriend."

The policeman accepted the call and brought the phone up to Tang Yi-Bai's ear. The policeman had no intention of eavesdropping, but the voice of the girl was coming through so clearly from the other side that he could not help but hear everything.

Tang Yi-Bai: "Hello, Duoduo."

Yun Duo said, "Done with training?"

"Mhm."

"Have you gone home?"

"Yes."

Yun Duo felt like something was wrong with Tang Yi-Bai today. He was saying so little, which was unlike him. She asked curiously, "What's wrong? Are you unhappy?"

"No."

"You are unhappy, aren't you?"

"Duoduo, I have something to do right now. I'll call you later."

Yun Duo found that even stranger. "Why are you panting? Training should have ended a long time ago. Did you have additional training today?"

"Yes, I had extra training."

"I don't believe you. Tang Yi-Bai, are you hiding something from me? Wait, have you found someone else you like?"

The policeman could not bear to listen to this any further. Tang Yi-Bai truly had great tolerance. He was already so injured and he still had time to twist words with his girlfriend. So the policeman took the phone and said to Yun Duo, "Lady, your boyfriend is injured."

Yun Duo was shocked. "What did you say?!"

"I said, your boyfriend is injured."

"You must be joking with me, right? Who are you?"

"I'm a policeman. I'm not joking with you. I'm about to send your boyfriend to the hospital now. If you want to come see him..."

"Where is Tang Yi-Bai? Where are you guys? I'll be right there! ! !"

"Come find us at the hospital."

"Which one?"

The policeman paused here, stumped. Of course, there was a hospital nearby, but he also knew that there could not be any risks taken with an athlete's body. Thus, he hesitated and asked Tang Yi-Bai, "Which hospital do you want to go to? Shall I send you to Jishuitan?" Jishuitan Hospital was a famous orthopaedic centre.

However, prestigious hospitals came with their own host of problems. For one, they usually attracted too many people. If they did not manage to make it onto the patient list for the day and ended up delaying and exacerbating the injury, it would end up being even more troublesome.

"No need." Tang Yi-Bai shook his head. "Just send me to the nearest hospital's emergency centre. The team should send a professional over soon. Right now, please call my coach and the team's doctor and tell them where we're going, and also... my bone might be broken." As Tang Yi-Bai said this, his eyes dimmed.

"Okay."

Yun Duo practically flew out of the house, swiftly hailing a taxi to go to the hospital. She only arrived at the hospital 10 minutes after Tang Yi-Bai and the police did. Tang Yi-Bai had just registered and had yet to see a doctor when Yun Duo arrived. As soon as she saw how much blood was on Tang Yi-Bai, her face turned white and her tears fell like rain.

Tang Yi-Bai's heart clenched when he saw her cry. He really felt like stroking her head, but he could not move his hands. He consoled her softly, "It's alright. Everything's fine. This blood isn't mine. I only hurt my wrist. It'll heal very quickly."

He could not injure his hand either! Swimming strokes depended a lot on one's hands! Yun Duo's heart ached for him, full of distress and concern for him. However, she did not want to worry him, so she quickly dried her eyes and bowed her head to look at his wrist. It looked swollen, but she could not diagnose anything else just by looking.

She followed Tang Yi-Bai in to see the doctor on duty. The doctor asked a few questions and gave some instructions, first asking him to go in for an x-ray.

As they waited for the x-ray results, Yun Duo clenched her fists, feeling panicked and restless. Please let nothing be wrong, please let nothing be wrong... Tang Yi-Bai...

She did not dare to show her nerves, fearing that it would affect Tang Yi-Bai, so she could only pretend to be composed while she was panicking internally. She gritted her teeth and asked Tang Yi-Bai, "What happened?"

"Nothing much. I met some hooligans and was in a fight."

This reason was not very convincing. Yun Duo knew Tang Yi-Bai was not a combative person. Even if he met some hoodlums, he would not pick a fight with them. Sure enough, the policeman sitting beside them interjected, "Tang Yi-Bai was being a good Samaritan. He saw some men trying to gang rape a young girl, so he jumped in to help. Luckily, he called the cops in advance. Tang Yi-Bai, you did well."

Tang Yi-Bai was a little embarrassed. "You all did pretty well yourselves. The police came very quickly."

Yun Duo's eyes were red. "Did they catch the bad guys? Can we break their hands and legs?"

The policeman shook his head regretfully. "By the time we arrived, the gangsters had ran away. A little after this, we'll get a report from Tang Yi-Bai and open a case file so we can catch those bad guys as soon as possible. Right now, the key issue is that the victim has disappeared as well. If she were around, she should be able to provide more clues."

Yun Duo felt like she was hearing some joke. "The victim ran away? She saw Tang Yi-Bai being hurt and she ran away?"

The policeman nodded helplessly. "Yes. That is the case."

Yun Duo was extremely angry. "This kind of person does not deserve to be rescued!"

Tang Yi-Bai turned to her and rubbed his lower jaw against her forehead. "Duoduo, don't be angry."

Yun Duo's nose felt heavy, and she could not stop her tears from falling. She shook her head and answered, "I'm not angry. I just feel sad for your sake. I..." Her voice became choked as she spoke, and she tapered off, not knowing what to say, but her tears continued to fall.

Tang Yi-Bai bent his head to kiss away her tears. "Duoduo, don't be sad. It's really no big deal."

"No big deal? You're just trying to make me feel better. Muscle injuries and bone injuries need at least 100 days to heal. The World Championships are exactly 100 days later. How long have you been waiting for this event? If this isn't a big deal, what is?"

Her words cut straight to Tang Yi-Bai's deepest hidden worries.

Indeed, this was what he was most afraid of.

After preparing for so long for this long-anticipated event, and he had even made a bold statement that he would become world champion... but now, he could only sit here, cradling his hand, waiting for an almost certain verdict.

How could he not feel bad? At the very moment his wrist had been struck, his mind had already jumped to this consequence. A dark cloud had settled over his heart, impossible to dispel. But no matter how bad he felt, he still did not want to see his Duoduo sad.

Yun Duo also felt that she had spoken too harshly. At this time, she should not be bringing up this horrible matter. She could not care about whether they were alone or not anymore. She cupped his face and kissed him, and said, "No matter what, you are my big hero. Tang Yi-Bai, I'm proud of you."

Just as the x-rays came out, Wu Yong arrived with two other men in tow. One of them was Tang Yi-Bai's team doctor who Yun Duo recognised, while the other was an orthopaedic surgeon from a sports hospital, Dr. Xu. They joined the doctor on duty at the emergency centre to analyse the x-rays, and they came to the same conclusion: a wrist fracture.

When Tang Yi-Bai heard the results, he said to Yun Duo, "That's not too bad."

Yun Duo huffed. "Not too bad? You think I'm so ignorant?"

Strictly speaking, a fracture was a type of broken bone, but the bone was only cracked and not misplaced, so it was relatively much easier to treat than an outright broken bone. However, a bone fracture was still a fault in the bone, so how could it be considered "not bad"?

From the perspective of a typical doctor, the treatment for this kind of minor fracture was straightforward, and the injury should heal very easily. The key issue here was that the person who had fractured his bone was Tang Yi-Bai, a professional swimmer. And the Swimming World Championships would be held in 3 months.

The World Championships held special meaning for Tang Yi-Bai. Before this, the most major event he had participated in was the Asian Games; he had never competed in a world-level event before. The Olympic Games would be held about a year later, so this was his only real chance to practice and ready himself for the world stage before the Olympic Games. For him, this opportunity was much too rare and precious.

Moreover, the national team had high hopes for Tang Yi-Bai. He was one of the potential gold medal winners for the World Championship which China was banking on this year, and he was also the anchor swimmer for both the men's 4x100-metre medley relay and the 4x100-metre mixed medley relay events. (Asians generally chose to give up on the men's 4x100-metre freestyle relay.)

It could be said that his importance was on par to that of Qi Rui-Feng's.

No one wanted to see something go wrong with him at this critical moment.

Wu Yong's face was dark as he asked Dr. Xu, "This... how soon can he recover? Can he still make it for the World Championships?"

Dr. Xu replied, "Well, he can make it, but there is a problem. Judging from his condition, it will take at least 6 weeks for him to heal under my treatment. During this period, it's best if he does not do any vigorous exercise. So, the most optimistic estimate is that he will only be able to train normally after 6 weeks. Do you think he will be able to adjust and recover his peak condition in less than two months after stopping training for 6 weeks?"

Wu Yong was speechless. He knew that this was basically impossible. A swimmer who does not enter water for a month is equivalent to an average person being away from water for a year. In such a situation, the swimmer would have to spend a long time training again to calibrate all parts of their body back to peak condition before they would be able to fully utilise their body's potential.

In short, a good condition was easy to lay waste to but difficult to build up.

Dr. Xu sighed. "Let me put a cast on him first anyway. Or else there'll be even more trouble if the bone shifts."

Wu Yong had already lost all hope. Exasperated, he chided Tang Yi-Bai, "Why are you so rash? Must you involve yourself in everything? You think you're Superman or Batman? Seeing so many people and you still jump in so stupidly to fight?"

Tang Yi-Bai shook his head. "Coach Wu, don't scold me yet. I think there's something odd about this."

"How so?"

"I suspect that they were aiming for my hand from the beginning. They know who I am, and they also know how important hands are to an athlete. Their aim was to injure my hand. Even if I did not try to rescue that girl, they would have found some other way to ambush me. Right now, I even suspect that the girl who ran away might actually be their accomplice."

Everyone was shocked by this sudden revelation. The policeman asked, "Why do you suspect this? What have you realised?"

"Perfect timing, Mr. Policeman. Can you please wait a moment? Let's talk after my cast has been set."

"Okay."

---

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Next: Chapter 79

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