Wang Chuqin
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At a training hall in X Province in 2016, Duan Nanzhou mechanically practiced returning serves. The coach across the table watched her, plainly distracted, and shook his head helplessly before calling out,
“All right, all right, Nanzhou. That’s enough for today. Go get some rest.”
The coach turned and left as soon as he finished speaking, muttering to himself as he went. How could she still return every ball perfectly while daydreaming like that? Comparing people really could drive you mad. Still, she truly was the talent he had discovered. It was just a pity he would soon have to let her go—the national team had been hounding them relentlessly.
It had already been a week since the National Youth Table Tennis Championships. Ever since Duan Nanzhou had first appeared at a nationwide competition and swept her way to the championship, she had quickly caught the national team’s attention. If Duan Nanzhou and the provincial coaching staff had not firmly refused, the national team would have taken her away the moment the tournament ended.
In the end, after some “friendly discussions” between both sides, they agreed to give her another month to adjust. After that, she would pack her bags and promptly report to the national team for training.
Thinking of this, Duan Nanzhou’s coach felt both comforted and reluctant to part with her. After all, she was a genius he had discovered with his own hands. He dared say that, in the entire world of table tennis, Duan Nanzhou was one of a kind.
Recalling how he had first encountered her, the coach could not help feeling a little nostalgic.
Duan Nanzhou was unlike the other athletes. She had not been exposed to table tennis from childhood. At most, she had played it for fun when she was young and gained a basic understanding of the sport.
The coach had met her at the beginning of 2014, when she had only just turned thirteen. That was still very young for an ordinary child, but for a table tennis player, it was already considered late. No one could begin training in the sport at that age and still dream of making it onto the provincial team, let alone the national team.
As luck would have it, however, X Province was relatively underdeveloped in sports. Very few athletes from there had ever made it onto the national team, and those who did were generally marginal figures.
The coach could only sigh over the situation. Around that time, he had gone to a large sports center with an old friend. While they complained about current affairs and caught up with each other, he happened to notice Duan Nanzhou playing at a nearby table tennis table.
According to his old friend, the coach’s eyes had lit up at that moment. He might not have trained any particularly outstanding athletes yet, but he was absolutely confident in his judgment. After all, he had spent many years selecting promising young players for the provincial team. With his discerning eye, he could roughly assess a person’s talent from just a few rallies.
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Afterward, the coach shamelessly dragged his old friend along and stopped Duan Nanzhou just as she was preparing to leave. He introduced himself and asked her a few questions. When he learned that she had never undergone systematic table tennis training and had only played and learned the basics recreationally, he became even more certain of his idea.
Besides, given the state of the X Province team at the time, the coach had nothing to lose by taking a gamble. Thus began a week-long campaign of persuasion. Every day, he waited around for Duan Nanzhou and tried to convince her that she was a promising talent and could certainly become an excellent table tennis player.
As for Duan Nanzhou at the time, if she had truly been a child, she might have called the police after being cornered and brainwashed by some middle-aged man day after day. In the end, driven to distraction, she agreed to take a look at the team. Somehow, she wound up staying—and remained there until now, on the verge of joining the national team.
That was the coach’s recollection of how he had first met Duan Nanzhou. Even though he would no longer be responsible for her once she entered the national team, he had still produced such a genius. Not to mention that, thanks to Duan Nanzhou, his待遇 and position had both improved considerably. She truly was his lucky star.
Meanwhile, after hearing her coach’s words, Duan Nanzhou put away her paddle and began her cooldown stretches. Her thoughts continued to wander.
The prospect of packing up and moving to Beijing still felt slightly unreal. At first, she had joined the provincial team simply because she was tired of her coach’s daily nagging and wanted to practice table tennis for a while before quitting and beginning a life of complete idleness. She had never expected to make it all the way to the national team. At this point, quitting no longer seemed so easy.
For Duan Nanzhou, who had been given another chance at life, everything felt almost surreal. In her previous life, she had been unwillingly dragged into the endless rat race at work. Although it had afforded her a comfortable material life and she could be considered successful in her chosen career, that did not change the fact that, upon learning she had been given a second life, she had chosen to lie flat and do absolutely nothing.
Unfortunately, from the moment she was reborn—when she had just begun imagining the blissful, idle life that awaited her—she had been forcibly bound to a system.
The system called itself the Ultimate Idol Development System. It was nothing like the cute systems in the novels Duan Nanzhou had read. It was merely a cold, emotionless program that carried out its functions without mercy. At first, Duan Nanzhou had been unwilling to complete the tasks it assigned, but the punishments were genuinely unbearable. As a result, for several years she had fulfilled the system’s missions like a puppet.
Following its arrangements, she began learning dance and basic musical instruments from childhood. When the time came, she participated in auditions held by entertainment companies in Country H and began her life as a trainee.
This existence continued for several years. Although the system frequently issued missions and promised to give her everything she could want, helping her become the top idol in the world, Duan Nanzhou remained unmoved. She treated herself as nothing more than a puppet, training and studying as instructed.
Under such circumstances, even when the xenophobic people of Country H tried to bully Duan Nanzhou because her superior abilities had put her ahead of them, she continued living with cold indifference. She showed no reaction, merely avoiding them whenever possible.
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And so, after five years of training day after day, Duan Nanzhou suddenly realized that she could no longer hear the system’s voice in her mind. This silence was different from the occasional pause of a day or two without any missions. This time, it lasted half a month.
After repeatedly testing the situation and confirming it for herself, Duan Nanzhou guessed that the system had disappeared for some unknown reason. She cautiously submitted a request to terminate her contract with the company, citing long-term bullying as the reason. When the system still failed to reappear throughout the process, Duan Nanzhou finally dared to believe that she was truly free.
In the end, despite the company’s faint attempt to retain such a capable trainee and the reluctance of the few friends she had made, she resolutely took her termination papers home and prepared to lie flat for the rest of her life.
She had barely spent a month doing so when boredom led her to play table tennis at a sports center, where she was noticed and thus embarked upon her table tennis career.
After returning home, Duan Nanzhou also discovered that her physical condition had improved in everyday life and athletic activities, particularly her agility and powers of observation. Perhaps these were the benefits and special advantages left behind by that inexplicably vanished system.
Thus, Duan Nanzhou, whose physical abilities had already been enhanced by her rebirth, now possessed truly top-tier athletic talent. This was not some superficial advantage that might one day be taken away, but something that genuinely belonged to her.
Thinking of this, Duan Nanzhou did not know how to judge this second life of hers. It was all rather inexplicable.
Never mind. She had better hurry home and spend more time there. She had only been home for a few days, and soon she would be leaving again. Her parents would inevitably see her off with tears and reluctance. Just imagining her mother’s tearful face was enough to make Duan Nanzhou uneasy. She hated seeing other people cry, especially when they were crying because of her.
She should go home and keep her parents company a little longer, reinforcing the warm atmosphere of their family.
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