59 Lin Gaoyuan

"Nanzhou, I'm going to the national team!"

Lin Gaoyuan, who had been ambushed by a sudden "first love" these past few days, almost forgot about this major event. Was his newly begun romance about to wither away just like that?

"Oh."

Duan Nanzhou remained completely unsurprised. She tapped his homework with her finger, signaling him not to get distracted and to keep writing.

Lin Gaoyuan: ......

Why was this turning out differently from what he had imagined? Shouldn't Duan Nanzhou be grabbing him and demanding to know all the details?

Besides, he really hated doing homework! He wasn't someone suited for academics anyway, which was precisely why playing table tennis well was his other viable path!

"Hurry up and write!"

Seeing Lin Gaoyuan spacing out again, Duan Nanzhou unceremoniously slapped him on the back of the head.

Feeling aggrieved after being hit yet not daring to resist, Lin Gaoyuan obediently went back to writing homework he barely understood. Why was English so annoying? A bunch of ghostly scribbles that made zero sense to him!

Only after supervising him to finish his homework did Duan Nanzhou let him off the hook, granting him freedom of movement.

This had been the most common state of affairs between the two ever since their "romance" began: one person supervising, the other forced to study.

So, what on earth was love anyway?

At such a tender age, Lin Gaoyuan raised such profound thoughts and questions.

"Nanzhou, I'm going to the national team, how can you not care about me at all!"

On the way home, the more Lin Gaoyuan thought about it, the angrier he became. He was convinced that Duan Nanzhou was deliberately withholding any care for him.

"Go ahead then."

Duan Nanzhou had zero interest in this. Her only thought was that she would soon be liberated. Over the past few days, she had already expressed her desire to quit the team to her parents and coaches, and she estimated that wish would come true very soon!

Well, this was wonderful. She was about to shake off two messy burdens. How delightful!

Lin "Messy Burden" Gaoyuan: Am I the messy burden?

"We won't be able to see each other much in the future!" Lin Gaoyuan said mournfully, feeling that his first love was coming to an end.

"It doesn't matter. Joining the national team is the ultimate goal for us athletes. Once you go there, you must work hard, make it into the first team, become a core player, enter competitions, and win countless gold medals!"

Duan Nanzhou started spinning a grand vision for Lin Gaoyuan, speaking with such fiery enthusiasm!

"I will work hard, Nanzhou!" Lin Gaoyuan clenched his fist, his expression resolute.

"As for us, look, we can still be friends in the future..."

Duan Nanzhou had barely started when Lin Gaoyuan moved to refute, only to have his mouth covered by her hand.

"Listen to me finish. Nod if you agree, otherwise I won't let go."

Smothered and struggling to breathe, Lin Gaoyuan immediately nodded frantically and thereby regained his freedom.

"Look, friendships last a lifetime, whereas romances can end at any moment. The two of us are so young right now, and soon we'll be in a long-distance relationship. Wouldn't it be extremely easy for us to break up?"

Master Bluffer Duan directly activated her skills, and under the pressure of her gaze, Lin Gaoyuan hurriedly nodded.

"So, if we revert to being friends now, we can stay in touch all the time. We won't have to overthink things like couples do, and it won't affect our training either, right? So wouldn't it be much better for us to just be friends?"

Lin Gaoyuan opened his mouth to say something, but his microphone was manually muted by her again.

"Gaoyuan, let me tell you, friendship is indestructible! As the old saying goes, friends walk together for a lifetime, right? Besides, aren't we currently engaging in puppy love?"

Seeing Lin Gaoyuan react with a blank stare, Duan Nanzhou was deeply dissatisfied. "Speak!"

"Yes, Nanzhou."

"There you go. Puppy love is a dead end! By then, we'll face even more obstacles—parents, teachers, coaches, and so on. It'll become hard to stay in touch, and breaking up sooner or later is inevitable, right? Therefore, we should just be friends. Only as friends can we openly play together in broad daylight!"

After being subjected to a round of slick persuasion and brainwashing, the still-young Lin Gaoyuan was practically convinced. Although something always felt a bit strange, he ultimately agreed to Duan Nanzhou's proposal to be friends.

Of course, there might have been a tiny bit of physical threat involved, but Lin Gaoyuan refused to admit it—otherwise, where would a manly man's dignity go?

......

After Lin Gaoyuan packed his bags and headed north to join the national team, Duan Nanzhou essentially retired from the provincial team as well.

This coincidental overlap in timing provided plenty of fodder for gossip within the team, save for the coaches who knew the real reason behind her departure.

Everyone whispered that Duan Nanzhou was simply too heartbroken over Lin Gaoyuan leaving for the national team, and realizing her own table tennis talent wasn't enough to get her into the national team either, she chose to quit the team herself to escape this place of sorrow as they faced a breakup.

Such a narrative spread rapidly and gained unanimous approval throughout the team.

After relaying this gossip to Duan Nanzhou, Li Er spent the entire time cursing those people. She was well aware of her best friend's actual reasons for leaving the team, and it had zero to do with any of that nonsense!

Furthermore, little Miss Li also knew that it was actually Duan Nanzhou who had coaxed Lin Gaoyuan into breaking up. In a roundabout way, it was Duan Nanzhou who dumped Lin Gaoyuan!

What kind of people were these? Especially the young boys who had previously been rejected by Duan Nanzhou—they were the most enthusiastic spreaders of these vicious rumors. Truly, it was no wonder Duan Nanzhou had rejected them in the first place; she had seen right through their ugly natures from the start.

"Nanzhou, are you really going abroad? Does that mean I won't be able to see you anymore?" Li Er had come to confirm this very matter. She knew Duan Nanzhou was quitting the team because she had different life plans—specifically, she intended to study abroad.

"That's right. Don't worry, Muzi, we still have our phones to keep in touch!" Toward her only female best friend, Duan Nanzhou remained very patient and maintained regular contact, because Li Er truly was an adorable girl.

"Sigh, fine. I hope I get the chance to visit you someday!" Li Er asked mostly as a formality, knowing that once her friend made a decision, nothing would change it.

"Definitely! Once I get settled in, I'll invite you over to play."

With that, Duan Nanzhou reached out and pinched little Miss Li's cheeks. Those chubby baby cheeks were so soft and incredibly fun to pinch!

"Mm-hmm."

......

Switzerland.

After arriving, Duan Nanzhou spent several busy days finally renting an apartment and purchasing basic daily necessities, before packing off her reluctant father, mother, and older brother to send them back.

Getting back safely to work was the priority; otherwise, who was going to fund her little stash of money?

Besides, staying here was pointless anyway since Duan Nanzhou's worldly experience far exceeded theirs. They had merely tagged along behind her and fought over who got to pay the bills.

The dismissed Duan family trio thought: Better send her more money then. We feel like our daughter/younger sister is far more independent than we ever imagined.

Consequently, the three of them quickly returned home to earn big bucks, sending generous living allowances to their daughter/younger sister every month to ensure she wouldn't suffer any hardships!

When Duan Nanzhou first arrived in this world, she pondered how she wanted to live this lifetime. She couldn't just keep repeating her past lives; even though she knew how to do everything and wouldn't need to put in effort, it would lack meaning!

Especially after confirming that she was holding a quick-transmigration script, Duan Nanzhou developed a strong desire to experience a completely different lifestyle. Studying and mastering entirely new knowledge and skills every time—now that sounded utterly cool!

This time, the plan Duan Nanzhou made for herself was studying abroad. She had never experienced university life in a foreign country!

As for choosing Switzerland, it was a sudden inspiration. After confirming its feasibility, Duan Nanzhou locked it in and started executing her plan.

To achieve this, Duan Nanzhou even skipped grades, completed high school two years ahead of schedule, and applied to ETH Zurich in Switzerland.

Having familiarized herself with the application requirements long ago, Duan Nanzhou started learning German the very moment she locked onto her goal.

The learning process could only be described as excruciatingly painful, but the results were exceptionally rewarding. She passed the relevant language exams and obtained the certificates, thus bypassing the need to spend a whole year in a language preparatory class.

Duan Nanzhou arrived in Switzerland a bit early to acclimate. In the past, her visits had been limited to brief vacations, which felt entirely different from actually residing here.

When the semester officially began, Duan Nanzhou officially embarked on her university academic career majoring in Earth and Ocean Sciences—a field she had never touched before, which felt like a massive and exciting challenge!

Over in the national team, Lin Gaoyuan was encountering massive challenges of his own. Things were completely different from what he had imagined!

The somewhat cocky teenage boy felt like crying, but his pride forced him to hold it in. Back in the provincial team, he could still manage things with ease. But upon arriving at the national team, he realized his talent was thoroughly mediocre. The place was swarming with all sorts of geniuses; only through relentless hard work could one make progress, and only by progressing could one survive.

Under immense pressure, Lin Gaoyuan felt even more fragile. The coaches had previously noted that his psychological resilience was somewhat average, making him prone to falling apart during major events and big competitions. Now, his mental defenses felt on the verge of shattering.

Yet he couldn't easily confide in others. The only person suitable for pouring his heart out to—Duan Nanzhou—was currently unreachable. Although Duan Nanzhou had warned him beforehand that she was going abroad to study and might not check her phone promptly due to the overseas location, Lin Gaoyuan still felt utterly miserable. Didn't she tell him before that being friends meant they could always stay in touch? He had been conned, boo-hoo-hoo!

Swallowing back his tears, Lin Gaoyuan sat down to write an email to Duan Nanzhou. She had previously instructed him that if he couldn't reach her by phone, he should send an email, and she would reply whenever she saw it.

He would trust her one more time! But emails were so hard to write; he felt miserable and wanted to cry even more.

Duan Nanzhou, who had been busy with the start of the semester, finally had a moment of leisure to check Lin Gaoyuan's email. She scoffed inwardly: what a jumbled mess! That writing style didn't even reach elementary school standards!

After reading through it, Duan Nanzhou replied to comfort the fragile young boy. She also provided her new phone number, though it was an international number and calling it would be too expensive—estimating that he didn't have much money to spare anyway, Duan Nanzhou told him to stick to communicating mostly via email and keep phone calls to a rare minimum.

As for her domestic phone number from China, Duan Nanzhou had stopped using it after coming to Switzerland, though she kept the SIM card active. That was the contact method Lin Gaoyuan still held.

Receiving the reply made Lin Gaoyuan immensely happy. Even though his opponent had written at most a hundred words compared to his own eight-hundred-word essay, he remained thoroughly satisfied!

It seemed he was still Duan Nanzhou's good friend after all!