CHAPTERS
The second selection trial was scheduled for mid-February, coinciding with the Lantern Festival. Although the competition was imminent, the training base was still buzzing with post-holiday restlessness. Li Yeqing had returned to Sichuan for the New Year and brought back an entire box of spicy rabbit heads, handing them out to everyone. For a while, the base was filled with a cheerful atmosphere. As his roommate, Gu Yiming received three boxes of rabbit heads with varying levels of spiciness when he…- 63.1 K • Completed
- Gu Yiming only had five days off. Fang Xiao didn't know what time the shooting team required him to report back, so after their morning run on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, he asked Gu Yiming if he could drive him there. Gu Yiming had been in good spirits, but the question suddenly dampened his mood. Even though he remained curled up on the sofa in the same position, his entire aura grew heavy, like the oppressive humidity before a summer rain. Fang Xiao didn't hear a response and peeked out…
- 63.1 K • Completed
- Fang Xiao loved eating porridge. All kinds of porridge—millet, rice, black rice, barley, mung beans, red beans, buckwheat, oats—just plain mixed grains boiled together without sugar or meat. Apart from porridge, Fang Xiao only ate raw vegetable salads and chicken breast. The salad didn't need dressing, and the chicken breast didn't require oil, salt, or seasoning. When he was too busy to cook, Fang Xiao would order takeout, but he always stuck to the same restaurant and only ordered plain stewed…
- 63.1 K • Completed
- On New Year's Eve, Fang Xiao's takeout remained untouched. Early on the first day of the Lunar New Year, Gu Yiming went into the kitchen and made himself a bowl of noodles, heating the takeout in the microwave before eating it. When he finally drank the congee, he saw the last two lines of the poem on the box. Unlike the heaviness of the previous lines about "boiling and simmering," these read: "Fast or slow, watch the fire's pace, Sour, sweet, bitter, spicy—drink in the years." Not bad. Gu…
- 63.1 K • Completed
- This time when Gu Yiming stayed over, his attitude was completely different from before. He was extremely enthusiastic, inspecting every decoration and trace in the house like a large feline surveying its territory. The apartment was rented by Fang Xiao—a two-bedroom, one-living-room layout, with the master bedroom acoustically treated and converted into a recording studio. The landlord was a friend of Fang Xiao's from the music industry who had gone abroad for further studies and didn't want their…
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- This year's Spring Festival arrived unusually early. It felt like New Year's Day had just passed when the supermarket across from the training ground hung up a "Welcome the Spring Festival" banner. Gu Yiming saw the holiday notice posted on the cafeteria wall early in the morning—a cheerful red sheet announcing a five-day break from New Year's Eve to the fourth day of the lunar new year. This caught Gu Yiming off guard. During the previous two years of preparing for the first leg of the ISSF World Cup,…
- 63.1 K • Completed
- Half a year—even in Gu Yiming's concept of time—was a considerably long period. He thought about his agreement with Fang Xiao, feeling quite conflicted, but still faithfully observed the people around him. The winter training was semi-closed, and apart from coaches and support staff, the shooting range only had Gu Yiming's teammates and substitute players selected from the youth training team. He saw the girls on the team secretly feeding breadcrumbs to magpies, their tightly bundled figures…
- 63.1 K • Completed
- Fang Xiao saw the message in the early hours of the morning. Several freelance composition projects he had taken on after returning to Beijing coincidentally required urgent revisions—clients were willing to pay extra to get demos before the Lunar New Year. Fang Xiao had practically locked himself in his studio, his mind working nonstop, with only his ears granted the occasional break. To any outsider, it wouldn't seem like Fang Xiao was deliberately ignoring Gu Yiming. But Fang Xiao knew better—his…
- 63.1 K • Completed
- Without a phone, Gu Yiming couldn't browse social media, couldn't contact Fang Xiao, and couldn't even finish asking the questions he had before. This past week had been incredibly tough for him. He bought a new phone online, but there was an issue with the delivery—his package took a detour to Yunnan and wouldn't arrive for several more days. Out of sheer boredom, Gu Yiming decided to increase his training intensity on his own. Shooting was, without a doubt, the best way to kill time. At first, Qin…
- 63.1 K • Completed
- Fang Xiao returned on a Saturday, with Beijing still blanketed in snow. The city, prone to summer floods and winter droughts, welcomed the dust-covered convoy with icy enthusiasm. Tang Shao lived near Wangjing. Fang Xiao dropped him off along with his thirty-plus pounds of souvenirs at Tang Shao's apartment building, then drove straight to a car wash near his own home. Even though the snow was still falling and the freshly washed car would soon be dirtied again by the filthy snow heavy with smog, Fang…
- 63.1 K • Completed
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