Chapter 63: Degrade

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The cafeteria was always the best place for communication between colleagues. But whenever the paparazzi for Xiang Huang was here, the cafeteria became the center of gossip.

"Have you heard that some of the athletes will be forced to leave the team?" Xiang Huang said.

"Again? How many? Why?" someone asked.

"I don’t know the exact number. But I heard that every team will have a quota. The new Olympic cycle starts again soon, so it is time to bring in new athletes to prepare for the next Olympic games," Huang said.

His voice was not loud, but it was loud enough for everybody around him to hear him clearly, including Aiguo Jiang and Dai Li.

Jiang’s expression changed immediately. A feeling of sadness, anxiousness, unwillingness, and helplessness were all apparent on his face, making his expression very complicated.

Dai Li looked at him pitifully and tried to comfort him. "Don’t take it seriously. It might be fake news."

"Li, don’t comfort me. I know that if somebody has to leave, it will be me. I’m already 32-years-old and I’m still here. There must be somebody who doesn’t like me and is trying to force me out. It is alright. It is not bad to retire early. I’m a loser anyway." Jiang stopped a second, looking as if he was trying to search through his memories, then continued.

"I was the national champion when I was young. I think it has been more than 10 years. I was in my early 20s when I won the national champion. I still remember lifting 155kg. I ranked No. 2. In the second round, I lifted 190kg without rest and won the championship because my record was 1kg heavier than my opponent’s. Do you know who I competed with?"

Dai Li shook his head. Aiguo Jiang revealed the answer immediately. "It was Gang Shi!"

"You mean the champion of the Olympic games, Gang Shi?" Dai Li asked surprisingly.

"Yes, that’s him. In the weightlifting championship, I was supposed to represent the national team and take part in the Olympic games because I was the champion. He was the second place finisher. However, I got hurt right before the game, so I had to quit. He took my place, and took part in the Olympic games, where he won the gold medal. Then you know how the rest of the story goes," Aiguo Jiang said slowly.

Dai Li remembered that Olympics. Dai Li was still on his summer holiday. He watched all the Olympic games relays because he had nothing else to do. He remembered the Men’s 69kg. Gang Shi had won without any suspense, right in the foreign players’ faces.

The Men’s 69kg is our best event. If Aiguo Jiang had not gotten hurt and had taken part in the Olympic games, he must have been able to win the gold medal. If he had, he would not have to struggle for his daughter’s surgery expenses now."

Dai Li sighed. He was not God; he could not turn back time. However, he had a coaching system that might be of use to Aiguo Jiang. This was all that he could do.

Dai Li hesitated a few seconds, then asked out of the blue, "Have you thought about changing to another weight class? The competition for the 69kg weight class is too intense. On our team alone we have two young men—Liang Peng and Dongshan Cao—who are in their 20s with great potential. Both of them are in the 69kg weight class. That’s not even considering the athletes with potential around the world."

"Of course I’ve thought about it before. But the competition in 77kg heavyweight is also intense. I’m already in my 30s. I wouldn’t be able to compete with those young men even if I got my weight up to 77kg. People of my age can’t get themselves to be as strong as younger people, even if we rebuild our muscles."

Dai Li shook his head. "I’m not talking about the 77kg. I’m talking about the 62kg weight class."

"62kg heavyweight? You want me to drop weight from 69kg to 62kg? Are you kidding me?" Aiguo Jiang couldn’t hide the surprise on his face.

Jiang seemed a little angry. He could not understand why Li would make such a bad joke knowing Jiang was close to being kicked out by the weightlifting team. That was not friendly at all.

"I’m not joking. I’m serious." Dai Li put down his chopsticks and continued, "Look, our priorities are on the 69kg and 77kg heavyweight. We have no athletes for the 62kg weight class, which means you would have no rivalry if you dropped to that weight. Then you’ll have a bigger chance of staying. As soon as you get the chance to compete in a game and get a record, there is no doubt that you will be able to stay."

"That’s useless. You think I haven’t thought about what you said? There is a 7kg difference between the two weight classes. There would also be muscle loss accompanied with the weight loss. I might not even be able to compete with athletes from the 56kg weight class, let alone take part in sports games," Aiguo Jiang started.

"I got your back! I’m the expert in losing weight. I know how to help you lose weight while maintaining as much muscle as possible," Dai Li said as he patted his own chest.

Aiguo Jiang looked at him with an expression of doubt. Obviously, he didn’t believe what Dai Li was saying. He might even make fun of Li if they had not been friends.

Li knew that Jiang would not believe him. He gestured at Jiang to come closer and said, "You know that there was a rumor on the internet saying that Feifei Yu did not work hard on her training and weighed 70kg a few days ago, and how it was said that she would be kicked off the national team. Did you hear about it?"

"Of course I did. It was big news. But it turned out to be fake. The swimming team even held a press conference and asked Feifei Yu to weigh herself in front of everyone. She was not even close to 70kg." Jiang saw that Li had a slight smile on his face. "Why is you smile so weird? You got some inside information?" Jiang asked.

"Don’t call my smile weird!" The smile disappeared from Li’s face. He lowered his voice and continued, "It’s true that she weighed 70kg, but she managed to lose the weight."

"She must have suffered a lot to lose more than 5kg. Wait, you were not on our team at that time. How did you know that she weighed 70kg?" Jiang asked.

"It was me who helped her lose the weight!" He took out his phone and showed one picture to Jiang. It was a picture of Li and Yu.

"You took the picture with Feifei Yu? Did you use photoshop?" Jiang said immediately.

"Photoshop? Okay, I’ll show you more. Look at this one, and that one. And this is a picture from when she was being trained." Dai Li slid his fingers across the screen of his phone and showed Jiang all the pictures he had taken when Feifei Yu was being trained.

"You really were involved in her training! She was a world-record holder!" The expression in Jiang’s eyes suddenly changed when he looked at Li.

Dai Li lowered his voice and said secretly, "I know a weight loss exercise. You can see the difference after one single practice. She lost all her weight using it. You can come with me and try it after eating if you don’t believe me."

"Sure! Let’s go and try. I’ll consider it a post-meal exercise to make my digestion better." Even though Jiang did not believe him, he still said yes because he was very close to Li.

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