My Mr. Mermaid

Untitled Part 2

Chapter 2: Chance Encounters and Fate

March 24, 2019 by ryuxenji

In their subsequent interviews, Yun Duo was noticeably slower by a beat or two, which Teacher Sun sympathetically characterized as "performance anxiety". However, Teacher Sun felt that it did not matter. There were no really noteworthy people in the remaining events for the day, and their newspaper space was limited.

In other words, they were done for the day.

At this time, Teacher Sun actually bumped into an old classmate whom he had not seen for many years. Pleasantly surprised, he and his old classmate began conversing animatedly, becoming increasingly engrossed in their conversation, completely neglecting Yun Duo. Yun Duo could only wander out of the swimming hall on her own to explore the area and see whether she could ferret out anything newsworthy. Her performance today had been too shameful; she was unwilling to just let it go.

Oriental plane trees were planted in neat rows outside the swimming hall. In this season, the leaves of the oriental planes had already turned golden-yellow; from a distance, the trees looked like huge trees of wealth. The autumn sunlight filtered through the dense foliage to mottle the light grey floor tiles with shifting specks of light. Among the swaying play of light and shadow, Yun Duo saw two groups of ants fighting. They were fighting to determine the ownership of a breadcrumb.

For the sake of world peace, Yun Duo bent over and separated the ants with a dried leaf. When she stood up again, she heard a sudden clack. Looking down, she saw a pair of swimming goggles laying on the ground.

Oh, they must have slipped out when she had bent over earlier.

Yun Duo picked up the goggles and brushed off the dirt on them. She looked down at the goggles and suddenly thought of that athlete called Tang Yi-Bai once more. He was truly a super friendly person! They were just passing acquaintances, but he had insisted on giving her some souvenir of their meeting ... this may seem abrupt and disturbing to most people, but his disposition was so clean and sincere that Yun Duo just could not find it in herself to be repulsed or annoyed.

Yun Duo bowed her head and smiled, but then a troubled expression appeared on her face. She was not really interested in sports — she had only begun learning more about the sports industry within the three months since she had started her new job. However, for the interviews this time, Yun Duo had done some homework. At least, she knew that there was no one called Tang Yi-Bai among the more powerful candidates in the China swimming arena.

As such, where had this candidate who had plucked a gold in this national-level competition come from?

Moreover, his winning event was the 100-metre freestyle. The 100-metre freestyle in swimming was the equivalent of the 100-metre sprint in track and field events — they were the most awe-inspiring and highly-watched events in their respective fields. Hence, for Tang Yi-Bai to appear out of nowhere in such a popular event was even more illogical and unbelievable.

Unable to figure it out, Yun Duo decided to just not think about it anymore. She rubbed the goggles lightly but did not put them back into her pocket. Instead, she put them on. Looking out at the world through the goggles' anti-fog coating, the world was still very clear. Some of the colour was just filtered out, making the bright and dazzling world seem less chaotic and flighty. Yun Duo found it rather fun. Not at all bothered by the weird looks she was receiving from the other people around, she continued to wander around with the goggles on.

When she walked to the back of the venue, Yun Duo saw an area which had been manually cordoned off. A large bus was parked there. She looked around curiously, trying to see who this bus was here to pick up. As she was looking around, a group of people walked out from the venue. They were all dressed in uniform sportswear. The person right at the front had a tall and broad figure, unyielding pride writ upon his brow. He was the leading figure of the new generation of Chinese swimming, Qi Rui-Feng. Right then, he had his arm slung around someone who was a head shorter than him, grinning as they chatted about something or another. The person walking beside them had refined features, and at that moment, his hands were in his pockets as his eyes faced forwards.