My Mr. Mermaid

Untitled Part 17

Chapter 17: Asian Record by ryuxenji

The discussion surrounding Tang Yi-Bai was still developing. Many people believed that Tang Yi-Bai loved to hype himself despite having no real talent, and so were all eagerly anticipating his failure in the upcoming competition. This was a great opportunity to see the enjoyable act of face-slapping in action — how could they let it pass them by?

They felt that this kind of anticipation was not wishful thinking, because Tang Yi-Bai's and Arbussy's results were almost two seconds apart! A 2-second difference in a 100-metre swim was proof enough that this person was indeed quite lame.

This point of view distinguished the informed from the laymen. Arbussy's 100-metre world record was 46.90 seconds, while Tang Yi-Bai's last 100-metre results were 48.52 seconds. Just by looking at the numbers, there was a 1.62 second difference between the two of them — 2 seconds after rounding up, so this point of view could be considered correct.

However, there were two things about the situation they had not noticed.

One, Arbussy's world record had been created during the period. During that Olympic Games, athletes wore shark skin inspired swimsuits to compete and achieved unprecedented results, creating a batch of world records that would be very tough to beat. Later on, the 'shark-skin' swimsuits had been banned from competition, and the results of the athletes dropped accordingly. Even Arbussy himself had not been able to finish within 47 seconds in competition events after that. His results in the last Olympics were 47.48 seconds. Hence, judging from the current situation, the gap between Tang Yi-Bai and Arbussy was a little more than 1 second.

Two, everyone online was saying that Tang Yi-Bai's 'best competition results ever' was 48.52 seconds. Yes, that's true — because Tang Yi-Bai had only swam in this particular event just one time! This was his one and only record, so of course it would be his best. Generally speaking, very few people would achieve their best limits immediately — results always improved gradually. Thus, Tang Yi-Bai's best results should be better than this number on record.

Overall, Yun Duo felt that the netizens were seriously underestimating Tang Yi-Bai's capabilities. She used these two reasons to rebut the crowds on the forums but was scorned mercilessly, and so she could only retreat.

The netizens anticipated a face-smacking, so the Winter National Swimming Championships attracted way more attention than usual. The search count for the event soared in the span of a day, and the associated online news sites and discussion forums were also extraordinarily lively, basically scaring the moderators on duty out of their wits.

Even Chen Si-Qi who worked with the entertainment gossip circles heard of the matter. Chen Si-Qi still remembered the earth-shaking admiration she had felt back when she had first seen Tang Yi-Bai (his photo) ... frankly speaking, she had never felt anything like that before in all her time working in the entertainment circles. She called Yun Duo up to ask about the matter, and after she heard the whole story, Chen Si-Qi raged, "F*ck it, why are the media in your sports circles as shameless and unscrupulous as us in the gossip circles?! What are we entertainment reporters to do then?"

"Only some are like that." Yun Duo still tried to defend her field of work.

"It's fine, it's fine. I must clear Tang Yi-Bai's name, whitewash it till it's all white and clean!"

"What whitewash? He's already pretty white."

"Oh yes," Chen Si-Qi said, intrigued, "I find that those who swim are all quite white. Is it because there is bleach in the pools?"

"You can try washing your face with bleach every day."

Chen Si-Qi thought about it and found it quite scary. Forget it, forget it.