My Mr. Mermaid

Untitled Part 15

Chapter 15: Hospitality and Verbal Abuse by ryuxenji

The focus of the pre-match press conference still remained on Qi Rui-Feng.

This was a very interesting phenomenon. In Chinese sports, although women have earned more world championships in various events than the men, the men were always the ones who received more attention. For example, Qi Rui-Feng was the only one in the Chinese men's swimming team to have achieved an Olympics gold, while the female candidates had obtained 3 gold medals in the last Olympic Games. Moreover, Xiang Yang-Yang had managed to defend their champion status in the female 200 mixed medley. And yet, in the eyes of the common folk, the leader of Chinese swimming was not Xiang Yang-Yang, but Qi Rui-Feng.

Right now, Qi Rui-Feng was being besieged on all sides due to his "irresponsibility" —— he had only signed up for one event this time, the men's 100-metre freestyle.

A reporter asked, "Why didn't you sign up for an event you're better at, like the 1500-metre free?"

Qi Rui-Feng blurted out in response, "The opponents are too ——" his words cut off with a sharp inhale. His eyebrows knitted together, his face scrunched up in a twist.

The opponents were too what? Tell us!

Qi Rui-Feng decided to say no more. Because the woman beside him was currently pinching him with all her strength, as punishment for his outburst of nonsense. Only another Olympics champion would have the guts to treat an Olympics champion this way.

That's right, the one pinching him was Xiang Yang-Yang. As the coaches were seated with other coaches for the press conference this time, with the athletes being seated together with other athletes, Qi Rui-Feng's coach, Yuan Roon-Mei, was not close enough to keep him under control. He could only task Xiang Yang-Yang to watch this fool's mouth.

Qi Rui-Feng sullenly shut up, but the reporter continued to press, "What about the opponents? Were you trying to say that the opponents are too weak?"

"Guess."

"I won't ..."

The sharp-eyed reporter saw Yuan Roon-Mei moving towards his microphone, obviously planning to take over and answer this question.

He could not let a coach answer! Coaches were the slickest in the world ... far less cuter than athletes who dared to say anything.

And so, he turned decisively to Tang Yi-Bai. "Tang Yi-Bai, regarding Qi Rui-Feng's decision to only compete against you in this entire competition, what do you think?"

These words were obviously trying to set off some gunpowder into the air.

As such a minor player, Tang Yi-Bai had not expected to be called on. He pursed his lips and replied, "Brother Feng is not like me. I'm gravely lacking in competitive experience, and so need to participate in all kinds of competitions as much as possible to accumulate experience. But Brother Feng has already participated in many international competitions. His results in the 1500-metre free is very good. With that kind of results, it is already very hard for him to gain experience in national competitions. Besides that, I personally think that competing under the premise of assured victory too often will foster a sense of complacency. And so I think that Brother Feng's decision is extremely wise. I don't understand what is confusing about it."

He spoke surely and sedately, and the entirety of his speech could be boiled down to this basic idea: The opponents are too weak.

However, his words were articulated so well and so perfectly that it was impossible to pick out any thorns from it. The reporter was rather disappointed. Are athletes these days also this slick now? Not cute at all!