Chapter 72: Chapter 72: Coach Calls Me Home

Ling Yu and Gobi Bear carried the hurdles down from the camper and then walked toward Xu Ying and the others.

“Ling Yu?!”

“How come Ling Yu is here?”

Qiao Yuxi’s mouth dropped open in surprise, “So that RV was his! I thought it belonged to that outdoor streamer.”

Ling Yu greeted Qiao Yuxi with a smile, “Miss Qiao, long time no see.”

The two didn’t seem unfamiliar with each other.

Xu Ying blinked and asked curiously, “You two know each other?”

Ling Yu chuckled, “Fifteen years ago, Miss Qiao’s parents established the Yu Xi Charity Foundation to support mountain children in getting an education. I was able to leave the mountains thanks to the foundation’s help.”

“If it weren’t for the foundation’s teachers discovering my athletic talent and bringing me to the training ground, I’d probably just be that guy from the village who runs fast in the sugarcane fields.”

“Gold will always shine, allowing us to see it.”

To this, Qiao Yuxi insisted that Ling Yu’s success was due to his own excellence. She then asked, “Are you training in the desert?”

“Yes, I originally came here as a volunteer to relax and unexpectedly found my new coach.”

Ling Yu pointed behind Qiao Yuxi.

When Qiao Yuxi turned around and saw four cheetahs walking elegantly toward her, her heart skipped a beat and goosebumps prickled all over her body. She hurriedly hid behind Xu Ying.

“This—this can’t be his new coach, right?”

Qiao Yuxi thought Ling Yu was really bold: “With such a sparring partner, it’s impossible not to run fast.”

Just then, Ling Yu’s WeChat video call rang as expected. Ling Yu glanced at the caller ID, frowned slightly, and pressed the answer button, “Coach Zhuang.”

——”You finally answered my call!”

The middle-aged man on the other end sounded quite frustrated: “Ling Yu, haven’t you had enough relaxing in the desert for over ten days? Are you really going to slack off for your last world-class competition?”

“Come back, will you? At least stay at the base for a while one last time. Afterward, you won’t have the chance to enter the national team’s training base again.”

Xu Ying was a bit annoyed hearing what Coach Zhuang said. How could he be so decisive with his trainee?

Coach Zhuang continued, “If you’re going to start giving up and avoiding now, you might as well plan ahead; just post photos of your desert tour and it will definitely cause a stir online. Negative fame is still fame. You might as well take a few more endorsements and livestream some sales for retirement money during your last world-class competition.”

“Don’t feel embarrassed. Just treat it as compensation from those online people who’ve been attacking you for so long.”

“Once you retire, I’ll arrange for you to be a coach at my friend’s sports school. Don’t worry, no one will secretly badmouth you. Everyone understands your situation.”

Xu Ying calmed down a bit after listening all the way through. Coach Zhuang spoke quite realistically and was already making plans for Ling Yu’s retirement, but his words made one feel stifled.

Once Coach Zhuang finished his long speech, Ling Yu replied with a helpless tone, “Coach, I haven’t neglected my training in the desert, and I’ve even broken the thirteen-second mark.”

Coach Zhuang obviously did not believe it, “Are you kidding me? Did you just wake up?”

Ling Yu and Coach Zhuang have been old partners, and he spoke very candidly: “You don’t need to worry; I’ve already found a new coach who, without exaggeration, is faster and more capable than you.”

Upon hearing this, Coach Zhuang’s anger instantly surged, “At a time like this, you’re still joking with me!”

“I’m a gold medal coach. Where in the desert could there possibly be a…”

Just as he was getting angry, Ling Yu turned the camera to show the four cheetahs.

The cheetahs, seeing the camera, seemed to know it was time for their dashing debut. Each of them lengthened their faces, their eyes fierce like desert bandits.

As the camera flipped, Coach Zhuang’s voice seemed to hit a pause button.

Seeing the four cheetahs, his brain stalled, leaving him stunned and motionless.

If not for the background noise of training, Ling Yu would have thought the signal was bad and Coach Zhuang had frozen.

Ling Yu watched Coach Zhuang suffer a setback, an evil smile curling at the corner of his mouth: “Coach Zhuang, what do you think?”

Coach Zhuang’s speech became stuttered: “You—you’re really risking your life!”

“Training with cheetahs to speed up?”

“Don’t worry, with Station Chief Xu around, she can communicate with animals. The cheetah coach was arranged through her help.”

Ling Yu crouched down and shook paws with the cheetah coach: “Besides, they only look fierce. In reality, they’re very friendly and even give me pointers on my running and hurdling posture.”

The cheetahs, as if to confirm Ling Yu’s words, gathered around and playfully knocked Ling Yu to the ground, rubbing him with their fluffy heads.

“Hey, don’t be too friendly—”

Ling Yu was overwhelmed, and in a panic, he quickly clasped the cheetah leader’s mouth while displaying a pained expression: “Bro, don’t kiss me, don’t kiss me, your mouth ulcers aren’t healed yet!”

Seeing Ling Yu flustered, Xu Ying quickly came over to help him hold the phone, preventing it from being swatted away by the big cats.

“Phew, thanks.”

Ling Yu, holding onto the cheetah leader, thanked while looking a bit disheveled.

Coach Zhuang watched as the cheetahs pounced on Ling Yu, the camera shook wildly, and his heart leapt to his throat.

The next moment, the camera turned, revealing Ling Yu with the cheetah’s mouth in a clasp, showcasing a seemingly love-hate relationship between man and beast.

Coach Zhuang clutched his chest, still reeling from the visual impact: “Then… are you saying that breaking the thirteen-second mark is true too?”

Xu Ying’s livestream fame for solving cases with animals was still trending online. Even if Coach Zhuang didn’t surf the web, he had heard about it from people around him, and he had thought this girl understanding animal language sounded quite fantastical. He had his doubts about online things, but little did he expect to encounter it so soon.

Xu Ying turned the camera to the ten hurdles set out: “It just so happens it’s time for timed training. Why not let the coach take a look?”

Ling Yu got up from the sand, dusted himself off, and said to the cheetahs, “Cheetah coaches, let’s go!”

Specializing in direction and tracking shots, Qiao Yuxi this time acted as a human tripod with the phone, while Xu Ying picked up the whistle and stopwatch.

The whistle blew, and the camera in Qiao Yuxi’s hand followed Ling Yu’s figure.

In the setting sun, man and cheetah raced like the wind, a thrilling spectacle lasting mere seconds, leaving everyone present holding their breath.

Witnessing a primal man-cheetah chase, even across the screen, Coach Zhuang felt his adrenaline spike.

Then, Qiao Yuxi’s camera turned back to show Xu Ying’s stopwatch.

Perhaps it was the excitement of having Coach Zhuang watching, eager to prove himself, that Ling Yu clocked in at 12.83 seconds this time!

At the moment he saw the stopwatch time, Coach Zhuang’s eyes widened like saucers, and he took a sharp intake of breath, speechless for quite a while!

Then he tossed his phone aside, and ran a hundred meters around the track and field arena in excitement to calm himself down.

Xu Ying and Qiao Yuxi only saw Coach Zhuang’s screen go black, while a few excited monkey whoops of “Wuhu” echoed from the phone’s speaker.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep