Chapter 57

In the afternoon, the gym was very lively.

There were more people than usual, as if there was some event going on.

Su Xiaoqi sent her dad Su Youfu off. She had wanted her dad to stay for a day and leave tomorrow instead. She could have slept in the room above the ward with her auntie. However, Su Youfu was full of energy. If he didn't want to stay to see his daughter, he would have gone home after selling his winnowing baskets to make more bamboo baskets and wares. He was the kind of person willing to work hard. Otherwise, as a lame man, he wouldn't have been able to send his daughter to high school.

However, before Su Youfu left, he had his daughter take him to the bookstore. He found some more books related to bamboo weaving. Carrying the books and shoulder pole, he strode onto the car heading to town full of confidence.

Su Xiaoqi didn't insist. Seeing her dad so happy, she figured giving someone the ability to earn money made them happier than just directly giving them money.

Su Xiaoqi deeply understood this feeling. The money in her interface had reached over 60,000 now, yet she didn't have the initial excitement and joy anymore. Instead, it was the little bits of daily progress in English, swimming, and cooking that made her feel more real and gave her more sense of achievement.

Also, getting money from tutoring gave her particular sense of stability and accomplishment.

Arriving at the swimming hall, a wave of heat rushed over, along with sounds of applause and cheers, very passionate.

Su Xiaoqi changed into her swimsuit and went in, looking around for a while before finding her coach.

There was a group of people dressed neatly not in swimwear surrounding the deep pool side, probably spectators here to watch a swimming competition.

Su Xiaoqi squeezed over to her coach Wu Peirong with some difficulty. Seeing Su Xiaoqi come over, Wu Peirong quickly pulled her over.

"I forgot to tell you this morning, there is an intra-team competition for our swim team this afternoon. You happen to be here so you can watch and learn."

Su Xiaoqi nodded. She wasn't too familiar with competitions herself, although the coach had told her about them. Still, nothing beat direct observation. "Later, I'll send you some links to videos of classic competitions. In addition to practicing these days, you should watch more of these and learn."

The swimming lanes were holding competitions at the moment, so Wu Peirong didn't say more and motioned for Su Xiaoqi to watch attentively.

Su Xiaoqi pulled over a small stool to sit aside and truly concentrated on watching.

Because she had the swimming talent buff, swimming felt especially effortless for her. However, she hadn't watched others seriously in competition before.

She noticed everyone's thigh muscles seemed tense during races, all straining themselves. The cheering around them was also exceptionally passionate. For some reason, everyone swam faster than normal.

The start of the race when they dived into the water was also very important. Just now, one lane's edge didn't know if it was too slippery or a mistake, but the swimmer didn't dive in smoothly. They fell slightly behind at the start, and the gap only widened as the race went on. Although it looked like that swimmer exerted themselves on the second half and swam faster, they still didn't make a comeback.

Su Xiaoqi had been very confident in herself originally. Seeing everyone else's performance today put a lot of pressure on her. They all looked fast and tried their hardest, and they swam well too. She had thought getting into the top three would be good before. Now she felt she had thought too lightly of it and it wouldn't be that easy.

Seemingly noticing her student's heavy expression, Wu Peirong patted her shoulder and said, "Don't worry, you're more outstanding than them in my eyes."

Wu Peirong was speaking genuinely. She truly felt this student of hers was pretty good, talented and hardworking. Although there wasn't much time left until the competition, she still had confidence. Su Xiaoqi thought it was just her coach comforting her. She was very touched and felt she should be more serious, since opportunities didn't come by easily. It wasn't easy for the coach to recommend her a spot either.

When the competition ended, the crowds dispersed into groups.

The previously lively swimming lanes suddenly became calm.

Some people went up to greet Wu Peirong, also taking a look at Su Xiaoqi by her side.

"So this is the talented little disciple you have high hopes for? She looks a bit thin."

"Did she have prior swimming experience? It's a bit risky to rush into a competition like this."

Not wanting to put pressure on Su Xiaoqi externally, Wu Peirong smiled and said, "The girl is very young, only 17. She's here to get a feel for the competitive atmosphere first."

More people came over to chat. The coach was quite busy. Su Xiaoqi also didn't know what to say, so she told the coach she was leaving and went to warm up at the innermost, quietest lane to practice swimming.

Jumping into the water, the irritating heat all over her body was instantly submerged. As she swam, it felt like her body had stretched open. She discovered running and swimming paired well together.

When running, her legs would ache from the exertion. Swimming allowed her whole body to fully stretch out.

But swimming also required considerable leg strength. Running built up leg muscles.

She had been exercising a lot recently, eating more too, but her meals were healthier than before. The dishes she made herself weren't as oily. Her aunt's cooking tended to be fatty meat-based, with a lot of oil. She even often ordered takeout stewed meat. After improving her diet somewhat lately, she felt that although she was eating more, her weight was still under control. When she came in earlier, she weighed herself and it was only 99 lbs, under 100.

She had always been above 100 lbs since high school it seemed.

Now she was 5'4 and 99 lbs, looking rather slim.

At first when Su Xiaoqi started swimming, her thoughts wandered to this and that, what those people and her coach were saying. After swimming for a while, she became completely focused and immersed, thinking about the difference she observed between the faster and slower swimmers in the races as she swam.

When looked at individually, they all seemed to swim fast, but there were clear differences when placed together.

Su Xiaoqi had always studied decently and wasn't stupid either. As she swam, she subconsciously tried to learn by imitating and changing some subtle motions. Sometimes she felt she swam faster, sometimes more strenuously. Still, she persistently kept trying.

The difference between her and the others swimming was probably that she could see her step count changing. She didn't merely view these step changes as money numbers rising. She paid attention to time as well—with identical durations, whether the step count increased or decreased as she changed poses and swam.

In short, while looking at the interface she explored and practiced on her own.

Before watching the swim competition, she had still been blindly quite confident in herself since she thought she had buffs. But after watching their team's competition, she realized she had still been too arrogant and underestimated her opponents.

Nothing came easily.

Su Xiaoqi practiced even more seriously and attentively than before.

Also, with her dad's affairs settled, her heart relaxed further. Although her dad's current bamboo wares couldn't sell for hundreds or thousands either, it was still a huge leap from the mere ten-odd yuan previously. Such delight could keep her parents happy for a long time. It gave them motivation to live on. Su Xiaoqi felt it was already very good.

The pressure inside her lightened a bit too. She had initially been determined to win prizes in this. Now instead she became more calm, feeling that having this swimming competition experience itself was an enormous gain, making her more steady.

On the other side, after Wu Peirong chatted with her teammates for a bit, she got mocked several times. They all felt she was too naive and impatient for casually finding a student she thought was promising talent for swimming, which wasn't something you could excel at overnight. In short, none of them looked favorably on her.

She felt somewhat vexed by their words herself too. But when she walked over to the swimming lanes and saw her own student diligently practicing on her own, swimming back and forth tirelessly without stopping or minding the outside hubbub, even seeming to swim more effortlessly than usual like a fish in the water, she clenched her fist. She felt she had chosen correctly.