“Wu Jin, are you okay?”
“Wu Jin?”
“Brother Jin?”
Voices filled with worry, some childish and some mature, sounded beside Wu Jin’s ears.
The next second, it was as if he had woken from a hangover. The instant he opened his eyes, several familiar yet unfamiliar faces appeared before him with abnormal clarity, thrust right up into his vision.
And the surrounding splashes, conversations, and clamor seemed to explode in his brain like depth charges all at once.
Incredibly noisy, and incredibly real.
“He’s awake, he’s awake!”
“Don’t move him. Let him lie on his side like that!”
“All of you, spread out. Keep the air circulating…”
“Coach… Coach Zhu…”
Wu Jin opened his mouth and watched as a stern adult woman in sportswear walked up to him.
“Wu Jin, are you all right?”
Assistant coach Zhu Ying crouched in front of Wu Jin and waved a hand before his eyes. Wu Jin clutched his head; his entire brain was still somewhat dizzy.
He really had drunk a bit too much yesterday.
But he was happy!
At last, the Chinese swimming team had finally broken the United States’ ten-title streak, ending their forty-year monopoly over that gold medal.
Men’s 4x100-meter medley relay!
Forty years!
How many generations of swimmers’ efforts had it taken to win this hard-earned first place?
“Breathe!”
“Regulate your breathing!”
“Slowly inhale through your nose for four seconds, hold for four seconds, exhale through your mouth for six seconds… Repeat three times!”
Zhu Ying rested one hand lightly on Wu Jin’s shoulder while guiding him with the other.
This student of hers had probably just undergone high-intensity interval training and become a little hypoxic.
His physique… was still a bit lacking!
Quite a bit worse than Sun Yang’s.
“Inha—”
Wu Jin followed the instructions of the coach from his memories, breathing in hard, but on his face… a smile appeared.
If one were to speak of the most glorious, shining period in the first half of Wu Jin’s thirty-plus years of life, it would undoubtedly be the years from age eight to twelve.
He began learning to swim at six, and at eight he was sent to Chen Jinglun Sports School. Yes, the very Hangcheng sports school that had produced Olympic champions such as Sun Yang, Luo Xuejuan, and Ye Shiwen, and could be called the cradle of world swimming champions.
Wu Jin had entered in the same batch as Sun Yang, and they were under the same teacher, both receiving their early instruction from Zhu Ying, who stood before him now.
Who could have imagined that before Sun Yang, who would go on to win three Olympic gold medals and break world records multiple times, turned twelve, his results had not been as outstanding as Wu Jin’s?
The two of them were the same age, both born in 1991. Wu Jin was only a few months older than him.
So this was something Wu Jin could brag about for the rest of his life.
But in the end, Sun Yang became an Olympic champion, while Wu Jin returned to school at thirteen, took the high school and college entrance exams, and ultimately became… a swimming enthusiast and coach at a training institution!
“He should be fine now. His blood oxygen saturation is normal too!”
The sports school’s first-aid worker raised Wu Jin’s lower limbs to promote venous return while listening to his breathing.
“Wu Jin, rest for a while. If anything feels wrong, you must tell us immediately!”
Coach Zhu Ying said to Wu Jin.
“Okay, Coach Zhu!”
Wu Jin smiled and nodded. Coach Zhu when she was young was actually quite pretty. Why had he never noticed before?!
“Hey, you all right?”
A simple-looking, rather tall guy came over at that moment. Wu Jin smiled brilliantly.
Sun Yang!
Judging from the look of him, this should still be when they were twelve. His dream had actually returned to this point. Although every time he watched a swimming competition in the future, he would think of those days at Chen Jinglun Sports School.
It had truly been bitter, and truly exhausting, but he truly missed it as well.
What a pity. He had not made it through the developmental barrier.
What many people did not know was that about 36% of male swimmers reached their peak age-group results before the age of thirteen, but… only 12% could maintain their early advantage into adulthood!
Not even one in ten.
This was the path of many swimming prodigies.
Being a young genius did not mean you were truly a genius. It was merely the threshold to entering the realm of geniuses. Only after crossing it could you glimpse the true nature of the profession.
And this was merely the professional level!
Even among professionals, there were levels upon levels.
To reach the summit, to even enter the finals, or even the top three—this was the limit of limits.
Wu Jin was lucky. He had fallen at the first step and did not have to face the second or even third.
Those who suffered were the athletes lingering at the second step, the third step, and the final step before the finals. Day after day, year after year, they struggled to charge at a chasm they might never be able to cross in their entire lives.
Yet in the end, all they could do was look up as those figures came and went.
Just when they finally felt they could touch the threshold of the top three, they would discover that another new king had arrived, ten or twenty years younger than them.
Age and talent were especially cruel in the sport of swimming!
Ding!
【Do you want to make up for the regrets of your previous life? Yes/No】
“Hmm?”
A game-like pop-up suddenly appeared before his eyes, causing Wu Jin, who had just been about to chat with Sun Yang, to freeze slightly.
“Regrets?”
“I don’t have any regrets!”
Athletes who fell on the road to the finals could be called regretful. In his case, it could only be called having no talent!
“All right, yes!”
Wu Jin felt that today’s dream was longer than usual, and rather abnormal. Subconsciously, he silently answered in his heart.
Ding!
【Congratulations, Host. You have activated the “Swimmer’s Heart”!】
【Swimmer’s Heart】: A professional conviction transformed from long-standing obsession.
【Beginner Mission】: Please try to return to the pool and obtain your first reward!
【Swimming once symbolizes your return to the lane and your march toward the peak!】
“Swimmer’s Heart?”
Wu Jin shook his head and smiled, not taking it seriously. Looking at the young boys and girls in the pool before him, as well as the coaches and assistant coaches shouting intensely from the shore, he truly wanted to swim once.
Even just once!
He would treat it as letting loose in a dream!
“Wu Jin?”
Seeing Wu Jin suddenly stand up from the ground, even Sun Yang at his side was startled by his action.
He recovered that quickly?
A moment ago, he had still looked like he was about to die from lack of oxygen. Hadn’t he just gotten trounced once?
Splash!
Without the slightest hesitation, Wu Jin dove straight back into the pool where he and Sun Yang had just been training.
There was no one else in this lane, so Wu Jin could swim all the way to the other side in one breath.
A fifty-meter long-course pool.
For the thirty-five-year-old Wu Jin of his previous life, this distance would also have been a piece of cake.
So Wu Jin put all his strength into it and charged toward the far wall.
Coach Zhu Ying, hearing the commotion, rushed over as well. Watching Wu Jin swimming in the pool as if he did not care about his life, her expression changed.
Continuing strenuous exercise after hypoxia could be fatal!
“Quick, stop him!”
“Pull him up!”
Zhu Ying shouted at the lifeguards on the poolside. Several lifeguards leaped into the water, wanting to intercept him.
But by then, Wu Jin had just swum halfway. Seeing them jump in behind him, he still had twenty meters to go before reaching the side.
“Haha, I’m so fast in my dream!”
“If only I could swim this fast in reality…”
It was a completely different experience from swimming freestyle in the pool at thirty-five. His entire body seemed like a barracuda. Whether it was his stroke rate or kick frequency, it was simply beyond what Wu Jin could imagine.
Closer!
He was getting closer to the wall.
He could feel the waves behind him. Someone was chasing him desperately.
As if he were in a race, Wu Jin watched the pool wall draw closer and closer. The last bit of potential in his whole body surged up, and he charged to the wall in one breath.
Smack!
That familiar touch at the wall, that familiar feeling he had yearned for even in his dreams.
Wu Jin’s eyes even grew hot with tears.
To dream of returning to the pool, and for the sensation to be so intense—what a wonderful dream this was. How good would it be if it were not a dream?
Ding!
【Congratulations, Host. You have completed the beginner mission!】
【Swimmer’s Heart has activated its first skill—Basic Acceleration!】
【Acceleration】: lv1 (0/100). Grants a 1-second swimming speed boost!