Infinite Ebullience
Chapter 596 - 4 Absolute Blast_2

Chapter 596: Chapter 4 Absolute Blast_2

"Tang Zheng, go for it, give it your all!" An Xiuru climbed out of the pool, walked behind Tang Zheng, and patted him on the back.

This is a good woman, she didn’t question his decision, nor did she persuade him to give up. Even if Tang Zheng actually ended up losing and making a fool of himself, she wouldn’t have any demeaning views. Of course, afterwards, Tu Jinxin will definitely pay a price for this, An Xiuru won’t let him go.

"Don’t worry, it’ll take me just a third of my strength to deal with him." Tang Zheng stretched his armature, doing simple stretching exercises, walking towards the nearby pool. The citizens climbed out of the pool all excited and eagerly followed him.

"You guys, go set up the swim lanes." The bald middle-aged man pointed to several team members and asked them to get the floating swim lanes. The Swimming Hall is actually not suitable for professional training, the aim here was merely not to forget the feeling of being in water.

"There’s no starting block, let’s skip the swim lanes as well, too much hassle, it’ll be over soon anyway." Tu Jinxin waved his hands, his gaze fixed on Tang Zheng, "Right, there’s two hundred meters to the other side, swim one way, no need to turn back, how about that?"

"He hasn’t received professional training. Without a lane, he’ll go off course." The middle-aged female coach frowned, thinking that Tu Jinxin was making things difficult for Tang Zheng. This competition was a foregone conclusion, now with this additional challenge, it was certain that the young man in front of her was bound to lose.

"Not a problem." Tang Zheng laughed, "You’re not planning on having me do the butterfly stroke, are you?"

"Can you do it? Freestyle will do." Tu Jinxin, full of himself, stood by the pool, "There will be two people timing from the other side."

Three minutes later, everything was ready. Both of them had warmed up and walked to the edge of the pool. They bent their toes, hooked the edge, pushed their bodies down and got into a diving position.

"Get ready." The bald coach stood by with a starting gun. Seeing them in position, he pulled the trigger.

Before the smoke from the gunpowder shot out, Tang Zheng sprang forward, astonishingly quicker off the blocks compared to the seasoned competitor Tu Jinxin.

Tu Jinxin was taken aback. As he mentally counted to two and aimed to dive into the water, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the man next to him leap like a dolphin and energetically move forward.

Not just the athletes, even the two coaches were shocked by Tang Zheng’s performance. Aside from anything else, his nerve reaction speed at the start was extremely fast. The bald coach was almost certain that by the time he pulled the trigger, he had already moved. Usually, even the fastest athletes rely on anticipation to gain those fractional seconds advantage at the start.

"He started early." Tu Jinxin, who had jumped into the pool, signaled by raising his hand, causing him to stop and a chorus of boos erupted from the shore. The audience was mocking him.

"Ha, trying to drain my energy and unsettle my emotions? No problem, let’s go again." Tang Zheng didn’t mind, his eyes were full of mockery, as if looking at a clown.

"Tu Jinxin, what are you scared of? Even if his start is faster, you can catch up." An individual who had discord with Tu Jinxin immediately chimed in. Athletes are not like ordinary citizens who don’t understand anything. They were certain Tang Zheng didn’t start early. In fact, they all knew the coach would pull the trigger three seconds after yelling "Get ready". This was actually an advantage, but Tu Jinxin somehow didn’t seem to use it.

Tu Jinxin was looking grim, unwilling to admit that the imposing momentum brought out by Tang Zheng at the start of the race made him feel like he was going to lose.

They got set, the starting gun fired, and this time, Tu Jinxin was a fraction of a second faster in diving. An Xiuru’s heart skipped a beat, worriedly looking at Tang Zheng, who was following behind.

The two coaches nodded, that’s more like it. If someone reacted so quickly, wouldn’t they be a monster? They didn’t realize that Tang Zheng deliberately fell behind.

Like a sharp sword, Tu Jinxin cut through the pool, splashing water everywhere as he swam rapidly forward. Each stroke further elongated his muscular body. After all, as a celebrated athlete, his performance level was certainly not bad.

The citizens immediately started cheering, rooting for Tang Zheng, because that young man was only three meters behind Tu Jinxin. It was so exciting, they wanted to witness an underdog victory - that would be interesting.

Tu Jinxin stole a glance during a break in his breathing and was momentarily stunned. The guy was sticking close to him? That could not be right? Although he wasn’t giving his all yet, it should be more than enough to massacre him, right?

Confused, Tu Jinxin increased his pace by swinging his arms faster. The cheers from the crowd grew louder. He thought the citizens were cheering for him.

At the twenty meter mark, Tang Zheng was still three meters behind;

At the ten meter mark, Tang Zheng was two meters behind;

At the five meter mark, Tang Zheng had caught up to half a body length.

The citizens screamed, their emotions running high as they cheered for Tang Zheng. Even the athletes were stunned at this moment, had he actually caught up?

Hearing the water splashing beside him, Tu Jinxin no longer bothered to look around, his only focus was to reach the finish line as quickly as possible.

The stopwatch beeped twice in quick succession, Tu Jinxin, his face dripping with water, subconsciously looked up at the referee.

"May I ask your surname?" The athlete acting as a referee turned to Tang Zheng. If he’d lost, there would have been no need to ask his name.

"Just call me the challenger." This wasn’t something worth boasting about, Tang Zheng preferred to keep a low profile.

"1 minute 51.12 seconds, the challenger wins." Holding a stopwatch, the referee yelled out loudly, then looked at Tang Zheng and said in admiration, "Are you really untrained? With this kind of speed, you could compete in the Olympics!"

"No...it’s not possible." Tu Jinxin’s face turned pale, while Tang Zheng just ignored him and started swimming back.

"Well done." An Xiuru handed over a towel while the two coaches clapped in astonishment and delight.