She was still abroad, so the place for morning practice became a nearby sports complex.
Her daily cycle began at 5 in the morning.
Usually, her coach wouldn’t intervene in this.
She showered after she came back and then ate breakfast. She had breakfast freedom again.
There was an even wider selection of breakfast options at the Olympics. Before, Lin Miao would only pick foods she was familiar with, but now that her competitions concluded, she naturally picked whatever she wanted.
Since she left her phone behind, Lin Miao had no idea how her older brother was and whether or not he saw that she had won.
Her parents and little brother definitely saw her win back in their apartment. When they had first heard that Lin Miao was participating in the Olympics, her mother wanted to come. However, Lin Miao didn’t agree considering that her parents were busy, that the competition spanned over multiple days, and that it was in a foreign place. It was too inconvenient.
They could just watch the live television streams at home anyway.
Now that the competition ended, Lin Miao began to miss the Young Master.
She suddenly realized that next time, she should ask her coach to keep her phone for her and hand it back after the competitions ended.
At that time, she wouldn’t have to stress over the competitions anymore, so she certainly wouldn’t lose her phone.
After breakfast, her coach pulled her aside to talk to her.
“Shuishui, why don’t you seem that happy now that you’ve won this match?” She would normally be ecstatic for many days, but the joy seemed to have quickly faded away after this one.
Lin Miao shook her head, “No, it just hasn’t sunk in yet.”
“Do you think the Japanese player was better than you?” Before, he was always worried about his athletes being too conceited. Acclamation and fame could be motivation, but they were also poison to developing teenagers still gathering social experience.
That was how he thought until he met Lin Miao, whom he realized was born for tournaments.
Lin Miao nodded embarrassingly. They had reviewed and discussed their strategy multiple times before the match, but she never said a word about her thoughts on their plan. Now that the match was over, she said the words she kept in her head. “I studied all her games, she’s really good.”
“But she still lost.” The coach looked at Lin Miao, “She panicked in the second half of the game, messing up her own play.”
Lin Miao nodded, making sure to learn from this mistake.
Then, the coach pulled out something smilingly, “Oh, Tan Jing asked me to give this to you.”
It was her phone!
She had asked Tan Jing to keep her phone. They still lived with each other most of the time.
Sister Jing was so smart to have their coach keep her phone.
“She said that it woudl be better for you to have your phone after you win,” the coach said, “and she’s right, it’s a lot easier for you to do things here abroad when you have a phone on you.”
Lin Miao appreciatively took the phone, thinking that sister Jing was the smartest person in this world.
After her exchange with her coach, she turned her smartphone on and saw messages from her mother, the Young Master, little Ling, and also Tan Jing.
Most of their messages were congratulations.
The one from sister Jing read: “Brother Shui’s so cool! When you see this message, it means the coach gave you the phone, aren’t you happy?””
The Young Master’s message was only a few words: “I’m proud of you.”
However, it poked Lin Miao in her heart. She blushed, picturing his serious face if he were to say it in person.
Lin Miao was about to call, but she remembered the time difference. Her family and Tan Jing were probably sleeping in China.
So she sent a message to the Young Master.
She didn’t know if he was with her or watched the games in China. Either way, a text message wouldn’t disturb anyone if he was asleep in China.
Then, she received an instant reply. “I’m still awake and at the hotel, we can call right now. What are you going to do today?”
She felt fine yesterday, but her hand was feeling a bit sore when she woke up this morning. She didn’t want to text, so she called the Young Master.
He quickly responded.
The two chatted for a while before one of her teammates showed up. “Brother Shui, we asked the coach to watch the other games, are you coming with us?”
Their matches ended, but other competitions were still going on in the Olympics.
Her coach didn’t have any comments on this. Everyone performed pretty well, and their coach was happy for them.
Lin Miao had to conclude her conversation as she wanted to watch the other programs as well.
To blend in with the crowd, everyone changed into regular clothes.
Lin Miao froze, saying awkwardly, “I forgot to bring that…”
She was renowned for her forgetfulness. Everyone was used to it, so one of her teammates said, “It’s okay. I brought some extras, so you can wear mine.”
She went and dug a dress out from her suitcase.
Lin Miao was a bit embarrassed. The dress was red, and she had never worn a red dress before.
It wasn’t appropriate for her to reject her teammate’s generosity, so she went and changed into it.
Her face was red when she returned in her red dress.
All her teammates were staring at her dumbly. Lin Miao was the youngest of them all, but also the most hardworking.
She didn’t talk much, but was very kind to everyone else.
None of them had ever seen Lin Miao in regular clothes.
One girl couldn’t help but laugh and joke, “Brother Shui with a dress is now little Sister Shui.”
“Brother Shui’s skin really makes up for the nickname,” they said as they felt her skin.
She was even more embarrassed from the jokes than from wearing the dress, but they soon stopped.
Everyone headed to the sports arenas, holding each others’ hands.
Midway, they met the athletes from the male team.
So a few more remarks of “Can’t call her brother Shui anymore” were made.
“No wonder your fans call you gorgeous. I thought they were exaggerating, but it seems like it’s true.”
The two groups decided to go together. Compared to the girls, the boys were much simpler, wearing their uniforms to the arenas.
So, they were all quickly identified.
Lin Miao was awkwardly hugged.
“Brother Shui, I love you so so so much, you’ll definitely be even better next year!” One of her fans said enthusiastically.
She was so excited that she blurted out her words all at once.
Lin Miao was a bit confused. She didn’t do anything special, why would she act like this?
Of course, she didn’t know how it felt to watch a person improve step by step all the way to winning an Olympic gold.
Especially when the girl was also cute.
Most of Lin Miao’s fans watched her early competitions. They essentially watched her grow up: from the first videos of her overjoyed reactions to the teenage Lin Miao trying to control her excitement.
Many also watched her adorable interviews. Her vigorous appearance and watery eyes after the competitions were basically begging for adoration. She had many older sister and auntie fans.
Life simulators were popular for a reason.
Lin Miao gave her fan a signature and then went to watch the games.
There was a difference between her mental state on and off the court.
She had no time to be nervous during her games, but it was so nerve racking to watch.
Lin Miao was cheering with everyone else, holding a little red flag in her hands.
Then, after a bit, the person beside her moved, and a different person took their place to cheer with her.
Lin Miao paused. Turning her head, she saw the Young Master!
He looked back at her with his smiling gaze.
Everyone in Lin Miao’s team knew now from Tan Jing that the two weren’t related by blood. They weren’t even distant families.
All of their gazes were like “Yo, we get this.”
There were girls in the team who grew incredibly fond of Lin Miao’s brother but Tan Jing made an example to explain his sis-con levels. She said that if his sister and girlfriend both fell into a lake, he’d probably think that his girlfriend was a risk to Lin Miao by displacing water and raising the water level…
It was a bit exaggerated, but as Lin Miao’s roommate from day 1, Tan Jing understood that it was still pretty much like this.
After all… Tan Jing thought that Lin Miao’s brother didn’t look like someone who would ever have a crush. She didn’t know that they weren’t brothers and sisters then, so she had some selfish thoughts.
Brother Shui was a great person. If someone else did engage with her brother and became her sister-in-law, brother Shui would definitely distance from her as she gets close with her sister-in-law. After all, there would be an additional familial relationship between them
So she was a bit relentless in crushing all hopes of her peers of becoming Lin Miao’s sister-in-law.
Mhm, and she was quite successful.
Then, Tan Jing realized and told everyone that they weren’t sisters and brothers, but rather childhood sweethearts.
She was still happy. Brother Shui would still be her bestest friend
Her teammates decided to return themselves, assuring that the coach wouldn’t find out.
Lin Miao only took a few steps with the Young Master when another girl threw their arms around her, “Brother Shui, you were so cool yesterday!”
Lin Miao froze. She had pretty accurate hearing, “Auntie Yu…”
The Young Master pulled his mom aside, asking Lin Miao, “Oh, have you seen your parents?”
“They came as well?” Lin Miao was shocked.
“Yeah, I saw them yesterday when I was watching the games.”
Lin Miao thought that they were still in China, so she didn’t call them in fear of disturbing their sleep. Now that she got confirmation that they were here, she hurriedly called them, reporting to her coach while doing so.
As the Young Master had said: her parents, little brother, and little Ling all came.
They quickly met up with Lin Miao’s family. Lin Miao was a bit embarrassed from all her parents’ praise.
Then, they all headed for lunch.
The Young Master’s mother disguised herself to be very young, so none of Lin Miao’s family recognized her. Lin Miao was about to introduce her when she pulled on her arm and blinked a few times at her.
Lin Miao thought that she wanted to have some fun again, so she didn’t introduce her.
In reality, it wasn’t because she wanted to have some more fun, but rather that she asked to adopt Lin Miao last time they met.
What an awkward memory. The Young Master’s mother thought it would be best to not ruin today with that memory.
Everyone sat down and happily had lunch.
The Young Master’s mother noticed that Lin Miao’s mother was a very nice person. No matter her voice or actions, they all carried a feminine gentleness.
She felt comfortable around her despite being mistaken for being a generation younger…
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