IBABS Chapter 65.1 — Trip to Germany

The Kuangbiao Group’s advertisement shoot took two days in total. During these two days, Su Zhe took the opportunity to tour around Country D with the filming crew.

On the second day of filming, because they were shooting at a famous landmark in Country D, a few Chinese tourists who had come to watch the World Championships and stayed for sightseeing spotted the crew. However, the Kuangbiao Group’s advertising team had applied for a large temporary restricted area and scheduled filming times either very early or late, so there weren’t any troubles with materials leaking out.

However, during the second day of shooting, the photographer in charge of the advertisement kept exclaiming in amazement at Su Zhe.

He clicked his tongue in amazement and said to Shi Feng, the person in charge from Kuangbiao Group, “Su Zhe’s camera presence is much better today than yesterday. Why don’t we reshoot yesterday’s scenes?”

Although Shi Feng was tempted by this suggestion after seeing the comparison between the two days’ footage, after considering the group’s internal publicity schedule and Shao Xingchen’s subsequent itinerary among other issues, he ultimately abandoned the idea.

Reluctantly, the photographer could only look at Su Zhe with regret and sigh, “Su Zhe, if only you had been in this state yesterday as well.”

Hearing this, Su Zhe could only smile awkwardly and pretend nothing happened.

In fact, if he had only undergone two days of camera presence training, the effect shouldn’t have been so dramatic. However, after completing last night’s camera presence training course, he suddenly received a Camera Presence Skill LV1 directly issued by the system. This skill couldn’t be upgraded manually; according to the description, it would be issued directly by the system as his camera presence course learning progressed.

Most ridiculous was that this sand sculpture system, when giving track and field-related skills, was stingy with status bonuses, but this Camera Presence LV1 skill directly increased his on-camera performance status by 50%.

He strongly suspected that when this skill reached its highest level, the status bonus would skyrocket to 200%.

Of course, Su Zhe could only swallow these complaints and continue to smile awkwardly at the photographer.

On the day the advertisement shooting was completed, Shao Xingchen, who had already forced himself to take a few days off earlier, caught an overnight flight back to China for his next schedule. Su Zhe, after returning to the Athletes’ Village and resting for a night, purchased a flight ticket to Germany with the help of the track and field team staff.

As the current domestic ace in the 100m sprint, Chen Zhi naturally wasn’t staying alone during his treatment in Germany. Including his current head coach, dedicated massage therapist, and related staff, there was a small group of about five people stationed in Germany, accompanying Chen Zhi through the entire surgery process while taking care of him during post-operative recovery and communicating with German doctors about post-surgery rehabilitation arrangements.

When Su Yinsheng and Zheng Wensheng learned that Su Zhe wanted to go to Germany to visit Chen Zhi, they naturally didn’t object at all. They even contacted the staff around Chen Zhi to help arrange Su Zhe’s accommodation and meals in Germany.

“Keep your brother Xiao Zhi company,” Su Yinsheng said to Su Zhe with a stern and serious expression before his departure. “Let him rest and recover well, and tell him not to be too impatient during rehabilitation. You know his personality. He bottles up all his pressure. It’s good for you to keep him company, so he doesn’t feel so stressed. Tell him that even without Chen Zhi, the track and field world won’t collapse!”

Although these words weren’t very pleasant to hear, Su Zhe certainly understood his father’s meaning. He ultimately hoped Chen Zhi could remove the too-heavy burden from his shoulders and not be too exhausted.

The flight from Country D to the German capital took about five hours. When Su Zhe’s flight landed, it was already 7 PM local time in Germany.

The person who came to meet Su Zhe at the airport was Jiang Fan, the team’s German translator, a well-mannered middle-aged man over 1.8 meters tall who wore glasses.

When Su Zhe spotted Jiang Fan by following the name sign, Jiang Fan also saw Su Zhe from a distance and waved to greet him.

“Uh, Jiang-ge, hello,” Su Zhe smiled and greeted Jiang Fan. “I didn’t expect you to recognize me.”

Jiang Fan put away the name sign and smiled. “Do I even need to ask? We’ve watched all your races with Chen Zhi one by one, and your face has been imprinted in our memories. We recognize not just how you look now, but we’ve even seen your childhood photos… hahaha.”

Uh.

Jiang Fan’s words made Su Zhe instantly embarrassed. Looking at Jiang Fan’s eyes, he immediately remembered that Chen Zhi still had quite a few embarrassing childhood photos of him, like the one where he fell while running and sat on the ground bawling his eyes out. Chen Zhi had shown it off countless times, always gushing about how cute he looked.

Thinking about this, Su Zhe silently covered his face.

Fine, he shouldn’t expect Xiao Zhi-ge to show people any normal photos of him.

As Jiang Fan drove him to the hospital, Su Zhe asked in detail about Chen Zhi’s overall condition during this period.

“At the beginning, his mental state wasn’t great,” Jiang Fan was completely straightforward with Su Zhe. “You know the pressure of the domestic 100m sprint event. Previously, it was basically all on Chen Zhi’s shoulders. Even when he first got injured, he couldn’t fully let go of that pressure.”

“Back then, he mentioned many times to Coach Tian and us that he wanted to have surgery as soon as possible, recover quickly, and resume training at any cost.”

Hearing this, Su Zhe’s expression tightened as he immediately understood the implications behind these words.

“At any cost” meant disregarding his future athletic career, just focusing on recovering physical condition as quickly as possible.

He was obviously worried about not recovering in time to complete the necessary training and technical adjustments, unable to carry the sprint event into the Tokyo Olympics.

Su Zhe was stunned for a moment, then quickly asked, “They didn’t do as he said, right?!”

“Of course not,” Jiang Fan sighed. “It’s all thanks to Coach Su. At that time, none of us could persuade Chen Zhi. Finally, Coach Tian couldn’t handle it anymore and contacted Coach Su directly, explaining Chen Zhi’s situation from beginning to end.”

At this point, a smile appeared on Jiang Fan’s face. “I have to say, the Tiger Su… ahem, I mean Coach Su truly lives up to his reputation. Even through the phone screen, we could feel his earth-shattering intensity. If he hadn’t been busy monitoring your training and competitions back home, I bet he would have stormed into Germany to scold Chen Zhi in person.”

From Jiang Fan’s words and the smile on his face, Su Zhe could guess what his father had said.

Sure enough.

Jiang Fan continued, “Coach Su viciously tore into Chen Zhi – ‘You think the Chinese track and field world has no one else? You’re the only hero, is that it? Does being a tragic hero feel good? Should I call the media to write a nice story about you? Maybe publish a book, build a memorial, and give you a honorary banner while we’re at it? Let me tell you, China has so much talent, and with my, Su Yinsheng’s, excellent eye, am I afraid of not finding sprint talents? Chinese sprinting will rise sooner or later, but after Chinese sprinting rises, if you don’t treat your injury properly, the one who won’t recover is you yourself!!!'”

Without a doubt, Jiang Fan had been deeply impressed by Su Yinsheng’s long-distance lecture, so much so that even after all this time, he could vividly recreate Su Yinsheng’s rant.

When Jiang Fan was halfway through recounting this speech, Su Zhe started laughing. That familiar, distinctive tone, who else could it be but his dad?

After repeating Su Yinsheng’s conversation, Jiang Fan sighed deeply. “Given Chen Zhi’s situation, pressure, and mental state at that time, none of us dared to confront him like that. I have to say, Coach Su truly is the coach who raised Chen Zhi, and he understands him so well. After that fierce scolding, Chen Zhi’s mentality stabilized somewhat.” After a pause, Jiang Fan added, “But in all this, you deserve quite a bit of credit too, Su Zhe.”

“Huh?” Su Zhe was confused, not understanding why Jiang Fan would say this.

“At that time, after scolding Chen Zhi, Coach Su told him both your and Zhao Zhixuan’s results, assuring him that in the sprint events, there were plenty of promising backup talents now. He told him not to carry all the pressure on his own shoulders,” Jiang Fan smiled and continued, “Then during that period, while we accompanied Chen Zhi through his surgery, we also watched all your races together, starting from the National Championship preliminaries.”

“When you injured your foot during the 110m hurdles, Chen Zhi’s face changed completely. He immediately called you, but you didn’t answer. He was worried you might be resting, so he held back and only sent you a message. You don’t know this, but he even called his attending physician to observe your foot injury through the livestream screen, and only relaxed after confirming it wouldn’t have any serious impact.”

Su Zhe didn’t expect there was such a story behind that missed call. He looked down and scrolled through his chat history with Chen Zhi, returning to that message Chen Zhi had sent him. Looking at it now, he could see that it contained far more concern than he had initially perceived.

Sighing, Su Zhe said, “Xiao Zhi-ge never told me any of this.”

Jiang Fan smiled. “That guy Chen Zhi, when he cares about people around him, he never fully expresses all his concern. His personality isn’t really like an athlete’s. He’s too gentle and reserved, always carrying everything on his own shoulders.” After a pause, Jiang Fan shook his head. “It was after watching your competitions that Chen Zhi thought for a few days and suddenly had a change of heart. He realized that with his injury, people around him were worrying too much about him, and that wasn’t right. Only after that did his mental state gradually improve.”

Regardless, hearing that Chen Zhi’s current condition was good, Su Zhe gradually relaxed.