Chapter 116: Investigating Li Yan

2004 had passed.

Luo Su felt he would miss it. As for the arrival of 2005, he was filled with great anticipation.

January 1st.

Luo Su, along with Zhu Nuo, Tian Shiwei, and Zheng Ni, spent the day in Pengcheng with Lu Xiaoyu. They visited amusement parks, cinemas, shopping malls, and food streets. Good friends and family gathered happily together; they all had a bright future, and the happiness felt almost otherworldly.

January 2nd.

Luo Su entered into intensive training.

Having experienced the four indoor track and field invitationals throughout December, Luo Su had grown accustomed to using the "Glass Crown" during his training sessions. It carried risks, but they were manageable. After all, without the Glass Crown, calculating by the simplest formula, Luo Su would have had no way to assimilate two attribute points during the one-week intervals between the various indoor invitational legs.

The training rhythm in January 2005 remained the same.

Luo Su became bolder, using the Glass Crown for over an hour each day. This allowed him to assimilate the gains from the Fengtian leg more quickly while still leaving time for competition training in preparation for the National Games, which would begin on January 15th.

...

The National Games.

It was the highest-level and largest-scale comprehensive sports event in the country.

The structure of the National Games was essentially identical to that of the Olympic Games, with the exception of martial arts events. Its original intent was to train new talent and select athletes for the national Olympic strategy.

The National Games had a long duration, generally lasting between 12 and 15 days, with over ten thousand participating athletes. Its grand scale was evident, as it brought together all the outstanding talents from every sporting field in the country.

This year's National Games would be held in Nanyue Province, lasting 11 days. The events included rowing, sanda, sailing, equestrian, weightlifting, archery, fencing, water polo, and so on.

Luo Su was set to compete in all the sprint events within the track and field category. His goal was to fill in the three remaining sides of his "hexagon" outside of indoor events.

...

January 4, 2005.

As Pengcheng returned to work, citizens saw dailies at newsstands splashed with bold headlines. The front-page lead was a mainstream article titled "Pengcheng's Economic Construction Achieves New Brilliance — A Summary of 2004 City Development."

The second headline on the front page read, "Congratulations to Pengcheng Sprinter Luo Su for Achieving a Grand Slam in Domestic Indoor Events!" The article was written by Editor-in-Chief Guan Zhaoyue and intern reporter Shen Yingying.

During the three-day New Year's holiday, while others rested, Guan Zhaoyue had not. The final indoor invitational of late 2004, the Fengtian leg, had left Guan Zhaoyue’s blood pumping.

The duel between Luo Su and Zhang Zhen in the 60-meter race, Luo Su’s unstoppable dominance in the 200-meter event, and the showdown between Luo Su and Xiao Qiang in the 400-meter event flashed before Guan Zhaoyue’s eyes like scenes from a movie. Over those three days, he poured out an article several thousand words long.

This time, in Guan Zhaoyue’s writing, Luo Su no longer needed to be compared to Pan Kai. This grand slam in indoor events proved that Luo Su simply lacked an international stage to showcase his abilities, and that in sprint events, Luo Su was no weaker than anyone else in the country.

Guan Zhaoyue did not just write a 3,000-word long-form article for the provincial newspaper. Over the past three days, he had written several short essays and handed them to Shen Yingying, asking her to post them online, as Guan Zhaoyue could not navigate that newfangled thing called a computer.

Shen Yingying contacted an editor at "Hou Lang" (Rising Wave), whom she had met at the Fengtian leg. For the drafts provided by Guan Zhaoyue, the moderator of the Hou Lang sports section was more than happy to publish and pin them. Guan Zhaoyue’s exceptional prose, blending classical and modern references with immense passion, immediately sparked heated discussion and commentary among countless netizens.

Suddenly, the Hou Lang sports channel, which supported Luo Su, gained enough momentum to suppress the 163 channel. These articles were then reposted to "Haijiao Ge" (Cape Pavilion), cleaning up the atmosphere of the sports forums; once those cynical trolls appeared, they were immediately surrounded and mocked by passersby.

After all, for an athlete, results come first.

Luo Su had performed so well, just waiting for the peak showdown with Pan Kai at the National Games. If he won, he would be the best in the country—the true hexagon. If he lost, he would still be second in the country, slightly inferior but still a hero. That was far better than those sycophantic trolls.

When Luo Su went online again, he saw that while the websites and forums were not filled with praise, at least there was now a balance against the critical voices.

As expected, for an athlete, the only thing that can make others shut up is performance.

"Once I win the championship at the National Games, they will only have one thing left to say," Luo Su said, patting Lu Xiaoyu on the head.

Currently, when Luo Su went online, he still needed Lu Xiaoyu to provide technical support; otherwise, his large hands might crush the keyboard.

"Brother is the best~" Lu Xiaoyu looked at Luo Su, her eyes filled with stars.

"By the way, Brother, I found something," Lu Xiaoyu added, "about Li Yan."

Hmm? Luo Su became interested.

Lu Xiaoyu skillfully took the keyboard and mouse, opened a browser, set up a proxy, and entered a URL. Soon, a page full of English appeared before Luo Su.

"What is this?" Luo Su asked.

"This is an announcement from the USA Track & Field Association in 2003 regarding the disciplinary action against Li Yan, a Doctor of Sports Management from the Woods College of Advancing Studies. It revokes his doctoral degree and bans him from continuing to coach track and field in Massachusetts," Lu Xiaoyu said. "It was hidden very deeply, and it took a lot of effort to find it."

Oh... Luo Su couldn't help but be intrigued.

Why did Li Yan come to coach domestically? Every industry insider who understood Li Yan’s past resume had this doubt.

Li Yan, hailed as a "Championship Coach," was previously a prominent figure in the international track and field scene. While he became a national coach upon coming to China, the domestic track and field program was so weak, and he had signed such harsh agreements—why?

If it was because he had been disciplined by the USA Track & Field Association and could no longer coach in the United States, then it made sense.

"Anything else?" Luo Su asked.

"Nothing else. Aside from this announcement, the Track & Field Association had no other content regarding Li Yan in 2003. But before 2003, Li Yan was a star figure in the USA Track & Field Association, with all sorts of honors... I just flipped through them." Lu Xiaoyu opened a stack of web pages.

On them, Li Yan was seen either holding trophies, receiving certificates, or posing with athletes. Among the athletes were various prominent figures in the track and field world. How could he have fallen so suddenly by 2004?

"I suspect that Li Yan and the Track & Field Association reached an internal settlement on some matters," Lu Xiaoyu said. "That is why the reason for the disciplinary action against Li Yan was never released, but it must exist in the internal files of the Track & Field Association. I'm currently studying hacking techniques. Brother, wait a little longer. Once I hack the US track and field database..."

"Don't do anything illegal," Luo Su pinched Lu Xiaoyu’s cheek.

"Hacking foreign websites isn't illegal in China. The US and the mainland don't have an extradition treaty," Lu Xiaoyu knew her stuff.

"Hearing you say that makes me even more worried..." Luo Su’s heart skipped a beat at the mention of an "extradition treaty," feeling that Lu Xiaoyu was getting in way over her head.