Chapters One, Two, and Three: The Striking Advertisement

That evening, Rousseau received a call from Ruan Mei.

Her voice was weary yet excited, carrying the fierce intensity of someone staking everything on one throw.

“Rousseau, can you win?” Ruan Mei asked softly. “It’s not that I don’t believe in you. It’s just too important. I need you to give me some confidence.”

“I can win,” Rousseau answered without hesitation.

“Then I have an idea. What do you think…” Ruan Mei told him what she had in mind.

The more Rousseau listened, the more amused he became. “Ruan Mei, I never realized you had such nerve.”

“Do you think it will work? I need your consent. If you say no, I won’t do it. But if you say yes, I’ll sign the contract right now.”

“I think it sounds fun. Go for it.”

Rousseau genuinely thought the idea was both entertaining and incredibly cool.

“Thank you… Then I think I know what I should do now,” Ruan Mei said.

…

After hanging up, Ruan Mei looked at the advertising contract before her.

She picked up the pen and signed her name.

This was an advertising contract worth more than one million yuan, purchasing a full week of advertising space in the best-selling newspaper in Southern Guangdong Province during the National Games.

When the sales manager sitting across from her saw the advertisement mock-up Ruan Mei had brought out, he stared at her in astonishment.

“Miss Ruan, you really intend to publish an advertisement like this? You’re not joking, are you?”

…

January 15, 2005.

Before dawn, Rousseau, Tian Shiwei, Juno, and the other athletes boarded a bus bound for Galaxy Stadium in Yang City, the main venue of this year’s National Games.

After provincial selection, athletes participating in events such as the sprints, high jump, pole vault, and discus were chosen to form part of the athletes’ contingent at the opening ceremony.

Southern Guangdong Province had sent as many as 1,215 athletes to the National Games, covering every competitive event except the ice sports. Naturally, the athletes’ contingent could not accommodate all of them, so only a portion were sent to participate.

Rousseau, Tian Shiwei, and Juno were among them.

The Three Musketeers of Peng City had absolutely no interest in this sort of ceremonial affair. If they had been given a choice, they would certainly have chosen to slip away. But their coaches had issued strict orders. This was a major sporting event hosted by Southern Guangdong Province, and they could not bring shame upon their province.

So the moment the three Musketeers boarded the bus, they began dozing off.

They sat in the last row, with Rousseau in the middle, Tian Shiwei on his left, and Juno on his right. Each leaned against one of Rousseau’s shoulders, creating a scene of remarkable harmony.

“My Healing Game”

As Rousseau drifted in and out of sleep, he suddenly heard a buzzing murmur.

The voices grew louder and louder.

Are we there already…?

Rousseau opened his eyes and looked out the window. It was still gray and hazy, and they were still on the expressway. He checked the time. It was 6:45. Only ten minutes had passed since they set off.

So… what were they making such a fuss about?

The bus carrying the athletes of the Peng City provincial team continued toward Galaxy Stadium. The coaches were on board as well, including Lu Jinrong. He glanced back, saw that Rousseau was awake, and had the athletes behind him pass a newspaper forward.

Rousseau accepted it blankly.

The male athlete sitting nearest to him chuckled as he handed it over. “Rousseau, you’ve certainly got a lot of confidence.”

Rousseau had not opened his status panel at the moment, and he could not even recognize all of his teammates on the sprint team, let alone this particular athlete. Rousseau himself, however, was a well-known figure at the sports academy, and many people knew him.

He nodded at the athlete. He vaguely remembered that the man trained in the high jump, but the remark made no sense to him.

What did he mean by “a lot of confidence”?

The answer must be in the newspaper.

Rousseau unfolded it. It was the Southern Guangdong Metropolitan Daily. Unlike the Peng City Daily, the Yang City Daily, and the Southern Guangdong Provincial Daily—official media outlets serving as the voice of the party and government—newspapers bearing names such as “Metropolitan Daily” or “Evening News” were market-oriented publications.

They reported whatever people wanted to read.

The Metropolitan Daily had the largest circulation in Southern Guangdong Province. Naturally, with the National Games about to begin, the event was one of its main subjects. The headline on the front page announced that the National Games would open that day.

There was nothing unusual about that. Lu Jinrong had clearly not asked him to read the newspaper for that. Rousseau turned the page and found the entire second page printed in red, bearing only a few enormous characters:

“Best wishes to Southern Guangdong athlete Rousseau for winning the National Games 100-meter gold medal. King Lu and you will witness victory together.”

The two lines of large characters were arranged vertically, making them impossible to overlook.

Rousseau stared for a moment, then smiled. This was the plan Ruan Mei had told him about the night before. It certainly looked impressive.

When he raised his head and looked toward the front of the bus, he found that nearly every athlete and coach was watching him. Whenever their eyes met, they gave him an encouraging smile.

By then, the movement of the newspaper had already awakened Tian Shiwei. Still groggy, he rubbed his stiff neck. As his mind gradually cleared, he saw what was printed on the page.

“Huh? The 100-meter race is over?”

“Wait, why don’t I remember competing?”

“What? I was eliminated in the preliminaries!”

“But… shouldn’t I at least have competed once?”

Still half-asleep, Tian Shiwei was so bewildered by the newspaper that he nearly thought he had traveled through time.

Once he was fully awake, he remembered the date. The fifteenth—yes, that was right. Today was the opening ceremony. There were no events.

Juno woke up as well. She stared at the newspaper in confusion for a moment before asking Rousseau, “I remember the high jump and the 100-meter semifinals are on the same day. Did I win the gold medal?”

“You haven’t even competed yet, and you’re already thinking about winning gold?” Rousseau sighed.

At that moment, Lu Jinrong came over and asked Rousseau, “Did you approve of the brand’s doing this?”

His tone was rather stern, clearly directed at King Lu. If they had publicized something like this without Rousseau’s consent, it could have had an adverse effect on him.

“I knew about it. They had my approval,” Rousseau said with a smile. “Coach, I’m sorry. It all happened so suddenly that I didn’t have a chance to tell you beforehand.”

“By doing this, you’ve left yourself no way out…” Lu Jinrong sighed.

“That’s the point. We’re staking everything on one final battle,” Rousseau said.

By then, Juno and Tian Shiwei were awake as well. Once they realized that the advertisement was an advance promotion, both of them were astonished by how completely King Lu had committed himself. He had truly bet everything on Rousseau.

“I want one too,” Tian Shiwei said. “Best wishes to Southern Guangdong athlete Tian Shiwei for winning the 4×100-meter relay gold medal. Without him, there would be no gold medal.”

“Best wishes to Southern Guangdong athlete Juno for winning the National Games high-jump gold medal and breaking the meet record!” Juno declared.

“Oh, I forgot about the meet record. Rewrite it, rewrite it,” Tian Shiwei said.

“That’s right. I need to remind Ruan Mei that next time she should congratulate me in advance for breaking the National Games 100-meter record of 10.10 seconds,” Rousseau said.

Watching the three clowns laugh and joke around without taking the consequences of the matter seriously at all, Lu Jinrong could not help sighing.

“Coach, it’s fine. Even if we lose, it’ll only become a joke.” Rousseau was remarkably open-minded. “A lot of people already treat me as a joke. But if we win, it’ll become a legendary story in the worlds of business and sport. That’s worth gambling on, isn’t it, Little White Horse?”

For some reason, Lu Jinrong felt his mood suddenly lighten.

Indeed.

Rousseau was accustomed to creating miracles.

Wasn’t he?

“But there’s no competition today,” Tian Shiwei said, still troubled. “Even the 100-meter preliminaries aren’t until tomorrow. Why would King Lu place the advertisement today?”

Rousseau decided to call Ruan Mei and ask her.