The most immediate benefit for Qin Chunxiao after joining the provincial team was that his mother no longer had to eat fitness meals with him.
To match the athlete’s diet, the Qin family’s meals had always been low in oil and salt, resulting in tasteless food. Qin Chao is a mother grew up eating high-sugar desserts and heavily flavored barbecues made by Russian father. Eating fitness meals made her grimace, but she never complained.
Chen Aiguo was efficient and quickly completed the necessary procedures for Qin Chunxiao’s entry into the provincial youth team. Fortunately, the No. 6 Middle School’s basketball team had an athlete cafeteria. Chen Aiguo informed Qin Chunxiao that he could have lunch there while in school. He had discussed it with the basketball team’s coach, and they both agreed during the physical examination.
Qin Chunxiao thought, “It’s nice to have a place to eat sports meals, but this cafeteria feels oddly familiar.”
As he entered the gate, he was surrounded by towering giants, all measuring over 1.85 meters and 1.9 meters, causing Qin Chunxiao to look up at everyone.
He raised his head and greeted the captain of the basketball team, saying, “Ms. Huang asked me to come.”
The basketball team captain, Li Yan, stood at 1.93 meters and had a deep voice common to tall individuals. He was very polite, saying, “I know, he told me. Hello, I’m Li Yan. We will be working together in the future.”
Li Yan spoke with a slight provincial accent. Qin Chunxiao observed his face closely and felt that his current appearance wasn’t much different from what it would be seven years later.
Don’t be surprised, Qin Chunxiao had met Li Yan before. It was because Li Yan had a younger brother named Li Ling, who was Qin Chunxiao’s partner in unjust competition matches.
The food in the basketball team’s cafeteria was quite good, offering a variety of options including beef, chicken, and seafood. Among the three major sports, basketball, football, and volleyball, volleyball had always been considered the least expensive. Qin Chunxiao had eaten in the volleyball team cafeteria before, but he had never seen the cook slicing salmon or the delicacy of the North Pole.
However, he was now eating here without training with the basketball team. Chen Aiguo later took Qin Chunxiao to the hospital for a bone age assessment and found that his height potential was only 1.8 meters. However, his Achilles tendon was long, and his wingspan was a few centimeters longer than his height from childhood to adulthood. His body proportions were strikingly similar to those of NBA stars known as the “Answer.”
Considering Qin Chunxiao’s explosive agility and reaction speed, Chen Aiguo couldn’t help but worry that Xiao Huang from the basketball team would try to recruit him.
At this moment, the provincial youth team also learned about the arrival of new members, leaving most of them puzzled. Old Chen and others knew that they usually liked to watch school-level competitions to assess the performance of young players or scout talent from sports schools in the first half of the year. But now, in the second half of the year when school-level volleyball games hadn’t started, where did this newcomer come from?
Mo Lin, the main attacker, asked, “Did other coaches recruit this talent?”
The provincial G team was lacking in talent, so many coaches developed the habit of inquiring about young individuals who seemed promising. It was like geologists prospecting in the mountains, hoping to stumble upon a valuable discovery.
Liu Kairui shook his head and said, “My third uncle mentioned that Lao Chen personally discovered this person and handled the procedures for joining the team. It seems that he holds high regard for him.”
Liu Kairui, the team’s deputy attacker, had an uncle who served as the team’s fitness coach, making him well-informed.
Libero Zhou Ziming wondered, “Hey, could Mr. Chen have randomly found a genius with a height of two meters and exceptional ball sense on the street? When he recruited me, he left the paperwork to Coach Liu.”
Tall individuals had an advantage in sports such as basketball and volleyball, so coaches were often enticed by towering figures, and they tended to seek talent in that direction.
At that moment, Mo Lin turned to the people around him and asked, “Has anyone seen Li Ling?”
Li Ling was their setter and the most qualified player in their group. He was a typical young player—tall, possessed good ball sense, and had solid skills. It was heard that he might join the S provincial team due to business reasons.
Hearing Mo Lin’s question, everyone shook their heads.
“I haven’t seen Li Ling. He must be somewhere else.”
“Maybe he’s still sleeping, having had too much milk to grow taller.”
In an attempt to increase his height, Li Ling had been drinking a lot of milk for a long time, but it made him drowsy, resulting in him being late for training several times.
At this point, everyone assumed that the newcomer would be a tall individual like Li Ling, around 1.9 meters. However, on Friday, when Lao Chen led them into the team, everyone discovered that the newcomer was actually petite and delicate.
Even Lao Chen, who was the coach and stood at 1.87 meters, walked into the training hall with Qin Chunxiao, who was only 1.73 meters, resembling a dwarf entering a land of giants.
All eyes turned to Qin Chunxiao. Chen Aiguo, appearing composed, called for an assembly and patted the shoulder of the young man next to him, saying, “This is Qin Chunxiao. He impressed us on the field earlier, and he excelled in the physical tests. His skills are on par with yours, and he will be part of the team from now on. Let’s all get along well.”
Hearing Chen Aiguo’s words, a group of players, both tall and short, stared wide-eyed, recalling the little man who had said “the slick actor is alive” in the circle of friends. They couldn’t believe that Lao Chen had actually brought him onto the team!
On the far left of the team stood Li Ling, a 1.9-meter tall man with a sleepy expression. He had joined the team in the first half of the year.
Zhou Ziming, the libero, opened his mouth wide and asked, “Old Chen, what position does he play?”
As everyone knew, liberos were usually the shortest players on the volleyball team. Qin Chunxiao’s height seemed like he was here to compete with Zhou Ziming for the position.
Chen Aiguo replied, “Currently, he is the second setter.”
Li Ling suddenly woke up, his face darkened as he glared at Qin Chunxiao.
What the hell? When you, Old Chen, brought me onto the team, you said everything was great. You praised my talent and said I had the potential to join the national team. You wanted me to replace the old setter, who is already plagued by injuries, so he could retire peacefully. And now, you bring in a 1.7-meter guy to snatch my position?
At that moment, Qin Chunxiao raised his head, his blue eyes met Li Ling’s, and he smiled.
Li Ling thought, “Damn, this kid is provoking me!”
Qin Chunxiao thought, “Li Er, the fool, dares to stare at me when we just met. I miss you so much.”
Chen Aiguo also knew that it wouldn’t be easy for this group of unruly athletes to accept newcomers. The best way to earn their respect was through strength. So, he immediately instructed everyone to run 20 laps as a warm-up.
Physical training had always been the most tedious and grueling part of their routine. After the running session, there would be volleyball training, as well as drills for receiving and serving, which were already challenging enough. But the most demanding part was the individual soldier training.
In individual soldier training, two coaches would stand on opposite sides of the net, each with a basket of balls. The players had to face the balls hit by the coaches alone. No one knew whether the coaches intended to smash the ball or lob it. Regardless, the player had to catch every ball without any assistance.
The high-frequency, powerful, and spinning balls, combined with the physical and mental exhaustion, often resulted in players getting numerous bruises. Catching 30 balls in this manner was an extremely demanding task. Coaches would assign it as a “punishment” for athletes who didn’t take training seriously.
Initially, Lao Chen would pick a few players each day to undergo individual soldier training, rotating them throughout the week. This meant each player would experience a round of individual soldier training every seven days. Despite their fear, the athletes would grit their teeth and endure it. However, when Qin Chunxiao joined the team, Lao Chen decided to make the entire team go through individual soldier training together.
But Lao Chen had his own plans. You must know that during the physical test, he and Yang Yun played against Qin Chunxiao individually. They played a total of 50 balls, and Qin Chunxiao successfully received all of them.
After training the other players individually, Chen Aiguo directly called Mo Lin and Li Ling, the team’s strongest and most powerful spikers, to the net. It would be more challenging for these two active young players to face Qin Chunxiao.
Chen Aiguo asked Qin Chunxiao, “Are you willing to go up against them?”
Qin Chunxiao rolled up his sleeves and replied, “No problem.”
During his training with individual players in Brazil, he faced main attackers with a touch height of at least 3.7 meters, commonly known as quasi-beasts. After practicing with them for 20 balls, Qin Chunxiao’s arms were swollen, and he had bruises on his face, shoulders, and other body parts from the powerful hits.
In order to cultivate a world-class libero who can handle such beast-level attackers, the training resources provided by the Mars Volleyball Academy were indeed luxurious, but also incredibly demanding. If it weren’t for Qin Chunxiao’s resilience as an athlete, it would have been too much for someone else.
A person who dares to receive balls from quasi-beasts won’t be intimidated by two provincial team players.
Li Ling and Mo Lin glanced at each other. Mo Lin shrugged, intending to conserve some energy, but Li Ling had a different mindset.
As the determined successor to the team’s setter, Li Ling believed that if the new junior setter dared to compete for the same position, he must be prepared to face consequences.
He picked up a ball and spiked it hard.
Qin Chunxiao quickly kicked forward with his right foot, and Li Ling’s spiked ball was immediately blocked by the net. In a real game, the ball would have been passed to the setter, who would then set it for the main attacker to smash it against the opponents.
Immediately afterward, Qin Chunxiao jumped to his left, like a swordfish emerging from the sea, raised his right hand, and sent the ball to the opposite side of the net. He then propped his left hand on the ground and slid his chest, abdomen, thighs, and other body parts against the ground, reducing the impact and unloading the jumping force.
A well-trained libero like Qin Chunxiao wouldn’t get injured even if he had to dive and jump to catch the ball.
Chen Aiguo nodded in satisfaction and said, “Not bad, your reaction is still so quick.”
Li Ling’s eyes lit up, and he muttered, “This is interesting.”
Observing that Qin Chunxiao successfully caught all the spiked balls even when Mo Lin spiked them harder, the onlookers became increasingly surprised. They asked themselves if they were in Qin Chunxiao’s position, it would be impossible for them to catch all the balls without missing a single one.
If Qin Chunxiao could display this level of ball control during a game, none of their opponents would be able to land a hit with him on the court. With his skills, Qin Chunxiao’s team would be unbeatable. They could kill the game, and even if it came down to grinding it out, they would grind their way to victory.
Zhou Ziming grew more and more anxious. He walked up to Chen Aiguo and asked, “Coach, is he really here to take my position?”
Chen Aiguo couldn’t help but reply, “Why would he take your position? His vertical jump is 3.45 meters. I didn’t assign him as a main attacker because he’s too short. With that height, it would be a waste to train him as a libero.”
The most immediate benefit for Qin Chunxiao after joining the provincial team was that his mother no longer had to eat fitness meals with him.
To match the athlete’s diet, the Qin family’s meals had always been low in oil and salt, resulting in tasteless food. Qin Chao is a mother grew up eating high-sugar desserts and heavily flavored barbecues made by Russian father. Eating fitness meals made her grimace, but she never complained.
Chen Aiguo was efficient and quickly completed the necessary procedures for Qin Chunxiao’s entry into the provincial youth team. Fortunately, the No. 6 Middle School’s basketball team had an athlete cafeteria. Chen Aiguo informed Qin Chunxiao that he could have lunch there while in school. He had discussed it with the basketball team’s coach, and they both agreed during the physical examination.
Qin Chunxiao thought, “It’s nice to have a place to eat sports meals, but this cafeteria feels oddly familiar.”
As he entered the gate, he was surrounded by towering giants, all measuring over 1.85 meters and 1.9 meters, causing Qin Chunxiao to look up at everyone.
He raised his head and greeted the captain of the basketball team, saying, “Ms. Huang asked me to come.”
The basketball team captain, Li Yan, stood at 1.93 meters and had a deep voice common to tall individuals. He was very polite, saying, “I know, he told me. Hello, I’m Li Yan. We will be working together in the future.”
Li Yan spoke with a slight provincial accent. Qin Chunxiao observed his face closely and felt that his current appearance wasn’t much different from what it would be seven years later.
Don’t be surprised, Qin Chunxiao had met Li Yan before. It was because Li Yan had a younger brother named Li Ling, who was Qin Chunxiao’s partner in unjust competition matches.
The food in the basketball team’s cafeteria was quite good, offering a variety of options including beef, chicken, and seafood. Among the three major sports, basketball, football, and volleyball, volleyball had always been considered the least expensive. Qin Chunxiao had eaten in the volleyball team cafeteria before, but he had never seen the cook slicing salmon or the delicacy of the North Pole.
However, he was now eating here without training with the basketball team. Chen Aiguo later took Qin Chunxiao to the hospital for a bone age assessment and found that his height potential was only 1.8 meters. However, his Achilles tendon was long, and his wingspan was a few centimeters longer than his height from childhood to adulthood. His body proportions were strikingly similar to those of NBA stars known as the “Answer.”
Considering Qin Chunxiao’s explosive agility and reaction speed, Chen Aiguo couldn’t help but worry that Xiao Huang from the basketball team would try to recruit him.
At this moment, the provincial youth team also learned about the arrival of new members, leaving most of them puzzled. Old Chen and others knew that they usually liked to watch school-level competitions to assess the performance of young players or scout talent from sports schools in the first half of the year. But now, in the second half of the year when school-level volleyball games hadn’t started, where did this newcomer come from?
Mo Lin, the main attacker, asked, “Did other coaches recruit this talent?”
The provincial G team was lacking in talent, so many coaches developed the habit of inquiring about young individuals who seemed promising. It was like geologists prospecting in the mountains, hoping to stumble upon a valuable discovery.
Liu Kairui shook his head and said, “My third uncle mentioned that Lao Chen personally discovered this person and handled the procedures for joining the team. It seems that he holds high regard for him.”
Liu Kairui, the team’s deputy attacker, had an uncle who served as the team’s fitness coach, making him well-informed.
Libero Zhou Ziming wondered, “Hey, could Mr. Chen have randomly found a genius with a height of two meters and exceptional ball sense on the street? When he recruited me, he left the paperwork to Coach Liu.”
Tall individuals had an advantage in sports such as basketball and volleyball, so coaches were often enticed by towering figures, and they tended to seek talent in that direction.
At that moment, Mo Lin turned to the people around him and asked, “Has anyone seen Li Ling?”
Li Ling was their setter and the most qualified player in their group. He was a typical young player—tall, possessed good ball sense, and had solid skills. It was heard that he might join the S provincial team due to business reasons.
Hearing Mo Lin’s question, everyone shook their heads.
“I haven’t seen Li Ling. He must be somewhere else.”
“Maybe he’s still sleeping, having had too much milk to grow taller.”
In an attempt to increase his height, Li Ling had been drinking a lot of milk for a long time, but it made him drowsy, resulting in him being late for training several times.
At this point, everyone assumed that the newcomer would be a tall individual like Li Ling, around 1.9 meters. However, on Friday, when Lao Chen led them into the team, everyone discovered that the newcomer was actually petite and delicate.
Even Lao Chen, who was the coach and stood at 1.87 meters, walked into the training hall with Qin Chunxiao, who was only 1.73 meters, resembling a dwarf entering a land of giants.
All eyes turned to Qin Chunxiao. Chen Aiguo, appearing composed, called for an assembly and patted the shoulder of the young man next to him, saying, “This is Qin Chunxiao. He impressed us on the field earlier, and he excelled in the physical tests. His skills are on par with yours, and he will be part of the team from now on. Let’s all get along well.”
Hearing Chen Aiguo’s words, a group of players, both tall and short, stared wide-eyed, recalling the little man who had said “the slick actor is alive” in the circle of friends. They couldn’t believe that Lao Chen had actually brought him onto the team!
On the far left of the team stood Li Ling, a 1.9-meter tall man with a sleepy expression. He had joined the team in the first half of the year.
Zhou Ziming, the libero, opened his mouth wide and asked, “Old Chen, what position does he play?”
As everyone knew, liberos were usually the shortest players on the volleyball team. Qin Chunxiao’s height seemed like he was here to compete with Zhou Ziming for the position.
Chen Aiguo replied, “Currently, he is the second setter.”
Li Ling suddenly woke up, his face darkened as he glared at Qin Chunxiao.
What the hell? When you, Old Chen, brought me onto the team, you said everything was great. You praised my talent and said I had the potential to join the national team. You wanted me to replace the old setter, who is already plagued by injuries, so he could retire peacefully. And now, you bring in a 1.7-meter guy to snatch my position?
At that moment, Qin Chunxiao raised his head, his blue eyes met Li Ling’s, and he smiled.
Li Ling thought, “Damn, this kid is provoking me!”
Qin Chunxiao thought, “Li Er, the fool, dares to stare at me when we just met. I miss you so much.”
Chen Aiguo also knew that it wouldn’t be easy for this group of unruly athletes to accept newcomers. The best way to earn their respect was through strength. So, he immediately instructed everyone to run 20 laps as a warm-up.
Physical training had always been the most tedious and grueling part of their routine. After the running session, there would be volleyball training, as well as drills for receiving and serving, which were already challenging enough. But the most demanding part was the individual soldier training.
In individual soldier training, two coaches would stand on opposite sides of the net, each with a basket of balls. The players had to face the balls hit by the coaches alone. No one knew whether the coaches intended to smash the ball or lob it. Regardless, the player had to catch every ball without any assistance.
The high-frequency, powerful, and spinning balls, combined with the physical and mental exhaustion, often resulted in players getting numerous bruises. Catching 30 balls in this manner was an extremely demanding task. Coaches would assign it as a “punishment” for athletes who didn’t take training seriously.
Initially, Lao Chen would pick a few players each day to undergo individual soldier training, rotating them throughout the week. This meant each player would experience a round of individual soldier training every seven days. Despite their fear, the athletes would grit their teeth and endure it. However, when Qin Chunxiao joined the team, Lao Chen decided to make the entire team go through individual soldier training together.
But Lao Chen had his own plans. You must know that during the physical test, he and Yang Yun played against Qin Chunxiao individually. They played a total of 50 balls, and Qin Chunxiao successfully received all of them.
After training the other players individually, Chen Aiguo directly called Mo Lin and Li Ling, the team’s strongest and most powerful spikers, to the net. It would be more challenging for these two active young players to face Qin Chunxiao.
Chen Aiguo asked Qin Chunxiao, “Are you willing to go up against them?”
Qin Chunxiao rolled up his sleeves and replied, “No problem.”
During his training with individual players in Brazil, he faced main attackers with a touch height of at least 3.7 meters, commonly known as quasi-beasts. After practicing with them for 20 balls, Qin Chunxiao’s arms were swollen, and he had bruises on his face, shoulders, and other body parts from the powerful hits.
In order to cultivate a world-class libero who can handle such beast-level attackers, the training resources provided by the Mars Volleyball Academy were indeed luxurious, but also incredibly demanding. If it weren’t for Qin Chunxiao’s resilience as an athlete, it would have been too much for someone else.
A person who dares to receive balls from quasi-beasts won’t be intimidated by two provincial team players.
Li Ling and Mo Lin glanced at each other. Mo Lin shrugged, intending to conserve some energy, but Li Ling had a different mindset.
As the determined successor to the team’s setter, Li Ling believed that if the new junior setter dared to compete for the same position, he must be prepared to face consequences.
He picked up a ball and spiked it hard.
Qin Chunxiao quickly kicked forward with his right foot, and Li Ling’s spiked ball was immediately blocked by the net. In a real game, the ball would have been passed to the setter, who would then set it for the main attacker to smash it against the opponents.
Immediately afterward, Qin Chunxiao jumped to his left, like a swordfish emerging from the sea, raised his right hand, and sent the ball to the opposite side of the net. He then propped his left hand on the ground and slid his chest, abdomen, thighs, and other body parts against the ground, reducing the impact and unloading the jumping force.
A well-trained libero like Qin Chunxiao wouldn’t get injured even if he had to dive and jump to catch the ball.
Chen Aiguo nodded in satisfaction and said, “Not bad, your reaction is still so quick.”
Li Ling’s eyes lit up, and he muttered, “This is interesting.”
Observing that Qin Chunxiao successfully caught all the spiked balls even when Mo Lin spiked them harder, the onlookers became increasingly surprised. They asked themselves if they were in Qin Chunxiao’s position, it would be impossible for them to catch all the balls without missing a single one.
If Qin Chunxiao could display this level of ball control during a game, none of their opponents would be able to land a hit with him on the court. With his skills, Qin Chunxiao’s team would be unbeatable. They could kill the game, and even if it came down to grinding it out, they would grind their way to victory.
Zhou Ziming grew more and more anxious. He walked up to Chen Aiguo and asked, “Coach, is he really here to take my position?”
Chen Aiguo couldn’t help but reply, “Why would he take your position? His vertical jump is 3.45 meters. I didn’t assign him as a main attacker because he’s too short. With that height, it would be a waste to train him as a libero.”
