In the morning, there were few people at the swimming pool.
The waves on the water's surface made Xiao Qi feel relaxed in her mind.
Xiao Qi wore a red swimsuit that her coach had prepared for her, one like the athletic unitard swimmers would wear on the field, complete with a bright red flag logo on the top.
Her skin was fair, her eyes as clear as water, and her figure was well proportioned.
She had previously felt that her existing swimsuit made her look stouter since she had a longer torso, but seeing herself now, she felt her legs looked very long and the new swimsuit fit her perfectly.
Her chest hadn’t developed much yet, the bulge there was actually the foam padding built into the suit.
The seventeen-year old girl still had some fluffy facial hair, with a bit of lingering baby fat around her cheeks.
Xiao Qi walked barefoot into the swimming pool. The morning water felt a bit cool, and she couldn’t help but shiver a little as she first stepped into the disinfecting pool.
"Good morning Coach."
Xiao Qi saw that Coach Wu had already arrived. A towel was wrapped around her and she appeared damp—she had likely already finished two laps.
Seeing her latest student, Peirong's eyes lit up.
She had taught two lessons so far and found the young girl to be very hardworking. Diligence was what Peirong appreciated most. As a former athlete herself who had trained for so long, she understood that although natural talent was important, a willingness to learn and work hard mattered more. Her swim team wasn’t competing internationally but rather in municipal and provincial level meets. And in those competitions, those who won weren’t always the most naturally talented—to be honest they weren't competing at the level where natural talent was the key deciding factor. It came down to who put in the effort and hours of diligent practice.
In her very first lesson, the young girl had meticulously completed all the practice tasks Peirong assigned, even going above and beyond. Typical students who paid for private lessons tended to be less obedient, practicing half-heartedly as long as they could swim decently. But Xiao Qi took her lessons even more seriously than the team Peirong coached.
Her second lesson had been the same story.
Not only was the girl hardworking, Peirong had been pleasantly surprised to discover she also had natural talent for swimming. She slipped into the water smoothly and effortlessly.
A diligent and innately talented student at such a young age—no wonder Peirong had the idea of recruiting her for their swimming team. Realistically it would be more complicated getting her on the team, but as one of the senior team members, Peirong had one spot she could recommend someone for.
Seeing Xiao Qi now, wearing their team swimsuit which looked wonderful on her slender legs and arms—truly looking like she was born for the sport—Peirong felt using her recommendation spot would not be a waste.
"Morning. Go ahead and start warming up. While you do, I'll go over some rules about swim competitions."
Following Coach Wu's instructions, Xiao Qi began warming up exercises at the edge of the pool.
She stretched out her legs, shoulders, arms, and waist.
The simple movements helped loosen up lingering sore spots.
And on top of swimming today, she still had a 30,000 step daily upper limit she needed to work toward. With the warming up she could already watch her step count rising.
"There are four standard swimming strokes for competition: freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, and butterfly."
Peirong's voice was somewhat hoarse, likely from the early days swallowing water while learning to swim. It was a common issue many careless swimmers faced, frequently leading to lung inflammation. Xiao Qi was mindful in a way Peirong hadn't been back then—she had been impatient and never fully learned proper technique before diving in.
"For this competition it will be freestyle. Freestyle was already declared an official competition event in the first Modern Olympics in 1896. There are no firm restrictions on freestyle. It is generally the front crawl, with a motion similar to an animal crawling—the arms alternate strokes while the legs continuously kick in an up-and-down flutter motion. This form creates the least resistance and allows you to maintain a steady pace. It is currently the most energy efficient swimming method, so I will mainly be training you in freestyle."
Xiao Qi was unfamiliar with all these formal rules around swimming so it was interesting to learn.
"As the name suggests, breaststroke mimics a frog's swimming movements. The advantage of breaststroke is you can easily monitor your surroundings for obstacles ahead of you. Backstroke is the opposite—lying on your back in the water. Breathing is convenient in backstroke but you cannot see where you are going. Additionally, backstroke swimmers start already in the water rather than diving in from the edge like other events."
"Backstroke seems like it would look very nice," Xiao Qi offered her opinion.
"Once you learn butterfly stroke, you'll realize that looks even more elegant—like a butterfly fluttering its wings across the water. Butterfly evolved from the breaststroke and in addition to appearing like a dancing butterfly, the leg movements resemble a dolphin. Thus it is sometimes called the dolphin kick."
Xiao Qi listened longingly. She had grown up in a rural mountain village with a stream running past her door and seen small waterfalls tumbling through the woods, but had never glimpsed the ocean.
Going away to university in the coastal city would finally allow her to see the sea and she looked forward to that.
“You’re sufficiently warmed up. Let's start practicing freestyle today. It's the event with the highest number of races at the Olympics so a country's freestyle capabilities are seen as indicative of their overall swimming prowess."
Peirong's coach had shared that sentiment with her long ago and she had been filled with passion, eager that one day she could win honor for her country. But looking back now after so many years, she realized how naive she had been then.
In contrast, her current student showed no signs of impassioned aspirations for winning national glory. Xiao Qi had much simpler motivations—if she placed in the top three in this upcoming competition, the prize money would be sufficient.
Xiao Qi slipped into the water and began swimming, steadily accumulating steps on top of the over 10,000 she had already logged that morning in the pool. Working that hard underwater felt far more grueling than walking the same number of steps on land. By the end of the workout she felt like every muscle in her arms and legs had been evenly pulverized.
Following her teacher’s guidance, she focused intently on each swimming stroke and turn. One lap, two laps, three laps... fifteen laps...twenty laps... As she neared twenty her limbs grew increasingly fatigued. She slowly swam to the pool's edge where Coach Wu reached out to help pull her up. Beaming encouragement, Fang Fang praised:
"You practiced very well today. Let's wrap it up for now. In a few days I’ll have you race some others to get a feel for the competitive difference."
Xiao Qi hauled herself up the ladder, muscles quivering with exhaustion. But rather than immediately rest she began more stretching exercises.
The morning swim had already exceeded 10,000 steps. Accruing so many paces underwater was far more draining than walking the same amount. Her arms and legs felt uniformly crushed.
Following her teacher’s prescribed routine she worked to fully stretch every muscle.
By the time she finished, the previously empty pool had flooded with people streaming in steadily like water poured into dumpling skins. More kids had arrived too, some with life rings and others with little duck floaties. Practically converting the pool into a water park. At least her section of the deep end remained relatively calm.
It was Sunday morning and many parents were bringing their children swimming.
Coach Wu also had to leave to start her paid lessons. The training with Xiao Qi was complimentary but Xiao Qi could gift Wu’s reserved private lessons to others.
After saying goodbye to her teacher, Xiao Qi headed off to shower. The hot water poured evenly over her skin. She felt her whole body relax blissfully as all her pores opened up and warmth seeped through.
"The host diligently completed her swimming practice, meticulously following instructions to improve her skill which positively impacted those around her. Rewarding the host with one level increase in taste perception. Ordinary humans have approximately 3,000 taste buds. After this increase, the host now possesses taste buds comparable to a pig, around 5,500 taste buds. She will be able to perceive flavors more keenly.”
Xiao Qi: ......
The hot shower had left her a little numb already when she received notice that along with her new canine sense of smell, she now also possessed a porcine sense of taste...
