The competition process was a little more complex than the preliminaries.
The leaders on stage spoke for quite a long time.
It was said to be a live broadcast on Channel 5 of Lvshan City's local TV station.
It would also be broadcast on Lvshan City's evening news tonight.
The music on site was all passionate and fiery, with little red flags hung everywhere.
The mood of the audience present was also quite passionate, especially...that group of boys and girls waving light boards and banners.
Liang Jiajia had very strong organizational skills. Adding that Guan Jingzhi, one of the core figures in their class, was also present, she had called almost half of the students in her class to come and cheer for Teacher Xiao Qi, teaching them properly how fans cheer for celebrities. If not for not having agreed on a name yet, she even wanted to call them Qi Fan, but felt it was a little tacky, so she had not decided on a name yet. For now they just held light boards and banners.
But apart from them, others were not prepared at all, so they stood out very prominently...
Su Xiaoqi: ......Maintaining the untouchable buff, not joking around or smiling, nothing else to do.
She also did not know what to do. The competition would start soon and she was a little nervous, which made her want to go to the bathroom again.
Considering the leaders were still giving speeches and it would take some time, she should just go to the bathroom. Otherwise, if she waited until the competition started to go, she might miss her own session...Just thinking about it was scary.
Xiao Qi quietly went to the bathroom after all.
After spending some time in the bathroom and looking at herself in the mirror while washing her hands, she found that her hair that could be tied was all tied up. Her face had a bit of a sharp chin now instead of being as round as before, but her cheeks still had some baby fat.
Washing her face with cold water sobered her up a bit.
She had been swimming almost every day without interruption recently.
She could see her own slight improvement. She thought, no matter what one does, as long as they can work hard tirelessly every day, sweating and putting in time, they will improve.
It was the same with swimming.
So there was nothing to fear today. It was not much different from her usual training.
She told herself, "Come on, come on, come on!"
Then she left the restroom.
Luckily, the leaders were still giving speeches, so Xiao Qi returned to the Three Flowers Team and waited a while longer.
The camera kept scanning over them. She felt that some teammates beside her were very nervous, standing upright with their backs even shaking.
Whenever the camera swept over, Zeng Tingting would reveal a smile, but her smile seemed rather stiff.
Discovering that others could also be nervous suddenly made her feel not as nervous herself.
Luckily, with physical fitness improving from swimming every day recently, she did not have the urge to go to the bathroom again. By the time the competition was announced to begin, Xiao Qi was even reciting to herself the new Japanese sentences she had learned.
With her mind distracted, her emotions calmed down all of a sudden without restlessness.
It was not until her teammate beside her gave her a nudge that she snapped back to reality.
“It’s your turn next. Go get ready."
"Thanks." Xiao Qi said her thanks and got up to go out.
The camera was still following her. Xiao Qi walked very steadily. There were cheers from the audience stand. Xiao Qi thanked Liang Jiajia in her heart for using the camera on her every day recently. It had greatly tempered her to the point she did not feel much fear now and was very calm.
It felt like a "sooner settled, sooner relieved" situation.
She had also not been home for a long time, over half a month now probably - longer than even when she was in school, since she would always go home weekly then, at most missing two weeks, unless there were school activities.
She missed her mom a bit, and the peanut soup, fried crucian carp, braised chicken claws, mushroom soup, spring rolls...that her mom made.
She even missed her bedroom without glass windows at home.
As these thoughts floated through Xiao Qi’s mind, her appearance remained composed and calm on the surface as she walked to the waiting area for athletes backstage.
She saw that Wang Songli, who got second place in the preliminaries, was in her group. Wang Songli looked very sturdy, even a bit masculine. Even in a swimsuit her chest muscles looked very developed.
Xiao Qi only had a slightly protruding and still not very developed chest.
Their lanes were adjacent. Standing together, Xiao Qi felt Wang Songli was a good one third larger than her in size.
Wang Songli was clearly the hot favorite for the championship. She had participated in many competitions before, getting second place and the championship for several times. However, already 20 years old and with ordinary looks, she did not seem very popular. Xiao Qi only knew about her from participating in this competition.
Wang Songli could be considered an ordinary athlete with a rather bleak outlook. Either she would end up coaching others like Xiao Qi’s coach in the future, or completely leave this field. Truly outstanding athletes who could represent the country and win glory on the world stage were few and far between, just a handful that could be counted on one hand, while there were countless athletes nationwide.
Xiao Qi smiled and nodded at Wang Songli in greeting.
Wang Songli’s expression was even more stern, appearing rather fierce even when smiling. She did not pay much attention to the novice Su Xiaoqi. Her targets were Li Enya and Li Si from Meng City. So she did not say another word and left first.
The official competition was more serious than the preliminaries, with no one running around at the venue, only the athletes and cameras present.
Xiao Qi felt the camera was focusing on her quite a lot, always moving around beside her. Luckily she was used to it now and did not feel an urge to go to the bathroom. Standing on the diving platform, Xiao Qi took a look at the big banner and light board on the opposite side, and also saw Coach Wu standing across the pool.
Coach Wu revealed a big smile to her and waved her hands vigorously, her standard gesture of encouraging students onshore.
The electronic starter's whistle sounded, prompting the athletes to dive into the water simultaneously.
Water splashed.
Xiao Qi felt her body sink slightly before swiftly regaining her swimming rhythm and surging forward, forward. She was like a fish happily swimming in the creek by her village back home. Very fast, faster and faster.
She concentrated on enjoying the swimming process and feeling the change in speed.
She had started sprinting from the very beginning, taking the lead as soon as she hit the water.
She turned and reached the end.
Panting heavily, she had come in first place. She was first in her group.
Feeling like there was water in her ears and unable to hear very clearly externally, she could still make out the cheers.
Standing in the water with a smile on her face, her teeth looked very neat. Water droplets clung onto her long eyelashes.
Xiao Qi thought, how refreshing!
