Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lu Wenbin wore a pair of new red Air Jordan sneakers and ran slowly across the synthetic race tracks around Fuyuan Stadium.
The Air Jordans were the latest design of the brand that year. The day before, when Lu Wenbin passed by a Nike store, he immediately bought the shoes upon falling in love with them at first sight. As a fitness freak, Lu Wenbin had an obsession with sneakers. He did not purchase them in Yun Hua simply because he was poor.
Before he came to Shanghai, he had received plenty of travel subsidies for out-of-town travel, and the total was over 5,000 RMB. Also, with the income he earned from selling pork trotters and braised food, Lu Wenbin summoned his courage, walked into the shop, and bought himself a pair of Air Jordans at full price.
At that moment, Lu Wenbin ran on the track with his pair of full-priced Air Jordans, and he felt like he had drawn the attention of every person in the stadium.
After all, he was wearing a big pair of red sneakers. The shoes were so obvious and cool that there was no way no one could not admire them.
The synthetic race tracks were very comfortable.
The texture of the tracks was also of international standards.
The spacious area around him was very beautiful, and the seats were grouped in three different colors. They were arranged closely together, resembling an uncountable number of leaves that spread out from a tree.
The color of the sky was nice. It was the typical color of haze, where a hint of blue could be found in the sea of gray. The blue color was not a faint shade of blue but a rather deep one. It was a blue that brought some hope to the people.
The pure color of despair in a haze was not welcomed. People would try to run away from its control, just like they ran away from a desert once it lost its oasis.
However, a haze with vitality meant that it definitely possessed some form of life.
A haze with depth and no vitality was like the strongest pandemic. Although hazes seemed to have the ability to wipe off everything on Earth, they still left behind some holes and gaps in their attack so that they would not kill the host immediately. This gave the host a chance to continue reproducing.
Unlike the pandemic that happened in Greece. It was the most serious pandemic ever recorded in human history, and it wiped off an entire city of Greeks. In the end, the pandemic did not last, and the new generation had no idea just what virus could have been so destructive.
Lu Wenbin breathed in slowly.
He inhaled the haze and exhaled clean carbon dioxide.
A young doctor from Yun Hua, who held the spirit of internationalism and took in the hazy Shanghai air with a happy look, made the elderly glance at him while they took a walk in the area.
“Your steps aren’t right. Try to make the middle of your feet land first so that the impact on your knees will decrease,” a soft voice traveled into his ears.
Lu Wenbin was surprised. He turned around and saw a muscular man who had a gold-rimmed belt around his waist. The man was sweating slightly while running together with him on the outer lane of the track.
“Thank… Thank you.” Lu Wenbin turned around shyly.
“How long have you been training?” The muscular man with the gold-rimmed belt poked Lu Wenbin in the arm.
Once the fifteen-inch circumference of his arm was mentioned, Lu Wenbin became interested in continuing the conversation. However, the muscular man’s tone was so soft that Lu Wenbin just shook his head and said, “Just a few years.”
After he noticed that Lu Wenbin was not the type of person he thought him to be, the muscular guy with the gold-rimmed belt laughed loudly and patted Lu Wenbin on the shoulder. He then said, “Your shoulders need more training.”
“Is that so?” Lu Wenbin instantly felt like he had found a bosom buddy, but he also felt defeated.
The muscular man with the gold-rimmed belt smiled lightly. Suddenly, he sped up and surpassed Lu Wenbin from his right.
After running a distance away, he turned back a little, smiled, and said, “Your shoes are nice.”
“Thanks.” Lu Wenbin’s lips curled up.
The man’s words brought joy to him.
It made Lu Wenbin run faster on the synthetic race track.
After a forty-minute run, Lu Wenbin finally ended his warm-up before he left for the gym, which was located at the back of the stadium.
Compared to a normal stadium, a large one like Fuyuan Stadium was equipped with an almost complete set of facilities. Even the devices for endurance training alone took up about five thousand square feet of the area. The number of weight plates was more than the biscuits sold in the vending machine.
Lu Wenbin carried his identity card, then entered the Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center. He randomly picked two dumbbells up and practiced some dumbbell flys while he stood in front of a full-length mirror.
A while later, men and women with athletic figures came in one after another. Lu Wenbin felt inexplicably nervous, and he began to move out of form.
“Clamp your back.” A tall and built man patted Lu Wenbin on the back when he passed by.
Lu Wenbin was shocked, and he stopped his reps. He turned back nervously before he released a sigh. “Thank you.”
“You’re not an athlete, right?” the tall man asked.
Lu Wenbin hesitated for a moment before he answered, “I’m a doctor.”
“From which hospital?” The tall man turned back and looked at Lu Wenbin.
“The Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center.” Lu Wenbin hesitated for two seconds before he blurted out the name of the research institute, which was located right next to the stadium.
“I see. You’re under Academician Zhu Tongyi.”
Lu Wenbin was stunned for two seconds before he understood what the man said. “Yes, you could say so…”
“Look at my shoulder, do I have a strained ligament? Can I still exercise?” The tall man suddenly turned his back and showed Lu Wenbin his shoulder.
Lu Wenbin did not know whether to cry or laugh. “How would I know just by looking at you like this?”
“You can just do a simple physical examination.”
“You even know about physical examinations?”
“I always go for check-ups.” The guy gave him a sly smile and said, “The doctors under your academician are the most skilled. I will always ask a couple of questions whenever I meet any one of them.”
Muscle aches were very common among people who went to the gym throughout the year. It was normal for them to receive consultations from a doctor. However, it would be weird for them to continuously ask questions about their health.
Lu Wenbin looked at the tall man skeptically.
“Hey, look, doctors like you can always come to the gym to exercise, but why can’t people like us go and consult doctors after we’re tired from our training?” the tall man said presumptuously. He sounded very reasonable.
Lu Wenbin could not help but laugh. “Aren’t all of you athletes? Don’t you have your own doctor?”
“The medication that the team doctor prescribes is meant for cows.” The tall man pursed his lips and said, “How about this? I’ll show you how to do a proper dumbbell fly, and you give me a check-up later. Deal?”
“You don’t even know if I’m a doctor who consults cows…”
“I think you’re quite suitable. You can just help conduct a simple check-up on me. It won’t cost you anything,” said the man. He then made Lu Wenbin sit down on the long bench before he observed how Lu Wenbin lifted the dumbbell.
Lu Wenbin got through a great day.
He went through his second day in the stadium as happily as his first day.
On his third day… Lu Wenbin’s muscles ached so much that he did not even want to eat.
Ling Ran had also rested for two days, which was something rare for him. When he went back to the hotel, he saw Lu Wenbin looking as if he was an inch away from death. Ling Ran felt sorry for him and asked, “Have you showered?”
“I’ll shower now.” Lu Wenbin immediately understood what Ling Ran meant. He got up from bed and ran towards the bathroom as he grunted in pain.
“Call me once you get the hand sanitizer ready,” Ling Ran said before he went back to his room.
A few minutes later, Lu Wenbin put on loose-fitting clothing after he showered. He held the alcohol-based hand sanitizer in his hands and called out to Ling Ran happily.
“Lie down.” Ling Ran grabbed a random white towel before he casually applied some of the alcohol-based hand sanitizer on Lu Wenbin’s neck. He then put the white towel on Lu Wenbin’s neck.
Lu Wenbin could not help but grunt when Ling Ran massaged his neck.
“Don’t make any sounds.” Ling Ran immediately stopped Lu Wenbin from making any sounds.
“I…”
“Don’t speak until I finish the massage.”
Lu Wenbin obediently waited for two minutes. Once Ling Ran removed his hands from his neck, Lu Wenbin felt so comfortable that he exhaled loudly.
“You should try this in the gym.” Lu Wenbin could not help but say, “With your massage skills, those muscle men in the gym who suffer from muscle aches will definitely call you ‘dad’ if you help them out.”
“I don’t want godsons.”
“They’re all athletes. They may have strange diseases, you know?”
“Hmm?”
“Performing physical examinations for them should be quite different from normal people, I guess?”
“Hmm?”
“You can’t find so many athletes in other places. They’re the top athletes in our country. I dare say, they’re considered the top athletes among Asians.”
“Hmm?”
“I’m sure you can find some strange ailment among them.”
“That does make sense.” Ling Ran nodded slowly. Once he thought that he could expand his mental library on physical examinations in terms of atypical cases, Ling Ran found the idea of performing physical examinations for the athletes very interesting.
