MM Racing Chapter 185
Chapter 185
"Those moves you made against Liu Yang this afternoon, let me tell you, there aren't many players on the entire provincial youth team who could do that. Liu Yang only scored two points in four rounds against you in a one-on-one situation. Do you know what that means?"
Lin Feng chewed his food. "I don't know."
"It means you've become famous." Gao Yuan lowered his voice. "Now everyone in the team is saying that the kid from Beichuan can stop Liu Yang."
Lin Feng swallowed his food. "I couldn't stop him. I only started to have some effect when his stamina dropped in the fourth quarter."
"His stamina dropped because of you. You guarded him from the front for the entire quarter, no wonder he was tired."
Chen Hao ate his food quietly, not joining the discussion, but as he put down his chopsticks, he said, "Defending against Liu Yang is very tiring; your legs will be sore tomorrow. Soak your feet in hot water tonight, don't be lazy."
Lin Feng glanced at him. "Okay."
After finishing his meal, Lin Feng didn't go back to his dormitory immediately. He walked to the public phone in the courtyard and stood there for a while.
The telephone was red, with a white sheet of paper pasted on it that read "Long distance: 0.8 yuan/minute." A small notebook hung on the wall next to it, used for recording call logs. He flipped through it; it was filled with dates and numbers, the handwriting messy and some parts already blurred.
He took out the business card—left to him by Lin Cuiping—which read "Stall No. 312, Area A, Guangzhou Huadu International Garment City," and listed three numbers below: the stall's telephone number, pager number, and mobile phone number.
A mobile phone number. In 1996, not many people could afford a mobile phone. Lin Cuiping was clearly among the first to get rich.
He put in 80 cents and dialed a cell phone number.
The phone rang three times after it connected. Then a woman's voice came through—"Feed?"
It wasn't a gentle female voice. It was crisp, clean, like a knife cutting through something. It had a slight Cantonese accent, with the ending notes rising in pitch.
"Mom, it's me. Lin Feng."
There was a pause on the other end of the phone. It was probably a second or two, but Lin Feng felt it was a long time, as if the distance from Beichuan to Guangzhou had been compressed into those two seconds.
"Lin Feng?" Her voice rose slightly before returning to normal. "Why did you suddenly decide to call me? Yuxin said you're in training camp."
"Yeah. I had some free time today, so I called."
"Is training tiring? Is it hot in the provincial capital? Have you eaten?" The three questions were asked in quick succession, like bullets fired in rapid succession, with almost no pause between each question.
"It's alright. It's hot in the provincial capital. I've eaten."
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, then she laughed. The laughter was short, like a truncated melody, stopping before the last note could fade.
"You're talking less than before," she said.
Lin Feng held the microphone.
"Before, you could talk for half an hour on the phone, from school to classmates to the food in the cafeteria, you could talk about anything. Now you only say a few words."
Lin Feng didn't know how to answer. He wasn't the original owner of this body. He didn't know how the original owner spoke on the phone. He could only remain silent.
"Are you tired from playing ball?" Her tone softened a bit, the sharpness of her voice lessened, and it became a tentative gentleness.
"A little tired. But it's okay."
"Rest if you're tired. Don't push yourself," she said. "If you want to come to Guangzhou for summer vacation, I'll buy you a plane ticket. There are places to play ball here, and quite a few sports students train. If you want to play against others, I'll arrange it for you."
Lin Feng thought for a moment. "My training camp ends on July 20th. I don't know what will happen after that."
"That works too. Give me a call once you've decided, and I'll have someone book tickets for you."