"Dad, Mom, I'm leaving first." As soon as he swallowed the last mouthful of milk, Hu Lai got up from the dining table, grabbed the schoolbag beside him, changed his shoes and went out.
"Be careful on the road." The mother popped her head out of the kitchen and warned.
"I know!" When he answered this sentence, Hu Lai was already outside the door.
Listening to the footsteps echoing in the corridor, Xie Lan glanced at her husband who was having breakfast and said with a smile: "Our child is getting more and more sensible. He goes to school every day to read early. I think you should feel relieved, right?"
"That depends on his test scores." Hu Lixin said while peeling the shells of boiled eggs.
"His ranking in the final exam last semester rose ten places compared to his grade in the first semester of high school. Moreover, as long as our son has this attitude, you should be happy." Xie Lan came to where Hu Lai was sitting with a tablecloth.
Clean up that piece. "Hu Lixin, I'm serious, you should be a little more tolerant to our son. Sometimes, you are too strict, so strict that I even doubt whether he is your biological son..."
Hu Lixin frowned and said, "I am strict with him now just for his own good. You also know that this kid has never been upright. If you dare to relax a little bit, he will dare to do it for you."
"That's it, if you are too strict, you will make him afraid of you. The relationship between the two of you as father and son is too tense. Aren't you afraid that he won't love you?" Xie Lan ate two eggs from Hu Lai.
The shells were swept with the tablecloth into the glass from which he drank milk.
"As long as he lives well, it doesn't matter whether he loves me or not," Hu Lixin said.
"You say that again!" Xie Lan stared at her husband and said dissatisfied.
Hu Lixin looked down at his knees and said: "I don't want him to follow my old path. He went to write and play football at a young age. After studying for more than ten years, he retired without even playing a professional game. In addition to all the injuries, he still has
What did you do? When you came out to society, you found that you knew nothing, had low education, and had no ability. At first, you tried your best, but later you couldn’t even use your strength... Study hard, go to college, and it will be much easier to find a job.
.”
"Haven't you heard that it's hard for college students to find jobs now?"
"No matter how difficult it is to find someone, he's still better than me."
Seeing that her husband was so stubborn, Xie Lan couldn't continue talking about this topic. She could only sigh in her heart, turned around and walked towards the kitchen with the dishes and cups used by Hu Lai.
Behind her, Hu Lixin, wearing a security uniform, stuffed the peeled eggs into his mouth.
※※※
When Hu Lai arrived at the school, he parked his bicycle in a special carport outside the school gate and ran straight to the football field.
Li Ziqiang was already waiting for him there, just like every morning before.
When there were not many people on campus, and the stadium track and stands were not occupied by students memorizing English vocabulary and political texts, Hu Lai had already started training under the guidance of Li Ziqiang.
This time they did not train directly on the court, but came to the horizontal and parallel bars area.
Li Ziqiang stood in front of a pair of parallel bars with the highest height and said to Hu Lai: "The upper body strength training includes arm strength, neck and shoulder strength, chest strength, back and hip strength, and abdominal strength. We train the same way. Let's start with arm strength.
.See these parallel bars?”
Hu Lai nodded.
"Watch me demonstrate." Li Ziqiang turned around, raised his arms, grabbed the parallel bars with both hands, jumped up with a little force, and then straightened his arms to prop up his body.
After his body was still, his arms slowly bent and his body slowly moved downward until his upper arms were almost parallel to the ground before he stopped.
Then his body began to move upward again, and his arms slowly straightened from a ninety-degree bend. When they were fully straightened, his body returned to its original position.
The next step is to repeat this set of elbow bending and stretching movements.
After finishing, Li Ziqiang jumped down from the parallel bars, clapped his hands and said to Hu Lai: "Do you see clearly? Just do this. There are a few points to pay attention to. First, just lower your body until your upper arm is parallel to the ground.
, don’t continue to descend, and the height of your elbows should not be higher than your shoulders. If you move correctly and train properly, you will feel a stretch in front of your shoulders.”
"Okay, I understand, coach."
"Okay, come on." Li Ziqiang stepped back and gave the place to Hu Lai.
Hu Lai spat into the palm of his hand, grabbed the parallel bars and jumped up, then pushed his body up hard, and then slowly descended.
"That's it, keep it up..." Li Ziqiang watched him from below and kept correcting and reminding him. "Don't shake your body, stay steady! The more you shake your body, the more tired you will be!"
"The elbow height is wrong, keep lowering the position...the upper arm is parallel to the ground, that is, the elbow is at a ninety-degree angle. Yes, eh, that's right, this is the position. Remember the feeling here. Is there a stretch in front of the shoulder?
"
Hu Lai gritted his teeth and replied: "Yes, coach..."
"That's right, go ahead and push back!"
Hu Lai slowly relied on the strength of his upper arms to stretch his body up.
When his body reached the top, he quickly entered the system and took a look at his current "buff": in the space to the right of his avatar, the effect of the strength training scroll was displayed, and the countdown under the icon told him that there were nine classes left.
Seeing the effect of this scroll, Hu Lai felt relieved.
Come on, special training. When I build muscles, I must buy that tight T-shirt to wear!
Just like Chen Rui, the muscle-dazzling demon!
※※※
"Xiaoyu, Deputy Hu was actually asked by the coach to practice more strength. He was lifting weights there at noon..." During the lunch break, Chen Rui came to chat with Xia Xiaoyu.
The topic was naturally their vice-captain’s special training.
In fact, since joining the team, every freshman player has gradually accepted the fact that their vice-captain has to undergo extra training and is scolded by the head coach.
The captains and vice-captains of other teams seem to be the highest-level people on the team, but this is not the case at Dongchuan Middle School.
Their vice-captain is a rookie who only started to get involved in football training when he joined the school team as a freshman in high school. His foundation is weak and he has missed a lot of homework and needs to make up for it.
Therefore, he will conduct special training under the guidance and supervision of the head coach every day before morning reading and during lunch break.
Before, he was training his running and shooting, but now he is training his strength.
Freshman players will discuss their vice-captains privately.
It stands to reason that a person like this would probably not even be able to play in games in other teams, let alone be the vice-captain.
But Vice President Hu was not only the starting player at Dongchuan Middle School, he also scored five goals in three games.
In everyone's opinion, this performance is already very good, but the head coach is still not satisfied, or perhaps Deputy Hu himself is not satisfied either.
So the two of them hit it off and continued practicing.
"How else could Vice Hu be able to score three goals in the national competition in just half a year of playing football?" Xia Xiaoyu said, "I want to watch Vice Hu's training. Do you want to go?
Chen Rui?"
"Go ahead, I'm fine anyway."
※※※
As soon as the two entered the playground, they heard the head coach's voice: "Hurry up, don't be slow. If you are slow, I will tell you, just put your chin on the ground. Don't blame me if you are disfigured... But you have no face either."
Destructible..."
Then came the breathless voice of their vice-captain: "Coach, don't say that...the male big boy has changed..."
Then, Xia Xiaoyu and Chen Rui saw their vice-captain crawling past them in a very strange posture - his hands were bent to support his body, walking staggered like a lizard, while his legs were being manipulated
The coach is holding him in his hands and is being pushed forward.
"I'm going to... push the cart, old man!" Chen Rui blurted out the coquettish words.
Then he quickly realized that he had said the wrong thing, but neither the coach nor the vice-captain ignored him, as if they didn't hear him at all.
"Huh, it's so dangerous..." Chen Rui patted his chest.
"What old man is pushing the cart? This is training Deputy Hu's upper body strength." Xia Xiaoyu rolled his eyes at Chen Rui and explained.
The two of them just stood in the shadow under the doorway of the stadium entrance, watching Hu Lai being pushed around the football field by the head coach.
When the head coach let go of his hand, Hu Lai lay motionless on the artificial turf, as if dead.
"The amount of training is so heavy... Xiaoyu, sometimes I wonder if our head coach has a grudge against Vice President Hu. He is so cruel when we train him... I still remember what the head coach said when we first joined the team.
At that time, many people were so frightened that they gave up, but when it came time for training, when everyone saw Deputy Hu's treatment, many people felt balanced..." Chen Rui murmured as he watched this scene.
"But this kind of training is really useful. I don't know what Vice Hu was like when he was a freshman in high school. I guess that his ability to score three goals in the national competition must be related to this kind of training. Chen Rui, I suddenly had an idea.
, do you want to listen?" Xia Xiaoyu said, looking at Hu Lai on the court.
"what idea?"
"Didn't the coach say that? The team's goal is to go to the national competition, but I think it is impossible to go to the first round of the national competition, right? No matter what, the coach's ambition will not be limited to tying the results of the last national competition.
If you want to perform better in the national competition, you need to invest more in training. I think, like Deputy Hu, I can come to school half an hour early in the morning. I have nothing to do at noon anyway.
Then why can’t I join the coach’s special training?”
Chen Rui looked at the leader of the freshman team with some surprise: "But Xiaoyu, you are already very powerful, is there no need?"
"Awesome? I don't think so." Xia Xiaoyu shook his head. "Our goal is the national competition, and there must be stronger opponents than the opponents in the Anton Cup in the national competition. If we stay still, how can we guarantee that we can beat the national competition?"
A strong opponent in the competition? So I think I should work hard to improve myself. Only in this way can I ensure that I will not become that shortcoming by going to the national competition. Do you want to come with me? Come to school half an hour early every morning and take advantage of the lunch break.
It’s time for special training.”
Chen Rui was hesitant. After seeing Hu Lai's appearance, he was afraid of such training.
Seeing that Chen Rui didn't say anything, Xia Xiaoyu walked out of the shadows, walked towards the sunny football field, and walked towards the head coach.
"Tsk, forget it!" Upon seeing this, Chen Rui also chased after him, walking beside Xia Xiaoyu in three steps and two steps at a time. "If you can do it with your small body, then so can I!"
Xia Xiaoyu looked at his midfield partner and laughed.
Then the two of them walked to the head coach together.
"coach!"
Li Ziqiang looked at the two of them: "What's going on?"
"Coach, we know that you are doing extra training for Deputy Hu. I would like to apply to join, is it okay?" Xia Xiaoyu said.
Hu Lai, who was lying on the ground and panting heavily, was so shocked when he heard Xia Xiaoyu say this that he propped himself up with his arms and cast a surprised look at them - why are there still people who come for abuse these days?
?
"Why?" Li Ziqiang asked without a surprised expression on his face.
"Because I want to work hard to improve myself so that I can perform better in the national competition. I don't want to just go to the national competition to see the world." Xia Xiaoyu said.
Li Ziqiang turned his attention to Chen Rui again, and the latter nodded quickly: "Me too, coach!"
"I think coach, you are teaching when you teach Assistant Hu, and you are also teaching when you teach us. I can also come to school half an hour early every day. I don't have to take a nap, so I can also use my lunch break for training. I hope you agree, coach."
Chen Rui retracted his gaze from Xia Xiaoyu, turned to the head coach, nodded and said, "Me too, coach!"
Li Ziqiang looked the two people up and down.
This is not the first day that he has given Hu Lai special training here. It has been almost six months since March, except for the summer vacation. This is the first time that other members of the team have offered to follow him for additional training.
He asked: "Did you eat much for lunch?"
"Ah?" Even Xia Xiaoyu didn't react this time, and didn't understand what the head coach meant by asking.
Chen Rui wondered if the coach was euphemistically scolding them for "having too much to eat and looking for trouble when they have nothing to do"?
Hu Lai, who had already sat up, explained to them for the head coach: "He is afraid that you will spit out your lunch in a while, which will be a waste of food."
Hearing Deputy Hu say this, Chen Rui was frightened - it's just training, how can he vomit after practicing? How much training is required?
But at this moment, he heard Xia Xiaoyu beside him say: "I haven't eaten much, coach, I promise I won't vomit!"