Disobedience To Control chapter 44
Genius Teenager
For the past two or three days, Yang Xiaobei felt as if his body was being crushed by a heavy object, and his vision was strange, always filled with bizarre hallucinations. He realized that he was in a terrifying nightmare, but he couldn’t seem to open his eyes.
In the dream, a huge wave surged, sweeping him into the depths of the water. Darkness surrounded him.
When he regained consciousness in the dream again, he found himself sitting on a small boat on the surface of the Nanjiang River.
He had turned into the less than two-year-old Yang Xiaobei. More precisely, his name was still Ling Xiaobei at that time.
In the cold dawn of Jiangcheng, with a thin layer of mist on the river, he was wrapped in a thick cotton coat, with a piece of paper in his pocket bearing his name and date of birth. Apart from that, he had nothing else on him.
There happened to be a woman washing clothes on a nearby fishing boat. She turned her head and saw the child. The woman quickly pulled the rope of the small boat and pulled the child into her arms. The woman’s name was Yang Qing, in her thirties, and she made a living by fishing from a young age. She had never married or had children. Seeing this child in her arms with thick eyebrows and big eyes, looking very cute, she immediately decided to adopt him.
Yang Qing was not used to being called “mom” by others, so she let him call her aunt. And this has been the case for many years.
Ling Xiaobei also grew up as a little monkey on the fishing boat on the Nanjiang River, diving into the river for a wild swim every day, regardless of the season.
Every spring, when the tide of the Nanjiang River surged, the river would be in turmoil from morning till noon. At that time, Ling Xiaobei would climb to the highest mast, the Jiangcheng wind blowing against his slender body, as he gazed at the enormous crimson sun above the river.
Ling Xiaobei was only registered as a resident with Yang Qing when he was four years old. Yang Qing, apart from making ends meet, couldn’t afford to send Ling Xiaobei to school.
However, just as she was worrying about sending him to school, a greater unexpected event occurred.
Every summer, there was a fishing ban period in Nanjiang, during which all fishing boats were not allowed to cast nets or enter the fishing waters.
That night, Yang Qing’s boat was moored on the shore. She slept in the cabin with the four-year-old Ling Xiaobei.
In the middle of the night, the boat suddenly shook violently, followed by a loud bang, which woke them both up. Yang Qing quickly put on her coat and went to the bow to check the situation. In the pitch-black night, she saw that the hull had been hit by another fishing boat. Yang Qing had not yet stabilized herself when the deck suddenly shook, and she fell into the icy waters of the Nanjiang River.
The young Ling Xiaobei saw Yang Qing fall into the water. The wind and waves on the river were fierce, but he disregarded the cold and grabbed a piece of driftwood next to him, jumping into the river. Ling Xiaobei had excellent swimming skills, and his small body navigated through the river, successfully delivering the driftwood to Yang Qing’s side.
The two were thus saved. After coming ashore, Ling Xiaobei and Yang Qing were sent to the hospital by the local rescue organization.
Ling Xiaobei was unharmed, but Yang Qing hit the steel plate under the hull when she fell into the water, injuring her legs severely. After the doctor’s examination, she was diagnosed with no major problems in her daily life, but she couldn’t run or jump anymore. This was a devastating blow to Yang Qing, as her legs were indispensable for fishing, both for casting and retrieving the nets.
This incident caused quite a stir in the surrounding areas of Nanjiang. Coincidentally, the coach of the city’s youth swimming team was scouting for talent in this area. The coach approached Yang Qing, expressing a desire to meet the child who had saved her in the river.
Ling Xiaobei, who had been swimming in the wild since childhood, couldn’t match the basic skills of other children, and his movements were not professional. However, he had extraordinary talent. The coach said his aquatic abilities were even more remarkable than many professional young swimmers.
Yang Qing was worried about sending Ling Xiaobei to school, so she expressed her concerns to the coach. The coach reassured her, saying that the child seemed to have the potential to become a professional swimmer. As for schooling, once he joined the team, arrangements would naturally be made.
At first, Yang Qing was hesitant, but the coach visited their home for three consecutive days, insisting on their decision.
“This child is a genius. If he doesn’t train in swimming, he will regret it for the rest of his life.”
Ling Xiaobei, hugging Yang Qing’s thigh, heard this through the door and seemed to understand.
After joining the youth team, despite his slender physique, Ling Xiaobei proved to be extremely resilient. In the competitive environment of the team, he thrived. He didn’t lag behind in training sessions and, within less than two years of joining, broke several freestyle records in the team. With better meals, warmer clothing, and his body growing taller, when he put on his professional swimwear and stood at the starting point of the swimming lane, he seemed somewhat invincible, like a deity or a buddha.
At the age of seven, Ling Xiaobei smoothly entered the local public school. His academic performance had always been mediocre, but he didn’t care. Occasionally, Yang Qing would scold him for not doing well in exams, but Ling Xiaobei would just play the role of a dutiful nephew, consoling her with a straight face, leaving her feeling dizzy.
It wasn’t until he reached third grade that Yang Qing’s fishing career suffered another blow. Her legs were already not very agile, and she could only pick up some leftovers from other fishing boats during fishing, then sell them wholesale to fishmongers who came to collect fish. Her income was not as good as before.
However, one morning, the company responsible for managing the Nanjiang waters called her, saying there was a major announcement.
Dozens of fishermen put down their work and crowded into the cramped office.
After a noisy argument, Yang Qing learned that the land by the Nanjiang River had just been auctioned to a real estate group. Starting from next month, the land would be developed, and a riverside garden would be built along the riverbank, with the mudflats being filled. Their fishing boats would also be permanently banned from docking in this area.
The other company paid them a small sum of money to leave, and Yang Qing was forced to give up her fishing livelihood.
In the evening, Ling Xiaobei sat with Yang Qing at home, drinking hot fish soup. Yang Qing told him about this news.
Ling Xiaobei was stunned at first, then he grinned and comforted Yang Qing, “Auntie, what are you afraid of? Wait until I achieve good results in swimming, become the national champion, and then tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of bonuses will be deposited into your account! We won’t have to live in this rundown house by the river anymore. We can directly buy a big house in the city!”
Yang Qing forced a bitter smile, but there was nothing she could do except to accept her fate.
A month later, Yang Qing moved to the old city area and rented a staff dormitory that was idle. Although the house was very small, with only one bedroom and one living room, Yang Qing kept it clean and tidy. The light green wooden door, the transparent glass windows that could cast shadows of people, a small beige fabric sofa covered with white lace; the kitchen on the west side was only three square meters, but it could catch the sun for the whole afternoon. The dishes and chopsticks were neatly arranged in the small space, and the only bedroom had a wooden bed that Yang Qing had picked up from the old goods market.
But Yang Qing often proudly told Ling Xiaobei, “Don’t underestimate this bed, it’s made of walnut! Others don’t know the value, but I picked it up!”
Ling Xiaobei lived in the team all year round and didn’t come home often. But every time he returned, there was a refreshing scent in the house. Yang Qing would pick some wildflowers from the nearby grassland, sometimes evening primrose, sometimes daisies. She would trim the flowers’ leaves neatly with scissors and then put them in a half-filled glass bottle.
Ling Xiaobei’s swimming career started smoothly. He excelled in the youth team, ranking first or second for a long time. When challenged by youth teams from other cities, he was not afraid at all, winning numerous gold medals for the coach.
When he was fifteen years old, the national Star River Cup selection competition began accepting registrations. This competition would be held in the most top-notch venue in the country, the Liyuan Sports Arena. The Star River Cup was a long-awaited event for young swimmers nationwide. Once they made a name for themselves in this competition and stood out, they would mostly be recruited by well-known coaches and have a promising future.
Unfortunately, Ling Xiaobei caught a cold before the competition, coughing a few times during training and feeling a bit short of breath when swimming. Worried that it might affect the competition, the coach wanted to take him to see a doctor, but Ling Xiaobei refused.
With the competition approaching, he didn’t want these minor illnesses to hinder his progress. The next day, Ling Xiaobei boarded the train to North City with the coach.
It was over a thousand kilometers from Jiangcheng to North City, and their express train would take six or seven hours to reach. Fifteen-year-old Ling Xiaobei, who was already six feet tall, found the second-class seat cramped, with no place to put his legs.
Along the way, he curled up his thighs, leaned his head against the window, and watched the gradually unfamiliar scenery outside. The murmuring streams turned into vast plains, and even the sun seemed to become higher and farther away.
The Star River Cup competition was different from the usual exchange matches; the format was more professional, and the opponents were stronger. Ling Xiaobei signed up for two events, the 100m and 200m freestyle, which had always been his strong suits.
Until the start of the race, his cold had not completely cleared up, and his breathing was somewhat labored, making his chest feel uncomfortable. But as soon as the starting gun went off, he dived into the water with all his might, using his arms, hips, and legs to propel himself forward.
In the end, he narrowly defeated his opponents in both events and won the championship. Emerging from the water, he looked at the dazzling numbers behind his name, and laughed heartily towards the coach on the shore, as if his bright future was about to unfold from this moment on.
After this incident, the renowned coach Yu Hai quickly took notice of Ling Xiaobei and promptly recruited him into his own team, even paying a high price to complete all the membership procedures for him.
Yang Qing knew that Ling Xiaobei was going to develop in North City, and naturally, she was happy for him. However, the cost of living in North City was much higher than in Jiangcheng, and every step taken outside cost money.
But he advised Yang Qing, “I have hands and feet. Can I starve to death in North City? Besides, the team gives me subsidies.”
Although he said so, the subsidies Yu Hai could secure for him were still limited, barely reaching six or seven hundred yuan a month. He was not a local, and he had to pay for the dormitory in the team himself.
From then on, fifteen-year-old Ling Xiaobei had to conceal his age and start working. Washing dishes in restaurants, promoting in supermarkets, sticking psoriasis ads in corridors—he did almost every kind of job he could think of.
Moreover, in the team, he no longer enjoyed the same status as before. The training team in North City was like a bottomless sea, always surging with hidden currents.
Yu Hai himself had a very strong personality, didn’t get along well with the club management, but was highly skilled in coaching. The management couldn’t control him even if they wanted to.
Now, with the addition of Ling Xiaobei, a troublemaker, the two often went against the decisions of the club manager.
Regardless of the team’s arrangements, Yu Hai took Ling Xiaobei to participate in many competitions, most of which resulted in him winning medals. Yu Hai also enjoyed great prestige for a while, overshadowing other coaches in front of his peers.
The turning point came three months after Ling Xiaobei joined the team. It was a routine internal competition, with Yu Hai as the referee.
In the bright swimming pool, the lights shone on the heads of several swimmers about to start. Ling Xiaobei stood in the middle of the fourth lane.
Bang! The starting gun fired, and several people almost simultaneously jumped into the water.
In the first twenty-five meters, he swam smoothly, already leading by half a body length. But when he lifted his elbow to strike the water surface, he suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his heart. Then his entire upper body went numb, and his movements became erratic. Although he tried hard to maintain his balance, his hands and feet no longer responded to his commands.
A rush of bubbles engulfed him, and suddenly everything went pitch black.
Thud! Ling Xiaobei plummeted downwards. The water was cold, the pain in his chest unbearable. The swimmers in the neighboring lanes had not noticed him sinking yet, still swimming at full speed, and the splashes they created pushed him deeper into the pool.
For over ten years of swimming, this was his first time drowning.
Soon, Ling Xiaobei was pulled up from the bottom of the pool and taken to the hospital. After a full-body examination, it was confirmed that he had a congenital heart condition. Surgery was the only option.
However, Yang Qing had already spent a lot of savings on her leg, and didn’t have enough money for his surgery. Yu Hai, seeing that Ling Xiaobei could no longer swim, couldn’t afford to spend more money to help him find a doctor.
In the end, with no other options, Yang Qing had to go door-to-door, scraping together money to borrow, and found a relatively unknown doctor in Jiangcheng to perform the first heart surgery.
A month after Ling Xiaobei’s surgery, he was discharged from the hospital. He endured the pain of his wounds and returned to the team, only to receive the news that he was going to be expelled from the team.
Yu Hai, a middle-aged man in his forties, shed tears for the first time in front of him: “Xiaobei, it’s not that I don’t want to keep you. It’s that they used this incident against me, saying that I didn’t coach well, causing such a big accident in the team. I have no choice. If I don’t agree, they will force me out. You’re still young, you don’t understand the interests here…”
The scar on Ling Xiaobei’s chest was still vividly purple, two inches long, like a twisted little snake. As he looked at the man in front of him, he felt particularly estranged.
At that moment, he realized that in his time and space, there seemed to be a runaway tram. Five people lay on one track, and one person lay on the other. And God’s hand could pull the lever to decide which track the tram would pass.
At fifteen, he finally understood that he was forever the one who could be sacrificed. Abandoned on a lonely boat before the age of two, abandoned in the dim bottom of the swimming pool at the age of fifteen.
He was the invalid condition that could be sacrificed in all problems.
The one who drowned in the swimming pool was not someone else, but the talented young Ling Xiaobei.
📢Author’s Note
This segment of Xiao Yang’s swimming career deviates from the actual competitive sports selection process in China. However, due to the plot setting and the age limit of the protagonist, please treat it as a fictional narrative.