Almighty Coach

Dai Li sat down opposite Xiaochun Gao.

Xiaochun Gao stared at Dai Li. He thought Dai Li would be nervous, but in fact, Dai Li looked extremely calm. This wasn’t a good start from what Xiaochun Gao had experienced.

The next minute, Xiaochun Gao played hardball and began talking. "Coach Li, we have received some information about you, but I would prefer to hear from you in person. You must know our policy; there is a lighter penalty if you confess than the other way around. If you give up the other people involved, you can receive a lighter punishment." Xiaochun Gao was staring at Dai Li as he spoke.

It was Xiaochun Gao’s regular trick to bluff in the beginning, whether there really was a problem or not. This was a common trick. Many guilty and cowardly people sometimes just told the truth when they were being lied to.

The last sentence Xiaochu Gao had said was an attempt to persuade Dai Li to tell on more people. The more people that were involved, the bigger the case was, and Xiaochun Gao could make his dream come true.

Weidong Chu frowned. He seemed unhappy. Xiaochun Gao sounded like he was interrogating a criminal. Weidong Chu wanted to say something, but he held back when he remembered Director Wang’s words, "assist him."

A clean hand wants no washing. There is nothing to worry about. Weidong Chu thought.

Dai Li nodded. Looking sincere, he said, "I am responsible for not breaking the relay record. I personally think there are some problems existing in our training process. First of all..."

"Stop!" Xiaochun Gao smacked the table all of a sudden. "I asked you to tell the truth. What are you talking about?"

"I am telling the truth!" Dai Li pretended to be cute and dumb. He continued, "Aren’t we talking about the fact that my team didn’t break the National Team’s record?"

Weidong Chu almost laughed out loud. Obviously he had underestimated Dai Li.

"What record! We are talking about the thing you did when you were selecting the team members for the relay group!" Xiaochun Gao groaned. "Does that remind you?"

"You mean the selection for the relay team?" Dai Li shook his head and said, "The athletes signed up themselves. We didn’t run the selection process as we usually do."

"Then why would only five of the seven be selected? It must have had something to do with you!" Xiaochun Gao inquired immediately.

"Director Gao, if seven people come to the tryout, are all seven of them supposed to be chosen?" Dai Li smirked. "The sports bureau wouldn’t agree with that. According to the rules of the relay team for the National Games, every team has to have five to six members. Seven members wouldn’t work at all."

Xiaochun Gao was embarrassed. He felt he had made a big mistake. He had acted unprofessional, as he seemed to have asked something before he had figured it out.

"Then what was your standard when you picked the five athletes? We heard that there was some shady play when you selected the members!" Xiaochun Gao continued his bluffing strategy.

"Shady play? Director Gao, you are overthinking. This is a sprinting competition; we only have two standards. Number one, how fast you run; and number two, how much potential you have to run faster. You can go over the records of the seven athletes if you want and see if the five athletes I picked were not qualified." Dai Li paused, then continued, "Sprinting is about running fast. I can’t leave the fast runners aside and pick the slow ones, right?"

"But people reported you, saying the athletes gave you money to join the relay team!" Xiaochun Gao looked furious.

"Well, did the public tell you who gave me the money? And when they gave it to me? Where did it happen? And how much did they give me? We can discuss these things and make things clear," Dai Li sneered, looking straight into Xiaochun Gao’s eyes. "Director Gao, you said you had some evidence to prove my guilt the moment we saw each other. Now I am curious if you really have evidence. Or did you just guess about everything? You can’t just bluff to work for the Discipline Group, right?"

Xiaochun Gao took a long breath and calmed down. He thought dealing with a young coach like Dai Li would be a piece of cake; that just a few frightening statements would make him fold and tell the truth. He didn’t expect Dai Li to be so difficult and come right back at him.

Is there really someone who tried to frame and throw dirt on Dai Li? Xiaochun Gao started to suspect this, however he couldn’t simply let it go. He was thinking of the "big case" he had been dreaming about.

Bluffing is not going to work. I need to think of something else. Xiaochun Gao stayed silence for a few seconds before he started talking again. "Coach Li, please tell me—what was your reason for picking the athletes? The evidence for choosing every single athlete. I will have to write them down, if you don’t mind."

"Sure. I will start with Kenan Shen first. He is a bit older than the others on the team, but he won second place in the National Games when he was younger. He is experienced in running, and we need an experienced athlete for our relay team, as the relay is a sport that requires teamwork.

"Then there’s Yihao Wu. He is only eighteen, and he is the young man with potential on our track and field team. I want to develop him and help him become a better sprinter.

"Jialiang Zhang is next. He is a positive guy, and he always has a stable performance in competitions, which is suitable for the relay.

"The fourth one is Dong Qin. The reason I picked him was because he was quick and strong. He is the fastest among the seven candidates. You can check his documents or ask other people to prove it.

"And finally, Wenqiang Wang. He is the substitute on the team. I chose him because he was the fastest one of the remaining three candidates."

"So you are saying that the five guys on the relay team are not the fastest on the track and field team?" Xiaochun Gao thought he had found something weak in Dai Li’s words.

Dai Li knew this question was a set up. He didn’t reply immediately. Instead, he thought about it, then answered, "Their performance is changing. I am a coach in charge of the relay games. It is none of my business to measure their personal sports performance."

Xiaochun Gao hit the table again. "That’s right! That is exactly what was said in the report! Those who ran faster didn’t get selected to the relay team; on the contrary, those who were slow and average were selected! And you are telling me nothing about that is shady?"

"Director Gao, you seem to have forgotten that the selection of the relay team was actually voluntary. The excellent athletes you mentioned didn’t even sign up for it. I wish I could have selected them, but I didn’t have the choice," Dai Li said.

"Why didn’t they sign up?" Xiaochun Gao asked.

"I have no idea!" Dai Li shook his head furiously. "The notice was put up on the bulletin board, so everyone could see it. We only got seven entry forms in the end. I couldn’t force them to sign up."

"Sign up" again! Xiaochun Gao cursed silently. He felt like he was back where he started. He couldn’t find anything suspicious as long as the athletes had signed up themselves.

It seems like there is no big case waiting here for me. I will have to go back with nothing, Xiaochun Gao sighed.

Suddenly, someone pushed open the reception area door and rushed inside without knocking.

"I wanted to join the relay team but Coach Dai Li refused to take me!" the guy said loudly.

Dai Li and Weidong Chu turned around at the same time and found that it was Tingshan Chen who had rushed in and spoken.

Xiaochun Gao, on the other hand, felt his dream of achieving something big had been given a new life. He waved to Tingshan Chen and said, "Are you an athlete? Come and sit down. Tell us everything, completely and slowly."