Chapter 12: Famous Coach Li
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Both had been trained for only four days, yet one had jumped 2.17 meters while the other had jumped 2.25 meters. It was obvious who was better. And given the fact that Congcong Wu was much fatter than Dan Liu and had still jumped further, the training results Dai Li had produced were graded more highly than Shouliang Zhao's.
"Shoot! I can't believe the coach from the municipal sports team lost! He was steamrolled!"
"But they said he was an expert when it comes to the standing long jump. How could he lose so easily?"
"This young man is even better than the professional coach. I would have signed my kid up here if I had known this before!"
Most of the people here were just killing time, but there were many parents among them as well. They couldn't remain calm after seeing this, especially those who had come with Shouliang Zhao.
There were two kinds of people whose money was easy to be earned: women and parents. They didn't care about the price if it meant having a "famous teacher" hold training classes for their children, especially for important exams like the high school entrance exam, which was a once in a lifetime opportunity. They didn't care about cost; they cared about the result. If the children could get a higher score after the training, they didn't care about spending thousands of yuan.
Before this incident, Shouliang Zhao was known as the "famous coach" among the parents. His title of "coach of the municipal sports team" earned him a lot of respect, much more than those normal coaches from some everyday middle schools. However, Shouliang Zhao had lost to Dai Li completely in today's competition, making Dai Li the "famous coach" now.
Shouliang Zhao had lost his soul and had no idea what to do. A parent came from behind him and walked up quickly to Dai Li. The parent asked him directly, "Coach Li, are there any vacancies in your class?"
"Yes, for sure!" Dai Li nodded without any hesitation. "I'll leave you a number. Just call and speak to Professor Chen, or you can also add him through WeChat. You need to hurry if you want to sign up, though. There are less than two weeks left before the exam. Your child needs to begin training as soon as possible if you expect a higher score."
"No problem, I'll go sign up right now and bring my son tomorrow!" the parent promised immediately.
"And me, Coach Li! I'll sign up too!"
"And me!"
Dai Li was surrounded by parents in the blink of an eye.
Not far from him, Shouliang Zhao looked very lost. This was the cruel reality of the situation and he had experienced it in front of everyone. All the parents that now surrounded Dai Li had been brought by him. But now it was obvious that they were going to change classes. Soon after, they would quit the SA Student Education program and turn to Talent Education, which meant a big loss of money for Shouliang Zhao.
And this was only the first batch of people. Today's competition had already served as a testimony that Shouliang Zhao was not as good as Dai Li. And if that information spread, parents who cared about nothing except for their children's grades would all come to Dai Li. Shouliang Zhao, on the other hand, would lose more students.
Shouliang Zhao had never felt regret like this. He had come here looking for trouble, simply wanting to show his abilities to attract more students. Dai Li had been nothing but a stepping stone to him. But now, Shouliang Zhao realized that this stepping stone was actually a sharp steel trap. He had fallen for it, too, stepping in and losing any leg he had to stand on.
"Where did this guy come from? If I'd known this before, I would never have come and gotten myself into this mess!" Shouliang Zhao thought to himself.
…
After dinner, Jianguo Chen made himself a pot of tea and sat in front of the TV. His phone rang just as he was ready to watch a TV series. He took out his mobile phone, which was only for business, and saw an unfamiliar number.
"Hello, this is Chen from Talent Education," Jianguo Chen said, answering the phone.
"Oh, you're Professor Chen. I want to sign my child up for your training class," the person on the other end of the phone said.
It was not the first time he had gotten phone calls after his working hours. He said with experience and ease, "We mainly target education for middle school students. As for the cultural classes, we have writing, math, and English classes. We also have a centralized tutoring class only for middle school students who are in their third year. As for extracurricular classes, we have singing and dancing classes. Which grade is your child in this year?"
"The third grade." He stopped for a second and continued, "There are less than two weeks left for the high school PE entrance exam. I want to sign my son up in a PE training class."
"Training class for the high school entrance PE exam…" Jianguo Chen hesitated.
"He must have seen the enrollment advertisement from a few days ago saying we had a professional coach from the municipal sports team. This parent must have no idea that Shouliang Zhao is no longer with Talent Education. That's why he still wants to sign his child up for the class." Jianguo Chen couldn't help but think of Dai Li.
"An undergraduate student, what could he do? I would be so happy if could lead the students in the right direction. What else can I expect from him? I'd better stop enrolling any new students for this PE training class. If the students in this class couldn't get a good score on the exam, that could do a lot of damage to our reputation. I'd better tell him the truth!"
Jianguo Chen thought about it and cleared his throat. "Talent Education did open a training class for the high school PE entrance exam. But due to some unavoidable circumstances, Coach Zhao couldn't teach our class…"
"Coach Zhao? Who is that? I don't care about Coach Zhao, Coach Wang, or Coach Liu, I just want Coach Li," he said.
Jianguo Chen was confused. He couldn't figure out who Coach Li was. His silence made the parent on the other end of the phone panic. He thought Jianguo Chen didn't want to enroll any other students. His tone turned serious and strict. "Your young Coach Li promised me that there would be a vacancy for us to sign up."
"Young Coach Li? Oh you mean our intern Li!" Jianguo Chen finally realized that "Coach Li" meant Dai Li. Normally Jianguo Chen called him little Li or intern Li. He was not used to someone calling him "Coach Li."
The parent on the other side continued, "I want to sign my child up just for Coach Li. He already promised me! You can't take it back!"
"Just because of Dai Li? He is just some undergraduate college student. This parent is making him sound like some famous coach." Jianguo Chen didn't have the slightest idea what was going on. But if the parent insisted, there was no reason for Jianguo Chen to refuse a customer. He said "yes" immediately.
After he hung up the phone, another strange number appeared on his phone.
"Hello, this is Chen from Talent Education," Jianguo Chen said automatically.
"Is this Talent Education? You have a very talented coach named Li, right? I want to sign my son up for the high school PE entrance training class!"
"Coach Li again?" Jianguo Chen was completely confused now.