172 Stubborn

"If you don't go back, I won't drink it." His mom suddenly got angry.

"Okay, I'll head back after you finish porridge." Tang Yan knew his mother wanted him to go back soon.

"I won't drink it, you need to head back now. It takes half a day to get to Shanghai by car. You have to get a good rest when you get there." His mother continued refusing to eat.

"Mom, I rushed back all the way to see you, the least you can do is drink the porridge before I go back, right?" Tang Yan said playing up a childish temper.

Hearing Tang Yan's words, his mother finally relented and drank the porridge.

Of course, Tang Yan wouldn't leave so early. After drinking the porridge, his mother reminded him, but he just asked her to wait and stuck around.

However when it came time for lunch, his mother was truly hard headed. She refused to eat till he headed off. With a defeated sigh Tang Yan told her, he would call to check up on her later and began to head out.

When he went out, he gave a gift to the doctor, and got his mother upgraded into a new room, only then did he head back on the train southbound.

After another round of transfers, it was already night time when he arrived in Shanghai and completely drained he didn't even get to watch the 800m final which was about to start.

As soon as he got home, he fell asleep, out for the count.

Getting up the next day, he felt mostly refreshed, after doing some warm-up exercises to get his body going, he washed his face and brushed his teeth then took a look at his phone.

Picking up the phone, he saw several missed calls, from Shen Qing, Zhuang Jiajie, Ye Shiwen and Fu Yuanhui. To his surprise, there was even one from Yan Bing.

When he saw the name, he couldn't help but smile slightly.

He called everyone back, except for Yan Bing, which he left it for the time being.

He let them know he was back and would report to the swimming team later.

After making the calls, he got ready and grabbed some food before calling for a car and heading to the swimming centre with his stuff. On the way, he took out his phone and brushed up on the news while on the road.

Sun Yang won the 800-meter freestyle taking gold with a time of 7 minutes 38 seconds 57.

Seeing this, Tang Yan smiled unconsciously. Sun Yang was truly a genius he had to watch out for. Although he wasn't here, at least the medal was still captured by the Chinese team.

In addition to Sun Yang, the veteran Wu Peng won the 200-meter butterfly bronze medal, one gold and one bronze medal. Although Tang Yan wasn't present, the swimming team's performance wasn't inferior.

"Looks like I need to work harder!"

Tang Yan whispered in his heart, then put his phone away and hit the swimming pool directly.

When he arrived at the training hall, Shen Qing was there waiting and seeing him return, Shen Qing felt relieved as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

"You're finally back, luckily you have time to warm up. There's an hour till the 200m freestyle group stage." Shen Qing said hurriedly.

Tang Yan nodded, without much nonsense, and headed to the locker room to change.

After more than six hours of traveling back and forth within a day. If it was an ordinary person, they would most likely still be out of it and it would take them a long time to recover. Fortunately, whether he was participating in boxing or swimming, his training schedule was always packed and  double others. After so much conditioning his recovery speed was swift, most of his fatigue was gone, although not in absolute peak form, he had largely recovered.

After training in the pool for a while, seeing that Tang Yan was basically the same as before, Shen Qing was relieved.

Unlike the 100-meter freestyle, although the 200-meter freestyle was not as hyped up, the starlight of the swimmers had not dimmed at all.

It was a jam-packed event, with the likes of Ryan Lochte the famous medley swimmer, world record-holder and Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps, and his old rival Paul Biedermann. In addition, there was also Sun Yang and Park Tae-hyun the two stars of the Asian swimming world.

After a brief warm-up, Tang Yan headed out to the swimming pool to prepare. The group stages started immediately, and he appeared in the first group.

The main opponent he encountered in this group was the world famous medley swimmer Ryan Lochte.

Although not as famous as Phelps, Lochte's popularity and strength in the swimming field was definitely not low. As the most well-known male medley swimmer, he could be said to be a master of all strokes.

To put it plainly, the average person majored in medley swimming because they had small achievements in various strokes, but they would still have a long way to go in achieving good results in the individual strokes, but Lochte was different. Because he had reached the top level in each individual stroke, it was unreasonable not to participate in the medley.

It would not be easy for Tang Yan to defeat such an opponent.

"Hey, Tang Yan right. Michael said, you understand English?" After entering the venue, Tang Yan was somewhat surprised, as Lochte took the initiative to speak to him.

"A little bit," Tang Yan nodded.

"You're an excellent swimmer. Michael also thinks highly of you, I look forward to racing against you." Lochte said with a smile.

"I'm looking forward to it too." Tang Yan was somewhat indifferent to Lochte's kindness. Maybe Lochte was a humble person, maybe he was just trying to get into his head, but it didn't matter. His only concern was the race at hand.

Lochte didn't say anything else. After a while, the referee came up and signaled the swimmers to come on stage.

The World Championships entered its fifth match day, but the enthusiasm of the audience hadn't fade away at all. Although it was a working day and it was only a group match, there were at least a few thousand people on scene watching.

And not having seen Tang Yan for a day, the enthusiasm of Chinese fans seemed extremely high.

Sensing the atmosphere, Tang Yan waved and gestured to the audience.

...

"On your marks."

An electronic prompt sounded soon at the scene.

Tang Yan retracted his hands and grabbed the front edge of the starting platform with both hands and got into position.

"Get set!"

Buzz!

With the buzzer, he, like everyone else, dove into the pool.

After entering the water, he glided forward and then his legs were off, kicking steadily.

After surfacing, he saw Lochte leading in front.

In terms of height, these top swimmers were much taller than him, which made him always lag behind at the beginning.

However, he quickly began to draw closer to Lochte relying on his fast kick frequency.

In the first 50-meter turn, Lochte still maintained his fast speed, widening the gap with everyone, and by the 100-meter turn, his lead had expanded to more than half a metre. Showing off his dominance.