Peninsula: Aiming for a Grand Slam

Outside the door lies another battlefield.

There was no net, no sidelines, and no referee.

There were only footsteps, camera shutters, and various languages ​​colliding in the air.

"You don't need to swallow it for me anymore."

He took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

At a glance, all I saw were reporters.

The quantity is double that of yesterday!

No, more than double.

Yesterday, there were only a few self-media outlets, and their equipment consisted of just one or two mobile phones.

Today there were more people carrying video cameras and holding voice recorders.

Almost everyone had a press pass hanging around their neck.

The SBS Sports logo was affixed to a cameraman's shoulder. The SPOTV microphone was tilted to one side, and there were several East Asian faces speaking Mandarin with a Beijing accent.

The battle has begun.

"J.Chen! Two 6-0 scores today, how's your form?"

"Well, it was alright. He played pretty well in the first game, but he was probably a bit tired in the second game."

He told himself:

Chen Jixian, do not be complacent.

You have just been exonerated, so it's okay to be down, vulnerable, or even cowardly.

but,

Don't be complacent.

We must not be arrogant.

He learned from Lee Dong-hoon that one should follow and utilize public opinion, rather than confront it directly.

An SBS reporter asked, "Did you expect the match to go so smoothly before it started?"

Chen Jixian: "I never thought about it. During warm-up today, I hit another ball out of bounds, and I thought I was doomed. But I aceed the first ball in the official match."

Someone chuckled.

"What exactly did Lee Dong-hoon say during the coin toss? Why did you choose not to disclose it?"

Chen Jixian was silent for a moment, then said:

He said some very hurtful things about my friend.

"I don't want anyone else to get involved."

He didn't add anything after he finished speaking.

The reporters in the front row did not ask any further questions.

A reporter from SPOTV asked, "You took a step forward at the time, but how did you manage to hold back?"

He looked away and pursed his lips slightly.

"I didn't have the right to throw that punch. Because I couldn't bear the consequences—the consequences would fall on her."

Even now, he is not qualified to bear the consequences alone.

Naver Sport reporter: "You've been getting a lot of flak online these past few days, how did you manage to cope?"

How did you carry it?

Chen Jixian glanced down at his racket, then looked up:

"To be honest, the hardest thing isn't being criticized, but seeing innocent people being criticized because of me. There's nothing I can do except win the game."

Yonhap News Agency reporter: "Have you ever thought about giving up the competition? Or withdrawing from this event?"

"I didn't even think about it for a second, no refunds! The registration fee was 50 yuan, and the deposit was 500 million yuan, all raised by others. I don't want to lose money, I want to earn it back."

A few barely suppressed laughs came from behind those cameras.

It wasn't mockery, but rather an unexpected answer.

The Xinhua News Agency reporter handed the recording pen forward a little.

She spoke in Mandarin, in a very soft tone, not like she was digging for juicy gossip, but more like she was giving him a way out.

She asked softly, "Is there anything you'd like to say to your family?"

Chen Jixian paused for a moment.

He answered all the previous questions quickly—about the competition, the conflict, public opinion, and the future.

But this problem,

It silenced him for a few seconds.

A picture flashed through his mind.

It's not about Korean trends, not about petitions to the Blue House, not about those holding signs that say "Violent freaks get out of Korea."

The night before last, my mother was silent for a long time on the phone before asking, "Were you bullied?"

He said no.

But I couldn't control my tears.

Chen Jixian didn't know why, but he felt angry, powerless, and wronged. His desire for revenge surged up, and his determination to fight to the death never wavered!

Then Mom asked a question,

All defenses collapsed.

"Mom," he said.

Then the sound stopped.

Something stuck in his throat suddenly welled up, silencing the next word. He pursed his lips tightly and whispered the rest of the sentence—

"I'm fine."

He nodded to indicate the next question.

Everyone present heard the barely concealed tremor in that single word, "Mom."

The flashbulbs were still going off, but no one was in a hurry to speak.

His right hand clenched slightly, as if gripping the handle of the Babolat PD, but he grasped nothing.

An MBC SPORTS reporter, seemingly concluding the interview, asked, "Now, is there anything you'd like to say to the Korean audience?"

His voice, which seemed to tremble slightly, also sounded calm: "I want to say thank you to those who stood up and applauded at the end."

……

……

The interview video was released in the afternoon.

That evening, a topic emerged on Twitter's Korean trending list:

#Apologizing now is useless

Clicking in reveals a uniform formation:

"The Republic of Korea is sorry."

"I'm sorry, citizens of Seoul."

"The Korea Tennis Association apologizes."

"The one who whistled in the audience yesterday, you should come out and apologize too."

It got completely out of control later on.

Historical figures are also being forced to take the blame: "I'm sorry, Park Ga-ka," "I'm sorry, Prince Chungmu, Yi Sun-sin."

A highly upvoted reply put an end to the farce: "Stop queuing up, who's going to get Lee Dong-hoon to come out and apologize?"

Then everyone remembered the culprit.

"Lee Dong-hoon, did you forget to say sorry?"

"He won't tell; he's still deleting posts."

"He even edits his apologies."

That's incredibly hurtful.

That night, the bank refused to extend a loan due to expire for Lee Dong-hoon's father's health product company.

The reason given was that "a major scandal involving an immediate family member has triggered systemic distrust among consumers. Given the high dependence of the health supplement industry on brand reputation, the bank believes that the company's revenue will suffer an irreversible blow, and therefore will not grant an extension."

can only say,

If his family didn't sell health supplements, they wouldn't be in such a bad situation.

……

Chen Jixian saw these posts and laughed for a long time.

He swiped a few times, then forwarded it to Wang Hao with one click.

Wang Hao replied with a string of voice messages, each one making him laugh so hard he could hardly breathe: "Park Kaka has already apologized, who's next? King Sejong?"

He added, "But seriously, back then, 200,000 people petitioned to get you out of South Korea. They all came out in force when they were criticizing you, and they really had the nerve to apologize. Korean men's skin is as durable as their keyboards."

Chen Jixian smiled.

Wang Hao's mouth is not to be trifled with.

However, after laughing for a while, Wang Hao suddenly became serious again: "You're having a good time now, with all sorts of people being dragged out to apologize. But have you thought about the fact that there are other people who want to mess with you next?"

Chen Jixian leaned against the bed: "Who?"

When Wang Hao said those three words, there was no hint of joking in his tone.

hunter?

Chen Jixian frowned; this was indeed a formidable opponent.

Wang Hao continued:

"You said it yourself, he's the only one who advanced with a clean sweep."

"If he just takes you down, all of this—the trending topics, the attention, the future sponsorships, the wildcards—will be his. What do you call that? That's called stealing the fruits of others' labor."

Chen Jixian remained silent.

But he also agrees with this.

In South Korea, he's practically a walking traffic magnet.

"You've gone from being South Korea's public enemy to the nation's son-in-law, and your popularity is off the charts. If you win, you're a god. If you lose, those who just apologized will immediately turn against you."

Chen Jixian hummed in agreement.

That's right.

He could guess the way Koreans talk.

"See? I told you he couldn't do it."

"Lee Dong-hoon is a good-for-nothing, but Kim Sung-joon is definitely different."

"This is what a true professional player is like."

and many more……

and,

If Chen Jixian's guess is correct, Kim Sung-jun was already studying him in the first round of the main competition.

Wang Hao summarized it for him:

"You've beaten Kim Sung-jun into submission. Those Korean keyboard warriors who are still stubbornly clinging to their beliefs have lost even their last fig leaf. Once you win, I'll treat you to dinner."

Chen Jixian was silent for a moment before speaking:

"Barbecue!"

"What?"

"Treat me to barbecue."

"...Alright then."