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“Oh no, how can I find it now?” Fang Duobing stared in despair at the rain falling on the stadium tracks.
Coach Zhan just received a summons from the head coach of the athletics team, so he left him to wash with Li'er and Wangfu. Both were busy packing their equipment, so Fang Duobing silently wheeled himself into the showers. As usual, he reached to take off the jade pendant Hanshengyan pinned to his collar, but his eyes widened in shock when he couldn't feel the small, cool bump on the strap; where did Li Xiangyi's Olympic pin go?
It was Fang Duobing's most important lucky charm, a panda-shaped enamel pin, emblazoned bright with the words Team China. But his favourite part about it was the words ‘Li Xiangyi’ roughly engraved into the metal, because everyone knows Fang Duobing is Li Xiangyi's biggest fan, yet nobody knows that the man himself gave the pin to the boy.
1.
Who is Li Xiangyi, you ask?
Li Xiangyi was an athlete sprinter, debuting as part of Team China in the 20XX Olympics. It was his first-ever appearance on the world stage, yet he broke his record, the Olympic record, and the world record in a single sweep, earning him China's first gold medal in the event. His name remained trending for weeks, with people praising him left and right for his performance and his dashing looks.
His name rose again to fame, both domestically and internationally, when Li Xiangyi burst onto the venue as China's flagbearer for the closing ceremony, leading his fellow athletes proudly. The media dubbed him 'No.1 beneath the heavens', a spirited hero blazing his way through the legends.
But every fire will die down, and the brightest star will also dim.
Just before the preliminary competitions for the next Olympics, Li Xiangyi's coach announced he got involved in an accident and would never be able to compete again. The news was just as shocking as the news of his victory; cries of despair and outrage echoed from each end of the country and all corners of the net. Yet voices of malice appeared on the online forums. “Isn't the guy just scared he'll fail to maintain his gold and get embarrassed?” “I knew he was too proud for his own good.” “Arrogant people should perish!”
Time passed, and the legend of Li Xiangyi faded into obscurity.
2.
Fang Duobing was just 12 years old when he watched the then-20-year-old Li Xiangyi compete on television. He lay in his mother's embrace, as several doctors fussed over his legs, taking measurements and poking in needles. It was routine; he's been through it too many times already.
His eyes were dazed as he stared into the air. Suddenly a flash of bright red caught his attention; it was from the screen outside the doctor's room. One of the doctors noticed his curious gaze. “It's the Olympics, little friend. Are you interested?” Fang Duobing blinked and touched his mother's hand.
The doctors all paused, huddling at the boy's feet, gazes focused on the muted display. The Chinese athlete on the track was smiling brightly, with black hair messy, foxy eyes curved in a smile. The ‘LI’ taped to his chest crinkled as he crouched into his starting pose. Everyone in the room held their breath. Fang Duobing didn't really understand why, but he felt anxious, excited, and didn't dare blink. “Good luck, big brother.” He whispered.
The starting shot echoed through the arena.
Just seconds later, the room erupted in cheers.
“Li Xiangyi has finally won China's first gold medal in his event!”
3.
Fang Duobing wheeled himself to the gym's entrance, jittery. He had told Wangfu and Li'er, who snuck him out of his residence, to wait in the café across the street; despite his wheelchair, he was independent enough to make this visit by himself. It's his choice to chase becoming a Paralympic athlete after all. He wants to try facing this first step by himself.
Yet he's very, very nervous.
His legs, even after years of undergoing rigorous treatment, haven't really improved. He can stand for a while, take a few wobbly steps, but that's pretty much all he can do. The thing is, Fang Duobing loves to move. He loves to crawl around, chase after Li'er and cause endless trouble for Wangfu. Watching Li Xiangyi's feat of a sprint that day lit an unknown passion in his heart. He wants to run fast too.
If only he could stand normally.
If only his legs were healthy.
If only he had been born without this congenital deficiency.
So he wheeled himself, back and forth, trying hard not to vomit. It was almost too late before he realised a person was standing behind him, almost knocking into the other when he backed his wheelchair. “I-I'm sorry, I didn't see you there…!” Fang Duobing hurriedly manoeuvred to face the person, only to drop his jaw and stare in bemused awe to see Li Xiangyi grinning at him.
“Li… Li Xiangyi?!”
“Oh, hello. Do you know me?” The other's mischievous grin was playful. Fang Duobing stammered and stuttered, tongue-tied. “I s-saw your gold medal race last year… Con-congratulations…!” Li Xiangyi crouched to face the younger boy sitting in his wheelchair. “Thank you, little friend! I'm honoured to meet a fan.”
Fang Duobing nodded hard. “You were amazing! I was getting treatment for my legs at that time at the hospital, and I was so excited I almost stood up when you passed the crossing line!” His smile turned slightly bitter. “But I still can't walk now, so I can't become like you and run so freely, Brother Xiangyi.”
Li Xiangyi chuckled and patted Fang Duobing's thighs. “But you're here for the Paralympics team, aren't you?” His words were teasingly gentle.
“What's your name, kid?” “My name is Fang Duobing.” “Many diseases? That's a bit unlucky… I'll call you Little Hero Fang, okay? I actually have a secret I think I should tell you.” Looking around, Li Xiangyi beckoned Fang Duobing to come closer and whispered into his ear.
“I think the Paralympians are so much more amazing than I can ever be.” He pulled away, eyes curved in a sincere grin. Fang Duobing's eyes widen like platters. “You, Brother Xiangyi? You're the living legend, number one in the world!”
Li Xiangyi wagged his finger. “But you see, when I run, I can use my legs. But you Paralympic athletes, you can run, jump and swim so fast even without legs, without hands. Isn't that more incredible? The wheelchair sprinters, they can push their wheelchairs to race with just the power of their arms. Very strong! That's why I came here today. I wanted to watch the Paralympians train, so I could get the motivation to run faster and faster, just like their passion burning brighter every day. Just like yours.” Fang Duobing's eyes sparkled hearing his words.
“But I'm not an athlete yet.”
“Do you want to be one?”
“…Yes. I want to be free like you too, Brother Xiangyi, but I'll do it my way.”
“Good!”
Li Xiangyi stood up and pushed Fang Duobing right to the entrance of the gym. “Go on in then.” He scrabbled around in his bag, before bringing out a worn-out golden enamel pin. “Here, I'll give it to you. Next time, I hope we can meet on the same team in the next Olympics and Paralympics season.”
Fang Duobing clutched the pin tightly, watching the other leave with a jolly wave. He took a deep breath and wheeled himself inside the bright gym, a new fire in his heart.
4.
[ Li Xiangyi was involved in a horrific car crash and will no longer be participating in any sporting events in the future.]
Fang Duobing dropped the pin in his hand, shocked and speechless.
5.
Fang Duobing wheeled himself over to the tracks desperately despite Wangfu and Li'er's stressed cries. “I need to find the pin, I need to find the pin. I've promised Li Xiangyi to be on the same team as him one day, I can't lose it.” His mutterings dissolved in the patter of the heavy rain.
Suddenly a pair of slender hands took hold of his wheelchair's handlebars and forcefully pushed him back to the shower rooms. Fang Duobing raised his head indignantly, only to see Li Lianhua's uncharacteristically serious face. “Li Lianhua! Don't push me, I need to find something I lost on the ground!” Li Lianhua ignored him, instead shoving him into one of the stalls with a towel, his toiletries and a change of clothes.
“I say this one time only, Fang Duobing. Clean yourself up and change right now. Zhan Yunfei will send you home as soon as possible, so get moving.” You can almost hear Li Lianhua gritting his teeth in anger.
Fang Duobing glowered, furious and anxious, but he could only listen to Li Lianhua's orders. Li Lianhua holds total power over his team now, even his coach listens to this quack medical officer. Today had been an intense practice session, and Fang Duobing had actually overstrained himself, which he tried to hide, but Li Lianhua noticed and immediately called a pause to the training, just in time for the rain. Fang Duobing had huffed off to the showers, only to realize the disappearance of his treasured pin, and wheeled himself out into the downpour in a panic. There's a high chance he'll come down with a fever tonight, being soaked to the bone and exhausted.
He realizes he's in the wrong, and Li Lianhua is just looking out for his well-being, but he still hasn't found Li Xiangyi's memento!
“Li Lianhua, let me go, just for a bit, I'm sure I can find the thing I've lost soon… Just for a while, please?” His pitiful voice echoed off the cold walls of the shower room. There was silence from beyond the door of his shower stall. Fang Duobing tried again. “Li Lianhua, please…” A sigh was heard from the man waiting outside. In a light voice, Li Lianhua asked. “Is what you lost so important you'd rather get sick and make all of us worry?”
Fang Duobing shook his head vigorously, even though Li Lianhua couldn't see it. “No, I don't want to be a bother to anyone, but I lost my lucky charm. It's Li Xiangyi's Olympic Team China pin!”
Another silence.
“Li Lianhua, are you listening?” “I am. Whatever it is, shower first and I'll talk to you after you come out. No buts, no exceptions.” Heavy footsteps resounded and faded away, signalling the owner had left the room. Fang Duobing wailed in his heart. Li Lianhua, you damn…!
6.
Li Lianhua was sitting on the benches outside the shower room waiting for him. The man closed his eyes, resting against the wall. Despite Fang Duobing's anger, he silently praised the medical officer's good looks in his heart. He inched closer with his wheelchair, staring hard. From this angle, the man looks really familiar, like someone he's seen before…
Before he could ponder further, Li Lianhua opened his eyes. The younger man flinched back in surprise, guilt flashing across his face. “Oh, Fang Xiaobao, what are you looking at me so hard for? Am I so handsome?” Li Lianhua teased, stretching his arms and standing up to push his wheelchair.
“N- no, I was just about to poke you awake…How can you sleep when I'm in such a terrible crisis?!” Fang Duobing replied hotly. “What crisis?” LiLianhua asked leisurely. “You! I told you I lost Li Xiangyi's Olympic pin, my luckiest lucky charm! Did you even listen to me?!” Fang Duobing was like a hedgehog exploding into a ball of prickly pins at Li Lianhua's nonchalance.
“Fang Xiaobao, it's just a pin. It's worthless, and he's not even in the arena anymore, he wouldn't care if you lost it or threw it into the trash.” His smile was still his usual gentle smile, but Li Lianhua's words dripped with malice, eyes cold. Unexpectedly, instead of getting even angrier at such blatant disregard towards Li Xiangyi, Fang Duobing calmed down. He sighed and wheeled to face away from Li Lianhua.
“But it gave me the will to run,” FangDuobing said softly. “He told me that it was amazing to run without legs and that I was just as free as him. I've always been chained to this wheelchair, ever since I could remember. Do you know how liberating those words are?”
Li Lianhua kept silent again.
“The promise to move forward as an athlete on the same team, even if we're separated by the Olympics and Paralympics, even though he's no longer competing... Because I've promised, I must uphold. I'll prove his faith in me, a little crippled boy, was never wrong!”
Fang Duobing spoke slowly and clearly, determined. Almost immediately, however, he turned towards Li Lianhua and blinked his eyes flatteringly.“So hearing my magnificent speech, can you just let me go and find the pin?”
Li Lianhua was still silently staring at him, a crooked smile on his lips. “You really trust him so much.” Fang Duobing snorted and shook his fists. “Of course I do, and he's right. See, I'll make sure I win our first Paralympic athletics gold!”
The strange smile grew wider, and gentler, a tad more doting. Maybe it's just Fang Duobing's imagination, but Li Lianhua's eyes looked wet like he's holding back tears.
“Oh well, then I'd better return this to you then.” Li Lianhua reached inside his shirt pocket and took out a round, gleaming object. Fang Duobing sucked in a breath of relief and surprise – it was his pin! Did Li Lianhua have it all this time?!
“Li! Lian! Hua! You!”
“Yes, yes, I hear you. You must be so grateful to me for keeping this safe for you. Anyway~ I may not be Li Xiangyi, but I'm holding you to your promise of the gold. Oh, here comes Zhan Yunfei. Time to go home and sleep, you stinky little brat!”
7.
So apparently, Li Lianhua is Li Xiangyi.
During practice one day, Fang Duobing realized his wheels had jammed and he was veering off-track at breakneck speed, heading to crash into the seats. Amidst the loud cries from his team, he could only brace for impact, praying he wouldn't break too many bones. But at the very last second, someone pushed his wheelchair forcefully to the side, tipping him over. That someone was Li Lianhua, who had run at an astonishing speed from his medical team's seat to him halfway across the stadium.
Now Li Lianhua is collapsed on the ground, groaning in pain.
Fang Duobing glanced at the sheepish grin on the medical officer's face as he lay on the ground, surrounded by his fellow paramedics. “Sorry, Fang Xiaobao, I must have scared you.” His grin contorted into a deep frown as the head medic pulled his legs and started reprimanding him; Fang Duobing only heard words like ‘Li Xiangyi’ and ‘you can't run anymore, you'll tear your muscles for good and be paralyzed for life!’
Oh, so Li Lianhua really is Li Xiangyi.
8.
Fang Duobing can only hear himself breathing; he sees with his own eyes the sea of red erupting, flowing from the audience seats, but his mind is blank, stark white. He lightly places his hands on his wheels, gently, gradually slowing down, before coming to a full stop in the middle of the tracks.
The race is over, and he was first.
He did it.
Fang Duobing won China's first Paralympic gold in wheelchair athletics.
He sees his people waving at him with the China flags in their hands, mouths open wide – are they cheering for him? Aside from his own panting, the sounds all around him blurred into a cacophony of noise. He can barely hear the announcer's voice calling out the results. For a moment, Fang Duobing doubts if he's also deaf. He also realizes his hands are shivering. To be honest, he's slightly at a loss.
“Little Hero Fang.” A familiar, warm voice broke through the murky murmur crashing in his ears.
Fang Duobing looks up. Li Lianhua stands a light distance away in front of him with his eyes sparkling, a light smile, proud and affectionate, turning the corners of his lips into a grin. “See? I believed you could do it. You just needed a little push. Or in your case, maybe a few.”
Fang Duobing purses his lips. With a strong, practised push, he surges forward. Li Lianhua's eyes widen, and he barely manages to exclaim “Aiya!” before the younger boy, using every ounce of his strength, deftly locks his wheels, releases his safety mechanism and launches himself to embrace him. Fang Duobing's legs, though still trembling from the adrenaline rush, hook around his waist, clinging to him tight like a koala.
“Li Lianhua.”
“Um.”
“Li Lianhua.”
“Yes, Fang Xiaobao.”
“Li Xiangyi.”
“…”
“I didn't break my promise to you.”
Li Lianhua sucks in a breath, before holding Fang Duobing's back of the head, tightening their embrace. He then buries his head into the crook of the athlete's neck, making the other a bit itchy, whispering into his collar.
“Good.”
9.
Fang Duobing held his hand out towards Li Lianhua, eyes expectant. The gold medal hanging from his neck flashed bright, almost blinding Li Lianhua's eyes, but he shielded his eyes and looked down at the young man in his wheelchair. “What? Do you want me to hold your hand, Fang Xiaobao? I didn't expect our athlete of the day to be so clingy.”
Fang Duobing snorted. He beckoned Li Lianhua to come closer. Li Lianhua obliged, crouching on the ground to look at the other in the eyes. The young man reached out, and fiddled with Li Lianhua's jacket a while, before patting it with a satisfied smile. The medical officer glanced at his chest pocket, surprised to see a brand-new shiny enamel pin securely attached.
Team China's Paralympic pin.
“Years ago, Li Xiangyi gave an Olympic pin engraved with his name to a child he met by chance, watering the seeds he's planted in the child who watched him trailblaze his way to gold on TV. Today it's Fang Duobing's turn to give medical officer Li Lianhua a Paralympic pin engraved with his name as well. Cherish it well, you quack!” The athlete's ears were bright red.
The past was chance, but this time it is a choice.
10.
Zhan Yunfei glanced unhappily at Li Lianhua, who was humming spiritedly watching Fang Duobing's medallists' press release from the team support area.
“So… do you think the kid would get angry if he realized you etched your name into his competition wheelchair before he competed? His state-of-the-art titanium-enforced carbon fibre wheelchair, nonetheless.”
Li Lianhua smiled mischievously.“Oh, of course he will. But Li Xiangyi's no longer here, his good luck's gone too. So why not I give him a new lucky charm?”
Zhan Yunfei sighed and shrugged before wiping down and disassembling his protégé's wheelchair. Everybody knows Fang Duobing can never stay angry at Li Lianhua for long. But really, how can this man use such a rough engraving method on something so expensive….
The imperfectly scratched lotus on the right wheel of the wheelchair caught the light, subtly gleaming.
END