Chapter 122

Two years ago at the World Table Tennis Championships in Budapest, Shasha partnered with Manyu to win the women's doubles gold medal, while Wang Chuqin and Brother Long took the men's doubles. Back then, they were both young up-and-comers, playing the role of challengers within the team. Now, at the World Table Tennis Championships in Houston, Shasha was already an absolute mainstay of the women's team, and Datou had been chosen by the coaching staff as a key focus for evaluation, with both of them taking on three events each. Datou couldn't attend Shasha's birthday because he had been dispatched to Slovenia to participate in a WTT feeder event. The trip consisted of only seven people in total, mainly to give players with insufficient major tournament experience a practice "mock exam." Mainstays like Shasha, Chen Meng, Manyu, Fan Zhendong, and Ma Long did not participate; instead, they stayed behind in China to train and take part in the World Championships simulation matches. Wang Chuqin's muscle strain had mostly healed after multiple rounds of physical therapy. Before leaving, he had also trained alongside Shasha in Wenzhou, though his training time was reduced, and every day he would find all sorts of creative ways to sneak glances at Shasha practicing.