HLM – Chapter 23 Someone Behind Me

The 100-meter preliminaries had 12 runners per heat. When Wang Bo stepped onto the track and glanced around, he saw everything from minors to balding men in their fifties or sixties. It was clear — participation mattered more than competition here.

The starting pistol fired. Someone jumped the gun, but no one seemed to care. Wang Bo’s right foot kicked off the starting block — and like an arrow leaving the bowstring, he shot forward!

In a short 100-meter sprint, it’s all acceleration from start to finish. Wang Bo wanted to make a powerful debut, so he gave it everything he had. Cheers and gasps erupted from the sidelines. By the time he crossed the finish line, the second-place runner was still at around the 80-meter mark…

“Sh*t! Man, you’re like a cheetah from Africa! I’m blown away, dude, totally blown away!”

The middle-aged man in charge of timing shouted excitedly at Wang Bo. He glanced at the stopwatch and yelled again: “God almighty — 10.40 seconds! Almost 10 seconds flat! Is that a world record? Even if it’s not, it’s damn close, right?!”

Wang Bo had truly gone all out in that sprint — the speed surprised even him. But he hadn’t expected to clock a time around 10 seconds.

Of course, the man doing the timing wasn’t a professional. His stopwatch could easily be inaccurate. In a grassroots event like this, nobody really cared about exact timings — only placement mattered.

Regardless, the result sparked a commotion. Staff and participants alike crowded around Wang Bo, their eyes full of amazement.

“Unbelievable! That’s insane — he ran just over 10 seconds?!”

“Yeah, ten seconds! He might’ve broken the world record! He ran so fast — like a damn thoroughbred!”

“What is the world record anyway? How fast did he run? Did he break the 10-second mark? Holy hell, that means he broke the world record!”

Lucas clutched Wang Bo’s wrist and shouted excitedly:

“Buddy, you’re incredible! God, you’re like a golden lightning bolt! Did you break the world record? My god!”

Rumors fly when three people say the same thing — and falsehoods spread even faster.

Wang Bo forced a smile and reminded himself: No more showing off. Winning first place was his goal, sure. But if he started breaking world records, things would get messy. People might dig into his past — and that would definitely raise red flags.

Next was the 200-meter prelim. This time, Wang Bo ran more cautiously. He’d watched a few heats beforehand, so he knew that going at 90% effort would still easily land him a spot in the finals.

He finished the 200 meters in just over 23 seconds — still an impressive result. But compared to the world record of just under 20 seconds, it was safely “normal.”

Lucas continued registering him for more events. After the 200 meters came the 400, and unsurprisingly, Wang Bo again qualified for the finals.

Then came the 800 meters, followed by the 110-meter hurdles…

In fact, Wang Bo was eligible for almost every men’s solo running event. His stamina remained strong. Initially, he had planned to enter as many events as possible — more chances meant more prize money.

But the crowd’s reaction made him suddenly realize something:

Pretty girls fear attention, strong pigs attract suspicion — and the tallest poppies are the first to be cut.

Being seen as a super athlete? The audience could accept that. But if he looked superhuman, they definitely wouldn’t.

So, he needed to rein it in.

Even so, he still caused quite a stir. The announcer gave him a special shoutout:

“A mysterious warrior of physical prowess from the mystical East! Dear audience, give him a louder round of applause! Even louder! Our Omarama All-People Sports Meet has welcomed a professional athlete from thousands of miles away! Let’s show him the passion of our small town!”

“Go, Cheetah! Charge forward! Take off those crappy shoes! Russell, you idiot, give him your shoes — may God bless him not to mind your stinky feet!”

“Sh*t, this guy must be a professional athlete in his country, probably even a star! I swear I’ve seen him before — is his name Liu Xiang?”

“Damn, I think I just popped my prostate running… Someone help me get a photo with him! I like young men like this — look at that build, magnificent!”

For the first time in his life, Wang Bo became the center of everyone’s attention. He had to admit, it felt great!

He even started to entertain the idea: Should I give up on becoming a town mayor and go back to be a professional athlete instead?
Damn, being a celebrity felt incredible. He’d already caught the eye of more than one pretty girl throwing flirtatious glances his way. He felt like his head was sprouting autumn spinach — lush and green with admiration…

Of course, that was just wishful thinking. Even if he returned to China, he wouldn’t dare become an athlete — who would believe that a shut-in nerd suddenly turned into a world-class sportsman overnight? Not even his parents would buy it.

But what happened next soon took things out of his control.

After he deliberately underperformed in the triple jump preliminaries to avoid advancing, Wang Bo was resting when a group of muscular young men approached him.

“Hi, Chinese Wang. I’m Karl Terry, and these are my buddies Matthew Durant and Waisel Brown. We’ve got another teammate, but right now he’s in the bathroom making out with the toilet. So you probably get what I’m saying.”

A handsome, strapping white youth greeted him with a grin.

Wang Bo set down his water bottle and looked at them cautiously.

“Hello. I’m not quite sure what you mean… Are you asking me to withdraw from the competition?”

Karl looked surprised.

“Withdraw? No way! It’s the opposite — we want to invite you. For the 4×100m relay and the 4×400m relay. How about teaming up to win the championship? Like I said, our fourth guy got food poisoning and is currently glued to the toilet.”

Only then did Wang Bo understand. He’d misheard Karl earlier — his English was too fast. Wang Bo had thought the guy in the bathroom had been beaten into going there.

“Of course, I’d be happy to join.”

Wang Bo agreed cheerfully. These two events required four-person teams, and he couldn’t run them alone anyway. Whether they won or not didn’t matter — even if they took first place, the 20,000 yuan prize split four ways wasn’t much.

He’d basically already locked in around 100,000 yuan in prize money at this point. He was feeling rich now — forgetting that not too long ago he had to go beg the Māori for a loan over 10,000 yuan.

Karl, loyal and generous, immediately went to find him a proper pair of running shoes. He even insisted on gifting them.

Wang Bo waited until they weren’t paying attention and sniffed the shoes — no smell. Probably brand new.

Karl and his friends were students from the nearby University of Otago, studying medicine or dentistry. All of them were passionate sports lovers.

“The reason we asked you to join us, Mr. Wang,” said Waisel Brown, “is because we’ve got a big rival team in those events. They’re also from our university — the sports science guys. They always look down on us. We want to give them a lesson this time.”

Judging by his features, Brown was likely of Māori descent. But from his name and mannerisms, he was nothing like the Māori gangsters Wang Bo had encountered before.

Wang Bo crossed his arms confidently.

“Don’t worry, boys. I won’t make any promises for the 4×100, but for the other one — I think we’ve already got the championship in the bag!”

Karl and the others lit up with excitement and nodded eagerly.

Brown said, “We believe you. Those guys raced against you earlier — ha! They lost so bad their underwear was shaking. We’ve never seen them so humiliated before.”

I’ve raced against them before? Wang Bo hadn’t even realized — he’d crushed every heat so thoroughly that he hadn’t paid attention to who was on the track with him.

The first day of the event was all about preliminaries. All the track and field finals would be held on Sunday.

The 4×100 and 4×400 relays required more people to participate, so there were fewer teams — just about 40 groups total. As a result, there were no preliminaries. The finals would be held directly on Sunday, divided into two heats, and winners would be determined by overall times.

Though winners would be ranked that day, the actual awards ceremony was set for Sunday morning. The organizing committee probably wanted to use the ceremony to boost morale among the athletes.

There was no doubt that Wang Bo and his team took first place in both relay events.

As he was leaving that afternoon, he suddenly had a strange feeling — as if someone was sneakily following him. He quickened his pace, then suddenly turned around—