Almighty Coach

In the conference room, what Dai Li had done attracted everyone’s attention.

As a newcomer, it was normal to attract more attention when he was unfamiliar to the place. And in those days, Dai Li had been busy with the training plans. Everyone knew that this was a test that Zhizhong Gu had set for Dai Li.

"It’s a month that Coach Gu gave Dai Li, right? Now it has been only one week. How come Dai Li has already handed in the training plans?"

"One week’s time is only enough to make seven or eight training plans. It’s far from seventy-eight."

"I think Dai Li wants to make several training plans for Coach Gu’s review, so that Coach Gu may give him some comments. This may be a probe to see the evaluation standards of Coach Li. When he figures out Coach Gu’s criteria, he may have a better gauge for the next training plans he is to make."

"That makes sense. He is quite smart as a newcomer. He knows how to figure things out with this method."

The coaches were discussing the matter in low voices.

Zhizhong Gu smiled. He also believed that Dai Li could not make many training plans in just one week’s time, and so he was handing out these "homeworks" to feel him out.

"It has been only one week. You don’t need to hurry." Zhizhong Gu took the file box. Yet the next moment, he sensed how heavy the file box was, so much so that it almost fell out of his hand.

"It’s so heavy! The file box is full!" Zhizhong Gu was surprised, and then he opened the box.

As Zhizhong Gu expected, the box was full of documents printed on A4 papers.

"There are so many files!" Zhizhong Gu was shocked by the quantity of the papers and asked, "Li, how many training plans are there in this box?"

"Seventy-eight," Dai Li confidently said. "We have seventy-eight people in our team. One for each one of them, so there are seventy-eight training plans."

Zhizhong Gu looked at Dai Li with a confused stare. Although Dai Li appeared confident, Zhizhong Gu still could not believe what he had heard.

Not only Zhizhong Gu, but the several coaches there also all showed their suspicions on their faces, when they heard what Dai Li said.

"Seventy-eight training plans in one week? Is something wrong with my ears?"

"How is this possible?! No way can make so many training plans in just one week’s time."

"Is he fooling us? Or are all the training plans about the same, that they can be finished in one week?"

"Does this newcomer think that he can drift along aimlessly in the national team? He cannot just scrape together some training plans and hand them in."

Everyone was guessing their theories, and Zhizhong Gu became serious. He also believed that Dai Li was totally meddling with his work, to hand in his "homework" so soon.

"Have I gotten it wrong this time? Is this Dai Li really an incompetent fool?" Zhizhong Gu was full of doubt in his heart. He didn’t say anything, when feeling the weight of the file box. But in his mind, he determined that he would dispatch Dai Li to team two.

With the file box, Zhizhong Gu returned to his office. He then dialed the number of Feihong Liu, the head coach of team two.

"Feihong, stay for a while after work. Come by my office." Zhizhong Gu then said," the newcomer, Dai Li, will have to stay in your team. Teach him some lessons for me."

"Ok. I’ll get there in one minute." Feihong Liu, on the other side of the phone, then said, "I heard that, in the meeting, Dai Li gave you seventy-eight training plans. Hehe, is this Dai Li a fool, or is he just pretending to be one? Or did he not get your point at all?"

"Who knows?" Zhizhong Gu shook his head helplessly. "I thought this young guy was quite smart. I didn’t expect that he was such a fool! Let him stay in your team first. You teach him, and see if he is teachable or not. If he is too stupid to learn his lessons, get him out of here as soon as possible."

Zhizhong Gu finished and put down the phone, staring at the file box. Then, Zhizhong Gu heaved a long sigh, before taking up the file box and looking through the first training plan.

"Oh? It’s not so bad. The advantages and weaknesses of the athlete were clearly analyzed. The training plan was detailed and specific. It had obviously been made with quite some effort." The frown on his face eased a little.

"Maybe it had been arranged on top purposefully, as the first one I’d read, to fool me. This is the first one after all. It has to be carefully made to be good. When I was at school, I used to put the well-written homework at the first," Zhizhong Gu thought these things to himself, as he flipped open the second training plan.

In the second training plan, the advantages and weaknesses of the athlete were also analyzed. A detailed training plan was then listed accordingly. The insiders could see, at the first glance, that it was well-made with a lot of effort.

"This one is also very good and well-targeted. It’s not a simple copy of the first one. This is also arranged as one of the best ones."

Zhizhong Gu took up the third training plan immediately.

"This one is also good! This Dai Li is quite competent. He has sharp eyes for observation, and his analysis of the advantages and weaknesses of the athletes was dead on. The training plan is also very much to the point. If I were to have made this, I could not do any better than this." Zhizhong Gu couldn’t help but rate the first three training plans as "A".

Zhizhong Gu surely could see that those three training plans were carefully written with a lot of effort. The training plans were of very high quality, and could each be put into use directly.

"It’s just hard to tell how many of these training plans are of high quality, like this. Maybe Dai Li thought I would just look through the first ones. Maybe this young man is somewhat competent, but he should not play such tricks."

Zhizhong Gu still thought that Dai Li must be "fooling around" to hand in 78 training plans in such a short time. He must have had written the first several ones carefully, and scraped together the later ones.

This might be called the mentality of "summer holiday homework". The students used to do the first few pages carefully, for their teachers to review, but for the pages that followed, they would do it casually, just to simply make do. There was so much homework for the summer holiday, that the teacher couldn’t possibly review every page of it.

Zhizhong Gu took out the fourth one. It was also perfect.

Then the fifth, the six, and the seventh...

Before he realized it, Zhizhong Gu had finished reading ten of the training plans. Every one of them was written according to the characteristics of the athlete. It was difficult to find anything wrong with them, even for Zhizhong Gu.

"Ten? It has been only one week! He can write ten training plans in one week. And the quality of them are so high. He may really be able to finish forty training plans in a month!"

Thinking of this, Zhizhong Gu suddenly felt a shock. Although he still believed Dai Li was fooling around, he thought Dai Li should be good enough to stay in team one, simply by the merits of having made these ten excellent training plans.

This was out of Zhizhong Gu’s expectation. He took up the eleventh training plan.

"It’s perfect! He made eleven training plans in one week?"

Eleven perfect training plans! This had exceeded Zhizhong Gu’s expectation of Dai Li. He couldn’t help but remember Dai Li’s expression of full confidence when he handed in the file box. Zhizhong Gu suddenly thought of a circumstance of possibility.

"Seventy-eight training plans? Impossible! It cannot be done in one week! There must be bad ones in the pile!" Zhizhong Gu couldn’t believe it. But he dared not look at the twelfth training plan.

After hesitating for several seconds, he finally took up the twelfth.

"The twelfth one is also good! I cannot believe it!" Zhizhong Gu’s expression suddenly turned ferocious. He didn’t continue with the thirteenth training plan, but instead, pulled one copy of A4 paper from the middle of the pile.

"This one is from the middle of the pile. I’ll see if it is also without any problems!"