Tennis Tribe

Synopsis of The Tennis Tribe

Lin Wenyuan, a former professional tennis player disgraced by a match-fixing scandal, became a war correspondent. While investigating the disappearance of athletes, he stumbled into the Amazon rainforest and the “Tennis God Tribe.” Here, the four Grand Slams had been twisted into bloody rituals: losers’ ashes paved the red clay of the French Open, living players’ spines were woven into Wimbledon’s nets, and balls of molten lava seared flesh on the US Open’s flint court. The tribe’s priestess, Makula, recognized him. “Use your camera to record the truth, and your racket to atone for your sins.”

Forced to compete, Lin Wenyuan discovered that:

• Between sets, players had to drink hallucinogenic frog blood to increase their ball speed.

• An eleven-year-old ball boy named Xiaogutou was held hostage with an explosive collar.

• Infrasound rackets triggered bloody hallucinations of his old injury.

When he pierced the grass on the blade court and uncovered frozen players in cryogenic pods, each still posed to hit a ball, including his former doubles partner, Makula tore off her mask. “This is the Nirvana Project, designed to select the strongest genes.” Lin Wenyuan turned the scoreboard into an electromagnetic pulse device, detonating bone-resonance rackets and releasing the cloned players. At last, the court collapsed into a piranha pool. Xiaogutou used his precognitive ability to guide their escape, while Lin Wenyuan chose to stay behind and record the final moments. Three months later, bloodstained film appeared at the Australian Open committee. The footage froze on Makula burning laboratory documents titled “Approval for Human Trials of Professional Tennis Stimulants.”