Cheng Yizheng was once the most dazzling genius in front of the table tennis table. At the age of twenty-five, he was squeezed into the third seed position - resources were cut away, the schedule was targeted, and public opinion overwhelmingly called for him to "give up his seat." In the training hall at two o'clock in the morning, he hit the ball machine alone until his back injury recurred.
Miao Ruopeng is a rehabilitation practitioner. Gentle, few words, and precise techniques, like a heater with the mute button pressed. Cheng Yizheng never knew that the girl who pressed his shoulders, brought him warm water, and made a video call with him at two in the morning had been holding an old table tennis ball in her hand for ten years.
After ten years of secret love, eight years of tracking, and three years of preparation, she stood in front of him as a "rehabilitator" and calmly lifted him out of the mire centimeter by centimeter.
This is a story about "retrieval" - retrieving the angle of changing lines, retrieving the confidence to stand in front of the table, retrieving the old ball that has been worn by a red rope for ten years, and the girl who has been sitting in the corner watching him since she was fifteen years old.
The ping-pong balls are flying, and a long, unknown secret love is falling in time.
