Born a Winner

Xiang An was a late bloomer. He didn't win his first Grand Slam title until he was thirty, but after that, nothing could stop him. He dominated his rivals and swept all four Grand Slam titles that year, becoming the first Chinese tennis player to achieve this feat. Before him, China was widely considered a wasteland for tennis. After him, the whole world had to look up at the sun rising in the East! The Chinese fans celebrating this moment didn't yet know that this glory would be no more than a fleeting meteor. Due to severe injuries, Xiang An was forced to retire and undergo surgery. On the night yet another surgery failed, he received two pieces of bad news. First, his knee was completely ruined, and he would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Second, with no one to carry the torch after his retirement, Chinese men's tennis had been left without a successor, and China had regretfully been eliminated in the group stage of the Olympics it hosted. Xiang An tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep. But at daybreak, he returned to the age of fifteen. That year, his uncle, a former world number two and now China's best tennis coach, was still full of ambition. That year, his childhood friend and older brother, the greatest young tennis talent in China, had yet to die in a plane crash. That year, the Golden Generation still firmly held the throne of tennis, while the Silver Generation had only just begun to emerge. His most anticipated rival had yet to leave the sport... This was the best of times, and it had to become a golden age for Chinese tennis! So Xiang An immediately abandoned the badminton career that had gone nowhere in his previous life, grabbed a tennis racket, and rushed to his beloved uncle. "Coach, I want to play tennis!" When his uncle agreed to let Xiang An switch to tennis, he thought the boy simply wanted to use it as a refuge after failing at badminton. Later, he realized he'd helped bring a star into the world. That star would become the youngest Grand Slam champion and the only player in history to achieve the Calendar Golden Slam three times. Every step of his professional career would set a world record: four Olympic gold medals, 32 Grand Slam singles titles, 150 ATP singles titles, and 598 weeks at number one in the ATP singles rankings! In his era, every other genius had to bow before him. Tennis fans around the world went wild for him, and the International Tennis Hall of Fame would consider it an honor to record his achievements! He was the GOAT of tennis history, an unsurpassable legend, a dazzling star belonging to China alone! Reading notes: 1. This story takes place in a parallel world with no pandemic and no real-life famous athletes. The characters are not based on real people, and same-sex marriage is legal. 2. The gong is his childhood friend and older brother Qin Yi. Their CP dynamic is a calm, taciturn, dark-skinned caretaker gong × an angel-faced, devil-hearted, mischievous shou. They start dating as adults. My next novel, *China's Culinary God Shocks the Interstellar World*, is available to pre-save. Add it to your favorites if you're interested! Blurb: Imperial chef Zhu Yuci resigned from his post, then transmigrated to the interstellar world that very night. In this strange new world of highly advanced technology, humanity had developed sensory suppression disorder as a result of the evolution of mental power. Only delicious food could awaken the five senses, and the status of chefs had risen accordingly. Zhu Yu rubbed his hands together and opened the livestream section of the Interstellar Net, eager to see the new recipes his colleagues in this world had to offer. Instead, he saw: "For home cooking, buy our all-in-one seasoning mix, with a free food-shaping base. Top-tier technology! Just stir and mix, and recreate a master chef's dishes at home!" "Today, we're making a dish that was all the rage online in the medieval era: the bland white-people meal. Add a little salt to eggs and chicken breast, then boil them. Cut an air-freighted cucumber into long strips, arrange it carefully on a plate, and you've got a delicious meal!" "Finally got a reservation. Let's try the famous chef's signature premade dish, King of Steaks. Just have the robot heat it for a few seconds. Let's taste it. Mmm, a mouthful of blood sprays out. Delicious!" "Carefully select the most exquisite little strands of flesh from one hundred bayberries. Make sure each strand can pass through the eye of a needle! Then use a molecular pulverizer and reshaping machine to make today's top-tier bayberry caviar, perfectly recreating the flavor of bayberries. No wonder the winner of last year's culinary competition is so proud of this year's molecular gastronomy creation!" Zhu Yu's eyes widened in shock. He couldn't understand it. He took a few deep breaths, but still slammed the table and stood up. "You actually call this garbage food!" From the very first livestream, he would give this world a little taste of the shock of China's eight great culinary traditions! Four-Happiness Meatballs and Double-Crisp Stir-Fry, scallops with sea cucumber and braised pork in a clay pot. Clear broth, fresh and bright; creamy broth, rich and full. Together, they made a perfect feast that outshone all rivals! Mapo tofu, poached spicy pork, husband-and-wife lung slices, and spicy blood curd. And the ultimate weapon, hot pot! Numbing, spicy, fresh, and fragrant, it brought tears to everyone's eyes, but no one could stop eating! Wenchang chicken, roasted marinated pigeon, steamed sea bass. Chicken that tasted like chicken, fish that tasted like fish. The great way is simple, and the true flavor touches the heart! Stinky mandarin fish, moldy tofu, and river-snail rice noodles. They stink when you smell them and taste delicious when you eat them. A culinary path of unconventional tricks, inspiring love as wild as the hatred they provoke! From then on, Chinese cuisine swept across the entire interstellar world. The richest man in the galaxy spent a fortune on one of Zhu Yu's dishes. The interstellar singing king was photographed by paparazzi waiting in line late at night to get a reservation. And the Imperial Marshal, who had suffered from anorexia for years, suddenly logged on to show off: "Good morning. How did you know Zhu Yu agreed to marry me yesterday?" Theme: I was born with a purpose.