228 Citizens Hero

"On your marks!"

Tang Yan lent down and grabbed the edge of the platform.

"Get set!"

Buzz!

With a burst of cheers from the audience, Tang Yan with Shi Yang and Wu Peng on his left and right entered the water.

After diving in, the three surfaced, almost in parallel.

"Let's go! Tang Yan, Shi Yang and Wu Peng are advancing side by side! Li Zhuyan is ranked fourth behind them by a small margin!" With a cry from the main commentator, the first group of the 100-meter butterfly preliminaries officially kicked off.

Tang Yan competing in all the swimming styles was an opportunity for the national team and a challenge for him, but for a lot of other swimmers they didn't look so favourably on it.

To put it bluntly, he was attempting to monopolise everything good and limit their opportunities. If he succeeded they would pretty much be limited to only national events.

So right from the beginning, Shi Yang, Li Zhuyan and Wu Peng were sprinting with all their strength.

With that the four of them instantly shook off the remaining swimmers.

With their speed, they looked like a group of fish sweeping fast through the water.

Their rapid speed quickly drew cheers from the audience.

For the first 20 meters, Tang Yan, Wu Peng, and Shi Yang were side by side. A freestyle swimmer, who could keep pace with the top domestic swimmers right of the bat, was already a very remarkable thing.

But Tang Yan didn't stop there, after the 20 meter mark, Tang Yan's suddenly rushed out of the pack, cutting away from Shi Yang and Wu Peng.

"Speed and rhythm, perfect rhythm!" the guest commentator on the sideline shouted excitedly at this.

Tang Yan in the swimming pool didn't cut through the water any different, and his physique didn't look any better or worse than Li Zhuyan, Shi Yang or Wu Peng's, but he swam with an inexplicable sense of rhythm which was oddly comforting and satisfying.

It was just like watching the likes of Phelps and Lochte swim.

This rhythm was the cause of the commentator's marvel, rhythm played an important part in the butterfly stroke, coordinating both waist and abdominal muscles!

Wu Peng and Shi Yang almost went crazy as they accelerated trying to catch Tang Yan, but their acceleration actually caused their own rhythm to be messed up, and the distance between Tang Yan and them only further widened.

By the 50-meter turn, his lead was already in position.

The audience on the sidelines were dumbfounded.

Although they guessed that Tang Yan would play a stronger role in the butterfly stroke, Tang Yan was even better than they had thought!

Wu Peng and Li Zhuyan, were top tier domestic swimmers.

Tang Yan didn't slow, as his opponents became stronger each time, he couldn't relax till he touched the wall. Touching the wall, he was ahead of the second place Shi Yang by a metre.

Waiting for his time on the electronic display, even with psychological preparation, the audience at the scene was startled by Tang Yan's time.

...

Third lane, 53 seconds 21.

Fourth lane, 51 seconds 23.

Fifth lane, 53 seconds 35.

Sixth lane, 53 seconds 41.

...

Tang Yan, after the breaststroke preliminaries, once again broke another national record.

In the first two preliminaries of the competition. He broke two national records. Tang Yan proved with an explosive performance that he was even better than everyone thought.

At this time, the busiest was still the media and newspaper outlets.

A wave of scandals followed by a wave of clarifications and apologies, followed by two consecutive national records in the preliminary round.

Tang Yan wasn't playing about, catching everyone's eye in a domineering way.

At this time, the most excited was Shen Qing, he had promised to let Tang Yan try out for all the swimming strokes, which was a gamble in itself.

But after the preliminaries in the morning ended, the head coach could barely contain his excitement anymore and he took Tang Yan alone to the stadium box area to eat.

The championship was sponsored by the National Swimming Association, but the organizer was the Zhejiang Swimming Association, so Shen Qing naturally had connections and got preferential treatment.

Tang Yan had performed well, so Shen Qing's move was understandable, but it struck a nerve with some of the other swimmers on the team.

Sun Yang, Ye Shiwen and Fu Yuanhui were fine and still talked and laughed with him, joking that he was off to have a feast without them, but several of the other athletes headed by Wang Shun complained in private and began to foster dissatisfaction.

…..

Later on that night, Tang Yan went on to continue his dominating run and easily went on to win gold in both the 100-meter breaststroke and butterfly. Gaining an Olympic ticket for the two events.

Tang Yan, finished for the day, decided to head back to his hotel room a little earlier. He had the 100-meter backstroke tomorrow.

But just after changing into his clothes, Shen Qing came and found him.

"The Mayor of Yanxing City and the Director of Public Security will be coming by later." Shen Qing said directly.

With the mayor coming, Tang Yan couldn't exactly leave, so he took out his phone and chilled about, waiting.

After a while, there were noisy footsteps from outside the dressing room, a group of people were obviously coming over.

At this time, a lot of his teammates had entered the locker room and they looked to the door in confusion.

After a while, the door of the dressing room was pushed open, and two police officers in formal attire came in first.

After the officers came in, they separated to seperate sides of the dressing room.

Behind them entered a middle-aged man in a suit, followed by a big bellied man in a police uniform with two-star badges on his shoulder.

Tang Yan looked over. Needless to say, it was the Chief of Public Security and the Mayor of Yanxing City.

He stood up and the other members of the swimming team got up with him. Although they didn't know who they were, from the entourage with them it was clear they were important figures, likely governmental.

Behind the initial pack trailed in a photographer and the three traffic policemen who had been initiating the traffic stop that night before they had been beaten. Looking at their faces, it seemed they had almost recovered.

"Hello, Coach Shen Qing, I'm Liu Guofu, the Director of the Public Security Bureau of Yanxing City." The man in police uniform smiled and extended his hand to Shen Qing.

"Hello, Director Liu." Shen Qing replied, stretching out his hand to shake hands with Liu Guofu, then he turned his head and glanced to Tang Yan.

"Hello, Tang Yan, it's a pleasure to meet you." Liu Guofu immediately followed, reaching for Tang Yan's hand.

"Pleasure to meet you, Director Liu." Tang Yan said reaching out and shaking hands with Liu Guofu.

After shaking hands, Liu Guofu made the introduction: "This is Mayor Qian of Yanxing City."

"Mayor Qian, greetings." Tang Yan said, reaching out again to shake hands with Mayor Qian.

At this time, the photographer who had come in with the group took out his camera and took photos.

Having been through the motions of being a star athlete for a while now. Tang Yan knew the drill and put on a celebrity smile for the cameras.

After shaking hands, Mayor Qian continued on and said: "You are probably wondering why I'm here—Director Liu has reported to me about your affairs. Your actions weren't just heroic but a symbol to the type of people our city, our country, our society needs. Me and the other leaders met to discuss and have decided to grant you a pennant in recognition of your contribution to Yanxing City and the police department." Mayor Qian said, giving a speech full of officialdom.

As Mayor Qian spoke, the three policemen from the night in question held out a decorative box with a pennant inside and walked in front of Tang Yan.

"Comrade Tang Yan, please take the pennant!" One of the traffic officers called.

The other two traffic policemen opened the box at this time to reveal the pennant below which read:

[Beholder: Tang Yan]

[Citizens Hero]

[Yanxing Municipal People's Government]

[April 2nd, 2012]

….

The traffic officers had gazes full of gratitude.

Tang Yan took the pennant and nodded with a smile.

All this was completely recorded by the camera.

After the ceremony was over, Mayor Qian and Director Liu left, leaving the three traffic policemen, expressing their gratitude to Tang Yan.

At this time, Sun Yang, who had thick skin, came to join in the excitement.

But no one noticed Wang Shun and Yan Yun in the corner, held strange gazes, with discontent and jealousy mixed in.