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Possessing a long history of
table tennis, United University's table tennis society is the most
famous sports club in all of the universities. Especially since a
national champion by the name of Ling Yun was born from here 10 years
ago. Until this day, the many table tennis fans, still talk about his
most famous move "the vanishing arc." As a result, lots of high school
students who deeply loves the sport of table tennis, hopes to get into
United University as their first wish. The important thing is not which
subject they are going to major in. The important thing is how to get
into the table tennis society. At the height of the table tennis
society's golden days, it doesn't matter if you have a weird
personality, ugly looks or even bankrupt, once you become a member of
the table tennis society, then you will become the focus point of the
whole campus. You will become the person that everyone will admire and
worship. As for the president of the table tennis society, he is the
prince charming that all the female students in the campus would fight
over. Many young girls would even go as far as to wait by the door of
the table tennis society just so that they can get a glimpse of the
president…
Who would have imagined that all that is left of the table tennis
society today is President, Gao Qiao, Vice President, Ah Du, and a table
that is covered with dust. Just when the two of them are preparing to
discuss the recruitment of students in the new semester, the President
of the Student Committee, Li Zi, brings an urgent notice with her. It
turns out that after a month into the new semester, the University has
decided that it will close down those societies that have less than 4
members. Ah Du hopes that Li Zi can rejoin the table tennis society
again but Li Zi refuses the request. Suddenly, a new star arrives at
United University, Chen Lie. He just got transferred from an overseas
school and is a table tennis master whom the university's board of
directors invited to promote the strength of the school's table tennis
team. There is no one that can match his special move, the "tearful
smash" and his good looks and his cool personality simply causes the
entire population of female students to go crazy all over him. Always
wanting to be the best in everything, it certainly isn't possible for Li
Zi to give up this challenge of going against Chen Lie, this high
quality opponent.
Just because the entire population of female students have gotten caught
up into this crazy madness, even if the table tennis society finds a
handsome guy to publicize and recruit new members, it was still of no
use. A depressed Gao Qiao and Ah Du heads off to the gymnasium to find a
professor for guidance and unexpectedly receives the news of the
professor's resignation. Because the professor is about to join the
table tennis school team for special training, he didn't have any other
free time to be giving guidance to the table tennis society.
No one would have thought that at this time, a mysterious character's
appearance would soon rescue the nearly vanishing table tennis society.
This person is new freshman, Ling Xiao. He is Ling Yun's younger brother
but he has no recollection of learning table tennis before. He only
knows the very basic things and these were learned during the summer
vacation at the table tennis club by secretly watching other people
play.
Ling Xiao sees the table tennis school team's recruiting event and
decides to go and register. He never thought that he would meet the
table tennis society's president, Gao Qiao and Ah Du who are also
looking to register for the school team. However, Ah Du immediately
fails the first physical test for the recruitment, the 3,000 meter run.
Gao Qiao and Ling Xiao manages to pass and enters into the second test,
controlling the ball. To pass, they must strike the ball against the
wall 1,000 times or more. Holding the racket in his hand, Ling Xiao
strikes out the first ball and almost puts too much of his strength into
striking the ball. Gao Qiao immediately warns Ling Xiao what the key
focus point is on. Strangely enough, Ling Xiao's body seems to remember
the rule of striking the ball as well as how the body should coordinate.
As a result, they both pass the test again. But the third test requires
a match play against Li Qiang and Ah Che. Li Qiang's fast balls and
smashes beat the conservative play of Gao Qiao. On the other hand, Ling
Xiao, who is faced with Ah Che, unexpectedly strikes out 5 strange balls
which causes Ah Che to receive it with much difficulty. However, Ah Che
still manages to smoothly beat Ling Xiao. Because Ling Xiao wasn't even
able to receive one ball from Ah Che, everyone was extremely surprised.
But Ling Xiao says that he hasn't been able to see the ball clearly and
as a result, he didn't want to receive it. Everyone laughs when they
hear his statement. In the end, that's how both Gao Qiao and Ling Xiao
failed.
Not being able to get into the table tennis school team, Ling Xiao
decides to first join the table tennis society for practice and
training. He quickly becomes good friends with Gao Qiao and Ah Du who
were worrying about not being able to recruit more members to the
society. Gao Qiao and Ah Du patiently teaches Ling Xiao the skills and
techniques in table tennis and that's how Ling Xiao starts to play table
tennis while hiding the truth from his father. Three people, each with
different personalities, because of different reasons, enters into the
world of table tennis. Yet they all have the same goal. They decide to
train hard and in one semester's time, challenge the table tennis school
team's tests once again. This is because United University's table
tennis school team has taken over the glory that used to be that of the
table tennis society's. Each member receives the affections of many
girls within the school. Not having much luck with the female gender, Ah
Du hopes to be able to get a girlfriend through the popularity of the
table tennis team. As for Gao Qiao, because of his family's opposition
against him going to a sports institute, he hopes to be able to
completely invest his passion for table tennis in United University's
campus life.
As the proverb goes, if you want to get something done right, then you
must use the right tools. Lacking in funds for the society, there is no
good racket or new ping pong balls. In order to save money to buy a good
racket, Ling Xiao and Ah Du secretly goes to a Pub to work. At the Pub,
they meet one of their schoolmates, Lin Han, who also works there. With
an open and carefree personality, Lin Han gracious guides them through
the work that they do at the Pub. Not only did this make Ling Xiao and
Ah Du feel very grateful towards her, but it also caused them both to
develop feelings for her. Especially to Ling Xiao, because friendliness
coming from the opposite gender is a feeling that is very strange and
can easily cause one's heart to flutter. However, being very ignorant on
the subject of love, he does not know what this feeling that he has
means. What is even more surprising is that, Lin Han, who use to be a
member of the table tennis school team in high school, has not played
table tennis in a very long time. After Ling Xiao and Ah Du's
enthusiastic invitation, Lin Han agrees to join the table tennis society
and removes the crisis of the society being abolished. From then on,
these three people come and go around the campus and as a result, their
relationship and feelings for each other gradually grows.
Faced with the status of this three person relationship, Ah Du, who
feels a bit inferior, starts to feel restless. This is because not only
is he afraid that he will not get Li Han's love, but he is also afraid
that he will lose two of his good friends. After he finds out what Li
Han's feelings are, he decided to withdraw from this emotional
competition and let Li Han and Ling Xiao be together. Unfortunately, Li
Xiao, who only has table tennis in his mind, did not pay any attention
to his heart. It is at this time that Chen Lie enters into this
emotional competition. One night, as Lin Han was returning home, she
gets harassed by some guys. By chance, Chen Lie is out jogging at this
time and witnesses Lin Han's dilemma. Chen Lie helps Lin Han and gets
rid of the guys. After this incident, they both became good friends.
Falling in love with Lin Han at first sight, Chen Lie starts to
enthusiastically pursue her. Relative to Ling Xiao who has not made any
moves at all, Lin Han does not know what to do, being stuck in the
middle between these two guys.
With contrast to Ling Xiao's uncleared feelings, Chen Lie's feelings for
Lin Han is extremely obvious. Because he has someone that he likes, as a
result, Chen Lie starts to get very impatient with Li Zi who is always
hanging around him. Li Zi, who is the type that easily gets jealous, of
course feels a strong threatening presence. However, she never expected
that the one that Chen Lie likes would be her cousin, Lin Han. After
investigating the matter, she discovers the truth and finds out that Lin
Han works at a Pub.
Unable to bear the anger in her heart, Li Zi gets into a heated argument
with Chen Lie after attending the Speed Clothing conference meeting. She
was so angry that she runs off to a Pub to numb herself with alcohol. At
first she wanted to go and cause trouble for Lin Han, but by coincidence
Lin Han is off from work that day and she meets Ling Xiao. It just
happens that the evening news is broadcasting the Speed Clothing
conference meeting from earlier that day and Li Zi angrily curses Chen
Lie. Ling Xiao vows solemnly that one day he will certainly be able to
defeat Chen Lie. In a bit of a drunken state, Li Zi laughs at Ling
Xiao's naïve comment. Unhappily, Ling Xiao makes a bet with Li Zi.
Laughing, Li Zi says that just as long as Ling Xiao can get one point
off of Chen Lie, then Ling Xiao would be considered a winner. The one
who loses will do anything the winner asks. Jokingly, Ah Du agrees to
the bet for Ling Xiao and the stake of the bet is one kiss. Li Zi
responds with an arrogant smile that that won't happen until the next
lifetime and of course, she accepted the stake. Unexpectedly, this is
what facilitated Ling Xiao and Chen Lie's first table tennis match.
Li Zi deceives Chen Lie to show up at the location that they agreed to.
Surprisingly, when Chen Lie shows up and finds out the truth, he
expresses that this bet is a total nonsense and refused to compete.
Nervously, Li Zi announces that if he doesn't play then that means he
loses. Chen Lie says that it doesn't matter and also hopes that Li Zi
would not do something so stupid again. Li Zi was so mad that she was at
a loss of what to do. Ling Xiao sees the situation and sympathizes with
Li Zi. He turns to scold at Chen Lie for not being nice to a female and
says that he doesn't want to compete with such an inadequate guy. Even
though Chen Lie is disgruntled by Ling Xiao's comments, yet he is still
unwilling to compete. At this moment, Li Zi turns around and starts
making excuses for Chen Lie and gets into an argument with Ling Xiao.
However, when Chen Lie accidentally hears Ling Xiao's name, he
immediately questions if Ling Xiao has any relationship with Ling Yun.
Ling Xiao replies that they are brothers and after hearing that Chen Li
accepts the competition with much pleasure.
But Chen Lie never expected Ling Xiao's skills to be so poor and sloppy,
not being able to get any points at all. In the end, when Chen Lie shows
his special move the "tearful smash," Ling Xiao counter attacks and
miraculously scores a point. This counter attack strike not only
surprised Chen Lie but it also caused Li Zi to become interested in Ling
Xiao. Li Zi is the type that strives to be the best in everything. When
she finds out that her cousin, Lin Han and Ling Xiao both have feelings
for each other, the jealous part of Li Zi is determined to destroy
everything because she cannot tolerate the fact that the ordinary Lin
Han would be able to win her. However, she never imagined that Chen Lie
would privately introduce Lin Han to Sports Manager, An Na. Furthermore,
Lin Han would become the spokesperson for Speed Plus's clothing line for
the next season.
Filled with annoyance, Li Zi takes out her frustration on the table
tennis society. Through the relationship with the school, she
intentionally removed the funds that were going towards the society,
causing the yearly table tennis border cup competition to be thrown into
a crisis. In order to earn money, everyone signed up to participate in
the community table tennis competition in hopes of winning the award
money. In order to give everyone the assurance of winning, everyone
decides to go and pay a visit to a famous coach over at the Arc Club.
They hope to be able to work at the club for free in exchange of being
able to get a few opinions and pointers. However, they were all thrown
out of the club because the club is for members only and as a result,
will only serve members. Yet their love for table tennis is very clearly
noticed by Shen Ma, who sells beverages at the club.
Just when everyone is worried and distressed, Ling Yun shows up at the
university to visit Ling Xiao. Ling Yun's appearance creates a big stir
around campus. Everyone is struggling to inquire when Ling Yun will
re-surface in the table tennis world again. Of course, Gao Qiao is also
one of those people who are anxious for an answer. Unexpectedly, Ling
Yun urges Ling Xiao to pay attention to his studies and give up on table
tennis. Because Ling Yun is not able to shake away from the shadows of
his past, he loses the courage to face table tennis again.
Refusing to become everyone's coach, Ling Yun introduces them to Shen
Ma. With a mysterious and witty personality, Shen Ma comes up with all
different kinds of training exercises, ranging from the eyes, to the
ears, to the heart, to the body, to the mind. Not only was everyone
miserable from the training but they all did not understand what these
training have to do with table tennis at all. The outcome of these
strange trainings were finally unfolded first hand on the site of the
competitions and that's when they all understand the pain behind all of
Shen Ma's trainings. Shen Ma is not only talented at teaching excellent
table tennis skills, but she is also everyone's spiritual teacher. When
these young people have any wavering thoughts, she would immediately
counsel them and help them through any difficulty.
Just when everyone believes that they have completed their training and
goes to participate in the community table tennis competition, they
unexpectedly gets beaten up pretty badly. In the end, the champion of
the competition turns out to be 12 year old, Jian Hong. Everyone is
perplexed and annoyed when they discover that Jian Hong is actually Shen
Ma's son. In this community competition, this group of young people
learn the correct manner to "winning and losing." After the special
training with Shen Ma, Ling Xiao's skills at table tennis advanced by
leaps and bounds which also caused Gao Qiao and Ah Du to become
extremely panicky. During this difficult training process, everyone
would be faced with a serious situation. In the end, with all the
support from each other, they are able to overcome their difficulties.
However, Lin Han feels especially exhausted at this time. In her heart,
she is secretly frightened of one thing because she suspects that there
is a problem with her health once again.
Yet, the table tennis society is not the only ones who are carrying on
with intense training. For the College Cup Championship, Chen Lie and
his buddies are also undergoing intense training with coach, Wu Di, who
took the place of champion after Ling Yun withdrew from the competition
years ago. Chen Lie's technical skills also improved dramatically and
even displayed Wu Di's special move "indefinite random shoots" to the
extreme. Striving to be the best in everything, Li Zi also joins the
team and prepares to go against Lin Han. Chen Lie is surprised that Li
Zi can also play table tennis. He doesn't know that Li Zi's problem with
Lin Han stems from when they were children and continues until now.
Included among one of the problems is the time in High School during the
selection of members into the school table tennis team. At that time, Li
Zi, who is filled with confidence, was defeated under the hands of Lin
Han and since then that has planted the reasoning for their not being
able to get along with each other.
The table tennis society, which is in need of actual competition
experience, under the agreement of Shen Ma, decides to launch a friendly
competition between different universities. Shen Ma, who knows most of
the coaches in the different universities, from easy to difficult,
listed out 5 different schools to carry on their practice competition
with. Also, the top contestants from the last college cup championship
just happens to be within these 5 universities that they have listed.
The first competition is with First University. When everyone arrives
grandly at First University's gymnasium, the person who comes out to
welcome them turns out to be a new member of the First University's
table tennis society. Gao Qiao inquires about the whereabouts of the
President of the society and their coach. The new member responds that
they were in the midst of preparing for the college cup championship and
don't have the time to come out and greet them. As a result, they are
sending 4 new members to participate in the match instead. Ah Du and the
rest of the guys were not happy about this. Shen Ma maintains her
composure and tells everyone to remain calm and go forth with the match.
Sure enough, Ah Du wins the first game and following Ah Du, they had a
large lead ahead of First University. The First University's coach, Wang
Jun, and the President of the society heard the news and rushes over to
see Ah Du win another game. The president decides to join in the match.
After a furious match with Ling Xiao, they were at a tied. At this time,
Shen Ma calls for a stop and everyone didn’t understand why. It turns
out that Shen Ma didn't want to ruin Wang Jun's name and as a result,
decides to stop the match right there. However, it is also because of
this that Wang Jun, who is extremely grateful, assists them in arranging
the remainder of the 4 matches with the other universities as a token of
his thanks.
After these 5 splendid matches, the reputation of the United table
tennis society starts to rise again. As for Ling Xiao, he becomes
another star in the university after Chen Lie and at the entrance of the
table tennis society, more and more female students are showing up to
secretly get a glimpse of him.
The popularity of the table tennis society does not rest well with Li Zi
and it further strengthens her determination to defeat Lin Han. Secretly
pulling some strings, the departmental border cup championship, which
has been closed down for a long time, gets re-instated by Li Zi again.
It turns out that Li Zi wants to use this championship to get the
attention of the whole school and also of Ling Xiao. Sure enough, Lin
Han, who has some health problems get defeated at the hands of Li Zi. In
the end, it was Chen Lie and Li Zi matching up against Lin Han and Ling
Xiao, in this amazing pairing of mixed gender championship. In this
competition, both sides were striking the ball back and forth and
mutually gaining points. However, in the end, it was Chen Lie and Li Zi
who won the trophy. On the other hand, Chen Yue and Wu Di, who were
secretly watching the competition on the side, starts to get worried and
feel uneasy. This is because they can see that Ling Xiao's capabilities
are above that of Chen Lie. Within time, Ling Xiao will become a giant,
glimmering star. When that time comes, Chen Lie's position would truly
be threatened.
Hiding on the other side watching the competition is famous sports
manager, An Na. She is also Ling Yun's fiancé. Years ago, Ling Yun's
departure without a word, is still a grudge that she holds in her heart.
An Na's reappearance is to plan the college cup international
championship tournament and also to discover new players who have
potential. Who would have guessed that the one that An Na has her sights
on would be Ling Yun's younger brother, Ling Xiao. As a result, Ling Yun
reunites with An Na. From this reunion, they both discover that they
still have unexpected feelings in each other's hearts. Love, resentment
and hate are all intertwined together and no one knows what to do about
it.
Lin Han, whose health continues to deteriorate, finally goes for a body
check up at the hospital. It is determined that there is no major
sickness with her health. It's just her childhood illness of anemia
recurring again. However, because of this, she decides to not waste any
time with her youth. She listens to Chen Lie's recommendation and agrees
to An Na's invitation to be the spokesperson in the new season of Speed
Plus's clothing line. In order to expand and publicize its corporate
image and its new products, Wang Shi Enterprise decided to hold a table
tennis tournament.
Lin Han's elder twin sister, Lin Fan, returns to the country and takes
Lin Han's place as Ling Xiao's partner in the match pairing, which
solves the crisis for the table tennis society. However, Lin Fan's
appearance brings forth Chen Lie and Li Zi's pairing again. Li Zi, who
has changed her ways, tries to right all the wrongs that she has done to
Lin Han and make it up by repaying everything on Lin Fan. As a result,
they both became very good friends.
As the day for the Wang Shi Enterprise tournament appear closer and
closer, Chen Lie still has not practiced at all. This time, Ling Xiao
steps forward and advises Chen Lie. This friendly move caused Chen Lie
to become extremely surprised. Even though he did not respond to Ling
Xiao, but within his heart, he is feeling very grateful. Yet, when the
tournament starts, Chen Lie still hasn’t arrived yet. The rest of the
guys continue to play until they get to the finals. In the end, the
crucial final round is a match between Ling Xiao and Gao Qiao. Always
playing on the conservative side, Gao Qiao makes many mistakes because
of the psychological barrier in his heart. Who would have thought that
Ling Xiao would comfort Gao Qiao and caused Gao Qiao to have the most
splendid and satisfying match of his life. At the end, Ling Xiao wins
the tournament but he is not happy at all. This is because he knows that
Chen Lie is more suitable than him to be awarded this cup.
Faced with everyone's support and encouragement, even though Chen Lie is
thankful, but he couldn't find the strength to stand up again. Until Lin
Fan stands out and tells him how Lin Han overcame her illness in the
past and her attitude toward her love for life, that's when Chen Lie
suddenly awakens from his stupor and picks up the racket again. He and
Ling Xiao both come to an agreement to do their best at the upcoming
college cup championship and also to become a representative for their
country's team so that they can bring glory and honor to their country.
Hoping that his son would make a name for himself, what sort of action
would Chen Yue carry out? Will Ling Yun and An Na's feelings and the
truth of the car accident be cleared up one day? What sort of
relationship will develop between Li Zi, Lin Fan, Ling Xiao and Chen
Lie? A satisfactory conclusion will be shown in the ending of "Ping
Pong" in which all the layers of love and dream will be answered.
translated by mandy
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