Chapter 227: The Awkward Predicament of Domestic Skydiving (The Last Day of the Fake Holiday)

Coach Nie was named Nie Jun, Coach Jiang was named Jiang Shuangxing; both were veteran competitive skydivers in the country.

Although neither had ever achieved any eye-catching results in their lifetime, they could already be considered founding figures of the field in the country, rich in experience and broad in knowledge. In recent years, since joining the Chang Kong Club, they had led Chang Kong to compete repeatedly and had won quite a few medals.

They had smoothly brought Chang Kong's rating up to Class A, which could be considered a great meritorious service to the club.

After getting acquainted with the two coaches, Zeng Luo introduced the competing team members to Qin Yun. Besides the three from Lu Hao's group, the other four were named Sun Ang, Shu Han, Tang Zhou, and Fang Yichen.

Among them, Shu Han was the only female competitor.

These people clearly all possessed basic emotional intelligence; facing Qin Yun, each one was polite and courteous. Tang Zhou and Fang Yichen in particular were as excited as if they had met an idol.

"Coach Nie, please brief us on the situation."

Nie Jun nodded: "Our Chang Kong is the country's top skydiving club. This time, participating in the Red Bull Cup Extreme Accuracy Skydiving Competition, we've registered for four events: accuracy landing, formation skydiving, advanced skydiving, and freefall skydiving."

"Everyone is participating in the individual accuracy landing. Tang Zhou, Fang Yichen, Lu Hao, and Ding Shuo are participating in formation skydiving. Sun Ang is participating in advanced skydiving. Shu Han and You Jundu are participating in freefall skydiving."

"Qin Ye, you should only be participating in accuracy landing, right?"

Qin Yun nodded: "Mm, I'm only participating in accuracy landing."

Nie Jun continued: "Among all the events, accuracy landing is also the most traditional and the most popular, and its prestige is the highest. Let me mainly explain the rules for this accuracy landing event."

"The competition is divided into preliminaries, semifinals, and finals. The preliminaries are divided into ten groups, taking the top three from each. There are three jumps, at a height of two thousand meters, and the score is the sum of the distances from the target center. In other words, even if the first jump lands on the target center, if the second and third jumps have serious mistakes, you could be directly eliminated, so none of the three jumps can afford any failure."

"There are a total of fifty slots in the semifinals, with over five hundred competitors. All the competitions are held in the French town of Saint-Amand. The preliminaries will last five days, and the semifinals will be held after those five days, so whether you're scheduled early or late, it's not ideal. The best slot is on the third or fourth day, as this way you can maintain your feel while also having enough rest time."

"From the semifinals to the finals, there are only ten slots, at a height of four thousand meters, with each person making five jumps, following the same rules."

"In the finals, each person can make twelve jumps, at a height pulled up to six thousand meters. However, the finals rule is not based on the sum of distances, but only on the single jump closest to the target center. Because at this altitude, the deviation is too great; even landing within an eight-meter range is considered godlike."

"If we talk about the country, at two thousand meters there are still people who can approach the world record, but at four thousand and six thousand meters, we can only look up in awe."

Qin Yun asked in confusion: "Does the country's extreme skydiving have any results internationally?"

Nie Jun laughed awkwardly: "Standard competitions, yes, but extreme challenges, not a single one. All the records are held by foreigners."

Standard competitions!

Qin Yun knew that the height for standard competitions was roughly 1000 meters / 1500 meters, which couldn't really be considered an extreme sport. But this Red Bull Cup was an extreme skydiving competition, and the preliminaries' height was directly pulled up to 2000 meters.

Sure enough, when it comes to courting death, you still have to look to foreigners.

"These are the basic rules for this Red Bull Cup event. Finally, the top three will do a performance; as for what kind of performance, it depends on individual choice."

Saying this, Nie Jun pointed at Shu Han: "Xiao Han is the strongest in our Chang Kong Club. She has a great chance of getting through the preliminaries and into the semifinals, but to get from the semifinals into the finals will depend on luck."

Qin Yun looked at Shu Han. She had a baby face, looking rather young; he hadn't expected her to be the strongest person in Chang Kong Club.

Shu Han gave Qin Yun a shy smile, seeming a little embarrassed.

"There's no helping it. Skydiving originated abroad in the first place, and the most professional are all foreigners. The number of people in our country who do this is, after all, a minority. After all, this is an extremely dangerous sport, and the official domestic control over these things is quite strict; you basically never hear of any officially organized skydiving events."

This is a matter of soil. Without this environment, it's impossible to produce talent.

It's just an extreme sport; whether there's talent or not doesn't matter. A sport that courts death isn't worth popularizing either.

That was what Qin Yun believed.

Zeng Luo said: "Qin Ye, do you have any other questions?"

Qin Yun thought for a moment: "Can I livestream this competition?"

Zeng Luo shook his head: "No, because drones cause very significant interference, and the officials don't allow it. If something were to happen because of it, the fallout would be too bad."

"What a pity." He shook his head, not surprised by this either. "I have no other questions. Sorry for troubling everyone."

Zeng Luo smiled: "Ye Ran, then register Qin Ye's information right away and upload it. Make absolutely sure there are no mistakes."

"Got it, boss."

……

"Holy crap, did you guys hear that? This guy actually wants to livestream? Greedy for money, not afraid of death."

On the way back to the training base, Lu Hao was making a big fuss, trying to get others to agree with him, but the rest of them had no intention of paying him any attention.

In fact, Shu Han, the baby-faced one, even glared at him: "Little Mouse, what nonsense are you spouting?"

Lu Hao immediately shrank his neck and gave an awkward smile: "Sister Han, I was just saying it, I didn't mean anything else."

"Hmph." Shu Han sneered, "Don't think I don't know what you're thinking. Put away your jealousy and train properly. If you mess up during the formation skydiving, you'll be sorry."

Saying this, she strode away.

Ding Shuo patted his shoulder and snickered: "You forgot, compared to Tang Zhou and Fang Yichen, Sister Han is Qin Ye's biggest fangirl. Saying anything about Qin Ye in front of Sister Han—you really have a death wish."

Lu Hao was on the verge of tears!

After having a meal with Zeng Luo and waiting for Ye Ran to finish the registration, Qin Yun planned to leave.

He had no intention of staying to train, because his skills weren't gained through training—they were bestowed by the system.

So, he directly said goodbye to everyone and went off to Zhoushan with Su Huan.

……

"What are you doing?"

Returning home with Hu Fen, Su Huan saw Qin Yun sprawled on the sofa, holding a phone, fingers flying.

"Replying to fans' comments. Everyone's asking why I haven't done a single livestream this month; we're already at the end of the month."

Su Huan smiled: "Then why don't you tell them about going to participate in the Red Bull Cup Extreme Accuracy Skydiving Competition?"

"I'll post it in a bit." Qin Yun put down his phone and looked at Su Huan. "I've been idle for over a month, my bones feel like they're rusting. I'm thinking of doing a livestream to warm up before going to France."

"Decide for yourself." Su Huan turned and walked toward the kitchen. "But the eighteenth is only half a month away, and you still have to go to Beijing. Are you sure?"

Qin Yun scratched his nose, picked up his phone again, thought for a moment, and posted a Weibo.

【5.18, Red Bull Cup Extreme Accuracy Skydiving Competition. I will challenge an accuracy landing jump from ten thousand meters, targeting the Black Throat Sinkhole.】

The moment this Weibo was posted, the comment section exploded.

"Holy shit, I was just looking at Red Bull's official website."

"Fixed-point skydiving, that's a death-wish sport. Is Qin-ye off to seek death again?"

"666, ten thousand meters up—why not say from outer space while you're at it."

"Black Throat Sinkhole, I feel like I've seen that somewhere."

"From Doubao: The sinkhole's mouth is 58 meters by 72 meters, vertical depth 398 meters, located in the town of Saint-Amant, France, and is also the venue for this Red Bull Cup fixed-point skydiving competition."

"That wide, isn't that a piece of cake? Qin-ye should pick something harder, like jumping into a ten-meter-wide hole."

"Damn, is the poster above an idiot? Dropping from ten thousand meters—even if you gave me a thousand by thousand meters, you still couldn't pull it off, let alone this Black Throat Sinkhole."

"Don't curse, poster above. Honestly, this hole really is wide—it's no different from the ocean."

"I checked. The world record is 8,848 meters, based on the height of Mount Zhufeng, with the landing point at Mexico's Swallow Hole. Damn, that's not human."

"If Qin-ye pulls it off, that'd be badass."

"Probably won't happen. Coming down from ten thousand meters, to land precisely on target, the parachute timing is critical. Too early, impossible; too late, dangerous."

Qin Yun posted on Weibo and left it at that. As for livestreaming during this period, he had no plans to do it for now—wait until the skydiving competition is done. Taking a longer rest wasn't a bad thing.

At the very least, during this time, the Indian Ocean survival video was still fermenting on Douyin. His reputation as Qin-ye hadn't weakened because of this one-month break. On the contrary, both domestically and abroad, he was insanely popular.

Especially his performance facing armed militants alone—it had been clipped and replayed online over and over.

He even received a message from his superiors, telling him to be very careful when going abroad recently. Some countries bore grudges, and their dissatisfaction was inevitable; underhanded moves were entirely possible.

Qin Yun's response: as long as no one pulls a gun, he's fine with it.

Of course, the reminder was one thing—the main reason was to tell him about the award ceremony.

The award his superiors had prepared for him: the National Security Special Contribution Award. After Qin Yun found out, he was completely dumbfounded.

The awarding bodies were the State Council and the Ministry of State Security. It gave Qin Yun the feeling of his ancestors' graves emitting green smoke—his old Qin family, generations of fishermen, and yet in this generation he'd made such a huge contribution to the country?

But regardless, facts were facts. In a couple of days, he'd have to go to Beijing.

When Hu Fen found out, she even went vegetarian for a day, invited the ancestors of the Hu and Qin families over for a meal, and solemnly announced the matter. The scale of it, by old Qin family standards, was extremely serious.

But since he hadn't actually received it yet, Hu Fen hadn't told a single person. She'd wait until her son brought the award back, then invite the relatives over.

In her words, this was a glorious event that honored the ancestors and brought honor to the family—greater even than getting into Tsinghua or Peking University on the college entrance exam.

Soon, the May Day holiday was over!

Qin Yun and Su Huan prepared a very formal set of clothes, then quietly appeared in Beijing.

They didn't need to worry about a thing—the moment the plane landed, officials were there to pick them up.

Then he met people he'd previously only ever seen on TV news. This left his usually unflappable self genuinely nervous.

"Comrade Xiao Qin, you did an excellent job." The leader was very affable, pulled Qin Yun in for a photo, then pulled Su Huan in as well for a group shot.

Even after leaving, Qin Yun still felt like he was floating on air, his feet on the ground feeling as if they were treading on cotton.

Although it wasn't a public commendation, and the award itself only read "Meritorious in Safeguarding National Security," in the actual records it was unmistakably the National Security Special Contribution Award. It was only handled quietly to protect his safety.

But the benefits that should come with it would not be lacking in the slightest.

For example, with the currently popular talent recognition program, he could directly enjoy Class-A talent benefits. Even settling down in Beijing was now merely a matter of whether he wanted to—no obstacles whatsoever.

In the future, when their child went to school, they wouldn't have to worry about household registration or anything like that—any school, any place, full benefits.

This made Su Huan absolutely overjoyed!

"Comrade Xiao Qin, excellent performance." In the hotel room, Su Huan patted Qin Yun's shoulder and chuckled, "Keep it up in the future, got it? Our future child and I are counting on you."

Qin Yun looked up at Su Huan standing on the chair, a bit speechless, then grabbed her around the waist and tossed her onto the bed.

"Future child, right? In ten months I'll make it happen!"

"Ah… no!"