Chapter 3296: Magical Realism

Ye Chen really couldn't understand why, in the women's division final, the person who stepped onto the stage to face Qin Aoxue was actually a man.

Seeing many people in the audience cursing at him, Ye Chen asked a nearby compatriot who was swearing in Mandarin: "Brother, do you know where this athlete comes from?"

That compatriot angrily cursed: "Damn it, what background, just some old guy claiming to have a gender disorder! He says he's felt since childhood that he should be a girl, just trapped in some male body! But if he really had gender reassignment surgery and truly became a man, we'd have nothing to say, right? But this old bastard is truly shameless—he participates in the women's division while claiming he's taking medication to suppress male hormones, saying he's using drugs to alter his hormones, then surgery to change his gender. Damn, does anyone actually believe that nonsense when he says it out loud?"

Ye Chen couldn't help but sigh: "So that means, from a physiological standpoint, this guy is just a man."

"Exactly!" the man said, indignant: "His body is male, he feels his soul is female, so he can compete in women's events. Damn, where does one even reason with this?"

Ye Chen asked, puzzled: "If it's so absurd, why did the event's organizing committee approve his registration?"

The man replied: "This competition's organizing committee is in America, you know—they're all for LGBT, right? They think it's fine, so they let him in."

He added: "And there's even more absurd—apparently over there, if you just feel like you're female, you can use the women's restroom. Really, in a big forest, all kinds of birds exist."

Ye Chen couldn't help but gasp, remarking: "I haven't paid much attention to this stuff, never imagined the West could be so fantastical."

"There are plenty of fantastical things," the man said, disgruntled: "Britain has a big writer, the one who wrote Harry Potter, you know her?"

Ye Chen nodded: "Yeah, what about her?"

The man said: "That woman made a few complaints about this whole thing, and got collectively blacklisted by the Harry Potter actors. A bunch of people who rose to fame because of her jumped up to accuse her. You telling me that's not sick? As we old folks say, you can't lift your bowl to eat, then put down your chopsticks and curse your mother, right? That's immoral!"

Ye Chen couldn't help but give a wry laugh—this fantastical world, he had only now truly come to understand it.

At this moment, Haley Swain stepped onto the stage facing the audience's boos, utterly unaffected, instead proudly raising her right hand, strutting confidently around the ring, then bouncing back and forth in front of Qin Aoxue for a while, wearing a strange grin, her expression completely that of one assured of victory.

Qin Aoxue looked somewhat displeased, yet remained highly restrained, giving no response to her opponent.

However, this Haley Swain clearly had no sense of restraint—seeing Qin Aoxue unmoved, she raised her fists toward Qin Aoxue's face, making a gesture as if to knock her out.

At that moment, the referee stepped onto the stage, pushed Haley Swain back, signaling her to keep distance from Qin Aoxue. Haley Swain seemed still dissatisfied, continually making faces at the referee.

The audience below, seeing her antics, booed even louder, yet Haley Swain's mental fortitude was immense—no matter how loud the boos, they caused her no distress.

The spectator beside Ye Chen couldn't help but mutter to him: "Actually, we're not discriminating against this person called whatever—transgender. The key is, if you've transitioned, don't come compete in normal gender divisions, right? Men's division, women's division—men vs men, women vs women. If transgender people want to compete in sports, that's fine—just let the organizing committee create a separate transgender division. Since you've transitioned, you should compete against other transgender people—wouldn't that be fair and just? Sports competition is about fairness and justice, isn't it? You can't say you feel like a woman inside and then go compete against women—I still feel like my leg is lame, so can I go compete in the Paralympics? That wouldn't be fair to actual disabled people, right? They struggle hard to overcome physical disabilities to compete, only to have a non-disabled person take the championship and prize money—what does that do to their future motivation? If truly disabled people can never win, and only those with mental disabilities take the prizes, isn't that fundamentally wrong? You tell me—isn't it?"

Ye Chen smiled faintly: "Sports competition indeed requires fairness and justice. If that can't be achieved, then might as well cancel sports competitions altogether."

The spectator also agreed: "I think canceling it wouldn't be a problem—people would still work and live even without watching matches. But if every day we watch these absurdly bizarre competitions, the atmosphere would surely become utterly corrupt."

Just then, the referee on stage announced the start of the match.

Qin Aoxue also gathered twelve-tenths of her focus to face Haley Swain.

As soon as the match began, Haley Swain erupted with extreme aggression, launching successive attacks at Qin Aoxue—punches and kicks both fast and vicious.

Qin Aoxue carefully dodged left and right, constantly observing Haley Swain's footwork, movements, and subtle habits, to analyze her opponent's weaknesses.

Ye Chen roughly assessed Haley Swain's condition—this person's strength was actually not that great, absolutely impossible to be Qin Aoxue's match. However, Qin Aoxue had never used true martial arts techniques in competition, so Haley Swain didn't know her real strength. Coming out swinging so aggressively, she likely thought victory was already in her grasp.

In fact, Haley Swain was exactly as Ye Chen had inferred—she had observed Qin Aoxue's matches, thought Qin Aoxue was quite capable, but ultimately a women's division athlete, so overall strength still weaker than men's division. Her real reason for competing as a transgender in women's division wasn't that she truly was transgender, but that she had struggled three years in men's division, couldn't even rank domestically in the US, so she came up with this underhanded trick to compete in women's division.

But she hadn't expected Qin Aoxue's strength to actually far surpass her own.

After several failed attempts to attack Qin Aoxue, she prepared to become even more aggressive—after several feints to conceal her true intent, she launched a direct heavy punch straight at Qin Aoxue's temple.

At this moment, Qin Aoxue had already seen that her opponent's strength was inferior to hers, and noticed that the more aggressive the attack became, the more it revealed weak defense. At this timing, finding the key moment to counterattack would allow her to inflict heavy damage.

Haley Swain threw a heavy punch; Qin Aoxue didn't dodge immediately, making her think she already had victory in hand. Moreover, she still had a follow-up—after throwing the right punch, she quickly threw a left punch, aiming to scatter the opponent's attention—no matter which punch the opponent chose to block, the other would land.

At that moment, Qin Aoxue suddenly darted aside with extreme speed, narrowly avoiding the attack, then swiftly shifted her body sideways, causing Haley Swain's punch to miss. Before Haley Swain could react, Qin Aoxue unleashed a lightning-fast straight punch—her fist smashed into Haley Swain's nose bridge, making her howl in pain instantly, while nose blood streamed from her nostrils.

No one expected that Qin Aoxue, facing such an opponent, could also strike so swiftly and decisively—the arena instantly erupted in thunderous applause!