NOVEL WEB
Chapter 311
Olivia enthusiastically invited Xiao Qi for lunch.
The meal was provided by this ancient Siheyuan courtyard, with traditional Capital City dim sum food.
At the meal, it seemed like Coach and Olivia's current husband were fighting like gamecocks, trying to outdo each other.
Even drinking soy milk became a competition... Watching them unaccustomedly drink down large bowls of soy milk, Xiao Qi silently wiped away sweat beside them.
Olivia enjoyed the excitement, paying them no mind at all. It was clear she was a very casual woman, with a lively personality, and she was not without feelings for Steven.
After the meal when saying goodbye, Xiao Qi was hugged and kissed several more times by Olivia, while in Coach Steven's hands there was a large box, the two sets of clothes.
In the afternoon Xiao Qi went with the Chairman to the Capital City racetrack where Ji Gu was staying.
Counting it, it felt like it had been many days since she'd seen Ji Gu. At school she would basically see Ji Gu every day, or at most miss one day, but because of the competition this time Ji Gu had left early to arrive at the Capital City, to adjust its condition and get ready, so it had already been several days since she'd seen it.
Normally other competitors would also arrive early, to become accustomed to the environment together with their horses, coordinate together, but Xiao Qi was still a freshman in her first year of university. In her view, horse racing and such could only be a hobby, her main task was still studying, she couldn't invert the priorities. She had only decided to come to this horse race because the coach said it was on the weekend, so she didn't have to ask off school for too many days.
Therefore she basically only had an afternoon to coordinate and train with Ji Gu.
When Xiao Qi arrived at the Capital City racetrack, she discovered that a formal racetrack was really very big and large, no wonder the coach had complained about theirs to death, he would inevitably mention it when speaking, that he had gone to some rural place, compared to the racetrack before them now, not only was the Enhua School racetrack rural, it was like comparing a bowl of congee to a grain of rice.
The housing where Ji Gu stayed was also much nicer than Enhua's, like comparing luxury decorated mansions to simple rental housing. The first time Xiao Qi saw Enhua's racetrack she had felt it was amazingly big and luxurious, but coming to the scene before her now, it was another new world entirely. Here even the stable walls were soft, high class like a KTV's private room.
It took Xiao Qi's group quite a while just to get into the racetrack, it really was massive.
The Chairman was quite familiar with the person in charge here, chatting and laughing the whole way, while Coach Steven was rather silent in the afternoon, or had been depressed from being struck in the morning by his ex-wife remarrying. Xiao Qi was preoccupied with observing the surroundings and didn't speak either.
The racetrack manager thought Steven was the equestrian, and the young girl had just come along to play, so he didn't pay Xiao Qi much mind.
Xiao Qi hadn't seen Ji Gu yet, but heard its neigh from far away. Without needing anyone to lead the way, she walked ahead and first accurately found the stable Ji Gu was staying in.
The manager was surprised, he had thought they were told the stable number in advance.
When Xiao Qi saw Ji Gu, Ji Gu was pacing anxiously back and forth in the stable.
It looked quite lively.
The manager also wiped some sweat away. Racehorses specially sent from other places to compete were all highly valuable. If they weren't cared for well or some problem occurred, it would be very troublesome.
Seeing it was this horse, earlier some staff had said the horse in stable 27 was in poor condition and probably couldn't participate in the race. They had done all kinds of checks but hadn't discovered any issues, but its condition was just very wrong, it couldn't run and was listless. But now seeing the young girl go over, the horse seemed extremely excited, and there was nothing visibly wrong with it. The manager breathed a sigh of relief, as long as the handover went well, any later issues wouldn't be their responsibility.
Xiao Qi went into the stable, and the smell was appropriate, there were no strange odors, but she could see Ji Gu's condition was not good, different from at Enhua's racetrack, very anxious.
Steven looked it over and also discovered some problems. After dealing with horses for most of his life, he could still clearly feel the difference. He didn't dwell on his distress over his ex-wife remarrying for now, and concentrated fully with Xiao Qi on checking Ji Gu top to bottom, but they couldn't find any issues either.
Maybe it was just not acclimated to the environment, but a racehorse that couldn't overcome a new environment could not be called an excellent racehorse. After all it couldn't only compete in one place.
The competition was imminent, Steven suppressed his uneasiness and earnestly taught Xiao Qi how to change Ji Gu's horseshoes for competition horseshoes, which were different from normal. These things would normally be done by professionals, but it was even better if the equestrian could do them, as it greatly helped to soothe the horse's anxiety.
Nailing on horseshoes was not an easy task either. The hoof had to be lifted and held fixed, the person sitting below the horse, it looked quite dangerous, and sometimes the horse would also become restless and struggle.
Xiao Qi was strong and also had great affinity with the horse. At first nailing the shoes she still felt a little reluctant, but seeing the coach doing it looked even more painful, it would be better for her to do it swiftly and get it over with, so she got the hang of it very quickly.
Before Ji Gu grew restless, she already had the horseshoes taken care of.
Xiao Qi felt Ji Gu's condition was also a little off, but there was no major problem. She felt Ji Gu seemed to have overeaten, eaten too much. Probably because the Capital City racetrack food was too good, these past few days it had overeaten.
The manager was still chatting with the Chairman. On this side Xiao Qi had already taken care of replacing all four of Ji Gu's horseshoes, ready to take it out for some fresh air and help it get accustomed to the Capital City racetrack.
When the manager here saw it was actually the young girl who was the equestrian, he was still shocked.
After all the young girl looked very slender, and was very young in age. She seemed too thin and weak for an equestrian, didn't look like she could control such a large, strong horse. This horse was very tall and powerful, and equestrian competitions were a rare event with no separation by gender. Even female jockeys were usually sturdy, with very muscular physiques. But this young girl was wearing a light blue long sleeve T, loose jeans, 1.6 meters tall or so, no matter how you looked she didn't resemble a muscular female jockey.
Xiao Qi paid no mind to other people's looks. Steven was even less concerned, he had been struck repeatedly already by Xiao Qi and was used to all her stunning performances.
When he got to the racetrack he gradually returned to normal, speaking animatedly with Xiao Qi about all kinds of details around the racetrack, in English, occasionally mixing in one or two Chinese words. Xiao Qi's English was now extremely good, they communicated very smoothly. Language was the kind of thing that got simpler the more you used it.
Ji Gu was extremely excited to see Xiao Qi. These past few days the food really had been great, and it had accidentally overeaten. But there was no one to exercise it, so at the next meal, the food was still delicious and it couldn't help overeating again, always repeating this cycle. It felt like it had gained a waist size, and after getting the new horseshoes on it couldn't wait to go run laps.
Xiao Qi rode Ji Gu around the racetrack several laps. This racetrack was extremely large, the track was also more professional. Ji Gu ran very excitedly, after several laps it had worked through its overeating and was even livelier.
After a day, Xiao Qi was very tired but also very fulfilled. They ate dinner at the hotel restaurant, then rested to prepare for the competition the next day.
Approaching the competition, Xiao Qi felt a little nervous, because the coach had become very agitated and tense, and this mood affected Xiao Qi.
She returned to her room and wrote ten pages of brush calligraphy to calm her mood down.
She also slept quite early that night, before 10 pm, and slept soundly through the night.