Loan

In mid-March, the top ten Laureus Champions of the 2004 Annual Laureus Awards were announced. Although it's called "Laureus," this award isn't the same as the Laureus International Award. It's the predecessor of the domestic Top Ten Athletes selection. Zhang Guan made it to the shortlist, but ultimately didn't win after the final vote. After all, Zhang Guan's qualifications were still too shallow, and the final selections were all outstanding athletes who had been in sports for many years, accumulating numerous honors.

At the end of March, the national team began closed-door training. This training wasn't held in the same location. Since the complete list of Olympic participants hadn't been confirmed yet, the training followed the principle of proximity. For example, Liu Feiren trained at the Xin Zhuang training base, while Zhang Guan went to the National Training Center for training.

In addition to athletes, outstanding domestic coaches were also recruited to participate in the training. The Tian Management Center was responsible for all expenses incurred by the participants during the training, including food, lodging, venue equipment, medical care, and off-site training. Sports equipment was also provided by the Tian Management Center. Furthermore, coaches of field events could also bring along 1-2 accompanying athletes, with their food and lodging expenses also covered by the center.

For many young athletes, being part of the national team as accompanying athletes was a rare opportunity to meet the most outstanding athletes and coaches in the country, experiencing firsthand the highest level of training. It was a chance for young athletes to improve themselves.

Training in track and field events was an extremely tedious affair. Unlike team sports like basketball and soccer, where there are tactical explanations and team cooperation training, or individual sports like table tennis and badminton, which involve tactical training even in singles matches, track and field training was about getting faster, higher, farther, and stronger. Especially in the 100-meter sprint, there was hardly any tactics involved, nor was there any need for team cooperation. Therefore, training was simply repetitive repetition after repetition, very straightforward, but also a kind of unique torture.

From the initial excitement to later boredom, and then to resentment, until finally numbness, Zhang Guan spent three months in continuous repetition until the end of the National Track and Field Championships and Athens Olympic Trials in late May, when the training finally concluded.

It was early June when Zhang Guan returned home again, and he would enjoy his final vacation before the Olympics. According to the schedule, there would be the establishment ceremony of the Athens Olympic delegation in July, followed by the oath-taking ceremony, athlete training, and then the journey to Athens.

...

During this visit home, the most important thing for Zhang Guan was to prepare as many euros as possible. With the housing property certificate rewarded by the Provincial Sports Center, he went to the bank's credit center branch. He had turned eighteen this year, eligible for a loan.

Entering the gate of the Bank of China's credit center branch, the staff behind the counter glanced at him but didn't attend to him.

These days, personal loans were mainly for poverty-stricken student aid loans and personal housing loans. Student aid loans often had only a few thousand yuan in credit limits, which many county-level credit cooperatives could handle. As for housing loans, due to the relatively low housing prices and high down payment requirements, one could at most loan a few hundred thousand for a house.

The credit center of this bank mainly handled large business loans, so when Zhang Guan walked in, the staff could tell he wasn't a businessperson and naturally ignored him. They didn't care much for student aid loans or housing loans.

Having no other choice, Zhang Guan walked to one of the counters and sat down, but the credit officer on the other side continued to type on the keyboard, completely ignoring Zhang Guan.

"I want to apply for a loan," Zhang Guan said.

The person still didn't look up but continued staring at the computer screen and said directly, "For student aid loans, you need to get a certificate from your school and then go to a credit cooperative or Agricultural Bank to apply."

"I'm not applying for a student loan. I want..." Zhang Guan was interrupted halfway through.

"For housing loans, you also need a certificate," the person said impatiently, finally looking up at Zhang Guan, feeling somewhat familiar with him but not recognizing him.

"I want to apply for a mortgage loan," Zhang Guan said, taking out the property certificate, and continued, "I want to use this house as collateral to apply for a loan."

The staff looked at Zhang Guan with curiosity. It was very rare for someone to use their house as collateral to get a personal loan. Even a seasoned credit officer like him rarely encountered such cases.

Taking the property certificate, he opened it and looked at the address, then said, "The Sports Department's residential compound, this is a civil servant's community, good location, complete with water, electricity, and heating facilities. This house is quite good. The name on the property certificate is Zhang Guan, is that you?"

"Yes, it's me," Zhang Guan handed over his ID card.

Zhang Guan was using the first generation ID card. Although the photo wasn't as clear as the second generation ID card's, it was still recognizable since it had been issued just last year. The credit officer glanced at Zhang Guan's photo on the ID card and then suddenly had an incredulous expression on his face.

"Zhang Guan! Are you Zhang Guan?" the credit officer asked loudly.

Zhang Guan nodded.

"You're the record-breaking Zhang Guan! The Flying Man Zhang Guan!" the credit officer's voice thundered like a sudden clap of thunder on a clear day, instantly attracting the attention of all the credit officers in the branch.

"It really is Zhang Guan!"

"Give me an autograph!"

"Do you have a camera? Let's take a photo together!"

All the credit officers in the branch gathered around.

In the country, Zhang Guan's fame wasn't as high as Liu Feiren's. After all, Liu Feiren had been winning international competitions since 2000, while Zhang Guan's notable achievement was winning the Asian Athletics Championships last year. The coverage of the Asian Athletics Championships in the country was relatively low-key, and many people weren't even aware of such a competition. If it weren't for Zhang Guan breaking the Asian 100-meter record, he would probably have been forgotten long ago.

But this city was Zhang Guan's hometown, so he still had considerable recognition here, directly related to the publicity efforts. As Zhang Guan's hometown, the city naturally gave the maximum coverage to Zhang Guan breaking the Asian 100-meter record. Here, although most people didn't know Zhang Guan, almost everyone knew his name.

"What are you all doing during working hours!" a voice came from the side, and the manager of the credit department walked over.

Seeing the manager, everyone returned to their original positions. Someone had already informed the manager of Zhang Guan's arrival, so he walked up to Zhang Guan and extended his hand, saying, "Hello, I'm the manager of the credit department, my surname is Wu."

"Manager Wu, hello," Zhang Guan stood up and shook hands with Manager Wu.

"Mr. Zhang, shall we talk inside?" Manager Wu showed a professional smile and led Zhang Guan to the VIP service center at the back.

After sitting down, the staff brought refreshments, and Manager Wu invited Zhang Guan to have some tea before getting to the point, saying, "I heard you want to apply for a personal mortgage loan?"

"Yes, I want to use this house as collateral," Zhang Guan took out the property certificate.

Manager Wu took the property certificate, took a brief look, lowered his head to think for a few seconds, and then said, "The value of this house needs to be assessed by our bank's professionals, but I estimate that it's no problem to loan thirty thousand with this house as collateral."

"Is there any other way to borrow more?" Zhang Guan asked.

"There are definitely ways," Manager Wu continued, "How much do you need?"

"As much as possible," Zhang Guan replied.

"I can lend you a million," Manager Wu nodded.

"A million? But isn't my house worth much less than that?" Zhang Guan questioned.

"This house can be mortgaged for three hundred thousand, which is probably the assessment. But you are a well-known athlete who has broken an Asian record, so we can offer you more loans. However, with my authority, I can only approve up to one million. If you need more than a million, you'll need approval from the managing director. Additionally, if you can find a suitable guarantor, you can borrow more," Manager Wu explained, then added, "Actually, I'm your fan."

Zhang Guan thought for a moment, "Let's stick with one million, but I want it all in euros, is that possible?"

"Euros? I see, so you're going to the Olympics!" Manager Wu immediately associated Zhang Guan's request with the Athens Olympics in two months.

"Yes, and I want to make a big purchase while I'm there," Zhang Guan provided a reasonable explanation.

A large item worth a million yuan, Manager Wu thought for a long time and only thought of a car. He immediately speculated whether the country was providing any preferential policies to athletes participating in the Athens Olympics, such as exemption from import duties for buying foreign cars. Zhang Guan might want to take advantage of this opportunity to make a profit.

However, Manager Wu wouldn't pry into the customer's privacy, so he promptly processed Zhang Guan's loan and helped him open a foreign currency account, depositing the exchanged euros into it.

The euro had only recently been officially launched. According to the exchange rate at the time, one million yuan was exchanged for just over ninety thousand euros.

Afterward, Zhang Guan withdrew several times his prize money from various competitions, all of which were exchanged for euros, totaling over twenty thousand euros.

Then Zhang Guan asked his parents for some money. Although Zhang Guan's family wasn't wealthy, his parents had a decent income, and over the years, they had saved tens of thousands. This time, Zhang Guan was representing the country at the Athens Olympics, which was a great honor in the eyes of Zhang's parents. They couldn't afford to lose face after going abroad, so they exchanged another thirty thousand euros for Zhang Guan.

In this way, Zhang Guan had a total of one hundred and fifty thousand euros in his bank account.

...

Afterward, Zhang Guan returned to the Provincial Sports Center. Since Coach Chen had left, the track and field team temporarily assigned another coach to Zhang Guan. Although this new coach's level and experience couldn't compare to Coach Chen's, he could still handle it for a few days.

At the same time, Zhang Guan requested to learn English from the team. Currently, Zhang Guan was the undisputed top athlete in the provincial team, so his request was immediately addressed by the team. They found an assistant from the university's sports department to teach Zhang Guan English for two hours every night after dinner.

Zhang Guan had studied English diligently in his previous life for the graduate entrance exam, but although he didn't ultimately pass, his English foundation was still there. Moreover, his mother was an English teacher, so Zhang Guan's English foundation was quite good. Other athletes in the system had been training since they were young and had no time for study. Compared to them, Zhang Guan's English level was much better.

Zhang Guan didn't set high demands for himself. He didn't aspire to become a master of English. Being able to have basic conversations in life was enough for him.

After staying in the provincial capital for a month, Zhang Guan returned to the capital city. The fourth leg of the National Track and Field Grand Prix was about to be held at Beida.