I was foolish enough to challenge two giants of basketball players to a race up a flight of subway steps to the street level — them at 6’3” / 6’4” (190.5cm / 193.04cm) (one of them the founder of sina.com), and me at 5’1.5” (155cm).
They let me run up, two steps at a time, for two-thirds of the flight, then ambled up, four steps at a time, turned round and stood there, arms folded, to watch me finish my challenge.
That wasn’t the end of it, however. They decided to pay me back for trying to cheat, challenging them to a race up the steps but charging off ahead without giving them time to process the verbal challenge.
Walking on between them after the subway steps, I suddenly heard, way above my head, one of them saying, “一、二、三 / yī, èr, sān / 1, 2, 3.”
The next thing was: they took an extra big step forwards to open up the gap between them and me, then a step sideways towards each other, to walk shoulder to shoulder.
All I could see was this wall of their long backs in front of me.
(Taipei, 1975)
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