When Zhang Junbao arrived at the training center, he saw Sun Qian looking utterly exhausted.

With a sigh, Sun Qian called him into the office.

“You are temporarily seconded from the H province team to us, and your overtime pay will be calculated at three times the usual rate. For teaching here for one month, I will pay you three months’ salary. So could you please ask your nephew to stop calling me at nine in the evening and chatting for half an hour? He talks so much that it makes my head spin.”

Zhang Jue didn’t use any curse words when he spoke, but he insisted that his uncle should not work for free. He was also very well-versed in legal regulations, just like a worker who had been cheated by unscrupulous contracts countless times and knew all the laws to protect himself.

But Zhang Jue had always been the beloved figure skating star in China, so who would dare to mistreat him?

Zhang Junbao bowed apologetically: “I’m sorry, Commander Sun, my kid bothered you.”

Sun Qian grumbled, but he couldn’t really hold it against Zhang Junbao because if it weren’t for Zhang Jue’s call, he might have forgotten about Zhang Junbao’s salary.

As the head coach, it was usually easy for him to assign any national team coach to a task with just a word, but Zhang Junbao was an exception. Even though he could teach the quadruple jump and had developed top-notch landing techniques, he was not directly under Sun Qian.

Because C9 didn’t grant special recruitment quotas to their figure skating team for active international athletes, their top skater had to stay in his hometown for studies instead of joining the national team in Beijing. As a result, Zhang Junbao also refused to come, leaving Song Cheng with an advantage.

Sun Qian wasn’t unhappy that their top skater had a bright mind with hopes of getting into a prestigious school, as the kid was quick-thinking and good with numbers.

Everyone knew that Zhang Jue’s move to change his jump configuration at the Grand Prix Final wowed many, showing his calm and bold mindset, sharp and quick thinking, and high technical skills.

If he hadn’t changed his jump plan or executed the new configuration cleanly, Zhang Jue wouldn’t have climbed from fourth place in the short program to win the silver medal, especially in a competition dominated by Russian skaters. His opponents had the advantage of inflated scores, while Zhang Jue only got what he truly deserved.

Sun Qian thought, if only Zhang Jue weren’t going through puberty or injuries, it would be great. If he were in good shape, Coach Sun wouldn’t have to focus on Jin Zixuan, who was older than Zhang Jue and less stable mentally, hoping he would make a good candidate for the top spot.

He cleared his throat: “Alright, the kids will arrive tomorrow. As the jump coach, what are you planning to teach them?”

Zhang Junbao replied matter-of-factly: “Of course, I’ll teach them the arm-raising technique during jumps and the landing buffering technique.”

Sun Qian was surprised. These were Zhang Junbao’s signature coaching techniques.

His voice trembled slightly: “Did you discuss your training plan with Zhang Jue? I remember the arm-raising technique was perfected by him and Shen Liu together, right?”

In his memory, Shen Liu only started studying the arm-raising technique after seeing Zhang Jue do it.

Zhang Junbao waved his hand generously: “I talked to him. He said it was fine and even suggested I focus on teaching technique, which involves raising both arms. It stabilizes the jump axis more than Tano, which only raises one arm, causing uneven force on both sides of the body and taking more time to master. He practiced raising both arms for just a month, but it took him six months to get used to raising one arm.”

“However, my landing buffering technique requires the skater’s joints to be quite flexible, so they need to improve their flexibility. But being too flexible means that without good control, they might slip and fall like Zhang Jue did. Too much joint flexibility can cause loss of control during complex footwork, so it requires meticulous training.”

Zhang Junbao concluded: “So I can only teach them the basics. It’s difficult to master these two techniques within a month.”
Sun Qian thought, I like your honesty.

This made him feel that even if he paid Zhang Junbao a high salary, it would be worth it.

At this moment, Sun Qian didn’t know that because he only assigned Zhang Junbao to teach jump techniques, Zhang Junbao only planned to teach arm-raising and landing buffering. If he had made Zhang Junbao the head coach for this training camp, he would have also prepared plans for strength training and performance enhancement.

Was Coach Zhang best at teaching arm-raising and landing? Absolutely not! His specialty was in strength training.

And boosting the skaters’ performance by discussing their mental state, selecting performance music together, and meticulously refining performance details.
Zhang Jue’s reputation as the most expressive male skater with a legendary calm under pressure in China wasn’t just due to his natural talent. His uncle, as his coach, provided a lot of support.

The next day, Cha Hanbuhuahua was brought to the Beijing train station by his brother. Bain looked around and saw a well-built, baby-faced young man, who seemed to have just graduated from college, surrounded by a group of foreign tourists. They were speaking Spanish, which the baby-faced man didn’t understand, making him break out in a sweat. Suddenly, a black-haired, blue-eyed man with a fiery gaze approached, shouldered the baby-faced man aside, and the latter, letting out a cry, spotted Bain and Cha Hanbuhuahua. His eyes lit up, and he rushed over, grabbing the two dark-skinned youngsters and running away.
“Quick, those people won’t stop crowding me.”

Bain felt a twinge of envy as he thought, being single for 19 years, he had never seen a man like Zhang Junbao, who, at 33, was still so popular.

After settling his brother in the dormitory and chatting with Zhang Junbao for a while, he hurried off, saying he had to go home to help his cat give birth, as it was due any day now. The young man studied veterinary medicine in university and didn’t plan to leave the task to anyone else.

Zhang Junbao sighed: “Ah, pet owners are like that. They don’t want anyone else taking care of their furry children.”

Seeing Cha Hanbuhuahua’s confused expression, he explained: “Your senior might have been bored while recovering and picked up a hamster from a pet shop yesterday. He named it Saori.”

Zhang Junbao didn’t find the hamster particularly cute, he just thought Zhang Jue watched too many Japanese dramas.

Cha Hanbuhuahua asked: “So what is Senior doing now?”

Zhang Junbao replied: “He’s sightseeing in Beijing with his brother.”

Yes, little Xu Dela arrived in Beijing yesterday and performed with his band at a bar in Houhai. Although Zhang Jue, being underage and not a performer, was turned away at the door, the song “Stars Tonight” received great acclaim, earning a business card from an agent of a small company called Fengming.

Today, the brothers went to see the snowy scenery of the Forbidden City. Zhang Jue planned to discuss future plans with his brother during their tour.

Speaking of Fengming, Zhang Jue was very familiar with it, as it was the small company he signed with in his previous life.

To be fair, although the contract he signed when he appeared on “Dream Youth 307” was extremely harsh, Fengming treated him well. From the wealthy second-generation owner to his agent Bai Xiaozhen, they all supported him wholeheartedly. When he beat up the son of Tian Teng Company’s president, they did everything they could to protect him.

Also before Zhang Jue even joined the company, they had already made a rock band famous, showing that their business skills were not lacking. However, the band’s core member, the bassist, suddenly died, leading to the band’s dissolution. Without their star attraction, Fengming started to decline.

If Zhang Jue had successfully debuted, he believed that with his songwriting and singing abilities, he could have helped the company prosper. But didn’t he also die suddenly? The owner of Fengming really should pray to the gods, having lost two stars to sudden deaths is such bad luck!

However, if Xu Dela wanted to take this path in the future, Zhang Jue would prefer he signed with Fengming.

Even though the wealthy owner only had the 30 million startup capital from his parents, after which he would have to go back and inherit the family business, his business talent was not lacking. He also despised dirty tactics and was willing to protect his subordinates, making him a rare good boss in this industry.

In Zhang Jue’s memory, when he was a trainee in “Dream Boy 307”, a gossip enthusiast who was eliminated in the semi-finals from the room next door had shared a lot with him.

For example, the young master of Tian Teng, who had tried to use coercion on him, especially liked strong-willed individuals. He had harmed many people with drugs, threats, and other means, and had gathered a group of rich second generations and star children for group activities. It was rumored he had contracted a certain disease and had three teeth knocked out by Fengming’s bassist. He then tried to target Zhang Jue and ended up with two broken legs.

Naturally, the young master of Tian Teng was unwilling to suffer the loss. When the bassist incident happened, he wanted to trouble the wealthy owner, but ended up triggering the owner’s parents, who not only failed to gain any advantage but also received a scolding at home, which he deserved.

In summary, Zhang Jue truly did not want to see Xu Dela enter that circle at a young age. So, while taking his brother to eat Peking shredded pork and roast duck, he grabbed the plate of duck, and with his brother’s resentful look, he extended his pinky.

“Dela, listen. If you want to pursue your dream, I won’t stop you, but if you still want to get songs from me, you must finish high school and get into a 211 university.”
Xu Dela slowed down his chewing and hesitated: “But studying takes up a lot of time.”

Zhang Jue squinted his eyes: “You can refuse.”

If you say no now, you’ll lose the benefit of songs written by your big brother immediately, and I’ll send you back to the northeast where mom will discipline you with a clothes hanger.

Xu Dela didn’t hear Zhang Jue’s unspoken words, but his intuition screamed at him, making the young boy shiver and reluctantly extend his little finger.

“I-I’ll agree. I’ll listen to you, brother.”

Zhang Jue smiled with satisfaction. He picked up chopsticks, placed the duck, scallions, and cucumber on a pancake, dipped it in sweet sauce, and stuffed it into Xu Dela’s mouth.

“Good boy, I’m doing this for your own good. Before you make your official debut, train hard. When you debut with master-level skills, the world will praise you as a genius. Just thinking about it is wonderful.”

Xu Dela blushed and mumbled: “I’m not a genius, you are, brother.”

It’s worth mentioning that they later encountered Coach Lan at the restaurant entrance.

Zhang Jue waved joyfully: “Coach Lan, good evening! Are you here for dinner too? Feeling better? I haven’t seen you go to the 703 hospital for therapy lately.”

Coach Lan was taken aback and stammered: “I’ve been feeling much better, thank you for your concern.”

Then he hurried into the restaurant. Zhang Jue continued waiting with Xu Dela for Qin Xuejun to pick them up. After a while, Coach Lan came out again and handed him a box of Beijing eight-piece pastries.

“My nephew brought these pastries, but I don’t like sweets. You take them.”

Zhang Jue looked at him and asked, puzzled: “What’s with your clothes?”

Why do they look so messy?

Coach Lan replied seriously: “I got excited about eating zhajiangmian from this place after a long time. When I get excited, I tend to have diarrhea. You know it’s winter, so I had to take off my coat to go to the bathroom. Don’t worry, I washed my hands before touching the pastries.”

Zhang Jue was embarrassed. Getting excited and having diarrhea sounded like Brother Shen constitution. And he and Coach Lan had only met a few times, hardly close enough to share such details.

He felt awkward about accepting a gift from a not-so-familiar elder, but Coach Lan was persistent. He shoved the pastry box into Zhang Jue’s hands and walked away before Zhang Jue, in his wheelchair, could chase after him.

He exchanged a glance with Xu Dela, who covered his mouth and laughed: “Brother, this Coach Lan is quite interesting. Does he also coach figure skating?”
Zhang Jue quickly denied: “No, he’s a basketball coach.”

Xu Dela nodded: “Speaking of which, if you hadn’t called him coach, I would have thought he was a rock senior I know.”

Zhang Jue was curious: “A senior?”

Xu Dela seriously replied: “Yes, when I performed in bars, I met a senior named Uncle Jin, who was great at singing metal rock. But he was a visual kei, with makeup like a ghost…”

Zhang Jue immediately warned his brother: “I don’t care about others, but you mustn’t go visual kei. If you do, I’ll tell mom. Got it?”

Hearing his obedient response, Zhang Jue sighed with relief, looking down at the pastry box with concern: “Eating sweets can make you fat. I can’t touch them.”
Xu Dela thought the pastries were likely his, ready to thank his brother, when Zhang Jue muttered to himself.

“Dela is already as fat as a ball and needs to lose weight. I better take them back for brother Qin.”

Xu Dela’s eyes widened in shock, clutching his belly with a pang.

As fat as a ball? Then he couldn’t be the baby brother being fed by his brother anymore?

On the other side: “Coach Lan” had just entered the restaurant when a handsome uncle identical to him grabbed his collar and threw him against the wall.

“Lan Jin, you’re not human! Stealing my clothes is one thing, but ruining my reputation too!”

Lan Jin laughed, expertly dodging punches while dragging Lan Kun to a farther spot, rolling up his sleeves for a fight.

Lan Run took a sip of tea, then hurriedly intervened to stop the fight, ending up with his dad and uncle being kicked out of the restaurant.

Why were other families’ brothers so friendly while his always fought? Almost forty, yet still brawling?

On January 1st, New Year’s Day, a holiday for family gatherings, the national team’s training camp entered its last three days with a tense atmosphere. Everyone trained hard, hoping for good results in the National Championships.

At 7 a.m., Shi Mosheng finished his land training and sat by the ice rink tying his skates, chatting with Fan Zhaoying and Lu Xiaorong. Suddenly, it became very quiet.

A light footstep approached.

He looked up at the newcomer, his pupils shrinking.

Someone holding skates waved at them, flashing a heart-stopping smile, and spoke in a voice that made even a big guy like him feel a bit faint.

“Hello, long time no see. I’m here for rehab training.”

The scene was silent, pin-drop quiet, until Jin Zixuan awkwardly asked a question.

“Who are you, handsome?”

 

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