A few days after the World Championships, the World Junior Championships started. This year, China sent Min Shan, Cha Hanbuhua, and Jiang Xiuling/Luo Mi to compete in the women’s singles, men’s singles, and pair skating events.
There was also a pair of siblings competing in ice dance. The pair, named Sai Peng and Sai Qiong, had a four-year age difference, which allowed the older brother to lift his younger sister, and their sibling harmony made their spins highly synchronized.
The competition was held in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, which was six hours ahead of China.
Apart from Zhang Jue, none of the other kids in the Zhang Men group had trouble adjusting to the time difference. When Min Shan arrived, she first unpacked her costumes, carefully hanging them one by one to make sure they were wrinkle-free, and then took care of her beloved photography equipment to prepare for a photo session capturing Tallinn’s old buildings and seagulls soaring across the sky.
Meanwhile, Cha Hanbuhua hung up his clothes and then went to knock on Zhang Junbao and Shen Liu’s hotel room doors, asking if there was anything he could help with.
Coach Zhang was the team leader, Shen Liu was responsible for translation, Coach Zheng, who was leading the ice dance team, was applying some cooling balm to Sai Qiong’s forehead to help with motion sickness, while Coach Ma, who was looking after Jiang Xiuling and Luo Mi, was calling Huang Ying/Guan Lin to remind them to continue training diligently, even though the coach wasn’t in the country.
Zhang Junbao and Shen Liu were touched by how considerate Cha Hanbuhua was. If it had been Zhang Jue, forget about offering to help; the kid would have collapsed from jet lag and motion sickness and would barely be able to ask the coach to help with his luggage.
Coach Lao slapped Cha Hanbuhua on the shoulder and said: “Get ready, let’s have dinner first, then get a good night’s sleep.”
Although Min Shan hadn’t mastered her 3A yet, after undergoing her senior brother’s “wild” four-rotation jump training, she could easily land a 3lz+3lo combination. With her excellent spins and performance, she was definitely a strong contender for gold in the junior women’s singles.
Zhang Men’s goal was to defeat the Russian women’s singles group in the junior category with his own strength.
As for Cha Hanbuhua, it was a bit more risky for him. His 3A had just become stable, and his paper strength was similar to Japan’s Chiba Takashi, but his footwork wasn’t as good. The Russian men’s singles had two competitors, one 16 years old and the other 17, both recently practicing four-rotation jumps.
His biggest advantage was his strong heart and stable physique. Given that his opponents had average stability, once they made mistakes, Cha Hanbuhua’s gold medal was guaranteed.
In comparison, the pressure on the pairs event was much greater, as they were competing against three strong Russian pairs.
The only team with no pressure was the ice dance pair. Coach Zheng’s only requirement was for them to perform their program without any mistakes and, most importantly, not to fight before the competition started. Although their skills were good, the siblings had a habit of arguing occasionally, which exhausted their coach.
The men’s singles competition in the World Junior Championships began in the afternoon, and when it ended, it was already 11:30 PM in China. By that time, Zhang Jue had already finished tidying up his birdcage, vegetable pots, and net cages, and climbed into bed to sleep.
The alarm clock rang, and a hand stretched out from under the blanket to grab the phone, then pulled it back under the covers.
[White Cow: Senior Brother, I won the gold medal this time only because of my opponent’s mistakes. I don’t want to keep relying on my opponents’ mistakes. When we get back, can you help persuade Coach Shen to let me start four-rotation jump training?]
Zhang Jue slowly replied: “Sure,” closed his eyes, and finally fell asleep peacefully.
Following the traditions of various figure skating factions, Zhang Jue had also been working hard to help his younger brothers and sisters. During Cha Hanbuhua and Min Shan’s trip abroad for the competition, Zhang Jue, while training with Coach Lu, was also helping Jiang Yihong with his 3A.
Meanwhile, the junior athletes from China had a great performance at the World Junior Championships, winning gold in both the men’s and women’s singles, silver in pairs, and fourth in ice dance, which thrilled domestic figure skating fans. At the same time, the World Team Trophy was also getting underway.
Apart from Zhang Jue, all the athletes who had won medals at the World Championships had arrived in Tokyo to participate in the World Team Trophy. Since Russia currently had the strongest overall figure skating strength, they ended up winning the championship. Although Zhang Jue wasn’t there in person, he made his presence felt through his actions.
The group dance music for this World Team Trophy was planned by Zhuang Zi. The little girl, whose health had almost fully recovered, was now studying at university while also doing some work in the figure skating field, such as choreographing and commentary. Though this development was different from Zhang Jue’s expectations, the fact that she was making money showed her health was doing well, which pleased their friends.
Zhang Jue’s presence was felt through the group dance music. He had recommended the song “It’s Raining Men,” a legendary track.
The performance began with a group of handsome male singles skaters showing off their dance moves, followed by a collective 3T jump, all perfectly synchronized to the music’s cheerful “It’s raining men” lyrics. It was absolutely stunning!
Many people knew that Zhang Jue had recommended the song, so when the performance ended, there were a lot of thumbs-up on his social media.
“Senior Brother, you’re so smart!”
The thumbs-up reached over ten thousand, becoming a classic moment in Zhang Jue’s fan base.
After the World Team Trophy, a retirement figure skating performance took place in St. Petersburg, featuring retired disciples from Boris’ team, as well as non-retired athletes like Ilya, Selena, and Katerina.
Sergey had retired.
Although he had never participated in the Winter Olympics and his best international result was the World Championships silver medal in his final season, Sergey was among the least successful athletes in Boris’ group. But he had a surprisingly large number of fans.
The reason was simple: Sergey loved to engage in banter on social media, openly criticizing the “fake” athletes he couldn’t stand while never hesitating to praise his rivals (except for the Russian crew’s perennial dislike of Maquen). He even managed to befriend his competitors (again, except Maquen). Therefore, figure skating fans in China nicknamed him “Cannon Bear.”
Sergey, an athlete who had never even participated in the Olympics, held a retirement performance, but China’s television stations naturally didn’t broadcast it. Zhang Jue could only watch the live stream online.
Sergey cried.
The 26-year-old, who had an unsatisfactory career, had rarely won first place outside of B-level competitions. He was overshadowed by Vasily in his youth and later lost to Ilya in domestic competitions.
But he had never envied his outstanding peers. In fact, when other seniors verbally bullied Ilya, he would step up and fiercely counter them.
Although Sergey was not a grand slam champion like Vasily, he was a solid athlete with excellent skills and great character.
No athlete from outside the Russian system participated in this retirement performance. Zhang Jue had originally promised to attend, but Vasily believed that if Zhang Jue appeared, no one would notice Sergey, the main character of the show. So, Zhang Jue was banned from attending.
A couple of weeks before the May Day holiday, the group of foreign athletes gradually arrived in Beijing and checked into a hotel near the Capital Indoor Stadium. This included the newly retired Sergey. Over 20 athletes came, including the top ten men’s singles, the top six women’s singles, the top six pairs, and the number one ice dance team.
Half of them had shared a can of herring with Zhang Jue.
As Zhang Jue walked into the hotel lobby, someone shouted: “Tama-chan!”
The voice lasted quite a while. Zhang Jue stood there and saw Hayato Teraoka running toward him. He instinctively reached out his hand, and Teraoka also instinctively grabbed his hand.
The two of them looked at each other for a moment.
Zhang Jue said: “I’m not trying to lift you.”
Hayato Teraoka awkwardly replied: “I know, I was just helping. By the way, the reporter from Komura went to the Forbidden City to take photos.”
Zhang Jue said: “Oh,” and when they released their hands, they acted as if nothing had happened, casually continuing their conversation. Hayato Teraoka said he had brought a box of onsen eggs, and Zhang Jue thanked him and returned the favor with a box of Jingba pieces and several Beijing opera face masks.
This was Zhang Jue’s arrangement—he had prepared a small gift set for every performer involved in the commercial performance.
Zhuangzi held up a USB drive and said: “Tama-chan, the music has been copied.”
Zhuangzi was the general director of the first performance of POI.
Before receiving the invitation, Zhuangzi had thought she could only participate as an audience member at POI’s premiere, and that Francis would be the first choice because many commercial performance directors were famous choreographers, and Francis had relevant experience.
When she received the invitation, Zhuangzi nervously asked Zhang Jue: “You really value my talent, right? It’s not just because of personal connections that you asked me to come?”
Zhang Jue calmly replied: “I’m actually the real general director. The person in this position just needs to assist me in carrying out my ideas. Plus, Francis recently met a great guy at a music festival and is now immersed in love. He’s not taking any work before June.”
Zhuangzi wiped her sweat and happily accepted the invitation.
Francis was the same age as her uncle. Now, looking to settle down with someone stable, Zhang Jue was very supportive of him having a steady partner.
After all, this would greatly reduce the risk of disease.
Especially since there had been rumors in 2021 that Francis contracted an STD from his boyfriend who was involved with a certain person, although it was just a mild case of syphilis, it was still alarming.
However, his current partner was said to be a proper designer, and his hair was thinning from being busy. Since breaking up with his first love, he hadn’t had another opportunity for romance, so that should be fairly safe.
The music festival ticket had been given to Zhang Jue by Dela. The kid was great at drumming, so two weeks before last Christmas, based on a recommendation from his senior Lan Run, he went to the UK for a performance at a music festival. However, Zhang Jue was too busy with competitions at the time, so he passed the ticket to Frans after the finals ended.
In case these two ever ended up together, Zhang Jue would have to be the best man.
Zhang Jue, who had been single for two lifetimes, unconsciously sighed.
If one day, Ilya or Hayato got married, I would definitely have to be their best man. If I were to get married, if I didn’t form a best man group of at least 20 people, people would think I don’t consider them friends.
Too bad, I haven’t found a partner yet, Zhang Jue sighed again as he thought about this. After entertaining his friends who came to support him, he bought a takeaway roast meat meal on his way home and delivered it to Qin Xuejun, who was working at the hospital.
When he arrived, Doctor Qin was busy casting a child’s limb. Zhang Jue patiently sat on a chair in the corridor, waiting for two hours. During this time, he went to the nurse’s office to reheat the meal, and only then did it calm down.
The handsome and imposing figure of the world champion in figure skating lazily leaned against the doorframe. His long, fair hand knocked on the door.
“Doctor Qin, time for lunch.”
Doctor Qin, organizing things, looked up and smiled slightly: “Is there pickled beans?”
Zhang Jue replied: “Yes, and there’s also mung bean juice.”
He placed the food on the desk and sat on another chair, pulling at his collar and complaining: “How is it already this hot? It’s not even May yet.”
Qin Xuejun split the chopsticks and said: “Urban heat island effect. It will be even hotter in July.”
Zhang Jue narrowed his eyes: “Fortunately, I do ice sports. In summer, I just hide on the ice. Oh, my palms are sweating. Can I borrow a place to wash my hands?”
He walked to the sink and turned on the tap, placing his palm under the water. At that moment, someone walked up behind him and casually rolled up his sleeves.
A rush of warm air brushed past his ear, and the person rolling up his sleeves suddenly laughed.
“Zhang Jue, do you think you sound a bit like you’re from Beijing now?”
Support translation:
