Zhang Jue had long known that the Russian prince, despite his seemingly aloof and ethereal appearance, had a goofy side. Reminiscing about the time when they escorted Yin Meijing and Liu Mengcheng onto the train, Ilya walked beside Zhang Jue, carrying a folding stool, and kept muttering words in his mouth.

As Zhang Jue didn’t understand Russian, he interpreted Ilya’s words as “Eat my sword, the number one sword in China, the White Emperor’s Holy Sword.”

Later, Zhang Jue asked Shen Liu, and with a chuckle from the latter, he learned that it was a slogan the combat-oriented nations shout before a fight, roughly translating to “Strength and honor, victory or death.”

By the way, these slogans are generally shouted before group fights, meaning Ilya Safoshenko probably had participated in quite a few brawls… When dealing with this goofy Russian, Zhang Jue always felt like he was at a disadvantage.

Zhang Jue told himself not to get angry, but when Ilya invited him to dinner, he ended up gnawing angrily on two chicken legs.

The makeup artist tied up his hair, pulling a hair tie from her own head: “When eating, tie up your hair. Your hair is so slippery that if it falls into the food, you’ll have to wash it, and washing your hair in the dead of winter, isn’t that troublesome?”

Zhang Jue vaguely thanked her and took the chicken leg out of his mouth. What was once a plump chicken leg was now just bones, not even a trace of meat left.

Huang Ying felt that she could never learn the art of eating chicken legs from this teammate. She asked quietly: “Did Xu Chuo not come?”

Huang Ying shook her head: “Her coach told her to control her weight through dieting, otherwise, she can’t land the 3Lz-3Lo.”

“Dieting?”

Zhang Jue turned around, looking incredulous: “Xu Chuo is already so thin, and she’s dieting? Can her body still get enough protein to build muscles?”

Huang Ying casually replied: “Female figure skaters have to diet, our muscle strength is not as strong as males. How can we jump without losing some weight?”

Zhang Jue: “…”

For ordinary female singles who rely on rotation speed for jumps, controlling body weight through dieting is not an issue. However, Xu Chuo is destined to grow into a tall figure. If she doesn’t work on strength training now and her body becomes heavier during puberty, how will her current muscles support jumps with such a tall body?

Zhang Junbao also mentioned that proper strength training before puberty prevents losing technical skills too severely during development. Zhang Jue, hindered by his physical talents, was not making significant progress in this aspect. Xu Chuo, on the other hand, was a rare power-type female single skater with exceptionally smooth jumps.

Even if Zhang Jue himself wasn’t coached by someone with the expertise of his uncle, who had received professional training and had a lot of knowledge, he still felt that Coach Zhao letting Xu Chuo diet was wasting her strength talent and ruining her good foundation.

He wanted to say something but then remembered that Xu Chuo’s mother seemed to support the theory that female singles should diet, and she had some criticism for Coach Zhao’s coaching philosophy. This was one of the main reasons Xu Chuo switched coaches when joining the national team.

Even Coach Zhang Junbao hadn’t been able to change Xu Chuo’s mother’s mindset. Would his words have any effect?

At this moment, Shiratsuka Masako pulled Zhang Jue’s sleeve: “Tama-chan, have you seen the schedule? You and Kharhasha Golovkin are the first among us to compete.”

Zhang Jue turned around: “Huh? Is it me?”

Kharhasha Golovkin looked puzzled: “Me, us?”

Hayato Teraoka explained: “According to the schedule, the Grand Prix will last for four days. The opening ceremony will be held at four o’clock on the first day, followed by all short programs for the junior division.”

At 16:45, the Ice Dance Short Dance would be held, followed by Ladies’ Short Program at 18:10, Men’s Short Program at 19:35, and Pairs’ Short Program at 21:00.

Yin Meijing encouraged them with a smile: “Boys, do well. We’ll be there to cheer for you.”

She said it in English, and Kharhasha Golovkin didn’t quite understand. Liu Mengcheng spoke some Russian next to him, and Kharhasha Golovkin and Ilya suddenly looked enlightened.

When did this guy become fluent not only in English but also in Russian?

The next day, the Figure Skating Grand Prix officially began.

According to many figure skating fans, the Grand Prix Finals were a gathering of stars, and a large number of talented young athletes had successfully entered this arena.

Calculating by the four-year Olympic cycle, the athletes’ generations changed every four years. Zhang Jue, Ilya, Hayato Teraoka, Huang Ying and Guan Lin, Shiratsuka Masako, were all rising stars of the Sochi cycle.

Due to criticism of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, where a North American male single skater without a quadruple jump won the championship, the International Skating Union modified the rules after the Vancouver cycle, elevating the importance of quadruple jumps and encouraging skaters to reintroduce them. This led to the resurgence of quadruple jumps in men’s singles.

Currently, only men’s singles in figure skating compete with quadruple jumps. In ladies’ singles, the most challenging jump is still Shiratsuka Masako 3A.

The ladies’ singles event preceded the men’s singles, meaning Xu Chuo was the first among the Chinese athletes to compete.

This girl was in the prime age for ladies’ singles, and during national team training, she successfully practiced the 3F+3Lo, the most challenging consecutive jump in the junior division. Although lacking flexibility and weaker rotations, her skating skills had improved considerably during her time in the provincial team, thanks to coaches Ming Jia and Zhang Junbao.

So, in her first year in the junior division, Xu Chuo ranked third in the total points standings, entering the Grand Prix Finals, becoming another ladies’ singles skater with the potential to achieve results after Chen Zhu.

Her short program was set to “River Flows in You.” The young girl wore a light blue costume with white butterfly patterns on her shoulders. The shiny crystals surrounded her slender body like a river. Standing in front of the boards, she looked like an elementary school student about to perform in a fairy tale.

Coach Zhao stood in front of her, handing her tissues and mineral water. Her mother sat in the audience with a banner.

Because figure skating is highly popular in Japan, the stands were already full, and everyone looked at her with expectant eyes.

“Xiao Chuo, don’t worry. You’ve successfully lost weight, and the success rate of your 3F+3Lo has reached seventy percent. You will definitely win” Coach Zhao reassured her.

Xu Chuo nodded nervously, and Coach Zhao continued to encourage her: “You’ve really worked hard. In all my years of coaching, you’re the first child to skate onto such a big stage. Keep it up, we’ll all be watching you.”

Xu Chuo responded with a word and turned to skate towards the ice rink.

Zhang Junbao watched the girl’s figure, his brow furrowed: “How did her legs become even thinner than the last time we met? Can such slender legs still support jumps?”

Shen Liu comforted him: “It’s said that Coach Zhao is currently most focused on her. Moreover, her success rate with the 3Lo jump in the previous two qualifying rounds has been quite good. Trust them.”

Song Cheng nodded: “Exactly, Junbao. After all, Xu Chuo is in ladies’ singles. Your muscle training methods are more suitable for boys. Coach Zhao has been coaching ladies’ singles in the national team for so many year,; her approach should be more suitable for Xu Chuo.”

Zhang Jue also trained muscles, but the results were just like that. In the end, the little guy’s jumps still relied on high rotation speed rather than jump height. Sometimes, Song Cheng wanted to put Zhang Jue on a diet to see if, with reduced body weight, he could master the 4T.

Zhang Junbao grumbled discontentedly: “Without muscle protection, there will be a lot of joint pressure when Little Jue performs the quadruple jump. Xu Chuo has excellent power talent. I’ve never seen a ladies’ single skater jump so high. It’s a pity not to let her train muscles…”

However, despite his grumbling, when Xu Chuo executed the 3F+3Lo on the competition stage, the big-chested young man was still delighted and almost jumped up. When Xu Chuo almost made a mistake in the 3Lz jump, he also tightly clenched his fists.

Even though Xu Chuo was no longer his student, Zhang Junbao still cared about this child. After all, he didn’t have many disciples, and each one was precious. Zhang Junbao had stayed up many nights revising their training plans, hoping to ensure the healthy development of the children’s careers while rapidly increasing their skills.

Because the Grand Prix Final had six participants in each event, it progressed quickly. When the Junior Ladies Short Program concluded, Xu Chuo was ranked second, only behind the 15-year-old American junior ladies skater Clara.

Zhang Jue stood up, picked up his sports bag, and walked towards the backstage. In the warm-up room, several boys had already gathered, including Kharhasha Golovkin, Juventus Bratov, Angus Joe, and other familiar faces.

There was also a seemingly very young men’s singles skater. With just a glance, Zhang Jue knew he was the legendary European prodigy, Norway’s Alan Helge.

As domestic competitions combined Junior and Senior scores in the ranking, occasionally there would be junior skaters with exceptionally high scores standing on the senior podium. For instance, Zhang Jue won the senior gold medal at last year’s Nationals.

Alan Helge won the title of Norway’s youngest National Men’s Singles Champion with a very high score in the senior division at last year’s Norwegian National Championship.

However, this kid was quite tall. Despite being ten months younger than Zhang Jue, he looked over 1.65 meters tall, taller than the 1.61-meter Choi Jung-soo.

Shen Liu whispered to Zhang Jue: “You don’t need to pay too much attention to Helge. He managed to win the national championship mainly because the other senior men in Norway are too weak, similar to why you won the Grand Prix Final. This kid’s highest difficulty jump is only 3Lz+3Lo, and his A-jump is weak.”

Zhang Jue whispered back: “But his legs are several times thicker than mine, with bulging muscles.”

Shen Liu responded: “Bulging muscles don’t necessarily mean stronger jumps. Your uncle has such full muscles, but you haven’t seen him jump higher than me.”

Zhang Junbao, standing behind them, chuckled, and Shen Liu immediately shut up.

Zhang Jue stuck out his tongue, performed a split on the spot while stretching, and used a red hairband to tie his hair into a ponytail.

According to the points ranking, Zhang Jue, with the highest rank, was the last to compete. His opponents left one by one, and then the music started. Waves of applause followed.

The second-to-last skater to perform was Juventus. He skated to a jazz-style saxophone piece, free and lively.

As the beats dropped, the sound of blades hitting the ice in the athlete corridor echoed, the rhythmic clash of skates fitted the music. Zhang Jue walked out of the corridor, and the cold air from the ice rink hit him.

“Tama.”

Zhang Jue raised his head and saw Shiratsuka Masako clenching her fist towards him: “Ganba-dad!”

Zhang Jue waved back to her, took off his coat, revealing autumn red, and lifted his hand. From the wrist to the elbow, there was a gradually changing translucent fabric, swaying lightly as he moved.

His short program was “Otoal,” the free skate music that the first Russian ladies’ singles world champion Katya Gordeeva used at the Nagano Winter Olympics, meaning autumn. It was performed by the Latin pianist Raul Di Blasio.

In a certain critical care hospital in capital, Qin Xuejun sat by the bedside and gently touched a child.

“Xiao Ping, the competition of Little Brother Jue, who sang ‘My Little Baby’ for you earlier, is about to start. Do you want to watch?”

The child on the bed slowly opened her eyes. With a tube inserted in her mouth, she couldn’t speak, only blink her eyes. Qin Xuejun understood and opened the computer.

Since the Grand Prix Final was broadcast on Channel 5, Zhang Jue had already arranged with Qin Xuejun through a phone call. If Little Ping was awake during his competition, she could be asked if she wanted to watch his performance.

Qin Xuejun carefully adjusted the computer screen. The girl lay back, watching the young man standing on the ice. Suddenly, he looked at the camera and flashed a brilliant smile.

He mouthed something, and after thinking for a moment, Little Ping felt that Little Brother Jue was saying “hello.”

Little Ping wanted to smile, Little Brother Jue indeed looked handsome, as attractive as his singing voice.

 

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