[hot~】 In the icy and snow forum, there was a conversation:

1L: “Our great Zhang school is amazing!” This year, the Zhang school was truly incredible. Among those who made it to the Grand Prix Final were Zhang Jue, Ying, and Brother Lin in the senior group, and Sister Shan, Brother Niu, little Pang, and Sister Min in the junior group. Except for Ying, Brother Lin, and Sister Min, the rest were all Zhang’s disciples, and even little Pang built his foundation under Old Man Lu.

3L: “Speaking of reason, Old Man Lu hit retirement age ten years ago.” Even when he hadn’t retired, Brother Shen trained his basics under him. He was always impressive, he just lacked a student with enough talent to reach the top of the world and fully showcase his greatness.

4L: “Er Pang and Da Pang had a happy reunion at the Capital Airport.” Seeing Er Pang’s terrified expression and the much taller Da Pang, it’s funny that the shorter one turned out to be the male partner in pairs, while the taller one was the world’s best male singles skater. What a magical world, hahaha.

5L: “A lot of people were instinctively intimidated by Zhang.” But after watching the documentary filmed by the H Province TV station, it became clear Zhang was a real troublemaker as a kid. If I were Er Pang, my legs would shake just seeing him too.

6L: “Zhang was a huge troublemaker as a kid, hahaha.” Every time something went wrong, he was involved. Even during his “Chubby God” phase, he was a mischievous kid. Coach Zhang would chase him down daily, and it wasn’t until he went through puberty and some setbacks that he started to become more mature.

7L: “Really? I don’t believe it!” He’s still mischievous now! Old Man Lu has swung his cane at him more than once, though the cane always gets raised high but comes down lightly. The way it hits Zhang is weaker than how I’d hit my own dog.

8L: “That’s why Old Man Lu has slimmed down.” After coaching Zhang, his waist became two sizes smaller—oh wait, now it’s three. They say that when Zhang ran laps around the track, Old Man Lu would walk briskly or even jog in the inner lane. He used to be round but has slimmed into a handsome old man, with a sharp nose—no surprise, since he’s mixed-race.

9L: “Coach Shen also reduced his body fat to 11%.” A few days ago, he even showed off his abs on Weibo, saying he was pushed by Old Man Lu—the biggest boss of Zhang’s school.

10L: “By the way, did Zhang have bodyguards with him this time in Barcelona?”

11L: “Yes, he had bodyguards.”

12L: “It was about time.” According to search data from Google and Baidu, Zhang’s popularity during his junior career was on par with Vasily at the time, and now he’s the top in terms of fanbase. At the Japan event, he was almost approached by crazy fans. The security was nowhere near what it should’ve been for his level of fame.

13L: “His original security was just his uncle, hahaha.”

Due to Cha Hanbuhua, Min Shan, and Er Pang (or rather, Jiang Xiuling) only moving up to the junior group last season, and because Zhang Jue spent the first half of last season recovering from injuries, he didn’t participate in the Grand Prix, so this year was the first time the younger members competed alongside their senior brother.

Also, Zhang Jue’s popularity grew significantly this year. In the past, he could jog outside the arena during competitions, but now he couldn’t do that. During the Japan event, he was almost photographed changing clothes by an ice-skating fan who sneaked in, scaring his uncle so much that he refused to leave Zhang’s side during the competition.

So, for his safety, the China Skating Union hired four bodyguards for him—all big, muscular men. Standing between them, even the 1.8-meter-tall Zhang Jue looked slender.

Cha Hanbuhua, at 14, dragged his suitcase closely behind his senior brother. He had started to grow, but not as aggressively as Zhang, growing about one centimeter per month. After reaching 1.64 meters, his growth slowed down, and walking beside his senior brother, he looked like a child.

As soon as they got off the plane, enthusiastic ice fans rushed over to greet them, creating chaos. Zhang Jue, surrounded by bodyguards, walked forward quickly and calmly, looking like the most composed person in the crowd.

He seemed naturally suited to being the center of attention. Even though he wasn’t wearing sunglasses or anything, the obsidian earrings on his ears made him look like a star fresh off the stage. With all the flashing cameras, even random passersby who weren’t interested in figure skating couldn’t help but wonder: “Is Penélope Cruz back in the country?”

There was no helping it—this Grand Prix Final was the most important competition of the first half of the season, and the most passionate ice-skating fans from around the world had come to Barcelona.

Zhang Jue originally wanted to hug Keiko and Hayato at the airport, but they were quickly separated by the excited crowd and only managed to squeeze onto the bus in the end.

When they arrived at the hotel, Zhang Jue sat on his suitcase, waiting for his uncle to check them in.

His uncle asked: “Zhang Jue, there aren’t enough rooms. Someone will have to stay in a single room.”

This implied Zhang Jue had the option of the single room.

Zhang Jue reached out his hand and said: “I’ll stay with you. Give the single room to the girls. There are three of them, so one of them will have to stay in the single.”

His uncle replied: “Oh right, we still have girls on the team.”

Tossing him the room key, his uncle let Zhang Jue take the suitcase and head for the elevator. With a 7-hour time difference between Spain and China, Zhang Jue hadn’t slept well on the plane. The first thing he did when entering the room was wash up, change into pajamas, and then collapse onto the bed for a long nap.

He had always been good at sleeping, and if he closed his eyes and just slept, he could easily sleep for more than ten hours, making his uncle, who struggled to sleep as he aged, very envious.

But this time, Zhang Jue didn’t get to sleep for long. He started sleeping around 6 p.m. in Barcelona, but by 1 a.m., his uncle woke him up, and they all rushed to the hotel lobby. It turned out someone downstairs had said something like “I’m going to burn this place down” while intoxicated.

Since the guy wasn’t fully conscious, no one knew if he had really left anything dangerous in the hotel, so a thorough search was being conducted, and they were told they could return in two hours.

A group of athletes, coaches, choreographers, and doctors gathered at the hotel entrance. Most were directed to a nearby restaurant because it was December, and Spain wasn’t particularly warm. They couldn’t let everyone wait outside and risk catching a cold—who would be able to compete then?

Hayato entered the restaurant, looking for a place to sit. Many of the younger athletes were still groggy, leaning on their coaches or chatting with teammates. Zhang Jue’s junior brother Cha Hanbuhua was being pestered by their other junior, Takeshi Chiba, as they gestured wildly, trying to communicate something despite their poor English.

In one of the booths, Hayato spotted Keiko Shiratsuka and her sister. The older sister, Masako, was sipping hot chocolate in boredom, while someone next to her lay slumped over.

The person was wearing flannel pajamas, their head buried in their arms. Their black hair gleamed under the warm orange light, and their arm was adorned with a silly horse pattern. A black down jacket was draped over them.

“Is the horse… because it’s the Year of the Horse?” Hayato couldn’t resist reaching out to touch the silky-looking hair, but Masako smacked his hand away.

“He’s asleep. Don’t disturb him. Handsome Coach asked us to keep an eye on him.”

Keiko lay on the table, her face turned to the side, watching Zhang Jue’s sleeping face. She couldn’t help but smile and said: “It looks like Tama-chan’s jet lag plan has been greatly disrupted. I wonder if he’ll still have the energy to participate in the gala tomorrow. I originally thought I could give him some candy at the airport, but we didn’t see him there. And when we met up tonight, he was completely out of it, like a wandering ghost.”

Teraoka Hayato was silent for a moment, then sat down on the other side, lowering his voice to complain: “He’s been competing for so many years, but he’s still terrible at adjusting to jet lag.”

Shoji covered her mouth and laughed, while Mijing leaned back, her gaze empty.

They sat quietly together, no one speaking. Keiko daydreamed for a while, then started to doze off, resting in Shoji’s arms with her eyes closed. After a while, Liu Mengcheng came over, gently holding Mijing and stroking her long hair absentmindedly, his head also starting to droop.

In the early hours of the morning, everyone was tired.

After a while, Ilya came over to inform them: “The inspection is over, you can go back and continue resting.”

He still spoke with his thick Russian-accented English, but everyone was already used to Ilya, so there was no language barrier as long as he spoke slowly.

After saying that, Ilya woke Zhang Jue up, took back the down jacket that was covering him, and Hayato Teraoka realized for the first time that the jacket Zhang Jue had been wearing actually belonged to this “polar bear” Ilya, which explained why it looked a bit small on him.

Zhang Jue, still groggy, was led away by Cha Hanbuhua, who had come to pick him up. Without the jacket covering him, his pajamas looked even funnier. Shoji sneakily took a photo of Zhang Jue’s back with her phone, and in the shot, Liu Mengcheng, carrying Mijing on his back, was also captured.

Many figure skaters remembered this unexpected event vividly, but Zhang Jue had no memory of it at all. The next day at the gala, when his friends brought it up, he was utterly shocked.

“Huh? Ilya put a jacket on me?”

He happily shouted a “Thank you” to Ilya, then took a banana from his backpack and handed it to him. Ilya accepted it with a slightly helpless expression.

“You really don’t remember anything from last night?”

Zhang Jue shook his head: “I just remember changing my sleeping spot once, and then going back later.”

Everyone burst out laughing: “Classic you, always so carefree.”

The carefree Zhang Jue shrugged, hands in his pockets as he glided on the ice. After a few moments, he put his hands behind his back, pushed off with his skates, and swung his right leg forward, using his left leg to leap into the air. His body spun effortlessly, completing two and a half rotations.

Most people kept their hands tucked close to their chest when jumping, tightening their bodies as much as possible. But Zhang Jue’s ability to perform a 2A jump without tightening his body was astonishing, a clear display of skill.

Coach Lu pondered for a moment and said: “It seems that minor injury has mostly healed.”

They then watched as Zhang Jue botched a 4S, turning it into a 2S, but the kid quickly recovered, spun around, added a 1Lo, and then successfully landed a 4S.

2S + 1Lo + 4S… What kind of insane combination is this? How can anyone follow up a two-jump combo with a quadruple jump as the third jump?

When Zhang Jue came back for some water, Coach Lu asked: “You’ve been falling less recently, but you’re still having trouble fully rotating your quadruple jumps?”

Zhang Jue sighed: “Yeah, sometimes I’m hesitant to put all my power into the rotation. It might be a lingering issue from the injury. I’ll work on fixing it.”

At that moment, Hayato Teraoka attempted a quadruple jump not far away. He used his right foot to toe-pick and took off from the inside edge of his left foot. Yes, that was a 4F, though he touched the ice with his hand on the landing. But for an athlete to even attempt this jump in front of a crowd means he’d already landed it successfully in training!

And Hayato Teraoka wasn’t like Ilya, who struggled with edge jumps. Since the start of the season, his 4T and 4S had similar success rates. His only issue was stamina, so he hadn’t attempted many quadruple jumps in previous competitions.

Zhang Jue watched that jump and turned to Coach Lu, complaining: “I think Hayato Teraoka is trying to mess with my head before the competition, and I have proof!”

Doing a 4F in front of someone who struggles with edge jumps, always over-rotating by 0.2 turns no matter what? That’s just cruel!

Zhang Jue clicked his tongue, and Zhang Junbao lightly smacked him on the head: “Alright, enough chatting. Get back to practice.”

Zhang Jue then attempted a combination jump of 4T + 1Lo + 3S + 3T + 3Lo, landing it effortlessly. Although no one ever did a five-jump combination in formal competitions, Zhang Jue’s jumping ability seemed terrifying to many.

Vasily watched Zhang Jue and sighed: “No wonder he’s the best at combination jumps. Looks like you’re not the only one training new tricks this year, huh, Ilya?”

He looked at his junior, his gaze questioning. Ilya nodded seriously: “My sprained ankle has healed, but that new jump isn’t ready yet. Maybe by the time of the European Championships, its stability will improve enough to use in competition.”

In this tense atmosphere, the most important A-level event of the first half of the 2014-2015 season, the Grand Prix Final, was slowly beginning.

At 2:00 p.m., the short program for the junior men’s singles officially started.

Among this year’s competitors were two young Russian skaters, Cha Hanbuhua, and three others from Canada, the U.S., and Japan. All were under 18, with the youngest being Japan’s Takeshi Chiba, only 13 years old.

Cha Hanbuhua wasn’t the oldest or the youngest, nor was he the most technically skilled. His flexibility and appearance weren’t remarkable either. His only irreplaceable advantage was his stable mindset.

Like his senior, Hanbuhua was an athlete who never made mistakes as long as he wasn’t injured. Even though this was his first time at such an important competition, he still appeared calm and composed.

Zhang Jue stood nearby watching as his junior warmed up, occasionally glancing in Chiba Takashi’s direction.

Francis Miller, who choreographed Hanbuhua short program this year, curiously asked: “Are you really that interested in that kid? His jumps and skating are decent, but his body is too stiff, and his performance lacks flair.”

Zhang Jue’s expression was subtle for a moment: “He has a lot of potential. I think he’ll grow into something great. Besides, performance is partly about whether someone can find a style that suits them and a program that brings out the best in them.”

Francis teased: “Not everyone is like you. Let’s go. Little Niu is up first, and surprisingly, he looks pretty good in that white costume.”

The dark-skinned, stocky boy actually looked quite dashing in white, exuding a masculine charm. Francis, always one to appreciate good looks, found that attractive athletes like Zhang Jue inspired his creativity, and this year, Hanbuhua had also brought out some of his best work.

As Zhang Jue walked at the back of the group, he thought, if I hadn’t collaborated with you to create “Goodbye Nonino,” your first breakthrough program wouldn’t have appeared until 2021.

That program was called “The Doctor of Geneva,” a short program, performed by the new champion of the 2021-2022 season.

Back then, that kid’s performance ability was lacking, making him evenly matched with Hanbuhua, whose performance was solid but limited by difficulty. However, once Hanbuhua struggled to land a quad jump after moving up a level, he was soon left behind. At that time, ice-skating fans lamented: “Brother Niu has reached his limit and has been left far behind by his childhood friend.”

Now, Hanbuhua was still slower than others at executing high-difficulty jumps, but compared to the past, he had mastered the 3A three years ahead of schedule.

Watching his junior removing the skate guards, Zhang Jue extended his hand: “Your difficulty and performance level are more than enough for the podium. Just perform like you do in practice.”

Cha Hanbuhua nodded, shook hands with his senior, gave Coach Zhang a hug, then headed toward the rink.

 

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