It turned out that the only Japanese person who would seriously call Zhang Jue by his name was indeed Chiba Takeshi.

After Chiba Takeshi’s sister finished her competition, she ran upstairs to see her brother, but her attention was completely captivated by Zhang Jue, who suddenly entered her field of vision.

She screamed: “Tama-chan!”

Zhang Jue remained calm and peaceful inside, showing no waves of emotion. He smiled slightly and raised his hand in greeting: “Hi.”

Hi? Hi, my foot.

Chiba Takeshi watched expressionlessly as his sister eagerly asked the man—who was so handsome that one couldn’t even feel jealousy—for an autograph and photo. At this point, all he could do was act as the tool to help take the photos, without any sense of presence.

Zhang Jue was now quite adept at dealing with his little figure skating fans, but he didn’t stay long. As the current top figure skater, he knew very well what kind of commotion his appearance could cause. So, after calculating the time, he got up to leave, tapping his crutches as he walked away.

Chiba Takeshi initially thought this was just an accidental encounter with the strongest male figure skater, who was temporarily on break due to an injury and traveling to relax, while he himself was at home with his family.

However, not long after, they met again.

This time, Zhang Jue was dressed in a shirt and trench coat, all in black, and wearing sunglasses. If it weren’t for the crutches, he would have looked like a certified “cool guy.” He sat by the training rink, talking to Maiko, while Teraoka Hayato sat beside them peeling oranges, and the three occasionally pointed at Keiko on the ice, commenting that her 3A jump didn’t cover enough distance.

Keiko, frustrated, exclaimed: “You guys are so annoying! If you’re so great, why don’t you come up here and jump yourselves!

Teraoka Hayato responded: “Fine, I’ll jump! Who can’t do a 3A?”

Zhang Jue laughed heartily: “Once my leg heals, I’ll show you not just a 3A but a 4A too, though I might not land it well. So please bear with me.”

Everyone fell silent. 4A? This guy got injured just attempting a 4Lo, and now he wants to try a 4A, which requires a four-and-a-half revolution jump? Can his leg even handle that?

What they didn’t know was that Zhang Jue had indeed tried a 4A, though he hadn’t fully rotated it yet.

Spinning four revolutions in the air was already something many athletes spent most of their careers striving for, let alone four and a half. Even for Zhang Jue, who could complete a 4+1+4 combo, pulling off this crazy jump was incredibly difficult.

Although they didn’t know why he was here, during last year’s off-season, at a Sino-Japanese figure skating exchange event, Chiba Takeshi had also been coached by Zhang Jue. Everyone knew that the Zhang family had solid techniques, and Zhang Jue was their direct successor. Some of the training methods were even developed by him.

So when Teraoka Hayato asked Zhang Jue for help in assessing Chiba Takeshi’s jumps and performance, Chiba Takeshi didn’t say anything, but he became serious inside.

Zhang Jue casually replied: “Well, let him perform this season’s free skate for me, then.”

Chiba Takeshi bit his lip and skated the program with the same attitude as in an official competition, performing it all the way through. When he finished, Zhang Jue didn’t say anything at first, just looked at him for a while. When Teraoka Hayato started getting nervous, Zhang suddenly slapped his thigh and laughed.

“You look so tense! Were you really that nervous?”

Maiko playfully hit him: “He’s still a junior skater! Of course he’s nervous with you watching. If you judge his performance by your own jump standards, he might get criticized to the point of being torn apart.”

“Do I really look like someone who’s that harsh on kids?” Zhang Jue blinked and then turned to Chiba Takeshi, clapping his hands: “Your jumps are very nice! For a junior skater, your rotations are quite solid. No wonder you were able to break the record I set.”

He said nice things, but Chiba Takeshi felt his heart skip a beat. He was a bit scared of being harshly criticized, but if Zhang Jue just glossed over things with some polite praise, he wouldn’t feel satisfied either.

Then, Zhang Jue did indeed criticize his technical flaws without holding back.

Chiba Takeshi: Weren’t you supposed to not be strict with kids?

However, Zhang Jue didn’t see anything wrong with it. After all, this was how he treated his own junior teammates. In fact, compared to Zhang Junbao, Shen Liu, or Coach Lu, Zhang Jue was actually gentler, which was why the younger skaters liked listening to him. As for Zhang himself, he had gotten used to being scolded by the coaching team since returning to the ice, so much so that no one even blinked an eye when it happened.

Zhang Jue clearly didn’t realize how gentle Zhang Junbao had been with foreign skaters during the Chinese-Japanese exchange. Zhang had been busy with school, training, and performances, so he had no time to be harsh. He thought everyone had gotten used to Uncle Zhang’s stormy approach and would be fine with his gentle breeze.

After pointing out Chiba’s technical issues, Zhang still wasn’t done. He took a sip of water and asked, puzzled: “Don’t you bring a notebook to the rink? Whenever I get scolded on the ice, I always write down the issues in a little notebook to fix them one by one.”

Chiba Takeshi sniffed, quietly took the notebook Hayato handed him, and wrote down the points Zhang Jue had made. Then Zhang gave him a few more suggestions regarding his performance.

Finally, Zhang stood up, patted Chiba Takeshi on the shoulder, and said with utmost sincerity: “You’re a promising young talent. Keep working hard! I look forward to meeting you on the competition rink in the future.”

With this, Chiba Takeshi’s sadness instantly disappeared by 80%. The others silently thought: “Wow, this is like getting slapped and then handed a sweet treat.”

Everyone Zhang Jue knew was used to this by now. Just by looking at the gifts they received, they could tell where Zhang Jue had been this time.

Zhang Jue spent about ten days in Japan, enjoying good food and drink, and even bought a pile of souvenirs and postcards at the foot of Mount Fuji, which he mailed all at once from the local post office.

On the day he left, Teraoka Hayato personally drove him to the airport. Everyone thought he was heading back to his home country. Then they saw the plane ticket.

Zhang Jue’s next destination was Saint Petersburg.

Keiko’s mouth twitched: “Tama-chan, haven’t you had enough fun yet?”

Zhang Jue replied as if it were obvious: “Isn’t it clear? Of course, I haven’t! You know, in our country, athletes who rank in the top three at the National Games can’t just leave the country whenever they want. This time, I got special permission because of my injury and with the help of Coach Sun, so I’m making the most of it while I can.”

If he didn’t suffer another serious injury in the future that required traveling to recover, the next time he’d be able to travel freely like this would be after he retired.

Teraoka Hayato admired him greatly: “You’re running around so much even with crutches. You’re something else! Aren’t you afraid your coach will beat you up when you go back?”

Zhang Jue cheerfully replied: “It’s precisely because I’ll get scolded when I go back that I need to make the most of this trip now.”

He happily boarded the plane, and as they watched him fly away, his friends all silently lit candles for Zhang Jue’s coaching team. With such a star player, Tama-chan’s coaches must have a tough time.

But on second thought, this guy was enviable in his own way—whether it was his adventurous spirit or his popularity, with someone always there to greet him wherever he went.

In Saint Petersburg, Ilya Safchenko had already finished his surgery and was recovering in the hospital. Then one day, a nurse, who knew everything about top figure skaters, stood at the door and said something to him in a dreamy tone.

“Safchenko, look who’s here!”

Ilya looked up in confusion and saw a slender, fair hand pressing against the door frame. Then, the owner of the hand, supporting themselves on one foot, hopped into his line of sight.

“Ta-da! Ilyusha, I came to see you!”

The big, gentle bear blinked his blue eyes in surprise. “L-Little Crocodile?”

Peepy Croc burst out laughing. “Did I scare you?”

Ilya couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, you really scared me.”

Zhang Jue, leaning on a crutch, walked in, naturally found a chair, and sat down. Then, he rummaged through his pocket, pulling out a wooden Kumamon figure and handed it over.

“Here, this is to apologize for scaring you.”

He said this as he gently touched Ilya’s leg. The nurse standing at the door jumped in surprise, but Zhang Jue’s touch was very light, and Ilya didn’t feel anything wrong. He didn’t flinch either, his face full of trust in Zhang Jue.

“Does it hurt? When did the doctor say you’ll recover?”

Ilya repeated the medical terms, though because his English always had a rolling ‘r’ sound, some of the technical terms were hard for him to translate. Zhang Jue only half-understood but knew that Ilyusha should be able to resume training by February.

Zhang Jue clapped his hands. “That’s great! I’ll also be back to training in February. Looks like we’ll both make it to the World Championships.”

He sighed. “Too bad I’ll miss the Four Continents Championship, and you won’t make it to the European Championships either, right? My junior is so unlucky. As the senior, I should have taken on more responsibility, but after he got promoted to the senior group, he has to handle all these major competitions by himself.”

Ilya listened quietly and then remarked: “It’s okay. Young athletes love competing. More experience isn’t a bad thing.”

Zhang Jue pouted. “That’s because your country has a deep pool of talent. Ours doesn’t have it as good. My coach couldn’t even find a suitable prospect in the junior competition this time. In the youth group, we only have Yihong left as our lone hope.”

To be honest, this kind of situation, where only one star athlete carries the burden through the generations, places immense pressure on the coaches and athletes. If the athlete doesn’t train hard, there’s no way to achieve good results. But if they train too hard and get injured, that one promising athlete could be ruined, making fans anxious during every competition.

After chatting for a while, Ilya asked Zhang Jue about his accommodations and found that he had been cooking his own food with carefully selected ingredients for safety reasons.

His recipes were dictated over an international phone call by Aunt Ning, who also reminded him to watch his weight. But Ilya didn’t think that was acceptable.

Little Crocodile was injured—he needed to eat well!

Ilya made a quick decision. “Bring me my wheelchair. I’ll take you to a reliable restaurant to eat.”

Zhang Jue immediately flashed a bright, sun-like smile. “Really? That’s awesome, thank you, Ilyusha.”

Being looked at with those sparkling eyes, Ilya felt a strong sense of responsibility. Little Crocodile was his dear friend and rival. Since Zhang had come to his turf, Ilya felt obligated to make sure he was comfortable and well taken care of.

Ilya didn’t realize that he wasn’t the only one thinking this way. Teruoka Hayato and the Shiratsuk sisters had similar thoughts. Ever since Zhang Jue left home, he rarely worried about meals. Aunt Ning cared for him from afar, and there was always someone willing to take him out to eat.

From Japan to Russia, Zhang Jue had barely spent 100 bucks on food. Even when buying juice, juniors like Chiba Takashi fought to pay for it.

By the time he reached St. Petersburg, Ilya, Vasily, Sergey, and even Boris took on the role of caretakers, making sure Zhang Jue was well-fed. He barely spent any money on souvenirs either, thanks to Vasily gifting him a pile of them.

In addition to that, he even attended Sergey’s wedding. It’s often said that the heterosexuality rate in the figure skating world is held up by the Russian and Asian skaters. Sergey had a girlfriend who had chased him from his youth days all the way to his retirement. She was reportedly a veterinarian.

At the wedding, Zhang Jue discovered that the bride was 185 cm tall, 10 cm taller than Sergey. With heels on, the scene became even more comical, but Sergey didn’t think anything of it. He grinned ear to ear, looking as happy as a fool.

They seemed really happy.

As for Zhang Jue, even though he didn’t bring a gift, no one cared. After he sang Maroon 5’s “Sugar” on stage, he became the most popular guest.

During the group photo, if Zhang Jue hadn’t insisted on standing to the side, Sergey and his wife would have pulled him to the center spot.

After that, Zhang Jue went to Kazakhstan, Belgium, France… In each place, he stayed about five days. He even visited the best orthopedic hospital in Germany, where, thanks to an introduction from a former rival of Jin Meng and Yao Lan, he got his foot examined.

The doctor who examined him said: “Although you have some wear and tear from overtraining, you are one of the healthiest world champions I’ve ever seen.”

Zhang Jue was obviously an athlete who was well taken care of. The doctor had even used the word “raised” to describe it. He was certain that Zhang Jue’s diet and physiotherapy were top-notch, comparable to what he’d seen only in high-earning Western athletes who could afford private teams.

In the niche world of winter sports, Zhang Jue’s treatment as an athlete was unmatched. Besides his injured right foot, the rest of his body was in great shape.

The young man just needed to take care of himself, and he could recover.

Zhang Jue was overjoyed and sent the test results to his uncle. Though his uncle only replied with a single word: “Good,” Zhang Jue knew he was happy for him too.

Around late January, Zhang Jue finally returned home, fully satisfied.

It wasn’t that he was done traveling—his mother, Ms. Zhang, had issued an ultimatum. She warned him that if he didn’t return home for the New Year without a competition to attend… well…

The power of a mother’s authority was the greatest, and Zhang Jue quickly rolled back home.

By then, his home was overflowing with souvenirs from all over the world, to the point where Qin Xuejun had to clear out an entire storage room just to fit everything.

Meanwhile, since someone always came to pick him up at the airport, Zhang Jue inevitably interacted with his rivals’ juniors. He even offered them some guidance and got a sneak peek at the young athletes who, though still kids, would go on to make waves in the senior circuit.

It was pretty interesting.

 

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