Zhang Jue lost his three consecutive championships in Boston, but the “Dream Team” managed to secure a consecutive championship here. Their free dance selected the representative work “Falling Again” by singer Roniit, and the choreography was by Madam Mia, who rarely takes on love-themed works.

Watching their performance was like witnessing two people immersed in love, embracing each other and sinking to the bottom of the sea in a grand apocalypse.

The style of their performance was simply “love, watch it or not, don’t disturb our world.”

Currently, the top choreographers in the world are almost all from Europe and America, with a few in Japan. Mia is the only one residing in China, and seeing her choreography career thriving, Chinese figure skaters like Jin Zixuan and Xu Chao have started thinking about asking her to choreograph new programs for the next season.

After the competition, Zhang Jue chatted with Darya and asked her one thing: “Can you choreograph love-themed programs?”

Darya expressionlessly replied: “No.”

Darya had parents who were always breaking up and reconciling, divorced and remarried six times over the years. She had no longing for love, thinking that once in a relationship, it would become the same dramatic situation as her parents’.

So, she willingly remained a lifelong single dog, running away 10 kilometers whenever a man tried to chase her.

Zhang Jue responded: “Then I’m good.”

He then texted Francis: “Francis, are you free next season?”

Francis replied: “Yes, yes, yes! My honeymoon is over, I can start working anytime!”

Zhang Jue said: “Late May, confirm your flight, and I’ll reimburse your ticket. Just let me know when you’ll arrive, and I’ll arrange accommodation for you.”

Francis: “Ok!”

Look, this is what makes Zhang Jue different. While other athletes beg choreographers to create classic programs for them, choreographers chase after him.

Although he also wanted Mia to choreograph for him, she was already contracted to handle most of the national team’s singles choreography, and even the ice dance siblings, the Saiping-Saijong pair, were reportedly trying to get her to choreograph for them.

It was said that the Saiping-Saijong siblings had realized during this competition that their performance skills were still lacking. In order to improve their performance and chemistry, they had stopped doing lifts, but without good programs, it wouldn’t work. They could only hope that the only great choreographer in China would help them out.

Zhang Jue was used to all choreographers prioritizing him. When he texted Mia, without realizing the scheduling conflict, he found that she was already fully booked. While taking on more projects was possible, having too many programs to choreograph could affect the quality, which Mia wasn’t willing to compromise on.

Cha Hanbuhua, standing next to Zhang Jue, overheard the conversation and suppressed a laugh.

Zhang Jue rolled his eyes, took a few sips of water, and asked his junior: “Hanbuhua, have you figured out what you want to skate to next season? Who are you planning to ask for choreography?”

Cha Hanbuhua froze for a moment: “Do I need to find a choreographer?”

He had always skated to Zhang Jue’s choreographed programs. While it was becoming increasingly common for coaches to take care of their students and handle choreography, his coach had always been reliable when it came to choreographing.

Zhang Jue clicked his tongue: “You’ve moved up to the senior division, and you’ve even made it to the top ten in the World Championships. This is about the same as the good results that Brother Shen had when he was competing. The team will definitely give you a higher budget for choreography. Coach Zhang has more and more students, and he can’t keep arranging choreographers for you. You need to think about who you want to work with, so we can help you contact them.”

“By the way, Mia is no longer an option. She won’t even take my orders.”

Cha Hanbuhua was stunned. He had been trained by Zhang Junbao since he was eleven and had never worried about choreography. Wasn’t it enough to just skate well?

Zhang Jue sighed: “…The coaching team can help with a lot of things, but the choice of music and choreographer is something you should consider yourself.”

If you can’t even come up with a request, how can everyone help you?

Zhang Jue had always been a very decisive athlete. He could even manage his fellow juniors when the coach was focused on others, almost acting as a half-coach himself.

Moreover, with his strong commercial value, he could take other athletes along for ads and performances, which is why the Chinese figure skating team, despite not having a captain tradition, had given him the title to show their appreciation.

Even when Zhang Jue didn’t have a coach guiding him for at least a month, he could manage himself and maintain his form. This skill had been developed when he was tortured by injuries and growing pains, almost leading to his retirement. Cha Hanbuhua didn’t need to reach his level, but he still had to have his own ideas.

After ice dance, it was the pairs’ free skate, which had always been a strong event for China. Huang Ying and Guan Lin were Olympic silver medalists, with top-level technical and performance skills.

Watching them walk hand in hand to the ice, everyone was still worried.

Coach Ma stared at the competition, murmuring to Shen Liu: “Yingying’s injury is too serious, she can’t do the throw 4S anymore, and Russian pairs have a 3F in their jumps, while the Canadian pair does a 3Lz. Their jump difficulty isn’t enough.”

Huang-Guan’s pair couldn’t even hold a 3S consistently, and they urgently needed to improve.

Shen Liu sighed: “You’ve given me a tough problem. Given their condition, I can’t push them too hard in training. How can we increase the difficulty?”

Coach Ma said: “Shen, please, you’re the jumps coach.”

Shen Liu: …Why didn’t you ask Brother Zhang, he used to be a jumps coach too? You’re just afraid of his strong arms and only dare to bother me?

At this moment, Zhang Jue stood up.

Guan Lin was about to do a throw 3F with Huang Ying, but from the moment he launched her, Zhang Jue noticed that Huang Ying’s axis was off in the air.

Oh no, no, no, she might fall.

However, to Zhang Jue’s surprise, Huang Ying managed to land the jump. She used Zhang Jue’s self-created soft knee technique for landing during his developmental years.

This technique was hard on the knees, but it was a lifesaver in competitions where a clean performance was required to win.

Zhang Jue widened his eyes. He couldn’t help but think that this technique he developed might be more harmful than helpful.

In the past, Saijong had tried this technique and suffered knee pain for two seasons. Now it was just a World Championship, not an Olympic qualification event, so why push it so hard?

Fortunately, later Huang Ying and Guan Lin didn’t face similar issues with the throw 3S or 3S jumps, and Zhang Jue let out a sigh of relief.

Had his butterfly wings sent the top pairs of China to injury, he wouldn’t have been able to escape the blame.

The quality of the ice in Boston wasn’t bad, but many veteran pairs had retired. The Canadian and Russian newcomer pairs lacked stability, and both made errors in their short programs. This year, the biggest threat to Huang-Guan’s pair was an older German pair, but their difficulty wasn’t enough.

In the end, despite battling injuries and pushing through, Huang Ying and Guan Lin took the World Championship gold medal, officially joining the ranks of potential champions just one Olympic gold away from completing their grand slam, just like Zhang Jue.

At the 2016 World Championships in Boston, aside from the ice dance that always lacked names, the Chinese team swept the golds in women’s singles and pairs and the silver in men’s singles.

Although the top pair’s injuries were getting worse and they might need surgery in the off-season, and the men’s singles champion would also need to recover, while the women’s singles victory had an element of luck, the lack of strong second-place contenders made it seem like individual competition.

However, they had secured their titles, and Sun Qian assessed their performance as “face-saving.”

They looked like a big win, but the coaches were worried about the toll it took on the athletes’ bodies.

The scariest part was that the higher-ups, upon hearing about their wins, seemed to want to raise their expectations for the PyeongChang and Beijing 2022 Olympics. Originally, they just wanted one individual gold, two individual medals, and a team bronze in figure skating.

Now, the leaders were pushing for three Olympic golds.

The pressure was overwhelming, and Sun was working hard to bring the dreamers back to reality.

Wake up, big boss, where’s this golden era of figure skating? Aside from the women’s singles champion, everyone else is injured!

To handle this, Sun Qian had Huang Ying/Guan Lin and Zhang Jue drop out of the exhibition skates. He had to use the reason “all the precious athletes are too injured to even skate in the exhibition” to cool down the leaders’ expectations.

Zhang Jue really couldn’t participate in the exhibition skate anymore. A message from Qin Xuejun made him rush back to China.

His two-year-old daughter, Saori had been hospitalized.

He snatched the phone from his uncle’s hands and urgently asked: “Director Sun, since I have no more obligations for this season, can I go back to China early?”

Zhang Jue rarely spoke in such a tone. Sun Qian immediately asked: “What happened? Zhang Jue, don’t worry, whatever it is, I’ll help you.”

Zhang Jue pounded his chest, his eyes reddened, and he shouted in sorrow: “My daughter got choked on a peanut. I need to get back and see her one last time!”

 

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