Francis had always known that Zhang Jue was a very talented person, but when he found out that Zhang could also write songs, and even had one that became so popular it was performed by overseas ice dancers last season, he was still shocked.

He pointed at Zhang Jue, his finger trembling: “You, you’re so busy, how do you even have time to unlock songwriting skills?”

Zhang Jue thought to himself: “I unlocked this skill in my past life.”

He had put so much effort into figure skating in this life, and in his past life, he had devoted as much energy to music. But he couldn’t say the truth, so he could only keep his hands behind his back and act mysteriously.

Zhang Jue replied in a tone that seemed humble: “I’m not particularly good at songwriting, I just create when inspiration strikes.”

Francis looked at him in admiration: “The quality of your songs is really good.”

As an English love song, both the melody and the lyrics were great, and the singer’s voice was clear and magnetic, with excellent vocal technique and genuine emotion.

Truly worthy of being the top male singles skater in figure skating, the most expressive in the current competition, his artistic talent was unmatched.

Zhang Jue thought: “This is the only good thing about living another life.”

Then he started to rush Francis: “Take the music and get to work. I need to start dancing. I can’t take my clothes off with you here.”

When Zhang Jue practiced dance, he never wore a shirt. If Francis was present, even if Zhang wore a tank top, Francis would still cover his eyes, looking incredibly excited.

Zhang Jue had to admit that he was impressed by the other person.

Francis cleared his throat, his gaze lingering on Zhang Jue’s chest and shoulders for a couple of seconds, giving him a thumbs up: “Your chest and shoulder muscles are great, but I still prefer your body during the season. When you don’t cut weight, your muscles are fuller, and you look a bit like an inverted triangle.”

After saying this, Francis shyly ran off.

Zhang Jue: …

He turned on his phone and played some music, following the rhythm to do some basic warm-up movements for the dance. While practicing, he heard voices outside the dance room.

Dong Xiaolong stopped, turned back, and smiled slightly at Sai Peng and Sai Qiong: “Although I didn’t have time to schedule a choreographer for you, and Coach Zhang can’t spare time to teach you performance classes, we have other dance masters in our team. From now on, every afternoon at 2 p.m., come to the dance studio and find him. He’ll teach you while practicing dance.”

“He said if you perform well, he might consider choreographing a rhythmic dance for you.”

Rhythmic dance in ice dancing was similar to the short programs in pair skating and singles, and lasted about the same amount of time.

Sai Qiong curiously asked: “Who is he?”

Apart from Coach Zhang and Madam Mia, was there another expert in the national team who was particularly good at teaching performance and choreography?

Dong Xiaolong opened the door: “Come in.”

When the Sai siblings entered, they saw a familiar yet unfamiliar figure standing on the wooden floor. He took a sip of water and turned to wave at them.

“You’re here? I heard from Coach Sun that you’ll be joining my dance classes. Come over.”

Sai Peng opened his mouth wide: “Captain?”

At that moment, the Sai siblings were in rare agreement in their thoughts—thanks to the national team! They originally thought it would be great to get some guidance from Coach Zhang or Madam Mia, but instead, the higher-ups had arranged for them to work with an epic master!

Of course, Zhang Jue could choreograph! He had created the classic program “Tree of Life,” which set a world record for free skating and remains unbeaten, as well as the textbook tango-style short program “Moulin Rouge”!

Zhang Jue stretched lazily, and because there was a girl in the room, he still wore a thin black tank top.

“My choreography isn’t easy to get. If your skills aren’t good enough, I won’t waste more energy on you. What are you waiting for? Go change into your dance shoes, and let’s start the class.”

He didn’t think that having two extra people in the dance practice would disturb his training. If these two kids could enhance their performance skills by practicing with him and improve China’s ice dancing ranking on the international stage, Zhang Jue would be very happy.

Last year’s POI tour went smoothly and brought Zhang Jue an eight-figure income, making the sponsors and other athletes involved in the shows very satisfied.

So this year, the number of participants in the commercial performances increased further. As for the lineup of performers, it was almost comparable to the figure skating performances at the end of the Sochi Winter Olympics, with everyone holding A-level event medals, whether active or retired.

The only regret Zhang Jue had was that Vasily had already replaced his metal joints. Now, he could only do a 3T at most, and there were other areas of his body that had wear and tear, not just the joint replacement. His ankles and hips were also unhealthy. The doctor advised him to avoid skating to preserve his ability to walk into his 60s and 70s and suggested that swimming and walking should be his main forms of exercise.

So, Vasily did not accept Zhang Jue’s invitation for the commercial performance but sent Zhang Jue a box of liquor-filled chocolates through Ilya, Selena, and Katerina when they came.

Selena told Zhang Jue: “He originally wanted to eat these himself, he loves chocolate, but he’s been gaining weight lately. Boris says he should control his body, poor Vasily.”

Zhang Jue deeply understood: “I get it, losing weight is always the hardest.”

As an easy-to-gain-weight person, Zhang Jue had secretly worried whether he would become an XXXXXL after retiring. If he were single, it wouldn’t matter, but since he had already brought Xuejun into the yard, what if he gained weight and was rejected?

Ilya told Zhang Jue: “Vasily has been busy focusing on our little junior, Laisha. She’s only 11, but her jumping talent is outstanding, and she’s very strong. She can already consistently land a 3lz+3T. Unfortunately, her 3F is on the wrong edge. It seems her first coach taught her wrong when she was learning the basics. Boris says he needs to fix her edges before she moves to the youth group.”

Zhang Jue asked curiously: “Can she do a 3Lo?”

Ilya replied: “She can, but it’s not stable enough, and her edge jumps aren’t strong. Her 2A is average, so it might be hard for her to land a 3A. Her body is a bit stiff, and her expression isn’t good, which worries Vasily.”

At 11, having this level of jumping talent was already incredible. As long as her skating and spinning aren’t too weak, she would be a strong contender when she moves to the adult group.

Ilya sighed: “Her talent is really good, but she has many shortcomings. Now many new female skaters are focused on doing more difficult jumps before their growth spurt, but they don’t have a solid foundation, so various flaws are emerging. Boris has been complaining a lot.”

Zhang Jue chatted with him: “After all, the window for female singles is short. Look at Keiko and my junior Shan Shan. They both started producing results right after moving up. Their most glorious period was during that time. Didn’t my uncle recently take on three new female students? Their parents keep pushing them to do high-difficulty jumps, each of them already has at least four types of triple jumps, but their technique is full of flaws. Coach Lu spent a lot of effort just to fix their basics.”

Coach Lu’s life isn’t easy either. Since returning to Zhang Jue’s team, the old man hasn’t gained any weight because when he got fat, he looked too much like the coach Anxi in the manga “Slam Dunk.” Zhang Jue occasionally missed his round-ball appearance.

Zhang Jue never thought that Coach Lu, back when he coached a chubby little Zhang Xiaoyu, was even more irritable than now. He would yell at least three times a day and chasing after the troublemakers became a routine.

The younger disciples had more technical flaws, but they were not as worrying as Zhang Jue, which was why all the coaches who had taught Zhang Jue felt much more relaxed when teaching other students.

After all, everyone had seen the world with Zhang Jue, so no matter how naughty the other kids were, they were nothing compared to him.

As the number of disciples in Zhang’s school increased, not all parents were as easy to talk to as Min Shan or Cha Hanbuhua’s parents. For example, Qin Meng’s parents were very eager for their daughter to achieve results as soon as possible, to gain more resources. They wanted her to perform with her senior brother more, participate in commercial performances, and accumulate fans and popularity. This made things difficult because POI rarely invited athletes below the first tier, whether in the senior or junior group.

Fortunately, the national team had its own management system, and there was a new rule introduced last year: children below the junior group were not allowed to participate in commercial activities.

This rule was to prevent children from being distracted by the flashy world outside when they should be focusing on building a solid foundation, but it was not strict. It only limited commercial activities to athletes below the junior group, and the national team could not control athletes outside of it.

Additionally, most young athletes still lived in dormitories, so their parents had little influence. They could supervise their studies, reunite with their children, and occasionally take them out to play, but if they wanted to cause trouble, there wasn’t enough time for that.

After some discussion, the performance at this POI was still a group dance, with Min Shan performing first, followed by retired domestic second-tier women’s singles athlete Lu Xiaorong, whose boyfriend Fan Zhaoying would accompany her in the performance. Zhang Jue would appear as the main act.

To match the new season’s program style, Zhang Jue even changed his hairstyle.

His hair was already a bit long, but he kept the hair on the sides of his face and trimmed the back short. Normally, he combed his sideburns backward and tied them into a bundle. He also wore his favorite obsidian earrings.

If it weren’t for the fact that a baby face with a beard felt awkward, he might have even considered growing a stubble to enhance his mature male charm.

He was already good-looking, and with this styling, when the poverty alleviation office came to ask Zhang Jue to endorse Sweet Corn No. 2, he couldn’t help but praise him.

“The young man is getting more and more handsome.”

When the last batch of commercial performers, including American athlete Arthur Cohen, arrived in Beijing and were sitting in a hotel restaurant sipping juice to relax after their long journey, the TV just happened to play Zhang Jue’s new commercial.

In the ad, the handsome and charismatic figure of Zhang Jue appeared wearing a simple and sunny sports T-shirt and cargo pants, with a white towel around his neck and a straw hat on his head. He bent down to sniff the golden corn cob, then took several big bites, his cheeks puffed as he chewed, looking like a satisfied hamster.

It was an advertisement that, even just by looking with the naked eye, made you feel that the corn must be fragrant and sweet.

Arthur Cohen was stunned for a while and then tugged at his friend’s cheek who was sitting beside him.

“Hey, do you know where I can buy this corn?”

Carlrson, another North American male singles athlete, covered his face and complained: “Come on, Arthur, the ad already says the corn has high sugar content. Even if you’re a huge fan of Jue, you can’t eat that during your weight-cutting period.”

At the same time, Chiba Takashi had also been invited. When he entered the hotel lobby, he hesitated between going to find Zhang Jue for a photo and autograph with his senior brother, Hayato, or going to provoke Cha Hanbuhua, who was buying water in the hotel’s small shop.

He wanted both.

At that moment, Cha Hanbuhua turned around and saw him. Cha Hanbuhua smiled widely, showing his white teeth, and kindly nodded at him.

Chiba Takashi immediately made up his mind and ran over, pointing at Cha Hanbuhua.

“Cha Hanbuhua, I’m moving up to the next level next season. Just wait, I’ve already prepared my new program, and I’ll definitely beat you!”

Zhang Jue, with his hands in his pockets, walked over and just happened to see this scene. He exclaimed, turned to Hayato Teraoka and Keiko, and said: “Youth is great, you can express your ambition so directly. Unlike me, after the Sochi period, it seems like I haven’t really chased anyone’s footsteps.”

Hayato Teraoka, with dead fish eyes, replied: “Yeah, now it’s others chasing after you.”

When they were talking, Hayato Teraoka and Keiko unconsciously kept their eyes on Zhang Jue.

He was wearing a simple black T-shirt and cropped pants with sandals, a very typical summer outfit, but he was just so thin.

Was he losing weight? But if he lost weight like this, wouldn’t he lose some muscle? How could Zhang Jue, a power-based male singles athlete, continue to perform quadruple jumps while maintaining this physique?

And then, they were surrounded.

Don’t get it wrong, it wasn’t fans rushing into the hotel. The youth group final and Junior World Championship winners had been invited for the commercial performance.

They were all Zhang Jue’s little fans. After the idol made an appearance, a group of kids rushed over to him.

Keiko looked puzzled: “Is his rapport with kids really this good?”

Zhang Jue looked around and realized that the group of children were actually those he had played with while traveling during his injury.

“Jue, I’ve already started practicing the second advanced 33-repeated jumps!”

“Tama-chan, I’ve raised a rabbit recently. Do you want to see pictures?”

“Jue, I’ve landed my 3A!”

The kids surrounded Zhang Jue, and the shortest one even raised her hand, wanting to be hugged by her “Little Crocodile Brother” for a photo. The other kids, all under 1.5 meters, also got excited and said they wanted to be hugged.

They weren’t worried that Zhang Jue wouldn’t have the strength, after all, Little Crocodile could lift people like Vasili, Ilya, and Hayato Teraoka. Hugging kids was definitely no problem!

And so, Zhang Jue was overwhelmed by a group of future world champions.

 

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