This scared Zhang Jue so much that he hurriedly turned on his computer to check if his bitcoins had been blown away by a butterfly’s wings.

Units, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands.

Tens of thousands of bitcoins were still lying neatly in his account, so it was fine.

Zhang Jue let out a sigh of relief and genuinely felt happy for Brother Shen.

Because he lacked expressiveness and wasn’t a European or American athlete favored by judges, Shen Liu hadn’t done particularly well in international competitions. But when he thought about it carefully, Shen was still an athlete capable of executing quadruple jumps. His spins and skating weren’t strong, but not weak enough to be considered a shortcoming either.

Now that he earned high scores based on his ability, as a fellow countryman and junior, congratulating him felt right.

However, Zhang Junbao stopped Zhang Jue from making the call.

“Don’t call him. Shen Liu’s mentality had always been unstable. Complimenting him now would only add pressure. Just send a text saying ‘keep it up’ and that’s enough.”

Zhang Junbao said seriously with his baby face, “Two years ago during the World Championships, he performed perfectly in the short program. Then a bunch of people praised him, and in the free skate… it was a total disaster!”

Zhang Jue was speechless: “If he’s that fragile mentally, how did he make it to where he is now?”

His uncle replied helplessly, “Because he’s the only male singles skater in the country who can do quadruple jumps.”

A single seedling in a vast field—if Shen Liu wasn’t the top skater, then who would be?

Zhang Junbao thought that, unless something unexpected happened, his eldest nephew would probably also face a similar lonely battle in the future—being the only one on the international stage.

If Zhang Jue could really skate to that point… too many talented athletes had fallen halfway due to injury on the road to the top-level competitions.

Three days later, the Russian top skater, who had the best technical edge and excellent presentation, made mistakes in the free skate due to a recurring knee injury and came in second. The American top skater, with an error-free performance, won first place. The Japanese top skater unexpectedly performed brilliantly and took third.

As for Shen Liu, he suffered an ankle injury right before the competition, had to get a pain-killing injection, and eventually finished fifth, just behind the French skater. However, this was already a historic achievement for Chinese men’s singles in the Winter Olympics. From the national sports bureau to skating fans, everyone was thrilled and praised Brother Shen for being strong and inspiring.

As for Zhang Jue, his task was to watch the Winter Olympics on TV while his uncle explained the technical strengths and weaknesses of the top athletes.

For example, the American top skater who didn’t have a quadruple jump—he didn’t rely solely on his nationality. To become an Olympic champion, he obviously had real skill.

Zhang Junbao watched the TV with longing for the Olympic stage, then quickly came back to his senses.

“There’s only one reason he couldn’t do a quadruple jump—it’s because he was too tall. At 188 cm, his high center of gravity and thicker axis made it harder for him to spin fast.”

“But his long limbs made him look graceful, and his performance was solid. His jump timing was particularly good, his technique precise, his jumps high and far, and his jump rhythm smooth and effortless. It’s these qualities that put him among the top male skaters.”

Some skaters struggled to land the second jump in a combination, making their moves look sluggish. Others rushed the second jump, making it look awkward.

Leike had very strong combination jump abilities.

Xu Dela watched for a while and asked curiously, “Is this person’s music filled with heavy beats?”

Zhang Junbao nodded in admiration. “Exactly. Leike’s coaching team deliberately embedded heavy beats in his background music and trained him to jump and land on those beats. The end result, as you can see, was excellent.”

When a skater completed a jump on the beat, it was easier to engage the audience’s emotions. For judges, that was a key sign of performance quality.

“With those heavy beats, the skater could keep in rhythm more easily during the program.”

Zhang Jue, having once performed on stage, naturally understood such tricks. For instance, during a previous life’s talent show, his biggest rival Yun Si never danced to a song without heavy beats.

On the other hand, even with a dynamic stage style, Zhang Jue could still deliver a deeply emotional, melancholic performance when necessary—like during “Growing Up with Ten Thousand Pounds of Burden.”

He didn’t expect these techniques to be present in figure skating as well.

“All right, get up and change shoes. Warm up your joints. Do 50 jumping jacks, 30 burpees, and 500 jump rope reps. Get warmed up. Don’t think you can just lie around at home during holidays. You have to train every day to maintain your form.”

After Zhang Jue finished warming up, Zhang Junbao had already cleaned up the snacks and fruit from the coffee table and threw him two 4-pound dumbbells.

“Step on the table with one foot, push off with the other. As you rise, bring your knee to touch your elbow. Do 50 reps for each side. Then do 30 Bulgarian split squats per leg, 50 standard squats, and 25 flamingo squats per leg.”

As Zhang Jue panted through his workout, Zhang Junbao explained to Xu Dela, “These exercises strengthen the glutes, legs, and hip joints. Once those are strong, his jumping ability will improve.”

Currently, Zhang Jue’s jump height for a triple jump was around 30 cm, which was low for a male singles skater. Zhang Junbao thought he still needed more strength training.

If—and it was a big if—Zhang Jue ever reached the international stage, the quadruple jump would be essential. The minimum jump height for a male skater to complete a quadruple jump was 50 cm, or half a meter.

To improve Zhang Jue’s sense of rhythm, his uncle even played music during training, telling him to keep pace while jumping.

After a while, Zhang Junbao laid out an agility ladder in the hallway and had Zhang Jue continue hopping. The final drill was crawling like an alligator around the entire building.

This training load wasn’t that high for an athlete—it was just enough to prevent the body from getting sluggish due to long rest. After finishing, Zhang Jue still had the energy to play in the snow outside.

Snowflakes fell in a flurry. Zhang Jue looked up at the grey sky with a wide smile. Endorphins from the workout lifted his mood.

“I once had nothing. But time flowing backward brought back everything I lost.”
He sometimes questioned if this world was real, or if he was still 24, lying in bed with wires all over his body, eyes closed, living in a dream as a comatose patient.

But the heat of his sweat and soreness of his muscles told him it was all real. He was alive in 2010, and so was everyone else.

The boy took a deep breath and dashed to the thickest snow. He did a one-handed cartwheel, then a right-side roll, a front flip, tumbling several times. Then he grabbed a handful of snow and tossed it up, turning back to shout at Xu Dela, who was leaning on the windowsill.

“Er-De, I’m done training. Wanna come out for a snowball fight?”

Xu Dela, bundled up like a bear and clutching a hot water bottle, was dumbfounded.

This… this was an athlete? Their stamina and energy were unreal. They didn’t even seem human!

But for Zhang Jue, the hardest part wasn’t the training—it was the stretching and massage afterward.

Proper stretching after intense training relieved sore muscles and prevented injuries, but Zhang Junbao’s brutal stretching technique was unbearable.

If an outsider walked into Zhang Jue’s home at that moment, they could hear his howls through the door.

The background music was Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, and Zhang Jue howled rhythmically along with the melody.

“Ahh! My tendons are being torn! My ligaments too!”

Zhang Junbao bent his thigh and pushed the child’s toes toward the back of his head, expressionless: “Stop yelling. I’m going easy on you.”

To have a strong body, all you needed were seven words: Eat well, sleep well, train a lot.

Training and sleep were things an athlete could manage, but eating—well, that required family support.

In the early morning, Xu Yan shivered as he stepped out. Anyone who knew northeastern China’s winters understood how cold it got—breathing out white mist was the norm, and even car tires froze stiff and wouldn’t move.

Left with no choice, he walked forward step by step through the snow. When he got to the market, barely any stalls were open.

He ran to the only meat stall, pointed at a piece of front leg beef, didn’t even ask the price, and said, “This one. Weigh it.”

The stall was manned by a teenage boy, probably a middle schooler, who put down his workbook, grabbed the beef, and tossed it on the scale.

“Eighty yuan.”

After buying meat, vegetables, and fruit, Xu Yan returned home with both hands full of groceries. The first thing he did was wash the beef, salt it, and toss it into the pressure cooker.

By the time Zhang Jue finished training, the beef was tender. Xu Yan added marinade and simmered it further until it thickened, then sliced it into thick chunks.

Xu Dela said, “Dad, cut some more.”

Xu Yan didn’t even look up: “I’ve already cut plenty. Any more and your brother won’t have room for rice and vegetables.”

For Zhang Jue’s sake, the whole family stopped eating white rice and ate multigrain rice and steamed corn buns instead.

A jar of chicken soup was simmering—the broth was golden, and its rich aroma filled the house. Xu Yan and Zhang Qingyan had killed the chicken together the day before. The blood and offal were stir-fried for dinner. The two kids loved it.

Xu Yan picked out a drumstick, scraped the skin off with a knife, and handed the skin to Xu Dela, who stuffed it into his mouth. Then he plated the shredded chicken, a peeled boiled egg, broccoli, purple cabbage, and a corn bun all together.

The plate, as big as a human face, was piled high. Xu Yan saw it was enough and called out to serve the meal.

 

 

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