It was time for the figure skating club league in the blink of an eye. It wasn’t too difficult for Ji He Yu to qualify in the sectional competition, but he needed to perform his best to join the provincial team.
At the age of fifteen, many coaches might give up on him because of his age, so he had to showcase all his strengths as much as possible.
The swelling in his ankle was almost fully healed, and Ji He Yu had been training very carefully these days to avoid any injuries that might affect his performance on the ice at this crucial moment.
What flattered Ji He Yu the most was that when he was training in the ice rink’s equipment room, Lin An Ran would sometimes come over to encourage him.
To say it was encouragement wasn’t completely right, as the other didn’t forget his mission his friend gave him to ‘keep an eye on’ Ji He Yu, he had stopped Ji He Yu several times from carrying out some of his “inhuman” additional training plans.
So much so that later on, Ji He Yu, who had a cold and indifferent temperament, became somewhat familiar with Lin An Ran and could even make harmless jokes with the former world champion of short-track speed skating.
Just like now.
“Brother Lin,1 you go ahead and get yourself busy. I really know my limits,” Ji He Yu said helplessly, eyeing the leg-training equipment longingly. “You won’t benefit from staring at me. Isn’t that so?”
Lin An Ran, however, laughed, “I’m just the boss; I don’t need to go to the front personally and receive customers. I can do whatever I want. Besides, I’m not really staring at you, just curious.”
“Curious about what?” Ji He Yu asked casually.
Lin An Ran looked at the teenager’s calm eyes, shook his head mysteriously, and changed the subject, “The league will be held the day after tomorrow. How are you preparing? This time, the league has a company sponsoring it. Although it’s just a sectional competition, it will be held in an even more grand manner than usual. Our rink was selected to host it because it is relatively more professional, and the higher-ups are attaching such great importance to this competition. They might even send some professional judges.”
Ji He Yu had been training with him for so long, that Lin An Ran had roughly figured out Ji He Yu’s ambitions. When the four words “professional judges” were mentioned (four characters in Chinese), the boy’s eyes, which only sparkled on the ice, brightened a bit.
Ji He Yu’s attention was diverted, and he refocused on his training.
On the other hand, Lin An Ran silently completed the unspoken words in his heart—Curious about what?
He was curious about what kind of “hardworking”2 devilish training had made his friend, a training maniac, reminding him to keep an eye on things even after he went back to training camp.
On the day of the competition, Ji He Yu arrived at the ice rink early, ready to skate a few laps to get a feel for the ice before the start. Many other contestants shared the same goal as him, so quite a few people were coming off and on the ice.
Ji He Yu didn’t dare attempt any difficult moves in this situation. He carefully avoided people as he skated slowly on the ice, keeping an eye out for potential strong contestants among the crowd.
And indeed, there seemed to be one.
Ji He Yu’s gaze fell on a teenager who was slightly taller than himself.
Among the contestants with many different levels of skill, this teenager appeared to be at ease.3 His skating posture was graceful and he controlled his speed steadily. It was clear he was just getting a feel of the ice just like himself.
Ji He Yu’s lips curled into a faint smile.
He was not nervous at all; instead, he felt a bit pleased. If Ji Heyu were just a small boy, he might have felt nervous seeing an equally strong opponent. But now, he had the mentality of a ‘veteran’, and when seeing promising young skaters he felt delighted,4 pleased that the future of figure skating has no lack of successors.5
It’s a pity that with his current status and situation, he couldn’t go up and on or two-pointers.
When Ji He Yu was almost finished warming up, the staff members began to clear up the rink. After all, this was a capital-sponsored competition, and there was a lengthy opening ceremony before the event began before the kick-off of the match.
However, when the host invited the sponsor to the platform, Ji He Yu’s pupils shrank.
The person on the platform was someone he knew very well.
The man was dressed in a serious suit but his framework and momentum were insufficient and didn’t quite fill out the suit, making him look like a child who had stolen an adult’s clothes. But that didn’t matter.
He was standing on the platform representing the capital.
This is…
The original owner’s cheap older brother!
Ji He Yu’s heart sank.
The original owner had gotten “lost” at the age of five, which was not an accident. At that time, Ji He Yu’s mother had recently passed away, and Ji Mingcheng had hurriedly brought back an aunt6 and an older brother, Ji Yuansong, who was seven or eight years older.
Ji He Yu’s mother had taught him very well, and he had been polite to the new owners and listened to the adults. In the eyes of a five-year-old, his taller older brother, who was already in junior high school, was considered to be an adult.
That day, Ji Yuansong had taken him to the most crowded park in the city. His older brother told him he was going to the toilet, so the original owner waited outside obediently, only to never see him again.
Why did the Ji family invest in this competition? Ji He Yu pursed his lips together, feeling a rare trace of nervousness.
As far as he knew, the Ji family’s business had no connection to figure skating. Why was Ji Yuansong here?
With less than half an hour before the match kicked off, Ji He Yu forced himself not to let himself be occupied by these messy affairs.7 But perhaps due to the fear and hatred the original owner had buried deep in his bones towards the Ji family, Ji He Yu felt his current state wasn’t very good.
What’s more, is that he had a faint worry
Worried that Ji Yuansong might, might do something to manipulate the scores.
Even Lin An Ran noticed his abnormality.
“What, nervous?” Lin An Ran asked in a low voice.
His relationship with the Ji family was too complicated to explain to others, so Ji He Yu simply nodded, playing along.8
Lin An Ran smiled: “You usually act so calm. Aren’t you just a kid? Relax; with your level, you’ll be fine.”
Ji He Yu forced a smile. Although it was clear in his heart that no matter how powerful9 the Ji family was they couldn’t openly tamper with the competition, Ji He Yu was still worried.
After Ji Yuansong finished his speech, he did not leave the platform but instead took a seat at one of the judges’ tables.
The host introduced to the crowd, “Mr Ji is a special judge for this competition. He will give each contestant programme components (what they judge you on) from 0 to 10 based on his personal taste. This item is calculated separately and will be added to the overall programme component. Mr. Ji has always been very supportive and passionate about ice and snow sports, and we are convinced he will represent the audience’s perspective and award the contestants appropriate scores!”
Ji He Yu could feel the other party’s gaze seemingly fall on him.
He had clearly come prepared.
Ji He Yu’s heart sank again.
Compared to the colossal Ji family, the original owner was a lonely boy who wasn’t well-liked by his family and with identity information that could be tracked down almost effortlessly. If Ji Yuansong really wanted to do something to him, it would be hard to resist.
However, today’s competition was so grand that many reporters from online and local media outlets and even a reporter from CCTV-5 came (China Central Television sports channel), With so much media Ji Yuansong probably wouldn’t be too blatant about it, right?
The worst-case scenario might be losing those 10 extra points.
Thinking of this, Ji He Yu forced himself to calm down, trying not to be overly anxious and remain focused.
A total of 30 contestants registered for the sectional competition, and Ji He Yu wasn’t very lucky; he drew number 3.
In figure skating competitions, the opening numbers are often not an advantage. First, the judges tend to be strict with their scores at the beginning, and to control the score they avoid giving out high marks too early. Second, the contestants after them can watch the programme of the contestants before them and adjust the problem based on the previous contestants’ programs, such as whether to do the jumps they are not sure about and so on.
Position No.3 was undoubtedly a disaster upon a disaster10. However, overthinking wouldn’t help at this point; it was better to quickly get into the right mindset for the ice. Ji He Yu silently cheered himself up for a moment, then closed his eyes to meditate.
This time, the head judge for this sectional competition was Chen Changxing, sent by the National Figure Skating Association. He was once a member of the men’s singles figure skating team, with a world ranking that reached the top ten in his early years. He came close to winning a medal several times, but unfortunately, in the stadium, eastern faces were always more likely to receive unanimous criticism from the judges, contestants, and even the audience, ultimately leading to failure.
Chen Changxing wasn’t thrilled about being assigned as a judge for this competition.
Chinese figure skating has been declining, especially in men’s singles, which is the most “outstanding” among these. Next door, pairs skating has also shown a downward trend in recent years, it at least had a period of prosperity. Next door’s women’s singles, although not particularly successful in seizing medals, have performed better in world rankings compared to the men’s singles.
He is one of the head coaches for men’s singles. Chen Changxing felt very bitter in his heart. No matter the technical level or the programme performance, there has always been a big gap between Western countries that dominate ice and snow sports and China. He himself retired from this very sport and was well aware of the international suppression towards China in this event. Even if the coaching teams hugged the scoring guidelines gnawing at them day and night, they could never break through the cold hearts of the international judges.
The reason he was sent to judge this sectional competition was because the coaches for pairs and women’s singles wanted to be judges for the finals! Since the men’s singles couldn’t produce results, the coaches had no say, so they could comply with the arrangements made by the skating federation. Chen Changxing didn’t have any expectations for this kind of sectional competition, which was usually a place for provincial teams to scout for talent.
It was well-known that among the provincial teams, the northeastern provinces had better standards, thanks to their unique climate advantage and the ice and snow sports are more developed there. Among the participants in the sectional competition, there were also a few who were just there to take advantage of the situation.11
But what talent could possibly come from a sectional competition in a southern city like City Z?
Compared to the sectional competitions, where the level of participants varied greatly, and most of them just “came here for a visit”, the finals would have selected contestants, from whom a few might be worth cultivating for the national team after selection.
Not to mention, this year’s sectional competition was overly commercialised. The representative of the sponsor of this sectional competition, Ji Yuan Song, was sitting right next to him. The host said ‘Mr. Ji loves and supports ice sports’ bullshit. This young man hadn’t looked up from his phone since sitting down at the judge’s table, completely ignoring the contestants and the audience!
Although Chen Changxing himself did not think much of the contestants below, anyone who loves ice and snow sports deserves to be respected! Chen Changxing coughed lightly to remind him.
Unfortunately, Ji Yuansong, who sat in the next seat, seemed completely oblivious. Chen Changxing couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh in his heart once again.
He couldn’t understand why these capitalists wanted to add a layer of patriotic gold to their companies. He didn’t get why they would bother to personally sit here or even want to become judges. There was clearly no benefit to them! It’s a defilement, a defilement of art, a defilement of the competition!
The disappointment in Chen Changxing’s heart increased, and he even began to wonder whether or not the other two judges would leave him any seedlings (promising talents) after the finals.
As Chen Changxing was thinking this, the competition finally started.
The first two contestants were far from professional level, even their choice of songs was very careless. They didn’t wear proper costumes but directly came out on stage in their training clothes, it was clear they were just there to participate. Their programme arrangments were almost nonexistent, although they attempted a lot of difficult moves like 2A, 3Lz, 3Lo and so on. Unfortunately, they only succeeded once or twice and fell quite a bit, but they left the stage with smiles on their faces. Chen Changxing watched helplessly, but he still had to score based on professional standards.
After putting down the score sheet, Chen Changxing caught a glimpse of Ji Yuansong’s “programme component.” Although Ji Yuansong did not lift his head from beginning to end and only clapped when the performance ended, he gave both contestants a perfect score of 10 points!
Ji Yuansong’s scoring range was 0 to 10. After calculation, the total scores of the technical and program components given by the professional judges for these two contestants were 54.3 and 62.0, respectively. In other words, with the addition of these 10 points the scores of these two relatively average-level contestants significantly boosted
Chen Changxing didn’t understand what Ji Yuansong’s intent was. Was he trying to encourage these low-scoring contestants with his 10 points? After all, it is important to know that these 10 could potentially change someone’s fate!
Fortunately, the provincial team didn’t select people based on only scores but also intuition and talent. The final results were just for outsiders to see. Chen Changxing barely managed to convince himself before casting his eyes on the next person to take the ice.
From the entrance to the ice rink, a slender figure slowly glided in. The pure white and aqua green costume intertwined like the freshly painted snow on an early spring lawn, clear and cool yet vibrant and full of life.
The handsome young skater was like a painting as he made his simple entrance. “Contestant No. 3, Ji Heyu, 15 years old, Short Program: ‘New Sprout!”
Chen Changxing didn’t pay much attention to the host’s announcement. The youth’s appearance and costume made a significant impact on him even causing his body to subconsciously sit up straight.
The moment he saw Ji He Yu, Chen Changxing’s years of judging experience made his heart beat a little faster—Could this No. 3 contestant surprise him?
—
The author has something to say:
(Put a lid on a pot)12 The sponsor bonus points are totally unreasonable, it wouldn’t happen in real life, so everyone don’t worry.
The next chapter will focus on our beautiful Ji Baobei! Don’t go away!
Slurp, drooling.
—
Ji Baobei: Ah, why is it him, disdain.jpg!
Someone: The weather’s getting cold, time to bankrupt him.
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(sxhbyc ᥫ᭡ footnotes:)
- I don’t really think I need to make a note on this but I’ll just do it for those who aren’t sure what it means. Ge (哥) translates to Elder brother or big brother (you don’t have to be related to use -ge). ↩︎
- Brave man, willing to risk his life (拼命三郎) – Someone who is either extremely brave or exerts all their strength into their work. ↩︎
- Handling a butcher’s cleaver with ease (游刃有余) – Doing something skillfully and with ease. ↩︎
- Seeing others go hunting, one is excited by memories of the thrill of the hunt (见猎心喜) – Seeing others doing what they love, inspires one to try it again. ↩︎
- To have qualified successors to carry on one’s undertaking (后继有人) – means having successors to pass down something (figure skating). ↩︎
- Ji He Yu refers to his aunt (stepmother – not blood-related) as ‘a yi’ (阿姨) which is used to address a woman of your parent’s generation. ↩︎
- Everything in disorder (乱七八糟) – A hideous mess, at sixes and sevens. ↩︎
- If it’s wrong, it’s wrong (将错就错) – To make the best after a mistake, to accept a mistake and adapt to it. ↩︎
- Cover up the sky with one hand (手遮天) – To exert overwhelming control or influence. ↩︎
- To add hail to snow (雪上加霜) – One disaster on top of another; To make things worse in a bad situation. ↩︎
- To fish in troubled waters (浑水摸鱼) – to take advantage of a crisis for personal gain. ↩︎
- To cover up something or make excuses. ↩︎
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(sxhbyc ᥫ᭡ note: I’m not an expert at some of these figure skating terms – so if there’s any mistake please tell me ᯓᡣ𐭩)
This chapter is very rich with idioms (an absolute nightmare for me wuwu)
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