The moment he put on his costume, Ji He Yu couldn’t help but tear up.1 Even though this costume was just an ordinary product ordered from an online shop, and was far inferior to costumes, personally made by the top designers, he wore in his “previous life,” Ji He Yu felt that his heart that had been drifting around without anything to rely on since arriving in “this world.” had finally found some stability.
The ice rink was his only home, the costume his lifelong battle attire, and the ice skates were his battle boots he would never give up. To perform a complete repertoire on the ice, Ji He Yu even gave up his morning jog today and arrived at the ice rink early in the morning.
After all, if you want to skate a full repertoire without being disrupted, you must have an empty rink.
Many people were coming in and out of the Shopping Centre, and the only time you could have such an opportunity was first thing in the morning right after it opened.
Ji He Yu greeted Lin An Ran and gained permission to play music on the ice rink’s sound system. After a simple warm-up, Ji He Yu got on the ice rink.
The ice skates on his feet that he had acquired not long ago were still in the breaking-in period. Even though they were tailor-made to his measurements, they couldn’t fit perfectly. The top of the shoe pressed against the instep of Ji He Yu’s foot, which wasn’t very comfortable. But, Ji He Yu enjoyed this feeling.
The ice skates were his closest companions. To Ji He Yu, the process of breaking in a new pair of ice skates was like an old friend playing a good-natured joke on him. Once the joke was solved, their friendship would deepen.
Ji He Yu performed a few basic glides and turns on the new skates, gradually feeling the depth of the ice blade eating into the ice and the subtle difference in his centre of gravity. The master recommended by Lin An Ran was indeed reliable; this pair of skates, while the skates were not as good as those used by first and second-tier male singles, were far beyond the professional level. If the blades don’t wear out badly, they would be enough for him to use until he made it to the provincial team. Ji He Yu mentally gave a thumbs-up to this new old friend.
The music of “New Sprout”2 finally began to play. Ji He Yu immediately entered competition mode. Even if there were no judges or an audience, even if this programme was only a temporary way to cope with the club league, he would treat this short programme with the seriousness of an international competition. He would not fail to live up to the beautiful and dazzling costume on his body.
The sorrowful, desolate violin notes were like a cold stream on a winter day, plunging Ji He Yu into a dark, lonely winter. It was as if an invisible hand tightly gripped the new sprout’s waist and abdomen, forcing it to survive in the crevices and find its way out with difficulty. A set of sitting spins vividly3 portrayed the sprout’s struggle for survival in darkness.
The boy’s left leg was stretched perfectly straight, both hands gripped his slender ankle, and his chest was completely pressed against his leg, and he bent himself into an inconceivable4 arc as he spun in place. The jade-green costume blurred into a soft mist, dazzling the eyes.
As the music intensified, the boys’ spinning speed gradually increased, as if the sprout could no longer endure the difficult rubbing in the darkness and desperately wanted to break through the ground.
The music hit a strong accent. At that very moment, the accent fell, the sprout seemed to find its direction and grew out of the crevice. The sitting spin5 transitioned into an upright rotation.
The sprout, with its newfound confusion, begins to curiously explore the world. An elegant swallow-style6 patrol.
At this moment the music gradually shifted from sorrowful to gentle, resembling the final serenity before a storm or like the unclear darkness that must exist before the rising sun.
The sprout seemed to be confused, and a series of small jumps on the ice conveyed its cautiousness. The initial curiosity and joy of the newborn gradually faded as the new life silently tested the world and tried to adapt to its rules.
Suddenly, the tone of the violin “clanged”, tearing through the horizon like the ripping of silk! It was a spring thunder, that is bound to awaken all dormant life—and, of course, it also awakened the new sprout lost in confusion!
The sprout quickly realised that if it didn’t strive to grow, its winter hibernation and perseverance would be in vain. If it doesn’t strive to grow, it will be ashamed of the sheet soil underneath its feet that nurtures it.
The sprout stretched its branches, wanting to bathe in the baptism of the coming spring rain. The teenager on the ice opened his arms, showing himself to the fullest. His upper body leaned back, almost parallel to the ground, one leg forming a right angle, spinning in place with his head tilted back to face the light—a near-perfect upturned swallow.7
The smooth silk strings continued to play the melodious music. The spring rain that had been falling for a long time, began to ease, and the spring sun, hidden behind the clouds, silently sent out a ray of light.
The sprout, having bathed in the spring rain, greedily absorbed the sunlight. The boy lightly leapt on the ice surface from his left foot, and his right leg quickly pulled in and rotated, completing a beautiful jump. He took off from the left forward outside edge and turned two and a half times. This was a standard and beautiful 2A!
During this time, Ji He Yu had been practising the 2A quite well, and there was only a 20% chance that he would make a mistake while landing on the ice. Therefore this time, he landed lightly on his right foot, only bringing out a few chips of ice that were barely noticeable.
Another series of spins and small jumps followed. The new life, no longer needing to be overly humble, and in the caress of the bright sunlight, the sprout expressed its pride unabashedly under the increasingly bright sunlight.
It was not one of those flowers cultivated in a greenhouse but a sprout growing out of a harsh winter!
The violin pulled a high note. The climax arrived!
The clouds that covered the sky finally dispersed,8 and sunlight fell illuminating the earth. Ji He Yu crossed his legs, jumped off his right foot, spun three times in the air, lightly touched the ice with his right foot, and extended his left leg, getting rid of the remaining impact.
To bathe in the sunlight, the new sprout does not take a moment to breathe. And neither does the boy.
The moment his right foot landed on the ice, the boy skillfully tapped the ice with the teeth of the blade of his skate, and leapt into the air once more, spinning three times!
A 3Lo+3Lz combination jump!
But the moment he took off again, Ji He Yu knew that his jump was bound to fail. The height in the air wasn’t enough, and his axis wasn’t fully tightened.
Experienced figure skaters can often sense the degree of completion of their jumps the split second the edge of their blades takes off, so even if they make a mistake, they can make preparations to remedy it as quickly as possible. But at this moment, Ji He Yu felt powerless.
In the past, he had many ways to compensate for mistakes of this magnitude, but the rapid exhaustion of his strength meant that he would likely still fall on the ice.
Sure enough, even though Ji He Yu tried to adjust his posture and his body’s balance as much as possible. When he landed, he was unable to prevent his whole body from tilting outward the moment the blade touched the ice.
Ji He Yu braced himself up on the ice with his hand.
Unfortunately, attempting such a challenging combination jump in the latter half of the routine was too much for him, and Ji He Yu couldn’t hold on and eventually fell onto the ice.
The cold touch of the ice underneath left Ji He Yu slightly stumped.
The music continued to play in his ears, and Ji He Yu reacted quickly, springing to his feet. Although he was exhausted, he gritted his teeth and continued with the unfinished movements.
The points deducted for falling aren’t that much, but if the fall causes a delay in the repertoire, there will be another deduction!
Three turn, Choctaw, counter inside hook
As the final spin sequence ended, the music abruptly stopped.
Ji He Yu’s eyes were filled with dizziness, and he forced himself to slide back to the edge of the rink and sit down.
Just as he put the protective covers on his ice skates, a familiar voice sounded in his ear, “You’ve made quite a big improvement.”
Ji He Yu looked up to see Lin An Ran sitting opposite him, with a look of surprise.
Ji He Yu did not have the energy to speak so he could only weakly nod in thanks for the compliment, barely squeezing out a sentence from the gaps between his teeth. “Mr. Lin”
“Just call me Brother Lin,” Lin An Ran said cheerfully. “I’m starting to believe you were serious about your big talk when you said you’re still ‘not at the top level’.”
Lin An Ran just said it casually, but he never thought Ji He Yu to be so serious about such a topic, “It’s not big talk, it’s not.”
Lin An Ran was stunned and shook his head helplessly.
Ji He Yu pursed his lips together, realising he had lost a little composure. He lowered his head, not daring to make eye contact with Lin An Ran, and instead began untying his skate laces to check his ankle.
Just now when he failed the jump sequence and fell on the ice, even though it hadn’t hurt too much, the ankle and knee are the most “precious” things for figure skaters, so he couldn’t afford to be careless.
Fortunately, his ankle was only slightly swollen and red, and not to the extent of being badly sprained.
“I won’t disturb you any longer,” Lin An Ran said with a smile, noticing Ji Heyu’s unease. “But be careful not to overexert yourself when you’re training alone.”
Ji He Yu looked up, puzzled, wondering where Lin An Ran got this from.
Lin An Ran shook his head, saying, “When someone left, they told me to keep an eye on you, to make sure you don’t bump into people while walking or push yourself too hard during training.”
When these words came out, Ji He Yu’s face which turned originally pale from exhaustion turned suspiciously red.
Why did Lin An Ran’s friend tell him these things, ah?
But fortunately, that person left, so he wouldn’t bump into anyone while running. Right?
After finally seeing Lin An Ran leave, Ji He Yu returned to the equipment room for strength training.
Although he had fallen during the jump sequence, Ji He Yu wasn’t too discouraged. This body had only been in contact with figure skating for a month, so being able to reach this level was already impressive. The reason why he fell wasn’t due to a problem with balance or edge work, but rather his lack of physical fitness. If he kept up his training for the remaining half month, it may still be possible to improve.
Ji He Yu pinched his somewhat sore and swollen calf muscles, his mind (rarely – I put this in brackets because I’m not sure how to make it fit) wandering off a bit.
The muscles didn’t feel as soft as when he first came to this world, but they were still far from strong enough to support long periods of high-intensity exertion.
It’s often said that for figure skaters, flexibility and explosive power are difficult to balance.
Ji He Yu was well aware of this.
After all, in his previous life, explosive power was something he could never fully achieve to the extreme.
This body had not yet reached the development barrier, but it could happen at any time.
The greatest fear for figure skaters is failing to get through the development barrier.
Fifteen years is an awkward age, he will soon be promoted to a higher level (age categories for competing), but if he doesn’t make it through the development barrier…*
Fifteen was ten years ago for Ji He Yu. He only vaguely remembered that he had been fairly lucky in his previous life, and didn’t fail to find the right balance because of his height.
But that was built on a foundation of ten years of basic training.
And now, with this body, would he be able to get through it successfully?
Ji He Yu closed his eyes and temporarily dispelled these thoughts aside.
Since that time hadn’t arrived yet, there was no need to worry unnecessarily.
Doesn’t the so-called new sprout have the perseverance to endure an entire winter and be willing to pay any price to see the spring sunshine?
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The author has something to say
The rehearsal is just written simply like this. I won’t detail the rehearsal for the free skate; I’ll describe it in detail when the competition happens, bobo~9
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Ji Baobei: Training!
Someone: Watching attentively.
Ji Baobei: Training!
Someone: Watching attentively.
Ji Baobei: Training!
Someone (unable to bear it anymore):10 I told you not to challenge your body’s limits!
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(sxhbyc ᥫ᭡ footnotes:)
- Eyes brimming with tears of excitement (热泪盈眶) – Feel extremely moved. ↩︎
- I don’t know why I changed it from new bud to new sprout but let’s stick with it. ↩︎
- Extreme Saturation (淋漓尽致) – Vividly and thoroughly, in clear detail. ↩︎
- Inconceivable (不可思议) – unimaginable, unfathomable ↩︎
- Sitting spin is where a skater jumps forward on one foot with their skating leg bent in a position and their free leg held forward opposite to the ice (0:00 – 0:06) ↩︎
- Swallow-style but it’s more known as a spiral. A move where the skater extends their free leg behind them during a long glide to demonstrate both flexibility and fluidity. Spiral by Yuna Kim (0:53-1:01). ↩︎
- Upturn swallow in China is known as (仰燕) Y spiral by Mao Asada (1:54 – 2:00) – I’m too lazy to describe it. #not really sure I got the name right ↩︎
- Hiding the sky and covering the earth (遮天蔽日) – Earth-shattering, of universal importance, very shocking. ↩︎
- Bo Bo (啵啵) is a bubbling noise similar to xoxo or kiss kiss. ↩︎
- More than one can bear (忍无可忍) – At the end of your patience, the last straw. ↩︎
*what a fancy word for puberty*
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(sxhbyc ᥫ᭡ notes: I’m not an expert at some of these figure skating terms – so if there’s any mistake please tell me. I’m so happy with these new footnotes ᯓᡣ𐭩)
Pt 2 of Yun Che being a cutie patootie. He’s making me feel very warm and fuzzy (∩˃ω˂∩). I ship.
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