Chapter 14, Second Stop: Someone with both good looks and skill...

Off the ice, Xia Yuezi and Yang Yiyan were still forehead to forehead, exchanging instructions. But this time, after they separated, she put her hand on the little girl's shoulder and pushed her onto the ice.

With this strength, Yang Yiyan ran towards the ice rink.

Nina and Polina stood near the ice rink with their coach, their eyes fixed on the girls gliding quickly and gathering their strength. After the short program results were announced, they both felt a sense of crisis.

The first jump was 3LZ, which was also Yang Yiyan's riskiest jump. She tried her best to spread her blade to the maximum extent, and even her body was slightly tilted outward, showing a tendency to tilt her axis.

Due to factors such as speed, inertia, and ice landing resistance, the normal axis is tilted at about 30 to 40 degrees, which is more conducive to athletes' body adjustment.

If the axis is too straight, there is a risk of leaning backward and damage to the spine, while if it is too tilted, it is easy to slip and fall forward.

Yang Yiyan skated far ahead, while Xia Yuezi, clutching her clothes, craned her neck to see into the distance. She quickly lifted her right foot to touch the ice, controlling her left foot to pull it in as far as possible, keeping the edge tilted outwards.

At the moment the body is airborne, the camera captures the skates leveling off, with the blades appearing as a blurry, shallow outline.

There isn't much time to think during the game; the referee can only make a real-time judgment based on the zoomed-in footage as quickly as possible.

A Japanese judge sitting in the technical expert seat squinted and carefully examined the jump twice before shaking his head and giving it an exclamation mark, meaning he couldn't judge whether the edge of the jump was correct. However, another American judge marked it with an "e" after only one look, believing that the jump had an incorrect edge.

Although the two technical experts gave different results, it does not affect the fact that the real-time score of this jump did not exceed the base score of 6 points, which also means that Yang Yiyan's 3lz's goe is negative.

However, the final symbol given on the sub-table depends on the whim of the technical supervisor.

Zhao Shuhua sighed: "Modifying the blade is still too difficult."

Women's singles players have a very short career span, and very few athletes consider changing their blades during their active careers, let alone succeed in doing so.

Especially those athletes who are protected by the referees, some of the more shameless ones will be aware of the need to correct their moves and try not to make any mistakes, but it cannot be ruled out that some athletes will shamelessly make a lot of mistakes.

Xia Yuezi glanced up at the screen, then focused back on the ice rink. Yang Yiyan's expression was gentle yet hopeful, filled with dreams for the future. She bent down and told the children that they would soon be able to escape this war-torn land.

After completing a set of 3F+2lo, the Russian coach remarked, "Her strengths are obvious, but her weaknesses are also significant."

After the short program, Sidorov, a national treasure-level figure skating coach from Russia, specifically went to watch clips of Yang Yiyan's previous competitions and discovered that all of her triple jumps were consecutive.

While the destructive power of such consecutive jumps is indeed frightening, the number of jumps in a short period of time can also cause great harm to athletes. To date, he has never seen any athlete dare to perform three consecutive 3-lo jumps in two programs.

Polina, however, thought differently: "I think she will be a very strong opponent for me."

Sidorov's expression remained stern, but he said nothing more.

Yang Yiyan's performance continued, her eyes revealing reluctance and determination. She raised her hand and gently brushed it across her face, as if caressing a child's tender face.

She can die on this land, but her children cannot become like her.

With this almost sincere thought in mind, Yang Yiyan completed the last set of consecutive jumps. At the end, she knelt on one knee in the middle of the ice rink, leaning back with her arms outstretched, trying to break free from this fate but being ruthlessly defeated.

Xia Yuezi was the first to applaud from the sidelines; this program was much better coordinated than the one performed by Kia Gong. When Yang Yiyan skated to the sidelines, there were still traces of tears in the corners of her eyes, which startled Xia Yuezi, who thought something was wrong with her health again.

Yang Yiyan shook her head, somewhat embarrassed, the blush on her cheeks extending to her ears: "I miss my mother. I asked Brother Simai about performance techniques, and he said he doesn't have any techniques, he just tries to connect with things that have happened to him when choosing songs, and tries to create resonance."

Xia Yuezi understood, patted the little girl's head, turned to look at the stands, and then looked back at her: "Your mother misses you very much. We'll call her when we get back."

At this moment, Xia Yuezi remembered the advantages of smartphones, which allowed her to talk to her family anytime, anywhere. In an era where most social media apps are installed on computers, it was impossible to get Yang Yiyan a computer while she was abroad, so cross-border video calls were out of the question.

Xia Yuezi's eyes dimmed slightly, but Yang Yiyan was very happy. She didn't need the coach to lead her; she just swayed and walked to the waiting area on her own.

This time the wait was longer than before. Xia Yuezi nervously put her arm around Yang Yiyan. In her experience, the longer the wait, the more abnormal the score would be—abnormally low.

During the time it takes for scores to be equalized, who knows how many points those referees are secretly deducting while they're using calculators?

The broadcast finally came on, and Xia Yuezi's anxious mood returned to normal.

With a technical score of 65.14, a program component score of 53.28, a free skate score of 118.42, and a total score of 182.09, he is currently ranked number one.

Xia Yuezi adopted a "I'm tired, but I'm used to it" attitude, but in front of the camera, the master and apprentice still put on professional fake smiles. Their task was simply to stand on the stage, regardless of the color.

In the study, Li Tan jumped up from his chair in excitement, his leg hitting the corner of the table, making the already empty glass rattle.

Zhao Shuhua reached out to steady the cup, then glanced at the middle-aged man who was wincing in pain and slumped back onto the stool, her face showing a hint of disgust and reproach: "How old are you? Do you still think you're in your twenties and can jump around like that?"

That's what she said, but Zhao Shuhua still pulled his trouser leg up to his knee to check. There was a white scratch on his knee with traces of blood seeping out.

Zhao Shuhua went to the living room to get iodine. When she came back, she saw Li Tan with one hand on the table, his smile still lingering. She then clapped her hands and exclaimed, "Oh dear, what a pity!"

Curious, she walked over and stood beside her, and saw Polina getting up from the ice, with the real-time score in the upper left corner showing 5.3.

"Is this jump complete?" Zhao Shuhua asked.

Li Tan took the cotton swab dipped in iodine and replied, "It's about 60 or 70 degrees off."

According to the rules issued by the International Skating Union, a jump is valid as long as the missing rotation is within 90 degrees.

After Polina fell, her condition was clearly affected, and she touched the ice again during her consecutive jumps.

Zhao Shuhua calculated that if the referee hadn't been so uncooperative during the match, Yang Yiyan's name tag might have been changed to a different color.

She immediately zoomed out the live stream of the match and skillfully manipulated the mouse to click on the International Skating Union's official website. Li Tan, who was being pushed back by her, couldn't help but shout, "We were watching the match perfectly fine, what are you doing?"

Zhao Shuhua stepped back, revealing the screen, which displayed the list of referees for the match.

Li Tan didn't have much contact with the referees. Apart from a few famous foreign referees, his knowledge of the others was limited to which country they came from. But Zhao Shuhua mingled with them every day and knew very well the factional structure behind them.

She smiled with relief and patted the person next to her on the shoulder, saying, "Don't worry, Polina won't be able to turn things around."

Hearing this, Li Tan was even more confused. Zhao Shuhua pointed to the screen and explained to him: "There are three Russian referees and three American referees in this match, but the American referee has a technical expert, and there are also two Japanese referees. Moreover, the Japanese referees always follow the American referees."

Li Tan understood. There are usually nine referees in an A-level competition, and American referees make up half of that. With so many mistakes Polina made, they would definitely try to lower her score to boost Nina's.

The familiar broadcast voice sounded, and he clicked on the live stream page that had just shrunk. Polina's score was 181.72, less than one point different from Yang Yiyan's score.

Xia Yuezi, who hadn't gone far, looked at Sidorov, who was waiting in the waiting area with a displeased expression, and Polina, who was still in shock from the fall. She thought that if a male singles player were standing next to him at this moment, this godfather of figure skating might not have been able to control his temper.

When Nina entered the arena, a very enthusiastic cheer erupted. As the bronze medalist of the World Youth Championships, she was undoubtedly the most popular contestant in this competition, not to mention that she also had a face that could make her way in Hollywood.

Any sport that involves art will inevitably have its share of fans who admire the athletes' looks, and figure skating has an unusually large number of such fans. Given the current state of the internet, it's normal for figure skating to have such fans. At most, athletes use their looks to gain fame and then participate in a few ice shows. Even if the difficulty level isn't high or their technique is flawed, figure skating fans are still willing to support them.

However, after being poisoned by fan culture, a group of fans emerged who knew nothing about the technology and were willing to "charge into battle" just for the athletes' looks, which also dragged down the athletes' public image.

Looking at Nina's somewhat mature appearance, and seeing her right leg raised high when she jumped 3F and her upper body almost falling onto the ice, Xia Yuezi silently sighed that it was fortunate that she withdrew early and didn't make it to that time.

She's truly a perfect example of someone who has both good looks and great skills.

Nina was practically guaranteed a spot in the championship. After the final results were announced, Yang Yiyan, who was standing in the corner, couldn't help but pull the coach aside and complain: "How did she manage to get such a high P score for those jumps?"

Xia Yuezi used a bit of force when she patted her: "This isn't China, there are so many cameras watching."

Yang Yiyan is young and can't keep things to herself. Although she is not allowed to talk about the scoring in public, Xia Yuezi has to admit that the welfare benefits of a noble nationality are indeed very attractive.

Currently, few Americans can surpass Nina in terms of difficulty and consistency. The only female singles athlete in the senior category who can jump the triple A is teetering on the brink of retirement, and the others are all getting older. Even though the USA Ice Hockey Federation also feels that Nina's technique is not good enough, they can only reluctantly support her.

After the women's singles competition, the organizers began setting up the podium. The men's singles awards ceremony started first. Feng Simai had won a medal in a tournament last season, so he went through the process very smoothly. He didn't even need Xia Yuezi to remind him; he ran over to get the national flag on his own.

She looked at Yang Yiyan, who was constantly drinking water, and asked with some concern, "Can't you still do a urine test?"

Yang Yiyan paused, her hand holding the mineral water bottle still, and blinked at her coach, silently saying everything.

The three men's singles players had already finished taking a group photo and were sliding back. Xia Yuezi took her bottle and pushed her to the entrance to queue up: "Don't be nervous, there's still time after you get your medals. We're not refusing to be tested, the testing personnel are waiting there."

Feng Simai's silver medal dangled around his neck. He handed the national flag back to the coach, and Xia Yuezi unfolded it by grasping the two corners with both hands, preparing to hand it to Yang Yiyan when she came over.

Yang Yiyan skated to the center of the field to greet the audience, then walked up to Polina to shake hands, and then stood in second place.

When Nina came up, she secretly glanced to the side several times. This American sweetheart is definitely over 1.6 meters tall. After standing on the podium, her shadow completely enveloped Yang Yiyan, and the three of them formed a "凸" shape in the group photo.

Xia Yuezi waited in the corridor with her two children for their urine tests. When she took out her phone, her inbox was already full of congratulatory messages from other people. She picked out a few to reply to.

It was past ten o'clock when the three of them returned to the hotel after all that. They took a flight back to China the following evening. Xia Yuezi, unusually, granted them an exemption, allowing them to go out and shop around the next day and buy whatever they liked at the duty-free shop.

Before entering the room, Yang Yiyan said indignantly, "Coach, I think you're deliberately trying to prevent us from getting a good night's sleep tonight."

Who draws a picture of a pie in the sky before going to sleep to keep others entertained?

Xia Yuezi couldn't help but laugh, and pushed the runner-up, who was furious like a little pufferfish, back to her room so she could get some rest.

The next morning, Xia Yuezi was woken up by a phone call. She reached for the phone next to her pillow and answered it as soon as she heard Li Tan's cheerful voice: "Xia, the Skating Association has already changed the information of the athletes who registered for the fifth leg."

Her morning grumpiness, which she hadn't had a chance to vent, subsided. She sat up, still a little groggy: "What's the fifth stop? I hope it's not some country where I have to sit for more than twenty hours again."

After saying that, there was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone: "It only takes half the time to fly from Beijing to Austria."

Xia Yuezi gradually regained consciousness: "Are there any powerful figures around?"

"Japan's Yumikawa Ria and France's Alisa are both quite strong, and in men's singles there's Russia's Andrei," Li Tan probably felt he had listed too many top players, so he added, "But this list may change."

She irritably combed her somewhat frizzy hair back, and Xia Yuezi woke up when she heard Mengchuan Liya's name. This women's singles player, who had been fiercely competitive with her during the Pyeongchang cycle, would finally meet in this way.

Xia Yuezi drew back the curtains and stood in front of the French windows, overlooking the city's morning scenery. Her voice was still hoarse: "It doesn't matter if we bump into each other early, since we'll meet in the finals anyway."

Hearing Xia Yuezi's confidence, Li Tan's smile widened: "Alright, then I'll be waiting for your good news."

A note from the author:

----------------------