Chapter 19 Performance Skating: She was willing to stay by these children's side and watch...

Xia Yuezi greeted Yang Yiyan with a warm hug as she left the stage, her hands covered in sweat when she let go.

She picked up a towel she had prepared and handed it to Yang Yiyan, then pulled her towards the waiting area. As they passed the stands, Yang Yiyan suddenly raised her hands above her head and made a heart shape with her hands.

Xia Yuezi looked up and saw Yang's mother and Feng's mother waving from the railing of the stands. Some ice skating fans were even throwing dolls in the aisle. The two parents couldn't find Feng Simai when they arrived at the stands, so they stood there waiting for her.

The athletes cannot linger on the ice or in the aisles for too long. Xia Yuezi gestured to Yang's mother, indicating that they would talk about it backstage later.

She scored 120.23 in the free skate, and with the short program score, she reached 185.01.

The master and apprentice remained remarkably calm while waiting for their turn to go to the finals. Feng Simai, in the stands, was also applauding continuously. He lowered his eyes to hide the melancholy in them. If he had the chance, he would love to go to the finals to watch.

After Yang Yiyan's Clean program, Alisa fell into a period of anxiety, and even hypnotized herself before going on stage.

Arissa, burdened by excessive distractions, fell during her opening performance on a single jump. Her French coach, standing to the side, immediately lost his composure, staring at his student in disbelief.

The fall actually woke Alisa up; after getting up, she displayed the calm and relaxed demeanor typical of the French and completed the rest of the program.

No matter how much the referee tried to influence her, he couldn't get her score higher than Yang Yiyan's.

Yumikawa Ria, the last to perform, secured the gold medal with a near-perfect performance. After the awards ceremony, Xia Yuezi received two invitations to perform at the exhibition.

Medalists in the four figure skating events are usually invited, while other skaters are invited based on their popularity or the host country's status. If they happen to be invited by a wealthy and powerful organizer, they might even get a salary. If they are even luckier, they might be invited to perform in commercial events in other countries.

Before the season started, Xia Yuezi asked them if they had any performance pieces.

Feng Simai said that he had already choreographed a routine last season, which imitated his idol Michael Jackson's most famous moonwalk. Then, in a very childish and "unintentional" way, he mentioned that his English name is also Michael.

Xia Yuezi also secretly inquired about Feng's opinion of the superstar from Feng's mother. The mother then told her in great detail how Feng Simai got his name.

Yang Yiyan's program song selection was adapted by Xia Yuezi based on the little girl's preferences. When asked, the little girl unhesitatingly said the movie "Corpse Bride".

This film is predominantly gothic and bizarre, but it only grossed $100 million at the box office, making it a relatively low-grossing film among its contemporaries.

Xia Yuezi contacted the other party to obtain the copyright before starting the editing. Yang's mother also specially imitated Emily from the movie and made a Gothic wedding dress version of the Costen.

As Yang Yiyan, dressed in a black and white kaostani outfit and wearing a veil, glided from the shadows into the spotlight, all eyes were drawn to her. She stood on the ice, extending one hand, waiting for her Victor to place the ring on her ring finger.

To match the atmosphere of the performance, Xia Yuezi increased the drumbeat of the music, making it sound like the kind of music used for dancing in bars. Combined with Yang Yiyan's straight arms and her zombie-like, bizarre steps, it immediately ignited the audience's enthusiasm.

She stepped on the accented beat, trailing her knee-length skirt as she did a 3F, followed by a long series of loops, then skated to the middle of the rink and stopped. Under the lights, she did a short popping, skated a lap, and then lifted her free leg to do her signature pearl beleman, eliciting another round of screams from the audience.

The focus of performance skating is on the performance itself; any number of jumps is acceptable as long as the audience enjoys it. However, the judges seem to be an exception to this rule, because Xia Yuezi saw Yang Yiyan standing on the barrier below the judges, crouching down and gradually peeking out, her gaping maw trying to scare them.

Standing in the shadows, Xia Yuezi couldn't help but laugh as she recalled the gothic makeup she had done for Yang Yiyan in the hotel. She hoped the judges wouldn't be frightened by her, and even if they were, they shouldn't hold a grudge against a child.

The other contestants who witnessed this scene couldn't help but laugh. Mengchuan Liya, who had seen Yang Yiyan's makeup backstage, gave her a thumbs up and said with envy in her eyes, "Yan-chan really got her revenge on the spot."

To be honest, she really wanted to do that too, but you should do things appropriate for your age. Yang Yiyan was participating in exhibition skating for the first time, so you could say she was young and didn't quite grasp the right balance.

Yumikawa Ria will be promoted to the senior category next season and has a wealth of competition experience. If she tries to intimidate the referees at this time, she will definitely be blacklisted by these petty old men.

Surrounded by overhead lights, Yang Yiyan removed her veil and glided to the entrance of the ice rink, handing it to the next skater about to take the ice.

Andrei stood outside, raised her hand, and touched the back of her hand, which was covered by a veil, with her forehead.

The lights shone between the two, and many ice skating fans sitting nearby smiled like doting aunts, while enthusiastic applause rang out from the arena.

Xia Yuezi had seen this scene during the rehearsal, and she didn't expect the organizers to be so clever, having Andre fill in the gap in the second half of the wedding in "Corpse Bride".

Andrei's performance piece was "The Legend of 1900," and his tailcoat and kousten suit exuded medieval aristocratic charm. He opened with a 3A, but the suit clearly restricted his movements.

Encouraging applause erupted from the audience. Andrei got up, smiled, and continued performing. Seemingly to make up for his mistake at the beginning, he added many triple jumps to his subsequent performance.

After Yang Yiyan finished playing, she found her coach in the dark. Xia Yuezi handed her a bottle of water, took the veil from her hand, and asked, "Are you tired?"

Yang Yiyan shook her head, took a sip of water, and there was still a hint of excitement in her eyes: "I'm not tired, I haven't had enough fun yet."

"That's alright. There's a group dance later, so you two can go up and dance to your heart's content."

The final part of the exhibition skater's performance is when all the skaters come on stage together to perform, interact with the fans, and take a group photo with a selfie stick.

The little girl's excitement grew even stronger. Watching Feng Simai walk the moonwalk on the ice with a hat on, she imitated him and spun around on land.

Although every figure skater in a group dance has the opportunity to showcase themselves, just like in a talent show, the one standing in the center position is always the one who attracts the most attention from the audience.

Ria Yumikawa stood in the center, raised one hand while doing a 3A, and then did a 3LZ+3LO, moving herself from the center of the crowd to the head of the crowd, leading all the figure skaters on a tour of the rink.

Xia Yuezi stood at the boundary between light and darkness, her features so dim that they were almost invisible, and no one would notice this place.

She watched as the two children huddled around Yumikawa Ria wanting a photo, and then looked at the other athletes, some familiar and some unfamiliar, her eyes swirling with longing and anticipation.

She hasn't even officially said goodbye to this ice rink yet, and she's already become a thing of the past in everyone's eyes. The reality might be even worse; no one will remember her.

The ice rink, just a hair's breadth away, became lively again. Xia Yuezi put aside the disappointment that lingered in her heart and looked at the younger, more promising athletes on the ice.

Sports competition is a kind of inheritance. Even if she could go back, given her age and physical condition, she wouldn't be able to skate for much longer. In the end, she would probably still be standing on the sidelines, watching generation after generation of children strive.

Xia Yuezi smiled slightly as she leaned against the wall in the backstage corridor, silently enjoying the performance that had already come to an end. Rather than watching her own era gradually fade away, she preferred to wait for these children to turn a new page.

She was willing to stay by the side of these children and share all her experience and knowledge with them.

Yang's mother and Feng's mother were already waiting at the door. They would rest at the hotel tonight and take the two children on a trip tomorrow.

After confirming the return date with the two parents, Xia Yuezi picked up her suitcase and headed to the airport.

She gazed at the city shrinking outside the window, pulled down the sunshade, put on her eye mask, and leaned back in her chair to rest, also concealing all her emotions.

By the time the two children resumed training, all seven preliminary rounds had been completed. In the women's singles event, only Yang Yiyan had secured a ticket to the finals with two silver medals. Xia Yuezi glanced at the list and saw that most of the participants were familiar faces.

Lin Ye delivered a phenomenal performance in the second leg, securing 3A and 4T, and with his superior technical score, he stood on the highest podium, advancing to the finals with one gold and one bronze medal.

Feng Simai is ranked first on the reserve list. If he wants to enter the finals, it depends on whether the players ahead of him will withdraw from the competition.

There is one pair in other events, but ice dance remains empty.

Overall, the leaders of the Skating Association were quite pleased with the release of the finalists' list; otherwise, Xia Yuezi wouldn't have received an extra bonus in her salary this month.

She had just closed the International Skating Union's website when she received a call from Li Tan, asking her to come to his office right now.

Xia Yuezi muttered to herself that it probably wasn't anything good again, and then she knocked on the head coach's office door in a cowardly manner.

As soon as she entered, she saw Meng Xin sitting in the office.

"Coach Li, is there something you need from me?"

Li Tan asked her to sit down first, and placed a bottle of mineral water in front of her. Xia Yuezi glanced at Meng Xin, who smiled at her, but upon closer inspection, there was a hint of embarrassment hidden in the smile.

Xia Yuezi was even more puzzled. Suddenly, she remembered that Meng Xin seemed to be in a bad mood in the dormitory these past few days, apparently because Yin Yunrong's parents were making a fuss about processing her retirement paperwork.

Li Tan tentatively asked, "Xia, can you manage to take care of so many children all by yourself?"

Xia Yuezi's eyelids twitched. She really couldn't manage it all, especially when taking Yang Yiyan and Feng Simai abroad for competitions, she had to ask other coaches to take care of them temporarily.

But she didn't say anything, seemingly unsure of Li Tan's intentions.

Li Tan continued, "That's right, several kids in the team retired this year, and some coaches didn't have enough students, so the team was thinking about whether they could team them up with other coaches."

"So you mean you want Coach Meng to train students with me?"

Xia Yuezi looked at Meng Xin and found that the other woman had lowered her head and remained silent for a long time.

"If you agree, you will remain the head coach of these children, and Coach Meng will only hold the title of skating coach. Of course, we also respect the coach's wishes."

"no problem."

Meng Xin looked up suddenly, not expecting Xia Yuezi to agree so readily. They only lived in the same dormitory and had a so-so relationship, but there were two hot commodities in her group now, and their annual dividends were the envy of many.

No matter how good the atmosphere may seem on the surface of the sports world, once interests are involved, everyone will turn into a beast to fight for the limited food.

Xia Yuezi simply smiled at her, her face showing no sign of reluctance.

She said to Meng Xin, "Those kids in my group are not easy to take care of, Coach Meng will have to work hard."