Chapter 55 states that something vibrant is better than something lifeless...

Regarding song selection, in addition to helping Yang Yiyan choose songs that suited her taste, Xia Yuezi also remembered another student.

Feng Simai continued his strengths in performance this season by choosing more mainstream songs.

Prior to this, the higher-ups held a special meeting regarding the selection of music, expressing their hope to see some music with Chinese elements at the Sochi Winter Olympics.

Choosing traditional Chinese elements is certainly not a problem. The Olympics is such a big stage, it is naturally an excellent platform to showcase our own strengths. However, the problem lies in the fact that Chinese contestants are not at an advantage in terms of P scores, and songs containing non-Western aesthetic elements are one of the targets of score reduction.

Regarding this debate, many optimistic figure skating fans have put forward a new perspective: there are still some musical styles with Asian elements in international competitions, which suggests that judges do appreciate Eastern aesthetics.

For example, last season, Ria Yumikawa's "Nessun Dorma," Yiyan Yang's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," and Simai Feng's "Kung Fu Panda" all contained some Chinese elements, and their scores were not significantly lower.

However, in terms of their content, these pieces are not entirely Asian; in other words, they carry a Western perspective to some extent.

Kung Fu Panda was made by Americans, Turandot was adapted by Italians from a collection of Arabic stories and set in the Yuan Dynasty. Even Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a Chinese-language film, is a co-production between China and the United States, and has certain Western influences in terms of language and story perspective.

These are not the East in the traditional sense, but rather the East as seen through the eyes of Westerners, which is why the referee was willing to be lenient.

If a Chinese contestant chooses a piece like "Ambush from Ten Sides" or "The Butterfly Lovers," which were entirely created by Chinese people, the score for the program content will be abysmal.

Nanako Shirai once skated the classic Japanese "The Tale of Genji" after winning the world championship, and even the design of the Costten skateboard had a Japanese style.

Even such a formidable female singles player couldn't withstand the biased opinions of the referees, setting a new career low in P score.

That program only appeared for one season, and Shirai Nanako never skated on a program with too much Asian influence again after that.

Therefore, when the leaders raised this difficult question, the coaches in each group could only search overnight for pieces that the judges might not score too harshly.

Especially in pairs skating, Coach Lu had called Meng Xin before to ask if she had any good options, and the sense of vicissitude coming through the phone was many times heavier than before.

Feng Simai retained the free skate from last season, but made adjustments to the footwork choreography and the difficulty of the moves. As for the short program, she chose a song from the movie "Mission: Impossible".

Half a month after the music selection was finalized, his choreographer handed over the finished product to him.

Xia Yuezi sat in her office, checking the contents of a USB drive on her computer, her fingers tapping unconsciously on the desktop, while Feng Simai stood behind her.

This program mainly features street dance and modern dance elements. Both the choreography and the bonus points for the movements are handled very cleanly, making it a program that fits the Olympic season.

Although she hadn't seen him ice skate yet, Feng Simai had specially learned both dance styles, and with the sketch of the Costen dance that she had seen on his phone, Xia Yuezi had already imagined a program that had a very special agent vibe.

Seeing that Xia Yuezi hadn't spoken for a while, Feng Simai asked somewhat nervously, "Coach, if you think it's appropriate, I'll start land-based music practice this week."

"Yes, this program is very good. But you can ask the choreographer if the footwork in this part could be faster."

Xia Yuezi rewound the video and pointed to the screen, saying, "The background sound node corresponding to this part is very prominent. I think we can shorten the time of some footwork and add one or two new ones, such as twists and chords. However, the current footwork is more suitable for your current skating speed and meets the requirements for upgrading. You can consider it."

Feng Simai's gliding speed is not slow, and his use of the blade is relatively clear, but if a lot of things are stuffed into his footwork in a short period of time, his rhythm will be disrupted.

“Okay, I will discuss it with the choreographer. Once the program is ready to skate on the ice, I will also send the video to the choreographer to see if there are any parts that need to be changed.”

Feng Simai stared at that short section of footwork for a long time before finally nodding.

This season, he found a very famous choreographer who has many offers from top-tier athletes and has devoted his time to them. Even if there are problems with the program after it's released, he still won't be able to come to China.

After chatting for a while, Feng Simai naturally brought up Yang Yiyan's song selection. Xia Yuezi was clearly annoyed by her pestering, and her voice immediately lowered.

"She originally said she wanted to change both programs, but after the meeting she kept the short program, but the free skate program was still undecided."

Initially, I selected a few piano pieces for her, but the little girl was dissatisfied with this and that. Especially after hearing "Anne's Wonderland," she covered her ears with a pained expression, saying that it was the prelude to her English listening practice every morning before self-study.

Xia Yuezi was so annoyed that she finally let her choose for herself, and then gave the selection to her to look at.

Feng Simai chuckled to himself, his shoulders shaking incessantly. After a moment, he said seriously, "Since you're going for a lyrical style, why didn't you think of tango? Didn't she practice tango before?"

The tango lesson was originally enrolled in by Yang Yiyan's mother when Feng Simai was skating "Por Una Cabeza". However, it is said that Yang Yiyan only studied for one semester and then stopped.

“That’s one direction.” Xia Yuezi said thoughtfully, her fingers hovering over the keyboard.

Feng Simai shrugged: "I was just mentioning it casually. Xiaoyan has a high degree of physical flexibility, but she will probably need to work on tango, a dance that requires a good balance of tension and relaxation, if it's her first time skating."

Yang's mother once sent her a video of Yang Yiyan taking a tango class.

At that time, Yang Yiyan still had a childish look on her face. She put her right hand on her male partner's shoulder and listened to the teacher's explanation of the movements with a bored expression. But when the music started, her movements were clean and neat. Every turn she made was full of arrogance and brightness. With a flick of her head, Xia Yuezi clearly saw the sharpness in Yang Yiyan's eyes.

One morning, Yang Yiyan put on her ice skates and skated around on the ice for a bit before the coach called her back and handed her an MP3 player.

"This is the piece of music I edited for you last night. It's exactly four minutes long. Listen to it and see if it suits you."

Yang Yiyan put on her headphones, and as soon as she turned on the music, a series of neat two-four clapping sounds filled the air, followed by the monotonous sound of a piano. This was the prelude to "Libertango," and although it had been adapted, the second half of the music was still recognizable.

She looked up at the coach in surprise: "Tango style?"

Xia Yuezi put her index finger to her lips to keep quiet, signaling her to stay silent and continue listening.

After a certain point, the music gradually weakened, followed by another violin piece. Although the two pieces blended fairly well, Yang Yiyan still sensed something was wrong. She took off her headphones and waited for the coach's explanation.

"These two versions are taken from the live performances of 'Libertango' and 'Jealous Tango', respectively. I selected the more lyrical sections and modified and integrated them. My proposed configuration is roughly two consecutive jumps and one single jump in the first half, and one triple jump and three single jumps in the second half. What do you think?"

Yang Yiyan silently tapped the edge of her MP3 player, the lights from the ice rink casting dappled shadows on her eyelashes.

Both of these pieces are classics in tango, so choosing them is definitely a safe bet and also meets Yang Yiyan's own expectations.

During this time, she not only searched for songs that met her needs, but also considered what Xia Yuezi had said. Although she did not think that her ideas were wrong, after two years of training in the youth group, she had to admit one thing: her results were never up to her own standards.

She looked up at Xia Yuezi and noticed that the coach had light-colored dark circles under her eyes, and her hand hanging down was silently fiddling with the barrier.

"This is fine. I'll send it to Teacher Mi after training today and ask him to help me put together a program as soon as possible."

Xia Yuezi was stunned for a moment, thinking that Yang Yiyan would resist again. She didn't expect her to agree so readily this time, and she was a little unaccustomed to it.

"Okay, once the program is finalized, I won't assign you any other training tasks before the high school entrance exam. You can familiarize yourself with the program."

Yang Yiyan nodded, put her headphones back on, and listened to the music again. This time, she closed her eyes, her body swaying gently to the melody, adjusting to and searching for the right musical moments.

The application period for the high school entrance examination ended in mid-July.

Yang Yiyan was admitted to a decent high school, and everyone who had been following her middle school entrance exam results breathed a sigh of relief. Her mother waived her place in the high school transition program, allowing her to focus on training in the provincial team.

At the same time, the list of Grand Prix race participants was also released.

Yang Yiyan won two gold medals last season, achieving a grand slam in the youth group, and the organizers of the regional competitions have extended invitations to her.

After careful consideration with her coaching staff, she ultimately chose the Russian and Japanese tournaments, leaving the Huaguo Cup spot for other women's singles players.

One of these two stops is the venue for this year's Olympics, so I can go there in advance to get used to the venue; the other is just to help me adjust to the time difference.

Feng Simai finished ninth in the World Championships last season, which meant he was eligible for two events. He certainly wanted to be assigned to the same events as Yang Yiyan, but Russia didn't invite him at all, and the countries that invited him were too far away. In the end, he decided to compete in the Japanese and Chinese events.

Yang Yiyan leaned against the ice rink barrier, reached out and patted his shoulder, comforting him in a mature tone: "It's okay, let me go to Russia first to check it out for you, and I'll come back and tell you what the ice rinks there are like."

Feng Simai shook his head helplessly: "You're quite carefree. There are many top players in the Russian station this year, so you'd better be careful."

This year's Russian Grand Prix is ​​being held in St. Petersburg, attracting many of the world's top-ranked athletes. Not to mention, Lyubov and Polina, who just joined the new group, are both competing on their home turf, making the podium a tough battle to win.

"I'm not afraid at all." Yang Yiyan raised her chin, displaying the fearlessness of a newborn calf.

Seeing this, Meng Xin stood aside, nudged Xia Yuezi's shoulder, and smiled: "Young people these days are really energetic."

Xia Yuezi smiled as well, leaning against the barrier, and asked in return, "Isn't it good to be energetic? It's better than being lifeless before the competition, right?"

The two coaches exchanged a smile and encouraged each other, which could be seen as preparation for the disputes before the start of the Winter Olympics.