Above the clouds, the plane flew steadily. Apart from the faint sounds of conversation, the only sound in the cabin was the roar of the engine.
Lu You rested his head on the small table, with Xie Yunjun's coat draped over his body and an English brochure for the club's overseas training program in front of him.
Probably because she saw something interesting, the little girl chuckled twice and leaned close to Xie Yunjun's ear and whispered, "Look, isn't that Senior Sister Jiang and Senior Brother Yu in this photo?"
Lu You pointed to a picture in the brochure. In the photo, Jiang Ran was still very little. For some reason, his face was covered with snot and tears. He pulled Yu Botao's sleeve to wipe his face.
It is labeled in English on the side: Childhood training photos of two-time world champions Jiang Ran & Yu Botao, taken when they were 16 and 19 years old.
Jiang Ran: “…”
"Ahhh, why did Mr. Eugene expose this dark history?" Jiang Ran took the brochure and glanced at it. "But why did I cry so miserably at that time?"
Yu Botao helped her recall: "Because Teacher Eugene confiscated all the Lao Gan Ma and garlic that you hid in the closet."
Jiang Ran: "...Okay, don't say anything more."
Lu You’s ears stood up like antennas: Say more, I want to listen.
"Lu Xiaoyou, my yesterday is your tomorrow," Jiang Ran poked the little girl's forehead, "Teacher Eugene's requirements are much stricter than you think."
Lu You touched his bangs and said “oh oh” twice.
At this time, the children still naively think that overseas training is just training in a different place.
Lu You flipped through a few more pages of the brochure and held it in front of Xie Yunjun: "What does this word mean?"
Xie Yunjun, who was peeling an orange, took a moment to take a look and directly helped Lu You translate the whole passage.
Lu You nodded, shook his head, stretched his neck, took the orange handed to him by Xie Yunjun, and chewed it: "I heard that Mr. Eugene, who is guiding us, is a fierce old grandfather. Should I be scared in advance?"
Recalling the fear of being dominated by this old coach during the previous training, Jiang Ran rubbed his arms and said, "I think it is still necessary."
Yu Botao seemed to have recalled some bad memories, and his face was full of pity.
After the plane landed, Yu Botao held up his cell phone and called the person in charge of picking him up from the Polar Bear Club.
"Yes, we are at the airport exit... We are two adults with two children. Do we need to wait for you here?"
Jiang Ran’s English was not very good, so she had to wait by the side holding Lu You’s hand.
Lu You held Xie Yunjun's hand again, and the four of them looked like a family of four traveling to Canada.
Lu You had long heard that there were those rip-off black cars at Canadian airports, which would pick up foreigners who were unfamiliar with the area at the airport gate in the name of taxis, and then deliberately take people on a detour in order to charge huge fares.
I didn't expect to meet them as soon as I got off the plane.
A middle-aged man wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket came over quietly: "Chinese? Do you want to beat up Taxi?"
Well, he can speak a few words of Chinese and it seems like he has cheated many of his fellow flower-growing people.
Xie Yunjun stood in front of Lu You calmly.
Lu You stood on tiptoe, resting his chin on Xie Yunjun's shoulder, and poked his head out from behind him, smiling innocently: "Eh? Where did I pick you?"
"Japanese?" The middle-aged man was stunned, then gave a thumbs up, "My car, great!"
Jiang Ran suddenly let out an earth-shattering laugh.
Just when the middle-aged man was still trying to deceive people, a figure came running over waving a small flag.
"Uncle police! It's him!"
Erica pointed at the middle-aged man with a righteous look on her face, and the latter ran away when he saw the police coming.
"Carlo! Don't let him get away!" Erica yelled.
Carlo put two fingers on his forehead, pointed at Erica, and said coolly: "Understood."
After saying that, he took off the backpack on his back, rotated with his body as the center, and threw the hammer accurately at the middle-aged man who was trying to escape with a standard hammer throwing posture.
Two policemen with big bellies blew their whistles and ran over with batons in hand. Before they escorted the people to the police car, they walked up to Erica and Carlo and said, "On behalf of the Toronto Police Department, I want to thank you both."
Erica waved her hand and began to greet the Chinese team.
"Erica and Carlo are the ones who are here to pick us up this time." Yu Botao walked over and explained.
Erica, who took on the task of picking up the guests at the airport, first politely greeted her seniors Jiang Ran and Yu Botao, and then went to Lu You and Xie Yunjun with Carlo.
Carlo hugged Xie Yunjun and said, "Jun, welcome to the Polar Bear Club for training."
Erica simply reached out and rubbed the soft Lu You, squinting her eyes in satisfaction.
You still feel so good!
"Carlo and I thought we wouldn't see you next season." Erica said in the car on the way to the Polar Bear Club.
Youth and adult competitions are mostly held separately, with only the Grand Prix Finals being held together each year.
But Erica and Carlo will start competing in the adult group next season. Newly promoted groups need an adaptation period, and it is hard to say whether they can make it to the finals and meet the youth group.
Most foreign athletes train on their own, and the clubs are growing very strong. When it comes to well-known figure skating clubs, the Polar Bear Club, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, is definitely one of the best in the world.
In the Polar Bear Club, coach Eugene Elliott, who is affectionately called "Golden Miner" by ice fans, is a legend in the coaching world.
The reason is simple: the doubles gold medal winners of the last three Winter Olympics have all received more or less guidance from this old coach who is nearing retirement.
"Teacher Eugene is planning to retire and return to Quebec to enjoy his old age," Erica said as the car drove to the gate of the Polar Bear Club. "After this season, he will no longer teach students."
Yu Botao nodded: "It's time for an old man who is almost sixty years old to retire."
If this were not the case, the Sports Bureau would not have spent so much money this year to build connections and get Lu You and Xie Yunjun into the training team coached by Eugene.
You should know that as a membership-based figure skating club, Polar Bear requires a one-time payment of 60,000 Canadian dollars in membership fee when joining.
In other words, in order to allow Lu You and Xie Yunjun to join the organization, the General Administration spent more than 600,000 RMB.
Furthermore, Eugene only speaks English during training, so no matter how famous a player is, if they want to train under him, they can only find a translator themselves.
The translation fees, the cost of temporary congestion, round-trip travel expenses, and the living expenses of the players, etc., when added together, are not a small amount.
And this is not the biggest expense.
As the world's most famous pair skating coach, Eugene Elliott only accepts talented skaters that he likes. Even so, the coaching fees that the skaters have to pay are extremely expensive.
It is said that this season a pair of German players spent 400,000 US dollars to transfer to Eugene to train.
However, because the Chinese team generously lent a helping hand to Eugene's beloved apprentice Erica during the JGPF, Eugene generously gave the Chinese team a discount during this overseas training. The General Administration naturally did not disclose the specific amount.
On the first day at the Polar Bear Club, the host Erica took Lu You and Xie Yunjun, who were visiting for the first time, on a tour of the entire club. She also took them to eat Canadian specialties and ordered a large table of food.
As Torontonians, Erica and Carlo have a good idea of which restaurants have safer sources of their ingredients.
Moreover, the control of eating out during the off-season is not that strict, otherwise the athletes would be very miserable.
Erica picked up a piece of beef and put it into her mouth: "Yes, eat more. Starting from the training camp tomorrow, we female athletes will only have breakfast and afternoon meals."
"By the way, as usual, we have to weigh ourselves before training," Erica said, "Let's just have this meal today. Don't eat anything when you get home tonight, and don't drink water before going to bed, otherwise you'll get swollen."
"The most important point is what you have to do before going up to the title. You understand, right?"
Lu You nodded seriously: "I understand."
Watching the two men interacting like spies, Carlo next to them looked confused.
He asked Xie Yunjun: "What do you understand? Why don't I understand? Jun, do you understand?"
Xie Yunjun showed a subtle expression: "...No matter whether I understand or not, it's better for you not to understand."
Carlo: “???”
The next morning, all the female players in the White Bear Club did the same thing.
They all stayed in the bathroom for a long time without any prior arrangement, and only went to the training room after making sure that there was no weight in their bodies that might affect the data.
A French female contestant put her arm around Jiang Ran's shoulder and said mysteriously, "I ate a dragon fruit last night, and it worked wonders."
Jiang Ran hit her: "You have such a good thing but you didn't call me?"
While the two were talking, all the male contestant's data had been recorded.
Eugene Elliot stroked his white beard, looking as kind as Santa Claus. He held a small notebook and looked at the female contestants standing in a row with a smile.
"Who's going first?"
The female contestants looked at the ground, some looked at the sky, and after returning from a vacation, no one dared to get on the scale first.
"Erica, you go first, and bring your friend Lu..." Eugene called his direct disciples, then looked down at the list and called out the name, "Lu You."
Erica: "...sisters in need."
Lu You: "...difficult sister and difficult sister."
Erica patted Lu You's shoulder, was the first to stand on the height and weight scale, and buckled the ring measuring device for waist circumference around her waist.
With the two data of weight and waist circumference, the machine can roughly calculate the body fat percentage. Although it is not completely accurate, it can be used as a reference.
As the ring measuring device tightened, a mechanical female voice began to report the data: "Height 160cm, weight 45kg, waist circumference 57cm, body fat percentage 10.64%."
Erica breathed a sigh of relief, and when she saw Eugene nodded, she knew she had passed.
Although there are often reports on TV that a certain female figure skater has a body fat percentage of only single digits, these are generally not based on normal calculations, or are headline-grabbing reports taken out of context at a specific time.
For female athletes, 8% to 10% of the body is necessary fat, so a body fat percentage below 8% is very dangerous.
Erica's body fat percentage is considered to be relatively low among figure skaters.
The next one is Lu You.
The air conditioner was on in the training room, and Lu You was only wearing a sports vest and yoga pants. When he heard that this thing had a counting function, Lu You quickly sat down and took off his socks.
Eugene Elliot's eyelids twitched.
Lu You prayed silently in his heart, took a deep breath, and stepped on the scale.
When the waist measuring instrument tightened, Lu You felt that he had never tried so hard to hold his breath and tighten his abdomen in his life.
The machine then sounded: "Height 156, weight 44kg, waist circumference 55cm."
"Body fat percentage - 13.36%."
Jiang Ran just let out a hiss.
Hearing this number, Mr. Eugene adjusted his reading glasses and said, "The machine is not reset. Test it again."
“…”
At this moment, Lu You just wanted to lie down peacefully and pretend to be dead.
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