The final exams for junior high school students came to an end at the end of June.
Near the end of the month, Lu You still found time to celebrate his birthday in between the torture of final exams. His age grew from 13 to 14, but his height remained unchanged, which made Lu You very angry.
Because Lu You was too naughty when she was a child, Liang Jie used her connections to allow Lu You to start compulsory education one year earlier when her daughter was five and a half years old, completely saving the kindergarten teacher from the dire situation. Therefore, although Lu You is one year younger than Xie Yunjun, the two are deskmates in the same grade and class.
Early in the morning of the second day after the exam, Lu Tingsong rushed to his brother and sister-in-law's house, pulled Lu You up from the bed, and after cleaning and washing him, the two children were stuffed into the car bound for the Jianglin Province Figure Skating Team.
Lu You and Xie Yunjun live in the Third Ring Road, very close to the provincial team which is also in the Third Ring Road, only a dozen minutes' drive away. The national team's training center is also in this area. However, I heard that the ice training base in the capital that was transformed from an industrial park is about to be completed. It is estimated that once it is completed, the national team will move to the capital.
When Jiang Yang and Qin Siyu saw the two children, Lu You was still leaning limply on Xie Yunjun, yawning listlessly.
Lu Tingsong explained embarrassedly: "My sister-in-law has high expectations for the child's academic performance. The child has been staying up late to review for the finals for several days and has not slept well."
"The two children are growing up. Although learning is important, they still need to ensure good sleep quality," Jiang Yang smiled and touched Lu You's head. "How do you feel now? Can we start training?"
Lu You pulled Xie Yunjun's sleeve and nodded.
So, at seven o'clock in the morning, Lu You and Xie Yunjun were taken by Qin Siyu to join the provincial team's morning exercise.
At that time, the young girls and boys of the figure skating team were doing morning exercises on the playground. They saw Coach Qin bringing over two unfamiliar faces. The little girl didn't seem to be as tall as some of the training equipment. A male singles player was surprised and said, "Is this the new member of the provincial team? So small? I feel like I can make her cry with one punch."
The female singles player teased him: "You said the same thing when Si Nan and Xu Zhen first joined the team. Later, Si Nan grew to 1.7 meters tall, taller than you."
——Sinan and Xu Zhen, the only young players in the domestic youth pair skating group, are currently in the national team for cross-training and it will take some time for them to come back.
It is no joke to say that domestic pair skating will face severe challenges after the last few seasons. It can be said that if it were not for the support of Si Nan and Xu Zhen in the Jianglin Province Figure Skating Team last year, I am afraid that there would not be a pair in the country that could be sent to participate in international youth competitions that whole year.
"Sinan's height grew too fast last year," sighed the men's singles player. "Xu Zhen was so scared that he burned incense and prayed to Buddha to ask Sinan not to grow any taller. He also asked his family to buy him a few bottles of calcium tablets from Australia, fearing that Sinan would grow too tall and he wouldn't be able to lift anything."
"Yeah, if it weren't for Si Nan's sudden growth in height and weight, with their level, how could they not even be able to enter the free skating in several major competitions last year?"
"They are coming, hurry up, let's go and take a look!"
The figure skating team members rushed forward at a speed of 80 miles per hour, pushing Qin Siyu aside, surrounding the two children and starting to chatter and make a lot of noise.
"——Oh my, my little sister is really small, and she has two little pigtails!"
"I want to rub her face so badly!"
"This boy is so handsome. I declare that you will replace Zhang Bai and become Kimura Takuya of the figure skating team!"
"Little boy, are you two practicing couples or ice dancing?"
The people in the figure skating team are not tall, even the boys, because short people can better maintain their center of gravity to complete difficult movements. The tallest person in the team is Zhang Bai, the male partner of the ice dance, who is nearly 1.8 meters tall and looks like a giant when standing in front of Lu You.
At Luyou's altitude, she had to raise her head with great effort to see his face. She held Xie Yunjun's hand and answered seriously, "We are practicing in pairs."
Zhang Bai was a little disappointed: "I thought they were our junior brothers and sisters, but no one likes ice dancing! What's wrong with ice dancing? First, there is no jumping and second, there is no over-the-shoulder lift. Damn it, when will ice dancing become popular?"
His female companion Guan Xiaoxuan slapped him on the back of the head and said, "Before talking about the rise of ice dance, can you think about why your artistic expression is so poor?"
Zhang Bai immediately made a motion of zipping his mouth.
"Alright, alright, everyone, go train. Ten thousand meters in thirty-five minutes. If one person can't finish, the whole team has to add ten more laps." Qin Siyu saw that the morning run was about to go wrong, so he blew the whistle quickly, "Get moving! Everyone, run - Lu You and Xie Yunjun, you try to run with the team first."
Considering that the two children had just joined the provincial team, Qin Siyu relaxed the requirements: "Try your best to finish the race. If you really can't, don't force yourself. Safety first."
When the whistle sounded, the people in the figure skating team didn't dare to chat anymore and rushed out one after another. Xie Yunjun also joined the team with Lu You, and the two of them were at the end of the team.
At first, Qin Siyu was worried that the two children had never had such a large amount of training before and would not be able to adapt in a short time. If they could not finish the run, he would let them off today and not punish them.
Then Qin Siyu realized that he had been overthinking. After more than ten laps, although Lu You and Xie Yunjun were always at the end of the team, they had never fallen behind.
And Xie Yunjun obviously had enough energy to spare, but he stayed at the end of the team to run with his little female companion.
Ultimately, this is all thanks to Lu Tingsong's usual training model for the two. Lu Tingsong himself was born in the national team and is well aware of the intensity of professional training. From the day Lu You and Xie Yunjun became a partner, Lu Tingsong required the two to train with the intensity of professional athletes.
When he was a child, Lu You was trained to tears several times. After one physical training, he had a high fever for a whole day and night. Liang Jie and Lu Shi'an were so distressed that they wanted Lu You to give up skating.
In the end, it was Lu Tingsong's words, "If Youyou doesn't slip anymore, I'll have to find another female companion for Xiaojun," which made Lu You jump up from the hospital bed. She said that she would not allow Xie Yunjun to find anyone else no matter what, and she would continue to be Xie Yunjun's female companion.
When the long-distance race was almost over, Lu You was a little shaky in the last few hundred meters and was helped across the finish line by Xie Yunjun.
Guan Xiaoxuan and Zhang Bai are an ice dance team. They are not as strong as single skaters. When they ran to the finish line exhausted, they were not much faster than Lu You and Xie Yunjun. Guan Xiaoxuan supported her knees and looked at Lu You who was hanging on Xie Yunjun. She couldn't help but sighed: "It's great. When I first joined the provincial team, I also ran 10,000 meters. Zhang Bai just rushed in front like a bull. I was vomiting from running, but he was still striving for the first place."
Zhang Bai scratched his head, walked over and asked his female companion to support him to rest, he had no recollection of this incident.
Lu You was supported by Xie Yunjun and rested for a while. He soon recovered and then did a set of high leg raises, small jumps and kicks, and finally a set of burpees and a series of other training. After relaxing his muscles, the figure skating team's morning exercise was over.
Because they had not officially joined the provincial team yet and were considered "three-no" people, Qin Siyu took his meal card to the cafeteria to buy breakfast for Lu You and Xie Yunjun. The provincial team's cafeteria was self-service. After Qin Siyu got the food, he turned around and saw Lu You staring at the plate with a look of bitterness and hatred on his face.
The reason was simple: the cafeteria didn’t have her favorite custard buns.
Qin Siyu knew the reason and didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Then you won't have custard buns to eat anymore. They are too high in calories and our canteen never makes them. Besides, after joining the provincial team, the requirements for eating out are also very strict. We usually don't eat out randomly."
Lu You: “…”
Is it too late for her to run now?
In the end, Lu You only ate a bowl of clear soup noodles under Xie Yunjun's persuasion and digested it for half an hour. After the two finished their land training, they officially went on the ice.
"Youyou, get some ice feeling first and do 10 sets of 3T," Lu Tingsong called out from outside the barrier. "After you're done, take a break and show Coach Jiang your twists and throws."
The T-jump is the simplest ice-touch jump. For Lu You and Xie Yunjun, it is like playing house. They skated around the ice rink hand in hand. When the skating track reached Jiang Yang, they turned three times in unison, raised their left leg, touched the ice with the tooth of the knife, and jumped!
Bend your knees to cushion the impact, land on the ice with the blade, twist your body to touch the ice, and then jump.
Fine ice mist burst apart, and the two people's ice skates fell at almost the same time, with the blades scraping a large smooth circle on the ice surface.
After 3T3T, they slid to the other end of the ice rink with a pressure blade, and the two of them did another 33 consecutive jumps with a very high synchronization rate. The distance was amazing, and the preliminary estimate was about nine to ten meters.
Jiang Yang and Qin Siyu couldn't help but show expressions of approval, not only for this beautiful jump, but also for the tacit understanding between the two children. You know, there is no music to assist, and they can see clearly that the two did not have any communication before the jump, but they were still able to maintain a synchronization rate comparable to that in the competition.
The indicator of synchronization is very important in pair skating.
"How long have these two kids been working together?" Jiang Yang asked Lu Tingsong with some curiosity. "Sinan and Xu Zhen have been working together for five years. Their coordination may not be better than that of the two of them."
Lu Tingsong replied: "It's been more than two years. Youyou just celebrated his 14th birthday the day before yesterday. So the two of us have been partners for almost three years."
Qin Siyu was a little surprised: "Only three years?"
Jiang Yang's attention was not on the age limit. He keenly noticed the information that "Lu You just celebrated his birthday the day before yesterday." If calculated in this way, Lu You's birthday is on June 27, which is exactly before the age limit stipulated by the International Skating Union - before July 1.
If this perfect birthday happened to the women's singles, the coaching staff would be so moved that they would cry.
According to the rules of the International Skating Union, athletes participating in the adult competition must be at least 15 years old before July 1 of the same year. This means that if an athlete is born before July, he or she will be promoted to the adult group one year earlier than those born in the second half of the year. Since female singles athletes have a short flowering period, their peak age is generally between 15 and 18 years old. Women who are still competing in their twenties can call themselves veterans. Therefore, the pursuit of age in women's singles is almost harsh. Being able to be promoted one year in advance is an excellent opportunity for many athletes to achieve results.
The technical difficulty requirements for pair skating are not so extreme, so the players' peak period will be later than that of women's singles. Although Lu You's age is just stuck at the end of June, according to the current status of the two groups of veterans in the domestic adult group, they can at least fight for another two seasons. Jiang Yang is not in a hurry to promote the young players in the youth group.
——After all, there are many veterans in the adult pair skating group who are almost 30 years old but still have their sharp edge. The children are still young. If they cannot withstand the pressure brought by the veterans after being promoted, it may even backfire. It is better for them to stay in the youth group for a few more years before the domestic T0T1 retires.
Regarding Qin Siyu's question about the length of their collaboration, Lu Tingsong explained, "Although they have only been partners for three years, Youyou and Xiaojun have grown up together since they were five years old. They eat and live together, and basically, except for sleeping together at night, they are inseparable the rest of the time."
Jiang Yang became interested: "Oh?"
"Xiaojun's life is quite rough," Lu Tingsong said as he looked at Xie Yunjun jumping on the field, his eyes softening. "His parents divorced when he was only five years old, and then his mother remarried. His stepfather was always mean to him, beating and scolding him at every turn. By the time Xiaojun's father found out about this, the child had already been admitted to the hospital."
"Xiaojun's father, my brother and I grew up together. After his divorce, he went to Canada. He couldn't come back immediately, so he asked us to go to the hospital to check on Xiaojun's condition."
"When we arrived, Xiaojun's forehead was hit by a wine bottle and blood was flowing out. He had five stitches, but he didn't make a sound or even cry out in pain."
"My brother couldn't stand it and almost got into a fight with that scumbag. He also hired the best lawyer and sent his stepfather to jail for a few years. After that, Xiaojun was fostered in our home and went to school and practiced skating with Youyou."
Lu Tingsong laughed and said, "If you hadn't told me, I wouldn't have noticed. Nine years have passed without me noticing."
After he finished speaking, Jiang Yang and Qin Siyu both felt a little heavy-hearted. Normally, children who learn figure skating come from wealthy families and are spoiled by their families. They really could not imagine that this 14-year-old boy would have such a dark past.
However, Jiang Yang felt heavy-hearted and fortunate at the same time. The young man finally got his reward after all the hard work. It was a blessing in disguise that he sent such a pair of pairs skating partners with perfect understanding to the country.
If single skating is more about showing the audience technical difficulty, and ice dancing is about showing the audience artistic expression, then pair skating presents the audience with the exact same coordination with the partner. This is not something that can be accomplished overnight, but relies more on the tacit understanding formed over many years of bond between the male and female partners. It is not an exaggeration to call it telepathy.
Therefore, there is a widely circulated saying in the figure skating world: Some partners skate into marriage while skating.
However, in reality, the relationship between more pair skating and ice dancing partners is actually more like comradeship. Although ice fans are still crazy about the couple and continue to ship them, for active players, their careers are the top priority in their lives. If they have time to fall in love, they might as well practice figure skating, and love affairs should be put aside for now.
Therefore, after retirement, everyone goes their separate ways, goes back to their own families, and gets married, which breaks the hearts of ice fans on the spot.
In short, thousands of words can be summed up in one sentence -
There are tens of millions of CPs, but the most reliable one is the first one.
If you are not careful when eating candy, you will end up crying.
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