Chapter 48. Ren Xiyao answered quickly. She was...
Ren Xiyao answered quickly. She was in the lounge, her cheeks flushed from exercise, and her wisps of hair were damp with sweat, clinging to her skin. Her eyes were bright and sparkling, a look that Kwon Ji-yong hadn't seen in a long time.
"Did you see it?" she asked, a slight smile playing on her lips.
“I saw it.” His voice was softer than he had imagined: “It’s perfect.”
"It's still a long way off," Ren Xiyao said, but couldn't hide the smugness in her voice: "But at least I can complete the whole set of movements."
Kwon Ji-yong held the phone closer, as if that would bring him closer to her: "I knew you could do it."
"How are things on your end?" She took a breath. "You sound very tired."
"I was dying." He sighed dramatically, then couldn't help but laugh: "But seeing your message brought me back to life."
Ren Xiyao rolled her eyes, but her smile deepened: "Glib talker."
“Really.” He suddenly became serious: “I believe in you more than you believe in yourself.”
An assistant coach's voice came from outside the lounge. Ren Xiyao turned her head to respond, then turned back to the camera: "I need to go relax my muscles."
“Go ahead,” Kwon Ji-yong said. “I’ll call you back tonight?”
"Weren't you going to work all night?"
"Then tomorrow morning."
“Go to sleep when you should.” Ren Xiyao frowned. “Don’t think I don’t know how long it’s been since you last slept.”
Kwon Ji-yong pretended to think for a moment: "Then... kiss me and I'll go to sleep."
"Tsk," she narrowed her eyes slightly, glanced around somewhat guiltily, and then quickly made a kissing gesture towards the camera: "Satisfied?"
“Very dissatisfied.” He grinned. “Once I’m done with this busy period, you’ll have to give me a real kiss.”
"We'll see how you do." She snorted, but her eyes were gentle: "Go to work, big star." After hanging up the phone, Kwon Ji-yong sat in the stairwell for a while, letting the joy spread in his chest.
When he returned to the recording studio, his agent and producer were discussing something. They both stopped when they saw him enter.
"Girlfriend," the producer asked with a knowing smile. His manager, however, stared at him warily, worried he might be up to something again.
Kwon Ji-yong didn't answer, but the smile on his lips betrayed him. He put on his headphones: "Let's listen to that part again."
Strangely, this time it sounded completely different. Those little flaws that had previously driven him crazy suddenly became acceptable, even somewhat amusing. He modified a few notes and hummed a new melody.
"This is good." The producer nodded in front of the control panel. "Much more energetic."
Kwon Ji-yong lowered his head and jotted down his inspiration on the paper, the pen tip almost tearing through the paper. He wanted to write a song about rebirth, about overflowing love, about a story of believing in light even in darkness.
The manager leaned over for a look: "A new song?"
"Hmm." Kwon Ji-yong didn't look up: "For the person I love."
The recording continued until four or five in the morning. When they finally finished the last part, everyone was exhausted, but Kwon Ji-yong was unusually awake. Stepping out of the recording studio, he stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the YG building, watching the Seoul sky gradually brighten, and remembered that Ren Xiyao had said that the sunrise in Harbin was an hour earlier than here.
He wanted to fly to the ice rink immediately, to see her on the ice with his own eyes, and to tell her how proud he was. But the reality was, he had over a dozen members, three music video shoots, and countless other commitments waiting for him.
Kwon Ji-yong picked up his phone and scrolled through their chat history from the past few days. Ren Xiyao's words revealed an increasing casualness, ease, and dependence that he found sweet. He had read these chat logs countless times and listened to the voice messages many times. But each time, it brought him joy. He remembered the first time he met her, that girl sitting quietly in the corner of the club, slightly out of place. Who could have imagined that she would be with him like this now?
“Ji-yong,” his manager called from the doorway, “the car is ready, let’s go straight to the beauty salon.”
Kwon Ji-yong put away his phone and glanced at the sunrise outside the window. A new day had begun, for both of them.
Time slipped by unnoticed amidst rigorous training and a hectic schedule. Ren Xiyao's right leg still ached slightly after high-intensity training, but she had returned to a state where she could coexist harmoniously with the pain and distinguish between normal fatigue and signs of danger. Her skating became increasingly fluid, her speed steadily improved, and her cornering technique gradually returned to its former level. Her skating became more stable and resilient.
More importantly, her inner struggles gradually faded, replaced by a deeper and more resolute radiance. Every time she navigated a corner, it felt like a farewell to the past and a declaration to the future. She maintained communication with her psychologist, and their discussions shifted from how to overcome fear to how to maintain focus under pressure and how to perform at her best during competitions.
Until the final team test race before the off-season, Ren Xiyao skated a performance close to her pre-injury best in the 500-meter event. The moment she crossed the finish line, she shouted for the first time. Long-suppressed emotions were finally released. The coaches stood on the sidelines, their faces beaming with satisfaction.
It was mid-April. The short off-season had begun. Ren Xiyao received psychological counseling while continuing her basic training, even though she didn't need to go to the training base. She also took advantage of her free time to return to school.
Ren Xiyao is already a junior in college. Due to the nature of her profession, she hasn't spent much time on campus, which she finds a bit of a pity in retrospect. Walking on the tree-lined campus, experiencing the academic atmosphere so different from the training base, is a rare opportunity for her to relax and "recharge." She has always wanted to pursue a master's degree, so her dissertation has always focused on combining sports and art to broaden her research perspective.
As a junior in the second semester, her graduation thesis for her senior year is already on the agenda. This is something that requires a significant investment of time and energy in research and planning. She doesn't have enough time, so she communicated with the department in advance to prepare earlier. She is currently brainstorming the topic for her thesis. She needs to squeeze out more time from her heavy training and future competition schedule to complete it.
"Xiyao, with your grades and your background, you have a very good chance of being recommended for graduate school!" a familiar classmate said after learning about her grades.
"Yes, that's something I've considered." Ren Xiyao nodded. Her undergraduate studies in art history had only opened a door; she longed to explore it more deeply.
"That's great, Xiyao." The girl sitting next to her, Chen Yu, patted her on the shoulder: "You're so busy with competitions and training, how can you still get such a high GPA? How is your brain made?"
Ren Xiyao smiled and straightened the book covers under her hand: "I was lucky, my major course teacher gave me a high score."
"Come on, your paper from last semester was also published in a journal, and the professor even shared it as an example. You're not here, but the paper is already here." The student behind rolled his eyes: "By the way, do you have any ideas for your senior year paper topic yet? You're going to have a competition and you'll rarely be back. You should start working on it in advance."
"Not yet. I'm taking advantage of the off-season to discuss some initial ideas with my teacher." Ren Xiyao glanced down at her phone; Kwon Ji-yong had just sent a message: "Finished recording, exhausted."
She quickly replied, "I'm here at school to discuss my thesis topic with my professor, and I'll go to the library to look up some information later."
The reply came instantly: "Studying again? Didn't you just get a rare two-week break?"
"Precisely because the off-season is so rare, we need to catch up on what we've learned."
"...Are all athletes this dedicated?"
Ren Xiyao smiled, didn't reply, and put her phone back in her pocket. Her deskmate, Chen Yu, leaned over: "Boyfriend?"
"Um."
"And he's a foreigner?"
"Um."
Chen Yu clicked her tongue: "What kind of new-age time management master are you? You manage your major courses, win a world championship, and still have time to date a boyfriend from another country. We're both in our early twenties, how come there's such a huge difference between people?"
Ren Xiyao laughed and said, "That's not true. You've published so many papers and participated in so many research projects. You're always either first or second in the department. Why are you saying that?"
Chen Yu was a little excited: "It's different. You're bringing glory to the country, and I don't have a boyfriend! I want to date. People say that if you don't date in college, it'll be even harder to date after you start working. I don't want to go on blind dates. I want to enjoy the beautiful, innocent campus romance."
Ren Xiyao couldn't help but laugh loudly: "Then good luck! No problem, I believe in you." She also gave her a fist bump.
After the joke, Ren Xiyao lowered her head to organize her notebook. Her relationship with Quan Zhilong wasn't complicated. They had been together for some time, but due to their respective professions, they rarely saw each other. She was training, competing, and taking extra classes; he was writing songs, touring, and shooting commercials. However, the worries she had before they got together seemed to have never materialized. They had never argued because of the distance. Perhaps it was because they were both too busy to be sentimental.
After finishing my afternoon classes, it was time to meet with my advisor. I knocked on the door. My advisor's voice came from inside.
"Come in."
Professor Zhang from the Department of Art History pushed up his glasses, looked up from his computer, and smiled as he pointed to the chair opposite him: "Sit down. How's your right leg?"
"It's alright, teacher, training has resumed as normal." She put down her bag and pulled out a stack of prepared research materials and previous assignments: "Teacher, this is the assignment I owe this semester, and this is some research on my ideas for my graduation thesis."
Professor Zhang took it and flipped through it, raising his eyebrows slightly: "Focusing on winter sports and Chinese painting? The idea is interesting, but are you sure you have time to write it?"
“It’s not the Winter Olympics season now, it’s more of an adjustment period. Once I’m back to my best, the pressure isn’t that great.” Ren Xiyao paused, then added, “And… I want to pursue a master’s degree.”
Professor Zhang put down his manuscript and looked at her with interest: "A recommendation for graduate school?"
"Yes, my grades should be good enough." She nodded. "It's just that I heard that regular graduate school applications require attending summer camps or something like that. I might have a time conflict with that."
“You can win gold medals while earning high grades, I believe in you for graduate school,” Professor Zhang smiled. “Last year, our department recommended a fencer for the national team, who, like you, is constantly competing. He’s incredibly busy, spending most of the year abroad. The university has policies regarding athletes, and you have good academic performance and athletic achievements. If you’re planning to pursue this, there shouldn’t be any major problems.”
Ren Xiyao breathed a sigh of relief, a slight smile playing on her lips: "Then... about the recommendation letter?"
"First, write a good thesis proposal." Professor Zhang tapped the documents on the table: "Don't write it too much like a training report. Art history papers should still have aesthetic appeal."
"I'll try my best." She gave a wry smile, somewhat helplessly: "I'm used to writing training logs, and now I want to analyze the data in everything I see."
Professor Zhang laughed: "Then you should write your paper about the precise correlation between training data and boundary mapping data."
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Author's Note: Thank you everyone, enjoy reading! [heart emoji]
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