Chapter 17: Pancake, do you want to exchange contact information with your idol...?
The next morning, Xia Yuezi stood at the door of the room and knocked, preparing to take Feng Simai to the competition venue to warm up as soon as possible.
Seeing the door open quickly and the person inside already dressed, Xia Yuezi was somewhat surprised: "You got up so early!"
"It's getting late. I usually exercise around this time in the morning."
Feng Simai opened the door wider, and the window in the room was half open, the wind blowing a few pages of the exercise book on the table.
He is preparing for the high school entrance exam this year.
According to his age, he should be in high school this year, but he had a serious fracture before, so he took a year off from school, and his high school entrance exam was postponed.
Xia Yuezi stood across the table, able to see the scene directly above his shoulder. She didn't say anything, but simply took the room key and led the person away.
There weren't many highlights in this men's singles match, and the number of spectators in the stands was noticeably less than yesterday.
Feng Simai was jumping rope backstage. At the other end of the room was a foreign boy with naturally curly hair. The coach standing next to him was also very familiar to him; it was Sidorov.
Andrei's Slavic heritage was exceptional, giving him striking and refined features. He jogged a few steps, performed a 3A jump on land, and despite his small and thin frame, he landed like a small bomb, the impact echoing throughout the room.
When Xia Yuezi returned with her small bag, Feng Simai was resting in a chair after finishing a training session. She walked over, took a banana from her bag, and handed it to him.
Bananas and yogurt contain a lot of electrolytes and carbohydrates, and are easy to digest, making them suitable to eat about an hour before a competition to maintain stable bodily functions.
Feng Simai drew the last spot in the second-to-last group, with the competition ending around 11 a.m. To prevent any mishaps during the competition, he ate some salad in the morning, and his stomach was already protesting. He took the banana and ate it in a few bites.
He looked at the small bag in the coach's arms and asked, "Coach, what's this?"
"This was just brought over by your mother. She said it was a pancake she made for you in case you get hungry later."
Due to limited resources abroad and the many restrictions on athletes' diets, Feng's mother could only find some simple ingredients from the hotel kitchen.
Xia Yuezi specifically asked if there was any filling in the pancake, but Feng's mother waved her hand and said that even if the hotel had that feature, she wouldn't dare use it, as it didn't even contain sugar.
Feng Simai put the banana peel aside, took the small bag from Xia Yuezi's arms, and could feel its heat as soon as he touched it.
"Come back and eat after you finish the competition, I'm afraid you'll throw up on the ice."
Seeing Feng Simai's softened expression, and how he looked at the pancake like it was a lover, Xia Yuezi quickly took her bag back.
Feng Simai's smile hadn't faded, and her voice had softened considerably: "I understand."
When he appeared on the ice rink in his black kaute, the three people who had managed to get a seat in the front row sat up straight. Yang Yiyan held a doll in one hand and waved a national flag in the other, trying to attract Feng Simai's attention.
When Feng Simai saw the familiar red color, he slowed down as he skated over there during his warm-up rounds, and waved to the crowd with a smile.
He stood on the ice, his expression calm, but when the music started, he instantly transformed into a captivating dancer at the banquet, easily enchanting every invited guest with even the slightest movement.
The first set of jumps is 3LZ+3T. When landing, the person slides backward in a long arc, with a seductive smile on their face, their body slightly tilted, and their arms outstretched as if resting on their partner's shoulders.
Sitting in the stands, Mrs. Feng watched her son's performance with great delight: "It seems that enrolling him in the tango and acting classes was worthwhile."
Yang's mother sat down beside her and leaned over to ask, "Which organization did you enroll her in? Once Xiaoyan finishes her ballet lessons this semester, I'll enroll her in one too. Tango is used quite a lot in figure skating."
Yang Yiyan watched numbly as Feng's mother scrolled through her phone number and recited a string of digits. Then, she realized she had inexplicably gained another training session and decided to try to bring her mother along as little as possible when going out for competitions in the future.
Feng Simai's gaze gradually became infatuated, and his hand movements became more powerful. He glided across the ice, the sound of his blades rubbing against the ice matching the rhythm of the music.
The last set of spins was a jump-and-swallow style. Feng Simai did not have Yang Yiyan's flexibility, so he could only try to make up for his deficiency by pulling his free leg up as high as possible and using the rotation speed.
After the performance, Yang Yiyan immediately threw the doll in her hand. Upon seeing this, Feng Simai slid over to the doll, picked it up, and smiled at the three of them.
Xia Yuezi draped her coat over her elbow and clapped with delight. No matter how many times she took her children out to compete, as long as they were on the ice, the coach's heart was always in her throat.
The moment Feng Simai stepped off the ice, Xia Yuezi gave him a hug and then put his skates on.
The scores came out quickly this time: 74.18 points, temporarily ranking first.
However, the child's mind was clearly not on the score. He had just sat down in the waiting chair when he told Xia Yuezi that he was hungry.
Xia Yuezi suppressed the urge to roll her eyes, pointed to the bag at her feet, and whispered, "Go drink some water and do a urine test first, then eat later."
After Feng Simai finished drinking two bottles of water, Andrei began his performance, his first dive being a 3A.
The short programs for men's and women's singles in the junior division are different. Men's singles only requires an A jump, while women's singles is explicitly limited to two A jumps. Therefore, even though Ria Yumikawa had a reserve of three A jumps, she did not use them in the short program.
However, Andrei's 3A was clearly not as stable as Yumikawa Ria's. His feet slipped noticeably when he landed, and his body was already leaning downwards. He only managed to stabilize himself thanks to his golden knees.
Sidorov, standing on the sidelines, excitedly slammed his skate covers against the railing, the sound drawing the other coaches away from this elderly man from the fighting nation.
"He's improved a lot. Last season he missed all three Aces." Feng Simai said, holding a bottle of mineral water in one hand and a pancake in the other, his words muffled.
Andre and Feng Simai were competitors from the same era, but Andre's difficulty level was a level higher than Feng Simai's. However, the two did not win a single match when they faced each other last season.
Xia Yuezi gently patted his arm, telling him to swallow his food before speaking, and comforted him, "It's okay, we'll practice 3A when we get back."
Although the Russian men's routines are known for their incredibly high difficulty on paper, their consistency is consistently poor. Every year at the All-Russian Championships, someone always ends up being sent to Siberia to dig potatoes. But what if they suddenly have a breakout performance?
No one dares to gamble on the consistency of the Russian men's singles player, not even Russia itself.
"Really? I can practice 3A now!"
Feng Simai's eyes widened. Currently, Lin Ye is the only one in China who can jump 3A. It is said that he has already started to aim for 4T in preparation for the upcoming Olympic season.
Upon hearing this news, Feng Simai also asked Xia Yuezi to let him practice 3A, but she refused because his axis was not stable enough. At the same time, she promised that if Feng Simai could make it to the finals this season, she would consider letting him learn 3A.
"Of course it's true, but first you have to finish your National Day homework."
Xia Yuezi spoke gently but with the most hurtful words, and Feng Simai instantly slumped down, biting hard at the pancake in his hand.
After the competition results were announced, the singles skaters had a day off. Feng Simai and Yang Yiyan both stayed in the hotel gym; one was lying on the bed enjoying a massage from her coach, while the other was stretching on a yoga mat on the floor.
Xia Yuezi followed Yu Qian's technique to relax Yang Yiyan's muscles, and the little girl was so comfortable that she almost fell asleep.
Feng Simai was using a fascia gun on his thigh muscles when the two mothers, with shopping lists in hand, headed to the duty-free shop, claiming they didn't want to disturb their training.
Xia Yuezi was happy to have some peace and quiet, since she was quite afraid of her parents interfering during training or competitions.
This is the scene that Yumikawa Ria saw when she arrived. She was lying on the leg exercise machine, pushing her legs up with all her might, adjusting her breathing while glancing at the scene on the other side.
Feeling the intense gaze, Xia Yuezi turned to look at her former rival and asked in Japanese, "Is there something you need?"
Mengchuan Liya was somewhat surprised that Xia Yuezi could speak Japanese. She put the leg press machine back on and sat up, saying, "Did I disturb you? I meant no harm, I'm just very interested in these two contestants."
The two children sat together, listening to the two chattering away, their faces showing discomfort.
Feng Simai's foreign language skills were decent, so Yang Yiyan lowered her voice and asked him, "Can you understand it?"
The other party simply shrugged, indicating that they could understand English but not Japanese, and Yang Yiyan, who was terrible at English, would understand even less.
Fortunately, the two didn't talk for long before Xia Yuezi turned back to continue leading their training. Yang Yiyan immediately leaned over curiously and asked, "Coach, what were you talking about?"
Xia Yuezi pressed her back to her original position, picked up the spray next to her and sprayed it on her waist, saying lightly, "It's nothing, Mengchuan just asked if you have international communication software or email, and wanted to exchange contact information with you."
"How can you call something so serious nothing!" Yang Yiyan leaned back, looking at the coach with a face full of grief and indignation, as if she had committed some heinous crime.
Having watched so many of Mengchuan Liya's matches, Yang Yiyan has become a complete fan of hers. She simply couldn't let this opportunity pass by. Even Feng Simai rarely showed a pitiful expression when complaining about the coach.
Xia Yuezi didn't seem to care. She pressed Yang Yiyan down again and glanced at her lightly: "Darling, Feng Simai can give her an international email address, but what contact information can you give her? Do you have your phone number in China?"
While activating domestic services on a mobile phone SIM card does allow you to contact international numbers, the cost is extremely high. Generally, players prefer to use international communication software.
Glancing at the girl who had given up, Xia Yuezi turned her head and started making promises again: "It's not like we'll never see her again. Let's work hard in the free skate, and then we can exchange places in the Grand Prix Final or the World Junior Championships."
Yang Yiyan's previously droopy face regained its vitality, and after the massage, she started looking for equipment to train on her own without Xia Yuezi having to urge her.
Feng Simai stood in front of the barbell, watching Xia Yuezi hiding and laughing in Yang Yiyan's blind spot, and couldn't help but shake his head and sigh.
The coach's tactic of provoking people is really... always effective.
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