Chapter 27 World Youth Journal
After the Youth Winter Olympics, final exams followed immediately, leaving Feng Simai with almost no time to catch her breath.
Xia Yuezi recalled the words of several parents and silently worried for these children until they received their report cards.
Meng Xin and Xia Yuezi's office seats were side by side. After hearing that Xia Yuezi had received the news, Meng Xin let out a long sigh of relief, put her phone aside, and even hummed a little tune.
She raised an eyebrow and joked, "You seem to be in such a good mood. It looks like Xiaoyan and Simai did very well on their exams."
"Yes, Xiaoyan barely made it into the top 20 in her class this time, which barely met the requirements. Simai made it into the top 100 in the grade. His homeroom teacher said he would have no problem getting into a key high school."
Feng Simai's school is a key municipal high school with a college entrance rate of 98%, and a considerable number of students are admitted through independent enrollment before the high school entrance examination each year.
After hearing a remark from the homeroom teacher, Feng's mother waved her hand and canceled all of Feng Simai's tutoring classes during the winter break, allowing him to focus on preparing for the World Youth Championships.
Meng Xin breathed a sigh of relief: "That's great, but kids these days have it so tough, they can't even get a break when they want to."
Xia Yuezi smiled and said, "We follow the path of sports students, so naturally we can't compare."
Figure skating is a niche sport in China, and the results are not good enough. Almost no comprehensive universities offer special admission quotas to them.
The few top university students in the skating world either have excellent academic performance and can get in on their own, or they have excellent athletic performance and the General Administration of Sport intervenes to negotiate with them.
Feng Simai's family wanted to take the former path, while Yang Yiyan's family adopted a more relaxed approach, fully respecting their daughter's wishes, as long as she could eventually attend university.
During the winter break, Xia Yuezi helped them build muscle again. The two kids complained a lot and didn't even have a good New Year, but the results were very significant.
Meng Xin overheard Yang Yiyan complaining to Feng Simai that when relatives came to pay New Year's visits, they especially liked to pinch the flesh on her face, saying that she was a lucky child.
When she said this as a joke to Xia Yuezi, the two of them looked at the girl who was practicing skating on the ice and laughed at the same time.
In mid-March, the final tournament for the youth group, the World Junior Championships, will be held in Seoul, South Korea. The first thing Xia Yuezi did after arriving at the hotel was to navigate to a nearby supermarket to buy cabbage, intending to borrow the hotel's kitchen to cook for the athletes herself.
It wasn't that Xia Yuezi was unwilling to accept the Korean kimchi feast; it was just that the food prepared by Korea was too frightening.
The yogurt provided at the 2008 Grand Prix Finals caused diarrhea, and one contestant had to run to the toilet before the score was even announced. Later, there was a mass norovirus infection after eating oysters, and Xia Yuezi personally experienced the Four Continents Gastroenteritis incident. Many contestants were taken away by ambulances immediately after the competition.
In short, in Xia Yuezi's mind, Korean food was already synonymous with Indian food.
Besides that, she had other things to do.
South Korea's entertainment industry is developing rapidly, so finding an internet cafe is not difficult. Xia Yuezi sat in a corner and sent out a few emails.
The entertainment industry corresponds to the news industry. South Korean paparazzi are famous all over the world. As long as the scoop is sensational enough, they will immediately go into action once there is a hint of it.
When Xia Yuezi returned, Meng Xin was bringing the two children back from the restaurant. Remembering Xia Yuezi's instructions, they only ate some bread and vegetables.
The group sat in a circle in Xia Yuezi's room, with four plates of freshly boiled cabbage on the table in front of them.
Yang Yiyan poured some vinegar, her eyes darting around, seemingly plotting something mischievous: "Coach, if we make it to the podium, can we order food when we get back home?"
Xia Yuezi glanced at her: "I dare to make it, but do you dare to eat it?"
Her skill level is only good enough to make some diet meals and a few simple home-style dishes, and the taste is just so-so. If you asked her to make some fancy dishes for Chinese New Year, she would blow up the kitchen.
Yang Yiyan pouted and shifted her gaze to another coach. Meng Xin felt uncomfortable being stared at and said with a wry smile, "Don't look at me. My cooking skills are not as good as yours, Coach Xia."
Xia Yuezi only knows how to cook a few dishes because she was forced to learn them during overseas training. Meng Xin has no such experience. Whether she is active or retired, she doesn't need to worry about food. To put it bluntly, she probably can't even recognize all the vegetables in the market.
Yang Yiyan, having returned empty-handed, hung her head and silently ate the food in her bowl.
The women's singles match started first. Feng Simai was still sitting in the audience when another boy wearing the Chinese national team uniform suddenly appeared and put his arm around his shoulder from behind.
"Hey, student representative, do you mind if I sit next to you?"
Feng Simai was too lazy to turn around and pay attention to him. She rolled her eyes, took her bottled water, and moved two spaces inside.
Lu Sheng didn't mind and pulled his partner to sit down next to him.
The story of the student representative dates back to the Youth Winter Olympics. When Feng Simai won the first men's singles gold medal in the event, his school posted a red congratulatory notice at the school gate. On his first day back at school, the newly crowned champion almost collapsed in his knees and wished his alma mater an early Happy New Year.
Moreover, the day he returned to school happened to be a Monday, the fixed flag-raising day for primary and secondary schools in China. Without any prior notice, Feng Simai was invited to the stage by the very kind-looking principal to give a speech as a student representative. His homeroom teacher, not wanting to disturb his rest, thoughtfully prepared a speech for him.
What embarrassed him most was that the incident was posted online by a teacher from his school and was seen by some skating fans. It spread wider and wider and became almost the most embarrassing part of Feng Simai's history that he wanted to delete.
Feng Simai took a sip of water, looked at the pair of skaters beside him, and asked, "The pairs skating event starts this evening, how come you still have the energy to watch the women's singles competition?"
Lu Sheng propped his head up and looked at the six players who were still warming up on the field, explaining, "Don't worry, we'll be the last ones to go on stage."
This pair of young figure skaters comes from Heilongjiang and is currently the most promising pair in China. The three of them often meet when they go abroad to compete and have a very good personal relationship.
Feng Simai glanced at them silently, a hint of envy in her eyes.
The World Youth Championships group players according to their world rankings, and then a draw is held within each group. Let alone being the last player to perform, Feng Simai has never been in the last group.
Yang Yiyan, who is about to compete, shares a similar plight. She only started competing this year and her world ranking is only in the third-to-last group. She didn't get a good draw and will be the first to compete.
Yang Yiyan stood on the ice rink, skating and warming up while looking around.
The attendance at the World Junior Championships was very high, with half of the attendees being of Asian descent. They consciously followed the rules of the figure skating competition when they saw skaters taking the stage.
For a moment, the only sounds on the ice rink were the commentator's voice and Yang Yiyan's own heartbeat.
As the melodious sound of a piano filled the air, Yang Yiyan stood on the ice rink, slowly raising her arms and gliding backward to the music.
Xia Yuezi held her breath and followed the girl's figure, watching her cross her legs, press down on the outside edge of her left foot without reducing her gliding speed, and jump into a 3LZ.
This is a standard procedure for this World Youth Championship.
Cao Jinhui looked at the big screen and clicked her tongue, saying, "Her hook jump is quite interesting."
Feng Simai explained, touching his nose, "At first, she hooked her hand and crossed the blade. She couldn't jump out using the conventional method, so she could only adjust her center of gravity using this method."
The girl on the ice glided in a wide V-shape, her skates leaving arcs on the ice surface, which, under the lights, resembled the shimmering surface of a lake under the moonlight.
She leaned back further to receive more of the moonlight, and then 2A fell.
The audience outside the venue erupted in applause, encouraging the athlete.
Yang Yiyan's movements became increasingly expansive and dynamic, highlighting her tension on the tranquil ice. She lifted her right foot, turned outward, and immediately performed a 3Ft toe jump, followed by another upward jump and a 3Lo.
Yang Yiyan kept time with the music, controlling her speed and axis, and slowly lifted her left foot above her head, her face turning red from holding her breath.
As the last piano note ended, Yang Yiyan was performing the program's ending. Upon hearing the applause and shouts from the audience, she playfully winked.
There were still quite a few dark-style dolls on the ice rink. Just as Yang Yiyan was about to pick one up, she heard someone nearby calling her.
A girl holding a banner supporting Yumikawa Ria threw a doll near Yang Yiyan. Upon closer inspection, she realized it was a rabbit doll wearing a devil headgear, looking both cool and cute.
Yang Yiyan looked at the doll on the ice, then pointed uncertainly at herself. The girl's eyes lit up, and she nodded repeatedly, waving the banner in her hand.
Yang Yiyan dared not pick them up anymore.
The girl's companion noticed this, immediately put down Yumikawa Ria's banner, raised the fan that was on her lap, and waved it even more vigorously.
Upon seeing her own photo, Yang Yiyan picked up the doll and blew a kiss towards the ice skating fans.
The photographer captured the moment and projected it onto the big screen, eliciting laughter from the ice skating fans in the stands.
Meng Xin laughed so hard she couldn't bend over. She nudged Xia Yuezi with her elbow and said, "Look at these 'love-obsessed' fans, don't they look like a real-life example of a 'scumbag' woman's downfall?"
Xia Yuezi also had a smile on her face. She opened her coat to welcome Yang Yiyan, who was about to slide to the exit: "Bo'ai fans are fans too. It's enough that they are willing to support Xiaoyan in the competition."
Yang Yiyan skating to the side of the barrier, put on the jacket that the coach gave her, and Xia Yuezi looked at the doll in her arms with some surprise.
This is Kuromi, who became very popular among women in later generations, but she wasn't very popular for a short time after she first appeared in the world.
The little girl held onto the doll tightly until the timer was up, and even showed it off to the camera, which made many ice skating fans laugh. At the same time, they realized that this little girl didn't seem to like gothic things, but rather cool and good-looking things.
Chinese ice hockey fans who realized this were already ahead of the curve and started gathering information about the doll, since it was something their own kids liked.
Yang Yiyan's final score was 65.91, which was clearly a step behind her performance in the finals.
Xia Yuezi breathed a sigh of relief and led Yang Yiyan to sit on the platform where they were temporarily ranked first.
There was also a South Korean skater in her group. Although there weren't many South Korean judges in the International Skating Union, it was their home turf after all. Plus, Yang Yiyan had suffered the disadvantage of being the first to skate, so she could only swallow her resentment no matter how much she disagreed.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
