Chapter 34 I don't care anymore, do whatever you want.
Yang Yiyan knelt on the ice, breathing heavily, trying to relieve the pain caused by the air being squeezed out of her lungs during the high-speed rotation.
During the performance, her mind was still foggy, but the muscle memory ingrained in her bones and the willpower of an athlete kept reminding her that she had to finish the program.
Yang Yiyan didn't even have the strength to get off the ice. After bowing to the audience, she only skated a short distance towards the exit before placing her hands on her knees and using the momentum to skate forward.
Xia Yuezi lifted her down, draped her coat over her shoulders, and softened her voice: "You skated very well today, go back and get a good night's sleep."
Yang Yiyan nodded and was helped by the coach to the waiting area.
Not to mention those watching from outside the screen, even many ice skating fans at the scene noticed something was wrong. Several young girls holding Chinese flags huddled together, their voices filled with varying degrees of confusion.
"Is Xiaoyan's condition a bit off? Bellman's movement was too big, and that 3F landing on both feet."
A girl wearing a hat chimed in, "Don't even mention 3F, she almost fell just now even with her best move, the lo jump."
They all started paying attention to this athlete from the Grand Prix Finals last season, and even went to watch Yang Yiyan's previous competition videos, so they were fairly familiar with her strengths.
Yang Yiyan would include Pearl Bellman or 3lo in every program, which quickly made her one of the most recognizable women's singles players on the court.
Most importantly, the 3-lo combination that plagues many female singles players has become a combination jump that Yang Yiyan has almost never made a mistake with.
"Look, the results are in."
Someone shouted, and several girls looked up at the big screen.
The short program scored 56.03, currently ranking fourth.
This is the lowest score Yang Yiyan has ever received.
Xia Yuezi held her hand, only feeling the coldness of the other's fingers. She gripped it tighter and led the little girl to the backstage to rest, where the team doctor had been waiting since early morning.
Yang Yiyan had a blanket borrowed from the hotel draped over her back, leaning on the coach's shoulder, with a thermometer tucked under her arm.
Since last night, Yang Yiyan has been experiencing a low-grade fever and cold sweats. The team doctor said it was her body's immune system working, and if they prescribed medication, she would probably recover even more slowly.
Xia Yuezi looked at the time on her phone, then took off the thermometer and held it up to the light.
37.5 degrees Celsius, still a slight fever, but better than last night.
She took out a tissue from her bag and wiped the sweat from Yang Yiyan's forehead. The little girl had her eyes closed, and her breathing was still a bit heavy.
The backstage lounge was very quiet, with only faint cheers coming from the ice rink.
Xia Yuezi heard footsteps outside, turned around and saw her ice dance coach. She reached out and patted Yang Yiyan awake: "Get up, change your clothes and get ready to go back."
Yang Yiyan sat up and rested for a while before taking the clothes that were placed aside and walking towards the changing room.
The ice dance competition was after the women's singles. Xia Yuezi was worried that something might happen on the ice, so she asked this coach to keep an eye on things. The fact that he could spare the time to come over meant that the women's singles competition was almost over.
"It's still burning?"
Xia Yuezi nodded, handed a bottle of water to the ice dance coach, and asked, "How are the competitions going outside?"
The ice dance coach shook his head, his expression not very good: "There are five people who scored above 60, so it won't be easy for Xiaoyan to catch up."
Polina ranked first with a score of 66.23, second place went to newcomer Vivian with a short program score of 63.81, and third place also came from Europe and America with a score of 63.21.
The scores of the performances were not much different, and the three jump configurations were the same. However, Polina placed the combination jump in the second half and received a 1.1x bonus.
Xia Yuezi tilted her head back and let out a long sigh.
With such a large point difference, it won't be easy to catch up.
In figure skating, a difference of just a fraction of a point can cause a skater to miss out on the podium, let alone Yang Yiyan, whose score difference with the first place was in the double digits, and even the third place was more than seven points behind.
Unless you go for 3A.
But the moment that thought crossed her mind, Xia Yuezi slapped it away.
Let alone Yang Yiyan's current sickly state, even under normal circumstances, the success rate of 3A is less than 30%, not to mention that this jump has never been practiced in the program.
Back at the hotel, Yang Yiyan fell asleep immediately. The Italian temperature still carried the lingering warmth of summer, and while the other rooms had their air conditioning on, Xia Yuezi didn't want her to be exposed to the draft, so she could only open the corner window for ventilation.
After waking up at night, Yang Yiyan was covered in sweat. Not only had her fever subsided, but she also looked more energetic than during the day.
While drinking the porridge cooked by the coach, she listened intently to the team doctor's questions: "Xiaoyan, do you still feel nauseous? Does your stomach hurt? Are you still dizzy?"
Yang Yiyan shook her head, drank the last mouthful of porridge in her bowl, and then looked at Xia Yuezi: "Coach, is there any more?"
Xia Yuezi and the team doctor exchanged a smile. She gently tapped Yang Yiyan's head and said softly, "You can only eat half a bowl. You are still in the recovery period. Eating too much will cause indigestion."
After seeing the team doctor off, Yang Yiyan sipped her drink from her bowl. Xia Yuezi sat by the bed, trying to reason with her: "Yan, you've just recovered. Do you really want to go for a difficult free skate?"
"No." Xia Yuezi was interrupted by the little girl before she could finish speaking. She put down her bowl and looked at the coach with a firm gaze.
Coach Xia wanted to try again: "Xiao Yan, you can't just focus on the finals. There's also the World Youth Championship and the senior championships after that."
Yang Yiyan placed the bowl on the cabinet beside her and looked intently at the coach. The soft yellow light by the bedside made her features appear very gentle, yet also concealed a stubbornness that refused to bend.
"But Coach, don't you always say that the first year of the adult group is always marked down? If I get more results in the youth group, it will be easier when I'm promoted, right?"
Xia Yuezi had no way to refute it.
She said these words to Feng Simai, but she never expected that this little girl would overhear them.
There's a default rule in figure skating called the "first-year effect," which means that when a newcomer is promoted, the judges will appropriately lower their score to create a gap between them and the veteran skaters. Of course, this rule almost exclusively applies to skaters with low P scores.
Yang Yiyan grabbed Xia Yuezi's hand and shook it vigorously, her eyes shining: "Coach, let me go first."
Xia Yuezi closed her eyes and fell onto the bed, following the pull of her hands, with an expression that said, "I can't control you anymore, do whatever you want."
Yang Yiyan knew that the coach had relented, so she threw herself into Xia Yuezi's arms in that position, her long hair falling onto Xia Yuezi's face.
As soon as she opened it, she heard the person in her arms say, "Coach, I knew you were the best."
Xia Yuezi paused, then picked up the hair she had parted and put it back to cover the hair.
The women's singles short program and free skate were a day apart. When Polina saw Yang Yiyan backstage, she had already recovered her energy and they even greeted each other.
She watched as Yang Yiyan found an open space, took a running start, and jumped forward, executing a 2A land jump that crashed onto the backstage like a thunderclap.
Polina's eyes sharpened. She knew how to do a 3A jump, and she could tell that Yang Yiyan's A jump just now was not a speed-based jump, and that it had some extra weight, otherwise she wouldn't have opened her legs into a cross-legged position before landing.
A move that can be done on land may not be possible on ice. This is why many athletes can do a triple A or even a quadruple jump on land, but can't do it on ice.
This future Russian star player astutely noticed that Yang Yiyan may have already started practicing triple A.
As the competition officially began, Xia Yuezi put her arm around Yang Yiyan's shoulder and said in a rare serious tone, "Xiaoyan, listen carefully. The condition that I allow you not to lower the difficulty is that you don't mess around on the ice, especially with 3A. If you dare to do it, you'll have to write a 10,000-word self-criticism when you get back and read it in front of Coach Li."
Logically speaking, coaches shouldn't put psychological pressure on athletes before they go on the ice, but Xia Yuezi knows Yang Yiyan too well. She's genuinely afraid that this girl will recklessly do whatever she wants on the ice just to get on the podium.
Yang Yiyan turned around and gave an OK sign.
Xia Yuezi took a deep breath and pushed the athlete away from the barrier. Yang Yiyan used this momentum to rush to the center of the ice rink in one breath.
Yang Yiyan was dressed in a black couture dress with lace trim on the back, which looked like black wings from a distance.
Her free skate program this time is the theme song from the movie "Twilight". It was a piece that Xia Yuezi came up with after seeing the dolls given to her by fans.
Although the International Skating Union has proposed the use of vocal music in figure skating competitions, this rule will not be implemented until after the Sochi Winter Olympics. Therefore, Xia Yuezi found a piano teacher to play a new version of the instrumental music according to the score and then made some arrangements.
The sound of the piano flowed quietly through the venue as Yang Yiyan skated in circles on one foot, using a ruler-like step to glide out.
Polina stood by the barrier, her eyes fixed on the ice rink, while Sidorov stood beside her, looking equally uneasy.
Yang Yiyan's first jump was a 2A. She raised one hand, deliberately relaxing her body to enhance the feeling of hang time during the jump, winning unanimous praise from the audience.
But she still couldn't relax. Due to physical reasons, she didn't participate in the pre-competition chorus, and after lying in bed for a long time, her muscles hadn't recovered.
Just one 2A, and she already felt the jarring impact.
The second jump is a 3T+3T. This combination jump is the basics of the three-three combination jump for other athletes, but for Yang Yiyan, it is the only 3T combination jump she can master. As for other 3T combinations, Xia Yuezi doesn't expect her to learn them.
Yang Yiyan made a triple turn on her first 3T slide and couldn't connect with the subsequent jumps. Xia Yuezi clenched her fist instantly, but she remained calm and added a 2T and 2LO to complete a triple jump.
According to the International Skating Union (ISU), as long as the three turns do not exceed two rotations and the landing foot does not change position, a follow-up jump is acceptable, although the GOE (goe) will look very bad.
Xia Yuezi breathed a sigh of relief; thankfully, the girl had listened to her.
Yang Yiyan's face was still sickly pale, appearing even paler in contrast to the black Costum, but as she spun at high speed, her cheeks flushed an unusual red, as if she were truly possessed by a vampire.
Her skirt flared out completely, and she lifted her feet to form a donut-like pose.
Immediately after, the ice skate touched the ice again, resulting in a 3LZ (3-second) score. However, Yang Yiyan's foot slipped as she landed, causing her to fall onto the ice, which hurt so much that tears welled up in her eyes.
But she could only get up and continue the race.
As the music reached its climax, Yang Yiyan mustered all her strength and jumped upwards using her waist.
Considering her physical condition, she only did one consecutive jump in the second half – her signature 3S+3LO. However, because she fell during 3LZ and couldn't connect the consecutive jump, she had to make up for it with another consecutive jump in the second half.
After completing the 3S+3Lo sequence, Yang Yiyan followed the instructions of her muscle memory, performing dazzling footwork on the ice while her mind raced, trying to make up for the loss she had just made.
Seeing her left foot turn outwards again, Xia Yuezi's heart tightened, wondering if Yang Yiyan wanted to try the consecutive jumps again.
But that's the highest difficulty level of 3lz+3lo, a triple jump.
After landing, Yang Yiyan quickly spun upwards from her landing position, giving it her all to complete this high-difficulty combination jump.
Seeing her land steadily on the ice, Xia Yuezi finally relaxed completely. She finally understood why so many coaches had heart problems.
Following the athletes in their competitions every day is nerve-wracking; it would scare even someone without a heart condition.
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