Chapter 56 No More Compromise
The music in the dance studio was accompanied by the rhythm of pointe shoes tapping on the ground. Finally, after a period of music, silence returned.
"Let's stop here today. After all, I just finished a performance." He Jiu sat on the mat and panted. Sweat dripped down his jawline onto the rubber mat. He rubbed it off with his soft soles.
"Your physical fitness..." Le was about to complain, but Hejiu's threatening look could no longer be hidden, so she immediately changed the subject, "It's already very rare! You played pirates for the whole show today! And you still have the energy to study the choreography of the duet with me! Excellent! You deserve to be the principal!" She clapped her hands exaggeratedly as she spoke.
He Jiu glared at her, too lazy to argue with her. He stretched his legs and glanced at Le's phone, which was propped up in front of the mirror. The screen seemed to have been dark for a while.
"Your video seems to be turned off."
Le Zheng was also stretching on the ground. Hearing He Jiu's words, she turned her head to take a look. The phone screen had indeed gone dark, and now it sat quietly on its stand, making no sound.
"Don't worry about him," she said, turning back to her stretching routine. Her right shoulder was still a little uncomfortable, so she did two more rounds.
"Aren't you afraid that the celebrity will be upset? I didn't expect celebrities to be so clingy. You have to watch overtime on video? Can you handle that now?"
"What's there to be unhappy about..." Le muttered unhappily, not intending to argue with He Jiu, and let him continue to talk bad words as usual.
It's been almost three weeks since she started, and after quickly getting acquainted with the troupe's cast, Le quickly settled into her work. Everything else is going smoothly, except for some key dance segments where she needs to confirm the choreography. She's tried it several times recently but hasn't been happy with it, so she wants to make some changes.
In order to quickly confirm the entire dance segment, she didn't have time to work with the new actors, so performing the dance herself with a familiar partner was the best option at the moment. It was just that He Jiu had to work overtime with her, so if he liked to make some sarcastic remarks, she let him be.
While the sweat on her body had not yet dried, she stood up, picked up her coat and put it on. After thinking about it, she picked up her cell phone.
It’s already half past ten…
She clicked on a LINE avatar and quickly typed a message.
Outside the Sendai Ice Rink, Morimoto Kosuke gathered his coat and pushed open the rink's doors. The late April evening had already hinted at the return of spring, but the ice rink was still chilly. Kosuke shivered dramatically, silently contemplating the grudge he would later exact on Yuzuru Hanyu.
Music echoed through the empty rink at midnight, a familiar sight. But today, the music surprised Morimoto Kosuke. The stirring violin music was a familiar piece, yet he couldn't quite place it. Pushing open the glass door and entering the rink, Kosuke saw Yuzuru Hanyu skating calmly and thoughtfully across the ice, seemingly oblivious to the music.
He looked at the position on the ice, his fingers moving in circles, simulating the number of circles he should rotate in. When the music was about to end, he returned to the center of the ice as if naturally drawn, raised his hands, took a deep breath, and squatted with his arms outstretched.
The single loop music started playing again, and the sound of the cold wind and the ice skates sliding across the ice surface was heard. Xiaojie instantly understood what piece of music he was skating to today.
How could he not remember this piece? Xiaojie suddenly felt a little ridiculous. This was the first free skate program he'd become known for, since replacing Kikuchi-sensei and accompanying Yuzuru Hanyu in international competitions. He'd watched him polish it over and over again, witnessing the stubborn determination Kikuchi-sensei had described as someone who would perform even if injured. Watching him smile and raise his medal, leaning on crutches, Xiaojie had already prepared himself for the next challenge: a stubborn, disobedient patient who refused to recover.
But no. Hanyu was not as uncooperative as one might imagine, and he even offered suggestions on his own rehabilitation methods.
Although he actually lost his temper twice before going on the ice, Xiaojie still doesn't understand this.
Once he'd settled into the music, Yuzuru Hanyu on the ice recreated the same black-and-gold figure he remembered. Every glissing motion, every step, every jump was even more precise than before. Yet, something seemed different. While his movements blended better with the music, Xiaojie felt as if a few of the jumps he'd seen before were missing.
After the last accent, Yuzuru Hanyu knelt on one knee on the ice, raised his palm and looked at the ceiling of the ice rink.
Snap, snap, snap—
"Great!" Xiaojie couldn't help but applaud. As he was clapping, he suddenly remembered something important. He slapped his forehead and said in frustration, "Oh no! I forgot to record it for you just now. I really should have recorded this!"
"It's okay, I'll record it the same next time." Yuzuru Hanyu smiled contentedly and shook his hair. He stood up and skated towards Xiaojie, leaning on the crotch and sipping water. After two sips, he felt something was wrong and looked at Xiaojie.
"Why are you here?"
"Someone was worried and asked me to come and see you today." Xiaojie took out his mobile phone and put a chat interface in front of Yuzuru Hanyu.
That was a profile picture he was very familiar with.
Suginohara Raku: Kosuke, please go to the ice rink tonight to check on Yuzuru. I'm worried he's overtraining.
【Morimoto Kosuke: Why today?】
[Sugihara Raku: Hehe, it's just my intuition, so don't ask.]
【Morimoto Kosuke: Speechless.jpg】
He had a speechless expression, but he still came. However, Yuzuru Hanyu didn't seem to be overtraining. After all, for him now, skating the origin as long as it didn't reach the 54 structure was not a big deal.
Looking at Le's message, Yuzuru Hanyu touched his nose and burst out laughing.
"So what happened? Did you two have a fight?" Xiaojie seemed to know everything.
Was it a quarrel? He thought he was just being irritated on his own.
Tonight, at the usual video chat time, he connected, but Le wasn't home. The dance studio was brightly lit, and if it weren't for the clock hanging behind him, he would have mistaken it for daytime due to the time difference.
"You haven't gotten off work yet?" Yuzuru Hanyu frowned, feeling a little distressed when he saw Le looking a little tired in front of the camera.
"No, didn't I tell you a couple of days ago that I want to finish this choreography as soon as possible?" Le said, supporting himself with his palms behind his back, tilting his head back and stretching his shoulders. After stretching for a while, he sat up and looked at Yuzuru Hanyu in the video, squinting his eyes.
"Did you get your hair done? What work do you have today?"
"Ah?" Yuzuru Hanyu, who was caught, touched the hair on the top of his head. The hair on his head was a little stiff because of the hairspray. "Well, I'll give a retirement message to Xingxinglu." He smiled foolishly.
"Retire?"
"Um, last week? Oh no, I think he told me the week before last."
Watching Yuzuru Hanyu in the video, seemingly discussing the weather, Le was at a loss for words. With his former peer retiring, wouldn't the ever-emotional Yuzuru Hanyu be crying his eyes out again? Back in Pyeongchang, when Jarvi told him she was retiring, her nose was red from crying.
She observed the person on the screen even more intently. Their eyes didn't look swollen, and their noses weren't red. They probably hadn't cried. Or perhaps they had. As she reasoned earnestly in her mind, her body naturally moved the uncomfortable areas.
I turned my shoulder several times but it still felt twisted and uncomfortable.
"Le, are you hurt?" She kept turning her right shoulder, which was really abnormal.
"I twisted it a little. During rehearsal today, during a lifting movement, the actor didn't quite understand what I wanted, so he rushed and did it himself. He didn't warm up, so he ended up getting stretched."
As she spoke, she gestured with some movements. She sighed in dissatisfaction, "What's wrong with people these days? Are they so obsessed with showing off their skills?"
"Why do you say that suddenly?" Yuzuru Hanyu frowned on the other side of the camera.
"A few days ago, an investor came to watch the rehearsal and gave a lot of suggestions. He said we should add more showmanship, as the audience loves it."
Le hadn't gone on to complain about his job, but even at that point, Hanyu understood clearly enough. The virtuosity, combined with the need to seamlessly integrate the music and dance, was a complex undertaking, demanding even greater interpretations from the performers. This was likely the main reason Le struggled with choreography.
Seeing that he didn't say anything, Le thought that he didn't understand what she meant. She twirled her fingers around the ends of his hair and thought about it, and found a better explanation.
"It's like adding lots of jumps to your figure skating program so the audience will enjoy it and the judges will give it high scores..."
Before she finished speaking, she saw the darkening expression on the other person's face and quickly realized that something was wrong with what she had just said. She bit her lip and hesitated about how to start again.
"That time... didn't you say you didn't watch it?" He scratched his head. "That really wasn't the figure skating I wanted. I hated that program myself."
He spoke like a child who had done something wrong, with his head hanging down. Le looked at him and sighed heavily.
"Aren't we both the same? You're doing it for the points, and I'm doing it to satisfy the investors and please the audience. It's kind of against my will..." She curled her fingers and tapped the phone screen with her knuckles, as if tapping him on the forehead. "But, Hanyu, I'm not going to compromise this time~"
"Um?"
"I want to use my own standards to create works that meet my artistic aesthetics, and use them to convince directors and win over investors." She raised her chin proudly, but faced Hanyu Yuzuru's somewhat surprised gaze, then felt a little embarrassed. She lowered her head and twirled the ends of her hair with her fingers. "I have to give it a try anyway, no matter whether it succeeds or not."
"You can do it! I support you!" Yuzuru Hanyu's support can be heard from the volume of his voice.
His voice echoed in the empty dance studio, and Tohara and Jiu, who had just entered, could hear it clearly.
“What do big stars want to support?”
The face Yuzuru Hanyu disliked suddenly appeared in front of the screen, startling him. Le kicked He Jiu away and urged him to change into his training clothes. Only then did he leave without a care in the world.
"Why is he here?" Yuzuru Hanyu was a little angry.
"I'm going to choreograph a duet."
"So there are no other actors to partner with you?"
"Guess how I stretched my shoulder?" Le rolled his eyes.
"Did you glare at me just now?" Yuzuru Hanyu found a new excuse to make trouble.
The two of them kept on verbally arguing with each other until He Jiu came back after changing into his training clothes.
Le wanted to turn off the video, but Yuzuru Hanyu disagreed.
Finally, Le angrily left him and went off to practice, leaving Hanyu Yuzuru staring at the tiny area on his phone screen, watching their practice with a sullen look. He didn't turn off the video until his own practice time was up, then he went back to the rink.
While swiping my phone to select the BGM for today's practice at the ice rink, I kept thinking about what Le had just said.
[You don't like programs that are all about jumping, but you still ended up doing the 54 composition, right?]
That was the only program he didn't want to see after he finished skating. It went against the strengths and perseverance he'd proudly promised himself, compromising on points for the championship, only to end up with nothing. He felt completely defeated.
His fingers unconsciously lingered on the music on Origin, and he finally hit the play button. He closed his eyes, listening to the sound of the ice skates piercing the silence, listening to the music progressing layer by layer, and his mind replayed the image he had most wanted to express.
I'm not going to compromise this time.
Le Jiao's proud face appeared before him and he opened his eyes.
"I can't lose either, otherwise it would be too bad..." He muttered, ended his short rest and returned to the ice again.
"Hey! Hey! Mr. Hanyu, what are you thinking about? I'm asking you a question! If you have a fight, apologize to your girlfriend right away. Look how much she cares about you." Xiaojie waved his hand in front of Yuzuru Hanyu.
"Oh, you're so long-winded," he said as he put on his skates and sat on a bench to change his shoes. Wiping his skates and massaging his feet were his basic routine on the ice every day.
As she was massaging, she suddenly remembered something. "By the way, I think the homemade plaster you made last time was quite effective. Can you prepare some more? When Le comes back this weekend, I'll ask her to take some more away."
He said as he quickly put on his shoes and went to pack up his electronic devices.
"Oh, how much?"
"Fifty tablets?"
"What the hell? Le-chan wants to sell ointment? Do you know that thing is very troublesome to make?" Xiaojie complained loudly.
"If other actors in the troupe need you, I will promote you in the future, little ballet lady~" Yuzuru Hanyu winked at him mischievously.
"OK."
It's another day dominated by Yuzuru Hanyu.
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