On the third day of the Junior Grand Prix in Slovenia, the men’s free skate was about to begin. Given the results of the short program on the first day, everyone was eagerly anticipating the free skate.
The two Junior Grand Prix champions from the previous season had collided at the very first event of the new season, and the favored Chris had made a slight mistake in the free skate, falling behind Lanzic.
Among the top three after the short program, there was also a new face to the international scene. His lively performance in the short program had left a deep impression on everyone, and it was clear that this newcomer was a dark horse poised to make a move in this competition.
As for the six skaters in the final group, aside from Chris, Lanzic, and Xi Ming, the others were not without competition either.
So the atmosphere was truly thick with a suffocating tension.
During the six-minute warm-up, Xi Ming, who had just successfully landed a 3A, confirmed that he was in good form and then stopped attempting jumps. He simply continued gliding around the rink, checking his jump positions for the free skate while marveling at the palpable tension on the serious faces of his fellow competitors.
Perhaps because both Chris and Lanzic were at this event, the pressure they brought had made the atmosphere of the men’s competition here extremely serious.
After all, competitive skaters all wanted to win a medal at this event to boost their chances for the Final.
Of course, the serious faces did not include Chris. As the arena announcer introduced him, he was grinning and waving at the camera, even flashing a peace sign.
Then, once the camera moved away, he turned and made a funny face at Xi Ming.
But Xi Ming had no time to respond to Chris at that moment, because the camera had now turned to him. Xi Ming smiled and waved at the lens.
His black curls were perfectly styled, complementing the slight smile on the young man’s face, giving his youthful demeanor a touch of gentle elegance. And the layered pink costume immediately brought to mind his free skate, Spirit of the Rose.
Standing before the camera was already an elegant, lovely rose spirit.
Zhao Zhengchang felt deeply gratified, because whether it was Xi Ming’s beautiful costume or the perfectly curled hairstyle, both were his doing.
The only thing Zhao Zhengchang regretted was that Xi Ming had refused to let him braid a few side braids and add a flower crown for extra decoration.
Although Xi Ming’s appearance was transitioning toward a young man as he grew taller, he still possessed the handsome features of a youth. If he had been styled as Zhao Zhengchang had designed, he would have been an even more perfect little sprite.
But then again, Xi Ming had originally wanted to slick all his hair back with gel and choose a simpler costume one that Zhao Zhengchang thought looked more like a thermal undershirt.
Xi Ming might be a serious skater when it came to the sport itself, but that absolutely did not extend to costumes and styling.
Being able to get Xi Ming to look like this was already enough for Zhao Zhengchang. Fine, no flowers then.
Xi Ming, who had just finished his warm-up, knew exactly what Zhao Zhengchang was thinking the moment he saw his expression. But he was also dissatisfied that the costume he had chosen had lost to Zhao Zhengchang’s in the team vote.
“If accessories or decorations fall on the ice, it’s an extra deduction. Wouldn’t something simple be better?”
To that, Zhao Zhengchang could only respond with a “whatever makes you happy” expression. After all, he couldn’t very well tell Xi Ming, “Kid, your choice isn’t simple it’s ugly.”
The mentor and student bickered over aesthetics as usual, and then their attention shifted.
Because the final group’s free skate had begun.
When Chris Black stepped onto the ice, the atmosphere in the arena visibly shifted. Under everyone’s gaze, Chris stood in the center of the rink, his head slightly bowed.
“His aura has changed,” Xi Ming murmured to himself, then watched Chris more intently.
The youth whose smile always brought to mind a bright sun had now withdrawn his smile and bowed his head slightly. The aura around him shifted accordingly, as if he had merged with the cold air of the rink.
It was a biting winter. Loneliness, desolation, vastness.
It was Chris’s free skate, Winterreise.
Chris’s free skate for the new season, Winterreise, used music from the opening of Schubert’s most representative works, the vocal cycle Winterreise.
The moment the music began, Chris glided gently. His gaze forward, filled with pain and sorrow, instantly pulled the audience into the melancholic, anguished inner world of the wanderer from Müller’s poetry.
Those who loved Xi Ming always praised his emotionally rich performances. His skating always immersed people in the world he wove, deeply affecting those who watched.
But this was by no means an advantage exclusive to Xi Ming.
Those who could stand at the pinnacle of the junior division were the cream of the crop among their peers, both technically and artistically. And among them, Chris Black was clearly the more outstanding one.
Just at the beginning of the free skate, he had already woven into the music the figure gradually walking away a wanderer leaving behind a society he could not fit into and a love that had abandoned him.
“Oh.” Beside him, Zhao Zhengchang let out an instinctive sound of regret, which pulled Xi Ming slightly out of his immersion in Chris’s performance.
He knew why Zhao Zhengchang was regretful.
As Chris had said during their conversation yesterday, his form at the start of the season had indeed been unstable. Though his exceptional expressiveness made his program deeply moving, his jumps were not entirely reliable.
His first jump, a 4T, though he didn’t fall, the landing position was hardly pretty. Within such an emotionally charged atmosphere, an imperfect jump did make one feel a pang of regret for him.
However, that was a quadruple jump. Even if the grade of execution went negative, it would still boost his final score by a significant margin.
After Chris finished a spin sequence, he moved to his second jump.
The moment Chris took off, both Xi Ming and Lanzik instinctively straightened up.
Lanzik’s second jump was also a toe loop, and clearly it wouldn’t be a triple. Sure enough, Chris’s body spun four times rapidly in the air, landed, and then at the instant of landing took off again.
4T+2T, even as a combination with less-than-ideal rhythm, it was still a quad-to-double jump. The atmosphere in the arena grew even more heated because of these two quadruple jumps.
And the spin Chris performed after that jump seemed to carry a sharp, aggressive edge.
Really, he’s brimming with fighting spirit.
Xi Ming smiled, feeling his own heartbeat quicken along with Chris’s jumps. He even felt a rare twinge of regret regret that his current self was not in the state he had been in before his rebirth.
Since being reborn, even when he had stumbled and spun around on the ice due to his unaccustomed body, Xi Ming had never once felt regret.
It wasn’t that he suddenly yearned for the glory of his past self; it was just that he thought, if it were the past him who had also mastered the quadruple jump, he could have had a far more exhilarating duel with Chris at this moment.
As he was now, after watching Chris’s entire free skate, he could confirm that he couldn’t defeat him.
In the end, Chris’s free skate scored 151.20 total, placing him first for now.
If the only two skaters yet to perform Xi Ming and Lanzik didn’t bring out difficulty configurations capable of challenging him, Chris would very likely end up as the final champion.
Xi Ming glided to the center of the ice to the sound of the announcer’s voice.
Having just finished his own free skate, Lanzik, who was scheduled to skate last, watched Xi Ming intently.
Although Xi Ming’s most recent competition showed that his current program’s difficulty configuration couldn’t yet match Chris’s or Lanzik’s, that didn’t mean they could afford to be complacent about him.
Because Xi Ming was clearly a skater who performed steadily in competition, and his presentation had won over the judges both back home and here.
If they let their guard down, he would quietly catch up.
And Xi Ming on the ice quickly proved their thoughts right.
Chris, during today’s free skate, finally saw Xi Ming’s costume for “Spirit of the Rose.” Just as he had imagined, the layered pink tulle top made the young man look like the most beautiful blooming rose in a garden.
Having fallen in love with Xi Ming’s program after watching the video of his qualifying free skate that his coach had found, Chris watched Xi Ming on the ice while thinking that his spins must look stunning now and then he saw Xi Ming’s first jump.
“That’s a 2A?” Chris frowned as Xi Ming landed his first jump.
He certainly remembered that Xi Ming’s first jump was a 3A, and from the takeoff and landing posture, he didn’t think Xi Ming had popped the jump.
Of course, he quickly understood Xi Ming’s intention for the 1.1x bonus in the second half of the program. Though Xi Ming’s difficulty couldn’t match his or Lanzik’s, it was clear Xi Ming had no intention of ending his free skate quietly; instead, he planned to put some pressure on his opponents.
“Wow, scary.” Chris laughed and remarked, as if he hadn’t been the one to change his combination jump configuration on the spot.
At that moment, Xi Ming’s thoughts on the ice were indeed exactly what Chris had guessed.
Even knowing his score probably wouldn’t catch up to Chris, he had no intention of giving up. Going all out was a sign of respect for his opponents in this competition, and also respect for himself.
Figure skating wasn’t just a competition against opponents; it was also about surpassing oneself. Every time you surpass your past self, it’s an improvement.
So, even a fraction of a point, he would fight for it. If you let your guard down around him, this rose of his will prick you.
The soaring 3A, as if his spirited state added to his jump, was executed beautifully in the latter half when his stamina was clearly beginning to wane a jump with only a fifty-fifty success rate. The GOE the judges ultimately awarded was a testament to that jump.
Xi Ming’s fighting spirit was just like Chris’s in the previous event. The final layback spin, the rose departing from the dream, no longer sleeping silently, but swaying in the wind, as if proclaiming its own existence.
In the end, Xi Ming finished in second place with a total score of 144.93 in the free skate.
“Honestly, these guys.” At the rinkside, Adam Lancik pulled down his jacket and let out a chuckle. This time, his smile was not his usual gentle one; it was more relaxed and more flamboyant, carrying a hint of barely concealed excitement.
“If they think I’m that easy to beat, I’d be in trouble.”