“Congratulations, Xiao Xi.” “Xiao Xi, that champion from a couple days ago amazing!” “Congrats on first place.”
In the bright, lavish hall, elegantly dressed people gathered in small clusters, chatting. Ahead, a live band played a gentle melody in the dance area, and those in the mood swayed through a waltz.
Xi Ming stood at the edge of the crowd. Everyone who passed by smiled and congratulated him of course, for his recent championship at the Japan stop. If one only looked at the well-wishers, they might mistake this for a banquet celebrating Xi Ming’s victory. But, of course, Xi Ming was not the star of this event.
“Ha.”
When most people’s attention was drawn to a couple stepping onto the dance floor ahead, Xi Ming finally got his reprieve. He set down the cup he’d been holding politely plain water, naturally and let out a sigh of relief.
Having smiled at everyone who approached, Xi Ming felt his cheeks going stiff.
“Even though I know they’re congratulating me, I’d bet that nine out of ten people who just talked to me have never watched my program.” When Gu Fu finally arrived, Xi Ming couldn’t help complaining while forking up the little cake Gu Fu had brought him.
“Rather than making small talk with them here, I’d rather be on the ice skating.”
Unfortunately, his mother, Qian Xiuyu, had pulled him out of the provincial team today, insisting he attend her company’s celebration banquet that evening. She felt that if Xi Ming kept burying himself in the training rink never going home, never going to school he’d end up fused with the ice.
In their family, Xi Yu and his father Xi Teng supported Xi Ming’s passion, while Qian Xiuyu was the sole dissenter. Calling her an opponent wasn’t quite right, though she just didn’t want Xi Ming’s entire future to revolve solely around skating. So she always set conditions for him: no overdoing it, no skipping studies, and so on.
Xi Ming knew his mother worried about him, afraid that if he didn’t break through in skating, his mindset would suffer too. So he always listened, including attending this banquet he had zero interest in.
Besides, Zhao Zhengchang also encouraged Xi Ming to get out and relax. After Xi Ming’s JGP qualifying event, the finals and the national championships wouldn’t come until December. It was only September now even with the competitive season demanding intense preparation, he needed to balance work and rest.
Zhao Zhengchang wasn’t worried about Xi Ming slacking off in training; he was more concerned about Xi Ming relaxing outside of it.
“I haven’t secretly added extra training sessions anymore, but I swear Coach Zhao doesn’t believe me at all.” Recalling how eagerly Zhao Zhengchang had pushed him to go out and have fun, Xi Ming grumbled.
“Well, you have a track record.” Gu Fu actually understood Coach Zhao’s perspective. “Back then, you added extra training, hurt your knee, and had to stop. After you recovered, the psychological issues gave you phantom pain. You scared Coach Zhao and the others.”
Xi Ming couldn’t say Gu Fu was wrong. That had been the biggest problem before his rebirth his recovery hadn’t gone smoothly because of it. Even after his knee was confirmed healed, he still felt phantom pain during jumps, affecting his training.
But what he’d done before his rebirth wasn’t the fault of who he was now. Xi Ming felt entirely justified.
What’s more, he shot his friend a petulant glare. “When I vent, I’m looking for your agreement, not for you to side with everyone else.”
“Ah, right, my bad.” Gu Fu apologized smoothly, even raising a hand to show his sincerity. “Regardless, those congratulations without any real meaning are indeed completely unnecessary.”
Xi Ming glanced at Gu Fu’s apologetic expression the eyes behind his glasses looked earnest enough and graciously decided to ‘forgive’ him.
Xi Ming had always felt that this world, compared to the one he’d once known, was more… ostentatious? In any case, it occasionally gave him a sense of unreality. It wasn’t obvious when he was absorbed in training and competition, but it became very clear once he returned to everyday life.
Suddenly attending a private aristocratic school was one thing, and having a best friend who drew crowds wherever he went was another.
The scene before him now was also one.
Xi Ming and Gu Fu huddled together, quietly eating, their gazes fixed on the same spot his brother, Xi Yu.
Xi Yu, who usually looked no different from an ordinary office worker, had clearly been dressed up by Ms. Qian Xiuyu. Every strand of hair radiated polish, and he wore a deep navy three-piece suit. His face, which bore a seven-tenths resemblance to Xi Ming’s, carried a hint of stern aloofness, suddenly making him look serious as if a handsome filter had been layered on top.
As he chatted effortlessly with the group surrounding him, he hardly resembled the nagging Xi Yu who usually chauffeured Xi Ming around.
“Looking at him like this, Xi Yu-ge really does have that CEO vibe,” Gu Fu remarked.
“Somewhat,” Xi Ming agreed with a nod, then corrected Gu Fu, “My brother isn’t the CEO of their company that’s Brother Jing Shen. He’s just an employee working under Brother Jing Shen.”
“Oh right, Jing Shen is the largest shareholder,” Gu Fu recalled.
As a close friend who had known Xi Ming since kindergarten, Gu Fu was very familiar with Xi Ming’s family affairs and naturally knew that the “Brother Jing Shen” Xi Ming referred to was Zhou Jingshen, a friend of Xi Yu’s from university.
Xi Yu had studied IT-related fields and, during his university years, founded a company with a group of like-minded friends that company was Whale Tech, which was currently making waves in the industry.
“Who’s to blame for my brother suddenly having a delayed rebellious phase in college? He insisted on building everything from scratch without Mom’s support, so his little savings could only rely on Brother Jing Shen as an investor,” Xi Ming said, watching her brother network at the event while sharing his youthful stories with her friend.
“Without Brother Jing Shen, they’d have to go pick trash to save up money.”
“Haha, it’s not that exaggerated.” Zhou Jingshen happened to overhear Xi Ming’s last remark as he approached her, and it made him laugh. When Xi Ming looked over sheepishly, he handed her a gift.
“Mingming, congratulations on winning the championship keep it up in the finals,” Zhou Jingshen said, joining the others in congratulating Xi Ming on her Japan stop victory. But he was definitely not among the people Xi Ming had complained about who had never watched her performances.
Among Xi Yu’s friends who had taken little Xi Ming to the ice rink back in the day was Zhou Jingshen, and according to her brother, Zhou Jingshen was privately a big fan of figure skating, skilled enough to do double jumps as an amateur. So, as a true skating enthusiast, Zhou Jingshen had not only watched Xi Ming’s programs but had watched them multiple times.
“The Junior Grand Prix isn’t over yet, and the final list for the finals hasn’t been confirmed,” Xi Ming said cautiously as she accepted Zhou Jingshen’s gift.
Given Xi Ming’s current points, making it to the finals was practically a sure thing. But until the final list was announced, no one could be certain.
“You’re with the national team now, right? When do you head over after the finals?” Zhou Jingshen was clearly very informed about Xi Ming’s situation, and Xi Ming figured Xi Yu must have told him.
Though she didn’t want to admit it, knowing her brother’s personality, he would definitely be rambling on to his friends, showing off her achievements.
“Actually, the decision was made before the Grand Prix, but I just finished the paperwork recently. I’ll report to the national team next week.”
Unlike the provincial team, which selected athletes based on skill alone, figure skaters who could be called national team members needed not only skill but also results basically, they had to be first place in national competitions, or even higher, like medalists from A-level or above events such as Qi Yu and Yu Jinghui.
But last season, Coach Feng had proposed more comprehensively building the national figure skating team’s talent pipeline, strengthening the reserve of talent by recruiting a group of promising skaters to the national team.
So when the selection trials ended, he and Song Yili had already become reserve athletes for the national team’s junior group. As long as they didn’t make mistakes at the Grand Prix, regardless of their results, they would be recruited to the national team.
That was why Coach Feng An had approached him earlier and told him to wait at the national team. As for Song Yili, after the trials ended, he hadn’t gone back and had stayed in Beijing to train.
The reason Xi Ming had delayed until now wasn’t that Coach Feng had changed his mind and demanded Xi Ming achieve results, but rather that Zhao Zhengchang was going to return to the national team with Xi Ming. His handover of duties at the provincial team and his onboarding at the national team were more complicated than Xi Ming’s, and with the frequent international travel for the Grand Prix, it had dragged on until now.
In fact, ever since Xi Ming won the gold medal at the Japan stop, the national team had been pushing for progress.
In the end, Xi Ming slipped away with Gu Fu anyway, because she truly felt out of place at the banquet.
Since tonight’s event was a celebration banquet for a TV drama produced by her mother’s company, as the boss’s son, even hiding in a corner couldn’t spare him from small talk with people who came looking for him. Xi Ming found it troublesome and wasn’t good at handling it most of the time, Gu Fu spoke on his behalf.
And as for why her mother, a film and TV company owner and a rich heiress of several generations, had become the wife of Xi Teng, who came from a completely ordinary middle-class family that could only be attributed to a love that began with good looks.
Yes, Xi Yu and Xi Ming’s superior looks mostly came from Professor Xi Teng, who still looked like he was in his early thirties and, over thirty years ago, was handsome enough to make Ms. Qian Xiuyu chase after him.
Apparently, back then, Professor Xi Teng, who was just a young lecturer, had kept rejecting Qian Xiuyu, but judging by the final outcome, it was clearly Ms. Qian Xiuyu’s victory.
And Ms. Qian Xiuyu not only held a dominant position in the relationship but also in married life. Perhaps it was her instinct as a looks-obsessed person, but she had built her own film and TV-related business and was very successful at it.
But it was clear that neither of Qian Xiuyu’s two sons shared her enthusiasm for appreciating beautiful things. The eldest son had become a programmer, and Xi Ming himself was completely uninterested in all of it. Like today despite having been obsessed with the competition not long ago, he not only had no idea what the celebration drama was called, but also didn’t recognize the director or the lead actors. When his mother brought people over to introduce them, all he could do was offer a polite, awkward smile.
Then he quickly slipped away.
“You’re still the same as always never been good at this since you were little,” Gu Fu said, doing a small jump on the ice without interrupting his conversation with Xi Ming, who was skating alongside him. “Back when you were a kid, you’d sneak away hugging the wall.”
Gu Fu felt that Xi Ming had grown after all. When they were young, Xi Ming would drag him into hiding right from the start; now at least he could manage an awkward smile for a while.
“The way you talk about my childhood makes me sound like some shy little kitten afraid of people,” Xi Ming said, displeased. Then he stopped short on his skates and issued a task to Gu Fu. “Do an upright spin for me to see.”
The dissatisfied Xi Ming decided to put his buddy through his paces. Gu Fu, who had been learning to skate alongside him for quite a while, had no problem pulling off a passable upright spin.
The problem came after the spin he somehow produced a small gift box from who knows where.
“Congratulations on winning the championship, A-Xi.” Gu Fu placed the gift into Xi Ming’s palm. Gu Fu, who usually wore a blank expression that made him seem quite cold, now carried a rare, faint smile. “I hope you don’t mind that this is a belated gift.”
Because of the busy schedule at the start of the season, today was actually the first time Gu Fu had seen Xi Ming since the summer break.
Xi Ming opened the gift from Gu Fu it was a crown-shaped necklace. The moment he saw it, Xi Ming smiled.
Just like Gu Fu. The gift he’d given when Xi Ming won his first championship had been the same. And the reason was simple: long ago, two kids lying in front of a beautiful crown had made a promise.
“When you win a championship in a competition, I’ll give you a crown.”
Xi Ming held the necklace out toward Gu Fu. “Put it on for me?”
As Gu Fu reached around Xi Ming’s neck to fasten the necklace and was about to pull back, Xi Ming suddenly, unexpectedly, reached out and hugged Gu Fu. It was a very brief embrace. When Xi Ming let go, his expression was perfectly natural, as if he hadn’t noticed at all that Gu Fu had stiffened for a split second.
“I really like it, Gu Fu.” Xi Ming beamed, then reached out and gave Gu Fu’s shoulder a light punch. “Just as expected of my good brother.”
“Yeah.” Gu Fu nodded, saying nothing. But as Xi Ming turned around, he thought he caught a faint chuckle and felt a bit puzzled. “Did you laugh, A-Xi?”
“No, you misheard.” Xi Ming turned back to look at Gu Fu, his smile the same as before, though the slight curve of his lips seemed to carry a hint of playfulness.
Thinking about how Xi Ming was indeed usually carefree and would hug them when excited, Gu Fu brushed aside that chuckle, which had seemed almost like an illusion.
He’d probably just misheard after all.