Chapter 110: World Team Championship (Part I)

Fu Yiqing refused to let Shu Ran appear before the public just yet. He believed that her current ability had not yet recovered to the level where she could silence her critics. What he wanted was for Shu Ran to make an absolutely stunning return to the competitive arena.

But what Fu Yiqing truly feared was public opinion.

If Shu Ran’s current ability failed to astonish the public, the scandal of her withdrawal from the competition two years ago would inevitably be dragged out again. By then, the Ice Association’s impression of her would only worsen, and it might even oppose her participation in the Long Island Winter Olympics two years later.

It was only after Fu Yiqing explained this that Shu Ran finally understood.

That was why she felt somewhat apprehensive about taking part in this World Championships.

A great many things had changed this season.

The ISU had already introduced new competition rules. Apart from ranking points, all competitors’ previous scores had been cleared and consigned to history. Since no one had broken the short-program world record set by Shu Ran, her score of 81.41 had placed her in the annals of women’s singles figure skating.

But it was not only the rules that had changed. The greatest change lay in the competitors.

Women’s singles generally saw a new generation every two Olympic cycles. Most of the skaters who had competed alongside Shu Ran were now troubled by injuries and age, and the majority had already retired.

Nearly all the faces appearing on the ice were new.

There were, of course, a few familiar ones, such as Nadilova, the women’s singles world champion from the Winter Olympics two years earlier. Yet Shu Ran was five years older than her. If even a familiar face like Nadilova was still so young, what of the newcomers who were younger still?

Still, after everything she had been through, Shu Ran had faced too many problems to be surprised by any of it.

Compared with worrying about her competitors, she was more concerned about public opinion.

After being away from competition for so long, it was only natural that Shu Ran felt nervous.

The moment she removed her coat and stepped onto the ice, the chill of the rink instantly enveloped her.

Without even looking up, she could sense the skating fans in the stands. Attendance was nowhere near as high as it had been at the Winter Olympics, and most of the seats remained unoccupied, but for Shu Ran, who had not skated in public for two years, so many eyes were enough to make her heart tremble.

In an environment both unfamiliar and familiar, the music began.

Although Shu Ran’s performance was not flawless, the applause from the skating fans delighted her.

In the end, she provisionally placed fifth with a short-program score of 69.86.

In the competition the following day, Shu Ran failed to surpass the performance she had delivered in the short program. Her combined score from the short program and free skate placed her eighth.

For the Shu Ran of the past, this could hardly be considered a good result. It could even be called a significant decline.

But in women’s singles over the past two years, it was already the best result.

Thus, the Ice Association tacitly approved Shu Ran’s eligibility for the World Team Championships.

Morning training came to an end.

The team would depart for Japan the next morning to compete in the World Team Championships, so Shu Ran returned to the villa to pack her luggage.

The normally quiet room was unexpectedly boisterous.

Voices kept coming from the phone, including that of Wu Xincheng.

“Shu Ran, once we finish competing on the twenty-third, let’s go shopping. I need to buy some skincare products.”

Chen Lecheng said, “The competition hasn’t even started, and you’re already thinking about when it will end. Is that really the attitude of someone representing the country?”

From the phone came Zhu Hongzhe’s faint voice. “You said yesterday that you wanted to visit Akihabara.”

Chen Lecheng’s solemn tone immediately softened, and he laughed. “Hongzhe, don’t betray me like that.”

Wu Xincheng scoffed.

Shu Ran sorted her things while adding a few comments of her own. Just as she was about to get up and fetch several changes of clothes from the wardrobe, she suddenly noticed a figure at the edge of her vision.

She looked up.

The sight of the newcomer startled her.

Fu Yiqing walked over with a grim expression and tightly furrowed brows. His face was unreadable as he reached over and switched off the group voice chat on the phone stand.

Shu Ran remained crouched on the floor while Fu Yiqing stood before her.

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

After a long while, Fu Yiqing looked at her. “You’re going to compete in the World Team Championships?”

Shu Ran’s heart gave a sudden lurch. She had a feeling that something was about to happen.

Fu Yiqing continued, “Didn’t we say we were supposed to trust each other? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Shu Ran happened to look up and caught the complicated emotion in his eyes, as though he were secretly wounded.

Guilt flooded her mind.

Frowning, Shu Ran lowered her gaze. “It isn’t what you think…”

At first, after hearing Wu Xincheng’s suggestion, Shu Ran had only wanted to help by filling out the roster. But after speaking with Huo Guang on the phone, she came to understand that during the two years she had vanished from the competitive arena, she had lost more than the support of the skating fans. She had also exhausted all the goodwill the Ice Association once held toward her.

Of course, she believed that as long as Fu Yiqing intervened, the Ice Association would set aside its resentment and allow her to compete in whatever event she wished.

But Shu Ran did not want that.

It was not merely because she wanted to rely on her own abilities. More importantly, she did not want Fu Yiqing to lower his head for her sake.

He was such a proud man.

So she would rather regain the Ice Association’s trust and support through her own performances.

But Shu Ran only ran these thoughts through her mind. The explanation was too long, and when the words reached her lips, her thoughts became tangled. She bit her lower lip tightly and failed to offer any reason at all.

She looked like a timid child who had done something wrong and was waiting to be scolded. Yet Fu Yiqing merely sighed helplessly.

“When did I ever say I wouldn’t let you compete?”

“Ah?”

Shu Ran raised her head in confusion, wondering whether she had misheard him or misunderstood his meaning.

Fu Yiqing shook his head, then lightly patted her on the head with a laugh. “Why are you just sitting there like a fool? Pack your luggage.”

The heavy atmosphere from moments earlier had vanished. His smile held three parts helplessness and seven parts relief.

The gloomy weather in Shu Ran’s heart cleared at once. The timidity faded from her eyes, and she lifted her lashes in delighted surprise. Her eyes shone with happiness as she nodded and continued packing.

The World Team Championships were held every two years and featured the six countries at the top of the rankings.

Although it was also an international event, the absence of ranking points meant that its atmosphere was not as tense as that of an ordinary international competition.

Even so, the participating lineups were nothing to dismiss.

Each country had to send the athletes who had achieved the best results in each discipline that season. Each nation was represented by two men’s singles skaters and two women’s singles skaters, along with one pair in pair skating and one ice dance couple.

The best result of the season was naturally the score Shu Ran had earned at the World Championships a month earlier, so her inclusion was beyond dispute.

The other women’s singles skater was Chen Jiahe, who was sixteen years old—seven years younger than Shu Ran.

The men’s singles representatives were naturally Chen Lecheng and Zhu Hongzhe. Wu Xincheng and Shen Yu made up the pairs team.

The male ice dance partner was Li Yuanxing, while the female partner was Wan Yushan. Although the pair had been skating together for three years, they were not acquainted with Shu Ran.

But no matter how unfamiliar the team might have been, with Chen Lecheng, Zhu Hongzhe, and Wu Xincheng—the three resident clowns—around, there was no chance of peace and quiet. They would never manage to settle down in this lifetime.

Because Qin Liubei had known about Shu Ran’s participation in the World Championships and failed to report it, Fu Yiqing had called him out for a talk.

Shu Ran watched Qin Liubei’s departing back and felt a pang of sympathy.

The opening ceremony of the World Team Championships would not take place until the afternoon. At present, athletes from every country were busy decorating their respective team sections.

The two American male skaters brought out props representing heroes from various Hollywood blockbusters and pretended to be the protagonists of those movies. Before long, they actually began battling each other, completely forgetting about the decorations. After fighting for a while and realizing no one was paying attention to them, they obediently went back to help with the setup.

Chen Lecheng secretly surveyed the decorations prepared by the other countries. Then, with a confident smile, he raised his chin.

“We’re definitely going to win.”

Shu Ran could not help laughing at him. “That confident?”

Chen Lecheng let out a cold laugh, rubbed his forehead, and glanced smugly toward his country’s section.

“I even brought a secret weapon.”

Zhu Hongzhe seemed to know what was coming and kept shaking his head with a sigh.

Sure enough, Chen Lecheng pulled one cushion after another from a black bag and placed them on the chairs.

“If we still can’t win after this, it won’t be because we’re too weak. It’ll be because our opponents are too strong.”

These were not ordinary cushions. Each one was printed with a meme.

A panda’s head was drawn on them, along with a line of text.

Chen Jiahe, the junior apprentice, read it aloud. “Hero, spare my life.”

Chen Lecheng’s smile froze. He hurriedly picked up a cushion and examined it closely.

“What the hell? The seller sent the wrong order!”

The interruption left everyone doubled over with laughter. Even Zhu Hongzhe, who had originally shown little interest, threw himself wholeheartedly into mocking Chen Lecheng.

Fu Yiqing entered and saw Shu Ran, Zhu Hongzhe, and the others fooling around. His brows curved into a smile.

Then he suddenly paused.

It seemed that he had not seen Shu Ran smile so happily in a very long time.

Qin Liubei followed Fu Yiqing’s gaze and grew suspicious.

Could Fu Yiqing be jealous?

Qin Liubei was still speculating about the reason for Fu Yiqing’s distracted expression when Fu Yiqing suddenly spoke.

“Liubei, have you bought the tickets for our return flight?”

“I have.” He breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that fortunately he had bought them. Otherwise, Fu Yiqing would have turned grim again.

“Cancel them.”

The warmth that had just returned to Qin Liubei’s eyes vanished instantly.

“What?”

Fu Yiqing looked at him, his expression calm and clearly not joking.

“We’re returning with the team.”

For a moment, Qin Liubei wondered whether Fu Yiqing was deliberately tormenting him. What if he canceled the tickets, only for Fu Yiqing to tell him to book them again? Wouldn’t that just create more work?

No. He had to make sure.

“Why do you suddenly want to return with the team?” Qin Liubei asked with a frown. “Haven’t we always traveled separately from them before?”

Fu Yiqing slowly drew in a breath and turned his gaze toward the group laughing merrily nearby.

“I just feel that perhaps I’ve been taking the wrong path too.”

His voice was gentle, carrying a trace of faint regret.

As Qin Liubei had said, they had always traveled separately from the team. Even their training sessions were conducted apart, and Shu Ran rarely had the chance to spend time with her fellow national-team members.

It had created the mistaken impression that Fu Yiqing only wanted Shu Ran to skate for the sake of results—a shortsighted obsession with immediate success.

But when he thought about it carefully, almost all the time Shu Ran spent with these teammates had been filled with laughter.

There was a kind of heartfelt care that affection alone could not replace, a kind of care and understanding that only people of the same age could offer.

There was no need for long words of comfort. A single consoling joke could make someone forget their troubles.

Only at this moment was Fu Yiqing willing to admit that there was indeed a generation gap between him and Shu Ran.

The generation gap did not affect their relationship, but compared with Shu Ran’s peers, they possessed far less ability to make her laugh.