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After the bone broth in the soup pot began to boil, Zhang Sushang added vegetables, and a while after that he took the pot out of the fireplace and placed it on their new table.
Then he put their equally new iron wok on the fire, added oil, carrots, and slices of meat, and began to stir fry.
Alexei cut the lieba into pieces. When the stir-fry was done, they would use it to sandwich the meat and vegetables.
Zhang Sushang didn’t eat the stir-fry himself, feeling that eating something with so much oil would interfere with his weight, instead he left it all for Alexei. That man used to be undernourished so he had night blindness, always bumping into things as soon as the sun set – it was just right to eat more carrots and livers to supplement his vitamin A. This dish was made with him in mind.
He had always been very serious about the task of eating. Seeing the way he concentrated on eating with his head down, Alexei couldn’t help but sigh. “Chyushka, the way you eat makes me feel like the food’s tastier than it is.”
Zhang Sushang looked at him blankly with bulging cheeks, exactly like a hamster that had stuffed its mouth full of food. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
He swallowed, then smiled. “Actually I was very naughty at mealtimes when I was younger, I always got distracted. I remember once when I was six, my dad sent me to school and fed me breakfast on the way, and as a result I couldn’t finish a single piece of bread from stepping out of my house to arriving at school. I got a beating for it.”
He had been the kind of naughty kid who never finished his food before making a fuss because he wanted to watch TV or play with Legos. The elders in his family worried a lot about him but he just couldn’t change it, no matter how much they hit or scolded him. Later it was also because he didn’t eat properly that his bones weren’t strong enough – when he was fourteen, his bones couldn’t support quad jumps and he broke a leg, and as a result, missed out on the Junior Grand Prix that year.
Therefore, injuries delayed his entry into the Junior Grand Prix until he was fifteen years old, and in the end he finished in second place because the difficulty level of his jumps weren’t high enough.
It wasn’t that Zhang Sushang didn’t want to conquer quads, but he began puberty soon after, his height and weight both skyrocketed, and it happened to be his third year of high school. The enormous pressure made his mentality collapse until he had to retire in favour of studying.
It could be put this way: if athletes didn’t eat properly, they would pay the price one day. Zhang Sushang’s price had been painful indeed. Until the day he retired, he never won a single championship.
Because he suffered in this area before, Zhang Sushang was very cautious now. He decided to make his own calcium powder after strength training.
He had to supplement calcium!
Calcium powder wasn’t hard to make, just crush eggshells into powder; the strong Alexei took over this task. The ground calcium powder was then stored in a glass jar, from which they would use a spoonful every day by mixing it with either water or rice. Although it didn’t taste very good, such a thing was nothing compared to good health.
However, Zhang Sushang also paid great attention to the intensity of calcium supplementation — overly high calcium levels could result in developing kidney stones, would he have to undergo surgery at that time?
Penicillium wasn’t discovered until 1928 and penicillin wasn’t produced in significant numbers until 1944, while sulfa1AKA sulfonamide, the first broadly effective antibacterial drug was discovered in 1932 but wasn’t publicly announced until 1935…
Before antibiotics appeared on the stage of history, Zhang Sushang didn’t dare to lay on an operating table, it was just too dangerous. A single slip of the hand would cut his grand plan of living 90 years short.
Alexei didn’t put nearly as much thought into it. Since Zhang Sushang wanted to eat calcium powder he would help make it, and would also eat some from time to time.
If Zhang Sushang wanted to do strange movements in the apartment, he would also do jumping jacks next to him. Ever since they began exercising, Alexei could feel that he had more energy. A while ago when he helped his supervisor move books he went up five floors in a single breath, and later when he met a drunk classmate he easily subdued him and sent him to the infirmary.
There weren’t many things to do for fun these days. Exercising with friends could bring both health and strength, so there was no reason for Alexei to abstain.
Bang!
Bang!
Today, Zhang Sushang started a new routine.
He took two steps forward, jumped, turned one and a half times in the air, then landed firmly on one foot.
Their apartment’s floors were made of wood and Zhang Sushang was a big man, landing wasn’t a quiet affair. The banging sound was from him.
Zhang Sushang couldn’t only jump forwards with 1.5 rotations, he could also jump backwards with two rotations. Alexei, watching this nearby, only felt that he jumped very high and that his turns were shockingly fast.
That was of course a given, Zhang Sushang’s training regimen had targeted his core and leg muscles.
It was also due to the good foundation this body gave him. Although it was a bit fat when he first arrived, he did get enough nutrients during his growth period so his muscles and bones were all healthy enough to endure training of a higher intensity.
If the body belonged to someone who had bones more brittle than the elderly due to dieting or malnutrition during childhood, not only would Zhang Sushang be much more hesitant with his bodybuilding exercises, he would also have to be exceedingly careful while jogging for fear of damaging his knees.
The result the next day was that Alexei, who had improved his health by exercising, fell ill.
Zhang Sushang had discovered something was wrong after he returned from his morning jog. Like him, Alexei had a very accurate biological clock; usually by the time he finished running, Alexei was already up and heating milk on the stove while reading an old book with gusto.
Yet today Alexei was still in bed with fever. While he was dizzy and confused, someone touched his forehead, forced him to wake up, and fed him a glass of warm water.
“Apart from the fever, are you uncomfortable anywhere? Sore throat? Blocked nose?” Zhang Sushang asked, moving a stool next to Alexei’s bed.
Alexei himself was quite relaxed. “I forgot you’re a medical student. My throat hurts a bit, and my nose is also blocked. I want to blow my nose, can you hand me a tissue?”
Zhang Sushang did. Alexei turned away, blew his nose, and crumpled the tissue into a ball then wanted to get up to throw it away himself, but was stopped by Zhang Sushang who took the tissue and opened it up. The snot was yellow.
It looked like he just had the common cold, but Zhang Sushang was just a first-year and didn’t dare to make a diagnosis directly. Instead he boiled a pot of water, placed it next to Alexei and ordered him to drink it, then went out the door.
He planned to call Jiang Jinghu over.
Jiang Jinghu, who came from a family of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, learned how to identify herbs from his grandfather since he could remember, and studied how to read by using a book of prescriptions. He began going to the clinic with his father at ten years old and had seen more patients than most who had already graduated. Although Zhang Sushang hadn’t been sick since he travelled through time, if he had any sports injuries — sore muscles, twisted ankles, and so on — he would go find Jiang Jinghu.
Little Dr. Jiang’s acupuncture and massage skills really were very good, yesterday he helped straighten the bones of an old man who collected rubbish at the back of the university. Zhang Sushang trusted traditional Chinese medicine quite a bit, because he knew of many athletes who were only able to return to the competition field with its help.
Fortunately it was the weekend, otherwise he would have to help Alexei take sick leave. On the less fortunate side, Alexei could only spend his weekend recovering from sickness.
When he found Jiang Jinghu, the young man was seated outside and in the process of memorising textbooks. He still stuttered a bit in daily Russian conversations but could already read everything fluidly, and remembered everything he learned. If Zhang Sushang named a page, he could accurately recite the contents of that page.
With this level of hard work, Zhang Sushang felt that Jiang Jinghu’s choice of schools would never be limited by his grades.
He squatted beside him for a while. When Jiang Jinghu finished memorising that page, he didn’t even lift his head as he asked, “What?”
“Inviting you for a house call,” Zhang Sushang said.
Jiang Jinghu instantly jumped up. “Then why’d you wait for me? Just drag me away if there’s a patient, don’t hesitate when there’s a disease!”
Zhang Sushang muttered under his breath that it wasn’t a big problem, otherwise he would have brought Alexei to a hospital, he didn’t lack the money for it now. However, Jiang Jinghu still asked him about the patient’s situation in detail as he packed up his medical kit as fast as possible.
“You think it’s a cold right? Did you see the colour of his tongue?”
Jiang Jinghu pulled Zhang Sushang along in a hurry. Zhang Sushang followed at the speed of a brisk walk, and found that this weak little doctor was covered in sweat after just a few hundred metres.
Sighing quietly, he picked up the medicine kit and Jiang Jinghu himself, and began running.
Wu Yeming and Li Yuan watched their backs fade from view. “Although Qiupu lost a lot of weight, his physique is the best of us four. I certainly can’t carry Jiang Jinghu’s hundred kilogram body,” Li Yuan sighed.
Looking at his body which barely reached 1.6m, Wu Yeming fell into silence.
During the early 20th century, even men from Europe and America had only an average height of 1.65m — for example, the Olympic silver medalist Misha was considered to be of middling height, not short. The average height of Chinese men was 1.6m, and people from the north were generally taller than those from the south. Li Yuan couldn’t be said to be shorter than average, but he wasn’t tall either.
Wu Yeming was 1.72m tall and relatively fair, so he had been known as a handsome young man in the areas surrounding his hometown.
Jiang Jinghu was jostled all the way and almost puked, but insisted on examining Alexei. During this time Alexei went to the bathroom twice, he obviously drank a lot of water.
Taking his notebook, Jiang Jinghu wrote a few lines. “Qiupu, you were right, it’s just a cold. Drink more hot water, sleep it off, he’ll be fine in a few days. If you want him to get better faster, I can give him acupuncture and moxibustion, then some cupping.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” Zhang Sushang said sincerely as he placed a jar of pickled vegetables on the table.
Jiang Jinghu coughed a little shyly. “Don’t call me doctor, I haven’t graduated yet, and you’re better than me at Western medicine. In the future we’ll have to work together to promote the development of Chinese medicine.”
There were advantages and disadvantages to being a medical student. For example, if you walked into a hospital and saw that your attending doctor was someone who almost failed a class, you would definitely want to immediately turn and leave, but if you found that your attending doctor was a top student, your mentality would be completely different.
Zhang Sushang was just such a ‘top student’ in Jiang Jinghu’s heart. He had already decided that if he needed to get surgery after returning to China, he would definitely look for Zhang Sushang.
The two medical students leisurely discussed Alexei’s treatment plan. Alexei listened to them communicating in Chinese. Although he was confused, his trust in Zhang Sushang ensured that he didn’t protest.
Until Zhang Sushang pressed him down while Jiang Jinghu took out a needle, passed it through a candle flame, and jabbed him with it.
“Ow! What’re you doing!” Alexei yelped.
“We’re using Chinese medicine to treat you,” Zhang Sushang and Jiang Jinghu replied.
Alexei felt that his trust had been destroyed. While lying prone to receive the needles, he deeply reflected on the fact that he didn’t go to find the school doctor or a hospital when he fell sick, but instead trusted two unreliable first-year students.
When Jiang Jinghu lit dried mugwort and put it on him, he almost got up and poured water on himself. Lord, these two are lighting fires on me!
Was this medicine? No! This was witchcraft!
However, Zhang Sushang worked hard to keep this 1.9m tall young man from a warrior nation down. “Believe us, I won’t hurt you, Lyosha, be good,” he said softly.
Alexei almost cried, but five minutes later, he felt a wave of warmth throughout his body.
It was actually quite comfortable.
Could it be that Chinese medicine actually was useful?
Only then did Zhang Sushang remember that doctors had to communicate with patients and their family before any operation took place. He and Jiang Jinghu didn’t consider acupuncture and moxibustion as anything unusual so they forgot to tell Alexei.
He sat on the edge of the bed and began to explain Jiang Jinghu’s methods, as well as the ancient family of doctors he came from and the achievements of his father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and other ancestors, praising to the point that Jiang Jinghu became embarrassed.
When Alexei’s mood calmed down, he looked curiously at Zhang Sushang. “Is Chinese medicine so amazing?” he asked.
Zhang Sushang raised his arm and exerted force, making its muscles bulge. “Of course, Jinghu helped me cure my sore muscles.”
Sometimes knowing how good a doctor was could encourage patients — until Jiang Jinghu took out a bamboo cup, swept its insides with fire, then pressed its opening on Alexei’s back.
Alexei: “Ouch!”
Thanks to Jiang Jinghu’s efforts, Alexei’s cold was cured the next day. This Russian young man was very curious about the round marks on his back — he looked at them in the mirror again and again, and even secretly grabbed Zhang Sushang to ask if Jiang Jinghu could do more cupping for him.
The soreness in his neck and shoulder muscles were all alleviated after that session, Chinese medicine was amazing!
Zhang Sushang, whetstone in hand as he carefully sharpened the blades of his newly purchased skates, replied casually, “You can’t do it every day, otherwise you’ll lose yang energy.”
Alexei was befuddled. What was yang energy?
When the skates were done, Zhang Sushang meticulously placed them in a box, then he took a few steps forward, raised his arms, and jumped with two rotations. When he landed, he kept his arms raised as he spun twice; he wanted to spin for a third time, but lost his balance and only avoided falling with Alexei’s support.
Alexei’s jaw dropped. A long while later, he reacted, pointing a finger at Zhang Sushang. “Chyushka, you know ballet?”
His pose just now with both arms raised was basically the third position from ballet! The spin was also so clearly a ballet move that it was clear at a glance.
Zhang Sushang — who began learning dance when he was four years old, majoring in ballet and minoring in classical dance, and who won the gold medal in the junior category of the National Ballet Competition — was very modest. “I’m just an amateur,” he said.
He truly did think that his current level was very amateurish, because although his mind had the skills and the dance awareness, his body couldn’t keep up! His posture was much worse than even the ‘Prima of the Universe’2Referring to Misty Copeland, who’s rather unpopular in China — antis claim she has mediocre skills and relies on her race to get ahead who had an infamously bad reputation, and there was serious displacement while spinning. If his previous dance teacher could see it, Zhang Sushang would definitely be beaten to death.
Not to mention that the early 20th century was a time when masters were everywhere. Although the legendary virtuoso Vaslav Nijinsky had already retired from the stage for eight years due to schizophrenia, his reputation was still there and he remained a god that many male dancers admired.
Ballet queen Anna Pavlova was still touring.
Galina Ulanova was two years away from graduating and joining the Kirov Ballet.
Isadora Duncan, the pioneer of modern contemporary dance, was still full of energy.
Another mother of modern dance, Martha Graham, founded her dance company just this year.
Living at the same time as these gods, Zhang Sushang dared not say he could dance, so he could only hold on to the window sill and honestly practise his basic skills.
Even after travelling across a hundred years, he never had the thought of throwing away dance or figure skating — these were his constant companions for his entire eighteen years of existence. In the following decades, they would follow him to the end.
Alexei held his hands to his chin as he watched him practise. He was a child from a poor family who had never watched a real ballet performance in his life, he only knew that one of his seniors had a fiance who was a ballet dancer, and when she once visited him on campus, she walked like a swan.
Yes, Chyushka also looked like a swan, but he wasn’t like the ones in nobles’ gardens. He was stronger, more agile, and more energetic. He was a wild swan who could survive on his own and dared to face wind, frost, rain, and snow.
Author:
While everyone regards the 1.8m tall Chyushka as a strong bear, only the 1.9m tall Lyosha can regard him as a swan.
In an era when the average height is 1.65m, the two of them are really big…
Sushang first went on the ice at 3 years old and began learning dancing at 4 years old, and continued with both until 18 years old, that is, the day before time travel. He practised both daily. His foundation is very solid, but he didn’t eat well before time travel so his bones were weak and he broke a bone when doing intense training. As a result, he could only recuperate his legs during the most important 14-15 year old period — a perfectly good SSR was wasted for a long time. Then, when he finally got better, puberty hit.
Translator:
Do extensive research before engaging in alternative medicines like acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, and other traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Basically no studies attest to their effectiveness and most doctors consider it pseudoscience.
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- 1AKA sulfonamide, the first broadly effective antibacterial drug
- 2Referring to Misty Copeland, who’s rather unpopular in China — antis claim she has mediocre skills and relies on her race to get ahead
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