Chapter 14: Is this move cool? It’s supposed to be!

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Land training was to increase physical fitness through aerobic activity, enhance strength through anaerobic activity, practice flexibility and posture through dance, and finally jump on land.

“There’s a saying that sums it up well: people who don’t do land training properly won’t do well on the ice. Only those who can endure the boredom and hard work on land can shine on the ice.”

Misha, who had just finished drinking a big cup of milk, came up next to him and asked, “Who said this?”

“I said it. How high you can jump depends on your leg strength, and the higher you jump, the more times you can turn — am I right?” Zhang Sushang asked.

Misha considered it for a few seconds, then nodded, “Yes.”

“And the speed of your rotations, doesn’t it rely on your core?”

“Yes, and my balance, otherwise if I turn too fast I’ll fall over.”

How athletes performed on the ice wasn’t only related to technique, but also their physical ability. This was common sense to them.

It was because he was an athlete that Misha thought his body was already much better than that of an ordinary person. He was someone who could easily run 5km, knew all the compulsory figures, could do five types of spins on the ice, and could even do four types of double jumps!

Zhang Sushang looked at him silently. “Oh, you’re amazing, then can you do the jumps on land?”

“Of course I can,” he answered, smiling contemptuously. Who hadn’t tried jumping on land?

He ran a few steps and jumped with his legs crossed, performing a double Salchow jump on land. By the way, the creator of this jump was the first men’s singles figure skating champion at the Olympics, Ulrich Salchow, who was Swedish like Gillis.

Zhang Sushang glanced at him, then took off his coat, warmed up his joints, and started to run forward, also doing a double jump.

Jumps in figure skating relied on foundational skills. Those who didn’t have it were limited to double jumps, while those who were slightly more talented might be able to achieve a triple jump. Zhang Sushang’s physical condition wasn’t adjusted yet, so his current limit was a double Axel jump.

The Axel jump was invented in 1882 by Norwegian skater Axel Paulsen. It was the only one out of six jump types in figure skating in which the skater took off while facing forwards and required half a turn more than the other jumps, so it was also the most difficult jump with the highest associated score.

Skaters were used to taking off backwards but this one jump was different from all the others and had an extra half rotation, it must be uncomfortable to practice. In this era, one-and-a-half rotations were already the limit for everyone, and two-and-a-half rotations hadn’t yet come into being.

“You turned two and a half times?” Misha gaped at Zhang Sushang, who waved him off.

“Doing a jump on land and on ice are two different things, and you should be able to tell that I was under-rotated.”

One aerial rotation was 360°, two was 720°, and two and a half was 900°. Zhang Sushang estimated that he had only turned 800° just now, but in Misha’s eyes, this was already amazing.

“How did you do it?” he asked eagerly. “You’re not a professional athlete, I haven’t seen you at any competitions either!”

Zhang Sushang gave the reason he had thought up long ago to explain his figure skating skills. “Because my physical fitness is better than yours, so I can do it.” At Misha’s expression of clear disbelief, he patted his thighs. “Just believe it, haven’t you noticed that my thighs are thicker than yours? I have more muscles than you!”

“…Aren’t legs thicker because of fat?”

“Actually, having muscles will also make your legs thicker,” Zhang Sushang coughed.

And his legs weren’t that thick, it was only because he was 1.8m tall with a bigger frame than Misha, in addition to a body fat ratio of 19%, that made them look very thick.

But he will keep getting skinnier!

After Zhang Sushang’s demonstration, Misha believed in him, so he went to run 10km to warm up according to Zhang Sushang’s arrangement. When Zhang Sushang saw that he was so proactive, he dug out pen and paper from his bag, found a random place to lay them down, and started working hard to finish his manuscript.

The popularity of Detective Ilya had skyrocketed ever since the official newspaper reprinted it a while ago. The editorial department began pressing him for manuscripts, promising that as long as Zhang Sushang could bring out two updates each week, they would double his royalties again.

The important thing was that after he finished the third case, they could be published together as a book which brought with it a copyright fee, and in addition, there were international newspapers interested in the story as well. They hoped that the publishers could provide an English version, and were willing to pay good money for redistribution licenses.

He already had the spare energy, of course, he would be moved if the editorial department provided the incentive.

Under the temptation of money, he quickly came up with an outline for the third case.

After solving two cases, Ilya’s investigative ability was recognised by the police and he was invited to handle a case in which an old woman had been murdered. However, when he arrived at the scene of the crime, he found that the woman’s body had been placed in a coffin and the funeral was already in progress, with everyone there dressed in formal clothing.

So the question was, among the dozen people there, who was the real murderer? And if the crime scene was destroyed, what evidence was there for Ilya to use?

Zhang Sushang introduced several characters with distinctive personalities for this case.

A priest who liked to molest children, the deceased’s foul-mouthed son, the deceased’s daughter who had an affair with her stepfather, a cook who stole his employer’s property, as well as a cross-dressing nurse. Even the deceased herself was a madwoman who believed in a cult and once sent her twin children to the altar…

Everyone in this wave was evil in some way.

The deceased lived in a villa located deep in the mountains. Heavy rain at night caused a landslide, making it difficult just to leave. In addition, the villa was so old and gloomy that it wouldn’t be a surprise to be hacked to pieces when you lit a candle to go to the toilet late at night.

The cowardly Ilya was forced to confront such a case; if it weren’t for the protection of his powerful partner Vasily and the miraculous donkey Boris that neighed at critical moments, he would have been swallowed whole. After they went through all the trials and tribulations to find the murderer, who turned out to be the cross-dressing nurse, they were almost killed.

In the end, the police stationed in the town at the foot of the mountain realised something was wrong, mobilised everyone in the town, and used the power of manual labour to forcefully dig out a road and save the protagonist duo.

By the way, one of the leading police officers was a beautiful woman who looked more fairy than human. When Ilya and Vasily saw her, they were so surprised that they couldn’t get any words out.

At the end of the story, this gorgeous lady showed a mysterious smile as she stood in an alleyway. The deceased’s foul-mouthed son knelt in front of ‘her’ while ‘she’ played with a golden crocodile brooch, and when ‘her’ mouth opened, a clear male voice came out.

“The nurse is doomed, abandon him.”

Writing up to here, Zhang Sushang let out a long breath, then congratulated himself, “I’m a genius, these days no one would think of writing a cross-dresser, and two at once at that.”

Was this move cool? It’s supposed to be! Zhang Sushang didn’t intend to write a world-famous book, he just wanted to earn some money.

Misha finally came back from his 10km run. He supported himself with his thighs with both hands, leaning over, panting, and covered in sweat. He looked exhausted.

“Your stamina is awful, and you weren’t very fast either,” Zhang Sushang critiqued.

Misha rolled his eyes at him. Zhang Sushang didn’t say anything in response, only making him stretch first before handing over a small wooden ball.

“Here, a massage ball. I’ll teach you a set of movements for muscle relaxation, remember to do them every time after you exercise to reduce your body’s stress load.”

Post-exercise body care was very important in ensuring an athlete’s longevity to the greatest extent possible.

Zhang Sushang dared to say that just this set of movements was worth Misha’s initial investment.

Since snow sports were restricted by venue availability, many figure skaters nowadays actually lived a very ‘amateur-like’ life. In spring, summer, and autumn when there were no ice surfaces to practice on, they would mostly focus on daily life. Take figure skating giant Gillis as an example. Apart from being a professional athlete, he was also an architect who graduated from the Technical University of Berlin and a part-time writer.

Gillis lived in Potsdam, Germany. He would train on the lakes there when they froze over, and also occasionally went to the artificial ice rinks in Berlin.

In this sense Misha was also an amateur athlete. Apart from training, he was also a pastry chef good at baking cakes. He usually went to an artificial ice rink once a week. Due to various reasons, Russia had only recently begun to have figure skaters stand out — Misha could be said to be a pioneer, he was the strongest in the nation in this subject. Let alone someone who could guide him, it was hard enough to find someone of a similar skill level to be a partner or rival.

Zhang Sushang was the partner he found for himself, and now he could be counted as half a coach. As recompense, he would bring him along every week when he went to the ice rink.

Watching Zhang Sushang sort out his papers, Misha hesitated for a while, then asked, “Do you want to compete for your country in the future, Chyushka?”

Zhang Sushang turned around only to see Misha’s complicated expression. “I see that you want to improve your skating so much, isn’t it for the sake of your country?”

“It’s a hard road to walk.”

Zhang Sushang was quiet for a moment, then chuckled. “Let’s talk about it later, figure skating competitions won’t start until the weather cools.”

Even across a hundred years, he was still a child of his motherland. If he wasn’t filial to her, who should he be filial towards?

He skated mainly because he was used to skating and couldn’t give it up, but if the motherland needed his strength, of course, he couldn’t turn away.

Anyway, let’s train first and slowly save up money.

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