Tag: modern (page 1 of 3)

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The ancient city of Moscow weathered 779 years of storms, from 1147 to 1926.

This was Zhang Sushang’s first visit to Moscow in this time. The place was packed with people, and noise surrounded them. Misha, carrying a large bag and pulling two suitcases, panted as he got out of the train.

“It’s so crowded here.” The young man who was just over 1.6m tall struggled to move through the crowd. It became marginally easier when Zhang Sushang kindly moved in front of him to clear the way.

Both of them let out a breath of relief when they exited the station. Misha even sighed, “I saw a donkey in there and almost thought that Ilya was here for a case.” However, after seeing it pooping on the train, he could be sure that it wasn’t Boris, after all, Boris was a magical donkey that could flush the toilet on its own.

Divine Detective Ilya was once regarded as magical realism due to the existence of Boris, and some people analysed that Chyushka used stories as a medium to satirise society.

The real Chyushka: No, I didn’t think of that much.

Wu Yeming had modified Zhang Sushang’s suitcase to have two wheels added to the bottom, making it much easier to move. He once again reflected on how convenient it was to have a skilled engineer as a friend as he piled Misha’s backpack onto his suitcase and pulled both along.

He had originally thought that he would have to pay for travelling expenses, but Misha waved his hands and said that someone had arranged all of that, so they could just bring themselves there.

The advantage of being part of the national sports system: your boss will reimburse your food, clothing, housing, and transportation.

Zhang Sushang, as a coach not part of the system, had simply taken advantage of the situation. He and Misha were picked up from the train station by the tournament organisers and taken to the hotel by car, wide-eyed the whole time like they were country bumpkins.

The staff member who came to pick them up discreetly sized up this overly tall foreign youth, a subtle flicker of disdain in his eyes.

“Chyushka, do you think I can do it?” Misha fidgeted uncomfortably.

Zhang Sushang was puzzled. “Huh? Didn’t I already give you intensive training? You have an overwhelming technical advantage and your program is so sophisticated, there’s no reason for you to lose.”

Apart from that ancient god Gillis who was unsurpassed in compulsory figures, even Böckl, currently renowned for his jumping prowess, couldn’t match Misha.

With such a big advantage, it would take a miracle to lose!

“But what if I make a mistake on the ice?”

Assessing his expression, Zhang Sushang placed a hand on the young man’s shoulder and replied in a soothing yet powerful voice, “If you make a mistake, just get up and keep skating. No matter what, you have to give the audience a complete performance. Only then can you live up to the effort you’ve put in.”

Misha was successfully comforted.

The staff member had already secretly rolled his eyes to the sky. His thoughts were very similar to those of Luka, Coach Maxim, and Mr. Pyotr before they met Zhang Sushang in person — it must be that this Chinese man used sweet words to con Misha, their champion, into obeying him.

How could a Chinese know how to skate? Chyushka must be a scammer! He even had the same name as that best-selling author, he probably chose it to capitalise on the hype.

The hotel was simple but tidy with posters plastered on the walls encouraging the athletes, and energetic young athletes constantly moved throughout the building. Although it was so cold that every breath sent forth a plume of white mist, they all had smiles on their faces.

When arranging for their rooms, Zhang Sushang, wearing a thick green coat, requested, “Please give us a room on the first floor. Misha needs to exercise, and he’ll jump a lot, which would disturb anyone below us.”

The receptionist glanced at him, then at Misha.

“Yes, I need to exercise,” Misha said.

Only then did they hand over a set of keys. Just then, they heard someone yell, “Let us stay next to Misha and Chyushka!”

Everyone turned and saw Luka and Maxim rushing over, their faces flushed red. Maxim immediately embraced Zhang Sushang and patted his back.

“Hey, Chyushka, why didn’t you tell us when you left? We could’ve gone together!”

Luka, still panting heavily, crouched down, opened his suitcase, and looked up at Zhang Sushang like a puppy wanting to be praised. “Chyushka, I asked Giselle to make me a costume too, what do you think?”

“As long as you like it,” Zhang Sushang replied in confusion.

Coach Maxim received his keys, then took out two shredded burdock sandwiches. “You’ve had a long journey, come eat something.”

Luka picked up Zhang Sushang’s suitcase, which was when he discovered that it had wheels underneath, causing him to exclaim in surprise and praise it for its handsome appearance.

Passerby, including staff, were shocked by Maxim and Luka’s enthusiastic attitude. They were all proletarian brothers and sisters so they were naturally polite to everyone, but they had never seen them be so exuberant towards anyone, even Misha.

Who exactly was that Chinese boy?

If Zhang Sushang knew what they were thinking, he would definitely complain: I’m not anyone in particular, just a poor idiot who’s had way too many lessons mooched off for free by these two.

After Lucas attended his class, not only did his posture improve, he mastered five double jumps with just the hardest 2A left to learn, not to mention courses on muscle building, physical fitness, etc. Whatever Misha learned, Luka gritted his teeth and learned too.

Zhang Sushang had hardly sat down when there was a knock on the door. When Misha opened it, Luka’s head poked through the crack.

“Chyushka, are we starting training?”

“About to,” Zhang Sushang replied, stretching his legs on the ground.

Luka shyly opened the door and sidled closer. “Chyushka, I can do your errands tonight, like getting hot water for bathing or buying drinks, so, can I train and sleep with you guys?”

As long as he could train with them, he’d be Chyushka’s dog for a day.

Zhang Sushang had already seen him freeload his lessons so many times, it made no difference if it happened again. He looked at Misha. “What do you think?”

Misha shook his head. “I don’t mind,” he said.

The room was only big enough for two people to jump around, so Zhang Sushang sat cross-legged on the bed.

“First activate your hips, legs, core, and other muscle groups, then do a hundred jumping jacks to warm up.”

Two equally handsome, lean, fit men immediately lay on the ground and started performing high leg raises, reverse leg raises, donkey kicks… then they started jumping together. The scene was truly delightful.

Young people were full of energy, and the two of them only wore singlets as they exercised, leaving their muscles on display. Zhang Sushang, the little Northeastern bear afraid of the cold, stayed wrapped in a quilt.

“Are all you Slavs so cold-resistant?”

“I’m not Slavic though,” Luka replied through his panting breaths, “I’m Jewish, but I’m also part of the Communist Party. As for the cold, you’ll get used to it after having a few snowball fights!”

They were quite noisy as they exercised. People passing by smiled at the two athletes’ efforts, then snorted as they caught sight of Zhang Sushang tucked in his quilt.

Afterwards, Luka wanted to get water for Zhang Sushang’s bath as agreed, only to be stopped. “It’s too late, and it’s getting colder outside. Don’t go out. Go to bed,” Zhang Sushang said.

He’ll just wash his face and rinse his mouth later. An athlete’s health was precious; nothing was allowed to go wrong before a competition.

Staying healthy was more important than how much he hated their post-exercise Slavic body odour.

“It’s okay, I want to wash up too,” Luka said nonchalantly. He liked cleanliness too.

Luka went out with two buckets, followed by Misha with a basin. When they returned, the three of them wiped themselves down, changed into pyjamas, pushed the two beds together, and snuggled into the soft covers.

“I’ve never slept with others on the same bed before,” Misha couldn’t help but chuckle.

Luka was equally excited. “I slept with my brother when I was little, and he’d read me bedtime stories.”

He was born in the vast and sparsely populated Siberia where you might not see another living human for hundreds of miles, not to mention how prevalent theism was in Russia – quite a few people believed in the supernatural.

Luka told a few stories from his hometown, scaring Misha so much he trembled, only for Zhang Sushang to clear his throat dramatically.

“In the south of my country, there stands a mountain village where a woman named Cho Yan-may lives. Her story is very interesting…”¹Refers to the 1999 Hong Kong horror movie A Wicked Ghost

With a bestselling author’s narrative ability, Miss Cho’s already chilling story, and the eerie wind which whipped branches against the window, the story’s atmosphere was fully realised, leaving the two Slavic boys scared out of their wits.

Misha subconsciously gripped Luka’s sleeve, gulping nervously. “A-And then? How did it end? Was Miss Cho freed?”

“No, she’s not free yet. She’s still singing at that river, and may even appear in your dreams,” Zhang Sushang replied slowly.

The two bears hugged each other with a single thought simultaneously emerging in their minds: is everyone named Chyushka so good at telling stories?

“Alright, good night.” Zhang Sushang fell asleep, unconcerned with whether a woman surnamed Cho might really walk into their dreams.

But halfway through the night, he was awakened by Luka’s tossing and turning. He got to his feet as the young man shivered and clutched at the blanket. As a medical student, he subconsciously touched Luka’s forehead and noticed that it felt a bit warm.

“What’s going on?” Misha asked sleepily.

Zhang Sushang helped Luka up, examined his tongue, and took his pulse. Thanks to Jiang Jinghu’s teachings, he diagnosed him with a cold.

After all this hassle, everyone in the room woke up.

Misha looked at Luka worriedly. “What now? He’s sick? But we’re skating tomorrow!”

He and Luka had learned together for a long time and were already very familiar with each other. Although Misha was wary of his hardworking rival, he certainly didn’t want him to collapse before the competition.

“It’s okay, don’t worry, his symptoms aren’t serious,” Zhang Sushang said calmly. He’d asked Jiang Jinghu for some commonly used pills before they left.

He sent Misha to fetch Maxim then get some boiled water from the front desk, and after they came back they fed Luka both the pills and water. Zhang Sushang massaged his back with some oil, then wrapped him in blankets and let him sweat it out.

Luka allowed Zhang Sushang to torment him, staring at him with full trust despite the way his eyes watered from the heat. “Chyushka, you’re a medical student, right? Can you cure me?”

“Yeah,” Zhang Sushang said, patting his head, “I’m half your coach after all, I can’t let you skate while this sick.”

“You’ve acknowledged me as your student,” Luka snickered foolishly. A gleam of happiness shone in his eyes, as if the joy of Zhang Sushang’s recognition overcame the strain of his illness.

“Luka admires you a lot, he says it’s a pleasure to learn from you,” Maxim whispered to Zhang Sushang.

He was not only Luka’s coach but also his uncle. With no children of his own, he had always been filled with affection when talking about Luka.

It wasn’t until dawn broke that Luka’s temperature returned to normal.

---

Author:
Pikachyu: Jiang Jinghu, my little superhero! A must-have doctor for home and travel!

Mild colds can be relieved by essential oil massages and cupping because these can strengthen the body and dispel evil. I’ve tried it before for coughs, but everyone should still see a doctor if you’re sick~ Sushang is in an emergency, so he’s practising medicine without a license (don’t do this at home).

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  Refers to the 1999 Hong Kong horror movie A Wicked Ghost

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A few days after his birthday, Zhang Sushang’s editor Igor came to visit.

From the way he banged on the door, someone would think he was after someone’s life.

Zhang Sushang, busy cooking spiced rabbit, was so surprised that he almost jumped out a window.

Back when he wanted to end Divine Detective Ilya, Igor talked with him for a long time and only reluctantly left when he promised to start a new project.

Now that they’d finished moving, Igor came again. “Chyushka! What’s your new book about?”

Seeing the editor’s eager expression, Zhang Sushang warily replied, “I want to write something with a female protagonist.”

“A story about a woman?” Igor repeated doubtfully. “Will that… sell well?”

Their newspaper wasn’t trying to create a masterpiece; they only wanted good sales. They were interested in earning money, not some grand ambition.

“Do you remember Katarina, from the fourth case?”

Igor paused. “The single mother with a daughter, that Katarina? And her daughter is Sasha, right? I remember that she eventually got into the mathematics department at Kiev State University.”

By now, Russia had implemented the eight-hour workday for many years. With the addition of good welfare for workers and a robust social support system, even a single mother could work to support her daughter while attending night school and eventually get admitted to a prestigious domestic university, thus changing her life.

Katarina’s background may be a fantasy in other countries but it worked in Russia. Rather than accusing it of being unrealistic, people would only praise her for her hard work and diligence.

“The story begins when she graduates from Kiev State University,” Zhang Sushang nodded.

He didn’t intend to abandon his previous worldbuilding, but he couldn’t make the righteous faction fight the thieves forever. That would make the police seem too incompetent.

It was only a change of protagonist — if necessary, he could also bring the original protagonist out for a spin. His inspiration for following different characters in the same world came from a manga series called JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, where the author went through everyone from the great-grandfather to the great-grandson, and even opened a parallel world.

In this setting, the woman enlisted as a soldier to serve her country.

Up until this point, her experiences were extremely similar to those of Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the only woman among the world’s top ten snipers, but then the story took a different turn.

Katarina joined the Air Forces.

Zhang Sushang planned to write about a heroic female pilot who would become the Fujiwara Takumi¹Protagonist of Initial D and a super good driver of the skies, able to shoot down enemies even if she were piloting an outdated plane. Her strong mathematical ability would allow her to accurately calculate air currents, weather, and other factors, making her invincible in the air.

This was purely a Mary Sue-style protagonist. He planned to give her a refreshingly cool story trajectory, the kind that would make people’s scalps tingle when they read it. And not only was Katarina a Mary Sue, her daughter Sasha was also a maths prodigy. Later, the scumbag who abandoned her would return to pursue his wife, but find that she already had a better man and he didn’t even have the chance to brush her hand. It was filled with those kinds of cool scenes.

Throughout history, apart from supremely profound works, the most profitable genre had always been these power fantasies. Since Zhang Sushang couldn’t produce masterpieces, he could only devote more effort into the latter.

This was precisely why he and St. Petersburg Morning Post matched so well. Everything was easier when everyone was focused on money.

He immediately got to work, spreading out some manuscript paper and spending an entire afternoon to write out the first chapter.

In the spring of 1920, she fell in love with a popular, handsome man who invited the 16-year-old her to a dance…

“Why would we let women onto the battlefield? It’s illogical!” Igor protested.

Zhang Sushang scratched his head. “Just think of it as her being too good, so no logic can stop her.”

The editor choked back his words and was about to say something else, only for Zhang Sushang to wave a hand.

“Hey, how do you know it won’t be popular if you don’t publish it? Just give it a try.”

He felt that this novel was more fashionable for this era than his last one; actually, Wu Yeming’s setting was even more fashionable, with the protagonist directly blasting off into space, but unfortunately, Wu Yeming was also more meticulous in his writing and still hadn’t finished his outline yet.

It’s not that your story isn’t fashionable, it’s that it’s too fantastical, Igor thought. Everyone would read it if it featured a male pilot, but he insisted on writing a female pilot. Would male readers still buy it?

He returned to the publishing house with apprehensions, a new manuscript, and a rabbit leg inexplicably stuffed into his hand. Chief Editor Iosif took the manuscript and examined it for a while.

“Hm, this story…”

“Chief, is this story okay?” Igor asked tentatively.

Iosif adjusted his glasses. “As a voracious reader, I find it quite interesting, but it’s hard to judge the audience response. Let’s try publishing it first.”

They were only willing to do so because Chyushka’s previous work was so popular.

The fact was that most people were willing to buy exciting novels. In times like this, it was impossible to be picky about gender — it was good enough to have something to read at all.

Zhang Sushang had given Igor two chapters. The first chapter described how the female protagonist met a man, his pursuit of her, and his many promises, but after the marriage, his true nature as a spoiled brat and domestic abuser was revealed, cheating on her during her pregnancy and ultimately abandoning her. The second chapter told of how she helplessly returned to her family yet was despised by her parents and brothers. At the end of the arc, after giving birth, she decided to find work to support herself and her daughter.

The contents of the first and second chapters were actually quite depressing. Chyushka vividly portrayed a scumbag whom people would hate at first sight as well as an overcrowded, poverty-stricken family. But at the end of the second chapter, in that moment when the protagonist stepped out the door, it seemed to imply that fate was about to turn, making people unable to stop reading.

How can this woman, having been dealt so many bad cards, turn things around?

In the famous play A Doll’s House, the protagonist Nora, as a woman born into the middle class, never had a reason to worry about food or clothing until she discovered that her husband didn’t see her as ‘human’, only an obedient doll to love. Only then did she choose to leave home to find herself.

But Katarina was much more miserable. Life forced her to go out and find work.

Lu Xun once commented on Nora’s story, believing that Nora would be forced to either return to her family or become a prostitute unless she could find a means to make a living. No woman could stand upright without economic freedom.²The speech What happens after Nora leaves home

Yet how could a cruel feudal society allow a woman the opportunity to work and support themselves? Katarina’s only advantage over Nora was that she lived in the new Russia.

In this time and place, as long as she was willing to endure hardship and work hard, she could support herself and her child.

This was an inspiring story about women, but behind it lay Zhang Sushang’s strong commitment to socialism. As a child raised under the red flag, perhaps no one in this era understood better than he how precious this path could be.

Alexei, being Zhang Sushang’s flatmate, was the first to read The Aviatrix. Afterwards, he felt that although his flatmate always said that he could only write for entertainment, he was actually very attentive to what he wrote.

In his opinion, not only was the writing of The Aviatrix more mature than in Divine Detective Ilya, it also carried loftier ideals while simultaneously being more relatable.

Katarina’s early experiences were encountered by many women of this era, and her path out was also something they could do.

So when Iosif and Igor were still fretting that Zhang Sushang’s new novel would flop, Alexei had already confidently assured him, “Chyushka, this novel will be even more successful than your last one.”

“I’ll believe in your good words,” Zhang Sushang said, happily putting a big chicken drumstick in his bowl.

When Misha was finally discharged from the hospital, Zhang Sushang wasted no time in his rehabilitation.

If it were Zhang Sushang himself, he would probably start training as soon as he was 70-80% healed, still covered in bandages. Competition in later generations was too fierce, it was impossible to stand out if he didn’t put more effort in.

He was much more lenient with Misha, only asking him to pay attention to his diet and watch his weight while recovering. He also arranged all the costumes and music for him, ready for him to familiarise himself with them as soon as possible.

After a month of training with Zhang Sushang, Misha’s anxiety settled.

The best way to stabilise an athlete’s mind was to let them recognise their absolute strength, or at least that they held overwhelming advantages against their opponents. When Misha recovered completely, his dear coach Chyushka taught him an important new technique — tightening the upper body.

Jumping was an action that turned bodies into something resembling bullets. Athletes had to use enough power to ensure height and distance while also rotating in the air.

Rotational speed was one of the secrets to completing high difficulty jumps. If a thick wooden stick and a thin wooden stick were placed on a slope at the same time, the thin stick would reach the end faster because it had a smaller radius. Thus, many figure skaters worked hard to lose weight and maintain a slender body. This was because one, they didn’t want to be too heavy which would place strain on their joints when landing; and two, they wanted to have a smaller radius.

However, weight loss had its limits — once body fat reached the single digits, further loss became exponentially more difficult and could even result in death. Given this, the only way to increase rotational speed was to tighten their core.

Although double axels weren’t easy, Misha’s foundation allowed him to reach a 70% success rate, and with the tightening technique, it jumped to 80%.

He couldn’t stop smiling for three full days upon discovering its benefits, and was even eager to challenge a triple jump.

Zhang Sushang: “Your ligaments only healed a few days ago, take it easy.”

When the weather got a little colder, the domestic competition would take place.

As previously agreed, Zhang Sushang would go with Misha to Moscow for the competition.

---

Author:
What happens after Nora leaves home is a speech delivered by Chinese writer Lu Xun at Beijing Women’s Normal College in 1923. Even someone of his generation saw clearly that women can only be mere ‘dolls’ if they didn’t have economic rights. I’m grateful to this society for allowing me to work. I love working, I love making money.

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  Protagonist of Initial D and a super good driver
• 2
  The speech What happens after Nora leaves home

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“The weather’s getting colder,” Zhang Sushang commented as he rubbed his arms.

Autumn had arrived, bringing with it single-digit temperatures. Divine Detective Ilya was also coming to an end.

The sixth to ninth cases of Divine Detective Ilya revolved around the struggle between the righteous faction, to which the lawyer Daria belonged, and the wicked thieves’ organisation led by Crocodile. As the plot progressed, the thief’s good and evil qualities both became apparent. Sometimes he would try to kill Ilya, while other times he might help them with a murder case.

If not for knowing that he was a crossdresser, readers might suspect that Crocodile was the female lead, not to mention that he had even more screentime than her…

The story concluded with the invasion of a foreign army — as for which country it was, Zhang Sushang didn’t specify. Anyway, the people in the story all put aside their grudges; the cowardly Ilya gave up hiding in the rear in favour of the front lines, Vasily joined him to protect their homeland, and in the barracks, they saw a handsome new recruit.

* * *

The ending was rather open-ended and few people today would consider it a typical ending for a detective story, but Zhang Sushang believed that everyone would change their minds in a decade or so.

It was common knowledge that a detective could experience many cases in their lifetime, so detective stories could develop into a super-long series, and as long as the quality didn’t decrease, the author could make a living from this one series for the rest of their life. However, Zhang Sushang felt that the plot had been fully explored. Continuing would only be a pale imitation so he simply ended it.

Even so, his royalties were a substantial number, enough to buy a house in St Petersburg, though he ultimately decided against it.

Why buy anything? By 1941 this city would be razed by gunfire for several years and no house could escape. It was better to continue renting. After discussing with Alexei, though, they decided to move.

Their current apartment actually had many advantages, such as being close to the university and having a large fireplace. The only real disadvantage was that the door wasn’t very sturdy. Zhang Sushang suspected that if he and Alexei had to smack it a few more times this winter, they might have to pay the landlord for a new door.

And their downstairs neighbour had a terrible temper. Every time Zhang Sushang did a few burpees at night, he would inevitably find a threatening letter shoved under their door the next morning.

The letters usually contained something like, If you keep making noise, I’ll let my dog bite you.

Zhang Sushang: …

Although he had never met this neighbour face to face, he had owned dogs before and could tell their approximate size by their barking, so he knew that they owned a small breed. They were quite something to use this to threaten a strong 1.8m man.

Never mind, they’d better move.

Alexei knew more people than Zhang Sushang, so he was the one to find a real estate agent, after which the two began searching for places.

Zhang Sushang discussed it with him. “First, we need a bigger apartment, at least 90 square meters, otherwise it’s going to be too cramped for both of us. Right now, there’s not even enough space to stack our dumbbells.”

“It also needs a balcony, otherwise we’ll never get any sunlight,” Alexei added.

Their current place had poor lighting and was dark year-round. They would likely be infested with mold if not for their fireplace.

With their requirements set, the two looked at all the available properties nearby. Although both of them were richer now, Alexei with his scholarships and Zhang Sushang with his royalties, neither were planning to split up.

Living alone was so troublesome, and there was no one to look after you if you fell sick. It was better to have a companion.

After looking around, the one they liked best was a shophouse near the sea. The building consisted of two floors; the first floor was rented out as a stationery shop, and the second floor was used as living quarters.

The new place was still close to the university, making it easier for them to commute, but it was much bigger. At approximately 90m², it had two bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room, and a fully equipped kitchen. It also had a complete set of mahogany furniture, including an extra-large bookshelf and a plush sofa.

Zhang Sushang set his heart on this place as soon as he saw the furniture, so the only task left was to move.

They initially thought they didn’t have much to take, but once they started packing, they discovered that they couldn’t leave the pots and pans, there were piles of books, manuscripts, and stationery, and they certainly couldn’t abandon their clothes, quilts, pillows, or toiletries either. In the end they went downstairs to hire a car, and with the help of two labourers, they finally managed to transport everything in one trip.

That day, Zhang Sushang turned 19.

Being born on October 1st, he celebrated his birthday with the motherland every year,¹China’s National Day is on 1 October (PRC only. Taiwan/ROC’s national day is on 10 October) though speaking of birthdays, he felt a little melancholy.

One had to be 18 years old to join the Communist Party. Zhang Sushang, whose parents were both Party members, submitted his application through the community volunteer association as soon as he turned 18. He went through Party education and training and would have had the chance to become a probationary member after undergoing review, but then… he travelled through time!

He really regretted wanting a driver’s license.

He decided to celebrate properly to cheer himself up. It just so happened that Alexei’s birthday was on September 30th, only a single day’s difference, so they could celebrate together.

He invited all his close friends, including the other three of his four-person exchange group, his classmates Danil and the four Ivans ABCD, as well as Giselle, Orlov, and Misha.

My flatmate and I are celebrating our birthdays together, you should come too.

After making a list of everyone he wanted to invite, he asked Alexei, “What about you, how many do you want to invite?”

Alexei counted on his fingers. “My seniors Mikhail and Nikita will come.”

Alexei wasn’t very sociable and only had these two friends. Nikita was the son of the professor who supervised him the most.

“Then we’ll have to host them properly,” Zhang Sushang concluded.

Even if he was the birthday boy, he couldn’t let a guest do the cooking — and so, full of energy, he dragged Alexei to buy groceries together.

Ten pounds of mutton for lamb chops, seasonal vegetables and potatoes for a salad, and a whole chicken, which he’ll stew with ginger, radishes, and mushrooms for ten hours to make a delicious soup.

After living here for a while, he discovered that Russians had their way of eating. They usually drank soup or ate salads first, followed by hot dishes, and finally desserts and tea.

Things could be casual if they were only among family, but since they were hosting guests, it was more sincere to follow the proper procedures.

“Misha will bring desserts,” he muttered, “but we can make some egg cakes too.²These are little sponge cakes, possibly related to the Malay pastry Bahulu. They’re easy, we just need eggs, flour, and sugar.”

When Zhang Sushang was a child, he learned the basics of figure skating from his neighbour Grandpa Lu, and occasionally went there for meals. Grandpa Lu’s late wife was a master at making egg cakes and Zhang Sushang declared himself the direct inheritor of this skill.

Alexei quietly watched him.

“Lyosha, the get-together isn’t until tomorrow. What do you want to eat today? We can make that first.” Zhang Sushang turned towards Alexei.

Alexei thought for a moment. “I want borscht,” he decided. He then explained, “When I was little, my family was very poor. The one time we celebrated my birthday, my mother made borscht with ingredients we had left at home.”

Zhang Sushang listened patiently and snapped his fingers. “Okay, let’s make this.”

He had trained in Russia for a year before time travelling, so he knew how to make borscht, though he didn’t usually bother because it was a little complicated. But if the birthday person asked, there was no reason to refuse.

On their way home, they saw some Orthodox Christians handing out bread to passing children. “What a beautiful scene,” Zhang Sushang said, looking at them.

Alexei, carrying a large leg of lamb, said, “I ate the bread they distributed as a child.”

“You’re Christian?” Zhang Sushang asked curiously.

He smiled, looking surprisingly casual. “I was for a while before university, but then I studied physics. By that time, faith was just a source of comfort.”

“And now?”

Alexei gave him a deep look. “Now, I don’t believe it anymore.”

He no longer needed to believe in a god. Someone already existed to dispel his loneliness and bring human warmth.

As their eyes met, the complex emotions in those blue eyes were so intense that Zhang Sushang couldn’t help but look away uncomfortably. He let out a soft ‘oh’ and they resumed walking side by side.

After a while, he irresistibly turned to look at Alexei’s profile, only to find that he was observing the road, and every time a bicycle approached, he would lean towards Zhang Sushang.

It seemed like every time they had to walk along a road, Alexei would take the initiative to walk on the road’s side.

The next day, the birthday party was even more lively than Zhang Sushang had anticipated.

He had a good relationship with everyone and his friends were all very generous with him, everyone who received invitations came. Even Misha, who could only sit on the sofa with his cane, chatted happily with Wu Yeming.
Jiang Jinghu directly gave him 100 newly made medicinal patches, Wu Yeming gave him a new bottle of ink, and Li Yuan gave him a book titled Wonderous Reactions with Chemical Reagents, apparently thinking that it would be useful for his stories.

Giselle and Orlov gave him a voucher for six months of free dance lessons, his classmates gave him a rabbit, and Misha baked a big cake for him, which was covered in a thick layer of cream. With the addition of the egg cakes Zhang Sushang made, the house was soon filled with a sweet fragrance.

The most amazing ones had to be the Ivans; they went to the living room and sang a celebratory song together. When Zhang Sushang listened closely, the lyrics seemed to be something along the lines of, My life is good, happily drinking with friends every day. When I wake up, my clothes are gone and my wallet is empty, oh, turns out I’ve been robbed.

He had no idea what these four were thinking, singing this on a birthday, but the tune was truly enchanting, the kind that circled in your mind the more you didn’t want to think about it.

Zhang Sushang learned this song against his will.

Mikhail handed a fountain pen to Alexei. “This is from me and Nikita,” he whispered.

“Thank you.”

“You look much more cheerful than before. I’m glad you’re getting better, Lyosha.” Nikita patted him.

Zhang Sushang was currently embroiled in a dance battle with Ivan A, who was drunk. One danced ballet, the other a Kalmyk folk dance – it was unclear how they ended up arguing.

It was a cheerful scene. Alexei looked towards them, his blue eyes curved in a smile.

“Yes, my friend, I’ve never felt this good.”

---

Author:
The story is fictional. Fictional, fictional I say… There are some things this author will try to avoid, otherwise, the whole novel might be gone.

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• 1
  China’s National Day is on 1 October (PRC only. Taiwan/ROC’s national day is on 10 October)
• 2
  These are little sponge cakes, possibly related to the Malay pastry Bahulu.

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The weather was unusually sunny that day, so Zhang Sushang and Wu Yeming chatted as they walked to Nevsky Prospect, where they bought two meat-filled pirozhki.

“This bun isn’t as good as what we have in the Northeast, it isn’t as fermented as well as ours either. When I go back to China, I’ll cook an entire goose together with the dough, that’s what’s called delicious,” Wu Yeming said.

Zhang Sushang gulped down saliva. “I want to eat ones filled with cabbage and meat.”

At this time, cabbage wasn’t something you could see everywhere like in later generations and, known as a ‘noble vegetable’, was even somewhat expensive.

Zhang Sushang’s craving for cabbage prompted Wu Yeming’s. “Pork and cabbage vermicelli is the best,” he sighed.

As they chatted, Wu Yeming mentioned that Zhang Sushang’s weight loss plan was very useful. He had already lost almost six pounds by following the diet.

“What you said before is right. After eating healthily and exercising regularly, I feel that it’s easier to do everything and I have much more energy. But I don’t train as much as you do, so I don’t need to do cupping with Jinghu as much as you,” Wu Yeming commented.

He almost thought Zhang Sushang had a serious injury when he saw him at the hospital.

“Brother Wu, are you doing speed skating now?” Zhang Sushang asked curiously.

Wu Yeming smiled awkwardly. “Yes, it’s more fun to practice on the ice than on the ground. And the weather’s been colder recently, so we can go on some lakes as long as we’re careful.”

The two sports had different requirements. Figure skating included jumps — if the ice surface wasn’t solid enough, Zhang Sushang might fall straight in when he landed. If one only wanted to skate fast, as in speed skating, they could use thinner ice.

They found the beach. Seagulls flew overhead and the chilly sea breeze blew their faces red, carrying with it a unique salty tang.

“In ages past, we read the books of sages with a pure heart. Later, we studied for the sake of imperial examinations, and now we study to save the country, but no one knows where the true path lies. Now that I’ve come out and seen the new Russia, I finally understand what the future can hold,” Wu Yeming sighed.

Zhang Sushang lowered his head and took a bite of his pirozhki. “Yeah, the way is right, but we’ll have to pay a lot if we want to walk down it.”

“There are many who are willing to sacrifice for the country. I am not alone,” he replied softly. “Compared to those people in China addicted to opium, whose faces are sallow and their families bankrupt, we can be considered to be living a good life. If we want the country to rise and the nation to prosper, young people must read more and strengthen their bodies, so that we don’t become sick men in the eyes of others.¹The sick man of Asia, see Wikipedia After seeing you practice sports, I also tried it and it feels quite good, so I want to keep practising like this.

“If I’m lucky, I can go to competitions in the future to win glory for my country and prove to the world that we Chinese also have athletes and that our physiques are no worse than theirs. I met Yegor on the ice. They only accepted me because I skated faster than a few of his teammates — if I didn’t have this ability, they definitely wouldn’t care about me.”

Here, his tone brightened, and he looked at Zhang Sushang. “Qiupu, you should be more talented than me. I heard Yegor from speed skating say that not only are you coaching Misha, but your ability isn’t inferior to that of professional athletes. Do you have the intention to compete?”

Zhang Sushang spread his hands. “What’s the point of training if I’m not going to compete?”

The two smiled at each other and exchanged fist bumps.

As time passed, Zhang Sushang realised that these people who came to another country to study with him were not only patriotic and passionate, they also had clear thinking, good brains, and open minds. They truly were rare, outstanding talents.

He hadn’t expected Wu Yeming to become an athlete but he was happy to see it happen.

But when it came to participating in competitions, Wu Yeming also knew of his lacking financial situation. It already wasn’t easy to study here, he didn’t have enough money to compete elsewhere.

“Should I also submit something to earn some money? But I don’t know how to write novels,” he muttered.

Zhang Sushang’s eyes lit up. “Of course. I saw the paper you wrote last semester, it was concise, clear, and easy to read. If you’re not aiming to make a masterpiece and just write for fun, you’re definitely good enough.”

Wu Yeming not only had a height of 1.72m, which was considered quite tall in this era, but he also looked handsome, studied so hard that he completed an entire year’s curriculum in just six months, had talent in sports, and had a predilection for languages. After one year, his Russian level was no different from that of Zhang Sushang’s when he just transmigrated.

This was the kind of person others called ‘the chosen one’.

“As for novels, it’s not hard to get started,” he advised. “Aren’t you from the engineering department? You can write something about engineering.” 

He preferred melodramatic stories like Thunderstorm and Home Temptation that made people say ‘what an unfortunate life’, but Wu Yeming didn’t seem like someone who could write those plots.

“But engineering covers such a wide range, what should I write about?” 

Zhang Sushang scratched his head. “Um, I don’t know much about it, but if I were a reader, I’d want to see something interesting. Ordinary railroad construction probably won’t work.”

“I’ve said it so many times, not everyone who studies engineering builds railways,” Wu Yeming said expressionlessly. “There are many specialties under engineering. Architectural engineering, hydraulic engineering, chemical engineering, materials science…”

Zhang Sushang blushed at the long list he spat out. “Hey, I’m a medical student, I don’t know anything about engineering. Thanks for explaining.”

Although Wu Yeming officially only studied mechanical engineering, he was very versatile and had strong hands-on skills. If a circuit in a classroom was broken or a lightbulb needed to be replaced, he could fix it as well as any electrical engineering student. Anyone with a broken bicycle would also go to him.

Zhang Sushang did the same whenever his own bike broke down.

After thinking for a while, he suggested, “If we’re talking about what attracts the most attention, it must be something everyone aspires to, like flying. A novel about going into outer space might get very popular. You should know a bit, right? I remember seeing you reading one of Tsiolkovsky’s texts at the library.”

Tsiolkovsky²For more about Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, see Wikipedia was a member of the Academy of Sciences of the new Russia. Between 1903 and 1911, he published several papers that laid the foundation for rocket flight, including proposing the use of liquid fuel and multi-stage rockets.

By the way, the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket was launched into space from the United States this year, in 1926.

“I’m indeed interested in it, but I don’t know anything about its specifics,” Wu Yeming said, hesitating. Counting on his fingers, he continued, “I haven’t studied anything about aircraft design, fuels, manufacturing, or the environment up there and how humans might survive. I only have a general understanding.”

“Do you think you have to have a professional-level knowledge about the subject before you can start writing?” Zhang Sushang looked at him helplessly.

“Don’t I?” Wu Yeming looked back at him, equally confused.

Zhang Sushang, who wrote detective novels but knew nothing about how real detectives worked: …

You academic geniuses are so strict with yourselves, he thought. Liu Cixin could write a masterpiece like The Three-Body Problem, but it wasn’t as if the author knew how to make a dual-vector foil.

Afterwards, he thought that Wu Yeming had abandoned the idea of writing a novel and made preparations to support his future competition expenses, but by the next week, when he went to Jiang Jinghu for physical therapy, he discovered that Wu Yeming was going to study aeronautical engineering.

He wanted to strive for a double degree! Even if he couldn’t build a rocket, he wanted to build an airplane!

In his own words: “Anyways, I’m already in Russia. I don’t know if learning just one major will be useful once I return, so why not learn more? Besides, knowing more things is never a loss.”

Even if Zhang Sushang was someone who could be admitted to Tsinghua University or Peking University, he still couldn’t figure out what these ancient academic gods were thinking.

He could only whisper to Li Yuan and Jiang Jinghu, “So we have another textbook to translate?”

“Yes, and they might not be so happy for us to bring this back,” Li Yuan sighed. “Jiang Jinghu and I discussed it. We should each memorise a portion, that way if they don’t let us take the book, we can at least have the knowledge in our brains and write it out over there.”

Li Yuan had a photographic memory.

“Do you want to memorise part of your chemistry as well?” Jiang Jinghu asked. “I have some free time, and chemistry has some similarities with medicine. I can help.”

Little Doctor Jiang also had a pretty good memory.

So I’m actually the most useless of us four, Zhang Sushang reflected.

Since he had a bad brain, he could only earn a bit more money to improve their living situation.

The next day, he bought five sets of thick military-green coats, caring only for how warm they were. They would be relying on these to live through the winter.

Zhang Sushang had already calculated it — he and Alexei would each take one, and the remaining three would be given to Jiang Jinghu and the others.

The only issue was that Alexei was 1.9m tall, making it hard to buy clothes in his size. It was only through their time together as flatmates that he slowly realised Alexei made most of his own clothes.

No wonder his sewing skills were so good if he were constantly using them.

He visited several stores before he found a suitable winter coat and, satisfied, he returned home carrying 15 kilograms of clothing. There, he saw Alexei lazily operating a treadle sewing machine.

The treadle sewing machine, invented and patented in 1859 by American businessman Isaac Singer, was a beloved tool among tailors.

Zhang Sushang, putting down his things and sitting next to Alexei, felt his mood relax amid the sewing machine’s clacking and clicking. 

“Is this the one for Misha?” he asked, resting his chin on his hands.

“It’s yours.” Alexei didn’t even look up.

Next to him was a small table covered with a sewing basket and colourful fabrics, as well as a design by Giselle. This woman had excellent taste, wonderful in everything except for her refusal to compromise on her choreography and designs.

On the snow-white paper, a model based on Zhang Sushang wore a simple yet elegant crimson outfit, looking like a little prince.

---

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• 1
  The sick man of Asia, see Wikipedia
• 2
  For more about Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, see Wikipedia

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Zhang Sushang, completely unaware of the turmoil he had caused, lived his life as usual, studying, writing, skating, dancing, eating, sleeping… and if he felt unwell anywhere, he would ask Jiang Jinghu for a massage or apply a medicinal patch.

Under his enthusiastic promotion, many teachers and students acknowledged the effects of Jiang Jinghu’s traditional Chinese medicine. A while ago even Professor Yevgeny, the dean of the Faculty of Medicine, asked Jiang Jinghu to do moxibustion on his shoulder and was quite satisfied with the results.

Jiang Jinghu immediately became the next person among the four international students to escape poverty. Not only did he earn money, but he also followed Zhang Sushang’s example to donate a portion to Moscow every month.

As someone from the future, Zhang Sushang was very clear about one thing, that is, competitive sports inevitably cause damage to the human body. If physiotherapy wasn’t carried out in conjunction with high-intensity training, athletes’ bodies would be ruined. Therefore, after starting to teach Misha new jumps, he reminded him to go to regular physio sessions.

If Jiang Jinghu had the time, he went to Jiang Jinghu. If he didn’t, then Zhang Sushang would do it himself. Since he was the one in control of his training intensity, he had the obligation to consider Misha’s health.

Jiang Jinghu was a good person. Whenever Zhang Sushang asked him for a physio session he refused to charge money for it, and even gave him medicinal pills occasionally, saying that they were good for nourishing the body.

But no matter how many precautions someone took, it was impossible to prevent all accidents.

The biggest risk when training on the ice came not only from errors during jumps but also… collisions.

The speed at which top skaters moved on the ice could be quite shocking, with 20km/h being the norm. Having something go wrong if people collided at such a speed was to be expected.

So few artificial ice rinks existed that every ice athlete in the country converged here to train before the arrival of winter; despite the high price, there were more than a few people here. Misha accidentally crashed into a speed skater from the national team during a jump. The speed skater was fine, but Misha was sent to the hospital.

In St. Petersburg Central Hospital, Misha laid on the bed staring blankly at the ceiling as Luka argued with someone at the door.

“Yes, your Loskov is hurt, but he only sprained an ankle! He can still walk out of the hospital by himself, but look at Misha!”

The other person shouted back, “He’s right just because he was injured? Both of them are to blame! Misha didn’t look back to see if there was anyone in the way before he jumped, this is his mistake!”

Medical compensation depended on who was at fault. Although Misha was seriously injured, he had no right to ask for compensation from the other party if he was the cause of the accident.

This thing caused a lot of controversy and in the end, everyone unanimously decided to hand the issue over to their superiors for arbitration, though before that they fought first.

Zhang Sushang, leaning against the window sill and watching the two sides facing off downstairs, shouted, “Pale Emperor’s Holy Swords! Brandish your blades and follow me!”

Whoosh——

Grabbing an apple from a fruit basket next to the bed, he ate it while watching and laughing. Behind him, Misha asked, “Can I still skate?”

Zhang Sushang turned around in confusion. “Why can’t you skate?”

“I’m unlucky, having this happen just before the qualifiers,” Misha said sadly.

Russia held test matches before the season started, and only those with better skills would be arranged to participate in subsequent international competitions.

Zhang Sushang scratched his head. “It’s common for athletes to compete while being injured, and you haven’t broken any bones, there’s only some bruises and sprains.”

Competitive sports became more intense over time. Zhang Sushang had seen for himself people competing with nails in their spines, returning to the field just two months after a fracture, going to Worlds before recovering from a concussion they got in a car accident, and someone calmly fighting for the gold medal after receiving six steroid shots.¹PSA: don’t do any of this

Having seen so many ruthless people, his attitude towards injuries was extraordinarily calm. Which athlete had never been injured? There were a whole bunch who went into battle while carrying injuries.

“But can I win against Luka like this?” Misha asked, still doubtful.

“Why do you think you can’t win?” Zhang Sushang asked back, also still confused.

“Because he’s mooched off so many of your lessons!”

It turned out that it was his fault. “Then why don’t I accompany you to the cometition,” he offered in embarrassment.

He had been a little hesitant on whether he should follow Misha this season — after all, this was the chaotic era before the advent of the nuclear age, he always felt that it was unsafe to travel far.

Misha looked at him. Figure skating was different from other sports in that athletes performed alone on the ice and only competed against themselves. Jumping techniques and artistry were all things that had to be honed elsewhere, and during the actual competition, the help that their coaches could provide wasn’t as much as that of the coaches of ball sports who had a hand in tactics.

But if it was Zhang Sushang, his presence would definitely put pressure on Luka.

So when Zhang Sushang received a request from China to write a Chinese version of Divine Detective Ilya, he was so busy that he could only regretfully refuse.

At first, Misha’s concept of the coach accompanying him was that everyone would go to the competition venue together, and as soon as Zhang Sushang sat down, his biggest domestic rival would tremble all over. However, Zhang Sushang’s perception was completely different from his.

Coaches weren’t just for teaching people how to train.

The next day, Zhang Sushang cheerfully showed him a folder. “Come on, I’ll take you to see the designs of your performance costumes, Giselle and I spent a long time on them. If you think they’re okay, we can start production.”

“Costumes?” Misha asked in bewilderment. “Isn’t it enough to wear a suit?”

These days, everyone wore formal clothes to compete, at most they would alter it to be easier to move in.

“What nonsense are you saying? Don’t you feel strange when you’re jumping in a suit?”

He opened the folder and took out a piece of black fabric.

“It took me a long time to find a fabric this light. Later it’ll be made into a vest to go over a shirt, then we’ll add something shiny like rhinestones to make musical note patterns on it.”

Misha, holding the drawing in his hands, was very attracted by this performance costume which was much more beautiful than any other. However, he hesitated after hearing what Zhang Sushang said. “Although rhinestones aren’t expensive, this design is too excessive, right?”

He forgot the environment he was in… Zhang Sushang sighed. “Then use white lace and threads? They’re all cloth, simple and proletarian enough for you?”

Only then did Misha agree, and then they discussed the music for his programs. The music itself had been selected, but they still needed to find a band to perform it so it could be recorded.

These days, there was no such thing as CDs. If a skater wanted to participate in a competition, they had to record their music on a vinyl record, or buy one with a shorter pre-recorded tune, then bring it with them to the venue. As a result, shorter songs that were short and suitable for dancing, such as Broadway music, were very popular among figure skaters.

Otherwise, why would it be said that figure skating was only for the rich? Even in the early 20th century, it wasn’t a sport that ordinary families could get involved in.

“As for the choreography, when Giselle noticed that you hadn’t gone to practice for a few days, she worried that you wouldn’t have enough time to learn it if you waited until your injuries healed, so I learned what she choreographed for you. I can demonstrate it whenever you have time.”

Misha had originally thought that many things would have to be put on pause to be dealt with after his recovery, but he didn’t expect that Zhang Sushang would arrange everything for him.

“Thank you, Chyushka. I don’t know what I would do without you,” he expressed gratefully.

“Don’t thank me too quickly, my services aren’t cheap.” He pulled out an abacus he had borrowed from Wu Yeming. “Giselle said her choreography fee doesn’t have discounts, you have to pay for the fabric yourself, and I found you a skilled but cheap tailor, but you have to pay up the deposit first…”

Zhang Sushang’s abacus click-clacked away then he reported a figure.

Misha felt pain lance through his heart. He spent more than twice as much on figure skating this year compared to last year.

Seeing him grit his teeth as he reached for his wallet, Zhang Sushang couldn’t help laughing. “Alright, stop making that expression. Believe me, as long as you can become famous, you’ll be able to make all your money back.”

“Chyushka, did you know? That’s how capitalists deceive labourers,” Misha sighed softly.

The corners of Zhang Sushang’s mouth twitched. “Okay, okay, I’m not a good proletariat, okay? Give me the money first.”

He left briskly after dealing with Misha. Unexpectedly, he met an acquaintance at the door, who was precisely the owner of the abacus he held.

Wu Yeming held a pair of ice skates in his hands, and beside him was a speed skating coach whom Zhang Sushang often saw at the ice rink.

When Zhang Sushang saw them, Wu Yeming was asking the coach, “Which ward is Yegor in?”

Yegor was the speed skater who collided with Misha.

When did Wu Yeming get to know this bunch? And the relationship seemed to be pretty good.

Zhang Sushang was full of curiosity.

“Wu Yeming!” he shouted.

Wu Yeming looked back in surprise. “Qiupu, why are you here? Are you feeling sick again?”

Zhang Sushang thought to himself that he was as strong as a bear, how did he give Wu Yeming the impression that he was weak and sickly?

---

Translator:
The translation of A Transmigrated Figure Skater Becomes an Author is officially dropped and free for others to pick up. In its place, I’ve picked up A World Dominated by Female Zergs by 狐生九影.

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• 1
  PSA: don’t do any of this

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What was life like during the 1920s?

The country was suffering, the people were in misery, everyone was bullied by foreigners, and countless people searched for a way to rise out of the muck.

Among the various ways, some people believed that they should completely abandon Chinese tradition in favour of Western methods to salvage the current situation.

This led to many people today admiring Western learning and their authors, thinking that their writing was more refined, their stories more fascinating, and the ideas contained within more advanced.

Chyushka’s Divine Detective Ilya was beloved by many readers in China. It wasn’t because of the rich, three-dimensional personalities or the alternatingly funny and thrilling plots — there were many such skilled authors, after all.

No, the reason why this book became popular from Russia to Europe, then from Europe to China, was due to the ideas it conveyed.

Zhang Sushang had been born in a prosperous China. Although he had been abandoned in a public toilet just a few days after his birth, it wasn’t long before he was taken home by his adoptive fathers. He was well fed and well clothed since he was a child and both his parents were good people with upright morals who valued diligence and open-mindedness, which made him grow up to be a typical law-abiding boy of the 21st century.

As he read Divine Detective Ilya, Yun Yan thought that Chyushka was a very interesting person — he never seemed to think that women were inferior to anyone else. In the English version that he translated, there was a line: you and I are both human beings, we merely walk different paths.

Chyushka sympathised with this era’s suffering lower class, yet also proposed that suffering was not a justification for committing crimes. He occasionally played some tricks, such as using two cross-dressing men to scare the readers, and then throwing out a couple of progressive ideas while they were laughing and scolding.

This was an author who refused to walk the beaten path but was worthy of respect. Domestic readers all respected Mr. Chyushka and thought that he was indeed worthy of being a writer of the new Russia. Through his writings, they could observe his advanced ideas.

Moreover, the plot itself was quite attractive. Many people picked it up to relieve boredom only to gain a lot, so it could be said to be both entertaining and educational.

Yun Yan believed that it would never be a loss for anyone to read Divine Detective Ilya, and it would even be a pity not to read it, especially for the female students in China who were sent to the new-style schools by their parents, a large portion of whom only did so to increase their daughters’ ‘worth’.

If they wanted these children to realise that they weren’t inferior to anyone, they needed guidance from teachers. Was there any way to guide people better than reading?

Yun Yan was a scholar who loved reading. He believed from the bottom of his heart that reading was the greatest miracle of mankind, so he wanted to let his students, his friends, his relatives, and his countrymen see this masterpiece. This was why he translated Divine Detective Ilya in just half a month and used his connections to send a letter to Chyushka who was far away in St. Petersburg.

As a result, Chyushka replied, and he used neat handwriting to explicitly state that he was a Chinese person.

Let alone the others in the office, Yun Yan himself suspected that he sent his letter to the wrong place where someone with ill intentions impersonated Mr. Chyushka.

Another teacher in the office, Liu Ming, murmured, “H-How is this possible? Mr. Chyushka writes in Russian and his English translations are also selling very well in Europe, how can he be our, our…”

At this point, everyone was filled with disbelief — part surprise, part fear. If it were true, it would be a great joy that a Chinese author could be highly praised abroad, of course they should be proud! But if it were false, wouldn’t their happiness be wasted?!

But he even clearly wrote what school he attended, which class he was in, where he lived, and how to communicate with him, which all showed that he wasn’t afraid of being investigated.

And in order to prove his identity, Zhang Sushang also included the next update of Divine Detective Ilya which would soon be published in the St. Petersburg Morning Post.

Since he was showing it to his people, he gave the Chinese version.

After Yun Yan finished reading Zhang Sushang’s reply, he picked up the manuscript and took a deep breath. “The fourth case of Divine Detective Ilya introduces a thief called Crocodile. This person’s origins are unknown, and neither do the police know his age, gender, or appearance. They only know that he is good at disguising himself, has many identities, and likes to steal rare antiques.”

Zhang Sushang’s fourth case began with a museum director asking the cowardly Detective Ilya to help track down their missing artifacts. In the course of his task, Ilya met many new characters.

For example, Katarina, a single mother who worked at the museum and attended night school during evenings in hopes of being admitted to Kiev State University,¹Currently, the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and her daughter Sasha.

Another example was an expert in antique appraisal.

Compared with the previous cases, this arc was less thrilling and became more light-hearted, but the content in each battle of wits was richer.

As the novel’s background was slowly revealed, readers discovered that there were two main forces. One was the righteous side composed of lawyers, policemen, and forensic pathologists to which Daria belonged, while the other was composed of Crocodile and his subordinates who stole and smuggled cultural artifacts by various means, very difficult to deal with.

Ilya was the guy unlucky enough to get involved. He did actually find the lost artifact — mostly by accident — and from then on became a thorn in the eyes of the Alligators.

After the case ended, Ilya received his reward and went to a cafe with his partner, where he swore to Vasily, “We’ll never care about these people again.”

Yet at this time, a beautiful woman came up to them and requested to share their table. When they finished their coffees, Ilya and Vasily both fainted.

As for what happened next, Zhang Sushang hadn’t written it yet, so Yun Yan couldn’t read it.

Therefore when Yun Yan finished reading it aloud and everyone’s expressions changed from doubt to eagerness, they asked, “And then?”

“No ‘and then’.”

“Ah?”

“That’s all Zhang-xiansheng sent.”

By the way, Zhang Sushang had praised Yun Yan’s translation in his letter, but in Yun Yan’s opinion, Zhang Sushang’s writing wasn’t bad either. Although he used vernacular a bit too much, it could still be described as concise and refined, and most importantly, it was humorous. The protagonists had fun and made jokes from time to time. It didn’t have Yun Yan’s elegant style, but it gave people a feeling of ‘this is what Chyushka is like’.

“As expected, a translation can never surpass the original. This isn’t the fault of the translator, but because the true writing style can never be imitated. We still have to ask Zhang-xiansheng to do it himself if we want to publish a Chinese Divine Detective Ilya,” he sighed.

Everyone had read both Yun Yan’s and Zhang Sushang’s versions. Although they all had different ideas in their minds, they had to agree that he was right.

After listening to the fourth case sent by Zhang Sushang, they all concluded that what he said was true. After all, only Chyushka himself could write such a wonderful story with Chyushka’s style.

“I never thought that our country would have a writer who can be praised by Europeans!” Liu Ming said, delighted.

Another teacher sighed and stamped his feet. “It’s just a pity that he’s writing about foreign countries. Our great country also has many things worth writing about, it would be great if Zhang-xiansheng could write stories for Chinese people someday.”

For the sake of further verification, they waited another few days until the newspapers in the concession published the newest instalment of Divine Detective Ilya. Everyone couldn’t wait to buy it and take a look, and sure enough, the story was the same as what Zhang Sushang had sent except for being in a different language.

Upon reading it, they had a conclusion in their hearts and soon, the news that Chyushka was Chinese spread from their group.

One mustn’t underestimate teachers. In this day and age, anyone who could read and write had already escaped from the lower castes of society — which of them didn’t have a few powerful classmates, friends, relatives, or elders?

When most people first heard of it, their first reaction was to think that it was a prank, but the person who said it swore that it was true.

“Chyushka really is one of us! I’m not lying!”

So the next day, the news that ‘Foreign Best-Selling Author Chyuskha is a Young Man from Our Country’ made the front page headlines.

Yun Yan immediately wrote another letter, hoping that Zhang Sushang could also send the Chinese versions of the first three cases. However, he had to wait more than a month for a reply, and the first sentence he saw was that the author was too busy to do it.

【Dear Yun-xiong, Sushang is touched by your kindness, but I am too busy to translate. To be honest, I learned figure skating after coming to Russia to keep fit, and I’m now quite good at it. I also met Misha, the silver medalist in figure skating at the previous Olympic Games, and we are currently training together. Misha was injured during jump practice the day before last, so I need to help him with rehabilitation and take him through this year’s competitions…】

The meaning could be summarised as: Yun-xiansheng’s version is good, just use yours, I need to take the injured Misha to compete and have no time to translate.

Yun Yan stared in amazement at the huge amount of information contained within the letter. “Figure skating… what is it?”

---

Translator:
This novel will be dropped after the next update (chapter 21). My next project is 19 chapters of A World Dominated by Female Zergs by 狐生九影.

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• 1
  Currently, the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

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“If, as your coach says, figure skating is an artistic sport, then adding ballet elements will indeed be a good way to improve the viewing experience.” Giselle stepped lightly and made a playful gesture. “You don’t need to actually dance ballet on the ice, but you have to be elegant enough that people understand that you’re a danseur.”

Next to them, Zhang Sushang played The Nutcracker. This was a classic ballet created by Tchaikovsky in 1892, famous for its cute and childlike plot and its reputation as a Christmas ballet. Anyone who had ever seen ballet knew of The Nutcracker.

Its melody was very popular for choreographing dances.

After the song was over, Zhang Sushang said to Misha, “I think The Nutcracker is quite suitable for you, why don’t you use it for your short program?”

He had observed Misha’s skating before. This person was usually introverted but he became much more relaxed on the ice, which matched his lively performances well; it was as if there was a child within him who could only be released while on ice. In addition, his skating was very light, a good match with The Nutcracker.

“I’ll listen to you,” Misha said eagerly.

No one had yet to officially add ballet elements to figure skating, he would be the first!

He firmly believed that he could succeed.

Yes, his body had already been transformed and he had a stronger jumping ability. If he had the help of a good program, he could definitely stand on top of the podium.

In contrast, Zhang Sushang was much calmer. “What about the free skate? You have to have two programs. Do you want both to share a style, or do something different?”

“Uh, I don’t know.”

He habitually looked to Zhang Sushang, hoping for his coach to make the decision, only to be coldly rejected. “You have to choose yourself, Misha,” he said.

Zhang Sushang couldn’t be Misha’s coach for the rest of his life, so Misha must have the ability to choose his own music. Also, Zhang Sushang knew through experience that skaters who chose their music showed both better expressiveness and understanding of the performance.

“How about this, you make a list of the music you want to skate to, then eliminate the ones that aren’t suitable for competition or for your skating, and leave whatever is left for me to see.”

Zhang Sushang clapped his hands, signalling for him to continue practising, then looked at Maxim who was taking notes next to him. “I’ll charge you a coaching fee if you keep doing that.”

“Charge it if you want, I’m not stopping you,” Maxim said cheerfully.

Zhang Sushang reached out a hand. “A hundred rubles.”

“When did you turn into a capitalist?” Maxim glared. “A hundred rubles? That’s daylight robbery! And your lessons for Misha aren’t that expensive!”

“Misha is Misha. He’s learning the basic skills of being a professional athlete, while you want to take away my coaching skills, which is basically teaching you how to do another job. What’s wrong with charging a little more?” he replied confidently.

He seemed to make sense.

Seeing that Maxim really began to consider handing over 100 rubles, Zhang Sushang changed his tone. “But if you buy two pairs of skates for me and Misha each, it’s not impossible for me to occasionally help you take care of Luka.”

Luka was both Maxim’s student and his nephew, they were equally happy to hear this. “Really?” they asked.

“Really.” The two of them had already come to his door to freeload lessons and he couldn’t kick them out, so he might as well get some benefits.

Thinking of this, Zhang Sushang felt a little sad. If this was a hundred years in the future, someone like him — who came from a prominent figure skating family, had an Olympic champion for a father, and had won a silver medal at Junior Worlds himself — could earn at least $1000 per lesson if he became a coach, but now his services could be bought with just two pairs of skates. It was indeed true that people were worth less once they left their hometown, he wasn’t as valuable as before.

“Also, our skates need to be sharpened regularly,” he added, “not mine though, Misha always complains that I sharpen them too much.”

“I’ll help him sharpen them until he’s satisfied,” Maxim agreed. Then he rubbed his hands together again. “You help take a look at Luka’s music when he’s choosing them.”

It was settled.

Zhang Sushang grabbed a muffin that Misha had baked and bit into it. Many ingredients were in short supply, making cakes lack the rich taste of later generations, but fortunately, Misha was willing to use enough butter to make his muffins soft and glutinous.

Orlov, who was passing by and felt a little greedy, kindly reminded him, “Every bite you eat means an extra half hour of dance practice.”

Stuffing the remaining half of the muffin into his mouth, Zhang Sushang mumbled, “One bite.”

This was the highest level of self-deception for people who wanted to lose weight.

When he got home, he put another pot of mutton bones on the boil. He skimmed off the foam, added a few drops of vinegar, coriander, and radish slices, then cut two pieces of rye bread.

Before he knew it, he had adapted to this way of eating Chinese soup with Western bread.

It began to rain outside. As soon as Alexei ran in the door, he smelled a strong aroma of meat. “It smells delicious,” he said with deep feeling.

Seeing him drenched in water, Zhang Sushang threw him a towel.

Alexei thanked him, then carefully took out a large envelope from within his coat. “The landlady asked me to give this to you just now.”

“What is it?” Zhang Sushang asked in befuddlement.

His movements paused when he saw the stamp on the envelope, which was a typical Chinese painting of bamboo in ink.

He carefully picked off the stamp and pressed it in a notebook before opening the letter inside. On it were lines of beautiful Russian handwriting even better than his own.

【Greetings, Mr. Chyushka. My name is Yun Yan, a Chinese reader of Divine Detective Ilya. I live in the Shanghai International Settlement and teach English, French, and Russian. The other day I saw your masterpiece in a newspaper and was deeply impressed by the ideas within, so I had the idea of translating your work into Chiense to let more people read it…】

This was someone who wanted the copyright to the Chinese version of Divine Detective Ilya, and he even sent an excerpt of his own translation. Upon reading it, Zhang Sushang only had one thought in mind: this guy’s writing was much better than his and his words were elegant and refined, to the point that his own Chinese version of Divine Detectvie Ilya might not be as good as this.

When he saw the price quoted at the end, then thought of the current situation at home, he thought that these people were quite willing to bleed.

Divine Detective Ilya was selling very well. Zhang Sushang had calculated his copyright fee before — he only took 10% of the total yet had so much money, the publishers must have made a fortune.

However, although he was ruthless when making money off foreigners, he was kinder towards his own people.

He spread out a sheet of letter paper and wrote a reply in Chinese.

【Yun Yan-xiansheng, hello. I am Chyushka. I’m very happy to have received your letter, and I’m willing to sell the Chinese copyright of Divine Detective Ilya to the Shanghai Evening News you mentioned. The fee doesn’t need to be as high as you offered, half of it is enough. The money also doesn’t need to be sent to me, instead please give it to my friend Zhou-xiansheng from XX Street.

Perhaps you might be surprised that I’m writing to you in Chinese. This is because Chyushka is Chinese — my real name is Zhang Sushang. I’m from the Northeast. I came to Russia last year to study medicine and only wrote Divine Detective Ilya to practice Russian and earn some money. I didn’t expect that it would be so beloved by domestic readers. Your translation is elegant and faithful to the original, much better than mine…】

“Is it from your family?” Alexei asked.

Zhang Sushang shook his head. “This is a letter from someone in China who wants to buy the translation rights for Divine Detective Ilya. He’s from Shanghai, my family is from the Northeast.”

“Will they mail the money to you later?” Alexei asked, blinking. He counted on his fingers: “You’re Chinese, you write books in Russia, the books are sold in China, and finally Chinese readers write a letter to Russia, hoping to translate your book…”

It went in such a big circle.

Zhang Sushang also felt the relationship was a bit circuitous, though he corrected him, “I don’t plan to get royalties from this, I asked them to send the money to someone else.”

“Who?”

“A school, education is the foundation of a country,” he answered casually.

He first got in touch with the international students who were in Moscow through Li Yuan. Zhou-xiansheng was a student who returned to China in May of this year.

Zhang Sushang didn’t have any great abilities himself, but he was full of respect for those who were studying for the sake of the country. If he could give them some help, this trip through time wouldn’t have been in vain.

Communication systems weren’t as developed as of now, so it wasn’t until a month later that Yun Yan received Zhang Sushang’s reply.

When the old man picked the letter up from the mail room near the school gate, he trotted happily all the way to the office, where he couldn’t help but shout, “Everyone! Mr. Chyushka sent a reply!”

Everyone in the office was both readers of Divine Detective Ilya and foreign language teachers. They all stood up in excitement. “He did? Quick, open it up and see what he says.”

Yun Yan cheerfully unfolded the letter and read it aloud.

As he read, their faces all began to look strange.

---

Author:
I made a mistake when copying and pasting before QAQ [covers face.jpg]

Not using any historical figures, my mom said her mother’s father did some underground work in Shanghai when he was young, his last name was Zhou, and I borrowed it for this article.

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Since Zhang Sushang went up, Alexei rolled his sleeves up and followed suit.

A little giant of 1.9m and a big guy of 1.8m fought together. In an era where the average height was only 1.65m, the two were like bulldozers. They finished the fight within two minutes with not a scratch on them.

As Zhang Sushang threw the last person away, Alexei approached the victim, wanting to help him up, but he was pushed away.

Only then could Zhang Sushang see this person. He looked around 30 years old, slender, with dark blonde hair, deep blue eyes, and delicate eyebrows.

He glanced at the two of them gloomily and reluctantly curled his lips.

“Thank you,” he said, then stumbled to his feet, obviously wanting to leave.

Zhang Sushang hurriedly blocked him. “You’re hurt? Do you want it looked at?”

“I don’t have money,” the man replied calmly.

Poor people couldn’t afford medical treatment, this statement was just as true in the early 20th century.

Blinking, Zhang Sushang dug into his pocket. Just as the man thought he was going to give him money and prepared himself to reject his kindness, he found that what the young man took out were several square white patches with a strong medicinal smell.

He handed them over. “I like to do sports and I sometimes sprain something. You should apply a cold compress first when you get back, then stick these on. It’s very useful.”

The paste used on the patches was made from a secret recipe passed down in Jiang Jinghu’s family, he only brought 50 to Russia yet almost all of them had been used by Zhang Sushang, causing Jiang Jinghu to search for the ingredients everywhere in order to make more — his dormitory neighbours thought he was practicing witchcraft.

Fortunately, Jiang Jinghu would usually treat them whenever they had headaches, fevers, and light injuries, so with his former patients’ support and another round of boasting about the Jiang family, he was able to avoid experiencing a top-notch sauna treatment on top of a bonfire.

The man took the patches, staring at Zhang Sushang, then turned and walked away.

When he was at least ten meters away, Zhang Sushang leaned an arm on Alexei’s shoulder with a smile. “You know him?”

“I don’t,” Alexei said, glancing at him, before he added, “but I know of him.”

The man’s name was Orlov, and he was once a member of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes — yes, the same ballet company that Nijinsky was part of.

Before Russia’s rebirth in 1917, many ballet dancers were favoured by the rich and powerful. It was normal for them to be passed around as gifts, and they also had to pander to the wealthy elite in order to be sponsored for promotion. This was the dark underbelly of ballet’s hidden rules.

Take the ill-fated Nijinsky for example. After he graduated from dance school, he became the lover of Prince Pavel Lvov until the philandering prince tired of him; a Polish nobleman took him in; and finally, he was sent to the bed of the fat, 35-year-old Sergei Diaghilev.

Another example was Anna Pavlova, who was once beloved by a Tsar.

Diaghilev was a famous Russian artistic director who organised many European tours for his dancers, and founded his own ballet company, the Ballets Russes, in 1909.

He was overjoyed to obtain Nijinsky, and soon invited Debussy and Stravinsky to compose music for him, Fokine to choreograph for him, and Karsavina to be his dance partner… Until Nijinsky could no longer endure his violence and oppressive control, married a wife, had children, and left Diaghilev.

Zhang Sushang had been learning ballet since he was four years old so of course he knew these stories. He understood everything as soon as Alexei said that Orlov had been part of the Ballets Russes.

Bygone societies made people into demons. Nijinsky, who was once praised as a god, was confined to a sanatorium due to schizophrenia, though to say his madness wasn’t related to his life experience was obviously false. Orlov wasn’t as famous a dancer as Nijinsky, but he couldn’t escape the hidden rules either.

“After 1917, some dancers tried to escape from the nobles. Orlov and his wife opened a ballet studio, but he’s so good-looking that there are always people talking about his past,” Alexei explained.

He knew of Orlov because one of his classmates in the Faculty of Physics was Giselle’s younger brother — this person often said that his sister was dragged down by his brother-in-law’s reputation and they weren’t living well now, even though she was such a good choreographer back then.

“Then what you said before isn’t right. It isn’t that Orlov likes men but that he was forced by a man, he’s a victim– wait.” Zhang Sushang’s eyes lit up. “How much does Orlov’s dance class charge? Is his wife’s choreography expensive?”

“Huh?” Alexei asked in confusion.

The big bear found that his flatmate’s attention had never been on Orlov’s sexual orientation, he had only inserted himself earlier because he couldn’t bear to see bullies ganging up on someone. Now, his entire focus was on the choreography fees Orlov’s wife charged.

How could Alexei know these details? Zhang Sushang could only stamp his feet anxiously. “Oh, Misha’s going to participate in Worlds again this year but his program hasn’t been decided yet!”

Misha wanted him to choreograph one for him, but when had he learned how to do this?

Moreover, he asked Misha to join a ballet class to improve his body’s aesthetics, but most ballet teachers only taught children. Misha was already over 20 years old yet he was being asked to learn together with a bunch of children, it wasn’t a surprise to hear that he felt extremely ashamed every day. Although there were one-on-one private lessons available, to quote Zhang Sushang: the quality of those teachers wasn’t worth the price.

High-end ballet schools had entrance exams that were impossible for Misha to pass, Zhang Sushang was more likely to get better results there.

Therefore Misha’s ballet was still being taught by Zhang Sushang, but he also had to attend classes, write his novel, and translate textbooks, he couldn’t devote that much time to Misha. Just as he was worried, an Orlov and Giselle who came from the Ballets Russes fell out of the sky.

Zhang Sushang immediately turned and chased. “Orlov! Wait! Don’t go!”

“Chyushka! Your bike and bread are still here!”

Orlov had only walked half a street away when he heard someone shouting his name. When he looked back, he saw that it was the Chinese young man who helped him just now, and following the Chinese man was a little giant who carried a bicycle on his shoulders.

Orlov was almost scared into running away.

The next day, Misha was summoned to 38 Tamanya St. by his good coach. This place was very remote, if Zhang Sushang hadn’t given him a sense of confidence, he wouldn’t have dared to walk through such a dark alley alone.

“We’re here.”

Zhang Sushang stood in front of a dilapidated door which had a sign hanging next to it: Giselle’s Dance Studio.

“This place looks terrible, Chyushka,” Misha couldn’t help saying.

The conditions in this residential block were much worse than even where Zhang Sushang and Alexei lived, but Zhang Sushang only patted his chest and reassured Misha, “Don’t worry, the inside is clean, and the barre is very sturdy, the teacher put it up themselves. Their teaching ability is also very good, I checked it myself.”

Orlov and Giselle could only afford to rent a place like this as both their workplace and residence. Cooking could only be done in the single kitchen in the entire building, and there was also only one bathroom. Neither hygiene nor environment was ideal, but if they couldn’t attract any students, they wouldn’t be able to afford next month’s rent.

So, after Zhang Sushang finished talking with Orlov yesterday, he left behind half of the 2kg loaf of rye bread.

Misha had a lot of trust in Zhang Sushang. If he dared to say that this place was good, Misha dared to believe it. He pushed the rickety door open, and indeed, the floor was very clean.

Inside was a table, two stools, and a pot filled with withered yellow plants at the end of a narrow corridor. Orlov sat in front of a door. Seeing them come in, he hurriedly stood up, looking a little embarrassed. “Good morning,” he said.

Zhang Sushang introduced them. “Misha Platov, my student, a remarkable figure skater. Misha, this is Orlov, a very good dance teacher, and his wife Giselle is a former ballet dancer who can also choreograph. You try a class with them first.”

Trying out a class was an enrollment technique used by many training institutions in later generations. Students paid little to no money to attend their first class, and whether they could be retained depended on the teacher’s ability.

Zhang Sushang paid 10 kopecks as a trial class fee and asked Misha to put on his dancing shoes and go warm up inside the studio. As he said before, the hygiene inside the studio was fine, the mirrors on the wall were wiped free of dust, and the piano next to the window was old but well maintained.

Mrs Giselle was a blue-eyed brunette beauty who spoke in a soft voice as she politely invited Zhang Sushang to sit on the piano bench, then unceremoniously pointed out Misha’s flaws. “His neck sticks forward like a turtle’s, it’s so ugly.”

“This guy’s lazy, he’s always slouching unless he’s on the ice. I think he’ll turn into a hunchback when he gets old.”

“His hunched shoulders don’t help.”

“So I need your help to turn him into a swan.”

“Don’t hold out hope for a swan, you might be able to do it but not him. He’s better off aiming for a village goose.”

“That’s fine too.” The two weren’t polite at all. Zhang Sushang pressed a few piano keys. “Then let’s start with some barre work. Orlov, will you help Misha?”

With an upright posture, he placed his hands on the keys and a soft tune flowed out. Ballet practice was always accompanied by music because it made it easier for dancers to find a sense of rhythm.

Misha looked at him in astonishment. When Zhang Sushang taught him dancing before, he always shouted instructions or clapped his hands to the beat. He hadn’t expected his coach to have such a skill.

As the piano sounded, Orlov regained some of the feeling of being on stage and his expression calmed down.

Barre exercises meant holding on to the railing installed in the dance studio as you practised basic ballet movements such as the first and fifth positions, crouching, and high and low kicks.

It was a given that these movements were exceedingly boring to practice, but every dancer who ever excelled was built up from this basic training.

Due to the limitations of the time, the difficulty level of ballet movements today was far lower than those of later generations, and not even the parents of many eccentric dancers were born yet. However, all dance movements were inherently a combination of skill, rhythm, and emotion.

Orlov was elegant yet stable. Even his most basic actions revealed good control over his own body, and his foundation was as solid as a steel plate.

During the first set of barre exercises, Misha looked like a duck. During the second set, Orlov patiently adjusted his posture. His temper was much better than Zhang Sushang’s, and his patience and meticulousness made Misha feel the warmth of spring.

He had been completely conquered by this teacher’s style; of course, it would be even better if there were no two extraneous sharp-tongued people like Chyushka and Giselle criticising him as well.

The results of the trial class were naturally satisfactory. After paying for the first lesson, Misha was ready to make arrangements for more private lessons, only to be surprised when he asked about the price.

“So cheap?!”

“We don’t have many students so we can’t raise prices. Young man, your coach found you the most cost-effective ballet teacher in the whole of Russia,” Giselle replied amicably.

“Can it be cheaper?” Zhang Sushang asked.

Giselle glared at him. “Do you want us to starve? We’re all proletariats, why are you so devious?”

“Hey, when I was a kid, I always went out shopping with my family and got used to haggling for everything,” he said sheepishly.

Solving Misha’s problem let him put down a worry in his heart. It just so happened that a new tenant had moved in below his apartment, he was afraid that he might receive a threatening letter slipped underneath their door if he kept jumping around at home. Here, he had another place to practice dancing.

He also suggested something to Orlov and Giselle. “You have to take the initiative if you want students. Make some flyers and wait in front of a primary school, then give them to any parents you see with little girls. Remember to tell them that your first class only costs ten kopecks.”

Giselle took careful notes of his suggestions, but before they could be put into action, they welcomed their second student.

Luka, who once met Zhang Sushang at the ice rink, heard about this place from somewhere and also came for ballet lessons.

Orlov understood clearly: “This person is here to freeload off Chyushka’s classes.”

As Maxim handed over the class fee, he smiled earnestly. “How can you use the word ‘freeload’ to describe learning advanced skills?”

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A double Axel jump, abbreviated as 2A, required skaters to take off while facing forward, turn 900° in the air, and then land. It was a jump that became popular in the 1990s.

By the way, Zhang Sushang was only six years old when he first learned it.

It was precisely because of his familiarity with this jump that he could pick it up again so quickly after losing weight and practising a few times on land.

Upon landing, he swung his head, thinking that he looked very cool. Meanwhile the onlookers, including his student Misha, only felt that he was unfathomable.

That was a 2A! How could he do it just like that?

Under normal circumstances, didn’t skaters have to skate for a while to gather momentum? Where did this Chinese guy get his strength? Did he eat a bear?

Then everyone watched as Zhang Sushang kept going after standing firm. He raised his feet and jumped again, another 2A. He did this four times in total.

Coincidentally, every time he finished a 2A, his blades drew a quarter circle on the ice. When he finished four 2As, he ended up with a perfect circle.

What terrifying control this was!

After Zhang Sushang finished this set of jumps, he said to Misha, “Learn the new jumps before Worlds starts.”

This wasn’t a negotiation but an order from his coach.

Misha stared at him for a while, then slowly replied, “Yes, I’ll work hard, coach.”

“You don’t need to put pressure on yourself, I’ll help you,” Zhang Sushang said, returning to his usual cheerful mien. Just as Misha was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he added, “But you can’t be too relaxed either. An athlete without any pressure can’t burst out with potential, so I’ll be adjusting the plan based on your situation.”

Misha’s heart rose again.

After getting along for a time, Misha had realised that Chyushka was easy-going yet meticulous during training. In the words of the Chinese student called Jiang Jinghu, Chyushka was a smiling tiger.

He was usually all smiles and cracking jokes, but that all changed if he wasn’t focused when he should be or couldn’t complete the assigned training.

Perhaps it was a natural law that students were scared of teachers just as athletes were scared of coaches — Misha was particularly afraid of Zhang Sushang’s impassive face, so he was very obedient.

Since he was so proactive, Zhang Sushang skated away and began practicing on his own. Compared to the skaters today, Zhang Sushang who had learned all his skills a hundred years in the future had never seriously studied compulsory figures, only using them as an auxillary tool to increase control over his blades’ footwork.

Although Zhang Sushang wasn’t particularly good at jumping, he had been the best at basic skating skills among his age group. Coupled with an elderly coach who had experienced competitions where figures were an official element, he was at least familiar with all the compulsory figures.

It was fortunate this was the case, otherwise he would have no way to compete in this day and age with just his jumping skills.

By now, neither Luka nor Maxim had any objection to Zhang Sushang teaching Misha.

Zhang Sushang was Chinese.

But he could do a 2A.

Misha was Russia’s top figure skater, he couldn’t be handed over to just anyone.

But he could do a 2A.

Zhang Sushang was only 18 years old.

But he could do four 2A in a row, and said he would teach Misha how to jump a 2A!

What they didn’t know was that if Zhang Sushang didn’t exist, the world would only see the first 2A in 1948’s Winter Olympics.

It was currently 1926. If Misha could learn the 2A, and if Zhang Sushang didn’t participate in competitions, then Misha could absolutely sing ‘how lonely it is to be invincible’.¹Lyrics from Zhou Xingchi’s song 美人鱼 (Mermaid)

Even if they didn’t know this history, they could easily see how amazing Zhang Sushang was.

“How can this be?” Luka mumbled. “He’s Chinese, his country doesn’t have anyone who can participate in any international competitions, why is Chyushka so good? Do athletes just spring out of the ground there? Is there even anyone who can teach figure skating in China?”

Others also had this question, but they could control themselves better. A middle-aged man wearing green overalls like a factory worker approached them. “Maxim, when I first heard that Misha was bewitched by a foreigner I thought his career was going to go down in flames, but now he’s probably only going to go higher.” He took off his hat and patted it a few times. “I’m someone who believes what he sees. Later I’ll report back that that Chinese boy is excellent, he deserves to be Misha’s coach.”

This meant that he accepted him as a coach.

“I understand, Pyotr Petrovich. I’m very sorry I reported Misha without properly investigating first, I’m willing to accept full responsibility,” Maxim sighed.

“My dear Maxim,” Mr. Pyotr replied, “you were only worried for one of our own, you haven’t done anything wrong. I also only came to take a look. I’m quite happy that Misha was able to find someone he sincerely respects as a coach.”

Zhang Sushang was confused at first, not knowing who this bald uncle was, but the uncle looked very polite, so he stopped to speak with him.

After introductions, he realised that this Mr. Pyotr was an official in charge of sports — not someone with an especially high position, but someone who would help his country’s athletes liase with organisers of international competitions. In other words, he entered their names and arranged itineraries for them.

Mr. Pyotr asked if Zhang Sushang was interested in becoming Misha’s official coach. By official, he meant joining their skating federation.

The Figure Skating Federation of the USSR, in other words, the forerunner of the Figure Skating Federation of Russia, would actively cultivate people with figure skating talent and sponsor them to compete internationally. Figure skating needed money, after all. In a world where most people struggled to get food on the table, where would athletes get meat, eggs, and milk to eat? Where could they find a professional coach to teach them skills?

Maxim, for example, was a coach from the federation. The main reason why Misha lacked a coach thus far was because he was too strong and no coach was able to teach him anything.

Pyotr knew very well that with the current situation, Zhang Sushang’s current ability could only be due to talent as well as hard work. If they could attract him they would be able to give him other athletes to train, raising the entire country’s level of figure skating.

Besides, Zhang Sushang was only 18 years old. If he competed under Russia’s name, they would be able to enjoy glory in figure skating for at least the next decade.

Americans weren’t the only ones able to entice talents, Russia also had their ways. Everyone liked geniuses.

Zhang Sushang blinked. He didn’t expect that just skating casually would get him a pie falling from the sky.

After a long silence, he replied slowly, “Sir, thank you very much for your good intentions, I’m very honoured. But I came here to study in order to help my country. If I accept your offer today, that would be spitting on my original intentions.”

He had no expectations of becoming a hero throughout the ages after time travelling. He was self-aware — the ones who would achieve big things were people like Wu Yeming, Li Yuan, and Jiang Jinghu. As for him, he would be satisfied just having food to eat and clothes to wear, going ice skating once in a while, and surviving until he was 90.

But no matter how hard life was, no matter how the world changed, he had no intention of emigrating.

His motherland was suffering right now, he still wanted to go back and be a doctor after graduating. If he couldn’t save Chinese people, he could at least save the people he could see, right?

Zhang Sushang rejected Mr. Pyotr’s invitation, along with his offer of a staggeringly high salary and the opportunity to immigrate.

After the day of skating practice, Zhang Sushang advised Misha, “Remember to stretch after going home, and also practice the ballet movements I taught you, you’re still a little stiff. Figure skating is the one snow sport where aesthetics are important, so you can’t be stiff. You can only look good when it looks effortless.”

Misha listened seriously. Before he left, he also dug out a big piece of rye bread that he had made himself.

Misha’s rye bread was very thick, just as solid as himself. Hefting it, Zhang Sushang guessed that it might be as heavy as 2kg, which was more than enough to hit someone with.

Thank goodness he rode a bike here.

Bicycles were first invented in 1790 and had become a popular means of transportation. When he walked on the main streets of St. Petersburg, he could always see many people flying by on bicycles.

He also bought one after getting some money. Usually after classes, Alexei would ride the bike while he ran beside him and only sat on the passenger seat when he got tired.

At first, Alexei didn’t dare to ride fast for fear that he wouldn’t be able to keep up, but later he discovered that if he didn’t pedal faster he wouldn’t even be able to catch Zhang Sushang’s shadow.

There were cars available for sale at this time; however, the entire reason Zhang Sushang had travelled through time was due to an incident during a driving lesson. Now he didn’t dare to get behind the wheel even if you gave him a hundred guts.

He didn’t know how good the cars’ shock absorption technology was right now…

Zhang Sushang tied the extra big loaf of rye bread to the back seat and leisurely rode back. On the way, he met Alexei on a street corner, where he was hesitantly watching a brawl going on not far away.

Ringing the bike’s bell, he called out, “Lyosha, what are you looking at?”

Alexei turned with a complex look flashing in his blue eyes. “Nothing. Are you done training? Then let’s go back,” he said as he stood in front of Zhang Sushang.

Zhang Sushang peeked around him and chuckled. “Hey, isn’t it just a fight? There’s nothing to cover up.”

Everyone knew that people from warrior nations all had hot tempers, this wasn’t the first time he saw Russians moved to blows. The most exciting fights all happened during Maslenitsa.²An Eastern Slavic religious & folk festival, traditionally the last chance to participate in social activities before Lent

Surprised, Alexei moved aside. Zhang Sushang observed for a moment with his head tilted. “Huh, why is it a group of people beating up one person? What did he do? Are the others good samaritans or gangsters?”

If it was the former, Zhang Sushang would pretend he didn’t see it and take Alexei home to eat lieba; if it was the latter, he would give a hand.

“The one being beaten is gay,” Alexei replied.

Homosexuality was considered a disease. After being found out, patients would be ‘treated’ via electroshock therapy, lobotomy, and more, which could all easily kill them. In times and places that were more conservative, such things were never uncommon.

“What?” Zhang Sushang looked at his flatmate in surprise. Just as Alexei was about to explain more, his expression changed. “They can’t hit people just for that!” He rolled up his sleeves. “It doesn’t matter who that person likes, if he isn’t eating those people’s food how can they have the right to care about what he does?”

Then, like a Pikachu using Quick Attack, he charged forward with a flying kick.

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• 1
  Lyrics from Zhou Xingchi’s song 美人鱼 (Mermaid)
• 2
  An Eastern Slavic religious & folk festival, traditionally the last chance to participate in social activities before Lent

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St. Petersburg held one of only two artificial ice rinks in the whole of Russia, the other one was located in Moscow.

Misha sat on a bench, listening to a man chattering in his ear.

“Misha, if you need a coach, we can find a more professional one for you instead of you picking one at random.”

Soon, his biggest domestic rival, Luka, rushed over as well. “I heard you chose a Chinese for your coach. Are you kidding? Even if no one in the country can teach you, you can’t treat your career so casually, right?”

 Looking at them calmly, Misha stated, “You don’t understand, it was fate that brought Chyushka to me. He’s the best coach in the world. No one can help me more than him.”

His words were sincere. He had already become despondent because he felt his career hit its ceiling — he couldn’t make the more difficult jumps, and his figures weren’t as good as Gillis’ talent at it. No matter how good his performance, it was the referee’s subjective judgement. They could praise him today and praise someone else tomorrow.

As an athlete, the despair of being unable to improve had almost driven Misha to madness.

But ever since he requested Zhang Sushang to be his coach, he found that his waist and legs no longer hurt as before and he stopped having insomnia. The ceiling rose, and he could once again go higher.

It’s over, Luka thought hopelessly, Misha’s been scammed by that Chinese.

The scene fell into silence as everyone stopped talking. Misha sat there pressing his legs, so Luka, feeling restless, went to practice on the ice for a while.

Time on the ice rink was precious, any good figure skater would seize any chance to use it.

After Misha finished stretching, he also went on the ice. He was the best skater in the country, surpassing Luka, and was proficient in all the compulsory figures. Luka had always been impressed by his brisk movements.

But after skating for a while and finding the feeling, Misha tried to do a double jump by taking off from his back inside edge — this was Gillis’ signature jump.

At this moment the entire venue became quiet, for no other reason than that the movement was so exquisite.

Current jump techniques were quite crude. Anyone who was able to rotate 1.5 times in a jump, which was the level most amateur skaters in the future could reach, would be considered an expert. If someone could do two or three types of double jumps? They would definitely be a big shot in the national team of a country strong in figure skating!

The status of double jumps now was about the same as that of quad jumps a hundred years later.

Correspondingly, the jump techniques of these masters were also very primitive. Due to the far inferior quality of the ice surface and skates, and because this sport was still in the process of being developed, many athletes relied on pure physical ability to jump, causing their posture to be somewhat ugly.

The injury rate was also quite high… Many aspects such as nutrition and physical therapy were still in their infancy, after all. In the last century there still existed many strange things such as aphrodisiacs containing radium, which killed many unlucky men on the weaker side. It was just six years ago in 1920 that ‘vitamines’ were changed to ‘vitamins’ and modern nutritional studies began to develop rapidly.

But this development hadn’t reached the point that it could bring any significant benefits to the sports field.

After Misha accepted him as his coach, the first thing Zhang Sushang was to give him a physical examination. He found that Misha’s stamina was bad, his explosive strength was weak, and his body fat ratio was at an outrageously high 17%.

Zhang Sushang had never seen any skater in men’s singles able to compete internationally who had both the ability to do difficult jumps and a body fat ratio above 12%. A normal male singles skater should have a BF ratio in the single digits!

So he changed his dietary plan.

For the past two months, Misha had only been able to eat boiled chicken and beef, as well as eggs, milk, and a bunch of vegetables. Supplemented by aerobic exercise, he successfully shed a lot of fat which made his body lighter — it was a natural result to jump higher.

Zhang Sushang had also heard Misha mention once that he couldn’t trust his legs because he had broken them before, so he would shrink from jumps, therefore lowering their quality.

Zhang Sushang felt exasperated and wanted to laugh when he heard this. According to the common sense of later generations, athletes who wanted to maintain their condition should conduct high-intensity training for a long period; in contrast, Misha didn’t even dare to jump. With his jump practice time also shorter than others at the same level, no wonder he couldn’t improve.

Fortunately, coaches also consider their students’ mental states. Zhang Sushang had collected the money so of course he would be dedicated. Not only did he make him drink more milk, he also added eggshell powder to Misha’s food, saying, “This is a secret bone-strengthening medicine I got from my friend Jiang Jinghu, taking the right amount at the right time can help you become stronger.”

To make Misha believe his lies, he even brought him to Jiang Jinghu to give him physical therapy, which was actually to use traditional Chinese massage techniques and a cupping session. Then he crazily praised Jiang Jinghu’s family, spouting a long list of how awesome his father and grandparents were and which important officials they had treated…

Jiang Jinghu seemed used to Zhang Sushang boasting about traditional Chinese medicine and the Jiang family in front of foreigners by now. While his friend prattled on, he cooperatively sat upright on the bed, showing a reserved and elegant smile.

Misha felt that what he said made sense. From then on, he ate whatever Zhang Sushang told him to eat and didn’t complain about practising jumping hundreds of times every time they went to the ice rink, practising to the point that he even broke a pair of skates. It would be stranger for him not to get better.

Regarding this type of high-quality back inside edge double jumps, otherwise known as 2F, Misha did it 20 times in a row in front of Luka with a successful landing 90% of the time.

Luka’s jaw dropped.

If Misha had been in this state during the last Worlds, he would’ve more than likely won!

Just then, there came the sound of jingling bells from outside — someone rode a bicycle into the stadium and parked it next to the rink.

It was a tall Chinese young man wearing a side cap which had recently become popular among the younger generation. Grinning when he caught sight of them, he swiftly ran over with ice skates in hand and greeted them cheerfully.

“Misha, have you eaten?”

Thinking that this was his coach asking if he had eaten according to the assigned diet plan, he skated to the edge of the rink and replied seriously, “I’ve eaten.”

Zhang Sushang laughed and, ignoring the people who were all staring at him, clapped his hands a few times. “Then let’s train first. Same as before, ten jumps in a set. One set each of back outside edge double using the toe pick, back inside edge double, back outside edge double, and back inside edge double using the toe pick.¹2T, 2S, 2lo, and 2F respectively

“Pay attention to your center of gravity, don’t tilt your axis, and remember to tighten your body. Start!”

Misha knew what Zhang Sushang wanted. He glanced at the onlookers, then turned around and skated to the middle of the rink.

The best way to dispel doubts was to display strength. He had made huge progress with Chyushka’s help, so it was time to show it and clear his name.

Toe loops and Salchows were considered low difficulty jumps in the future, with correspondingly lower scores, because they were easier than loop, flip, Lutz, and Axel jumps.

Though nowadays, those who could conquer 2T and 2S were still considered experts — for example, Luka. He was Russia’s number two men’s singles skater because he had mastered these two jumps.

At 20 years old, he was younger than Misha and had a stronger body. He dared not say that his success rate for double jumps reached 90%, yet Misha did it.

Now he even felt a little depressed. He and Misha were originally evenly matched with himself just a little worse in compulsory figures, but now it seemed that Misha had outstripped him by a lot.

Maxim, Luka’s coach and uncle, asked in disbelief, “Misha is like a different person, did you do all this?”

He looked towards the Chinese young man who was currently supporting himself on the back of a chair as he pulled his right leg up behind him until it reached his nape. Maxim couldn’t imagine how he stretched himself like this, had he worked in a circus?!

Surprised, Zhang Sushang lowered his leg and thought for a moment. “I think that except for me, no one can bring such a big change to Misha,” he said.

“But you’re Chinese, your country doesn’t even have any athletes! How can you teach a world-class athlete?” Luka asked.

Zhang Sushang shrugged. “Don’t talk nonsense. Before is before, since I’ve decided to be an athlete, my country has athletes.”

He hopped onto the ice, pushed off, and soon reached Misha.

“Good job, Misha. I think we can do something new.”

“Something new?” Wiping away his sweat, Misha looked intently at Zhang Sushang. “You think I’m not good enough to win the championship right now, right?”

“A world champion is someone who breaks through the current limits,” he said frankly, “and this is also the meaning of competitive sports, because you represent the infinite possibilities within humans. If someone wants to be number one, they have to show that they can exceed the previous number one.

“Your current skills can only be said to be at the same level as Gillis and Willy, not better, so you can’t be sure of victory when you face them. Are you willing to bet your victory on the chance that they’ll make a mistake? You have to invent new things, just like how Gillis invented brand new techniques like the double flip and going from a jump straight into a spin.”

“How do I do that?” Misha asked.

“Don’t expect anything out of compulsory figures, even I don’t know how to beat Gillis there, he’s too much of a figures genius. The only way to win is through jumps and spins. Have you tried any harder jumps?”

Misha, feeling that he understood what Zhang Sushang meant, was eager to try. “Do you want me to learn the double Lutz or the double Axel?”

After going through Zhang Sushang’s basic training and making his body lighter, he felt confident and full of motivation.

2A meant doing two and a half rotations, that was a little hard, but he could try a 2Lz.

Zhang Sushang blinked in confusion. “What are you talking about? Of course you have to do them all. I hope you can do all the doubles by the end of the year.”

“What? Say that again?” Misha thought he was having auditory hallucinations.

“I want you to learn them all,” Zhang Sushang patiently repeated.

Luka, who had been watching from afar, ran over and stood behind Misha with his hands on his hips. “Don’t be ridiculous. I admit you have some skills, but learning a new jump isn’t that easy!”

“But doubles aren’t hard! I’ve taught Misha for two months and know his body better than you guys, he can do it!”

 “The hell it’s not hard! Misha isn’t your guinea pig! If anything goes wrong it’s not you who’ll be hurt. A double Lutz is okay but you can just do the double Axel yourself!”

You go if you can do it!

Zhang Sushang began to frown at his harsh tone. “I already said, double Axels aren’t hard!”

Saying so, he jumped.

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• 1
  2T, 2S, 2lo, and 2F respectively