Tag: modern (page 1 of 3)

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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

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Time flew when people were focused. Since the first day he travelled through time, Zhang Sushang had always been serious about losing weight, earning money, and improving his quality of life. Unknowingly, he went from 180kg to 135kg.

This was an acceptable weight for someone 1.8m tall and further weight loss may be bad for his health; the next step was to ensure a healthy diet and exercise regularly.

Although the body he occupied wasn’t as good as the one before time travel that had trained since childhood, in this era, his body’s fitness was probably better than 99.99% of all humans.

“Ugh.”

Seeing Zhang Sushang sigh as he ate noodles, Alexei poured him a cup of milk. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

Zhang Sushang flipped open a small notebook. “Didn’t I write a summary of my life after coming to Saint Petersburg? I always felt very busy and tired at the end of every day, but once I wrote it down, I found that I haven’t actually done any big things.”

Alexei leaned over and took a look.

End of 1926 University Semester, Summary:

1. Lost 22kg
2. Ranked top 3 of the department in exams
3. Solved lack of food & clothing

Although there were only three things listed, they were all major events — Alexei felt that it was quite remarkable that Zhang Sushang was able to achieve them all.

Meanwhile, Zhang Sushang cracked his knuckles. “I originally wanted to finish translating Li Yuan, Wu Yeming, and my textbooks, but I couldn’t.”

“Didn’t you already finish translating it?”

“Only the parts used for this semester.”

Speaking of this, Zhang Sushang still felt a little exasperated. In his opinion his classmates who came abroad to study were all good seedlings for the country, they just needed to study well and leave all the translating to him, but they insisted on being polite and taking over half the workload.

Alexei was quiet for a while, then, “The students from your country are all excellent.”

He said this from the bottom of his heart. Generally speaking, university courses took four years to complete with higher degrees requiring even longer. These Chinese students knew exactly how difficult it would be to study in Russia, and worked harder than anyone else when they arrived.

For example, the chemistry student Li Yuan. He finished an entire year’s course in the space of a single semester and would be a second-year student next semester. This was the result of being hampered by a language barrier at the beginning of the year, otherwise, he could have done it even faster.

Another example was the engineering student Wu Yeming. Diligent and with a solid foundation, Alexei heard his supervisor say that there was an associate professor from the Faculty of Chemistry who wanted him as a son-in-law.

Zhang Sushang didn’t fall behind either; he had a strong learning ability, a cheerful personality, and was good at sports. He had even set a new record at the sports festival for the 3000m run. He was popular among his class and was currently their class’s vice president.

After writing his summary, Zhang Sushang calculated his savings again.

The copyright fee given by the publishing house was extremely high, enough for him to eat meat every day and save a large portion, but Zhang Sushang already knew what he wanted to use this money for.

First, the three who came with him to study in Russia were all hard-working and forbearing people; Zhang Sushang couldn’t bear to see them endure so much, so he would boil three extra eggs every morning for them, and he would also send over good food when he had any.

He felt like his mentality was similar to those enthusiastic uncles and aunts who felt so distressed for disaster relief soldiers doing search and rescue and eating dry rations in the rain that they went to deliver hot meals for them.

Jiang Jinghu, Li Yuan, and Wu Yeming insisted on refusing any money Zhang Sushang tried to send and would instantly turn their faces if he tried to press them. Sometimes when Zhang Sushang stayed in their dormitory all afternoon to translate books, a steaming hot baked potato would be stuffed into his hands when he left.

Their mode of interaction could be summed up like this ↓

Zhang Sushang: Let me take care of you, I have money, really!

The other three: We won’t take advantage of you, just take care of yourself!

Zhang Sushang: QAQ please take advantage of me!

The other three: Here, bring a baked potato on your way home.

Alexei sometimes felt like this group of Chinese international students all wanted to be each other’s dads.

In addition to sending money to his compatriots here, Zhang Sushang also took out half his royalties and sent it to the Chinese students studying at other Russian schools via Li Yuan.

Though when the copyright fees arrived, he still saved up 2000 rubles. Looking at this money, he mentally calculated the expenses for returning to China from Russia, then travelling from China to Switzerland, and immediately shuddered. He vowed that he wouldn’t touch this money unless it was a matter of life and death.

Speaking of the source of his wealth — that is, Divine Detective Ilya¹previously Detective Ilya, changed to differentiate it from the character — the sales volume within Russia was as high as ever, and any intellectual with a little spare money was willing to buy such a book. There weren’t many kind characters apart from the protagonists, but they could all make readers laugh from time to time.

Alexei sat next to Zhang Sushang as he sorted through the account books, spread out a piece of paper, and continued to translate textbooks. “It was two months ago that you translated Divine Detective Ilya into English yourself and posted it, right?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Zhang Sushang held his chin in his hands.

“Have you received any feedback on the novel from that side?”

“I have, I received a review that I personally think is a bit excessive. They said that I’m an author who respects women and that the female characters in my novel have inspired many of them, just like Nora from A Doll’s House.”

A Doll’s House was a play written in 1879 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It told the story of a middle-class woman named Nora, who went from being intimate with her husband to separating, and finally opening the door to leave. It was regarded as an early example of classical feminism.

Zhang Sushang truly thought that his novel was only a detective novel written purely to make money, so this evaluation was too excessive.

But it was undeniable that the novel sold well among Western female readers, becoming a rare detective novel that was favoured among women.

It was said that newspapers from foreign concessions in China were also reprinting Divine Detective Ilya. Zhang Sushang hoped that his countrymen could see this story and also hoped that they liked it, but upon thinking of the word ‘concession’, his smile faded.

In a middle school located within Shanghai’s British concession, a group of girls walked into the campus together. Most of them were fifteen or sixteen years old, cleanly dressed and well-groomed.

Families that could provide their children with education in this era had to be of a certain prosperity, not to mention this school that employed foreign teachers who could teach students Russian, French, and English. Many students who were interested in studying abroad would work hard to get into this school, so the tuition here was naturally also rather high.

Li Yan’s grandfather was a famous tea merchant and her family was quite wealthy. Children in the family would be sent to private schools for enlightenment once they reached a certain age, and those with good grades would be sent to higher education. She had an older cousin from another branch of the family who had grades so good that he was sent abroad to study.

The first period that day was English class, for which the teacher was an American called Mike. He was one of Li Yan’s favourite teachers because although he was a man, he was always polite to female students and Li Yan could tell that he respected them.

When class was about to end, she saw him write a few words in Chinese and English on the blackboard.

Morning report, 晨报.

Detective, 侦探.

Mr. Mike turned around and picked up a book. “A new day usually starts with a cup of coffe and a newspaper. A newspaper contains the news you want to know as well as some interesting stories and opinions, such as the Saturday Review from Britain, which is published every Saturday morning. It is a highly entertaining newspaper that not only gentlemen, but also their wives and children, like to read.

“Recently, they published a unique detective novel with characters full of personality. The author is called Chyushka, from Russia. We don’t know whether they are a man or a woman — he’s very mysterious — but the female characters in his novel have wisdom and courage that transcends gender. There are good and bad men, and there are also good and bad women. Some old-fashioned people think this isn’t something girls should read, but I think you should give it a try.

“The name of this story is Divine Detective Ilya, and what I have here is a collection of all its cases thus far.”

Mr. Mike took advantage of the break time to read aloud the first and second cases.

Speaking plainly, the first case of the novel was pure comedy. The author used a relaxed tone to create a smart yet cowardly detective, a violent yet beautiful man, and an unusually clever donkey. Li Yan couldn’t stop laughing as she listened, and didn’t think there was anything scary about it at all.

But starting from the second case, Chyushka began to exert his efforts. He was good at creating various characters with full personalities. The villains in Gu Long’s²Taiwan novelist best known for writing wuxia novels in 1960s-70s novels were all despicable, and Chyushka was no different. Except for those in the protagonist’s group, everyone else in his book were more or less mentally abnormal.

As female readers, they inevitably had sympathy for the unfortunate experiences of Mila and Nika, the murderers.

In fact, as long as they had some common sense, no one was willing to harm others or sell themselves. The two murderers in Twins Who Share No Blood were more like ordinary people who had been forced into a desperate situation.

As the author himself wrote:

If they were placed in a kinder society and allowed to receive education, growing up safely and happily, they would be like any other girl. Their biggest worries would be what to wear when going out, what snacks to eat, which university to go to after high school, and which major to study that they liked and would contribute to their country… but since the day they had been hurt, it seemed as if the world had stolen their right to happiness. They had no other path except revenge.

This passage was exceedingly powerful for women of this era. Even as most people considered a society where men and women were equal and women received the same education an elusive goal, they still yearned for it.

The protagonist of Divine Detective Ilya was timid but had an agile mind, while his partner looked like a violent rose but in fact was careful, righteous, and protective. They weren’t the mainstream type of protagonists who excelled in everything, but they were unforgettable.

Thus, without Zhang Sushang’s knowledge, the Chinese version of Divine Detective Ilya spread throughout the Shanghai concession thanks to the translation efforts of an enthusiastic fan, Yun Yan, who coincidentally was the literature teacher at Li Yan’s middle school. Yun Yan was a rather well-connected person. At a book club, he reconnected with an old classmate who now worked in the publishing industry — Li Di, the chief editor of Shanghai Evening News.

Li Di, holding the translated draft, sighed with feeling. “Yun-xiong has worked hard, translating such a thick foreign book in less than half a month. But… without the original author’s permission, we probably can’t print it to sell.”

It might be possible if some third-rate tabloid magazine privately translated and reprinted foreign works, but they were one of the top ten newspapers in Shanghai by sales volume, it would be too unseemly.

“The author Chyushka is from Saint Petersburg, Russia, okay, I remember that one of my reporters has elders in his family who are fluent in Russian. I’ll put aside my face and ask them to write a letter, we can send it to Russa and see if we can buy the rights to Divine Detective Ilya.”

However, Zhang Sushang was too busy to read the letter they sent.

The reason was that something happened with his little disciple, Misha.

The next Olympic season was in February of 1928. Before that, Misha’s most important competition every year was Worlds. His loss to Gillis and Willy in the 1926 season gave him a big shock and made him question his talent, which ultimately led to him choosing Zhang Sushang as his coach.

Letting a Chinese person be the coach of someone who won silver at the Olympics and bronze at Worlds? Don’t joke! This was something that wouldn’t even happen in dreams.

After Zhang Sushang and Misha trained at the ice rink in the city centre a few times, several people raised objections.

“Misha shouldn’t let a yellow man be his coach, it’s an insult to our country’s figure skating!”

“Yes, we need Misha to give us an explanation!”

“Is Misha crazy?”

When Misha’s brother Ivan A hurriedly knocked on Zhang Sushang’s door and conveyed the news, he only smiled.

Picking up his skates, he said, “And here I thought it was something big. Let’s go, I’ll go explain it to them now.”

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  previously Detective Ilya, changed to differentiate it from the character
• 2
  Taiwan novelist best known for writing wuxia novels in 1960s-70s

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But he will keep getting skinnier!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Everyone in this wave was evil in some way.

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

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

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

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

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

“The nurse is doomed, abandon him.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“It’s a hard road to walk.”

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

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

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

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

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Since discovering that Zhang Sushang also liked skating, Wu Yeming often invited him to play on the ice together, which he happily welcomed.

Even though speed and figure skating were different sports, having someone to train with these days was rare.

Wu Yeming had no intention of training, he only wanted to skate; however, he had no way of refusing Zhang Sushang when he dragged him to do squats, push-ups, and go jogging.

When the weather eventually turned warmer and the ice thinned, thus making it unsuitable to train on, Wu Yeming was finally relieved of this burden.

It was also at this time that the Olympic Committee officially recognised the International Winter Sports Week held at Chamonix, France in 1924 as the first Olympic Winter Games.

Winter sports had long been included in the Olympics, but due to weather requirements, they had always taken place in April, while the summer sports were held during August. Therefore, the two events would have been split sooner or later to save costs.

In this era, all the countries applying to host the Olympic Games did so for both the summer and winter games, holding the latter in April and the former in August. It wasn’t until 1994 that this arrangement changed so that the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics were held in sequence with an interval of two years.

For example, Ivan A’s elder brother, Misha Platov won a silver medal at the 1924 Olympic Games. He was the first to do this at a Winter Olympics, which made it quite a historic achievement.

Next came Worlds.¹World Figure Skating Championships Misha Platov travelled to Berlin for the competition, where he won bronze. Afterwards, someone brought a video of the competition back to St. Petersburg, for theatres to play. Ivan A’s family owned a hotel, and so this time they draped a white cloth in an open space and specially invited people to screen the video.

This was still the era of silent films — the first sound film The Jazz Singer wouldn’t be released until October of the next year — so to allow the audience to understand that figure skating must be paired with music, the hotel hired a band to play next to the screen.

As Ivan A’s classmates, Zhang Sushang, Danil, and Jiang Jinghu made a trip together. They sat in a corner and listened to the band play everything from Mozart to Beethoven.

Their playing was okay. Danil closed his eyes and tapped out the rhythm on the table.

Misha took a seat next to them. “Chyushka, have you been skating recently?” he asked.

Zhang Sushang had been lounging with a cup in hand, but seeing the protagonist approach, he sat up properly. “The lake’s ice is too thin, it’s been too dangerous to keep skating.”

“Really? But indeed, there are a lot of requirements for snow sports venues,” Misha said regretfully.

Although indoor artificial ice rinks existed, they were expensive and unpopular. Misha, as a national-level athlete, could make use of them regularly, but ordinary people couldn’t.

Danil also understood some things about skating. “Congratulations on winning the bronze medal at Worlds, Mr Platov.”

“I could only win the bronze,” Misha said, smiling bitterly.

It was obvious that he was unhappy. Danil hesitated, unsure of what to say; meanwhile, Zhang Sushang glanced at the screen where the champion’s skate was currently playing and commented, “You did your best, it’s just that your opponents were too strong. The first and second places are better than you by quite a bit, it’s already pretty good to get a bronze.”

Misha: “…”

Everyone’s expressions turned complex, yet Zhang Sushang still felt that he only spoke the truth.

The second place this year, Gillis, was amazing. He was known as the best skater in compulsory figures, the first athlete to successfully land a 2F²Two rotations + flip jump, which is a jump that takes off from the back inside edge and lands on the back outside edge of the opposite foot jump in competition, and the person who created the flying sit spin. He was a true boss in the annals of figure skating history.

The first time this person competed in the Olympics in 1920 his skates broke so he had to buy a pair of second-hand skates to make do, yet still went on to win the gold medal, then won gold again at the 1924 Winter Olympics.

In addition, he also achieved great results as a coach. His best student was the only three-time Olympic champion in women’s singles figure skating — Sonja Henie.

However it wasn’t Gillis who won gold at Worlds, but his old rival Willy Böckl from Austria. Although Böckl’s compulsory figures weren’t as good as Gillis’ and he missed out on an Olympic gold medal due to this, he was also famous in figure skating history.

Willy Böckl held the record of four wins at Worlds.

Russia, which experienced a tumultuous transformation less than a decade ago, was still developing in many aspects including sports, so Misha winning the bronze medal was enough to make figure skating fans very proud.

Though to Zhang Sushang, none of his attributes had reached the level required to win a championship and he was only a competitor for the podium due to his overall good quality and stable performance.

At this time, Misha’s program began to play; he had skated to The Nutcracker. “Your performance was better than theirs. Tchaikovsky’s music is the great legacy he left to Russia, I think your rendition of The Nutcracker shows better artistry than Gillis or Willy,” Zhang Sushang commented. Then he suggested, “If you want to go further, you can consider learning ballet, and adding ballet elements into your programs.”

When Danil heard this, he couldn’t help but cough. “Chyushka, figure skating is figure skating, ballet is ballet, they’re different things entirely. How can they be mixed up?”

“Why can’t they be mixed up?” Zhang Sushang wondered out loud. “Figure skating isn’t only a competitive sport, it’s also a performance. Adding more artistic elements can only improve the viewing experience and elevate the program’s quality.”

“You don’t understand, you’re a Chinese and haven’t seen any sports matches, you don’t know how serious these competitions are.”

Zhang Sushang was stunned. “The seriousness of sports competitions isn’t used in this way, right? And, if you want to discriminate against me due to my nationality, we can’t be friends anymore. This is my bottom line!”

Zhang Sushang’s face turned cold by the latter half. It was the first time Danil had seen such an expression from him, he suddenly felt an inexplicable fear and immediately apologised. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. You’re exceptional but I just think that since your original environment is like that, there are many things you haven’t been exposed to…”

This caused Zhang Sushang to become even more depressed. As a child of the modern age, everyone treated him very well whether he was watching or participating in competitions abroad, and good friends would also ask him to bring some local specialties from China. Thus, although he intellectually knew that his motherland had once been weak and suffered quite a bit of bullying, today was the first time he experienced it.

People didn’t intentionally despise them, but it was even more hurtful than if they did.

Misha fell into deep thought after hearing Zhang Sushang’s words. He did like Tchaikovsky’s music, otherwise, he wouldn’t have used it for his program — if he added ballet elements, that might also be a way…

He wanted to train a bit more before the ice completely melted. With this thought, Misha stood and left the hotel. There was a lake near his home which he used to skate on since he was a child whenever it froze.

No athlete in the world didn’t want to win. As long there was a chance to beat Gillis and Willy, Misha would never give up.

“I’ll cover your drinks today, feel free,” Misha said, and then he simply up and left.

He couldn’t wait to try out what Zhang Sushang mentioned. Picking up his ice skates, he hurried to the lake.

As a native of St. Petersburg from a prosperous family, he would watch ballet at the Kirov Theatre every year, and had once even seen Nijinsky’s performance!

For male ballet dancers, which movements did they use?

Spins were a given. Apart from spins, there were also great leaps — Nijinsky had the legendary ability to stay in the air. Once, when someone asked him about the secrets of his dance, he replied with a classic line.

“You just need to jump, then stay up there for a while. It’s not hard.”

Maybe it wasn’t that hard for the god of dance. However when Misha tried jumping on the ice with the third ballet position, that is, raising both arms above his head, he was keenly aware that his bodily aesthetics were completely inferior to Nijinsky.

He had no foundation in ballet, and the only dance he knew was the ballroom dance he learned in university.

“Still doesn’t work,” he sighed in disappointment.

Maybe he could sign up for dance classes after the ice melted and he could no longer skate on the lake, but he was already 24, was it any use to learn a new dance style now?

Right at this moment, someone shouted to him, “Be careful!”

Misha looked over in confusion, then felt himself stepping on air.

Zhang Sushang lay flat on the ice and rushed over like a penguin gliding on ice. Where Misha had once been was now only a hole. Laying next to it and stretching his hand inside, Zhang Sushang soon felt a piece of clothing, which he gripped tight as he pulled it up.

Misha’s eyes had been open when he fell. He watched the sky get farther and farther away from him before a hand grabbed onto his collar and he began to rise.

It wasn’t until he was dragged to the shore that Misha came back to his senses, coughed out mouthfuls of water, and panted in fear.

Zhang Sushang, who sat heavily next to him, put on Alexei’s offered coat. He also felt a little scared of what just happened. “Brother, if my flatmate hadn’t told me there was frozen lake here and asked me to see if we could use it to skate, then happened to see you fall in, you would’ve been in big trouble today.”

“Chyushka, this ice isn’t safe, it seems you can’t train here,” Alexei said slowly as he crouched next to them.

Zhang Sushang didn’t care, at worst he would do training on land. He knelt next to Misha and patted him on the back. “Are you okay?”

Misha looked down. After a while, he asked lightly, “Hey, if I don’t learn ballet, will I never be able to beat Gillis and Willy?”

“If you want to improve, all you have to do is to strengthen your skills or enrich your artistry, it has nothing to do with learning ballet or not,” Zhang Sushang replied frankly.

His dancing skills were so good, but didn’t he have to admit defeat when faced with competitors who could do quad jumps?

“But I’ve had broken bones before. I can’t surpass Willy in jumps, and my figures aren’t as good as Gillis’,” Misha said bitterly.

Zhang Sushang, who once also suffered a broken leg but still dared to aim for quads: “…Supplement more calcium and do more land training, brother, you can do it.”

After sending back this athlete who never won a gold medal and was clearly under great psychological pressure, Zhang Sushang went home with Alexei dripping wet and shivering from the cold night wind.

Alexei thoughtfully walked in front to help block the wind. “I never knew that athletes had to bear so much pressure in order to win,” he sighed deeply.

Zhang Sushang sneezed, then looked up to the star-filled sky. “It’s because he wants to bring glory to his motherland,” he said.

For a newly born nation, a championship didn’t only represent personal glory, it also brought confidence to their compatriots.

And didn’t they also need such a medal for a motherland that was suffering?

Thinking back to what Danil said that day, Zhang Sushang thought that maybe, no one in this era thought that China had anyone who could participate in international sports, and no one there understood sports.

He let out a long sigh.

Perhaps he should increase his training intensity again.

This idea emerged vaguely, but he didn’t expect that Misha would knock on his door the next day and say, very seriously, “Please tell me what the land training you mentioned last night is for.”

---

Author:
The Gillis mentioned in the text is a super awesome boss. Gillis Grafström is the only men’s singles figure skater who has ever won 3 consecutive Winter Olympic gold medals: 1920, 1924, and 1928. His student Sonja Henie also won 3 consecutive Winter Olympic golds in 1928, 1932, and 1936.

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• 1
  World Figure Skating Championships
• 2
  Two rotations + flip jump, which is a jump that takes off from the back inside edge and lands on the back outside edge of the opposite foot

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Early the next morning, Zhang Sushang went out for a 10 km run while Alexei got out of bed and washed up. The living room and corridor floor were sparkling clean, and the table and chairs were at the corners.

Because he had night blindness, his considerate Chinese flatmate would move all possible obstacles away to prevent Alexei from tripping over them if he had to get up at night, and then move them back in the morning. However today’s weather wasn’t very good — overcast, raining lightly, and not much sunlight — so although Zhang Sushang left for his morning jog at 5 a.m., it was still dark.

Alexei moved the furniture back to their original position just as the newsboy arrived at the door with a stack of newspapers. Alexei handed him a few kopecks, thanked him, and then began chatting about the weather.

“Although it’s raining, it’s still getting warmer,” he sighed.

“Oh yes, sir, I think it’s getting close to zero degrees now,” the newsboy said.

Before, the average temperature hovered between -10°C and -5°C.

Speaking of the weather, Alexei couldn’t help but admire Zhang Sushang, who got up before dawn every day to train. No matter how windy it was outside, he would insist on going outside unless it was actively storming. He worked so hard.

Then the newsboy showed a nervous expression. “Sorry sir, today… there’s no Saint Petersburg Morning Post today.”

“Why not?” Alexei wondered.

“Because today is Thursday, they’re sold out,” the newsboy answered.

The St. Petersburg Morning Post published a serialisation of Detective Ilya every Thursday in their special column; since the beginning of Twins Who Share No Blood, its popularity soared and reached a peak at its climax.

Alexei suddenly realised that oh, yes, Chyushka’s novel had become more popular lately. Even his professor had mentioned it, saying that his wife specially ordered the newspaper that published Detective Ilya and used an iron to steam the newspaper every day, taking care of it better than she took care of her face.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t have it,” he replied gently. He had already read the manuscript in advance and only wanted the paper for his collection; he wouldn’t embarrass a newsboy over it.

The popularity of Detective Ilya was related to the ending of Twins Who Share No Blood. For this part, Zhang Sushang wrote a court session and introduced two new characters: the indomitable female lawyer Daria; and her eternal rival, the fluff-con Sergey.

These two outstanding lawyers stood on the sides of the defendant and prosecutor respectively. Daria did all she could to avert Mila’s death sentence, while Sergey sought justice for the plaintiff and wanted Mila to repent with her life.

In order to write this scene, Zhang Sushang went out of his way to read several contemporary Russian legal codices, and in the end, conceived a court debate that was pretty good from his perspective as someone from the future. With Dalia’s defence, Mila, the murderer of this case, was sentenced to twenty years in prison with the possibility of parole given good behaviour.

When Ilya and Vasily went to thank her, Daria replied righteously: 

“I just want to leave more possibilities behind. In this era of limited investigative abilities, we cannot guarantee that every case is just, nor that there is no deeper story. Now I’ve saved Mila’s life for you — maybe she will give us more truths in the future.”

After saying this, Daria turned smartly and left, leaving behind a glimpse of a deer’s head on her sleeve. According to her character design, everyone in the law firm Daria belonged to had a coat with a deer head embroidered somewhere on it.

* * *

In short, after this was published, there was a big earthquake among readers. The steadily improving writing quality delighted old readers, while the appearance of new characters drew more readers into the pit.

For example, Daria, the female lawyer who was decisive in her actions and exuded unrestrained energy in every word. Her existence attracted countless intellectual women to the novel, who eagerly dug out the past chapters to read again and again. People gradually began to recognise ‘Chyushka’ as a pioneer who supported women’s liberation.

In the 20th century, calling these people pioneers was already polite. If someone wanted to fight for the rights of a certain group, they didn’t need to announce it on social media, and besides, supporting gender equality was a good thing, everyone supported him.

Zhang Sushang himself actually didn’t think that much when creating the female lawyer – he only felt that the existing characters were too comedic and needed someone rational to neutralise them.

For example, Sergey, the opposition lawyer who fought vigorously against Daria, added more funny elements to the story due to his setting as someone who loved fluffy animals.

He kept having a premonition that one day, these comedians would still be joking around with Boris the donkey during a boss battle. Without a reliable person to drag them back on track, wouldn’t the boss be able to just win without a fight?

At this time, he didn’t yet know what the appearance of Daria represented. Russia experienced a huge transformation in 1917 when the government announced equality between men and women, granting women the right to vote, the right to education, and the right to equal pay for equal work.

It was currently 1926, nine years after that great change. Women’s rights had indeed made progress, but not to the point that they were able to enter ‘high-end’ professions like lawyers.

In fact, after being brainwashed by feudal consciousness for thousands of years, most women of 20th century Russia had already internalised the idea that there was an inherent gap in intelligence between themselves and men. Many felt that it was impossible to learn how to operate machines, they were unworthy of working, and they couldn’t take on men’s work. They just couldn’t do it.

Therefore the government carried out extensive propaganda on this topic, telling women through posters, movies, and other mediums, that they could do it, they should believe in themselves, they could be factory workers, teachers, scholars, and scientists; that gender did not influence intelligence.

Daria, who appeared in Detective Ilya, was smart and capable and had extremely quick reactions. She didn’t fall behind during her debate with the male lawyer, and afterwards, she comforted her defendant, Mila, and firmly stated that she would protect her life. It was an extremely moving scene.

The idea that Daria proposed — that preserving one more life may bring further truths in the future — made readers think deeply.

Zhang Sushang himself was opposed to the death penalty. He believed that death was a major deterrent to criminal behaviour, however it was something to be used with caution. Writing these stories was only to make a living, and after writing, he went back to doing burpees.

But in 1926, such a novel which was seemingly light-hearted yet contained many advanced ideas could cause an ideological shockwave; thus, Detective Ilya was reprinted by an official newspaper that published monthly throughout Russia with rather high subscription numbers.

Below the article was a long review.

【I enjoy reading St. Petersburg Morning Post’s Detective Ilya before dinner. At first, I just took it as something to pass the time, but gradually, I couldn’t help but become immersed in the story. My two daughters are already attending school. They were so excited because of Daria the lawyer that they couldn’t sleep, and my youngest daughter Lyudmila swore to become a lawyer as well, I’m very proud of her…】

Chyushka, who somehow became a flagbearer of the women’s liberation movement out of nowhere, was scratching his head, but any newspaper reprinting his novel would give him additional royalties, while the St. Petersburg Morning Post had also offered to increase his fees. These were all good things.

After a while, Zhang Sushang ran back covered in sweat and holding his ice skates, evidently having gone on the ice. There was a big bag thrown over his shoulder, which Alexei noticed was full of socks, the kind that was very thick and warm.

Zhang Sushang grinned, then took out ten pairs of socks and stuffed them into his hands. “Here, my royalties increased, you take this and let’s be happy together.”

“Oh, thanks,” Alexei said, somewhat overwhelmed.

This was the first time that anyone bought him socks since his mother passed away…

Running over to the fireplace again, Zhang Sushang took a deep breath of the roiling milk inside, allowing the rich milky fragrance to enter his sinuses. Ah, this was indeed fresh milk produced by a nearby farm, it smelled so good.

He happily took out a box of biscuits from his bag for dipping in the milk which he shared with Alexei. Although they were just simple egg biscuits without even any nuts, they were made with enough butter to be soft and sweet, matching perfectly with the milk.

“I’ll be going to the professor’s place to calculate data today, what about you?” Alexei asked.

With his mouth full of food, Zhang Sushang replied indistinctly, “I’m delivering socks to my friends.”

He had bought fifty pairs of socks at once. He and Alexei each took ten pairs, while the remaining thirty pairs would be packed up and sent to the dormitories of Jiang Jinghu, Wu Yeming, and Li Yuan.

He had long found that the three fellow students who came abroad with him were very frugal, they were reluctant to buy new socks even when their old ones were worn until they were riddled with holes. However, given the weather, it was just tempting fate to wear socks with holes.

When they received the socks, these three students were happy and moved, yet refused to accept them.

Wu Yeming, the eldest among the three, directly stuffed the socks back into Zhang Sushang’s hands. “Qiupu,” he said, “we appreciate your kindness, but it’s not easy for you either. Buying so many cotton socks must have been expensive, you quickly go return them and buy something filling for yourself.”

After speaking, he glanced at Zhang Sushang’s waist.

Qiupu was originally big and round but was now so skinny, his days must have been miserable.

Li Yuan also came over with concern. “Was it for the sake of buying socks that you refused to eat much before? There’s no need, you really don’t need to! People are iron and rice is steel, no matter what your grievance is it can’t affect your appetite!”

Although Zhang Sushang agreed with the last half of what Li Yuan said, his expression was helpless. “I’m not suffering anything, I’m skinnier because I’ve been exercising. And also, my financial situation is fine, I get publication royalties!”

“Royalties?” Jiang Jinghu, Wu Yeming, and Li Yuan all echoed at the same time.

He nodded seriously. “Yes, you all know that I’ve severed ties with my family, so I had to make some money here to continue studying. My Russian is good, so I used the pen name Chyushka to write a novel…”

“Wait wait wait. You’re using the pen name Chyushka to write novels?” Wu Yeming interrupted.

“Yeah,” Zhang Sushang nodded again.

Li Yuan quickly turned around and rummaged through the books piled on his bed. The bed wasn’t big — with the books on it, he probably had to curl up to sleep. After a while, he took out a stack of newspapers and unfolded them in front of Zhang Sushang.

“Is it this Detective Ilya series?” When he asked this, Li Yuan still couldn’t believe it, so his tone was a little hesitant. He had the habit of reading many newspapers and periodicals to get more familiar with Russian; with Detective Ilya’s popularity, it was hard for him to imagine that it came from the hands of his countryman.

Yet Zhang Sushang replied with certainty, “Yes, that’s the one I wrote.”

Zhang Sushang asked his classmates and professors to call him Chyushka because his name sounded too much like ‘Susan’, but no one linked him to the author Chyushka.

He didn’t mention how high his royalties were, only reiterating, “I don’t lack money, you guys don’t have to be afraid that I’m making things hard for myself. Also, I want to lose weight for my health. Excessive body fat will lead to high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and high levels of fat in the bloodstream, none of which are good for the body.”

“Low blood sugar isn’t a good thing either,” Jiang Jinghu, who was also a medical student, muttered, though he finally accepted the socks. Then he enthusiastically asked Zhang Sushang, “How did you come up with such an interesting story like Detective Ilya? I’ve never heard of anything like exchanging murder victims. It’s so clever.”

Zhang Sushang became embarrassed. “No no, I’m only standing on the shoulders of giants, there are many much more exciting cases in other detective novels. I just read a few more to get inspiration.”

Everyone asked him for the subsequent plot, but now Zhang Sushang showed the quality that any author should have — he wouldn’t reveal spoilers even if someone killed him.

He swiftly changed the subject. “Oh, I’m not telling you any more. We rarely have a day off, I’m going to skate a bit while the ice hasn’t melted yet.”

Hearing this, Wu Yeming’s eyes lit up. “You like ice skating as well?”

“I like it a lot, you too?”

Wu Yeming showed a proud look.

Li Yuan pointed at him. “Here, let me introduce you. Last year the lake at home froze, didn’t several middle schools come together to hold an ice sports competition? This guy won at speed skating.”

Said person was quite modest. “Hey, I mainly won because my skates were slightly better and I sharpened them beforehand. No one else had this awareness. Besides, it’s not as if it was a professional event.”

Speaking of this, his smile turned bitter. “There’s no future in being an athlete in our country, after all. In 1908, a newspaper from Tianjin asked when will our country be able to send someone to the Olympics, when can our athletes be able to win a medal at the Olympics, and when can we host the Olympics. Think about it, do we have any hope of answering these three questions?”

Not to mention winter sports which had relatively few participants, even track and field sports which could be done at any time of the year were out of reach for Chinese athletes.

In the final analysis, their country was too weak to develop athletics.

This question was a bit heavy, causing everyone to fall silent. Zhang Sushang looked around and encouraged them, “Don’t be like this, we worked so hard to study abroad, isn’t it just to achieve success and return to serve the motherland?

“One day we will be pillars of the country and stand strong together.”

Zhang Sushang stretched out his left hand and used his right to place Jiang Jinghu, Wu Yeming, and Li Yuan’s hands on top. “There are many like us; if we work together, we can create miracles. So, as long as we work hard, we will see the day when those three questions are answered.”

However if they wanted to see them fully answered, they would have to live until 2008 — by that time, Zhang Sushang would be 100 years old…

---

Author:
The bid to host the Olympics succeeded in 2001. Chyushka was born in 1908, he’ll be 93 years old in 2001, and exactly 100 years old in 2008.

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