Figure Skating: Waltz on Ice

The coaches finished Du Liangchen's training plan yesterday.

We gathered at 8 a.m. this morning. Du Liangchen arrived at the venue dressed neatly and saw only girls everywhere. He had been too focused on the coach evaluation yesterday to notice them.

Upon hearing the sound, everyone looked at Du Liangchen and then whispered among themselves.

In fact, there are very few men in figure skating; most of the students are girls. This is because girls are more flexible and lighter, making it easier for them to jump faster.

"Brother, I saw you yesterday. Let me introduce myself. My name is Hao Shuxue, and this is Mei Jing. Welcome to our provincial men's singles team." A cheerful and somewhat arrogant boy's eyes lit up when he saw Du Liangchen, and he grabbed another person next to him and rushed over.

'Good math? Beautiful scenery? What strange names these are, even stranger than mine,' Du Liangchen muttered to himself.

He still greeted them warmly, and was happy to see boys learning figure skating like him. At the previous ice rink, Du Liangchen was the only boy learning figure skating; the other boys were speed skaters. There weren't many girls figure skating either, so seeing so many girls here was quite a surprise.

"I am Du Liangchen. I arrived yesterday."

"How old are you, Xiao Du?" Hao Shuxue asked, sizing up Du Liangchen.

"8 is old."

"You're only eight years old and you can already do five two-week jumps, just like Mei Jing, you're a prodigy. I'm 10 years old, and he's 10 years old too. But I'm older than him by birthday, so from now on I'll be the eldest brother, and he'll be your second eldest brother. We'll protect you." He said, patting his chest heartily.

"Don't be afraid, he's just like that. He's a very good and loyal person, just a bit of a show-off," Mei Jing said, trying to explain to her good friend so that Du Liangchen wouldn't be frightened.

"Xiaomei, you can just praise me, why did you have to add that last sentence?" Hao Shuxue looked at Mei Jing with dissatisfaction.

"What did you just call me?" Mei Jing asked Hao Shuxue with a gloomy face.

Hao Shuxue said with a grin, "I got a little excited when you praised me, it was a slip of the tongue, a slip of the tongue."

Du Liangchen found their playful antics very amusing and couldn't help but look forward to how much fun they would have in the future.

"Gather together," the three coaches called out to the group.

"Du Liangchen, step forward."

Hearing the coach call his name, Du Liangchen stood up.

Coach Liu announced loudly, "We have a new member joining us today, adding another player to the men's singles team. Let's give them a round of applause!"

"Please introduce yourself," Coach Liu said to Du Liangchen.

"Hello everyone, I'm Du Liangchen, and I'm 8 years old." He introduced himself in just two sentences.

"Alright, let's begin today's training. Dismissed."

"Xiao Chen, wait a moment. Here's your training schedule, take a look," Coach Liu said, handing Du Liangchen a form.

Du Liangchen looked at the contents of the form and said, "Thank you, Coach."

Then Du Liangchen began land training with everyone. Training on the ice is very physically demanding, and you can't stay on it for long periods of time, so land training is especially important.

Lunch break

"Xiao Chen, let's hurry to the cafeteria. I'm telling you, today's special is big plate chicken, or it'll be gone if we're late."

Du Liangchen was packing his clothes when Hao Shuxue quickly pulled Mei Jing over.

The three of them rushed to the cafeteria. But they were too late; a long line had already formed at the food counter, and they had no choice but to stand there obediently…