Blade of Glory [Figure Skating]

The last night before this long program seemed to have become a demonic obstacle, an impenetrable obstacle.

Qingyue's high fever never subsided completely.

When people are sick, they are always cranky.Qing Yue at this moment is no exception.

He began to think about every day from the warm-up period of the Olympic Games until now, thinking about... what link went wrong.

It seemed as if from the moment that article was published and attracted widespread public attention, everything got out of control.He was restless because of it, and he lost his peak form this season.

Qu Shen's suggestion made him fall into endless self-denial and an inexplicable inferiority complex.As if the fact that his lover is gay is enough to make him unable to lift his head in front of the camera lens in public.

But that was inconsistent with Qing Yue's long-standing concept.He never felt that one person's love for another has high and low points, let alone noble or not.He's also tired of pretending on camera that he doesn't get along with Alec, or even hates him.

Therefore, when he decided to make his truth public, he seemed to break free from the shackles that almost made him breathless, and even gained a new life.

He also thought about...whether it would be better to admit his relationship with Alek in public after the Olympics.

But... In Qing Yue's view, that kind of behavior has a completely different meaning from what he is doing now....

If he said those words after the game, it means that he is afraid that those people will have an impression of his results, which means that he will really feel inferior to those people, and he is even more afraid of letting others know.In that case, even if he won the gold medal, he would always feel that he had lost something.

That's not what he wanted.What he hopes...is to face those things calmly, even embrace his Olympic medal in those voices, and let the world know...he is proud of it.

Not without considering Alek's feelings before making this decision.He clearly remembered that he had made an agreement with Alek, if one day, the media found out the real relationship between the two of them, they should bravely admit it.

The reason why things have come to this point may be all because Qing Yue underestimated the influence of the Jia National Ice Association on Alek.He thought... Alek had been strangers to those people since the end of the last Olympic Games. No matter how dissatisfied those people were, they would not be able to directly interfere with Alek's decision like in the last Olympic Games.It's even more impossible for him to think that... the Ice Association of Jia Country threatened him with that damn political support.

As Naxiu once said to him, the world of figure skating has never been as pure as ice and snow.

However, Qing Yue now forgot what Na Xiu said to him many years ago.

"Frell."

On that sleepless night, after thinking for a long time, Qing Yue called the person who was guarding him by his side right now.I thought that my murmur would not be answered, but in the next second I felt the other party's getting up, and I saw a pair of eyes that I had been avoiding for the past few years.

"Did I...do something wrong. Maybe, I shouldn't have said that to the media after the short program? Maybe...it would have been better to say that after the Olympics?"

Qing Yue said this while struggling, but turned his head away, not looking into Freire's eyes.

"Perhaps it is."

Without waiting, Qingyue got Freire's answer.Such words made him feel uncomfortable as if his heart was being held by an invisible hand and slowly tightened.

However, after a pause, Freire continued: "But as long as he chooses to stay in Jia Country and choose to become a legendary coach in Jia Country like his father, the same contradiction will continue to trouble him."

After Freire gave this pertinent answer, he breathed out again: "I'm sorry, I agreed not to mention him in front of you."

It seems that since that time together in Plandon, Freire, as he said to Qingyue, almost never mentioned Alek in front of him.Even this time, he still avoided saying Alek's name.

But at this moment, he really wants to help Qingyue and prevent him from falling into that kind of endless self-denial and self-blame.Looking at Qingyue's sweat-soaked hair from the side, Freire got out of the quilt again, put on his nightgown, went to Qingyue's closet to take out another set of clothes, and got ready to warm up again. The towel came to Qing Yue's side.

"You're sweating a lot, which is a good thing. Change your clothes now, get a good night's sleep, and you should be fine tomorrow."

There was a slight smile on Freire's face when he said this, just like when Qing Yuecai met him five years ago.If I have to say that he has changed, it may be... There is more calmness in his eyes.Although he would still make some jokes in front of the media every now and then as before, it was not the first time he participated in the Olympics. After winning the prize, he almost mistaken the boy on the runner-up and third-place podiums.

On this cold night, Freire wiped Qing Yue's body, which was soaked in sweat, with a hot towel, and changed him into another set of clothes, so that he could sleep comfortably until dawn.When Freire covered the quilt for Qing Yue again, he said something that Qing Yue couldn't help but want to believe: "No matter what, the situation will definitely get better."

After hearing this sentence, Qing Yue closed his eyes again, so that sleepiness could come to him again this night.It's been a long night and a short night.

Qing Yue, who had a fever and aches all over his body, could not fall asleep as effortlessly and peacefully as before.Thoughts are erratic, thinking about these, thinking about those...

However, how much he wished that this night could be longer, longer, until... his illness could be completely cured before passing, instead of letting him go to tomorrow's long program in this state.

Amidst such wild thoughts and deep-seated anxiety and fear, dawn finally arrived.

That night, Freire, who fell asleep, always felt that he heard an unusually familiar voice in the chaos: "I am 23 years old this year. Four years later, I will be 27 years old..."

……

Lady Luck didn't take another look at Qing Yue until the end. In the middle of the night, his condition deteriorated again, and the heat that had receded a little increased again.When the sun rose again, his temperature returned to 39 degrees.When he struggled to feel the competition venue, he couldn't even see the floor numbers in the elevator...

Almost when Qing Yue left the dormitory, Freyer, who had been watching Qing Yue, noticed this carefully. He quietly grabbed Qing Yue's hand and pressed the floor button for him.

The more Qing understood how bad his physical condition was.His lips were white, his muscles were aching, his limbs could not use any strength, he was so dizzy that he couldn't even open his eyes.

He can hardly imagine how he will complete the difficult opening of 4-3-2 in the long program game that is about to start...

"Later... you go first. It's not good to be seen with me..."

When the elevator started to go up, Qing Yue made an inaudible voice and said these words very weakly.Hearing this sentence, Freire didn't respond, but held his shoulders without a word when the elevator door opened again, so that Qing Yue could completely press the weight of his body on his body , and just led him into the aisle, not paying any attention to the puzzled eyes of the surrounding staff when they saw them.

It was... a long-program game that had predicted the end before it even started, but still desperately wanted to see if a miracle would happen.

The high fever left him exhausted, and he was almost so proficient that he could complete the opening 4-3-2 combination jump miserably even when he was dreaming.The high-speed rotation of the quadruple jump made him hit the baffle directly after the jump failed.

As the coach, Naxiu leaned forward outside the ice rink to watch the situation inside. The ice fans who supported Qing Yue all the way to today were in an uproar.They could hardly believe that the man who was so weak that he barely had the strength to jump...could be their beloved figure skater.However, Qing Yue didn't have the slightest intention to stop.Struggling to get up while the music hadn't stopped, he continued his long show.

The long program that Qingyue skated this season is called "The Bell of Sotifi".The story told in that long program...is that an Army soldier is called by his country to go to the front line to fight and protect the country he loves.When the war ended, all the comrades who had fought side by side had all died in the ruthless war and could never come back.

After the officer lost a leg, he returned to his hometown, Sotifi, with letters entrusted to him by his comrades... to his relatives.But it was discovered when the bell of dawn rang... This place had already been annihilated in an air raid, and his lovely fiancée and his relatives were all killed.

It was during the continuous ringing of the bell that he took the dewy wild flowers from the little girl in the nearby village, placed them one by one on the mound where the dead relatives were buried, and placed them on the mound where the corpses of relatives were buried. The village entrance, which had already been completely changed, burned the letters written by those comrades in front of the mounds, together with the letter he wrote to his fiancée.

Finally, the soldier left Sotifi, his beloved town, with tragic bells.

It was originally a long program that amazed countless people at the beginning of this season. The ice fans were all moved by Qingyue's interpretation... as if it was the tragic color engraved in the music of the long program.

But this time, the repeated bells in the music are not just the bells ringing over the small town of Sotifi, but also the mournful bell ringing for Qingyue...