Blade of Glory [Figure Skating]

Every Sunday afternoon there is a spontaneous musical performance at the music square in the capital of Planden.These people may still be just students in the conservatory.It may also be a music lover who wears very formal clothes and sits in an office building for high-intensity work on weekdays.

But every Sunday afternoon, all those who love music and yearn for it come here one after another, wearing casual or exaggerated costumes and performing beside the wishing pool.

Because of being dragged for a long time by those pestering children, when Freire and Qing Yue ran all the way to the wishing pool, there were already many people here.An old man with a long white beard and a happy smile on his face played the accordion and sang old songs that were popular in his youth.A few children listened to his music and danced like radio exercises around him, which attracted people around him to applaud them continuously.

"Did you see? It doesn't matter if you dance well or not, as long as you bring joy to everyone, there will always be people applauding for you."

After saying this, Freire took out the masquerade mask from his bag, stuffed one into Qingyue's arms, and kept one for himself, which he put on his face, and tied the silk mask The belt fastens at the back of your head.After doing this, Freire quickly turned his head to look at Qingyue.Under his supervision, Qing Yue, who understood what he wanted to do, put on a mask that only covered his eyes, and followed the national idol of Plandeng, Frey, who dared to appear in the crowd in broad daylight. I rushed into the crowd together, let the happy atmosphere in the crowd infect me, and even brought my own happiness to others.

Freire, who kept saying "Sorry, sorry" in the crowd, walked to the first row of the crowd, took out the violin from his backpack, and walked towards the white beard singing the old song, While playing the music with the violin, the accompaniment of this old song became fuller in an instant.

The crowd burst into applause again.Applause for Freire's wonderful performance, and applaud for the old man's singing.The white beard who sang the old song was obviously taken aback by Freire's superb skills, and the singing became more cheerful.

When the song ends, Whitebeard throws a bottle of wine at Freire, complimenting him on Frere's violin playing.But Freire held the violin in his hand and couldn't catch the bottle of wine all at once.Qing Yue, who was standing in the first row, saw this situation, and ran out without fear of appearing in the crowd, and caught the bottle of wine that was about to be smashed on the stone road, winning loud laughter from the crowd .

After Qing Yue took the bottle of wine, Freire said something in the ear of the old man playing the accordion very politely, which made the old man nod in a good mood.Freire, who got permission from the other party, put the violin away, took out an acoustic guitar from his backpack, and smiled encouragingly at Qingyue.

Because of the tacit understanding between each other, Qingyue actually understood at this moment Frere's intention to dance a flamenco here.He stared at the other party almost inconceivably, and raised his left leg twice in succession with extremely exaggerated body movements, to tell the other party that he was dancing on land, as if he was dancing with two left legs .

Regarding this, Freire smiled indifferently, and played the flamenco-style music with extremely complicated fingering without any explanation.The piece of music that makes Qing Yue feel doubly familiar is exactly the piece of music that I learned about flamenco introductory dance.He could even remember the happy life he had spent that summer in Plandon with Freire, his good friends Charmaine and Eva.

At that time, Qing Yue was just an unknown newcomer, and he had not yet obtained his own place in the cruelly competitive world ice circle.However, he was very happy at that time.He remembers how anxious he was to prove to everyone that he wasn't just a flash in the pan.He can create greater success on ice.

The dreams of youth are always so pure, beautiful and worth remembering.But he is only 23 years old now, but he is exhausted.

The crowd of onlookers grew more and more because of Freire's exquisite skills. At this moment, everyone was waiting for the performance that the boy with a good hand on the piano and his classmates would show together.Just now, the little girl who was doing a back-up dance like radio exercises, and obediently stood in the first row when Qing Yue came over looked at Qing Yue with big eyes, and then, with the encouragement of the adults at home, held a flower Bai Meigui ran over and stuffed it into Qing Yue's hand without any explanation.

When Qingyue saw the innocent smile of the little girl, he actually felt a burst of frustration, a kind of... a kind of bewilderment that he rarely felt after he stepped into the ice arena.

He can skate a very difficult show in an ice rink with tens of thousands of spectators.But after that failure, he hesitated endlessly, and showed an inexplicable timidity when facing the expectant eyes of others.Just like today.

Suddenly, someone in the crowd shouted, "Let's applaud this shy young man."Thus, kind applause almost rang in Qingyue's ears.Those who looked at him expectantly were so close to him, so close that Qing Yue could clearly see the expressions of each of them.

When those people simply gave encouragement to this young man who was wearing a mask so that they didn't know who he was, Qing Yue suddenly felt that the lead in his heart disappeared.Holding a white rose in his hand, he subconsciously looked at Frere again, only to see that Plandon Light, who had been playing the acoustic guitar alone for a long time, showed a charming smile to himself.

Almost without words, Freire, who had already played almost half of the melody just now, stopped the melody at his fingertips, adjusted the piano, and played the melody again after Qing Yue put the white rose by the side of the wishing pool. A beautiful and complex melody.

The rhythm of flamenco and the rhythm displayed by every muscle of the body appear in this music square...

When Qing Yue showed himself again under the gaze of the crowd, he seemed to have broken free from some shackles.Some kind of shackle that bound him, made him never dare to perform a figure skating performance in front of others again.Although, this is just a very simple small performance.People who come here on weekends don't seek so-called high-level performances.They come here just to vent their emotions and their love for music and art.

However, in this place where no one knew his name, Qingyue showed a very tacit performance with Freire in a dance that he was not good at.

Almost without checking with his eyes, Freire already knew where Qingyue would slow down and step on an accent.

He enjoys this spontaneous performance, just like Qing Yue.

When the last chord flowed from Freire's fingertips, he was sure that he saw a smile on Qingyue's face, a smile that appeared because of true joy...

"Let's take part in the next World Championships."

When the careful performance in the music square ended, Freire, who took a glass of juice from Qingyue's hand, said this sentence coldly, making Qingyue unable to react in time, and looked up at this thought in a daze. Even more friends who almost never play cards according to common sense.

After saying this, Freire didn't look at Qingyue, but leaned against the railing on the ancient stone bridge, turned around and looked at the crowd under the bridge, biting a straw and drinking a slightly sour juice.

"Don't think I don't know. You don't plan to participate in the next World Championships, do you?"

After a long time, it was still Freire who said such a sentence out of the blue, making Qing Yue, who was deeply concerned by what he said, silent.

It's not that I want to give up, but it's just that I can't accept everything that happened in the Olympic Games that just ended.It's even more unbelievable...the ice fans who said on his birthday just a few months ago that they would always support him would do something like this.

Qing Yue can accept falling on the ice again and again because of jumping, but he can't accept such a thing.Almost in just one month, he fell from the peak of his life to the bottom.The people who once believed, and the things they believed in collapsed within this short month.

This is something he cannot accept calmly.However, what he can't forgive the most...is that he showed himself in an unprecedentedly bad state in the long program of the Olympic Games.

Maybe, he started to hate himself.

Or maybe...he already knew about his evasion, but couldn't muster up the courage to face it.

Therefore, when Freire mentioned this in front of Qingyue, Qingyue said such self-defeating words: "Going to participate in the World Championships? Maybe the people of the Ice Association don't want this to happen."

However, Freire laughed out loud as if he had expected Qing Yue to say this sentence.

"Then, are you skating for the Ice Association? How come I don't know when you became so great, Qingyue? Or you actually want to intentionally not participate in the next World Championships, so that Xishu can't compete in the World Championships." No harvest, take revenge on them?"

Qing Yue was just giving up on himself, thinking that he would not dare to continue to face it and avoided it, but Freire actually said such words, which made the parties feel that this was the case.However, just before Qingyue was about to fall into another wave of brainwashing by Freire, he suddenly came back to his senses, and growled angrily, "Do you think I look like this kind of person!"

But just after Qing Yue finished yelling this sentence, Freire laughed, as if he had succeeded in a prank.

Throwing the paper cup in his hand into the trash can not far away, Freire stretched his waist and said in an almost nostalgic tone: "Do you remember? When we first met seven years ago, you still carried Skates, I evaded the security of my community in the middle of the night and asked me to go to the ice rink with you to practice quadruple jumps that I couldn’t do during the day. At that time, you helped me overcome the fear of quadruple jumps. Now, anyway Should it be my turn to help you with something?"

The Frere who said these words seems to be completely different from him seven years ago.

Seven years ago, he was always unscrupulous in revealing his... some kind of overly detached personality formed under the influence of music and art.He always answered this question in front of the media, and then jumped to another topic that seemed to have nothing to do with the previous question, making the reporters who interviewed him laugh constantly, but miserable.

But now, he seems to have really matured in a place that people can't see.It seems that he hasn't made those jokes in front of the media for a long time, and he has changed from the most dazzling new star in the ice world to a figure like an emperor in the Planden figure skating world.

At this time, the afterglow of the setting sun reflected his handsome side face, and made his smile even more intoxicating.