The domestic Grand Prix in Harbin soon began, with 96 athletes from 12 teams from all over the country competing on the ice. The time of this competition is two days from September 9th to 10th, with two groups, adult group and youth group, and 8 competition items.

This time, Liu Bofei led all the participating team members to fly from Beijing to Harbin, and at the same time, there were reporters from major official media and self-media, and even foreign reporters.

Although this is only a competition in China, because it is not only the first official competition after Han Lu returns from injury, but also the first performance in front of the public when she turns to pair skating and partners with Xu Haoyang, the whole world has given her a considerable degree of attention, which also makes her more pressure than in the past.

If she fails, she will most likely not be able to recover from that past failure.

However, at this moment, one thing that worries Liu Bofei is whether Han Lu will be able to smoothly accept the fact that she and Xu Haoyang have absolutely no chance of winning this competition - he seems to be worried all the time.

During this time, they did hone the song "The Impossible Dream" every day, and every day was filled with training on the ice, studying movements, recovering and relaxing, and so on. Jumping and twisting still fail, but in general they have found their own rhythm, and sharpening their guns allows them to at least play as a duo, but in terms of results, they are unlikely to match those who have been training in pairs for decades.

First, all eyes were on their first day of short program performances, where they wore pairs of performance costumes but didn't come out hand in hand like the rest of the skaters. While the theme of love is a big theme in pairs skating, it's not limited to love – so the competitors don't have to hold hands.

Han Lu was in front and Xu Haoyang was in the back, and they slid into the ice rink amid cheers and boos from the audience, and then the music immediately began and the performance began almost without pause.

The song was chosen by Liu Bofei, Amy and Coach Sun, and the style of this piece is passionate and fast-paced, with the aim of catching people's attention with high-speed footwork that leaves no room for breath at the beginning, and at the same time making up for the current lack of coordination and emotional expression of the two people as much as possible.

The ISU requires the pairs short program to complete seven movements: twist, single jump, toss, lift, follow-up, helix and one set of spins.

Among them, the four key movements of twisting, throwing, single jumping and continuous steps are not limited to the types of completion, but the first three vacant movements can only be completed for three weeks according to the regulations. This event mainly examines the basic skills of the players, and because the number of movements is small, it must be done as cleanly as possible. If the short program is pulled apart, it will add an extra layer of pressure to the next day's free skate.

Aside from the jumping and landing on the ice, there were no fatal mistakes in their basic movements, which reassured everyone standing in the preparation area. However, although there is no fatal problem with the basic movements, it can still be easily seen that the cooperation of the two people is far from enough, and the understanding of the music is not at the same level, resulting in the low synchronization of the movements, and in many cases it is like two solo skaters skating on the same ice rink.

But it's not something that can be done overnight.

Han Lu and Xu Haoyang finished seventh in the short program on the first day, finishing bottom of the three pairs from their Beijing training center. It wasn't a good result, but it was within the expectations of the coaching staff. There were some sarcastic remarks on the Internet, thinking that this was a farce, and it was Han Lu's unwillingness to retire. But they don't have time to take care of it.

In addition, the second day of the free skate was more expected than the short program, and the skaters spent more time preparing for the free skate.

They didn't seem to have that much time to care about the rankings in the short program, but they were throwing themselves back into the free skate, trying to merge the memory of their muscles with the rhythm of the music.

Although she didn't want to admit it, Han Lu knew that she was very nervous.

She did her best to remain silent and calm, not wanting to expose the nervousness.

On the second day of the free skate, the first to appear were competitors from the local ice and snow club in Harbin, who skated to the center of the ice rink in their glittering performance costumes.

They chose a very traditional piece of music, with a gentle and melodious music, wrapped in sorrow, tenacity, love and courage, which is a very common and easy theme. Their performances are decent. Liu Bofei watched their movements intently - expecting the opponent to perform badly is not the psychology that a good athlete should have, but whatever, he smiled in his heart, he is now a coach.

They skate very averagely, there are few difficult moves that can earn technical points, and their understanding and performance of music are only mediocre. This is also the disadvantage of choosing this kind of overly ordinary piece - it is too closed, and it is difficult to provide any space for the contestants to express their emotions, which affects the artistic bonus.

Liu Bofei nodded to himself, anyway, all in all, as long as Han Lu and Xu Haoyang didn't make any fatal mistakes in big moves, they wouldn't lose to the pair in front of them.

Zhang Lei and Zijun's performance is very stable, and they can be regarded as playing their normal level - except that their expressiveness will be a little overdone and they will get rid of the original atmosphere of the song. Jiang Xin and Chen Tingyuan showed the highest level of their past practice, jumping to the top of the rankings in their overall scores.

Han Lu and Xu Haoyang were the last group to appear, and "The Impossible Dream", which they practiced for months and made a special adaptation to match the length and requirements of the free skate. This piece is translated as "Chasing Dreams Without Regrets", but Xu Haoyang prefers the literal translation of "Dreams That Will Not Come True". It seems that under the premise of clarifying the "impossible", the state of mind of chasing dreams can be understood more comprehensively.

"You must think of me as a mad and stupid man, don't you?" said Don Quixote, "and it is not surprising if you think so, for what I have done only proves that I am insane." ”

Behind this piece is a desperate but unhesitating emotion, and their movements are full of power, with a deep determination in every spin and jump, as if they have no intention of turning back from the day they embark on the journey.

The thickness of the music seemed to envelop the entire venue, and everyone held their breath in the music. Amy reworked the arrangement to make it sound more sad than the original. Han Lu can combine music with images from movies she has watched over and over again, while awakening her muscles' memory of rhythm.

- My garment is armor, my rest is struggle, my bed is hard stone, my sleep is completely awake.

At the beginning, they made a single joint spin, because of personal habits and the foundation of playing since childhood, Han Lu is a jumper who jumps and spins in the "opposite direction", which is very common in single skating, but in a joint spin that requires special synchronization between two people, there will be a situation where the two people spin in opposite directions.

This is the case right now, and it can't be called completely bad, because this kind of mirror spin can sometimes make the spin look ingenious and unique, but it can be interpreted as an unprofessional joke or an ingenious miracle, and sometimes it will be decided entirely by the impression the player makes.

And they are the former, and there are countless people waiting to see Han Lu's jokes.

However, at this time, they don't know what the outside world thinks of them, they are immersed in music, and music mercilessly exposes the fear, anxiety and longing hidden in their hearts - unwilling to let everything end like this, hoping that their growth speed can keep up with the speed of time passing, and every day they feel that they are one step closer to the end, and they don't know what level of pressure their bodies can withstand.

And – the doubts about one's own abilities in the past one defeat after another, the daily desire for victory that seems more and more distant, the fear that I will never lose the opportunity to participate in the Olympics, and the recognition that I am still a long way from where I want to go.

These things are usually hidden, reluctant to mention, or even reluctant to think too much. They must put all their superfluous, useless worries behind them and focus all their energy on what can be done in front of them.

- Go to the place where the warriors stopped.

Dressed in a performance costume with a black background and crimson decorative stripes, Xu Haoyang fully enters the role of Don Quixote, riding a thin horse and galloping across the plains, about to throw a spear at the huge windmill enemy opposite.

…… After the triple jump lands, it's a toss.

He landed on the ice and slid on, and the speed of the horse increased, which made his grip on the spear tightly add more strength, and he wanted to defeat the windmill. He threw his partner under such strong emotions - some viewers had already started applauding for his high enough tossing action, but in the next second, Han Lu fell heavily on the ice. It's not the kind of small mistake when falling on the ice, this fall means that their toss and jump action has completely failed.

The coaches and staff in the preparation area stood up in an instant, and what they feared finally happened.

Although Han Lu quickly adjusted her posture and stood up again, and slid out with Xu Haoyang, finding a suitable position to cut into the next move according to the music. However, Xu Haoyang's heart was already flustered because of this mistake, which directly made their follow-up actions out of control, and it can be said that they were messy.

In the past practice, there has never been such a serious mistake.

There were also sighs and boos from the audience.