In the first round of the Grand Prix in Moscow, Russia, Han Lu and Xu Haoyang were in fourth place, with the Americans, Italians and France in front of them, followed by a pair of Russian players, Jiang Xin and Jiang Zhijun at the end.

In the short program on the first day, they ranked fourth, six points behind Jiang Xin and Jiang Zhijun, who were in second place. Daisy gave their artistic performance another low score, and in her post-match response to reporters, she said unsparingly that she thought their performance was ridiculous.

"I don't understand what she's skating at all. Daisy said sharply, "Is this Croatian Rhapsody?"

Daisy's sarcasm and disdain, Han Lu can be said to be about to get used to it. Anyway, no matter what happens to her, Daisy will never be satisfied, and as long as she can't be perfect, Daisy will always be able to find fault with her.

"Ignore her. Xu Haoyang said, "Her brain has been set." ”

Half of this sentence is comforting Han Lu, and the other half, in fact, Xu Haoyang also has his uneasiness in his heart, he is indeed afraid that Daisy will be a more old-fashioned person than he imagined, if she really has a standard of "good show" in her heart, then, maybe many styles cannot be understood by her.

Now, though, the first thing they need to be concerned about is not that, but the upcoming free skate on the second day.

That's the highlight of the game.

Before them, the American contestants chose the song "Onmyoji", which is a very Japanese song, not the Japanese style of "Madame Butterfly" that Westerners see as a blurred filter, but is permeated by a strong traditional Japanese style throughout, which is interpreted by Western faces like them, and has a different color. The Italian contestants' selection of songs contrasts sharply with the former, a passionate and cheerful dance song, like a girl in a colorful dress happily shining the sun on the entire rink, and when they make the closing move, you can clearly see the unfinished look on the faces of the audience.

The third French player is about to play, and Han Lu and Xu Haoyang are also ready.

When the opponent slowly slid into the ice rink, greeted the audience and made preparations, and the sound of music slowly flowed into the center of the ice rink, Han Lu and Xu Haoyang's expressions immediately stiffened.

It was Debussy's "Afternoon of the Faun".

Same tune as they chose.

It's not uncommon for different players to collide in the same season. In the past, when figure skating was just emerging, the music was played live, with no repertoire changing, just playing the same piece over and over again. Later, after the contestants could choose their own songs, everyone's choices often focused on "Carmen", "Romeo and Juliet", "Arabian Nights" and other tracks, especially "Carmen", which can be said to be able to make almost everyone find their own rhythm smoothly in terms of rhythm and speed, and even created a history of track collisions, even to the point where the narrator was poor in words at the end.

Now, thanks to the new rules that allowed the use of music with lyrics in 2014, there are far fewer times that contestants collide with each other in the same season. However, because of this, the collision in this case is even worse.

Regardless of whether the judge's score will be unconsciously affected, at least the freshness of the track to the audience will undoubtedly be severely discounted.

And it is also the first game of the new season and new tracks with two identical songs connected together......

Not only Xu Haoyang, Han Lu has experienced so many games, and it is the first time he has encountered this situation.

She was immediately flustered.

Their previous pair of French players performed well, and perhaps their nationality added to them, and they showed the ambiguity and detachment of "Afternoon of the Faun" to the fullest, earning a score that was not very impressive, but not bad.

This doesn't need to say how much pressure it will bring to Han Lu and Xu Haoyang, who will appear later.

Maybe it's good that they were there—because the audience watching the live broadcast around the TV immediately showed surprises and disbelief when they heard the repetitive music play.

The narrator didn't let go of this topic, and the two of them talked about it again and again, but there hasn't been such a thing for decades.

And Han Lu and Xu Haoyang's show, once again, in Daisy's words, is a mess.

It's not just Daisy who thinks so, the audience thinks so too. Before the show ended, there were already a number of posts on the Internet, and one of the most clicked posts was titled "Debussy's coffin board can't be pressed". ridicule, sarcasm, invective...... Public opinion, which was quelled by "Don Quixote", which was slowly perfected last season, seems to have returned to square one for a while.

In addition, Han Lu herself felt that her performance was terrible.

She never felt like she could be so bad.

It was simply impossible for her to understand Debussy.

At that time, why did she think she could understand Debussy?

When the music ended, she didn't even finish the closing greeting properly, and hurriedly left the ice rink. While they were sitting with Liu Bofei waiting for the partition, Xu Haoyang and Liu Bofei were discussing something in a whisper, while Han Lu looked straight ahead with an expressionless face, and this expression was naturally captured by the camera.

"Holy. Zhang Lei, who was sitting in the training center watching the show, shook his head, "Sister Han Lu's face ......"

"But how could it be. Zijun said incredulously, "In this era, the probability of hitting the track is too low." And they didn't choose any hits. ”

"Yes......" Chen Tingyuan also sighed.

The result was completely expected, and Daisy gave them a very low score for artistic expression. When the score came out, Han Lu first closed his eyes, and then sneered helplessly.

"Don't run wild, don't run wild, don't run wild, don't run wild, don't run wild, don't run wild, don't run wild......" Zhang Lei thought to the TV.

When the scores came out, they got up and left the waiting zone, followed by Jiang Xin and Jiang Zhijun's show, however, they were not in the mood to watch it.

Han Lu sat in the preparation area in her team uniform, and Xu Haoyang sat next to her, he felt that she could actually have a good reason to be angry, and then criticize this set of songs and choreography that was far from the style she was used to. But she remained silent and did not say a word.

"It's fine. Liu Bofei coughed, "There were actually a lot of things like this kind of hitting the repertoire before, and the referees wouldn't take it as a thing." I won't be with them again at the third stop. ”

The music in the center of the rink faded out, followed by thunderous applause. Stimulated by this voice, Han Lu finally couldn't sit down. She stood up and walked out of the preparation area.

"Where are you going?" Liu Bofei called out to her.

"Washroom. ”

She was indeed in the bathroom—her heart was clogged with something, and it was getting fuller and fuller as if she had sucked water, and it was a little hard to breathe. She had to find a quiet, no-man's place to smash them. She stood in the cubicle, her right hand clenched into a fist, and then, she slammed hard into the wall.

Pain.

It hurts a lot.

She was somewhat glad that the hands of figure skaters were relatively unimportant.

She didn't care what the impact of colliding with other people's tracks would affect her score, she just felt a deep disgust for herself after seeing other people's interpretations of the piece with her own eyes.

No way.

It just doesn't work.

Not all the time.

What she had ignored in the past, that she felt unimportant, was now presented to her with an attitude that could not be questioned.

Why?

She smiled wryly at herself.

Why did you waste so much time in the past? Why did you have the self-confidence that you would never lose what you were proud of?

She thumped the wall again. The fists slammed into the concrete wall with a dull dull sound.

A little while later – she thought, in a little while, the game would be over, and then there would be a lot of media reporters blocking the stadium and the hotel where they were staying, and they would be waiting to ask her how she felt about the game. Before that, she had to adjust her emotions to a normal state, and she didn't want to add fodder to the taunts they were already conceiving in their stomachs.

It was also at this time that Xu Haoyang also left the preparation area, and he also needed a clean place to sort out his thoughts. When he returned, he met Jiang Zhijun in the corridor.

In the past, they also met many times. Xu Haoyang had never had a good impression of him, so he just glanced at him and continued to walk forward. However, Jiang Zhijun stopped him.

"Hey. ”

Xu Haoyang stopped.

"Something?" he asked.

"Say it's something...... It's fine. Probably?" Jiang Zhijun curled the corners of his mouth. "Just say hi. ”

"If you have something to say, just say it. I'm leaving. ”

"What's the hurry?" Jiang Zhijun said, "and you won't accept the award." I've watched all your games, and frankly, I think you're good, really. He nodded earnestly, "It's your partner, a guy who drags his feet." ”

"Finished?"

"Seriously, partnering with her, apart from being able to rely on her past popularity to rub her face in the competition, is there any other hope?"

Xu Haoyang didn't speak, he wasn't the kind of person who would easily be angered by what people said, not to mention that he had never taken this person to heart. He was about to leave like this, and saw Jiang Xin also coming from the opposite side, probably to find her new partner.

Jiang Xin walked straight and stood beside Jiang Zhijun.

Xu Haoyang saw her, he didn't know what to say to her, but she just glanced at him superficially, and quickly staggered her gaze.

When Jiang Zhijun saw her coming, he reached out to grab her shoulder, but she dodged it.

"Say what?" she asked lightly.

"Nothing. Jiang Zhijun shrugged his shoulders, "Just talk casually." ”

Xu Haoyang returned to the preparation area and saw that Han Lu was already sitting there. She saw him come back and raised her eyes to look at him.

"See Jiang Xin?" she asked.

"Hmm. ”

"What did you say?"

"Nope. Xu Haoyang said, "I didn't say anything." ”