Marlon really thought the score was ridiculously low. 

Sure, he kept saying he didn’t have high expectations for Qiao Nan, but from the moment the program lineup was decided, he had been watching every detail like a hawk. 

So when he saw Qiao Nan’s final score, even someone as calm as him couldn’t help but let out a curse. 

It was one thing for the artistic score to be low, but pushing down the technical scores too? That’s just picking on a kid. 

When Merlin had handed over the choreography to Marlon, he gave a rough score estimate based on Qiao Nan’s condition—somewhere between 21 and 23. 

And that was before her last-minute improvements. After Wright adjusted her performance, the girl was clearly in better shape during the actual competition, so the score really shouldn’t have been that low. 

It didn’t take a genius to figure out her every little move was judged under a microscope just because it was a children’s competition. 

Clearly, she got penalized for her nationality. 

This wasn’t the first time Marlon had seen such blatant bias. When he caught his student looking at him in surprise, he didn’t say much—just waited for the next skater to come out before finally speaking. 

“Qiao, when are you heading back home?” 

“Probably tomorrow,” the girl replied. “Why? Got something planned, coach?” 

“Mm,” Marlon nodded, walking with Qiao Nan off the competition floor. “I’ll take you to meet one of my students tonight.” 

The whole trip was meant to give her some exposure anyway. Although he was annoyed by the scoring, Marlon quickly got back to business. 

It was time to introduce her to some important people. 

Since Qiao Nan was serious about going professional, Marlon wanted to help pave the way for her. At his age, he knew he couldn’t stay her coach forever. 

He was almost seventy, after all. He could still keep an eye on her basic training, but in a few years, once she matured as an athlete, he wouldn’t have the energy to keep up with the workload. 

“Alright.” 

Qiao Nan felt like something was off, but she trusted Marlon, so she agreed to dinner without much thought. 

Also, she could get some food out of it. 

Marlon’s appetite was something Qiao Nan was well aware of. 

What she hadn’t expected, though, was to be walking straight into an awkward situation. 

The guests at dinner turned out to be Marlon’s former student, Blake March, and Park Jin-Ah, who had just won second place in the competition. 

Elena had the home advantage, and apparently Pearl made a mistake, which gave Park Jin-Ah a chance to pull ahead. But either way, she didn’t end up taking the gold. 

Looking at the pale-faced girl across from her, Qiao Nan sighed. 

She totally forgot—Jin-Ah had mentioned before that her coach was one of Marlon’s students. 

Not just Park Jin-Ah, even Qiao Nan herself felt embarrassed for her. 

As the coaches started chatting like old friends, Qiao Nan figured she’d better break the ice between her and Park Jin-Ah. 

“Wanna try this?” She pointed at the fried potato cakes on the table. “You were amazing out there today.” 

She smiled warmly. “Your jumps were super steady.” 

Compared to Elena’s flair, Park Jin-Ah was more of a steady, reliable type. Not as flashy, maybe, but to Qiao Nan, she was definitely no pushover. 

Just from that one performance, you could tell she had excellent control on the ice. Her score sheet barely had any notes, unlike Qiao Nan’s which looked like it was marked up by a red pen-happy teacher. 

But Park Jin-Ah didn’t seem convinced by Qiao Nan’s words. 

Her composure came from years of being tossed onto the ice by her parents since she was three. Her consistency came from being pushed to maintain it, no matter what. 

She’d heard these kinds of compliments too many times, always followed by concern or criticism from Korean media. 

So now, even half-hearted praise like this felt like nails on a chalkboard. 

“What’s it to you?” she snapped, downing the tea in her cup. “Your legs were all wobbly out there, and you think you can judge me?” 

Yeah, she was not in a good mood today. She hadn’t even told her parents yet, but she already knew what the media coverage would look like. 

She’d spent so long living under the media spotlight, she could practically guess the commentary from just a few facial expressions. To her, tonight’s little get-together was just another polite way of saying: Hey, maybe drop your coach. 

Ever since she got injured and her commercial value took a hit, she’d had more than a few of these conversations. 

Always the same—people upset she wasn’t winning but still taking up the time of a top-tier coach. 

They really thought she was no longer good enough. 

“If you want me to change coaches, just say it. Don’t beat around the bush.” She scoffed, grabbing a tiny shot of liquor next to her and knocking it back without realizing what it was. 

Five seconds later, her face turned beet red from the heat, catching Marlon and Blake’s attention from across the table. 

“This the kid you were talking about?” Marlon asked with a chuckle. 

Blake snorted. “I don’t have a student like that.” 

  ✵✵✵ 

The day after the gathering with Marlon ended, Qiao Nan boarded the plane home. 

As a student still in school, her winter break was practically screaming at her to get back on track—and thanks to all that training before, her homework had been totally untouched. 

Just thinking about the promise she made to her homeroom teacher before the break—how she’d stay on top of things during the second half of the semester—was already giving her a headache. 

The moment she stepped into the house, she pretty much locked herself in the study. Then she just stared blankly at the mountain of homework covering her desk. 

That’s the downside of private elementary schools—even as a first grader, they were already throwing tax calculations into assignments. 

Qiao Nan couldn’t wrap her head around it. It was only 2006! Why were things this intense already? 

The questions themselves weren’t that hard, but there were just so many. Even though she could figure out the answers at a glance, she still had to sit down and write it all out properly. 

But honestly, you couldn’t call yourself a real student if you didn’t start your homework a week before school started again. With the power of her inherited deadline-crunching genes, Qiao Nan raced against time and finally finished it all the day before school resumed. 

Then, just as she stepped out of the study, she was caught off guard—she saw a familiar figure at home. 

“Brother?” Qiao Nan stood on the stairs, surprised to see her older brother Qiao Li after an entire year. She rubbed her eyes in disbelief. “Why are you back?” 

Qiao Li was fifteen years older than her. When she had just started elementary school, he was already off studying in the U.S. 

Even with the age gap, their bond had always been solid. Despite it being 2006, when international calls still cost a fortune, they still managed to talk every other day. 

“Well, I heard our little Nan Nan went overseas for a competition, right?” Qiao Li grinned, taking a big stride over and standing right in front of her. He didn’t hesitate to pinch her soft cheek. “Of course your brother had to come see our little star!” 

Qiao Nan wasn’t buying it. There were three or four suitcases still sitting by the door downstairs. If this was a lie, it was a really lazy one. 

She clicked her tongue and smacked his hand away. “You didn’t get kicked out for not finishing your graduation project, did you?” 

Qiao Li had been super busy with his thesis lately—he didn’t even come home for New Year. Judging by all the luggage, it looked more like he finished early and came back for good. 

“Yep, your brother’s officially graduated.” 

“Our Nan Nan really did inherit all the best genes,” Qiao Li said shamelessly, not even slightly embarrassed to be called out. He chuckled and scooped her up. “Aren’t you curious what gift I brought you?” 

Now, Qiao Nan knew her brother too well. If he was asking like that, there was definitely something fishy. 

She squinted at him, suddenly getting a bad feeling. 

“You didn’t… burn my performance onto a CD, did you?” 

Though both she and her coach were really satisfied with her performance in the Volin Memorial competition and planned to review it later— 

But that didn’t mean she wanted to die of secondhand embarrassment by watching it with her family! 

Under Qiao Nan’s despairing gaze, Qiao Li grinned and pulled a disc out of his bag, handing it to the little girl in front of him. 

“I told you Nan Nan’s a smart one.” 

Her distorted reflection stared back at her from the shiny CD surface. 

Just as the little girl took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, the long-silent system suddenly chimed in out of nowhere. 

⌈ Novice mission complete. ⌋ 
⌈ Initiating mission summary. ⌋