The mediocre trainer doesn't want to reopen

Well, the Holy King can still wait, and she also needs to continue working towards that goal. Before achieving this goal, she needs to concentrate all her attention on pursuing it.

……

After this minor incident, the time for the Yayoi Sho was drawing near. The Yayoi Sho was the stepping stone to the Classic Triple Crown, and this was also the first match between Saint King Halo and Qingyun Sky.

Before that, Kitano arranged for Shenying to participate in a competition at the Zhongshan Memorial in GII. Shenying, who began to specialize in mile and middle-distance events, was obviously much more comfortable than in long-distance events and won the victory perfectly.

Kitano has perfectly arranged the races for all five of the "Golden Generation" horsegirls for March, with the exception of Condor, who is participating in the Nakayama Kinen. Special Week has also booked the GI Osaka Cup in March, preparing to challenge for her third GI title.

Kitano arranged for Flying Grass to compete at the Hanshin Grand Prix. The intention was clear: it was for the Spring Emperor's Prize in April. Long distance is Flying Grass's home ground, especially since most of the long-distance horse girls who pose a threat to Flying Grass have not yet competed with her.

Of course, Kitano did not forget the GI short-distance event, the Takamatsunomiya Memorial, which was also held in March. In this game, Kitano certainly planned to let Sakura Shinou win. He had absolute confidence in Shinou's victory.

Shanxin and Emperor of the East China Sea have also made their debut successfully. Soon after their debut competition, Kitano will start arranging some OP-level competitions for them. Kitano is still very confident in Emperor and Shanxin, and believes that the novice competitions will not be difficult for them.

What Kitano is most concerned about now is still Qingyun Tiankong and Shengwang Halo, who are about to challenge the Classic Triple Crown - they are also the favorites to win this year's Classic Triple Crown. Both women have ushered in the classic year in an undefeated state. However, the undefeated streak of one of them will definitely end in the upcoming Yayoi Award.

As for Kitano, to be fair, he was more optimistic about the outcome of the Yayoi Sho. This was because the distance between the Yayoi Sho and Gaoyue Sho was the same, both were 2000 meters, which was a distance that Qingyun Sky was in good shape, but not that of the Holy King.

During this period, Saint King Halo, who has been focusing on mid-range training, has indeed changed a lot after the special training, but Kitano still feels that it is uncertain whether she can defeat Qingyun Tiankong.

Sheng Wang bet everything on the Japanese Derby. Now she may be more adapted to the middle-distance race than the short-distance race. But only after the competition did Kitano know who is the better of the two women.

Soon, the two-month rest period passed quickly, and Xingjiang and Shengwang also welcomed their first duel at the Zhongshan Racecourse - the GII Yayoi Award.

However, the result of this match was far beyond Kitano's expectations. He thought that the first duel between Qingyun Tiankong and Shengwang would be a fierce confrontation, but it turned out not to be the case.

"Holy King Halo! The second most popular number 3 Holy King Halo! It swept the Yayoi Prize with overwhelming force! And the most popular number 16 Qingyun Tiankong barely made it in fourth place!"

"In the first showdown between the two horse girls known as the heirs of the 'Golden Generation,' Holy King Aura secured her first victory! She will also challenge for the upcoming Triple Crown Classic, undefeated!"

Chapter 391: Qingyuntiankong's "Triple Crown Horse" Plan

As the unified trainer of the five members of the "Golden Generation", Kitano has the advantage of being a time traveler. At the same time, he is extremely obsessed with the title of "Golden Generation", just like he is very obsessed with the title of "King of the End of the Century" of good opera.

Kitano had always been extremely obsessed with the achievements of these horse girls. He could accept that his horse girls' achievements hadn't improved much compared to before, but what he absolutely couldn't tolerate was that his horse girls' achievements were wiped out by him.

Therefore, regarding the name "Golden Generation", Kitano has actually been promoting this name to the outside media intentionally or unintentionally during this period. He said something like "The five horse girls in my team will be the representatives of the Golden Generation."

He said that Japanese horse racing girls are now entering a golden age, and those who perform well in this period may become the "golden generation" that people will talk about in the future.

With Kitano's deliberate, yet seemingly complimenting, words, the title of "Golden Generation" was naturally given to the horse girls who had performed outstandingly in recent years.

And "coincidentally" it is that in the classic years of the past two years, aren't the horse girls who will sweep the classic triple crown events all these five horse girls from the Kitano team?

Therefore, the title of "Golden Generation" naturally fell on the five horse girls who deserved it. And for this reason, at the end of this Yayoi Sho, Shengwang Halo and Qingyun Tiankong were called the successors of the "Golden Generation".

The result of this match was indeed beyond the expectations of Kitano and other spectators. In this Yayoi Sho, everyone thought that the first clash between the two undefeated horse girls, Sheng Wang and Qing Yun Tiankong, should be an extremely fierce competition.

But when the Yayoi Sho competition started, the course of the competition was completely different from what everyone had guessed - Holy King Halo really put in his all and was very focused from beginning to end. His tactics and timing of exerting force were all textbook standards.

But Xing-chan was indeed different. Although she displayed her trusted escape tactics at the beginning, she slowed down for some reason when she was nearing the finish line - it was as if she had stalled.

So the following scene happened. The "stalled" Qingyun Tiankong was caught up and overtaken by the Holy King's Halo who made a final sprint, as well as the other horse girls who were chasing closely. In this race, Qingyun Tiankong barely entered fourth place and barely retained his qualification for promotion.

Of course, even if Qingyun Tiankong really failed to get in, with the "priority to leave" granted to Kitano Team by Tresen Academy, Kitano could also allow Qingyun Tiankong to participate in the Gaoyue Award. This is the privilege of Kitano Team.

However, Xingjiang's performance this time was indeed quite abnormal. After all, it wasn't the first time Xingjiang had run 2000 meters, and there was nothing wrong with Xingjiang's speed control this time, so how could she lose speed?

Kitano's brows furrowed slightly, but he quickly thought of a possibility, and immediately relaxed his brows. He chuckled and said, "Xing-chan...is this also part of your strategy? If that's the case, then I'm afraid everyone will be fooled by you."

……

"Ha ha……"

At this moment, Saint King Halo, who was gasping for breath in front of the finish line, turned his head away in disbelief. At this moment, the leisurely figure of Qingyun Tiankong came over.

"Xing-chan—" The panting Saint King stared at the blue sky that seemed to be at ease, his eyes filled with confusion and bewilderment. He asked breathlessly, "Xing-chan, you, you really gave it your all this time?"

"Why, your strength——shouldn't be just this, you can obviously win, why..."

The Holy King was a little confused. Why did Qingyun Tiankong, who could obviously win this game, let it go?

Obviously, if she wins this Yayoi Sho, she can become a reserve for the "Undefeated Triple Crown". At that time, she will definitely become the real focus.

What's more, with the Holy King's understanding of Qingyun Tiankong and the help of his past memories, she is actually not that far away from the "Undefeated Triple Crown". She could have reached the second crown position at the beginning. This year should have been her peak. Why did she give up the victory that she could have achieved?

The Holy King didn't understand. If it were her, she would definitely win with all her might as long as she could win the game. But why did she give up the victory when it came to Xingjiang?

"Hehe, what are you talking about, Sheng Wang? I don't understand."

Facing the Saint King's doubts, Qingyun Tiankong simply brushed them off with a smile, saying softly, "I'm giving it my all this time, but... well... I'm not in great shape, right? After all, Xing-chan, I had a good few days' rest before the competition began."

"Maybe he lost his form during the break? Ah, this is really a headache. I really hope that similar mistakes won't ruin my performance during the Gaoyue Shoin—"

Qingyun Tiankong didn't seem that upset about this mistake, as if she took the result for granted. I don't know if she really didn't take winning or losing seriously... or did she think it was natural that she couldn't outrun the Saint King Halo?

Qingyun Tiankong's words naturally attracted the attention of the horse girls around her. Quietly, Qingyun Tiankong reduced the possibility of being noticed a lot. The loss of this game also caused some changes in the perceptions of many horse girls who originally valued her as the "most popular" horse girl.

Could it be that she wasn't as strong as I thought? This thought gradually spread among the horse girls as they looked at each other in bewilderment.

What they didn't know was that the moment such thoughts arose in their minds, they had already fallen into the trap of Qingyun Tiankong, the "strategist".

Qingyun Tiankong is very clear that it is impossible for her to win the title of undefeated triple crown. She knows where her limits are, because her escape tactic is very physically demanding. If she wants to achieve a result that satisfies her, she often needs long-term adjustment and recuperation.

The time between the Yayoi Sho and the Gaoyue Sho was…too short. With a month's time, Qingyun Tiankong couldn't guarantee that her limited talent and conditioning would allow her to recover and have sufficient strength to prepare for the Gaoyue Sho.

Qingyun Tiankong knows what is important and what is not. Compared to losing the title of "Invincible" during the Gaoyue Sho and losing the first crown of the classic three crowns, it is better to retain sufficient physical strength during the Yayoi Sho.

As for being invincible... Qingyun Tiankong knew that this was impossible, so he didn't feel any pity if it was lost.

Qingyun Tiankong believed that his strongest opponent was Saint King Halo. Saint King Halo had always wanted to win the Japanese Derby, and Qingyun Tiankong was well aware of this.

Coincidentally, the match that Qingyun Tiankong was least confident about was the Japanese Derby. The reason was the same as now, there was only a little over a month's break between the Japanese Derby and the Gaoyue Sho.

But she wants to win the Classic Triple Crown... She wants to win the Classic Triple Crown and become the "Triple Crown Uma Girl" of the team!

Even if... she could never win a race again, even if she would become a laughing stock and be called "the weakest Triple Crown horse girl in history", she at least wanted to have a moment of glory.

She wanted to be the one that Trainer Sang valued more, at least in this year, and then... find a good opportunity to see if she could win over her trainer Sang.

And this opportunity will come soon. Qingyun Tiankong has a premonition that his "Operation Plan to Capture Trainer Sang" will definitely be effective in the future!

With such confidence, Qingyun Tiankong chose to leave with a slightly cheerful pace - she now had to hurry back to Kitano and start her own "offensive"!

"Then I'll be leaving first. If you want to show off to Trainer-san, now's the best time to do it—"

"Ah, but Sheng Wang-san must be too tired to walk, right? Then I won't be polite and will go and act cute to Trainer-san as much as I want—"

Qingyun Tiankong immediately chose to leave the Holy King behind and walked towards the exit tunnel alone. The Holy King opened his mouth slightly, but still did not choose to call Qingyun Tiankong.

Forget it, Xing-chan's expression just proves that she doesn't know about Kitano yet, so let's not tell Xing-chan for the time being.

At least... wait until the chrysanthemum viewing is over, right? Right now, it's okay for Xing-chan to get some distance between herself and that guy.

Anyway… besides Xing-chan, only the recently joined Special Zhou and Shenying have yet to confirm their relationship with that guy, right? The rest of them are already at the finish line like her, or are basically standing just one step away, waiting for the finish line to rush towards them.

And Xing-chan is probably the only one who doesn't realize that everyone has achieved their goals and still thinks he is still in the "competition", right?

When the Holy King thought of this, he found it inexplicably funny and decided to watch the show to see how Xingjiang would launch his attack.

——Let's see how long it will take Xing-chan to "conquer" that guy. The Holy King was quite curious. Xing-chan looked aggressive, but usually he had no chance because everyone was clinging to him. But now that no one was clinging to him, could Xing-chan go all out?

Then I guess Xingjiang’s attack must be very fierce, right?

Chapter 392: Please keep working hard, Xing-chan

"Trainer-here oh, here-"

At the exit of the tunnel, Xingjiang easily met Kitano who was waiting there. After her eyes lit up slightly, she resisted the urge to go forward and hug him - because she knew that she had lost the game and was not asking for a hug as a winner.

But Xing-chan had clearly already figured out a plan. She trotted over to Kitano, a bit sheepishly on her face, and said, "Hehe... Sorry, Trainer-san, I seem to have let my guard down a bit lately. I've been sleeping a bit too much, so I wasn't very energetic during the competition."

"So, I lost by accident. Trainer-san, you won't blame Xing-chan, right?"

As she said this, Qingyun Tiankong blinked her cute big eyes, revealing a pitiful look, but the smile in her pupils could not be hidden.

Qingyun Tiankong knew full well that his trainer was a soft-hearted man, even softer than his heart. He had an extremely low resistance to beautiful girls, and... he seemed to have a natural liking for horse girls?

Xing-chan wasn't sure if her judgment was correct. Although, most of the trainers working at Tresen Academy had a fondness for horse girls from the beginning, and turned their hobby into a career.

However, not everyone can have this kind of goodwill and be willing to give everything for the sake of responsibility, and not everyone can do it and persist in it.

But Qingyun Tiankong started from the beginning when Kitano did not care about bloodline and was willing to accept ordinary horse girls. Later, Kitano helped those truly ordinary horse girls. Even after he collapsed from exhaustion, he did not blame those horse girls who asked him for help.

Also, she had been in the team for so long, and Kitano had really done as he promised, never mentioning the issue of bloodline even once in the team. He just cared for every team member wholeheartedly - maybe it wasn't completely equal, but he really had never looked down on or marginalized any member.

All these signs, and so much observation, gave Xing-chan the confidence to pull off this tactic. She was sure Kitano wouldn't be angry at her "mistake," so she could frantically test the edge of other trainers' anger, and even if she lost, she could still keep a playful smile.

"It's okay, Xing-chan, it's just a bad performance. My expectation for you is to win the Classic Triple Crown."

As expected, under Xingjiang's expectant and slightly nervous gaze, Kitano only smiled faintly. After all, Kitano had actually seen through Xingjiang's plan, and of course he didn't intend to point it out.

Placing all her bets on the Classic Triple Crown was a decision made by Hoshi-chan, and it was also Kitano's initial expectation of her. Kitano wouldn't criticize Hoshi-chan's decision in any way, because if Hoshi-chan truly set her sights on the Triple Crown, this might be the right choice.

As a trainer of Qingyun Tiankong, Kitano certainly knows Xingjiang's strengths and weaknesses. Xingjiang's escape tactics are not as stable as Miura Bourbon's in the team, nor as strong as Shanxin's physical fitness. However, Xingjiang's advantage in escape is that she is the best at planning her physical strength in the entire team and making the most of everything.

As the escaped horse, Xing-chan uses her brain power to calculate and plan everything to an almost perfect degree. She is a horse racing girl who truly controls the direction of the whole game.

But, of course, this also has disadvantages. If something happens on the field that Qingyun Tiankong did not expect, her careful plan may be disrupted. After all, the more careful the plan, the more likely it is that if something goes wrong, the whole process will go wrong.

Secondly, it is Xingjiang herself. Mental calculations are a very energy-consuming task, and physical calculations in the brain during competitions are even more of a drain on Xingjiang herself - and Xingjiang's physical fitness is actually not that good.

This is due to the limitations of Qingyun Tiankong's mediocre bloodline, and her body is not as strong as Bourbon's, so she cannot support the training designed by Kitano for Bourbon - otherwise, Xingjiang is guaranteed to break a bone once a month, and this is no joke.

This also leads to Xingjiang's physical and mental exhaustion after each game. Why do you think Xingjiang usually looks lazy? She is actually very tired.

This is also the reason why Kitano understood Xingchan's choice so quickly and was willing to support her ideas - this is the helplessness of a mediocre person.

It was like Huang Yaoshi and Ouyang Feng fighting with flute and zither. They both knew that they could win with one more move, but their abilities were limited and they were unable to do it.

"Hehe, I'm relieved that Trainer-san doesn't blame Xing-chan."

Seeing that Kitano really didn't blame him, Xing-chan also began his next offensive, pretending to be very relaxed and said with a hint of joking: "But if you ask Xing-chan, it's not entirely Xing-chan's fault that he lost this time. After all, it was Trainer-san who let me down so much recently."

"We're about to compete in the Yayoi Sho, but Trainer-san is busy with the match between Zenshin-san and Teio-san, as well as the match between Kou, Elu, Koto, and Shin-oh-san."

"Hehe, Xing-chan, I can understand. After all, Trainer-san is very busy every day. But, Xing-chan, I'm aiming for the Classic Triple Crown this time. Isn't that important too?"

“If…” At this moment, Xing-chan’s pupils turned slightly, and her cheeks flushed slightly with shame because of what she was about to say, but she still spoke in a voice as soft as a mosquito: “If Trainer-san could focus more on me, Xing-chan… Maybe Xing-chan, I could work harder during the Classic Triple Crown—just kidding…”

Finally, Qingyun Tiankong, her true intentions revealed, told Kitano her ultimate goal in the form of a complaint. She wanted to use this method to make Kitano shift his focus to her, which was not only reasonable but also would not make her look like the kind of girl who asked, "Please come and accompany me soon."

However, Kitano was incredibly experienced in dealing with Uma Musume. He wouldn't let go of even the smallest nugget of information from Uma Musume, let alone a flaw as huge as Hoshi-chan's.

"It must be my negligence this time. I didn't supervise your training before the Yayoi Sho competition..." Kitano was also very sensible and took the blame. He said to Xingjiang in front of him: "It seems that the training before the competition was a bit lax. This mistake must not be made again."

"Well, Xing-chan, be prepared. I'll be keeping a close eye on your progress throughout the Classic Year. After all, you're the Uma Musume I'm really optimistic about, and I think you'll be able to perform at your best in the Classic Year."

"Oh...wouldn't that mean I'd have fewer naps? That's really a headache."

"But since it's Trainer-san's order, I'll certainly follow it."

Qingyun Tiankong, who had gotten the advantage and was still acting cute, was naturally very satisfied with Kitano's answer. Everything was just as she planned, and Trainer Sang really took the bait!

Qingyun Tiankong, whose plan had succeeded, now had a blushing face because of her last step. She still had one last step to take.

But... it seems that the goal has been achieved and the expected result has been reached. Otherwise, the last step... can be omitted?

There will be plenty of opportunities to do that kind of thing in the future. I can just do it openly after I win the next competition...

Meanwhile, Qingyun Tiankong was still struggling in his heart, his face turning red and white, which made Beiye stunned. He had never imagined before that Qingyun Tiankong had so much inner drama - and it was all shown on his face.

Although I don’t know what Xing-chan is thinking...it’s better to let her calm down. The more she thinks at this time, the more likely it is that problems will arise.

At this moment, Kitano also quickly made his correct choice. He took a small step forward and soon, he gently hugged the daydreaming Qingyun Tiankong in his arms and said softly, "Okay, don't think too much, Xing-chan. Even though we lost this time, we can win it back next time."

"There's no need to worry so much about one game. I believe you'll win back a victory in the Classic Triple Crown."

"Ah."

However, at this moment, Qingyun Tiankong was hugged by Kitano without any warning. She realized what had happened only later. However, at this moment, her face was blushing and her whole body was soft. She did not resist at all, as if she had turned into a sheep.

As for Kitano's words, she no longer knew what he was saying. She felt that all the sounds around her had disappeared, leaving only the clear sound of her own heartbeat.

And this… was what she had been struggling with, wondering whether or not to do—she wanted to ask Kitano for a comforting hug. This was the final step in her plan, the one she had thought would be the easiest, but in reality, the one she found to be the most difficult.

But this step was completed so easily by Kitano in an instant, which made all the efforts made by Qingyun Tiankong in the past go to waste.

——Because in this way, she has turned from a fisherman to the fish being caught!

Woohoo! Why is Trainer-san always able to do such embarrassing things so easily? He's so cunning!

Although Qingyun Tiankong was accusing Beiye in his heart, his body was honest and stuck to him without moving.