Yearly: Rational analysis suggests that, given Jiang Ran’s heartless she-devil style of handling things, the second postcard belonging to you might simply be a precautionary measure. She was probably worried that if you only received one postcard, you’d angrily throw away the one that belonged to her, so she resorted to this strategy.
Beijiao: Impossible! Does she have no home? Why not send it to her own house? If worried about no one receiving it, send it to Jilin, since you’ve got a whole room full of people there!
Yearly: Postcards can get lost, dear, and the probability isn’t small… According to real-world testing, mail sent to major universities in big cities tends to be less likely to get lost.
Beijiao: How does she know I’m at school?
Yearly: I mentioned it casually to her, something like, “There’s a dog who was too scared to see you and slunk back to Guangzhou, not knowing you were in Finland, hahahahaha.”
Beijiao: …
Beijiao put down his phone, resisting the urge to ask Qiu Nian whether she had reconciled with Li Xingnan yet, otherwise how could she be so unkind, showing no compassion for a young heart’s plight.
But he didn’t ask, quickly realizing something else.
Beijiao: So is she still in Northern Europe and hasn’t come back yet?
Qiu Nian stayed silent for about five minutes.
Yearly: What exactly are you trying to ask?
Beijiao: If she’s not in Jilin, then can I go then?
He had been suffocating in Guangzhou. Checking the prices in Changbaishan, hotels and food were expensive and he couldn’t afford them. Zhao Ke Yan talked a lot, so Jilin was indeed the best remaining choice.
His immediately shifted focus was met with Qiu Nian’s raucous laughter.
Yearly: I’m literally dying of laughter, that’s all you could think of?
Yearly: You’ve got a bit of that typical flaw of men who ski, very well done, after three ski seasons you’ve perfectly blended in.
Yearly: Why not ask how your godmother is doing in Northern Europe? How she’s eating, sleeping peacefully, how her training is going, whether the pandemic is serious there, if she’s wearing masks properly, and if she should work hard at the competition!
Beijiao: ? She’s not a three-year-old kid.
Yearly: In Northern Europe, a brick falling from the sky could kill ten men handsomer than you.
Beijiao: …………………………. Why are you and Li Xingnan still arguing?
Qiu Nian sent him a question mark, then indignantly ignored him completely.
Beijiao didn’t care whether she replied or not. He exited the chat window and immediately went to find Zhao Ke Yan, planning to forcibly split the hotel room with him. Then he checked the exam schedule, joyfully buying a ticket for the day after tomorrow flying to Changchun Longjia Airport.
…
It was mid-to-late December, right before Christmas in 2021.
The shops at the ski resort gradually began decorating for both Christmas and New Year, with symbolic pine branches hung on the ski equipment hall’s sign.
As Beijiao stepped once again onto the three-inch territory of Songbei Ski Resort, he felt a flood of emotions. A mix of familiarity and strangeness, nostalgia and timidity enveloped him—
It created the shyness of someone just arriving for the first time.
He didn’t know many people here, and Zhao Ke Yan was usually busy with classes, so for the first two days he skied with Li Xingnan. Li skied well and fast, having received formal training, occasionally offering a few pointers, which Beijiao found quite satisfactory.
The conflict arose on the second afternoon when the ski resort was preparing to close for the day. On the last run, Beijiao suddenly wanted Li Xingnan to film a video of him skiing to identify any issues—
Unexpectedly, although Li skied well, his video recording was terrible. While filming, he lost sight of Beijiao in the frame, and the scene suddenly switched to distant mountains and the sunset.
After watching the video of himself disappearing midway, Beijiao looked confused while Li remained unapologetically composed: “What does it mean when the camera suddenly switches shots halfway?”
“The sunset,” the man said expressionlessly. “Isn’t the sunset more beautiful than you?”
“Okay, I won’t mention the sudden shot change, but why is the video so shaky?”
“My phone isn’t a sports camera, and my hands don’t have anti-shake features.”
“But it shouldn’t shake like someone with Parkinson’s…” Beijiao blinked. “I’m just wondering why you’re arguing with Qiu Nian to this extent. Could it be you’re showing early signs of Alzheimer’s and broke up to avoid dragging her down?”
“…Screw off.”
So the next day.
Beijiao, having been expelled, clung to Qiu Nian and Aju’s legs, becoming their leg accessory once again.
Qiu Nian and Li Xingnan now didn’t even greet each other when they met in the ski equipment hall, exchanging cold glances before going their separate ways, indifferent to the surrounding awkwardness, not caring if others felt so uncomfortable their toes could dig out a three-bedroom, two-living room house.
Inside the cable car.
Beijiao recalled that scene and sighed, “I feel like a child from a divorced family. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I stay with Dad, but when I’m rejected, I have to go back to Mom’s on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Mom can record and take photos, everything’s great, but she can’t help me with my homework.”
“…Qiu Nian remained expressionless, “The cable car wasn’t designed with doors that can be opened midway precisely to take care of people like you. Remember to write a heartfelt thank-you letter to the ski resort management when you go home.”
Beijiao said, “I’m too upset.”
Qiu Nian: “So am I, bro. You’re now a well-known dog too! Just now in the ski equipment hall, at least three groups came up to greet you. Do they know their ‘North Brother’ is such a chatterbox behind closed doors!”
As her words fell, Beige finally returned to being Beige again.
He closed his mouth and sat there expressionlessly.
Qiu Nian looked him up and down with satisfaction and sighed: “You still look decent when you’re quiet. Maybe you should try to maintain that—”
Beijiao expressionless: “They just aren’t worthy of seeing this adorable version of me.”
Qiu Nian: “…”
Qiu Nian also gradually lost her expression.
She turned her head and said to Aju, who also looked distressed beside her, “Find out for me when Jiang Ran will be back. I can’t take it anymore.”
Beijiao skied with Qiu Nian and the others for three days, gaining three videos. One of them was a teaching video he could watch late at night under the covers to study his skiing mistakes. The other two could be edited and uploaded to short video apps to solidify his status in the skiing community.
Beijiao was very satisfied.
Finally, he stopped clinging to Qiu Nian and chattering.
…
About a week later.
It was a snowy day. After skiing in the morning, Qiu Nian and Aju were waiting at the entrance of the dining hall at noon, preparing to eat, when they encountered Beijiao crouching by the door catching a breeze, waiting for them to eat together.
In the morning, Beijiao had taken a scattered lesson, rolling on the mid and beginner slopes all morning, which was even more tiring than skiing by himself. Now he was too exhausted to speak.
The wind at the summit was quite strong. The young man with black hair was blown until his eyes narrowed. Seeing Qiu Nian and Aju appear, he lifted his butt slightly and slowly stood up.
“You’re out of your mind?” Qiu Nian asked. “Don’t you know to go inside and wait when there’s such a strong wind?”
Beijiao had spoken enough during class, his voice now slightly hoarse: “No, it’s just that Li Xingnan went in earlier… I was afraid you’d run into him unexpectedly when you went in and end up fighting. So I waited outside to warn you and give you a moment to prepare psychologically.”
“…”
This dog’s thoughtfulness always showed up in strange places.
Qiu Nian muttered a few sentences, interspersed with curses at Li Xingnan, then pushed open the restaurant door and went inside.
Qiu Nian and the others were almost intimately familiar with the dining hall, immediately telling Beijiao what they wanted to eat upon entering, leaving him and Aju to queue up while she turned to go to the restroom to tidy her appearance.
Removing her face mask, combing her hair, applying sunscreen, and touching up her makeup, she hesitated for three seconds as she was about to leave the restroom upon remembering Beijiao mentioned Li Xingnan was inside, then retreated to apply more lipstick.
Luckily, it was the pre-holiday period where everyone was working hard, so Songbei Ski Resort was usually not crowded, otherwise someone might mistake her for a lunatic going in and out of the restroom door repeatedly.
After finishing her makeup, Qiu Nian washed her hands and walked out, muttering while looking at the hangnails on her hands: “My hands are so dry, I should go steal some hand cream from Jiang Ran’s room—”
She hadn’t finished speaking when a small trial-sized tube of hand cream was handed to her from the side.
She uttered a surprised “Huh,” and was about to say “Thank you” and reach out to take it when she looked up and saw that the light around her had all been blocked by a shadow as massive as a door panel. A man with deep-set eyebrows and eyes stood beside her, looking down at her.
Qiu Nian’s scalp tingled. She was very familiar with this aura, having hugged and nuzzled it countless times before, but now she felt only hostility.
Her eyebrows twitched. The woman remained expressionless, just about to tell Li Xingnan to get lost, when he asked, “Don’t want it, right?”
She raised an eyebrow, revealing a sarcastic smile.
But he didn’t give her a chance to speak. Slowly retracting the hand cream, he used his large hand to push her into the men’s restroom, which was also empty.
Then he kicked the door shut with his foot.
He casually hung a “Cleaning in Progress” sign.
Qiu Nian was stunned, unable to imagine how he had done so many things in such a short time. Once she realized none of them were good, she panicked and struggled to escape from his iron grip, twisting her body, but all of it was in vain—
She was directly pushed into a stall.
When the stall door closed, she started regretting why she had worn this outfit today instead of overalls, which would at least be harder to take off.
Since the start of the pandemic, the dining hall restroom at Songbei Ski Resort had always smelled reassuringly of disinfectant, but now Qiu Nian felt like she was about to cry from the stinging smell. She raised her voice almost to a scream: “Li Xingnan, you dare—”
He dared.
What didn’t he dare?
The usually quiet man pressed her against the wall, pinching her chin with two fingers and forcibly turning her face toward him. She bit her lip stubbornly to prevent him from kissing her.
He rubbed her lips, his fingers shamelessly wiping off the lip gloss she had just painstakingly applied. “I never touched Lin Shuang. When we were together, she didn’t have feelings for me either.”
Suddenly speaking right by her ear, Qiu Nian’s struggling stopped.
She looked up in confusion at the man squeezed into the narrow space with her. He pulled her hand downward.
“Now, look at this.”
…
Beijiao carried three bowls of rice with various toppings, looking around and seeing Aju sitting at an empty window seat catching some sun.
After setting the bowls down, he asked, “Where’s Qiu Nian?”
Aju didn’t even look up from his phone. “Dunno,” he said. “Maybe she went to take a dump?”
They were about to eat, yet he used such unrefined language. Beijiao frowned in disdain and slapped him lightly, then worried that Qiu Nian might not know they had found seats and went somewhere else to wait.
He checked his WeChat, sending her a message that went unanswered.
The dining hall was quite large, with many twists and turns, big enough to accommodate hundreds of people, so it wasn’t necessarily easy to spot someone at first glance.
Beijiao had no choice but to give up eating, rubbing his hungry, growling stomach resignedly and heading back to look for her.
He searched from the left side of the entire dining hall while crossing to the right, the tall young man looking rather listless. He had just passed through the dining hall entrance when the door was pushed open from outside, a cold wind carrying snowflakes blowing in.
“You could at least take me to eat somewhere in the commercial street. I just got off the plane, dropped my luggage, and immediately took the cable car rushing to eat your damn meal.”
The woman’s voice carried a hint of lazy huskiness, her slight complaint sounding naturally flirtatious.
Beijiao froze and stopped, then turned his head sharply a second later—
He saw the curly-haired woman in a long down jacket, jeans, and a turtleneck sweater walking into the dining hall.
She probably really had just landed, yet her makeup was perfect. As she walked, she pulled down her mask, glancing at it to check for lipstick marks…
When she lifted her head, the black-haired young man already within her line of sight had long vanished without a trace.
Beijiao hid behind a pillar, his eyes slightly widened, one hand tightly covering his mouth.
Three seconds later, he slid helplessly down the pillar, curling up into a ball leaning against it, his mind filled with only two words: Save me!
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