Later, Jiang Ran came in third place, but even when recalling that moment, the joy she felt upon receiving the final results, which had exceeded Nie Xin’s initial expectations, was not even a tenth of the satisfaction she felt when she sent off the freckled little sister.
In the parallel giant slalom event of snowboarding, a third-place finish in a World Cup event is not the best result China has ever achieved in this discipline.
But even though predecessors had literally stood atop the podium in this series, due to the absence of an Olympic gold medal and the corresponding cultural foundation, not only did the parallel giant slalom lack international prestige, but even the broader snowboarding discipline as a whole left China with almost no standing on the global stage this year.
When snowboarding came up, people thought only of South Korea and Japan.
God knows how desperately we needed an opportunity to prove ourselves on a grand stage, one that would capture the attention of spectators worldwide.
Everyone was eagerly anticipating the Beijing Winter Olympics; after all, it’s a home event—how could anyone not care? Yet before the games officially began, among the general public, people much preferred discussing ice sports like short track speed skating and figure skating.
Discussions about snowboarding, whether in halfpipe or parallel giant slalom, were practically nonexistent—
This applied equally to both disciplines, more or less.
This is what we call a lack of cultural depth. Due to national circumstances, skiing as a sport took off too late in China, which is very unfortunate—but whose fault can it really be?
Nowadays, many people are striving persistently to make up for these regrets, carrying the weight forward in the icy and snowy endeavors.
In her dream, perhaps because she had repeatedly contemplated that moment brimming with national pride, Jiang Ran’s dreams later became chaotic. She dreamed that four years later, she rushed to Italy dragging her suitcase—
Another Winter Olympics, she stepped off the bus at the venue in Italy, where the welcome ceremony was bizarre; a group of Siberian Huskies ran toward her, tackled her, and started licking her chin and nose.
It was wet, and they made whiny sounds.
Unfortunately, she was allergic to dog fur and felt no warmth at all.
After finally managing to extricate herself from the pack of dogs, she received an Olympic athlete’s shirt from a staff member, on which a dazzling gold medal was placed. The staff member said: “In the dog training event, you are truly deserving of the gold.”
It seemed to be a new event added for the Italian Winter Olympics, something like dog sledding—doesn’t that sound plausible?
In the dream, she tried to shout at everyone willing to listen, “I’m a legitimate parallel giant slalom competitor,” but no one paid any attention to her.
Then she woke up in a panic.
Wrapped in her blanket, she sat up and found herself back on the soft bed in the Songbei ski resort’s villa area. It was 2021 now, and the Beijing Winter Olympics had not yet begun.
Outside the window, the sun had already set, and the ski lifts at the resort probably had stopped running for the day.
“You’re awake?”
Qiu Nian entered the room carrying a glass of lemonade. When he looked up, he saw the person who ten minutes ago had been sleeping soundly now sitting up in bed, wrapped like a triangular human dumpling, turning her head to gaze at the evening twilight outside the window.
Qiu Nian set down the glass of water, and she slowly turned her head to look at him, stating flatly, “There’s a dog smell in my room.”
Qiu Nian thought to himself, your nose must be more like a dog’s than mine.
“The mutt did come by, but he didn’t go into your room,” Qiu Nian said. “While you were sleeping, he was lying by the door frame, legs twisted like a knot, awkwardly watching you sleep for twenty minutes…”
“That’s impossible.”
“What’s impossible?”
Jiang Ran raised her hand to touch her nose, expressionless: “He at least kissed me.”
“…No way. I only left him alone for three minutes to go to the bathroom—”
Qiu Nian suddenly had a realization mid-sentence: “Oh! That little scoundrel!”
Jiang Ran got up to wash up and, without looking up, asked casually, “What did he come for? To return my postcards?”
“No, he came empty-handed.”
Qiu Nian even joked that he should have at least brought some fruit.
“…”
Jiang Ran clicked her tongue.
…
After returning home, Jiang Ran lay around for three days. According to the regular training schedule, they should have already started a training camp at the Yabuli ski resort in Heilongjiang Province by now.
But this year was special—the Winter Olympics meant that Nie Xin and the other coaches had been reassigned to Chongli and Beijing, leaving them with no supervision. Everyone was given an unusually long holiday, one they hadn’t really wanted—
Yes, even though they were just provincial team members, they all knew the Winter Olympics was far beyond their reach. Yet when the competition began, they inevitably envied those who could bask in the spotlight and shine brightly.
After all, they were all human beings. Why shouldn’t it be them standing on the competition course?
Jiang Ran puzzled over this for two days, especially when she saw Nie Xin’s social media post with a location tag in Chongli.
On the fourth day, she finally snapped out of it, grabbed her MACH board, and headed up the mountain to find a quiet corner on G索 to isolate herself and continue practicing her nollie 720° tricks.
It had been too long since she last practiced, and safety came first. It wouldn’t be worth it if she broke an arm or leg, so she planned to start with a rounded-nose board to get the feel of the snow under her feet again before switching back to her pointed-nose board. That was her plan.
At Songbei Ski Resort, besides the all-season and regular seasonal passes, there were also owner cards—unlimited ski passes issued to those who had bought houses near the resort.
The owner’s ski card needed to be facially scanned and activated every day at the equipment hall, a process that was fast but still took about twenty minutes—
At this time, Songbei Ski Resort had received many skiers displaced from Chongli, so it was noticeably more crowded. From the moment Jiang Ran entered the equipment hall, she almost met a dozen people she knew.
“Big sister Ran, you’re back?”
“Wow! Our World Cup bronze medalist has returned in glory!”
“Hey, Jiang Ran, you’re back—aren’t you wearing hard boots today? The team isn’t training? Oh, the coach went to Chongli, right, that makes sense!”
“Big sister Ran, do you have the competition video? That day I asked Erche for it, but he said he hadn’t seen it either. He told me to ask you when I saw you. I’ve been thinking about trying hard boots myself, just to see your style and get inspired—”
…
And so on.
Jiang Ran was so fed up with hearing these things that her ears were calloused.
As for why she received so much attention, it was probably because everyone thought she was just like them—starting out as a recreational skier and then switching mid-career to competitive skiing. She was a particularly representative and inspiring example of a successful transition.
Some people even began to consider trying hard boots themselves, with one person even stepping forward to ask if he could become her apprentice.
This person actually skied quite well himself, serving as a senior instructor at a club where he charged up to 1,800 RMB per hour for lessons. Him? Becoming an apprentice?
“Apprentice, my foot,” Jiang Ran said. “Should I pay you or should you pay me? Being my apprentice is a curse—my apprentices all end up—”
Her voice suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
Oh.
Where is my apprentice?
Under the curious gaze of the other person, Jiang Ran suddenly spaced out, thinking to herself, right, where was that dog?
Still in Jilin?
He probably couldn’t leave since his school was on break and he didn’t have much else going on. Had she scared him into going back to Guangzhou? With how expensive plane tickets were, there’s no way he’d afford it.
She snapped back to reality, suddenly realizing that her entertainment for the day could include “chasing the dog all over the mountain,” which lifted her mood a bit. She reached out and patted the shoulder of the man in front of her: “I’ll teach you when I have time. Thanks.”
“Thanks? For what?” The man looked puzzled.
Unfortunately, Jiang Ran didn’t answer him. She walked off with her board under her arm.
…
Jiang Ran boarded the ski lift heading up the mountain. Today, she was alone—Qiu Nian and the others were resting at home, while Li Xingnan was intensifying his training on G索. Initially, Jiang Ran had wanted to find him and go together.
Now she decided not to head to G-Suo just yet. She would first ski all the regular runs at the resort to locate her beloved apprentice.
Indeed, this person was just a lowlife. Before she returned from the competition in Northern Europe, Jiang Ran had been thinking about how she didn’t want to see Bei Jiao at all. She had even planned to ask Qiu Nian to tell him to send the postcards back via SF Express.
But after arriving, she unexpectedly found out that the dog was around, and maybe because of some guilty feelings, he had started playing hide-and-seek with her, avoiding her. Suddenly, she wanted to see him again.
To hear what other nonsense he could come up with.
After all, that day when he sent her back to the hotel, finally in the brightly lit lobby, as Jiang Ran stepped into the elevator and turned around, he stood outside the elevator with his head lowered, not even daring to look her in the eyes.
Thinking about this, Jiang Ran narrowed her eyes slightly.
She raised her hand and rubbed her forehead, pondering what her first line should be when she caught Bei Jiao. Suddenly, she paused, looking confused at her fingertips.
How did she touch her forehead directly?
She absentmindedly touched her face and then realized—she hadn’t brought her goggles. That explained why she felt like she had forgotten something when leaving.
The wind was strong up the mountain, and she couldn’t ski without goggles.
Jiang Ran sent a text to Qiu Nian asking her to bring a pair of goggles to the mountain entrance near the villa area. At this moment, the ski lift was slowly approaching the transfer station, and Jiang Ran got off with her board—
The main A-cable ski lift at Songbei Ski Resort consists of two sections, with a transfer station located midway up the mountain. From the transfer station, continuing the ascent leads to intermediate and advanced slopes, while from the summit, skiers can even access the G-cable lift.
Getting off at the transfer station leads downward to the beginner and intermediate runs at the foot of the mountain. This design is convenient for beginners or flatland freestyle skiers to choose suitable runs for skiing entertainment and practice.
Generally, unless under special circumstances, the transfer station only allows disembarking, not boarding. One cannot take the lift down from the transfer station directly; one must ride to the summit and then descend from there.
That would be too slow.
The beginner and intermediate slopes are gentle and located at the foot of the mountain. It was noon, the sun was bright, and there was little wind. Jiang Ran didn’t plan to take the lift back down—it would be faster to just ski down directly.
On these slopes filled with beginners wearing turtle backpacks, she didn’t plan to carve aggressively, just slowly glide down and enjoy the sunshine.
With this decision made, after getting off the lift, Jiang Ran crouched by the side of the slope to put on her board.
She had just finished fastening her board and slid down two turns when she suddenly heard a laughing female voice from another slope branch behind her—
“So, in the future, I want to learn carving too. Will you keep teaching me?”
Initially, Jiang Ran didn’t think much of it, only glancing back when she heard the keyword “carving.”
She saw a woman wearing a limited-edition snowsuit worth tens of thousands of yuan, with long hair, hugging the arm of the person in front of her in a very seductive manner, almost sticking entirely to him, if not for the fact that her snowboard was slipping a bit and limiting her actions.
She was only wearing goggles without a face mask, and under her helmet strap was a pretty, fair, and delicate face—not just pretty, but even carrying a hint of mature allure—
Jiang Ran thought she looked a bit similar. If they had shared a ski lift, she might have thought something like, “I didn’t put on fake eyelashes today, and I lost out.”
At this moment, the woman’s expression was one Jiang Ran could never imitate—coy and pitiful, gazing longingly at the man whose arm she was holding, forcing him to bend over to maintain balance.
As for the man, he hadn’t said a single word the entire time, as if he were mute.
Jiang Ran was contemplating whether the man might be gay, since he managed to stay silent despite such a situation, narrowing her eyes for a closer look. She then recognized the calm face of the male lead—
A tall nose bridge, sharp eyebrows and eyes, clear facial contours, especially the sharp jawline.
He was wearing Gray Redtree snowboard under his feet, in a regular stance. Under the sunlight, the BC limited edition stickers on the board surface sparkled, with only the small wings almost hidden beneath the snow stuck to the board.
He was only wearing goggles, so his facial expression was unclear, seemingly very indifferent.
“Let go first,” he finally said after a long pause. “You’re going to break my waist like this.”
His voice carried a hint of coldness and an effort to remain polite.
But it was the brief period of voice change from boyhood to maturity—
Very pleasant to the ear.
Jiang Ran: “…”
Although Jiang Ran had the intention to catch the dog, she wasn’t mentally prepared for the dog to suddenly come charging at her with all four legs and land right on her face the very next second, even bringing along a leg-hanging extra.
…
At this moment, the two people nearby didn’t notice a woman on the edge of a nearby ski slope who had made an emergency stop and was now raising her head in confusion, staring at them.
The beautiful and seductive woman heard his cold words but didn’t seem to mind at all. Instead, she giggled in a very good-tempered manner and shook Bei Jiao’s arm, saying, “Promise me, and I’ll let go of you.”
The young man with black hair pursed his pale lips and pulled his arm back, “I don’t teach carving.”
“Liar!” The girl, seeing that she couldn’t match his strength, let go of his arm and put her hands on her hips. “I’ve seen someone learning from you before! I saw a little kid like this!” She gestured at her waist.
Behind the two, Jiang Ran was amazed. Goodness, even her “liar” was so convincing!
“That’s different. He was a child.”
“I’m a child too! I’m a post-2010s kid! I don’t care, I want to learn carving too. You have to teach me!”
“Talk about it later. You need to practice your edge changes first.”
“Not later, right now! I can already do edge changes! I want to learn carving too, otherwise I wouldn’t have found you on TikTok! I can pay you six hundred… no, eight hundred yuan per hour when learning carving!”
“We’ll talk about it later.”
“Okay~ Then pull me to do an edge change now.”
“Again? It’s not even steep here.”
“I want you to!”
Jiang Ran watched for a while and realized this was Bei Jiao teaching a lesson. Perhaps he thought the chances of running into her on the beginner slope were lower, or maybe she was just overthinking and he was simply earning money by teaching a pretty girl—
Thinking about this, she couldn’t quite describe the feeling in her heart. It was as if her mind suddenly went blank, and she was back at the beginning again, not wanting to appear in front of him anymore. Everything felt somewhat tasteless.
Jiang Ran had always been wary of showing enthusiasm to someone who remained cold.
If she suddenly popped out now and someone asked, “Do you need something?” how would she respond?
How embarrassing.
She was pondering this when her phone suddenly rang in her pocket. She answered with a “Hello,” and Qiu Nian’s loud voice came through the line: “Aren’t you supposed to be skiing down from the transfer station? Where are you! Is there a traffic jam on a beginner’s slope or something?”
Jiang Ran “oh”ed once, paused, then “oh”ed again.
Qiu Nian’s voice suddenly stopped: “What? Did you fall? You fell on a beginner’s slope? Did you catch an edge? Or did you get dementia?”
Jiang Ran muttered, “Why are you cursing me for no reason?” and said, “I’m coming soon,” before preparing to leave without continuing to watch others’ lessons like a pervert.
She put her phone away and hurried a bit with her steps. Perhaps Qiu Nian’s bad omen came true, and she really didn’t watch carefully, catching the front edge, and fell quite hard, sliding forward—
“Poof!” she plunged into the snow.
With her face mask on, she got a mouthful of snow.
She lay on the ground for a while, unable to recover, then lifted her head first to check if the two had already left. Around her, people were falling all over the place, and her fall wasn’t particularly distinctive, so no one noticed her…
Good thing all the people she knew were on the advanced slopes above.
Otherwise, if it got out that Jiang Ran fell on a beginner’s slope and slid forward, where would she put her face!!!
Jiang Ran silently got up and sat down by the side of the slope, lowering her head to shake off the snow on her face when suddenly a figure appeared in front of her, blocking half the sunlight on the slope.
She looked up in confusion—
If this were a shojo manga, the male lead would have returned at this moment.
…Unfortunately, it’s not. She’s probably holding the script for a hot-blooded competitive manga at best.
Her male lead had been taken away by another pretty girl.
“Are you okay?”
A crisp teenage voice came from above. “Are you alone? No one is teaching you to ski?”
At this moment, Jiang Ran was full of irritation and was about to say something when she looked around—how many people at Songbei Ski Resort dared to claim they could teach her to ski? Old lady me—
She looked up and suddenly saw the person in front of her pull down his face mask. The boy in front of her was incredibly handsome.
Thick eyebrows, big eyes, double eyelids, a straight and natural nose tip, pale lips with a mole at the corner of one.
“…”
Jiang Ran was stunned. She thought to herself, who is this? Which male star skipped filming to come here for a vacation?
Her brain froze for a moment, and the rebuttal she had prepared didn’t come out.
“Hmm?” The boy slightly narrowed his eyes. “Did you fall and get brain damage?”
“I,” Jiang Ran blinked, “my friend is waiting for me at the bottom of the mountain.”
Not a lie. Qiu Nian was indeed waiting for her at the bottom of the mountain.
But to others, this sentence meant something else—
These days, with the popularity of winter sports, many newbies are deceived by unscrupulous half-baked friends who confidently say, “I’ll teach you,” luring them to the ski resort and then up the mountain. Then the friend says, “Just do this and that, practice by yourself, I’ll wait for you at the bottom,” and disappears, ending the teaching session.
Clearly, Jiang Ran was now categorized into this group of pitiful newbies.
“Did your friend abandon you and run off?”
The lively teenage boy playfully did a few penguin steps on the spot, scooting his board closer to Jiang Ran until he “plop” knelt down in front of her.
She instinctively shrank back a bit.
The boy wearing the skis didn’t notice, just moved forward as she backed away, then leaned down to look at her Mach board, first surprised, probably not expecting a pusher to choose a ten-thousand-yuan board.
But he didn’t ask, instead supporting himself with her board’s edge, he leaned his head to check her binding angle. Seeing that her bindings were set in a regular stance, he raised his eyebrows, “Who adjusted your board’s angle? They set it for a pusher and then ran off and left you?”
Jiang Ran couldn’t speak.
She looked at his board under his feet, also a Mach, but in a duck stance, probably a rider who does duck carving and flat tricks.
She thought for a long time before finally asking, “Did you come from Chongli?”
“How do you know?”
Because you don’t know me.
“By your accent,” Jiang Ran said. “It sounds a bit like it.”
“Oh.”
There’s no accent in Chongli.
The person didn’t even doubt her random guess. He pushed himself up and stretched out his hand to her—
“Come on, today I’ll be nice and take you down,” the boy smiled. “I’ll adjust your binding angle back to normal on the way down. This last run of the day will be a good deed completed.”
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage