At the end of the track, Jiang Ran removed her goggles and helmet, hands on her hips, tilting her head to look at the timer displayed on the big screen. At first, she didn’t react much, just slightly narrowing her eyes, looking somewhat dazed.
Nie Xin sat high above: “Why isn’t she cheering? Isn’t 41 seconds good enough? I don’t remember anyone on the provincial team having such high self-expectations. Did she lose it?”
Wang Jiaming didn’t speak.
Just then, they saw Jiang Ran hesitate slightly, pulling out her phone from her pocket. The screen light illuminated her face as she lowered her head and opened a webpage, typing in a few words—
It looked like she was searching something on a search engine.
A few seconds later, she stared fixedly at her phone.
Taking a deep breath, she put the phone away and suddenly looked up, “swish” lifting her head to gaze upward.
The moment her eyes met Nie Xin’s, she pointed decisively, triumphantly gesturing toward the timer screen, as if to say: Look!
…Oh, so she had just searched online for the Winter Olympics qualification results and finally realized what 41.01 seconds really meant?
Leaning on the railing and looking down, Nie Xin burst out laughing, clapping his hands twice at Jiang Ran’s intense gaze.
As Jiang Ran bent down to pick up her snowboard and walked toward the elevator, Nie Xin turned back to Wang Jiaming: “What do you think?”
Wang Jiaming still wore his perpetually sleepy look, but his evaluation was high: “This is the biggest favor you’ve ever done for me in the ten years we’ve known each other.”
Nie Xin wasn’t offended at all: “There are plenty of talents in my provincial team. I’ll send you a few more tomorrow.”
Wang Jiaming hummed in agreement, “Is there another one going to Finland?”
“Yes, our women’s team captain—her training performance is not much different from Jiang Ran’s, but she’s young and lacks experience in big competitions. She got nervous and didn’t perform well.” Nie Xin said, “She still needs a year or so of polishing.”
“If she’s a promising talent, bring her over for me to see. No need to polish anymore; it’s just a waste of time.”
Wang Jiaming sighed, “The journey of the next four years has already begun. In the winter of 2026 in Milan, I must see our Five-Star Red Flag flying on the highest podium.”
…
Sometimes Nie Xin felt it might be a destined master-apprentice connection. Jiang Ran and Wang Jiaming’s personalities actually matched well. Both were the types who wouldn’t rest until they achieved their goals.
Like an ancient turtle, they wouldn’t let go until they tore off a piece of flesh from whatever they had their teeth into.
This kind of style didn’t quite fit with snowboarding.
The Summer Olympics aside, due to the special nature of the Winter Olympics, many athletes from other countries were not professional athletes but from the general public, so the overall atmosphere was more relaxed—
The well-off, economically developed Nordic countries’ athletes actually didn’t understand nor respect the Asian countries’ persistent, obsessive spirit of thoroughly studying everything they did. They believed snowboarding should be for entertainment, with entertainment being paramount.
This led to situations at such a prestigious event as the Winter Olympics where some athletes directly gave up during the competition…
For example, in snowboard big air, usually five jumps were made, and the top three scores were taken for the final result.
Perhaps an athlete who performed poorly in the first three jumps might completely abandon the fourth attempt, opting instead for a flashy yet technically simple maneuver—one without a difficulty coefficient or base score—as a grand finale to their competition.
Such behavior at the Summer Olympics would be equivalent to a gymnast standing on the parallel bars and dancing a samba. Theoretically, such actions might flood global social media trends and even result in athletes receiving death threats from rabid fans when returning home—
But at the Winter Olympics, such overt lack of effort still garnered enthusiastic applause, with the crowd constantly cheering and applauding the athlete’s carefree performance.
Most people from strong winter sports nations came for fun and to prove themselves.
But Asian athletes only wanted to prove themselves.
This stark contrast gradually made the Winter Olympics atmosphere tense. As China, a nation previously weak in winter sports, gradually rose, other countries felt uneasy but were powerless…
They could only increasingly look down from the high ground of entertainment spirit or the old winter sports power status—
But the story of the tortoise and the hare has always been well known.
What right does the rabbit that lost the race have to accuse the tortoise of being unscrupulous in achieving its goal by any means necessary?
The tortoise followed all rules and regulations; it just wanted to win. What was wrong with that?
Riding the elevator halfway up the mountain, Jiang Ran walked out with her board, making a “thud-thud” sound as she approached Nie Xin.
Behind Nie Xin sat Wang Jiaming, staring into the distance, lost in thought.
Nie Xin suddenly felt that this must be what people called a combination of obsessives.
It would be hard not to achieve results at the Milan Winter Olympics four years later.
…
The morning meeting on the first day went smoothly. Jiang Ran could sense Wang Jiaming’s satisfaction from his demeanor, which made her feel very satisfied as well.
The parallel giant slalom event in snowboarding had concluded, but there were many events in the snowboard park terrain, including key ones. As a member of the snowboarding coaching team, Wang Jiaming naturally didn’t finish all his work. He said he had a meeting in the afternoon and let Jiang Ran wander around the Olympic Village by herself.
What was there to play with in the Olympic Village?
Bei Jiao provided the answer.
It all started with the enthusiasm for national winter sports. At this point, the Winter Olympics were halfway through, and the outside world was enthusiastically participating in the Winter Olympics: for example, people scrambling desperately, setting alarms to camp out for scalpers, using every trick in the book just to grab a Bing Dwen Dwen keychain.
There were only a few channels selling these items. The official online store sold out instantly when restocked, and there was a souvenir shop in the Olympic Village, but the entire Chongli area was sealed off, requiring permits to enter and exit. Scalpers were full of energy but didn’t know where to use it…
It was truly a case of supply failing to meet demand.
Bei Jiao was good at seizing opportunities. Somehow guided by a sixth sense, sensing that Jiang Ran was in a good mood at this moment, he made a phone call asking her to get him a keychain—
This was the first time he had ever asked her for anything.
When asked, he claimed it was for Ah Tuan. He, as the master, had promised to give it to him if he got three one-hundreds in his final exams.
Hearing him earnestly promising the little kid and then calling her to fulfill it made Jiang Ran’s head ache, as if she suddenly had two sons: “What if I can’t get it? Why promise something that might not be possible—why do men like making promises so much!”
She was still upset about his saying he would come to Zhangjiakou to chase her, while actually attending classes in a big freezer.
“Ah Tuan didn’t do well in the mid-term exams. Don’t I need to give him some motivation?” Bei Jiao, being scolded, felt wronged, “Just go check. If there’s none, I’ll buy from scalpers at a high price.”
Jiang Ran sighed. This little pup wanted to stretch a single yuan into three pieces. Letting him buy scalper-priced items might make him lose sleep for three days from sheer heartache.
“How many?”
“Two.”
“…”
“…”
“So is it you who wants it or Ah Tuan?”
“Ah Tuan.”
“You’re full of it.”
Ending the call, Jiang Ran calmed herself down, thinking that she had nothing else to do anyway. She asked staff for directions and made her way to the souvenir shop—
Only to be shocked by the long line stretching out of the souvenir shop. She felt like she had seen a Boxing Day sale at a mall, where elderly ladies in high heels and bright red lipstick, who usually behaved elegantly, trampled over their compatriots’ heads just to grab a discounted juicer.
She saw the line extending to the door and wanted to retreat. At that moment, a student volunteer held a loudspeaker, using every language he had ever learned (or perhaps learned on the spot) in an eight-language loop: “No Bing Dwen Dwen, no Bing Dwen Dwen, Bing Dwen Dwen sold out.”
Jiang Ran smiled and turned around.
Then she met an acquaintance in the dining hall.
At that moment, Jiang Ran was holding her tray, searching for a seat while feeling irritated about how to face the four disappointed eyes of her two sons…
She looked up and first noticed a red coat hanging on an empty table in the corner, amidst a series of colorful national uniforms. She was immediately drawn to the color of her fellow countryman.
Then she noticed the man lazily sitting by the window, staring into space—
He sat sideways by the window, his short black hair looking somewhat long as if it hadn’t been trimmed in a while.
The sunlight half-illuminated his mature and handsome face. A man in his thirties was completely different from a young man in his early twenties. The gods were biased, and time had not harmed his looks at all, leaving only matured depth and a strong aura.
It was none other than Shan Chong, the hot favorite for a medal in the snowboard big air event at this Winter Olympics, whom Wang Jiaming envied to the point of not sleeping well for half a month.
—Truly worthy of being the man who fiercely competed with Bei Jiao for the title of the most handsome man in Chongli.
Shan Chong really looked good.
The Bing Dwen Dwen keychain in his hand looked even better.
Jiang Ran approached Shan Chong’s table with her tray, thought for a moment, and called out, “Brother Chong.”
That “ah” at the end immediately raised his alertness. Originally, his gaze was unfocused, looking sluggish, somewhat surprised at how Jiang Ran appeared in the Olympic Village—
Now he didn’t care anymore.
He simply turned his hand and placed the Bing Dwen Dwen keychain, which he had been examining, into his palm. He lifted his eyelids and reacted to his previous question: “Did Wang Jiaming bring you here?”
Jiang Ran stared straight at the half-exposed panda head on the keychain in his hand and hummed.
“If they brought you earlier, we might have won the first medal in parallel giant slalom this year,” Shan Chong said, reaching for the coat pocket hanging beside him as he spoke.
“Don’t flatter me,” Jiang Ran exposed him, “where did you get the keychain?”
“I got up at seven in the morning to queue up and buy it.”
As if it was such a great sacrifice. Don’t old people usually go to bed early and wake up early anyway?
Jiang Ran cupped her face and giggled. She had long heard about Shan Chong’s great feat of suddenly getting married after years of being single: “To make your wife happy?”
Shan Chong didn’t speak, and Jiang Ran exclaimed, “Ah, not all girls like these things, you know.”
“I won’t give it to you.” Shan Chong said, “Go away.”
Jiang Ran wouldn’t leave.
She still maintained the posture of supporting her face with one hand, sighing: “Too bad I can’t participate in the competition. If I could, I wouldn’t have to go to the souvenir shop to buy this junk. I saw on TV that the medalists could get a big Bing Dwen Dwen on the podium. That one is a symbol of strength, a commemorative item with memories, a carrier of glory. The ones bought from the store have no soul; they’re just crafts pursued by the masses—”
Shan Chong: “…”
Five minutes later.
Jiang Ran held her phone expressionlessly: “Only one?”
Shan Chong: “Sister, I only have one wife.”
Jiang Ran: “…”
That made so much sense.
Jiang Ran: “How much is it? Should I scan you or you scan me? Alipay or WeChat?”
Shan Chong: “Forget it.”
Jiang Ran smiled: “No, I have to pay. It was hard work getting up at seven to queue.”
Shan Chong laughed helplessly: “‘Old people just get up early.’ When I said I got up at seven, you had that expression on your face, written all over it.”
Jiang Ran: “…”
Jiang Ran: “Wow! Brother Chong, no wonder it’s you!”
Shan Chong: “Wang Jiaming let a bandit in.”
Jiang Ran: “What are you talking about? I just have one hundred and twenty percent confidence that you’ll win a medal.”
Half an hour later.
Jiang Ran stood at the restaurant entrance.
【Who’s My Darling Duck: After great hardship and sweet-talking, I finally got one.】
【Bei Jiao: Then I’ll keep it for myself.】
【Who’s My Darling Duck: …Not giving it to Ah Tuan?】
【Bei Jiao: You worked so hard to get it, he doesn’t deserve it. Just buy him a pair of shoes to pacify him.】
【Who’s My Darling Duck: …】
Some people get up at seven in the morning to queue for their wives to buy Bing Dwen Dwen.
Others get up at seven in the morning to have their wives queue up to buy Bing Dwen Dwen for them.
Suddenly, a Bing Dwen Dwen became a torpedo dropped from the sky, exposing the dividing line of men’s reliability.
【Who’s My Darling Duck: What good are you!】
【Bei Jiao: ?】
【Bei Jiao: Although your sudden attack leaves me a bit puzzled.】
【Bei Jiao: I can still answer this question—doing laundry and cooking, and being good-looking.】
【Who’s My Darling Duck: …】
…
The next day.
In the morning, Jiang Ran was woken up by a phone call from Qiu Nian. Still half-asleep, she heard Qiu Nian shouting on the phone: “I heard you scammed a Bing Dwen Dwen from Shan Chong! I want one too!”
Good news doesn’t travel fast, but bad news spreads far and wide.
Her reputation was ruined in an instant.
“You want one, huh!” Jiang Ran’s brain was still groggy from sleep, “Tell Shan Chong to queue up again and buy one, then I’ll go con him again.”
She yawned, got up, and checked the time. It was already 9:30 AM.
She got up from bed to get ready, planning to meet Wang Jiaming and a few other senior coaches today to go up the mountain to demonstrate her skills, then have lunch together. Her joining the national team was practically settled.
“Who did you give the Bing Dwen Dwen to?”
“A Jiao asked for it.”
“You love him more than me!”
“Then why don’t you fight him for it?”
Jiang Ran brushed her teeth sleepily.
An hour later, after finishing her morning routine, she promised Qiu Nian she would check if there were others she could con, then went out with her snowboard in hand.
…
The next meeting was much more relaxed than the day before.
Perhaps their personalities really did match well. Facing Wang Jiaming’s rather unenthusiastic personality, Jiang Ran found herself able to chat with him easily.
Unlike the tension from yesterday’s meeting at the mountaintop, at the halfway point on the mountain viewing stand, Jiang Ran had already sat down beside Wang Jiaming. Nie Xin stood, while they sat, waiting together for the other coaches and senior leaders who had not yet arrived.
In casual conversation, the two delved deeper into discussing and imagining what her results might have achieved a few days earlier if she had been able to win a medal.
The conclusion was that Wang Jiaming sighed with regret, while Jiang Ran complained about the Winter Olympics’ point selection system ruining her chances. She really wanted the Beijing Winter Olympics’ medal because its design was very strong and indeed suitable for hanging at the entrance to attract wealth and fortune, protecting the home and warding off evil.
“I still want a Bing Dwen Dwen,” she said expressionlessly, “As soon as people hear I’m in Zhangjiakou, everyone calls me asking for one, making Zhangjiakou sound like a wholesale market with a Winter Olympics held on the side.”
“Do you have kids at home who want it?” Wang Jiaming asked.
“Yeah,” Jiang Ran answered with a headache, “I run a kindergarten, and now all the kids are rolling on the ground demanding a Bing Dwen Dwen.”
At this moment, the elevator started operating again, opening at the halfway viewing stand.
At first, none of them noticed who had arrived until a group of pretty girls carrying snowboards came out of the elevator, looking left and right. Upon seeing Jiang Ran on the stand, they surrounded her.
This group was so large and noisy that not noticing them would be impossible for anyone with their eyes open. Jiang Ran stopped chatting with Wang Jiaming, turned her head, and was the first to see the leader—Ainuoweila.
Unfortunately, Jiang Ran didn’t recognize her at all. She was already face-blind—especially when it came to foreigners—perhaps also the reason she had never fallen in love during her years abroad in places with more liberal customs. She was afraid that she might wake up one day and ask the person lying beside her: Who are you?
At this moment, Jiang Ran looked at a girl who was about her height but much younger, walking over proudly and confidently. She stood in front of her and spoke a string of Icelandic first—
Jiang Ran couldn’t recognize Icelandic, but she found the language familiar.
After Ainuoweila finished speaking a long string of words on her own, Jiang Ran’s long-lost memories suddenly revived. She suddenly remembered who this girl with a haughty look was: the talkative competitor from Finland who had once been so infuriated by her that she turned red in the face and neck.
Given that their last meeting hadn’t ended very pleasantly, meeting again at the sacred “friendship first, peace forever” occasion of the Winter Olympics made her feel embarrassed, blinking at her with curiosity in her deep brown eyes: What do you want to do?
Ainuoweila was twenty years old this year, at an age where she was neither here nor there, transitioning from a girl to a mature woman, eager to display her maturity and shake off the “immature” label.
She had never particularly appreciated the appearance of Asians until she noticed that the person in front of her really looked very good—
Her eye color was deep, but paired with her jet-black long hair, it was just right. The mature and mysterious atmosphere of Eastern women was fully displayed through the combination of these two colors.
This was exactly what Ainuoweila at this age wanted to achieve.
She noticed that her skin was fair. Asians were just a race; they weren’t yellow-skinned like statues…
Ainuoweila thought somewhat bewildered.
A few seconds later, she came back to her senses. She noticed the woman was staring at her strangely, with an expression that wasn’t exactly friendly.
It wasn’t a formal competition or social occasion, so no one carried interpreters with them. Ainuoweila thought for a moment, took out her phone, typed quickly, and then handed the phone under Jiang Ran’s nose.
Jiang Ran leaned forward and glanced. It was machine translation from a translation app.
【Real skill. Not just a solo race.
Race with me again.】
“What’s going on?” Wang Jiaming asked.
Jiang Ran hummed, “Probably saw me sliding yesterday and thought the solo track result didn’t count. She wants to race me again.”
Taking advantage of their inability to understand Chinese.
She directly said, “Is she out of her mind?”
Wang Jiaming thought for a moment, “Ainuoweila is fourth in this parallel giant slalom. She was only half a gate behind the runner-up. I estimate the timing should be no more than 0.3 seconds.”
Upon hearing this, Jiang Ran was slightly surprised, recalling that Wang Jiaming had mentioned her performance in Finland the other day, specifically pointing out the 32 to 16 round, then hesitating as if wanting to say more…
So that was why.
This little girl was pretty impressive?
Jiang Ran tapped her knee.
Just then, voices came from below. Looking down, she saw the other coaches and leaders they had been waiting for had arrived. Jiang Ran looked up at Wang Jiaming, who raised an eyebrow: “What do you think?”
“Alright,” Jiang Ran nodded, “Fine, why not? It’s just fourth place. I’ve beaten her before.”
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