After waiting for five or six minutes, there was no response on WeChat. Either Beijiao had poor signal, or he was angry.
Jiang Ran leaned toward the first possibility—not because of any inexplicable self-confidence, but because she recalled a previous conversation with Beijiao about Qiu Nian and Li Xingnan’s explosive arguments. Her comment at the time had been, “That’s actually good.”
Good in what way?
Because she hated the cold shoulder treatment.
People have mouths to talk. Even if their mouths were shut, they still had hands to write or send messages. If a couple stopped communicating over minor conflicts, using a pretentious excuse like “Let’s calm down first,” forcing one side to give in, then it didn’t feel like a romantic relationship—it felt more like a marathon competition.
She didn’t like that.
So either speak up, or if you choose to stay silent, it meant you agreed to never speak again.
Beijiao was smart. Back then, he had understood her indirect reminder immediately. He hugged her, kissed her, and rubbed against her, obediently saying he understood.
Who was Beijiao, after all? He was someone who didn’t care about heaven or earth, parentless and unloved. He grew up surviving on cold winds, used to letting anything said to him go in one ear and out the other. This bad habit had even forced him into a two-and-a-half-year exile in Chongli…
Now he dared not.
At least when it came to Jiang Ran’s words, they entered his left ear and were engraved into his DNA the next second.
Therefore, this silence lasted only seven minutes before Jiang Ran received a reply from Beijiao.
[Beijiao: .]
…He replied, but it was just a single period.
Jiang Ran could already picture him frowning, clenching his back teeth as he sent that period with intense hatred—
Look well.
I’m not ignoring you.
But I am genuinely angry.
She stared at her phone screen for a while, then snickered softly, picking up the phone to call him again.
Of course, Beijiao was holding his phone, but he still made the ringtone sound a couple more times before reluctantly answering—
His face was still that same arrogant, handsome one, full of authority. He slightly furrowed his brow, looking at the smiling woman on the screen.
They stared at each other for a few seconds, until finally Beijiao gave in. He coldly asked, “Is the signal good again?”
Jiang Ran didn’t speak, just smiled. After laughing enough, she felt pain from her knee wound sitting with bent legs, so she dragged herself down onto the bed like a disabled person.
Watching her squirm like a worm on the bed, making rustling noises, Beijiao wanted to remind her not to rub the wound against the sheets and to disinfect and apply gauze. But he thought that saying that would sound weak, and she probably wouldn’t listen anyway, maybe even think he was overreacting.
He got even more annoyed by his own thoughts, his chest rising and falling as he coldly said, “Can you stop smiling like an idiot?”
Jiang Ran hugged a pillow. “Then don’t be so serious either.”
“Jiang Ran,” he paused, “no one is bargaining with you.”
Jiang Ran thought carefully—how long had it been since he last addressed her by her full name like that?
In recent days, he had completely adopted the way her father used to call her. Usually, it was “Ranran,” “Master,” with some naughty variations like “Sister,” “Big Sister”…
Only when he was angry did he say “Jiang Ran.”
“…If you hadn’t looked so scary just now, I wouldn’t have hung up on you.” Her voice had a nasal tone, sounding somewhat like she was being affectionate. “My knee hurts. You should just ask if I’m okay.”
“I’m more concerned about why it hurts.”
Beijiao’s voice sounded a bit flat.
He looked at her, expression somewhat distant. On camera, he wore a black hoodie, a down jacket, and a black mask.
When he lowered his eyes to look at her, the dark circles under his eyes were clearly visible. His gaze wasn’t as sharp as usual—he seemed tired.
And it was only noon. He couldn’t possibly be sleep-deprived.
“Where are you? Why do you look like you haven’t slept? Didn’t you sleep well last night? Where did you go on the car ride?” Jiang Ran changed the subject. “Why are you wearing so much? Did you go back to Northeast China?”
Beijiao thought for a moment and said, “No.”
“You’re dismissing me with just a ‘no’ after I asked so many questions?” Jiang Ran wrinkled her nose. “Where exactly are you?”
“It’s none of your business.” Beijiao answered, “Just like you think your injured knee has nothing to do with me, and you can skip answering me directly.”
“…”
He had learned to fight fire with fire.
He shouldn’t have become a doctor—he should have become a lawyer.
That skill of effortlessly verbally overpowering someone, of winning through sheer mental strength, of never getting sidetracked no matter how clever the opponent tried to be, and even of sarcastically throwing insults back—shouldn’t be wasted.
Jiang Ran had no choice but to tell him that this morning’s incident had originally been just a regular test run. She had only skied for less than a minute on the slope. She thought wearing protective gear was troublesome, so she skipped it—
Only she hadn’t expected someone to suddenly challenge her and insist on racing.
At this point, Jiang Ran briefly mentioned the encounter in Finland to enhance the image of the opponent, then she went on to talk about the hard-to-get Bing Dwen Dwen…
To prove herself, she turned the video camera slightly to show Beijiao five Winter Olympic mascots lined up on the table, each slightly different in appearance.
“How could a normal race leave your knee like that?”
“…Don’t be so scary, Officer.”
“If you keep dodging the topic, I can get even scarier.”
“…Even if you’re scarier, you can’t hit me. Who are you threatening!” Jiang Ran muttered, pouting. “It was just the last run of the match, and the conditions got a bit intense. There was ice on the slope, and I lost control of my speed and was thrown off. It’s nothing serious—just a scrape, it’s just a little painful—”
She just wanted to be a little affectionate with her boyfriend.
Who knew that instead of sympathy, her boyfriend treated her like a suspect.
Sure enough, he seized on the keyword and repeated it, “‘Intense.'”
Jiang Ran bit her tongue, annoyed at herself for not choosing a more euphemistic word. “Not really, just a little faster than usual.”
“Why didn’t you lower your stance a bit and control your speed when there was ice on the slope?”
Beijiao had skied with Jiang Ran for so long—he was the top disciple. Besides Lin Shuang, no one understood Jiang Ran’s skiing style better than him. If the outdoor snowfield had strong winds or ice crusts at the end of the season, those harsh terrains were no problem for Jiang Ran.
Jiang Ran was about to sweat from her forehead: “Lowering my stance would slow me down, making me flip the board—”
“It was just a friendly match,” Beijiao said. “If you think you can’t afford to lose, then you have a problem, and a big one.”
Other criticisms might have been tolerable.
Unfortunately, Beijiao had hit the nail on the head. Jiang Ran herself also thought her mindset wasn’t right. On the way back, aside from feeling embarrassed about using a wheelchair, she had mostly been feeling down the whole time—
She had always been sensitive about her reputation.
Whether it was the year she had been inactive after Lin Shuang left, then returning to compete under the guise of her apprentice “a little dog” whose identity was obvious to anyone with eyes, or later joining the professional team and overtraining hard due to unsatisfactory results…
In her life, she could give up anything—but not her pride.
Admitting this was hard enough, especially realizing that she had repeatedly lost composure in front of Beijiao over similar issues, making her even more frustrated.
“You weren’t there,” Jiang Ran frowned, a little annoyed, “the coaching team and the leaders were all there. How could I lose? That would look really bad.”
Actually, after the first two runs, the coaching team had already been very satisfied with her.
At this point, they were innocently dragged into the conversation as a shield.
Hearing the impatience in her voice, Beijiao instinctively frowned too: “I’m just worried about you.”
“And I just wanted to hear you comfort me because my knee got hurt. Why is it so hard for you to say something nice?”
So frustrating!
When a girl complains, it’s just because she wants her boyfriend to hug and kiss her, to say sweet things. Who wants to hear a blunt guy analyze the cause of an accident for no reason!
Can’t he wait until late at night to reflect on his own!
What’s wrong with these men!
Jiang Ran ranted furiously in her mind. Unfortunately, the person on the other end of the phone seemed completely oblivious to the atmosphere: “Is that right? You still want to hear something nice? Now that I think about you racing like that next time, I can’t even say a single nice word.”
“If you can’t say anything nice, just shut up and don’t say anything! I’ll remember to wear protective gear next time before I push myself!”
What did that mean—
I admit my mistake, but I’ll do it again next time.
After shouting that cowardly yet fierce sentence, Jiang Ran angrily pressed the end call button with enough force to break the phone.
The WeChat video “beeped” once, and the world returned to peace.
Jiang Ran fiercely threw her phone onto the pillow, kicking the blanket in anger—
But the stiff, freshly washed blanket hurt her wound. She clutched her injury, grimacing, and crawled back under the covers, shedding two tears in a dramatic fashion.
Her stomach “gurgled” twice, uncooperatively. When she vaguely remembered she hadn’t eaten lunch yet, her phone buzzed again with a WeChat message.
No need to eat—she was full of anger.
Her expressionless face quickly picked up the phone to see what that dog had to bark about now, only to find the message was from Wang Jiaming.
[Wang Jiaming: You’ve become famous.]
[Wang Jiaming: At lunch, the Icelandic snowboard team coach asked about you. He also asked if I could bring you out for a run this afternoon. I said you were injured. Maybe next time.]
Jiang Ran: “…”
Delight from someone obsessed with reputation was followed by confusion.
[WhoIsRanYa: ?]
[WhoIsRanYa: I’m not that seriously injured. Why did you make it sound like I broke my leg just to win fourth place?]
[Wang Jiaming: …I’m sorry?]
[WhoIsRanYa: Apologize. Today, everyone in the world owes me an apology!]
As another typical blunt guy, Wang Jiaming naturally didn’t apologize to Jiang Ran. Instead, he repeatedly confirmed with her that she was fine to ski again and had the afternoon free. After she repeatedly insisted, he re-accepted the Icelandic challenge on her behalf.
This was a glorious battle.
A nation with a weak presence in winter sports taking on a traditional winter sports powerhouse. Losing wouldn’t be a shame, but winning would be a huge gain.
Jiang Ran ate something hastily in her room and even more hastily applied a giant bandage to her wound before getting dressed to go out—
After putting on her quick-dry base layer this time, she stared at the protective gear lying by the door for three seconds, her mind flashing back to that cold face of her boyfriend earlier…
Her heart ached.
She muttered a curse under her breath.
With a blank expression, she grabbed the protective gear and put it on.
When she was leaving, she glanced at her phone.
The message from her boyfriend, whom she had hung up on twice in one day, read—
[Don’t think you’re safe just because you’re in Chongli. I’ll find a way to deal with you.]
…He even learned how to threaten people!
Hmph!
You can’t do anything to me anyway!
Jiang Ran loudly snorted through her nose, shoved her phone into the pocket of her ski jacket, and left.
…
In terms of the global popularity of Bing Dwen Dwen, some foreigners might dislike China, but they wouldn’t dislike pandas.
In the afternoon, she arrived at the competition venue with her snowboard. When she saw the large crowd, besides Aino Weila and her three teammates who had lost their Bing Dwen Dwen mascots, the rest were unfamiliar faces—numerous young men who looked like gods descending from the Olympic Mountains, all staring at her intensely.
Their gazes were so hot that she felt like she had turned into a panda.
—No way, right? It couldn’t be that extreme?
She knew she skied well, but not to the extent of performing a 40S Olympic champion-level run two days ago and then suddenly showing up today with a 30S result—this was too absurd…
This wasn’t some fantasy novel.
It was just that she had beaten Aino Weila, and even strictly speaking had lost one round. Was it really necessary for the entire Icelandic national team to come out and watch her?
She hadn’t even fully recovered from the shock of rolling off the slope that morning. Holding her snowboard, she turned her head slightly behind it and quietly asked Wang Jiaming in a low voice, “Excuse me, what’s going on here?”
Wang Jiaming tilted his head slightly and answered in the same whisper, “I don’t know either, but I think we don’t need to whisper like this—they can’t understand Chinese.”
“…” Jiang Ran resumed speaking normally, “Are they planning to have the male team members challenge me to avenge their loss?”
“Your time of 41.01 seconds this morning would rank tenth in the men’s preliminary heats. Their best male competitor only ranked fourteenth.” Wang Jiaming said, “Don’t be scared. Fight them. After this battle, I’ll take you to challenge Russia.”
“…”
Russia had a men’s parallel giant slalom champion and a women’s runner-up.
Wang Jiaming had gone crazy.
“It’s not shameful to lose to Iceland’s men’s team,” Wang Jiaming patted Jiang Ran’s back with his hand, nearly knocking the breath out of her. “Go all out, just don’t push yourself so hard.”
“I’m already here, so I’ve pushed myself enough.”
“Pushing is fine. I told them this morning that your leg was injured on the blue slope’s icy surface. Out of some unknown chivalry, they voluntarily chose the blue slope, leaving the better-conditioned red slope for you.”
Wang Jiaming had arranged everything before she arrived.
He was extremely enthusiastic.
This made Jiang Ran feel like the three-year-old in front of her was excitedly playing with a newly acquired Ultraman Transformer.
She sensed something was off: “Does Nie Xin know about this?”
“He’s busy. He went out after lunch and I don’t know what he’s up to. You don’t have to report everything to him…” Wang Jiaming said, “You’re practically part of my national team now, under my command. You don’t need to be so nostalgic.”
He casually mentioned Nie Xin wasn’t around, and Jiang Ran felt relieved—
She was genuinely afraid he’d stand there with his hands in his pockets, watching her compete on one side while sending messages to Beijiao on the other: Her knee was bleeding heavily, she was limping when she walked, and she came to the snowy slopes again in the afternoon.
That dog might end up with rabies.
He might even land in the Olympic Village by helicopter to kill her.
Thinking about that image made Jiang Ran’s legs tremble, and she deeply regretted bringing up Nie Xin, generating unnecessary unpleasant associations that affected her competitive spirit.
In the afternoon, Enovella didn’t even show up for the best Icelandic women’s team. They didn’t even bring their boards, chattering as they sat in the spectator seats.
Enovella, twisting her fingers with an awkward expression, asked if Jiang Ran’s leg still hurt. Jiang Ran looked at her strangely and said it didn’t.
Just as she was stepping onto the elevator, the girl suddenly grabbed her sleeve, her face flushed, the freckles on her face incredibly vivid. She glanced at the university volunteer translator beside her and told Jiang Ran she was sorry for everything that happened in Finland, willing to apologize and retract all her previous disrespectful behavior.
At this moment, Jiang Ran felt the charm of professional sports unique to serious teams—
In the public technical slalom, she could out-ski domestic snow enthusiasts, silencing certain self-righteous, possibly sexist male snowboarders, making them willingly shut up in the future and proactively say, “Don’t speak so soon, or your face might get slapped.”
In professional competitions, she could out-ski international competitors, making them willingly apologize for their nationality-based prejudices.
Nothing could be more satisfying for someone who values face.
International sporting events should essentially be like this—
Friendly, fair, free of all politics, sincere technical exchanges and sparring, and perhaps even mutual progress (X).
Jiang Ran gave the girl a bright smile, and as the girl stared at her face in a daze, she grabbed her board and strode into the elevator.
…
The first competitor the Icelandic men’s team sent out was a 19-year-old kid, with light brown slightly curly hair, a high nose bridge, and light gray eyes—a typical handsome Nordic boy, a bit shy when he spoke.
While strapping on his board, he kept sneaking glances at Jiang Ran from the side. Feeling his gaze, Jiang Ran turned to look at him, their eyes met, and he seemed startled, quickly snapping his head back with a “whoosh.”
Behind him, his teammates were laughing and joking while slinging arms around each other.
Outside his goggles, Jiang Ran watched his neck gradually turn red.
If she were four or five years younger, she might have blushed along with him—but now she felt completely indifferent, mainly because 19 felt almost like a crime to her to even look at…
She was twenty-six, nineteen—nearly a full cycle apart. With a little more effort, they could even celebrate their zodiac year together.
Though it might be a bit harsh on the boy, at this moment, the big sister who made him blush and couldn’t help sneaking glances was filled with thoughts of how to press him into the snow with her snowboard.
After strapping on her board, Jiang Ran slowly put on her gloves, using her teeth to pull the glove edge tighter—
While doing this, she thought of Beijiao.
Even though they had just freshly argued, she still curled her lips into a smile.
For the boy secretly watching her from the adjacent track, it was unclear what had happened, but he felt her aura suddenly change in an instant, unaware of what she was thinking, suddenly fierce yet subtly tender.
Both crouched on their respective tracks, leaning forward in preparation—
The timer sounded.
From the viewing stand, both coaches simultaneously raised their professional video equipment.
Two figures started simultaneously.
Less than ten seconds after the start, having barely passed four gates, Wang Jiaming heard the Icelandic coach exclaim “Jesus, holy shit” in a natural flow of curses—
He hesitated, then looked down at his camera equipment, immediately understanding what his colleague was cursing about, because after Jiang Ran accelerated, she quickly overtook the opponent’s team member.
This young male team member was clearly a rookie; it was hard to even recall if he had made it through the qualifiers, the gap was just too big—
On the red track, the wind had blown snow from the blue track, making the snow soft with bumps, but without ice. For Jiang Ran, the bumps had little effect.
She didn’t press down as deeply as she did in the morning, nor did she accelerate recklessly like in her third morning run—
Her speed was controlled at a very suitable frequency, gradually accelerating, maintaining, adjusting routes, she was calm and fluid, like a fish in water.
Two fast figures, one behind the other, quickly passed the mid-mountain spectator stand—
At this point, the race was halfway through, and Jiang Ran had already taken nearly a full gate lead over her opponent!
When she arrived earlier, she had walked with a slight limp, frowning every couple of steps, looking delicate and overly sensitive…
But now, in the actual race, her flips, folds, and jumps showed no sign of pain.
Out of curiosity, Wang Jiaming adjusted the camera to look at her face—
Under her goggles, she was expressionless, not even a twitch of her eyebrows; her face was as cold as the female version of Yan Wang, the King of Hell.
Soon, they reached the finish line one after the other, with Jiang Ran crossing the timer at the bottom of the mountain a gate and a half ahead!
After crossing the finish line, she suddenly pushed off with her feet, snow flying as she rose from her folded, crouched position—in that instant, Wang Jiaming saw her wobble, supporting herself with her knees to stand straight, her board slowing down rapidly, then slowly gliding towards the side barrier…
Then, just like in the morning, she softly leaned sideways against the barrier, sliding down along it.
Like a black-and-white comedic silent play, she sat in an absurd position, legs bent awkwardly by the barrier, reaching out to pat her right knee, as if only now belatedly feeling the pain.
Actually, she had studied it at noon; it was really just a superficial injury.
But at this moment, considering she had performed admirably, Wang Jiaming stood up, wanting to humanely and appropriately indulge her sensitivity… However, at this point, the Icelandic team’s coach stood up, intercepted him, and solemnly shook his hand.
…
The final result was that Jiang Ran raced six times in the afternoon, almost sweeping the entire Icelandic men’s team, winning four and losing two—
One loss was to the top player of the Icelandic men’s team. Although his track time wasn’t as good as Jiang Ran’s, on the day Jiang Ran set a record of 41.01 seconds, the snow conditions were still good without crosswinds. Today, under the same conditions, it wasn’t surprising that she couldn’t beat the official race time of 42.33 seconds.
The other loss was in the final run, where she simply ran out of steam.
Speed slalom and carving are similar; the core and legs are constantly tense. Normally, skiers usually need to stop and catch their breath after three S-curves—
This time, after more than ten gates and six consecutive runs, Jiang Ran was already in a daze, her knees numb to pain.
When others praised her, she could only say “Thank you,” unable to utter another word.
Finally, after seeing off the international friends, she patted Wang Jiaming and asked him to get her a wheelchair.
Wang Jiaming was startled: “Does it hurt? How bad is it? Did you injure your bones? Can you handle it, or should we go to the hospital for an X-ray?”
He was almost ready to dismantle the Transformer toy, only realizing afterward that he might get beaten up if he broke it.
Jiang Ran waved her hand, it was purely exhaustion making her legs weak.
“We’ll delay the plan to challenge Russia,” Jiang Ran said, “Right now, looking at the gates makes me want to vomit. Let me rest for two days.”
Wang Jiaming saw her limping, hugging her board and willingly sitting into the wheelchair. She had been unwilling in the morning, but this time she might really be exhausted, so he kindly smiled and said, “Okay.”
“Don’t tell Nie Xin we came out to play again this afternoon.”
“Why are you so afraid of him?”
“It’s not that I’m scared of him, it’s that he has my boyfriend’s WeChat,” Jiang Ran said. “We just had a fight at noon, and he was very unhappy that I came out to compete with others without wearing protective gear… If he finds out I went against six Nordic tough guys this afternoon with a bleeding knee, he’ll go crazy.”
“…How come your words make this sound so wrong when it’s a normal friendly competition in broad daylight? Are you under strict control from your husband?”
Wang Jiaming asked.
Halfway through the question, he noticed Jiang Ran wasn’t speaking, looking silently in a certain direction, her deep brown eyes filled with confusion beyond her mask.
“What’s wrong?”
“… Jiang Ran kept her confused expression, “I think I saw my boyfriend. Are outsiders allowed in here?”
“It depends on his status.”
“Just an ordinary human.”
“That’s not possible.”
“Great,” Jiang Ran sighed in relief, rubbing her face, “I must be seeing things from exhaustion. It’s too weird.”
…
After returning to her accommodation and climbing into bed, Jiang Ran thought about taking out her phone to check if Beijiao had messaged her. She had braced herself for dozens of messages bombarding her, but to her surprise, there was only one lonely message.
He asked what she was doing.
The tone was so normal, as if he had suddenly gone blind or lost his memory and hadn’t seen his previous threatening message at all. Jiang Ran stared at the new chat log, puzzled at how thick-skinned he could be.
Fine.
If necessary, her skin could be thick too.
She typed in a very nonchalant tone—
[Who’s My Little Duck: Sorry, didn’t mean to ignore you. Just got back to my room and had time to check my phone.]
After sending that line, she paused significantly, carefully thinking about her wording, mainly considering how to phrase it to annoy him the most.
[Who’s My Little Duck: This afternoon was really busy, competing with the men’s team from Iceland. Iceland is pretty impressive, you know?
And my new coach is almost not human, seems eager to show off my existence to others. I was a bit embarrassed, but since it’s about the host country’s image and honor, I had to grit my teeth and do it.]
How’s that tone? Snarky and condescending, it looked decent enough.
[Who’s My Little Duck: Actually, my knee still hurts a bit. Just checked, the wound was almost stuck to my quick-dry pants, blood and flesh all mixed up—tsk tsk, there’s nothing I can do, this afternoon I did six runs, I’m completely exhausted!]
What else could she say? Oh, he had scolded her for being stubborn and having psychological issues.
[Who’s My Little Duck: But when competing with the men’s team, it’s unavoidable. If I don’t push hard, I’ll lose badly… Fortunately, once I put on my snow boots, I couldn’t feel the pain anymore, otherwise I wouldn’t know how to get through this afternoon.
But come to think of it, I had to push through even if I couldn’t. Losing repeatedly isn’t an option—I can’t afford to lose face. Everyone can see I’m just not someone who can handle losing easily.]
The last sentence was a classic. Jiang Ran savored it three times, thinking he should be furious.
[Who’s My Little Duck: But good thing I won in the end, as expected of me!]
If he wasn’t dead from anger yet, she’d add another line.
[Who’s My Little Duck: Maybe I’ll challenge the Russian team tomorrow, what do you think? Ura!]
Perfect, he should be completely dead by now.
After checking for typos, she threw her phone aside, expressionless, thinking: exciting, maybe I’ll just go home on New Year’s Eve?
Her phone stayed silent.
Who knew if Beijiao hadn’t seen the messages or was too angry to reply even a single word.
Hugging the quilt, Jiang Ran lay in bed, staring blankly for a while, until a message from Nie Xin and Wang Jiaming in the group reminded her to treat the wound on her knee, which made her realize she should handle it.
Dragging out the basic first aid kit that was a necessity in every room, Jiang Ran moved to the side of the bathtub, bent her knee, frowned, and opened a bottle of normal saline to pour on the wound—
After pouring and drying, she poured hydrogen peroxide, which fizzed and bubbled, causing her to see black spots in front of her eyes from the pain. Finally, she masochistically sprayed alcohol on the wound, thinking she should ask Wang Jiaming for money.
Workers’ compensation.
After treating the wound, she didn’t even have the courage to look down at it, dragging her heavily injured leg toward the medicine box by the desk, preparing to stick on a large bandage and get a good night’s sleep.
Just as she was rummaging through the medicine box for a large bandage, the door to her room was knocked from outside.
At this point, Jiang Ran’s head was fuzzy, and she didn’t think there could be any bad people in the Olympic Village, assuming it was a cleaning lady. She glanced down at her quick-dry pants, the right leg rolled up for applying medicine, but otherwise her clothes were still tidy…
She casually grabbed the long hoodie thrown on the chair and put it on, responding with a “Coming!” as she went to open the door.
As the door opened, the cold air from the corridor hit her, mixed with an almost bone-deep familiar male scent.
Jiang Ran almost thought she was hallucinating, until as the door opened, she found the person standing outside was so tall that all she could see at eye level was his Adam’s apple—
First, cleaning ladies don’t have Adam’s apples.
Second, cleaning ladies can’t be giants towering over people.
Jiang Ran only needed three seconds to realize she wanted to close the door, but the other person reacted faster, directly sticking his foot out to block the door frame with his combat boots—
Jiang Ran slammed the door forcefully, possibly pinching him. He let out a pained hiss. When she instinctively pressed hard against the door, too scared to move, her wide, dark eyes met the panicked gaze of the woman behind the door.
He smiled at Jiang Ran.
Jiang Ran felt as if a vicious dog had pinned her under its giant paw. At that moment, its fangs dripped with drool while its rough tongue licked down her back, causing shivers to run through her.
“So ruthless,” the man outside said slowly, his voice teasing yet gentle. “Attempting to murder your husband? Wanting me to limp alongside you?”
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