On June 24, 2019, the Olympic Committee announced that Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo would be the host city for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Excluding the 1944 Olympics, which were canceled due to World War II, this would be Italy’s fourth time hosting the Olympic Games. It also marks Italy’s return as the host of the Winter Olympics after twenty years since the Turin Winter Olympics.
2026 arrived before anyone realized.
The Milan Winter Olympics that year had captured nearly as much attention domestically as the Beijing Winter Olympics—
The reason lay in 2022, when athletes fought hard on the Olympic stage, ultimately earning glory and sparking a nationwide passion for winter sports!
In just four years, for most countries, it might be too short a time to develop a strong athletic program from scratch. However, as people often said, as long as it wasn’t football, four years were more than enough for China—a vast country with a large population—to make rapid progress in any sport it decided to take seriously, continuously elevating its international status.
Thus, today, China has rapidly transformed from a previously unknown and weak winter sports nation into a winter sports powerhouse, rivaling or even surpassing South Korea and Japan in terms of popularity and development of winter sports culture.
On January 14, 2026, the three northeastern provinces and the Chongli area of Zhangjiakou simultaneously experienced the heaviest snowfall of the year.
On this snowy day, athletes from various Winter Olympic events, clad in the down jackets issued by the national team, boarded chartered flights to Italy from Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou airports in unison, forming a grand and striking contingent.
Jiang Ran found her seat according to the boarding pass, dropped her ski backpack onto the seat with a loud thud, the weight of the bag evident in the sound.
Jiang Ran opened the overhead compartment and saw there was still space. She then looked around, her gaze settling on a man seated in the row behind, who was reading a magazine. He looked up expressionlessly under her intense stare.
“Chong!” Jiang Ran called.
“Save it,” said Shan Chong, raising the magazine higher to block her eager gaze. “What did you put in your bag, bricks? I could hear the earthquake-like noise when you threw it down… Don’t ask me, I’ve had steel pins inserted in my waist—I’m afraid I might strain it.”
“What about some chivalry?” Jiang Ran put her hands on her waist. “We are going to Italy, the land of gentlemen! Shouldn’t we cultivate some gentlemanly manners in advance?”
“Oh, save the chivalry for your husband,” Shan Chong gave her a fake polite smile and nodded toward the approaching figure. “Here he comes?”
The next second after his words, Jiang Ran was covered by the shadow of a tall figure approaching from behind.
A familiar aura surrounded her.
The newcomer wore the uniform of the staff. Just standing there, his head was almost level with, or even higher than, the overhead compartment. Effortlessly, he lifted Jiang Ran’s ski backpack into the compartment. As he closed the compartment lid, he asked blankly, “What’s wrong?”
Jiang Ran was still on her tiptoes trying to reach it.
He not only completed the task but also bent down slightly, his warm head leaning over from behind to rest on her shoulder. He let his heavy chin press on her shoulder and said, “Jiang Ran, why didn’t you wait for me? I told you I’d be quick in the restroom!”
Jiang Ran turned her head sideways. The head resting on her shoulder looked at her sideways, his black pupils shining with a clingy and pitiful light, filled with intense coquettishness…
Which did not match at all with his now mature and handsome face, completely devoid of any boyishness.
Jiang Ran lowered her eyes, glancing at the young man’s lips, which were slightly pursed in displeasure.
He paused, seemingly sensing her hesitant gaze, then leaned forward quickly and kissed her lips.
They separated instantly.
After just a brief kiss, he was already appeased. He reached out and pinched her cheek, saying, “Next time, wait for me.”
Jiang Ran: “Did you even wash your hands after going to the restroom before touching my face?”
Bei Jiao lazily smiled toward her face, implying, “I’m much cleaner than you think.”
Jiang Ran pushed the clingy dog off her shoulder and turned to sit back in her seat. She watched as the “dog” casually glanced at the seat and then slumped down beside her, collapsing heavily onto her body.
His towering frame bore down on her like a crushing mountain. Jiang Ran could bear it no longer and shoved him away.
“Get up!”
“No.”
“Don’t lean on me, you’re so heavy!”
“Not heavy.”
“Can you at least mind your image in public?”
“I only care about my image in front of my wife, but since my wife is already complaining, I’ve decided to give up.”
“You’re practically turning thirty, can you stop acting like a spoiled child?”
“Oh, so my wife thinks I’m old now? So I’m not a college student anymore and I can’t act cute anymore?”
They exchanged banter fluently, drawing amused laughter from nearby passengers who overheard their conversation.
Jiang Ran was so embarrassed she could dig a hole to hide in, while desperately pounding the back of the front seat to shift her frustration elsewhere: “Wang Jiaming, why did you let him on the plane!”
“Because he’s resourceful—he got an internship certificate as a team physician through his mentor, and he has all the required medical documents, even including an Italian language B2 certificate,” replied Coach Wang without turning his head. “Most importantly, he doesn’t charge a fee… It’s really hard to refuse such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!”
Jiang Ran rolled her eyes all the way to the sky.
The person in the adjacent seat leaned over, his tall nose nuzzling her soft cheek smugly: “Hear that? Nobody can resist me except you.”
Jiang Ran pushed his face away with one hand.
He took the opportunity to kiss her palm.
He made a loud “chu” sound, and Jiang Ran blushed from her neck to the tips of her ears. She quickly pulled back, creating some distance between herself and Bei Jiao: “Right now I seriously suspect you learned Italian just for today and it’s shocking.”
“I’m shocked too,” Bei Jiao smiled at her. “You’re only realizing this now and still just suspecting?”
“…”
During Jiang Ran’s silence, someone from the back row asked her with a grin, “When are you going to have a kid? After winning gold this time?”
Jiang Ran finally found an outlet and immediately turned around to chat with the person behind her: “Wahhh, let’s talk about divorce first when we get back, okay?”
Then an arm came around her waist, dragging her back to her seat. To prevent her from moving around, Bei Jiao even considerately fastened her seatbelt for her.
“She might already be pregnant, otherwise her mood swings wouldn’t be this intense.”
He said this loud enough for the person behind to hear. Unfortunately, the next second, he was grabbed by the ear and turned sideways. The woman sitting next to him leaned in, her lips almost touching his earlobe.
“If she’s pregnant now, that would be interesting. Don’t you remember whether you took precautions or not?”
Jiang Ran whispered only for them to hear, “Unless there’s been an unfortunate fuel leak accident, yes, she could be pregnant, but it’s probably not yours.”
Bei Jiao didn’t seem to get angry at all after hearing this—
In recent years, Jiang Ran was mostly half-dead at night…
Either too exhausted from training to even lift her legs in the evening, or too sore from being “pressed” by him during holidays to straighten her back.
Not his?
She did have the opportunity to create someone else’s.
“That’s a creative joke. It’s the first time I’ve heard you say something like that.”
He raised his hand to touch her face, his tone natural and his touch gentle, successfully giving Jiang Ran goosebumps.
Grabbing his big hand, she gently rubbed the base of his right ring finger with her fingertip, “Honey, I’m just kidding. How could there be someone else… Of course, I’m not saying I don’t want a kid either, you should think more broadly.”
She leaned her face into his hand affectionately.
Bei Jiao chuckled softly, pinched her chin, and when he leaned back to sit properly in his seat, the invisible oppressive aura around him instantly vanished.
Jiang Ran: “…”
—On how a human can change personas ten times in ten minutes.
During the plane’s takeoff, Jiang Ran secretly glanced at the man sitting beside her who, when expressionless, looked imposing and unapproachable…
She was filled with resentment. Even a pet dog isn’t completely safe—old people say that the incubation period for rabies can last up to ten or twenty years.
And this damn domestic dog also gradually started to change its style over time—like the one in front of her now. Nearly a decade has passed, and there’s not a trace of the cute puppy he once was.
He eats and sleeps well, so how did he grow so crooked?
Damn, miscalculation.
Muttering a few inaudible complaints under her breath, Jiang Ran heartbrokenly turned her face toward the blue sky and white clouds outside the window—
Out of sight, out of mind. Men are indeed the worst.
…
Dozens of hours later, Malpensa Airport in Milan, Italy.
Volunteers specially assigned to welcome the Olympic delegation were already waiting outside the airport’s dedicated channel.
Every athlete and staff member received a commemorative T-shirt for the Milan Winter Olympics before boarding the bus after exiting the airport. The neatly folded T-shirts featured a fresh green olive branch wreath and a mascot doll for the Milan Winter Olympics.
The doll might have been an export-turned-domestic product from Yiwu, but that didn’t stop Jiang Ran from carefully and joyfully attaching it to her ski backpack: the trauma of fighting for Bing Dwen Dwen was still fresh in her mind—who knew if this might become the next Bing Dwen Dwen!
As she was attaching it, she suddenly exclaimed, “Oh!”
Bei Jiao sitting beside her was startled: “Don’t tell me you forgot something by your bedside at home?”
“Of course not!” Jiang Ran raised her hand to hit him. “I just suddenly remembered—I’ve had this dream before.”
“Hmm?” Bei Jiao raised one eyebrow.
“I dreamed I was participating in the Milan Winter Olympics,” Jiang Ran smiled with her eyes squinting. “I didn’t expect I’d actually come here.”
Outside the window, volunteers were singing, the green olive branch wreath in their hands as bright as the colors in her dream. The three great joys of life should really be revised—
The wedding night, the day of success, and the day a dream comes true.
Bei Jiao first sighed in relief, then turned to look at the woman sitting beside him, who was hugging her ski backpack and fiddling with its pendant, her lips constantly curling upward…
She must have thought it was a beautiful dream back then?
He thought absentmindedly, reaching out to ruffle her soft long hair… His black pupils shimmered, and to anyone who saw them, the icy coldness that usually emanated from them melted like a warm spring.
The phone screen lit up, and the WeChat group chat with six members became active.
【Nian Nian: @WhoseRanRanIsThis @MyDuck Have you arrived yet?】
【Second Car: The flight status shows you’ve landed a while ago, maybe detained at customs for looking untrustworthy.】
【Nian Nian: …Don’t athletes have a special channel?】
【Second Car: Even the special channel thinks they look sketchy?】
【Nian Nian: What a sin, it must be Dog Brother’s fault. He really does look more and more like a bad guy these years!】
【Orange: Check your phone! Ugh! I’m so annoyed by you two always glued to your phones when there’s nothing going on, but completely disappear when there’s something important!】
【Orange: @WhoseRanRanIsThis @MyDuck !!!!!!! Have you arrived or not!!!!!!!!?】
Jiang Ran smiled.
【WhoseRanRanIsThis: 「Picture」 What’s the rush! We’ve arrived! Just got on the bus!】
Jiang Ran took a photo of the olive branch wreath and mascot doll hanging together with her ski backpack.
【Nian Nian: Oh.】
A few seconds later.
【Nian Nian: @Lin ShuangshuangDuck She’s arrived.】
【Second Car: @Lin ShuangshuangDuck She’s arrived.】
【Orange: @Lin ShuangshuangDuck She’s arrived.】
The username being mentioned, of course, would never reply.
But she probably heard.
Everyone firmly believed so.
Author’s Note:
The olive branch wreath is sprayed with water daily to keep it fresh. Finally, on New Year’s Eve, it is hung on Lin Shuang’s tombstone (some southern regions have the tradition of visiting graves on New Year’s Eve).
Finally, note ① indicates that paragraphs 1 and 2 are sourced from Baidu.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage