Jiang Ran held her son in both arms, soothing him gently amidst his tearful wails that seemed to bring the sky crashing down.
“Where did Aoao hurt himself?” she asked tenderly.
“My hand hurts, Mama, blow on it!”
“After I blow on it, no more crying. We’re a man, okay? Xiaoman Sister will laugh at you if she sees this!”
Her voice was so gentle, yet Bei Jiao felt as if an eighty-meter guillotine hung over his head.
He squatted at the edge of the mini U-shaped pool without moving. He watched helplessly as his teammates, with the utmost care—ensuring that their children wouldn’t even lose a single hair—each held their child tightly and slid down the U-shaped track with ease, greeting Jiang Ran casually.
Extremely devious and cunning.
Male friendships proved fragile in the face of the fear of being scolded by their wives.
Li Xingnan could even be more despicable, adding, “We tried to stop him, but couldn’t.”
Jiang Ran ignored him, patting her son’s head gently as he nestled into the crook of her neck, sobbing in fits and starts. Her actions were gentle, but her gaze was icy and sharp as she glanced over, “Are you planning to stay up there until the New Year?”
That frigid, icy tone definitely addressed him.
Bei Jiao exhaled in relief, thinking at least she was still willing to speak to him.
He casually fastened his board and slid down from the edge. For such a tall U-shaped pool, descending it was as easy for him as drinking water or eating a meal. The moment he landed, he pretended to coax his son into rescuing him.
Jiang Ran really wanted to slap him hard enough to break his leg.
Feeling furious, and seeing that he had safely reached the bottom, she decided she needn’t bother herself with these things anymore and turned around with Beichi in her arms to leave… The park area of the ski resort was on the side of the mountain top; returning to the ski equipment hall required sliding back down on their own.
After walking a couple of steps, Jiang Ran noticed from the shadow that the person behind her who had taken off his board quickly caught up with her. His tall silhouette in ski boots nearly reached six feet three inches. Now, one hand carried his snowboard, and he trailed behind her like a devoted little husband, quietly asking, “Can I carry him?”
Jiang Ran ignored him, deliberately quickening her pace.
But her legs were only so long. No matter how fast she walked, for Bei Jiao it was merely a matter of taking slightly larger steps.
He closely followed her.
So what met her face was not only the cold mountain wind blowing from the front, but also the fiery wrath emanating from her.
When sliding down, if it weren’t for the fact that Jiang Ran was holding a hefty Beichi in her arms, with the kind of vigor that could break her own Olympic record, Bei Jiao had no doubt he wouldn’t even be able to catch up with her.
But that didn’t stop them from reaching quickly.
As the two slid down the slope, the people leisurely playing on the ski trail were astonished—
“What were those two dark shadows that just passed by? Tom and Jerry?”
“I don’t know, I couldn’t see clearly either… That speed, did a volcano erupt at the top of the mountain?”
“Mama, will I be able to reach that speed if I practice for another ten years?”
“…I saw the girl ahead holding a child. I know that kid; there aren’t many that handsome on this entire mountain. So I’m guessing it’s Sister Ran and God Jiao.”
“Oh, Jiang Ran? So the one behind, tumbling and rolling, his board almost sparking from the friction, is God Jiao?”
“What happened? Did they argue?”
“Ah, can they even argue?”
“…Don’t they often argue?”
“How can they often argue? God Jiao doesn’t seem like someone who could argue with Sister Ran.”
“Oh, arguments come in many forms. Some people end up pulling each other’s hair—But they’re different. One person gets angry, the other just apologizes.”
“…”
…
People halfway down the mountain were happily discussing.
Some curious onlookers had already taken out their phones, mentioning Jiang Ran in a group chat asking her: What’s going on? Has today’s episode of emotional drama with our God Jiao reached the required level again?
And at this time, it was already mealtime on the mountain.
The ski equipment hall was bustling with people, all the skiers who had been sliding all morning were starving and looking for food.
Then they picked up the business of the gossiping people on the mountain and witnessed the next episode of “she runs, he chases.”
At the entrance of the ski equipment hall, people only had time to see the woman like a whirlwind, creating a commotion at the end of the slope. With a powerful brake from a kick of her board, she startled a novice so much that the turtle on his butt fell off. She bent down to remove her board.
Behind her, as another tall young man struggled to brake right after her, she kicked her board forward, and her snowboard clanged against the man’s snowboard—
If it were anyone else, they would be in court by the afternoon.
However, the woman didn’t even twitch an eyebrow. She held tightly onto the extremely handsome and cute child in her arms, her face dark as she turned and strode forward swiftly. Behind her, the man quickly unclipped his bindings, bent down to pick up the two boards, and followed closely behind, step by step.
From time to time, when he saw the woman switching arms to relieve the weight of carrying the child, he would say, “Slow down.”
Bei Chi’s eyes were red and swollen like peaches. Now, with only a sliver of his eyes open, he had stopped crying and somehow sensed that because of his tears, the first world nuclear war was about to erupt, with sparks flying from the fuse.
Holding onto his mother’s neck, his steps with Jiang Ran were bouncy and a bit flustered as he exchanged glances with his father.
Bei Jiao pursed his lips and slightly lifted his chin, silently signaling to his son: The mess you made, aren’t you going to clean it up for your father?
Before Bei Chi could react, the person ahead suddenly turned around—
Startling him nearly to the point of wetting his pants.
A man over six feet tall, now bending close to his wife’s face, his usually stern and handsome face, which even his apprentices or students feared, was now groveling: “Still angry?”
“Bei Jiao.”
“…”
Oh no, it’s a period, not an exclamation mark. She’s really angry.
Jiang Ran bent down and placed Bei Chi at the edge of the dining table. At this time, sitting at the table were people like Shan Chong and Li Xingnan. Now, countless eyes from the two families were looking up at them—
Bei Jiao thought, with so many people watching, she surely wouldn’t speak too harshly.
“Have you heard the story of ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’?” Jiang Ran asked. “When you were young, you tricked your son into doing something he was too scared to do by using your parental authority to emotionally manipulate him. When you’re old, you deserve to drown.”
Bei Jiao: “…”
Bei Jiao: “?”
It wasn’t that he didn’t understand the Chinese Jiang Ran was speaking, but he couldn’t grasp the sudden logic in her final sentence.
Why would he drown when he was old just because he tricked his son when he was young into doing something he was too scared to do?
He wore the question mark on his face and then turned to seek help from Li Xingnan, the one in their marital relationship who was slightly more dominant (but not by much), only to find the same bewildered expression on his face.
…Useless thing.
Bei Jiao looked at Jiang Ran, hesitated, then reached out to hold her hand, only to have it shaken off.
He reached again, and was shaken off again.
He reached a third time, and this time she shook him off with force, adding a highly emotional “Don’t touch me.”
Bei Jiao knew that if he really obeyed and didn’t touch her at this moment, he would be doomed. So he firmly grabbed her hand, kissed the tips of her tightly clenched fingers, and said, “I’m sorry, okay?”
Her clenched fist opened up. Jiang Ran extended one finger and pressed it very forcefully against his chest—
“How old are you! How old is your son! He’s only three! The first lie he’s ever encountered in his life was given to him by his own father, exploiting his kindness! Exploiting his affection for you! Exploiting the fact that you’re his father!”
Jiang Ran whispered fiercely, “Don’t you feel ashamed! I’m asking you, how could you do such a thing!”
By the end, her voice was hoarse with emotion, her heart aching so much that her insides trembled. She grabbed her son, who had already settled on the bench, dragged him over, hugged him, and kissed his cheek, “How could you!”
Bei Jiao, after being scolded, now felt like he was a stepfather himself.
Looking at the woman in front of him, her eyes red with anger like a mother lion glaring at him, he blinked and bent even lower in submission, “Let’s talk calmly. I know I was wrong. Don’t cry. Not here in public—”
Jiang Ran blinked, sniffed, and said, “Because of your actions today deceiving a three-year-old, when Bei Chi is thirty years old decades from now, if you fall into the water when you’re old and call for help, Bei Chi won’t save you. Because he will remember today and think you’re still tricking him like when he was three, and he’ll let you drown.”
“…”
Oh.
So the logic behind “you deserve to drown” was here.
Bei Jiao tightened his grip on the soft hand he was holding, gently opened her palm, and caressed it with heartache, brushing over the nail marks she had dug into her own palm. “Alright, I apologize. I shouldn’t have tricked our son—”
If you hadn’t come to expose it, I might not have realized I was tricking him until he was thirty.
Bei Jiao added silently in his heart, but he didn’t want to invite more scolding, so he obediently shut his mouth.
As he spoke, he was soothing his wife while casting a sharp black gaze at Bei Chi, lowly saying, “Bei Chi, can you accept your dad’s apology?”
Bei Chi: “…”
Jiang Ran: “Bei Jiao! Is that the tone you use to ask? If he doesn’t accept, are you going to hit him? Do you want to break his legs in the Y-shaped pool that weren’t broken before?”
Bei Jiao: “…”
Jiang Ran: “I feel like I’m talking to an ox! Get lost! Don’t stand there annoying me, I’m taking my son to eat!”
Did Bei Jiao leave?
Of course not.
After Jiang Ran finished scolding him, she sat down next to Qiu Nian. Bei Chi quickly climbed out of her arms and rushed to the kids’ table next door, leaving the adults with the lively atmosphere.
Bei Jiao dutifully went to the restaurant to fetch lunch for the three of them, placed the bowls and chopsticks respectfully in front of Jiang Ran, and even considerately broke apart a pair of disposable chopsticks for her, “Eat first. After eating, you can hit me all you want.”
“I won’t eat your food.”
“Alright, alright, I won’t make you eat it… Then later, you can transfer the meal fee to me via Alipay, right?”
“…”
…
Lunch was eaten in relative silence. Qiu Nian and Wei Zhi had never experienced what it meant to “eat without speaking and sleep without talking.”
The atmosphere at the table was a bit tense. Wei Zhi was busily recording the dialogue from Jiang Ran and Bei Jiao’s argument on her phone.
Qiu Nian quietly asked her what she was doing, and she whispered back, “Their dialogue is so brilliant, I can use it for the next comic script update.”
“Are you working on a tragic love story now?”
“Tragic? How come I feel like it’s actually sweet?”
“…Is this the kind of sweetness young people like these days?” Qiu Nian asked, puzzled. “I just feel like our table is scattered with chicken feathers from their mutual teasing.”
Wei Zhi covered her mouth and laughed.
Next to them, the teasing couple hadn’t stopped yet.
Now it had reached the stage where the stubborn dog was rolling on the ground.
The stubborn dog didn’t even eat properly, taking a couple of bites before throwing down his chopsticks to grab his wife’s hand again, only to be impatiently waved off four or five times.
Finally, Jiang Ran, in one motion, used too much force and flung his chopsticks straight out. The chopsticks landed on the ground, rolling in the dust for a bit. Bei Jiao was momentarily stunned.
Everyone at the table also fell silent for a few seconds, staring at the chopsticks on the ground. Most of the people at the table were thinking: Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no! This dog’s temper isn’t necessarily that good either. They might end up fighting, and if they do, which side should I support so I won’t be held accountable later!
Everyone’s little heads were spinning with thoughts when, in the tense atmosphere that seemed ready to explode at any moment, Bei Jiao tilted his head slightly and withdrew his gaze from the dirty chopsticks on the ground.
He tilted his head and looked at her: “Are you getting annoyed with me?”
His tone was unusually serious.
Jiang Ran stared at the chopsticks in his hand, gripping her spoon a little tighter until her fingertips turned slightly white. She kept her face tense and didn’t speak.
This atmosphere didn’t scare her, but it certainly startled the others at the table.
Shan Chong said, “It’s not that bad, calm down.”
Li Xingnan quickly kicked Jiang Ran under the table, “Yeah, we were all watching Aoao just now. He wouldn’t have fallen. The three of us could definitely take care of one child.”
Jiang Ran ignored them, threw down her spoon, and stared at Bei Jiao.
Bei Jiao also looked back at her, his black eyes flickering with an unknown light: “I feel like you’re just looking for an excuse to argue with me. What’s the big deal if a three-year-old boy cries a little after bumping into something? He’s a boy, and I was watching him. Do you think I’d let him get seriously hurt?”
He paused, then smiled, “Yeah, you know that too. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have only focused on my tricking him just now.”
Before Jiang Ran could answer, he raised an eyebrow, “So I think you’re just looking for an excuse to argue with me, right? You’re happy to see me rushing behind you, aren’t you? You like seeing me anxious, making me uncomfortable, and then you feel better, right?”
Jiang Ran thought to herself, not bad, using the parallel sentences she learned in elementary school.
She leaned one hand on the edge of the table, coldly watching what nonsense he would spew next.
She heard him say, “Answer me, are you really getting annoyed with me, are you sick of me, and want me to leave?”
The way he said it, his face already darkened beyond recognition. To the others at the table, the two of them now completely radiated a tense atmosphere—
Bei Jiao’s eyes were as dark as a deep pool, frozen with three feet of ice.
As if the moment Jiang Ran nodded her head, they would hold hands to the civil affairs bureau the next day to register and wait for the cooling-off period before getting the green marriage certificate.
This time it was Qiu Nian’s turn to kick Jiang Ran under the table. Jiang Ran’s leg was almost fractured from the kick, so she silently moved her foot away.
Staring at Bei Jiao, she smiled faintly and said, “Yes, so are you leaving?”
It’s over.
Watching Bei Jiao’s eyes darken abruptly, Qiu Nian let out a despairing groan.
Never expecting to witness their marriage and their divorce firsthand—
“You’re talking nonsense.”
His deep voice rang out.
Firm and resolute.
Before anyone could react, the man who had looked like he was about to eat someone a moment ago suddenly reached out, grabbing the back of the woman’s head in front of him. With a strong hand, he pressed her head firmly into his chest, pulling her tightly against him, “Leaving? Where would I go? You’re here.”
Jiang Ran was pressed into his chest, her nose bumping painfully into the zipper of his jacket, her brain exploding with fireworks from the pain. She pushed him away with her hands.
However, the big hand on her neck pressed harder and harder, as if trying to smother her in his embrace, “How could you say something like that to me? You apologize to me!”
He demanded, full of self-righteousness.
The sudden request left everyone who had been worried just a moment ago instantly puzzled.
Jiang Ran raised her hand and rubbed the tears that had sprung from her eyes because of the pain in her nose, “…If you can’t take it, why did you ask?”
“…”
“Let me go,” she said, her face forced against his chest, hearing his rapid heartbeat. “So many people are watching. Don’t you care about your reputation?”
He didn’t care about reputation, only about her.
So he silently and stubbornly lowered his head, moving closer to her.
Jiang Ran frowned.
He clicked his tongue and also furrowed his brow.
She then impatiently and perfunctorily kissed the corner of his lips. Feeling the hand gripping her loosen slightly, she immediately pushed him away, sat up, and picked up her spoon again.
“Eat.”
She said.
Everyone at the table hadn’t recovered yet.
“You haven’t apologized to me yet,” Bei Jiao said. “If you don’t apologize, I’ll starve myself to death, since you threw away my chopsticks.”
Jiang Ran stood up, went five meters away to the utensils area, got new chopsticks, broke them open, and shoved them into his hand.
He looked up at her, his gaze unwavering.
“Alright, eat,” she muttered. “I won’t tease you next time.”
The tension in his jaw eased slightly.
“Just try making my son cry again next time,” she glanced at him. “I won’t let it go unless I see you cry once.”
“How cruel you are, wanting to see me cry.”
“You’re not cruel? My son’s tears for the whole year have dried up today because of you.”
“He’s a man, he should be strong.”
“So how come you’re a man too, but I just want to see you not being strong?”
“That’s double standards.”
“You’re not my son.”
“If you want, I can be.”
He said, then threw down his chopsticks and whispered something into Jiang Ran’s ear.
Jiang Ran’s face changed from pale to red, then to green, and finally her ears turned red. She raised her hand without hesitation and pinched his dog ear, shouting in a loud voice, “Go away! Go away!”
While Bei Jiao was being treated violently, he was still silently transferring dessert from his plate to Jiang Ran’s. It was a sweet red bean pastry she loved; he had seen her take an extra one at dinner the previous night.
Everyone at the table watched in amazement.
Qiu Nian watched Jiang Ran silently stuff the pastry into her mouth and, after a moment of silence, asked, “Is it sweet?”
Jiang Ran didn’t answer.
Wei Zhi said, “It’s sweet.”
…
Audrey Hepburn once said: I won’t pluck the moon; I want the moon to come to me. But if it really came for me, what would it still be but the moon?
Jiang Ran found her moon.
Her moon always hung high in the sky, proud and pure. But when night fell, when she said, “Let there be light,” her moon lowered itself, letting a beam of moonlight gently shine only on her.
Whether in the past, the present, or the future, she would always be proud, noble, stubborn, and lofty.
She is Jiang Ran, the only daughter of the Jiang family, a world-class top snowboarder.
She met a love that would never let her forget herself, and then embraced a marriage that would never let her lose her way.
Nothing could make her more satisfied than this.
So they were made for each other.
Even in death…
Yes, even after death, in the next life, and the life after that, they would never part.
Author’s Note:
The story is complete.
Time to wrap up. Thank you to every melon-eating friend who followed along with us, eating melons and chatting. This story ends here.
(The End)
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