Chapter 24: Brother

University summer vacations always last for a full two months, and this one had just begun, with a long time ahead.

Jiang Ran calculated that she couldn’t let someone use disposable toiletries for two months. She needed to buy flip-flops and a bath towel as well… And what was this ragged luggage bag again? It looked so out of place that even when brought home, it would be an eyesore in the cupboard.

She sped straight to a nearby department store, entered a home goods store, and started tossing things into her shopping basket… Beijiao knew she was buying things for him, and since he knew she wouldn’t listen if he told her not to buy, he obediently followed her from the start.

Picking up a toothbrush Jiang Ran had just tossed into the basket, he looked at the price. Once wasn’t enough—he looked a second time, carefully counting the decimal point. He fell silent.

Putting down the toothbrush, he stepped out and turned left to squat outside the door.

Out of sight, out of mind.

He rarely came to such a high-end mall… No, actually, he had never been here before.

Squatting beside the glass railing and looking down, it was dazzling and magnificent, making his eyes shine brightly.

He was seriously counting how many floors the mall had when he didn’t know that behind him, Jiang Ran was on a video call with her father, Jiang Huaimin, while carrying a small basket filled to the brim. In the call, her father appeared to be soaking in a hot spring, a towel on his head, and the camera lens fogged with steam.

“Did you pick up Beijiao?” Jiang Huaimin asked. “Is he resisting badly?”

“Can you not talk to me like a child trafficker when I’m on speakerphone?”

Jiang Ran arched an eyebrow, moving her phone to show Jiang Huaimin the household items in her basket, then turning the camera to a corner outside the door—

There, the boy sat quietly on the rest bench outside the store, not playing with his phone, just watching the various shops on the lower levels and carefully observing the people coming and going with shopping bags in hand.

A young woman approached with her phone and tried to chat with him. When he looked up, her black gaze startled her momentarily, and she quickly changed her question to just asking for the time before hastily retreating…

The pup remained completely indifferent throughout, dismissing the strange woman without a second thought, then turning his head to continue watching the mall scenery.

In the video call, Jiang Huaimin sighed, “He really looks good, but his personality is a bit stubborn.”

After finishing the essentials, Jiang Ran went to the snack section. Hearing this, she scoffed, “He’s not your son, so why bother?”

“I’m afraid you’ll ruin him. If you have to take responsibility, then he becomes my son,” Jiang Huaimin said frankly. “Living together for months as a single man and woman, it’s hard to say whether sparks won’t fly!”

Jiang Ran tossed a bag of peas into her basket and casually said, “I’m not crazy, can you have some decency? Don’t think about ruining the mother and then trying to add the son to the household register. What did he do wrong to deserve being executed entirely?”

Jiang Huaimin, scolded by his daughter, dared not argue back. Just as he was about to say something, a head peeked out from the back door of the store. The boy, expressionless, asked, “Are you moving the entire store home?”

Apparently, he had finished looking at the scenery and was getting impatient.

Jiang Ran hurriedly hung up on her father, took the basket to check out, and when she came out, Beijiao had already changed his standing posture for the third time by the door.

He was immersed in a restless atmosphere.

She picked out a bag of marshmallows from the shopping bag and handed it to him.

He finally quieted down, tore open the seal, threw a piece into his mouth, chewed for a bit, then thoughtfully asked, “Keep the receipt.”

Jiang Ran had a habit of throwing away small tickets after leaving the store, so she glanced at the person beside her and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Give the money to you,” Beijiao said. “I won’t eat, drink, or use your stuff for free.”

Jiang Ran “oh’d,” opened WeChat, and showed him the payment record.

Beijiao leaned in to see the number and his expression changed, “What did you buy!”

Jiang Ran snatched the marshmallows from his hand, popped two into her mouth, “So shut up. Don’t try to force me to take your money when I didn’t ask for it. Got that much money? Have you saved up for next semester’s tuition?”

Beijiao fell completely silent. In the car, he fastened the seatbelt and turned sideways, facing the door, refusing to acknowledge her again.

…

That night, lying on the soft mattress, Beijiao still felt a surreal sense of reality.

When he turned over, his phone screen lit up. The WeChat avatar, which had been inactive for a long time, lit up because of a new message and was pinned to the top.

[Mrs. Zhang: I heard from your Uncle Huaimin that she asked Jiang Ran to pick you up and take you to her house. Is that true? Be obedient when staying at someone else’s home. Don’t think everything is taken for granted. Be polite, or you’ll become annoying.]

Beijiao stared at the screen, raised his hand to silently touch his heart. He didn’t feel particularly uncomfortable, just a bit annoyed.

Unlike usual, where he would casually reply something to indicate he had seen it, this time he raised his hand and directly deleted the WeChat conversation, then put the phone down.

The lights were off, and the room was pitch black.

His face buried into the soft quilt smelled clean laundry detergent.

…

The next day, Jiang Ran woke up at noon, yawning as she wanted to open the door to the living room.

Her hand on the doorknob suddenly remembered something, so she turned back to her room to grab a shirt to wear over her tank top sleep dress as a coat before coming out again…

Only to realize this move was utterly unnecessary.

Beijiao’s room was already empty, the quilt neatly folded and placed neatly to one side. The personal items in the room and the clothes in the wardrobe indicated that the room’s owner would return.

Jiang Ran yawned and wandered into the living room, discovering a bowl of preserved egg and lean meat porridge on the dining table, along with a cup of soybean milk and a Chinese cruller.

The porridge had cooled down but was well-packed, clearly left for her.

Standing by the dining table, Jiang Ran’s lips curved into a smile. Since living alone after adulthood, it had been a long time since she had such a nice surprise of food waiting for her on the dining table after waking up. At this moment, suddenly having it made her mood quite good.

She reheated the porridge on the electric stove, added some ice cubes to the soybean milk, and while eating her brunch, she happily arranged the time for today’s class at the Sunac Ice and Snow World with Song Die.

…

This year was the summer of 2019.

And in 2015, when our country applied to host the Winter Olympics, the commitment made to the International Olympic Committee—”Three Hundred Million People on Ice and Snow”—was not forgotten.

With the Winter Olympics approaching, the domestic ice and snow atmosphere became increasingly enthusiastic. In the afternoon, Jiang Ran arrived at the Sunac Ice and Snow World and from afar saw the Beijing Winter Olympic mascot Bing Dwen Dwen and the Sunac Snow World mascot dancing and hopping at the entrance.

She dragged her ski board bag to the entrance, and the Sunac Snow World mascot approached, speaking in a broad-spectrum voice, “Ran Jie, you’re here. You got up an hour earlier than yesterday.”

Jiang Ran: “…”

She didn’t know which familiar staff member had been conscripted into labor and forced to wear this thing to embarrass themselves at the entrance. Jiang Ran tried to recall but couldn’t match the voice to a person, so she gave a few perfunctory responses and walked inside.

At that moment, her phone rang. She answered the call, and on the other end was Song Die, saying he was already behind her and had seen her, asking her to wait for him.

Jiang Ran hung up the phone, turned around, and suddenly noticed that the ski board bag she had hastily thrown on the ground while scrambling to answer the phone was picked up. Now, Bing Dwen Dwen was holding her board bag, his panda eyes staring intently at her.

Jiang Ran was about to thank him.

Song Die entered from the main gate, shouting, “Sis.”

Bing Dwen Dwen and Jiang Ran both turned their heads. Jiang Ran raised her hand and waved a greeting. At the same time, she suddenly heard a “plop” sound and turned her head—

The board bag that had just been in Bing Dwen Dwen’s hands was back on the ground again, and the Olympic mascot had already turned away, leaving the two with a round and haughty back of the head.

“…This Winter Olympic mascot has quite a temper. Does this fit the great spirit of the Olympics—’harmony, friendliness, and common progress’? Or is my Chinese zodiac clashing with whoever is wearing the mascot costume?” Jiang Ran said wryly.

Song Die laughed beside her, bent down to pick up the board bag for Jiang Ran, and dragged it all the way back to the locker room door.

…

In fact, it proved that Jiang Ran must have forgotten to check the almanac before leaving home today, and the almanac said: Today is unsuitable for going out.

She changed into her ski suit, holding her helmet and snowboard, walking out, and from afar saw Song Die sitting on a bench, looking bewildered and innocent at her—

How to put it?

That expression, clearly indicated something bad had happened.

Sure enough, as soon as she walked over, Song Die flipped the snowboard leaning next to him and pointed at the binding, saying, “Earlier, a guy told me the binding angle isn’t enough to change to a one-way stance. Sis, what should I do?”

Jiang Ran: “…”

Song Die had a solid foundation in board sports. After following Jiang Ran’s lessons and practicing diligently on his own, he had already learned the basics of snowboarding. Yesterday, he told Jiang Ran via phone that he had thought about it for a long time and wanted to learn carving from her.

What is carving?

Besides basic sliding, snowboarding has three categories of advanced play—

Park terrain features: abbreviated as “park,” where difficult tricks are performed on special terrain features such as U-shaped troughs, large, medium, and small jump ramps, slope obstacles, boxes, and iron rails… These advanced play styles have been included in Winter Olympic competition projects in multiple events such as Big Air, U-shaped troughs, and slopestyle.

Flatland tricks: abbreviated as “flatland,” usually refers to low-speed basic sliding, incorporating jumps, rotations, and board presses into balance-related tricks on the board.

Carving: advanced high-speed sliding, English “carving,” commonly known as “carving” abroad, “carving” is a term created by Chinese people… This type of sliding mainly focuses on low-center-of-gravity, high-speed stable sliding. The main signature move is that during sliding, the skier leans close to the snow surface due to a high edge angle, allowing their hands to brush the snow, leaving traces on the snow along with the snowboard.

In Winter Olympic-related events, the “Parallel Giant Slalom” event is closest to carving.

Besides the above three, there are skiers who take carving to the extreme, adding various tricks such as rotations and jumps during high-speed, low-posture sliding, evolving into more advanced techniques on the basis of carving: carving flatland tricks.

Abbreviated as “carving flatland.”

Looking at the global skiing community’s unified benchmark—those who can slide quickly on the snow and casually touch the snow with their eyes closed aren’t necessarily experts…

But those who can touch the snow while bouncing, then jump and spin a few times before landing and continuing to touch the snow are definitely experts.

Like Jiang Ran.

Because carving requires power balance and the uncertainty brought by pursuing high speed, in fact, in the snowboarding community, few female skiers choose to advance to carving after learning basic sliding—

Jiang Ran is a rare and extraordinary female skier in the carving world.

Her carving skills not only surpass all other female skiers, but even that specific carving-specific nollie540° move she does while popping off the carving board can make the majority of male skiers in China feel inferior.

Listing numbers and facts—

Currently, in China’s snowboarding scene, just using a flatland board (*board nose is rounded, light and soft) to perform flatland tricks like Nollie720° is common… For example, Lao Yan, when in good form, can even do a 900°.

On the carving side, those who can use a regular carving all-mountain board (*board nose is rounded, heavy and stiff) to perform Nollie720° are only about four or five people, and Jiang Ran is one of them.

Going further.

Those who can use a carving-specific directional board (*board nose is square instead of rounded, effective edge length, heavy, stiff, and not flexible) to perform Nollie720° number only one.

Just that single person, while the rest can barely land but lose speed, which in strict terms cannot be considered a success.

In the second tier, those who are almost successful but not quite successful, Jiang Ran is among them.

Jiang Ran is truly one of the top domestic carving skiers.

Even if all the male skiers in the country were gathered in one room, she would still be the unshakable pinnacle.

Therefore, those who take lessons from Jiang Ran are basically learning carving, and she wasn’t surprised when Song Die made this request.

Originally, she had agreed with Song Die to adjust the angle today before the lesson at Sunac. Now that he said this, it probably couldn’t be adjusted—

As is well known, a snowboard consists of two parts: the “board” and the “binding.”

Bindings can be adjusted according to the skier’s habits. For example, beginners usually focus on balance, so the left and right foot bindings are “±15°.”

Generally speaking, the basic stance for skiers is a duck stance, with slight adjustments to the binding angles based on personal preference.

But carving is different. Carving is divided into “duck stance carving” and “one-way stance carving.” Duck stance carving is the traditional duck stance, while one-way stance carving better fits the traditional carving style. After confirming the front foot (*dominant foot), the bindings of one-way stance carvers are aligned in the same direction—

This large-angle adjustment of bindings allows them to more easily achieve the basic open-shoulder and open-hip stance required for carving during sliding and prevents the heel or toe of the ski boot from extending beyond the board surface due to foot size, causing edge catch and falls.

Today, Jiang Ran originally planned to change Song Die’s bindings from duck stance to one-way stance, officially introducing him to carving. When she checked his board, it was a Burton brand board with Burton bindings.

Sure enough, it couldn’t be adjusted.

“I told you long ago to ask me before buying equipment.”

Burton is indeed the leading brand in snowboarding. As the saying goes, beginners should choose Burton when unsure about equipment selection. No one denies the brand’s quality is indeed excellent, but…

This brand mainly produces beginner all-mountain boards and park boards.

That’s not even the most frustrating part. Its strangest feature is that most of its snowboards have special binding tracks, which means these boards can only use their own brand’s bindings. In this case, the basic, slightly cheaper bindings have a maximum angle adjustment that’s just a little.

One-way stance carving bindings usually reach around 30°, with a maximum adjustment of 45°, which these basic bindings simply cannot meet.

For example, Jiang Ran’s preferred binding angles are (33, 21).

No matter how hard you twist Song Die’s bindings, you can’t reach 33.

“There’s no way around it,” Jiang Ran pushed his board aside. “Go to the ski shop nearby and see if they have rentals. Rent one today first… Go home and sell this Burton board on Xianyu. I’ll send you some boards you can use and buy a new one.”

Song Die didn’t have any objections. Sunac has rental boards, but those boards are also pretty basic. Many non-beginners don’t want to use public basic boards, so they choose to rent from the ski shop near the refrigerator—

That place usually rents out good boards, with a rental fee of about 350 yuan per day.

She led Song Die to a slightly familiar shop. As she pushed open the door, she was still thinking that this was at least Song Die. If it were that pup at home, he might ask if she wanted his life, and his life wouldn’t be worth 350 yuan a day.

By the afternoon, the ski shop was cold and quiet.

The staff was busy in the back warehouse. She greeted them, saw the figure squatting among many cardboard boxes, and assumed he had heard her.

Jiang Ran turned her head back and led Song Die to the ski rental racks. She rummaged around but couldn’t find anything satisfactory. Flipping through the options, she asked the staff behind her without turning around, “Hey, do you have any basic carving boards? The binding angles need to be sufficient… My student is so clueless—he actually brought a Burton to take my lesson.”

Her voice carried a bit of spoiled complaint.

Not flirting, just softening the tone a bit when saying “silly” to make it less harsh.

The staff behind her didn’t respond for a while.

She was just wondering why the usually talkative staff brother was silent today when she turned around and found the staff member standing right behind her.

Not the usual talkative staff brother.

The person who had disappeared from her house early this morning and left breakfast for her was now standing in front of her—

They stared at each other for a few seconds, the boy’s thin lips curling slightly as he watched his reflection in her slightly constricted pupils from the shock.

“这里没有，兄弟，”他模仿着她那鼻音浓重的腔调。”也许你可以带着你的小笨学生去别的店看看？”

Author’s Note:

Regarding carving flatland data:

Although the story is set in 2019, the data is statistically updated until the 22-23 snow season. Currently, in China, those who can perform a 720° nollie on a directional board are mostly Koreans. Before last winter ended, China still hadn’t achieved a 720°, but this summer, Sunac produced one.

In China, a 720° or 900° nollie on a carving all-mountain board is considered the pinnacle, and even then, there are very few people.

The above data comes from one of the pinnacle groups (of course not the number one expert). The data update is valid before the update date (very rigorous).

Finally, 33, 21 is also my preferred angle. Before typing this chapter, I couldn’t remember, so I went to search the chat records and found that I asked twice, and both times I was given the additional sentence, “You don’t even know what angle you use yourself” =L=