Actually, there’s not much variety when it comes to ski face masks for frost protection; they’re either white or black, and at most, the headbands might differ in color. Once you put on the helmet, nobody can even see it anyway, so who cares what it looks like.
Jiang Ran picked up a new face mask, felt it briefly, and turned to look at Ah Huang.
Ah Huang was good at reading the room. Glancing at the sulky teenager trailing behind the woman, pretending not to care while actually staying close behind her every step, he almost laughed, thinking to himself, “You spoilt brat, you finally met your match today.”
“Time-limited promotion, buy one get one free,” Ah Huang said. “Take two.”
Upon hearing this, Jiang Ran grabbed two face masks and, mimicking Ah Huang’s tone, turned to the person behind her and said, “Time-limited promotion, buy one get one free. I need to take two.”
Bei Jiao pursed his lips and said nothing.
Jiang Ran nodded. “Then both go to Song Die.”
He frowned, quickly snatching one of them.
This time, he didn’t even give her a chance to turn around and call Song Die.
Jiang Ran’s lips curled into a high smile, making him feel as if he had fallen into this woman’s trap again…
But he didn’t bother to argue with her about it.
After weighing the mask in his hand for a moment, he turned to Ah Huang. “A discount. This is the fee for helping you watch the store earlier.”
His tone was like that of a robber, and this time it was Ah Huang’s turn to be unable to smile.
At this moment, Song Die walked over from the side, holding a new helmet in his hand, trying it on while not even turning his head and saying, “Bei Jiao, I heard our dorm supervisor calls you a stray dog every day. Now I feel like he really nailed your image.”
Bei Jiao glanced sideways at him but didn’t respond, only commenting, “You wearing this helmet also looks like that dorm supervisor riding an electric scooter selling scrap cardboard. Are you relatives?”
It was rare for Bei Jiao to speak so many sentences to someone other than Jiang Ran, and every word was like a dog’s bark, full of aggression.
Song Die wordlessly took off the helmet and put it back on the shelf.
Jiang Ran, seeing this action, had a new idea. She reached out and grabbed the drawstring of the hoodie worn by the boy beside her. He tilted his body slightly and lazily leaned into her pull, allowing her to draw him closer.
Just as he steadied himself, she suddenly placed a safety helmet on his head.
The force was a bit strong, making him instinctively lower his head. In a daze, he only saw her raised heels and the snow-white collar of her tank top blouse with its deep shadows—
Realizing dazedly what he had just seen, his body stiffened slightly, then he quickly and unnoticeably shifted his gaze away.
Jiang Ran’s attention was entirely on how well the black helmet fit on his head, not noticing the slight redness and warmth on the boy’s earlobes.
“It seems a bit big,” she said, adjusting the helmet’s position with both hands as if talking to herself, “Maybe a medium size would work for you?”
While adjusting it, she suddenly felt her hands go empty. The person who had just obediently stood beside her quickly moved away. First, he carefully examined her from head to toe with a wary gaze. Then, under her confused stare, he finally turned to look at his reflection in the mirror—
Not great.
But it looked better than Song Die’s.
He reached up and took off the safety helmet, looked at the price, and then carefully placed it back on the shelf.
“Do you dislike Bern? Or is it just the black color? The one next to it is also okay. Hand me that one to see, Giro’s.”
Jiang Ran misunderstood his intentions.
Bei Jiao shook the face mask in his hand. “This is fine, just a few dozen yuan… You’re buying me a helmet that costs over a thousand? Are you out of your mind?”
For the first time, someone was being scolded for giving a gift.
Jiang Ran was so angry she almost laughed. “As if I’m buying it for you. Don’t think I’m being nice. The money spent is still yours anyway. Haven’t you got fifty thousand yuan deposited with me? Forgot?”
Bei Jiao didn’t speak after hearing this.
He didn’t think that those fifty thousand yuan were his. However, Jiang Ran kept mentioning it persistently, with a tone so natural that it made him feel like he could never convince her otherwise.
Under his cold stare, she picked out a black helmet by herself—
Sure enough, she didn’t choose the one he had put back, but rather the one she had mentioned later. In the chaos, Bei Jiao caught a glimpse of the price: a four-digit number starting with “2,” so expensive that he felt like fainting.
“This is life-saving equipment; how can we save on it?”
Jiang Ran placed the helmet on the counter. At this point, she was sitting on the sofa, gesturing to him like she was teasing a cat or a dog. “Come over.”
This time, Bei Jiao dared not approach. He stood far away, watching her, his whole body radiating wariness and resistance.
Seeing that he refused to cooperate, Jiang Ran didn’t force him. Instead, she turned to Ah Huang and said, “Bring me a pair of Nitro BIANCA, size 45 in European sizing, which is 275, right?”
Bei Jiao’s ears twitched.
That was why she had come over to check the snowboard boots he was holding at Rongchuang earlier—
It was just for that moment, she had gone out of her way to find out his shoe size.
So scheming.
Ah Huang brought out a shoe box, opened it, revealing a brand new pair of snowboard boots in a mainly purple and gray color scheme… This time, even Ah Huang couldn’t help but turn to look at Bei Jiao. Seeing him frozen in place, he then turned to look at Jiang Ran, hesitating as if wanting to say something.
“What are you looking at?” Jiang Ran didn’t even lift her head, continuing to inspect the snowboard boots and removing the paper stuffing inside. “His dad ran off with his mom, and now they’re both abroad, leaving him alone… I only found out recently. He’s just a little kid, barely managing to eat—so who else is going to take care of him if not me?”
Bei Jiao protested from afar: “I can still manage to eat!”
Song Die: “So you really are his younger brother?”
The atmosphere was filled with every character radiating joy, making Bei Jiao want to bristle with irritation. He first turned his head to give Song Die a decisive “No,” then turned to Jiang Ran, barking at her: “We’re not even officially married, don’t call me your brother-in-law!”
Jiang Ran didn’t even acknowledge him, continuing to tidy up the brand new snowboard boots and placing them aside. “Do you want to try them on? If not, we might have to buy them and then return them later if they don’t fit, which would be even more wasteful.”
Bei Jiao didn’t move an inch. “Do you think I’m stupid? What about a seven-day no-questions-asked return policy?”
Jiang Ran turned to Ah Huang.
Ah Huang was quick to respond, immediately chiming in. “Do you think this is a Taobao store? A seven-day no-questions-asked return policy? Why don’t you just wear them for a while and trade them in for something newer and cheaper with me—”
This entire store was full of Jiang Ran’s henchmen. With the backing of Zhen Shanhe, Ah Huang dared to be sarcastic towards Bei Jiao. As he mentally attacked him, Song Die also reached out to pull Bei Jiao.
Bei Jiao got anxious, grabbing the shelf and refusing to go, radiating an aura of “I won’t take advantage.”
Song Die couldn’t pull him, so he tried to pry his fingers apart. Unfortunately, Bei Jiao had surprising strength and kept yelling, “Don’t touch my hands”—…
It was quite chaotic.
An outsider might think they were dragging him to be executed.
Jiang Ran smiled slightly but didn’t pressure him. Instead, she gently said to Ah Huang, “Wrap them up. If he doesn’t wear them, there are plenty of others who will. Old Yan’s birthday is next week—”
Jiang Ran didn’t know a thing about Old Yan’s birthday; she just made it up.
On the other side, the hand gripping the shelf suddenly let go. Song Die, who was trying to pry his fingers apart, was caught off guard by the sudden release of force and nearly fell on his butt!
At the same time, the teenager had already vaulted over the back of the sofa and sat down beside Jiang Ran.
Once he was settled, he couldn’t help but look up at her with a menacing glare. “This trick won’t always work.”
Jiang Ran gave him a sweet smile, as if to say: “It just needs to work especially well today.”
Bei Jiao’s face was expressionless as he took off his shoes and grabbed the snowboard boots, pulling them onto his feet while frantically calculating in his mind—
He should give her the money once the bar owner pays his salary on the fifteenth of this month: the helmet, the shoes, that inexplicably expensive toothbrush, the slippers…
Ah.
He didn’t know how many cents would be left in the end.
He would have to find a new place to work part-time during the day to pay for his tuition again—
“How much are these shoes now?”
“No discount for in-stock items. For old friends, I can give you a ten percent discount. Just give me 3,600 yuan!”
The calm conversation above Bei Jiao’s head registered in his ears. He had just put one foot halfway into the snowboard boot when he instinctively withdrew it upon hearing the price.
Hugging his legs, knees bent and bare feet on the sofa, the other three in the store looked at him together. He remained expressionless, not showing the slightest bit of embarrassment.
“Actually, skiing isn’t that fun,” he said in a steady voice. “Forget it, I won’t go skiing anymore.”
Song Die and Ah Huang fell silent at the same time, wanting him to just look in the mirror and see how insincere he looked when lying.
Jiang Ran didn’t even bother to respond.
She pointed at the snowboard boots and said, “Wrap them up. Don’t include the shoe box; it takes up space.”
“I said I don’t want them.”
“If you say one more word, I’ll have Ah Huang bring me some goggles to look at.”
“…”
…
When Jiang Ran was scanning the payment code, Bei Jiao had already shut his mouth and refused to say another word to her.
He had already finished calculating in his mind. At this point, he stood far away, heart bleeding, holding a snow card in his hand, absentmindedly scraping snow off the board that had stuck to Ah Huang’s earlier—
Looking at that string of bills with staggering amounts, he not only felt heartache but also started to ache in his legs and buttocks from all the falls he had taken that day.
He wondered if they were bruised.
He drooped his ears, his face long, calculating in his mind while wondering whether he should buy some ointment on the way back, afraid that the woman would nag him and insist he wear that green turtle-shaped cushion, which looked comfortable but was a bit embarrassing—
Just as he decided to sneak out to the pharmacy after getting home.
The store door was pushed open from the outside.
Old Yan and several pretty young women entered, chatting and laughing. As soon as they stepped through the door, they felt a gust of cold wind. Turning their heads, they saw a pair of pitch-black eyes staring at them emotionlessly.
“…”
The flirtatious playboy from a second ago immediately shut up.
The pretty girls accompanying him seemed to notice something and turned their heads. At once, they saw the stunningly handsome teenager standing by the door, wearing a black hoodie and black sweatpants, holding a snow card covered in snow and half-cleaned snowboard.
Surprise sparkled in their eyes.
“Carving snowboard guy!”
A girl with a high ponytail pointed at him joyfully. “We’ve never seen you at Rongchuang!”
Bei Jiao blinked blankly for a moment, taking a while to realize she was talking about him.
Lao Yan was also quite speechless. This afternoon, he had seen Bei Jiao in his old, shoddy newbie gear. Dressed like this, skiing like that, there was no way these girls would have noticed him.
While he was mentally grumbling, the girls had already started pushing and giggling. One of them, looking lively and outgoing, pushed the girl with the high ponytail. “Perfect, weren’t you recently looking to learn carving? Here’s a ready-made instructor.”
Using a blue tree board.
It wasn’t some basic board. Usually, people who had been learning for a while and had some skill would switch to this board.
Teaching a beginner basics would be a piece of cake for such a person?
As she spoke, the girl with the high ponytail already took out her phone. “Big brother, want to schedule a lesson? Add my WeChat, I recently want to learn carving—”
Bei Jiao took a while to figure out what she wanted to do.
A lesson?
That meant paying for a lesson, right?
Jiang Ran had mentioned it.
He was a bit at a loss at this new situation and instinctively looked back at Jiang Ran. However, she was leaning against the counter at this moment, holding an iPad, flipping through the inventory of the ski equipment store while chatting with Ah Huang, not even glancing in his direction…
Song Die was watching, but only in the way one watches a joke.
He thought about it and felt he could handle this matter himself. He withdrew his gaze towards Jiang Ran and looked down at the phone already extended towards him with the WeChat interface open. He hesitated for a moment.
“Okay.”
He said.
“Give me your phone.”
The girl’s eyes sparkled with delight. Naturally, she didn’t refuse his request and handed her phone over—before she could say anything, she saw the boy take her phone and stride to the counter, stopping beside a young woman.
Feeling his approach, the latter stopped chatting with the clerk, turning her head with a lazy expression, looking him up and down.
“What trouble are you causing now?”
Her words were unkind, but her tone was affectionate.
They saw the boy push the phone slightly towards her.
“A business opportunity,” he said. “Someone wants a lesson, the kind only you can teach.”
An opportunity to make money.
Jiang Ran didn’t speak at first. She was first taken aback, then turned her head to look at the girl standing at the door, who had become completely frozen, looking dazed and confused.
She turned her gaze back, this time looking at her cheap younger brother with the eyes of someone looking at an idiot, seriously doubting whether he had some kind of problem…
The entire store fell into a deathly silence.
Only Zhao Kean, who was watching with the mentality of “I’m happy as long as it’s not me being messed with,” was delighted—
Who would be so desperate to want to get close to Bei Jiao?
This was purely asking for trouble!
After all, according to past rumors, the century’s top heartthrob and leading man of Linjiang No.1 High School, with his stunningly handsome face, had never had any romantic scandals. All people had heard about were his various odd jobs in different places.
From this, one could conclude: Bei Jiao knew nothing about romance; he only wanted a lifelong partnership with Renminbi (Chinese currency).
Author’s note:
Bei Jie: Commission! Commission!
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