If Jiang Ran has the strength to sit shoulder to shoulder and chat effortlessly with top male snowboarders in the field of technical carving in China, and easily makes it into the national top three, then when it comes to snow park terrain, Dan Chong is undoubtedly the number one.
In 2019, shortly after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics had concluded.
As the only Chinese snowboarder who had accumulated enough FIS ranking points before the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics to qualify for the Games, and who had performed impressively in major competitions prior, Dan Chong was regarded as a promising professional in the big air discipline. Unfortunately, he failed to perform to his usual standard at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
Everyone assumed he would be disheartened for a while, but surprisingly, he seemed unaffected by the setback.
He quickly returned to training, reigniting hope among the Chinese snowboarding community.
Although there are various slang terms like “carving,” “flatland tricks,” and “park” that jokingly form a “snowboarding hierarchy”—urban legends suggest park riders look down on carvers, carvers scoff at flatland riders, and flatland riders, in turn, disdain everyone—
But these are all jokes, no one takes them seriously.
Going abroad and winning just a single gold medal would mean “the first ever gold in Chinese snowboarding history.”
At that time, the entire snowboarding community eagerly anticipated and firmly believed that at the next Beijing Winter Olympics, on home soil, Dan Chong would definitely stand on the highest podium, fulfilling both his and everyone else’s expectations.
Yet as summer of 2019 approached, before the Bing Dwen Dwen figurines became popular, an unexpected tragedy struck the snowboarding community, one no one could easily accept.
As a carver, Jiang Ran didn’t often hang out with park riders. They knew each other simply because they were all at the top of their game and shared WeChat contacts and group chats. She and Dan Chong were just acquaintances who had only exchanged a few words when they met in the fridge section.
Zhao Keyan, on the other hand, was more outgoing and familiar with everyone, whether they were into carving, flatland or park.
Dan Chong even considered Zhao his half-mentor.
So when such a serious injury happened to Dan Chong, it shocked everyone. When Jiang Ran heard the news, her mind went blank for a moment.
Mainly because it stirred up some memories she didn’t want to recall.
Snowboarding is an extreme sport, and people should always approach it with reverence.
Every year, during each snow season, countless snowboarding accidents occur worldwide, ranging from fractures to fatalities.
In the major ski resorts of Northeast China, every year a few individuals are randomly “sacrificed” to the snow gods.
Though safety is emphasized year after year, accidents always strike when least expected.
Jiang Ran was somewhat distracted. After a few seconds of stunned silence, she forced herself to focus, patted Zhao’s shoulder to comfort him, and once again took on the role of the big sister, reaching out to remove his helmet and casually handing it to a younger teammate beside her.
“Zhao Keyan, you’re not about to cry, are you?” Jiang Ran spoke, noticing her own hoarse voice. “Dan Chong just fell, not died, so pull yourself together—”
She looked around at the gathered crowd.
“Come on, everyone, calm down. Can’t you guys stop being so gloomy?”
She cursed a bit, and the group slowly regained their composure, some of them who were closer to Dan Chong began discussing booking flights to Changbai Mountains.
Jiang Ran personally arranged a flight for Zhao, who had lost all sense of direction and couldn’t think straight, departing from Guangzhou in two hours and landing in Changbai Mountains.
After pushing and coaxing Zhao, who had completely lost it, into a taxi along with other snowboarders also booked on the same flight, Jiang Ran leaned into the taxi window frame and said to the person inside, “When Dan Chong is okay, tell him I said hi.”
The words “when he’s okay” sounded like a beautiful wish and a heartfelt prayer, once again bringing tears to the eyes of the group of tough guys.
After seeing off the restless teenagers, Jiang Ran finally remembered she had left two beginner snowboarders on the slope…
She turned back to the ski area and, passing a full-length mirror, instinctively glanced at her reflection, only to realize how terrible her face looked.
Her palms had crescent-shaped marks from her fingernails digging in.
She took a deep breath, adjusted her face mask, put on her helmet, and entered the ski area.
…
The two teenagers she had left behind had already been sitting on a bench at the bottom of the slope for a while, each occupying one end of the bench with their backs to each other, not speaking to each other at all…
From their posture, passersby wouldn’t even know they knew each other.
Jiang Ran entered the ski area but didn’t rush to take them for another run. She turned to Song Die and said that today’s lesson wouldn’t be counted toward the session fee.
As soon as she said that, the person who had been sitting with his back to Song Die immediately looked up from his phone, that accusing look of betrayal appeared again. Although his facial expressions were somewhat hidden by the face mask, he chose to express his feelings through words: “I knew it would come to this eventually.”
Jiang Ran didn’t even bother to acknowledge him. She grabbed him from the chair and whispered, “Come on, let’s go buy some protective gear.”
Without waiting for him to react, she had already turned and left the ski area herself.
Bei Jiao was a bit taken aback by her impulsive decision, not even having the chance to ask “What happened?” He just clicked his tongue, pushed his snowboard closer to Song Die’s side, signaling him to watch it, and followed the woman out—
When he exited the ski area, Jiang Ran was already far ahead.
He quickly caught up, tapped her shoulder, and when she ignored him, he circled around to face her… placing his hands behind his head, walking backward, curiously leaning down to look at her face and ask, “What’s wrong?”
Jiang Ran was also wearing a face mask and just glanced at him without speaking, then pushed him aside, indicating he should not block her way.
—She had forgotten that Bei Jiao was the type who would not give up until he got what he wanted.
He closely followed her, bending over again, approaching her ear from behind: “Why suddenly the urgent need to buy me protective gear? Did you know the person who got hurt earlier? I heard from passersby that a famous park rider got injured after crashing into a tree during training—”
He was still recounting the information he had heard.
Suddenly, the person walking ahead stopped abruptly, and he couldn’t brake in time, almost colliding with her back and bouncing back!
She turned around forcefully, raised her hand, and was about to roughly pinch his mouth shut: “You’re so noisy.”
Bei Jiao didn’t dodge. Although he felt some pain from her grip, he just kept his mouth pinched and stared at her for a moment…
Then he used one hand to hold her wrist, applying a force much gentler than the playful tugs they usually exchanged.
He pulled her wrist away and asked, “Who was that person to you?”
His tone was very calm.
Jiang Ran blinked: “Just someone I know.”
“Then why do you look like you’re about to cry?” Bei Jiao asked. “Don’t you want to go take a look in the mirror?”
She scowled and yanked her wrist free from his hand.
Not until the two of them walked one after the other into the ski shop did Bei Jiao, who was behind her, hear her speak in a low voice, almost drowned out by the surrounding noise: “I just don’t want anyone else getting hurt right in front of me.”
Bei Jiao thought for a moment and smartly asked, “Again?”
From what he heard, the injured rider was hurt in Changbai Mountains, not in front of her, so he felt that her “again” must refer to someone else.
However, Jiang Ran did not answer his question.
She just silently picked up a pair of one-piece protective pants similar to Song Die’s, chose a size, and handed it to him… nodding toward the changing room, indicating him to go change.
Bei Jiao’s gaze lightly swept over her somewhat pale face.
For the first time, he unusually didn’t protest with “I don’t want to wear the same as Song Die,” but obediently took the item, looked at her deeply, and simply said “Wait,” before turning into the fitting room.
A few minutes later, Bei Jiao walked out wearing the protective gear. He felt like his entire body was being constricted; the gear was tight, wrapping around his muscles from all directions. He had the illusion that even lifting his legs became difficult…
It made him feel—
How to put it?
Very elastic.
He wanted to express his thoughts on wearing protective gear for the first time, but Jiang Ran was sitting silently nearby, not even glancing at him, as if she had developed a deep interest in a dusty helmet in the corner that no one wanted to buy.
He walked over and gently tugged at a strand of her hair.
She didn’t even swat his hand away. She just felt his approach, didn’t look at him, and directly stood up like a zombie and walked to the checkout counter—
Bei Jiao stood there, watching the strand of hair slide off his fingers, his frown slowly deepening as he stared at her back.
A Huang: “The protective gear is 700 yuan after discount, Alipay or WeChat?”
“WeChat.”
Jiang Ran said, opened the Alipay interface, and handed it over.
A Huang held the WeChat scanning machine, stared at the blue payment code interface, hesitated for a moment.
Bei Jiao stood behind Jiang Ran, expressionlessly extended his own phone’s WeChat payment page. At the same time, he casually moved the woman blocking the checkout counter aside to an empty space.
After leaving the ski shop, Jiang Ran walked ahead.
Bei Jiao awkwardly followed behind, still feeling a bit strange with the hard padding around his butt after wearing the gear, repeatedly touching his backside… but he retracted his hand, thinking that such a movement in public wasn’t very elegant.
It was hard not to be able to express his feelings about wearing the gear.
The person who could listen to his feelings was walking beside him, but unusually silent.
The two stood again at the entrance of the ski resort. Bei Jiao raised his hand to push the door open, and as the woman slipped through the door he had opened under his arm, he couldn’t help calling her out: “If you’re not feeling well, maybe we should go back today.”
Upon hearing this, Jiang Ran finally turned around, only giving him a casual glance and indifferently saying, “Not feeling well? Does it make a difference?”
She gave a slight, almost mocking laugh: “I could teach you even in my sleep.”
Bei Jiao thought to himself, That’s not what I meant at all, you know?
Maybe you should go take a look in the mirror. That smile just now looked like a female ghost climbing up from under the Naihe Bridge.
…
Jiang Ran didn’t take Bei Jiao and the others to the advanced slopes again. They returned to the relatively gentler intermediate slopes to teach Bei Jiao how to switch edges.
“Edge switching, from front edge to back edge, is essentially a rolling movement of the entire body applying pressure.”
Jiang Ran looked at Song Die, “When you started, you still used the V-stance. I told you, edge switching is lifting one foot and pressing down with the other, using the deformation under your feet so that the board has a brief traverse, naturally allowing you to turn around.”
Song Die: “Right.”
Jiang Ran: “Forget it.”
Song Die: “…”
“Now I want you to understand the principle: ride the board, don’t try to twist it. Use the board’s deformation to switch edges. For example, when you’re on the front edge—”
She folded her body, lowered her center of gravity, and lightly brushed her hand over the snow surface, easily carving a perfect front edge across the slope, stopping halfway down.
“At this point, when you’re halfway through the front edge, I want you to stand up from your folded position.”
Jiang Ran stood up straight on the snowboard. “At first, the movements need to be exaggerated so I can see them clearly—fold, stand up—this movement will directly affect your pressure application during the beginner phase… Then immediately fold again into the basic posture of a back edge leaf drift and apply pressure to the back edge.”
“But at this point, the front edge is only halfway done,” Bei Jiao asked, “so you apply pressure to the back edge?”
“Yes, this is called an early edge change.”
She adjusted her snowboard’s position and carved halfway through the front edge again—only this time, as soon as she completed half of the front edge, she stood up, then assumed the basic posture of a back edge.
At this point, the snowboard still had speed, continuing in the original front edge direction, but not for long, because the pressure had already shifted to the back edge, so naturally the board began to turn towards the back edge!
No need to twist the snowboard excessively or make unnecessary movements. Just as she said, ride the board. When the pressure changes, the board naturally responds with a change in trajectory.
A standard arc S-turn appeared on the slope. She effortlessly switched from the front edge to the back edge, completing a full edge change!
Bei Jiao stared at it, feeling like he roughly understood, but wasn’t sure he could do it himself.
Jiang Ran clapped her hands, signaling them to take turns—
She maintained a posture facing uphill, pushing the slope with the front edge, and crossed her arms watching the two of them flounder.
“Don’t bend over, don’t think about touching the snow,” her voice was somewhat stern. “You both lead with your right foot, so when sliding on the front edge, naturally bend your left hand forward, don’t raise your right hand, place your hand on your front binding!”
Placing the back hand on the front binding is a fundamental technique in carving front edges, effectively preventing bad habits like bowing the head, bending over, or sticking out the butt. Once the back hand is placed on the binding, the entire shoulder follows and sinks down, avoiding exaggerated movements.
It’s common to see carvers instinctively place their back hand on the front binding while on the slopes.
Jiang Ran faced uphill, her back to the slope below as she edged forward on her frontside edge, watching Beijiao and Song Die practice. Her mood was sour, and her tone reflected it.
“He’s up! As soon as you finish half the frontside edge, stand up and switch to the basic stance on your backside edge. Don’t overdo it on the edge! Song Die! You’re late too!” she called out while slowly edging downward, correcting them.
At this moment, naturally, she couldn’t see what was happening downhill. Just as she was about to remind Beijiao again to keep his back hand near the binding and not move around, she suddenly heard a scream.
Startled, she instinctively stepped on her edge for an emergency brake, but it was already too late. A skier learning parallel turns was sliding rapidly toward her from the side—his left foot forward, so he was riding his backside edge and couldn’t see anyone behind him. By the time Jiang Ran reacted, the collision was inevitable due to their remaining speed.
With a loud “thud,” Jiang Ran heard her snowboard hit the other person’s board not too harshly.
Her body reflexively lunged forward, and she fell onto the snow.
It didn’t hurt.
But rear-ending someone while skiing meant it was entirely her fault. Although the other person hadn’t controlled their speed or ensured their path was clear, since she had hit him from behind, the responsibility was hers.
“Sorry about that, I was distracted for a second. Are you okay?” she said, brushing snow off her face guard as she tried to get up and check on him.
Before she could finish, she heard an especially harsh curse from the front.
“What kind of skiing is that! Can’t you see there’s someone ahead? If you’re pushing uphill, do it off the slope! And you even teach others how to ski!” The scolding came out of nowhere, leaving Jiang Ran momentarily stunned.
Blinking in confusion, she looked up and realized the one approaching was a skiing instructor often seen at the Guangzhou Rongchuang ski resort. This guy, Mr. Yang, wasn’t particularly skilled but had a notorious reputation.
When he had no business, he liked to hang around with someone he knew, pretending to be a beginner, using an expensive board to stage collisions and extort compensation money.
Over time, everyone started avoiding him.
Today, Jiang Ran was distracted and didn’t notice this guy waiting on the intermediate slope to make some extra cash.
Sure enough, when she turned around, she saw he was using the Gray MACH, known in Chinese as “Mach.” This board was one of Gray’s top and most famous models, with a black base, black tree shadows, and a white background with a round head. It was a dream board for parallel turns and carving, offering enough stiffness for carving and great elasticity for jumps.
Of course, the price was also impressive. Originally priced at 9980 yuan, due to its popularity among experts in recent years and its excellent marketing effect, it suddenly became hard to find one day.
Even before the snow season, snowboard reservations typically came with an 80% discount, but the MACH was an exception. During the pre-sale period, it started selling at a premium, with the golden length version reaching 12,000 yuan during pre-orders.
No matter where you went to buy it—through Gray’s agents, sponsored skiers, or any major snow equipment retailers—it was always at a premium, and no one could help you get it cheaper.
Right now, the so-called beginner who was inexplicably stepping on a board worth over ten thousand yuan was still pretending to be heartbroken, crying out, “My board! It’s brand new! I just took the plastic wrap off last week, and now you’ve dented it!”
He pointed to a small gouge on the metal edge of the backside.
Jiang Ran squinted and leaned closer to see just a tiny dent, not very noticeable… but it was possible she had indeed hit it.
She resigned herself to the situation.
Before she could say anything, Beijiao and the others arrived. Since he wasn’t very nimble on his skis, he quickly pushed himself over when he heard a grown man crying and wailing in front of Jiang Ran.
“What’s going on?” he asked directly.
His tone was icy.
Wearing a helmet and face guard, his features were obscured, but his exposed black eyes were sharp and cold. His presence alone exuded an invisible pressure.
He was the type who could easily dominate with his aura when he threw a tantrum or acted spoiled.
Compared to Beijiao’s cold rigidity, Song Die was more composed, politely asking the skier who had been hit, “What happened? Did you get hurt?”
The scammer was a seasoned pro. Initially startled by Beijiao’s icy attitude, he quickly recovered when Song Die asked and refused to speak to Beijiao, latching onto Song Die like a lifeline: “Yeah, your coach was too busy watching you guys and didn’t notice my student coming over! We collided! You know it’s entirely her fault for rear-ending me while skiing… This board got a dent on the edge, and it’s brand new!”
He ranted on and on, and Jiang Ran was getting increasingly annoyed. She interrupted him, “How much do you want?”
She just wanted him to stop talking nonsense. If she had known it was them from the start, she wouldn’t have even apologized initially!
How many people had they scammed for “compensation” at the indoor ski resort? Last year, they even faced a joint boycott by certified coaches. She was so fed up with them!
Sure enough, when he heard this, the scammer’s eyes lit up, and he held up two fingers.
Jiang Ran didn’t want to waste any more time. She took off her gloves and reached for her phone to transfer money, but suddenly, Beijiao, who had just arrived, grabbed her elbow as she reached into her pocket.
He had somehow already taken off his skis.
He forcibly pulled her half-stretched hand out of her pocket, pushed her behind him, bent down to examine the other person’s ski board, stood back up after a while, and said emotionlessly, “A little dent like this? I can weld it back in three seconds with a welding gun. You’re asking for two hundred? That’s highway robbery?”
Song Die looked at him in confusion.
Jiang Ran covered her face.
The coach’s eyes widened in shock: “Two hundred?”
This counter-question clearly stunned Beijiao even more. Under his face guard, you could feel his icy expression: “What do you mean? Do you want two thousand?”
“This board cost twelve thousand! You dented it and only want two hundred!”
“So what? Twelve thousand? If you scratch a car worth hundreds of thousands on the street, it’s still just two hundred.”
“You… that’s sophistry! You wouldn’t understand. Let your coach explain—Jiang Ran, we all know each other around here. You know how much the MACH costs and you know the compensation rules here!”
By now, quite a few people had gathered around. Coincidentally, most of the people Jiang Ran knew weren’t around today; a few had just left for the airport heading to Changbai Mountain…
Most of the onlookers were just there for the show.
Beijiao blocked Jiang Ran from moving, turned around, and stared at her intensely, as if using his eyes to confirm whether he should take action.
If she nodded, he could tear these two apart.
Song Die, who recognized the board and knew it was expensive, also thought that two thousand for such a minor scratch was a bit unreasonable… he looked like he wanted to say a few soft words to see if they could reduce the compensation.
The two of them sandwiched her tightly in the middle.
But today had already been stressful enough, and Jiang Ran wasn’t in the mood to waste any more time. She took out her phone, found a group chat that included most of the Guangzhou Rongchuang挂牌 coaches, and transferred two thousand yuan to this person.
As soon as she did this, the group chat exploded.
Everyone sent out “…” and someone sarcastically commented that Director Yang had struck gold again?
The person pretended not to see the chain reaction, thick-skinnedly took the phone, quickly tapped to accept the payment, threw out a “Watch where you’re going next time,” and quickly left with his so-called student—
Before leaving, he even glanced warily at Beijiao.
…
Beijiao was heartbroken over the two thousand yuan, thinking Jiang Ran was being unreasonable.
But seeing her look so dispirited, the words of scolding that reached his mouth couldn’t come out at all, almost choking him.
At noon, they were tired from skiing, and Jiang Ran wasn’t in a good mood, so they decided to go home for lunch.
Before leaving, Jiang Ran changed clothes, huddled in a corner, played with her phone, and didn’t know who she was talking to or was just absentmindedly scrolling through a short video app.
Beijiao couldn’t stand her listless look, took off his face guard, removed his jacket, wore the black hoodie underneath, changed into jeans, walked in front of her, and confiscated her phone.
Jiang Ran: “?”
Beijiao: “I’m going to the restroom. What do you want for lunch? I’ll cook.”
Jiang Ran: “?”
Seeing she didn’t react for a while, he mocked her with a smirk, threw out, “If I were them, I’d ask you for twenty thousand. Anyway, you’d pay,” then threw the phone into her arms and angrily turned around to leave.
…
When Beijiao entered the restroom, there was no one inside.
As he was unzipping his pants to urinate, two familiar voices talking and laughing entered from outside—
“Today was really lucky to meet someone who wasn’t paying attention!”
“Ah, Old Yang, you’re really brave! She had two people with her! The one who came later was okay, but the one who came first was super scary! I was a bit scared too!”
“What’s there to be afraid of? She’s a cooperative coach at Guangzhou Rongchuang. It’s not in her interest to stir up trouble without compensation! If she pushes it, I’ll escalate it to her club! I’ll make sure she loses a few sponsors!”
“Hahaha, you’re really ruthless!”
The two entered the restroom, paused slightly when they saw someone inside, but since the person was wearing a black hoodie and only looked vaguely familiar in figure, they didn’t recognize who it was…
They treated him as a complete stranger, exchanged a smile, didn’t take him seriously, and continued chatting—
The person who had just hugged his board and cried bitterly now had a radiant face saying, “You’re really ruthless! Asking for two thousand yuan at once! Wow, two thousand! Where can an ordinary person get that kind of money so easily!”
“Haha, that’s because I sized it up correctly! Others don’t have money, but that’s Jiang Ran! Don’t you know how rich Jiang Ran is? Her car alone is worth over three million!” Mr. Yang laughed, “I saw her looking distracted outside the ski resort today, so I knew she must be affected by the incident with Shan Chong today—”
“What happened? Are they close? Aren’t they all gone to Changbai Mountain?”
“Not close, just acquainted,” said Mr. Yang, “You think what? These days, information is the most important thing. Information is money! You know, before, there were only two people sponsored by BC in China, one was Jiang Ran, and the other was a girl who often skied with her, something like ‘Shuang’… Well, after one winter, that person never appeared again.”
“Eh? What happened?”
“Who the hell knows the details? I heard she broke her leg in a foreign mountain—Anyway, that’s not the point. The point is she’s a woman, she has money, and we’re not helping the poor here, how can we justify it?”
The two let out strange laughter.
They were just about to unzip their pants to urinate when they suddenly heard the sound of the faucet behind them. They turned around and saw the man who had just finished urinating washing his hands there. As if feeling their gaze, he lifted his eyelids slightly and glanced back at them through the mirror.
Other than being chilled by that pair of narrow black eyes, they thought this person was just being weird…
Unconcerned, they turned their gaze back and prepared to take care of their business.
Just as their hands touched their waistbands, not even having time to unbuckle—
Suddenly.
In an instant.
Both felt a chill at the back of their necks. The next second, a big hand on each side grabbed their necks with tremendous force, slamming them directly against the wall!
Caught completely off guard, they couldn’t even scream before their faces heavily hit the cold tiles of the restroom wall—
In intense pain, they struggled frantically, but the person behind them was too strong. Their necks were tightly gripped by wet hands from washing, easily pinning them against the wall, immobilizing them!
Cold water dripped from his fingers into their collars.
Their faces pressed against the wall were distorted, far from their smug expressions from a moment ago.
Their hearts pounded wildly in their chests, confused and terrified, unable to figure out who they had offended.
“The woman just transferred you how much money? Now give it all back to me, not a penny less.”
His voice was low.
It sounded casual but carried a hint of almost imperceptible ruthlessness.
“Don’t dawdle. Don’t make me wait. Grandpa doesn’t have that habit or patience… Got it?”
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage