Thankfully, Jiang Ran knew how to ski, could earn money, and had a wealthy father. Otherwise, given her way of doing things, she would either have been beaten to death by someone or already be rotting away in a prison cell.
After all, people who speak rudely yet act as if they’re in the right often have antisocial tendencies.
Beijiao rubbed his hand, which she had kicked, and felt somewhat angry because it genuinely hurt—
After all, skiers might not excel at other things, but their leg strength absolutely meets the requirements. Moreover, her kick had been full of genuine emotion. He almost heard his bones crack.
It nearly broke!
But before he had time to get angry, she got up from the sofa and washed cherries for him.
A bowl of bright red, plump, unusually large cherries was placed in front of him, and she forcefully shoved one into his mouth—it was neither appropriate to spit it out nor swallow it whole, so he finally bit into it reluctantly…
It was sweet. The bright red juice was incredibly fresh, and the tender skin burst at his canines, exploding with flavor.
Suddenly, he wasn’t so angry anymore.
Jiang Ran watched the boy seriously eating cherries with a solemn expression, then glanced at the empty potato chip bag in the trash can and sighed, “You can still eat after all that? Is your stomach a bottomless pit?”
Beijiao spat the cherry pit into the trash can, “Phew.” “If you didn’t have enough to eat when you were little, you’d eat a lot when you grew up too.”
Jiang Ran’s expression changed, “You didn’t have enough to eat when you were little?”
Beijiao “Ohed” and said, “I had enough to eat.”
Jiang Ran: “?”
Beijiao: “I was just talking randomly. Why would you think I didn’t have enough to eat? No matter how crazy my mom is, I’m still her biological child.”
Jiang Ran: “…”
You ask me, I ask who? Maybe it’s because at dinner earlier, if I hadn’t stopped you, you could’ve swallowed an entire package of Longkou vermicelli?
Jiang Ran sighed, looking at the teenager holding a basin of cherries with a face full of provocation clearly written as “Yes, I’m just being a nuisance,” and after a long while, suddenly without warning reached out and gently ruffled his hair.
He reacted quickly, slightly dodging his head to avoid her hand, simultaneously and effortlessly grabbing her wrist, pulling her hand to a safe distance, saying coldly, “Talk if you have something to say. Don’t touch me.”
His voice was cold and rejecting. If it weren’t for him still tightly hugging the basin of cherries she had given him, it might have been very convincing as “keeping people at arm’s length.”
Jiang Ran’s wrist was still in his hand.
Soft, as if it had no bones.
She didn’t struggle.
Even going along with his force, she softened her voice, coaxing and persuading as she asked, “Just obediently learn carving with me, okay?”
“You’re asking me? I want to know what would happen if I said ‘no’?”
Jiang Ran smiled silently at him.
He understood immediately, pursed his lips, clearly unhappy.
“You even learn to push the slope in the same direction when you push. Your mind is full of folding and low postures and snow-touching. Just recall how those who play in the park all stand in an eight-shaped stance, and when they get on the platform, they don’t stand in an open stance either—”
Beijiao had fallen into her trap from the very beginning, and regarding this, Jiang Ran felt absolutely no guilt at all. “Have you ever seen many people who stand in the same direction, ride on a carving board to fly off the platform, and grind rails?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Beijiao said expressionlessly, “anyway, my skis and bindings are rented. It’s still not too late to change now.”
Jiang Ran’s smile didn’t fade, “Buy them. I’ll take you to buy them tomorrow.”
“I’m out of money,” Beijiao, holding a basin of cherries worth at least 500 yuan, was quite incongruously counting every penny, “Today I spent 700 yuan on protective gear, 700 yuan for a pair of pants… Not a single penny left.”
Jiang Ran moved her lips slightly.
“I won’t spend your money to buy equipment again,” he quickly interrupted her, “Give up!”
“…”
Actually, the skiing community is quite large, and as more people join, the diversity of the species gradually increases… Don’t look at all the online talk every day about “gold-diggers” and “snow girls,” these discriminatory terms targeting women, as if all the troublemakers are female.
In fact, it’s all nonsense.
In various club member groups or skiing folk organization groups, stories about men who live off women are performed every day—
Last time, Jiang Ran even saw one guy who even had to wear his girlfriend’s ski clothes and shoes, yet still tried to pose as a wealthy young master, which was truly amazing.
Therefore, someone like Beijiao, who genuinely looked reluctant, fearing that every extra penny spent might be impossible to repay in the future, was indeed quite rare.
Very self-respecting.
Jiang Ran was just admiring his strong will when she suddenly felt her wrist being gently tugged again. From the crouching teenager below came a calm, even slightly condescending voice—
“Using your board might be acceptable.”
“…”
Self-respecting, but not entirely.
“My board is 157cm, bro.”
Jiang Ran retrieved her wrist, glancing down at his fingers that instinctively rubbed together after being left empty… Noticing her gaze, he paused, quickly hiding his hands behind his back.
Jiang Ran didn’t expose him, calmly shifting her gaze away.
“My board is 157cm. How tall are you, and how tall am I? Normally, the beginner board is 20cm shorter than your height, but carving boards are longer. Even if it’s a directional board, the effective edge is longer, so you can relax a bit and subtract 20cm directly. You should at least use a 163cm board.”
“Only 6cm shorter,” he said indifferently, “It won’t kill me.”
“An extra useless organ, then. It’s so hot, why don’t you wear a miniskirt?” Jiang Ran said expressionlessly, “It won’t kill you.”
Beijiao had just brought a cherry to his mouth when he heard that, and suddenly the cherry wasn’t sweet anymore.
Raising his eyebrows, he immediately got off track to argue with her, “You don’t know anything about that useless organ. You’re not familiar with it, so you have no right to speak.”
You. Are. Not. Familiar. With. It!
Jiang Ran: “…”
Why does he want to argue about every damn thing?
Back then, it might have been precisely this bullheadedness that helped him get into a prestigious university.
…
After dinner, since they couldn’t agree on buying the board and the conversation became too scattered and off-topic, the two eventually parted unhappily. Jiang Ran dug her phone out from between the sofa cushions and went back to her room for a nap.
Before sleeping, she saw a front video sent by Laoyan. Shan Chong had already been pushed into the operating room. Outside the waiting area of the operating room, besides the seemingly weary middle-aged couple, there was a crowd of young people packed tightly.
A few of them were still wearing ski suits, with expressions as if they had lost a parent.
Jiang Ran cursed them again for being ominous. If they looked so gloomy, they shouldn’t loiter in front of the operating room to block the view. Didn’t they think the family members were already annoyed enough?
Laoyan sent a pitiful voice message—
[CK, Yan: Maybe everyone is just very worried.]
[Who’s Ran Ya: With today’s advanced medical technology, if someone gets a chance to have surgery in the hospital, everything will be fine.]
Laoyan was silent for a while on the other end.
[CK, Yan: QwQ]
[CK, Yan: Ran Jie ah!]
[CK, Yan: I’m sorry! My mind was all over the place earlier and wasn’t working properly, so I forgot… Did I make you think of Shuangshuang’s incident?]
It had been many years since someone had mentioned that name so openly. Jiang Ran felt a bit dazed. She couldn’t deny that she had thought of Lin Shuang—
From the very first second she heard about Shan Chong’s accident.
But it was okay, and no one needed to apologize for that.
To Jiang Ran, the fact that Lin Shuang had once existed was not a painful memory.
…
The dream during her nap was chaotic and bizarre. When she woke up, it was already dusk outside.
She couldn’t remember the details of the dream, but Jiang Ran vaguely remembered it wasn’t a pleasant plot, which left her in a bad mood.
She was the only one left at home, and at this moment, she didn’t want to be alone.
She washed her face, randomly messaged a few people on WeChat, and an hour later, she sat behind the bar at “Wuwo” with no makeup on her face, showing no emotion… playing with an apple shaped like a little rabbit, using the pointed head of one to hit the long ears of another on the plate in front of her. Without lifting her head, she asked the teenager behind the bar who was busy wiping glasses in a bored voice, “Have you eaten?”
The person buried in wiping glasses didn’t even acknowledge her.
She didn’t care, smiling to herself, then asked again, “Do you want me to order takeout for you?”
Still, she got the cold shoulder.
When Jiang Ran thought he had decided not to speak to her tonight, after a long while, she finally heard a small voice drifting from behind the bar, “No need, I ate too much at lunch. I’ll rest for a bit.”
Jiang Ran said “Oh” without much reaction, but the bar owner was quite surprised, turning around to look up and down at Beijiao, shock written all over his face.
Before the teenager had time to get angry and throw a tantrum, his gaze turned back to the woman sitting behind the bar eating the little rabbit apple, “Do you have someone in your family working with police dogs? Is your family tradition about training dogs?”
Jiang Ran was amused by the bar owner.
The person being subtly implied to be a dog didn’t even bother to lift his eyelids.
At this moment, the bar door was pushed open, and a group of young people noisily came in, chatting and laughing. The person leading looked up, met the gaze of the woman half-turned on the bar side, his eyes lit up, and he called out, “Xiao Ran Jie.”
Only Xie Yu would call her that.
As Jiang Ran responded politely, Beijiao was arranging the cups in front of him without any courtesy, skipping even a “Welcome,” instead sincerely lamenting his own misfortune—dealing with Song Die during the day and then Xie Yu in the evening…
Would these people ever stop?
Xie Yu and his group eventually sat in the corner booth.
Beijiao placed the last cleaned cup, and from under his eyelids, a slender, fair hand extended over, the fingers slightly bent, knocking on the table in front of him.
He looked up at Jiang Ran, who smiled at him, “Three sets of ‘Monet’s Twelve Seasons Garden.'”
That set of drinks sold for 1,200 yuan. Was this woman here tonight to be the generous money god?
Beijiao kept his lips tight and didn’t speak, while the bar owner was so delighted he used his hip to push aside his stone-like, stubborn employee, “Ran Jie, I worked hard last night to create the preliminary version of ‘Liu Bowen’s Twenty-Four Solar Terms’! During the trial period, it’s 60% off, only 1,800 yuan for a set!”
“Then add another set of this,” Jiang Ran said casually, “I’ll pay for the drinks. For snacks and other bills, you can send them to Xie Yu and let them split it themselves.”
There was nothing wrong with that, after all, she had initiated the gathering.
The bar owner happily replied “Okay,” but as he turned around, he heard the server pushed aside say, “Not doing it.”
He thought he must have misheard.
He turned his head and saw Beijiao standing in the shadows behind the bar, his face dark enough to exude greenish juice… On the other side, Jiang Ran remained in her previous posture, unmoved, her emotions calm, even discussing it with him rationally.
“You forgot we agreed this afternoon to order three sets of drinks?”
“Who agreed with you?”
“I told you.”
“Did I agree?”
“Can’t you earn over a thousand yuan in commission from four sets of drinks?” Jiang Ran said while turning her gaze to the bar owner, as if confirming with him.
Of course, the latter nodded vigorously.
She turned her gaze back to Beijiao and asked again, “You don’t want the board anymore?”
He pursed his lips, as if making a firm decision, and said coldly, “No.”
Stubborn.
Jiang Ran rubbed her temples in slight frustration, trying to reason with him, “Today, these are the kids I invited. It’s normal for me to pay for the drinks… Remember last time I didn’t pay either; we split it with them.”
Beijiao didn’t bother with her. As an answer, he took away the plate of apples in front of her.
Now Jiang Ran wasn’t having it either. Why did he confiscate her rabbit? She sat up a bit, slightly narrowing her eyes, “Are you trying to start a fight?”
But this kid was completely unaffected by her threat.
For a moment, the atmosphere between the two became somewhat tense, as if it could erupt at any moment.
…
The tense atmosphere was too thick, spreading out so much that even the people in the nearby booth could sense it.
Xie Yu had been waiting for Jiang Ran to come over after ordering drinks since he entered the bar, even specially leaving a seat for her. But after waiting left and right and she didn’t come, he stood up to look for her. From afar, he heard her asking the bartender if he wanted to start a fight.
Realizing that things were developing in an unfavorable direction, he immediately felt nervous.
Looking closely, he noticed that the bartender was the teenager who had caused a ruckus on the basketball court and then left, because of whom their friendly match hadn’t continued in the second half.
Although his basketball skills were indeed very good, and he had even praised him.
But he was somewhat willful.
Xie Yu walked over like a descending god of war, his tall and sturdy figure exuding a strong sense of security as he stood behind Jiang Ran and asked her, lowering his head, “Xiao Ran Jie, what’s wrong? Do you want me to order the drinks instead?”
Whoever orders the drinks pays for them.
Upon hearing this, Jiang Ran was momentarily stunned. She turned her head and gently pushed Xie Yu lightly to indicate he should not interfere. Before she had time to speak…
Standing behind the bar, the previously expressionless little brat let out a sudden “Hmph”—laughing abruptly.
In that abrupt laughter, half of his handsome face was hidden in the shadows. He curled his lips, slightly narrowing his eyes, and smiled, “Alright then, you order.”
Jiang Ran glared at him but still pushed Xie Yu, this time whispering directly, “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it. Go quickly.”
Xie Yu had a sense of justice in his heart, thinking that Beijiao’s willful temper had once again been directed at Jiang Ran. Of course, he wouldn’t leave, standing there firmly, saying to the person who was still looking at him with a sarcastic smile, “Although I don’t know how Xiao Ran Jie offended you, but in business, one thing at a time. It’s only natural for customers to place orders when they come in. Your attitude of refusal is simply asking for a lesson.”
The bar owner nearby was almost in tears, wanting to praise him for speaking well while also wanting him to stop talking.
But Beijiao didn’t care about his nonsense at all.
His gaze swept over the woman’s hand resting on Xie Yu’s strong arm.
Lowering his eyelashes, the long lashes concealed the displeasure in his eyes.
“Asking for a lesson?”
Stepping out from the shadows, the teenager placed one hand on the bar counter, moved his neck slightly, and looked sideways at Xie Yu.
He paused for a moment, “First of all, you have no business interrupting my conversation with Jiang Ran.”
He paused again, “Even if I give you the chance, how do you plan to teach me a lesson?”
His tone was flippant.
By now, Xie Yu had been provoked.
From middle school to university, his physique and personality had ensured that no one had ever dared to confront him head-on. Now, someone had appeared who was clearly eager to challenge him…
He had no reason not to accept.
He stepped forward as well.
Xie Yu was tall and large. Ordinary thin people standing in front of him wouldn’t even make up half his volume. At this moment, although the teenager in front of him wasn’t thin, he was still enough to cover most of him in the shadow cast by his body.
Normally, at this point, the other person would already feel intimidated.
But Beijiao didn’t. In the shadows, those bright black eyes sparkled with defiance. He even lifted his chin, pointing in the direction of Xie Yu’s companions who were still sitting in the booth, unaware of what was happening—
“Women don’t count. One by one, all the men, do you want to gang up on me?”
Upon hearing this, Xie Yu’s expression completely changed. In an instant, the pressure of a habitual leader settled and spread. People nearby who were chatting and laughing felt it, the booth area quieted down a bit, and some looked in this direction.
Under such an atmosphere, Beijiao was still unaffected.
Still smirking at him without showing any fear.
And in the shadows behind the bar, his hand had already casually reached for the crystal-clear glass cups he had just cleaned and carefully arranged.
At that moment, a female voice broke the rhythm of their imminent clash.
She didn’t pay attention to Xie Yu but called his name in a slightly serious voice, “Beijiao.”
The hand that had just touched the cool glass wall paused.
Three seconds later, it retracted.
He reluctantly turned his head and met the young woman’s gaze—
She looked at him without speaking, just shaking her head at him.
It was a warning and a prohibition.
The teenager blinked.
In an instant, the sweat that had seemed to stand up on every part of his body also obediently drooped down. He turned his eyes away from her unwillingly and looked at Xie Yu instead.
He smiled lazily at the muscular, tall captain of the basketball team from another school, “You’re lucky today. Get lost.”
Xie Yu: “?”
Beijiao: “Next time, remember not to meddle in other people’s business—I’m talking to her. What’s it got to do with you?”
His voice was low, so others might not have noticed.
But as fellow young male creatures, Xie Yu could easily detect the unmistakable sense of possession in his words.
The most ridiculous part was that perhaps the one who said it hadn’t even realized it himself.
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