It was indeed snowing outside.
The snow was heavy. Unlike the romantic image of soft, feather-like snowflakes drifting down, these snowflakes seemed to clump together into shapeless, soft white balls falling from the sky.
The snowflakes slipped into her collar, quickly melting from body heat, the icy water trickling down her neck and back, reminding her of the warm, soft lips that had just moments ago seemed to press against her artery.
Jiang Ran shivered silently, tightened her coat, and blankly lifted her head to gaze at the dark night sky, watching the white mist of her breath crystallize into frost.
The old snow hadn’t yet been cleared away, and already a new layer had covered the corridor outside. On the swing nearby, which should have been buried in snow, sat a person swinging back and forth in the middle of the night, making the swing creak.
Jiang Ran hesitated for three seconds before walking over.
Hearing the uneven footsteps in the snow, the person on the swing lifted her head, looked at the woman staggering toward her, and then coldly turned her gaze away.
Jiang Ran stopped in front of her and asked, “Got a smoke?”
Only then did she realize how hoarse her voice sounded.
The swing stopped. Qiu Nian felt in her pockets, pulled out a pack of cigarettes, lit one, and handed it to her. As she leaned against the swing and took a puff, she coughed and said, “Are you sick? Mint cigarettes in the middle of winter?”
Qiu Nian, puzzled by the sudden scolding, twitched the corner of her mouth, “Did I force it on you? With a personality like yours, how have you survived this long?”
After her retort, she was surprised when the woman beside her fell silent.
The woman’s clean, pale fingers held the cigarette. In the darkness, the glowing ember illuminated her beautiful face intermittently, her long lashes fluttering in the snow and wind.
“What did you do this time?” Qiu Nian asked. “If I’m not mistaken, were you just kicked out of your own room?”
“…”
Jiang Ran was already in a bad mood. Now, having her secret so bluntly exposed made her not only annoyed but also embarrassed. Frustrated, she stubbed out the cigarette and muttered almost to herself, “Nothing.”
The swing began to sway slowly again. Qiu Nian let out a loud, mocking laugh.
That laugh made Jiang Ran’s shoulders shrink.
Unlike her usual demeanor in front of outsiders, in front of old friends and relatives, Jiang Ran seemed to return to her former self—she wasn’t some revered snowboarder anymore, didn’t have to speak with arrogance, and when she did something stupid, they would mock her without restraint—
just like now.
Throwing away the stub, Jiang Ran’s fingers carried a faint scent of tobacco. The swing was directly across from her room. She saw her door open and close, then saw a tall, young figure step out, pause on the corridor, and then head toward the cabin where Bei Jiao and Song Die stayed.
The sound of brief conversation between boys came from the cabin door, followed by another door closing. The world fell silent once more.
Perhaps it was too cold, or maybe something else, but Jiang Ran tightened her coat, sniffled, and her eyes reddened.
Lost in inexplicable sadness, she turned her head and noticed Qiu Nian watching her.
“Did your apprentice… force you?”
The wording was very neutral and restrained, both in tone and degree.
Jiang Ran was stunned, her eyes briefly flashing with embarrassment and panic.
Qiu Nian turned her gaze away and snorted, “I noticed it back then in the car—don’t you know to reapply lipstick after someone kisses you?”
Shame surged to the edge of a cliff, giving her the illusion that she was regressing. Now, cornered by a mere kid, she had fled in disgrace—
and then mocked by a once-abandoned friend.
She couldn’t go on living like this.
“Just like you used to?”
The words slipped out instinctively. When she saw the smile on Qiu Nian’s lips fade, she regretted it slightly.
They both simultaneously recalled some not-so-pleasant memories.
Actually, the story was quite simple.
It was two months after Lin Shuang’s death. Jiang Ran was in a terrible state—unable to eat or sleep, every time she closed her eyes, she saw Lin Shuang’s final moments. On the stretcher, Lin Shuang’s eyes were closed, short hair stuck to her forehead, and blood had dripped all the way across the white snow…
There was no dramatic, romantic farewell like in TV dramas.
Instead, there was only the stretcher being pulled from the ice hole, rushing rescuers, helicopters, and snowmobiles. Among countless rescuers in vests, Jiang Ran was pushed aside, unable to get close.
She thought, in Lin Shuang’s final moments, she must have seen it—her hand hanging weakly from the stretcher, swaying limply in the air.
For two months, Jiang Ran barely left her room, losing weight, hiding inside either smoking or staring blankly.
She had never been much of a smoker.
That day, after carefully reading through all of Lin Shuang’s social media posts from five years ago, she found she had run out of cigarettes. She didn’t want to order takeout because the delivery person would always call to say they had arrived, and she didn’t want to talk to anyone.
Going out for the first time in a while, she ran into Qiu Nian and Li Xingnan in the living room.
Li Xingnan was Lin Shuang’s boyfriend, and Qiu Nian was Ah Ju’s girlfriend. Ah Ju and Qiu Nian were both friends of Lin Shuang.
Li Xingnan had Qiu Nian pinned against the water dispenser, hand gripping her chin, and they were kissing.
Jiang Ran smiled at them, nodded, and in a hoarse voice said, “Great job. You guys rock.”
The next day, she moved out of the shared apartment. A six-year friendship collapsed dramatically amid strange betrayals and bizarre, unconventional relationships.
All of it started with a single cigarette.
It was really absurd.
Snowflakes landing on her nose brought her back to the present. Jiang Ran blinked, sniffed the lingering mint tobacco scent on her fingers, and really wanted to ask Ah Ju if she was still tangled up with these two—had they achieved some kind of transcendental harmony beyond human comprehension?
Perhaps her expression was too obvious.
Qiu Nian gave the swing a slight push and looked at Jiang Ran, saying, “Li Xingnan and Lin Shuang had already broken up almost a year before she passed.”
Jiang Ran blinked, not yet reacting, when Qiu Nian continued, “Me and Ah Ju too… Actually, Lin Shuang and Ah Ju got together first.”
At this, Qiu Nian also fell into memory, her tone nostalgic yet mildly resentful.
“That’s why Ah Ju used to mock you and Lin Shuang for having good luck—she didn’t understand anything, while you always wanted to act on what you thought—you practically broke up with Li Xingnan the next day after realizing you didn’t like him. They had been together since high school, five or six years, and the breakup only took five or six minutes.”
“Boring, dull, old-fashioned. I can’t even get turned on looking at that poker face. I can’t imagine what it would be like if our future kids had this face teaching them math.”
That was how Lin Shuang described Li Xingnan.
Thinking of this, Qiu Nian chuckled, but the smile soon disappeared from her lips, and her hands gripping the swing silently tightened.
But who didn’t miss Lin Shuang?
Everyone missed her dearly.
Qiu Nian’s words left Jiang Ran at a loss for words. For her, tonight had been full of surprises.
Jiang Ran was already unsure whether she should even worry about her own problems. She looked down at Qiu Nian, trying to find any hint that the woman was making it up, but there was nothing.
The woman on the swing smiled at her.
“Lin Shuang didn’t let us tell you because she was afraid you’d make this face… She said you’d definitely be shocked to death.”
“…No one told me,” Jiang Ran struggled to accuse. “No one ever explained it to me afterward either.”
“Did you ask? You didn’t ask. You moved out the next day and blocked us all on the third. We have pride too. Did you expect us to keep sending friend requests three times a day?” Qiu Nian said expressionlessly. “Or should we have had Zhao Kehan tell you: don’t be mad, your friends completed a partner swap over a year ago?”
…Partner swap.
What a powerful phrase.
Jiang Ran hurriedly looked up at the cabin, thinking she might have been better off staying inside—
what does “between a rock and a hard place” mean?
Exactly this.
The swing swayed. The woman sitting on it stood up, lightly patting the snow off her shoulders and butt. She glanced briefly and casually at the stunned person in front of her.
“Otherwise, do you think Ah Ju cries when mentioning Lin Shuang just for fun? Have you ever seen him cry before?”
“…”
“She protected you too much. Who in their twenties knows nothing about men and women and only focuses on snowboarding techniques?”
She raised her hand again, brushing snow off Jiang Ran’s shoulder.
“And thank that mutt, otherwise I wouldn’t know how to bring this up with you… Li Xingnan always says that recalling that day in the living room, he feels like he showed a kid some porn.”
Jiang Ran: “…”
Qiu Nian waved at her.
“Just add me on WeChat later and accept the request.”
Then she stuffed her hands into her pockets, stepped on the snow, followed the footprints Jiang Ran had left, and walked away without looking back.
Leaving Jiang Ran alone.
In the freezing cold below zero, she sat on the swing in the snow for an hour, completely lost in thought.
…
Eventually, Bei Jiao came to pick her up.
Before that, Bei Jiao had been in his room, leaning by the window, watching the woman sit on the swing alone for an hour.
During that hour, the snow never stopped. At first, she was warm, but eventually, she was covered in snow, almost blending into the silver-white background. Then Bei Jiao went out.
“You told me earlier in the room that you’ve had dozens of relationships and that I’m not your type,” he said, standing calmly in front of the swing. “But now you’re scared by a confession from someone three years younger than you and sat here in the snow for an hour?”
If he hadn’t come out, she might have stayed there all night.
“…”
Jiang Ran couldn’t even remember what nonsense she had said to Bei Jiao before leaving her room.
Looking up, she saw the tall teenager standing in front of her, his expression and voice equally calm, even his mocking manner seemed cute.
……………………………… Compared to the other four lunatics.
She stood up, but her legs were frozen stiff, so she stumbled forward, almost as if she had intentionally thrown herself into his arms—
The teenager, who had been standing upright a moment ago, timely extended his arms to catch her, letting all the snow on her body smear onto his black hoodie. Soon, it melted from his body heat, leaving only a large wet stain.
It was rare to see her so disheveled.
So rare that, as he held her waist with less-than-pure intentions, she seemed not to notice, and even when he secretly kissed her hair, she reached out and hugged his waist from behind.
He had been a little angry.
But now, miraculously, it had subsided.
When he walked out of the cabin, he had vowed to discipline or mock her severely, but now, holding her and feeling her shiver in his arms…
He couldn’t tell if it was from the cold or something else.
So he could only sigh: “I won’t pressure you. Go home and think about it, then give me your answer.”
In the cold wind, he seemed to hear a soft, trembling “mm” from her, perhaps even a polite “thank you.”
But when he tried to make sense of it, the sound quickly dispersed in the wind, and everything seemed like an illusion.
…
Soon, Bei Jiao regretted his moment of compassion.
Mainly because Jiang Ran started running a high fever on the flight back to Guangzhou that day… After landing, she barely managed to accept three friend requests before curling up in her blanket and sleeping for days.
Bei Jiao skipped a day of class to take care of her, confirming she wouldn’t kill herself before returning to school.
Originally thinking that when she woke up, she would give him an answer, but she didn’t—
The snow in Xinjiang hadn’t cleared her head. She simply vanished, leaving no trace in Guangzhou Rongchuang for a whole month.
Bei Jiao this time was also determined not to chase after her for contact. If she ignored him, he would also act as if he had his own things to do, focusing on his studies and making money.
Since his accidental overnight fame in Xinjiang, various people kept approaching him for lessons.
Regarding this, Bei Jiao was very calm, telling them all: “Can’t you tell it’s not me?”
They didn’t care, firmly believing that even if it was Jiang Ran, there was a saying: “A great teacher produces outstanding students.”
He knew he was talented. According to the same skill level, it was equivalent to someone who had been snowboarding for three or four years. Originally, teaching basic carving techniques would have been no problem, but he only accepted students learning basic sliding.
If there were students, he would go to Guangzhou Rongchuang.
However, he hadn’t seen any familiar figures at Guangzhou Rongchuang.
Until one day in mid-November, returning from the study room, he washed up and, lying on his bed, unusually opened a short video app, scrolled through two videos, and the system pushed a new video from a missing person—
The background was an unfamiliar indoor snow park. On the advanced slope, the woman slid down rapidly from the top, each carving movement as standard as if taken straight from the book “How to Carve Beautifully.”
The caption read: “Winter is coming. Are you ready?”
Lying on the bed, one hand behind his head, the boy snorted in disbelief: “So, she seems to be in a good mood?”
The video had over 3,000 likes and hundreds of comments within half an hour.
“I’m increasingly convinced that the Xinjiang mutt was actually Sister Ran.”
【Didn’t you notice the new sponsor after Xinjiang?… Dual snowboard sponsorship, still don’t get it?】
【Damn it, I can’t believe Jin Xingnan lost to Jiang Ran! When will men stand up again, huh?!】
Among them, Old Smoke also left a comment.
【CK, Smoke: Where is Sister Ran?】
【BC, GrayDa Ran Ran replied @CK, Smoke: Harbin.】
Bei Jiao: “…”
If they were still communicating normally, Bei Jiao might have suggested she go to the U.S.
What’s the point of going to Harbin? If she wanted to run away, the U.S. was much farther.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage