Beijiao had read quite a few melodramatic romance novels.
…Mostly because he wanted to save the few cents for a membership fee while playing games or watching TV, and was forced to watch novel advertisements—according to his memory, in those novels, the heroine was always pinned on the sofa by the male lead, kissed until her face turned red, her waist held tightly.
Back then, he always scoffed at such scenes. What was there to get flustered about? Wasn’t the man forcing her—
Now he understood.
Being a confused, weak, pitiful, and helpless female lead was actually so delightful—you just had to sit there, not even needing to do anything proactive, and fragrant kisses would still come right to you…
Their lips and tongues entwined, drawing saliva from each other’s mouths. Back then, anyone would have thought such behavior was unimaginable, but now, thinking back, it was actually the past ignorance that seemed more unimaginable—
Meeting someone who changes the rhythm of your heartbeat, whose single glance can make you secretly happy all day long—this must be the kind of affection that makes you want to devour him entirely.
Even if her tongue went numb from kissing, it didn’t matter.
At this moment, the tongue didn’t have to be used for eating; it could just be used for kissing, so it was okay if it was sacrificed for kissing (nonsense).
The kiss that Beijiao defined as “the most unforgettable kiss of his life” and currently held the championship title lasted for quite some time. During this time, he didn’t know where to put his hands…
Thinking back later, he should have grabbed her waist to appear more masculine.
But he didn’t.
Because his brain had already left home.
When Jiang Ran gently grabbed the back of his head, pulling his short hair, and bit his lower lip as the finale, the two separated, and she saw his probably slightly flushed eyes due to excessive excitement and oxygen deprivation…
She raised her hand and gently pressed the corner of his eyes, then climbed off him.
In the oppressive silence, she repeated her usual routine—sliding off the sofa, slipping on her slippers, and walking toward the impatiently urging Aju outside—but when she reached the hallway, she turned back to glance at him.
Beijiao was also watching her.
They gazed at each other for a few seconds before Beijiao suddenly blurted out inexplicably: “Even if Songbei Ski Resort announced its closure from today onward, I wouldn’t shed a single tear for it anymore.”
“Snap out of it,” Jiang Ran said expressionlessly, “Songbei Ski Resort won’t close down just because a random teenager started dating someone.”
“…Did I start dating?”
“You did.”
She said, and this time, she really walked out the door.
Leaving Beijiao sitting there like a wooden statue, his soul seemingly departed for quite a while. The dramatic plot turned his mind upside down, giving him the illusion that he hadn’t actually gotten up today and was still lying in bed.
After all, daydreaming couldn’t happen when he was awake.
…
The New Year’s Eve dinner in the evening was cooked and cleaned up entirely by Beijiao. When the Spring Festival Gala overture began, the clinking of dishes in the open kitchen also carried an indescribable cheerfulness.
Aju and Lixingnan stood nearby, trying to help, only to receive an unprecedented sentence: “No need, I can handle it.” They exchanged a bewildered and terrified glance, not knowing what could make the untamable wild dog turn into March’s gentle spring breeze.
He could even hum along to the overture melody, which was surprising given how he managed to catch the rhythm.
“Has he gone crazy?”
Qiu Nian thought about tonight when Beijiao unusually served her dishes and even apologized for his rudeness during their first meeting, her scalp tingling, “The crab leg he served me—I ate it instead of enshrining it, right?”
Jiang Ran patted her hand, her eyes still fixed on the TV, her voice calm: “Yes, I kissed him once this afternoon, and then he became like this.”
The murmuring nearby quieted down. The woman shifted her gaze sideways, looking at her wide-eyed friend with a mild expression. She raised an eyebrow: “I’m an adult, and so is he. Can’t I kiss him?”
Qiu Nian couldn’t answer, not because it wasn’t allowed—
“This afternoon, after finishing the New Year greetings calls from family, his mood wasn’t very good,” Jiang Ran tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “It’s the New Year, I didn’t want him thinking about these things all the time, so I did that.”
Qiu Nian sighed in relief: “Oh, so it was a comforting kiss—”
“Not exactly.”
“…”
“Back then, when I was emotionally unstable because of things related to you or accidentally dreaming about Lin Shuang, he was always there, doing such things,” Jiang Ran said. “So when he feels down, I should be there for him too.”
Qiu Nian sighed in relief again: “Oh, so it’s a fair exchange—”
“If you do the same to me, when you’re feeling bad, I might probably not be able to bring myself to kiss you,” Jiang Ran reminded, “Please don’t use that tone like you’re trying to copy my homework, okay? I’m scared.”
Qiu Nian: “…”
Qiu Nian: “No, I still can’t figure out how you suddenly started dating.”
Jiang Ran: “Why not? Do you want to see his face?”
Qiu Nian reflexively turned her head and immediately saw Beijiao, who had already finished washing the dishes. At this moment, he had taken off his apron, rolled up his sleeves, and was holding a fruit knife, concentrating intently as he cut an apple into six pieces, each carved into the shape of a little rabbit.
His skin was very fair, his nose tip free of blackheads, clean and poreless to the naked eye, practically flawless.
His lowered eyelashes were long and thick, trembling occasionally as his slender fingers moved the knife, his lips pale and thin, his nose straight, and his eyes narrow and elongated.
She turned to look at the male celebrities on TV. The older ones weren’t as young as him, and those close to his age might not necessarily be better looking…
But even that alone might still be dismissible with a scoff like “good looks without masculinity,” but the guy had broad shoulders, and his arms’ muscles, even without deliberate exercise, were impressively developed—
Qiu Nian’s brain “buzzed,” suddenly having some other associations.
She suddenly turned around wanting to ask Jiang Ran how far they had gone.
But seeing her calm profile, she dared not ask.
“Are you sure you like him, or are you just captivated by his good looks?”
Qiu Nian poked her waist.
“When he was talking to his mom on the phone, I could empathize with his anger, wanting to grab the phone from him and hang up when he was wasting time pretending. Before, I was indifferent to Madam Zhang, but now I sometimes maliciously wish that if she were abandoned and tired of by Jiang Huaimin, it would be the most perfect embodiment of ‘evil begets evil.'”
Jiang Ran said expressionlessly, pausing slightly, “Got it?”
Qiu Nian shook her head.
Jiang Ran: “It means that on such an important day as New Year’s Eve, I actually wanted to morally blackmail the Buddha for a man.”
Qiu Nian: “…”
“Physically,” Jiang Ran took her friend’s hand, placing it on her chest, “when I kissed him, it beat fast, so fast that if I had kissed him two more minutes, I might actually have to go to the West myself to morally blackmail the Buddha.”
“………………Oh no.”
Qiu Nian said with a decisive, despairing tone, “You like him, and not just a little.”
Jiang Ran calmly took her friend’s hand off her chest.
She didn’t seem to have any reaction to her friend’s earth-shattering conclusion.
Qiu Nian: “Can I tell Beijiao all those wonderful, love-letter-like, personally superstitious metaphors you just said?”
Maybe he’d be so happy he’d agree to cook and clean dinner until Songbei Ski Resort opens again next November.
“No.”
“Don’t you want to see him go crazy with happiness?”
“I do,” Jiang Ran thought, “But not for you to see.”
“…”
Omg.Jpg.
…
“What are you guys talking about?”
After washing the dishes and cutting the fruit, Beijiao came running to the sofa where Jiang Ran was, carrying the fruit tray. The sofa was wide, but he insisted on sitting shoulder to shoulder with her;
The heating was on full blast, and he was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, yet he still pretended to move closer, pulling the blanket covering her legs over, not covering properly, just a bit over her knees.
Jiang Ran knew his intentions clearly but didn’t expose him, crunching on the sweet and crisp apple with “crunch, crunch” sounds, letting him do as he pleased.
On TV, the Spring Festival Gala was playing a song and dance performance, with pop stars wearing festive clothes singing on stage. She listened half-heartedly to one ear while the other ear caught Qiu Nian and Beijiao arguing—
“I won’t tell you anything, why do you want to know everything?”
“I just want to know everything.” The boy sweetly said, “Ranran and I have no secrets.”
“Ugh, fine, I’ll tell you. I was discussing with Ranran what she saw in you.”
Deliberately emphasizing the pronunciation of “Ranran,” even maliciously imitating Beijiao’s sweet tone, Qiu Nian revealed an evil smile, “She said it was your young body.”
After she said that, Lixingnan, who had clearly heard their conversation, turned his head and gave her a calm, warning glance, as if to caution her not to cause trouble on New Year’s Eve.
This earned her a brazen fake smile in return.
Beijiao stretched his long legs on the edge of the table, “Oh,” his tone calm: “Isn’t that great?”
The expected furious embarrassment didn’t happen, Qiu Nian blinked in surprise.
“Well, I’ll always be three years younger than her, which is an undisputed and unchangeable fact.” He said happily, “If that’s the reason, she can keep liking me until one foot is in the coffin!”
His optimism made Qiu Nian’s smile freeze for a few seconds. She suddenly realized that no matter what she said today, she probably couldn’t affect this cheerful kid.
And after saying that, he even turned to Jiang Ran for confirmation: “Right?”
So, as Zhao Keyan once said, the terrifying thing about Beijiao wasn’t his powerful destructive force or self-management ability, but other aspects?
Jiang Ran thought back to “Harry Potter” she had watched a few years ago. There was a magical creature called a “veela” mentioned in it. Anyone with even a bit of veela blood was stunningly beautiful, irresistibly charming, and extremely good at using their innocent beauty to get whatever they wanted—
Right in front of her now.
Beijiao naturally had no idea that his behavior had already been categorized as non-human, surpassing even the green tea boys.
She raised her hand and rubbed his earlobe, watching as the originally pale earlobe turned red from her rubbing. He got warmer by the ear, wanting to snuggle closer to her, sticking even tighter…
If circumstances allowed, Jiang Ran suspected he could literally cling to her entire body.
“Aren’t you hot?” she asked curiously.
“I’m wearing short sleeves,” his tone was like “short sleeves are meant for snuggling,” “What’s hot about that?”
He grabbed her hand that was mischievously rubbing his ear, kissed her fingertip, “You didn’t answer my question yet. Will you like me until one foot is in the coffin?”
“Can you not keep thinking about my foot being in the coffin on New Year’s Eve?”
“I’m in love now,” he said, “Don’t hold that against me.”
“…”
He had already openly admitted to being love-struck. What else was there to say?
The plan to sow discord had completely failed.
Qiu Nian gave up on Beijiao and picked up her phone to play for a while. At this time, the left-behind children in the resort area had a group chat—
Some were tourists who hadn’t left yet, others were like Jiang Ran, who had a house here and weren’t in a hurry to leave. Altogether there were about a hundred people, including several staff members of the resort area, updating the outside news in real-time.
“Um, it seems like some highways are closed. Someone posted a few pictures at the airport, looking deserted enough to seem haunted… Tomorrow, it seems like the resort area will also be closed off.” She looked at the messages in the group, “No one is allowed to go in or out, and even the flash delivery from outside can’t come in anymore, saying it’s to reduce cross-regional movement of people—luckily we stockpiled enough stuff, otherwise we might starve to death.”
“What does that mean? Can’t these announcements be simpler and less pretentious… What does it mean by reducing cross-regional movement? Are we not even allowed to go out the door?” Aju asked.
“It’s not that bad. It seems like we can still move freely within the resort area. Look, there are even people in the group asking if anyone wants to play basketball.”
Qiu Nian showed them her phone.
At this time, there were no so-called closed management or non-essential outings. It was just that regional personnel movements were not allowed. Everyone was locked in their communities, entertaining themselves.
Someone even proposed playing mahjong in the group, and it was immediately responded with enthusiasm.
Others suggested organizing a basketball match, with building numbers in the community as units, the first prize being a bag of rice, reasoning that in apocalyptic times, food was the hard currency.
Aju laughed: “Shall we join? We can bring the little dog.”
Beijiao adjusted his sitting posture. He had already slouched from his originally upright position, and now his head leaned on Jiang Ran’s shoulder, his whole body like a pile of mud. Without even lifting his eyelids, he lazily said: “Forget it. If I go, what are you guys going to play?”
The self-confidence in his lazy tone made Aju click his tongue twice. Jiang Ran thought about the puppy playing basketball and nodded with a smile: “Seems like.”
“Jiang Ran, how can you be like this too!” Aju rolled his eyes.
The topic was dropped there. New topics emerged in the group chat of the resort’s left-behind children. Someone suggested building a simple park in the third phase of the community for people to play around when they were bored—
Originally, freestyle was a very street thing.
It started overseas like skateboarding. In parks, on stair railings, on a rotten tree stump, on a snow-covered staircase… everywhere became a park terrain prop. In winter, skaters could grab their snowboards and happily spend a day anywhere on the street.
Later, this game spread to China and finally flourished on the day the ski resort closed. Hearing this, Beijiao got excited and picked up his phone to check. Jiang Ran instinctively lowered his head to look at the phone screen alongside him, curious about what the group chat was discussing.
He saw that Beijiao had dozens of unread messages—many mass New Year greetings, and some personal greetings addressing him as “Bro. Bei” or “Beijiao”… Many of the senders were clearly girls. Beijiao quickly scrolled past them. “Some are students, some are classmates, from high school and university—”
He brought the phone close to Jiang Ran’s eyes. “Want to take a look? They’re basically all friend requests with a message.”
Jiang Ran shook her head but watched him randomly tap into one. Indeed, it was exactly as he described. What caught her attention more, though, was that his WeChat chat background was actually a photo of her—the background from their time in Xinjiang on Sunset Road.
A smile tugged at her lips, but she said nothing. Beijiao muttered, “Nope,” then opened his photo album, browsed for a while, and complained, “We don’t even have a couple photo,” before finally selecting a group photo from yesterday on the mountain top with dozens of people.
In the group photo, he stood behind Jiang Ran, both wearing face masks and heavily bundled up so no one could recognize each other. Jiang Ran couldn’t even spot herself at first glance.
But Beijiao, as if he had secretly looked at it countless times, precisely located the two of them and awkwardly used the phone’s built-in beautification feature to clumsily draw a heart around both his and Jiang Ran’s figures.
Then he set this inexplicable photo as his WeChat Moments background. “Look,” he showed it to her. “Official announcement.”
Jiang Ran: “…”
He accurately defined himself—he indeed had love on the brain.
After admiring his masterpiece for a while, Beijiao exited the Moments and returned to the group chat, where the discussion was heating up—
[Big Head: We can build a park. Phase three has a big escalator—start from there. I’ll bring a shovel tomorrow!]
[Coke Is Not That Good: Shovel +1. Build a platform and jump around!]
[GM: Sounds good. I was so frustrated all day today! I really want to go skiing!!]
[Star: ……………………… At this moment, I can’t help envying those who play in the park.]
[Big Head: @Star You can always practice flatland tricks anywhere there’s an open space when the season starts. Not fun enough for you?]
“Damn, thinking about it now, carving really sucks,” Qiu Nian slapped his thigh. “Why did I ever get into this stupid thing!”
Others in the group immediately resonated—
[Northern Wolf: Carving guys! Anyone up for hiking up the mountain and skiing down tomorrow? Climb all the way up A2 and slide down!]
[Second Car: …One run for the whole day?]
[Northern Wolf: Hahahahahahahahahahahah!]
Beijiao: “We can hike up!”
Li Xingnan: “You’ll die of exhaustion. Sliding down doesn’t feel like much, but actually hiking up a few kilometers with thick snow? You’ll be busy for hours.”
Jiang Ran: “I saw the nets on the slopes were removed this afternoon. No going there.”
Beijiao: “Huh?”
Jiang Ran: “What ‘huh’? I said no.”
Beijiao actually wore an expression like a large dog—pitiful and innocent. “Why not! I have a helmet! And full gear!”
Jiang Ran said nothing. Qiu Nian poked him and then furiously typed on his phone—
[Year Year: Are you kidding?! Didn’t Jiang Ran tell you before that Lin Shuang was skiing off-piste, hit a tree, fell into an ice hole, and disappeared? Don’t you remember why you got scolded back in Xinjiang?!]
Beijiao wanted to time travel back three seconds before he asked “Why.”
[Beijiao: Back in Xinjiang she just told me to respect skiing.]
[Beijiao: …Later I asked, she mentioned it once, but not in detail. I didn’t dare to ask too much.]
[Year Year: Are you out of your mind? How much more detailed does it need to be?! Want me to walk you through Lin Shuang’s entire story?!]
Beijiao put his phone away and fell silent. He stared at Jiang Ran, then at Qiu Nian, and put on a relatively obedient expression. “Okay,” he said. “No hiking up mountains. No sneaking into the woods.”
Jiang Ran glanced at his phone but didn’t ask why he suddenly changed his mind… She could guess anyway.
Qiu Nian had mercy and reminded him about Lin Shuang once again.
“Building a park in phase three is fine,” Orange said. “I’ll go help out tomorrow.”
Beijiao immediately sat up. “Me too! Phase three!”
“Too old for this stuff,” Li Xingnan waved his hand.
Jiang Ran patted the arm of the restless puppy beside her. “You can go to phase three. No mountain climbing. Got it?”
Beijiao: “Okay.”
…
Who knows how much time passed, but twelve o’clock was slowly approaching. Qiu Nian was getting drowsy and crawled onto the sofa next to Li Xingnan, curling up in his arms…
The latter casually held her waist and gently patted her back, like soothing a child.
They whispered softly to each other.
Orange, hugging a pillow, had already fallen asleep.
On TV, a comedy sketch was playing. At this moment, Jiang Ran felt her arm being tapped.
She looked down and saw the handsome face of the boy leaning against her lift up proudly, sticking out his tongue to show her—
She glanced and saw a cherry stem twisted into a ring on his tongue.
After a while, not receiving praise, Beijiao felt a little disappointed and tried to save face. “Not that hard… those people are just exaggerating,” he mumbled, about to spit out the cherry stem when suddenly he felt the person beside him lower her head.
A familiar sweet fragrance surrounded him. Her lips, warm and soft, gently enclosed his tongue.
He froze.
Nose brushing against nose, her kiss didn’t deepen—it was just skillfully taking away the cherry stem he hadn’t yet spat out. Then she gently pulled away, turned her head, and spit the cherry stem into the trash bin.
“Is this thing poisonous?” she muttered. “Why do you put everything in your mouth?”
How could something growing on an edible fruit be poisonous?
Beijiao stared at her, as if she were a monster. After a while, he still couldn’t bring himself to argue back. He just hoarsely called out, “Jiang Ran.” She turned her head back, unknowingly sitting up and leaning against her person like a spineless creature—
His face leaned closer. Amid the cheerful sounds of the Spring Festival Gala on TV, he said, “When I called home today, I kept thinking about one question.”
“Hmm?”
Didn’t you have a bad mood all day?
Where did you get this strange idea?
“Like, if my mom had gotten together with your dad early on, before they left the country, and you were still studying in China, what would happen if we met back then?”
Jiang Ran went “Ah,” slightly confused. Where did this strange scenario come from?
He heard the boy slowly say, “We might have lived under the same roof. Like, you were in high school… Oh, never mind, I was still in middle school, hadn’t even grown any hair yet.”
Jiang Ran: “…”
Beijiao discarded his previous scenario and calmly said, “When you were in college, I was still in high school—”
He might be suited to be a voice broadcaster or storyteller.
As his breath gradually drew closer, that slow, mysterious whisper easily pulled her into the story. Jiang Ran unconsciously imagined—if they had lived under the same roof much earlier, when they were both still students…
She instinctively tightened her knees under the blanket.
Looking down, she saw the person right in front of her smile. “Tell me, if that were the case, with Uncle Jiang’s personality, would you come home during the summer or winter break to tutor me—”
“Nonsense,” she interrupted, her voice slightly tense. “With how well you study, when would you ever need my help?”
“Oh. Finals are just exams. I’d intentionally fail,” he said casually. “Just so you could come into my room.”
He looked up again, gazing into her eyes.
“And then, when they were watching TV outside—”
Suddenly, the sound from the TV seemed distant, as if really separated by a wall and a door.
“I might pick you up, place you on my desk, and press you against my math test paper.”
She swallowed hard.
“And then kiss you.”
The audience on TV laughed at the comedy sketch, and for a moment, Jiang Ran seemed to really hear the parents talking behind a door, while she and her fake younger brother were squeezed at a desk, him leaning down to kiss her.
The door to the nearby room might not even be fully closed, leaving a small gap. If someone gently pushed the door, they’d discover that the so-called tutoring was completely fictional…
He leaned closer, his ear against her arm. “What’s going on, Jiang Ran?”
The boy’s dark eyes were filled with laughter. “Your heart is beating so fast.”
Amid the light laughter, he sounded like a little devil describing his strange fantasy. Jiang Ran felt her face warming up, almost embarrassed at how easily she had been swept along.
She lifted her hand and slapped his approaching paw, saying, “Shut up,” though her tone wasn’t at all harsh.
So he naturally placed his hand on her neck, rubbed against her, and gently pressed her head down. Slightly lifting his chin, he kissed her again.
Warm and moist lips entwined once more.
On TV, the crosstalk performance was playing. According to the CCTV New Year Gala schedule, this was the prelude to the arrival of midnight.
“Jiang Ran, do you like me?”
“Mm.”
“How much?”
“I think… a little more than you imagine.”
Fireworks burst outside the window, and the sound of firecrackers rang loud.
A new year had arrived.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage