Jiang Ran turned her head and grabbed the nearest staff member at the scene. As the latter looked at her in bewildered confusion, she solemnly declared in the same earnest tone used when reciting the oath for joining the Young Pioneers: “Could you please emphasize in advance that no one should place their snowboards in front of me later?”
The staff member looked puzzled: “Half of the carving riders here are sponsored by Gray.”
Jiang Ran: “………………………”
Jiang Ran: “But… I can’t recognize Gray’s boards.”
The staff member appeared even more bewildered: “Aren’t you Jiang Ran?”
Jiang Ran: “I am?”
The staff member continued with a probing question: “Isn’t Jiang Ran a dual-sponsored rider for both Gray and BC?”
His words made so much sense that she couldn’t even argue.
Dejectedly dragging a chair back to her seat, she could no longer move freely since the sign-in had already begun. When she let out her eighth stifled sigh, she felt Song Song staring at her through the crowd.
Their eyes met, and Song Song silently mouthed: What’s wrong?
Jiang Ran weakly shook her head.
It seemed like Song Song wanted to remind her she could write down what happened, but then she suddenly remembered that the clipboard might be the registration form folder. A few seconds later, she froze, let out an “Oh,” and, in a very girlish manner, covered her mouth with her hand while her eyes slowly widened.
Jiang Ran thought dejectedly: You’re already shocked by just this level of association? What if you discovered that your sincere compliments were precisely received by the person you praised?
She turned her gaze away and lowered her head—
Indeed, she didn’t even have the courage to lift her head.
Soon, a staff member announced that everyone could now prepare to have their equipment checked. Contestants were to follow the order on the registration list and find any judge to have their snowboards, ski boots, and helmets inspected.
At this point, Jiang Ran naively still harbored the fantasy that Beijiao would honor their three-year agreement properly. She imagined him hugging his board and casually choosing someone he liked near the long table to affix the inspection sticker every board received—
Her fantasy was completely shattered when she heard a soft “thud” on the table in front of her. She raised her eyelids and saw the signature matte black board surface of Gray, and on it, a shiny limited-edition BC small wing sticker.
She instinctively shrank her shoulders.
Everyone present daring enough to participate in such a formal and large-scale competition was basically a well-known carving rider. Most of them had at least one or two clothing sponsorships (domestic ski apparel brands often had very lenient sponsorship criteria, practically giving them out to anyone who skied decently) to maintain their image, and their boards were plastered with colorful stickers…
But the snowboard in front of her was clean, with only this one sticker.
It had been two years. The edges of the limited-edition sticker were severely worn, with one wing already damaged, yet the remaining part stubbornly clung to the board.
Jiang Ran forced herself to shift her gaze from the sticker, but couldn’t help recalling the time she overheard Beijiao firmly rejecting a sponsorship offer from a ski bag brand behind the storage locker at Guangrong…
His short video app profile was the same—no sponsor listed, and nothing seemed amiss—
If anything was wrong, it was probably the person himself.
Jiang Ran sighed slightly in her heart, thinking about this weirdo, while pulling over the registration form, clicking her ballpoint pen, and asking in a pained voice: “Name?”
“Beijiao.”
The young man with black hair spoke in a deep, magnetic voice, like the tongue of a large feline with soft hooks licking a whetstone… his voice was captivating, involuntarily raising goosebumps on people.
Jiang Ran gripped the pen a bit tighter: “Height?”
“184.5cm.”
He had grown taller again; before, he was only 183cm.
She hoped he wouldn’t keep growing. Once a man’s height exceeds 185cm, it always felt like his physical development would take nutrients away from his brain development, like Xie Yu, who looked imposing but gave off the impression of not being very bright—
Jiang Ran wrote down the data on Beijiao’s registration form, then noted Gray Type-R in the snowboard section. When it came to the board length, she hesitated slightly, not quite remembering: “How long is your board?”
“172cm.”
His board was really wide and long.
After the initial panic, Jiang Ran had already stabilized her voice to speak normally. When she reached the last item to fill out, she looked and saw it was the ski boots—
This was another strange thing about Beijiao. According to Zhao Kexian and others, whenever he had time, he would go to Guangrong to teach lessons or practice tricks. As his popularity grew, his lessons were still 400 yuan per hour, causing people to fight for the chance to book him.
Despite having classes every day, his ski boots were still the same pair of Nitro’s BIANCA from two years ago… she didn’t know whether she should praise the brand for making such durable boots.
After filling in the ski boot model, she tapped the pen lightly on the information checklist, “Your shoe size is still 45, right?”
As soon as she said that, she felt the atmosphere around her quiet down.
She hesitated, then realized the silence came from the black-haired young man just across the table. She uncomfortably shifted in her seat, raised her head, and met his dark eyes—
He was backlit, his eyes dark under the shadow, and wearing a black mask, so in theory, she couldn’t see any emotion on his face…
Unless he was smiling.
His narrow eyes curved upward, showing an expression. The usually stoic Beijiao in the eyes of the circle was now smiling brightly at her.
It almost blinded Jiang Ran’s dog eyes.
He said: “Yeah.”
Jiang Ran wanted him to be serious, but she was afraid that whatever she said now would sound like teasing.
Her hand holding the ballpoint pen softened slightly. Jiang Ran was at a loss for words, so she turned to the male rider beside her: “How do we register shoe sizes for ski boots, just write 45 or 275?”
She couldn’t bear to look at his face for even a second longer.
The male rider had just finished with a rider using a BC snowboard and turned his head. He looked at the red tree in Jiang Ran’s hand and then at the tall, dark-haired young man standing in front of the table. He said, “Oh,” then added, “It’s Dog Brother!”
He was really famous now.
Before Beijiao could answer, he leaned forward to look at the registration form in Jiang Ran’s hand: “172 red tree, wow, long legs!”
The ballpoint pen in her hand nearly snapped in half. Jiang Ran really couldn’t stand the word “long” right now. This person was bringing up the wrong topic!
However, just as she was preparing for the storm, she only heard the black-haired young man opposite her, having stopped smiling, simply and indifferently say, “Hmm.”
Jiang Ran: “…”
…
Everything checked out, and Beijiao left with his board. As he walked away, he even politely said “Thank you” to Jiang Ran.
After he left, Jiang Ran continued checking two more people’s boards, but her mind was still numb, struggling to believe he hadn’t gone crazy over that note…
In the past, the content of that note might have been enough for him to act out for three days and nights, even possibly demanding she must look at it and apologize to him (if an apology was indeed necessary).
But he didn’t. He just left.
In the past two years, he seemed to have really grown up a lot.
It was hard to describe what Jiang Ran was feeling at this moment. Maybe she was just being masochistic, but she kept pressing the ballpoint pen, making “click” “click” sounds of irritation.
Not far away, Beijiao returned to his friends, talking with them, never looking back at her again. Now he had his own social circle—
In the entire hall, besides the two of them, there was no third person who knew they had ever crossed paths.
She felt a bit dazed.
The entire inspection process lasted until noon. At lunchtime, they were driven to a newly renovated dining hall, where they finally got their phones back like prisoners on work release. Jiang Ran didn’t have much of an appetite and absentmindedly checked her WeChat messages.
When Song Song also put down her chopsticks, she stood up and said: “I’m going to the restroom.”
Song Song looked at her, probably because the new ski resort’s heating was too strong, the woman’s pale face was slightly flushed, and her lips were tinged with a soft rose color like a blooming rose…
She had only applied light makeup when she left home that morning, and now her black hair softly fell beside her cheeks, making it hard to deny her natural beauty.
“What’s wrong with you?” Song Song asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve been acting like a lost soul since this morning. Someone who doesn’t know might think you’re heartbroken.”
Ah, was it that obvious?
Song Song happily admired the team’s little princess’s beauty while she was daydreaming. Normally, she looked sharp and fierce, and during training, she was famously ruthless, making average riders instinctively keep their distance…
Yet, even when she was daydreaming, she looked beautiful!
Looking fragile, like a gentle breeze could knock her over, like a foolish beauty who anyone could bully!
Song Song cupped her face, very satisfied and inwardly concluding, “The news has spread, the Heilongjiang team has won, and the Jilin and Liaoning teams might already be envious and crying,” waved her off, saying go ahead, she was just kidding, how come you look like you’re about to cry?
…
Jiang Ran went to the restroom.
She splashed her face with icy water, the cold water finally clearing her muddled mind a little. Standing up, she stared at her reflection in the mirror for a while, patted her face, and took a deep breath.
She mentally prepared herself, warning that she must control herself and not give him a zero in the competition just because the competitor was well-behaved and didn’t tease her.
She thought about it and couldn’t help laughing.
“You seem pretty happy.”
A slightly hoarse male voice came from the wall outside the restroom.
Jiang Ran’s feet froze, her smile fading as she turned around and saw the black-haired young man lazily leaning against the wall.
It was just after lunch, and he looked a bit dazed, his eyes unfocused. He was holding a half-burned cigarette, probably stepping out for a smoke to refresh himself.
His dark eyes calmly swept over the woman’s face, which still had droplets of water. The sunlight from the glass dome above shone down, highlighting her almost translucent white skin.
The tip of the cigarette in his fingers involuntarily twitched.
Following her gaze, his long, thick eyelashes lowered, but there was no change in his expression as he looked at the glowing cigarette in his hand. Without much hesitation, he put it out.
When he looked up at her again, her face showed embarrassment.
Beijiao chuckled lightly: “Go on, I’m not going to do anything to you. Why do you look so scared?”
Jiang Ran’s hands were hidden in her sleeves, twisting them into knots as she told herself to stay calm and composed, not to show any strange expressions—
He was just acting a bit cold.
Maybe there were important people at the event today, so he had to be careful. That was just the kind of person he was. When they were together, he never even looked at other women.
Oh, important people, right. He even replied to a pretty girl on the short video app. Perhaps she was here today, and she was a freestyle skier, quite good at it too.
She was lost in her thoughts, wanting to turn and walk away, but her heart felt like it was crawling with a thousand ants, her whole body numb, her feet rooted to the spot.
Blinking, she finally gathered her courage, lifted her chin, and tried to straighten her back as she said, “V-Videos from Qiu Nian were sent to me, thanks. I didn’t expect you to be here during the National Day holiday too.”
Go ahead, explain it.
If you have a new person, why come to Harbin?
Thinking this, her eyes flashed with a challenging light.
However, after she mentioned this, the other party was not in a hurry to answer. Slowly, he took out a new cigarette from his pocket, crumpled the cigarette box in his hand, and threw it into the trash can.
He held the cigarette but didn’t light it, somewhat unsure of her meaning. Seeing her look like she wanted to argue, it made him a bit hesitant as well.
“It’s okay, I don’t have anything to do anyway. Qiu Nian said you weren’t in a good state, so I came to check on you. After all, when you taught me back then, you were very patient and considerate of my feelings. Now that you’re unhappy, I feel like I should come and check on you too.” His tone sounded light and indifferent, “Even though you told me not to appear in front of you for three years, but this circle is just this big…”
She didn’t want to listen anymore.
She smiled and interrupted him, saying, “Yeah, it’s okay.”
His voice abruptly stopped, and he looked up at her with a somewhat bewildered expression.
This innocent and confused gaze felt like it was cutting into her. Any emotional fluctuation on her part would only make her look bad in her own eyes.
“Good luck with the competition.”
She suppressed her voice and quickly turned to leave.
…
That night, lying in a brand new five-star hotel built alongside the new ski resort, the soft bed and freshly laundered sheets couldn’t soothe her enough to fall asleep.
At 11 PM.
In Song Song’s shocked gaze, she suddenly sat up like a carp flipping over.
[Whose Ran Ran Duck: He said he came to Harbin to accompany me pushing slopes for five days because you used to take care of him so much, so he was just reciprocating!!]
[Year Year: Did you talk to him?]
[Year Year: He said that? Is he sick?]
[Whose Ran Ran Duck: …]
[Year Year: You believed it? Then you’re sick too.]
[Whose Ran Ran Duck: He made me so angry!!!!!!!!]
[Whose Ran Ran Duck: And I even caught him flirting with other women on the short video app!!!???]
[Year Year: Flirting?]
[Year Year: How can I not believe it?]
[Whose Ran Ran Duck: A pretty girl just randomly complimented him on his skiing, and he couldn’t wait to reply with an emoji!]
[Year Year: …]
[Year Year: ?]
[Year Year: You two are pretty strict about managing your exes. Just from this point alone, you two are really well-matched.]
Jiang Ran told Qiu Nian everything that had happened that day—how she passed notes with Song Song, only to be caught by him, and how he reacted like a corpse with no response at all.
But Qiu Nian’s reaction was different from what Jiang Ran had imagined. She didn’t mock her by saying something like “Are you sick?” nor did she agree with Jiang Ran’s sentiment that “He didn’t react at all, so he must be indifferent to you, you’re done, you’re over, you brought this on yourself.” Qiu Nian simply said: Oh.
Jiang Ran was thinking to herself, “Oh? What the heck is that supposed to mean?”
Qiu Nian calmly said, “I told you he was acting weird tonight. Why don’t you open the short video app and take a look?”
Jiang Ran didn’t quite understand, about to say she didn’t feel like watching any short videos because it would just make her angry. But, almost instinctively, she opened the app anyway. Then, either the short video app had eavesdropped on their conversation or had some strange recommendation algorithm—
The first video that popped up was a new post from Beijiao an hour ago, already with over 330,000 likes.
The video was set to an eerie background music, showing a half-naked man taking a selfie in front of a mirror.
…It was probably considered half-naked.
He wore a black AK457 from Burton, the pants sitting extremely low on his hips. His upper body was bare, and the dim lighting in the hotel hallway clearly outlined the muscles on his back, arms, and abdomen, showing off each defined, bulging muscle.
The straps of the overalls hung loosely on his broad shoulders, one side dangling down to his elbow.
He had long legs and was barefoot.
His black hair was slightly messy. Holding his phone, he waved it in front of a full-length mirror, then raised his hand, pulling at the edge of the waistband of the overalls, and looked down.
That single move alone earned him 330,000 likes.
And a flood of comments in the comment section.
[“AK457 is really something you’ve mastered.”]
[“Help!”]
[“This new idea of wearing ski overalls… I hope all male skiers can learn from it (those without assets can skip it, thanks).”]
[“Dog Brother, are you crazy?… Oh my god, did you drink again?!”]
[“If Burton hears about this, they’ll announce tonight that they’re proud to have the top carving rider in their sponsored athletes!”]
[“QAQ I never thought a man’s muscles… no! I mean the AK457 could be this attractive!”]
[“A thousand people never knew the UP master’s physique was this… hmm, keep posting more, the fans love it.”]
[“@Dan Chong, take a good look and learn! What he has, you don’t have it!!!”]
[“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage