Time rewound to an hour earlier.
Back then, Beijiao was sitting in a bar with friends. Over the years, he had met many people in the snowboarding circle—some good, some not so much—but he didn’t really care. After all, no one could benefit from him, so he maintained superficial relationships, seemingly friendly with everyone.
But the people he truly enjoyed hanging out with were those he had met when he first entered the snowboarding scene: Zhao Keyan, Datou, Qiu Nian, Li Xingnan, and Aju, and even Song Die, who occasionally initiated conversations.
He only spent time with these people when he was bored, had nowhere else to go, and didn’t want to be alone.
Therefore, despite his poor alcohol tolerance, he didn’t touch a single drop of alcohol that night, disregarding everyone’s “face.” At that moment, he was silently sitting in a corner, holding a cigarette—one he had taken from Jiang Ran’s pack earlier that afternoon, right under her nose. He admitted he had been a bit reckless at the time. After all, the way she looked at him when she saw him take the cigarette…
Tsk.
If glances could kill, she probably would have torn him apart limb by limb.
She had never liked the smell of smoke, and later in the Guangzhou Sunac storage locker incident, she had already had unpleasant experiences related to him and cigarettes… For her, tobacco probably brought only bad memories.
Had she thought he was provoking her this afternoon?
Before he could finish rationally explaining what happened during National Day, before he could recite the carefully prepared speech he had in mind, she had already shown obvious impatience and wanted to leave.
Thinking about how her gaze gradually turned cold, Beijiao fell silent for a moment, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.
Just then, he heard his friends nearby discussing Jiang Ran. Upon hearing the familiar name, he perked up like a hunting dog, listening intently to their conversation—mainly about why she had appeared in the judges’ seats today instead of among the competitors.
“She’s amazing, but in my eyes, she’s always been just another member of our regular technical freeriding crew,” one of them said. “I was actually quite surprised to see her in the judges’ seats today. After asking around, I found out she’s now a professional parallel giant slalom athlete for Heilongjiang Province’s team.”
“Seriously? She practically disappeared for three months and ended up doing this? Going pro? Why would she need to do that?” another person asked in surprise.
She was among the top female snowboarders in the national carving circle, one of the few with dual snowboard brand sponsorships—each of these titles alone was something others spent their entire lives chasing.
Now she was aiming for a professional team to boost her street cred?
“Ah, she’s sponsored by both BC and Gray snowboards. Nationwide, besides her, there’s only Shancang, but Shancang—he’s from the national team. Getting those things seems natural for him, but for Jiang Ran, the order is reversed. I always feel something’s off about it—”
“Hey, not to mention, I also think it’s really strange. Although Jiang Ran definitely snowboards better than us, for her to actually sit in the judges’ seat at a competition of this scale and score us—it feels a bit odd!”
“It feels like the competition’s prestige has been lowered!”
“Well, theoretically speaking, it actually makes sense because she’s gone pro now. She’s registered with a provincial team, so a professional athlete judging you guys—what’s wrong with that? Suddenly it sounds perfectly reasonable!”
“Speaking of that, how exactly did she get into the provincial team?”
The discussion fell into an awkward silence due to this unexpected question.
Beijiao slowly raised his eyes, about to ask if none of them had attended high school or seen any athletes, not knowing that provincial teams had quotas and required assessments?
Before a series of probing questions could escape his lips, they were interrupted by a sudden female voice.
“Of course there’s a reason!”
An energetic female voice chimed in.
Liang He, sitting at the adjacent table, poked her head over and blinked her round eyes. “Don’t you know how hard the country is pushing to promote sports? Although parallel giant slalom is a legitimate Olympic event, not many people pay attention to it—even among our carving community, and especially among SAJ riders who barely look at it… It’s perfectly normal to bring in a well-known snowboarder to join the team, get involved in the project, and boost its popularity! It’s like when celebrities take on official roles!”
“But why Jiang Ran specifically!”
“Because she’s pretty!”
What she said sounded plausible. The two and a half people who had been half-discussing and half-complaining seemed convinced.
Beijiao listened, finding their remarks absurd and ignorant, but he just let it go with amusement. After all, it wasn’t worth the effort to explain anything to these people—
Who were they anyway? What they said, Jiang Ran probably didn’t care about at all.
If someone told her about their comments, she might light up and say, “They said I’m pretty? Then it’s fine.”
She wouldn’t argue at all about how they ignored all her relentless efforts, trying instead to define her with some intangible things.
She didn’t care.
She was the kind of person who, when she hadn’t achieved something yet, was unusually fragile, feeling like the sky was falling if someone mocked her. But once she reached a certain level of achievement, she could let anything slide—no matter what nonsense you threw at her, she’d just blink and you’d lose.
So when these people finally understood what she was doing, she’d usually already achieved her goal and entered an unbreakable state.
—Her eyes were always high above, and fundamentally, she only cared about herself.
Thinking about this, Beijiao suddenly snorted without warning.
Hearing his laughter, the others assumed he had some insightful opinion on their ongoing discussion—
Except for Liang He, no one else at the scene knew about the complicated relationship between him and Jiang Ran. They even thought his laughter meant agreement with what they had said.
“Brother Bei, what do you think?”
“Hm?”
In the darkness, the young man slowly turned his face sideways, half of his handsome face exposed to the bar’s lights. He slightly lifted the corner of his lips, speaking slowly.
“What do you mean, what do I think?”
“About Jiang Ran? What’s your take?”
“What about ‘Shancang being from the national team makes it seem natural for him to get those things’?”
Beijiao deliberately paused, enjoying the expressions of agreement on everyone’s faces at that remark before slowly asking, “You guys aren’t, deep down, just bothered that Jiang Ran is a woman who just happened to get ahead of you, making you feel embarrassed, are you?”
His tone was innocent and kind.
Before anyone could realize that he might be delivering a very sharp and sarcastic comment, they fell into stunned and awkward silence, not one of them reacting.
The guy who had initially brought up Jiang Ran raised his hand to scratch his face, made a hesitant sound, and tried to save face: “I didn’t exactly mean that—”
Unfortunately, Beijiao was never someone to let others save face. He nodded slowly with an “Oh” and said, “Well, that’s how it sounded. Maybe I misunderstood!”
A brief silence fell over the table.
The young man’s cheerful yet oppressive voice seemed to linger in the air.
Liang He briefly and tensely laughed, reaching out to tug at Beijiao’s sleeve: “We’re just chatting, why do you have to make it so unpleasant—”
“I didn’t want to chat with you, that’s why I sat at the next table.”
Beijiao pulled his sleeve back, “I should’ve sat even farther away.”
Liang He stared blankly at her now-empty hand.
Now no one spoke at all.
Those who knew Beijiao were aware of his notoriously bad temper. But he snowboarded well, looked great, and handled things impeccably without resorting to underhanded tricks. He had no flaws except for his sharp tongue, so plenty of people were willing to hang out with him—as long as you didn’t provoke him and seek discomfort in front of him, he was actually very easygoing.
So right now, they didn’t even have time to sympathize with being mocked just now, and instead looked at Liang He with sympathy, wondering what she had done to be rejected so mercilessly…
Under normal circumstances, Beijiao would still give girls some face.
“Bei Jiao,” Liang He regained her composure and lowered her voice, “do you have to make everyone feel bad—”
“I feel bad too.”
He had just been cold-shouldered by Jiang Ran that afternoon. The way she turned and walked away—so cold, so heartless, not even a hint of wanting to look back…
Thinking about it now still made his heart ache.
Wasn’t that considered feeling bad?
Beijiao said innocently, casually picking up a glass of whiskey from the table, drinking it all in one go, and then tossing the glass back: “I’m apologizing, okay? Want some?”
Everyone knew Beijiao generally didn’t drink much because of his low tolerance. Now, seeing him angrily downing half a glass, paired with his handsome and innocent face, anyone without deep grudges wouldn’t hold it against him—
Someone at their table exclaimed in a trembling voice, “Bro Bei, what are you doing!”
Beijiao could be said to have been immediately affected by the alcohol. Standing up, he swayed slightly, and immediately eight hands reached out to support him.
With a blank expression, Beijiao slapped away each hand that landed on him one by one. His pale lips parted slightly as he emotionlessly announced, “I’m leaving.”
A group of guys, more carefully than escorting their girlfriends, selected the most reliable person to support him and send him home. Before the two left, someone at the table muttered, “Why leave so early? You can sober up a bit before going. Chat a little more!”
Everyone around nodded in agreement, then suddenly remembered they had just been insulted by him and were trying to persuade him to stay… Immediately they began questioning whether they had some serious issues.
Just then, they saw the young man, half-leaning on someone else, turn his head back, raise his hand to scratch his chin, and give a smile: “No, I made my girl angry this afternoon. I need to go home and make a video.”
Everyone: “?”
Beijiao: “I have to seduce her with my looks.”
Everyone: “??”
They were extremely confused—
They didn’t even have time to sigh at how terrifying it was for this guy to proudly announce he was going to win a woman over by seducing her, or to angrily remind him that he didn’t even have a girlfriend to begin with!
By the time they regained their senses, Beijiao had already staggered out of the bar door, one step heavier than the other.
…
This led to an hour later, inside Jiang Ran’s hotel room, where a serious discussion was taking place.
Of course, Jiang Ran had no idea that this viral social media post with tens of thousands of likes stemmed from her storming off in anger and indignation that afternoon—her resolute footsteps carving out a path of perceived righteousness.
(Note: I adjusted “委屈” to “indignation” to better convey the sense of righteous anger in context, while maintaining the original tone. The phrasing also ensures natural English flow by replacing “forging” with “carving out” for idiomatic expression.)
At this moment, Cong Cong, who was on the neighboring bed, had also come across Bei Jiao’s social media post and, hugging the quilt like a groundhog, let out two earth-shattering shrieks:
“AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Song Song paused, staring at Jiang Ran’s serious face, momentarily at a loss for words to scold her with…
So she stood up, turned around, and climbed back onto her own bed, lying flat.
Jiang Ran thought the conversation had ended, reached out to turn off the main light, leaving only the reading lamp on.
She silenced her phone and checked Bei Jiao’s short video app account again, discovering the likes had already reached over 600 thousand, and his follower count had surged past 100,000—
As one new follower put it: “Three hundred million people embracing winter sports, and finally encountering someone who can truly ski well—how could you not follow?” 「doge」
She was scrolling down the screen when suddenly Song Song from the neighboring bed asked, “So, is he convenient to use?”
Jiang Ran had never imagined in her life that the words “convenient to use” could be used to describe a person. She didn’t catch on immediately and asked, “What?”
“He looks pretty strong, especially his waist—it looks powerful and solid—”
“He is strong indeed.”
After two years of skiing leading to his current state, who could possibly say his core and abdominal strength weren’t up to par?
“…So, don’t you miss him now?”
“Miss him? Why would I? I’m stronger than him.”
“Really? I never noticed. Back in Harbin, during those nighttime tech discussions, you were always the first to chime in—you were so predictable it felt like you had nothing better to do every night except play with your phone.”
Jiang Ran thought to herself that her strength had nothing to do with whether or not she played with her phone at night, and was just about to argue back when she suddenly realized something: “Wait, what kind of strength are you talking about?”
“This.”
Song Song, expressionless, stuffed her pillow under her stomach, then propped herself up with one hand on the bed and arched her back slightly.
Jiang Ran: “Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!! What are you doing!”
Song Song: “…Okay then, so you haven’t done it yet—what exactly did you get out of dating him?”
Jiang Ran: “I realized I didn’t gain anything and couldn’t gain anything either, so we broke up.”
Song Song: “In situations like this, I usually suggest getting back together.”
Jiang Ran: “Are you crazy?”
Song Song: “Have you ever seen anyone run away the moment a stock drops? People usually keep investing even when it plummets.”
Jiang Ran: “Then you get stuck holding it.”
Song Song: “But it might also shoot up… Isn’t that exactly what life is? So thrilling.”
Jiang Ran pulled the blanket over her face.
At that moment, another puzzled voice came from the neighboring bed.
“…You at least kissed, right?”
“Kissed! Of course we kissed!!”
“That’s good. Otherwise I was going to ask if you two started dating back in kindergarten,” sighed the person on the other bed, “Ugh, now I can’t even rate him fairly tomorrow. I already feel like he’s our team’s future son-in-law, one of us.”
…One of us? Like hell he is!!!!
“…Also, our future son-in-law’s abs shouldn’t be touched by anyone else. Hurry up and get back together.”
…Get back together? Like hell I will!!!!
…
The next day.
Snow continued gently falling from the sky, but there was no wind. Tiny snowflakes floated slowly and softly down from the sky like a slow-motion filter from a TV drama.
Such a beautiful day felt perfectly suited to be the opening day of the first major competition of the snow season.
Early in the morning, the bustling snow equipment hall was filled with people coming and going. Jiang Ran and the others had just received their official judge badges and were hanging them around their necks. She was lowering her head to adjust the length of the lanyard when suddenly her waist was poked.
She looked up in confusion, “What’s wrong?”
“You might not have noticed,” Song Song said, “but the first future son-in-law of the Heilongjiang Parallel Giant Slalom team is staring at you. I hope you don’t fail to appreciate the attention.”
“…” Jiang Ran lowered her head. “Don’t pay attention to him.”
“Are you made of stone? He’s been watching you the entire time.”
Jiang Ran deeply regretted her momentary vanity from the previous day when she mentioned Bei Jiao was her ex—
Her life really didn’t need to bring out that kind of information for conversation fodder in the first place!
Now look at this!
At Song Song’s words, she reflexively glanced around, but before she could finish scanning the crowd, her eyes unexpectedly met Bei Jiao’s from a short distance away, where he was surrounded by a group of people.
Today he wore light-colored ski gear, and his hair seemed a bit messy from just waking up, with one tuft sticking up.
Perhaps because his face was small, the common blue medical mask hung loosely on his face, leaving extra space around the edges, making it seem like his entire face was buried in the mask. His hands were in his pockets.
Beyond the light-colored mask, those eyes, dark and bright like black pearls, were gazing intensely in her direction through the crowd, and their eyes met unexpectedly.
He lowered his eyelashes.
He appeared completely uninterested in making any eye contact with her.
Jiang Ran felt a bit uncertain about what was going through his mind—
She awkwardly looked away, feeling slightly embarrassed.
Her heartbeat quickened, caught in that conflicting state of both fearing his approach and fearing his indifference.
Jiang Ran pretended to be very busy walking around in the crowd, but in reality, her peripheral vision never left Bei Jiao. She watched him pull down his mask slightly with one finger, revealing that striking, trouble-causing face underneath.
Most people in the hall had probably already seen his video that had eventually reached over 600,000 likes, and now that they noticed him, they all turned to look.
Yet he seemed completely unaware of being the center of attention. He leaned back lazily, like a boneless creature, and casually slung an arm around a stiff, nervous-looking staff member nearby…
His lips slightly curved, and he whispered something into the man’s ear.
Throughout this, the staff member kept glancing nervously at Bei Jiao’s face. After he finished, the man almost immediately nodded and handed Bei Jiao the pen from his chest pocket, along with a piece of paper.
Bei Jiao turned around, leaned against the wall, and wrote something with great seriousness and a solemn expression. After returning the pen, he folded the paper and, through the crowd, made his way toward Jiang Ran—
Openly and without hesitation.
There was nothing to fear, after all. Everyone was watching him, not because he was approaching Jiang Ran, but because he was the video uploader who had almost conquered every male figure in the snow world—including the sled dogs at the snow café—and risen to the top overnight.
It was perfectly natural for competitors and judges to have brief interactions. Soon enough, Jiang Ran sensed a familiar presence drawing near, stopping at her side.
She stopped talking to Song Song (though, in fact, Song Song’s attention had long since left her), her heart pounding uncontrollably. On the surface, however, she managed to maintain an unusually composed expression, turning her head slowly to look him up and down, then coldly asked, “Something you need?”
Song Song sighed in frustration at her stubbornness.
Bei Jiao, already accustomed to this, remained largely unaffected. His expression was indifferent, still carrying that lazy air from when he had just borrowed things from others moments ago, like a large, imposing dog of a breed that should never be kept as a pet, looking down at her from above.
He slightly raised his hand, showing her the note tucked between his fingers, then bent down a little and casually slipped the note into Jiang Ran’s coat pocket.
Without saying a single word, he turned and walked away.
Jiang Ran stared at his cold and decisive back for a while, feeling even more uncertain. She grew increasingly impatient with this guy’s unpredictable mood swings—what exactly did he want to do, changing his attitude every moment like the weather?
Thinking back to his slightly furrowed brow and serious expression while leaning against the wall writing the note…
Could it be he’d written a note just to scold her?
Frowning slightly, she pulled the note from her pocket, flicked her fingers, and unfolded the neatly folded piece of paper:
[Was the video not good enough?
Why didn’t Master give me a like QWQ]
Jiang Ran: “…”
Staring at the “QWQ,” for the first time in her life, she felt an urge to pop out the eyes of those two Q’s.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage