After taking a shower, Cong Cong came out and saw Jiang Ran sitting cross-legged on the bed, dangling a bronze medal from a parallel giant slalom competition. The long strap of the medal twisted around her fingers, swaying gently. She stared blankly at the small medal swinging back and forth.
“What’s wrong? Where did you get the medal?”
She asked casually, and immediately figured out the answer herself.
She was still hesitating whether to tease Jiang Ran or not when she heard the woman sigh faintly and ask, “Do you think I really treated him badly? That dating me is exhausting?”
Everyone—Cong Cong, Qiu Nian, Chun, Li Xingnan, even A Ju or Zhao Kexian (that jerk)—had said, “He had it rough too. You should be nicer to him.”
Previously, she had always scoffed at these comments, thinking they were all nonsense. But now, she truly felt uncertain—
Was she really that harsh toward him?
Flashes of his face appeared in her mind—how he held flowers today, genuinely smiling as he bent down to look at her. Her stomach churned painfully, and an indescribable bitterness spread from her heart.
Cong Cong noticed how seriously Jiang Ran had asked the question, so she dropped her teasing tone and thought for a moment before saying, “What outsiders say doesn’t really count. We always say you’re too harsh because whenever you see him, you can’t help but frown… Think about it, if you really treated him badly, how could he still chase after you desperately even after two or three years?”
Men were, after all, the most fickle creatures.
Jiang Ran was stunned by Cong Cong’s words. Seeing how Jiang Ran, despite being an adult, still looked so bewildered by this, Cong Cong couldn’t help but wonder: Had she been skiing all this time? Only skiing?
Suddenly, it wasn’t surprising that she had achieved her current success in skiing.
Cong Cong confiscated the medal and sent Jiang Ran off to take a shower, reminding her afterward to apply thick layers of skincare on her face to ensure she wouldn’t ruin her looks the next day.
Jiang Ran left in a daze.
When she came back, she felt slightly better. With a normal expression on her face, she hugged a large box of face masks and generously applied them all over her face. Glancing at the box in her hand, she mumbled, “Will I really feel a bit happier after using this so-called happiness mask?”
“I think the mountain wind these past few days blew into your brain,” Cong Cong said bluntly. “How about drinking some alcohol? Want to go?”
“Huh?”
Jiang Ran turned her head while hugging the face masks.
—Earlier, while showering, she had been thinking about how tired she was and wanted to go to bed early. But when it came to drinking, she suddenly became interested.
“Oh, a senior from the Liaoning team invited us,” Cong Cong winked. “He’s a snowboarder. He’s so tall, and he has the single eyelids I love… I adore the parallel giant slalom event.”
Jiang Ran burst into laughter.
……
An hour later, nearly ten o’clock at night, it was bedtime for the kids, but for adults like them who had worries in their hearts and needed to go out and drink, it was just the right time.
The bar street next to the Tonghua ski resort was already bustling with people. Except for the ski lifts and the competition venue, there was no other place more lively.
It wasn’t even the busiest time of the night yet, but the bars were already packed.
“A Gua, come on, drink another round!”
“No, no, I have a competition tomorrow, damn it! You park riders don’t understand the leg strength required for carving! What if my legs go weak?”
“Oh, come on, at least our waist and legs are original parts… We’re not asking you to sleep with a girl, so why would your legs get weak?”
“Well, after drinking, isn’t it time to sleep? Hahaha!”
A young man with red hair lazily leaned back on the sofa, joking with the people around him. After a while, he took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, pulled one out and stuck it between his lips. With a flick of his finger, he pushed another cigarette halfway out of the pack and placed it in front of the person sitting next to him.
Beside him, the dark-haired young man, who had been spacing out the entire evening, finally focused his eyes. He sat up, his back leaning against the sofa cushion, boneless, and leaned forward to grab the cigarette with his teeth.
A Gua “clicked” the lighter, and the flickering orange flame first lit the cigarette at North Jiao’s lips.
“Ahh,” Bei Jiao sighed expressionlessly. “So boring.”
“You’re sitting here not drinking and rejecting eight hundred girls who asked for your WeChat, of course you’re bored?” The drunk guy across from him kicked him playfully. “The rising star of carving—today I saw your short video account surpassed Zhao Kexian’s followers. Your fans are split between looks and skill. Zhao Kexian was crying in the group that he worked hard making tutorial videos, but you beat him just by wearing AK457 once.”
“…”
Bei Jiao felt a headache just hearing about that video.
“I was drunk that day—”
What he meant by being drunk was just one drink.
Hearing this, everyone present was speechless.
A Gua chuckled, laughing so hard his shoulders shook, and told the girls around, “Did you hear that? If you want to pick up Bei Ge’s body, just one whiskey will do. Who here has the skill tonight?”
The cigarette in his mouth tilted slightly, glowing faintly in the darkness. Amid the white mist, the dark-haired young man bit the cigarette and slightly lifted his lips, revealing a sharp, pale canine tooth.
“Pass.”
He lazily stretched his neck, making a “crack” sound as he loosened his joints. With a vacant gaze, he crawled up from the sofa.
“Before you guys take my virginity, I’d better go to sleep.”
As he spoke, he used the people around him as human supports, casually leaning on their shoulders to reach for his coat hanging behind the seat.
The person he leaned on cried “Ouch, ouch,” while others laughed at his mention of “virginity,” not taking him seriously—
A Gua even said, “Did you hear that? Bei Ge’s virginity is still intact today. Valid within 24 hours.”
Amid the laughter, Bei Jiao shook off his down jacket like a stray dog in the dark and put it on.
At that moment, the bar door was pushed open. He had just slipped into one sleeve, and out of reflex, he casually looked up. His dark pupils, previously unfocused, suddenly froze.
A woman with long hair walked in from the doorway. It was below zero outside, but she wore only a long wool coat, its soft hem swaying with her steps.
Outside, snowflakes danced under the streetlights, landing in her soft curls and falling onto her shoulders. As she spoke to the girl beside her, she unconsciously reached up to brush off the snow on her head.
The white snow melted at her fingertips.
Not knowing what they were talking about, she and her companion laughed together. As they walked toward a booth in the corner where some people were already seated, she took off her coat, revealing a black dress underneath with a large bow at the back. Her short boots gleamed in the darkness—
A boy who looked about nineteen or twenty pulled out a chair for her. She smiled sideways and said “Thank you,” gracefully sitting down.
Bei Jiao bit the cigarette and slightly narrowed his eyes.
Letting the curling smoke blur his vision, the woman’s face became indistinct.
“Hey, who the hell is that?” A Gua’s voice came from the side. “Wow, she’s amazing. It’s below zero outside, and she’s only wearing a short skirt and coat. Isn’t she cold? Or did she wear those leg-warming tights?”
“Nope. Who would wear that to a bar?” A girl laughed with admiration. “She doesn’t even seem cold.”
“I couldn’t even take my eyes off her since she walked in,” another guy who did flatland tricks stretched his neck. “Bro, who is this goddess? Can we get her WeChat?”
“No way.” Another girl who had spoken earlier laughed. “That’s Jiang Ran, you idiot!”
“The one who can use a nollie to knock your head off with a hammer board.” Another carving guy joined in, laughing dreamily. “This girl is tough. You don’t carve, so you don’t know what big news happened on the mountain these days. They’re all from professional teams sitting at that table—”
A wave of explanations followed, including keywords like “exhibition match,” “Olympic record,” “the coach’s favorite from Heilongjiang team,” and “beloved by everyone.”
They were discussing enthusiastically.
As they spoke, the dark-haired young man who had been clamoring to leave just moments ago silently pulled off the down jacket he had just put on and casually draped it over the back of the sofa.
“What’s up, Bei?” Agu asked blankly, “Not going anymore?”
Bei Jiao sat back in his seat, his gaze inadvertently sweeping over the woman not far away who had already raised a glass of amber liquid to toast with her nearby teammates.
“Hmm,” he said, “suddenly I’m not sleepy anymore.”
……
After several rounds of drinks, Bei Jiao and his tablemates had nearly finished their drinks and were running out of small talk.
From start to finish, Bei Jiao only drank half a glass of wine as a token gesture, but no one pressured him. Everyone was counting on having at least one person still standing to carry them back to their hotel beds if they unfortunately got too drunk.
The ice cubes in Beijiao’s whiskey clinked against the glass with a crisp, pleasant sound. He lowered his head slightly and inhaled the scent of the alcohol.
Agua passed another cigarette.
He pushed it away with the back of his hand and said, “No need.”
Agua was baffled; it seemed that from a certain moment tonight, he had almost stopped touching cigarettes.
Raising my head, my gaze drifted over the rim of the wine glass, lazily sweeping across the table in the far corner—
The woman was sitting in the aisle seat near the outside, her profile turned toward him.
In my memory, she always seemed like the kind of person who could make other men’s legs tremble just by strapping on her snowboard. But now, a faint smile graced her face, and the light overhead illuminated her dimples with striking clarity.
She was tilting her head to speak to the person beside her. Her loose hair must have been somewhat in the way, so she raised her hand to tuck it back, revealing a small diamond stud on her earlobe.
It accentuated her delicate, fair cheeks, adding a touch of allure to her beauty.
Bei Jiao shifted his buttocks and changed his sitting position.
At this point, Agu suggested playing a game later, and everyone present responded enthusiastically. Agu turned around and asked Beijiao if he wanted to join. Only then did he subtly withdraw his gaze and say, “Sure, let’s play.”
At this point, everyone had drunk enough and was too lazy to think, just wanting to finish the remaining alcohol quickly and call it a night. So the games they played were simple and straightforward—
Just place a liquor bottle in the middle of the table and spin it. Whoever the bottle points to must either choose truth or dare, or take a shot.
Round one.
……
The bottle spun and landed on the girl sitting across from Beijiao. She let out a surprised “Wow” and said, “Truth or Dare? No more drinking for me—I’m already stuffed to the neck with alcohol. One more sip and I’ll throw up.”
The people around her laughed at her.
A guy thought for a moment and said, “Then just randomly add some guy’s WeChat at a bar, but you can’t say it’s because you lost a game when adding him.”
The girl flipped her hair, rolled her eyes, and said, “What’s the big deal?” Then she pulled out her phone, opened the QR code scanning page, propped one hand on the table with an imposing air, and said to Beijiao across the table, “Come on, add me on WeChat.”
The people around burst into laughter and suggested the guy shout loudly, “Isn’t this fucking cheating?” The earth-shattering commotion drew many onlookers—
Including Jiang Ran, who was sitting in the corner. At first, she was just startled by the sound and glanced casually. Just as she was about to turn her head back, she sensed something unusual and looked over again.
Not far away, a girl stood with her hands on her hips, holding her phone with an imposing air as she aimed it at a handsome yet silent dark-haired young man. His expression had been indifferent, but suddenly, he let out a lazy scoff and opened his WeChat QR code interface, extending it beneath her phone for her to scan.
The noise from that table grew even louder with boisterous cheers and clamor.
“……”
Jiang Ran paused, her eyes flickering.
“Oh, where were we just now?”
She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, then turned her head back and continued discussing the previous topic with the person beside her.
Unaware that not far away, the girl who had just scanned the code had sent a friend request and taken her seat. She waited for a while, but didn’t see the greeting page indicating the friend request had been accepted.
He refreshed the page somewhat uncertainly but still didn’t see anything. Puzzled, he looked up at Beijiao sitting across from him, who was still holding his phone and scrolling. The glow from the screen illuminated his sharp features, revealing no discernible emotion.
Others have their own reasons for not adding her, but it has nothing to do with her anyway. A woman’s confidence isn’t tied to whether a man accepts her friend request on WeChat.
So, she shrugged it off with a careless smile, put down her phone, and dove into the next round of the game—
Of course, I wouldn’t go asking “Why didn’t you accept my friend request?” As others have said, there are 3.5 billion men in the world—if this one doesn’t work out, there’s always the next.
Round two.
……
The wine glass stopped in front of Beijiao.
Bei Jiao said, “No alcohol.”
“Hurry up, hurry up!” Aguwa jumped up. “Truth or Dare, truth! Truth! I want to hear the truth—”
“What’s the fun in truth or dare,” a girl pouted, “Let’s do a dare!”
“Getting a girl’s WeChat right now—what’s so damn hard about that? But if you tell him to randomly kiss some girl, forget whether it’s illegal or not, I bet he wouldn’t even humor you. He’d just bullshit his way through!” Agu knew Beijiao all too well. “Truth or Dare can be thrilling if played right, huh, Bei-ge?”
Beijiao raised his eyebrows slightly.
Agua grinned, scanning the table full of young men and women like a mischievous thief: “Is there any girl here who caught your eye?”
This question was indeed quite provocative.
At the very least, it caused all the young girls around the table to look at each other in surprise. Half of them blushed secretly in the dim light, unable to resist glancing at the handsome young man sitting across from them.
Someone even grabbed a handful of peanuts and threw them at Agua, half embarrassed and half annoyed: “What kind of awkward question is that?!”
As she was scolding him, she suddenly heard the quiet, black-haired young man—who had barely spoken the entire evening—make a soft “Hmm,” and her angry muttering stopped abruptly. She blinked, somewhat dazed, turned her head, and looked at Beijiao.
Right in front of Beijiao, a long-haired woman was smiling and raising her glass with the young boy beside her.
He expressionlessly shifted his gaze elsewhere.
He said, “Yes.”
The entire table erupted in chatter. Nobody had expected Agua’s question to be so ambiguous—what exactly did “here” mean? The dinner table? Or the entire bar?
Everyone rushed to ask who Beijiao was referring to. He took a sip of his drink, letting the sweet, smooth taste of whiskey spread across his tongue, before smiling slightly: “That’s another question.”
Everyone: “…”
Damn it!
Third round. Fourth round.
Fifth round. The mouth of the alcohol bottle once again pointed toward Beijiao.
…
Agua grinned maliciously: “Alright, spill it—who’s the girl you like? You think you can escape?!”
Beijiao smiled faintly, picked up the glass in front of him, and downed it in one go.
Agua: “…”
Sixth round.
…
Beijiao stared silently at the mouth of the bottle in front of him.
Agua: “Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha… Hey! If you’re so brave, drink another one!”
Agua rolled up his sleeves: “I’m not playing truth or dare with you anymore—you’re cheating! I can’t beat you at this. Let’s do dares, dares!”
…
In a corner booth,
Jiang Ran was discussing the mechanics of short turns in alpine skiing with a young boy sitting beside her—
She didn’t ski alpine often, but she knew a bit about it… because the national certification for ski instructors only tested alpine skiing, so any snowboard instructors wanting to obtain the certificate had to grit their teeth and tough it out.
That’s why people often said that aside from Canada’s CASI Level 3, most other certification systems were just for beginners—easy enough to pass with basic edge control, and not really indicative of one’s actual skill level.
“LV released some alpine ski boots this year,” Jiang Ran said. “They’re really nice. I was actually thinking about buying a pair and skiing alpine for fun sometimes.”
“Sis,” the boy beside her said, half-amused and half-frustrated, “those luxury brand ones probably aren’t professional-grade, right?”
“That’s your bias. Luxury brands often collaborate with professional brands… Besides, I don’t care if it’s professional or not—I’m not wearing it to compete. As long as it looks good while I’m skiing, that’s enough for me.” Jiang Ran flipped her hair. “You boys always have these typical male chauvinist ideas. You don’t know anything—”
Before she could finish speaking, she suddenly felt someone pat her shoulder from behind.
At the same time, she noticed the atmosphere around her suddenly fall silent. Conversations stopped, laughter ceased, and everyone turned their heads in unison, staring intently behind her.
Confused, she turned around.
Only then did she realize that, at some point, she had already been completely enveloped in the shadow cast by the person behind her.
A young man nearly 185cm tall stood right there, wearing a white shirt and black joggers. His hoodie was unbuttoned at the top three buttons, collar slightly raised, partially concealing his prominent Adam’s apple.
His expression was cold and emotionless, giving off an aura of aloofness that seemed to say, “Don’t come near me.”
Except for his black eyes, which sparkled like stars in the night sky, bright enough to make one’s heart race.
Jiang Ran tilted her head slightly, looking up at the man who had suddenly appeared behind her under everyone’s watchful eyes, her mind momentarily blank. Her pale lips parted slightly—
Only to feel his gaze settle on her lips.
Earlier that morning, he had touched her in the strangest, most intimate way.
The burning pain mixed with a faint itch seemed to spread again from the wound that hadn’t fully healed.
Like ants crawling.
She instinctively pressed her lips together.
“Sis,” the black-haired young man tilted his head slightly, his voice low and husky, “can I add your WeChat?”
He looked at her innocently, his lips curving slightly into a smile that only she could understand, full of mischief.
When she didn’t immediately respond, he hummed again, a soft, muffled sound from deep in his nose. When he spoke, his tone was completely different from the mischievous curve of his lips—utterly innocent: “I lost a game.”
It sounded like playful coaxing.
Jiang Ran’s mind went blank.
Staring at his sharply defined jawline, she suddenly thought dazedly: This kind of karmic entanglement was indescribable—she really did fall for this kind of thing…
From beginning to end, she only ever fell for this.
She didn’t move at first. Everyone at the table was watching them with great interest, their gazes like X-rays scanning back and forth between the two.
Silence.
“Jiang Ran! Snap out of it!” Someone from the corner reminded her, laughing. “It’s Beijiao! Beijiao from Chongli! From our carving skiing circle!”
“Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
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