Jiang Ran thought for a moment, feeling utterly speechless. At the moment she was proposed to, she recalled how he had once angrily told her to get lost, and now, comparing that to his gentle demeanor, she was moved to tears. She believed this was the ultimate definition of “romance.”
She never expected that in the eyes of the other party, “romance” was still a fucking verb. In the same fly-infested restaurant scene, he was actually filled with all sorts of indecent thoughts.
This made her sacred proposal scene somewhat tainted with a little colorful hormonal vibe… Well, not necessarily bad, just not as pure.
Jiang Ran couldn’t help but reach out and smack him, “Back then, I only saw you as a pitiful and helpless little brother. You looked so serious, yet your mind was full of all kinds of inappropriate thoughts!”
Beijiao wasn’t afraid of being scolded since he had already decided to speak up. He took her hand and kissed her knuckles, making her feel tingly all over and repeatedly inhaling deeply in her abdomen before slowly saying, “I’m a normal guy, and back then I hadn’t seen much of the world. Most girls were too scared to approach me, so it’s normal for me to have those thoughts about you.”
He was deliberately teasing her.
Sure enough, he stirred up a hornet’s nest. She was furious and started cursing, “What do you mean by that! Are you saying that back then, if some bold girl who couldn’t read the atmosphere had come along, you might have considered going for her too!”
She didn’t notice that this remark also insulted herself. Beijiao merely smiled, his shoulders shaking with laughter.
He wasn’t particularly concerned about those kinds of needs…
Or at least he wasn’t before meeting her.
Those inappropriate thoughts only appeared when it came to her, and in all his colorful dreams, there was only her.
He hadn’t even thought about such things before.
That’s obvious. When he couldn’t even get enough to eat and had to study, he had no time to think about such romantic nonsense—it couldn’t even be used as food.
However, he didn’t tell Jiang Ran these things because she wouldn’t believe him anyway, and might even suspect he was making excuses out of guilt—
She just liked to get stuck in a rut.
He really understood her well. Although Jiang Ran had only seen one pig’s meat, she had seen many pigs jumping over hurdles. For example, Beijiao discovered on her phone’s bookmarked pages that she loved reading novels with at least 1V2 scenarios…
Don’t ask.
Just say it’s also very good this way and also very good that way. Why should the female lead only have a single choice?
And loving to read these things indicates that she actually lacks confidence in managing her own desires, especially during adolescence, when talk of lifelong commitment is just nonsense.
So no matter what he says, she won’t believe him. Just like when he originally claimed he was “pure in both mind and body,” she scoffed at him, only to be completely surprised that what he said was actually fucking true—
Although she didn’t believe it.
But she was, paradoxically, very concerned.
Being injured and about to undergo surgery was a big deal for her. From childhood, she had never even had an appendectomy, let alone been hospitalized—it was almost like a fairy tale…
Now suddenly thrown into a hospital, she wasn’t as calm as she appeared. Most of the time, she was repeatedly swinging between “I’ve accepted it” and “I can’t accept it again.”
Her mood fluctuated greatly, which indirectly made her difficult to take care of.
“Tell me, who else have you thought about! High school classmates! Or college classmates! Let me see the photos, I promise I won’t get angry!”
Obviously, “I promise I won’t get angry” was just her blowing smoke. Beijiao glanced at her sideways and reservedly said, “I really only fantasized about you.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Believe it or not.”
“Then tell me what you liked about me back then. After you tell me, I’ll consider it. Was it my face or my limited edition bag?”
He didn’t know a damn thing about limited edition bags.
And although she was pretty and had presence, there were countless female college students, and her type wasn’t particularly rare…
“I didn’t like you back then. You’re imagining too much. Can you tone down your confidence a bit?” He lifted the blanket, adjusting her from lying on her back to lying on her side.
He positioned himself between her legs as she lay sideways.
Jiang Ran screamed, clearly not expecting him to be so perverted. She pushed him away with her hands, “I’m still a patient!”
Although Beijiao had inserted himself, he clearly hadn’t forgotten about her injured leg. He remained in that position without moving, reaching out to soothe her wildly beating heart—
Again causing her to scream, he finally satisfiedly moved his hand away.
His hand slid downward again, returning to her waist, pulling her back into his embrace as she struggled to push her upper body backward, hugging her tightly.
Hearing her protests and seeing her struggle, he silently raised an eyebrow above her head: “What’s the point of asking these meaningless questions? The key is that I’m now completely overwhelmed by you, filled with thoughts of you.”
Jiang Ran felt sweet for a second.
Then she quickly realized and coldly said, “First, pull that thing you’re poking me with and then talk nonsense?”
“It’s also a significant part of showing my affection for you.” He buried his face in her neck, rubbing vigorously, his voice sounding muffled, “Otherwise, how come I don’t even watch porn.”
“…Really?”
True.
In the boys’ dormitory, it was inevitable to exchange experiences. If in the first year everyone still had to maintain basic politeness, secretly watching resources on their own…
By the second year, Zhang Liang and the others had become so casual that they could discuss the latest Caribbean plot while eating, whether it was innovative enough.
When they were happy, Beijiao was occasionally dragged over to take a quick look. At that time, he didn’t have any physiological reactions. He was even confused about what was so interesting about it—
This made Zhang Liang and the others also feel puzzled. They couldn’t bring themselves to say the phrase “It’s great to have a girlfriend,” and after that, they never forced him to watch together again, since a person with no reaction at all was just no fun.
“You seem like you’ve psychologically castrated yourself.”
Jiang Ran analyzed, still feeling he was very perverted in her tone.
And he was like a sweet large dog, holding onto her slightly curved neck, occasionally extending his tongue to lick and bite, “Whatever, as long as I’m mentally focused on you, that’s enough.”
It wouldn’t be used anywhere else.
Jiang Ran half-believed and half-doubted his nonsense, but vaguely felt that men wouldn’t be so calm about joking around with such matters, and eventually believed him.
Sometimes she even doubted whether she was easily deceived.
Dazedly inhaling the smell of disinfectant, she had brought the bed sheets from home after confirming they would be more convenient to wear close-fitting clothes for the next few days, and didn’t feel it was dirty anywhere.
An hour later, Beijiao placed her on the sofa. She was dozing off madly, too tired to even lift a finger.
He turned on the air conditioning a bit higher and went to change the sheets. Jiang Ran curled up on the sofa playing with her phone for a while, watching him from the top edge of the screen—
His shoulders were so broad, his waist narrow, and his jeans loosely hanging on his hips, unzipped and unbuttoned, making him look like a little hooligan on the street.
But under the dim room lighting, the wedding ring on his finger sparkled with dazzling brilliance.
The short video app on her phone was still playing, flickering with light and shadow. Jiang Ran blinked her eyes and suddenly called his name.
Beijiao paused in the act of putting on a pillow and turned around, “Want some water?”
“No water, I just want to ask,” she said, “Will you always like me?”
He threw down the pillow without the slightest hesitation, “Yeah, I will.”
“They say there’s the imprinting effect. Now you like me so much, it might be because you admire and worship my snowboarding skills… If in the future I can’t snowboard anymore and suddenly become an ordinary, materialistic, average woman, will you still like me?”
“Yeah, I will.”
“What if that ordinary, materialistic, and poor average woman?”
“Except for not paying rent living at your place, you’ve never spent a penny on me. What difference does it make to me whether you have money or not?”
“Oh right… It’s just that you answered so quickly earlier, I didn’t quite believe it.”
“Then why don’t you try retiring now?”
Jiang Ran changed the topic, pointing at his lower body, “Can it only stand up for me?”
“Yeah, it can.”
Jiang Ran withdrew her hand, racking her brain for other questions. Beijiao came back and, like carrying a child, picked her up again and placed her back on the bed.
“Any more questions?”
“No more for now,” she contentedly snuggled into the clean bedding, “Suddenly, the surgery the day after tomorrow doesn’t seem so scary anymore.”
“Yeah, of course.” He kissed the base of her left middle finger where the ring was, “I’ll always be here.”
…
They say different personalities lead to different life paths.
If it was due to their similar circumstances, Shan Chong had momentarily empathized and even worried whether Jiang Ran might endure more hardship than he had or weep alone in the rain. Yet, the next morning at seven o’clock, when he checked his phone and saw her midnight WeChat Moments post—
【Yi xi xi xi xi】
【Picture】
The caption was a line of perverted laughter.
The picture below showed two hands overlapping in a staged pose. The top hand clearly belonged to a man, covering the bottom one that was pale and delicate, with just a bit of it peeking out. However, both hands wore matching rings from the same brand, sparkling under the light.
Among the comments from friends in the snowboarding circle saying things like “Ahhhhhh!” and “You actually got injured and still got credit for it” and “You won’t even behave properly while in the hospital”—
Shan Chong felt his previous day’s sympathy, advice, and warnings were completely wasted.
He sent Jiang Ran a question mark.
Jiang Ran replied with a question mark at lunchtime.
【CK, Chong: No trouble at home?】
【Whose Ranran Duck: There was trouble. You were right. My dad also wanted me to retire, and we shouted at each other until the neighboring ward could hear.】
【Whose Ranran Duck: Then I won.】
【CK, Chong: Impressive.】
【Whose Ranran Duck: Men are just a bit slow in speech. You didn’t win back then, but you can’t blame yourself entirely.】
Shan Chong: “…”
【CK, Chong: How about the boyfriend?】
【Whose Ranran Duck: Him? He just said a slightly harsh sentence, then was executed on the spot. He’s also helpless with me. “Shy” “Shy” It’s his own fault for liking me.】
【Whose Ranran Duck: And now he’s my fiancé, even if I die snowboarding, he has to become a widower for me.】
What could Shan Chong say? He could only respect and lock in the blessings, and wish her a successful surgery.
Putting down his phone, he glanced at the person beside him, who was on tiptoe trying to grab a soup pot from a high cabinet that was larger than her head.
He casually reached up and took it down for her, “Don’t you have a mouth to ask for help?”
The girl took the pot and placed it on the stove, then ran over and hugged his waist, resting her chin on his chest as she looked up and asked, “Who were you chatting with on WeChat!”
“The one with the broken leg.”
“Oh,” the girl blinked her eyes, instantly no longer jealous, “Is she okay? Did she argue with her family? Don’t tell me she’s planning to announce her retirement like you did? No way, no way, she’s our last hope for the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics in the carving circle!”
“‘Our carving circle.'” Shan Chong’s lips curled coldly, “She’s doing great, won’t retire, and even plans to get married to celebrate her big victory in the family war.”
“Oh, then tell her to keep training after getting married, don’t get too obsessed with men. I heard her boyfriend is even better-looking than you, and you’re already handsome enough. If that’s the case, what kind of monster would he be… A normal woman might find it hard to resist!”
“…”
Shan Chong expressionlessly slapped her forehead.
…
The next day, Jiang Ran was wheeled into the operating room. She was the first surgery of the morning. When she went in, the outside of the operating room was filled with people, including family, friends, her lover, coaches, and teammates from the provincial team, as well as coaches and representatives from the national team.
“Don’t do this, you’ll make the doctors feel too much pressure.”
Jiang Ran said, “The families of patients having surgery later will also feel morally pressured because they didn’t bring as many people as we did.”
No one paid attention to her joke.
Everyone present seemed tenser than her by a million times—
Including the chief surgeon.
The chief surgeon was genuinely pressured. Wang Jiaming and Nie Xin had casually chatted and smoked with him, and Nie Xin was very effective in shedding tears while explaining that whether China could win a gold medal in men’s parallel giant slalom snowboarding in four years depended on how well he performed today.
The chief surgeon had treated countless important people in his life—high-ranking officials or wealthy businessmen—and heard countless kinds of words, some forceful and some pleading. He never imagined his surgical skills would be linked to the Olympics, taking this path of shared honor and disgrace.
With mixed feelings, he comforted the silently crying coach. Out of professional ethics, a doctor who never gave any promises to patients unusually said, “It should be fine, don’t worry.”
When Jiang Ran was finally wheeled in, the chief surgeon even joked with her, telling the girl to be strong.
“What’s there not to be strong about,” Jiang Ran waved her hand, “Even if I’m lame, there’s still a way to snowboard.”
Then the surgery went smoothly, and she wouldn’t be lame for now.
When she was wheeled out, the anesthesia hadn’t completely worn off yet, but she could open her eyes, though her consciousness was in a mess, her mind feeling like it was filled with glue.
She felt like she had slept an unprecedentedly long sleep and had a dream. In the dream, she returned to the Santa Claus Village in Finland, in a completely white icy world. Snow silently fell from the sky at an extremely slow pace. She and Lin Shuang were shoulder to shoulder, sharing an ice cream, pistachio flavored.
【Has it been years already?】 Lin Shuang swung her legs, 【At first I was so scared you wouldn’t get through it, I even thought about taking you with me, then calling me to pick you up and bring you into the village.】
【What village?】 Jiang Ran took the ice cream from her hand.
The Yellow Spring Village.
Lin Shuang giggled but didn’t say it out loud.
The short-haired girl’s appearance was frozen seven years ago. She snuggled up, leaning her head against Jiang Ran’s shoulder like a cat, sighing, 【I really miss your Pacific shoulder.】
Jiang Ran frowned and pushed her head away. She opened her arms and clung on, 【Pity it’s someone else’s now, waaah!】
Looking at Jiang Ran with sparkling eyes, snowflakes fell on her head. Probably because the snow was getting heavier, Lin Shuang’s face gradually became somewhat blurred…
Jiang Ran, impatient of her fake crying, rolled her eyes and stuffed the ice cream back to her. Lin Shuang took the ice cream and also held her hand, flipping her empty left hand to look, 【What kind of engagement ring do you have, it’s so annoying that surgery doesn’t allow wearing rings in!】
Jiang Ran, dazed, didn’t know what she was talking about regarding the surgery, so she just let her flip through her empty left hand, describing the appearance of the ring she instinctively thought should be worn there.
Lin Shuang’s eyes widened slightly: 【So what did he say when he proposed to you?】
【A lot.】 Jiang Ran curled her lips, 【It moved me to tears.】
Lin Shuang burst into laughter, and after she was done laughing, she leaned back on her again, letting out a satisfied sigh, 【Friend, loyal dog, coach, Jiang Ran, you have so many people around you now!】
Jiang Ran looked back at her.
【If you win the world championship, I can die in peace.】 Lin Shuang, however, kept her head down, “Ah wu” biting the crispy base of the ice cream, 【Will you get it? You will, right?】
Jiang Ran made a sound of agreement, her nose tingling, 【Why are you talking such nonsense? What does me winning a championship have to do with your living a long life?】
【Oh, right.】 Lin Shuang nodded, 【At least I have to live to see you stand on the Olympic podium! See it with my own eyes! I must see it!】
Jiang Ran looked at the person beside her making a vow. Although it was very ordinary words, she increasingly wanted to cry, 【But now it’s so hard to get a visa to go abroad, what if you can’t come then?】
The snowflakes in the sky were getting bigger and bigger, and Lin Shuang’s figure gradually blurred in her vision, buried under the snow and tears—
Warm, soft fingertips pinched her face.
【You just need to know I’m here. On the day you receive the award, it will definitely snow… Haha, romantic, right?】
Lin Shuang said.
【You have to remember, that’s me coming to see you.】
…
When the chief surgeon patted her awake, her tears had soaked the pillow through.
The chief surgeon had no idea what had happened. After performing surgery on so many people, it was usually the people waiting outside who cried, rarely someone crying and waking up on their own.
Upon waking up and seeing a circle of people gathered around her bed, it resembled that viral meme where everyone was looking down at her with hopeful eyes.
Jiang Huamin asked inexplicably, “The surgery was very successful, none of us cried. Why are you crying so sadly all by yourself?”
Jiang Ran was so embarrassed she wished she could find a crack to hide in.
The worst part was she still wanted to cry. The acid in her chest and the strong aftereffects of the anesthesia overwhelmed her. She turned her head and looked at the black-haired young man whose half elbow was pressing on her pillow.
Feeling her gaze, Bei Jiao noticed her pouting with tears welling up in her eyes, also feeling puzzled, yet still leaned in closer to her, “Hmm?”
“Give me a hug.” Her voice was unusually sweet, “I want a hug.”
Her upper body was soft and limp, so she was just scooped up by him, leaning against his chest. She cried a few tears and also felt that she was very wrong, but she couldn’t remember why she was so wrong…
She just remembered she had a dream, she couldn’t remember the content of the dream, but she remembered she was emotionally moved and wanted to cry the whole time.
She thought it was the anesthesia messing up her brain or affecting her dopamine or something. Holding Bei Jiao, she sobbed and looked at him putting her sapphire ring back on her finger. She was stunned for a moment, suddenly feeling like she found the cause and asked, “Am I pregnant?”
A single stone can stir up a thousand ripples.
At that moment, all the relatives, friends, and coaches around the bed were shocked.
In a funeral-like silence, only Bei Jiao, holding her waist and wiping her tears, said expressionlessly, “Is the anesthesia not worn off yet?”
“I’m awake,” she sniffed, “Can’t you see I’m talking?”
“?Nonsense doesn’t count as talking,” Bei Jiao raised his head and calmly scanned the various expressions around the bed, most of which were blaming looks, “Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t, thank you.”
Author’s note:
Today’s Train Ran: You clearly did waaah waaah waaah
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage