Actually, Jiang Ran wasn’t really here to eat gutter oil. She had accepted Dalong’s invitation mostly to figure out her own feelings—she was a bit shaken.
When people begin to doubt something they once believed firmly in, they usually subconsciously think it’s not that their original decision was wrong, but rather that they’ve been too idle lately and let their guard down…
It was exactly like this with Beijiao.
In the past two years, aside from her romantic life being in a complete mess (well, not entirely messed up, maybe more like a stagnant pond), Jiang Ran seemed to be unstoppable in other areas—
She became the top seller when she sold goods;
She won third place in competitions;
On a short video app, even when she casually posted a joke, there were tons of compliments flooding in. She didn’t even need to moderate the comments herself—any negative comment would be quickly attacked by netizens until the poster deleted it themselves…
Life had become so easy that she began to wonder whether she might have developed some interest in romance again, naively thinking she might be ready again.
So the question was, was she ready only for Beijiao, or was she ready for anyone?
Jiang Ran didn’t know.
Right now, she felt like a patient standing in front of a urology clinic, wanting the doctor to give her a clear diagnosis.
But despite her doubts, at least before sunrise today, Jiang Ran hadn’t taken any real action toward self-diagnosis. For example, the night before, after dinner, Dalong had invited her to learn how to switch edges on an intermediate slope the next day, and he wouldn’t charge her.
Jiang Ran, whose legs trembled just seeing the words “intermediate slope,” genuinely felt only amusement, so she replied with a “haha” and annoyingly gave no clear answer.
She selectively ignored Dalong’s invitation for the next day, thinking that although the boy looked good, he still lacked something—
In Qiu Nian’s words, it was sexual magnetism, but Jiang Ran didn’t particularly feel the urge to sleep with anyone, so she thought it was about overall charisma, like aura or skiing skills.
Of course, the second point was a bit much to ask. Even Beijiao, whom she had once condescended to date, didn’t have this ability. But Beijiao was so bad at skiing that she even taught him how to put on his boots. As a mentor, she had always been lenient toward her apprentice, so this person had special privileges beyond the usual standards.
She pondered what was going on with herself. That night, she tossed and turned, unable to sleep, which led her to dream again. In her dream, she recalled specifically choosing the parallel giant slalom World Cup qualifying event in Rovaniemi, Finland before a competition—
Of course, it was because Finland is home to Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi.
Returning to Rovaniemi, everything seemed the same as before—gloomy skies, almost dark by one or two in the afternoon, Huskies wagging their tails lying in the snow everywhere, and people living slowly and comfortably.
The only difference was that Santa Claus Village, usually crowded with tourists, suddenly seemed much quieter.
In her memory, the post office, once packed with people, now had only two or three visitors.
Jiang Ran stayed alone in the small village post office for a long time.
First, she selected a postcard and, without hesitation, wrote a heartfelt blessing to herself, making up for the regret of losing the postcard she had once sent to herself. She planned to take it back and frame it together with the one from Lin Shuang. Ideally, in four years, a golden Olympic medal would be placed beside them.
But after finishing the message, Jiang Ran hesitated when writing the address, fearing that if the postcard got lost again, it would bring bad luck—
She thought carefully about the least likely place for a postcard to get lost and finally decided on major universities in China.
Although there were so many universities nationwide, hundreds of addresses and millions of recipients, her mind only thought of Guangzhou A University—Beijiao.
Jiang Ran told herself this was a long-term, strategic decision. That dog had such a narrow heart; their last breakup hadn’t ended with polite smiles after returning from a bar alleyway. What if that dog just tore up the postcard?
So she reluctantly chose another postcard from the rack—
She spent a little extra time choosing the design because she was too focused.
Then, when she turned it over and couldn’t decide how to address him, she simply drew a dog head based on an emoji from her phone app and couldn’t help but smile slightly.
The dream seemed to be from a third-person perspective. When Jiang Ran saw her dream self smiling like a girl in love while drawing the dog head, she let out a scream in her dream that shattered the universe.
She screamed, “No!”
Then she woke up in fear.
Wrapped in her blanket, it was six in the morning, the sky outside just beginning to brighten, snowflakes drifting in the hazy air. She stared expressionlessly out the window and reached a conclusion—
Her recent life had too much “dog” in it.
This really wouldn’t do.
It was too scary.
So she took out her phone. Nearly twelve hours after her “haha,” she added another message: “Then how about meeting at the transfer station at ten?”
…
And so, at this very moment.
At the transfer station of Songbei Ski Resort, the gondola was packed, likely because it was a weekend and many novice skiers had arrived. Jiang Ran lazily bent down, adjusted Ma’s bindings again in the “八字” stance, and then trudged up the dreaded slope on the beginner and intermediate trails.
This time, to make it look more realistic, she switched edges awkwardly. Scratching her head, she said to Dalong in front of her, “I think my left foot should be in front.”
Actually, when she practiced the most diligently, Jiang Ran could also use the right foot forward stance (fixed bindings completely facing right) to carve the snow just fine—just not as elegantly.
However, after playing around for a while, she found learning this skill meaningless and put it aside. After many years, her left-foot-forward edge switching felt a bit clumsy—
It felt like it wasn’t the same leg on the same person. It wasn’t the same as gliding effortlessly with her right foot forward.
She acted convincingly, switching edges clumsily and unsteadily. Yet Dalong kept praising her beside her, saying she skied very well and had natural talent.
For a brief moment, Jiang Ran thought it was kind of fun. But the next moment, she felt indifferent again;
Occasionally, she fell on the ground and sat there, reaching out her hand for Dalong to help her up. He pulled her up, their hands meeting through thick gloves. She realized her heartbeat was like a broken ECG machine, showing only a flat line with no fluctuation;
Dalong’s handsome face, no less attractive than Beijiao’s, swayed before her. She admired it, yet not entirely. She sensed something was lacking—masculinity.
The patient standing in front of the urology clinic holding the medical record in hand knew deep down that she was probably truly incapable.
Yet she still wanted to sentence herself to death.
When they reached the bottom of the gondola, Jiang Ran chatted with Dalong—fortunately, although not particularly excited, Dalong, as an outgoing younger brother who would actively approach admired older sisters on the slopes, was quite talkative.
He told Jiang Ran about their final days in Chongli, when they gathered together downstairs at the rented house, with the landlord’s family upstairs. At that time, Chongli was forcibly clearing out tenants, and the landlord refused to refund the rent, citing “force majeure.” So they blocked the door, preventing the landlord from living normally—
For example, one time the landlord bought a bag of cucumbers, and they rushed forward and snatched them all away.
A colleague, in front of the landlord’s green-faced expression, wiped the cucumber and took a loud bite, asking the landlord, “Is your salt supply enough at home? If not, we have nothing better to do and can only volunteer to spread salt on the neighborhood streets to melt the ice.”
Jiang Ran pictured a bunch of hot-blooded young men snatching a bag of cucumbers from a middle-aged man, laughing so uncontrollably that she couldn’t even stand up straight.
At this moment, it began to snow again. The sky was overcast, the gray light worsening, no wind, and the snow slowly drifting down from the sky…
Dalong reached out and caught some snow a few centimeters above Jiang Ran’s helmet, murmuring, “It’s snowing.”
“It’s okay, just a little snow—”
What a load of crap.
Before Jiang Ran could finish speaking, the boy beside her had already lifted his hand and removed the ski balaclava he had been wearing all along. The large waterproof hood could cover the helmet entirely. He took the balaclava and pulled it over Jiang Ran’s head.
Jiang Ran blinked.
“Don’t catch a cold,” Dalong said. “On days like this, it’s easy to get chilled without realizing it.”
The unfamiliar boy’s scent enveloped Jiang Ran, and she sneezed, lifting her head to say “thank you.”
At that moment, through Dalong’s shoulder, she saw in the bustling crowd behind them, standing outside the gondola queue, a black-haired young man holding his snowboard in one hand and his other hand in his pocket, watching them expressionlessly.
…
He wasn’t wearing goggles.
Despite the crowd moving around, his gaze seemed completely undisturbed, fixed firmly on them. Those black eyes were like they had been tempered in snow and ice, cold and distant.
He narrowed his eyes slightly.
In that instant, Jiang Ran felt as if the surrounding temperature had dropped a few degrees.
Perhaps her hesitation was too obvious, Dalong also curiously turned his head to follow her gaze and saw the person standing where she was looking. Dalong blinked and made an “ah” sound.
A few seconds later, he turned his gaze back, slightly lowering his head to ask the woman, “What’s wrong? Why are you staring at that person?”
Jiang Ran slowly withdrew her gaze, looking at Dalong strangely. The latter’s smile didn’t change, as if he didn’t think there was anything wrong with her staring at another good-looking man in front of him—
He even introduced him with a rather proud tone, “This person is also from Chongli, just like me at the mountain top ski resort… What do you think? He looks really good, right?”
Dalong paused slightly, “He skis way better than me.”
“Do you know him?” Jiang Ran asked in surprise.
“I know him,” Dalong said a bit awkwardly, “but he doesn’t know me.”
Jiang Ran: “?”
This time, Jiang Ran was genuinely surprised, mainly because she hadn’t expected Bei Jiao to be so famous. It seemed like everyone in Chongli knew him. She had heard people discussing him in the equipment hall or the dining area—
Most people called him “Brother Bei,” some followed Zhao Keyan’s lead and called him “Dog Brother” without knowing why, others called him “A Jiao,” and a few had even started calling him “God Jiao.”
God Jiao.
He had only stayed in Chongli for a little over a snow season.
Unaware of this, Dalong began introducing Bei Jiao to Jiang Ran—
It was said that Bei Jiao was very well-known in the carving circle throughout Chongli. The reason was that in that carving circle, which almost had a fixed ecological structure, a lone wolf suddenly appeared last season.
Calling him a lone wolf wasn’t an exaggeration. At first, he didn’t know anyone and didn’t bother to get to know anyone… One day, he suddenly appeared with a red tree board and just focused on skiing.
This person didn’t communicate with others, nor did he hang out in groups. Most of the time, he ate alone, swiped his own card to enter the ski area, and watched videos on his phone while riding the gondola. About once every ten days, he might appear with Zhao Keyan, but he didn’t talk much. On a gondola ride, he might ask just one question about a move.
After that, he would shut up, not saying a word more.
Half a snow season later, he had already become better than most people on the slopes. At that time, no one had interacted with him, but people in the carving circle had already started discussing him. Every morning, there would always be someone in the group chat saying, “That guy with the red tree board and BC sticker is at the mountain top ski area again, entering the gate at the top, same gondola as me.”
At first, people called him “the guy with the red tree board.”
Later, some people tried to chat with him and found out his name was Bei Jiao.
Bei Jiao didn’t hang out in circles or gossip, yet he improved rapidly.
And for most men, no matter how flashy they were, they were still willing from the bottom of their hearts to be friends with those who were strong in their own field—
So by the end of the first snow season, more and more people started greeting Bei Jiao on the slopes.
“He might not even recognize them, but don’t be fooled by his usually cold face—he’s actually quite polite,” Dalong smiled. “I’ve called him too, and he does respond.”
Jiang Ran: “…”
Where did that prideful tone come from?
Even a primate that can understand its own name, like a gorilla in a zoo, will look up and respond if you call it?
Jiang Ran didn’t speak, just gave a nonchalant “hmm” sound while raising her hand.
There were many people at the lower gondola station. When she looked again, Bei Jiao had already moved to the very end of the queue.
When she turned her head, his board was upright, his elbow resting on the binding. The weather in the afternoon wasn’t great, everything was gray, as if casting a gloomy shadow on people’s faces.
She didn’t know whether he had left home in a rush today or what, but he wasn’t wearing a face mask or goggles. He just stood there with his handsome face looking cold and unapproachable.
Yet even like this, Jiang Ran saw three girls behind him whispering obviously about him. One of them looked eager, glancing at his expression several times, always hesitating but never daring to step forward.
Then, about five minutes later, Jiang Ran and her group finally swiped their cards and entered the gondola station. The station was also full of people, everyone queuing up in an orderly manner to board the gondola.
Jiang Ran and her group stood near the front of the gondola station waiting. An empty gondola rotated in front of them. She placed her board into the designated area of the gondola, stepped in, and sat down securely.
Not hearing footsteps behind her, she raised her eyebrows and called out, “A Long,” turning her head back, only to find the light outside the gondola completely blocked by a figure holding a red tree board standing at the gondola door.
The rest of her unspoken words were all choked in her throat.
Her eyes slowly widened.
The next second, the tall figure raised his hand and placed the red board into the slot opposite Jiang Ran’s Mach, positioning two skis of the same brand but different models parallel to each other. The BC limited edition stickers on the boards reflected fluorescent light from the snow.
He stepped into the cable car, and the entire carriage slightly swayed.
Jiang Ran was sitting while he stood, towering over her with a condescending gaze.
After a brief silence filled with eye contact, he took a step forward. In the cable car, which contained only the two of them, he sat down beside her.
By then, the cable car had already completed a small portion of the route.
The door was about to close.
Jiang Ran raised her eyebrows, looking at Dalong, who stood outside the cable car hesitating, shocked and bewildered, seemingly unaware of what had just occurred.
He was dragging his snowboard and jogging a few steps alongside the cable car, glancing at the board slots, and finally looking at Jiang Ran and Beijiao inside the cabin.
“Long?” Jiang Ran called out again.
The person addressed appeared somewhat anxious, stretching his neck, showing a look of wanting to board but hesitating.
It was really absurd.
Jiang Ran looked at the teenager outside the cable car with frustration, when she clearly heard the person beside her scoff, as if in disdain.
He lazily stretched out his long legs.
“‘Long’?”
…They were quite close.
“Don’t look anymore, ‘Long’ isn’t going to come up.”
His tone was casual, slow, yet certain.
As soon as he finished speaking, the cable car door made a “hiss” sound and began to close slowly.
—As if confirming his words, Dalong indeed didn’t board this cable car cabin.
And not just Dalong; there were so many people at the cable car station, nearly every cabin was packed with six people, except for theirs, which felt unusually spacious, as if it wasn’t a weekend.
The cable car swayed away from the station. Jiang Ran blinked, slightly unable to catch up with the surreal development of events.
Lowering her head, her mind was in chaos, not thinking about Dalong anymore. She wondered how Beijiao, who had been behind in the long queue, managed to squeeze his way onto the same cabin.
She was somewhat distracted, and thus the cable car fell into sudden silence.
“What’s wrong, disappointed?”
A slightly deep, magnetic voice unusually close to her ear spoke.
Startled, Jiang Ran abruptly lifted her head, her warm cheek brushing against his cool nose, making her freeze in fright—
Only then did she realize that the person beside her had unknowingly leaned in. At this moment, one of his arms stretched out and rested on the back of her seat, while the other bent to support himself against the side wall of the cable car. He was leaning toward her, slightly bending his torso sideways.
His handsome face was inches away.
But his eyes were cold and piercing.
“You’re still looking outside even after the door closed; what’s there to see? He wouldn’t come up.”
He mocked softly, his voice low. As he spoke, his tall, straight nose lightly brushed against her delicate cheek, as if unintentionally.
It always gave her the illusion that he might kiss her any second—
Jiang Ran turned her face toward him.
For several seconds, they locked eyes in silence, until he suddenly dropped his venomous sarcasm.
He gave her a slightly sweet smile: “I mean, just look at who’s sitting in the cabin.”
“…Who?”
“Me.”
…
The weather outside was gray and foggy, making it hard to see anything clearly, and the fog was getting thicker. Jiang Ran wanted to check if Dalong had boarded the next cable car, but she couldn’t see anything. The small cable car cabin creaked as it moved, as if it were isolated from the rest of the world.
Although the cabin was otherwise empty, the person beside her always seemed to be leaning close to her, as if they were in a crowded space. Their thighs pressed together, and the waterproof fabric of their snow suits rubbed together, making an unpleasant sound.
Every time Jiang Ran lifted her lashes to look at the person beside her, wanting to say something, she was met with his cold expression, forcing her to keep silent.
After several such cycles, she had a strong intuition that he seemed even more displeased.
The atmosphere was too strange. Three minutes later, she couldn’t bear the tension anymore and tried to break the silence: “Actually, I saw you earlier.”
He didn’t respond.
Jiang Ran wasn’t even sure if he was listening, so she forced a smile and, pretending to be unfazed, continued talking to herself in a self-answering tone: “I saw you standing at the very end of the line by yourself. Why weren’t you with Zhao Keyan or Erche? The line was pretty long. How did you manage to get ahead of us? Oh right, there were a few girls in the line discussing you. One of them seemed to want to talk to you, but your face was too cold, and she looked a bit—”
“Jiang Ran.”
Her voice stopped abruptly.
“You talk too much. It makes you seem nervous.”
She stopped breathing altogether.
“I was originally having lunch with Li Xingnan, but halfway through, I heard that Jiang Ran from Songbei Ski Resort was busy holding hands and learning how to switch edges with a guy who looked pretty good. So I thought I should come and check it out.”
He turned his head to stare at her and paused.
“How was she doing?”
“…”
“I was able to get to the front of the line because I told everyone ahead of me that I saw my girlfriend with another guy.”
The hand that had been resting on the back of her seat slid down.
Smoothly yet assertively, it landed on her back and gently hooked around her waist.
He didn’t even need to make any extra moves. Jiang Ran silently closed her eyes, her heart trembling. She was already mentally tearing apart those gossiping spectators into tiny pieces.
“Hmm, why are you quiet now?”
His voice was light.
Not at all angry.
Yet she felt like screaming—
Normally, when he got angry, throwing tantrums and jumping around, she wasn’t scared of him at all. She even dared to physically subdue him.
But she knew, once this dog really lost his temper, even the gods would have to pause and watch for a while…
Let alone a mere mortal like herself.
Beijiao bit the tip of one finger and took off his glove.
At the same time, his broad chest leaned closer. With his other hand, he gripped her chin, applying pressure as if he wanted to crush her jawbone, turning her face toward his.
Her deep brown eyes flickered with unease as she was forced to lock eyes with his dark, stormy gaze.
His slightly rough fingertips gently rubbed her chin, leaving a red mark.
Her entire neck prickled with goosebumps, her hair standing on end.
She tried to pull away but couldn’t.
She gestured for Beijiao to look at the upper right corner of the cabin.
“There are cameras in the cable car.”
She struggled weakly.
“Don’t do anything rash.”
She only heard the man extremely close to her softly hum in response, saying, “Be thankful there are cameras in the cable car.”
She hadn’t even had time to fully process the danger hidden in those words when, the next second, he opened his mouth and captured her lower lip. His lips and tongue, which spoke the coldest words in the most biting tone, were warm and moist. He gently ground and bit her lips.
His tongue tried to pry open her tightly shut teeth.
Jiang Ran refused to cooperate, turning her head to avoid his kiss, overwhelmed with shame, glancing repeatedly at the corner camera during the struggle.
The man kissing her didn’t seem to care. The hand around her waist pulled her forcefully toward him. In contrast, his other hand moved gently, almost tenderly.
His long fingers spread out, gently rubbing her chin to keep her from moving.
“Cooperate a bit,” his lips still pressed against hers, “you have no idea how angry I am right now.”
She froze again.
Looking down, she saw the black-haired young man leaning so close to her that his eyes were dark and stormy, his cheeks flushed with restrained emotion, his nose slightly reddened, like a large dog in heat.
The hand holding her waist tightened, then suddenly exerted force, effortlessly pulling her onto his lap.
The two of them squeezed into one corner of the spacious cabin, making the cable car slightly sway and tremble.
If the fog weren’t so thick that the surroundings were completely obscured, the people on the next cable car, which wasn’t far behind, might have noticed that the previous cabin was slightly tilted due to the uneven weight.
Inside the cable car cabin, it was deathly silent.
Jiang Ran sat on his strong thighs, one hand instinctively gripping his shoulder for balance, lowering her head to meet the black-haired young man’s unflinching black eyes.
“We broke up,” she whispered, “why are you—”
“So what if we did? I was just pushing down a slope with someone the other day. Why are you getting mad now?”
She closed her mouth.
“If you want me to calm down a bit, you could do something,” he said, “but if you make any sound besides whimpering, I’ll strangle you.”
“…”
He was serious.
Instinctively, Jiang Ran chose to give in immediately. Her tightly clenched teeth loosened slightly, and she subtly, almost willingly, leaned forward.
Their lips met again, and this time, she allowed his tongue to slip inside easily.
He was like a fish returning to water, his tongue boldly invading, like the most ruthless soldiers finally breaking through the city gates after three days and nights of battle, ruthlessly trampling every inch of land he had long desired—
He was even a bit rough and forceful, tightly entwining her tongue while his hand, which had been gripping her jaw, now used two fingers to pinch her entire jawline, forcing her to open her mouth and accept his invasion.
Their breathing gradually became uneven.
Her eyes reddened, her nostrils flaring from the lack of oxygen, making pitiful gasping sounds, which, however, did not evoke even a hint of sympathy from him—
He kissed even deeper.
Until saliva, unable to be swallowed in time, dripped from the corner of her lips, his rough fingertips gently brushed it away, wiping it off for her.
When he finally released her, one of her hands weakly pressed against his shoulder, turning her head away desperately trying to breathe fresh air, her head buzzing, her ears ringing.
If it weren’t for his hand still wrapped around her waist, her legs would have given out, and she might have slid off the seat.
“We should have been animals,” he said softly, “I wish I could fuck you right here in front of everyone.”
Jiang Ran slowly opened her eyes wide.
But all she saw was her beloved apprentice, giving her a pure and clear smile.
Only his flickering black eyes clearly told her—he meant every word.
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