This person really can’t entertain a single bad thought, like lustful intentions, without almost immediately facing karmic retribution.
At this very moment, Jiang Ran has never felt that the intermediate slope at Songbei Ski Resort seemed so damn long after leaving the transfer station.
Under normal circumstances, if she had arranged to meet someone for lunch at the commercial street at the foot of the mountain, when her friend called to ask where she was and she had just passed the transfer station, she would simply reply, “I’m here already; you’ll see me in two minutes.”
But things were different now.
She was pushing uphill on her board.
She couldn’t even remember the last time she pushed uphill on her back edge like this. All she knew was that halfway through, her thighs were trembling. Looking up at the endless snowy slope ahead, she felt her butt muscles tighten by at least two millimeters. She wanted to give up…
But just as the words reached her lips, the young guy in front of her, who was patiently pushing uphill on his front edge while waiting for her to catch up on her back edge, said kindly, “Keep your weight evenly distributed on both feet. You’re doing great, very stable. Soon you’ll be able to learn to switch edges.”
“…”
Jiang Ran felt like crying. This kid was just too sincere—
She suspected that if she were to do a switch-stance ollie 720 right in front of him now, he might go back and tell every snowboarder in Chongli: “Don’t go to Songbei Ski Resort in Jilin. The slopes are full of female frauds.”
Feeling utterly exhausted, she finally just sat down. The young guy squatted beside her and asked, “Tired?”
Tired?
She had never been this tired in her entire life.
It was so tough for beginners to stick with snowboarding. In the gym, doing static squats for two minutes per set with five sets total was already hard enough, and you even got breaks in between…
But here on the slopes, you had to squat like that for at least half an hour straight. Who the hell could handle that?!
How did beginners manage to stick with it and not give up entirely?
Jiang Ran waved her hand, barely able to form a complete sentence: “Switch… switch to front edge.”
The young guy chuckled and said, “Tired, huh? All beginners feel like this. Once you switch edges, it’ll get better!”
Jiang Ran’s expression remained blank as she said, “I want to learn to switch edges now. Teach me.”
“No way. You still need to adjust your binding angle!” The young guy leaned against the nearby railing, speaking casually. “Trying to switch edges with your bindings set at this one-directional angle will just make you fall even harder than when you caught your front edge earlier.”
Jiang Ran had no retort. It was frustrating when your progress was limited by your instructor’s belief that you couldn’t handle it.
Just then, Qiu Nian called again. Clearly, she had been waiting at the foot of the mountain in her loungewear for half an hour in the cold wind, and she was in a terrible mood. As soon as she picked up, she snapped, “Did you hit someone on the slope and are you negotiating compensation now?”
Holding her phone, Jiang Ran frantically signaled to the curious young guy who was looking down at her, struggling to explain that she hadn’t killed anyone—but there had indeed been a small… incident.
It was about those ten seconds earlier when she had been momentarily mesmerized by this cute young guy she met on the slope. By the time she snapped back to reality, it was already too late—
She was pushing uphill for the honor of all the female snowboarders at Songbei Ski Resort.
“Almost there,” she said. “Go wait for me at the café. I’ll be down soon.”
“How long is ‘soon’?”
“Is your friend making you push uphill and rushing you?” the young guy asked.
Hearing the unfamiliar young male voice, Qiu Nian paused for a moment before asking, “Who’s that?”
“Just…” Jiang Ran mumbled, “a kind person?”
Qiu Nian understood immediately: “Oh, another kind person that makes dogs go crazy? And what the hell is ‘pushing uphill’ anyway?”
The young guy said, “Tell her not to rush you. This stuff takes time.”
Jiang Ran didn’t even have time to cover the microphone before Qiu Nian heard clearly and asked in disbelief, “Takes time? Skiing? Are we actually talking about skiing? You’ve been sliding down the second half of the lift for almost forty minutes—long enough for elementary school kids to finish a PE class—and I shouldn’t be worried? Shouldn’t I be wondering if you’re even still alive?!”
Jiang Ran’s ears were ringing from Qiu Nian’s yelling. Finally unable to take the pressure, she told her to leave the goggles at their club’s office and she’d pick them up herself.
“Oh yeah, why didn’t you remind me earlier!”
Qiu Nian cursed and hung up.
Finally reaching the foot of the mountain and stepping into the bustling crowd on flat ground, Jiang Ran’s legs nearly gave out and she almost bowed to the old man guarding the equipment rental entrance.
During the entire uphill push, Jiang Ran learned that the young guy was named Dalong, and he indeed specialized in carving and freestyle tricks. He even showed her his Douyin (TikTok) profile—thousands of followers, a small content creator. Sure enough, all his videos were filmed at the mountain top in Chongli.
Leaning lazily against the equipment table, Jiang Ran scrolled through Dalong’s videos. Watching his Drivespin, she noticed he could only spin about 540°, which was decent for most people, but his speed wasn’t fast enough. The transition between the first 270° and the second 270° was too slow and disjointed.
It was because his weight transfer wasn’t smooth enough in between. Normally, during a 540° spin, the weight should shift between the front and back foot. But even after completing the spin, his weight was still too far forward. Without fixing that, it would be hard to progress to higher-degree tricks.
Rubbing her fingertips, Jiang Ran was considering how to tell him this when she suddenly realized—why was she even thinking about giving him advice? When would she ever learn to stop being such a know-it-all?
Behind her, Dalong adjusted her bindings from a one-directional stance to a duck stance. Flipping over her snowboard, he noticed a bunch of brand logo stickers on it, including a limited edition BC sticker.
Dalong naturally recognized the sticker, but his gaze only lingered on it for a couple of seconds.
He smiled and said, “Looks pretty legit. Someone might think you’re a sponsored pro with all those stickers.”
Stickers on snowboards are a way for sponsored riders to show their support and loyalty to their sponsors.
Nowadays, with more people snowboarding, many think it’s cool and stylish to stick lots of brand stickers on their boards. Eventually, even those who aren’t sponsored by those brands started doing the same—
Most brands are actually happy with this, as it’s a form of free promotion. Who doesn’t like free advertising?
As for the BC limited edition sticker, it originally symbolized that you were a top-tier rider who had placed in a competition. But the design was so cute that it became especially popular among female riders. Eventually, some sticker shops (illegally) started reproducing it.
Nowadays, it’s common to see riders with that sticker on their boards. Everyone just assumes it’s a replica.
At this moment, Dalong naturally assumed Jiang Ran was just another beginner who had stuck on a replica. He had no idea that the stickers on her board were the real deal—genuine items handed over solemnly by a BC distributor.
Upon hearing his comment, Jiang Ran didn’t bother to correct him. Instead, she turned around and gave him a sweet smile.
Glancing at her snowboard lying on the equipment table, set at a beginner-friendly (15, 15) binding angle, she dropped the smile and thought blankly: I need to adjust it back later. Where did I put the screwdriver for adjusting bindings at home?
Holding her snowboard, Jiang Ran exchanged WeChat contacts with Dalong. She made sure to block him from seeing her Moments before waving goodbye.
Dalong left.
Jiang Ran turned and headed toward the building where the club’s office was located.
…
Inside the club’s office, Jiang Ran encountered an unexpected person.
Gray Type-R was leaning by the door, its red base still partially covered in snow that hadn’t fully melted, with a small puddle forming beneath it from the melting snow.
Near the tea table sat two people. The kettle was whistling as boiling water was poured into the teapot, filling the room with the aroma of tea.
The portly club owner smiled as he poured water into the teapot, saying, “We host a lot of events here, and we have an official partnership with Songbei Ski Resort. Every year, we attend the season-opening ceremony and show our faces… Look, this is from 2016. Oh, how young we all were back then! Take a look at that girl in the sailor uniform—so pretty! It took us a lot of effort to convince her to wear it. She’s our club’s top rider, Jiang Ran—do you know her? If you do carving on a regular stance, you must have heard of her!”
The iPad rested on his lap. With one elbow propped on the armrest and his chin resting in his hand, the black-haired young man looked relaxed.
His helmet and goggles were casually tossed aside. His hair was slightly disheveled now, and the light from the screen reflected off his pale face. His dark eyes, reflecting the glow of the tablet, looked even brighter.
He showed no obvious reaction.
His gaze seemed to casually sweep over the photo, lingering briefly on the person who interested him the most—
In the photo, Jiang Ran looked much younger. It was 2016; she was probably just turning twenty then. Dressed in a high school uniform, she stood in the snow with bare legs, unfazed by the cold.
Her hair wasn’t long then—it barely reached her shoulders, straight with a natural inward curl at the ends, making her look a million times more obedient, like a well-mannered rich girl.
At that moment, the rich girl in the photo was clearly unhappy, turning her head away from the camera with a frown.
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
But the hand propping up his chin concealed the expression well, unnoticed by anyone.
“There are lots more photos,” the club owner said enthusiastically. “We archive everything every year.”
He poured tea for Beijiao, who lightly tapped the table with two slender fingers.
Beijiao responded lazily with a “Hmm,” lifting the teacup to take a sip. He completed the entire motion without flipping through the photos on the iPad.
At the same time, he politely changed the subject, his gaze fixed on the photo: “Wasn’t it cold to ride like that in winter?”
“Oh, normally she wouldn’t dress like that. That day was for a promotional video, so we asked everyone to wear something special. You see the other club girls in Hanfu and Lolita outfits? We couldn’t let them win!” The club owner patted his belly and sighed. “But not anymore! Now Jiang Ran is our club’s top rider. She’s spoiled rotten, super famous, and even the gods probably can’t boss her around anymore.”
Jiang Ran, standing at the door, had a dark expression on her face.
She finally couldn’t take it anymore and coughed loudly.
The two inside finally noticed someone standing at the door. The club owner, who had just been gossiping about her, showed no sign of guilt and instead happily exclaimed, “Speak of the devil!”
Beijiao turned his head to look at the person behind him. His entire body stiffened slightly, though it was barely noticeable.
He didn’t say anything, his expression calm on the surface—
But in an instant, his previously crossed legs uncrossed, his slouched posture straightened, and the hand that had been supporting his chin slightly lifted. His entire demeanor changed from relaxed to rigidly proper.
A moment ago, he had been like a large, boneless dog lounging lazily in its territory. Now, he looked more like a hunting dog spotting a hunter—tense and forced into obedience.
The club owner didn’t notice the change, but Jiang Ran did.
She casually placed her snowboard next to the red one with the BC limited edition sticker. Though they were different lengths, the two BC stickers were almost aligned in the same position.
Whether it was intentional or not, no one could tell.
Beijiao’s eyes flickered slightly.
“I came to pick up my goggles,” Jiang Ran said. “Qiu Nian left them here. Where are they?”
The club owner pulled out a pair of goggles from behind and handed them to her.
Jiang Ran grabbed them and wiped off a bit of dust before turning to leave. But just as she turned around, she suddenly stopped, as if remembering something.
She turned back.
As if noticing the extra person in the room for the first time, she openly let her gaze roam over Beijiao from head to toe: “Recruiting new members?”
She asked the club owner.
The club owner exclaimed, “Ah!” as if just remembering, and slapped his thigh. “Trying to recruit new members… Come on, let me introduce. This is Beijiao from Chongli—”
“I know.”
Jiang Ran interrupted lightly.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the black-haired young man look up at her. She gave him a casual, friendly smile. “Yeah, I know him. Tonghua even gave him an award.”
The medal was now in her room.
“We added each other on WeChat.”
This was the second time they had done so.
“And then we just… laid low.”
They hadn’t really interacted much, but the last time he kissed her was three days ago, when she was asleep?
Jiang Ran stood there calmly, watching the young man’s expression subtly shift with every word she spoke.
Finally, he leaned back slightly in his chair, his Adam’s apple moving, his eyes narrowing slightly.
It looked like a smirk, or maybe self-mockery. He silently let out a soft, derisive laugh.
He didn’t speak, tilting his head slightly, completely free of the tension from just a moment ago.
Leaning back in the chair, his face tilted slightly upward, he looked at her standing so close with a half-smile—
as if waiting to hear what nonsense she might come up with next.
The club owner, oblivious to the undercurrents between the two, asked in confusion, “Oh? So you two are pretty close?”
Closer than he knew.
She had practically run over his face with her car tire, and he didn’t even realize it.
Beijiao finally spoke, his voice a bit deeper than before when he was just looking at the photos, but not by much: “We’re pretty familiar.”
As soon as he spoke, Jiang Ran’s leg muscles, which had been mocking him a second ago, involuntarily tensed, and her memories came flooding back—after all, the last time she had a serious face-to-face conversation with Beijiao was…
Right after they came out of the back alley of a bar on the commercial street of the Tonghua ski resort.
And what exactly had they done in that back alley?
It was too embarrassing to even recall.
Jiang Ran had pushed up a slope for forty minutes, her legs already sore, and now they were actually feeling weak.
She immediately realized that her resistance towards this dog wasn’t as strong as she thought, so she figured it was time to leave. She wracked her brain for an excuse to retreat, unfortunately the club owner wouldn’t let her go.
“You two know each other, yet you didn’t even tell me Beijiao was coming to Jilin!” The owner mock-glared at Jiang Ran, “I’ve been trying to attract him for so long!”
Jiang Ran didn’t bother to play along: “I only just met him today too.”
Beijiao blinked, somewhat confused.
She smiled slightly and slowly said, “Back then he was in class, where would I dare interrupt?”
For about three seconds, Beijiao seemed to space out, then returned to his usual emotionless expression.
Jiang Ran was particularly annoyed by this indifferent attitude.
She moved her lips and said to the club owner, “I’m leaving now.”
Before the latter could reply, her hand was already on the doorknob—
But the door was pulled open from the outside with more force a second earlier. Jiang Ran withdrew her hand and watched a face appear at the doorway—it was a staff member from the club. He first saw Jiang Ran standing behind the door with a serious expression, blinked in surprise, and called out, “Ran Jie.”
Jiang Ran lightly responded, and only then did the staff member turn to the owner behind her and say, “A shipment has arrived, and the list has been printed. Could you come down to check it out, please?”
Upon hearing this, the club owner stood up immediately, saying he needed to check the goods. He asked Jiang Ran to stay and chat with their guest from afar for now.
Without giving her a chance to refuse, he kept giving her meaningful glances implying, “If you can’t win him over, it’s your problem,” before rushing downstairs in a hurry.
The door in front of them opened and closed again.
With a bang, the office was suddenly left with only Jiang Ran and Beijiao.
…
Without the chatty club owner, the office became unusually quiet, and the atmosphere suddenly turned strange.
Beijiao looked relatively normal, sitting in the chair and tilting his head to look at Jiang Ran’s snowboard: “Am I seeing things? What’s wrong with the binding angle?”
Jiang Ran recalled a long time ago when she had asked Beijiao the same question in Altay. That was the first time he made a mistake, changing the binding angle with a group of newly acquainted people and Song Die’s sister, heading off together to ski off-piste in the Wolf Valley.
When she found out, he looked like his soul was flying.
Unlike how she was now, he raised an eyebrow and retorted, “What does it have to do with you?”
Beijiao thought for a long time but couldn’t figure out what he had done to upset her again. In the past few days, he had been deliberately avoiding her.
“What’s wrong now?” He asked, “I didn’t know you were coming to the office.”
“So what? Would you not come if you knew I was here?”
He couldn’t tell what the question meant and wisely chose to shut his mouth.
Seeing his silence, Jiang Ran assumed he had defaulted, and the fire she had just extinguished flared up again. She laughed in disbelief, “Am I some kind of cannibal or serial killer that you have to go out of your way to avoid me?”
Beijiao didn’t catch on to her meaning and made a confused “Hmm.”
He looked at her, seemingly genuinely puzzled about what was wrong with her.
Jiang Ran closed her eyes briefly: “Forget it, what’s the point of saying this to you.”
As she spoke, she reached out and took the iPad from his lap, locked the screen, and threw it onto the sofa, not gently—enough for Beijiao to realize she was in a bad mood.
He reached out to grab her wrist, but she dodged it skillfully. Jiang Ran irritably paced around the room. The heating was on full blast, and she felt increasingly annoyed and restless.
She circled around the table, picked up the teacup he had just taken a sip from, and drank the tea that had just cooled down.
She took a deep breath, regaining her composure, placed the cup back on the coffee table, and he stared at the cup she had set down, his gaze then falling on the mark left by the warmth of her lips on the rim.
“I wasn’t avoiding you,” he thought for a moment and admitted, “Forget it, I was avoiding you.”
Jiang Ran glared at him.
“But it’s because I wasn’t sure if you wanted to see me,” Beijiao said calmly, “So I decided to avoid you first.”
It actually sounded a bit pitiful.
But that’s just who he was—maybe not good at many things, but definitely skilled at manipulating people to the greatest extent—using his looks and such. When he wanted to appear innocent, he could look both innocent and pitiful.
Jiang Ran reminded herself a thousand times not to fall for it.
So she didn’t speak, just coldly staring at him.
Just then, someone called her from outside the door, it opened, and the staff member who had come once before peeked in again: “The boss said there’s a new batch of snowboard bags, let you go down later to see if you like any, and also ask Qiu Nian, you two can pick one or two to take.”
Jiang Ran responded.
The staff member glanced at Beijiao behind Jiang Ran, looking somewhat uncertain whether to leave the guest and ask Jiang Ran to go downstairs immediately. After hesitating for a long time, and with the guest not saying a word, he chose to give up: “Then remember to come down when you’re done with your work.”
He closed the door and left. Jiang Ran’s words, “I’m not busy, I can go now,” were shut inside the door, basically drowned out by the sound of the door closing.
Even so, she didn’t want to waste any more time. At the same moment the door was shut, she had already decided to leave.
She reached for her snowboard, but as soon as her hand touched the binding, her elbow was grabbed by a strong force—
She was startled, hadn’t even turned around yet, when a strong arm went across her waist, forcibly lifting her up, her feet leaving the ground. The next second, she was placed on the sofa nearby!
The person pretending to be pitiful found this trick ineffective, finally giving up the act.
The young man’s familiar scent and the shadow cast by his tall figure enveloped her, making Jiang Ran’s head buzz. She struggled to get up, but the other person seemed to have predicted her reaction, bracing his arm and blocking her escape route—
Now she was trapped between his chest and the back of the sofa.
The young man’s pale, thin lips hovered near her cheek, just inches away.
“So,” his slow, deep voice sounded, “why didn’t you call me when you saw me just now?”
When he spoke, his voice was right by her ear, his warm breath brushing against her earlobe, making her skin crawl with goosebumps.
“What for?” she asked, somewhat nervously, her deep brown eyes locked onto his dark ones, but his pupils were bottomless, only showing endless danger signals.
“Weren’t you busy?”
Given the current situation and atmosphere seemed to have shifted, she added reluctantly.
He blinked, as if somewhat understanding.
He released his hand from the sofa. Before Jiang Ran could even catch her breath, his large hand gripped her delicate wrist, pulling her into his arms—
She naturally struggled.
After a tussle, they both fell onto the sofa, ending up with her sitting on his lap, leaning against his chest… the man behind her lowered his head to look at her, carefully examining her stiff profile, his thin lips pursed: “You’re upset?”
Her hands were firmly held by his one hand, the other arm wrapped around her waist—
She thought the question was ridiculous. In this position, sitting on… something clearly not quite right, how could she be happy?
Her mind went blank, actually not even knowing what he was asking.
“When did you see me? How much did you hear? What did you see? Was I too close to that girl? I couldn’t help it, I didn’t know who she was, her personality, or what she wanted before I accepted her lesson…” Beijiao said patiently, “As soon as I found out, I deleted her, I won’t take her lessons anymore.”
He hadn’t spoken such a long sentence to her in a while.
“Maybe I shouldn’t take beginners anymore,” he asked her, “I’ve been skiing for three years, can I teach someone who wants to learn how to carve and edge?”
However, for his sincere question, Jiang Ran couldn’t hear a single word. She twisted her waist, trying to stand up from his lap.
Hearing his breathing deepen slightly, he mumbled, “Don’t move around,” she immediately stopped moving.
Her mind was flashing danger signals like giant red lights.
Beijiao’s eyes gradually darkened, his tall nose gently rubbing against the woman’s soft cheek… his Adam’s apple rolled silently as he said, “I can’t even remember what that girl looked like, you don’t have to bother thinking about it. Let’s call it even between us today, okay?”
Jiang Ran suddenly froze, turning her head to look at him: “Call it even?”
He smiled at her.
“Like I won’t ask you about that binding angle thing.”
“…”
Jiang Ran felt that watching the scariest horror movie at midnight hadn’t been as terrifying as this moment.
The young man’s pretty and delicate face was just beneath the surface, his expression gentle, but his eyes were deep like a black hole… his face clearly said that if she said one more word, she wouldn’t be leaving this office intact today.
Jiang Ran didn’t speak, radiating an alert atmosphere, as if the moment he made any big move, she would scream immediately—
In this tense atmosphere that seemed ready to collapse at any moment, his arm around her waist tightened further, as if trying to crush her into his chest. He leaned in, placing soft, scattered kisses at the corner of her lips.
“Don’t touch me—mm.”
Sensing her gradually deepening breath, his tongue paused, then slipped into the gap of her lips, slowly deepening the kiss.
“You think you can just call it even?—”
Her protest was swallowed by him. He devoured the lip gloss on her lips. He had discovered the last time, this brand’s lip gloss was minty and a bit sweet.
His tongue curled around her tongue, listening to her helpless groan from her nose.
Throughout this process, his eyes never left her, staring at her brazenly and shamelessly, his dark eyes filled with desire.
…
Five minutes later, Jiang Ran came downstairs.
The club owner stood with his hands on his hips, counting a pile of snowboard bags. He looked up at the person coming downstairs, then looked back, thought something was off, and looked again.
He saw her looking tired, her eyes slightly red, but not completely exhausted, just the waist hugging the snowboard wasn’t as straight as usual.
“What’s wrong, didn’t you sleep well last night?” The club owner didn’t suspect anything, “Did you manage to get the guy upstairs?”
Jiang Ran said listlessly, “Managed nothing.”
“You two are like two tigers that can’t coexist on the same mountain, neither willing to yield.” The club owner pointed at her seemingly defeated face with schadenfreude, “Come on, pick a bag as a consolation prize?”
Jiang Ran originally wanted to say no.
She thought for a moment, recalling an ice-blue snowboard bag that seemed to have been used for quite a while upstairs, the bottom worn out beyond recognition, and even patched up with a needle by itself.
She frowned, then bent down, casually picking up a black one to look at.
After glancing at it a couple of times, she heard a noise from the second floor behind her. She turned around and saw the dog, who had just finished eating and drinking, following out. He was now leaning lazily against the second-floor railing, looking down.
Their eyes met briefly.
Jiang Ran narrowed her eyes sharply, turned back around, and threw the bag in her hand heavily: “Forget it! Go to hell!”
The club owner: “…?”
Why are you getting angry when I’m asking you to pick a gift? Absurd.
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