Qiu Nian burst into unrestrained laughter nearby, which startled Aju and Li Xingnan, who were still putting on their snow gear in the living room, preparing to head out.
Li Xingnan peeked inside and saw Jiang Ran, curled up with the blanket over her face. Her arms and ears were bright red, like a boiled crab.
Qiu Nian was laughing so hard she collapsed onto the bed, shaking uncontrollably. Between her tremors, she reached out to pull the blanket from Jiang Ran’s grip. “Don’t be shy, Shifu Fu.”
Jiang Ran slapped her hand away. “Don’t say that word when we meet Beijiao on the mountain later. If you dare to say it even once, none of us will see him again today.”
“Hmm, lucky the Songbei ski resort is so big, with Rope A and Rope G, and dozens of slopes for him to play hide-and-seek on,” Qiu Nian said, flipping over and sitting up. “Suddenly, I kind of get why Lin Shuang looked down on Li Xingnan back then. What’s so great about that old man who can’t even utter a word? Isn’t a cute, cold-faced little puppy who calls you ‘Shifu Fu’ much better?”
Li Xingnan had been standing outside originally, and upon hearing this, he stepped in and effortlessly scooped Qiu Nian up with one hand.
As she screamed and struggled, he slung her over his waist with ease, half-dragging and half-carrying her out of Jiang Ran’s room. Once they were outside, they heard the man’s calm voice: “Old men have strength.”
“What’s the point of having strength alone! What era are we in that you still rely on strength to get by? A cute puppy has a good waist!”
“Who doesn’t have a good waist when carving?”
Aju was applying a warm patch to herself when she looked up and caught sight of Jiang Ran tentatively stepping out of her room. She smiled. “Come to think of it, does it even matter whether someone has a good waist or not to Jiang Ran?”
Her response was the sight of the foot stepping out of the room quickly retreating back in, followed by a deafening slam of the door.
“Can you guys stop making dirty jokes all day long?”
From behind the door, a calm and indifferent female voice rang out.
“We can’t,” Aju regretfully shouted at the person behind the door. “Maybe because I’ve been an adult for six or seven years already. Adults make dirty jokes.”
The only reply was silence from behind the door, and another round of rooster-like laughter from Qiu Nian, dangling from Li Xingnan’s arm.
…
The layout of Songbei Ski Resort divides the chairlift routes into three main lines: Rope A, Rope G, and Rope C.
G-Suo is primarily composed of advanced slopes located at the back of the mountain. It’s windy, cold, and features long snow trails. Due to the low number of skiers, carving enthusiasts typically dominate this area.
C Suo is on another mountain. The middle of the trail is raised with both sides sunken, making it a self-inflicted challenge for snowboarders. Therefore, it has naturally become a favorite for skiers.
Route A is the main path with the most branching trails. The trails are labeled with “A” followed by Roman numerals. A2 is the central and steepest trail, famously known as “Songbei’s Big Rush.”
The steepness of A2 is limited to a certain length, and beyond that, the trail gradually flattens out. This area, with its wide trail, is deeply loved by skiers. Usually, people push up the slopes and change edges here, creating a bustling scene.
While Jiang Ran was brushing her teeth, Beijiao sent her a video.
When she opened it, it showed the usually crowded A2 trail, completely empty today…
The video camera shifted slightly, revealing the edge of the A2 trail, with clear machine-groomed snow tracks, commonly known as “noodle snow.”
It was almost 11 o’clock.
[Beijiao: …If you hurry up, you might still be able to enjoy the noodle snow on A5, A6, or A7.]
[Jiang Ran: Is it really that deserted?]
[Beijiao: At this time on a normal day, you’d be lucky not to get thrown off the trail by the slushy snow.]
[Beijiao: When are you coming?]
[Beijiao: Tell me when you leave, I’ll come to the ski equipment hall entrance to pick you up.]
He typed so fast.
She didn’t even have time to refuse.
She was quite puzzled. Normally, he would go up the mountain first, and Jiang Ran would get up, take the chairlift herself, and meet him at a gathering point on the summit…
Why was he suddenly saying he’d pick her up?
Jiang Ran felt typing couldn’t convey her tone properly, so she picked up the phone with her toothbrush in her mouth and called him: “I can go up the mountain by myself. Why do you need to pick me up?”
There was silence on the other end for a few seconds.
“Isn’t it better if I pick you up? There’s no one on the mountain,” he said, hesitating. “I’m afraid you’ll be taken away by a wolf.”
“…,” Jiang Ran rinsed her mouth. “What’s wrong with you today? Why are you so clingy?”
It was only in the first couple of days at Songbei that Beijiao had the patience to follow behind Jiang Ran. He would leave at 11, and come down at 2, and in between, they’d even have lunch at the summit…
Once he got a bit more familiar with the terrain, he was like a wolf cub set free into the wild. He’d leave at 9:30 in the morning and basically disappear all day, joyfully running around the entire mountain.
Several times, when Jiang Ran saw him on the slopes and wanted to greet him, before she could even raise her hand, he was already gone.
Back then, she could only rely on WeChat to find him, and occasionally they’d ride the chairlift together once or twice.
Now, the current Beijiao was no longer the newbie he once was.
He really could ski incredibly fast.
However, no matter how much Jiang Ran pressed him, Beijiao refused to say why he was acting so out of the ordinary today.
…
Half an hour later, Jiang Ran and her group finally appeared at the ski equipment hall.
Walking out from the back mountain, they could see the ski equipment hall and chairlift station in the distance. Although they had mentally prepared themselves, they were still shocked by the desolation before them—
It was as if the apocalypse had truly arrived.
The ski equipment hall in front of the mountain was the main station for all the chairlifts. The usually bustling hall was completely empty today… the chairlifts stood lonely, with only the fences used to organize the queues. There were only a few people at the entrance of the station, and the usual long lines were nowhere to be seen.
It took about five minutes to walk down the mountain to the entrance of the ski equipment hall.
From afar, they could see the young man in black snow gear and a face mask standing at the entrance. His red snowboard leaned against a nearby pillar, already covered in snow, suggesting he had already skied several runs on his own.
Hearing the sound of conversation, his previously wandering gaze fixed immediately on their direction.
The group hadn’t even put on their gear yet, carrying their helmets, face masks, goggles, and snowboards in their hands.
Qiu Nian smiled as she looked at him. Beijiao met her gaze for a second before deliberately avoiding further eye contact. When Jiang Ran reached him, he reached out and tugged at her snow jacket’s hood, complaining, “She’s making fun of me.”
Qiu Nian smiled. “What are you talking about? I didn’t say anything.”
Beijiao dropped his tone of grievance and said indifferently, “Your expression said enough.”
Jiang Ran snatched her hood back from her apprentice, put it on, and then donned her face mask, goggles, and helmet. Her snowboard was naturally taken from her hands.
As he carried the two snowboards toward the chairlift, Beijiao leaned out from between them, tilting slightly toward Jiang Ran: “What’s going on out there? I heard two tourists on the chairlift say today is the last half-day they can ski. Then they have to go back to their hotel to pack and catch the afternoon bus to the airport because they’re closing the mountain… because of the outbreak that started in the south.”
He spoke in one long sentence. Jiang Ran swiped her card and passed through the turnstile before answering him as she watched Beijiao place the two boards into the designated slots outside the chairlift cabin: “It’s exactly what you heard.”
She switched her phone to the housekeeper’s message page and handed it to Beijiao to read.
He read it quickly, thought for a moment, and asked, “Is it really that serious?”
His tone was a bit light, clearly not frightened by the serious-sounding notice.
“Yeah, are you going back to Guangzhou?” Jiang Ran asked. “If so, you should leave as soon as possible.”
Beijiao stretched his long legs naturally to rest on the opposite row of seats, swinging his legs as he stared at his toes: “Did I do something wrong again?”
“No,” Jiang Ran was momentarily taken aback by his slightly mocking tone. “What’s wrong? Why do you ask that?”
“I don’t know,” Beijiao replied matter-of-factly. “I just always feel like I must have done something wrong again…”
He paused and then summarized with a sigh.
“I’ve been emotionally manipulated by you.”
His tone became a bit sweet toward the end, as if being emotionally manipulated was something incredibly sweet and worth bragging about.
Jiang Ran didn’t say anything. Aju looked expressionlessly at the outside of the chairlift: “Sorry, if the door of this chairlift wasn’t locked halfway, I would have jumped off with Nian and Erche. We don’t want to be here, being in the way and annoying you.”
Li Xingnan expressionlessly took over the conversation: “It’s okay, Shifu Fu doesn’t mind.”
Qiu Nian was triggered to laugh again when Li Xingnan solemnly called him Shifu Fu.
Now it was Beijiao’s turn to want to jump off the chairlift, but since he couldn’t open the door, he angrily hit Jiang Ran’s knees with the gloves in his hand.
Jiang Ran was puzzled: “Why are you hitting me?”
It’s not like I was the one teasing you.
Beijiao turned his head to look outside the chairlift. Jiang Ran reached out and turned his face back.
He had pulled his face mask down after entering the chairlift. The new mask was a bit tight, leaving a red mark on his nose… At this moment, his raccoon-like face leaned in, his eyes bright, as if he thought she was going to kiss him.
But she didn’t.
Jiang Ran pushed his chin to keep his face at a safe distance and picked up the previous topic: “Our family is all in Canada, so it doesn’t really matter where we spend the New Year. But if you don’t leave now, what if the mountain is closed for too long and it affects your school start?”
“It doesn’t start until February. Can the mountain really be closed for one or two months? That would be great. When spring comes and the snow melts, we can go up the mountain together to dig for tree roots and wild vegetables,” Beijiao said. “It’s already the year 2020.”
His meaning was clear: in this day and age, such an absurd thing wouldn’t happen.
“Before today, I hadn’t even heard of closing the mountain—so, who knows,” Jiang Ran muttered.
“Don’t be a pessimist,” Beijiao said.
…
As they were talking, the chairlift reached the summit.
One after another, they got off the chairlift. Beijiao’s face mask was back in place, now completely covered.
The desolation at the summit matched that at the ski equipment hall entrance at the foot of the mountain.
At the summit of Songbei Ski Resort, there was a restaurant for rest, and a short walk would take you to a popular little grove for taking pictures of rime ice. Beyond the grove, on the G索 side, there was an open and beautiful viewing platform for tourists who didn’t ski but wanted to enjoy the scenery.
Normally, there were many people at the summit chairlift station. Besides those going to the restaurant for lunch, there were many who came just for photos and sightseeing. On the benches in front of the station, there were always many beginners sitting and putting on their snowboards…
But not today.
There were only a few people in total. At a glance, there were only three or four small groups chatting.
And they were all talking about the same thing.
“Girl, go all out and ski… no idea how many more days they can keep this place open.”
The pipeline operator uncle at the chairlift station took the snowboard from the cabin for Jiang Ran and handed it to her—
“This sudden situation, really unexpected! It was still packed yesterday!”
…
How deserted was it?
So deserted that the staff NPCs were chatting with skiers out of sheer boredom.
Normally, they were too busy helping people put on and take off their boards to even spare a glance at passing skiers.
Once off the chairlift, it was time to put on the boards. Jiang Ran used the SP binding system, a quick-fastening German brand specifically for carving, different from Burton’s Step On system. Because of this system, compared to others using traditional bindings, she was faster at putting on her board, and once done, she sat aside.
It was too cold to take out her phone, so she looked up and noticed a group of people looking in their direction… by habit, she first reflexively checked their bindings. They were all in the duck stance, a group of freestylers.
Their eyes met briefly, and they continued to look over. Jiang Ran slightly turned her head and asked Beijiao, who was beside her, struggling to put on his board: “Are they looking at you?”
“Huh?… I’m going to switch to SP tomorrow. Traditional bindings are too much trouble.”
Beijiao clicked his bindings into place, grumbling as he spoke, casually glancing at the group nearby—
They immediately reacted, waving at him with both men and women, obviously not knowing his name, calling him “the carving little brother.”
“There was no one on the mountain earlier,” Beijiao explained. “Then, for some reason, maybe because the trails were empty, suddenly everyone on the trails became family. They are some of my new family members.”
“…”
“You guys hadn’t arrived yet, I skied three runs, and conservatively added ten people’s WeChat.”
The social atmosphere in the skiing circle is still a bit better than in other circles.
On the chairlifts and trails, people usually had time to chat with strangers around them, exchanging technical insights—
If they got along well, adding WeChat to get to know each other wasn’t a rare thing.
But in the past half a month, Beijiao had added fewer WeChats than he did today alone.
“…”
Jiang Ran stood there thinking for a moment, suddenly feeling like she kind of understood why this kid insisted on coming to pick her up today and sticking close to her—
Afraid she might also “recognize family” all over the mountain trails.
She looked annoyed, and at this moment, seeing that Jiang Ran didn’t speak, Beijiao thought for a moment and suddenly exclaimed “Ah!”
She was startled and glared at him: “What are you suddenly doing?”
Beijiao emphasized, as if remembering something: “Although I added many people’s WeChat today, I didn’t add any girls. I told them, my girlfriend is very strict.”
His tone was inexplicably proud.
It was almost as if he was saying, “Praise me, right now.”
Jiang Ran immediately looked up: “Who’s your girlfriend?”
The boy smiled slightly, his eyes narrowing: “I didn’t say it was you. Why are you getting so worked up?”
Jiang Ran: “…”
Jiang Ran: “Then, didn’t those girls scold you for being weird? Adding WeChat with so many conditions?”
“No,” Beijiao crossed his arms, his voice still filled with pride. “They probably thought I was a good guy.”
Jiang Ran: “…”
Jiang Ran: “Then do you want to go play with them? They seem to be waiting for you.”
Beijiao heard this, “Ah”ed, as if he had just realized, and skied over to say a few words to those people, and then they left.
Jiang Ran skied over to his side, lazily pulling his sleeve to stop, her face still looking in the direction those people had gone: “Aren’t you going with them?”
—They went down the steepest part of A2, the Big Rush.
One of them skied pretty well, picked up speed, and directly jumped, flying over the fence amidst cheers, landing in the ungroomed snow area outside the trail.
The group laughed and joked around. Jiang Ran slightly frowned but quickly relaxed. After all, she didn’t know these people, and their actions had nothing to do with her.
“Yeah,” Beijiao slowly turned his gaze from the person who had jumped over the fence. “I told them my girlfriend is here, so I can’t go anywhere except by her side.”
As he was speaking, Jiang Ran lifted her eyes to look at him—
It was hard to see his expression through the goggles, so she asked expressionlessly: “So where’s your girlfriend this time?”
Beijiao looked around, as if no one was noticing.
Then he bent down, quickly pulled off Jiang Ran’s face mask, and kissed her on the face.
“Here.”
After saying that, before she could react, he skied away like a thief who had just robbed a bank, “whoosh” sliding off.
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