She must have been the only person in the world who, curled up in a corner of a snowy bench without changing clothes or removing her snow boots, seriously watched three episodes of Crayon Shin-chan. So when a WeChat group message @ popped up on the screen, indicating that Yang, the so-called “professional collision scammer,” had transferred her some money, Jiang Ran even suspected she was hallucinating from watching too much Crayon Shin-chan.
She clicked into the message and saw that exactly two thousand yuan had been fully returned to her.
The group chat was already in an uproar.
[Sakura Banquet: Wow, this is shocking. Has the sun risen from the west? Has money ever come back once it’s gone into Director Yang’s pocket?]
[Red Star: @Snowboard Yang suddenly turned to Buddhism?]
[SSTB: @WhoseRanranIsThisDuck, hurry up and accept the money. I even had to wake him up just to get the money back again!]
[Our Village Just Got Internet: We just drank too much yesterday and couldn’t get up to go to the snow field today. @Snowboard Yang, it’s wise to return the money now. Otherwise, you’d have to return it tomorrow.]
[Aroma: Hahahahahahahahahaha, must have been cornered in the toilet and threatened! Who dares to take anyone’s money anyway!!?]
Finally, there were messages from Old Smoke and others who had just arrived at Changbai Mountain.
[CK, Smoke: @Snowboard Yang? What does this mean? Who did you try to rip off?]
[Chuan’en: What’s going on? Why are you transferring money? Are you playing around? Yang Yitong, we had just left, and you immediately tried to rip off Jiang Ran’s money?]
[Alin, Snowboard: @Snowboard Yang, give me some mental distress compensation, or else don’t wait for us to come back and beat you up.]
Jiang Ran clicked to accept the money. After thinking for a moment, she sent back five hundred yuan.
Initially confused, she had no idea what had happened. She scrolled up the chat to read carefully, and Aroma’s message reminded her of something.
Putting her phone down, the woman curled up in the corner finally lifted her head and immediately spotted her family’s mischievous pup, walking out of the restroom with a proud stride while stretching and loosening up.
Jiang Ran: “…”
He wouldn’t dare to walk with such an arrogant gait unless he had done something extraordinary.
Perhaps her gaze was too intense, but Bei Jiao looked up and met her eyes unintentionally, then quickened his pace, almost running to stand in front of her.
When he stopped, he was even slightly out of breath. He leaned forward to look at her and asked again, “Are you going to change clothes? What do you want to eat later?”
When Bei Jiao stood in front of her, casting a shadow over her, Jiang Ran lowered her head and started to take off her shoes. She shook off the snow stuck on her snow boots and, without lifting her head, said calmly, “I’ll take you to the supermarket later.”
Her voice sounded peaceful.
Bei Jiao said “Okay” and glanced around. Finally, hesitantly, he stood beside her like a guardian and asked again, “Where is Song Die?”
“He went back.”
“He was unusually considerate today,” Bei Jiao said casually. “I’m hungry.”
He was genuinely hungry. He had gotten up too early in the morning and was so focused on waking up Jiang Ran that he went downstairs and bought two bowls of wontons… That tiny portion, suitable for feeding chickens, was just enough for Jiang Ran, while Bei Jiao felt it was only about 80% full.
Now, after skiing, although in theory it was only leg exercise, he had rolled and tumbled so much that it turned into full-body exercise.
While wearing the ski boots and protective gear, he hadn’t felt it much, but after changing into regular clothes, his muscles relaxed, and his entire body ached.
He looked at the woman who was changing clothes with her head down, hesitated, and wanted to complain a bit about his soreness—
Not that he really wanted to complain.
It was just that he had just done something very commendable and was excited. Suddenly, his desire to chat with her increased, even just casual conversation.
For example, he wanted to ask how she was feeling, whether she was still angry, whether she had seen her phone, whether she had received the money, whether she was happy or not?
Ah, of course, she must have received it.
He had held those two idiots’ heads over the urinal until they transferred the money before letting go.
But Bei Jiao held back and didn’t speak up because he wanted to maintain his composure.
It was just that when Jiang Ran’s phone vibrated and she picked it up to check WeChat messages, the boy squatting beside her eyes lit up—
Then, as she silently replied to someone’s private message and put her phone down, his bright black eyes dimmed again.
Jiang Ran slowly changed her shoes and then went to the locker room to change clothes, dragging her feet for about twenty minutes.
When Bei Jiao was squatting not far from the locker room, his legs went numb and he was about to storm into the women’s locker room to find her, she finally walked out and waved at him from the locker room door.
Bei Jiao slowly followed behind her, and the two walked toward the parking lot.
Still, she hadn’t said a word.
That was not in line with the script he had imagined.
He wasn’t stupid; something unusual must have a reason. Normally, at this point, someone with a normal mind should have been celebrating and happily telling him about the money being returned, but she remained silent.
Thinking for a moment, staring at her back, as the two were about to reach the parking spot, he suddenly spoke up: “I made those two return the money to you.”
Jiang Ran had been wondering how long he would hold out.
She checked the time on her phone; well, he had held out for less than thirty minutes, a bit longer than she had expected.
“I know.”
She put down her phone and said without turning her head, her voice very light, showing no emotion, “Next time, don’t do this. Usually, if you hit someone on the slopes, the one from behind is fully responsible. I had no problem giving him the money. Don’t get involved so much.”
“?”
What was she saying?
What was there to justify?
Bei Jiao’s chest heaved slightly, never expecting that his rare act of doing a good deed would end up like this—
No thanks, just scolded him for meddling.
Was this woman crazy? Couldn’t she tell right from wrong?
He wanted to scold her, but sensing the unusual atmosphere in the air, he quickened his pace and walked around to stand in front of her.
She was walking with her head down, and he had to bend down hard to see her face, then asked in surprise, “Are you angry? Why are you angry again?”
She had a bad temper.
And it came out of nowhere.
He was about to accuse her.
Jiang Ran suddenly stopped walking and looked up sharply at him, “Why am I angry again?”
He was startled and took a step back.
Just as he steadied himself, he heard her launch into a tirade—
“Last time, when someone was causing trouble at the bar and didn’t want to pay the bill, I told you that if others eat shit, you shouldn’t follow. If it can be resolved with money, it’s not a big deal! At the time, although you were stubborn, you at least agreed—I thought you agreed—yet look what happened? That Yang Yitong, he’s no better than those who try to skip the bill, even worse, he’s a habitual offender!”
Bei Jiao didn’t speak as she scolded him, only his eyes becoming colder and harder.
From the posture of bending down to examine her face, he slowly straightened up, listening to her words, nodding slowly on the surface, but in reality, his rebelliousness was rising.
He knew exactly what she didn’t want to hear, yet he seemed determined to oppose her, sarcastically lifting his lips: “Habitual offender? Then I really should have given him a proper beating earlier…”
“Bei Jiao!”
She interrupted him abruptly.
The sharp voice was so loud it made his eardrums itch.
Throughout his life, no one had ever shouted his full name at him like that.
He instinctively raised his hand to rub his ears, and the boy’s bright, black eyes darkened completely, flashing with shadowy glimmers: “Give me a reason.”
His voice was cold.
Since they had met, he might have been indifferent or impatient, but he had never spoken to her like this.
Jiang Ran stood still, her fingers icy, feeling her blood rushing upward and then disappearing somewhere, leaving her cold.
For a moment, she also felt she might have been wrong. She fully knew from his perspective, she was obviously the ungrateful one this time…
But Yang Yitong, in Guangzhou Rongxue, was already a notorious troublemaker when skiing wasn’t even a popular sport yet. He used to scam people himself, and now that Rongxue has more people, he brings his friends or his snake-like apprentices to scam others—
Everyone was disgusted with him, but because this guy didn’t get the hang of skiing, he did figure out all the unwritten rules of the snow circle. He had no shame and always found trouble within the rules, so everyone could do nothing about him.
This kind of person had no morals and a strong sense of revenge. This time he returned the money, and Jiang Ran was almost 100% sure he wouldn’t let it go easily.
Skiing was inherently dangerous, and carving was the fastest way to slide. Imagine speeding down the slope while someone was always lurking beside you…
It would be better to lose money than to get injured, right?
She didn’t know if Bei Jiao would listen to this reasoning, but after a quick glance at his rebellious look, she decisively gave up the idea.
She didn’t want to waste time trying to reason with a stubborn person anymore—
He looked extremely angry and hurt.
At this moment, seeing the woman in front of him open her mouth but remain silent for a long time, he thought she was speechless and had no argument.
He maliciously lifted his lips, pressing his advantage: “No words? Do you know how annoying you are?”
Jiang Ran decided she absolutely shouldn’t have a son in the future, to avoid dying at the age of forty from being infuriated for eighty years.
She raised her hand and flicked the boy’s forehead who was leaning close to her.
He hissed and immediately stepped back.
“I’m afraid he will retaliate against you and cause you to get hurt.”
That was her complete explanation, concise and to the point.
Her voice was not as urgent as when she was scolding him before, and her tone had softened, but Bei Jiao wasn’t buying her approach of hitting him with a stick and then giving him a candy today…
He didn’t even think about how painful that hit was.
It bruised his enthusiasm for doing good deeds.
He wanted to ask her why she was so scared. If Yang retaliated, so what? At most, while skiing on the slopes, he might pretend to bump into him or trip him. Could he really kill or severely injure him?
Why was she so timid?
The words reached his lips, but he suddenly recalled what those two idiots had said about someone who had broken abroad in the mountains…
So Bei Jiao abruptly stopped his retort—
He looked at Jiang Ran, instinctively vaguely feeling that asking her about that matter now would not end with just a scolding from her.
He didn’t want to see her go crazy.
They still had to drive later; she needed to stay emotionally stable.
His wandering, enigmatic gaze gave Jiang Ran goosebumps all over her body. She looked at him in confusion and asked, “What’s wrong? What’s that look? If you want to scold me back, just do it. I didn’t sew your mouth shut.”
“Forget it,” he finally spoke, his voice slightly hoarse. “I’m not talking to you anymore. You make me angry.”
After saying that, he directly turned and walked away, opened the car door, climbed into the front passenger seat, and slammed the door shut.
He said he wouldn’t talk to her, and he really wouldn’t talk to her anymore.
Once in the car, there were only the two of them inside, yet they were still playing a cold war, the silence in the car as quiet as a hearse…
Halfway through, Bei Jiao couldn’t stand it anymore and reached out to turn on the car’s radio function.
…
Man is iron, food is steel.
Even if the two had an argument, they still needed to eat.
After scolding him, Jiang Ran’s mood was relatively stable, and she drove him to the downtown area with a stomp on the gas pedal.
Bei Jiao thought the “supermarket” she mentioned was the kind of “fresh produce supermarket” at the roadside corner where potatoes and scallions were half price after 8 p.m…
Until Jiang Ran took him to the city center and entered a grand-looking mall, he leaned against the glass in disbelief, staring at the underground parking garage’s pricing sign that read “15 yuan/hour.”
Located underground in a high-end mall in the city center, the imported supermarket sold carefully selected and pre-packaged vegetables, almost all of which were ready to use after a symbolic rinse at home—
The variety of products was dazzling, from domestic to foreign, familiar and unfamiliar, everything imaginable.
It was very suitable for those divine people who never touch spring water with their ten fingers, get scammed at the market, yet insist on cooking by themselves.
The only downside was that it was a bit expensive.
Of course, that was the buyer’s problem, not the vegetables’.
Bei Jiao stood in front of an open refrigerator, staring at cherries marked at “350 yuan/500g” and fell into deep thought again.
Jiang Ran was originally looking at two fruit cucumbers worth twenty yuan each beside him, but she was affected by the silent atmosphere around her. She casually threw the cucumbers into the shopping cart and then scanned her eyes over.
They landed on the cherries Bei Jiao had been staring at for at least three minutes. Without blinking, she lifted the box of cherries that had almost been burned through by his intense gaze.
Judging from how hard she struggled, this box of cherries was conservatively estimated to weigh about four to five jin.
Bei Jiao: “?!?”
He forgot he was still angry and looked at her with a very un-cold, bewildered expression. But she seemed to have already gotten used to him not speaking to her. She placed the cherries in the cart and pushed the cart toward other areas.
Bei Jiao didn’t even have the chance to snatch the cherries back and put them on the shelf.
Jiang Ran pushed the cart to the hotpot seasoning section and asked, “Any dietary restrictions?”
Bei Jiao instinctively first flipped through the seasoning prices—seeing the seasonings priced at around ten yuan per pack, he didn’t think they were expensive anymore and even felt a bit relieved: good, how expensive could a hotpot be?
He lowered his guard and became energetic.
He casually put the seasoning he was studying back on the shelf and looked at her with a provocative gaze: “It’s not like I’m a dog, what restrictions?”
“…”
Okay, still angry.
Jiang Ran threw the tomato hotpot seasoning into the cart.
Bei Jiao followed behind her, mentally already calculating the costs, planning to get some hotpot vegetables next—
Baby bok choy or crown daisy, three yuan… everything in this supermarket is expensive, let’s say five yuan.
Tofu, two yuan.
Enoki mushrooms or other mushrooms, ten yuan.
Longkou vermicelli, fifteen yuan for a big pack.
Then the meat dishes, beef is expensive, half a kilo should be enough for two people, let’s say eighty yuan.
Some chicken meat, twenty yuan.
And some hot pot fish balls, probably thirty yuan.
That’s it, this meal totals one hundred and sixty-two yuan. It’s a bit extravagant, but after all, it’s hot pot.
As he was thinking, he followed Jiang Ran to the meat section, watching her take out a box from the freezer. Inside were neatly arranged, exactly three slices of high-quality marbled beef.
He may not have eaten pork, but he had seen pigs walk. Seeing the spiderweb-like blood vessels on the beef made him feel something was seriously wrong.
He picked up a box from the shopping cart, and as if the heavens were mocking him, this box of three slices of beef was exactly one hundred and sixty-two yuan and five jiao.
Jiang Ran took five boxes.
As Beijiao was wondering whether this meat was cut from a human body, Jiang Ran tugged his sleeve. He looked up.
The woman pointed toward the seafood section in the distance: “Eat crab?”
…In the direction she pointed, a king crab was swimming leisurely in the tank. The last time Beijiao had seen one was during a high school field trip to the aquarium at the ocean park.
Beijiao: “…”
Jiang Ran: “I want to eat crab.”
Beijiao: “Isn’t crab thirty yuan per jin at the market?”
As if she were deaf or perhaps her previous question was merely a formality, as soon as he spoke, Jiang Ran had already pushed her shopping cart forward, heading toward the king crab without even looking back, saying while walking: “It’s all money you saved. What are you worried about? You saved two thousand yuan; isn’t that worth treating you to a good meal?”
Beijiao: “…”
Finally, the shopping cart was full to the brim, inexplicably also containing many unnecessary items like potato chips and chocolates. Beijiao watched the woman walking ahead, her steps lighter, her mood seemingly improved, and he fell into silence.
“I’m too weak to benefit from nourishing food,” he said while pushing a crab leg, which had already pierced the plastic bag and was swinging around, back into the bag. “Don’t bother next time.”
Ahead, Jiang Ran took out her phone from her bag to prepare to check out.
“You’re not thanking me, you throw a tantrum; you thank me for buying good food, and you still throw a tantrum. How difficult can you be?… How long are you going to stay mad?”
“You apologize.”
“…I just want the best for you.”
“Yeah, if you can’t speak like a normal person, just don’t speak.”
“…”
…
Say that Jiang Ran had a change of heart, felt guilty, and wanted to appease her cheap younger brother, but when they got home, she just lay on the sofa and played on her phone.
She wanted to appease him, but not entirely.
She left Beijiao in the kitchen to slaughter the crab, wash the vegetables, arrange the dishes, and soak the vermicelli.
Jiang Ran lay on the sofa playing on her phone, idly scrolling through a short video app. She herself had an account where she shared some daily life or practice videos when she had free time. She didn’t have many followers, just twenty or thirty thousand, but they were quite active.
When she opened the app today, many users were asking if she had been scammed by Yang, the so-called “professional accident faker,” and whether she had gotten her money back. Several people who had also been harassed by Yang inquired with admiration: “That’s impressive—how did you manage to recover the money?”
All the comments under the dynamic she had previously updated were about this. Jiang Ran browsed through the enthusiastic questions, when suddenly a new comment appeared from Lao Yan.
[CK, Yan: Sister Ran, you got the money back, was it because you locked the door and released the dog?]
Jiang Ran thought for a moment, her gaze unintentionally slipping from the top edge of her phone to the kitchen. In the kitchen, the teenager was leaning against the counter, wearing a white apron on his broad shoulders, the strings tied into a loose bow at his waist…
Highlighting his broad shoulders and narrow waist.
It lived up to the saying that a good figure makes even a gunny sack look good.
At this moment, the teenager was leaning against the kitchen counter, one hand holding a pair of scissors, the other frantically scrolling through his phone, obviously searching for how to properly handle a lively and energetic king crab without getting pinched by its claws.
Jiang Ran narrowed her eyes slightly, silently scoffed, retracted her gaze, ignored all the questions, and continued playing on her phone.
Scrolling down, she came across a cute pet video. The video began with a gentle male voiceover—
[What is a puppy?]
Jiang Ran stopped her finger from swiping away.
[You call it—]
Jiang Ran lifted her head and shouted toward the kitchen: “Beijiao.”
The sound of cutting crab in the kitchen with “clink, clink” abruptly stopped. The teenager, with a long face, peeked out, clearly showing his impatience.
Still unwilling to talk to her, but he came out, standing there, looking at her.
[It will give you a response.]
“Never mind.”
[You tease it—]
Jiang Ran slowly sat up, her temper already cooled down, looking at him with a mild gaze, “Still angry?”
He stood there motionless, glaring at her coldly.
Jiang Ran crawled off the sofa, walked barefoot to the kitchen… her bare feet making a “tap-tap” sound on the wooden floor. He glanced at her feet and went to the entrance to fetch her a pair of slippers.
As he bent down, she stood behind him, leaning close to him, “Are you still going to work at ‘Wuwo’ tonight? Should I bring some friends to support you? How much commission can you get if I order three sets of ‘Monet’s Twelve Season Gardens’?
He straightened up, still not speaking, gave a cold laugh, and threw the slippers in his hand at her feet.
[It also bares its teeth and throws a harmless tantrum at you.]
Beijiao returned to the kitchen, Jiang Ran put on the slippers and followed behind him.
[You play with it—]
Peeking from the broad shoulders of the teenager, she half-stuck her head out, standing on tiptoe to look at the neatly arranged dishes on the table.
Then she landed on her heels again, her arms stretching out from his side, grabbing a piece of seaweed salad from the bowl and throwing it into her mouth.
While chewing quickly, her hand reached again for the boneless toona chicken claws…
This time she didn’t get it, her hand was lightly slapped.
She quickly pulled her hand back, hesitated for a moment, then reached out again toward the freshly slaughtered king crab on the table, curiously touching the crab claw. Perhaps the nerves were still active, the crab claw, already cut into pieces, actually moved a little—
She was startled, sucked in a cold breath, and a piece of crab meat slapped onto the floor from the plate.
She heard the teenager above her very impatiently hiss, before she could bend down to pick up the piece of crab meat, she was forcibly lifted by the arm and stood straight…
Then she was handed two sets of chopsticks and bowls.
[It might find you annoying.]
Jiang Ran was pushed out of the kitchen, holding two sets of bowls and chopsticks.
Soon, Beijiao also emerged from the kitchen, carrying an electric hot pot and an assortment of prepared hot pot ingredients neatly arranged on plates.
By the time Jiang Ran carefully set the tableware at both ends of the table, the surface was already fully laden with an array of dishes.
In the hot pot, the broth bubbles and boils.
Jiang Ran subtly moved the two sets of chopsticks and bowls that were originally placed three or four seats apart a little closer together.
Sitting down to eat, they still ate separately without speaking.
When you look at it—
Tossing a piece of Spam into the pot as if playing, Jiang Ran suddenly had a flash of inspiration and raised her head. She tilted it slightly, glancing at the boy not far away who was quietly eating from his bowl.
Yet to her surprise, he seemed to be lost in thought.
One hand holding a bowl, chopsticks still in the pot, yet his eyes unexpectedly looked in her direction…
Thus, the two in the midst of a cold war had an unexpected eye contact.
You will find that it is always watching you.
Just a few seconds of silence.
“Bei Jiao.”
Suddenly calling out his name, with one hand propping up her chin, the young woman spoke slowly, “I know you threatened others for my sake.”
“……”
“I was wrong, I won’t be harsh on you next time, okay?”
He paused mid-motion, chopsticks poised over the pot as he was about to pick up some food.
Through the billowing milky-white steam from the pot, she gazed at him with a smile, her eyes misted over by the vapor—soft and beautiful.
“Sorry.”
With a slight tremble in my hand, the enoki mushroom that had been steadily clamped at the tip of my chopsticks fell back into the pot.
“Alright, I’m apologizing to you.”
In her sticky and coquettish, half-hearted apology, the world seemed to fall silent for three seconds, yet without being suffocating.
This is the puppy.
“If I had known it would come to this, I wouldn’t have started in the first place.”
The young man scoffed coldly, raising his hand to discreetly rub his burning, tingling earlobe. “Eat, shut up, stop acting crazy—you’re ruining my appetite.”
If the whole world betrays you, only your dog will remain loyal. As long as you keep smiling at it, it will never remember any so-called overnight grudge.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage