The indoor ski resort of Sunac, similar to outdoor ski resorts in winter, is generally divided into advanced, intermediate, and beginner slopes.
The advanced slope is at the top, accessible by an indoor chairlift.
The intermediate and beginner slopes are located at the lower half. Since beginners typically struggle to get on and off the lifts with their skis, the resort uses a conveyor belt lift known as the “magic carpet” for safety reasons.
On the magic carpet, everyone usually takes off their skis and stands while holding them, looking around curiously as the conveyor slowly moves.
They watch enviously as experienced skiers glide skillfully and swiftly down the slopes.
Jiang Ran’s admiring gaze, which had lingered on the advanced slope like someone eyeing a refrigerator, returned to the bottom of the hill. At the finish line, she bent down to unbuckle her skis and sent a text to Song Die, telling him to take the chairlift down directly—
Song Die was a beginner. Even if he just wanted to take a quick run, taking him straight to the advanced slope would be irresponsible—not only to other skiers on the slope but also to Song Die himself.
Jiang Ran had always been rigorous in her teaching and naturally wouldn’t do anything that could be criticized.
Near a bench where people rested, she found Song Die’s snowboards placed aside. She picked up both boards in her hands and from afar, saw Song Die getting off the chairlift and walking toward her.
…a tall and cheerful guy with a pleasant demeanor, seemingly harmless.
Jiang Ran felt a bit puzzled, wondering what was going on with this student—he suddenly became so radiant?
She certainly didn’t know that Song Die had undergone a psychological shift at this moment—
Initially, he hadn’t thought Jiang Ran was particularly impressive.
Although he had transferred money without hesitation at first, it was because he had seen Jiang Ran’s videos, thought she had a decent style and overall presence, and since he wasn’t short on money, he paid without hesitation.
But now, standing in the ski resort, hearing people praise her in three-dimensional surround sound, her image had suddenly become grand and towering in his mind…
Teenage boys, aside from their raging hormones, also have a deep-rooted admiration for strength, which they would never admit.
When Song Die reached Jiang Ran, unlike other students who respectfully called her “teacher,” “coach,” or “Ran Jie (big sister),” he called her “sister.” Jiang Ran raised her eyebrows slightly and glanced at him.
Song Die seemed not to catch that glance.
He casually reached out and took his own snowboard, and very naturally, he also took the one that belonged to Jiang Ran.
“I can carry my own board—”
Jiang Ran used a carving board, which in the three specialized disciplines of advanced snowboarding—carving, flatland tricks, and park features—is the most advanced form of riding, emphasizing speed and stability during basic runs…
Therefore, in most cases, the carving style snowboards and bindings are the stiffest and heaviest of the three types of boards.
Jiang Ran couldn’t bring herself to let a student carry her heavy snowboard.
After all, she was getting paid.
She reached out to take her board back, her fingertips just brushing the edge of the binding, but Song Die didn’t say a word and effortlessly dodged her hand.
“…”
From the day she started skiing at age thirteen until now, almost eight or nine years later, she had been like a wild child raised on cold winds, self-reliant and without tenderness…
No one had ever carried her board for her before.
Today was something new.
She withdrew her hand and smiled.
The two reached the entrance of the magic carpet.
“What were you laughing about earlier?”
Song Die turned his head to ask her.
He was standing in front, slightly higher up, already a head taller than Jiang Ran. Now half-turned toward her, he bent slightly to speak to her.
His voice wasn’t loud, just at a volume that she could hear.
Earlier at the magic carpet gate, he had put on a black face mask to protect against the cold, and now half his face was hidden behind it. His nose was high and his tip was upturned; even with the mask, his features were still prominent.
Now close up, Jiang Ran could clearly see his long eyelashes.
She didn’t move away.
She kept her head at the same angle as before, her gaze lightly gliding over the corner of his eyes, her lips curving into a faint smile as she casually said, “Nothing.”
…
The intermediate slope was actually the halfway point down from the advanced slope.
Many skilled skiers came down from the advanced slope to the intermediate. Although they usually slowed down when they noticed beginners, sometimes they didn’t see them. Therefore, it was customary for beginners with proper instructors to learn along the edges of the slope—
Wobbling as they practiced their basic techniques.
Wobbling and falling over.
Everyone stayed safe without interfering with each other.
This was an unwritten rule at the ski resort.
Jiang Ran didn’t hurry to put on her snowboard. Instead, she casually stuck her board into the snow beside the slope and asked Song Die what he had learned before. She learned that he had only learned the basics of the first snowboarding stance: backside wedge and backside leaf turn.
The front and back edges of the snowboard are called the toe edge and the heel edge respectively—the edge near the toe is the toe edge, and the edge near the heel is the heel edge.
The first correct stance beginners learn to move the snowboard on the snow is to position the board sideways, perpendicular to the slope, slightly lifting the toes to engage the heel edge into the snow, then slowly moving down the slope. This is called the backside wedge.
Building on the backside wedge, by adding visual guidance and shifting the center of gravity, one can slightly move sideways to the left or right while maintaining the heel edge pressure, which is known as the backside leaf turn.
Of course, actual skiing doesn’t involve sliding like this—it’s just a basic exercise to get familiar with the snowboard’s movement and the feel underfoot.
Many people give up after learning this because the basics are boring. The backside wedge involves maintaining a squatting position, and sometimes when practicing on longer slopes, even serious athletes might find their legs sore after just one run…
Let alone those who learn poorly and have awkward postures that look like squatting over a pit.
Song Die learned the backside wedge at an outdoor ski resort—natural snow slopes usually start at 2 kilometers. Pushing down such a slope slowly, it might take half a day to complete just two runs before finishing for lunch.
Therefore, compared to typical beginners, Song Die wasn’t impatient and didn’t talk much. It was as if he was testing Jiang Ran’s teaching, and naturally, he had no complaints when Jiang Ran tested him—
He slowly pushed down the slope.
The snowboard left relatively even grooves on one side of the slope.
“Your technique is decent. Many beginners apply uneven pressure with their left and right feet, but you don’t.”
Jiang Ran was accustomed to encouraging education.
Song Die indeed did well. When he fell, he could slowly get up by grabbing the toe edge using the common method found online, then silently continued pushing down the slope.
Jiang Ran wasn’t wearing her snowboard. She kept her hands behind her back and slowly moved down the slope beside him.
“This is how it works with the heel edge. The toe edge is the same. When we go up, I’ll teach you the toe wedge. Remember the feel under your feet now. When you do the toe wedge, you also need to make sure both feet apply pressure evenly… When you feel the leaf turn is too fast and you want to brake, use your ankles. Lift your ankles upward—”
Song Die practiced the leaf turn, moving from the side of the slope to the middle. Feeling really tired, he sat down on the spot.
Jiang Ran saw him sit and instinctively looked around. Just then, someone came down from the mountain, passing within twenty centimeters of Song Die. She sucked in a breath.
Her voice wasn’t loud, but the fast-moving skier heard it. He slammed on the brakes, snow flying everywhere. Facing uphill, he was about to curse when he looked closely and recognized Jiang Ran, then glanced at the beginner sitting at her feet. He immediately made a gesture of apology.
Jiang Ran waved her hand, signaling him to go quickly. She gestured for Song Die to move to the side. No one should sit in the middle of the slope; if you need to rest, move to the side.
“I used to sit down when I got tired outdoors.”
“Outdoor slopes are wide— but even so, you can’t just sit in the middle of the road. Is the slope yours? If that person had hit you just now, even if it was his fault legally, morally you wouldn’t be in the right. Understand?… The person who taught you before wasn’t responsible.”
“Yeah, he taught differently. He also told me to squat to brake.”
“That’s the difference between a 200 yuan per hour coach and an 800 yuan per hour one,” Jiang Ran said casually, grabbing a handful of snow and rubbing it between her fingers. “Braking by squatting, isn’t that like squatting over a pit? Isn’t that embarrassing?”
Song Die didn’t say anything, and Jiang Ran patiently explained. The coach told him to squat because he wanted him to apply pressure on the heel edge. When the heel edge is deeply pressed into the snow, the snowboard naturally slows down and stops.
Using the ankle to lift the heel actually achieves the same effect as squatting.
But using the ankle is the usual method for advanced riders.
Normally, no skier brakes by simply squatting. Even in emergency stops, they lower their center of gravity and apply pressure with their ankles.
“It’s like how elementary students learn 1+1=2, but when you grow up and study calculus in college, the concept of ‘1+1=2’ is already integrated into more complex and abstract explanations.”
She explained patiently.
After finishing, she looked up and realized that besides Song Die, there were three other beginners listening.
…plus a familiar face.
Five people were surrounding her tightly. Except for the familiar face, the other four beginners all looked half-understanding, half-confused, as if they had gained some insight.
“Zhao Ke Yan, what are you sneaking around for?”
Jiang Ran asked expressionlessly.
“Listening to my beloved Ran Jie’s lesson on the correct and high-end braking techniques from a rider sponsored by seven or eight brands,” Zhao Ke Yan said with a mock tone. “I never thought I’d hear you speak to me in such a gentle voice in my past life.”
Jiang Ran didn’t feel mocked at all, still with a blank expression: “If you pay me, I’ll be gentle to you too.”
Zhao Ke Yan ignored her and turned to pat Song Die on the shoulder: “Kid, you know, don’t just bury your head and work hard… I’ve been watching you for a while now, diligently pushing the slope, diligently falling, falling until you’re in smoke and then getting up by yourself… What’s the point? You hired a pretty coach, you know, if you want to hold the coach’s hand while learning to ski, the pushing phase is your only chance—don’t miss it now, or you won’t get another chance later.”
Zhao Ke Yan’s long speech made everyone around laugh.
Only Song Die remained silent. After he finished speaking, Song Die simply raised his hand, adjusted the edge of his face mask, and softly chuckled.
Jiang Ran was used to Zhao Ke Yan’s nonsense. She had no expectations of this guy who changed girlfriends every two weeks, so she lifted her foot and kicked him.
Zhao Ke Yan laughed and dodged backward, using Song Die’s shoulder to push him as a shield. Jiang Ran’s foot landed on Song Die.
The latter didn’t get angry.
When Jiang Ran said “Oops,” he calmly took her ankle in his big hand, his lips curving silently, and moved her foot away.
…Just.
He had a pretty good temper.
…
After the first day of class, it was already pitch black outside.
Walking out of the ski resort together, Jiang Ran learned in conversation that despite Song Die’s young age, because his family was well-off, he hadn’t missed out on any of the sports typically enjoyed by young people—skateboarding, wakeboarding, and other board sports. He was pretty skilled in all of them.
He had even won awards in amateur competitions.
No wonder he learned so quickly and didn’t bother with Zhao Keyan’s nonsense about holding hands. He had his own brilliance from other circles—he was just low-key. After just practicing a backside wedge run today, he had mostly mastered the new moves Jiang Ran taught him in one go.
In today’s first lesson, he had basically completed all the basic moves of snowboarding.
Jiang Ran had taught countless people to ski. Like most people, she was patient, but when she encountered someone who learned quickly, she naturally favored them a bit more.
After three hours of class, the two got along quite well. Jiang Ran generously offered to drive Song Die home, and he gave her an address she was familiar with.
It was really familiar.
…She had just come back from that big loser place that morning.
“You go to A University too?”
“‘Too’?”
Jiang Ran let out an “Ah,” slowly saying, “I know someone there. I went there at noon.”
Song Die was fiddling with his phone in the passenger seat, the screen light flickering on and off his face. Hearing this, he didn’t seem to care much and casually said, “Everyone’s on vacation now. There was a fresh notice this afternoon—dorms need to be cleared in a couple of days. The person you know is probably preparing to leave campus, right?”
“Clearing dorms?”
“Yeah.”
Usually, during long holidays, A University would gather the students staying on campus into one building for centralized management, without additional charges.
But this year, the school was hosting a national university sports meet, which would bring in sports teams from over a hundred prestigious universities nationwide. Even just one school’s baseball and football teams could fill half a bus, so naturally, all the dormitory buildings were requisitioned by the school.
Jiang Ran had always been the first to leave campus when the holidays came, so she didn’t know about these rules for staying on campus. She listened in a daze.
By the time she arrived at A University, she still hadn’t fully processed it.
She vaguely felt like she might have forgotten something.
The car stopped steadily at the entrance of the university campus. Outside, the university town was brightly lit and bustling.
Students came and went, with many indeed carrying luggage and waiting at the school gate for rides to the airport or train station. Others, not departing immediately, held milk tea or takeout dinners—
Seeing an expensive car parked at the school gate, people couldn’t help but take a few glances.
Through the front windshield, they saw the driver was a young woman, and the passenger seat was occupied by a good-looking male peer, so the glances were somewhat subtle.
Song Die seemed indifferent to these stares. Sitting in the passenger seat, he unhurriedly unbuckled his seatbelt, turned his head to smile at Jiang Ran, thanked her, and made plans for the next lesson…
He behaved very gracefully throughout.
He was clearly unfazed by the possibility of being the subject of gossip from onlookers who loved to imagine romantic scenarios, showing his strong psychological resilience.
He didn’t care, and Jiang Ran felt even less burdened. She lowered her head to flip through her schedule, trying to figure out which day she was free to continue teaching Song Die…
Suddenly, she had an epiphany and lifted her head.
She saw someone standing amidst the incoming and outgoing students… someone who stood out like a crane among chickens.
The person who had boastfully said in the morning, “Even if the sky falls, there’s still the school dormitory to live in,” was now standing by the roadside.
In the middle of summer, he had changed into a new set of clothes.
Unlike the white T-shirt and dark jeans he wore in the morning, he was now wearing a black T-shirt and a pair of faded sweatpants. Standing under the signboard of a milk tea shop… his face rarely showed expression as he looked down at an old first-generation smartphone in his hand.
There were so many people around, but he had nothing in his hands—no food, no drink.
Possibly due to the surrounding lighting, the line of his jaw looked sharper and colder than when she saw him in the morning, his lips pressed into a thin line.
His back was straight, exuding an air of quiet dignity.
Jiang Ran: “…”
The car’s interior light was warm and yellow. Song Die was about to open the door and get out when he probably noticed the change in atmosphere beside him. He held the car door and turned his head, looking at the young woman holding the steering wheel, who was smiling as she gazed out the window.
Following her gaze, he looked over and, after a moment of focus, his eyes flickered.
He turned his gaze back and spoke again, his tone a bit more subdued: “So, that’s the person you know?”
Jiang Ran lazily withdrew her gaze.
“Mm,” she said, “My younger brother.”
Author’s note:
A little guessing game: Did the vinegar king see his sister with another guy?
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