The WeChat group erupted in excitement.
The disciples exclaimed:
“Are we being played?”
“What’s the deal with this whining?”
Shan Chong, however, couldn’t be bothered to read their chatter and put away his phone.
He remembered when he was working as an instructor at the artificial snow resort. Lifting his eyelids slightly, he asked the young girl crouching in front of him, “Which is your dominant leg? Left or right?”
Wei Zhi, hugging her knees, looked up and said, “How about I ask you a more advanced question: What is a dominant leg?”
Shan Chong retorted, “How is that question advanced?”
Wei Zhi explained, “It’s an Iron Man reference… Have you seen The Avengers?”
Shan Chong replied, “… Looking at you now, I’m quite worried.”
Wei Zhi protested, “Coach, you’re being a bit harsh.”
“You just said I was considerate earlier,” Shan Chong said. “Stand up, face away from me, and stay steady.”
Wei Zhi wasn’t sure what this coach was up to, but with the inherent trust of a newbie towards an expert, she responded with an “Oh” and slowly stood up in her clumsy snow boots. She turned around with a crunching sound in the snow, and before she could ask “What next?”, she heard him say, “Stay steady.”
Wei Zhi replied with another “Oh.”
The next second, she unexpectedly felt a push from behind.
Her mind went blank for a moment.
Her knees buckled, and following the force, she cleanly and swiftly dropped to her knees with a “thud.”
Wei Zhi: “?”
The situation at that moment was as follows:
The bustling sounds of the ski resort suddenly disappeared.
Several passersby in various skiing poses turned their heads, looking shocked at the newbie who had suddenly knelt to the heavens and earth without warning.
The newbie was on her knees, hands properly placed on her legs, with a bewildered expression.
Behind her, the expert wearing a crumpled instructor’s armband and dressed all in black AK457 gear stood silently.
After about fifteen seconds…
Shan Chong: “Isn’t it a bit early for New Year’s greetings?”
Shan Chong: “What are you doing?”
Wei Zhi slowly turned her head, maintaining her rigid kneeling posture, and asked in a ghostly tone, “Don’t you think I’m the one who should be asking that question right now?”
Shan Chong: “…”
Shan Chong: “The ‘dominant leg’ is your relatively more agile leg. In the early stages of learning to ski, it will also become the front supporting leg you’ll learn to slide with first… One way to determine your dominant leg is to stand still while someone pushes you from behind. The leg you instinctively step forward with is your dominant leg — the method might not be perfect, but it’s what everyone does.”
…
Ignoring the last sentence.
So it was academic research after all.
Well, alright then.
Wei Zhi graciously got up.
She bent down to brush the snow off her knees.
While dusting off the snow, she casually asked, “So, did you see clearly whether I stepped forward with my left or right leg just now?”
Shan Chong: “No.”
Wei Zhi: “?”
Are you messing with me?
Shan Chong: “Just now, both of your legs bent simultaneously as you knelt, quite cleanly and swiftly.”
Wei Zhi stopped brushing off the snow and looked warily at Shan Chong, suddenly feeling that this person might not be as kind and friendly as she had imagined: “Are you making fun of my lack of coordination?”
Under her accusing gaze, he remained very calm. His pitch-black eyes swept over her like a still pond: “No. Do you see me laughing?”
“You’re wearing a face mask, covering everything up. I can’t see,” Wei Zhi continued to argue.
“Should I take off my face mask then?”
“No, don’t.”
“?”
“With your face mask on, you look like Kohara Takashi.”
“Who’s that?”
“A very handsome young man, so handsome that I’d listen to whatever nonsense he says.”
“I’m a handsome young man even without the face mask.”
“Mm-hmm, sure, sure.”
Completely not bothering to engage.jpg.
Shan Chong didn’t think he was particularly handsome, but the young girl’s attitude in front of him seemed a bit challenging.
“… If only your legs were as agile as your mouth.”
“See, you are attacking my lack of coordination.”
“I am indeed attacking you now, but you attacked me first,” Shan Chong said impassively, reaching out to press on the young girl’s shoulders in front of him, effortlessly turning her around on the spot. “This time, stand steady—”
Shan Chong gently pushed her again.
Then he watched as the young girl flailed her arms, hopping on her right leg like a little frog, covering more than a meter in a series of hops.
Shan Chong’s gaze followed the trail of single footprints she left behind, finally resting on her face — the young girl had stopped now, turning her head with a radiant smile to report, “It’s the right leg! It’s very clear this time! It’s the right leg! Coach, did you see it?”
Shan Chong: “…”
She was so excited about determining her dominant leg as if she had just completed an eight-meter platform dive.
That appearance, you couldn’t exactly call it clumsy, nor was it particularly cute. It was more like a little bear or a duckling, certainly not like a human with well-developed motor skills…
It was at this moment that Shan Chong realized that today, out of all his careful selections, he might have chosen a particularly difficult case to frustrate himself.
…
The basics of snowboarding are always tedious.
After completing a series of beginner’s breakdown movements, Wei Zhi finally got her wish and was given her small slope to practice the first proper snowboarding move: heel edge side slip.
Heel edge side slip, to put it simply, involves maintaining a squat position, lifting the front of your feet, which also lifts the snowboard, and pressing the back edge into the snow, and naturally, the board will start to move downhill.
It sounds simple enough.
In practice, it can be exhausting.
With both feet strapped to the board, having vaguely listened to some theoretical knowledge, she wobbled as she put it into practice and started to slide down the slope. At first, Shan Chong hadn’t even put on his board. He just supported her, guiding her hands-on, step by step down the slope.
“Relax your shoulders.”
…
“Don’t let your legs shake.”
…
“Don’t look around aimlessly. Focus on your line of sight. For heel edge side slip, look down the slope. Remember, the snowboard follows your line of sight.”
…
“Don’t ask why. If you must know, it’s magic, the wonder of nature.”
The nightmare began on the second trip up the small slope when Shan Chong let go of her hand and put it on his board.
Without the guidance in front of her, Wei Zhi faced a vast, open space. The white snow field was as desolate as her heart. She wobbled and stuttered down the slope, while a steady voice occasionally drifted from behind, reminding her that her instructor was still alive—
“Why are you swaying? Don’t sway.”
The voice startled her, causing her to sway violently, and “thud,” she fell.
Sitting on the spot, she looked back to see the person behind her, hands behind his back like an old cadre, gracefully jumping, bouncing, accelerating, and “whoosh,” catching up to her. He braked and turned in front of her, stopping steadily with his back to the downhill.
Wei Zhi spread her arms.
Shan Chong reached out and lifted her from the ground.
“Does it hurt?” “It’s okay.”
“Then continue.”
Extremely cold, even the concern was filled with a sense of going through the motions.
Wei Zhi continued to side slip, and the voice behind her never stopped.
“Don’t sway, don’t look down, look ahead! Where are your eyes? What did I tell you? Where your eyes look, the board will go. Why are you looking around… Well, keep looking around, wait for it, you’re going to fall again.”
Thud, another fall.
“See, I told you.”
And he had to add some sarcastic comments.
Thud, fell again.
“Sit tight, summarize why you fell this time before continuing.”
Thud, fell once more.
“No need to summarize this time, I can see it. You just purely want to fall.”
Question: What’s it like to have a chatty instructor?
Answer: It’s a good thing he’s wearing a face mask and looks like Kohara Takashi, otherwise he’d be beaten to death every time he opens his mouth.
Finally, Wei Zhi felt her bottom was numb from falling, she had gotten used to falling, and her ears had grown calluses.
“Stop falling,” said the chatterbox as he pulled Wei Zhi up for the eight hundredth time, “Don’t you know it hurts when you fall?”
Wei Zhi thought this was a stupid question. Did she want to fall? Could she not feel pain? She was in so much pain she didn’t even want to speak, and she began to wonder why she had left her comfortable couch and air conditioning at home to come to Chongli.
Snowboarding, from beginner to quitter, takes only an hour.
When class ended that day and she took off her snowboard, standing on solid ground with both feet, Wei Zhi felt an unprecedented joy—
This joy, shooting straight from the soles of her feet to the top of her head, was something she last remembered feeling on her first day of kindergarten when she saw her mother standing at the school gate with a lollipop.
Hugging her snowboard, Wei Zhi waved to Shan Chong: “Coach, bye-bye.”
Without any attachment.
Not even a “see you again.”
In Japanese, it would probably be “sayonara,” which means farewell.
Shan Chong looked at the young girl’s face, which was written with “relief” and joy, and waved back with a wooden expression.
Fortunately, he wasn’t a person with many rich expressions to begin with.
…
After finishing the hastily arranged lesson he had been forced into.
Shan Chong returned to the instructor’s lounge, feeling utterly indifferent.
He sat down, was silent for a moment, and then, for some reason, suddenly felt a bit empty.
He took out his phone and found the group chat that had +999 notifications after not checking for a while.
[CK, Chong: First day with a newbie, newbie quits.]
Three seconds later.
[Marrakech Horizon: Of course, have you seen your temper? Still trying to play at nurturing.]
[Wangjing: Of course, have you seen your temper? Still trying to play at nurturing.]
[A Shen: Of course, have you seen your temper? Still trying to play at nurturing.]
[Sakura Yan: Of course, have you seen your temper? Still trying to play at nurturing.]
…
Shan Chong: “…”
Right.
Teaching newbies isn’t interesting.
Tch.
[CK, Chong: Tomorrow, Park 1, who’s coming?]
The tone in the group chat suddenly changed. The disciples who had been mocking their master a second ago immediately started shamelessly volunteering.
Once again, the atmosphere inside and outside the group was filled with joy.