Throughout the journey, Wei Zhi couldn’t resist repeatedly glancing at the dashboard in front of the driver’s seat. She thought her movements were discreet until the car descended the mountain and turned a corner.
“What are you sneakily looking at?” the man at the wheel asked calmly, his eyes fixed on the road ahead.
“…” Caught red-handed, Wei Zhi didn’t feel too embarrassed. “I’m checking if any new lights have come on.”
“This is a car, not a Christmas tree,” Shan Chong replied.
No sooner had Shan Chong spoken than his words were contradicted. Suddenly, a new light illuminated on the dashboard.
Wei Zhi immediately perked up. Her excitement at this “premonition” even surpassed her fear of sitting in a car with warning lights flashing everywhere.
This excited restlessness slightly affected Shan Chong. Seeing the person beside him as excited as a rabbit emerging from its burrow, he glanced down at the dashboard and said in a remarkably calm tone, “It’s just low fuel. Sit back down.”
Wei Zhi leaned back against the seat, holding onto her seatbelt.
At the foot of the mountain, Shan Chong first stopped at a gas station. He parked, unbuckled his seatbelt, and stepped out with his long legs. The car door remained open, and Wei Zhi could faintly hear the conversation with the gas station attendant:
“Two hundred yuan of 92 octane… Wait, has the gas price gone up again? It was 6.5 yuan last time, and now it’s 6.9 yuan after just a few days?”
“Oh yes, it’s been rising sharply these past few days!”
“Then just fill it up with 100 yuan worth.”
…
“100 yuan won’t get you very far!”
“It’s fine, we’re not going anywhere far.”
The man’s voice remained unhurried, always sounding as if he had just woken up. This wasn’t unusual, though. Except for when he was cursing energetically while snowboarding, he always spoke in this languid manner…
Even his WeChat messages were listless and lackadaisical.
Wei Zhi sat in the passenger seat, unable to resist peering out through the driver’s side window.
Outside, shadows moved. She watched as a figure in a white hooded sweatshirt picked up the fuel nozzle and moved to the side of the car. The nozzle seemed too short, so he tried once and came back to adjust it.
The white figure occasionally flashed between the window and the gap of the open door.
The rest was just the sound of the fuel nozzle.
There was nothing particularly special about it.
But for that second, everything else around seemed to disappear.
The cold air, the lingering smell of gasoline, and the low conversation between the two people in the back seat.
All of it was sucked into a vacuum.
Wei Zhi stared at the figure outside the car, slightly lost in thought.
Three seconds later, the driver’s door suddenly opened, and the man’s silhouette blocked the light. “Can you handle the smell of gasoline? Want me to close the door?”
Startled out of her reverie, the young girl jumped, her body recoiling against the door—
The window held together with clear tape, made a loud “pop” under the sudden weight.
Then it began to vibrate with a “duh” sound.
Shan Chong: “…”
Shan Chong: “For those three strips of tape, the repair shop charged me ten yuan. Therefore, I hope it can last until the New Year.”
Wei Zhi quickly moved herself away from the door, patting her back and muttering, “It’s because you suddenly appeared and startled me…”
Shan Chong fell silent, his eyes visible above the mask staring at her for a moment… Those dark pupils were sharp and bright as if they could see through everything.
At this moment, Wei Zhi was very grateful for the mask. She raised her hand to press down on her mask, hiding her slightly warm face even deeper, and cleared her throat. “What is it?”
The person outside the car door looked like he had something to say. Just then, the gas station counter machine stopped with a “click.” He turned his head to look at the machine.
Then he looked back at Wei Zhi.
After a while, he slowly said, “It’s nothing,” casually closed the door, and went to the back to pick up the fuel nozzle.
Staring at the closed door in a daze for three seconds, Wei Zhi let out a sigh of relief.
“When in doubt, choose Burton. Burton is never wrong for beginners, but I think some of ThirtyTwo’s floral designs are also nice. Nitro seems to have better-looking men’s shoes… Ah, it’s so hard to choose! Jiji, did you know that Nike and Adidas also make snowboard boots?” Jiang Nanfeng asked without looking up, frantically scrolling through boot introductions on her phone.
After a while without a response.
She looked up: “Wei Zhi?”
Wei Zhi was startled, turning her head with an “Ah.”
From above the edge of her phone, Jiang Nanfeng stared at Wei Zhi: “Why do you keep looking outside?”
Jiang Nanfeng didn’t mean anything by this question, it was just casual. If Wei Zhi had answered that there was a car outside suddenly turning into Optimus Prime, she might have just laughed it off. But as soon as the words left her mouth, she felt the young girl tense up…
She blinked in confusion and asked again, “What’s so attractive out there?”
Lao Yan yawned in the back, half-squinting at his phone and casually chiming in, “This year’s Deeluxe is also pretty good… Chong-ge is outside.”
Wei Zhi’s hand was almost tearing the car’s seatbelt apart.
Lao Yan slowly finished the second half of his sentence: “—What’s he doing? Taking so long, isn’t he cold!”
Wei Zhi: “…”
Jiang Nanfeng looked at Wei Zhi, whose hair was almost standing on end. Finally unable to contain herself, she lowered her head and grumbled, “Stop looking at me.”
Jiang Nanfeng: “Oh.”
Wei Zhi: “…”
Three minutes later, the driver’s door opened. Bringing with him the smell of gasoline and the chill of snow and ice, Shan Chong sat back in the driver’s seat. He found the car unusually quiet—
Wei Zhi was looking down at her phone, her fingers moving so fast it was hard to tell what she could see at that refresh rate.
The two in the back seat were also occupied with their activities.
“What’s wrong? Why is the atmosphere so tense?” the man asked, “Did you all fight in the ten minutes I was out filling up gas?”
No one responded to him.
…
The gas station was still some distance from the ski equipment store.
From the moment they left the gas station, Wei Zhi sat up straight like a primary school student, gazing out the window. Occasionally, her WeChat would vibrate, and she would pick up her phone to look, then quickly put it down again.
Then the WeChat vibrations became more and more frequent.
“Who is it?” Jiang Nanfeng asked from the back, “They’re like a debt collector. You’re patient too, can’t you just reply to them?”
Wei Zhi bit her lower lip and said, “My mom went to my place looking for me. She’s asking why I’m not home.”
“You didn’t tell her you came to Zhangjiakou?”
Wei Zhi shook her head, feeling the gaze from the driver’s seat casually sweep over her. She said, “No.”
“That’s true. Your mom doesn’t usually look for you much. Why did she suddenly show up at your place now?”
Jiang Nanfeng muttered in confusion from the back, while this time Wei Zhi simply didn’t respond. She raised her hand and set her WeChat to “Do Not Disturb,” and the world became peaceful.
Probably not wanting to discuss this topic further, she didn’t put down her phone but instead opened her photo album and started browsing randomly—
The recent photos on her phone were all very similar in color, with ice and snow everywhere…
There was a squirrel crouching on a tree branch, an empty hotel sky bridge with ice and snow covering everything outside, falling snow through the window, and a video of them burying Coca-Cola in a hole on the mountain…
Wei Zhi was somewhat absent-minded as she opened the video and unmuted it. The cheerful background music from the edited clip became the only sound in the car.
After this video finished playing, her finger swiped through other photos one by one. Finally, when she opened a certain video, she didn’t even react before the very formal CCTV-style sports commentator’s voice came through—
[Now we begin the men’s snowboard big air competition. We can see a Chinese athlete taking his position on the starting platform.]
Wei Zhi was suddenly stunned.
Then she felt all her blood rush to her head, her soul returning to her body in an instant. She fumbled with her phone, trying to close the video.
“You’re still watching this,” Shan Chong’s voice drifted over, “Don’t turn it off, continue.”
His tone was flat, showing no discernible emotion.
“I just randomly downloaded it from the internet and forgot to delete it…” Wei Zhi squeezed out a smile worse than crying behind her mask. “Continue what? There’s nothing worth watching.”
“It’s fine,” Shan Chong said, “I know a thing or two about big air jumps.”
“…”
“Play it.”
For some reason, Wei Zhi felt the awkwardness of being caught cheating—playing a video of another snowboarding pro’s competition in front of her fresh, new instructor. Wasn’t this just asking for trouble?
Just that one word “Play” carried a murderous aura. Ugh.
Wei Zhi moved her lips weakly, ultimately unable to resist. Tearfully pressing the play button, the commentator’s calm voice continued to resound in the not-so-calm atmosphere—
[As far as I know, this is currently the only athlete who has entered the qualifying round in the men’s snowboard event… After all, snowboarding is a relatively new sport in our country and not a traditional strong point.
“Alright, he’s starting. It’s a regular stance takeoff. A frontside 1620 followed by… oh, followed by a method grab (*legs hooked back, front hand arched grabbing the back edge). He lands! He’s stable! Very steady! Now we can hear the enthusiastic applause from the audience, as this is a signature move in snowboard big air that everyone loves.”
…
“This also gives us a chance to see the sponsor’s logo on the board’s base, a small blackboard from Burton’s Custom line.”
…
“Okay, with this stable landing, we can confirm that this round’s score will be valid. Although the difficulty coefficient isn’t as high as the previous competitors, the spirit is certainly there.”
…
“Interestingly, compared to other snow or ice events, the atmosphere in freestyle big air is noticeably more relaxed. Athletes often spontaneously add some stylish moves that don’t count towards difficulty, expressing their love for the sport. The audience’s applause isn’t reserved only for high-scoring participants…
Now we’re waiting for the judges’ scores.
Let’s take a look at who’s preparing on the platform now. It’s Canadian athlete Bilson, the silver medalist from the last Winter Olympics’ snowboard big air event—”
The video abruptly ended.
The half of Wei Zhi’s face visible above her mask was completely flushed.
A stark contrast to her listless demeanor while replying to her mother’s WeChat messages earlier, she was now fully alert, desperately trying to steal glances at the man driving…
Shan Chong didn’t have much of a reaction. He continued driving, calmly looking ahead. “Did you understand it?”
Wei Zhi just wanted to die.
“Do I look like someone who could understand that?”
“No, you don’t.”
“I can’t even learn how to straighten my board and charge down the slope before getting on the jump,” Wei Zhi said very honestly. “It’s enough that it looks good. I don’t need to learn how refrigeration works to take things out of the fridge.”
“You can learn in the future.”
“Which future? In my next life?”
“Don’t talk back,” the man said these three words almost like a catchphrase, his tone particularly natural as he blurted them out. “You’ll be able to learn if you want to in the future. You might not be able to do the big air jump, but surely popping off a snow mound won’t be a problem… So, did you find the video impressive?”
“…It was quite impressive.”
“Do you know who he is? You seem to admire him a lot?”
“I came to Chongli after watching his competition videos.”
Wei Zhi carefully considered how to delicately explain her “ideal love” to her “cherished one.”
Unfortunately, she forgot about the troublemaker in the back seat. “What?” Jiang Nanfeng said, “Didn’t you come to Chongli for the cute guys on the slopes?”
Wei Zhi: “…”
Where’s my knife?
Jiang Nanfeng: “But I guess that’s not wrong either… Isn’t this big shot at the same ski resort as us in Chongli? You even ran into him the other day.”
Wei Zhi was speechless for three seconds.
Wei Zhi: “No, I didn’t, you’re mistaken—”
Jiang Nanfeng: “Got sprayed in the face by a broken water faucet, was rescued like a damsel in distress, got his glasses cloth, didn’t get his contact info, curled up in bed crying all night hugging the glasses cloth…”
“Ms. Jiang Nanfeng!”
Wei Zhi sprang up entirely!
Because she was too excited, she hit her head on the car roof, cried out in pain, and fell back into her seat, clutching her head!
Shan Chong seemed completely unaffected by the chaos beside him. He glanced at Wei Zhi, who was so embarrassed she wanted to jump out the window, and said calmly, “How could you not even get his contact information? Are you that useless?”
Wei Zhi whimpered, rubbing her head while curling up in her seat.
Jiang Nanfeng: “Useless dingus.”
Shan Chong: “Useless dingus.”
Lao Yan looked at Shan Chong, then at Wei Zhi, who was constantly sneaking glances at Shan Chong with a worried expression. He cleared his throat, slid half his body down, and hid half of his face, which was about to break into a grin, into the collar of his hoodie.
Doubly negated by the two, Wei Zhi was quite indignant: “What’s the use of getting his contact information? He likes men anyway!”
They were just approaching a traffic light.
The green light was counting down. Shan Chong stepped on the gas pedal, almost breaking it.
Wei Zhi’s hair stood on end as she screamed and tightened her seatbelt, repeating three words—
“Brake pads.”
“Be gentle.”
And “Two millimeters.”
After passing the traffic light, the man slowed down the car.
“Who told you that?”
“You don’t know yet?”
Wei Zhi, still recovering from the shock, kept an eye on the road ahead and the dashboard in front of the driver’s seat while forcing herself to recount her love story that ended before it began. “He was also in that video Lao Yan sent.”
“So?”
“Did you see how he took off the snow goggles for that other guy in the white snowsuit?”
“…”
“The same action, but he was about ten times gentler than when you took off my goggles.”
Wei Zhi added tearfully, “It was so sweet I almost shipped them, and I haven’t been into pure love stories for three to five years.”
Shan Chong had never been described as “gentle” in his life.
The first time it happened, the subject of the action was “Dai Duo”…
Didn’t this deserve finding a trash can to throw up in?
And “pure love story,” no less.
He slammed on the brakes, making a screeching “squeal” that threatened to destroy those last two millimeters of brake pads. As everyone in the car frantically grabbed onto anything solid nearby to save their lives, the man pulled the handbrake.
“That person’s sexual orientation is perfectly normal.”
His voice was cold.
Hugging her seatbelt, Wei Zhi blinked, not immediately understanding. She looked at the man in the driver’s seat, who had his eyes lowered, his long, thick eyelashes drooping down.
“…How do you know?” Wei Zhi asked shakily. “Do you know him?”
Shan Chong gave an emotionless “Mm.”
Perhaps her brain had short-circuited by this point because Wei Zhi blurted out instinctively: “Then can you introduce us?”
Shan Chong glanced at her.
Wei Zhi snapped back to reality in an instant.
“Never mind, forget it.” The young girl clasped her hands together. “Having you means I have the whole world, I won’t even look at anyone else!!!!”
“…”
“Even if they’re gentle, I won’t look. If I look even once, I’ll gouge my eyeballs out.”
“Huh.”
“Long live Master Father.”
Shan Chong unbuckled his seatbelt: “We’re here, get out.”
Wei Zhi felt like she’d been granted amnesty, scrambling to grab the door handle.
…
Wei Zhi walked ahead with her tail between her legs.
Shan Chong stayed behind to park the car. Lao Yan found some excuse to stay back, and after watching the two girls leave, he clung to the back of the driver’s seat like a gecko.
“I saw the video she was playing earlier,” Lao Yan said. “It was a video of your past competition, wasn’t it?”
The man looked in the rearview mirror as he turned the steering wheel, not saying a word.
“I also decided to come learn big air from you after watching that year’s competition,” Lao Yan continued. “Chong-ge, back then you were such a show-off, not forgetting to flash your board even at the Olympic venue.”
Hearing this, the man who had been noncommittal finally spoke—
“The sponsors gave sponsorship, how could I not promote?”
“…”
What an unusual way of understanding it. Lao Yan snickered.
“I thought you were going to stay silent to the end, not admitting that video was you… That little girl cherishes it so much, she especially went online to find videos of your past competitions, saved them on her phone, and secretly watched them under the covers at night.”
“I was in a proper competition, not filming adult content.”
“Then why didn’t you tell her that was you, and that you’re also the glasses cloth hero?”
Shan Chong thought seriously for a moment, then asked in return: “Did you see how panicked she looked when she had to choose between her idol and her teacher in front of her?”
Lao Yan: “Huh?”
Shan Chong’s face was expressionless as he squeezed out two words from his lips: “It’s fun.”
Lao Yan: “…”
Some people are born players.
It has nothing to do with how rich or poor their romantic history is.
Lao Yan didn’t believe this before, but now he does.