Beici had taught countless girls how to do rail slides and jump tricks. While none had been carried away on stretchers, falls and bumps during prop jumps were commonplace.

Some cried when they fell and hurt themselves.

But this was the first time he’d seen someone cry so hard they could barely breathe, calling out in pain while simultaneously being lucid enough to realize they’d done something deserving of scolding and deeply fearing that reprimand.

He supported Wei Zhi, trying to move her to a nearby stool, but she cried out in pain at the slightest movement. Beici glanced down at her feet and, noticing she wasn’t wearing the resort’s rental boots, immediately understood the situation.

“Shifu only told you to buy shoes, not to bring band-aids?” he asked, though of course he received no response. The mere mention of “Shifu” made the girl in his arms tremble, looking utterly pitiful.

While soothing her with “Okay, okay, I won’t move you,” Beici looked up and scanned the area, his gaze lingering on the Wantongtang Club logo sticker on K’s snowboard. His eyes, previously full of helplessness, flickered and turned cold.

At that moment, Wei Zhi’s ear was pressed against Beici’s chest. Unable to see his change in emotion, she sensed the shift in atmosphere like a small animal. When she looked up at Beici in confusion, she caught sight of her usually jovial senior disciple, who often bantered with Lao Yan, no longer smiling.

His jaw was clenched, his gaze icy.

“Taking a beginner who can’t even change edges into the park for big air jumps, then just watching when she falls… Flirting at the ski resort is fine, but this is low. Don’t you think?” The man’s low voice resonated in his chest, reaching Wei Zhi’s ear.

Wei Zhi was bewildered: What did he mean? Did they know each other?

She tried to turn her head to look at K.

Before she could complete the motion, the man in front of her held her head in place, preventing her from turning. She could only stare at the row of vintage-style metal buttons on the chest of his punk-style jacket.

“Wait here. This isn’t over. I’ll deal with you guys later.”

Beici dropped these words, then bent down to unfasten Wei Zhi’s bindings.

Wei Zhi stumbled off her snowboard, free from the bindings.

He picked up her board, hung it on his elbow, and told her to wait a moment.

“I want to take off my shoes,” Wei Zhi said softly. “My heel is rubbed raw.”

In truth, her entire body ached, but she was wearing multiple layers. Other areas would at most be bruised or scraped, but her heel felt wet…

It was probably bleeding.

Even the gentlest touch hurt, even the soft friction of her sock fabric was painful.

“No, it’s too cold up here. You’ll catch a cold if you take off your shoes,” Beici replied, his tone softer than when he had spoken to K. He bent down to look at her foot. “Can you feel that it’s broken? Is it bleeding?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Then we definitely can’t take it off. If it freezes and sticks to your sock on the wound, you’d pass out when we try to remove it later.”

Beici turned back to retrieve his board, put it on, and slid over to Wei Zhi. He performed a few ollies in front of her, bouncing like an agitated grasshopper before finally stopping and saying, “Get on.”

Wei Zhi: “What?”

Beici tossed away Wei Zhi’s snowboard and lifted her entire body—not embracing her, but picking her up and placing her on his snowboard. He positioned one of her feet in front of his right binding and the other between his two bindings.

Wei Zhi stepped on, confusedly grabbing at his chest, then thought better of it and held onto his arms instead.

Beici chuckled: “I can’t ride like that. You’re allowed to hold my waist… Don’t worry, I’m single. No one will scold you.”

Considering the suggested posture, Wei Zhi’s hands hovered helplessly in the air before carefully grasping the fabric on either side of Beici’s clothes. She looked up at Beici, her large dark eyes conveying: I’m ready, let’s go.

The young girl had just been crying her eyes out, and her eye rims were still red. Combined with her naturally pale complexion, Beici could see the faint blue veins and fine hairs on her fair cheeks in the sunlight as he looked down.

She gazed up at her senior disciple so obediently.

And her senior disciple was, after all, a man.

His heart inevitably skipped a beat for three seconds. He paused, muttered “Amitabha,” and turned his head away, no longer looking at her.

He bent down to pick up Wei Zhi’s board, holding it in one hand while the other hovered politely near her waist. Using his hips to generate power, he rode his snowboard, carrying her away from the parking area of the mid-mountain slope, a place of right and wrong.

…

In the medical room at the base of the mountain, Wei Zhi limped onto the stretcher covered with a white sheet. She sat on the bed and loosened the straps of her ski boots, letting out a sigh of relief.

The boots were still hanging on her feet, not fully removed. They were too tight, and she needed a bit of courage to take them off completely.

Beici watched her climb onto the bed and was about to say something when his phone rang.

He glanced at the caller ID, excused himself to Wei Zhi, and stepped out of the medical room.

Outside, he had barely said “Hello” when a low, magnetic voice, slightly hoarse, came through the phone: “Did you find her?”

Beici thought to himself, what’s going on here? It’s like they’ve installed surveillance cameras—the call comes just as we get down the mountain… He turned back to look sympathetically at the girl in the medical room, blissfully unaware of everything. He paused, then looked away and said, “Mm.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line, clearly not understanding how his question could be answered with a simple monosyllable.

“Where is she?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be teaching today? How do you have time to worry about this and that—”

“I canceled the class. That woman couldn’t even do basic sliding, how could she jump in the park? I told her to find someone to retrain her. Huahua isn’t free until the afternoon,” the man paused. “Is that explanation clear enough? Do you think I’m free enough now?”

“…”

The sound of a lighter came through the phone, the clear “click” of ignition reaching Beici’s ear, seemingly indicating that the person on the other end was somewhat impatient.

“Cat got your tongue?” the man asked again, his voice slightly muffled, probably from the cigarette between his lips.

Beici had used up his quota of sighs for the week today: “Let me explain, but don’t fly into a rage! We found her, she’s in the medical room. It’s not too serious, just that some idiot from Wantongtang tricked her into the park. I arrived just in time to see her fall on a prop—”

“…”

Beici hadn’t finished speaking.

The other end dropped two words, “Wait there,” and then hung up.

Hearing the busy tone, Beici rarely showed a bewildered expression. He lowered his phone and looked at it, the screen flashed once and then went dark as the call ended.

Beici looked at his phone, then turned back to look at Wei Zhi, who was still talking to the on-duty doctor in the medical room, completely unaware of the impending storm…

Uh.

A question—

Would it be too disloyal if he just disappeared now?

…

Fifteen minutes later.

In the medical room, everyone was engaged in a fierce discussion and deliberation about “when to grit your teeth and take off the shoes.”

“We need to take off these shoes to see the condition of the wound. Don’t be afraid, what if it’s just a bit red from rubbing and not bleeding or broken skin? I promise you’ll still be able to ski tomorrow if that’s the case,” the on-duty doctor, a young woman, said in a gentle tone.

Wei Zhi replied pitifully, “I’ve been here for ten days already, and my flight home is tomorrow. I won’t be able to ski anymore regardless of how it is.”

The young doctor: “…”

K, who had brought Wei Zhi to this predicament, had also come down and was standing by.

It wasn’t out of a sense of responsibility; he mainly wanted to see what was going on. If she had been injured badly, he could negotiate while present. If he wasn’t there, he’d probably be saddled with the blame for a “hit-and-run.”

Moreover, the person who brought her here was Beici, tch, someone from CK.

He didn’t know if this novice girl was an acquaintance or family member of someone important in their club. He hoped she wasn’t anyone significant, otherwise this incident could escalate into a war between clubs…

Their relationship was already poor, and this time he was clearly in the wrong.

Wouldn’t the head of Wantongtang skin him alive?

“Besides your shoe rubbing your foot, where else does it hurt?” K asked.

Wei Zhi looked up at him: “My chest.”

K: “…”

Could she have broken a rib?

He started to panic a bit.

Just as he was about to speak, the door of the medical room was forcefully pushed open from the outside.

Everyone in the medical room was startled and turned their heads in unison—

A tall, slender man appeared in the doorway, backlit so that people couldn’t see his face.

K squinted hard, just managing to make out his black snowsuit, lean figure, and the particularly noticeable “AK” lettering on the suit.

He felt dizzy and breathless for a few seconds.

The man dragged a wheelchair in from outside, his handsome face dark enough to drip water…

His thin lips were pressed together, not saying a word.

The distinctive mole on the bridge of his nose became increasingly clear as he entered the room and the strong light faded, making one involuntarily wonder if the demons and rakshasas of hell might have a similar mole in the same place.

It was their mark of identity.

Finally, everyone in the room could see the newcomer’s face.

Wei Zhi looked at the glasses-cloth big shot who had suddenly appeared, her face full of confusion.

K’s reaction was different; his mind exploded with a “boom.”

“Dan-Shan Chong!”

He jumped up from his chair, lost his balance, and was suddenly pushed hard. He stumbled back several steps, his back slamming heavily against the wall—

“Taking a beginner who can’t even change edges into the park for big air jumps? You didn’t know if she didn’t? You just watched when she fell? Is this how Wantongtang teaches you?”

A series of questions fired off.

K was dazed from the impact, looking at the man before him whose face was cold as ice. His mind was racing: Shit, why is it him! Why did he come? Who is this girl to him? It’s over!

His brain was in chaos, scared out of his wits. He pointed at Wei Zhi, who was sitting on the bed behind him looking completely out of the loop: “I saw her pushing on the advanced slope, too scared to go straight. I just wanted to help and teach her a bit… I didn’t force her into the park! She followed me in on her own! She believed that after doing a big air jump, she wouldn’t be afraid to go straight on normal slopes anymore. She wanted to try it herself—”

His words were already incoherent.

“She believed you? She wouldn’t even go straight when I was there.”

The man said coldly, his voice as if it had been pulled from a thousand-year-old ice pool—

“Who do you think you are?”