[CK, Backstab: What’s up? Did Master hurt his hand again? Is Long Bai Mountain incompatible with your zodiac? Should you carry a suckling pig up the mountain to pray on the fifteenth?]
In Shan Chong’s disciple group chat, there were always one or two well-informed individuals. And one stone could create a thousand ripples.
[Horizon of Marrakech: Is Brother Chong back at Long Bai Mountain? Wasn’t he at Songhua Lake?]
[CK, Backstab: Songhua Lake is probably crowded. Maybe he changed locations?]
[Horizon of Marrakech: Wasn’t Long Bai Mountain off-limits as a professional team’s training base?]
[CK, Backstab: It’s usually restricted, but who would dare stop Shan Chong if he wants to go? I can’t think of a single ski resort in China that wouldn’t let him in if he claimed to be a technical advisor.]
[Horizon of Marrakech: Oh, that makes sense.]
Wei Zhi sat by the hospital bed, glancing up at the man’s anti-inflammatory IV drip before lowering her eyes back to her phone.
[Lao Yan: @CK, Backstab What do you mean by “again”? What’s “again”?]
Backstab responded quickly.
[CK, Backstab: Well, didn’t you just get your bandages and cast removed? So it’s “again,” isn’t it? Don’t hesitate, we’re talking about you!]
Wei Zhi read their chat, noticing not only the banter but also a hint of pride rather than shame in their words.
This might be the difference between girls and boys—
Earlier, sitting in the car, she had almost felt her soul leave her body when she touched his hand, feeling the heat radiating from his swollen, inflamed wrist. Yet now, these people were chatting as if nothing had happened, even joking about it.
It was as if visiting the hospital’s orthopedic department was a routine occurrence for them.
[Little Chirp: Can’t you all be more serious?]
[Little Chirp: Lao Yan and Shan Chong both fell. Isn’t that enough to make you more cautious? Why are you laughing and joking?]
[Little Chirp: Everyone, please be careful. Stop acting like you’ll never grow up. When you get hurt, your families worry!]
[Lao Yan: …]
[Little Chirp: What’s with the ellipsis? @Lao Yan]
[Lao Yan: …]
[Sakura Yan: LOL!]
[Yan Yan: Hahahahahahahahahaha!]
[Sakura Yan: I’ve been telling these guys to be sensible and wear protective gear every day, but no one listens! Finally, there’s a normal person to keep you all in check!]
[CK, Backstab: @Little Chirp It’s fine. He’s probably just shocked. This is the closest you’ve ever come to embodying the “Master’s wife” role since we’ve known you.]
[CK, Backstab: It’s exactly like what my mom said at the dinner table on New Year’s Eve.]
[CK, Backstab: Well done. Counting Master Chong, everyone in the group now has both a father and a mother figure.]
[Little Chirp: …]
As Wei Zhi was nearly suffocating from the anger caused by the eldest disciple’s jokes, the group chat finally returned to normal. Everyone started ordering protective gear together and wishing their master a speedy recovery.
Backstab sent a private message to Wei Zhi, asking about the specific situation. As someone aware of Shan Chong’s current condition, he was concerned that this fall might prevent Shan Chong from participating in various competitions next month.
Wei Zhi glanced up at the man leaning against the bed, one hand connected to an IV drip, absentmindedly scrolling through the group chat on his phone—
The phone’s screen illuminated his naturally cold and authoritative features when he wasn’t speaking, his pitch-black pupils unfathomable…
It was impossible to know what he was thinking.
She could only tell that he was lost in thought.
Wei Zhi reached out and tapped him, then played Backstab’s gruff voice message asking, “So, can he still compete next month?” Shan Chong took the phone from her hand, brought it to his lips, and replied, “Yes, I’ll compete. Skiing doesn’t require feet.”
He sent the voice message with a “whoosh” and handed the phone back to Wei Zhi.
She held the phone with a blank expression, frozen by the bedside, staring at him without moving.
Shan Chong, feeling her intense gaze, thought about how she had just scolded over a hundred people in the group chat, making those rough men hang their heads in shame. The corner of his mouth twitched upward.
“You’re still smiling!”
The young woman raised her hand, wanting to hit him, but as her hand approached his blue and white striped hospital gown, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. After hesitating for a long time, she withdrew her hand…
The punch she couldn’t deliver seemed to hit her face instead, and her eyes reddened.
On the hospital bed, the man watched as she went from being fine one second to looking like she was about to cry the next. Used to this, he still couldn’t help but sigh, “Are you going to cry again? I’m fine, aren’t I?”
Wei Zhi lowered her head, rubbing the corners of her eyes. “Are you getting impatient with me now?”
“Don’t be unreasonable,” Shan Chong said. “I’m the one lying in the hospital bed, right?”
Wei Zhi glanced at him, biting her lip, and asked in a small voice, “…Then we can switch places if you want.”
Hearing this, the smile of appeasement faded from the man’s face. These words were all too familiar; he had overheard them years ago…
After hearing those words then, he had chosen to sign his retirement papers.
Two years later, in a different context, with a different person—
He realized he still didn’t want to hear them.
Not a single word.
His gaze darkened, and for the first time, he spoke to the young woman in a somewhat cold tone, “What nonsense are you talking?”
“It’s not nonsense. If we switched places, you’d understand how I feel right now.”
Her voice was thick with emotion, and though she glared at him, it lacked any real force. Something seemed to be stuck in her chest, making her uncomfortable. She didn’t say it outright, but it was all evident in her voice.
She wasn’t stupid at all. She knew how to negotiate with men. If she had tried to command him from a position of superiority, telling him to do this or that, he might have rebelled and argued with her…
But she didn’t.
She hadn’t even really complained about him. With just one sentence, she had successfully made Shan Chong’s initially hard jawline relax… He looked at her, and his hand that could still move, currently attached to an IV, reached out to gently brush her seriously furrowed brow.
His hand was rough.
She felt a bit ticklish and wanted to turn her head away, but she was afraid of disturbing his IV and rupturing a blood vessel or something. So she stiffly looked at him.
Shan Chong lowered his hand and looked back at her, his pitch-black pupils flickering with an unidentifiable light. “Can you come here and let me hug you?”
She pursed her lips and leaned towards him.
Falling into the man’s embrace, she grumbled, “You’ve done something wrong, and you still have the nerve to act cute.”
He lowered his head and kissed the corner of her lips. “I know I was wrong. From now on, I’ll be careful… I’ll check the helmet fasteners before setting out, wear protective gear without complaining, and wear full protective gear even for air cushion practice in summer. If I can’t perform a move, I’ll just let it go. At worst, I’ll practice more times instead of forcing it. I’ll try not to fall anywhere—”
“When you’re told to rest, you should rest,” she said, her face buried in the crook of his neck, adding to his promises. “Even when driving, there’s a concept of fatigue driving. Wang Xin has led the national team for so many years, he’s a professional. Why don’t you ever listen to him?”
“I understand,” he said. “From now on, I’ll listen.”
As soon as he finished speaking, she climbed out of his embrace and placed both hands on his shoulders, looking at him somewhat disbelievingly—
Shan Chong wasn’t the type to make empty promises.
But everything else was fine…
When it came to skiing and practicing new moves, he was stubborn and difficult to tame, inevitably making people feel that his promises were just hot air.
“If you fall again,” she lowered her eyes and muttered, “I won’t want you anymore.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Are you threatening me?”
His tone was flat.
The person originally sitting on his lap heard this and started to shift away, but before she could move, he grabbed her arm and pulled her back. He made an “mm” sound from his nose, expressing his question.
He was just pressuring her.
Knowing full well that she was just saying it.
Forced into a corner, she could only raise her head and kiss his slightly pursed lips, biting his lower lip, her tongue lightly touching the corner of his mouth that was pressed into a straight line…
Unlike him.
She knew she had said something wrong, and her attitude of admitting her mistake came quickly.
“Is everything you said true?” she asked softly. “You’re not lying to me?”
His gaze gradually darkened, and now he truly felt the benefits of having an injured hand…
He could only manage to use his hand with the IV to pinch her chin, bringing the person who had just moved away from him back in front of him, resuming the kiss that had been interrupted.
“I was too eager to maintain my condition for rejoining the team, and I rushed things a bit,” he deepened the kiss. “I know I was wrong. I’m apologizing to you. I’m sorry.”
His warm breath brushed against the tip of her nose.
“No more crying, okay?”
His voice was low and slow.
“I’m not lying to you—in this lifetime, I could never lie to you, even if I lied to everyone else.”
Three years ago, Shan Chong probably never imagined that one day he would promise to cherish himself for someone else’s sake.
Even as he said these words, he felt surprised at himself.
For just a moment, he was dazed—
It turned out that the world wasn’t as he had thought, where people only looked forward to his achievements, always expecting him to win, hoping he could make history in the snowboard big air event…
It turned out that many people simply held him in their hearts, caring for him and cherishing him like a treasure.
In their eyes, he wasn’t Shan Chong—
He was just himself, nothing more.
Two years ago, he didn’t understand this principle.
Now he did.
A man remains a youth until death.
And a youth is always on the path of growth, with as many things to learn as there are sights to see.
…
Shan Chong had to stay in the hospital for two days with his cast. Even for a short two-day stay, toiletries needed to be prepared. Fortunately, there was a place selling plastic basins, towels, and other daily necessities just downstairs from the hospital.
After a series of examinations, the sky had completely darkened. The man probably only now felt tired, and after saying a few words to Wei Zhi, he fell asleep.
Looking at the dark circles under his eyes, he probably hadn’t had many peaceful nights of sleep these past few days. Returning to the team so suddenly and having to compete for a Winter Olympics wildcard spot with the team—even though he didn’t say it, everyone knew how much pressure he was under—
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been practicing so desperately, pushing himself to the limit. Even Dai Duo said he must be crazy.
After he fell asleep, Wei Zhi went with Wang Xin to buy necessities.
“He told you he wouldn’t be reckless in the future?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Do you believe him?”
“What can I do if I don’t believe him?”
Wei Zhi carried a plastic basin, talking as she walked towards the ward area. The basin contained toothpaste, toothbrushes, towels, and other small items, as well as a bowl of freshly made white porridge.
“The most essential difference between humans and animals is that humans shouldn’t fall into the same pit twice… And now he’s probably feeling anxious too, not knowing what Auntie will say when she arrives.”
Wang Xin had been walking with his hands behind his back, but when he heard the word “Auntie,” he felt uncomfortable. He didn’t know what Shan Chong was thinking, but he felt a bit uneasy.
He moved his lips, about to say something.
At that moment, the young woman walking in front suddenly stopped, and he nearly bumped into her back as he tried to brake.
Wang Xin looked up, about to ask what was wrong, when he saw her turn her head, expressionless, and say, “Let’s go back to the supermarket and see if we forgot to buy anything… Maybe some fruit?”
The middle-aged man was puzzled and was about to say something when looking over Wei Zhi’s shoulder, he saw a woman sitting on a long bench at the end of the corridor, outside Shan Chong’s hospital room.
She was carrying just a simple canvas bag, sitting there alone, head lowered, hands crossed and fists pressed against her forehead.
The hospital room door was right across from her, but she hadn’t rushed to open it and look inside. She just sat outside the room, silently struggling with herself, and silently crying.
There was no loud sobbing.
No angry scolding.
No furious demands to withdraw Shan Chong’s comeback plans.
No blame for anyone…
She had probably set out as soon as she received the call, spending hours traveling to Long Bai Mountain, silent the whole way, and then, seeing her son lying in the hospital bed through the window, her emotions could no longer be contained.
That was all.
Wei Zhi turned around swiftly, holding the plastic basin, with Wang Xin following her in confusion.
The corridor quickly returned to its initial empty state, leaving a moment of tranquility for the woman on the bench.
…
Shan Chong woke up in the middle of the night.
When he woke, only a dim light was on in the hospital room.
Wei Zhi was lying on the edge of his bed, already a light sleeper. She opened her eyes almost as soon as he moved, raising her head groggily, her face still bearing the marks from sleeping. She asked, “What’s wrong, are you thirsty?”
As she spoke, she reached for the mineral water.
Shan Chong was a bit thirsty. He propped himself up with one hand, watching the young woman slowly struggle with the bottle cap. He chuckled, “Give it here.”
She yawned and handed the water to him, watching as the man effortlessly twisted off the cap with his uninjured hand and took the bottle from her. She mumbled, “See, I never try to act tough when I can’t do something.”
Shan Chong drank some water and looked around, pausing when he saw a thermal food container on the bedside table.
Wei Zhi followed his gaze to the container and exclaimed, “Ah! Auntie came by this afternoon. She was worried you might get hungry at night, so she left some homemade steamed dumplings. She said you could eat them if you woke up hungry—”
She spoke as she went to get the container.
“She came?”
“Yes, and since only one person is allowed to stay overnight, and she had been traveling all day and must be tired, I told her to go back to the hotel first…”
Wei Zhi opened the thermal container, sniffed the food inside, and felt around the container. It still seemed warm.
After completing this series of actions, she finally realized the room was unusually quiet. She looked up at the man, who was silently watching her.
She smiled at him.
Shan Chong felt like a death row inmate waiting for his sentence to be announced. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he said, “You know what I want to ask.”
Wei Zhi put down the food she had been holding on her knees and placed it in front of Shan Chong. She stood up and turned to take something out of her bag. In the darkness, he couldn’t see clearly what it was.
He only heard her say, “Auntie asked me to give this to you.”
The object in her hand gradually came into view in the dim light as she held it out.
—It was a pair of ski gloves.
Small gloves, obviously a size smaller, child-sized, and in a very old style. Unlike the flashy fluorescent colors of today, these were clearly from many, many years ago…
The gloves showed obvious signs of use, and turning them over, the palm area was worn through, with a hole.
Such an old item, old enough to be in a museum.
But Shan Chong recognized them immediately—
They were his gloves.
He had even told Wei Zhi this story before. When he was eight or nine, he had just learned to carve turns, and wore out his gloves, and his family wouldn’t buy him new ones. One day, passing by a ski equipment store at the ski resort, he saw that the store was sponsoring a small competition.
That was his first time participating in a competition.
His first time winning a place.
His first time receiving a prize from a competition.
Nearly twenty years had passed, and he had long forgotten where he had put the gloves, or even thought they had been lost…
Yet now, they reappeared before him.
It turned out they had been there all along, carefully preserved as an inconspicuous item.
Just like the memory of that day, carefully treasured—
Shan Chong still remembered that day when it was snowing outside.
At that time, he was just a little taller than the shoe cabinet at home. He held his snowboard in one hand and waved these ski gloves with the other, rushing home excitedly, shouting to his mother who was busy in the kitchen—
Mom, look! I won these gloves in a competition!
Aren’t I amazing?
Mom, I want to be a professional snowboarder in the future!
Pro-fes-sion-al snow-board-er!
“Auntie said to remind you that you brought home your first trophy standing tall and proud,” the young woman said, placing the gloves beside the man’s hand and patting them gently. She smiled and continued, “So from now on, all medals and honors should be brought back standing tall and proud, okay?”
There was a moment of silence in the hospital room.
In the half-shadowed light, the man’s thick eyelashes trembled and lowered.
His Adam’s apple bobbed, and his tightly pressed thin lips moved at the corners, then curved slightly upward.
“Mm.”
His voice was hoarse, and it wasn’t clear who he was speaking to.
“I understand.”