Before Shan Chong posted this update about becoming a father, he hadn’t shared any short videos about Wei Zhi for a long time.
What were his short videos about during this period?
Training, training, and more training.
To put it simply, in his short videos, Wang Xin’s daily roaring and Dai Duo’s occasional appearances as an onlooker were more frequent than Wei Zhi’s.
This dissatisfied the CP fans who wanted to see Shan Chong transform into a love-focused content creator:
“Why did he suddenly focus on his career? Although the ski jumping is impressive, we’d rather see you in a relationship!”
“It’s fine if you update with love stories while subtly promoting products!”
But he refused to do so.
He never once attached a monetization link to his short videos, seeming like someone who didn’t care about money.
As Shan Chong made his comeback, a flood of new fans arrived. On his simple ski jumping training videos without voiceovers, comments like this began to appear:
[Has the creator broken up with his girlfriend?]
At first, Shan Chong would respond to such comments with a question mark.
Later, he stopped replying and simply deleted them.
Out of sight, out of mind.
He wasn’t in a hurry to clarify or do anything else. Let people think what they want.
Until today, when he finally updated content related to his girlfriend.
This time, it was a bombshell. After not seeing her for months, she reappeared not as one person, but as two.
The comment section exploded. CP fans questioned Shan Chong about how she got pregnant while they were dating, asking if he had any sense of public morality.
But why rush?
The comment section became quite lively for a while.
The snow sports enthusiasts’ comments went like this:
Fan 1: Damn, just date normally! Zhangjiakou’s most ruthless skiing machine is so out of character, I can’t recognize him!
Fan 2: Who is this grinning idiot?! WHO?!
Fan 3: Your son (daughter) will be watching their dad do big jumps from the womb. Well done, a future snowboarding prodigy in the making.
Fan 4: To the comment above, according to typical stories, the child everyone expects to be a snowboarding prodigy might end up skiing instead.
Fan 5: Hahahahahaha, you’ve taken all the witty responses! Well played!
Fan 6 (National Team Coach for Freestyle Skiing): … Well, should I get in line to sign up first?
That evening.
Wei Zhi lay on the bed, reading Shan Chong’s short video comments one by one. When she reached the part about their future mother (daughter) possibly taking up skiing, she laughed so hard she couldn’t straighten her back.
“Impossible,” said the man nearby, casually removing his protective gear. His voice was calm.
“It has nothing to do with what I teach, but everything to do with the person.”
“What do you mean?” Wei Zhi looked up from her phone, still smiling.
“Well, I’m not a patient person, and you don’t seem like you’d go that route either,” the man said matter-of-factly. “Won’t the child take after its parents?”
Wei Zhi hesitated, “That doesn’t sound like a compliment.”
Shan Chong’s eyes softened, “Isn’t snowboarding more popular than skiing because it’s quicker to learn? With a month of good practice, you can look decent. That’s why impatient young people prefer it, right?”
In the warm yellow light of the room, he slowly pulled up his upper body quick-dry shirt. The scars on his back resembled a hovering butterfly. As he lifted the shirt, his muscles flexed slightly, making the butterfly appear to flutter its wings.
Wei Zhi’s feet swayed in the air.
She rested her chin on one hand, and blinked a few times, admiring her lawful husband’s physique for a moment before asking seriously, “They say skiing is difficult. How difficult is it?”
Shan Chong thought for a moment, “Let me put it this way. Take carving, for instance, what people now call ‘carved sliding.’ If you start learning snowboarding from scratch, seriously practicing for a month, you can probably fool a layman… For skiing to look somewhat decent, let me think… three years?”
Wei Zhi: “… But skiing is easier to start with. Look at the beginners at small ski resorts now, they’re all skiing!”
Shan Chong’s lips curled into a smile, “That’s only because you can stand up once you put on skis. You can’t do that with a snowboard… Who told you skiing is easier than snowboarding? It’s just that standing up, staying stable, and sliding forward on skis can fool people. Skiers learn snowboarding much faster.”
Wei Zhi: “What about freestyle skiing then!”
Shan Chong: “You see fewer skiers grinding rails in the park not because it doesn’t look good, but because fewer people can do it.”
Wei Zhi: “Oh my? The other day I saw a video of a pro using skis to grind rails and even bounce around on them. It looked amazing!”
Shan Chong pulled off his quick-dry shirt and tossed it aside. His hair was a bit messy, and he lowered his head to ruffle it with his hand…
That movement was quite attractive too.
Maybe it was because she hadn’t seen him for so long, or perhaps it was the hormonal changes due to pregnancy, but her heart was racing as much as when she first saw the pros in person at the mountain top ski resort…
Amidst the pounding of her heart, Wei Zhi gazed at him with starry eyes until he lowered his hand, raised his head, looked at her, and asked, “Who?”
Wei Zhi was startled, “Huh?”
Shan Chong leaned forward, still bent over, with one hand on the edge of the bed…
His shadow enveloped her.
“The one you said looked good grinding rails on skis,” the man said concisely, his eyes lowered. “Who was it?”
Before, she never felt there was any irreconcilable difference between skiing and snowboarding. Outside, the two groups were always arguing over nothing, but in the eyes of top-tier pros like Shan Chong, they were the same thing—
It’s all snow sports, why distinguish between high and low, noble and common?
Now he sensed something different. Ski rail grinding might be harder, but could it outshine snowboarding in coolness?
He grinds rails in front of her every day. Of those bare park terrain rails in Zhangjiakou, Changbai Mountain, and Xinjiang’s top ten ski resorts—shiny and polished—which one hasn’t benefited from his contribution?
How come he’s never heard her praise him once?
As he spoke, amid Wei Zhi’s excuses of “I’ve forgotten who it was,” he directly took the phone from the young woman’s hand, opened her following list, scrolled down a few people, and found a young lad who skis…
Forgotten, indeed!
When she sees someone impressive, doesn’t she always follow them?
Shan Chong let out a cold laugh, unfollowed the account for her, and then handed the phone back.
Wei Zhi scrolled through her following list—the person was gone—and she couldn’t remember a single character from his username… Damn, how ridiculous.
“Why did you unfollow him for me!”
“If one day you suddenly found a new young woman I’m following on my phone, and I told you it’s because her figure skating is beautiful—”
“I’d twist your head off.”
“…” The man untied his snow pants drawstring, glancing at her casually, “Don’t be hypocritical, understand? Be fair.”
“…”
“Watch fewer skiing videos. It’s about prenatal education—Shan Chong’s kid will either snowboard or I’d rather send them to learn ballet.”
“… Even if it’s a boy, he’ll do ballet?”
“Even if it’s a boy,” Shan Chong said. “If anyone asks, it’s because his mother watched too many videos of handsome skiers while pregnant so that sport has been blacklisted in our family ever since.”
“Can you ski?”
“No.”
With that, the man turned and entered the bathroom.
His “No” was too quick and decisive for Wei Zhi to believe. She persisted and asked in the group chat—
[Little Girl Chirp: So, does Master know how to ski?]
The backstabber, always the quickest to respond, immediately sent a video of Shan Chong and their group not properly snowboarding, happily skiing, and ruining the corduroy snow all over the mountain…
At the end of the video, the man carved down from an advanced run, and when he got excited, he even did a spontaneous 360° spin on the slope, amazing the beginners sitting on their butts by the side of the run.
[CK, Backstabber: What do you think, can he ski?]
[Sakura Yan: The point is, you can’t ski while pregnant, whether it’s skiing or snowboarding.]
[Yan Yan: The point is, you can’t ski while pregnant, whether it’s skiing or snowboarding.]
[CK, Backstabber: The point is, you can’t ski while pregnant, whether it’s skiing or snowboarding.]
…
Everyone in the group happily joined the queue.
The man in the bathroom, clearly checking his phone, let out a loud, smug laugh.
It had the same flavor as when he used to give orders, and the entire group would scatter across Zhangjiakou’s five major ski resorts like hunting dogs searching for the little junior sister.
…
Regarding the debate between snowboarding and skiing, it seemed Shan Chong had won a complete victory.
However, this “your kid might ski in the future” comment from a random netizen unexpectedly became the favorite joke among Shan Chong’s circle.
Even Wang Xin used it.
The next day, Wei Zhi accompanied Shan Chong to training. On the jump, he did a Frontside 1800°, bending his waist slightly upon landing before straightening up.
At the jump starting point, Wang Xin was so angry he pressed his philtrum again: “Lazy! You barely engaged your core! Your waist bent like a rice plant in mid-autumn when you landed!”
Shan Chong climbed up with his board, listening to the scolding. After Wang Xin finished, he slowly said, “Ah, it’s a bit cold today—”
As if suddenly remembering something, he took off his jacket – the snow jacket with the five-starred red flag embroidered on the sleeve, still warm from his body – and unceremoniously tossed it over the head of the young woman huddled in the corner.
When she grabbed the jacket and poked her head out, she heard the man say from a distance, “There are hand warmers in the pocket, take them out and use them… Are you cold?”
Wei Zhi shook her head.
“If you’re cold, go down,” Shan Chong frowned. “It’s very windy up here.”
Shan Chong stepped forward, helped her put on his jacket, and after a moment’s thought, pulled up the hood and placed it on her head, covering her completely…
Wang Xin stood behind the two with his hands on his hips: “Why cover her up so well? You can’t even see her eyes. Didn’t she come to watch you jump? What’s all this about prenatal education? Ridiculous.”
That morning, Wei Zhi greeted Wang Xin in the cafeteria, smiling as she said she wanted to watch her lawful husband jump for prenatal education. This had stunned the experienced coach –
He’d heard of using “Little Wisdom Tree” or Jay Chou’s music for prenatal education…
But watching someone ski jump? What kind of new-age education was this?
“Yeah, your wife is here, and you’re still not performing well,” Wang Xin said, getting more animated. “Your kid is in its mother’s belly, watching its dad do such an ugly, lazy jump with no core strength. It’s probably clapping in there thinking: ‘Snowboarding is so ugly, Mom! I want to ski!'”
He spoke in a high-pitched voice, transforming from a middle-aged greasy man into a middle-aged greasy idiot.
Wei Zhi glared at Wang Xin, thinking, “If the Sports Bureau knew they were paying kindergarten students every month, how upset would they be?”
Before she could finish her thought, a hand covered her belly.
Wei Zhi was startled and looked up at the man in front of her –
The latter crouched there expressionlessly, one hand on her belly. After a moment’s thought, he placed his other hand there too, saying, “Don’t let it listen.”
The kindergartener had arrived.
“Did you sleep through middle school biology, or did your ears grow fur back then?” Wei Zhi asked flatly, her maternal instincts kicking in. “A two-month-old baby, an embryo? Forget about whether it can hear your nonsense, if it had already grown ears at this stage, it would probably be calling you ‘Dad’ by next year’s Winter Olympics.”
Shan Chong fell silent for a moment.
After a while, he removed his hands and said, “Oh.”
“They say pregnancy makes you stupid for three years,” Wei Zhi asked, “In our family, is it the dad who’s affected?”
“…”
He crouched by her feet, not saying a word.
She kicked him lightly, signaling him to snap out of it.
After a while, the man poked her calf and said, “Say it again.”
“What?”
“‘Dad’,” he paused, lowering his eyes, perhaps feeling embarrassed himself, “or something like that.”
“…”
Wei Zhi suddenly remembered her first encounter with Shan Chong. He had walked ahead, carrying rented snowboards, leading her through the entire equipment hall at the mountaintop resort. People had greeted him, calling him “Brother Chong,” which seemed impressive… She had even told Jiang Nanfeng, “Sister, my instructor is like Scar from ‘The Lion King’ accepting the hyenas’ pledge.”
In less than a year, he had become the hyena.
That drooling, idiotic-looking hyena poking Simba and saying “Do it again.”
Wei Zhi was trying to figure out how to coax the man away when she saw him, still crouching, leaning close to her belly, and saying seriously, “Should we do a Frontside 2520° or a Triple Cork 1980°?”
The man thought for a moment: “Snowboarding is still a bit easier than skiing.”
In the silence that followed, he added: “Snowboarding is better.”
Wei Zhi turned to Wang Xin: “Don’t scare him anymore in the future.”
Wang Xin: “He’s just not thinking straight.”
Wei Zhi: “It’s your fault for scaring him.”
Wang Xin: “It might also be because you scared him.”
Dai Duo poked his head out from the stairway, seeing the man still crouched beside Wei Zhi, refusing to leave and talking to her belly: “Why aren’t you going down yet? I’ve already done two jumps. Wang Xin, it’s his wife who’s pregnant, not him. How can he slack off like this?”
The starting platform was a cacophony of noise.
The north wind blew, but it couldn’t disperse this lively atmosphere.
…
Snowboard or skis?
This joke continued until February of the following year.
Beijing Winter Olympics.
On this day, it was overcast, with light snow falling. According to snow sports enthusiasts, this was perfect weather for skiing.
The snowboard big air event preliminaries began on this day.
Due to the pandemic, the Beijing Winter Olympics wasn’t selling tickets to the public, so on this day, the entire stands became a sea of red –
Before today, no one would have imagined that the freestyle snowboarding event would have such good attendance.
At this moment in the competition venue, people were enthusiastically waving small national flags…
“Three hundred million people on ice and snow” had finally been achieved after countless pioneers in the ice and snow circle had paved the way.
When it came to skiing, people no longer saw it as a niche, minority entertainment. When certain technical terms or competition rules were mentioned, not everyone was completely baffled anymore…
Snowboarding.
Skiing.
Snowboard.
Bindings.
Goggles.
Ski poles.
Freestyle skiing.
Carving.
Terrain park.
Flatland tricks.
More and more people could talk knowledgeably about these terms and what they represented. Many lifelong homebodies suddenly looked forward to winter, stepping out of their homes, putting on snow goggles, and returning to snow-covered nature.
On this day, familiar languages echoed above the competition venue.
The high-definition big screen above the competition platform displayed the face of the current athlete. The man’s handsome features were unforgettable. On the screen, his ID photo showed a pair of dark eyes calmly gazing at the camera…
His hair was naturally slightly messy.
The light mole on his nose bridge added a cold, ascetic quality.
[Retired, but made a stunning comeback at the X-Games World Extreme Sports event at the end of 2020, the beginning of the 2021 snow season, returning to us with a high profile…]
[In just a year and a half, two snow seasons, he currently ranks 21st in the International Ski Federation points ranking.]
[As snow sports enthusiasts often say, you just need to work hard and leave the rest to time.]
[Let’s welcome our athlete with a warm round of applause.]
[Shan Chong!]
The athlete entrance tunnel slowly opened.
From the shadows, a tall figure in the national team uniform slowly emerged.
Amidst the falling snow, the sea of red national flags, and the thunderous applause, he walked towards the big air event starting platform…
He lowered his goggles, put on his helmet, and gripped the railing as he climbed towards the competition platform step by step.
He had been waiting for this moment for a long time.
Since that year when he was eight, waving the first pair of gloves he had won in a competition and declaring he would become a professional snowboarder, he had missed out on many things, but also gained much –
The hardships that hadn’t defeated him had ultimately become his most precious treasures.
Today, he had finally achieved his wish and stood here –
It was the yellow soil.
It was the dream competition platform.
It was the hope for Snowboard Big Air to achieve its first medal breakthrough.
It was the Beijing Winter Olympics, and he had finally made it here.