While Backstab was frantically sending question marks to Shan Chong, as if trying to use up all the question marks he could in his lifetime, Shan Chong leaned against the window, lazily looking at his phone.
The light outside wasn’t particularly bright, but reflecting off the snow, it cast a half-lit, half-shadowed glow on the man’s face. Wearing a t-shirt, he had a bit of a magazine model vibe.
Wei Zhi thought of the real Kohaku Uta, hailed as the last beautiful man of the 20th century. His iconic image was of him in a school uniform, hidden by a classroom window, the wind blowing in and lifting the gauze curtain as he lowered his head to read.
Wei Zhi had savored this scene for many years, using it as her standard for measuring “beautiful men.”
That standard might change now.
Only the bedside lamp was on in the room, casting a soft yellow glow that wasn’t too bright.
The rest of the light came from outside. Freezing rain fell steadily, making a pattering sound on the eaves and windows. The room’s heating was ample, not cold at all… Yet the man leaning against the bed asked, “Are you cold?”
She didn’t answer. She was crouching by his feet, looking up at him… So the man lowered his eyes, put down his phone, and closed the window.
Suddenly, the sound of wind from outside was gone.
All that could be heard was the trembling, increasingly warm breath inside the room.
The man had just showered, smelling of pleasant soap – he was grateful for his habit of showering first thing in the morning, so now as the young woman leaned in to sniff him, he relaxed, letting her.
Feeling her soft fingertips press against his lower abdomen, the man’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he chuckled and asked, “What do you smell?”
The young woman ignored him.
Like a small animal, she was exploring her territory, leaving her mark.
What they hadn’t finished last night continued, but this time not under the covers. By the window, with rain pattering outside, inside there was only the man’s heavy, heated breathing…
And the sound of swallowing saliva.
She experimented with various attempts, and he willingly served as her test subject. As long as she didn’t break him, anything was fine – his life was hers now.
Tilting his head back, struggling to maintain control, intense emotions surged in the man’s dark eyes.
She was very attentive to his reactions, occasionally looking up at him. Sometimes their gazes met, and she would release him, softly telling him to turn his head away, not allowing him to watch her-
If he tensed or his abdomen contracted, she would look up, inquiringly asking if she had grazed him with her teeth, noting the difference between theory and practice, admitting she might not be very skilled.
He couldn’t answer.
At most, he would gently press her head down, silently telling her to stop talking so much – if she wanted to write a research report, they could discuss it after they finished-
As his breathing grew increasingly deep and slow.
Wei Zhi was also tired.
By the time the rain outside stopped and large snowflakes began to fall, Shan Chong’s disciple group chat had accumulated [999+] unread messages.
Time passed silently. When a snowflake hit the window and melted into the existing rainwater, forming a droplet that eventually reached its limit and flowed down in a stream-
The man’s chest suddenly tightened, and he reached out to lift the young woman who had been resting her hands on his knees.
She was startled, choking a little, her dark eyes wide with shock as he lifted her! Still dazed, the remaining intense scent spread through the room.
He lifted her, embracing the person who barely reached his shoulder.
His gaze moved down, briefly sweeping over her tightly pressed, moist lips-
There was something inside.
She hadn’t swallowed or spit it out. After a brief moment of eye contact, the young woman suddenly raised her hand, tugged on the man’s ear, stood on tiptoe, and pressed her lips to his.
This was unprecedented. Wei Zhi, mimicking his style, used her tongue to part the man’s lips, returning every drop of what was in her mouth through a deep kiss-
The man initially resisted.
But she held him tightly.
Even as they tumbled onto the bed, he couldn’t push her away. Lying flat, he let her straddle his abdomen, arching her back, one hand fixing his chin as their lips and teeth entangled.
In one deep kiss, they both thoroughly tasted that bit of fluid, until the last drop disappeared down one of their throats…
The man heard the person on top of him laugh, saying in a victorious tone: “Why dodge? It’s yours.”
He had used these words on her before.
Back then, it had made her blush like a cooked shrimp.
He had never met someone more vengeful than her.
…
That day, it snowed for several hours. A thick fog settled on the ski slopes, forcing the closure of several advanced runs at the top of the mountain due to low visibility.
But the snowfall created a good skiing atmosphere, so those who couldn’t practice basic skiing had to find somewhere else to go, resulting in a packed park.
After all, people could take turns on the equipment, regardless of visibility or the risk of collisions.
Backstab was there with his new disciple, who was just learning to jump – a real disciple who didn’t pay for lessons.
This disciple had mastered basic skiing but came from a carving background. When approaching the jump, he instinctively folded his body and carved, crouching as he went up the ramp, nearly taking Backstab’s breath away.
“Your body folds so well, but where’s the space to pull up the board on the ramp? Sure, you can fly flat, but do you want to fly flat forever? No grabbing the board? No tricks? Why bother with jumps then? After 4 PM, you can find natural bumps on the slushy slopes for pure, natural jumps,” shouted the man in the bōsōzoku-style outfit.
As if the thick fog could affect hearing too.
The young disciple was berated to the point of losing his head, trembled, barely able to put on his board.
A bystander, unable to watch anymore, nudged Lao Yan with his elbow and asked if Shan Chong’s students all ended up with his teaching style when they taught others.
Lao Yan lazily raised an eyebrow: “What style?”
The person thought for a moment and said sincerely: “Caustic and ruthless.”
Lao Yan snorted a laugh, just saying “I Freaking use love in my teaching” when he looked up and saw someone carrying a bright yellow snowboard slowly approaching through the thick fog-
The newcomer wore light-colored snow gear, initially hard to see clearly, but the dazzling new Burton park board in his hand was unmistakable – the progenitor of caustic and ruthless had arrived.
As everyone in the park was practicing to the point of sweating, the man finally appeared before lunch, his demeanor relaxed and nonchalant. He didn’t rush to put on his board, casually placing it against the net before turning to Backstab: “I could hear you shouting from outside. Can’t you be more elegant?”
Those two words didn’t exist in Backstab’s dictionary.
He ignored Shan Chong, even seeming a bit gleeful as he turned to his disciple: “Hey! Look who’s here! Come on, fold up, and carve your way up the ramp for your grand-teacher to see. I’m tired of scolding and you’re tired of listening, let’s hear some fresh words, shall we?”
Shan Chong said nothing, lifting his snow goggles and lazily turning his head.
The young grand disciple who had been trying to put on his board suddenly felt uneasy. His hands shook as he struggled to insert the binding, looking up to meet the man’s calm black eyes.
Shan Chong asked: “Switching from carving to park?”
The grand disciple didn’t dare speak.
Shan Chong said in a somewhat indifferent, calm tone: “Having a carving background is good. Change some habits and you’ll progress faster than most.”
The grand disciple froze, staring at him in disbelief while still clutching the binding. Backstab, who had been waiting for the show, gave the same incredulous look.
In this subtle atmosphere, the grand disciple attempted a small jump, still struggling with keeping his center of gravity too low to pull up the board.
Backstab looked at Shan Chong, waiting for him to say something.
Unexpectedly, after watching, the man only commented: “Not bad.”
Backstab’s eyes widened.
Shan Chong: “Don’t lean forward when approaching the ramp, bring your center of gravity back a bit. You’re not aiming for stable high-speed skiing, so why fold down? Don’t get nervous and think about carving… Think about how you cross that long beginner section before the A3 run, you stand up for that, right? Just do the same here.”
Throughout the process, the man remained calm and composed.
When the grand disciple put on his board and approached the ramp again, he didn’t fold as much. At the takeoff point, he had more space to pull up the board, jumping five or six centimeters higher than before.
Shan Chong: “There you go, that’s it.”
Even as the grand disciple bent down to remove his board, he seemed dazed.
Not to mention Backstab beside him, who remembered that he had only heard Shan Chong say these three words when he first landed an fs1080 on the big jump…
At that point, it had been almost a year since he started learning ski jumping from him.
Taking off his gloves, Bei Ci reached out to feel the man’s forehead, but the latter dodged as if he had eyes on the side of his head. He even used the gloves in his hand to swat Bei Ci’s hand away as a warning.
Rubbing the back of his hand where the glove had struck, the senior disciple exclaimed in disbelief, “Who do you think you are?”
Shan Chong picked up the ski, tossed it at his feet, and put one foot in, replying, “Your uncle.”
“Look, I won’t ask how you suddenly appeared, suddenly changed your attitude, suddenly became gentle, suddenly started taking the soft approach like Lao Yan,” Bei Ci said, bewildered. “But wasn’t your leg broken?”
Shan Chong finished putting on his skis, swayed them left and right to warm up his shins, then straightened up and gave him an expressionless look.
Bei Ci: “Huh?”
Shan Chong: “It’s been reattached. Is that not allowed?”
His calm retort carried no trace of hostility.
Bei Ci: “Where’s little junior sister?”
Shan Chong: “She complained about the cold, didn’t want to move, and went back to bed for a nap.”
Bei Ci: “And you just let her sleep?”
Shan Chong gave him a strange glance, then after a moment, emphasized in a slow tone, “What else could I do? Force her to practice?”
It wasn’t a question of whether he could force her or not—
The main issue was that he didn’t sound like he wanted to struggle with it at all.
He was like a well-fed male lion. Even if a wild boar wearing a grass skirt came to dance the samba in front of him with a meerkat, he’d at most raise an eyelid, as gentle as a peace ambassador from the Amazon plains.
…
Wei Zhi slept until after eleven.
Groggily awakened by the alarm, she checked her phone. Her boyfriend had messaged, asking her to meet him at the ski resort restaurant at half past twelve for lunch.
Only then did she slowly crawl out of bed, wash her face, get dressed, put on her shoes, and arrive at the restaurant around noon? She first went to the cake shop, and then to the convenience store.
She bought some band-aids and stood at the checkout counter, staring at the contraceptives on display. After hesitating for a long time, she reached out to take some.
Just as her hand touched them, she suddenly remembered there might be a size issue—
So she stood by the shelf, very seriously measuring with her hands…
As she did so, something else occurred to her, and she raised her hand to touch the corner of her mouth.
The corner of her lips was still red, sore from both friction and stretching.
This morning, she had been whimpering to the man on the cable car, complaining as if seeking praise, until he texted to remind her there were innocent bystanders in the car. Only then did she pout and reluctantly crawl back into his blanket to wrap herself up.
Wei Zhi decisively grabbed three boxes of large size and tossed them into her basket—
If they could use them, great.
If not, well, she could always tease him about it!
Raising her hand, she used the snacks in her basket to cover the pile of contraceptives. The young woman tried her best to look confident and natural as she marched to the checkout counter. However, she ran into Dai Duo, who was standing by the candy shelf.
He had one hand in his pocket and was bending over to look at a box of chocolates. Hearing movement, he turned his head.
Their eyes met—two people who were neither strangers nor close friends yet had once squatted outside a restaurant chatting for over half an hour.
The young man with delicate features noticed the girl not far away. His gaze flickered, and he straightened up lazily, still holding the chocolate. He nodded at her in greeting.
Wei Zhi was about to float past him with her shopping basket when he called out to stop her.
The young woman turned back to look at him, and he asked calmly, “Did Shan Chong end up calling his sister yesterday?”
Wei Zhi: “Hm?”
Dai Duo: “Did he or not?”
Wei Zhi reacted a beat late, saying “Oh” and nodding.
Dai Duo: “So what happened? Did she cry after seeing Shan Chong’s interview content yesterday?”
Wei Zhi thought to herself, “Wasn’t that the reason you used when you called and cursed Shan Chong out? Why are you unsure now?”
Seeing her silence, a hint of mockery flashed across the young man’s beautiful face. He muttered to himself, “How sick, crying over someone like that.” Wei Zhi couldn’t bear to listen anymore: “Are you dating Shan Shan?”
Dai Duo stopped his muttering and gave her a blank look.
“Then why are you so concerned?” Wei Zhi asked. “What does it matter to you if she cries or not? You were shouting so anxiously, even the next room could hear you.”
“I wasn’t shouting.”
“You were.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You were.”
“Anyone who sheds tears for Shan Chong isn’t worth it,” Dai Duo said expressionlessly. “It’s not just Shan Shan.”
Carrying her shopping basket, Wei Zhi was puzzled. Why did this person hate Shan Chong so much? If it were someone else, she might have just rolled her eyes and walked away, but she felt that Dai Duo’s “hatred” had a somewhat different, genuine flavor to it—
So she edged closer.
The two kids huddled together again like they had on the restaurant steps last time. The young woman turned to look at the person beside her and asked, “Can you tell me why you still dislike Shan Chong so much, even though you know exactly why he gave up the big jump?”
Dai Duo turned to look at her, then slowly grabbed a few more boxes of chocolate.
“Cowardice,” he slowly spat out these two syllables.
Wei Zhi stared at the chocolates in his hand and said, “I don’t think so.”
“Because when you came, he was already like this,” Dai Duo said in a flat voice. “You didn’t see those years when the weeds grew wild.”
She turned her head and looked at him, a bit bewildered.
Dai Duo hesitated, then casually took Wei Zhi’s shopping basket from her. The two walked shoulder to shoulder toward the checkout counter. He put down the basket and thought for a moment—
“When he came against the light, weeds grew wild at his feet, but he lit up the dawn in many people’s eyes.”
Dai Duo fell silent for a moment.
“He was probably unaware of this himself, so he was reckless when he destroyed it… He left, so the sun that many were waiting for never rose from the horizon.”
He paused.
“I also stupidly hoped for something, you don’t understand. Sometimes having hope and then losing it is harder to accept than never having hope at all.”
Dai Duo’s words were ambiguous.
Wei Zhi understood.
Yet it seemed she didn’t fully understand.
She was just immersed in some information, suddenly remembering that Dai Duo indeed knew Shan Chong from very, very early on. Now when people cursed Shan Chong, they often included phrases like “even Dai Duo thinks you’re xx”…
And now Dai Duo’s words were a bit too abstract for an athlete to comprehend, the atmosphere melancholic, his expression cold.
Wei Zhi felt a mix of emotions and couldn’t say anything particularly nice, because she knew Dai Duo was right. She hadn’t been involved throughout, so she couldn’t presumptuously comment—
She was lost in thought.
Until a “beep” startled her from her jumbled thoughts. She focused her eyes and saw the young man beside her scanning the chocolates in his hand at the self-checkout machine, then casually picking up the snacks she had put in her shopping basket.
Wei Zhi: “Ah…”
Dai Duo glanced at her, looked away, and muttered, “It’s fine.”
Wei Zhi: “No—”
Dai Duo lifted another pack of snacks, but before he could scan it, he saw several boxes of a new product lying at the bottom of the basket, large-size, fruit-flavored.
Dai Duo: “…”
Expressionless, Dai Duo threw the unscanned snacks back into the shopping bag, checked out in three seconds, and left in another three, quickly departing without looking back.
The artistic and melancholic mood that had been floating in the air a minute ago had now completely vanished.
Wei Zhi: “…”
Wei Zhi raised her hand and scratched her face, thinking that her boyfriend’s image in his former teammate’s (close friend’s) heart seemed to have…
It got a bit worse due to her efforts.
Ugh.
Sorry about that.