Half an hour later, before the first round of competition had even finished, a rumor was spreading across all social media platforms and informal snow enthusiast groups in the snow circle:
Holy crap, a snowboarding god appeared in the multi-brand amateur skiing competition today on the big air jump…
A transcendent being.
In an instant, Shan Chong’s backside triple cork 1800 melon grab became powerful evidence, with video clips spreading everywhere. Some angles were from the stands, where you could hear the audience cheering as if it were a Jay Chou concert.
The person recording was shouting frantically, “That’s amazing! That’s truly amazing!”
Prompted by this video’s promotion, those big shots originally scattered across other ski resorts, who couldn’t be bothered to come to watch an amateur competition, floored their accelerators and rushed up the mountain. Thousands of people swarmed Genting Snow Park, with the ticket booth staff never having seen such a scene.
The ticket seller at the neighboring mountaintop resort sighed, saying, “I’ve seen it before.”
The last time there was such a grand scene was when Dai Duo and Shan Chong had a falling out on the advanced slope, agreeing to a parallel giant slalom showdown between park masters at the mountaintop resort, giving this ski season another memorable talking point…
Even now, people still enthusiastically discuss how Shan Chong, if he didn’t do jumps, could consider putting on hard boots to do parallel giant slalom. With a year or two of practice, he might even have a place in next year’s Winter Olympics.
But let’s set that aside for now.
At this moment, in Genting Snow Park’s terrain park, the stands around the competition area were nearly twice as full as when the competition began. Every latecomer who looked up at the scoreboard, seeing the far-leading 92.4 points at the top, seven or eight points ahead of second place, would start with an expletive before offering a polite greeting.
Most of the spectators were still Chinese.
Wei Zhi perked up her ears, listening to everyone discussing who this sudden newcomer might be, while also chatting with her boyfriend.
[Little Chirp: The stands here are going crazy. Everyone’s trying to guess who the Mountain Wood contestant is.]
[Little Chirp: Do you have some kind of show-off attribute in competitions?]
[Chong: I saw the guy before me add a mute grab. If I didn’t add something, wouldn’t I be losing?]
[Little Chirp: …]
[Little Chirp: Didn’t you confidently say you’d dominate earlier? Which part are you losing?]
[Chong: The aura.]
[Little Chirp: ?]
[Chong: Back then, didn’t you fall for me because of that show-off quality when you watched my videos?]
… Oh.
That’s true.
As Wei Zhi was typing, someone pulled her hoodie from behind.
“Little junior sister.” A young man’s voice, deep in thought, came from behind.
It was Bei Ci.
He had been pondering the Mountain Wood contestant’s moves for a while, finding them increasingly suspicious. Even the final melon grab was one of Shan Chong’s favorite board-showing moves from when he was still young and showy—
As the chief disciple, apart from Dai Duo, he had seen Shan Chong do jumps the most, watching for many years.
So now, he finally couldn’t help but tug on the hoodie of the young girl in front of him. As she leaned back with the pull, he looked at her and asked, “Is Brother Chong sleeping?”
Wei Zhi, holding her phone, was after all a veteran undercover fan. Faced with the possibility of being exposed, she remained unfazed. The person in front of her wasn’t Shan Chong, so what did she have to fear? She blinked and said with a smile, “You don’t believe it?”
“Hmm, how could I not believe it? Back in Altay, he was on his tiptoes watching Dai Duo’s competition. How come he’s not here for a competition right under his nose in Chongli?”
As he asked this, his tone suggested he might have some intelligence. Unfortunately, just as he finished speaking, someone below them attempted a double cork 360 but couldn’t land it and fell.
Wei Zhi glanced lightly at the platform below and raised her chin: “Maybe he thought if this is the general level, the competition wouldn’t be very entertaining… Why don’t you call him and ask where he is and if he’s still sleeping? See if he scolds you?”
Shan Chong did have a bit of a temper when woken up.
Bei Ci hesitated to wake him if he was sleeping.
After a moment’s hesitation, he released Wei Zhi’s hood. She straightened her expression, tugged at her clothes, and sat back down properly. She heard Lao Yan behind her say, “It’s a shame Brother Chong isn’t here to watch. To witness a miracle firsthand… When was the last time a prodigy appeared in the snow circle?”
“When Dai Duo returned to China!” Bei Ci said. “How old was he then? Seventeen? He stunned everyone with a double cork 1080. Wang Xin nearly went crazy, drooling all over. He thought it was Shaun White’s Chinese doppelganger or something!”
Lao Yan chuckled briefly—
It was good that he mainly focused on freestyle. He wasn’t as sour as Bei Ci. If he had been mainly into park riding and suddenly saw an unheard-of genius at a casual competition, he’d be sour too.
As the two conversed, neither noticed that in front of them, their little junior sister was secretly recording and relaying their conversation.
[Little Chirp: They’ve started discussing how the Mountain Wood contestant is like a descending comet.]
[Little Chirp: Just like Dai Duo back then.]
[Chong: ?]
[Chong: I work hard to do a jump and add a trick, and all they say is “like Dai Duo”?]
Hua Yan: “I think he’s a bit like Brother Chong too.”
Lao Yan: “Yeah.”
Bei Ci: “Like a younger Brother Chong.”
Wei Zhi: “…”
You’ve taken all the bamboo shoots on the mountain.
[Little Chirp: Oh, they’re also praising the Mountain Wood contestant for being like “a younger Brother Chong”.]
[Chong: … If they don’t have any better adjectives or comparisons, can they just not speak? Can I give them a big slap?]
Wei Zhi laughed out loud at her phone screen.
By now, almost all contestants had completed their first round. The Mountain Wood contestant topped the leaderboard with 92.4 points, turning the competition into his show.
…
After a short break, as the staff were busy preparing the slope, Bei Ci summoned the courage to call Shan Chong, but there was no answer.
“I still wanted Master to come see this descending comet,” Bei Ci said, very regretfully. “Boo hoo.”
“If you want to see a comet, call Wang Xin,” Lao Yan said, stretching his legs beside him. “Why call Brother Chong to watch?”
Just as he finished speaking, someone sat down next to them. The person wore an orange ski instructor uniform with matching ski pants, faded deep purple snow pants, and grass-green ski boots…
He looked simple and unadorned, with an aura more fatherly than Shan Chong’s father.
Wang Xin also wore a baseball cap. He looked like a small vendor under a bridge asking “Want some porn?” with his hands in his pockets. As he sat down, he didn’t speak at first. When everyone turned to look at him, he asked, “Which one is Shan Chong’s wife?”
As soon as he spoke, the young girl in the white hoodie in front raised her hand like a primary school student in class.
Wang Xin let out an “Oh” and looked at her for a few seconds.
After some thought, he didn’t say much, just told her: “If only you had come earlier.”
This conversation left everyone around them confused, except for Wei Zhi, who understood—
Based solely on Shan Chong’s jump, the old coach had recognized his beloved disciple, the one he still dreamed about with tears in his eyes…
Perhaps from Shan Chong’s edge control frequency approaching the jump to his takeoff on the kicker, every move was what he had taught hands-on years ago, so he recognized it at a glance.
When he said Wei Zhi should have come earlier, he might have meant that if she had appeared earlier, Shan Chong might have taken steps forward sooner—
No matter which way she went, at least it was forward.
Wei Zhi felt like crying.
Afraid of being noticed by those around her, she hastily smiled at the middle-aged man she had never spoken to before. She raised her hand to rub her eyes as they began to sting, then turned away.
Lowering her head, she sent a WeChat message to Shan Chong:
[Little Girl Chirp: Wang Xin is here.]
[Little Girl Chirp: He recognized you.]
After a moment, he replied. His words exuded a calm as still as water:
[Chong: Oh, that’s normal.]
[Chong: He helped me up to the platform on my first day.]
[Chong: It’s like if you wore a wig and heel lifts. Even if you changed your blades on the snow, I’d recognize your head and kick it like a ball.]
[Little Girl Chirp: …]
[Chong: Touched?]
Thanks. Not touched at all now.
Wei Zhi silently put down her phone, refusing to engage further with her boyfriend. The staff quickly prepared the track and jump area, and the second round of competition soon began.
…
The snowboard big air event used a scoring system. The best two out of three jumps were added together, with rankings based on total points.
As the second round began, all eyes were on the competitor with bib number nine, Shan Youmu. No one paid much attention to how the jumpers before him performed.
For instance, the foreigner who scored 82 points in the first round was temporarily in fourth place. The second and third places were both held by Chinese competitors. This result, at least for now, seemed to slap the face of those foreigners who had stood outside the ski resort on the mountainside, grumbling about why the Winter Olympics were being held in Beijing—
Even in this amateur competition, the Chinese were showing their skill. Enthusiasts were jumping with the flair of professionals. What more could be said?
Just rest it.
Amid great anticipation, the ninth competitor, Shan Youmu, appeared again.
This time, his appearance didn’t go unnoticed like before. Previously, people had been chatting idly when he stood at the starting gate. Now they were jumping up and down, cheering.
Shan Youmu had already gained fans.
These fans had probably only ever supported two competitors in their lives—Shan Chong and Shan Youmu.
Who knows what the man standing at the starting gate, fiddling with his safety helmet, was thinking at that moment? He seemed quite calm as he struggled with the helmet’s strap. Perhaps it was too small and uncomfortable.
When he finished adjusting it, he bent down to check the bindings. As he did this, Wei Zhi heard Wang Xin chuckle briefly behind her…
She remembered that Shan Chong indeed had a habit of bending down to adjust his bindings one last time before jumping, almost like a compulsion.
Wang Xin’s laugh was filled with fatherly affection.
On the platform, carrying his coach’s affection, Shan Chong began his second run.
This time, his takeoff was earlier than before.
At the highest point of his jump, under everyone’s gaze, he didn’t settle for a simple rotation to maintain his first-round lead—
He did something else entirely.
The spectators had likely never seen someone so audacious. He didn’t seem to be here to compete but to play.
Perhaps he hadn’t thought about placing.
Or maybe he never doubted he would.
The man jumped and, at the highest point, tucked his body and grabbed his board—
He flipped multiple times, so quickly it seemed to happen in an instant. He pushed off the board, pulled it, and executed a mute grab.
While the audience watched in disbelief, he completed these two sets of moves in the air. With ample distance left to the ground, he released the board, raising his hands slightly in a casual, stylish descent.
The safe distance allowed him to stretch out comfortably in the air. As he landed, his waist bent slightly… his body shook minutely with the snowboard as it hit the snow, then stabilized.
The stands were far from the jump, but due to a moment of stunned silence, people could hear the muffled thud of the man’s snowboard hitting the snow—
“Quad cork 2160 mute.”
The backflip specialist had done it.
He immediately retrieved the name of this move from his mind, muttering to himself. It wasn’t intentional showing off; he was just so shocked that his voice had disappeared, unable to believe his own eyes—
Until he squeezed out a “Holy shit” from his throat, paused, then shouted, “Damn! A quad cork 2160?! Is this something I can casually see sitting here?! Am I watching the Winter Olympics? What kind of amateur competition is this?!”
The senior disciple’s booming voice was in full effect.
As his shout faded, the man who had just landed and was bending to remove his board turned and looked up at the stands—
The entire big air jump echoed with the senior disciple’s cry, complete with reverberations. His voice successfully guided those spectators bewildered by Shan Youmu’s performance toward the correct technical understanding.
The stands erupted from scattered murmurs to thunderous applause.
Standing at the bottom of the jump, basking in the applause, the man looked back at the scoreboard. Seeing the score of 95.42, he unhurriedly collected his board and began climbing back up.
Shan Youmu didn’t disappoint those who had hurried to see him—
They rushed here, feeling they had witnessed the pinnacle of Chinese snowboarding big air.
This was just an amateur competition—
Where it was said that anyone who rotated more than four times would be considered a traitor…
Among them appeared a ringleader of traitors.
On this day, Shan Youmu became famous.
A purple star had fallen from the sky.
No one had heard of him before.
On this day, he suddenly appeared—
The people who usually played in the park looked at each other in bewilderment. Has anyone seen a snowboarder called “Shan Youmu” before?
No one had.
This was truly a purple star, crashing into Earth like a comet. This person had appeared without warning, yet decisively, landing heavily before everyone’s eyes.
Comments on major sponsorship brands’ media platforms exploded, filled with spectator snowboarders urging them to act quickly. What if their “Great Purple Star” felt overwhelmed by too many sponsors and had to be picky—
The first-place prize of 30,000 yuan was no longer anyone’s concern. It didn’t matter who won it.
Major brands truly sprang into action, abandoning their snowboards and rushing as if afraid of falling behind.
Then, after about twenty minutes, the most prestigious brand, Burton—usually considered the top of the sponsorship pyramid by snowboarders—was the first to respond on their platform—
And they posted twice in succession.
First post: Oops.
Second post: We tried to communicate, and we did… Guess what? This Shan Youmu fellow, well, he came here just fine, but now he can’t go back (shrugging.jpg)