Over 900 kilometers away from Chongli, in Shenyang.
Shan Shan lay on her bed, propping herself up with one hand as she watched the entire competition. If anyone could recognize Shan Chong from his very first jump at Shanyoumugate, besides Wang Xin, it would probably only be Shan Shan… She might have even recognized him before Wang Xin did. While Wang Xin relied on recognizing pre-jump habits and edge techniques to identify his wayward student, Shan Shan was different. This was her brother – no matter how well-covered he was, she could recognize him at a glance.
Seeing Shan Chong’s first jump, Shan Shan scrolled through comments about “a purple star descending from the heavens” with an expressionless face. She thought, “Purple my foot. Brother’s gone jumping again. Looks like he’s asking for another scolding.”
While everyone was rushing to Yunding Snow Park, Shan Shan sent a message to Wang Xin, asking if he knew that Shan Chong had gone jumping again, disguised like a thief—
[Wang Xin: You recognized him?]
[Accumulating Virtue and Doing Good: Didn’t you? Was it that difficult?]
[Wang Xin: Dai Duo watched it three times before he recognized him.]
[Accumulating Virtue and Doing Good: Oh.]
[Accumulating Virtue and Doing Good: Well, he’s not very bright. Normally, he didn’t recognize him.]
[Wang Xin: He’s asking when you’re going to accept his friend request. He declined the bank transfer, so it should be back in your account now. He says if you don’t accept his request soon, he’ll report you to the police for online dating fraud, claiming you scammed him out of 300,000 yuan and then blocked him.]
[Accumulating Virtue and Doing Good: ?]
[Accumulating Virtue and Doing Good: I returned it to him! The SF Express courier is a witness! Tell him to stop trying to frame me!]
[Wang Xin: I can’t be bothered to pass messages between you two.]
[Accumulating Virtue and Doing Good: Oh, then what are you busy with?]
[Wang Xin: Driving to the competition venue.]
[Accumulating Virtue and Doing Good: Going to watch Shan Chong compete? If you see my brother, can you pass along a message for me?]
[Wang Xin: What?]
[Accumulating Virtue and Doing Good: Tell him it’s fine if he doesn’t buy me a five-figure MaxMara coat for winter, but he should at least buy me a fur coat. If he doesn’t buy anything, he’s dead meat. I’ll tell Mom.]
[Wang Xin: …]
This exchange took place during Shan Chong’s first jump.
During his second jump, Shan Shan was slightly influenced by the comments. She couldn’t help but feel that her brother seemed a bit spirited… As she watched him adjust his goggles at the starting gate, others saw a display of heroic spirit. To Shan Shan, it was like watching a peacock slowly spreading its tail feathers, showing off.
After Shan Chong’s second jump, Shan Shan began searching across short video platforms for live streams—
Finally, she found one.
The streamer broadcast Shan Chong’s entire third jump.
Shan Shan felt she might have some sort of jinx attribute. The first two jumps she watched were recorded, and he landed as steady as a rock, his posture no different from Olympic gold medalists… But as soon as she watched a live stream, he fell—
Although it wasn’t a serious fall.
Strictly speaking, it was less of a fall and more that his landing angle was off and he lost his balance. He slid out, tumbling face-first across the snow surface. It probably didn’t hurt much.
Shan Shan stared intently at the screen.
The finger that had been tapping her cheek in time with the wall clock’s second hand stopped.
On the phone screen, the surrounding crowd seemed not to notice his fall, frantically shouting “Good!”, “Awesome!”, and something like “2520”. The live streamer’s voice was so hoarse from shouting—
Using what must have been a terrible phone, the image was particularly unclear. Shan Shan could only turn off the phone volume to block out their deafening shouts and squint her nearsighted eyes, straining to make out the small black-and-white dot at the bottom of the jump.
She watched as he lay on the snow for a moment before slowly getting up. The small dot bent over to remove his board.
Seeing him stand up unharmed, Shan Shan’s heart finally descended from her throat.
The fingers resting on her cheek relaxed, then gently tapped it again… It was too scary.
The Big Air jump was truly high.
No wonder Mom was so alarmed at the mere mention of it.
She pondered for a while, then went back to the short video site to watch for a bit. People in the snow sports circle were all lavishing praise on this sudden newcomer. They were so stupid – not a single person recognized that it was Shan Chong.
Shan Shan watched all the videos praising this new star athlete’s incredible performance. It felt like watching a web novel with a god’s eye view. She marveled as they compared this Shanyoumu athlete to Shan Chong, with fans and haters alike elevating one while putting down the other. They even said his posture was far more elegant than Shan Chong’s jumps…
She rolled over on the bed, unable to hold back her laughter.
Shan Shan switched to her alt account and left a comment on the most heated video debate: “Why do you only compare Shanyoumu to Shan Chong? Don’t bully the retired veteran. How about comparing him to Dai Duo?” Someone immediately liked her comment, while another asked if she was just stirring up trouble.
She didn’t care how fierce these people were.
Then a new message popped up in her WeChat—
[Chong: Do I look like a sable to you?]
Shan Shan: “…”
[Accumulating Virtue and Doing Good: You look like an idiot.]
[Chong: Bye.]
[Accumulating Virtue and Doing Good: Didn’t first place get a 30,000 yuan prize? What’s wrong with buying your adorable sister a warm fur coat for winter? What did you jump for then?!]
[Chong: Look at your WeChat name. Are those four characters meant to be ironic?]
[Accumulating Virtue and Doing Good: …]
[Brother is a Cheapskate: Oh.]
[Brother is a Cheapskate: Changed it.]
[Chong: …]
Tossing her phone aside, Shan Shan pushed herself off the bed and settled into her wheelchair. She steadied herself, then opened the door and went out—
In the living room, the head of the household had gone to teach class, while the true matriarch stood by the table making dumplings. Her hair was tied back and covered with a cloth, looking very much like a professional chef in a pastry shop.
Hearing Shan Shan come out, she didn’t look up, skillfully wrapping a dumpling as she spoke: “What are you doing cooped up in your room all day? I called you earlier to help me make dumplings but you didn’t answer. Were you sleeping? Come help, I have extra filling to make some meat dragons later…”
Shan Shan turned to wash her hands, then scooted over.
Her mother tossed her a rolled-out dumpling wrapper. She picked it up and slowly wrapped a dumpling. “Mom.”
“What is it?”
Shan Shan thought for a moment, then said, “Brother went to compete again.”
The middle-aged woman who had been efficiently rolling out dumpling wrappers one after another paused at these words. She looked up, but before she could say anything, Shan Shan showed her a compilation video of Shan Chong’s second and third jumps—
The video was taken by people who, after seeing Shan Chong’s first jump, had their phones ready to film the second jump.
There was no background music, just the raw audio from the snow park – the sound of snowboards cutting across the snow, the cheers of the crowd, and the videographer’s rather uncivilized shouts of “Ahhhh! Holy shit! Holy shit!”…
It was all captured.
Each jump was annotated.
The third jump even emphasized: The world’s first FS Cork 2520, achieved.
The middle-aged woman watched it. She watched it all the way through, unusually not telling Shan Shan to turn it off at first glance. After finishing the video, she withdrew her gaze and silently continued making dumplings, though her rolling pin strokes became a bit heavier than before.
“He didn’t stick the landing on the third jump and tumbled out, rolling like a donkey. So embarrassing,” Shan Shan sighed, speaking in a provocative tone. “But these people are still frantically calling him amazing.”
“How do you know it’s your brother?” her mother asked. “These people are calling him ‘Shanyoumu’. Who’s that?”
“Maybe it’s brother’s new stage name,” Shan Shan said. “But that’s not important. Forget about how much information he revealed in those three jumps – even if he only showed a single strand of hair, I would— Ah, don’t tell me you didn’t recognize him either? What happened to carrying him for ten months? Even Wang Xin recognized him!”
After Shan Shan finished speaking, her mother didn’t respond.
Shan Shan continued wrapping dumplings, glancing at her mother. She switched to a self-talking mode:
“Mom, brother’s being disobedient. Should I help you call and scold him later?”
“We told him not to jump anymore, but he went and competed under a false name. It was just an amateur competition, but he covered up so well, afraid of being recognized… Now those people online think a purple star has descended on snowboard big air, haha.”
“He fell so badly on the third jump, his face is probably scratched. Wasn’t that his only good feature?”
Shan Shan paused, noticing from the corner of her eye that the middle-aged woman beside her had also paused in her dumpling-making. Quickly, her mother seemed to come back to herself, pretending not to care as she brushed the flour off her ring.
Sitting at the table, the young girl hesitated before speaking again:
“But Mom, I haven’t seen brother this happy in a long time.”
Her voice was soft and sweet, seemingly harmless and full of an innocence that adults might struggle to discern as genuine or not.
“Even through the screen, you could feel his energy. He was truly happy.”
…
Chongli.
In the apartment.
When Beici and the others pushed open the door, the man was leaning one hand on the dressing table mirror, using the other to apply medicine to the scrape on his chin—
Shan Shan’s sharp eyes from a thousand miles away were quite accurate. Shan Chong’s final jump had indeed scraped his face when he rolled. He hadn’t noticed how he fell, but by the time he realized it, his chin was stinging with pain.
Not daring to remove his face protection, he waited until after the award ceremony, grabbed the competition trophy, and ran.
He dodged the media’s pursuit.
No one noticed the old BAIC car chugging into the parking lot and then clanking away. The man gripping the steering wheel floored the gas pedal, returning to the apartment by the mountain-top snow park before anyone else…
The trophy was hidden in the spare tire under the carpet in the trunk.
Once inside, he removed his face protection, tossed the borrowed helmet into the wardrobe, took off his knee and chest guards, and stripped off his quick-dry shirt. Everything raging outside had nothing to do with him anymore.
To the apartment, he hadn’t even picked up his phone to look. All social media was discussing him, yet not discussing him.
He had a strange feeling of having pulled off a great heist without being caught. The thrill of this sneaky endeavor was quite remarkable.
—All the wonder lasted until his son-disciple burst through the door.
He turned his head, one hand holding a cotton swab, his gaze lazy as he looked at the flood of people entering: his son-disciple, wayward disciple (Dai Someone), Lao Yan, Wang Xin…
His girlfriend, utterly uncompetitive, was squeezed in last. The room was already full when she finally managed to squeeze in from outside.
Their eyes met, and Shan Chong snorted a laugh: “If we were thrown into the wilderness for survival or Hunger Games, you’d probably be the one to restart the game before even leaving the base.”
Wei Zhi: “…”
Wei Zhi: “I wanted to stop them for you.”
Under the man’s gaze, she faltered, “I couldn’t.”
Shan Chong’s gaze slowly moved from her face to the others in the room. He asked “What’s this about?” as Beici was already sitting down on the bed with his arms crossed.
Lao Yan sat down next to him.
Beici: “Weren’t you sleeping at the hotel?”
Lao Yan: “Sleeping doesn’t usually result in a disfigured chin… Nice, I’m about to become the most handsome man in Chongli.”
Shan Chong: “You already are, the most handsome stray dog in Chongli.”
Lao Yan was at a loss for words. He looked to Beici for help, who took up the baton and stared at the man, asking: “Did you sleepwalk and jump off a building?”
Shan Chong: “Yes, and it hurt a bit.”
“This ‘building’ must have been at least 8 meters high?” Beici said expressionlessly, tapping his foot. “If it wasn’t for your last jump, I wouldn’t have recognized you, Shanyoumu. That 1800 was exactly like our Brother Chong’s—”
At this point, no matter what Beici said, Shan Chong wasn’t surprised at all. After all, he had already seen Wang Xin and Dai Duo. This group had probably been talking about him the whole way back.
Now that Beici was speaking plainly, the man tossed away the cotton swab: “My chin hurts a bit now, and I don’t know if it’ll scar. Thinking about how I could have bitten my tongue off earlier still scares me a bit. I’m not in a great mood… Although I deceived you first, let’s keep things separate. Watch your tone when you speak to me.”
It had been a long time since they’d heard their master speak such a long sentence.
And what’s with this “keeping things separate”? This was all one issue—
They had come to demand an explanation!
How could he be so righteous about it?
Beici was at a loss for words. He looked at Lao Yan, but the player who could handle unreasonable women was clearly at a loss when facing their master’s unreasonable behavior…
Finally, as the two exchanged helpless glances, Wang Xin sat down with them and kicked the man’s shin lightly: “What were you thinking?”
Shan Chong dropped his arrogant air of lecturing disciples and glanced at Wang Xin: “I wasn’t thinking much. If I wanted to make a big scene, would I wear a women’s helmet to the competition?”
“You think you can keep this under wraps after those three jumps? Will the sponsors keep it secret for you?”
“They can,” Shan Chong said casually. “I told Nitro I’d use their gear next time if they keep it secret. I told Burton I’d use Nitro if they don’t keep it secret. I told BC I’d wear Burton if they don’t keep it secret…”
Wang Xin: “…Playing at imperial politics now?”
Shan Chong made a noncommittal sound and said slowly: “It’s just participating in a competition, getting some sponsorships I didn’t have before—”
“Collecting them like stamps?”
“Is it illegal?”
“If the higher-ups find out about this, see you’re in such good form, and invite you back to compete, and you’re ungrateful, then you’ll be breaking the law real quick,” Wang Xin said expressionlessly. “If there’s no applicable law, they’ll make one up just for you. I’ll write it myself.”
Shan Chong dragged a chair over and sat down.
Wei Zhi immediately came over like a little eunuch, her soft fingers cradling the man’s face and turning it left and right. Confirming he only had scrapes on his chin and elbow, she sighed in relief. She grabbed some bandages from nearby and started treating the wound on his elbow…
Shan Chong held out his arm to let his girlfriend bandage it.
He glanced at Wang Xin, thought for a moment, and said: “I haven’t decided what to do next, but one thing is clear… Pass on my message upstairs. Before I make a decision, no one is to go to my home and say anything unnecessary. If you bother my mom, we’re not done here.”
He spoke slowly.
His tone was calm.
But between his words hung an atmosphere of “I’m not joking,” his dark pupils fixed on his old coach, with a hint of mercilessness.
Dai Duo, who had been standing silently against the wall, straightened up. His eyes flickered as if about to say something, but Wang Xin waved a hand to stop him.
Ignoring the threat completely, Wang Xin turned directly to Wei Zhi and said expressionlessly: “Young lady, did you hear that?”
Wei Zhi: “Huh?”
Wang Xin pointed at his wayward disciple’s face: “Mama’s boy. Not marriage material. Run while you can.”