The next day marked the beginning of a new year.
While “new year, new outlook” was a common phrase, for Shan Chong, truly waking up to the realization that “this is a new day and a new year” was a first in his twenty-some years of life.
Wang Xin shook him awake.
“Come on, get up. Let’s go sign the paperwork and contracts first.”
On such an auspicious day as New Year’s Day, Shan Chong opened his eyes to see not his soft, sweet girlfriend, but a middle-aged, greasy man facing a receding hairline crisis. He blinked, then closed his eyes again, turning to face the wall in avoidance.
This doesn’t count, he thought. Such an inauspicious start couldn’t be considered the first second of opening his eyes in the new year. It doesn’t count.
Barely three seconds after closing his eyes, his blanket was yanked away. Shan Chong regretted not having the habit of locking his door before sleeping. The man reluctantly opened his eyes and said, “Brother, it’s New Year’s Day. Not only will there be no one to stamp official seals, but even the print shops for contracts will be closed.”
“There are always more solutions than problems,” Wang Xin insisted, tugging at Shan Chong’s sleeve. “Hurry up and get up. What if your mom wakes up and suddenly changes her mind? I don’t feel secure!”
“You don’t feel secure? What’s that got to do with me? Is that something I can give you?” Shan Chong grumbled as he was pulled out of bed, his eyes half-closed with irritation. “My sense of security is for my wife.”
“Your wife is still sleeping, but your coach is suffering from insomnia… I didn’t sleep well all night. I’m afraid if we wake up even a step later than your mom, everything will change.”
Shan Chong, who was in the middle of a yawn and still full of morning grumpiness, paused at these words.
“My mom isn’t the type to change her mind on a whim.”
“She could also change her mind after careful consideration. Her brain is in her head; can we control that?” Wang Xin said. “I just feel like she agreed too casually. There wasn’t any earth-shattering ceremony like kowtowing or crying her eyes out. This coach furrowed his brow and realized things aren’t that simple…”
“Maybe she just came to terms with it.”
“Came to terms with what? That if her only son ends up dead or crippled in the Big Air, she’ll just have another child?”
“…”
Wang Xin pulled up a chair and sat down by the bed, his face serious. “Training isn’t like giving lessons to kids outside. Apart from being on an air cushion or trampoline, think about it—who can guarantee you won’t get hurt? Wasn’t your mom’s previous disagreement because she was afraid you’d get injured? What if she suddenly wants us to sign an agreement guaranteeing you’ll participate in the Beijing Winter Olympics without a scratch? Do you think I should sign that or not?”
He rattled off a long string of words. At first, Shan Chong found him annoying, but after patiently listening to the end, he thought with some confusion: It seems he’s not wrong.
He sat up, left a good morning message for his girlfriend who probably hadn’t woken up yet, and turned to wash up.
By the time he came out, there was already activity outside.
Opening the door, he saw the dining table was full of people, each with a bowl of noodles in front of them, topped with fried eggs and other garnishes…
Shan Shan was slurping her noodles with her head down. Dai Duo tilted his head to look at her. After a while, he reached out to tuck her hair behind her ear, his fingertips brushing her face. She paused, turning to look at him.
“It was falling in,” Dai Duo said.
He withdrew his hand, his face expressionless as he picked up his chopsticks and focused on eating his noodles.
Wang Xin sat with his hands on his knees, staring at the bowl of noodles in front of him as if it were his last meal.
Shan Chong’s mother brought out the last bowl of noodles for Shan Chong and placed it on the table. “What were you two whispering about in the room so early in the morning?” she asked.
…Whispering about how to deal with your potential change of heart?
Shan Chong didn’t want to invite a scolding on New Year’s Day.
He dropped a “You ask him” and buried his head in his food.
Wang Xin, softened by the food, hesitated for a long time, unable to come up with a convincing lie. After some thought, he honestly said, “We were discussing the return to the team. Well, the paperwork needs to be done quickly… You see, even though it’s an extra non-scoring spot, it wouldn’t sound good if we did nothing and just gave the spot to a parachute candidate. So, there are many points competitions to participate in after the new year, and we must attend at least one World Cup. None of these are in China, so we need to go through special channels for visas during this period. Time is tight, and the task is heavy—”
Shan Chong’s mother laughed.
Wang Xin nearly bit his tongue. Although he was a middle-aged man who treated himself like the father of the team’s young members every day, he was still a generation behind their actual parents…
He lowered his head and picked up a noodle.
Shan Chong’s mother sat down. “You’re afraid I’ll change my mind.”
Shan Chong didn’t look up, lifting his bowl to take a sip of soup, decisively selling out his teammate: “He woke me up. I was sleeping just fine. It has nothing to do with me.”
Wang Xin bore all the responsibility alone, sitting there with a deadpan gaze.
Shan Chong’s mother said, “I do regret it quite a bit.”
Shan Chong looked at her over the rim of his bowl. His eyes were quite similar to his mother’s—single eyelids, with pupils a bit deeper than average. So when there wasn’t any particularly gentle emotion in them, they appeared somewhat frozen.
Like a stagnant pond.
The middle-aged woman stirred the noodles in front of her before slowly finishing her sentence: “It seems pointless to talk about regret now. I’m certainly not thrilled about your comeback, but I’m not very happy about you staying at home eagerly waiting to cheer for Xiao Duo next year either…”
She took a bite of noodles.
“So don’t look at me, look at yourself. You’re not so young anymore. You have family and a girlfriend now; it’s not just about you anymore.” She paused, looking at her son. “Be careful and don’t make me regret this.”
Shan Chong held his bowl, silent for a good while.
His mother looked away, changing to a casual tone: “I don’t need to tell you this. If you fall, your little girlfriend will be the first one who won’t let you off… Don’t believe me? Ask her.”
She sounded quite certain.
Perhaps it was the noisy firecrackers outside early in the morning that gave Shan Chong unlimited courage. He picked up his phone and asked Wei Zhi what she would do if he fell again.
The other end had probably just woken up.
A voice message came through with a “whoosh.”
A seven or eight-second voice message didn’t seem like it would contain anything good.
Shan Chong was about to put down his phone when his mother tapped the table with her finger: “Play it out loud. Let me hear if the young lady thinks the same as I do.”
Everyone at the table looked over. Shan Chong’s father sighed, giving an “I can’t save you” look. Wang Xin didn’t dare speak, while the rest waited to see the drama unfold.
Shan Chong pressed play.
Early in the morning, at the dining table, the young girl’s voice, still sleepy and indistinct, rang out—
[Are you sick in the head? It’s New Year’s Day, I just opened my eyes. Don’t force me to curse at you.]
…
Even for a mutual pursuit with all green lights, necessary procedures had to be followed. Contracts, physical examinations, filing, and a series of processes would have to wait until after the seventh day of the New Year to be arranged.
But Shan Chong didn’t have that much time.
With the new year, the X Games Extreme Sports Competition and the Burton U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships—two international events that occupied the top tier for snowboarding—were coming up in March.
Due to the pandemic, many Snow Federation point-related competitions were geographically restricted, and athletes couldn’t participate normally. So with the Winter Olympics just around the corner, these competitions that didn’t usually link to International Ski Federation points in previous years had successively relaxed their policies and opened up channels.
Shan Chong’s visa application had already been submitted.
On the eighth day of the New Year, before the farmer uncles at the market had set up their vegetable stalls, Shan Chong had already returned to Changbai Mountain with his coach.
The training base at Changbai Mountain was closed to the public, exclusively for professional athletes’ training.
Logically, Shan Chong shouldn’t have been eligible to train here as he hadn’t completed the procedures yet. But because he was Shan Chong, when people first saw him, they were a bit surprised and also a bit delighted. Inwardly, they might have had a thousand wild horses galloping, wanting to announce this news to the world, but they restrained themselves very professionally—
Apart from a few close friends and disciples, not many people knew about Shan Chong’s return to the team.
Upon arriving at Changbai Mountain, Wang Xin had already set up a full training schedule, daily routine, and dietary restrictions for him, as a athlete preparing for competition—
He couldn’t eat what he shouldn’t eat.
He couldn’t use medicines he shouldn’t use.
No smoking, no alcohol.
Guarantee six hours of snow training every day, with one day off after six days of work.
Shan Chong had lived like this two or three years ago, so he wasn’t particularly unaccustomed to it. However, he looked at the training schedule and removed the one rest day Wang Xin had squeezed in for him.
Every morning at nine, he would enter the training base. Except for meals and a short noon break, the rest of the time was spent on the snow, leaving the slopes with his snowboard as the sunset.
Just after the thirteenth day of the New Year, while Shan Chong was struggling with the double cork 1980 on the jump, Wei Zhi also arrived at Changbai Mountain.
Because his girlfriend had come, the man who had returned to being a cold snowboarding machine in everyone’s eyes these days finally agreed to sit down properly in the cafeteria for a meal…
As he took off his snow jacket, the smell of plasters and bone pain patches nearly knocked her over.
Sitting in the chair, she reluctantly opened her arms to hug her boyfriend’s waist, perfunctorily pressing her face against his lower abdomen—
His abs had become quite a bit harder.
He also looked thinner.
She pulled her face away.
He lowered his head, sensing her disgust, and with one large hand, pressed her head back, until she went from struggling to giving up, muffled in his embrace saying, “Many people are watching.”
Shan Chong let go, and she raised her hand, lifting his quick-dry shirt to see a large array of patches stuck inside like some strange thing. She was stunned.
“You’re pushing yourself too hard,” Wei Zhi said. “Wang Xin said you’ve been working on the double cork 1980 recently? Can’t sleep soundly if you don’t nail it? Didn’t they say that for next month’s competitions, it’s enough to get some decent, presentable rankings—”
Shan Chong sat down next to her.
He pushed his utensils around the plate a couple of times, tossing the potatoes she liked to her and taking away the celery she disliked. Meanwhile, without looking up, he grunted an “Mm.”
Wei Zhi was about to ask him what he meant by “Mm” when she heard him say, “I don’t know how to write the words ‘somewhat passable.'”
Wei Zhi: “…”
The man picked up a piece of potato with his chopsticks and held it to her lips. “Open up.”
She turned her head and took the potato.
His chopsticks changed direction, satisfied. “Did Wang Xin ask you to come and persuade me?”
“Even if he didn’t ask me to come, I would have come around this time anyway. You didn’t let me spend New Year’s Eve together, so shouldn’t we at least spend the Lantern Festival together?” She hugged his arm. “He just asked me to remind you to balance work and rest.”
She paused. “I think he’s right.”
Shan Chong raised his hand and, in a rather conciliatory manner, pinched her nose.
He had no intention of taking her words to heart.
…
Wei Zhi had rushed to the ski resort right after getting off the plane. After eating, she went back to the hotel to check in, and Shan Chong accompanied her for a one-hour nap.
It was as if there was Yunnan Baiyao in the ski boots. While wearing them, no matter how much tumbling and crawling, one could always get up and continue. But once taken off and lying down, getting up was a different story.
The whole body felt like it was falling apart.
In the first run of the afternoon, Shan Chong almost didn’t make it through a double cork 1440. He barely managed to land and stand, but he bent over and slid for a long stretch, nearly falling.
“Leaning forward is correct, but don’t wave your hands around. Why are you bending over?” Wang Xin followed closely behind him as he went up the platform again, worried. “Your butt is sticking up to the sky.”
Shan Chong bent over, adjusting the bindings without looking up. “The nap made me groggy.”
“So you’re saying taking a nap held you back? Why don’t you just not sleep at night then?” Wang Xin mocked him. “We could file a report for the team, have you train at night. With one light on, you could jump all night. It’s incredibly efficient, I don’t see a problem.”
“Do you have to speak so sarcastically?”
“I learned it from you and Dai Duo… Ah, Dai Duo learned it from you too, right?”
Shan Chong snorted. “All-night practice won’t work. What’s my wife here for then?”
“So you do remember your wife is here.”
As he spoke, Shan Chong leaned on the starting platform and looked out. The young girl, wearing ski boots and standing on her snowboard, was at the side of the platform waving at him. She wasn’t recording; she was just there beside him as he jumped.
Behind the snow goggles, the man’s gaze softened a bit. He raised his hand to adjust his goggles, then stretched his waist before setting off.
The afternoon seemed to have bad feng shui.
As he left the platform, he felt his movements were correct. The first few axis rotations were effortless, but in the last half-turn, he felt himself stall in mid-air—
It was hard to describe exactly what that stall felt like.
When he landed, he was at an angle.
Seeing that his whole body was about to slam sideways onto the snow, out of instinct, he kicked out in mid-air and then reached out a hand to steady himself on the ground.
He heard a “pat” sound, and besides the snow dust kicked up by the snowboard landing, there was also a slight “crack” and a sharp pain from his wrist as his hand touched the ground. He slid a long way with one hand on the ground—
By the time he stopped, his right wrist was throbbing with pain…
He didn’t even have the strength to remove his board.
As waves of hot, pulsing pain came from his wrist, Shan Chong paused, then bent down to remove the board with his left hand and picked it up.
Meanwhile, Wei Zhi came to a sharp stop on her front edge in front of him, kicking up an incredibly high wall of snow. Shan Chong blinked, momentarily forgetting the pain in his wrist, shocked and wondering: When did his girlfriend unlock the snow wall spraying skill?
Before Shan Chong could compliment her, the young girl had already removed her board and rushed over. She wasn’t wearing snow goggles or face protection, and her face was pale—
Stumbling towards him, she screamed, “Shan Chong, damn it, what happened to your hand! Did you hurt it in the fall?”
Shan Chong had never heard his full name followed immediately by a curse from her mouth before.
Stunned by her outburst, he hadn’t yet reacted when the young girl rushed over like a whirlwind, grabbing his elbow to examine his hand—
As soon as she touched it, she heard him hiss and pull away.
She seemed startled.
Her whole body trembled, and she suddenly looked up at him, her round eyes quickly reddening.
Fighting through the pain in his hand, he tried to raise his hand to stroke her hair, but the young girl dodged, not daring to touch him. Instead, she took his hand again, cradling it.
She heard the man’s voice, slightly lowered: “It’s nothing, I’m not in pain… How did you know I hurt my hand?”
“I heard it. Don’t give me that ‘not in pain’ bullshit.” She said from deep in her throat, “Hospital.”
She couldn’t say another word.
The sound of snowboards cutting through snow and the wind on the jump were quite loud, yet she had somehow heard that sound when he landed…
She just knew her legs had gone weak at that moment.
She didn’t even know where he had hurt himself.
Not until she saw him stand up and switch hands to remove his board.
Her mind went completely blank.
…
On the way to the hospital, Wei Zhi didn’t say a word the whole trip, just leaning against Shan Chong as they sat.
Wang Xin, while driving, had plenty to say, constantly berating Shan Chong: “I told you to balance work and rest, damn it, but you just won’t listen,” “Are you going to tell your mom or not?” “I don’t dare, you tell her yourself,” “We haven’t even finished the contract process, I’m afraid she’ll tear up the contract and drag you home, you little brat”…
He cursed the whole way, never repeating himself.
Wei Zhi also wanted to ask Shan Chong if he had planned this to trick her or if her luck was just bad today. How was it that when she wasn’t there, he was fine, but as soon as she stood at the bottom of the platform, his hand was ruined?
They entered the familiar emergency room, registered, paid fees, and took X-rays.
It was the same type of bone fracture as Lao Yan’s. He was hospitalized and had a cast put on.
Fortunately, it wasn’t a complete break.
Wang Xin sat there sighing, muttering, “What you fear comes to pass. We shouldn’t have discussed falling or not falling on New Year’s Day. It’s unlucky.” His mind was full of how to kowtow to Shan Chong’s mother later to ask for another chance.
Shan Chong sat on the stretcher, calling home.
—Why was he sitting?
Earlier, when they entered the hospital, the nurse had originally told him to lie down. The man was about to comply, but when he looked up, and saw the young girl standing half an arm’s length away, looking lost…
He hesitated for three seconds and never lay down.
On the phone, he briefly said he had twisted his hand, not even waiting for a response before hanging up, as if trying to avoid the issue. He beckoned the young girl crouching by his feet to come over, pressed her shoulder with his left hand, and kissed her nose. “Don’t be afraid, I’m fine.”
Which professional park snowboarder doesn’t have an orthopedic sponsor?
His ending up in the hospital wasn’t exactly a low-probability event.
Wei Zhi had been mentally preparing herself for a long time, but when it happened, her mind went blank and she couldn’t speak. She wanted to say, “Your mom was right, why bother jumping, you should just be a skiing enthusiast,” but she held back…
She didn’t dare imagine what would have happened if she had been the one waiting outside the operating room when he injured his back years ago. She might have jumped out the window.
She admitted her psychological resilience was poor.
She raised her hand and slapped the man’s chest, finally squeezing out a tearful “Can’t you be more careful?” before burying herself in his embrace, no longer minding his medicinal smell, holding him tightly.
Shan Chong patted her back, also feeling quite distressed—
Now his head hurt even more than his hand.
Just now on the phone, after he said, “Hurt my hand, at the hospital, nothing serious,” the other end was silent for at least five seconds… He didn’t know if there was a sixth second because he made an excuse and hung up the phone.
So, it was just that bizarre. These days, what you fear is what you get.
On New Year’s Day, Wang Xin’s worries had come true.
Before he had even completed the process of rejoining the team, he had already gotten into trouble. This time, he didn’t know how his family would view it…
It was like an already cracked, fragile glass falling to the ground again.
Shattering was inevitable…
No one knew if this would be the last straw that broke the camel’s back.