These snow boots were hard to come by, especially in women’s sizes. Finding a pair of women’s boots in this style was even more challenging. Hua Yan had paid a premium of over 3,000 yuan for hers.
But money wasn’t the issue.
This wasn’t about money.
The main problem was that it affected team unity.
Wei Zhi had never seen anything like this before—
Forcibly taking a new pair of shoes from one girl to sell to another?
If she were Hua Yan, she might already have a knife in her hand.
What made it worse was that Wei Zhi didn’t know what to say in this situation—
Option 1: “This belongs to someone else. Don’t make decisions for others. I can’t accept it.”
How bitchy.
Option 2: “I don’t want them. Give them back to her!”
Still quite bitchy.
Option 3: “Wah, what are you doing? I can’t just take someone else’s things.”
…That would be bitchy beyond belief.
So Wei Zhi, ignoring the man’s illogical reasoning, stood up nervously. She wiped her hands on her pockets and said seriously, “No, she’s been waiting for these shoes for a long time. How can you just take them away? This is robbery.”
Shan Chong didn’t understand her logic about “robbery.” He glanced back at Hua Yan, then turned to the young girl, frowning as he emphasized, “We’re going to pay for them.”
After spending so much time in the snow gear store unable to choose a suitable pair from so many brands, suddenly a pair of Deeluxe boots appeared—stylish, medium stiffness, and the right size. Wasn’t this a godsend?
What was this kid still hesitating about?
Wouldn’t it be better to buy the boots quickly and go home for dinner?
…Was she worried about the price?
That couldn’t be right. She had been eyeing a pair of ski pants earlier that cost nearly 3,000 yuan, looking eager to buy them. Weren’t these snow boots a better value for money than clothes?
Shan Chong said, “Stop dawdling.”
Amidst the man’s growing impatience, Wei Zhi looked desperately at Hua Yan, thinking, “Sister, you’ve seen it all. I’ve been crouching there quietly the whole time, not saying a word. I didn’t have any bad intentions of snatching your shoes! None at all!”
Shan Chong: “?”
Seeing the young girl acting like a mute quail, Shan Chong wasn’t very pleased. “Why are you looking at her? I have several pairs of this brand. I know the sizing situation. If her foot can fit into a size 225, I’ll change my surname to Hua.”
As he spoke, he bent down to pick up the snow boots that had been placed on the ground. He turned and walked to Hua Yan, put down the shoes, and said concisely, “Let’s make a bet.”
Hua Yan looked confused. “Bet on what?”
Shan Chong: “If your foot doesn’t fit, starting tomorrow, I’ll teach you to jump… double 720, right?”
For the women’s 8-meter jump in China, the highest difficulty in this series of moves was currently a double 900.
Hua Yan had been stuck on the double 540 for almost a season and a half, which was why she hadn’t been doing much jumping lately, instead focusing on various rails and boxes…
Hearing this, she immediately sobered up. “I can’t fit into them,” Hua Yan said without hesitation. “I have size 240 feet. These shoes are US size 225, which is strictly 35.5. I couldn’t fit even if I chopped off my toes.”
Shan Chong turned his head and silently gave Wei Zhi a “Did you hear that?” look.
Wei Zhi: “…”
Wei Zhi: “You should at least try them on.”
Hua Yan: “No need to try. I don’t want to chop off my toes or act out ‘Frozen.’ These shoes cost 3,300 yuan, so Alipay or WeChat?”
Wei Zhi: “…Isn’t it ‘Cinderella’?”
Hua Yan: “In the face of a double 720, you could say the pumpkin carriage is from ‘Snow White,’ and it wouldn’t matter! Alipay or WeChat?”
Wei Zhi hesitantly took out her phone. Seeing that she still seemed uncertain, Hua Yan grew anxious, fearing she might lose her chance at the double 720. She quickly said, “These shoes are so beautiful, why are you still hesitating? Even if you’re just pushing on the slope, you’ll be the most stylish… Don’t believe me? Go search on Xiaohongshu. All the pretty girls wear these shoes! They’re trendy! Popular! Durable! I’m offering the lowest price on the internet! This is a bargain!”
Wei Zhi was still worried about forcing her: “You pre-ordered these shoes from the store, right? You’ve been waiting for so long…”
“No, no, I was just thinking of buying them as an investment, keeping them unworn to increase in value, like a financial product. They’re discontinued, so the price will skyrocket—”
“So you’re selling them to me at the original price now?”
“It’s fine,” Hua Yan sincerely grasped Wei Zhi’s hand, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “Who would buy gold when they could buy oil? The double 720 is more valuable! It’s something I haven’t been able to land for a year and a half! Please, do me a favor!”
“…”
In the end, it was almost as if Hua Yan had held Wei Zhi’s hand to complete the QR code payment. She was so eager that she seemed ready to snatch the phone and enter the payment password herself.
Amidst Wei Zhi’s bewilderment and the harmonious, joyful atmosphere of the others, the snow boots suddenly belonged to Wei Zhi.
Accompanied by the “ding” of the cash transfer, Wei Zhi crouched down, picked up the shoes, and examined them. She turned them over, looked again, and felt them—
The shoes were very attractive, and she liked them.
Reluctantly stroking the English letters on the Velcro straps, she carefully put the shoes down and turned to Hua Yan, saying, “Thank you.”
Hua Yan waved her hand dismissively. “No, thank you.”
The two exchanged pleasantries back and forth.
Shan Chong thought for a moment, feeling like he had played matchmaker and the newlyweds had forgotten to thank him, which seemed ungrateful. So he asked, “Doesn’t anyone want to thank me?”
Wei Zhi blinked, about to say something, when Hua Yan beside her suddenly clapped her hands together and bowed deeply to him.
Shan Chong: “No need.”
Shan Chong: “I’m not dead yet, no need for such a grand gesture.”
Hua Yan: “Can’t refuse. A promise is a promise. Double 720 tomorrow? Morning? Afternoon? Or both morning and afternoon?”
Shan Chong was about to say something when Hua Yan added, “By the way, I have a friend from the south who just arrived in Chongli yesterday and wants to take lessons. She asked me to arrange a class with you… I see you’re not busy lately, and she’s come all this way. Why don’t you give her a couple of days of lessons?”
Shan Chong thought for a moment and didn’t refuse. “What’s her level?”
Hua Yan: “She’s jumped a few times, can do a melon (*a basic jump stance, grabbing the board between the heels), and wants to learn lines (*a basic jump stance, adding a frontside to the melon).”
Shan Chong said “Oh” and then “Okay.”
Wei Zhi stood nearby, once again not understanding what they were talking about.
The moment Shan Chong said “Okay,” her eyes brightened. She looked at the man with her clear black and white eyes, seemingly wanting to say something… but after hesitating for three seconds, she raised her hand, silently touched her ear, and then quietly lowered it again.
In the end, she said nothing.
…
Jiang Nanfeng sat on a nearby sofa, one hand supporting her chin, watching Wei Zhi standing between Hua Yan and Shan Chong in the distance, looking up without speaking, appearing excluded from the world and pitiful.
Jiang Nanfeng supported herself on the sofa, intending to stand up and bring her over.
She shouldn’t look so miserable, like an unwanted child.
But just as her bottom left the sofa, her wrist was suddenly gripped by a large hand reaching out from beside her. She paused and turned her head to see Lao Yan smiling at her. “Where are you going?” he asked.
Jiang Nanfeng didn’t speak.
Lao Yan pulled her hand with a bit of force, bringing her back to the sofa. He released her hand and said in a mild tone, “Doesn’t she need to get used to this?”
As he spoke, his usual friendly smile disappeared, and his tone carried a hint of coldness.
“There are hundreds of fellow disciples in the group chat, and not everyone who becomes an apprentice gets the privilege of being personally guided every day,” Lao Yan said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “There’s only one master, and everyone has to take turns.”
“…”
Tapping her fingers on the armrest of the sofa, Jiang Nanfeng looked back at Wei Zhi, who had now gone off by herself to figure out how to put on the shoes.
After some thought, she decided not to go over and settled back into her seat.
“Then it’s better not to become an apprentice,” Jiang Nanfeng said. “Being an apprentice means being stood up. It’s better to just pay for quick results.”
“Even if you pay, it depends on whether he wants to teach. Didn’t you hear earlier? He didn’t ask anything, didn’t ask how long the lesson would be or if the other person accepted his prize. He only asked about their skill level,” Lao Yan paused. “You’re not in the circle, so you don’t know how surprised everyone is that Brother Chong is teaching people to push on slopes now.”
Jiang Nanfeng couldn’t respond to that.
She glanced at her little pitiful one in the distance, who had now put down the shoes and was looking for matching helmets and other gear. At least she wasn’t crouching there secretly crying.
She sighed in relief and changed the subject. “Those shoes are quite nice… It’s good that your master could get them for Jiji. It’s a kind of spiritual compensation.”
At this point, Lao Yan had taken out a pack of cigarettes. During a pause in his movements, he looked up briefly and said, “Do you want a pair? I can help you get them too.”
His tone was casual as if it wasn’t a big deal at all.
Jiang Nanfeng glanced at him. “You make it sound so easy. Weren’t these shoes supposed to be hard to find?”
“Hard to find doesn’t mean impossible,” Lao Yan said. “I’m familiar with the owners of several big snow gear stores in the capital. I have many connections. What can’t I get?”
“Oh,” Jiang Nanfeng said. “Do you have sponsors too?”
Hearing this, Lao Yan’s fingers, which were about to open the cigarette pack, paused. He slightly raised his eyes from the edge of the pack to look at Jiang Nanfeng—the big sister had a casual expression, supporting her head with her hand as she looked at him, seeming a bit surprised.
He pressed his lips together, suddenly letting out a snort of laughter, his boyish charm receding a bit. “Of course.”
Jiang Nanfeng didn’t have time to respond.
“From Zhangjiakou to Changbai Mountain, then to Guangzhou, Chengdu, and Harbin’s three major Sunac resorts, if you randomly grab someone doing freestyle on the slopes and ask if they know who Lao Yan is—”
Jiang Nanfeng raised an eyebrow.
“If even one person says they don’t know, I’ll twist off my head and let you use it as a stool.”
As he said this, apart from undisguised pride, there was also a hint of rebelliousness.
Overall, it was mostly arrogance.
With his eyebrows slightly raised, his demeanor was completely different from the obedient puppy act he had put on in front of Shan Chong earlier.
Jiang Nanfeng was stunned for three seconds, then let out a light laugh, glancing at him casually. “Kid.”
“…”
Lao Yan, with the cigarette butt in his mouth, was taken aback.
He couldn’t remember the last time someone had squinted at him and called him “kid”—
He was popular at school, with junior girls bringing him water during basketball games, calling him “senior”;
During the snow season in Chongli, people in the park usually called him Lao Yan or Brother Yan;
Occasionally, when teaching young women, he was called various names like “little brother,” “coach,” and most often, “master”…
Only the person in front of him, who had been learning from him since the beginner slopes, had started calling him “Yan Yan” at some point, instead of “master” or “coach.”
Now she had switched to a new term: kid.
Narrowing his eyes slightly, the young man’s baby face finally showed a hint of playfulness… The spark between men and women often doesn’t need a complex beginning. He prided himself on accurately receiving the emotions conveyed by the women around him, which should include the woman in front of him now, tilting her head and looking at him with a smile on her lips.
He let out a low chuckle and moved his lips, about to say something.
“—Jiang Nanfeng, come look at these helmets. Which color looks better?”
From a distance, the call of the junior disciple shattered the brief, mysterious atmosphere that had formed in the air.
…
Three minutes later.
Lao Yan leaned against the store’s entrance, smoking in the cold wind.
Inside the store, Wei Zhi dragged Jiang Nanfeng along, buying new gloves, face protection, and a helmet. The store owner was grinning from ear to ear, looking at Shan Chong as if he were the god of wealth.
Finally, when Wei Zhi was choosing a helmet, the store owner tried to recommend professional inner protective gear.
Squatting by the shelf with her bottom sticking out, seriously comparing whether a white helmet looked more fairy-like or a black helmet was more versatile, the young girl waved her hand without turning her head. “No need, I have my little turtle.”
Store owner: “That won’t do! The green turtle isn’t a long-term solution. When you start learning edge changes later, you’ll be falling 360 degrees non-stop. The turtle won’t protect you. You’ll need innerwear.”
Wei Zhi thought for a moment, put down the helmet, tilted her head, and said without hesitation, “That’s true. Mine is already broken from sitting on it.”
The young girl spoke softly and slowly, but her words were unexpectedly violent: “I can break a turtle butt pad with one sit.”
The store owner was stunned, pondering that although cartoon butt pads weren’t of great quality, there weren’t many people these days who could break them just by sitting…
He slapped his thigh, wondering why he was even thinking about this. He was about to seize the opportunity to talk about how unprofessional and unattractive the green turtle was when he heard the young girl change the subject, saying leisurely, “But I still like my little turtle.”
Store owner: “How’s that? Is the turtle shape cute or something?”
“No,” Wei Zhi handed the black helmet to the owner, pointing to indicate she wanted that one while saying languidly, “The little turtle was given to me by my master.”
The store owner’s first reaction was, “Master? What’s that?”
After three seconds, he realized something and turned his head to look at Shan Chong with a bewildered and absurd expression—
The latter calmly returned his gaze with an expressionless face.
Wei Zhi: “Even after the little turtle was broken from sitting, master fixed it for me.”
The store owner’s eyes gradually widened as he faced Shan Chong.
Wei Zhi: “So I won’t change to anything else for now, in case he thinks his hard work was for nothing and gets upset.”
The store owner’s eyes were now as big as brass bells as he faced Shan Chong, and his nostrils were also gradually expanding.
Shan Chong: “Didn’t I tell you before, that turtle was fixed by Lao Yan.”
Wei Zhi: “Oh.”
Shan Chong: “And I’ve never thrown a tantrum.”
The store owner, having finished expanding his nostrils and with nothing else to expand, let out a sharp intake of breath.
It was quite impolite.
So in the next second, Shan Chong unhesitatingly turned and went outside to smoke with Lao Yan.
As the door closed, Wei Zhi turned her head and silently looked at the store owner: See, he’s throwing a tantrum.
Store owner: I see, I see. Impressive, little sister!
…
This shopping trip down the mountain was thorough.
By the time Wei Zhi and Jiang Nanfeng got into the car with their bags, night had fallen—
It wasn’t that late, just after 5 p.m., right around dinner time.
Sitting in the passenger seat, Wei Zhi looked at the man steadily wearing his mask and, after some thought, asked somewhat abruptly, “Weren’t you smoking earlier? Why are you still wearing a mask?”
“I finished smoking,” the man’s voice carried a hint of the characteristic hoarseness after smoking. “Why do you want to manage everything?”
The sentence wasn’t polite.
But the tone wasn’t too harsh.
Wei Zhi wasn’t offended by his words, but after hearing this, she stopped talking.
She stared at him for a while, then suddenly took out her phone and said, “Let me treat you all to dinner. You’ve been so kind to come down the mountain with us— How about copper pot mutton hot pot? There’s a famous place nearby… Or would you prefer something else?”
Her tone suggested she was discussing with the two in the back seat.
But the atmosphere in the car was off.
Shan Chong turned his head and looked at her for a while without speaking. His black eyes were particularly bright in the night, unfathomable. After a long time, he finally asked, “What’s wrong?”
Under the current oppressive atmosphere, the two in the back seat simply refused to speak.
Wei Zhi put down her phone, her eyes above the mask curving into a smile. “What do you mean ‘what’s wrong’? If you don’t want mutton, we can have something else.”
“I’m asking what’s wrong with you.”
“Nothing’s wrong.”
Her smile was very sweet.
But there was killing intent.
It’s difficult for anyone to easily escape such a terrifying, oppressive atmosphere, but the man didn’t have much of a reaction. His gaze swept lightly over her crescent-moon eyes, his expression normal.
He just tapped his fingers on the steering wheel.
“Tomorrow, you’ll ski on your own,” he said in a flat voice. “You heard earlier, after teaching Hua Hua, I have lessons. I might be busy all day.”
As soon as he spoke, the young girl’s curved eyebrows and eyes froze for a few seconds. She probably couldn’t keep up the act anymore, and that smiling expression suddenly vanished without a trace.
Her clear black and white eyes almost froze in their sockets. Unable to continue pretending, she looked emotionless.
“I have a question for you.”
“Ask.”
“I was there today, and you’ve been teaching me these past few days…” Wei Zhi pinched the seatbelt, not knowing how to express her current confused emotions. “So why didn’t you ask if I wanted to book lessons before agreeing to teach someone else?”
She finally asked the question that had been bothering her, as if she couldn’t hold it in any longer… She had indeed been holding it in for a long time, almost to the point of exploding.
Moreover.
It was better when she didn’t speak.
Once she opened her mouth, she couldn’t quite control her emotions.
Fortunately, it was dark in the car, so no one could see her eyes starting to heat up, unable to hold back.
But her voice became low and hoarse, very suppressed.
This was undisguisable.
After she asked, Lao Yan’s hand in the back of the car silently moved to the door handle, ready to escape at any moment, only to be roughly pulled back by the silent Jiang Nanfeng.
Shan Chong didn’t respond for a long time.
His throat felt a bit dry. Seeing her like this, he also started to feel irritated—actually, there were a hundred reasons to lecture her about not being so stubborn, that even if it were any other skier, they couldn’t have someone accompanying them on the mountain every day…
It was normal for a master to teach for one day, then have the students practice the lesson content for a day or two on their own, learning and improving before coming back.
Something everyone else could do…
Why couldn’t she do it?
But as the words came to his lips, he couldn’t say them.
He lowered the window, letting the cool breeze carrying the scent of ice and snow enter. The man’s slightly cold voice sounded in the car: “What lessons are you talking about buying? Do you know how much I charge per lesson?”
Wei Zhi pressed her lips together.
“How much do you want me to charge you per lesson, hm?”
The man’s low, nasal question entered her ears.
Hearing that his tone was also a bit off, Wei Zhi became a bit timid. After thinking for a moment, she could only lower her head and sit back in her original position, saying pitifully, “Oh.”
Shan Chong resisted the urge to sigh and withdrew his gaze.
He lowered his head to start the car: “Tonight I’ll find you a reliable tutorial video on front edge C-turns and send it to you. Tomorrow, you can practice on the intermediate C-slope on your own—”
“No need.”
Amidst the roar of the car’s engine starting, the man moved his hand from the gear shift and glanced at the passenger seat. He didn’t speak, but the questioning atmosphere was palpable.
“Tomorrow I’m going to play at a different ski resort,” Wei Zhi said. “It’s boring always staying at the top resort.”
As she said this, her gaze was fixed straight ahead—
As if a few flowers had suddenly bloomed on that dirty, sandy windshield.
Half of her face was hidden in shadow. Perhaps she hadn’t noticed herself, but in those usually wet, round eyes that resembled a small animal’s, there was an inadvertent display of defiance and stubbornness.
But these emotions were natural and not outwardly expressed. They were forcibly held back, which instead made people feel…
Not annoying.
It was clear that she was now a bit temperamental and sulking.
…Spoiled.
Not wanting to argue with her, Shan Chong also didn’t plan to indulge her.
In response to her talking back, he simply advised her not to randomly go on advanced slopes at unfamiliar ski resorts, then stepped on the gas and drove off.
That night, everyone ended up eating instant noodles.
This is how Jiang Nanfeng summarized it: Forget about copper pot mutton hot pot. With that atmosphere, you could have thrown the big shot into the copper pot and refined him like mutton.