On the way back to the hotel, Wei Zhi finally found something to occupy her mind – she counted on her fingers how long the advanced slopes she could ski were, and how many runs she’d need to complete 30km.
After calculating the two-digit division three times, she concluded that maybe it was better to quit the group. There’s still time to return to Nancheng, get married, and have children.
Not giving up, she couldn’t help but message Hua Yan, asking what the consequences would be for missing or failing to complete the KPI for their usual “team building” activities. However, Hua Yan’s response on WeChat was unexpected:
[Sakura Yan: No one will fail to complete it. Five hours to ski 30km, with enough time in between for a coffee break.]
[Girl Jiji: …]
[Girl Jiji: There’s about to be someone who can’t, like me.]
[Sakura Yan: Huh? That’s certainly a special case. But are you sure Chong-ge included you?]
[Girl Jiji: He added me to the group right before announcing this. If it wasn’t to include me, it could only mean his brain malfunctioned and he suddenly became merciful.]
Merciful?
Being merciful was impossible.
This man was more likely to go crazy than to be merciful.
[Sakura Yan: Then you’re done for. (Praying hands)]
Feeling hopeless, Wei Zhi shoved her phone into her pocket and trudged back to the room with heavy steps. Inside, Jiang Nanfeng was eating from a bowl. She glanced at Wei Zhi, then turned back to her food, saying without looking up, “You look like you’ve aged ten years.”
Wei Zhi was speechless.
She kicked off her snow boots, changed into slippers, and grabbed a spare pair of chopsticks Jiang Nanfeng wasn’t using to tie up her hair. She sat down at her computer, picked up her stylus, and instantly entered work mode.
Thinking about what she needed to draw today, she started sketching. As soon as she thought of Shan Chong’s coffin-like face, she felt quite resentful, so the male lead stopped focusing on his career—
Continuing from the last update, Wei Zhi drew the female lead watching the second male lead, A Mo, practice sword fighting and becoming aroused (not really)… One day at lunch, A Mo came to report, and the female lead was eating. She raised her eyelids slightly and impolitely tapped the edge of her bowl, telling A Mo to sit down and eat with her.
A Mo was just a guard, and although this wasn’t proper, he couldn’t disobey his master’s orders. After a slight hesitation, he sat down with a tense face.
The female lead ordered the servants to bring a new bowl and chopsticks, smiling as she urged A Mo to eat. Seeing him obediently pick up the bowl and chopsticks, silently shoveling rice, she told him to try the dishes. He only dared to take from what was in front of him, even if it was celery, which he didn’t like (the female lead had learned this from other guards). It was truly adorable.
The female lead watched him eat seriously, one hand propped on the table edge. The tabletop was calm, but underneath, things were different…
As A Mo paused in his eating, the female lead had somehow removed her embroidered shoes. Her small, soft foot in cotton socks stepped onto A Mo’s firm calf muscle…
And as her smile deepened, her toes traced a path upwards, feeling his muscles gradually tense and heat up through his guard uniform—
Finally, her foot reached his thigh and lightly pressed down.
A Mo immediately put down his bowl, stood up, and took two steps back with his head lowered.
Seeing his panic like a frightened bird and noticing no reaction in his lower body, the female lead felt truly annoyed and asked directly: [Are you impotent?]
After filling in this powerful line of dialogue, the otaku lady felt satisfied, if nothing else. There was a sense of great revenge being achieved.
Jiang Nanfeng finished eating and sat behind her, hugging a pillow as she watched Wei Zhi draw the update. When the female lead’s foot touched the second male lead’s foot, she sighed, “If the author had this ability, the child in her belly surnamed Chong would probably already have grown limbs…”
When the female lead uttered that vicious line, she fell silent again, then commented: “You’d better pray that God Chong never finds out what you do, and never sees this manga.”
“I’m updating, can you stop babbling like a human bullet screen behind me?” Wei Zhi lay on the desk coloring. Last time she was scolded terribly for updating with 3 pages of black and white drafts, with people asking if the second male lead’s penis didn’t deserve color. This was practically moral blackmail.
Feeling rejected, Jiang Nanfeng pouted and hobbled back to her bed on one hand and one foot. She opened WeChat out of boredom and saw a voice message from Lao Yan. Without thinking, she played it, and the little puppy’s barking filled the room—
[Sister, sister, tomorrow we have team building… Quack! We can’t have class, it’s true this time! If you don’t believe me, ask Wei Zhi!]
Jiang Nanfeng put down her phone and asked the person diligently working on the drawing tablet not far away: “What’s this team building thing?”
Wei Zhi didn’t look up, coldly replying: “I suspect it’s something Shan Chong invented specifically to torment me.”
…
The next morning at seven, Wei Zhi was drowsily awakened by her phone vibrating.
Struggling to grab her phone and look, she saw it was from yesterday’s disciple group chat. Shan Chong had punctually posted a hand gesture for today’s mountaintop check-in, without even demonstrating the gesture himself, just saying—
[ck, Chong: The seventh word of the Nine Word Mantra hand seal.]
No exaggeration, Wei Zhi was completely baffled at that moment.
It was like playing some kind of puzzle game, and she couldn’t believe that not a single person in the group thought to ask what the “Nine Word Mantra hand seal” actually was…
Rubbing her eyes, she silently opened Baidu and searched.
After searching, she found that the so-called Nine Word Mantra was “Lín bīng dǒu zhě jiē zhèn liè zài qián (xíng)” (临兵斗者皆阵列在前（行）) these few characters.
As for the hand seal?
She searched again with a black face for “My Date with a Vampire,” reliving her warm childhood memories and Maggie Cheung’s beauty early in the morning.
Compared with the TVB drama, she seriously studied for ten minutes how to make the hand gesture for the seventh word, and as she was doing it, she suddenly realized what she was doing not sleeping early in the morning…
It was like she had some kind of illness.
With a black face, she crawled out of bed, washed up, and dragged Jiang Nanfeng to the ski slopes—
There were hardly any people at the ski slopes at eight in the morning. Looking up, all she saw were familiar faces of those participating in the team building, each wearing the same confused and sleepy expression…
Wei Zhi felt no sympathy for this: Who told them to be so enthusiastic about replying “1”? If no one had responded to him, he wouldn’t have been able to get everyone up by himself. They were all accomplices!
While grumbling inwardly, she moved towards the ski equipment hall exit. When passing by the lockers, Jiang Nanfeng took an extra turn.
Just as Wei Zhi was about to ask where she was going, at that moment, in the locker area, she saw the only outsider to the team building activity—
Dai Duo, sleepy-eyed, hugging his Mach board by the lockers.
Seeing Jiang Nanfeng approach from afar, he stirred slightly.
Wei Zhi: “…”
It was one thing after another this early morning.
The young girl was truly stunned. She turned to look at Jiang Nanfeng, who ignored her shocked gaze and went forward. Listening to her conversation with Dai Duo, it seemed that after Lao Yan said he was busy yesterday, she immediately invited Dai Duo for a lesson.
And she had successfully gotten him to come out.
It was as if these big shots were really all very free and enjoyed getting up early.
“I won’t be free in a few days, I have to go to Altay for a competition,” Dai Duo habitually took Jiang Nanfeng’s board, holding two boards. His voice still carried the drowsiness of not being fully awake. “Didn’t you make up with Lao Yan?”
Jiang Nanfeng snorted: “Whether I makeup with him or not has nothing to do with whether I ask you for lessons, right?”
Dai Duo thought for a moment, and it did seem that way.
So he didn’t respond.
At this time, Shan Chong had already gone up the mountain. Wei Zhi, hugging her board, followed behind the two, pondering that hopefully Lao Yan had already gone up the mountain to check in and started skiing. Otherwise, if he were to see this scene, today would be—
“Sister?”
As they say, speak of the devil and he shall appear.
Just as Wei Zhi was feeling nervous, this cruel world just had to make her fears come true. Lao Yan’s voice sounded behind them, with a hint of disbelief and disgust, “What’s he doing here?”
“…”
The three people who were about to walk out of the ski equipment hall turned around in unison—
Wei Zhi looked panicked.
Dai Duo was expressionless.
Only Jiang Nanfeng’s smile remained unchanged.
“Good morning, Yan Yan.”
Her voice was so steady, “He’s here to give me a lesson, so early in the morning, it’s really hard on him.”
Then.
The cable car cabin going up the mountain seated Wei Zhi, Jiang Nanfeng, Dai Duo, and Lao Yan.
Wei Zhi swore this was the most damn interesting cable car ride she had ever taken. That almost solidified air… Using a swear word as an adjective couldn’t even do justice to the atmosphere at that time.
…
Reaching the top of the mountain, Wei Zhi was the first to exit the cabin.
So standing in the open area, she could see that when people around saw Jiang Nanfeng and Lao Yan walk out, they all had calm and accustomed expressions…
However, when they saw Dai Duo exit the cabin last, that calmness crumbled at a visible speed.
Wei Zhi: “…”
As her gaze wandered, from the corner of her eye she caught sight of Shan Chong standing in the center of all the advanced slopes—
Amidst a sea of white and the deep green of evergreen trees, the man stood there in all-black ski wear.
He had his head lowered, with his goggles and helmet hanging from his elbow. With broad shoulders and a narrow waist, his black ski boots blended with his snow pants, making him appear tall and slender.
The wind blew his hair slightly messy.
Hugging her board, the young girl, as if finding a lifeline, set her feet in motion to escape the current absurd atmosphere at lightning speed, running towards the man.
At this time, he was holding his phone, checking the check-in status of other ski resort personnel in the group chat. Hearing the young girl huffing and puffing as she ran over, he just slightly raised his eyelids, glanced at her, and quickly lowered his eyes again without emotion, not even speaking.
Standing in front of the man, Wei Zhi said “Good morning” and hurriedly put down her board, trying hard to remember how to make that hand gesture from the TVB drama this morning, awkwardly positioning her fingers…
Despite looking quite intelligent, she had been known for her clumsiness since kindergarten. When she was little, her mom or Jiang Nanfeng would always do her handicraft projects for her. Now, asking her to make a hand seal, her fingers were so inflexible that she almost wanted to bite them and twist them into position one by one—
After she had worked up a sweat and struggled to finish, the man lazily glanced at her and said calmly, “The personnel from the Silk Road Snowfield need to stand in front of me for three seconds at the mountaintop. Just let me see you, and that counts as clocking in.”
Wei Zhi: “…”
Wei Zhi: “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Shan Chong: “How was I supposed to know what you were twisting your hands around for?”
If a forty-meter-long sword could accompany justice, Shan Chong would already be dead.
She squatted down to pick up the board she had just thrown aside, puffed her cheeks in frustration, and declared, “I’m leaving.”
Without waiting for his response, she tried to slip away, but unfortunately, after just a couple of steps, the man reached out and effortlessly pulled her back to his side. He raised his hand, took the safety helmet hanging from her elbow, flipped it over, and placed it on her head.
He gently patted the helmet with his left hand and said, “Go ahead.”
His words were light and airy, yet Wei Zhi felt her face heating up beneath the face guard. She rubbed the spot where he had just patted the helmet and looked at him, who was staring down at her emotionlessly. She let out an “oh”—
“Jiang Nanfeng and the others went to the No. 5 advanced slope. I saw Lao Yan heading over there too,” Shan Chong said. “You should go too; at least someone will keep an eye on you.”
Wei Zhi instinctively asked, “What about you?”
Shan Chong looked at her, fell silent for a moment, and then said expressionlessly, “Aren’t you the one who told me not to ski?”
Wei Zhi was taken aback, and then she felt her ears might start burning too; the face guard probably wouldn’t hide the heat on her cheeks… Before her entire face, even her forehead turned bright red, the man mercifully shifted his gaze away. “Go ahead; I’ll come by later.”
“Are you skiing?”
“Just some basic gliding, not even touching the snow,” Shan Chong replied. “Is that acceptable?”
He looked as if he was genuinely seeking her opinion.
Although she knew that was impossible.
At that moment, she didn’t have time to think too much. She nodded randomly, clutching her snowboard as she fled, and found Jiang Nanfeng at the starting point of the No. 5 advanced slope…
With Lao Yan.
And Dai Duo.
As Jiang Nanfeng bent down to strap on her board, Dai Duo stood nearby, looking somewhat alert from the mountain wind. He lowered his eyes to assign tasks: “For the first run, you’ll practice snowplowing to warm up and get used to it. Once you reach the gentler slope, continue practicing your return to the mountain. Got it?”
Before Jiang Nanfeng could respond, Lao Yan chimed in first, “Return to the mountain? What do you mean by that? Don’t tell me you want her to learn to carve back to the mountain. Dai Duo, are you out of your mind? She just finished learning snowplowing; it hasn’t even been a few days, and you want her to learn carving?”
Dai Duo merely raised an eyebrow, completely ignoring him.
“Teaching requires a solid foundation. No matter how impressive you think high-speed tricks look, the basics are the same. Whether it’s the European or American system or the Japanese and Korean system, no one learns snowplowing on the first day and starts practicing carving the next day… If you teach like this and someone gets hurt, are you responsible?”
As Lao Yan continued to rant about Dai Duo’s teaching methods, the three of them set off simultaneously.
Wei Zhi started a bit later, allowing her to look down from the mountain and see how the three of them descended—
On the wide, machine-packed snow trail, the first wave of powder snow from the morning still lingered. On the smooth, unblemished slope, Jiang Nanfeng confidently switched her edges, doing it with remarkable steadiness.
Behind her, Dai Duo followed, leisurely carving and warming up, and in a good mood, he executed a drivespin 360, kicking up a cloud of snow upon landing.
A few meters away from Dai Duo, almost in sync with him, Lao Yan also effortlessly carved, his gloves brushing against the snow surface. As Dai Duo jumped into a drive spin 360, Lao Yan immediately followed with a back edge jump, executing a drive spin 720, landing perfectly.
It was as if a switch had been flipped, unleashing an extraordinary display—
Next, no matter what Dai Duo did in terms of tricks, Lao Yan followed behind him, unhurriedly performing cleaner and more advanced versions—
Nollie.
Ollie.
Andy.
Mellow.
Owen…
Wei Zhi trailed behind, watching the spectacle, witnessing all the top-tier tricks currently possible in domestic snowboarding.
As the two battled down the slope, Dai Duo was finally splashed with snow from Lao Yan’s snow wall, and he could no longer hold back, asking, “Why are you so relaxed? Aren’t you worried about not completing the 30 km that Shan Chong set for you?”
Lao Yan lazily brushed the snow off his shoulder and replied, “Why should I worry about you? It’s none of your business.”
Dai Duo stepped on his snowboard, unfazed: “I’m not worried about you; I’m just annoyed watching you.”
Lao Yan: “…”
After that, Wei Zhi could no longer hear what they were saying—
Even though the two were showing off on the slope, tearing up the powder snow, their fundamentals were solid, and their speed was impressive…
Jiang Nanfeng switched edges smoothly, maintaining her balance without falling. Thus, the three of them quickly distanced themselves from Wei Zhi.
At this point, they had reached a point where Wei Zhi could see the roof of the snow gear hall. She took out her phone to check the time and decided to sit down and rest for a few minutes.
…
While Wei Zhi rested, she didn’t see anyone else but noticed a familiar figure gliding down the slope—
After watching Dai Duo and Lao Yan carve, she looked at the figure not far away. The way he carved, his body posture, relaxation level, edge angle, and board flipping speed were all quite different.
However, she recognized that gliding posture, so when the figure in the purple hoodie leisurely approached her, she even waved first: “Good morning!”
The figure in the purple hoodie stopped in front of her, lifted his snow goggles, and revealed a bright smile. “You’re out here so early today?”
It was Lu Xin.
Wei Zhi awkwardly smiled and nodded, feeling too embarrassed to admit she was here for team-building—how could she explain that she had come early to train?
“There are quite a few people on the mountain today,” Lu Xin murmured. “It’s strange; usually, when I come up to the advanced slope at this time to warm up, I can catch the first wave of powder snow. But today, I see several people scattered across the slopes, even Ai Wen has someone with him—”
Without needing to ask, she could guess with her toes that it was all thanks to Shan Chong.
Wei Zhi fell silent.
At that moment, she suddenly remembered something and exclaimed, “Oh!” She looked up at her new friend and said, “I might not be able to practice together on the intermediate slope this morning. I have something to take care of, so I’ll probably be on the advanced slope…”
“What about the afternoon?”
Just as Wei Zhi was about to respond, she caught a glimpse of a dark figure appearing from the top of the slope under the sunlight, quickly sliding down the mountain—
As that figure approached, she could see that the man, dressed entirely in black from his face guard to his snow gear, was particularly eye-catching against the white snow.
His snowboard was almost at a 90-degree angle, his left hand sweeping across the snow surface, quickly flipping the board to switch edges without touching the snow. His entire body was as straight as a pole.
With a locked core and hips, he glided with speed and stability, like a textbook example of extreme edge control.
The sound of his snowboard cutting through the snow grew louder as he approached Wei Zhi and Lu Xin. In Lu Xin’s astonished gaze, the man executed a back press and came to a sudden stop, sending up a three-meter-high wall of snow—
Amidst the swirling snow, the man stood firmly beside them.
Shan Chong spotted them from a distance.
The purple hoodie, along with the girl sitting on the side of the slope, looking up and chatting happily with him.
Standing on his snowboard, peering through his goggles, the man calmly looked at Wei Zhi. His thin lips parted slightly behind the face guard, and his voice was a bit cold: “Did I set the 30 km too low? Are you still here chatting with someone?”
Upon hearing this, Wei Zhi’s heart sank. Grabbing the netting beside the slope, she hurriedly stood up. Facing Lu Xin’s confused gaze, she muttered, “My master.”
Lu Xin knew Shan Chong.
However, he usually watched teaching videos focused on tricks, so he wasn’t very familiar with these park experts—at least at that moment, with Shan Chong wearing a face guard, he didn’t recognize him. Clearing his throat, he said to Wei Zhi, “Didn’t you say your master specializes in park tricks? How come he can carve so well too?”
That snow wall was something most people couldn’t create.
Facing her friend’s starry-eyed admiration, Wei Zhi smiled briefly but didn’t answer. Instead, she turned to Shan Chong and said, “I didn’t waste too much time; I just ran into Lu Xin… Oh, he’s the new friend I met on the slope yesterday. I just wanted to say hi and arrange to practice together this afternoon—”
“…”
Shan Chong paused, glanced at Lu Xin, and seeing his bewildered expression, he realized Lu Xin hadn’t recognized him.
The man ignored Lu Xin and turned to Wei Zhi, speaking slowly, “You won’t be free this afternoon.”
“Ah? I won’t be free again?”
The use of “again” was quite telling, and she felt a bit scared.
“The sponsor sent a new board and is eager for a video. My hand hurts, so I can’t use the action camera.” Shan Chong looked at Wei Zhi with a steady gaze, his tone leaving no room for refusal. “You’ll help me film.”
The man suddenly found that occasionally trying to lie didn’t feel so bad—
The snowboard was indeed new; it had just arrived yesterday.
However, the sponsor had sincerely attached a note when sending it: “God Chong, I heard you got injured. No rush on the video! Just record it before the Christmas brand event and post it on the short video platform!”
…It was only mid-December.
“It’s urgent,” he said to the girl. “Will you help your master?”