“Help.” With such a request, one felt that daring to utter a single “no” might invite a bolt of heavenly lightning from a clear sky.
Weizhi nodded obediently, then turned to Lu Xin, slightly embarrassed: “Maybe next time.”
Lu Xin didn’t think much of it but was surprised to hear Shan Chong mention a new board from a sponsor. While brand sponsorships for snowboarders weren’t uncommon these days, with several in their club, having one appear in person was still worth a closer look.
Unfortunately, the newcomer was too well-covered to see much. After a brief greeting, Lu Xin slid down, leaving Weizhi with Shan Chong.
The latter watched the newcomer slide for a while until he disappeared from view. Based on his technique, he seemed to have only one or two seasons of experience. His basic form had some issues but was within normal range.
From what Weizhi said, he hadn’t made grandiose claims or taken people to inappropriate places to impress girls, like their club’s previous fool. By fair standards, he seemed to be a decent snowboarder of similar skill level.
Shan Chong pondered but couldn’t find fault. Yet he didn’t want to be fair.
So, with his hands behind his back and a righteous tone, he said unkindly: “Aren’t you afraid of meeting strange people by making friends so casually on the slopes?”
Weizhi had already stood up. Under the man’s intimidating presence, she didn’t dare sit back down. She tilted her head curiously: “What kind of strange people?”
The man pointed at his helmet.
Weizhi misunderstood: “His mind is fine, isn’t it?”
“…I meant his helmet,” he explained helplessly. “Did you notice the sticker? It looks familiar, doesn’t it? It’s the same as the one who put you in a wheelchair last time – Wantong Hall’s sticker. That guy is from Wantong Hall.”
Like an old father, having failed to find fault, he switched to a gentle persuasion mode. He played the “enemy camp” card, hoping she’d recall the fear of being wheelchair-bound and back off.
However, Weizhi was only momentarily surprised, then said: “I didn’t expect Wantong Hall to have good people too.”
Shan Chong: “…”
Weizhi: “What’s wrong?”
Fine.
Good advice falls on deaf ears, doesn’t it?
“Nothing,” the man said expressionlessly, nodding his chin towards the bottom of the mountain. “Go ski. 30km, not a meter less.”
…
Weizhi didn’t even have time for a sip of water before completing 30km by 12:30 PM.
On her last run to the ski equipment hall entrance, she fell to her knees with a “thud,” supporting herself on the ground in an “orz” position, her legs too weak to even stand and remove her board.
She heard the “swish” of a snowboard on the snow behind her, then the man’s shadow enveloped her. A large hand gripped her elbow, lifting her from the ground and removing her board in one smooth motion.
As her boots detached from the bindings, she staggered, her knees shaking. She whimpered twice and leaned against him, boneless.
Feeling a soft bundle fall into his arms, he first steadied her waist, helping her stand. Sensing the weight in his hands still sinking, he finally lost patience: “After a month of skiing, you still need help removing your board? That’s unprecedented… Stand up straight!”
Weizhi steadied herself, holding onto his arm.
But she never let go of his arm after that.
When they reached the cafeteria, Hua Yan and the others had already arrived. Seeing the elbow accessory hanging on the man, they all burst into laughter, sighing at his cruelty for making her ski 30km non-stop.
Amidst the group’s teasing, the man pushed the young woman hanging on him into an empty seat. His face was cold and exasperated: “Have you ever passed the 800-meter run in your PE exams?”
Weizhi took the water Hua Yan handed her, drank a sip, and answered honestly: “No.”
“…” Shan Chong glanced at her. “Isn’t skiing done with your legs? Why are your hands shaking?”
“I don’t know,” she said pitifully. “Maybe it’s low blood sugar.”
Amid another wave of laughter from those around, the man frowned and grabbed candy from the table, shoving it into her hand.
…
Five minutes later.
The strawberry-flavored candy created a small hill in the young woman’s left cheek, then moved to the right as it scraped against her teeth.
Weizhi lowered her head, carefully browsing Shan Chong’s short video platform profile. Compared to Lao Yan’s flashy page updated every two days on average, his profile was as low-key and plain as the man himself—
Over 50,000 followers, the first line of his bio read “CK Club,” followed by a string of brand names without explanation. Whether they were sponsors or something else wasn’t clear; an uninformed viewer might think he’d just listed all snowboarding equipment brands he could find on Baidu.
He posted only two or three updates a month, always with his face and helmet completely covered.
Unlike Lao Yan, who occasionally made tutorial videos on flatland tricks as fan service, his videos had no voiceover or text. They were all just showcases of his techniques on various props.
Each post got several thousand likes, but many comments, mostly asking about technical aspects. He occasionally chose one or two to reply to.
For example—
Fan 1: Ah, it’s God Chong! Why does my tail press always fail halfway?
Shan Chong: Focus.
Fan 2: I can’t grab the board on the big jump, even though I do fine on small jumps!!!!
Shan Chong: Rushing? Fear of heights?
Fan 3: I can’t complete the 180 in a flying squirrel!!!!
Shan Chong: Core, focus, practice on flat ground first.
Fan 4: God Chong, I’m 177cm, 75kg. Is a 160cm wide board okay?
Shan Chong: Yes.
Fan 5: Only one or two video updates a month!!! Where are the new ones!!! Don’t you need to make money???
Shan Chong: Message the brand sponsors to send me new products quickly.
Weizhi: “…”
This was so typical of Shan Chong. How could someone like this have 50,000 followers?
Bei Ci, sitting nearby, saw her confused expression and kindly explained the mystery: “God Chong doesn’t rely on this for work, so he updates very rarely. Look closely at his videos – isn’t each one featuring either unseen snow gear or a new board?”
Weizhi looked at Bei Ci, who shrugged: “The snowboarding vlogger you thought he was is an influencer promoting products.”
Weizhi scrolled down and found a video with over 300,000 likes standing out among the series of videos with just a few thousand. Intrigued, she clicked on it and quickly discovered what made this video different—
It was the parallel giant slalom race between him and Dai Duo at the mountaintop ski resort. The video wasn’t from Lao Yan’s bromance-filled perspective, but from another angle showing the pure competition…
However, a three-second clip of him and Dai Duo without faceguards and goggles before the start was included.
In those three seconds, the man tilted his chin up, his expression arrogant, slowly glancing at the camera. His thin lips seemed to purse impatiently as he raised his hand to pull down his goggles.
A fleeting glimpse.
It sent ripples through countless viewers.
The comments below were no longer asking about technique, but all saying—
[If I’d known all skiers looked like this, I would’ve represented our country in the Winter Olympics next year :)]
[Ahhh! Oh my god! Oh my god!!!]
[Newbie here, is this a behind-the-scenes clip from some drama?]
[Give me a minute to get your contact info. Don’t play hard to get.]
[I’m going to learn skiing now!!!! Are these two famous? Which resort do they frequent in winter and which Sunac resort in summer? Do they offer lessons? Give us details!!!]
[Sometimes, vivid videos of people in the snow sports circle are indeed more effective than cold, official documents promoting winter sports… This video was shot at Zhangjiakou Chongli Mountain Top Resort, I’ve been there and recognized it. Let’s go, sisters.]
Human joys and sorrows are often so universal—
Knowing she wasn’t the only one drawn into the skiing world because of the handsome guys on the slopes made her feel better.
Weizhi put down her phone with a serene expression.
…
Around 3 PM.
Weizhi, who had been dozing off at the dining table, was woken up, picked up, and carried to the chairlift, then to the slopes, and finally to the park.
In the chairlift, she watched blankly as Shan Chong adjusted the new board from the brand sponsor. It was a new Nitro park board, primarily black with some iridescent accents. The base featured the Nitro brand logo, as usual, presenting an orthodox appearance.
The man lowered his head to adjust the binding angles and such.
An action camera was casually placed on his board.
… Using that thing while flying off a big jump with one hand immobilized seemed a bit excessive.
The park area here was quite large, with medium and small jumps but no big ones. Weizhi was positioned at the bottom of the medium jump, confused, with the action camera that had been beside him now placed in her hands.
“When I go up the ramp, follow me slowly with your board straight,” Shan Chong instructed. “When I reach the takeoff point, film my whole body. When I’m at the highest point, press this button to zoom in and capture the board’s base.”
Weizhi clutched the camera remotely, using this gadget for the first time, utterly confused.
After fiddling with it for a while, feeling she’d figured it out, she handed the action camera back to Shan Chong and bent down to put it on her board.
When she was ready, she reached out for the camera, but he hesitated for a few seconds, saying, “There’s a small downward slope past the jump. When you go there, hold the camera steady and watch your step so you don’t fall… Don’t worry about filming my entire landing; if you miss it, I’ll edit it.”
Weizhi felt like an old lady was nagging endlessly beside her.
She waved her hand impatiently, confident now about sliding straight on gentle slopes. How could she fall? Who did he think she was?
Shan Chong: “…”
Shan Chong: “Did you turn on the stabilization mode?”
Weizhi whipped her head around to look at him: “If you’re not confident, why don’t you do it yourself!”
The man finally fell silent, straightening up and putting on his gloves. The white bandage was hidden by the black fabric as he pulled down the gloves. Weizhi hesitated, “You be careful not to fall… That doctor looked like he’d smash your skull if you dared to show up again.”
This comment made him pause as he adjusted his gloves.
He cast a lazy glance in her direction, full of arrogance and unspoken words. After a pause, he said, “Just an external 1980 spin is enough, what’s there to fall?”
This disdain from a superior made Weizhi’s heart race for a few seconds, his casual words making her ears burn.
Pretending to fiddle with the action camera, she mumbled “Oh, oh” a couple of times, gesturing for him to go ahead.
Then the man glided to the starting point, a few meters away. Weizhi carefully adjusted the action camera angle, muttering to herself: “Angle, check; stabilization mode, on; remote, check…”
She looked down at her board.
“Bindings, check; boots, check; board, good condition, mm-hmm, ready to go.”
She shifted her snowboard, also standing at the edge of the starting point, extending the action camera pole and aiming it in Shan Chong’s direction—
From a distance, she saw the man in black snow gear gesture to her, standing sideways at the starting point, his right shoulder lowered.
Weizhi’s heart raced for a moment as she acted as a first-time photographer.
Then he set off.
The camera steadily aimed in the man’s direction as she gritted her teeth, overcoming her fear of riding straight, barely managing to keep up with his speed—
At the ramp, she carefully raised the pole, trying her best to capture the moment he flew off the jump.
Push off, tighten core, jump, backhand grabbing between the bindings on the board’s front edge, then a smooth external 1980 spin—
Five complete rotations, plus a half, a fluid spin in the air, then his body extended.
The front edge landed first, spraying snow.
Amidst the flying snow, Weizhi couldn’t see clearly, her heart almost bursting from her throat. The next second, she saw the man, slightly lowering his center of gravity, emerging from the white mist on his snowboard!
She strongly resisted the urge to scream.
Observing the snowboard fly over her head up close, she was still in shock. She staggered, caught an edge, and “poof” – fell face-first onto the snow in an H-shape—
Fortunately, the snow was thick, so the fall didn’t hurt much.
As she fell, she still tightly gripped the action camera, her palm sweating.
Stumbling to her feet, she pressed the pause button on the recording.
Shan Chong had already stopped successfully not far away, bending to remove his board and walking towards her. She pursed her lips and muttered to herself: “Damn, that was terrifying.”
She was so afraid he’d fall and break his neck!
Ahhhh!
This was way more horrifying than watching it on TV!!!
She didn’t even care about her pain from falling, just worried he might fall!!!
Returning the action camera to Shan Chong, Weizhi’s throat was still tight with nervousness. As the man opened the camera to check, she stood on tiptoe, tugging at his hand to peek: “Did you get it? Did you get it? How did it turn out!”
Something dangling and shaking endlessly was attached to his wrist.
But the man remained unmoved.
He lowered his eyes to look at the video Weizhi had shot, watching just the first few seconds before noticeably falling silent.
Weizhi got a bit nervous: “What’s wrong? What’s wrong? Did I not film it well? Is it not clear?”
The person being shaken responded with an “Mm,” looking up to give her a deep glance, then closed the action camera.
Weizhi finally stopped shaking him, looking up to ask: “What’s wrong? Did you get it? Is it okay? I really can’t handle doing this again.”
“…” The man paused for a few seconds, then said, “Mm.”
…
That evening.
After showering, Weizhi climbed into bed. With nothing to do, she opened a short video platform to check if the video she’d shot for her “shifu” had been uploaded.
Usually, posts from followed accounts are prioritized, so as soon as she opened the app, she saw—
Herself.
On the camera screen, a young woman in white bib snow pants with her hair in a playful braid hanging over her chest, the hair tie adorned with two cute little strawberries. In the video, she looked seriously through her goggles at the camera, mumbling [Angle, check; stabilization mode, on; remote, check…]
Then she looked down at her board.
Looking up again, she continued muttering—
[Bindings, check; boots, check; snowboard, good condition.]
After a brief pause, she nodded her fluffy head seriously.
[Mm-hmm, ready to go.]
In the video, she first stretched her neck to look into the distance, then as if receiving some signal, she started sliding—
The wind blew her hair back, and she tremblingly reached up to tuck away some stray strands.
At a certain point, the camera angle changed, shifting from filming her face head-on to a slightly different angle. A flash of black appeared in the corner of the blue sky, and then…
The camera angle tilted downward, focusing on her short legs.
The snow pants were too long, bunching up like Michelin tires above her boots, the oversized bib pants swaying with her movements.
—Ah, these snow pants can be thrown away now.
Weizhi thought expressionlessly.
Then came the more horrifying part. In the video, she could be seen straightening her board, crossing the slope, suddenly stopping, executing a smooth back-edge turn, then unhesitatingly catching a front edge and “splat” – flying face-first onto the snow…
Snow dust flew everywhere.
In the blur, the shaky camera holder could be seen getting up, with a muffled voice saying: [Damn, that was terrifying.]
Weizhi: “…”
In the deathly silence, her nostrils flared, and pupils contracted, experiencing a 10.0 magnitude epic earthquake 3000 meters under the sea in her heart.
The video went black, finished playing, then unprecedented white text appeared, with the voice-over of a middle-aged northeastern man from the video editing software: Today, the reason I’m not updating a new video is because I’ve taken on a new discipline.
Weizhi: “…”
An hour after posting, the short video had already received 100,000 likes.
30,000 comments, all with a very consistent tone—
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha I’ve never seen someone fall like this in real life before!
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
Hahahahahahahahahahaha laughing to death!
Hahahahahahahaha help!
Hahahahahahaha laughing till I’m drooling!
Hahahahahahahahahaha, damn!
Weizhi: “………………………”
Weizhi: “…………………”
Weizhi: “…………”
A group message notification popped up at the top of her phone.
[CK, Chong: Updated.]
[CK, Chong: @Girl Ji Disciple]
Weizhi: “…”
[Girl Ji: What disciple, I’m the plaintiff.]