If anyone else were to charge 1500 yuan per person for a one-hour group lesson, most people’s first reaction would likely be: “Go rob a bank instead.” But with Shan Chong, it was different. Not because he was particularly noble or miraculous, but mainly because he usually charged 6000 yuan per hour for private lessons—

Although those who love skiing and seriously study it generally have both time and money, no one’s money grows on trees… So for basic beginner courses, fewer people would seek him out. After all, anyone can teach the basics, and who would want to spend 6000 on something they could learn for 2000, right?

But now that Shan Chong was offering group lessons, it was a different story.

Learning the basics from him was like saying, “I learned the three-step layup from O’Neal (James) (Jordan).” Others hearing this would surely think: Wow! That’s impressive!

Plus, there was a guarantee: if you couldn’t learn it in an hour? Well, you’d get your money back.

It was quite nice.

The advertising effect kicked in just like that.

Within an hour of announcing it, three-time slots per day for three days were almost fully booked.

Shan Chong’s WeChat was flooded with friend requests. Looking at the constantly increasing number of requests, he remained silent for a while before sincerely remarking, “I feel like I’m running a pyramid scheme.”

“1500 is too little!” Beici, standing in the bathroom combing his hair without turning around, said, “You don’t look like you’re running a pyramid scheme. You’re more like a superstar making an adult film debut for his girlfriend.”

Leaning against the bathroom door, waiting for Beici to vacate the toilet, the man directly ignored the latter half of his statement and considered the “1500 is too little” part. After pondering for a while, he concluded, “These three moves are worth this price.”

The park prop box was a long, narrow iron box placed on the ground. It was wide and low, protruding just a few centimeters above the snow surface. It was the first item for beginners in park riding, suitable for those who had mastered basic sliding (able to smoothly change edges on intermediate and advanced slopes).

In the past, if someone wanted to pay a high price to learn this, he would have hesitated to accept, fearing being accused of profiteering—

“You’re talking as if you’re the moral standard of the industry. Didn’t you once teach beginner courses to a few young ladies?”

“…”

The man leaning against the wall remained silent for a few seconds, then lifted his eyelids and asked expressionlessly, “Don’t I charge those who are after my good looks?”

This time it was Beici’s turn to fall silent.

Before he could speak, a loud coughing sound came from the bathroom in the next room, through the wall.

It sounded like someone was trying to cough themselves to death.

Shan Chong slowly straightened up. At the same time, his phone in his pocket started vibrating frantically with WeChat messages. He had been avoiding checking it, but when Beici said, “Your pants are going to vibrate off,” he reluctantly took it out and looked—

[Girl Chirp: I heard everything.]

[Girl Chirp: Let me teach you a life lesson: checking if the bathroom has thin walls before gossiping is a basic rule. If you can’t do that, don’t gossip.]

[Girl Chirp: Thank you very much.]

Shan Chong just sent her a question mark in reply.

[Girl Chirp: I’ve also been after your good looks, thanks for not charging extra.]

[Chong: You were after my good looks when you couldn’t even take off your face guard after ten days of learning to push uphill?]

[Girl Chirp: …Well, some people’s handsomeness shines through their soul.]

[Chong: If you had been this smooth from the first day I met you, I’d have charged you 8000 and still felt it wasn’t worth the trouble.]

[Girl Chirp: …]

There was no response from her side for a while. After two seconds, there was a knock on the door. Shan Chong went to open it, just a crack. The young girl stood outside in her slippers, looking up at him.

Standing inside the door, the man’s face was calm. “Something wrong?”

“Nothing,” she said, “Just wanted to see you.”

Shan Chong was about to close the door when a snow-white arm shot out from outside with a “Wait, wait, wait!” It startled him; if he had been a bit slower to react, the door would have severed her arm in half.

“What are you doing?” the man asked sternly. “Being so reckless, don’t you want your arm?”

Wei Zhi wasn’t afraid of his harshness. She clung to the door with both hands, half her face peeking into the room, sniffing like a small animal out of habit. “Your group classes for tomorrow are all full? Three classes? Thirty people? All full?”

Shan Chong didn’t speak, just lowered his eyes to look at her, indicating she should get to the point.

Wei Zhi stood on her tiptoes, her feet tapping on the hallway carpet. She hesitated, “I have a friend who also wants to come—”

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Shan Chong interrupted her. “It’s so late now.”

Her paws didn’t let go of the door edge. She nodded very calmly, “Well, I just thought of it… Shall I teach you another life lesson?”

“?”

“When someone starts with ‘I have a friend,'” she stared into his eyes, “without exception, 100% of the time, my friend equals me.”

“…”

“…”

One standing outside the door, one inside, the young girl in a white nightgown’s gaze grew increasingly intense. Her “I have a special relationship with the teacher, so I’m using this backdoor” aura grew stronger as if she was prepared to stick to the door and not leave if the man didn’t agree.

Nobody would sleep.

Shan Chong took half a minute to digest her words. Hearing the so-called “my friend equals me” didn’t elicit much reaction from him. After a pause, he asked, “What do you mean? You want to join tomorrow’s park beginner group class?”

“Is that not okay? Didn’t you say as long as basic sliding is mastered, one can do the box,” her face was a bit red. It wasn’t that she hadn’t taken his class before, but now their relationship was delicate. Somehow, the thought of formally listening to his lecture made her a bit nervous. “I can ride intermediate and advanced slopes now.”

“That’s not the issue,” Shan Chong said. “Weren’t you insisting on learning carving and flatland tricks before?”

“Why are you so grudge-holding?”

“It’s good that you know it’s a grudge.” He looked at the young girl impassively. “There’s one spot left in tomorrow afternoon’s class.”

Wei Zhi’s eyes lit up. Before she could say “Yay,” she heard him continue, “Before class starts tomorrow, not counting as lesson time, I’ll take you all up the black run (nickname for advanced slope) to check your basic sliding. You’d better really be able to ride… If you fall, don’t say you know me.”

“Your threat doesn’t make sense. Didn’t I ride well this afternoon?”

“You come up with new mistakes every day, never repeating the same one after a night’s sleep… Who knows what tomorrow will bring?”

Wei Zhi pouted outside the door.

Shan Chong’s gaze swept over her face, changing the subject: “So, 1500 by WeChat or Alipay?”

Wei Zhi was shocked. She slowly widened her eyes, but after he said that, she didn’t have the nerve to say “You’re charging me?” She just said very tactfully, “No discount?”

“Ever heard of ‘business is business’?”

“At least give me a 50% discount.”

“Without rules, there can be no square.”

“Okay, okay, okay, you’re using all your book learning for haggling.” She grumbled as she took out her phone and transferred 1500 yuan to his WeChat. She didn’t forget to complain, “Don’t let half of the bride price you give when you propose to my family later be the skiing lesson fees I paid myself—”

Since this afternoon, she had been saying things like this very naturally. Things about the civil affairs bureau, getting marriage certificates – there was no way she’d blush. It was like the principle of “no one confesses expecting to be rejected” – no one starts a relationship aiming for a breakup.

The Chairman said, dating without the intention of marriage is just playing around.

Shan Chong found it pleasant to hear. With his back to the light, the corners of his lips curved up slightly, and he opened the door a bit more.

She was still clinging to the door.

Caught off guard and losing her balance, she stumbled forward, falling into his arms with a “thud”—

The man had done it on purpose, ready to catch her. The young girl had already bathed and changed into her nightclothes. Now, a sweet and soft white rice ball fell into his arms, her fragrance enveloping him.

One of his hands was originally on her shoulder.

After hesitating for three seconds, it dropped to her waist.

Shan Chong had taught countless female students. Through thick snow gear, he had supported all kinds of waists, which to him was no different from holding onto a tree trunk. His face wouldn’t redden, and his heart wouldn’t race.

Things were a bit different now. The young woman, emboldened by the hotel’s heating, came knocking on his door wearing only a nightgown. Though it reached her ankles and covered her modestly, it was still just a thin layer of fabric.

As a result, the warmth from his palm seemed to penetrate that flimsy barrier, as if it didn’t exist, pressing against her. Her waist was quite fleshy… As his hand pressed down, it felt soft and plump, bringing to mind a rather inappropriate phrase – sensually full-bodied without being excessive. She certainly wasn’t an XS size when it came to dresses.

He pondered these thoughts, his face expressionless.

At that moment, he felt the bundle in his arms squirm restlessly. She silently grasped the pockets of his hoodie, then let go after a few seconds to wrap her snow-white arms around his waist.

With her nose pressed against his solid chest, the young woman nuzzled upwards and asked, “Do I have to pay extra for this too?”

The man stroked her fluffy head and said with a warm, kind smile, “Don’t ask for trouble.”

…

After a brief goodnight, they turned away from each other and returned to their respective rooms.

Shan Chong entered his bathroom while Bei Ci crouched by the door like a pervert, watching the man’s retreating figure. He asked, “That’s it? Just a hug? Have you two decided to keep your relationship purely platonic as master and disciple for eternity?”

The man, in the middle of relieving himself, couldn’t be bothered to respond: “It’s only the first day. Are we rushing through some checklist? Is this Century Matchmaking where you get paid after completing all the steps?”

Bei Ci retorted, “You’ve got plenty of excuses… Didn’t you two kiss before even getting together?”

Shan Chong reflected on that moment. Back then, he had the courage because he had nothing left to lose – and he was also quite drunk.

Before he could defend himself, Bei Ci continued rambling: “Master, are you up for it? If not, go ask Lao Yan. He’s a player, he knows a lot about this stuff.”

The man finished his business, turned on the faucet to wash his hands, and lazily glanced at his disciple outside the bathroom: “Today on the cable car, I switched seats to sit next to her, and she got so scared she scooted half a meter away…”

Recalling this incident still stung his pride a bit.

“She’s just a young girl. Let’s not push it too far. What good would come from pressuring her?”

Bei Ci pursed his lips, unconvinced. He thought to himself, given little Shimei’s behavior, she probably fantasized about going from first base to a home run within a week as if recreating the Book of Genesis…

She was dreaming.

Thinking this, he lost interest in further questioning and climbed into bed, ready for his nightly routine: reading manga.

Opening the pink manga app, he noticed that Azhai had updated again – this author had been updating frequently since their recent breakup. Bei Ci clicked in to take a look.

Then he discovered that this author might have grown up eating Renxing beans because today’s update was both bizarre and amazing. To summarize: the dog guard was dead, but after the author faced a barrage of criticism in the comment section for several days, today’s update saw readers finally discussing the main characters normally…

The esteemed author had brought the dog guard back to life.

How did she resurrect him? Not through some cliché method like the female lead obtaining an elixir for resurrection – that would be too vulgar. No, being at the top of her game, this author had a unique approach, skilled at picking up previously discarded elements as foreshadowing –

For instance, the female lead used the dog guard’s sword as a substitute, erecting it as his tombstone.

In the new chapter, after the dog guard’s death, no one expected his sword to be a divine weapon left by an immortal, capable of distorting time and space. So the dog guard, clutching his sword, went “pop” and time-traveled.

But this wasn’t even the most outrageous part.

The most absurd twist was that after time-traveling, armed with his supreme martial arts skills, he became a ski athlete.

Azhai had opened a new storyline about an ancient character becoming a modern-day ski athlete.

Bei Ci: “…”

Bei Ci: “?”

This plot had gone beyond what could be described as “insane.” Bei Ci now had reasonable doubts about whether this author’s imagination had grown so vast it was starting to leak…

Glancing at the comment section, he saw that everyone was so dumbfounded they were applauding the audacity. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a single negative comment.

Bei Ci’s mind hadn’t reached the point of delirium yet, so he clicked into Azhai’s author’s lounge, intending to scold her and show her what reality looked like…

However, upon entering, he found that she had posted a new update promoting her new story, with quite shameless content –

Text: Starting a new storyline, probably without explicit content for a while 「heart」「heart」「heart」 My treasure is working hard to earn money, so I need to work hard too. Every penny from this story is for our future marriage fund. Passersby, don’t you want to support a young girl’s beautiful dream?

Image: A man wearing a white safety helmet crouched at the edge of a U-shaped pool. He wore a loose hoodie, his expression arrogant. Even through the snowy scenery, one could feel his domineering aura, as if he ruled the world and looked down upon all creatures.

Beside him lay a familiar bright yellow snowboard.

Oh, this author even knew about Burton’s new custom model this year.

Bei Ci made an “Eh” sound, thinking this was quite professional. Just as he was about to share this ridiculous story with the man in the next bed, the words caught in his throat as he suddenly realized why this image looked so familiar.

He fell silent for a few seconds, put down his tablet, picked up his phone, and opened Shan Chong’s short video platform. He revisited the promotional video from that day at the U-shaped pool –

His gaze lingered on the white safety helmet and yellow snowboard.

Bei Ci: “…”

Throwing his phone aside, he picked up the tablet again and switched back to the pink manga app. He randomly found a page with a detailed drawing of the so-called “divine weapon that could distort time and space,” zoomed in on the image to its maximum, and carefully compared the pattern on the sword hilt…

How to put this?

Before today’s update, he had seen this sword hilt before.

But not on some website, but rather in the computer of his newly minted *pure* goodnight-hug-only *shimu.

Bei Ci: “…”

Bei Ci, his face full of confusion, recalled the past when he had passionately followed Shimu’s small yellow manga, marveling at the incredible variety of positions, locations, and even exciting timeframes for the main characters in her works.

…Truly, you can’t judge a book by its cover!

Before yesterday’s irrefutable evidence, if someone had told him that the top-tier author Azhai on that pink manga app was Wei Zhi… he would have sooner believed that he, Bei Ci, had drawn “18 Cultivation Positions in Another World” while sleepwalking.

Bei Ci: “Brother Chong?”

On the next bed, the man was already drowsy. He mumbled an “Mm,” indicating for Bei Ci to spit out whatever he had to say.

Bei Ci: “Got any free storage on your phone? Want me to download some hentai for you to watch?”

Shan Chong: “?”

The man rolled over and asked sincerely, “Are you sick?”

Bei Ci: “…”

It’s not that.

Where should he even begin to explain?

Mainly, he suddenly began to worry that if you’re not well-versed in certain areas, you might very likely be… how to put it…

Looked down upon by that “pure woman” who, according to you, gets startled and jumps half a meter away when you get slightly close to her.