The ski resort owner was quite sentimental, possibly even a romantic straight man. The restaurant’s ceiling was designed as a glass dome, allowing the afternoon sun to shine through, creating a warm and lazy atmosphere.
After loosening the ski boot bindings and changing into comfortable everyday shoes, having eaten and drunk their fill, people relaxed completely. They became like boneless lazy cats, sprawled across the dining tables, not wanting to move a single hair.
Wei Zhi yawned repeatedly, her fingertips rubbing away the tears that squeezed out from the corners of her eyes.
Jiang Nanfeng yawned in response.
Across from them, Wen Sheng lifted his eyelids to glance at her: “Are you still going this afternoon?”
“Of course,” Jiang Nanfeng said, “The front edge is a bit difficult. Lao Yan said it might be due to the slope and snow quality of the trail we practiced on this morning. We’ll try a different trail this afternoon…”
Front edge push-off was one of the “basic moves” to learn after mastering the back edge falling leaf. It was essentially the same as the back edge push-off, except that instead of facing downhill, you face uphill and slide down using the board’s front edge.
Wei Zhi hadn’t reached this level yet; she hadn’t even mastered the back edge falling leaf.
She supported her sore neck and mocked: “Working so hard, are you rushing to participate in next year’s Winter Olympics?”
“Not really,” Jiang Nanfeng was completely unfazed by the mockery. She pursed her lips around the drink straw, carefully leaving a few teeth marks on it. “The front edge push is really fun, you’ll know when you learn it.”
“Facing away from the mountain, unable to see anything behind you, it sounds terrifying,” Wei Zhi naively thought they were discussing skiing techniques. “What’s fun about it?”
“The fun part is that when you feel scared, the coach will also think you’re scared.”
“What? Are you speaking in tongue twisters now?”
“When the coach thinks you’re scared, he’ll give you a sense of security.”
“What?”
“He’ll hold your hand to teach you how to push off, never letting go. And unlike the back edge push, if you fall during a front edge push, you’ll fall forward, right into his arms.” Jiang Nanfeng emphasized, “Lao Yan smells like soap, maybe he just took a shower this morning.”
“Huh?”
“Soap scent,” Jiang Nanfeng said with a serious face, “It’s very innocent.”
“…”
Wei Zhi was silent for three seconds, unfortunately developing a mental image: the female player falling delicately and affectedly into the male player’s arms, the male player opening his arms to catch her, the two of them rolling together on the ski slope, as joyful and beautiful as a Disney animated film…
“Shameless,” she judged fairly.
“You’re just jealous.”
“What am I jealous of?!”
“Your coach didn’t hold your hand to teach you push-offs, right?”
“He did hold… No! Who wants to hold hands with him for push-offs!”
“You could try it once. From what I can see, your coach is quite handsome, and Lao Yan says he’s a big shot in the park.”
“What big shot? Have you ever seen someone grabbed by the neck and forced to give their WeChat? Now you have, that’s me! He must be doing poorly in business, that’s why he’s forcing people to add him on WeChat. And why is his business so bad? Because he has a nasty mouth!”
“Oh.”
“I won’t hold hands with him for push-offs!”
“…”
Across the table, the young girl’s face was flushed with excitement. As she fluttered her wings, almost jumping onto the table, chirping and chattering, Jiang Nanfeng glanced at her and fell silent…
Her expression was so nonchalant that one might want to flip the table in her face.
…
The lunch break ended amidst the bickering of the plastic sisters.
Pushing the unfinished cake towards Wei Zhi, who had shed a floor full of fluff in her fluttering, Jiang Nanfeng said, “Replenish your energy,” as she picked up her phone. “Don’t overexert yourself.”
The female player went off to meet her pure-hearted player coach.
After arguing her case, Wei Zhi leaned on the table with one hand, panting. Not daring to delay Jiang Nanfeng’s preparation for next year’s Winter Olympics, she quickly finished the cake in a few bites and stood up, saying with a full mouth: “I’m going to the restroom, then I’ll go down to the equipment hall with you…”
“What are you doing this afternoon? Looking for your nasty-mouthed coach?”
“No way! Going back to the hotel to sleep!”
Laughing briefly, the person playing with her phone lazily responded, waving her hand palm inward, indicating for her to get going.
Wei Zhi glared fiercely at the cold top of the female player’s head, then turned and walked towards the restroom—
She didn’t realize until she started moving how tight her thigh muscles were, her legs aching as if they weren’t her own.
Fortunately, the restroom was very clean, with a reassuring smell of disinfectant. Wei Zhi slowly squatted down, holding onto the door, then slowly stood up again, her movements as stiff as a robot.
A broken robot, at that.
As she limped out of the bathroom, she was still secretly relieved that no one had seen her, otherwise they would surely be laughing at the newbie in their hearts…
She looked up and saw someone sitting in the smoking area next to the bathroom.
Wei Zhi: “…”
Not far away, the person was sitting relaxed on a bench, leaning against a table.
He was wearing a black sweater, head lowered, staring blankly at a corner of the smoking area with an expressionless face… A cigarette flickered between his fingers, white smoke curling upwards, almost burned to the end.
Seeming to hear movement, he looked up—
And met Wei Zhi’s gaze.
So Wei Zhi got a clear view of his face.
Single eyelids.
His eyes appeared dark due to the backlighting, and his facial features were sharp and clear. He was squinting slightly, giving off an aloof, unapproachable air.
The corners of his thin lips naturally curved upwards.
A high, straight nose…
With a light-colored mole on the bridge.
A light-colored mole.
Wei Zhi, leaning against the wall, was instantly shocked into a jpg format—
The situation was this:
She had imagined a million correct ways to encounter William Chan at the ski resort…
But she had never imagined that the person she would ultimately meet at the ski resort wasn’t William Chan, but Hakubara Takashi.
The 2.0 Chinese version.
— It was that person.
— It was the person she had seen on TV.
That handsome man who could have mixed in the entertainment industry on looks alone, but instead chose to fly on skis – the former national athlete.
Big brother.
Big shot.
Master.
The master was currently slacking off in the smoking area.
Looking up to see a newbie who had practiced push-offs to the point of trembling legs and leaning against the wall.
How awkward could this situation be?
“…”
Wei Zhi blinked, feeling a bit at a loss. She reflexively gave a stiff smile to the man silently staring at her—
As her lips twitched, she suddenly remembered something and raised her hand to touch the mask still securely on her face…
She secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Then quickly adjusting her emotions, relying on the fact that no one could recognize anyone with masks on, she fixed her gaze on the calm brow of the man not far away, nodding at him in a friendly and elegant manner.
The other party blinked.
Forcing herself to look away, Wei Zhi leaned on the sink, pretending to be calm as she reached out to turn on the faucet.
… It seemed even God was against her.
The moment the faucet was turned on, a strong stream of water “whooshed” out, spraying Wei Zhi’s face with extremely aggressive force—
She was completely stunned.
Standing by the sink, watching the water spray in all directions from the joint between the faucet and the pipe, her mind was full of question marks and exclamation points. For a moment, she even forgot to reach out and turn off the water.
She raised both hands high, like a panda cub at the Sichuan Panda Base waiting for the keeper to feed it milk.
Cold water dripped from her hairtips, her mind blank.
Until the faint smell of tobacco approached from nearby.
“This faucet is broken.”
The chaos of the spraying water muffled the man’s low, magnetic voice. A large hand reached out from behind, quickly turning off the faucet.
The water droplets splashing on her mask, nose bridge, and eyes suddenly stopped. In her confusion, Wei Zhi didn’t even hear clearly what the person behind her was saying. She raised her hand to rub her eyes, turned around, and saw the much taller man standing behind her…
In their brief eye contact at close range, he was even more pleasing to the eye than she had imagined. Wei Zhi blinked hard, trying to find even a single visible pore on that fair face—
And so.
The person standing within arm’s reach saw a trembling water droplet fall from the curled eyelashes of the young girl in front of him.
“…”
The tip of his suspended index finger twitched involuntarily, slightly curling.
A few seconds later, it relaxed, his hand naturally falling.
After turning off the faucet, he straightened up, averting his gaze. He felt in his trouser pocket, only finding a lens cloth for cleaning snow goggles under a pack of cigarettes…
He hesitated for two seconds.
He handed the lens cloth to Wei Zhi, whose face was covered in water.
“…Thank you.”
In the moment of inadvertent contact, Wei Zhi accidentally felt a hint of warmth transmitted from the other’s fingertips.
She gripped the lens cloth tightly, hastily wiping the water from her face.
When the water was completely gone from her face, she regained a tiny bit of her thinking ability. She looked down at the crumpled lens cloth in her hand, now stained with water in dark and light patches…
She felt too embarrassed to return it directly.
“Thank you,” she said piously and politely, “The lens cloth…”
It was just a lens cloth.
The other party didn’t say anything, seeming to wave his hand dismissively.
Thinking he found it disgusting, Wei Zhi panicked.
“I… thank you, I didn’t know that faucet was broken, and you happened to be here, I’ll wash the lens cloth clean! I won’t just return it to you like this, don’t be disgusted! Did your cigarette go out? Oh, it’s already finished. Thank you, thank you, I’m sorry—”
Wei Zhi stammered, swallowing hard, and by the end, even she wanted to cry at her confused logic.
The other party didn’t respond, just calmly looking down at her.
That calm gaze made her embarrassment climb like a monkey up a tree.
Behind her wet mask, she could feel her cheeks rapidly heating up.
Gripping the small piece of cloth tightly in her hand, her fingertips rubbing hard on the soft fabric, she closed her eyes briefly, then quickly opened them, glancing at the man standing in front of her, looking down at her.
“So, to return the lens cloth, could I get your contact information?”
It was a brave question as if facing certain death.
………………………
However, there was no response for a long time.
… It’s over.
He must think she’s trying to hit on him.
Using the clumsy method of spraying water on her face to hit on him.
Hitting on him, hitting on him, hitting on him.
In her mind, a small universe exploded prehistorically, a creature on a pink planet completed one evolution, and then completed an instantaneous extinction into dust.
Lifting her heavy head, Wei Zhi moved her lips, thinking she could still salvage the situation a little, about to explain that she wasn’t trying to use this low-level, self-destructive method to trick him into giving her his contact information—
Suddenly, she noticed something odd about his expression.
The man in front of her was looking at her with those pitch-black eyes.
One eyebrow slightly raised, his thin lips curled into a sufficiently sarcastic arc.
He looked somewhat intrigued, yet also a bit absurd.
Wei Zhi: “?”
What’s wrong?
What kind of expression is this?
Did spring flowers bloom on her face after being watered?
Huh?
… What does this mean?