As is well known, surprise visits to a boyfriend usually result in either delight or shock.
…
Inside the snow park.
Near the park features.
Shan Chong was hugged by Wei Zhi, but he didn’t speak or hug her back. He didn’t even show any emotion typical of humans. After a few seconds, he raised his hand to pull her away and said in a calm, flat voice, “I’m teaching.”
He turned his head, gesturing for Wei Zhi to look—
As she gazed around, she saw that not far behind Shan Chong in the feature area, there was indeed a group of kids either crouching, standing, or sitting.
Countless pairs of innocent eyes were brightly staring in their direction.
Wei Zhi blinked, feeling a bit uneasy under their gaze. She let out an “Oh” and withdrew her hand, sliding to a bench at the exit and sitting down, zoning out for a while.
She hadn’t even processed what had happened before being sent away.
…
Outside the snow park.
In the rest area.
Since Lao Yan and his group were staying in a hotel-style apartment without a reception desk, it wasn’t convenient to receive packages. Plus, he came to Guangzhou Sunac every day, so the hoodies Jiang Nanfeng sent to Lao Yan were directly mailed to the snow park’s front desk for easy pickup.
When Jiang Nanfeng and Wei Zhi stepped into the Snow World rest area, she just received a text message saying her package had been signed for, in person.
… The idea of a gift and girlfriend arriving together, though cliché, turned out to be quite interesting due to this coincidence.
The hall was bustling with people coming and going.
So while Wei Zhi went into the snow park with her board, Jiang Nanfeng found a chair in a corner and sat down. She messaged Lao Yan, asking if he had received the package and if he liked it, adding that there might be another surprise waiting for him soon if he did.
A reply came quickly.
[Lao Yan: Received and seen! Thanks to my dear sister, I’ll have to sleep in it tonight (*^v^*)]
[Lao Yan: What surprise?!]
[Lao Yan: Tell me now!]
Looking at the messages, Jiang Nanfeng smiled slightly, raising her hand to tousle her short hair. As she was pondering how to reply to her young boyfriend with something sweet, she suddenly heard a young woman’s voice nearby—
“Lao Yan, who sent you clothes?”
The name sounded familiar.
Jiang Nanfeng paused, put down her phone, and looked around. She immediately spotted a young man and woman walking side by side not far away—
They looked about the same age, seemingly nineteen or twenty.
The girl was quite pretty, chewing gum with a high ponytail like Hua Yan. She was holding a soft fisherman’s hat helmet and wearing purple overalls.
Beside her, the young man wore a thick snow jacket with a high collar turned up, covering half his face. Even so, you could see the young face exuding laziness and nonchalance…
He was holding a package. Hearing the girl’s question, he laughed briefly, turned to look at her, and asked why she was being nosy, saying it was none of her business who sent him clothes.
As they reached the rest area, he casually placed the shopping bag on a table across the partition, then walked around to sit at the table where he had put the bag.
He slowly opened the shopping bag, took out two hoodies, looked at them, then tore open the packaging and shook out the clothes.
Lao Yan didn’t have much of a reaction.
The girl beside him, however, had quite a big one.
“Wow, these hoodies aren’t cheap compared to regular snow gear! And the loose fit is perfect for wearing indoors as snow gear?” As she spoke, she reached out to grab them. “Who on earth sent you these clothes? Let me see!”
“Hey, why are you so nosy?” The boy with the puppy face dodged her hand, saying casually, “It’s just from a friend… Don’t touch!”
After looking at the clothes, he took out his phone, snapped a photo, and typed a few words.
The moment he looked up, Jiang Nanfeng’s phone vibrated.
After sending the WeChat message, Lao Yan started to put the clothes away, about to stuff them back into the packaging when the girl beside him grabbed his hand: “Don’t put them away, you know, I’m only wearing a quick-dry shirt underneath today—”
Lao Yan was taken aback: “The indoor snow park is still below zero, you’re just wearing a single layer and overalls? Aren’t you asking for trouble?”
“I forgot how cold it is inside, it’s been so long!” The girl pointed at one of the hoodies in his hand. “This one would be perfect for me to wear, hehe. I promise I won’t get it dirty, I’ll fall less!”
Lao Yan hesitated.
She said, “I won’t wear it next to my skin, just over the overalls!”
Lao Yan thought for a moment, then after a while handed her the hoodie she had pointed at: “Fine, but you’d better not try those weird tricks later. If you fall more than five times, I’ll knock your head off.”
Jiang Nanfeng sat not far away, calmly watching the girl cheerfully put on the hoodie she had bought for Lao Yan.
Sitting still without changing her posture, she looked down at her phone. About three minutes ago, the puppy had sent two messages—
The first was a photo of the two hoodies unpackaged.
The second said, “I like them, muah muah to my dear sister.”
The third said, “I’ll treasure them.”
Her crossed legs dropped to the floor.
Making a soft “thud” sound.
Jiang Nanfeng replied to him.
[Jiang Zhi: Glad you like them.]
[Jiang Zhi: Oh right, didn’t I say earlier that if you liked the hoodies, there’d be an even better surprise waiting for you tonight?]
[Lao Yan: Ah?]
[Lao Yan: What is it?!]
[Jiang Zhi: Look up.]
…
Inside the snow park.
After who knows how long, someone sat down next to Wei Zhi, shoulder to shoulder.
She turned her head and met the man’s pitch-black eyes. His hand rested casually on his leg as he looked at her lazily—
They stared at each other for a few seconds, neither speaking.
Wei Zhi’s brain started whirring, and she suddenly remembered that this person had been jumping up and down every day trying to coax her to come, but when he first laid eyes on her, he told her to go away so he could teach her properly.
Although there wasn’t much wrong with that—
He didn’t hug her with delight and say nice things.
Nor did he tearfully welcome her to Guangzhou.
…Even the toll collectors at the Guangzhou expressway were more enthusiastic than him.
“…”
Wei Zhi bent down, using her glove to brush snow off her snowboard bindings.
“I’ll give you three chances to speak. If you can’t make me change my mind, I’ll rush back now, kowtow to my mom, cry and apologize saying ‘I’m sorry, you were right, good-looking men are all no good,’ and maybe I can still eat the dinner she made.”
After saying this in one breath, those eyes, now shining with a hint of anger, stared at him.
Shan Chong smiled.
Wei Zhi wasn’t about to joke around with him. She suddenly held up three fingers in front of him, looking at him seriously.
Shan Chong thought for a moment, seemingly agreeing to this deadly game, and slowly began to speak: “Just now, a kid asked who that sister was who couldn’t even do a 50-50 on the box—”
Wei Zhi kept a straight face, immediately lowered her hand, threw the helmet she was holding into his arms, and turned to leave. But after taking just one step, she was caught from behind by the man. She turned her head back.
His smile unchanged, he finished his first sentence: “I told him it was the teacher’s girlfriend.”
The large hand gripping her wrist used a bit more strength. He had already taken off his gloves, and his palm was rough, easily gripping her boneless wrist and turning her to face him.
“Second sentence.” There was a faint smile in the man’s eyes. “Then another kid asked, ‘Teacher, what’s a girlfriend?’—”
He imitated a child’s unclear speech, deliberately acting cute in a way that clashed terribly with his grim face. Wei Zhi’s lips twitched, almost unable to hold back her laughter. It took a great effort to maintain her cold and aloof expression.
She watched as he lowered his eyelashes, dimming the light in his eyes, and slowly continued: “I told him that a girlfriend is the person the teacher likes the most.”
The large hand on her wrist applied a bit more force. Following the momentum, the person standing in front of the man was pulled down, and forced to bend over. When she was at the same height as him sitting, he raised his hand and gripped her chin to keep her from moving.
He sat up straighter. Then, a light kiss brushed her lips like a dragonfly touching water. His calm breath tickled the tip of her nose.
“I also told them, ‘She suddenly appeared before the teacher. The teacher was so happy he didn’t know what to say, so he decided to teach you first to calm down,'” he said, his voice deep and magnetic.
The last punctuation mark of his words was swallowed by another gentle kiss, turning the period into an ellipsis.
After a brief, tender touch, they parted. The man’s eyes crinkled with amusement as he looked up at the young woman before him. “Three sentences. Done. Alright?”
No one could resist those alluring eyes. If people could transform at will, Wei Zhi would have melted into a puddle by now, dripping all over the floor.
Despite the blush spreading to her ears, the young woman glared at him fiercely. She snatched her helmet from his arms and sat down next to him with a “whoosh.”
She lowered her head. The others, sensing the end of the alert, began to stir.
“Don’t sit,” he said, wrapping an arm around her waist and patting it roguishly. “Why are you sitting down again?”
“Where else should I go if I don’t sit?” she retorted.
“Take a couple of runs,” he suggested. “The lift ticket was so expensive. You paid over 200 yuan just to come in and see me?”
…This man was shamelessly flirtatious.
As he stood up, trying to pull her up too, she reluctantly leaned against him, her face pressed against his abdomen and arms encircling his waist. “What’s wrong with spending 200 to come see you? I don’t want to ski. The indoor snow quality is weird… otherwise, I wouldn’t have fallen on that 5050 earlier.”
“Indoor snow is soft and powdery. They say people used to skiing in ‘refrigerators’ can’t handle outdoor slopes, but actually, experienced skiers find outdoor slopes easier. The snow grips the edges better,” Shan Chong explained. “You’ve moved beyond the beginner stage.”
Wei Zhi clung to him without moving.
“Come on, get up,” the man urged. “Since you missed your teacher so much, I’ll carry you over the bar once.”
“…Oh my!”
“Don’t ‘oh my’ me.”
“…Then tell me, did those kids ask about me earlier?”
“Hmm?”
“About ‘the sister who couldn’t even do a box 5050’ and stuff.”
The man paused for a few seconds, then chuckled despairingly. He grunted an affirmative and added, “Everything I just said was true—all three sentences. Kids these days are too clever. Did you think I could make up some flattering lines for you on the spot?”
Wei Zhi: “…”
As she mulled it over…
Damn.
Why did she feel even more elated than when she first heard those three lines that rivaled a three-line love poem?
She buried her face in his embrace, her hands sliding down his waist.
Before she could reach her intended target, he grabbed her arms and moved them back to their original position.
Wei Zhi lifted her head from the man’s firm, nostalgic abdomen and looked up at him with round eyes. “You want to fight again, don’t you? Are you going back on your word? Didn’t you say that as long as I came to Guangzhou—”
“Take two runs, then I’m all yours.”
“Since when is this negotiable?!” Wei Zhi was stunned. “I didn’t even bring my protective gear. Why should I risk splitting my butt into eight pieces just to get what I’m entitled to? You’re not keeping your word!”
In her haste, she hadn’t paid attention to her choice of words. By the time she realized how unrefined it might have sounded, the man was already looking at her with raised eyebrows—
His expression resembled that of a disciplinary teacher peering into the classroom to catch students with improper appearances.
Fortunately, he didn’t scold her.
“When you were competing in Altay, you were doing a regular-foot box, backside 360 with a switch landing. If the slope had been a bit longer and I had been two seconds late in scoring, you would have fallen, right?”
The arms around his waist tightened slightly.
“The backside 360 was rushed to get you to perform and score. I turned a blind eye to you practicing like that—I didn’t say anything to you guys—but you dared to do a switch landing on a feature? Have you even practiced switching? Something even I hadn’t seen before! If you’re not going to hit features, you can practice on the beginner slope. This slope is gentle and short, perfect for you to practice switching.”
“…I came to see my boyfriend, not to ski.”
“And your boyfriend is telling you that since you’re here, you might as well take a run,” the man said expressionlessly. “Get up, or I’ll spank you.”
Three minutes later, Wei Zhi found herself unceremoniously pushed onto the magic carpet area.
…
Usually, Wei Zhi could ski down such a gentle slope—almost flat—on an indoor beginner run with her eyes closed.
But switching to her opposite stance changed everything.
To put it mildly, it opened a new chapter in her life.
With her left foot forward, she reverted to a complete beginner on the snowboard—
She couldn’t even change edges or make a straight run down. She understood the principles of how to stop and change edges, knew them by heart even…
But with her left foot forward, it just wouldn’t work. She had used this leg for over twenty years without noticing any problems, but today Wei Zhi suspected it was made of wood.
No matter what her brain commanded, it wouldn’t budge.
She managed a wobbly falling leaf turn on her heel edge and somehow came to a stop. Reflexively, she looked back at the man following her not too far behind.
Their eyes met, and he raised his chin. “Switch, come on. Isn’t it the same principle for both left and right foot forward? Do I need to explain everything to you again?”
Wei Zhi puffed out her cheeks, inwardly mimicking his tone sarcastically. Switch, yeah right.
…Switch my ass!
If she could switch, wouldn’t she have done it already?
She said, “I can’t switch.”
Shan Chong: “And then?”
Wei Zhi: “Go through the process, like how you used to teach me!”
Shan Chong: “After skiing two-thirds of the country’s slopes, conservatively spending a month on snow, seeing the sunset at Altay, tumbling down all the advanced runs at mountain-top resorts, and entering terrain parks at mid-mountain resorts… Now you’re in the Sunac ‘refrigerator,’ and you want me to hold your hand and start from a beginner push?”
…This was witnessing fatherly love crumble like an avalanche.
He even used a parallel structure to scold her.
Wei Zhi: “So, are you going to help me or not?”
Shan Chong: “I think you came to Guangzhou to be the death of me.”
Wei Zhi: “…”
Wei Zhi glared at him, no longer caring if he came to help.
She slowly stepped on the snowboard, mentally going over the basics of edge change. Straighten the board, lift the front foot first using the boot tongue, then slowly lift the back foot—
Then, either because her left foot lifted too quickly or didn’t lift at all, she wobbled and promptly fell to her knees with a “thud.”
She heard a snicker from behind. Turning her head, she saw the man leaning lazily against the blue protective wall at the edge of the run, watching her with amusement.
Standing by idly was one thing.
Laughing was acceptable…
But did he have to laugh so damn happily?
The worst part was that while laughing, he said, “That left foot of yours is something—when you were learning to change edges with your right foot and it was flailing about until I wanted to chop it off, I predicted this day would come.”
Wei Zhi: “…”
Wei Zhi: “People say left-handed people must ride regular stances because their left leg is weaker. I wrote and ate with my left hand until third grade. Could that be related?”
Shan Chong stopped laughing: “No.”
Wei Zhi: “…Can’t you say something nice?”
Shan Chong, expressionless: “No.”
Wei Zhi grabbed a handful of snow and threw it at him.
By now, they had reached the bottom of the slope and were creating a commotion about seven or eight meters apart. At that moment, the door between the rest area and the snow field opened. Wei Zhi caught sight of Jiang Nanfeng carrying her board as she walked in—
She was about to call out and ask her to mediate when she suddenly noticed the expression on Jiang Nanfeng’s face. Wei Zhi fell silent, but before she could ask what was wrong, Jiang Nanfeng rushed over, carrying the board. She threw the brand-new freestyle board at Wei Zhi’s feet and said coldly, “It’s done.”
Snow flew everywhere.
Wei Zhi sneezed three times in succession, then looked up at her friend, utterly confused.
The atmosphere was strange.
Nearby, Shan Chong had stopped laughing and skied down to a stop. He took off his board and looked at the November Kitten board that had just been thrown on the ground. “What’s going on?” he asked.
Jiang Nanfeng ignored him.
“Take this board and donate it to the ski resort, rent it out at the equipment shop, sell it, give it to a stranger, whatever,” she said, looking only at Wei Zhi. “I’m going back to Nancheng. You stay and play here. I’ll come pick you up in a couple of days.”
With that, she turned and left.
The bag on her back nearly hit Wei Zhi in the face.
She left without looking back, leaving Wei Zhi and Shan Chong completely bewildered.
About five minutes after she left, Lao Yan came in. His eyes lit up when he saw Wei Zhi and Shan Chong, but then he spotted the Kitten board thrown on the ground, and the light in his eyes dimmed.
Wei Zhi: “…”
Alright then.
Wei Zhi: “Young man, let me ask you kindly and without emotion: What mischief did you get up to this time?”