After beating up her classmate, Shan Shan cried until she was out of breath. The incident ended with the guidance counselor personally handing her tissues and the class teacher hugging her shoulders, saying, “Alright, don’t cry.” This event made her infamous.
A month later, during the monthly exam, the boy whose face she had scratched predictably failed and was relegated back to his ordinary class. He disappeared from everyone’s sight, leaving behind an air of theoretical attack and questionable justice…
As soon-to-be college entrance exam takers, the students were already overwhelmed with their current studies. Who had time to worry about some obscure athlete’s mistake in a preliminary round of an unpopular sport at the low-profile Winter Olympics a week ago?
Life quickly returned to normal. Along with Shan Chong’s WeChat Moments updates of rime ice after heavy snowfall on Changbai Mountain, the chapter about the Pyeongchang Olympics finally came to an end.
…
Well, not quite.
[Just Barking: It’s a pity Shan Chong still doesn’t know his adorable sister fought for him at school, even causing a parent-teacher meeting… Such deep sibling love.]
[Accumulating Virtue: If you can’t say anything nice, keep your mouth shut.]
[Just Barking: …]
[Just Barking: Where to?]
[Accumulating Virtue: None of your business.]
[Just Barking: Fine, it’s none of my business.]
[Just Barking: You crawled in here yourself.]
Shan Shan angrily shoved her phone back into her pocket and looked up. She was already at the entrance of the ski equipment hall at the Changbai Mountain ski resort.
It was much quieter compared to the Spring Festival holiday.
The snow season was coming to an end, and except for those who frequented this circle year-round, most amateur enthusiasts had returned to their normal work and lives…
Strangely enough, after the last winter break of their high school careers, Shan Shan and her classmates regained their long-lost weekend breaks—
She wasted one of these precious weekends to make the long journey to Changbai Mountain to see her brother… and incidentally, to catch a glimpse (just a glimpse) of her secret crush.
It was now lunchtime.
The convenience store at the entrance of the ski equipment hall was packed with people grabbing quick meals. At the entrance sat several young boys wearing provincial, municipal, or national team training uniforms, lined up in a row, each holding a bowl of instant noodles.
They were eating with great relish, making Shan Shan feel a bit hungry.
She maneuvered her wheelchair towards the store to buy some chocolate—one piece for herself and the rest to share with Shan Chong. As she reached for the glass door, it opened from the inside—
This was normal, of course. The glass door was transparent, and usually, if someone was standing behind it, they would help open it.
Shan Shan, accustomed to this, looked up with a smile and said, “Thank you.”
“No problem,” replied the voice, which happened to have the huskiness of puberty. Looking up, she saw a young boy about her age wearing a national team training uniform. He seemed a bit dazed, probably stunned by her smile. After a few seconds, he blinked and said, “Wait a moment.”
Shan Shan: “?”
Before she could process what was happening, she saw the boy holding the door lean his head back and shout towards the back of the shelves, “Brother Duo! Yo! Shan Shan is here!”
Shan Shan didn’t even have time to wonder how he knew who she was.
She heard some rustling from behind the shelves, and after a moment, a young man holding chips and rice balls peeked out—he was wearing a black woolen beanie, his narrow eyes slightly squinted, and his pale skin looked startlingly white against the black hat.
Across the shelves, he made eye contact with the girl he had been bantering with on WeChat just three minutes ago.
Sitting in her wheelchair, she inexplicably raised her chin, revealing a haughty, challenging expression.
Dai Duo: “?”
Dai Duo: “…”
Of course, he didn’t know that her heart was pounding like a drum beneath that challenging look.
That ambiguous and strange “Yo!” had already made her face heat up—
Fortunately, these hard-to-conceal changes could be blamed on the cold outside and the excessive heating inside the convenience store.
Dai Duo couldn’t read all of this. Like a fighting rooster seeing last year’s champion enter the arena, he raised an eyebrow, about to curse… when suddenly his jacket hood was pulled from behind.
As he staggered backward, his heel stepped on the shoe behind him—
The heavy snow boot was stepped on.
The person behind him expressionlessly moved his snow boot from under Dai Duo’s foot, then pushed him in the opposite direction to steady him. Shan Chong, holding a box of chocolate, emerged from behind the shelves with a deadpan face and asked the boy at the door, “What’s the misunderstanding? Isn’t this my sister? Why are you calling for Dai Duo when she arrives?”
Although he didn’t say “Are you guys crazy?”, the question was perfectly written on his face.
Everyone present (except Dai Duo) felt a wave of guilt.
Shan Chong stepped forward with an air that no one could refuse or resist, pushing his sister’s wheelchair with one hand while grabbing some more snacks from the shelves—along with the chocolate in his hand, he placed them all on the checkout counter—then patted his high school sister’s shoulder and said, “Money.”
Shan Shan: “You’re asking me for money?”
Shan Chong: “You’re richer than me.”
Shan Shan: “Is it appropriate for you to talk such nonsense?”
Shan Chong: “Didn’t you see the balance change notification when the prize money was deposited into your account the day before yesterday?”
The card was in Shan Shan’s possession.
She thought for a moment but didn’t mention that she had put the card in a drawer as soon as she got it and hadn’t even linked it to online banking, so there couldn’t have been any balance change notification…
She silently took out her phone and scanned the QR code.
After paying, the siblings, along with a very self-aware Dai Duo, sat at a table outside the convenience store to eat.
Shan Chong didn’t talk much, squatting nearby with a rice ball, eating with his head down, occasionally checking the group chat on his phone but not engaging in any private conversations…
He looked like a lonely old man.
Sometimes people passing by would call out “Brother Chong,” and he would lift his eyelids, glance at them, and nod slightly in response. Or if someone stopped to chat, he would at most move his eyeballs.
He exuded an air of loneliness.
Shan Shan sat across from him, originally hungry, but now feeling a bit off. So, under the pretense of bending down to pick something up, she reached out and tugged on Dai Duo’s pant leg.
He bent down and saw a beautiful face making eyes at him from across the table leg.
Dai Duo pondered for a moment, not understanding what she meant.
So he straightened up and asked, “Do you need to use the bathroom?”
Shan Shan: “Huh?”
Dai Duo: “Oh, you want to go to the bathroom.”
Shan Shan: “What?”
Dai Duo: “I’ll take you.”
Dai Duo stood up and started pushing the bewildered girl away… After they had gone a few steps, Shan Chong, who had been looking at his phone, raised his head, glanced at Dai Duo holding the wheelchair, thought for a moment, and asked, “Why are you following her to the bathroom?”
“She doesn’t know the way,” Dai Duo replied without turning his head, “I’m taking her there.”
Shan Chong found this a bit strange—
Adding to that, he suddenly remembered how the local kid had excitedly called out to Dai Duo when Shan Shan pushed open the convenience store door earlier, and he felt a moment of confusion.
Something wasn’t quite right.
He sat there thinking hard for a while, and by the time Dai Duo and Shan Shan were out of sight, he still hadn’t figured it out…
So he gave up.
He lowered his head, opened a second rice ball, and started eating.
…
In front of the restroom.
The young man leaned lazily against the wall, head lowered, looking down at the fiery-tempered girl sitting in the wheelchair beside him.
“I didn’t say I wanted to use the bathroom,” Shan Shan said, “Don’t tell me you thought I was making eyes at you earlier because I needed to pee.”
“Ah,” Dai Duo drawled, “Wasn’t that it?”
“…”
In Shan Shan’s silence, he paused, his lazy, uninterested demeanor unchanged, but a smirk tugged at his lips. He shifted his weight to his other leg and stopped smiling.
“I’m teasing you,” he said, his voice slightly husky as he glanced down at the girl’s aggrieved face. “I didn’t know what you wanted to do, so I brought you out here to ask, didn’t I?”
“You couldn’t ask on WeChat?”
“Oh, I forgot.”
He seemed to have genuinely forgotten.
Shan Shan had never so desperately wished she had legs. If she did, she would have kicked him in the shins.
“I meant that you should talk to my brother more when you’re free. He looked so lonely and desolate earlier, like a solitary old man,” Shan Shan bit her lip, paused, and then continued, “The Winter Olympics just ended not long ago. I’m worried he might feel bad being alone. Could you keep him company, eat with him, or chat with him when you’re not busy?”
“…”
Dai Duo stared at her as she bit her lip hard and then released it, leaving it pale at first and then slightly red, with small, neat teeth marks.
After a moment of silence, he realized what she was saying. He was about to retort that Shan Chong was just sitting there eating, and didn’t the ancient sages say one shouldn’t talk while eating or sleeping? How could she imagine so much drama? Besides, if someone doesn’t like to talk, what could he possibly say to him—
All these rebuttals were on the tip of his tongue.
But then he looked up and met her sincere gaze.
The girl’s fair fingers fidgeted nervously on the wheelchair armrest. She frowned slightly, genuinely seeming very concerned, and said, “Dai Duo, can you take good care of my brother?”
“…”
Dai Duo stood up straight.
He sighed and said, “Alright.”
“… What good food did you eat today to be so agreeable?”
The young man’s delicate brows revealed a helpless expression.
“The way you put it, how could I say no? If I shook my head, could I even get through today?”
Shan Shan remained silent—
You see.
This boy who never learned how to speak properly always inadvertently lowered her expectations…
For instance, when he suddenly spoke up, it delighted her so much that she didn’t know how to react.
That reluctant look on his face as if he was forced to do something, seemed much cuter than his usual serious demeanor.
…
A week after Dai Duo promised to “take care” of Shan Chong, he proved with actions that he indeed didn’t let Shan Chong idle—
That night, after finishing her homework and taking a shower, Shan Shan was scrolling through her WeChat Moments when she saw an outpouring of congratulatory posts from within the snow sports circle: Dai Duo had made a breakthrough.
A big breakthrough.
Dai Duo became the third person in the world, and the first person in China, to complete a Frontside 2160° Melon grab (abbreviated as FS 2160°) during training in the snowboard big air discipline.
—Under Shan Chong’s guidance and assistance.
The posts in her Moments were filled with celebration. Even Shan Chong, who rarely updated his Moments, posted a video with the original audio of Dai Duo’s successful jump… Shan Shan liked each post one by one, watching the same content with different background sounds.
Then she opened her WeChat message list.
Scrolling past a pile of unread messages from school classmates about trivial matters, she saw that about seven hours ago, while she was immersed in test papers after returning home from school, Dai Duo had sent her an extended version of the original video—
With just three words: “Made it.”
According to the documentary-style praises in her Moments, she calculated that it was about 30 minutes after his breakthrough when he picked up his phone to share this video with her.
In Shan Shan’s view, how should she describe this?
It’s like passing by flowers just blooming in early spring, smelling the fragrance of osmanthus in autumn, hearing the tinkling of a mountain spring, or chancing upon a puppy or kitten…
These fragments of life, are all moments that touch the heart and spirit.
As the saying goes—
The greatest romance in life is the desire to share.