Chapter 77

When the last cable car arrived at the summit, the sky was heavy and overcast. The cold, deep blue-gray sky had reduced its saturation, and the pale sunlight was blocked by large clouds, making the sky seem like a curtain about to fall, almost within reach.

They seized the last opportunity to swim across the sea of ​​snow.

The wind was strong on the mountain, howling so fiercely it could blow a person away. Looking down, the visual illusion increased the sense of panic, making the snow track that plunged straight down from the mountaintop look like an unknown precipice ahead.

It's just too high and too steep.

"Cheng Yanjin." Lin Langyi took a small step back like a chick pecking at rice, her eyes still fixed on the white, deserted snow track. She reached behind her back and grabbed at people haphazardly in the air. "Pull me up so I don't fall. I need to prepare myself mentally."

The cold wind seemed to seep into her stomach as she spoke, and she stammered, "A ninety-degree angle is called a cliff, and an eighty-nine-degree angle is called a slope, right? No, is this a place where a person can go down?"

He grabbed her hand that was reaching out haphazardly behind her. He was strong, and his palm was burning hot. Holding her made her feel especially safe. Cheng Yanjin walked to her side and blocked the wind coming from one direction.

But all around was a vast, desolate expanse, as if the world had been submerged in a giant gray-white sphere of water. The further down one looked, the more terrified one became.

"Shall I get off first?" he asked her.

Lin Langyi stomped her feet on the spot, and each step made a "crunching" sound as the soft snow was squeezed out. She flattened the board as much as possible, bent down, and began to adjust the wearing parameters.

Cheng Yanjin looked at her fair and translucent face, wondering if it was from the wind or from fear. Seeing that she had stopped talking, he squatted down to help her check if she was dressed properly.

The silent environment heightened the tension once more. He noticed her fingers trembling slightly as she adjusted the tension, pursed his lips, and suddenly began to recount the past:

“When I was little, I learned skills quickly. I succeeded on my first time sliding down a steep and dangerous slope, but my movements were not standard. Anyone with eyes could see that. But I felt that even though I had some tricks, I could still do it perfectly like others, so I never cared about it.”

“My mom would sternly demand that I change, saying that if I’m lazy and try to be clever, my potential will be limited and I’ll always hit a bottleneck, but I don’t listen.”

“Then right here, I fell really badly down the slope. I had nails in my leg and a cast on, and I was bedridden for more than half a year. I regretted it every day.” Cheng Yanjin pressed his fingers on her chubby legs and chuckled briefly. “After I recovered, I immediately corrected my posture. My mom said that I’m the kind of person who doesn’t learn until I see the coffin. I only realized the truth after I had experienced pain and bleeding.”

"They could have corrected it much earlier, but they insisted on waiting until they hit a wall before regretting it."

Lin Langyi's brain was currently in a state of malfunction, her mind filled with the thought, "I'm going to jump off a cliff, I'm going to jump off a cliff," and she hadn't really considered the meaning behind it. Seeing his sad and wistful smile, she assumed he was just talking about his own trauma, and her face immediately fell.

“Cheng Yanjin, I’m already scared enough. You don’t need to tell me how badly I fell here.” She swallowed, her throat dry. “You came here to dispel the gloom, and I came here to create plaster casts.”

Cheng Yanjin's short hair was messed up by the wind. He remained half-squatting in front of her, his back straight. If he moved forward two inches, he could rest his chin on her leg.

He gazed at her for a long time, then suddenly leaned his head forward, and without hesitation, opened his arms to hug her knees, burying his face forcefully in her legs. The words he wanted to say were muffled and choked in his throat:

"Lin Langyi, I can correct my mistakes immediately after I realize them. It doesn't matter if I've broken my leg or bled, as long as I still love skiing, I'll always get better and better, right?"

"Yeah, as long as you like it, things will only get better." Lin Langyi encouraged him, and also encouraged herself. "I'm not afraid of falling."

The person buried in her legs chuckled softly, his breath warm against her skin through the fabric.

Cheng Yanjin composed himself, stood up, took out a head-mounted camera, and put it on both of them. Lin Langyi stood in front of him, tilting her head back so that he could adjust the angle.

After all the preparations were completed, her heart calmed down. She slowly extended the board slightly, and the feeling of being half-suspended in mid-air rushed from the soles of her feet up her nerves to her head.

In the instant she plummeted downwards, she didn't say a word, as if in the moment of weightlessness, a person's five senses were flung out of their body, leaving no time to react.

When sliding down a steep, almost vertical cliff, the most important thing is to keep your hands on the board to slow down. Of course, from a third-person perspective, it still looks like you're falling.

Aside from the howling wind, Lin Langyi couldn't hear anything. It wasn't until much later that she could hear the nasal sounds mixed with her own chaotic breathing.

Without even raising her hand to touch it, she felt the physiological tears that she couldn't hold back flowing down her face. The tears that kept flowing out were blown behind her by the wind, as if the blood in her whole body was being washed away.

"Don't look down the mountain, look to both sides!" Amidst the swirling wind, she heard the only familiar voice, fervent and passionate.

"Look to the side! Lin Langyi, don't look down the mountain, look at me, look at me!"

Her body was stiff, every inch of it like hardened, cracked soil, but the shouts were like the only warm hand she could grasp on the cliff, making her use all her strength to turn her neck and look to the right.

She saw the snow mist rising from the adjacent ski slope. Cheng Yanjin had come down later than her, but he didn't slow down. Like a fully drawn arrow, he rushed down and caught up to her right front in the blink of an eye, raising his arm to tell her not to be afraid.

From a distance, he appeared much smaller, yet he still tried his best to face her as he sped towards her. The snowflakes that rose behind him resembled white waves, and each time he emerged from the snow, leaving behind a beautiful arc.

Lin Langyi stared intently at him, just like she used to stick to a single goal during physical tests, not thinking about anything else.

The terrifying suspension bridge effect, she thought, the thrill of breaking the ordinary days and the people swaying and fluttering in the wind were given special meaning, at least for this moment, the camera above his head was pointing at her, and so was she.

Life is vast and boundless; the courage to leap over mountains and cross ridges allows the soul to transcend.

She felt as if her consciousness was running on the wind, the feeling of losing control and not being able to stop gradually intensifying, turning her into a wildly growing plant with the freedom of an entire snow-capped mountain. The danger brought her desire to leap into the air to its peak.

When she reached the finish line and stopped sideways, she rushed straight towards Cheng Yanjin as if she had lost her mind. This was an extremely dangerous collision, but he didn't try to dodge to the side at all. He slid back to give her some distance, and only after judging that the speed had been reduced and was under control did he grab her and hug her.

The two men's boards clashed, and they fell into a thick snowdrift.

"Lin Langyi, you're crying so hard." Cheng Yanjin lay down on top of her, laughing heartily, his chest heaving so loudly that his ribs trembled.

He unfastened her goggles, patiently wiped away her tears with his fingers, and smiled as he looked at her red eyes.

"You're amazing, Lin Langyi, you're so amazing." He cupped her face and praised her repeatedly. Seeing that her eyes and nose were red, he stroked the delicate crease on her eyelid, raised his chin and kissed her little by little, kissing away her excessive tears mixed with the white snow.

"Don't cry, it's so cold here, your tears will freeze."

"Don't cry."

He offered words of comfort.

The helmet on his head was so heavy it was pressing on his neck, and the face mask was pulling at his ears. Lin Langyi sniffed and took off all the protective gear, throwing it aside. He grabbed Lin Langyi's neck, choked him, and tried to bite him with his teeth.

He indulged all her emotions, even adding fuel to the fire by scratching her with his teeth.

The two people looked like they had a fight in the snow.

The sky finally turned dark gray, and night fell. Lin Langyi and Cheng Yanjin returned long after the agreed meeting time, and sent a message on WeChat telling them to eat first and not to wait.

The snow boots were heavy, the boards were sluggish, and his body ached all over, but Lin Langyi still felt it wasn't enough. She didn't even want to eat anymore and pulled him back to the room.

The room we booked was the perfect choice for stargazing, with a transparent ceiling. Lying in bed, the vast universe was sprinkled with stars like shattered diamonds. The two of us made love in the bathroom and then went back to bed to continue.

She thought the trip was amazing and she would always remember the feeling of plunging down the cliff.

Cheng Yanjin was captivated by her proactive intimacy and did nothing but torment her like a madman. He always liked to press his face against her skin, only revealing his fluffy hair, like a curled-up hedgehog.

He asked her if she was happy.

She said she was happy.

He asked her if she still felt depressed and frustrated.

She said it felt great.

After hearing this, he hugged her even tighter, grasped her wrists and pulled her completely into his arms, his two strong arms encircling her, his palms resting on her slightly sunken waist.

He buried his head in her chest and refused to lift it, saying, "Lin Langyi, when we get back, let's buy a world map and hang it on the wall. We'll paint over each place we visit until the whole map is covered."

"Okay." She reached out to touch his face, and he tilted his head to kiss her fingers. In doing so, she accidentally poked his eye and felt a little dampness.

At that time, she did not know where the moisture came from.

The next day was the day to go back. Because he was in a hurry, Cheng Yanjin didn't go back to City A with the group and then transfer to another city for a business trip. So he saw Lin Langyi and the others off first.

After he escorted the person through the security checkpoint, he couldn't go any further. Standing beside the long queue, he waved to Lin Langyi, and only put his hands back in his pockets after seeing her turn around and say goodbye to him.

Passengers hurried through the airport, coming from all over the country and heading off to their respective destinations.

Cheng Yanjin sat in the corner of a square stone chair, with a lush ornamental plant in the center.

He recalled the first time he met Lin Langyi, he had also hidden behind a green plant, watching her do her makeup in front of the mirror like a silent stone.

He smiled slightly, recalling the past as if walking on a fine sandy beach, where beautiful seashells were everywhere. Sometimes he would dig them out, and other times he would happily bury them back in their original spots, looking forward to the next time he walked by and was pleasantly surprised to encounter this beauty again.

She had posted everything she needed to on her phone: majestic mountains, pristine snow, a dazzling starry sky, and a picture of her wearing a red koi fish hat.

Every photo was carefully selected and repeatedly considered by him. He went from not knowing how to edit photos to only being able to edit her photos. He was like a student picking out all kinds of fallen leaves in a botanical garden, taking them home, washing and drying them, and then pasting them into beautiful leaf paintings.

Everyone knew that he and Lin Langyi had come here to play, including Yuan Chuyu.

Cheng Yanjin said nothing else, and as usual, tagged everyone in the previous "Love Nest" group, leaving a message:

"It's an emergency. I'm flying directly and don't have time to pick up Lin Langyi. My family driver also took my dad there. Can I borrow someone's driver? Just take Lin Langyi and the rest of the group home after the flight arrives."

Ten minutes later, Xiao Pucheng sent an "OK" gesture.

A few minutes later, Yuan Chuyu replied: "I can send a driver."

Cheng Yanjin stared at the page for a long time before silently exiting, opening a hidden app on his phone, and going to another page.

The page displays three real-time monitoring feeds from different angles: one at the main entrance, one on a mural in the living room, and the last in the semi-open kitchen, directly opposite the bedroom door.

Lin Langyi didn't know.

This was installed when he was locked up on the mountain but was worried about the renovation of his new house. It was to keep track of the progress. After the renovation was completed, it was turned off and never used again.

But the day after she didn't come home all night, he opened it again.

Cheng Yanjin wiped his phone screen with his fingers again and again. He knew that his methods were despicable, but he was being torn apart by jealousy, pain, and doubt. He couldn't sleep all night. Sometimes he wished for a bloody truth to end him, and sometimes he humbly clung to that sliver of hope, thinking, "What if?"

What if there's nothing at all?

How wonderful it would be if his baseless and ridiculous intuition were wrong.

But what earth-shattering event could make Yuan Chuyu cut short a meeting and abandon his work to handle a personal matter?

He had known each other since childhood, for sixteen or seventeen years, and he simply couldn't understand it.

People often say that the answer is in your heart the moment you flip a coin, but Cheng Yanjin is stubborn and refuses to give up. Even though he doesn't dare to answer why he didn't adjust the position of the surveillance cameras and put one in the bedroom, but instead reluctantly put it in the kitchen.

He wanted to free himself from this endless negative emotion, so he went early to find out that Yuan Chuyu had a full schedule of important events recently, and even had to fly to a neighboring city, so there was no way he would have time to pick him up at the airport.

Anyone could appear at the main gate in the surveillance footage, but it could never be Yuan Chuyu.

Cheng Yanjin turned his phone over and over in his hand. The arrival time of Lin Langyi's flight was approaching second by second. He sat under the ornamental plant, listening to the announcements in the airport, without even eating.

At 2:23 PM, as the flight landed and taxied, Lin Langyi sent a "landing" emoji. His focused concentration vanished instantly, and he didn't even know why he naturally curled the corners of his mouth. He quickly replied, "Okay, pretty punctual."

He didn't mention that someone would pick him up at the airport, and Yuan Yinghe was also in the group, so he would naturally explain.

Cheng Yanjin silently calculated the time it would take to get home from the airport. If he drove fast, it would take forty minutes; if he drove slowly, it would take an hour. There shouldn't be any traffic at this time, so it should be fine…

A jumble of thoughts floated and dissipated in his mind like the ebb and flow of the tide. Time passed second by second, and his phone, which had been running live monitoring and connected to a charging cable, began to get hot.

Human figures finally appeared in the video.

Lin Langyi entered the password with her hands empty, opened the door, and went inside first.

With the doors wide open, she changed into slippers, stretched her arms and bent over to do some stretching, completely ignoring what was behind her.

Cheng Yanjin pressed his finger on the edge of the screen, pressing it quite hard. The screen reflected a rainbow of colors on the edge of his fingertip, and he saw another man finally appear in the video.

He pushed his suitcase into the house, placed his travel bag where Lin Langyi usually kept her work bag, and then opened the shoe cabinet and naturally changed into slippers before entering the living room.

He seemed very familiar with everything in the house. He boiled water to scald the cups and poured it into Lin Langyi's cup to let it cool. He took grapes out of the refrigerator, washed them, and put them on a plate on the dining table. Lin Langyi sat on the chair without any decorum, just eating the fruit. He opened her suitcase, took the clothes she needed to wash, and put them in the washing machine.

It was as if this was his home, and this was just an ordinary day for him.

Cheng Yanjin's finger followed the man's face in the video, pressing wherever the man went, as if he couldn't recognize the man if his face was covered.

After being inside for more than half an hour, the man finished what he was doing and was ready to leave. He was indeed very busy, squeezing out every spare moment of his half hour like squeezing water from a sponge.

Before leaving, he went to the dining table, his head bowed as if he were saying something to Lin Langyi. She looked up, a small piece of grape skin clinging to her lips, which he gently rubbed off, a smile playing on his lips, tender as water.

The airport announcements started again, the polite announcer's voice filling his ears. It was probably too noisy, annoying, and jarring, so Cheng Yanjin experienced a brief period of tinnitus and couldn't hear anything else.

He squeezed his eyes shut, and the noise drilled back into his brain like an electric drill. The oxygen in the air seemed to be thinning, making him dizzy.

He clutched his throat and gasped for breath. He suddenly stood up, his clothes catching the charging cable. With a tug, his phone flew out and smashed on the ground, the screen shattering instantly, leaving a spiderweb-like pattern covering most of the screen.

He stood swaying, his vision blurred, and his body temperature was rapidly dropping, as if he had returned to the snow-covered mountains where the temperature was below minus thirty degrees Celsius.

His flight was at 17:05 in the evening, but he turned around and left the airport, taking a taxi back to Jikplin.

Today is a sunny and beautiful day, and there are more tourists at the ski resort than yesterday.

Cheng Yanjin changed his gear again, revisited the place, took the cable car to the top of the mountain, went against the crowd to the starting point, and rushed down without saying a word.

He didn't control his speed, and he didn't even follow an arc; he went straight up and down, as if he had cleanly and efficiently cut wounds into the snow with a dagger.

Go down, then get back on, rush down again, get back up, and so on...

His ankles ached and he was exhausted, even though he used the perfectly correct and standard posture.

It turns out that even with the correct posture, bones can still break, bleeding can still occur, and the pain can be so intense that you can't make a sound.

On the last occasion, he suddenly realized he was crying.

Like Lin Langyi, she cried uncontrollably.

The wind was so strong; when I cried, the gust of wind felt like knives cutting into my flesh, so painful it felt like my bones were going to break.

When he tried to go up again, the cable car had already passed its last departure time. The ticket seller recognized him and politely explained that the service had stopped for the day, and advised him to train in moderation.

Cheng Yanjin returned to the regular ski slope. He remembered Lin Langyi saying that the N3 slope was the one she feared most when she first started learning.

He rushed down the slope from N3, grabbed the board and turned around, pretending she was still beside him, and habitually reached for the camera hanging around his neck to take pictures back.

His neck was bare, there was no camera. He suddenly woke up as if from a dream and remembered that the camera had gone with her back to a thousand miles away, and she was no longer within sight of him with just a turn of his head.

He lost control of the pedals and fell hard into the snow on a track that was practically kindergarten level for him.

The tinnitus symptoms struck again. Although his eyes were open, he seemed to be unable to see anything for a period of time. The collapse of his willpower physically broke through his brain, causing him to completely lose consciousness. It was as if he had overdone an exercise in the gym while dragging his sick body. His breath caught in his throat, and his soul detached itself to look down at his broken and mutilated body.

As he faced the last remaining sunlight in the sky, his eyes began to tear up dully.

He opened his mouth to breathe, and snowflakes fell into his mouth and nose, making him feel completely frozen.

He couldn't stop crying, feeling as if his whole body was falling apart, as if every bone in his body didn't belong to him anymore. He no longer had the strength to get up and ski.

Cheng Yanjin lay on the snow like a madman, took out his phone, opened the photo album, and started editing the photos.

He's already quite skilled at photo editing Lin Langyi; he knows how to adjust settings, remove random passersby who accidentally wander into the frame, and stitch together a series of photos of her into a long image...

His fingers were frozen stiff and cold, and the cracked screen was unresponsive. He repeatedly smeared a pedestrian behind the little carp hat, desperately trying to Photoshop him out. His fingers made a "tap tap tap" sound on the screen, but the phone did not respond.

With the battery hanging by a thread, the screen finally went black after all these futile attempts.

He helplessly lowered his arm and pressed it against his eyes, tears flowing silently and even more profusely, his suppressed sobs occasionally leaking out slightly, each syllable like a shattered bubble.

A playful child tried to lick the railing with his tongue, but was sternly stopped by his parents and burst into tears. The sound was so loud that it seemed as if all the sadness in the world had fallen on his head.

"You're crying so hard."

"Don't cry. In such a cold place, your tears will freeze."

"Don't cry."