As the snow season in St. Moritz, Switzerland reached its peak, Yuan Chen finally fulfilled the promise he had made two years earlier and brought Shen Yi skiing.
"Are you sure you want to try alpine skiing?"
Shen Yi was clumsily adjusting the buckles on his ski boots. At that, he looked up at Yuan Chen. "What do you think?"
Yuan Chen was already fully geared up, his black ski suit accentuating his tall, straight figure.
He bent down to fasten Shen Yi's last buckle, his movements as practiced as if he had done it a thousand times. "That works. You pick everything up quickly. Start with alpine skiing, and switching to snowboarding later will be easier."
There was a quiet pride in his words, and Shen Yi couldn't help smiling.
But his confidence met its first challenge the very second he stepped onto the slope.
The beginner slope looked gentle enough, but once Shen Yi was actually standing on it, staring at the white incline stretching beneath his feet, he suddenly understood what it meant to tread on thin ice-no, thin snow.
"Keep your weight forward." Yuan Chen skied to his side, lightly touching his pole to the ground. "Bend your knees a little. Look ahead, not at your feet."
He made it sound easy, but Shen Yi's body had ideas of its own.
He tried leaning forward, only for his skis to slide backward as though they had minds of their own. He stumbled, his whole body tipping back-
The expected tumble into the snow never came.
Yuan Chen's arm caught him firmly around the waist, his other hand swiftly supporting his back.
They froze on the slope in a pose that almost resembled a dance.
"Breathe." Yuan Chen's voice sounded beside his ear, his breath warm. "You've