novelraw Chapter 272 - 126: Zero-Degree Artist
Chapter 272 - 126: Zero-Degree Artist
(ps: This Chapter has quite a few words!)
The flat area at the edge of the slope, the freshly packed snow surface looks like a spread-out white velvet carpet.
Here, it’s far from the crowd at the magic carpet and beginner slope.
"First... first, get used to... standing."
This was Peng Tao’s first time teaching someone to ski, and he felt a bit excited inside.
Li Younan didn’t let this young coach teach her; she just let him guide Chen Rui in getting started.
Peng Tao signaled her to kneel and clamp the bindings as she did in the snow gear hall.
"Good... good." Peng Tao steadied his stance, trying hard to feel a bit of support, "Knees, slightly bent, relax, don’t tense up."
His own knees instinctively bent as he mimicked the correct posture, "Center of gravity... in the middle of both feet, don’t, don’t sit back." His words were still clumsy; he could only use his body posture to gesture.
He let go, allowing Chen Rui to try to keep her balance on her own.
She immediately wobbled like a reed in the wind, her hands flailing wildly in the air.
Seeing this, Li Younan laughed heartily.
With such laughter, Chen Rui simply fell down again.
Chen Rui glared at Li Younan and said, "Annoying..."
"Are you okay?" Peng Tao quickly asked, wanting to reach out to her, but hesitated a bit.
He glanced at Li Younan twice.
How should he put it, he had similar thoughts to Chen Rui because Li Younan wasn’t using top-notch snowboards, and from their conversation, it seemed like even if Li Younan could ski, she was probably just a semi-newbie who hadn’t quite grasped even edge-switching.
"It’s okay, it’s okay!" Chen Rui laughed as she climbed up herself, brushing the snow off her body.
"It’s normal... everyone starts like this." Peng Tao relaxed a bit, also pulling a bit of a grin, "Now learn... we’ll push on flat ground."
He demonstrated the movement: front foot fixed on the board, back foot pushing hard backwards on the snow beside the board. "Like... like scooting a scooter, push once, slide a bit, stop, stabilize, then push again."
Peng Tao spoke while slowly breaking down the actions, pushing once, sliding half a meter, then stabilizing.
When it was her turn to try, Chen Rui was very cautious, barely nudging her back foot, making the board hardly move.
Meanwhile, Li Younan just held the snowboard, curiously glancing around.
The light at the ski resort was extremely dazzling; everyone who studied physics knew that places like these had strong diffuse reflection, so if you stayed long, you had to wear sunglasses or professional goggles.
Technically speaking, they hadn’t truly hit the slopes yet.
Since it wasn’t winter break yet, there weren’t actually too many people skiing here, so it wasn’t considered dangerous.
Compared to snowboarding, skiing is actually a bit easier to pick up.
Yet Chen Rui didn’t choose skis either and chose a snowboard like Li Younan; her reasoning was that snowboarding looked cooler.
Not far away, several coaches were teaching newcomers to ski.
Contrary to what people who had never been to a ski resort imagined, this kind of snow wasn’t soft; falling on it is virtually no different from falling on cement. It still hurts if you don’t have good protective gear.
Li Younan continued to glance around, noticing a little girl about five or six years old, wearing a cute panda outfit with short arms and legs, standing on an equally tiny snowboard sliding down a slope at a leisurely pace.
When the inertia ran out on the flat snow, the cute little thing fell flat with a thud.
Li Younan’s attention was entirely captivated.
Chen Rui chuckled and said, "Aren’t you going to practice at all?"
Li Younan replied seriously, "Didn’t I tell you already? There’s no need, the ski world has its own realm... my pseudonym is Zero Degree Artist."
Not only Chen Rui, even the coach next to them couldn’t help but laugh, then felt it wasn’t quite appropriate and continued teaching Chen Rui.
"The power of the push should be moderate." The coach continued his lesson.
He hesitated a bit, then looked at Li Younan and said, "You might as well give it a try to experience it, the Great Northern Lake ski resorts are considered fairly challenging in the country."
Li Younan was staring dreamily at that cute little thing, his mind wandering for a moment, just casually responding, nodding his head.
In the empty snowy field, there were only clumsy silhouettes and rhythmic "thud" sounds.
Chen Rui started to fall less frequently, but she skidded slowly, like a cautious little snail inching its way across the snow.
Peng Tao resembled a somewhat inflexible moving landmark, taking tiny steps back and forth around Chen Rui, his eyes fixed on her movements.
"Yes, knees, bend a bit more!" Seeing Chen Rui slide a little more steadily once, Peng Tao couldn’t help but raise his voice a bit, with a hint of eagerness and delight he hadn’t noticed himself, "That’s, that’s it!"
Chen Rui was very perceptive; she was an extremely smart girl, not only experiencing with her body as she learned but constantly analyzing and summarizing the experience in her mind, so each fall brought substantial improvement.
Of course, in learning this kind of high-difficulty sport, innate coordination was crucial, and it was clear Chen Rui wasn’t lacking in talent.
"Practice a few more times, then we’ll try... pushing the slope."
...
Most of the time, Li Younan just held the snowboard by his side, watching the coach teach Chen Rui.
Li Younan didn’t directly step in to teach Chen Rui; one reason was that, similar to his previously mastered parkour skills, improving physical fitness and skill through direct experience differed from those skills filled with knowledge in the brain.