Chapter 2380: 2194: Skiing

Ye Qiu didn’t plan to go fishing again; instead, he was getting ready to go skiing. Skiing is definitely rare in the south.

Because even if it snows in some parts of the south in winter, the snow still isn’t enough for skiing.

Basically you can only ski up north, or at ski resorts in the Northeast.

It’s different here in Siberia.

The snow here is much thicker, so skiing on it naturally feels more natural.

"Ye Qiu, you’re going skiing?"

Zhou Wenting asked in disbelief.

If it’s indoor ice skating, Zhou Wenting has done that.

But she really has never gone skiing like this.

Even when she went to France to study back then, she never tried it.

"I had Boss Zhong get everything ready."

After driving out of the Chinese district, Ye Qiu headed far out toward the suburbs.

If the car he was driving didn’t have anti‑skid features, it might have overturned long ago.

When he parked the car, Ye Qiu and Zhou Wenting got out.

He took out the skis and poles he’d prepared in advance. As for other protective gear, Ye Qiu definitely didn’t need it.

"Let me test it first."

Ye Qiu picked up the ski poles, put on the skis, and with a gentle push, the skis glided forward. It felt especially good.

"I’ll take a lap first."

Ye Qiu held the poles, stepped on the skis, and with the help of the skis he shot forward quickly. In the blink of an eye he was far away; when they looked again, he was just a dot in the distance.

When did Ye Qiu learn to ski?

Zhou Wenting couldn’t believe it.

The few employees who had come with Boss Zhong also couldn’t believe it.

Although they could ski too, they did it in ski boots, and even then they weren’t as fast as Ye Qiu.

Over ten minutes later, they saw Ye Qiu come back.

"Hey, when did you get that good?"

"I was born with it. The main thing is controlling your balance—once you’ve got that, it’s as simple as walking."

Zhou Wenting still couldn’t ski.

After Ye Qiu had her put on ski boots, he planned to take her himself.

Since she was in ski boots, it would be inconvenient for him to use skis, so he put on ski boots as well.

When he took Zhou Wenting by the hand, she was a bit scared at first and almost closed her eyes. Gradually she realized nothing was happening to her at all—Ye Qiu was doing all the work, just pulling her along.

Only when Ye Qiu had taken her very, very far did he finally stop. The employees with Boss Zhong had followed, but they were still quite a distance away.

It was really quiet here; wherever you looked, it was a world of ice and snow.

Aside from that, there seemed to be nothing.

Ye Qiu could tell this must be another lake.

Siberia has especially many rivers and lakes, probably because there’s so much snow here, and when the ice and snow melt, all that water flows into the rivers and lakes.

The scenery was beautiful, but you couldn’t find anywhere to sit down.

Still, Ye Qiu could take Zhou Wenting gliding all around the area without spending much energy.

For one thing, on this thick ice, it’s extremely easy to ski.

Only when Zhou Wenting felt her legs getting tired did she look at Ye Qiu and say, "Ye Qiu, I’m a bit tired. I want to go back and sit for a while."

Ye Qiu himself was fine, but Zhou Wenting was starting to feel a bit worn out.

"Then let’s head back."

On the way back with Zhou Wenting, Boss Zhong’s employees were genuinely impressed with Ye Qiu. They realized that not only were his medical skills good and his Russian fluent, he was even better than them—who had lived in Siberia for years—at skiing and skating.

"Dr. Ye, are you two going to keep playing?"

One of the employees asked.

"Let’s sit down and rest first."

There were seats in the car.

And of course some stools as well.

As long as it wasn’t snowing or getting things wet, there was no worry about the stools freezing solid too quickly.

While they were unloading the stools, they also brought down a hotpot setup.

This hotpot setup didn’t use electricity; it burned charcoal and wood.

"Dr. Ye, you’re not planning to do hotpot, are you?"

"Didn’t I ask Boss Zhong to get it ready?"

Sure enough, Ye Qiu saw that Boss Zhong had prepared quite a lot.

Beef, mutton, and vegetables and the like.

Plus the fish Ye Qiu had caught yesterday.

Prices here weren’t too high, but some fresh vegetables could be relatively expensive, because there really aren’t many good vegetables in winter.

In temperatures of dozens of degrees below zero, even greenhouse vegetables are hard to grow; they have to be shipped in from the Northeast.

They had meat, vegetables, and liquor.

"You guys start the pot here first. I’ll go over there and catch some fresh fish."

What he’d caught yesterday, once frozen, Ye Qiu felt wouldn’t be fresh anymore.

And since there was a lake here, he could definitely fish.

The car also had fishing rods and such.

"Dr. Ye, why don’t we go over there instead?"

One employee suggested.

"Works for me. Saves us from moving things back and forth."

They drove over to the lakeshore Ye Qiu had just found.

Once there, Ye Qiu took out the ice‑drilling tools, made a big hole in the ice, and started fishing.

He easily caught several fish.

Then they unloaded the hotpot gear.

He planned to have dinner right here today and not go back to eat at Boss Zhong’s place.

While Zhou Wenting was helping with the preparations, Ye Qiu cleaned the fresh lake fish and set them aside.

"Have you guys ever eaten like this out here before?"

Ye Qiu looked at the employees and asked.

They all shook their heads.

They’d never played like this. Most of the time they took turns digging for mammoth ivory, and when it was time to rest they just rested. They were exhausted; they had absolutely no time for this sort of fun.

But after this trip, they knew that once they went back for the Spring Festival, they wouldn’t come to Siberia anymore.

If Ye Qiu hadn’t come and pulled them back from the brink, they would have died out here.

They felt Boss Zhong still had some conscience—he’d managed to find Ye Qiu. Otherwise, if they died here, who knows what would have happened.

"Ye Qiu, it’s way too cold," Zhou Wenting said.

"Don’t we have a tent?"

The other employee hurried over to get the camping tent.

But since the hotpot was burning charcoal, it would be easy to get carbon monoxide poisoning, so they could only open part of it to let the fumes blow out.

Sitting inside the tent, looking out at the Northern Country scenery, the feeling was really fantastic.

After four in the afternoon, when Ye Qiu and Zhou Wenting went out skiing again, they unexpectedly saw two cars driving toward them.

At first he thought it was just some random people.

Unexpectedly, getting out of the cars—aside from Boss Zhong—were Liliya and the bodyguards she’d brought.

"Ye Qiu, this Miss Liliya is here to see you."

Boss Zhong had seen Liliya go to the Chinese district looking for Ye Qiu, and after calling his employees and roughly figuring out where Ye Qiu was, he drove over as well.