Chapter 13

Almost a month after the peeping tom incident, the buzz of it online had also faded. Just when An Ning began to wonder whether it was a useless effort, he suddenly received Xiao Pang’s WeChat one day. At that time, he was studying in the library. Once he clicked the voice message, the excitement in Xiao Pang’s voice could be heard: “Ge, caught him!!”

The voice suddenly came out, and the people at the front and back tables looked towards An Ning. An Ning became excited too, and for the first time, he stopped his self-study session. He packed up his things and hurried back to the dorm room.

It was Friday and there were no classes in the afternoon. Liang Shenghan had gone out to play. After getting up, Xiao Pang usually turned on the computer to watch the videos taken by the camera. In order to store the videos, he even bought several hard drives. These past few days he would watch the surveillance day and night, and he finally caught the person! An Ning hurried back to watch the video with him. It turned out that it was the short, tan boy from the photo sent by Qin Weihang. In the scene, he even turned on the camera of his phone before entering the women’s restroom. This was conclusive evidence. The two sent WeChat messages to both Liang Shenghan and Qin Weihang. Qin Weihang didn’t reply, while Liang Shenghan replied with a voice message, saying: “That’s great! Let’s deal with him!”

Xiao Pang asked Liang Shenghan: “How to deal with him?”

“You still need to ask, of course we need to go to the police!” Liang Shenghan replied, “This fellow has become a habitual peeping tom. Before, the school made a big deal out of it, yet he still dare to commit the same crime. You can tell that he has no intention of repenting! Moreover, he also turned on his phone camera. Who knows if he had previously secretly recorded something and posted it on the Internet…”

An Ning and Xiao Pang made a decisive decision. They made a copy of the video and took it to the school’s police station. When they arrived at the police station, Liang Shenghan also arrived. The three people reported the case and finished the paper works. It was five o’clock when they came out of the police station. Xiao Pang was in a good mood and said: “Let’s go! This little bro will treat you guys to a big meal!” Liang Shenghan said to go another day, because he had an appointment with an online friend for dinner. An Ning was also worried about the books he hadn’t finished reading in the library. Xiao Pang had to give up, feeling very disappointed.

During dinnertime, An Ning went to the cafeteria to casually fill his stomach. His WeChat rang midway during the meal. Qin Weihang had replied to his WeChat message: Did you report the crime?

An Ning held down the voice button, opened his mouth and said: “Reported!”

He still had half a mouthful of food in his mouth that he hadn’t swallowed yet, so this “Reported” sounded muffled and a little amusing. He swallowed the food and said more clearly: “Went to the school police station to report the case!”

After a while, Qin Weihang sent a voice message for the first time. An Ning was surprised and clicked to hear Qin Weihang say: “It’s good that you reported it.”

Was it an illusion just now? But it felt like that “reported” sounded strange. Why does it sound a bit like the tone he used just now?

They thought the matter was settled just like that, but they didn’t expect the counselor to call all three of them to the office the next day. The three of them stood confused in the office as they were persuaded by the counselor for half an hour. The three of them pretty much understood what the counselor wanted to say. If they encounter such a situation in the future, they should tell the counselor first; reporting to the police should be the last resort.

Xiao Pang was disappointed when he left the counselor’s office. He said: “It seems that they are going to cover it up…”

An Ning comforted him: “Not necessarily. Let’s wait and see.”

After waiting for several days, the school did not post any notice about the matter with the peeping tom. However, the matter still spread in the school. The girl who previously posted on the campus forum wrote another post to apologize to the person who had been suspected before. Although the school didn’t want to make a scene out of it, the boy was still called to the police station for questioning. This news was spread and everyone ended up knowing about it. It was said that the boy was still a poor student, so his financial aid was cancelled and his student loan application was rejected. An Ning never expected that his own mood would be quite complicated for a while. Fortunately, Xiao Pang was completely cleared of suspicion this time, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

Xiao Pang specially came to thank him for this. He even brought An Ning a local specialty from his hometown. An Ning was a little embarrassed to see him so earnest: “Actually, I didn’t do much.”

Xiao Pang shook his head: “No, no, you have done so much. You are the first one to stand by my side and the only one who has never doubted me. Thank you so much, An Ning-ge.”

An Ning felt complicated. He technically didn’t do much, yet it was a big help to the other party, He nodded and said: “Don’t mention it.”

“Actually, I thought over it,” Xiao Pang said. “If I couldn’t catch that person, I probably could only sink my own boat*, but that…” He lowered his head and lowered his voice.

[*TN: Idiom used here was “to break the cauldrons and sink the boats.” Means to do something irreversible/without turning back.]

An Ning looked at him, not quite understanding what he meant. So, he raised his hand and patted his back lightly.

Xiao Pang lifted his head and his eyes were a little wet: “So thank you very much…”

“Okay,” An Ning said with a smile, “you have thanked me many times. We’re all studying law, so I definitely can’t watch you be wronged.”

Xiao Pang bit his lip and suddenly hugged him: “Ge, you’re so kind! I want to learn from you!”

An Ning was forced to raise his head and put his arms around Xiao Pang’s shoulders. He said: “Or start learning without skipping classes…”

Xiao Pang: “……”

After this event, An Ning and the duo from next door established a deep bonding friendship. Xiao Pang even created a WeChat group. It wasn’t enough to pull An Ning and Liang Shenghan into the group, but he even encouraged An Ning to add Qin Weihang into the group too. An Ning felt that it wasn’t appropriate—if he were adding others, he will definitely add them without saying a word. The target, however, was Qin Weihang. He had always thought, for a lone wolf like Qin Weihang, he shouldn’t be the type to like being in WeChat groups. Especially with Xiao Pang always sending messages in the group, won’t Qin Weihang feel annoyed?

Xiao Pang gave him this glorious task because he was the only one who had Qin Weihang’s WeChat account. But he was able to add Qin Weihang’s WeChat account entirely because Qin Weihang wanted to compensate him for his glasses. At the time, Qin Weihang said “Add me on WeChat,” and he was flattered. However, he snapped out of it after 2000 yuan was transferred to him. If it hadn’t been for the broken glasses, then Qin Weihang wouldn’t have added him.

On the weekends, Xiao Pang even asked him in the group. An Ning put it off by saying that he forgot, but he couldn’t just keep forgetting like this.

It was Monday when Qin Weihang finally came to attend a major course. An Ning had expected Xiao Pang to go tell Qin Weihang himself, but he didn’t think Xiao Pang would skip class and sleep in the dorm. After the first jurisprudence class was over, An Ning turned his head back with a headache. Qin Weihang was still sitting in the last row, leaning back relaxed. His head was lowered, and he was scrolling on his phone. He suddenly raised his head and An Ning immediately turned his head with a guilty conscience. He pretended to watch the scenery outside the window. When he raised his head again, Qin Weihang had already got up and walked out of the aisle, passing by his own seat. An Ning just anxiously watched Qin Weihang pass by in front of him and walk out the classroom in a blink of an eye.

Forget it, it’s better to WeChat him. An Ning found that he couldn’t get rid of this burden anyway, so it was better to tell him in WeChat than to mention this bold request to him in person. Qin Weihang can also feel comfortable when rejecting it.

After class that day, he sent a WeChat message to Qin Weihang, typing a line very politely: Qin Weihang, Xiao Pang made a WeChat group. Do you want to join? It’s just the three of us (four when you come). If you don’t like being in groups, then just treat it as if I didn’t say anything. No need to get back to me! Don’t worry about it!

Qin Weihang didn’t reply to him until the evening, so he pretty much knew what his answer was.

When he was in gym class the next day, Xiao Pang had asked him again. An Ning was thinking about what to say, but then the gym teacher told them to line up, so Xiao Pang just forgot about it. That afternoon An Ning went to the library for self-study. As soon as he sat down, his WeChat rang. He opened his phone and unexpectedly, after 24 hours of no news, Qin Weihang actually joined the group!

He stared at the familiar black motorcycle profile picture and couldn’t snap out of it. Xiao Pang wrote in the group chat: Is this you, Hang-ge?

After waiting for a while, Qin Weihang didn’t reply, so An Ning helped him reply: It’s him

Xiao Pang immediately sent a series of emoticons: Welcome, A University’s school grass!!

Liang Shenghan also came: Damn, the attractiveness of this group is now off the charts!

And then it became Xiao Pang’s solo time again. Various emojis and short paragraphs emerge endlessly. An Ning smiled reluctantly and shook his head. He turned off WeChat and buried himself in his books again.

But he really didn’t expect Qin Weihang to join the group so straightforwardly. It seemed that he was thinking too much. He didn’t know why, but it was easy for him to overthink things related to Qin Weihang.

At 10 p.m, he went back to his dorm room and opened WeChat. He found out that Qin Weihang had sent him a WeChat message at six o’clock. Then, for some reason, he had withdrawn it. He didn’t see what it was and suddenly became a little concerned. On the other hand, the messages in the group was so much that it was about to explode.

What are they chatting about for there to be so much? It was impossible for Xiao Pang to send so much messages by himself. He tilted his head curiously and saw that at 7:30, Qin Weihang posted: On Sunday morning, there is a rock climbing club activity at the Black Horse Rock Climbing Base. If you want to come, go to this rock climbing gym and let the boss take you guys with him.

After that, Xiao Pang sent a Ji Shi’s* ‘exciting moment’ GIF and asked: Ge, what time in the morning?!

[*TN: He was mentioned in ch. 7. Ji Shi is a character from another novel by this author, called Soul Vibration.]

Liang Shenghan searched up Dark Horse Rock Climbing Base and sent a location over, asking: Is it here?

Qin Weihang replied: Yes. Try to be as early as possible, otherwise you can only watch me rest.

Xiao Pang sent a rainbow fart GIF: Ge, you’re handsome even when you rest!

An Ning discovered that Liang Shenghan had @ him in the group and asked him if he had time on Sunday morning, but he had silenced WeChat at the time and didn’t see it at all.

Xiao Pang said in the group: An Ning-ge doesn’t use WeChat when he’s studying.

Qin Weihang replied: He’s that serious?

Liang Shenghan: Mr. Handsome, don’t you feel ashamed?!

Xiao Pang: I don’t think he feels ashamed.

After that, Qin Weihang didn’t say anything in the group. An Ning wondered, was this maybe the message Qin Weihang retracted? He hurriedly sent a separate message to Qin Weihang: I will definitely come on Sunday!

Qin Weihang still did not reply to him.

The silence of Qin Weihang’s profile picture was too irritating. An Ning waited for more than an hour. He even waited until the lights went out, yet Qin Weihang never replied to him.

Alas, he put down his phone and thought that he should not mute WeChat in the future.