Chapter 23

As soon as An Ning returned to the dorm, he quickly changed his clothes. He left the library at noon and went to Lantian County. On the way there, it suddenly started to rain heavily. The subway station was some distance away from Lantian County and there were no umbrella sellers nearby. When he arrived at the villa, he got wet all over, so Qian Fei-jie gave him a clean shirt to put on.

The clothes belonged to Yuan Xiaoye’s deceased father. Although Yuan Xiaoye didn’t say anything, he definitely minded. The price of the clothes was definitely not cheap either. He was afraid that he would mess it up by washing it, so he changed his clothes and sent it to the dry cleaners before it closed. When he came back, he saw Liang Shenghan and Xiao Pang walking out of their room, so he said hello with a smile.

Liang Shenghan and Xiao Pang raised their heads abruptly when they saw him. They stood still and replied “Hey” to him. Their uniform movements made An Ning inexplicably smile. He pushed his glasses and asked with a smile: “What’s up? You guys are going to the Internet café, right?”

The two kept still and nodded at him. An Ning couldn’t figure out what the two of them were doing. It seemed like there was some truth in the saying that roommates that live together for a long time will end up resembling each other.

After An Ning returned to his room, Liang Shenghan and Xiao Pang quietly walked towards the stairs without saying a word. Xiao Pang began to complain to Liang Shenghan: “You looked too strange just now!”

Liang Shenghan also stared at him, “What about you, what were you stuttering and getting nervous for?”

The two complained to each other for a while, then Xiao Pang sighed, “Haaa, I’m so confused right now. What’s going on? Should we ask to find out?”

Liang Shenghan was more clear-headed. He said to him: “How to ask? If it’s really not like that, then won’t you feel awkward? But if it’s really like that, then we’ll all be uncomfortable!”

Xiao Pang fell into painful contemplation.

Liang Shenghan put his arms around his shoulders and said: “It’s not that complicated, just think about it, does this affect us being friends?”

“Of course it doesn’t!” Xiao Pang said.

Liang Shenghan patted him on the shoulder: “We’re done then. It’s not like you’re the one who’s dating An Ning-ge. How can this matter impact us? We’ll just do whatever we want and not care about it. You also know what the forum is like. Don’t you know how many allegations are proved to be false in the end?” After that, he casually strode downstairs.

Xiao Pang followed behind, pointing sneakily at An Ning’s room door, then whispered: “But he doesn’t know yet. Once I start thinking about this, I get anxious!”

Liang Shenghan said: “It will be fine. These kinds of gossips will disappear in two days. There will be new gossip in a few days since these people can never stay idle.”

Xiao Pang looked sentimental: “When it comes to An Ning-ge, I think he’s smart in some areas, but in some other areas he is too stupid. Just look at that post he wrote on the Internet. The last part of his student ID got exposed, yet he didn’t even know. He should’ve at least used a nickname…”

[*TN: I’m assuming An Ning’s username has some numbers from his student ID. The post he wrote should be what he wrote to defend Qian Fei on the forum.]

Liang Shenghan said: “I want to know who was the one who took the sneak shot. What do you think?”

Xiao Pang straightened his back, filled with righteous resentment: “Who?!”

Liang Shenghan shook his head: “Forget it. With this IQ of yours, it’s hard to discuss this with you.”

In front of the entrance of Jidao Rock Climbing Gym, there were many rock climbers enjoying a scene that was like a luxury car blockbuster.

In the parking lot outside the climbing gym, an ocean blue convertible Porsche and a black Yamaha R1 arrived at the same time. The sky was dark, but the streetlights were still not on. The front lights of the two sports cars were turned on at the same time, and the exhaust noises were continuously running. That scene was really worth watching.

The Porsche 911 was a hardtop convertible. At this moment, the hardtop was still open. The owner was a beautiful woman with long curly hair. Sitting next to her was Tang Zi; the niece of the climbing gym owner, Yu Ran, who the rock climbers were familiar with. The black Yamaha motorcycle belonged to Qin Weihang, a young god well known in the rock climbing world.

Tang Zi turned her head and watched the Yamaha R1 slow down and stopped on the side. Once Qin Weihang turned off the engine and pulled out the key, the exhaust sound stopped. Qin Weihang was wearing a loose camouflage long T-shirt, black ripped jeans, and his long legs was propped on the ground. He didn’t turn sideways, didn’t greet her, and his appearance looked cold. Tang Zi spit at him in her heart. Was the person who was following behind us actually you?

She loosened the seat belt and turned to thank Qian Fei: “President Qian, thank you for driving me!”

Qian Fei smiled and said: “Just call me Qian Fei-jie.”

Tang Zi wasn’t modest, and straightforwardly called: “Okay, Qian Fei-jie!”

Before, Qian Fei noticed while on the road that the black motorcycle was several car spaces behind her car. After passing a toll booth, it suddenly overtook the cars and approached hers. He changed lanes twice in a row, it was obvious that the target was their car. Tang Zi was even more excited to see that black motorcycle than when she saw her Porsche. Tang Zi urged her: “This kind of motorcyclist is really…really annoying! President Qian, let’s open the hood and shock him!”

She was quite willing to satisfy the vanity of the little girl, so she opened the hood. The weather wasn’t good for them to open the hood. They were simply showing off, but neither of them minded. The cold wind blew on Tang Zi, and she shivered. Qian Fei turned on the heating system and a warm current slowly blew out from the center console, blowing both of their long hair. She smiled and thought, haha, now this is more like showing off.

The rider of the Yamaha R1 turned his head and looked over here. The goggles of the motorcycle helmet reflected them being pretentious in the burgundy seats. Tang Zi also yelled at him: “Do you dare compete with me, little guy—“

Qian Fei was actually not sure about the Yamaha R1’s intentions. When it changed lanes to catch up, she thought she had encountered a motorcycle racer, but it just approached them. After looking at them, there was no further action. Later, it slowed down its speed and quietly followed behind. Tang Zi also jokingly said: “He is following us. President Qian, let’s get rid of him!”

At that time, she guessed that Tang Zi probably knew the boy riding the motorcycle. Now both vehicles have stopped at this climbing gym, so she was even more sure. She smiled and asked in a low voice: “Your boyfriend?”

Tang Zi smiled: “What boyfriend!” Won’t whoever has this person as their boyfriend just be an unlucky ghost?* Won’t he be the boyfriend of a ghost?

[*TN: Unlucky ghost (倒霉鬼/dǎoméiguǐ) means to be terribly unlucky; the word ‘ghost’ being the ‘terribly’ part. I left it literal so that you understand why she was referring to the girlfriend as a ghost.]

After bidding farewell to Qian Fei, Tang Zi waited until the Porsche drove away, then walked up to the motorcycle with an eyebrow raised, and said: “You’re really something. Why were you following us all the way here?”

Qin Weihang only opened his goggles and watched the Porsche go away. Then he took off his helmet and said coldly: “Who is following you?”

Seeing Qin Weihang also looking at the direction of Porsche’s disappearance, Tang Zi said: “Then you weren’t following me, but following her?”

Qin Weihang asked her: “Do you know her?”

Tang Zi said: “She’s the boss of the company I’m interning at.”

Qin Weihang frowned again, looking thoughtful.

Tang Zi teased him: “Why? You fell in love with her at first sight? But my boss is indeed very beautiful, and she is also very nice. She saw that I was waiting for the taxi and took the initiative to stop and pick me up, but she is already…”

“Married, I know.” Qin Weihang interrupted her, stepped off of the motorcycle, and buckled the helmet on the handle, even doing so with a bit of strength.

Seeing the helmet swaying on the handlebar of the motorcycle, Tang Zi turned around and asked Qin Weihang: “Damn, no way. Have you met her before? No way, you really…” She said this as she scanned Qin Weihang up and down, “Is she so attractive?”

Qin Weihang walked up the steps carrying his backpack without speaking. Tang Zi followed and said as she walked: “In fact, her husband seems to have passed away two or three years ago, but I heard from the company’s employees that she seems to have found a good-looking young university student, even her child is quite old. It is expected that the child will not accept it. Furthermore, this kind of age difference between a woman and man will be criticized outside…”

Qin Weihang refuse to listen and opened the glass door. Tang Zi stuck behind him and wedged her way in. She walked two steps and suddenly remembered something. She pointed to Qin Weihang’s back in astonishment, “By the way, aren’t you from A University’s law department?! It couldn’t be that it’s—”

“It’s not me.” Qin Weihang said.

Tang Zi stroked her chest, remembering that Qian Fei asked her if Qin Weihang was her boyfriend. She really has a goldfish brain. She smiled and said: “That’s right, if it were you, then you won’t just be quite good-looking, but explosively good-looking. Moreover, I heard that they’re a top student, and you’re just a slacker that’s unworthy… Then why are you asking so much for?”

Qin Weihang stopped abruptly and turned his head to look at her: “Although it’s not me, I probably know who it is.”

He spoke with a cold nasally voice, seemingly with disdain. This was the first time Tang Zi saw Qin Weihang’s expression like this. Her eyes widened: “Your classmate? Wow, your law department is really…unfathomable…”

Tang Zi left after only two hours of practice that day. Qin Weihang said that she was not in a good state, so he asked her to go back to make adjustment. When Tang Zi left, she didn’t understand which part of her was not in good state.

As usual, Qin Weihang stayed alone until late and did a series of exercises; such as fingerboard, pull-ups, and push-ups. The intention was to do bouldering training after warming up, but he seemed to have accidentally overdone it.

After applying chalk powder on his upper hand, he suddenly dropped his hand while doing bouldering training. When he fell on the bouldering mat, it made a bang sound. The heavy, muffled sound was a little scary in the empty climbing gym.

Normally he should adjust his posture and try his best to bend his legs to the ground, but this time, his hands slipped suddenly. The height was only five meters, so he had no time to adjust and had to land on his back. When he was about to touch the ground, he curled up his back as much as possible and rolled over in order to reduce the impact on the back when landing, but he still felt a little dizzy. It has been a long time since he accidentally fell from this height, and he was a little uncomfortable.

Yu Ran heard the sound and ran over. He saw Qin Weihang lying on the bouldering mat a little uncomfortably, his chest rose and fell violently. He was hugging himself with two hands; rubbed his neck with one hand, and rubbed his shoulders with the other hand. Yu Ran hurriedly took out his phone and took a few shots. After that, he came over to help Qin Weihang: “What’s the matter with you?! Did you fucking run up to the ceiling?!”

Qin Weihang was sweaty on his forehead, turned over and sat up, and said: “I’m fine.” He recovered after a while, bent a leg, put his right hand on his knee a little loosely, and raised his head to say, “The beam on your ceiling should be cleaned. There’s spider webs on it.” He opened his right hand, his fingers draped on his knee. Sure enough, it was covered in spider webs.

Yu Ran said: “Oh, I’m sorry, great god. I caused you to fall.”

Qin Weihang didn’t answer his ridicule and said: “Give me a tissue.”

Yu Ran found a piece of paper towel for him. Qin Weihang lowered his head and cleaned his fingers one after another, then sat there with his hands on his knees and looked up at the bouldering wall.

Yu Ran followed his gaze and asked: “Is there anything wrong with the wall?”

Qin Weihang said: “I plan to reinstall it.”

Yu Ran was puzzled, “Didn’t you just nailed it again?”

Qin Weihang shook his head. He shook it as if he didn’t know what was wrong: “… It doesn’t attract me anymore.”

Yu Ran laughed with a “pfft” and looked at Qin Weihang, “Who attracts you, then? The beautiful Porsche 911 owner?”

Qin Weihang glanced at him from the side: “What exactly did I do? Why is everyone holding on to this topic and not letting go? I have no interest in a woman who is married.”

Yu Ran also sat down beside him: “Then what type are you interested in?”

Qin Weihang lowered his head and rubbed the chalk powder on his hands. The chalk powder was almost gone. Only the calluses that had accompanied him for many years were left on his hands: “I’m not interested in people. People are too complicated. I like animals.”

“Then what are you going to do when you get old? Find an animal to accompany you?”

“Sure,” Qin Weihang said, “I’ll look for an animal with clear eyes. It doesn’t need to talk, and I would know what it is thinking. Moreover, animals won’t lie to me.”

“Then you can find a person with clear eyes.” Yu Ran said.

Qin Weihang stood up and said: “There is no such person.” He glanced at the phone that Yu Ran threw aside, and said, “What did you take? Delete it for me.”

“Oh, it’s nothing. I’m just keeping it as a remembrance.” Yu Ran stood up with a smile and quietly moved to pick up the phone before Qin Weihang can do anything, “I plan to print it out, mount it, and hang it in front of the climbing gym. It will remind everyone to take safety precautions.”

Qin Weihang stared at him for a while. He walked to the side and brought out the tools for removing the holds.

In the empty rock hall, the electric screwdriver creaked. Yu Ran looked at Qin Weihang’s figure, hesitated for a while, and said: “I have to tell you something.”

“What?” Qin Weihang grasped a hold and removed it.

Yu Ran said: “Your dad called just now.”

Qin Weihang’s hands didn’t stop: “Really, when?”

“When you were training Tang Zi. I said you were not here with me.”

Qin Weihang nodded: “Thanks, you don’t need to tell me in the future.”

Yu Ran sighed: “But that’s still your dad.”

Qin Weihang said: “He is now in Hawaii with his lover. Before being my dad, he is first a man.”

“They’re a legal couple, that’s your stepmother.”

Qin Weihang put down the electric screwdriver in his hand, turned his head, and said: “If you continue this topic, we may not even be friends anymore.”

Yu Ran shuts up.

Qin Weihang picked up the tool again and ruthlessly nailed the hold onto the wall.