Chapter 26

During the class break, An Ning wasn’t sure if he should leave the classroom to take a walk and then come back. It was really awkward to sit behind Qin Weihang. However, if he goes out, he would have to face Qin Weihang head-on when he pass by him on the way back. He didn’t dare look at Qin Weihang’s expression right now, but at this moment, his eyes were conflicted—they just won’t pull away from the back of Qin Weihang’s head. Even if he forced himself to lower his head to write notes, his eyes would drift forward. Qin Weihang would move just a little, and he would pray crazily in his heart: Get up! Go for a walk! How can you sit still after sitting for so long?!

But school grass Qin never followed what he wished. He stumbled through the note-taking until he reached the third line. At that moment, Qin Weihang put an earphone on his right ear. An Ning held a pen in his hand, and stared straight at the white headphone cable hanging on Qin Weihang’s shoulder. He muttered in his heart: Put in the left one too. Hurry and put in the left one!

Before he could see Qin Weihang putting in his left earphone, he was patted on the shoulder. An Ning turned his head sharply and saw Liang Shenghan and Xiao Pang coming down from the back row with their backpack.

The two of them were originally sitting in the fifth row from the back. They probably saw Qin Weihang coming here, so they both also came to sit down and join in on the fun.

An Ning was suddenly relieved. He quickly got up to make room for the two of them. As soon as Xiao Pang sat down, he went forward to pat Qin Weihang’s shoulder. Qin Weihang’s entire back became stiff. An Ning caught a glimpse of him pulling off the earphones in confusion. As he turned back, An Ning hurriedly bowed his head and concentrated on sorting out his notes, not meeting Qin Weihang’s gaze. Then he heard Xiao Pang ask Qin Weihang: “Why did you come to this class, ge?”

After a while, he heard Qin Weihang’s indifferent tone,”If I don’t come, then I’ll fail the course.”

“Even you would care about failing a class?” Xiao Pang’s face had a ‘Who are you? You’re Qin Weihang, how can you be afraid of failing class?’

Liang Shenghan teased: “After all, he has to make a living.”

Qin Weihang did not respond to his joke and glanced in An Ning’s direction. Liang Shenghan also noticed. Since he and Xiao Pang came over, An Ning was focused on writing notes throughout. Looking at Qin Weihang’s attitude, he was even more convinced; there was something strange going on between these two. He coughed and made a suggestion: “There is a dry pot shop* at the back of the school. It just opened, so it’s still bustling. Why don’t the four of us go there after class? There will be no class in the afternoon anyway.”

*A different version of hot pot. Basically cooked w/o soup and w/ spices instead.

Why is there no class in the afternoon? An Ning raised his head to look at Liang Shenghan. So Marxism class is not considered a class in your eyes…

Foodie Xiao Pang immediately responded: “Sure, I went to that shop last week. It tastes good, and I can vouch for its reputation!”

An Ning did not answer. He was waiting for Qin Weihang’s answer, but Qin Weihang kept looking down and swiping his phone without participating in their conversation. Xiao Pang patted him on the shoulder again and shouted: “Ge, let’s go together!”

Qin Weihang took off his earphones again and looked back. Even though An Ning did not meet Qin Weihang’s eyes, but he noticed that Qin Weihang deliberately turned his shoulders this time around. He leaned sideways, staggering himself to only look at Xiao Pang: “Going where?”

Xiao Pang made a ‘woah’ sound, and his whole body leaned back: “Oh, ge, don’t suddenly get so close! My heart can’t stand it!”

Qin Weihang laughed. He found it funny in the beginning, but it quickly died down towards the end.

Liang Shenghan said: “The Fatty Dry Pot shop at the back of the school. Let’s go together!”

An Ning felt that Qin Weihang would definitely find an excuse to refuse, so when he heard Qin Weihang say “I will think about it,” he couldn’t react.

Liang Shenghan and Xiao Pang were also a little stunned. Liang Shenghan thought, eat if you want to eat. Don’t eat if you don’t want to. Is this something that needs thinking over?

Xiao Pang said: “Hey, why do you need to think about it? Just go!”

The old professor walked in with a thermos, Qin Weihang turned around and said: “Let’s attend class first.”

An Ning was completely dumbfounded. He already had it all thought out, if Qin Weihang said he wasn’t going, then he would go. If Qin Weihang said he wanted to go, he would find an excuse not to go, but what can he do now?

In the next 40 minutes of class, An Ning couldn’t pay attention. The old professor made a witty remark. He could feel that everyone in the classroom was laughing, but only his eyes were empty. He didn’t know what Qin Weihang’s answer would be after he was done contemplating over it. It will take forty minutes to get the answer, which was too torturous.

During class, An Ning looked at Qin Weihang’s side profile in pain. Suddenly, Qin Weihang straightened up, put his elbow on the table, raised his right hand and propped it on the side of his face. At this moment, An Ning couldn’t see his face, thus he withdrew his gaze with a little shame.

He finally managed to make it to the end of the class. An Ning was like a person who was waiting for a verdict, slowly collecting his things. Xiao Pang patted Qin Weihang in the front row, and said: “Ge, have you thought it over?”

Qin Weihang stood up with his backpack, the camouflage backpack leaned back on his shoulders, he looked out the window to ponder: “It doesn’t seem like there is anything, so I’ll go.”

An Ning looked up at him with a dazed expression.

The group stood up, An Ning followed Liang Shenghan and came out last. He was stumped for a long time, then said: “Uh, I…”

Liang Shenghan looked back at him. Xiao Pang also turned his head. Qin Weihang was the last one to turn his head. His face didn’t have any expression of surprise, seeming to be waiting for him to speak.

Liang Shenghan said: “Don’t say you can’t go. The four of us finally got together!” He looked at Qin Weihang, “Right, Qin Weihang?”

Qin Weihang hooked the corner of his mouth. This unmoving smile was for Liang Shenghan, then he looked at An Ning and said: “Let’s go together.”

Three words without any emotions in it.

Qin Weihang walked in front when they went downstairs together. An Ning was worrying over the bill by himself. The dry pot shop was said to be behind A University, and they needed to go out from the east school gate, however, Qin Weihang couldn’t find it. Later, it was Xiao Pang and Liang Shenghan who led the way. An Ning kept a distance from Qin Weihang. Sometimes, Qin Weihang would turn his head and look at the street. He probably hadn’t been here at the east school gate. At this time, An Ning had to slow down.

They passed at least two dry pot shops on the way, but none of them were the one that Liang Shenghan and Xiao Pang mentioned. They went farther and farther, but the most embarrassing thing was that he and Qin Weihang were getting pulled away from the two people up ahead. Then An Ning suddenly heard Xiao Pang shouting, “Green light!” As soon as he looked up, he saw Xiao Pang and Liang Shenghan rushing across the zebra crossing for the last five seconds. He hurriedly sped up his steps to follow, but Qin Weihang raised his hand to stop him at this moment. He hit Qin Weihang’s arm with his chest, then saw a motorcycle swiftly passing in front of them.

The green light was clearly still—An Ning looked up at the light, only to realize that the light had already turned red.

Qin Weihang put down his hand without saying a word, put it back in the pocket of his denim jacket, and looked ahead without squinting.

Liang Shenghan and Xiao Pang were waiting for them across the crosswalk, while An Ning had to wait for the green light with Qin Weihang. Liang Shenghan and Xiao Pang were not only chatting, but also animatedly gesturing. In contrast, their side was as quiet as the Siberian Plain. He didn’t know who designed this light; for such a short intersection, wasn’t 90 seconds a bit too long?

The moment the red light turned green, Qin Weihang stepped forward. An Ning didn’t have to slow down and was easily left behind by him. He had quickly walked far away. It was too easy for people with tall legs to walk faster. An Ning remembered the time when Qin Weihang had dinner with him. That time Qin Weihang must have been merciful.

Liang Shenghan said that the dry pot shop was behind the school, but it was actually a bit far away. Even if they don’t count the distance they walked on campus, they walked almost one train stop’s distance to get there.

In this dry pot shop, pretty much everyone were students from A University. When they raised their head, they saw Qin Weihang walking in. Many people’s eyes widened, and they used their eyes to explain why ‘knowing someone by reputation wasn’t as good as meeting the actual person.’

An Ning waited for the three people to sit down before taking the last seat. This time he sat on Qin Weihang’s left side. It was a four seated table. It was either sitting next to or opposite, so he had no choice. As soon as he sat down, he heard the two boys who were leaving after eating. One of them muttered: “Damn, this school grass is so manly! I thought it was another pretty boy again!” The other one said: “Be quiet…” but after walking out of the shop, he muttered excitedly, “That pretty boy plays extreme…”

Qin Weihang frowned and coughed, revealing a trace of discomfort.

When ordering food, An Ning said that he’ll do it himself, and then he looked down at his phone. In fact, nothing was entering his head. Then he suddenly heard Qin Weihang ask: “Why did you change your phone again?”

He couldn’t even react in time to ask himself this, and Xiao Pang had already helped him say: “He lost his phone, such a pity!”

“Really?” Qin Weihang’s tone was cold, “Why were you so careless?”

Liang Shenghan could feel it now; Qin Weihang’s body was emitting cold air. Did he read that post? The hostility towards An Ning was too obvious…

An Ning mustered up the courage to raise his head and said: “Qin Weihang…”

He didn’t even finish calling his name when the waiter started serving the food. Qin Weihang obviously didn’t want to hear him speak anymore, he directly picked up the chopsticks. The chopsticks slapped on the table as if silently saying: No need to call me.

An Ning retreated. He actually thought about how to find a chance to explain to Qin Weihang many times along the way, Maybe the other party misunderstood him. However, every time he saw Qin Weihang’s frosty attitude, it made him feel bad and unable to speak. Qin Weihang now recovered the aura that he had when he first saw him, the one that repelled people a thousand miles away. Yet, to him, the distance seemed to be a little further away. It was a difference between 1,000 miles and 108,000 miles.

Liang Shenghan called for beer and asked them: “Can you drink?”

Qin Weihang directly took a bottle, knocked open the bottle cap on the table, poured himself a glass, and the mouth of the bottle moved to An Ning’s cup. He looked down and asked indifferently: “Drinking?”

An Ning moved the cup closer, and Qin Weihang filled it for him.

An Ning kept looking at the beer glass while it was being poured. Qin Weihang kept looking at him, and the liquid continued to flow up until Liang Shenghan said: “Hey, that’s enough.” Qin Weihang immediately returned to his senses and took his hand away before the glass was almost full. But he found that he still poured too much, so he said: “Drink my glass.”

He wanted to change his glass, but An Ning brought the full glass of beer to himself and said: “No need.”

His voice was very low, like the stammering of a herbivore in pain.

The beer spilled out when the glass was moved. An Ning took out the tissue on the table and wiped his hands silently.

Qin Weihang looked at him—this kind of appearance really makes people feel distressed. Then he took his gaze back. He can judge a person by their appearance, but it was not necessary.

As soon as the heat of the dry pot came up, An Ning’s lenses became foggy. Before, he would wipe it, but he couldn’t be bothered to move right now. He didn’t have an appetite anyway. He ate like an outsider during the whole process. At first, he would respond with some difficulty, but Qin Weihang would shut up as soon as he spoke, so he didn’t speak much afterwards. He just listened to Liang Shenghan and Xiao Pang chatting. Occasionally, Qin Weihang would respond with two sentences, as if everything had nothing to do with him.

Halfway, whenever Xiao Pang spoke, he would speak like he was high. Maybe he was drinking a little too much, because his hand would touch the chopsticks in An Ning’s hand. When he put the chopsticks in the pot, he noticed that one was missing. He turned his head and dizzily saw it far away at the foot of the next table.

“I’ll get a pair of chopsticks…” He stood up holding the edge of the table, which seemed to be the third sentence he said after eating for so long. He can also ask the waiter to bring him a pair of chopsticks, but right now, he desperately wanted to get out of this predicament and breathe a sigh of relief.

Qin Weihang watched An Ning get up. As soon as he got up, the chair fell back. Qin Weihang quickly stretched out his hand to help, but who could’ve known that An Ning would turn to him. Qin Weihang held the back of the chair with his right hand, raised his head and frowned at him; his face looked as if asking ‘Why are you turning to me?’ An Ning also looked down at him, and was about to turn around to change directions. Qin Weihang suddenly withdrew his hand at that moment, so An Ning left from this side.

Qin Weihang watched An Ning staggering all the way to the front counter. Before he came back, he replaced An Ning’s glass of beer. After replacing it with his own, he found that it still had a lot in it. He frowned and gave a “tsk” sound. He shook his head and resigned to his fate. Qin Weihang picked the cup up, raised his head, and took a quick sip, then put it back with a clank. He then vigilantly looked at the direction of the front counter. An Ning had just taken the chopsticks and turned around.

Qin Weihang leaned back on the chair, put his hands forward, and faced the dry pot with a frown. The figure was reflected in the corner of his eyes, and he waited for the person to walk back safely and sit next to him. He sighed, straightened up, and picked up his chopsticks again.

After An Ning sat down, he saw the glass of beer beside his hand. He picked it up and took a sip. A full glass of beer was finally drunk empty by him. The world was suddenly like looking at flowers in the fog*. Liang Shenghan and Xiao Pang seemed to be covered in a layer of fog. He glanced at Qin Weihang’s direction and found that Qin Weihang was sitting there like a heavenly god with a radiating aura from head to toe. As for his expression, it was quite gentle…

[*TN: Looking blurry]

So cool!