Chapter 28

Tang Zi came to the rock climbing gym, changed her clothes, and walked out. Today, she will go to the artificial rock wall to practice top roping. When she came out, Qin Weihang stood under the rock wall. He had his head up and preparing the top rope. He turned his head, and glanced at her, frowning: “Put on the harness.”

Tang Zi slowly bent over to put on the harness, then said: “Done, coach.”

Qin Weihang turned around, glanced at her harness, and handed her the rope.

Tang Zi took the rope and suddenly couldn’t remember how Qin Weihang taught her to tie the figure-eight knot. She raised her head and glanced at Qin Weihang. Qin Weihang was lowering his head and putting the rope on the protection device*. He was still the same, still wearing a black jumper over his harness. She has been learning rock climbing for a long time, and in the entire climbing gym, she has only seen Qin Weihang wearing it like this. After realizing that she was looking at him, Qin Weihang glanced at her vigilantly: “What are you looking at me for?”

[*TN: A device that acts as a brake on the climbing rope by applying friction to it.]

Figure-Eight Knot

Called belay device in English.

Tang Zi rolled her eyes at him and had no choice but to tie it randomly. Unexpectedly, she was able to blindly tie a figure-eight knot. However, after putting on the harness, she forgot how to tie it from behind and was stunned.

Qin Weihang glanced at her, walked over, took the rope from her hand, and was finally willing to help her.

Tang Zi looked at Qin Weihang’s profile with his head down. This angle of Qin Weihang was 10,000 times illegal. He was too much for a woman’s heart! It made a carefree woman like her act humbly and said softly: “Thank you.”

Qin Weihang didn’t lift his head. The very thick rope looped around in his wide hands, exerting force to make a knot. Tang Zi gave this handwork 100 points in her heart. Qin Weihang only stared at the rope in his hands; he didn’t look at even a millimeter of her body. “Watch my actions, don’t let me help you with this kind of thing in the future.

“Oh, you’re just embarrassed,” Tang Zi said, “I’m a woman and even I’m not embarrassed.” Then she said, “Why don’t you lift your clothes and let me check your harness?”

“No need. There won’t be a problem with my harness.”

Tang Zi said bitterly; “But this is not in line with the rules of the operation.”

Qin Weihang fastened the protective rope and pulled the rope strongly, “I am the rules of the operation.”

Tang Zi felt that Qin Weihang’s one pull dragged her whole body up, and she said, “Oh, oh,” Qin Weihang frowned at her.

Tang Zi smiled and clutched her stomach, then said: “Ate a bit too much for dinner.” Fine, you are the rule!

Qin Weihang released his hand and walked away. Tang Zi was a little nervous when she went up to the rock wall for the first time. She wanted to chat with Qin Weihang a few more words to get closer to him. After all, Qin Weihang was an unreliable coach that was able to get distracted while she was doing bouldering training. If he was unreliable while she was top roping, then her life would be in danger.

“Hey, how old were you when you rock climbed for the first time?” She asked.

Qin Weihang focused on checking the rope and equipment, so he turned a deaf ear.

Tang Zi curled her lips and said back to him: “School grass Qin, are you deaf?”

Qin Weihang pulled the rope again, and Tang Zi immediately felt the warning from the harness. She didn’t dare provoke Qin Weihang anymore, so she picked a friendly topic: “Qin Weihang, how can you dress like this? You should have more accessories, like pendants, bracelets, etc… How about this sister give you a big gold chain? One as thick as this rope. Tsk tsk, only you can handle it…”

Qin Weihang’s shoulders were collapsing, and he exhaled heavily.

Tang Zi reacted quickly to extinguish his anger: “By the way, I saw my boss’s little boyfriend yesterday. Hehe, he looks really handsome.”

Qin Weihang, who has been pretending to be deaf, raised his eyebrows coldly: “That’s called handsome?”

Since he showed such great reaction, Tang Zi walked around to Qin Weihang’s side to examine his stern expression. She said with a smile: “No way, you don’t have to act this way. Qin Weihang, are you A University’s king of jealousy? Yes, he’s just a bit worse than you, but they are still 1.8 meter in height, with broad shoulders and long legs. When it comes to looks, they are not comparable to a publicly chosen school grass like you, but the key is that they have a better temperament than you. A handsome sunshine (which is way better than you) is really more comfortable to look at for ordinary people…”

Qin Weihang frowned and turned his head: “1.8 meter?”

Tang Zi said: “Ah, yes.”

“Are you sure?” Qin Weihang raised his hand and compared it to the height of his own ears. “Up to here?”

The more Tang Zi saw Qin Weihang’s movements, the more amusing it was, like a serious little brat: “Please, I won’t guess 1.8 meters wrong! My boss is 1.7 meters tall, and she can only be almost 1.8 tall when she wears high heels. Her little boyfriend is a little taller than her. No matter how you look at it, he has to be 1.8 meters tall!”

Qin Weihang asked, “You know what his name is?”

Tang Zi shrugged: “I don’t know his full name, but I heard the boss of our department call him Xiao Qun.”

Qin Weihang swallowed quickly and frowned: “You sure it’s Xiao Qun and not Xiao Ning?”

Tang Zi slapped Qin Weihang on the back with a smile, grabbing the opportunity to take advantage of him: “This old woman isn’t even deaf! How can I not tell the difference between Qun and Ning?”

Qin Weihang seemed to have been stunned by her, or perhaps he was playing cool until he was stupefied. Although he looked quite young and mature, he was only 18 years plus a few months old, after all. She was shocked when she learned from her uncle that Qin Weihang was three years younger than her. She thought that such a handsome chill guy would be in his third or fourth year of university, but after much digging, she found out he was only a freshman!

He was just a freshman now, but what about when he grows up in the future? Many hearts will be broken!

When An Ning woke up, it was already dark. He was woken up due to hunger. He suddenly sat up from the bed, and his head was aching. No lights were turned on in the room, only the light from the windows of the opposite dormitory dimly lit the room.

Those windows and lights were clear and bright. It was no wonder his temples hurt so much that he even forgot to take off his glasses when he slept.

He picked up his phone and turned it on. The alarm clock went off, but he didn’t hear it. Well, he already skipped class, so now, his university life was approaching completion*.

[*TN: I think he means that since he skipped class, he has ticked off one of the things that students should try doing while in college.]

His clothes were still the dark green sweater that he wore at noon. There was the smell of dry pot food on his clothes mixed with the unpleasant smell of overnight beer. He tiredly got down from the upper bunk, turned on the light, changed clothes, and washed his face. It was already past seven by this time, so he didn’t know what was left in the cafeteria.

He walked out of the room with a water bottle. Today was the first time he was drunk and skipped class, but he still remembered that today was his mother’s birthday, and that it was Qin Weihang who sent him back today. He seemed to owe Qin Weihang the taxi money.

There were not many people in the cafeteria. He grabbed a meal and casually sat down at a table. Instead of eating right away, he picked up his phone and dialed his mother’s number.

The phone was beeping for a long time, but no one answered. He kept scrambling, and finally the beeping tone stopped and a “Hello” came through.

An Ning hurriedly said: “Mom, it’s me. Have you received the physiotherapy device I sent you?”

There was a slow “oh” on the other end of the phone before she said: “So it was you that sent that package. I was wondering just where did it come from… From now on, don’t spend money on these useless things.”

An Ning said: “I bought this shoulder and neck treatment device after a looking into it for a long time. The effect is excellent. You can spend 15 minutes on treatment every day. It also has electrodes for whole-body physical therapy…”

His mother interrupted him: “I don’t need these kinds of things. How much did you pay for it?”

An Ning paused and said, “Less than 500 yuan($78)…” In fact, it was more than 600($94).

The other end of the phone tsked and sighed: “Look at you taking a 1,000 yuan from home and wasting 500 of it on such useless things. Fortunately, I didn’t tell your Uncle He that you bought it…”

An Ning was speechless. This was actually bought with his part-time money, but from the perspective of his mother, she seemed right to think so.

He bought an unpleasant gift. If he knew earlier that his mother cared a lot about the price, maybe it would have been better to choose a cheaper one.

But he can’t say that, or else she’ll think he was spending money carelessly. Perhaps she hoped that I can save more money for my own use. The hearts of all parents…

Thinking like this, he picked up his chopsticks again, cheered up, and immersed himself in the meal.

It’s just that, in the end, he forgot to say happy birthday, which was really disappointing.