Chapter 33

When they arrived at the climbing gym, there was no one around, and the city was shrouded in a hazy blue. The door of the rock climbing gym was closed tightly. Qin Weihang strode forward and opened the door with a key. The glass door looked very compact compared to the building of the gym. An Ning saw Qin Weihang push open the glass door and set it in place with his foot. He stood by the door and turned back towards him: “Come in.”

This was obviously a climbing gym and not Qin Weihang’s home, but the huge climbing gym was empty at the moment. In this extremely quiet daybreak, Qin Weihang stood at the door, as if it was his own private space, and An Ning was lucky enough to be invited to enter.

After An Ning walked in, Qin Weihang closed the door behind the two of them. An Ning also turned to help push the other glass door, and finally looked back into the huge rock climbing gym. As soon as he entered through the door, there was a high open space. The artificial rock wall ran through the height of four or five stories. He looked up at the huge wall. To see the top part, he had to push his glasses, but he couldn’t see clearly. This was because the climbing gym was still dark, so a mass of darkness hung on top of the artificial rock wall.

Then the lights suddenly came on, illuminating the entire rock wall. An Ning saw the details that were previously hidden in the shadows, and couldn’t help but marvel at how real the rock wall looked. It was not like the colorful climbing walls he had seen online. It was gray and has the rough texture of a rock wall, making it look like it was transported from nature.

Qin Weihang walked over after turning on the lights. An Ning looked at him and wanted to ask something, but it was like he didn’t know how to go about asking. He would definitely not be able to challenge this artificial rock wall in such a short time. Qin Weihang raised his eyebrows at him, as if saying ‘you can only look at it today’, and then said: “Let’s go over there.”

An Ning followed him, and even heard the echo of their footsteps when they left. The spectacular artificial rock wall made it feel like they were walking in a valley.

Qin Weihang took him to the bouldering walls. The room here was relatively short, less than five meters high, and all four walls have colorful bouldering walls. Qin Weihang took off his backpack, took out a set of clothes and handed it to him, and then gave him a pair of hiking shoes: “Change into this.”

An Ning took the clothes and looked around, looking for a sign of the bathroom or locker room.

Qin Weihang sat on the bench to tidy his backpack. When he noticed that An Ning hadn’t moved, he glanced up, only to find that the other party didn’t know where to change clothes. Sure enough, he was not attentive. He was about to open his mouth to say “The locker…” but the words didn’t even leave his mouth because he saw An Ning’s eyes lit up. He had found the locker room on his own.

Qin Weihang watched the other party walk into the locker room briskly. After a long time, he slightly sighed, lowered his head and took out a roll of bandage from his hiking bag.

An Ning placed his things in the locker room and changed into the clothes Qin Weihang gave. It was a set of lightweight rock climbing sportswear. It looked almost new, and he even found that it unexpectedly fits when he put it on. He couldn’t help but mutter: “It shouldn’t be new, right…?”

There was a sound like an electric drill being used outside the locker room. Since there were only two people in the gym, only him and Qin Weihang, he could hear every movement very clearly. An Ning came out of the locker room and saw Qin Weihang holding a power tool and installing something on the wall.

Qin Weihang heard the movement coming from the locker room, turned his head, and looked him up and down.

An Ning looked down at the clothes on her body: “This outfit…”

“I wore it when I was 15,” Qin Weihang placed a hold and said, “and it fits you.”

An Ning: “…” It was a bit embarrassing…

Seeing Qin Weihang put the electric screwdriver back in the toolbox, An Ning thought it was time to start, so he asked: “Do I need to warm up?”

“No,” Qin Weihang squatted on the ground and closed the lid of the toolbox, then he got up and lifted the toolbox, “Climbing is a good enough warm up.”

After putting the toolbox back into the toolroom, he opened the door. As soon as he looked up, he saw An Ning facing the bouldering wall and getting ready. An Ning’s body was a lot thinner than his own body.

He came over and coughed: “Why don’t you…do a few push-ups.”

An Ning nodded, and immediately got down on the mat. Qin Weihang passed by him and watched the other person doing push-ups in a serious and standard way. He felt a little ashamed and a little amused. He learned rock climbing in a relatively wild way, and now he also teaches rock climbing in a relatively wild way. He doesn’t know which kind of warm-ups were more suitable for newbies, especially those who were not good at sports like An Ning.

The bouldering wall was adjusted so that it was more suitable for warm-ups and novices. On this basis, he also adjusted a few hands and feet holds. Even if An Ning was a little clumsy, it should still be fine.

Finally, after confirming the route, he turned around and saw An Ning propped up from the ground, holding up his loose glasses.

“How many did you do?” Qin Weihang asked casually.

An Ning stood up on his knees and exhaled: “20!”

Qin Weihang looked at him without a word.

An Ning pushed his glasses: “Is it not enough? Then, should I do it again?”

Qin Weihang saw that his cheeks were already red, and thought reluctantly, forget it. “It should be enough for you.” After saying that, he walked over to the bench, “Come here, I will wrap the bandages on you.”

An Ning was now at a stage where he knows nothing about rock climbing and was full of curiosity. He doesn’t know what the bandages were for, and Qin Weihang did not explain. He walked over and saw Qin Weihang holding a thin white roll of bandage in his hand. He couldn’t help mulling over it, and then saw Qin Weihang looking up at him silently.

He sat down beside Qin Weihang with a sudden realization.

Qin Weihang lowered his head and pulled the white bandage: “Give me your hand.”

An Ning handed over his left hand.

“Right hand.” Qin Weihang said.

Wrapping just the right hand? An Ning changed to his right hand.

Qin Weihang wrapped a bandage around his middle finger, then wrapped all four fingers in turn, and said: “Know now?”

Know what? Wrapping the bandages? An Ning nodded in half-understanding.

Qin Weihang handed the remaining bandages to him: “You can do your left hand.”

… It turns out that the left-hand does need to be wrapped, too. So An Ning took it and wrap the fingers of his left hand in the same way as his right hand.

Qin Weihang took out a helmet and placed it on his leg. He glanced sideways at the person next to him, shook his head, raised his hand, and pointed at several knuckles on An Ning’s hand: “The point is to expose the knuckles.”

An Ning felt Qin Weihang’s finger pressing on the knuckles of his middle finger and ring finger and then retracting it. It was probably because it was too sudden, so his chest seems to skip a beat. It feels…a bit like a jump scare in a horror movie, he nodded sluggishly.

“The bandage is just to protect the skin of your fingers. After you wrap it, you must still be able to stretch your fingers freely.” Qin Weihang took the remaining bandage and said, “Look at me.”

An Ning stopped and carefully watched what Qin Weihang did.

The hiking backpack separated the two, so An Ning craned his neck and pushed his glasses to watch Qin Weihang’s movements. Qin Weihang stopped for a while, raised his hand to move the backpack to the other side, and An Ning had timely turned towards him—

Two people unexpectedly moved towards each other, and An Ning suddenly brushed against Qin Weihang’s arm. It was technically not brushing against, but a light bumping into each other. That jump scare feeling came again.

They seem to be sitting too close. An Ning felt restless and strangely scared, wondering if he should move a bit away…

However, Qin Weihang didn’t move, so he also didn’t move. Qin Weihang cleared his throat. He spread his fingers again, lowered his head, and continued his demonstration without saying a word.

Bandage wrapping was not an essential skill, but it seems that Qin Weihang still hoped to teach him one step at a time. If Qin Weihang was a tutor, he must be the toughest kind, An Ning thought.

Qin Weihang’s hand was obviously more bandaged than his own, so he only wrapped his index finger and middle finger as a demonstration. Finally, he opened and closed his fingers. All the knuckles were exposed outside the bandage, and he moved freely.

An Ning looked at Qin Weihang’s hand. When he made a fist, the joints of his index and middle fingers were exposed. For the first time, he realized that Qin Weihang’s skin was this color and his joints were shaped like this. He wondered if Qin Weihang was showing the bandage or showing his hand…

He learned from Qin Weihang, trying to keep his fingers from being bound by the bandage. He didn’t want his first rock climbing experience to be compromised. Moreover, Qin Weihang once asked him how serious he was, so even if it was something trifling like bandaging, he didn’t want to be half-hearted about it.

After wrapping his fingers, Qin Weihang gave him a red helmet: “Originally this isn’t needed, but you wear glasses, so I think you still need to wear a helmet to fix them in place.”

It was a helmet that looked a bit like a riding helmet. After An Ning put it on, Qin Weihang helped him hold the helmet forward. He wrapped his hand behind An Ning’s head and adjusted the tension, then looked at his chin and said: “The chin part should be tighter.”

He tightened the strap on his chin. After a minute, Qin Weihang lowered his head and took off the turban on his neck, and said: “Take off the helmet.”

An Ning took off the helmet that did not fit that well. Qin Weihang raised his hand and tied the two-layered turban to his head. He said while tying: “… Your head is very small, so we can only do it like this.”

An Ning was very embarrassed. He thought, just say small, no need to attach the ‘very’ to it…

Qin Weihang tied the turban and put on the helmet again. This time it fit a lot better. He fastened the strap on his chin and asked Qin Weihang: “Is it alright now?”

Qin Weihang’s fingers unexpectedly reached towards the strap on his chin, and An Ning’s scalp exploded at once. Qin Weihang’s fingers soon moved away, but An Ning’s mind was full of the sensation of Qin Weihang’s fingers against his chin. The helmet was actually worn tightly, so Qin Weihang’s fingers were squeezed in, as if they could penetrate through his chin and into his mouth.

After Qin Weihang confirmed that his helmet was fine, he walked under the bouldering wall and said: “I will show you how to land first. This is very important.”

An Ning withdrew his attention with difficulty, then looked at Qin Weihang.

Qin Weihang easily stepped on a few clumps of stones, grabbed a hold on the wall with one hand, and lowered his head sideways and said to An Ning: “Usually you can just jump down directly. Of course, you can also climb down, but for efficiency, it’s not always the best to climb down. When jumping off, land with your knees bent and with your body leaning forward. If you can’t master it well, you can also fall backwards, but remember to protect the head. When landing, shrink your neck. The head should not directly land on the ground.”

After saying this, he let go and jumped off the bouldering wall.

The bouldering mat let out a poof sound, and Qin Weihang immediately stabilized his feet after landing. However, in order to demonstrate the action of falling to the ground, he had leaned back while landing. Lastly, his body and knees were in a bent posture when he landed on the mat. Even a person of Qin Weihang’s height can land very lightly. Moreover, his body made very little impact.

Then he turned around, patted the dust on his hands, and asked him: “Did you see it clearly?”

An Ning nodded: “Understood.”

Qin Weihang smiled and looked up at the bouldering wall: “Then you can give it a try.”