Chapter 4

Qin Weihang ignored Lei Jun and his group who were still whistling at him on the court, but his back as he was leaving showed restraint. Even if he didn’t wear glasses, An Ning could tell from the action of Qin Weihang packing his backpack and jacket on the sidelines. When he grabbed the jacket and stuffed it directly into the backpack, the diving watch fell to the ground. Qin Weihang lowered his head and stooped to pick it up, but he didn’t wear it on his wrist. Instead, he slipped it into his sports pants pocket without looking at it.

Although haughty, he was unexpectedly not a person easily provoked, An Ning thought. And to be honest, without the glasses, he felt that Qin Weihang, who was walking in front of him, looked even taller. Qin Weihang walked forward without looking back, and the whistle of Lei Jun and his party gradually stopped. An Ning followed Qin Weihang with his eyes, and saw Qin Weihang kick something—it was a water bottle, which was probably thrown under the steps of the stand. He had gently kicked it to the side.

There were a few boos from the sidelines. Some people might think that Qin Weihang’s kick was venting, but An Ning didn’t think so. He kicked it very lightly, as if removing an obstacle on the road.

Qin Weihang didn’t stop until he got on the steps. He turned around to return the pair of glasses to him.

An Ning took it and heard Qin Weihang say, “The lens are broken, I will compensate you.”

It was indeed broken. A long crack was made on the right lens, but the lens did not fall out. It was much better than he thought; he could still wear them if he forced himself. An Ning smiled and said, “It’s okay, I still have a spare one.”

Qin Weihang saw that the person in front of him put on his glasses improperly. He then remembered that someone on the sidelines called him top student. He wasn’t familiar with these kinds of smart people. This seemed to be the first top student in his life that he had a good impression of. He scrutinized the other person a bit—he was quite a clean-cut boy, and his face was flushed after the exercise, which was particularly obvious due to his pale skin.

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Thinking of that “If you don’t mind that I’m not tall, I can form a team with you,” his heart was still very touched. He didn’t mind the person’s height, but now that the two were standing face to face and separated by only one step, he found that as far as the physique of the boy was concerned, he was indeed quite small. His eyes could easily look over the top of the other person’s head and still be able to see the court. Lei Jun and his party had already withdrawn, and the audience had also scattered. The people who were previously playing started playing again. Lei Jun looked over at Qin Weihang while leaving, showing a provocative smile. Qin Weihang looked at him coldly, thinking to himself, you think I have a good temper? Since the other party liked to play such silly tricks, he decided to play along. He raised his eyebrows in that direction. He knew that he would be very provocative when he raised his eyebrows; he was often criticized for this in high school. Sure enough, Lei Jun’s expression changed, and eventually he was taken away by his friend.

Seeing Qin Weihang looking behind him, An Ning was about to turn his head, but then Qin Weihang said, “Let’s go.” He retracted his gaze, turned and walked up.

Coming to the top of the stadium, Qin Weihang glanced back at the boy behind him. The flush on his face had not dissipated, and even his neck was slightly pink, which was really strange. After thinking about it, he looked at the flower bed on the side and said, “Go over there and sit down.”

An Ning nodded. He really wanted to take a break.

After the two of them sat down, Qin Weihang took out his phone and said, “Add me on WeChat.”

An Ning was startled, thinking that this development was too fast, but he finally could get in touch with his roommate. He hurriedly took out his phone.

Qin Weihang handed him his WeChat(messaging app) QR code. An Ning scanned it, and with a beep, the two of them took back their phones at the same time. An Ning looked at the WeChat interface. There was Qin Weihang’s ID on it. It was quite unusual, his nickname was Chief. His profile picture was a black motorcycle, which should be his Yamaha R1.

Qin Weihang also looked down at his WeChat. The top student’s nickname was called The Rainmaker, and his profile picture was two foreigners. He clicked on it and saw that one of them was Matt Damon. He frowned curiously. “The Rainmaker?”

“Oh,” replied An Ning. “It is the name of a movie about lawsuits.”

Qin Weihang nodded and took back his phone. He then turned to look at the person next to him and said, “We seem to be in the same class, right?”

An Ning was dumbfounded when he heard this. Behind his own cracked glasses, he saw Qin Weihang’s eyes were very serious when confirming. Looking at him, An Ning couldn’t help but laugh.

Qin Weihang frowned, looked at him for a while, then asked, “What are you laughing about?”

His tone was surprisingly a little gentle, Qin Weihang’s voice was somber, and it seemed gentle because he asked very softly. When deliberately asked like this, An Ning didn’t even feel a hint of arrogance.

An Ning said, “How about going back to the dormitory tonight? We are in the same building.”

An Ning had even said it like this, yet Qin Weihang still couldn’t remember him and just said, “Okay, I’ll go back tonight.”

An Ning was secretly a little happy. He lowered his head and unconsciously looked at Qin Weihang’s long legs. His right leg was sticking out while his left leg was tucked in. On his leg was a pair of sweatpants with black clovers on the side and a white, red rimmed Adidas shoes, which was probably a size 43 or 44(US size 9-10). An Ning stared at the snow-white sneakers and guessed he might be over 1.85 meters tall.

He suddenly discovered that he was sitting straight and upright, while Qin Weihang sitting next to him was hunched over. His wide shoulders and back were bent, and he really looked like a lazy black leopard talking to a human being. The human is a little awkward while the leopard is very unwilling, haha...

An Ning’s breathing was still a little unstable, however, Qin Weihang’s breathing had already slowed down. The large black T-shirt collar loosened and shifted from the back to the front of his neck. From his neckline, An Ning could see a little of Qin Weihang’s rather impressive chest. At this moment, Qin Weihang straightened his back. An Ning thought he was going to leave. Unexpectedly, he took out the diving watch from the pocket of his sweatpants and put it on his left wrist.

An Ning recalled the game from earlier and asked, “I didn’t drag you down, did I?”

“No.” Qin Weihang buckle the watch strap and glanced at him, “I felt that we coordinated pretty well. Do you usually play basketball?”

An Ning embarrassingly said, “Look at me, does it look like I play?”

As expected, Qin Weihang looked up and down at his body, and finally said, “You can play in the future.”

An Ning nodded with great pleasure.

Qin Weihang turned his head and lifted the backpack placed aside, patted it twice, then stood up and said, “Then I will leave first.”

An Ning also stood up, almost stupidly blurting out, “Then I will send you off.”

Qin Weihang took the backpack and slung it over his shoulder and left like that. An Ning looked to the side of the road to see Qin Weihang putting on his helmet and riding on the motorcycle. The black sport bike’s taillights lit up a warm and sultry red, and it drove off in the waves of exhaust.

After separating from Qin Weihang, An Ning went back to the dormitory to change his glasses. The spare glasses were a bit old and would hang on the bridge of his nose. They were a hundred degrees less than the broken pair, and the astigmatism axis was also a little worse. It would be a little blurry when looking towards the light, however, everything else was fine. He breathed a sigh of relief. In the afternoon, An Ning spent two hours in the library. He thought that the situation from before would disrupt his pace. He figured he would be a little sleepy in the middle of his self-study and would need to nap on the table. Surprisingly, he didn’t feel sleepy at all—he still felt energetic after reading and memorizing (English) words and grammar all in one sitting.

Sure enough, life lies in exercising. An Ning looked out the window. He couldn’t help but smile when he remembered the phrase Qin Weihang casually said to him, “You can play in the future.”

It was late when he left the library. He went to Cafeteria 1* to eat alone. He ordered his favorite scrambled eggs with tomatoes and saw Huang Qinzhen again. Fortunately, Lei Jun was not there. Although he did not like Lei Jun, he still couldn’t get angry at the girl who smiled like Yui Aragaki.

[*TN: Their campus has more than one, so it’s probably numbered.]

Today was the day when he broke his glasses, however, he didn’t know why his mood was especially good; just like the weather today.

Back at the dormitory, the sky was stained with a gorgeous sunset. The lights were on behind the doors of other rooms, and people were chattering endlessly—only his door was still lonely and deserted. When he took out his key to open the door, he was a little excited, but didn’t know what he was looking forward to. When the door opened, he saw the evening light pouring in from the balcony, shining on the floor of the empty room. The small bit of brilliant light greeted his return on time every day.

Qin Weihang had said that he would go back to the dormitory at night, but that was definitely just empty talk. An Ning smiled and shook his head. It was pretty cool to be living by himself, except for occasional loneliness.

He turned on the light, closed the door, and put his backpack down. He took out the water bottle and planned to go to the water room* downstairs to fetch water. When he walked over to the stairwell, he unexpectedly saw a tall figure coming up from the bottom of the stairs, scrolling on his phone with his head down.

Water Room

Water Room

He thought he saw wrong; maybe there was a second tall and handsome boy like Qin Weihang in this building. He couldn’t help but push down his glasses… It really was Qin Weihang!

He had changed his clothes and was now wearing a loose black short-sleeved T-shirt with a white long-sleeved shirt underneath. And he was wearing black ripped jeans paired with black and white sneakers…

An Ning was stunned at the top of the stairs. At this moment, the phone in his pocket rang. Qin Weihang raised his head and stopped when he saw him.

An Ning walked two steps down the stairs in surprise. They were seven or eight steps apart from each other. He asked, “You really came to the dormitory?”

“Just came to look around,” Qin Weihang looked up and asked, “What floor do you live on?”

“This floor!” An Ning said with a smile. He walked down the stairs quickly. He passed by Qin Weihang, turned his head and said, “Then wait for me to come back to hang out with you!”

Qin Weihang’s head followed him unconsciously, turning it toward his direction. He watched the other’s footsteps disappear down the stairs in a hurry. He also noticed that the other party had changed his glasses, but it didn’t seem to suit him.

After walking a few steps up, when he was standing in the corridor of the sixth floor, he suddenly recalled—he didn’t remember his room number.

He only remembered it was on the sixth floor, but he had no idea what the numbers after the 6 was. After all, he didn’t bother trying to memorize it.

He stood stupefied in the corridor for a while. He stared at the doors of the rooms that all looked similar and sighed helplessly.

When An Ning came downstairs, he saw the black motorcycle parked downstairs. It was parked in a low-key way across the door of the dormitory. It was silently accepting people who entered and exited the dormitory. Someone was even taking pictures of it with their phone. It was exactly the same as Qin Weihang’s restraint in accepting everyone’s attention when he appeared in the classroom. An Ning smiled at the cool Yamaha R1 the guy was taking pictures of, turned around and went to the water room. On the way back, he had brought a meal with him and went upstairs excitedly. He then saw Qin Weihang resting his body on the window of the stairwell. There he was, looking down and scrolling on his phone.

He walked over in puzzlement and asked, “Why are you here?”

Qin Weihang turned around when he heard the sound, stood up and said, “I’m going back. Just wanted to tell you.”

An Ning let out an “ah”, and said with great disappointment, “You’re not coming over to my place to sit for a bit? By the way, I brought you food.”

Qin Weihang finally nodded when he saw the lunchboxes in his hand, “Okay.”

An Ning opened the door and carefully observed Qin Weihang’s reaction. He found that Qin Weihang had no reaction at all. He didn’t recognize that this was his own dorm room.

After entering the door, Qin Weihang saw that he was alone, and even asked him, “Where is your roommate?”

An Ning handed the lunch to Qin Weihang in a complicated mood. Qin Weihang took it and said, “Thank you.” An Ning told him to sit down, and he also sat down in a chair. After sitting down, he said, “My roommate…” Then he couldn’t help but laugh. He looked up at Qin Weihang and said with a smile, “It’s only the first time that he came back to the dormitory.”

Qin Weihang, who lowered his head and opened the lunch box, raised his head with surprise. It took two seconds to turn his head and look at the empty bed, his own name clearly attached to the side of the bed.

An Ning saw that he was stunned, and said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t tell you directly. I figured you would remember it when you came to the dormitory…” He just wanted to make a harmless joke, but he didn’t expect Qin Weihang to have no idea, thus the joke became a prank.

Qin Weihang put down the lunch box and stood up. He stroked the bed with his palm. He hadn’t been back to the dorm for almost two months but the sheets were clean and there was no dust on the surface of the desk.

At this moment, he heard An Ning cry out in surprise, “Hey, why are you transferring so much money to me?!”

Qin Weihang turned around and saw An Ning holding a phone in his hand, staring at him in astonishment. He turned around, sat down in his chair, and said, “Compensation for the glasses.”

An Ning did not accept it, “It’s really okay, and 2000 yuan(300 USD) is too much!”

Qin Weihang picked up the lunch and chopsticks and said, “You keep it.”

An Ning frowned. He really couldn’t take this money. “My glasses are not expensive, one pair isn’t even 400 yuan(60 USD). I took the initiative to help you, and it wasn’t even you who broke my glasses. I really can’t accept this money. If you feel bad, you can just treat me to dinner.”

Qin Weihang lowered his head and ate a piece of braised pork carefully. When he raised his head, he saw the other party looking at him eagerly, waiting for his reply. Suddenly he thought, what if I don’t answer you? If you don’t accept it now, you’ll eventually accept it later. This had always been the case; whether it was after one hour, after two hours, or even after a day.

But somehow, after staring at each other for a few seconds, he dispelled this idea. He felt that this person was a little different, his eyes were different, and he might not accept it. Thus, he said, “You accept it first, then return it to me.”

An Ning bowed his head and nodded. Qin Weihang only had his second bite of rice when his phone rang. The money was transferred so soon.

Qin Weihang was eating so he stopped caring about it. An Ning also didn’t care about it anymore either. He put down his phone with a relieved expression.

“The weekends then,” Qin Weihang said suddenly.

“?” An Ning was a little confused.

“On the weekends,” Qin Weihang raised his head, “I’ll treat you to dinner.”

An Ning’s suggestion of treating dinner was just something he casually said. Unexpectedly, Qin Weihang not only agreed, but set the time so soon. However, he was a little embarrassed. “Um, I will be working part-time on the weekends…”

Qin Weihang asked, “Do you have to work part-time on both days of the weekend?”

An Ning nodded.

Qin Weihang asked again, “What about a late-night meal?”

“Late-night meal should be fine,” An Ning said, “As long as it doesn’t delay your time.” He doesn’t have the habit of eating at midnight. The main reason being that it will occupy time for studying and affect sleep.

Qin Weihang thought for a while—he disliked how eating three meals a day would take up his time, yet he actually wanted to treat someone to a meal in the middle of the night. However, now that there was someone he owed a favor to, he was determined to repay it. He asked, “Where are you working part-time? I will pick you up Saturday night.”

“The place where I work part-time is a small fast food restaurant and it is hard to find,” An Ning said. “Let’s meet up at the school gate.”

Qin Weihang nodded, then bowed his head to eat. An Ning looked at Qin Weihang who was eating silently and smiled. “I’m used to living in this room by myself and it always felt too big. It seems smaller now that you’re here…” He raised his head and looked at the bed behind Qin Weihang. To Qin Weihang, who was 1.85 meters tall, this bed would be uncomfortable.

Qin Weihang lowered his head and grabbed a scrambled egg, then said, “I have lived alone since I was a child, and I am not used to living with others.”

“I figured.” An Ning said, nodding understandingly.

“You don’t need to help tidy up my bed and desk,” Qin Weihang said, “I rented an apartment outside, and I probably won’t come back to live here.”

“I know,” An Ning smiled, “I just cleaned it while I was at it. “

Qin Weihang didn’t say anything. He sat in front of An Ning and finished the lunch box. When he was leaving, he took away the lunch boxes. He stopped at the door and said, “Do you have any trash? I will take it down.”

An Ning was touched. He blinked with a little regret and shrugged, “I threw it away at noon.”

Qin Weihang held on to the door frame and nodded at him. He looked over An Ning’s head and looked around the room for a while, then he closed the door and left.

About five or six minutes later, An Ning heard the sound of the Yamaha R1 roaring away downstairs. Standing on the balcony, he could see the black sport bike a bit to the right, passing by a delivery scooter. Qin Weihang avoided the crowds and obstacles elegantly.