Chapter 40

On December 1st, the weather forecast predicted that there would be hail during the day, but even until the afternoon classes, the weather was still cool and autumnal. However, he did not expect that the sky would suddenly become cloudy after class. An Ning waited for his classmates to leave and quickly began cleaning up the classroom. When he had just put all the chairs up, the sky was already dark and stormy. He buried himself in sweeping—sweeping and sweeping until the teaching building quieted down. It was as if there was no one else but him in the building.

There was a strong wind blowing outside the window. The sound of the wind passed through the empty corridor of the building and the leaves were constantly blowing in. An Ning became a little urgent, closing the windows a little slow. The floor that had just been cleaned had to be swept again. At this rate, it seemed like there will be strong wind and heavy rain happening soon. He looked at the classroom that was only half-swept and felt that he will probably be trapped in the teaching building.

When he was immersed in sweeping the floor, a voice suddenly came from behind:

“Why are you still here?”

An Ning was too familiar with that low-pitch voice. He couldn’t believe it, so he rose up and turned his head. In the midst of the rushing cold wind, Qin Weihang’s voice suddenly sounded in the school building—saving him in a way. Qin Weihang was standing at the door of the classroom, wearing a large army-green jacket. Besides that, he wore black from head to toe; a black T-shirt, black pants, and black sneakers. He was frowning and looking at him, his expression looked like an unhappy big cat. He was like a black panther with a high level of attractiveness, a huge body, and covered in a formidable battle suit.

An Ning didn’t expect this and was pleasantly surprised: “Ah, I’m cleaning the classroom.” Qin Weihang knew about his work-study, so he didn’t know why Qin Weihang asked him despite knowing that.

Qin Weihang glanced at the classroom that was behind them and said: “Everyone else has already left.”

An Ning realized that the other two work-study classmates had left. He looked back at the classroom that had not been completely cleaned: “I’m a bit…slow at it…”

Qin Weihang’s brows furrowed. He suddenly walked in and patted his hand on the wall next to the door. The classroom originally only had half of the lights turned on, so Qin Weihang turned them on and the whole classroom brightened up. When Qin Weihang walked over, he took off the army-green jacket, only wearing the black long-sleeved shirt, and asked him without looking up: “Where’s your backpack?”

An Ning pointed to the place where he put his backpack with a stunned expression. Qin Weihang walked over, opened his backpack, and tucked the jacket in. Then he lifted the cuff of his sleeves, push it to his forearm, and said: “What do you want me to do?”

An Ning said: “Huh?”

The wind was violent outside, slamming on the glass window. The latch of one of the windows was not fastened, so it shook open with a bang sound. Qin Weihang passed by him and went to the window. He pulled on the window with another bang. However, at that moment, sand blew into his eyes. He held the window frame and lowered his head.

An Ning hurriedly stepped forward: “Are you okay?”

Qin Weihang head was still lowered, his eyes were closed, and his eyelashes interlaced tightly. His voice, however, was calm as he said: “Got sand in it.”

An Ning: “I’ll blow it away for you!”

Qin Weihang opened his eyes with difficulty, and thoughtfully lowered his neck to the boy who was worried about him. An Ning leaned forward on his tiptoes and saw Qin Weihang’s eyes covered with a layer of water and his eyelashes were wet. Even though he knew it was just tears and not crying, his heartbeat was still a little unstable. It pretty much felt like he had seen Qin Weihang crying.

He didn’t dare look anymore, so he raised his head and blew on Qin Weihang’s left eye lightly, then asked: “Alright now?”

Qin Weihang looked at him and said: “It’s the right eye.”

An Ning flushed with embarrassment. It was clearly the right eye that was redder, but Qin Weihang’s left eye was shining because of the light, so he unknowingly blew into his left eye.

He blew on his right eye, then Qin Weihang raised his head, blinked his eyes vigorously, and said: “It’s much better now.”

They stood facing each other. Qin Weihang looked at him, and he also looked at Qin Weihang, as if not knowing what to do next. They stayed like that until Qin Weihang quickly retracted his gaze, turned around and left from this face-to-face position. An Ning felt a sudden sense of loss for a while. Then he saw Qin Weihang walk over and pick up the broom that he had hurriedly put aside.

“I’ll sweep the floor. You can go mop the floor.” Qin Weihang said and then lowered his head to sweep.

Looking at Qin Weihang like this, An Ning felt a bit upset. He was the one that applied for work-study, so it was his job to clean the classroom. He has done a lot of jobs; whether it was tutoring, working at a fast-food restaurant, or even distributing flyers—he had earned his living expenses by relying on these jobs. These were all things that he should do on his own, so no one was obligated to help him.

Qin Weihang saw that An Ning was still in a daze, so he raised his head to look at him, with one hand on the side of the desk, and frowning lightly.

An Ning was shocked by the sight and hurried to get the mop. The mop was leaning against the desk in the last row. He didn’t know if it was because the wind was too strong outside the classroom, but the metal mop suddenly tilted down and fell on his instep.

Qin Weihang’s eyes slowly swept from his body to the mop under his feet, and said: “Be careful.”

An Ning knelt down and picked up the mop, then hurried off. For some reason, just a ‘Be careful’ made him flustered. It was not like this before. Did Qin Weihang tell him to be careful before? Even if he did, An Ning had no impression of it.

The feeling of palpitations lingered. His heart naturally beats all the time, but the lingering rhythm at this moment was particularly long, as if an electric current swept through his body.

He was in a trance again when he went to wash the mop in the restroom. There was no one else here, so he went over the feeling from just now and found that it was weird but addictive. Then he heard thunder rolling by, as if warning him. Qin Weihang called his name from a long distance.

He hurriedly took out the mop, turned off the faucet, and wrung out the mop while replying: “Coming!”

When he returned to the classroom, Qin Weihang was shoveling the swept rubbish into the trash can. An Ning also started to mop the floor. The rain had already fallen from the sky, and An Ning was startled by the crackling sound on the windowpane. Qin Weihang seemed indifferent about it, just saying:

“It’s hail.”

An Ning looked at the window and blinked: “It has never hailed in my hometown.”

Qin Weihang said: “It’s just small ice cubes, they’re on the windowsill. If you’re curious, you can go and see.”

An Ning thought for a second, then decisively put down the mop and said, “Then I’ll go check it out!”

He ran over and saw the tiny ice cubes piled up on the window sill. He looked at Qin Weihang with some joy while Qin Weihang watched him silently. Since it was hailing, it seems that they won’t be able to go back for a while. He couldn’t help but say: “Thank you. I even cause you to be stuck here, too.”

“It’s fine,” Qin Weihang finished speaking and walked to the podium. He picked up the blackboard eraser and began wiping the blackboard, “Is the hail nice to look at?”

An Ning smiled and pushed his glasses: “It’s really just small ice cubes…”

“What else could it be?” Qin Weihang said while wiping the blackboard. The corner of his lips was curved into a light smile, but this smile was for his own enjoyment. His back was facing An Ning, and his face was towards the blackboard, so the other party couldn’t see, “I told you already.”

An Ning enviously watched Qin Weihang’s back figure as he easily wiped the top of the blackboard. He also asked him, a little puzzled: “Why are you here in the teaching building?” Qin Weihang didn’t come to class all day today.

Qin Weihang finished wiping the blackboard and silently placed the blackboard eraser under the blackboard. He patted his palms and shoulders, bowed his head, and said: “Was passing by.”

An Ning nodded, thinking that he might have come to the office to find a teacher, but saw that he was still cleaning the classroom and came to help him.

Qin Weihang stepped off the podium and said: “Is there anything else you want me to do?”

An Ning raised his body and leaned on the mop, then said: “No, there isn’t. I should be doing this by myself. I’m almost done moping this side. You should sit down and rest over there for a while!”

Qin Weihang walked to the window of the classroom, took a chair, and sat down.

An Ning said: “Sit a little farther, or else the hail might smash the window and the glass shard will get on you.”

Qin Weihang calmly curled his lips and said: “It’s unlikely.”

As soon as his voice fell, a bunch of hail hit the glass and instantly smashed a hole in the windowpane. An Ning saw Qin Weihang looking the same as a startled big cat; his back straightening up, and he had turned his head to look. However, unlike other people, his face did not look startled, but had a serious dissatisfaction while looking at the little hails that had barged in on him.

That appearance made An Ning feel that it was inexplicably cute, extremely adorable.

Strange, he even thought that a person was cute… When the boys in his class discussed which girls were cute, he would always not be able to make any comments. He thought cute was used to describe animals. Animals were cute because they were pure and innocent. This was the first time that the word ‘cute’ was labeled on a human being, who turned out to be a guy, and turned out to be Qin Weihang.

Would I think black panthers are cute? Black panthers should be cool, but black panthers should also have times when they get surprised. If a black panther sees a turtle, or a rainbow, or something else for the first time, it would definitely be stunned and would probably look very cute. After all, no matter how big and fierce it was, it was just a pure and innocent animal.

Qin Weihang had calmed down, and his back was bent again. His whole body relaxed a bit, like a cat’s fur standing up and then calming down strand by strand. An Ning smiled unconsciously when he saw Qin Weihang like this.

He remembered something that happened when Qin Weihang wasn’t close with him yet. That was the day when the class was dragged out to participate in a group activity. He was able to escape because Qin Weihang helped him. On that day, according to his original plan, he planned to go to the library for self-study, then go to KFC to work in an hour. Before nine o’clock, he went downstairs to the library. Since the class was informed that the group activity was at 8:30, he thought that all the students in the class had left at this time. However, he didn’t expect that in front of the library, he would meet class monitor Cao Zheng, who had come back.

When the two people met, he was extremely embarrassed. Cao Zheng was also surprised when he saw him and asked him, wasn’t he meeting up with Qin Weihang? An Ning had to say with a guilty conscience that he was waiting for Qin Weihang. Cao Zheng also told him that the large group in the class had already left, but some of them forgot to bring their student IDs, so he came back to get them. An Ning nodded awkwardly. At this moment, a black Yamaha R1 was speeding past the school road. There were only one of these vehicles in their school, which belonged to Qin Weihang. An Ning thought that he was screwed, the lie was about to be exposed. And as expected, Cao Zheng looked at him suspiciously, asking: “Is that Qin Weihang?”

An Ning thought that he should just admit it, but then over Cao Zheng’s shoulders, he suddenly saw that R1 stopped in front, a distance of 20 or 30 meters away from them. Qin Weihang lifted his helmet goggles, turned his head, and shouted at him: “Hey—”

Cao Zheng heard the voice and turned around. An Ning also craned his neck and looked at Qin Weihang, feeling anxious.

Qin Weihang yelled at him: “Wait for me at the school gate!”

At that moment, An Ning felt that he had survived. He waved his hand and responded loudly to this roommate who didn’t even know his name: “Okay! You…you hurry up!!!”

Qin Weihang put down the face shield and turned to start the motorcycle.

Qin Weihang had helped him twice in a row without expecting anything in return, so when he saw Qin Weihang being targeted, he came forward to help him. The reason had nothing to do with him wanting to help because he saw injustice. Compared to what Qin Weihang did for such an unfamiliar classmate who he had only saw by chance, what he did can only be regarded as him repaying Qin Weihang.

When he was busily working at KFC that day, he thought that Qin Weihang was climbing a steep mountain wall at the moment. There was a rope hanging on his waist and sweat on his arms. A gust of wind swept over the cliff and blew on his body. The equipment on the rope shook and made a clanging sound. If Qin Weihang was the person behind a camera lens, the spectators would have been scared and sweated, but Qin Weihang wouldn’t. He would just turn his face a bit; letting the wind pass over his forehead and blow aside his hair. When the wind stopped, he would continue to move upwards. The silhouette of the handsome young man under the scorching sun continued to move upwards, like a lynx hanging on the cliff, occasionally stopping to watch the sunset.

At that time, he didn’t know how to rock climb, but just thinking about Qin Weihang’s appearance would make him feel envy and admiration.