Chapter 44

Yu Ran walked into the locker room and saw Qin Weihang sitting on the bench. He had changed back to a black down jacket and white jeans. His head was down and he was putting on his sneakers.

“You don’t have anything you want to say?” Yu Ran walked over and raised his eyebrows at Qin Weihang. The more he thought about it, the more heartbroken he felt. Behind the door of the locker room, he could still hear Tang Zi who was training on the bouldering wall, shouting very comfortably: “Onwards, this old lady cannot be defeated.” Yu Ran said painfully, “You made me lose a thousand.”

Qin Weihang shrugged without saying a word, bending over to tie his shoelaces. Qin Weihang used the method that basketball players would use to tie his shoelaces. The shoelaces on both sides were worn on one side at the last two shoelace holes, and his fingers hooked a loop between the two shoelaces, and was lastly tied it in the middle. His method was the reverse of most people’s habits. A pair of black and white Kyrie 6 was worn by him; making him much better-looking than many others.

But what damn use was there to be good-looking, he doesn’t even know who to use it on!

Yu Ran recalled the high school basketball league. He and Zhong Jing teamed up to cheer Qin Weihang, but once they were there, the scene was disastrous. Fuck, all the girls in that hall were going crazy for Qin Weihang! Some were also young boys—their sexuality was exposed at that moment, but they couldn’t care less. The basketball game was the faint sexual enlightenment of adolescent kids. At that moment, their repressed nature was released through shouting. In fact, the scene was really innocent and beautiful, and Qin Weihang was the ideal type of these girls and boys. At that time, there were two short boys standing in front of him and Zhong Jing. One of them squeezed the other’s arm and shouted: “My god, his shoelaces are more handsome than others!” Yu Ran and Zhong Jing looked at each other speechlessly. The two men looked down at their own shoelaces, and compared the nice cross-knot on Qin Weihang’s white sneakers. When he jumped and dunked, it was like a dragonfly was flapping its wings on his instep. Fuck, it turns out that even this can be divided between superior and inferior…

“… And you even paid the membership fee for your classmate.” Yu Ran couldn’t figure it out. He felt that if the other party was a girl, everything Qin Weihang did would be justified, but the target was a boy. Furthermore, he was even a top student, a species that Qin Weihang used to avoid the most. Now, not only does he bring the person to rock climb, but also help pay the fee for them. His own coaching fee was omitted, so why would he also pay for the membership fee?

Qin Weihang wrapped up the clothes he had taken off, put the water bottle in his backpack, and said: “He’s giving me supplementary lessons.”

Yu Ran curled his lips: “You need someone to give you supplementary lessons? Even if that is the case, how much can supplementary lessons cost?”

Qin Weihang hands stopped moving, looked up at him, and put both hands on his knees. With a patient expression, he said: “He’s a top student; ranked first in the law department. Do you know just how much he gets paid to tutor someone?”

Why was he being defensive about this? The more Yu Ran listened, the more amused he was: “Didn’t you used to despise top students?”

Qin Weihang turned his head and pulled up the zipper of his backpack: “He’s different.”

“But I don’t have the kind of employee benefits you mentioned.” Yu Ran wasn’t buying it. If it weren’t for Tang Zi striking up a conversation with An Ning, he still wouldn’t have known that Qin Weihang didn’t tell the other person about paying the membership fee for them. What was the reason? “And why on earth did you let a novice be your protector? And you actually put on a helmet.” I fucking persuaded you so many times, but have you listened to me even once?

Qin Weihang got up and put on his backpack and said, “He wanted to learn to be a protector, but there was only me at the time.”

“He said that he wanted to learn to be a protector, and you just let him protect you? He said he wants you to wear a helmet, so you just wore it? Why do you listen to him? Do you owe the other person something?” At this point, Yu Ran suddenly realized that he had hit the core of the problem. There must be something fishy going on behind this!

Qin Weihang had already walked to the door, and nodded after listening, “You can put it that way.”

After speaking, he opened the locker room door and left.

From outside the door came Tang Zi joyful yelling: “Take care, coach! Coach, you look so handsome in a helmet!”

It was Christmas Eve and also a Saturday. All the restaurants were crowded at night, so An Ning and his colleagues were also very busy. After a long time, they were able to take a break for 10 minutes. An Ning sat in the staff lounge and couldn’t help but wonder what Qin Weihang was doing right now.

Yesterday, when the four of them were eating in the cafeteria, Liang Shenghan and Xiao Pang said they were going to watch a LOTUS concert. Xiao Pang asked Qin Weihang what his plans were for Christmas Eve. Qin Weihang said he had none, so Xiao Pang said, “Come with us to the concert then!”

Liang Shenghan sneered: “You probably can’t buy tickets now.”

“There are scalpers!” Xiao Pang said, “He’s not short on money!”

“Just because he has money doesn’t mean he won’t be cheated by the scalpers.”

Xiao Pang ignored Liang Shenghan, asking Qin Weihang who was eating with his head lowered: “Ge, don’t you like LOTUS?”

Qin Weihang raised his head in astonishment, and looked at Xiao Pang. An Ning was also surprised. Does Qin Weihang like LOTUS? Why doesn’t he know that?

Xiao Pang was stared at by Qin Weihang and hurriedly explained: “Weren’t you playing LOTUS’s ‘Big Wave’ when we went to your room that day?”

Qin Weihang lifted his brows and looked at An Ning who was next to him, so An Ning clarified this mistake: “Oh, I was the one who played it.”

Qin Weihang picked up two slices of salted meat and put it in his bowl, and said: “So you like LOTUS.”

“Uh, I just listen to it casually…” An Ning smiled meekly. He had only listened to LOTUS songs and watched their concerts online, but in such a situation, he really couldn’t speak up and say that he liked LOTUS.

“Then, An Ning-ge…”

Before Xiao Pang could finish speaking, Liang Shenghan struck the back of Xiao Pang’s hand with his chopsticks and said: “Just eat. Every time we eat in the cafeteria, you talk the most. Your saliva is already spitting in the other’s food!”

An Ning can only say thanks in his heart. Whether it was Qin Weihang, Liang Shenghan, or Xiao Pang, there was actually no need for them to eat in the cafeteria every day. He didn’t know when it started, but they would always accompany him to eat.

The tables in the cafeteria were not much bigger than the ones at KFC. When he sits next to Qin Weihang, his elbow would often hit Qin Weihang. This was because Qin Weihang was used to sitting while leaning to the right, but he would have the phone on his left-hand side—occasionally scrolling on it. Qin Weihang seems to like playing on his phone; he would follow a lot of weird accounts on Weibo. So when he eats while sitting next to him, his right elbow would either block Qin Weihang or bump into Qin Weihang. Later, Qin Weihang wouldn’t play on his phone much, and will finish eating first. After he finished eating, he would lean back and wait for them while playing on his phone.

He eats really fast, and he doesn’t participate in their conversations at all. Occasionally, Xiao Pang would ask him something, and he would just make an ‘mn’ sound. Or if there was something in his throat that he hadn’t swallowed yet, he would answer with a vague “No.”

After eating, he placed the chopsticks on the tray, leaned back, took out his phone from his pocket and scroll on it intently. Qin Weihang would wear headphones when he was watching videos, and he would laugh when he watched something funny. The laugh would be brief and would normally go unnoticed, but once you notice it, you will think that his laugh at that moment was…very attractive.

An Ning retracted his gaze and couldn’t help thinking, will Qin Weihang and his girlfriend be like this when they video chat in the future?

Every Friday, after he finished eating lunch, Qin Weihang would get up—it was also the same yesterday. Once he stands up, Xiao Pang would immediately know: “Buying milk?”

Qin Weihang would buy milk after lunch every Friday. He seemed to consistently keep up with this eating habit. Even Liang Shenghan said: “This habit of yours is pretty strange. Don’t you drink milk in the morning too?”

Qin Weihang would buy four cartons of milk every time, regardless of whether they drink it or not. Xiao Pang would show some respect and drink it all up every time. Liang Shenghan would sometimes keep it for breakfast tomorrow: “Thank you, I will save it for tomorrow morning!”

Qin Weihang inserted the straw in and said, “Up to you.”

Yet, Xiao Pang would blame Liang Shenghan, saying: “This is Da-ge’s love, how dare you not drink it!”

An Ning rubbed the milk in his hand and thought, this was love. Although it was not the kind of love he wanted, it was also a form of love, so he would drink it until there was nothing left every time.

In a flash, the break time was over, and he went out again.

The power of love really couldn’t be underestimated. He was only thinking about Qin Weihang in the lounge for a while, but he felt as if he was fully charged.

An Ning got off of work late on Christmas Eve. When he went back, he couldn’t catch the last subway, so he had to wait for the last bus. The bus lines were almost closed, so the only bus left had to take a long detour. The school dormitory closed at 11:30 p.m. At the latest, he won’t arrive past 12 a.m, so he could still make it.

However, An Ning fell asleep in the bus. He slept until he reached the terminal station, and was finally woken up by the driver uncle.

He got out of the bus and stood at an unfamiliar station, a bit dazed. It was very cold, it was in the middle of the night, and he didn’t know where he was. The road was wide and the streetlights were very bright. It was just that there was no one on the road; there wasn’t even a car in sight after a long time. He lowered his head and turned on the navigation on his phone. He found that he was near a middle school and opposite of the school was a big park. The park late at night looked very creepy. He didn’t even see a taxi here, so he can only try a taxi-hailing app he had never used before. As soon as he opened WeChat to look into it, his phone rang. It was Qin Weihang’s number.

An Ning hurriedly answered the call. Qin Weihang asked him on the other side of the phone: “Why haven’t you come back yet?”

An Ning was feeling really miserable, complaining to Qin Weihang as he walked: “I fell asleep on the bus. When I woke up, I was at the terminal…”

Qin Weihang asked where he was, so An Ning squinted to looked at the school gates: “Yuren Middle School.”

“Okay,” Qin Wei Hang said, “you wait there for me, I’ll pick you up.”

“Ah?!” An Ning was overwhelmed, “No need, I’m planning to take a taxi!”

“Even if you take the taxi back, the dormitory is already closed. Have you thought about where to stay the night?”

He actually hadn’t…but was going to cross the bridge when he comes to it…

“Wait for me. I’m already downstairs, I’ll be there soon.”

An Ning still wanted to say something, but Qin Weihang had already hung up the phone.

Qin Weihang’s message popped up on WeChat: Turn on your data, contact via WeChat.

He stared at Qin Weihang’s motorcycle profile picture and couldn’t snap out of it. This person…seemed to be treating him a little too nice, so nice that his mind was a little dizzy.