Chapter 5

The next day, An Ning returned to his dorm room after he finished studying in the evening. Before going to bed, he routinely checked his phone while sitting up from the bed—Qin Weihang still hadn’t accepted the 2000 yuan, hence he had no choice but to send a message: “Qin Weihang, you forgot to collect the money. Remember to take it!”

Qin Weihang was walking out of the rock-climbing gym when the message was sent. He stopped and took out his phone, then looked at the message, not knowing what kind of expression to make.

An Ning put down the phone and lay down. Then the WeChat alert rang. He picked it up and looked at it. He saw that Qin Weihang had collected the 2000 yuan.

Looking at the WeChat interface, he suddenly found it a bit funny. The Chief’s conversation with The Rainmaker, aside from the sentence he just sent, were just a few transfer records. From beginning to end, Qin Weihang didn’t reply to him. However, the receiving prompt made him feel like he was communicating with Qin Weihang. He smiled, turned off his phone, and went to sleep with relief.

On Saturday, he worked part-time at KFC. Since his English was good, the manager arranged him at the front counter. In fact, he preferred to be in the kitchen instead of dealing with so many people. The other colleagues at the front were all girls, thus he was the only boy. This KFC was not big, but it was located in the busiest business district and was also the oldest one. Moreover, foreigners often come to order food here. Working at KFC for almost a month now, An Ning felt that his English listening and speaking skills had improved by leaps and bounds. He immediately felt that it was a good deal to stand at the front counter. Moreover, the schedule here was relatively lax. He only works one day a week, from 7 a.m to 9 p.m. Unfortunately, it was a bit tiring. The first day he stood, his waist ended up hurting, but the salary was 2000 yuan for one day. If the dormitory gate didn’t close at night, he could’ve worked until it closed at 12 a.m and got doubled the salary.

Originally, he made an appointment to have the midnight meal with Qin Weihang today. Unexpectedly, after dinnertime, a female colleague suddenly had a stomachache. At first, An Ning thought it was because of her menstrual pain. Later, when he saw that her pain was getting worse and worse, he was shocked. At the time, there were only six people in the restaurant. Except for him and a buddy in the kitchen, the rest were all girls. Someone needed to stay in the kitchen, so he had to take her to the hospital by himself. The E.R doctor judged that it might be acute appendicitis. An Ning was watching over the girl in the hospital for the examination and paid the examination fee. It was almost 9 p.m, yet her family members hadn’t come to the hospital yet. He had to send a message to Qin Weihang: “Sorry, I might not be able to make it today. I sent my colleague to the hospital. Are you free tomorrow? It doesn’t matter if you don’t have time tomorrow, we can arrange for another time. I’m really sorry!”

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Qin Weihang quickly replied to him: “It’s okay, I’ll be free tomorrow.”

An Ning saw the sentence ending with a full stop, so his heart finally settled, and he felt relieved as he put his phone down.

After helping his colleague pay the examination fee and infusion fee, his card balance was emptied. Later, the boyfriend of the female colleague finally arrived and asked him anxiously how she was doing. An Ning told him that the doctor injected antibiotics for the time being, however, she might need surgery. Hearing the word ‘surgery’, An Ning noticed that her boyfriend’s expression was a bit tense. They were all university students, and it was not easy for anyone living in a different city. He saw that the other party was already having trouble with the operation fee, so he didn’t have the nerve to discuss getting reimbursed. He said, “Then I will go back to the restaurant first.”

The boyfriend stood up and said apologetically, “I’m sorry buddy, the operation fee you helped pay for, in two days…”

“It’s okay,” An Ning took the initiative and said, “repay me when she gets better.”

Her boyfriend thanked him, and An Ning hurried back to KFC.

Anyway, he could wait for the female colleague to come back to work to pay him back. Besides, the salary will be paid the day after tomorrow, so it doesn’t matter. He still had enough money for the meals for the next two days, and the transportation fee was just reloaded last week. There was also a midnight meal that he doesn’t need to pay for.

In addition to the part-time job at KFC on Saturday, An Ning also took on a job as a tutor on Sunday. It was introduced to him by an upperclassman. He only knew that the person he was teaching was a boy from a single-parent household who had just entered his first year of junior high. He was a little dumbfounded when he got the address—it was actually in Lantian County. He looked it up on the Internet. It was indeed Lantian County, a wealthy district where many celebrities were said to live.

The single mother was called Qian Fei. She lives alone with her son Yuan Xiaoye in a mansion in Lantian County. An Ning rang the doorbell punctually at 3 p.m. An Ning was a little nervous when he was waiting outside. He didn’t know if he could cope with the current junior high school students. He was worried that the rich would be very demanding and harsh. Then he heard an intelligent and gentle female voice coming from the intercom, “Who is it?”

“Hello*, I am the tutor who is here to give your son supplementary lessons,” An Ning said as he hurriedly drew closer.

[*TN: He said “Nin hao”. The ‘nin'(您) is the polite form of ‘you’. I’ll be underlining it from now on, whenever it’s the polite form.]

This was his first time coming here, he brought his student ID and some award certificates. When he took them out, he felt pretty good, like showing off, but the other person didn’t know him. Honestly speaking, he didn’t know how his senior recommended him, but the other party already agreed to have him come over without even seeing him.

Qian Fei saw that he was too formal and said with a smile, “No need to look at them, I heard from Xiao Cai(the senior) that you have the highest score in the Faculty of Law. I trust his words. You can just start the supplementary lessons for my son. His teacher already prepared test papers. Today, you can urge him to do them first, so you can know his level.”

Qian Fei’s son was called Yuan Xiaoye. He had a very rebellious personality. As soon as An Ning entered the room, he saw Yuan Xiaoye reluctantly squatting in front of the desk in his pajamas. Feeling uncomfortable, he calmed down and closed the door behind him. Yuan Xiaoye immediately turned to stare at him and said, “First, I want to declare one thing.”

An Ning pushed his glasses and said, “Say it.”

Yuan Xiaoye said, “Although my mother calls me Yuan Xiaoye, my name is actually Yuan Ye. The name Yuan Xiaoye was used when I was in kindergarten, you get it?”

An Ning nodded. “Understood. Yuan, Ye,” he called this person’s adult name solemnly. He walked over, sat down, and spread out the test papers, “Let’s start.”

Yuan Xiaoye did not give the stack of test papers a look, but asked him oddly, “My mom is not bad, right?”

An Ning froze for a moment, then said, “Your mother is quite nice.”

Yuan Xiaoye raised his eyebrows threateningly and said, “Do you know how my last tutor was fired?”

An Ning didn’t know and didn’t want to have any traumas. He patiently said, “Let’s start the lesson.”

Yuan Xiaoye said sternly like a little adult, “I have to talk about principles first. The previous tutor seems to belong to your school. He saw that my mom was young, beautiful, and rich. Thus, he thought she can be taken advantage of, but he thought wrong.” Yuan Xiaoye stared fiercely, “I took one look at him and knew that he was up to no good.”

An Ning’s sighed in his heart. Were all children so precocious now? He listened to Yuan Xiaoye exaggerating and talking on and on about how the previous tutor harbored hidden intentions of seizing the widowed mother and son’s assets, albeit in vain. He couldn’t help but think back to his own first year of junior year when his father passed away, and he moved to live with his divorced mother. After the divorce, his mother remarried and already had another son. At that time, he was also sensitive in his heart. He grew up with this sensitiveness and understood that it was more of a defensive mechanism. At 10 years old, he had come to know about a lot of things, yet he was always excluded from the world of adults…

“Don’t worry,” he interrupted Yuan Xiaoye, “I am not interested in your mother. Even if I have a good impression of your mother, your mother must also need to like me. Do you think she would like me? Your mother is so tall, probably 1.7 meters, while I’m only 1.75 meters.”

Even his 1.75 meters has a difference of a few millimeters. It was a rounded up 1.75 meters.

Yuan Xiao Ye couldn’t help but laugh, then looked him up and down. In fact, this xiao gege* was quite pleasing to the eye, and his skin was as pale as a girl’s. At first glance, he looked like a nerd who didn’t like to bask in the sun and stayed at home all day. His hair was jet-black and healthy. His hair was cut in a simple and neat mushroom head. He could tell with one look that he didn’t spend much for it. His hair was somewhat natural and curly, but it wasn’t messy, so it looked pretty cute. He was also wearing a pair of round glasses. Please, what era were those glasses from, and he was also wearing a dark green sweater. He looked like…then he thought of something. He tried to suppress a smile, and said disapprovingly, “That’s true.”

[*TN: Lit. Little older brother]

An Ning, without knowing what Yuan Xiao Ye was holding back, pushed up his glasses. He still had to show a bit of an adult’s aura, so he said seriously, “Now can we start?”

Yuan Xiaoye finally gave him a little bit of face and started on the stack of test papers.

After spending an afternoon, An Ning finally had a good knowledge of Yuan Xiaoye’s math and physics. In short, this tutoring job…will be very challenging.

Actually, it was no wonder Yuan Xiaoye thoughts wandered off. His mother, Qian Fei, was really beautiful; with elegant honey-colored long curly hair and a very good figure. He couldn’t believe that her son was already this old. The most important thing was that she was a good person. After Yuan Xiaoye finished the test papers, it was almost 7 p.m. Qian Fei made him dinner, but he didn’t want Yuan Xiaoye to think too much, so he declined, “No need, auntie.”

As soon as the word ‘auntie’ came out, Yuan Xiaoye behind her turned red with a smile and secretly gave him a thumbs up.

Although he addressed her a little bit like an old person, Qian Fei didn’t mind. An Ning blushed and said in his heart, I’m sorry, Qian Fei-jie.*

[*TN: Jie is what younger people address to women older than them. It means older sister and can be used even if you aren’t related.]

When he left, Yuan Xiaoye came to see him off. He walked him to the door and said as he closed the door, “Goodbye then, Mushroom-headed Little Frog!”

What the hell? An Ning looked back in astonishment, however, the door was already closed.

After leaving Lantian County, he took the subway directly back to school. The school cafeteria must have been closed, but there was still a midnight meal he can eat, so it was okay to not eat dinner. With this mindset, he got on the train hungry. There were many people on the subway. Everyone had their chests against other people’s backs. At this moment, someone patted him on the shoulder. He was stunned and turned his head. He was caught off guard to see Qin Weihang standing behind him, thus his eyes widened.

Qin Weihang raised his hand to hold the handlebar, and the two stood close to each other. Qin Weihang, who appeared to be more than 1.86 meters, was taller. He was shorter, being less than 1.75 meters. He stepped back awkwardly. Turning his head, he asked in astonishment, “Why are you here? Do you live in Lantian County?”

Qin Weihang lowered his head and said, “I don’t live here. I came here to see my teacher.”

Qin Weihang looked around when he walked into the subway station. The subway was packed, so he wanted to wait for the next one. Suddenly, he saw An Ning among the crowd. He was obviously not tall, but it was easy to spot him. Therefore, Qin Weihang got off the escalator in two to three steps and then got into the subway car a second before it closed.

The subway manager wanted to stop him, but before they were able to, the other person had already entered. It was good to have long legs, he always knew that.

The car was too crowded. Looking around, he saw people’s heads sticking to his chest and back. He glanced ahead and saw An Ning still trying to move deeper in. The hood of the green sweater was squished for a while, while the person was also squeezed here and there for a while. With a helpless sigh, he made his way through the crowd. When the two were one arm apart, he raised his hand and patted An Ning on the shoulder. When the man turned his head, he squeezed right behind him.

Qin Weihang’s voice was just behind his ears. His concealed breath was like a kick drum shaking behind An Ning’s neck. He thought distractedly, he doesn’t even go to school yet he would come to see his teacher.

Qin Weihang saw his confused* face from the reflection of the car window and said, “It’s the teacher who taught me rock climbing.”

[*TN: An idiom was used here. It’s equivalent to our “can’t make heads or tails of…”]

An Ning eyes widened, and he couldn’t help but turn his head: “You even rock climb!” As soon as he turned his neck and raised his head, Qin Weihang lowered his head to respond to him. He nodded and asked, “Are you working part-time around here?”

An Ning also nodded. “Yeah, such a coincidence!”

When the subway arrives, there were a lot of people getting off at this station, so a bunch of people were pushing into the crowd. An Ning felt Qin Weihang’s body sticking to his back again and again. He couldn’t help but think of that time when they played basketball and Qin Weihang’s strength when he knocked into Lei Jun. He felt that such a tall body could be touched so lightly. In the reflection of the car window, Qin Weihang was turning his head and looking back. A lady holding a child and dragging the suitcase passed behind him. The half-year-old child ignorantly stretched out his hand into the air and directly grabbed Qin Weihang clothes from behind. Qin Weihang didn’t care, he just lowered his neckline and bent his neck to avoid it.

When Qin Weihang lowered his neck unconsciously, he noticed that An Ning didn’t have any oily smoke smell on his body. He was a little puzzled, but he didn’t ask since it had nothing to do with him anyway.

When the passengers got off halfway, the subway car was empty, and Qin Weihang stood aside. An Ning was relieved somehow, then heard Qin Weihang say, “We will get off at the next stop.”

He turned towards Qin Weihang’s reflection in the car window and restrainedly nodded. He thought, standing with such a tall and handsome guy in public was really stressful…