Chapter 61

An Ning had to return to KFC to work after the fourth day; today was his last day off. This morning, he and Qin Weihang slept until the sun was already high in the sky.* Neither of them wanted to get up—it was as if they could sleep through the rest of their life in one breath. Turning over in a daze, he saw Qin Weihang on the opposite side with his head under the quilt, with only his arm outside the quilt. He thought that this was also not bad, then closed his eyes again.

[*TN: Meaning, they slept the whole morning. The term used here indicates 7 to 11 a.m]

Then he had a dream. The dream was a scene where he taught Qin Weihang jurisprudence. They were still in that ‘入’-shaped position, and An Ning seemed to have suddenly crossed into this scene, occupying the body of ‘An Ning’, who was still unaware of his feelings for Qin Weihang. Maybe it was a parallel universe, and everything had nothing to do with him, but he still had the idea of playing matchmaker for himself and Qin Weihang, so he turned from the teaching materials in his hands to the handsome guy next to him, and said:

“Qin Weihang, I like you.”

However, Qin Weihang just gave an “oh” sound.

An Ning looked at Qin Weihang, who was holding his chin with one hand and staring at the textbook with unfocused eyes. He found it funny—why was this person so absentminded? It turned out that he was not listening to him explaining the jurisprudence lesson!

Perhaps Qin Weihang in his universe was the same. During the time period in which they were sitting together for more than an hour, Qin Weihang stayed absentminded. What he was thinking, he soon knew the answer.

The one-hour tutoring session ended. After he said, “We’ll stop here for today,” Qin Weihang’s half-sunk eyelids opened immediately, and his youthful look was restored. His hand resting on his chin went towards the desk, his watch knocking against it. One can see just how relaxed and glad he was; he almost had the words ‘It’s finally over’ written on his face. He stood up and said: “Then I will practice on the fingerboard.”

An Ning turned towards Qin Weihang’s back figure and asked with dissatisfaction, “Did you hear what I just said?”

Qin Weihang pulled back the hem of his sweater, pulled up his sleeves, walked under the fingerboard, and said, “Mn, I heard it.”

What did you even hear… An Ning wanted to cry but had no tears to shed.

But this dream made him very satisfied. Qin Weihang was really an excellent one-sided crush. He was so absentminded that he didn’t care about others’ admiration for him at all. There were too many people admiring him anyway. Everyone can safely say “I like you” to him, just like fans having delusions of dating celebrities. Every celebrity will be considerate, saying “I’m sorry, but I can’t reciprocate your love,” but which fan would care about their love not getting reciprocated?

Love has always belonged to himself, he just needed to enjoy it. Love that needed to be reciprocated was just possessiveness.

An Ning, who was on the bed, opened his eyes and saw the sunlight shining on the ceiling of the room. Moreover, the wall beside his bed was so bright that it was like midsummer at dusk. He turned over and saw that Qin Weihang was no longer in bed and the quilt on the bed was well folded. The balcony door was open, and the light was suddenly cut off by a figure.

Qin Weihang let go of the fingerboard and landed. He was really practicing the fingerboard, wearing the same thick black clover hoodie that was in his dream, and he was stroking his cuffs.

This coincidence actually made An Ning a bit pleased.

Qin Weihang stood at the balcony door, looked up at him, and said: “It’s almost noon, let’s go out to eat.”

An Ning nodded while getting dressed. The two of them looked like birds going out together for food.

Because they got up too late, they saved up on breakfast and directly went out to eat lunch. Some restaurants were already open on the fourth day, and Huang Qinzhen’s cafeteria was also open. Otherwise, if he had to eat another self-heating hot pot, he really wouldn’t be able to bear it.

When passing by No. 1 cafeteria, An Ning asked Qin Weihang: “Go to Huang Qinzhen’s cafeteria?” After the last time, he and Qin Weihang liked to call it ‘Huang Qinzhen’s cafeteria’. Although Xiao Pang didn’t like Huang Qinzhen, he himself liked her. Even though he never talked to her, the girl who smiled like Aragaki Yui was an opportunity to get to know Qin Weihang—oh, how wonderful that is.

Qin Weihang put his hands in the pockets of the down jacket, looked at the cafeteria door, then retracted his gaze to look at him, He said: “I want to eat something else.”

Hah, why did it seem like he was taking a child out? An Ning stifled a smile and nodded: “Then let’s go eat off-campus.”

It was a pity that there were many small restaurants open near the school, most of which are noodle restaurants. An Ning was fine with anything, but he didn’t know what Qin Weihang wanted to eat. When they were walking by, he asked Qin Weihang what he wanted to eat. Qin Weihang glanced at the orderly small restaurants and said, “Let’s find a place that’s a bit brighter.”

Others would say to find a cleaner place, yet he asked for a brighter place.

In the end, they entered a small and bright fast-food restaurant. They were not the only customers in this restaurant, but everyone else was sitting alone. Presumably, they were people who left early to go to work. They were all rushing and even hurriedly eating. It was only the two of them that came together.

There was an old woman with white hair holding a walking stick in front of the ordering counter. Qin Weihang walked behind her and waited patiently. The elderly may be unaccustomed to using a phone to pay, because An Ning suddenly heard Qin Weihang say: “Grandma, you didn’t include a decimal point.”

The old woman squinted her eyes at the phone screen and said “Oh,” discovering that she had entered 155 instead of 15.5, so she hurriedly turned back and said, “Thank you.” She probably didn’t think that the boy behind her would be so tall, so she raised her neck and made an “ah” sound, then said again: “Thank you, young man.”

Qin Weihang didn’t really mean to look at the other party’s screen, but because the grandma was too short, so he was able to easily sweep a look at it. He also reminded the other party that she could lower the phone next time.

An Ning thought that he must have seen many people’s payment passwords like this. The eyes were so clear, and the eyesight was also very good. Didn’t he say that he wanted to be an astronaut? He must have known that he had to protect his eyes since he was a child. Although he was not a top student, it was another kind of amazing determination.

The old grandma left with two portions of fast food. Qin Weihang stepped forward and scanned the set meal sign above him. At this moment, An Ning leaned forward and said behind his back: “Don’t order for me, we’re doing AA!”

Qin Weihang heard the sound coming from behind his neck and nodded without turning his head. After a while, he raised his hand and gently scratched the back of his neck with his fingers—it kept feeling itchy.

An Ning ordered a meal after Qin Weihang. Qin Weihang raised his head and glanced at the price. The 13-yuan($2) mapo tofu* set meal could be concluded that it was meatless. He retracted his gaze and looked at An Ning who was waiting for his meal. Feeling his gaze, An Ning raised his head and smiled at him. Qin Weihang turned his gaze away and put his arm on the counter.

*Mapo Tofu

An Ning couldn’t tell what he was thinking. His eyes seemed to be out of focus; it was similar to when he was being absentminded in his dream.

The two ate their lunch face to face, and as soon as they walked out of the restaurant, An Ning turned around; intending to go back to school. Qin Weihang grabbed his arm and said, “Go somewhere with me.”

An Ning agreed without a second thought. Today was his last day off and he didn’t want to waste it. In any case, following Qin Weihang, no matter where they went, was better than staying at school.

Qin Weihang took him to a dairy booth. An Ning did not expect that he actually ordered milk here. Seeing Qin Weihang come out with two bottles of fresh milk and giving him a bottle, he could not express the warmth in his heart. He took the milk and said, “Thank you.” Qin Weihang smiled, and the bottle in his hand touched his own bottle.

A ting sounded—as if knocking on his heart.

In the afternoon of the winter break, the two of them sat down on a flowerbed on the roadside and drank the bottle of milk.

The flowerbed was facing the road. Although it was deserted during Chinese New Year, there were still vehicles passing by in front of them from time to time. They didn’t have to work overtime or have to deal with relatives. This kind of leisure in the midst of the busyness, standing on an isle that will not be swept away by the torrent of time, was a particularly pleasant feeling. An Ning thought, but that was also because there was Qin Weihang next to him. If he had to sit here alone, even if he drank valuable red wine, he would not be happy.

He liked Qin Weihang—he liked his bright and deep eyes, his broad and powerful back, his tall and handsome figure, his large black down jacket and orange hoodie, and he liked how good-looking he looked when wearing them in layers. He also liked the OFF-WHITE he liked, the Air Jordan he liked, and the Yamaha R1 he rode.

Now, he also likes the milk he drinks.

He stared at the black and white canvas shoes on Qin Weihang’s feet, fascinated. Qin Weihang’s feet were being stared at by him to the point that they became self-conscious, shyly retracting. An Ning blinked and regained his senses, then subconsciously raised his head to look at the owner of those feet.

Qin Weihang turned towards him and looked down at the black and white ALL STAR on his feet, and then said: “Step on me for a moment.”

An Ning let out an “ah” sound, thinking that he was imagining it. “… Why do I need to step on you?”

Qin Weihang looked down at the shoes, and with the toes of the shoes raised, he said: “This is a new pair of shoes, so it’s best to step on them.”

“Is there such a saying?” An Ning pushed up his glasses and couldn’t believe it.

Qin Weihang said that he could search it up.

An Ning said, “Wait a minute,” then he really went to look it up on his phone. After he finished looking it up, he sighed: “There really is such a saying, and you have to step on it three times.” He put the phone down and glanced at Qin Weihang’s canvas shoes again. They looked like they were really new, so he was even more unwilling to step on them…

Qin Weihang leaned his foot towards him and said, “Step on it.”

An Ning was a little tangled and looked down at his own soles.

Qin Weihang glanced at him in amusement, bent down, and said something. An Ning did not hear clearly. His body straightened in the next second. He watched as Qin Weihang leaned over and lifted his left foot, then directly putting it on his canvas shoes.

Qin Weihang’s hand was on the inside of his ankle. Although separated by his jeans, he still experienced the feeling of being held firmly by Qin Weihang’s big hand.

Qin Weihang looked down at the feet of the two people being stacked together, and said, “Use your strength.”

An Ning felt Qin Weihang’s instep bumping on the sole of his own foot, as if urging him. He didn’t even dare to breathe out. He stepped on it with a little force, then moved his foot away. Then he saw a layer of dust smudged on the head of the converse shoe.

Qin Weihang raised his head to look at him, his back was still slightly bent, and he had a helpless look. Suddenly, his whole body leaned over to An Ning and said, “I will show you how to step on it.”

An Ning was dumbstruck as he saw Qin Weihang lift his foot and directly step on his own instep—he really put strength into it. After stepping on it, Qin Weihang even ran his foot over his instep for a while. Not only did he step on his toes, but also pressed on him from toe to instep all over. Although it was not painful, he really felt the pressure, which was the pressure of Qin Weihang putting part of his body weight on his foot.

The legs of the two people were also inadvertently leaning against each other. An Ning stared at Qin Weihang with wide eyes. Qin Weihang finally moved his foot and saw that An Ning’s shoe had a shoe print from being crushed by him. He smiled with satisfaction.

An Ning was stunned by his smile. He didn’t know what was going on. Why did Qin Weihang smile? Why did he smile so charmingly…

Weren’t they just stepping on each other’s feet?

Qin Weihang asked him, “Is it comfortable?”

“Ah?”

Qin Weihang said, “It was very comfortable when I stepped on you, so I think you should have also felt very comfortable when you stepped on me.”

An Ning swallowed—he didn’t know why, but he was a little flustered. Maybe it was because Qin Weihang kept looking at him.

Qin Weihang averted his gaze, took a sip of milk, brought down the milk, and turned it slowly in his hand. He looked at the road that was shining with light and no longer flowing, muttering: “Why was it so comfortable…”

He seemed to be asking himself this. An Ning’s heart was rumbling, feeling that the voice was tempting him.