Chapter 64

From that night to the next morning, time seems to have turned into its original seamless stitch work. There was no difference between the date and the hour, and the excessive smoothness between the minutes and seconds was like a dream. That was until he was sitting in the black Land Rover and the door slammed shut. It was only then that An Ning felt that he was waking up from a dream.

An Ning felt a bit ashamed—he had dozed off. He kept feeling that he was still in the back seat of that R1, leaning on Qin Weihang’s back and hugging him.

When Qin Weihang lowered his head to buckle his seat belt, he heard the person next to him burp softly. He pursed the corner of his lips to suppress his laughter.

When the dashboard lit up and the car started, An Ning felt that his stomach was too full. It was now 7:45 a.m. Before going downstairs, Qin Weihang stuffed him with a pile of milk, ham, and bread; telling him to eat more.

“Your feet may not be able to step on the ground before it gets dark.”

Qin Weihang’s words contained a bit of an inadvertent threat, making him wonder what mountain it was.

There were not many cars on the road. The road in the dark blue morning light looked quiet and wide. The lone black Land Rover stopped behind the zebra crossing and was waiting at the red light. Maybe it was because the atmosphere of more than 70 seconds was too quiet, Qin Weihang stretched out his hand and played a song to listen to. The light prelude floated from the car stereo—it was a Korean song with a sweet and beautiful female voice. Unexpectedly, for An Ning, he had even heard of this song before. He vaguely remembered that it was the theme song of a certain Korean drama.

The red light turned green, and accompanied by the melody, it seemed that even the mood had become very different.

This was too sweet, An Ning couldn’t help but look at the playback screen. On it was the name of the singer and the song, which was ‘Lee Boram – The First Time in the First Place’.

As for which Korean drama he heard it in, he could not remember. The only Korean drama he had watched was “Signal”, but this one was obviously the theme song of a romantic drama.

“What are you thinking about?” Qin Weihang asked him aloud.

“This song sounds nice,” An Ning said. “Is it a Korean drama song?”

Qin Weihang curled his lips: “I don’t know, I just thought it sounded nice.” He asked him again, “Does it sound nice?”

“It sounds nice.” An Ning nodded. Didn’t I just say that already?

Qin Weihang smiled and stroked the steering wheel with his palm: “Yeah, you said it already.”

An Ning retracted his gaze and looked in front of the windshield. He was secretly thinking that Qin Weihang really looked like a child just now—one that was no more than 13 years old.

After more than an hour’s drive and nearly an hour of walking, Qin Weihang led him through valleys and woods. When they were walking in the woods, Qin Weihang suddenly stopped and raised his hand to stop the person behind him. An Ning stopped in surprise. Qin Weihang looked towards his one o’clock direction and said in a low voice, “Lynx.”

An Ning immediately looked over nervously, only having time to catch a glimpse of a pair of tall furry ears flashing by.

There was a whistling sound of the wind in the woods, and the spirit-like animal disappeared in the midst of the wind.

Qin Weihang said: “It’s fine, I’m bigger than a lynx.”

An Ning realized that he had unknowingly approached Qin Weihang a bit. This was probably the instinctive reaction of his body while in front of danger. This reaction disappointed him because he doesn’t want to be a person that relied on others, but what else can be done? Was it even possible to count on him to protect Qin Weihang?

“One time my teacher took me hiking and lied to me that there was a bear,” Qin Weihang said, “I also stood directly behind him,” he said as he walked, “because I have never seen a bear before.”

He clearly left out the sentence ‘so I was quite scared’ that came afterward. An Ning imagined Qin Weihang, who was 15 or 16 years old, nervously standing behind Zhong Jing. The boy’s timidness was also straightforward and cute.

He also heard Qin Weihang say: “That day, his wife was also there, so I was just a tool to satisfy his desire to show his manliness.”

It sounded like he was very upset. An Ning smiled and said, “Perhaps he had wanted his wife to stand behind him?”

Qin Weihang shook his head: “Teacher’s wife knows him too well and won’t be fooled by him. They just wanted to tease me because I was young.”

An Ning jokingly thought, just how teasable were you that people wanted to mess with you when you were young?

“But not anymore,” Qin Weihang pushed aside the branches, bowed his head and walked under the branches, “it’s their turn to hide behind me now.”

An Ning suddenly laughed from behind.

Qin Weihang stopped and looked back at him.

An Ning was embarrassed: “I just think that you…are speaking a lot today.” Do you know just how cute you look when you’re being defiant and vindictive? This is why they want to tease you!

Qin Weihang raised his eyebrows: “Really?” He turned his head, then turned it back again, and asked, “Then is it better for me to talk more or talk less?”

An Ning was confused when asked, but the answer was obvious: “Both are fine with me!”

Qin Weihang smiled, turned around and walked forward again. However, that smile was imprinted in An Ning’s eyes for a long time, the long aftertaste continuously slipping into his heart. When Qin Weihang smiled, the brisk breath that accidentally leaked decorated the proud and winning smile.

They finally arrived at the mountain. Qin Weihang was wrong, though; the mountain was very high. It was not a rock wall of 20 to 30 meters at all. It was truly a mountain, both steep and beautiful. When they came out of the forest of holly trees, that was what they saw. It was like an island in the green ocean, waiting for them to reach the shore.

But… An Ning raised his head—it was too high. It was 200 meters and was like a shortened version of El Capitan. The granite cliff had long crevices that were layered on top of each other, like a rock flower bud.

“Sorry,” Qin Weihang raised his head and said lightly, “I lied to you, it’s actually quite high.”

An Ning swallowed, “Can I do this?”

Qin Weihang said, “There are a total of eight route sections, so it may take some time. You have to be prepared to spend the whole day up there with me.”

At 10:20 a.m, they were ready to conquer the mountain.

The eight sections were all led by Qin Weihang, which was not difficult for An Ning. After Qin Weihang finished leading a route, he would set up a protection station, and then let him climb up the rope. After completing the first route, An Ning felt much more relaxed than expected, but it felt very different. When he climbed the rope, Qin Weihang was looking at him from above. When he raised his head, he could see the towering Qin Weihang, who was standing high up while waiting for him in that posture. An Ning did not know which part of himself got poked, which made him keep looking up.

Especially when he was about to approach the protection station and could see Qin Weihang’s ankles and legs. He unexpectedly felt his face blushing and his heart burning—it was truly shameful.

The first protection station was built on a relatively wide rock peak. Qin Weihang put the nut in place and calmly waited for him by leaning against the rock wall. As soon as An Ning looked up, he saw Qin Weihang’s foot stepping on the rock above his head. He was really climbing too slowly, and Qin Weihang had nothing to do, so he could only rest like this.

When he reached the protection station, Qin Weihang bent over to pull him up. An Ning grabbed Qin Weihang’s hand. Both of their palms had chalk powder on them, so when they held hands, the chalk powder lightly came off as they slapped against each other.

“It must be tiring,” Qin Weihang said. “It’s a bit inconvenient to carry the backpack, right?”

“I’m fine, and it’s not heavy.” An Ning said while wiping off his sweat. The backpack contained only some supplies, towels, rope, food and drinks, because they probably will have lunch on the rock wall. Moreover, Qin Weihang was leading, so he couldn’t let him carry it.

When fixing up the protection station, he thought he could rest with Qin Weihang for a while, but he did not expect that Qin Weihang was ready for the second section of the climb, and that he could set off at any time.

An Ning took the water bottle and told Qin Weihang: “Drink some water.”

Qin Weihang straightened out the ropes with both hands, then turned his head towards him: “Feed me.”

An Ning froze for a second, but did not dare think too much and moved the bottle over.

He followed the angle of Qin Weihang’s head and held the water bottle up high, but water still slid down from the corner of Qin Weihang’s mouth and flowed along his jaw to his neck.

The sun was already up high, but for the first time, An Ning felt that this winter was too hot.