Chapter 8

On the weekend, An Ning taught Yuan Xiaoye for two hours but did not see Qian Fei when he came out of the room. Yuan Xiaoye ran to the refrigerator to find something to eat. An Ning turned around and said to Yuan Xiaoye, “Then I will leave first, Yuan Ye. Let your mother know when she comes back.” Yuan Xiaoye had food in his mouth and nodded. An Ning said, “Take it out of the fridge and warm it up before eating.” Yuan Xiaoye swallowed the contents in his mouth, turned around and said, “You nag more than my mom.” He raised the jelly in his hand, “I’m eating jelly. Don’t tell me I still have to heat it up?” An Ning let out an awkward “oh” and nodded his head.

When he went to the foyer to put on his shoes, he suddenly heard Yuan Xiaoye shout for him in the kitchen: “Little Frog!!”

He heard him shout so anxiously, so An Ning hurriedly took off his shoes and went back to the living room. “What’s wrong?!”

There was actually nothing wrong with Yuan Xiaoye; he just coolly threw a jelly at him.

An Ning subconsciously caught the ice-cold jelly cup that was thrown from afar. In fact, the weather was pretty cold in early November, but he was indeed a little thirsty after speaking for a whole afternoon. He looked up and saw the back of Yuan Xiaoye, who was eating the jelly arrogantly. He smiled and said, “Thank you!”

He walked out the door with the jelly, and suddenly heard Qian Fei’s voice. When he turned his head, he saw Qian Fei leaning against the gate. Whoever she was talking to, the tone of her voice was pleasant and a bit sweet. When Qian Fei saw him, she put down her phone and asked with a smile, “Done with the session?”

An Ning nodded, looked back at the villa, and whispered, “Then I will go first.”

Qian Fei also peered through the gate. She smiled and nodded at him.

The trace of a young girl could be seen in her.

An Ning was very worried when he turned around and walked away. He was worried that Yuan Xiaoye would run out and see his mother hiding from him to make a phone call. In fact, when he first saw this scene, he felt a little sad for Yuan Xiaoye who was eating jelly in front of the fridge. However, after saying bye to Qian Fei, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for Qian Fei. It has been two years since her husband passed away. She was a young single mother who was raising her child by herself. Right now was also the most sensitive and rebellious period of her child. Even those who hit it off with her had to avoid Yuan Xiaoye. Fearing that he would be sad, she had to run under the streetlamp at night just to make a phone call. Naturally, Yuan Xiaoye couldn’t understand his mother’s difficulties. But which child can easily accept a stranger into their life and replace their closest loved ones?

He looked down at the jelly cup in his hand. Alas, it was not easy for anyone.

Lantian County was too big. When he walked out of the villa, the sky had only started to darken, but once he reached the gate, it was completely dark. There were not many people coming in and out of the gate. He suddenly glanced at a figure in front of him and his eyes brightened. Qin Weihang?

With only the faint light at the gate, he knew at a glance that the figure belonged to Qin Weihang. Besides the figure’s familiar height, it was also because of the Off-White jacket the person was wearing. It wasn’t even the black long-sleeved T-shirt Qin Weihang wore last time, but another black and white baseball jacket. He made such a ridiculous and hasty judgment with the intuition of “Qin Weihang being the only one in this city that can handle these clothes” that he found it funny.

‘Qin Weihang’ had already walked out of the gate, so An Ning shouted: “Qin Weihang!”

The person being called did not respond. An Ning chased after him, only to find that Qin Weihang was wearing a white headset. An Ning chased after Qin Weihang until he saw the face that made him marvel at how handsome he was. He couldn’t help but think a little triumphantly: It was hasty, but he couldn’t be wrong! Then he reached out and patted Qin Weihang’s arm.

Qin Weihang turned his head and saw An Ning, who was greeting him from beside him. He was taken aback for a moment, but then couldn’t help but smile.

He smiled very faintly. The corners of his mouth curled up, while his eyes disappeared. But An Ning felt giddy by this smile, thinking, how could someone even smile so coolly.

Qin Weihang pulled off the headset, and An Ning said, “Are you coming to see your teacher again?”

Qin Weihang hung the headphones around his neck and nodded.

The two walked side by side. An Ning said, “Did you know that you were trending?”

“Yes,” Qin Weihang said.

An Ning was a little excited. “I watched the whole competition from the video. You were amazing! You told me you rock climb and I thought you were just doing it casually!”

“In fact, there are many world-class professionals who did not come to participate, so I’m not really anything special,” Qin Weihang said.

An Ning looked at his overly calm face: “You are too modest…”

Qin Weihang expression remained the same, “Why would I be modest? Is it because I won the championship that I’m trending?”

An Ning understood what he meant. He was actually on the hot search because he was handsome…

Qin Weihang said as he walked, “Nowadays, very few people are on the hot search because they took first place. It’s meaningless.”

An Ning noticed that he was not very interested in this topic, so he didn’t continue talking about it. Instead, he talked about rock climbing. “Is rock climbing dangerous?”

“It’s sometimes dangerous,” Qin Weihang said, “but the routes selected for the competition are all developed, so it’s not that dangerous.”

An Ning nodded, “That’s good. Although there is the sea below, the impact would be quite strong if the height is too high.”

“It is quite strong.”

Qin Weihang obviously experienced it before, and An Ning couldn’t help but ask, “Have you ever fallen?”

“Everyone who plays deep-water soloing has fallen.” Qin Weihang said.

“How many times have you fallen?”

“Many times.”

An Ning couldn’t help but imagine the scene of a tall person like Qin Weihang falling into the water. No wonder he can easily knock his opponent away with his body when playing basketball. Compared to falling in the sea, what could knocking one or two people away on the basketball court be considered as?

“… What does it feel like?” He couldn’t help asking.

Qin Weihang recalled for a moment, and said: “It’s just the feeling of suddenly falling to the ground, and then the ground gets smashed by you and melts away.”

This description sounded exciting, An Ning thought. The scene came out in a flash—one moment, there was a duang sound of the liver and brain being smeared to the ground*, but in the next moment, the clouds and mist cleared and the crisis was avoided. It was thrilling just thinking about it.

[*TN: Apparently, it means to be ready to die the cruelest death. It’s not literally falling to your death lol]

Qin Weihang lowered his head and glanced at the jelly cup that An Ning was holding upside down with both hands. He then said: “It’s like falling into jelly.”

An Ning burst out laughing. He raised the jelly as if presenting a borrowed flower to Buddha*, and asked Qin Weihang: “Want to eat it?”

[*TN: It’s an idiom. It means to win favor or influence using sb else’s property]

Qin Weihang smiled and shook his head: “No, it’s too sweet.”

It was yellow peach jelly, which An Ning liked, but his roommate didn’t like.

An Ning didn’t know how long they’ve been walking like this, but then he suddenly stopped. He realized that the surrounding scenery was unfamiliar—he actually missed the subway station. An Ning widened his eyes and looked left and right. Then he asked Qin Weihang: “Hey, you…you’re not going back?”

Qin Weihang raised his eyebrows and looked at him. An Ning suddenly understood and dejectedly said, “Oh, yeah…you live outside.”

It was he who walked from behind Qin Weihang and started chatting with him, which made him completely forget the route back. He even forgot that Qin Weihang doesn’t stay in the dorm.

An Ning lowered his head and pushed his glasses in embarrassment. In fact, it was just a small unconscious movement, but Qin Weihang thought it was amusing. He had seen this boy lowering his head and pushing his glasses in front of him several times already. He thought, is it because I’m scary or is it because I’m tall? No, that’s not right. Since I’m tall, he should be the one looking up. An Ning was much shorter than him, yet he still had to bow his head. Qin Weihang couldn’t help but lower his sight when observing the other party. Finally, he concluded that it was because this boy was rather cute.

He deliberately teased the other party: “I thought you wanted to keep walking with me.”

An Ning smiled bitterly and looked front and back at the straight, long road, a little troubled: “I don’t know how far away the subway station is…”

Qin Weihang also looked front and back, and helped him think it through: “In fact, the distance between the two sides is almost the same.”

An Ning made an “oh” sound in embarrassment and said, “Then I’ll accompany you until the next station.”

Qin Weihang “How do you know that I can go to the next station?”

An Ning was taken aback, and then realized: “Do you live nearby?”

“If you keep walking straight, then my place is up ahead,” Qin Weihang said, “You have to walk by yourself the rest of the way.”

An Ning looked up, “Where do you live?”

Qin Weihang said, “I will show you when we get there.”

The two took a step forward and continued walking. An Ning looked around and saw that both side of the street was either dense with trees or were just the walls of the neighborhood. There were no shops and pedestrians along the streets of the community. Moreover, there were very few cars. “There’s not much people here.”

Qin Weihang nodded, “Mm, so it’s comfortable when walking.”

An Ning sneaked a glance at Qin Weihang, thinking, no wonder he liked rock climbing so much. Qin Weihang put both hands in the pockets of his baseball jacket. The white cotton T-shirt inside was blown against his chest by the evening breeze, which reminded An Ning of that amazing deep-water rock climbing. It was really hard to link the earth-shattering handsome* rock climber in the video with the tall and handsome boy in front of him wearing trendy clothes. Looking at this boy dressed all trendy and with individuality, An Ning did not expect that he actually doesn’t like the big city and bustling places. This person was contradicting, but he was contradicting in a very attractive way.

[*TN: I looked it up, and the handsome used here is along the lines of someone so handsome that they broke heaven(or something like that).]

Qin Weihang stopped walking. He raised his head and looked at the entrance of the community in front of him, then said, “I live here.”

An Ning followed his movement and looked over. This community was adjacent to Lantian County and the environment was not ordinary. The gate was also stylish and trees lined up the area. He asked: “Is the rent expensive?”

“It’s okay,” Qin Weihang said, “It’s more expensive than the school dormitory.” He said, “If you walk straight, you can see the subway station within 200 meters.”

An Ning nodded. “Okay, goodbye then!”

He turned and walked a distance, then he suddenly heard someone from behind say, “Would you like to come up and sit?”

An Ning turned his head when he heard this, with surprise written on his face. He really didn’t expect Qin Weihang to invite him over. He was very excited and was tempted for a moment. Nevertheless, he decided to give up. “Next time. This loop closes early. If I leave any later than this, then I’m afraid it’ll close.”

Qin Weihang nodded, waved goodbye, and turned away.

When he walked into the community, the surrounding area became quiet. No one was talking in his ears anymore. That scene of falling to the ground and the image of broken pieces of jelly suddenly ceased. Qin Weihang stopped and looked back in the direction An Ning had left from. He didn’t think An Ning was noisy when the other party was here, but he didn’t expect it to be so quiet when he was gone.

At the parking lot in front, a big golden retriever rushed out of the car door and ran towards him. Qin Weihang was hit by a big dog on the side of his thigh. Once he recovered, he leaned over and rubbed the big dog. The female owner, who just got off the car, yelled, “Oh, sorry, I just opened the door and didn’t stop him in time… Ah, Xiao Qin!”

The big golden retriever jumped up and threw itself at Qin Weihang. The auntie came over with the leash. “Maozi, don’t!”

[*TN: The dog’s name is hairy lol.]

Qin Weihang leaned his head back, feeling the large dog’s tongue licking his chin in joy, and said, “It’s okay.”

Auntie watched this scene and laughed. “Hey, it likes you too much.”

Qin Weihang raised his hand to get the leash, patted the golden retriever’s back to stop it, and then squatted down and put it on the big dog. The golden retriever was very cooperative throughout the whole process. After putting on the leash, Qin Weihang patted the head of the big dog and said, “Why do you like me?”

The auntie smiled and said, “Because you’re handsome.”

Qin Weihang cupped the golden retriever’s head with both his hands. He directly faced the dog and asked, “Really? Am I handsome in your eyes?”

The big golden retriever shook his tail and enthusiastically licked his face again.

The auntie said, “It’s a girl, so she has the right to speak.”

Qin Weihang was taken aback and looked up. “Huh?”

The golden retriever meimei* ended up being taken away; giving him a big kiss before leaving. Qin Weihang was standing under the tree on the dim street. Auntie had given him some tissues, so he wiped his chin with them. The dog had licked him a lot. He looked down at the wet tissue in his hand and thought about what happened before. It’s weird, he thought, I actually wanted to ask him to come up and sit.

[*TN: Little sister]

He laughed at himself again. “He even refused.”