Chapter 6

Qin Fang’s joke allowed the cold atmosphere to dissipate; although Xing Yan didn’t reply to him directly, he raised his eyebrow, acknowledging Qin Fang.

It was an interesting sight. Qin Fang and Xing Yan had a table between them, sitting across from each other, both reading their separate books. But in reality, Qin Fang wasn’t really paying attention to his book. While he did seem calm on the outside, being able to joke with that person and letting bygones be bygones, on the inside, he did feel that the situation was still a bit awkward.

It wasn’t that they had that physical quarrel, it was just that the cause of that quarrel was a little too embarrassing and cringe-inducing for Qin Fang. But in any case, it could be said that they had some predestined affinity to keep on meeting each other.

Qin Fang had thick skin after all, and after feeling a little uncomfortable and awkward for a bit, he let go of it. It wasn’t like anyone was going to do anything about it now.

In the middle of reading, Qin Fang grew slightly hungry, so he fished out some crackers from his backpack. He eyed Xing Yan across from him and pushed a couple crackers towards him.

Xing Yang’s gaze moved from the little crackers to Qin Fang’s face, but Qin Fang didn’t look back, as he continued reading with a cracker in his mouth. Xing Yan moved the crackers off his book, putting them off to the side.

When Shen Dengke had finished his classes and came to the library, Qin Fang had nearly passed out on the table. Shen Dengke walked over, patted his shoulder, then leaned down and lowered his voice, saying, “Thanks for your hard work, my master! Go back to the dorm to sleep!”

“Didn’t fall asleep,” Qin Fang replied in a low voice as well. “Then you study, I’m gonna go.”

Qin Fang grabbed his backpack from behind him and got up to leave. When he walked out, he passed Xing Yan’s chair, but Xing Yan didn’t lift his head. It was only until Qin Fang reached out and placed a piece of paper in Xing Yan’s book did he lift his head, but Qin Fang was gone by then.

Shen Dengke looked at Xing Yan, and, believing that Qin Fang knew him, also gave him a warm smile.

Xing Yan opened the slip of paper Qin Fang left, which had two lines of words scrawled upon it——

Please say sorry to your friend for me. I didn’t mean it.

Qin Fang just had this type of personality. Although he would always get back at someone if he was wronged, he still was reasonable and didn’t want to create too many conflicts. As this quarrel started because of him, he did want to take care of it.

He didn’t have a lot of friends without reason. Qin Fang got along with people really well, so much so that Hua Tong named this phenomena Qin Fang’s personal charm.

“Busted,” Hua Tong relaxed his shoulders, his smile still reflecting a bit of disbelief, “You guys really didn’t fight each other on eye contact, and you guys actually shared crackers and sat next to each other?”

“We didn’t sit next to each other,” Qin Fang retorted good naturedly, internally thinking that Hua Tong was right- the thing was a little too whimsical.

“But your faces were across from each other?” Hua Tong made a thumbs up sign towards Qin Fang, “Really, I admire you, if I was in that position I would have probably invited him to a fistfight at the entrance.”

“Violent much?” Qin Fang laughed.

“I really don’t know who is more irritable and violent between the two of us,” Hua Tong said as they entered the gym. Qin Fang loved sports and was a decent player at basically everything in the place, and Hua Tong, being a target Qin Fang loved to drag to the gym, lost quite a bit of weight and had a better body shape since they started college.

Qin Fang loved working out until he was covered with sweat and exhausted. Hua Tong didn’t have his athleticism, so usually, he could only play half a game of tennis with Qin Fang, and then Qin Fang could literally play against himself for another two hours. Qin Fang swung his racket with a lot of force, so much so that he could feel beads of sweat rolling down his arm. He was used to this from when he was little, since sports could help him control his emotions and vent out whatever.

He needed to sweat a lot and use up all of his strength in order to not think about stupid stuff, or latch onto stupid things.

“You play as if you were an ox,” Hua Tong told him as he handed Qin Fang his backpack after he finished showering and changing. “Your brother called, so I picked up for you.”

“He wants me to go home?” Qin Fang asked as he took over the phone.

“Didn’t tell me.” Hua Tong replied.

Qin Fang dialed back and his brother picked up immediately: “Ge!”

“Ay, what happened?” As Qin Fang spoke into the phone, he shook out his other hand not holding the phone, as it was sore.

“You haven’t come home in two weeks again,” Jian Muyang replied enthusiastically, “Do you not miss me?”

Qin Fang chuckled at his little brother’s choice of vocabulary, “Didn’t I call you two days ago?”

“Just a phone call? Don’t you want to see me?” Jian Muyang asked through the phone.

Qin Fang switched his phone to his other arm and shook out the arm that was just holding the phone, saying, “I have something this week, Yangyang.”

“Next week then?” Jian Muyang asked again.

Qin Fang considered it before answering, “I’ll see for next week.”

“En, okay,” Jian Muyang murmured, his voice low. He paused for a couple seconds before continuing, “Ge, I know you don’t want to come back but I…”

He sounded so low that Qin Fang’s motions paused as he spoke softly into the phone, “I know. I know what you want to say to me, and I didn’t not want to come back. Just wait for my phone call next week, okay?”

“Okay.” Jian Muyang affirmed.

After Qin Fang hung up, he sighed. Next to him, Hua Tong asked, “Going back home next week?”

“Probably.” Qin Fang replied.

Just then, in the call, Jian Muyang didn’t finish his sentence, since he really couldn’t finish. This little brother of Qin Fang was quite the sensitive, observant and inwardly gentle child. And as the child grew, he slowly understood more of the emotions between the adults.

On the surface, Jian Muyang was pretending to be clingy to get Qin Fang to go home, but he was really trying to communicate with his brother that the household needed him.

“Signing up for a local university was a mistake,” Hua Tong glanced at Qin Fang, “If you’d gone further away you wouldn’t be in this trouble.”

Qin Fang didn’t reply to him, instead massaging his shoulders. This type of soreness after intensive workouts made him feel comfortable.

It warmed up slowly in the north, as everyone was still wearing warm sweaters in May. A sudden thunderstorm also brought the just slightly warmer temperature down, so the southerners who had come to the north for two years still thought that spring was way too long for their liking.

Si Tu coughed a bit in the morning when he got up. When Xing Yan walked downstairs, he just caught Si Tu coming back from outside, all bundled up.

“Where are you going?” Si Tu blocked Xing Yan, “Don’t go, I’ve made soup.”

Si Tu was carrying groceries from the supermarket, so Xing Yan helped move them, saying to Si Tu, “Whatever you need, you can send to me and I’ll get it for you.”

“It’s not an issue,” Si Tu replied as he fished out his keys to open the door, “Carrying a few groceries is nothing.”

Si Tu was someone who liked to be organized and clean, so his room had a faded but pleasant scent to it.

Xing Yan sat in front of Si Tu’s computer, headphones plugged in as Si Tu cooked in the kitchen. When Si Tu finished he coincidentally saw Xing Yan put down the headphones, so he asked, “How is it?”

Xing Yan shook his head, “I can’t understand your music.”

Si Tu smiled, “Then just come and eat.”

Xing Yan was ladling a bowl of soup for himself when Si Tu’s phone rang. Si Tu, upon seeing it, just silenced it, earning a glance from Xing Yan and a question, “Not going to pick up?”

“No,” Si Tu replied.

Xing Yan said a few moments after: “That guy pursuing her told me to tell you that he’s sorry, and that he didn’t mean it.”

Si Tu raised his head to meet Xing Yan’s eyes, slightly surprised, “You went and found him?”

Xing Yan shook his head, plainly stating, “Zhou Siming.”

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Si Tu frowned, “I think you guys are just bored with nothing to do.”

“Has nothing to do with me,” Xing Yan said, “I just wanted to tell you, they didn’t get anywhere.”

Si Tu didn’t reply immediately, but grunted “en” after a few moments.

The phone rang again, and again, Si Tu silenced it. Although Xing Yan gazed at him again, neither said anything.

That day, before Xing Yan left, Si Tu told him, “Don’t mind Gong Qi from now on.”

As Xing Yan pulled on his overcoat, he replied, “There’s not point in saying it to me, I didn’t care about the ordeal in the first place.”

Si Tu smiled, “Then, if you see Siming, tell him to come over here and eat with me.”

As Xing Yan opened the door, he replied, “En,” before leaving.

*

As Qin Fang had gotten places at the library for his friends many times now, he realized that Xing Yan was also a common visitor of the library. He didn’t seem like he was a god level student, Qin Fang surmised. The guy also liked the fourth floor of the library, so if he went up to the fourth floor, there was a high chance they would meet.

After this occurred quite a few times Qin Fang just took it to be normal, and sometimes would even say hi.

That day, Qin Fang coincidentally met Xing Yan outside of the library, and saw that there was a pretty girl standing next to him. The girl was tall and pretty and she walked with her head held high and shoulders back, exuding a very neat aura around her. Qin Fang waved at quite a distance as he headed towards the entrance, while those two just stayed in front and talked. Qin Fang internally said to himself that his girlfriend was quite beautiful.

It was when Qin Fang was about to enter the place when he realized he didn’t have his card and couldn’t enter.

Qin Fang flipped through his mess of a backpack, finding his car keys, cash, and identification, just not his student ID.

Qin Fang just slung his backpack over his shoulder again and stood there, deciding to just borrow someone else’s card. Suddenly, someone behind him reached over him and scanned a card on the entrance turnstile. The skin on that hand was quite pale, with long fingers, and was quite recognizable to Qin Fang, since he saw him at the entrance.

Qin Fang entered the place and then turned around, nodding and saying, “Thanks.”

Xing Yan still had that cold face on, “Your welcome.”

As the two of them started walking towards the elevator, Qin Fang opened his mouth, “Your girlf…”

As he said it out loud, he swallowed his words. Qin Fang remembered how he and Xing Yan met now, how he was pursuing the girlfriend of the guy’s friend, and that messy ordeal that followed. Originally, he just wanted to compliment, “Your girlfriend is quite pretty,” but now that he remembered that stupid occurence he choose to swallow his sentence. Just stop, if you continue speaking it’s like you were staring at his girlfriend.

Qin Fang really wanted to laugh now. What the fuck. It was as if Qin Fang himself was a pervert now, even though he didn’t even want a girl.

Although he didn’t finish his sentence, Xing Yan turned his head to look at him.

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Qin Fang just left the sentence hanging, and while he did attempt to save it, he gave up in the end and chuckled, “I originally wanted to say that your girlfriend is really pretty, but I was afraid of you taking it wrongly, so I just didn’t finish it.”

Xing Yan didn’t immediately reply. They walked into the elevator simultaneously and Qin Fang hit the button for the fourth floor. The walls of the elevator were reflective, so from his line of sight Qin Fang could see Xing Yan, who was diagonally behind him. When Xing Yan raised his head again, their gazes met on the reflective wall. They were both pretty tall, and around the same height and eye level. But, just before Qin Fang turned his gaze away, he saw Xing Yan quirk his lips up a little in the reflection,

It was the first time Qin Fang had seen this guy have an expression, so it caught him off guard. As the elevator reached the fourth floor, Xing Yan was still smiling faintly, and just before the elevator doors opened, he said, “That was a guy.”

Scratched corneas are not fun lol, sorry for skipping a couple of weeks! Anyways, thanks for reading!