Chapter 8: Dropping His Vest?
Testing the Waters
The moment the words left his mouth, Qin Sixing noticed the things in Yuan An’s hands.
Only after Yuan An sat down beside him did he ask, “Are you planning to draw since you brought all these things?”
Yuan An nodded. “I promised a friend before.”
He felt too embarrassed to say directly that he wanted to paint it for Qin Sixing. After all, drawing was merely a hobby of his; he had never undergone any professional or systematic training, and he didn’t think his artistic skills were anything extraordinary.
“What kind of friend makes you draw for him even when you’re sick?”
Hm?
Hearing this, Yuan An looked at Qin Sixing blankly, catching a hint of dissatisfaction in his tone.
Qin Sixing was also slightly startled, only now realizing that he had failed to control himself and blurted out his true thoughts.
He smiled slightly, restoring his gentle and refined demeanor as he said, “What I meant is that you need to rest well while you’re sick. It won’t be too late to draw after you recover.”
Yuan An tactfully declined his suggestion. “It’s alright. I’m just sketching casually over the next few days to get a feel for it. It won’t take up much of my energy.”
Since he put it that way, Qin Sixing didn’t have the heart to stop him any further. He nodded and turned to take out an exquisite blue insulated flask from his side.
“The soup was stewed by the auntie at home, and it tastes pretty good. I specifically brought some for you to try.”
As Qin Sixing spoke, he opened the lid of the insulated flask.
A rich aroma rushed out eagerly, and the moment Yuan An caught a whiff of it, his stomach let out a loud rumble.
The sound wasn’t soft at all.
He quickly covered his stomach, his cheeks and even his ears flushing red.
Qin Sixing naturally heard the noise. He looked at Yuan An and asked, “Hungry? Did you not eat dinner?”
Yuan An nodded embarrassedly. “I didn’t really have an appetite.”
Although the cafeteria food was passable, he had eaten it countless times in his previous life, and he really couldn’t stomach it over the past two days.
Qin Sixing remained silent for a long moment before using the small bowl and ladle he brought to scoop out a bowl of soup, handing it to Yuan An.
“Can you eat some now?”
The blush on Yuan An’s face hadn’t faded yet. Smelling the fragrant aroma of the soup, he nodded.
He wanted to drink it.
The corners of Qin Sixing’s lips quirked up slightly as he watched Yuan An obediently take the bowl.
He said, “If you don’t have an appetite, I can bring meals over for you in the future.”
Yuan An didn’t want to trouble him, so he shook his head hurriedly.
Qin Sixing didn’t say anything else, merely watching Yuan An drink the soup. Before leaving that night, he and Yuan An exchanged contact information.
Around noon the next day, Yuan An received a call from Qin Sixing, who asked him to come down to the inpatient building to pick something up.
He ran downstairs and found an auntie standing at the spot Qin Sixing had mentioned.
Upon seeing him, the auntie walked forward with a beaming smile and handed the insulated flask to him. “Mr. Qin asked me to deliver a meal to you.”
Yuan An helplessly took the insulated flask, thanking the auntie repeatedly.
“Good child, there’s no need to thank me. Knowing that you’re having surgery the day after tomorrow, I only stewed some easily digestible porridge. If you get hungry later, just contact Mr. Qin, and I’ll bring some more over for you.”
Yuan An gripped the handle of the insulated flask tightly and nodded gently.
The auntie smiled gently, gave him a few more reminders, and then left.
Watching her retreating figure and thinking of her gentle words just now, Yuan An’s eyes grew uncontrollably red, and a sour sensation pinched his nose.
He felt as if the warmth he received after his rebirth was almost exceeding the limit, leaving him completely at a loss as to how to accept and respond to it.
Staring at the exquisite insulated flask in his hands, Yuan An ultimately held back his tears, returned to his ward, poured out the porridge, and finished it.
In the afternoon, when Yuan An brought the insulated flask back to the garden corner, Qin Sixing, dressed in a vest suit, was already waiting for him with another small green insulated flask.
“Did the meal the auntie delivered at noon suit your taste?” Qin Sixing asked.
Yuan An nodded and said, “Thank you, but it’s really not necessary to go to so much trouble.”
Qin Sixing chuckled, opened the small insulated flask, handed him a spoon, and said, “It’s only right to take care of a little fellow patient.”
Hearing him playfully call him a “little fellow patient,” Yuan An seemed to understand the reason behind Mr. Qin’s immense gentleness toward him.
He smiled, took the spoon, and began to eat the porridge straight from the insulated flask.
At the same time, he secretly sized up Qin Sixing’s face and build.
His drawing already had a basic outline; it only lacked specific details. He wanted to draw it well, so he had to observe Qin Sixing more closely.
Sensing Yuan An’s gaze, Qin Sixing adjusted his posture slightly, the look in his eyes turning even gentler as he watched Yuan An.
When the two parted ways that evening, Yuan An thought it over and reminded him, “Mr. Qin, my surgery is the day after tomorrow, so I cannot eat anything tomorrow afternoon.”
Otherwise, if Qin Sixing brought delicious food again and he couldn’t eat it, it would be far too wasteful.
Qin Sixing nodded. “I know.”
Yuan An breathed a sigh of relief and waved goodbye to him.
The following afternoon, Yuan An arrived at the garden corner early, holding the drawing.
Qin Sixing hadn’t arrived yet, so Yuan An meticulously refined the sketch he had already finished.
Only when he heard the tapping sound of a cane hitting the ground behind him did Yuan An stand up, turn around, and hold out the drawing.
“Mr. Qin, this drawing is for you.”
Qin Sixing froze in his tracks, his eyes widening slightly from astonishment.
His gaze drifted downward, falling onto the drawing in Yuan An’s hands.
The sketch depicted a man sitting on a long bench, with a magnolia tree standing beside it. Although it wasn’t colored, the man’s distinctive physical features and the magnolia tree were captured in meticulous detail.
And that man—who else could it be but him?
The dimple reappeared on the right side of Yuan An’s cheek. Maintaining his posture of offering the drawing, he said with a hint of embarrassment, “It’s been a while since I’ve drawn a real person. I hope you don’t dislike it.”
Qin Sixing looked at the drawing, then at Yuan An.
His Adam’s apple bobbed twice before he finally accepted the drawing gently, asking in a low voice, “So… it was drawn for me?”
Qin Sixing’s thoughts were entirely consumed by the drawing. What he failed to notice was that Yuan An directly froze upon hearing his words.
Previously, he had only felt that Mr. Qin’s voice bore a slight resemblance to Xingxing’s, but he had never connected the two.
But now, when Mr. Qin’s voice intentionally dropped lower, it seemed to sound exactly like Xingxing’s.
Yuan An pressed his lips together, his brows knitting slightly.
By the time Qin Sixing shifted his attention away from the drawing, the smile from before had already returned to Yuan An’s face.
“It’s beautifully drawn. I like it very much. Thank you, An’an.” After Qin Sixing spoke, he draped the trench coat from his left arm over the backrest of the bench. Then, treasuring the drawing like a precious artifact, he placed it on the left side of the bench, weighting it down with his phone to prevent the wind from blowing it away.
Afterwards, he sat down next to Yuan An.
Yuan An let out a sigh of relief and smiled. “As long as you like it.”
With that, Yuan An fell into deep thought.
Because the drawing occupied a portion of the bench, when Qin Sixing sat down, his arm pressed directly against Yuan An’s.
Once he became aware of this, Qin Sixing felt the arm touching Yuan An’s grow burning hot, and his body involuntarily stiffened slightly.
Immersed in his own reflections, Yuan An didn’t notice Qin Sixing’s odd behavior.
Catching sight of Qin Sixing’s long legs out of the corner of his eye, Yuan An thought for a moment and asked, “Mr. Qin, you mentioned earlier that your leg injury was caused by a car accident. May I be so bold as to ask when you had the accident?”
Qin Sixing replied, “It’s been nearly three years since the accident. Is something wrong?”
Yuan An’s heart gave a sudden leap.
The timing of the accident, a family home in Jingshi, You Xing, the similar voices… with so many coincidences, Yuan An was almost certain that Qin Sixing was Xingxing.
Yet, he still wanted to obtain more definitive and compelling proof.
Yuan An lowered his head and pulled his phone out from his coat pocket. Catching Qin Sixing off guard, he secretly dialed Xingxing’s Penguin call.
Two seconds later, Yuan An saw the screen of Qin Sixing’s phone, which was placed to the left, light up.
He hurriedly glanced over out of the corner of his eye, only to discover that it was a regular incoming call, not his Penguin call after all.
The caller’s name was Song Chucheng.
Qin Sixing also saw the incoming call on his phone. Frowning, he picked it up, gestured to Yuan An, and walked a short distance away to answer it.
Yuan An cast a glance at Qin Sixing’s retreating back, then looked at the trench coat draped over the backrest of the bench.
Could it be that Mr. Qin had a second phone?
He pressed his lips and, like a thief, reached out to secretly pat down the two pockets of the trench coat.
There was absolutely nothing inside.
So Mr. Qin and Xingxing really weren’t the same person?
Yuan An was stunned. After a long pause, he silently hung up the Penguin call.
Not far away, Qin Sixing, who caught Yuan An’s little movements out of the corner of his eye, stood frozen in place. Only after noticing that Yuan An had withdrawn his hand did he speak to Song Chucheng on the other end of the line:
“Reply to him in twenty minutes. I’ll send you the specific content via voice message in a moment.”
Song Chucheng said in confusion, “Brother, I actually think there’s no need for you to hide it from him like this. Just explain it to him properly. In any case, Uncle has already agreed to let you…”
“Wait a little longer.” Qin Sixing cut him off. “Now is not the right time.”
Speechless, Song Chucheng wanted to say more, but ultimately just grumbled irritably, “Ah, fine, fine, fine, do whatever you want.” Whatever the consequences turned out to be later, his cousin would have brought it entirely upon himself!
Qin Sixing massaged the space between his brows. After hanging up the phone, he cleared his throat and sent a few voice messages over to Song Chucheng.
Afterwards, he turned off his phone and walked toward Yuan An with an apologetic smile. “Sorry, my cousin just arrived in Hejiang City and accidentally caused a bit of trouble, so he called to ask me to clean up his mess.”
Yuan An shook his head and said, “It’s fine.”
Qin Sixing smiled and sat back down next to Yuan An.
He could see that Yuan An was somewhat absentminded now, so he intentionally brought up some topics related to drawing.
Yuan An offered an occasional response, but his attention remained entirely fixed on his phone.
Roughly twenty minutes later, Yuan An heard his Penguin notification chime.
He cast a glance at Qin Sixing, who was watching him gently, and then opened Penguin.
It was two voice messages from Xingxing.
Mr. Qin had been talking to him the entire time just now, so it was impossible for these two messages to have been sent by him.
That meant Mr. Qin and Xingxing truly weren’t the same person.
Yuan An let out a breath, smiled at Qin Sixing, and said, “Sorry, I need to reply to a message.”
Seeing Qin Sixing nod understandingly, Yuan An raised the phone to his ear to listen to Xingxing’s two messages.
[I was just taking a shower and didn’t have my phone with me.]
[What’s wrong, An’an?]
Listening to the examplary, familiar voice, Yuan An let out a soft laugh, unable to comprehend why he had actually thought Mr. Qin and Xingxing were the same person just now.
After returning a message to Xingxing, he locked his phone, then turned his head to say to Qin Sixing:
“Mr. Qin, I have to get an injection at eight tonight, so I need to head back early.”
Qin Sixing’s eyes flickered slightly. Ultimately unable to restrain himself, he raised his hand and gently ruffled Yuan An’s hair. “I wish you a successful surgery.”
Yuan An froze for a moment, and then his hands tightly gripped the hem of his jacket.
After hesitating for a long time, he finally spoke up: “I actually have a favor to ask of you… The surgery requires a family member’s signature beforehand, but I don’t want to notify my family. Could you sign for me as a friend?”
“Please rest assured, my surgery isn’t highly difficult, and my family will absolutely never cause trouble for you. It’s just… it will take up a bit of your time.”
Looking at the faint plea in Yuan An’s eyes, how could Qin Sixing bear to refuse him? “Alright, I promise you.”
—
The author has something to say:
Qin Sixing: Completely defenseless against An’an looking at him so earnestly.
Song Chucheng upon receiving his cousin’s voice messages: Talk about a total voice-flirt.
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