WHI – Chapter 26

Chapter 26

The bottle spun and finally stopped, its mouth landing in front of Qin Wan.

“Ooh!!” Several boys cheered, eagerly asking, “Truth or dare?”

Qin Wan scanned the faces in front of her, then met Fang Ran’s gaze. “Truth,” she said.

With that, she closed her eyes and drew a card from the pile.

“How would you confess to someone you like?”

Whether it was her imagination or not, Lin Ting felt Qin Wan’s gaze linger on him for a moment before shifting away.

“Ah, I… I haven’t thought about it yet. After all, I haven’t met anyone I like yet.”

A standard, evasive answer.

But the others didn’t seem to buy it, especially… Lin Ting glanced at the boys whose eyes were practically glued to Qin Wan.

Qin Wan’s face instantly flushed. She grabbed a beer from the floor and gulped down several mouthfuls, a penalty for avoiding the question.

The next round started quickly. This time, the beer bottle, with a remarkable lack of foresight, avoided the eager boys and landed in front of the calmest person there, Lin Ting, who looked like he desperately wanted to sleep.

Lin Ting sighed.

“Truth.”

Only a fool would choose dare.

He casually drew a card and flipped it over without pause, not even looking at it.

“How old were you when you had your first love?” Song Mi leaned in, reading the words out one by one.

Everyone found it uninteresting. The answer was obvious – looking at Lin Ting’s face, one could guess he was probably chased by girls all over school in middle school.

“Never,” Lin Ting replied quickly.

“Huh?” Wen Lan was the first to sense something was wrong. “Didn’t you say something about women having no hearts before…”

Lin Ting reflexively covered Wen Lan’s mouth.

He felt a strange sensation in his palm.

Wen Lan’s breath inevitably brushed against the side of his hand, and the most sensitive part of his palm was pressed down. Lin Ting looked at the person opposite him. Wen Lan’s eye corners, as he looked back, curved slightly.

With this small movement, Lin Ting’s palm suddenly tickled – Wen Lan’s lips twitched.

Then, a slight pain shot through his palm – Wen Lan bit his hand.

“Are you a dog or something?” Lin Ting released his hand and said in a barely audible whisper, audible only to the two of them.

By now, everyone else was busy with the next round. One boy was meowing at the trash can, imitating a cat, while the others applauded and laughed. No one noticed them.

“Don’t you know who the dog is?” Wen Lan said, pointing to his collarbone.

Lin Ting was speechless. He had indeed bitten harder.

But was that how this was supposed to be calculated?

Before Lin Ting could sort out his logic, that damned glass bottle landed in front of him again.

“Truth,” he said, drawing a card casually. Before he could even turn it over, it was snatched away.

The person who snatched it was wearing that infuriating smirk as they slowly read the card: “When was your first kiss?”

First, kiss.

That shouldn’t count, it was just the tip of a nose.

Lin Ting looked at the person who was his ‘first kiss’ – they were smiling and staring at him, then waved the card in their hand before pushing it back into his.

Lin Ting lowered his head. Indeed, the words were clear.

“Never,” he said, picking up the wine bottle in front of him and taking a swig to cover his reaction.

He had lied, but it didn’t count.

Wen Lan lowered his head, tapped his fingertips twice on the dark green glass bottle, and also took a swig of wine.

The others quickly accepted the answer. After all, it was normal for someone who hadn’t even had a first love to still have their first kiss.

Meanwhile, Qin Wan, with a shy smile on her face, was whispering something to Fang Ran, and the two of them were playfully nudging each other.

Another round. This time, Lady Luck smiled upon Wen Lan.

“Truth.”

Lin Ting watched him draw a card and stare at it for a long time without speaking.

“Haven’t studied in too long, can’t read?” Lin Ting quipped.

Wen Lan’s voice was slightly hoarse, perhaps from the few sips of wine: “If someone of the same sex liked me, what would I do?”

Yu Zhile looked at Wen Lan’s troubled expression. “What do you mean? Who dares to be so bold, to have ideas about our Brother Wen!? Before Brother Wen even has to act, we’ll beat up that gay bastard!”

Li Ziyao quickly covered Yu Zhile’s mouth. Yu Zhile struggled, making muffled sounds.

Wen Lan gently placed the card face down and took a sip of wine. “That’s a secret.”

The game didn’t last much longer before the group got drunk. Soon, they were a mess, with some crying on each other’s shoulders and others shouting.

Lin Ting found himself being pestered by Yu Zhile.

Perhaps it was the villa exploration that made Yu Zhile think Lin Ting was reliable. Now, he wouldn’t let go of Lin Ting, rambling about his first meeting with Wen Lan.

According to Yu Zhile’s description, Wen Lan descended like a Bodhisattva Guanyin riding auspicious clouds, appearing with a brick in hand after a month of his living expenses being taken by Boss Ye’s thugs. From then on, his world had a protective umbrella.

Lin Ting didn’t find it annoying. Hearing about Wen Lan from someone else’s perspective was quite interesting.

Then, Yu Zhile’s expression changed. He was about to throw up.

“Li Ziyao!” Lin Ting shouted. “Quickly take this person to the bathroom!”

Before Lin Ting could recover from the shock of nearly being vomited on, he saw Fang Ran, not more than a meter away, pushing Qin Wan and whispering, “Go on, hurry.”

Even though they were trying to be quiet, in the midst of the loud voices, the girls’ high-pitched tones were still noticeable.

Lin Ting sighed.

“Lin Ting,” Qin Wan said as she sat down. Fang Ran, in the distance, gave her a conspicuous “OK” gesture.

He subtly shifted away a little.

“Yu Zhile seems to have drunk too much,” Qin Wan started, her hand holding the wine bottle trembling slightly.

“Yeah, he’s quite fun.”

“Fun?” Qin Wan put down the wine bottle, her trembling stopped, and her delicate eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

For some reason, Lin Ting wanted to continue the conversation they had just had with Yu Zhile. “He said his first meeting with Wen Lan was like… like he described him as a deity…”

Qin Wan chuckled at this. “You can’t blame him. Wen Lan is indeed our guardian angel.”

“Oh?” If Yu Zhile had said it, Lin Ting could understand it as exaggeration, but Qin Wan, who seemed so gentle and quiet, surprisingly said the same thing.

“You know Ye Wengong, right?”

Lin Ting nodded, indicating for her to continue.

“The Ye family is really… quite powerful. At least in our area. Anyway, the students in our school and the surrounding schools have all been quite oppressed by Ye Wengong and his group.”

Lin Ting already knew that the families of these students were wealthy and influential. To make such a group of people shut up meant the Ye family was truly difficult to deal with.

“But ever since Brother Wen clashed with Ye Wengong, we haven’t had to live in fear. The Wen family’s background is one thing, but they couldn’t have truly defeated the Ye family on their own.”

“He dared to fight, didn’t he?” Lin Ting finished her sentence.

“Yes,” Qin Wan nodded. “Brother Wen is the only son of the Wen family, and he dared to risk his life to confront Ye Wengong. Coupled with the complex business dealings between the older generations, and Wen Lan being younger, they couldn’t really make a move on him.”

“Were you also targeted?” Lin Ting asked.

Qin Wan paused, then smiled as she understood. “Yes. There’s someone named A Ming, you don’t know him. He keeps bothering me. I’ve refused him many times, but he’s from the Ye family.”

A Ming. Wasn’t that the person who was beaten up in the alley when Lin Ting first met Wen Lan? He was also the reason Lin Ting and Wen Lan had fought.

“I know him,” Lin Ting said, looking up to see Qin Wan’s surprised expression. “Continue.”

“One day, well… then Brother Wen appeared, truly like a savior sent from heaven. So we are all very… grateful to him.” Qin Wan skipped over the specific details.

Lin Ting listened, then looked at Wen Lan, who was drinking with Song Mi and Wang Xingzhi, a smile he couldn’t suppress on his lips.

After a few minutes, Qin Wan suddenly seemed to remember her purpose. She clasped her hands and asked, “Lin Ting, I have a birthday party next week. Do you have time to attend?” Her voice had returned to its earlier tremor.

“Is Wen Lan attending?” Lin Ting asked.

“I haven’t asked yet… but he usually doesn’t attend our events… should I… ask?” Qin Wan said.

“I’m sorry, my time is all taken by him now,” Lin Ting said, nodding towards Wen Lan, who was swaying as he approached.

It wasn’t a lie. Wen. Sinful. Capitalist. Lan had used the video of him sleep-talking to extort unpaid tutoring sessions, leaving him no time for other commitments.

“What are you two talking about?” Wen Lan walked over and squatted in front of them, a faint smell of alcohol on him, his eyelids slightly red.

Wen Lan’s gaze chased Qin Wan away, and he plopped down next to Lin Ting.

“What did you say?” Wen Lan asked drunkenly.

“Nothing much, just inviting me to her birthday party.”

Wen Lan sobered up slightly. “Holy crap! She doesn’t like you, does she? Our big group doesn’t allow relationships within the group! I have to go warn her!”

“Just shut up,” Lin Ting said, pulling the tab on a can of soda and handing it to Wen Lan.

Lin Ting slowly sipped his drink, watching the group sprawled on the floor, still insisting on joking with each other. He heard Wen Lan rambling incoherently beside him.

Whether he was gay or needed to drink Chinese medicine suddenly seemed unimportant.

He really liked this scene – a group of friends, who knew nothing of his past, drinking together and saying nonsensical things.

He didn’t want to ruin it.

Perhaps he did like Wen Lan a little, but Qin Wan could see “salvation” as something other than love. In a while, this bubbling affection would settle into the best of friendships.

Friendship was long-lasting. He wanted friendship.