A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 007 – Post-it Note

These were the Steps for Solving the Last Physics Question.

By the time the whole hullabaloo was over, it was already midnight.
Who knew what Sheng Mingyang and Jiang Ou resorted to, in any case they managed to get Jiang Tian to stay. Sheng Wang listened through his bedroom door, but whatever he caught was incoherent . Still, he deduced from what he witnessed before and figured that it was once again Jiang Ou who acted pitiful. As long as Jiang Ou put on that pleading yet wary look of hers, Jiang Tian would not bear to be too harsh.

Footsteps came upstairs in bits and pieces, Sheng Wang was still leaning against the door when he heard Sheng Mingyang say: “Xiao-Tian, you can stay in this bedroom.”
There was an independent bathroom and study opposite Sheng Wang’s room, the ‘this bedroom’ in his dad’s words was right next to him. Though the house was quite not quite new, it did get a complete renovation at one point and had decent soundproofing. Regardless, with the rooms stuck right next to each other and even sharing a wall, they more or less could somewhat hear each other.

Sheng Wang felt like his private territory was invaded, a tinge of awkwardness mixed in with his resentment.
His phone suddenly vibrated. Sheng Wang listlessly swiped on his phone; Crab was still updating him on the two seniors’ progress.
StarAniseCrab:
Good news, they finally solved the first part. I even managed to feel their fervor all the way from the other side of the wall, then their dorm got a warning from the teacher on patrol.

StarAniseCrab: Hey, still awake?
StarAniseCrab: ??
Sheng Wang brought the phone near his lips: “It’s not even that late yet, I’m still up.”

StarAniseCrab: It’s already 12.30am ge. How ‘bout you? How’s your progress?
Canned: “Didn’t get the chance to.”
StarAniseCrab: Huh? Then what have you been doing all these while?
Canned: “Witnessing a family soap opera.”

Crab was his previous dormitory roommate after all, they were quite tight and he roughly knew about his situation at home. The phone, once vibrating non-stop, suddenly went quiet for a while. Much later, Crab cautiously asked: What’s the situation now?

Sheng Wang held down the voice message button, let go of it a few seconds later, and decided to type instead.
Crab received a voice message filled with silence. He sent a long chain of question marks in response.

Sheng Wang did not bother with an explanation. He slumped against the door and typed on his keyboard: A woman about to become my stepmother moved in with her son, her son lives right to me, I

I what? There was not much point in saying this to other people, and it was a little prissy. It was mostly because that it was prissy, it did not match his suave image. As Sheng Wang thought so, he deleted the words he already typed out, and voice messaged: “Nothing much, it’s just that there’s this grandson living next door to me now, and I have to call him ge out of politeness.”

His words were ambiguous, Crab thought that it was some one-of-a-kind relative, and was instantly relieved.
StarAniseCrab: Then did you call him?
Canned: “Impossible, I’ve always lacked manners.”
StarAniseCrab: Hahaha then chase him out.
Canned: “I totally want to. Don’t you own a dog? Lend it to me later, I’ll bring the dog to that room and let it piss all over, let’s see who can even stay there.”
StarAniseCrab: Fuck, stop describing, I can nearly smell it.

Sheng Wang cheered up. He got a kick out of his words, yet he suddenly recalled the way Jiang Tian looked as he stood by himself outside the courtyard, the street lamp stretching out his shadows. Quite proud, but a little…lonely.
The young master ‘tsked’, and continued: “Whatever, it’s too troublesome. As long as he doesn’t try to talk to me, and not affect my studying, it will be fine. Out of sight out of mind. I’m going back to my questions now.”

StarAniseCrab: Eh? Hold on.
StarAniseCrab: Speaking of doing questions I suddenly just remembered, if you are made to call him ge, then the grandson next door should be older than you, right?
StarAniseCrab: He’s at least year two onwards, right? How about you try showing that question to him, if he could solve it that’s just fine, if he couldn’t you could embarrass him.

This train of thought was truly a little audacious, Sheng Wang was so floored by him, he replied with zero hesitation: You’re embarrassing me.
Canned: I’m going offline!
The last sentence was a little harsh, StarAniseCrab chickened out, and quiet down as expected.

After Sheng Mingyang arranged Jiang Tian’s accommodation, his footsteps hesitated briefly before he stopped outside Sheng Wang’s door, and called out in a soft voice: “Son?” His voice was not loud, nor did he knock on the door, like he was afraid of disturbing people.
Sheng Wang was actually standing right behind the door, the father and son were only separated by a single wooden board. He heard everything loud and clear, and yet he did not reply.

“Son?” Sheng Mingyang called out once more.
Sheng Wang still did not respond.

A while later, he heard Sheng Mingyang say to Jiang Ou in a low voice: “It’s already been more than an hour, he’s probably asleep.”
“Really?” Jiang Ou was a little unsure.
“He should be.” Sheng Mingyang estimated the time with the wall clock, and mumbled: “It’s almost one, let’s go down first.”

Deliberately lightened footsteps retreated away from the room, and went down along the stairs.
Sheng Wang dimly heard his dad say: “I have to catch the morning flight tomorrow, help me take care for a bit.”

Sheng Wang only returned to the table after any movement downstairs completely disappeared. He pushed his book aside as he sat on the table, his feet on the edge of the chair, the test paper spreading on his lap. He stared down at it for ten minutes, his head a complete mess without a single clear train of thought at all.
He raised his head, his upper body slightly leaned back.
From this angle, he could see half of the window next room over. The light specifically that came from a desk lamp was reflected onto the glass through the curtains. With this, it appeared that Jiang Tian was probably rushing his homework too.

He wondered if his physics was completed.

He should probably be done, he was already doing practice papers during night self study, if he was still stuck on that he would be doing a disservice to the name of top student.
What if he also did not know how to solve the last question?
But that person scored full marks.

There was probably a Crab residing in his head, going blah blah blah and endlessly debating him non-stop.

Test paper or face, he had to pick between one.
The pen in Sheng Wang’s hand spun for n rounds, he finally slapped it on the table: I choose face.

Five minutes later, the young master dragged along the face that met its demise and stood in front of the door next to his. He lifted his hand three times before he grudgingly knocked on the door.
“Who?” Jiang Tian’s voice ranged behind the door, it was chilly.
This person, even when living under another person’s roof, had zero intention to act carefully and cower, a “Who” was asked with so much audacity, Sheng Wang was nearly blown back into his room with the force of it. His left foot shifted before he kept it back again, and chose to strategically act deaf as he held onto the door frame.

With not a single response heard, Jiang Tian shuffled over in his slippers. The door handle clicked and the door half opened.
He evidently did not expect the visitor to be Sheng Wang, and was startled. Perhaps he held a grudge for him getting dragged inside, his expression was not friendly, looking like he had a toothache or an ache in general.

“What’s with your look?” Sheng Wang said.
“Out with it.” Jiang Tian obviously did not want to chat.
Sheng Wang’s mouth opened, he stuck out his hand and said: “Return my pen.”
Jiang Tian looked at him expressionlessly for two seconds, and went back into his room.

The moment the door was vacated, Sheng Wang turned his head and swatted at his own mouth.
Are you a coward handsome guy, I’m asking if you are a coward?! He viciously mocked himself on the inside, and yet in the instant Jiang Tian went back to the door he returned back to his lazy idling self.

Jiang Tian handed the pen over to him, and asked again: “Is there anything else?”
“Just this.” Sheng Wang said.
Jiang Tian nodded, and closed his door without a second word.
“…….”
Sheng Wang stared at the pen in his hand for a few seconds, and slowly stuck out a middle finger at the room door. He then scrambled back to his room to continue the showdown against the physics paper.

A smooth sailing student like him certainly did make mistakes before, but this was the first time he did not even know how to start. Students his type all have a bad habit, if they could not logically fill up the paper they would lose sleep over it.

He switched between many trains of thought, every time he would cross them out after he was halfway through with a method. People who practiced enough would have instincts like this——they may not arrive at the right conclusion, but just one glance and the wrong ones were obvious enough.
Sheng Wang was sunken in the whirlpool of errors. After twenty minutes of distress, he finally tossed his pen aside.

All his attention was on tiny balls, water droplets and viscosity, only when he got up then he heard movement outside the door. He wondered if Jiang Tian left his room.
Did he come out for a stroll after driving himself insane with studying?
Sheng Wang hesisted momentarily, and went to grab his door handle once more.

Humid air came gushing at him the moment he opened the door. Sheng Wang was briefly swept away, before he noticed that Jiang Tian just left the bathroom opposite his room. He changed into an oversized gray short-sleeve shirt, his half dried black hair was neatly combed to the back. It was evident that he just showered.
He held the towel in his hand, shook his head to get rid of the water in his ears, then looked up towards Sheng Wang, and asked: “You still need something?”
Sheng Wang turned on his heels, and went straight for the stairs: “I’m going down for some water, you just go and shower.”

He dug out a bottle of ice water, twisted the cap open, realised that it was undrinkable, and could only go back upstairs and back into his room with his tail between his legs.
Sheng Wang pressed the bottle to his forehead, and slumped over the table for a while, till drowsiness nearly started coming for him, then did he finally managed to convince himself——They were definitely going to be sharing the same house for the near future, they could not keep this awkwardness up forever, there had to be a way out for them.
This physics question would be that way out.

Sheng Wang stood up for the third time, and determinedly grabbed the paper with him this time round. Either go big or go home.
He was finally mentally prepared and was about to go knock on the door next to his. Yet, the moment his door opened, Jiang Tian was already leaning against the wall next to him. His left hand was half-heartedly occupied with drying his hair with a towel, his right hand was holding his phone, his eyes lowered as he swiped at his screen, poker-faced as usual.

“Why are you at my door?” Sheng Wang was startled.
“Waiting for the rabbit by the tree stump.”
Sheng Wang: “…….”
If it was not for the fact that he did not look very happy either, Sheng Wang would have suspected that he was joking.
Jiang Tian placed the phone back in his pocket, and asked: “You already went in and out for quite a couple of times, what exactly do you want?”
Sheng Wang hid the test paper in his hand right behind him, and did not manage to squeeze out a single word even after a long while. In the end he said a: “Is that any of your business?” before shutting the door.

A man’s face is bigger than the sky.
Sheng Wang for the first time ever deeply related to this statement. He gave up on that question at last, and collapsed onto the bed in frustration. Right before he slept, he could not help but recall that in the moment he closed his door, Jiang Tian seemed like he took a brief glance at his fingers. He did not know if he saw his paper.

Sheng Wang was woken up by the soul-searching alarm clock at 6.10am. He dragged himself out with much difficulty.
His room came with his own bathroom, and did not need to go opposite to fight for a slot with Jiang Tian. Therefore he did not waste much time on washing up and getting himself dressed. It was only when he finally got everything together and went downstairs with his bag then he realised that he was the one who woke up the latest.

Back then when he got up, the only moving living creatures in the house were him and the housekeeping lady.
He was a little unused to the abrupt increase in population, the morning temper on his face was a giant capitalised word, “confused”. He only came back to himself when Jiang Ou came out of the kitchen with a bowl in her hands.

Jiang Tian was currently changing his shoes at the entryway. It appeared that he woke up earlier than a chicken, probably for the sake of minimising unneeded interactions, and thus avoiding having to go to school together with Sheng Wang.
In fact, Sheng Wang thought of that himself too, as he brushed his teeth he was contemplating how to stagger the timings in which they enter school with. But when the other person did exactly that, he was slightly annoyed. He was in the Jianghu for sixteen years, even though he did not form any deep connections due to the frequent moving, he always had a good relation with people in general.
Jiang Tian was the first one to be this repulsed by him.

While he zoned out, the phone Jiang Tian left on the shoe cabinet vibrated a few times in a row, he straightened up, grabbed the phone and took a look.
In that instance, the look on his face subtly changed, both stiff and a little hesitant.

Next, his fingers quickly tapped on the screen, wore the other pair of shoes and said without even looking up: “Ji Huanyu transferred money to me, I just transferred it to you.”
Sheng Wang was bewildered before he realised that Jiang Tian’s words were aimed at his mom.

Jiang Ou’s hand that was scooping porridge for Sheng Wang stopped, she looked up at the wall clock and asked in astonishment: “What day is it today? He transferred money to you at six plus o’clock?”
Jiang Tian’s movement paused, Sheng Wang saw his brows furrow, as if he was extremely against this topic.

“No, I was just saying.” Jiang Ou sensed her son’s displeasure, and immediately changed the topic: “Are you heading to school now? You’re not waiting for Xiao-Wang?”
“Mm, I have something on.” Jiang Tian lied straight through his teeth, and left without a single glance back.

Sheng Wang was still under the influence of low blood sugar from having just woken up, his reactions were a little slow. His brain was still stuck on the part with “Ji Huanyu”. He thought that this name was somewhat familiar for some reason, like he heard it from somewhere before.
Only when he reflexively received the bowl, and got his tongue burned by the first mouthful then he abruptly remembered. Sheng Mingyang once mentioned a very long time ago that Jiang Ou’s ex-husband was named Ji Huanyu.
Wasn’t that……Jiang Tian’s father then?

According to Sheng Mingyang, when Jiang Ou divorced her ex-husband it was all very peaceful, there were no particularly violent conflicts, neither were there any disgraceful back and forths. Despite their son’s young age, he was mature to the point of being precocious, he did not even try to stop them at all.
And so the people who lived together for 13 years went their own ways. Ji Huanyu went overseas with his friend for a business venture, Jiang Ou raised her son, and their lives no longer intersected.

Sheng Wang did not know what was the exact situation like, but for now at least, Ji Huanyu still remembered to transfer money to his son at regular intervals, and Jiang Ou did not display any resentment or grievance. That was already the best out of a bad situation. Yet, from Jiang Tian’s reaction, he did not seem to like his dad very much? He even…loathed him a little?

Ultimately though, that had nothing to do with Sheng Wang. He only vaguely thought about it, and then left it at the back of his mind.
He never did intend to accept Jiang Ou’s attempt to become close to him, but he still could not do a thing like to hit someone when they are smiling at you. Thus, that breakfast was particularly hard to get through, and he endured it like he was having his last meal.

He finally forced the porridge down with much difficulty, and left after saying goodbye without looking up.
Xiao-Chen coincidentally arrived from sending Sheng Mingyang to the airport, and managed to fetch Sheng Wang on the dot. From the front seat, he asked in puzzlement: “Sheng-ge told me to bring both you and Xiao-Jiang to school, where is he?”
“Long gone.” Sheng Wang rolled his eyes, and urged: “Let’s go already uncle, I still have a question I need rescuing for.”

Classes for year twos at Fuzhong start at 7am, but most students would arrive in class twenty minutes earlier, those who had to rush their homework rushed, those who were checking their answers against each other checked.
Sheng Wang always entered class on the dot as the school bell rang in his previous school, today was the first time round he was this enthusiastic.

The classroom was as noisy as a market, not a single person was properly staying put in their seats, if the person in front was not already putting their head together with the person behind, they would go across tables to find a helper even further away. There were even more unruly ones who roamed everywhere, like enjoying a water banquet.

The person in front of him, Gao Tianyang, was a member of the water banquet. At that moment, he had scuttled all the way to the group on the other side of the class. As for the one behind Sheng Wang…forget about it.
In short, he had nobody to gather with.

Just as he was holding the paper and fretting, Jiang Tian’s chair behind him suddenly made a noise, and a tall figure stood up next. When he walked past him, his fingers tapped on Sheng Wang’s table with a ‘du’.
What?
Sheng Wang was baffled, but Jiang Tian did not even stop in his steps, and went out of the front door straight to the office.
Until his figure finally disappeared from the corridor, then did he realise that there was a post-it the size of a palm on his desk. A bunch of formulas and steps were written on it.

Sheng Wang spent a few hours last night chipping away at the question, at that instant he knew that these were the steps for solving the last question in the physics paper.

Only, other than this, the bottom of the post also contained a single line. The handwriting was thin but untidy: Next time, please mind your own business and don’t open your big mouth.

TO BE CONTINUED.