A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 040 – Address

“What Did You Call Me?”

Fuzhong’s dorms have sufficient space; Shi Yu and Qiu Wenbin’s beds were at the same side, Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian’s bed as well as a line of closets were on the other. In the middle was a long table enough for six people to use, as if it came straight from the library.

The moment Sheng Mingyang and Jiang Ou left, Shi Yu tumbled out from the upper bunk, sprawled over the table and asked: “You two are related?”
Sheng Wang nodded. “Mn.”

“Real brothers?” Shi Yu was dying of curiosity.
“What kind of real are you talking about?” Sheng Wang said.
“Biological brothers?”
“Nope.” Sheng Wang shook his head.
“I knew it, you two totally don’t look alike. Are you cousins or?”
“Nope.” Sheng Wang shot a glance at Jiang Tian, and upon seeing that he wouldn’t particularly mind, he said: “We both came from single parent families, got it now?”

Since they would be staying in the same dorm, they would have to know sooner or later. Besides, with how Sheng Mingyang and Jiang Ou already came around just now, there wasn’t any particular need to hide it.
With Sheng Wang’s explanation, Shi Yu instantly understood.

He had a decent EQ and knew when to stop talking, so he stopped this conversation topic. He said: “When I saw the name list at the door today, I was like, damn, goddess of fortune must be smiling down on me. I’m Shi Yu from Class B, last-last week our classes even played a basketball match together for PE, remember?”

“I do, I know who you are.”
Though Sheng Wang was bad with faces, he really did have a deep impression of who this new dormmate was. He was the tannest person out of the entire basketball court, his style of playing was too wild, when he played he charged everywhere like a bull. Sheng Wang asked Gao Tianyang who the hell was that person right there and then, and remembered his name.

“You seriously know me?” Astonishment was written all over Shi Yu’s face. “I thought I’m quite lowkey in Class B.”
“I wouldn’t know if you’re lowkey in Class B, either ways you are pretty highkey on the court. I’ve played half a match, and you’ve stepped on me six times in total.” Sheng Wang lifted up his right leg and slapped it. “All on this foot, I can’t forget about you even if I tried. Couldn’t you at least switch to a different foot to step on?”
Shi Yu: “……”

Jiang Tian witnessed how terrible Sheng Wang was with faces before, hearing that he knew who Shi Yu was came as a little surprise to him. Now that he knew the reason, he looked aside.
Sheng Wang instantly turned towards him. “You’re laughing?”
Shi Yu closely followed Sheng Wang’s gaze and looked over too. Sheng Wang must have grown an extra pair of eyes, how else would he manage to tell that Jiang Tian was laughing from the back of his head alone?

“When I wore my shoes the next day, my right shoe felt tighter. Visually, it was no different, but it felt like I’d grown pig trotters.” Sheng Wang continued.
Now, even Shi Yu could tell that Jiang Tian was laughing from the side view from the back, His Adam’s apple bobbed twice.

“Damn? You can actually laugh?” Shi Yu was sincerely, wholeheartedly, shocked.
Upon hearing that, Jiang Tian’s head whipped back, his brows furrowed. The look on his face said “What kind of bullshit are you sprouting”.
Shi Yu sheepishly shut his mouth. Sheng Wang, however, burst into laughter.

He had always found joy in teasing Jiang Tian until his expression changed, but it appeared that other people did not agree.

While he was still laughing, Shi Yu immediately cupped his fist in an apology: “Soz for accidentally stepping on you six times, I’ll be careful the next time we play together.”

Sheng Wang replied: “It’s alright, we’re in the same dorm after all. I can leave the court and repay it all back.”
Shi Yu cracked up.

The atmosphere in the dorm warmed up quite a bit with that, Qiu Wenbin finally found a point to cut in. “Um, I’m Qiu Wenbin, from Class 11.”
As compared to Shi Yu, he was much more bashful and inarticulate. When he was listening to his few dormmates chat, he laughed along too, but was too awkward to join in.

He indistinctly said: “You are all gods, you probably don’t know me.”

Unexpectedly, Jiang Tian was the one who said “I’ve seen you before.”

This time round, it was Sheng Wang’s turn to not see it coming.
Truthfully, Jiang Tian actually knew quite a lot of people. He was the exact opposite of Sheng Wang, even if it was just a random passerby he had seen once he would still be able to recognise them. He simply chose no to mention it, that’s all.
For him, if they weren’t close enough on a certain level, whether he knew them or not made no difference.

Situations like him saying “I’ve seen you before” on his own accord was rarer than rare, Sheng Wang turned to look at Jiang Tian with a little surprise in his eyes.
“He was in the same exam venue as Ding Xiu.” Jiang Tian slightly lowered his head, and explained.

After hearing that, Qiu Wenbin’s face flushed. Just as he was about to add on a line of “My grades are especially bad”, he heard Sheng Wang ask blankly: “Ding Xiu? Who’s that?”
Jiang Tian: “……”

He simply had no words for that while. He asked Sheng Wang again: “May I ask if you even still remember who Zhai Tao is?”
Those words of his carried quite a flavour of mockery. Sheng Wang awkwardly laughed, finally recalling how he was sabotaged for his English listening compre last time.

“Oh, yeah right, I remember now. Ding Xiu was the one who lured me to go find Jing-jie.”
Jiang Tian’s pointer finger tapped at his temples. “If you couldn’t recall, I would recommend you to go to the hospital for a check-up.”
“Screw off.” Sheng Wang said.

He turned around and was mystified yet again. “It’s normal for you to know Ding Xiu, but you even know those in the same exam venue as him?”
Jiang Tian stared at him, the look on his face was frozen in an enigmatic manner, stuck on whether he wanted to speak or not.
Sheng Wang then reacted with two “Ohohs”, indicating that he remember now: “You’ve went to Dean Xu to check the security footage before.”

When he said that, he discovered Jiang Tian’s expression becoming even more enigmatic; he coaxed: “Wait, no, it wasn’t you who went to find him. It was Dean Xu who went up to you by himself, and badgered you to show you the security footage.”
Jiang Tian: “……”

“Just shut up.” His lips moved, a single line came out of him.
Sheng Wang spent a while doubled over in laughter with a hand on his shoulder, saying, “Ok, my bad, we won’t speak of this anymore. So you spotted him in the footage?” He pointed at Qiu Wenbin.
“Mn, did Dean Xu find you at one point?” Jiang Tian said.
“Ah?” Qiu Wenbin was stumped before he realised that Jiang Tian was speaking to him. “Right, yeah, yeah. Dean Xu did find me before. It wasn’t just me though, in fact there were two other students. He asked us when Ding Xiu left the exam venue, and when he came back in again. He was just checking.”

Although Big Mouth Xu only made a brief announcement on disciplinary action taken against Zhai Tao, Ding Xiu and Qi Jiahao during a certain flag-raising ceremony afterwards without going into the details of what happened, there were still quite a number of people in the level who were called over for questioning.
With the combination of rumours here and there, a good half of the truth was already reconstructed.

Sheng Wang nodded at Qiu Wenbin, saying, “Thanks then.”
Qiu Wenbin was startled. “For what?”
“Didn’t Big Mouth find you guys for questioning? If it wasn’t for your confirmation, that incident wouldn’t be solved, and I would have been sabotaged for nothing.” Sheng Wang said with a grin, “Therefore, I ought to be thanking you.”

He was actually exaggerating a little; after all, the key to understanding what happened was with Jiang Tian and the security footage, those were enough to firmly nail what happened down. Qiu Wenbin and the rest assisted at the very most, if he didn’t ask them he would have asked someone else.
But, with the way Sheng Wang phrased it, Qiu Wenbin felt as though he had accomplished a good deed for some strange reason.
His skin was pale and he was also a little fat, when he was a little uncomfortable he seemed especially honest and sincere. “It was nothing much, we’re in the same dorm after all.”

Probably because of this appreciation Sheng Wang, after unpacking his luggage he went over to help Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian until he was sweating profusely. He even went to find the administrator to ask for two copies of the guide on residential stay.
“Each dorm is supposed to have one, it’s supposed to be stuck behind the door.” Qiu Wenbin said, “We’re late to move in, I think our copy is lost.”

Sheng Wang received it.
The guide was full of information like the telephone number for maintenance of the dorm room, management, as well as the service centre. They even drew a map, indicating where the hot water room as well as where the laundry room were,

The moment he saw the laundry room, he instantly said to Qiu Wenbin: “You’re literally a saint.”
“How?” Qiu Wenbin was a little lost from all the praise.
Sheng Wang lifted up the bag that had been lying down at the corner all along, and displayed the mud at the bottom of the bag. “I have been looking for the laundry room all along.”

Fuzhong’s dormitory services were pretty decent, not only were there a row of washing machines that operated via scanning the QR code, there were even laundry ladies who provided laundry service. For items that were not exactly suitable for the washing machine and were yet also too troublesome to hand-wash, they could all be registered for this service with the laundry ladies.
Sheng Wang sent his bag over.

*
Jiang Tian was the only one left in the room. Shi Yu and Qiu Wenbin went to fetch hot water. He was cramming the last book into the cabinet. When he looked up after he finally finished tidying everything, he realised that Sheng Wang already returned from the laundry room.

He was peering inside the closet as he held onto a closet door.
“What’s wrong?” Jiang Tian straightened up and asked.
“Nothing, just looking around.” Sheng Wang looked towards him, he appeared to be in a great mood.

Jiang Tian was a little puzzled, he went over.
The closet was the one he didn’t shut just now, an entire row of clothes neatly hung inside, at the bottom was the suitcase he hadn’t closed up yet.

For a long period of time, that suitcase of his was always fully filled, everything inside was crammed neatly according to their types, he could leave any time. It was efficient and convenient, nearly becoming a pretty good habit of his.
To the point that he himself nearly forgot how did that habit form in the first place.

Until this moment, when the empty suitcase was spreaded open right in front of him, he had an instance of unfamiliarity. In that brief instance, he realised that he had never truly settled down in a place for ages now.

Someone else really noticed what he himself didn’t notice.
“You’re not closing the suitcase?” Sheng Wang mumbled.

He paused, bent over and shut the suitcase. He zipped it shut, locked it up, and pushed it into the corner of the closet. He looked up, and saw Sheng Wang leaning by the closet door, elation tucked away at the tip of his brows and the corner of his lips.

He has long shapely eyes, but they weren’t narrow at all. His eyelashes casted a shadow at the corner of his eyes, the light from above criss-crossing with the shadows. He saw a boat, mooring in the shallows, clear and bright.
Jiang Tian was lost in that instant.

The language teacher, Beckon Money, had read out a model essay from a classmate in a composition class at one point. She said, sixteen-seventeen years old youths are always glowing. He was doing a math question then; in the midst of calculation, he only vaguely caught this line.
There was zero context to the sentence, he wasn’t paying any particular attention to it. Yet, he recalled it on this day, such a long time later.

*
The dormitory became rather quiet at a certain moment. Sheng Wang saw Jiang Tian’s thin lips move a little, as though he wanted to say something. However, the sound of speech came from the corridor, Shi Yu’s voice which was coarse from puberty was quite distinguishable.

“Hey? Out of the way please, there’s a hell lot of hot water.” He came back with Qiu Wenbin, a kettle in his hands. Sheng Wang side-stepped to let them enter. By the time he looked back, Jiang Tian already took out a data cable from the closet, walked to the side of the table, switched on the power socket and started charging his phone.

They had asked for leave from night self-study, they didn’t need to go back to the classroom.
Sheng Wang touched the tip of his nose, and he too dug out two books from the cabinet. He pulled out the chair and sat down.

The side facing Qiu Wenbin already had a row of books piled up. Sheng Wang took a scan, there were seven to eight collections of questions as well as a stack of practice paper from some random subject. There was a rechargeable table lamp by the books. He made himself a cup of tea, shot an apologetic smile at Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian and sat down.

“You actually study these books?” Shi Yu looked at Jiang Tian in astonishment.
Jiang Tian removed an earpiece and returned his gaze with even greater astonishment. His brows were furrowed as he said: “What else would I study?”
“Nonono, I didn’t mean that.” Shi Yu said, “Wasn’t there a rumour, saying the few psychos— I mean, the gods of Class A are super legendary, they can get full marks even without listening in class?”

Jiang Tian didn’t like to entertain people in the first place, upon hearing that he felt even more unamused. In the end, he replied with: “That is pretty insane.”
After speaking, he stuffed in his earpiece, spun his pen around and read the question.

Sheng Wang laughed for a while at the side, and said to Shi Yu: “If by not listening you mean ignoring language lessons to do maths, ignoring maths lessons to do physics, then there are plenty of these people in our class.”
Shi Yu said: “Then Class A is much more hardworking than I thought. My class has quite a few who literally don’t listen in class at all, including me to be honest. The lesson was taking too long and we couldn’t keep it up anymore, we would play on our phones inside the table or something, our grades are also just so-so and passable.”

When he said “so-so and passable”, he was honestly being way too modest. After all, Class B has the best grades in the classes other than Class A.

When the time came for students to move from middle school to high school, there was an advance admission test held by Fuzhong, it could be said to be an exam for direct admission into the school with a different name. Those who passed the exam wouldn’t need to participate in Zhongkao, and started lessons for high school an entire semester in advance.

It was precisely this group of people who formed the two classes, Class A and Class B. Class A consisted of the first 45 places, Class B of the last 45 places.

“Ah.” Sheng Wang nodded. He made a thumbs up at him and said, “Awesome.”
Shi Yu was a slight misfit against the three people studying in front of him. After fiddling around in complete boredom, he walked into the bathroom with the school card and said: “I’m gonna shower then, otherwise there would be a queue later.”

The dorms in Fuzhong came with their own shower, hot water would come out upon sticking the school card into the card slot, and money would be automatically deducted.
Shi Yu usually took quick showers, but he slowed down today. Anyway, the other people weren’t in a rush for the time being. The conversation with Jiang Tian and Sheng Wang got him to suddenly chill out. He had always thought that the top few in Class A were all monsters, they could just casually study and it would be enough to leave others behind in the dust. Now……they were only just that, nothing much.

He had pretty decent grades, his level position lingered between 60 to 70. As compared to the ones in Class A whose grades were basically a rollercoaster ride, he was much more stable.
And so far, he wasn’t even particularly trying.

Sheng Wang was a transfer student, with some effort, he was already able to score into the top 100 places from the last half of the level. He had a higher starting point than Sheng Wang at the very least, right? What if he put in a little effort too?
Shi Yu thought: putting other things aside, I probably a good chance of entering Class A.

*
Sheng Wang didn’t exactly bother with revising for today. Now that his grades in every subject were making rapid progress, he was making fewer mistakes and doing his work at greater speed, he no longer needed to stay up to 2am.

Jiang Tian was studying competition questions next to him; he was just gilding the lily.
Sheng Wang was also gilding the lily; he was practising his handwriting.

He persevered with Jiang Tian’s method for a little more than half a month. It was as though he had unclogged his conception and governor vessels, his words have at least changed from ‘crawling’ to ‘walking upright’.

There weren’t any particular pieces of homework that needed to be submitted for marking, so Beckon Money and Jing-jie didn’t realise. Otherwise, they would have to praise him for sure.

As Sheng Wang pondered, he finished a page of the copybook. The moment he lifted his eyes, he saw Qiu Wenbin also copying an entire chunk of words.
He gave it a brief scan, and asked: “You’re practising your handwriting too?”
Qiu Wenbin was silent for a moment. “I’m doing my corrections collection.”
Sheng Wang: “……Sorry.”

Jiang Tian, that asshole, made watching him make a fool out of himself a personal goal everyday. The earpiece was still stuffed in his ear, he wasn’t even looking up, but he still snorted anyway.
Qiu Wenbin’s huge and round face was thoroughly flushed as he said, “I’ve made a lot of mistakes, so I have to copy over a lot too.”
Sheng Wang hurriedly waved his hand. “No, I’m not laughing at you or anything.”

If he was in the same exam venue as Ding Xiu, then he had to be the last few in the level too. His heart was probably in pain from having to face the first in the level, Jiang Tian. Sheng Wang couldn’t help but feel glum on his behalf.

He glimpsed at the opposite side twice, and really couldn’t help it anymore. He asked: “Do you copy all the questions you got wrong like this? You copy the entire question?”
Qiu Wenbin looked up vacantly. “Yeah, the teacher said to make a collection, this way it would be much clearer.”
“Er……” Sheng Wang was deliberating on how this was clearer at all.

Perhaps he made too much commotion in his deliberation, or Jiang Tian grew eyes at the back of his head. He didn’t just watch by the side, he removed his earpiece and asked Qiu Wenbin plainly, “With how you copy, you sure you can finish copying everything in the same day?”
Sheng Wang: “……”
How are you this good with your words?

Qiu Wenbin’s face turned pig liver red on the spot.
Sheng Wang hurried: “He didn’t mean anything else, he just wanted to say—no wait, I also wanted to say—that this is way too inefficient. When I just came here, I made just as many mistakes as you did, there’s no way I could finish copying everything.”

Qiu Wenbin was stunned. “How else do I copy?”
Sheng Wang didn’t know if he should laugh or cry. “Don’t copy.”

“Huh?” Qiu Wenbin was more lost than ever.
“I’m more casual, and I don’t treasure my books and papers this much either. I cut them out.” Sheng Wang said, “Cut out the question, find a notebook and paste them according to their types. That, will be your correction collection.”
Sheng Wang pointed at Jiang Tian: “For him, he does everything in a notebook the first time round, and makes a mark next to the question he got wrong. Second time round, he goes straight for the wrong question. It’s all up to you, in any case it’s best not to copy. You can save so much time to do other things by not copying.”

Qiu Wenbin was dumbfounded for a moment. He reached enlightenment.
“What’s this look of yours?” Sheng Wang kinda wanted to laugh when he looked at him.
Qiu Wenbin scratched his head. “I felt like I fell into a cave and found a rare book on martial arts.”

Young people often get hotblooded for strange reasons in their youths, Qiu Wenbin now felt a little that way. Even though he hasn’t started anything yet, he felt as though a door to miracles was slowly opening up to him.

He became impulsive which was rare for him. He asked: “If—if I couldn’t do a question, can I ask you guys? My grades are too terrible now, my parents don’t even want to look at me. I want to improve by a bit.”

Jiang Tian thought a little, and asked: “What’s your level position now?”
“……”
Qiu Wenbin turned pig liver red again.

Sheng Wang went to muffle Jiang Tian with his hand straight away. He said to Qiu Wenbin, completely emotionless, “My Ge isn’t good with his words, don’t lower yourself to his level. Please treat him as a mute.”
He meant to joke, but Jiang Tian didn’t seem to get it.

He pawed down Sheng Wang’s hand a little, and his gaze swept over from the end of his eyes. He asked, with an eyebrow raised, “What did you call me?”

TO BE CONTINUED.