A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 051 – Thief

“The Auntie Said We Can Share Beds. It May Not Be Possible to Share the Upper and Lower Bunk, but I Can Spare You Half.”

Sheng Wang also retracted his hand and straightened up.
“It’s finally over,” he mumbled, and opened up an app on his phone, asking, “Let’s get something to eat, I’m starving to death. What do you want?”
“Something not too weird will do.”

Jiang Tian was the exact opposite of Sheng Wang: this person wasn’t picky with his food at all. No matter if it was delicious or terrible tasting, he could swallow it down without blinking an eye. If you asked him how was the taste, he would reply with, “It’s okay.”
If he wasn’t in a decent mood, he could give an even shorter reply, shrinking it into “okay”.

Ever since Sheng Wang started going to Beyond Parasol Trees to mooch off for meals, for Old Man Ding, it was as though he had been reborned; he had complained to Sheng Wang on more than one occasion, pointing at Jiang Tian, “This boy has no sense of taste, no matter how much salt I put, how much sugar, whether I used soy sauce or vinegar, he couldn’t tell at all!”

The old man would occasionally invent some new dishes on a whim, and Jiang Tian still wouldn’t be able to tell. Every single time, the old man would have to throw his old face to the wind, point at the plate and ask, “Look at the new dish I just made, how was it?”
This asshole would then reveal a trace of shock, saying, “Didn’t you make it before?”
The old man was so pissed that he desperately wanted to smack him with the chopsticks.

When Sheng Wang just began going there, the old man had already heard of how especially picky this child was, giving him the impression that he was yet another one bound to cause anger, therefore he didn’t hold much expectations. However, he found himself gravely mistaken on the second day—all he did was to change the green chilli to Hang Chilli and Sheng Wang could already taste the difference, saying that he preferred the newer flavour.
Old Man Ding felt like he found gold right there and then.

This caused much puzzlement in Jiang Tian for quite a period of time; once, when he really couldn’t bear it anymore, he took the chance to ask the old man why while he was in the kitchen.
The old man said righteously, “He’s a delight, why else?”
Jiang Tian was washing the dishes by the sink at that time, he casually replied, “Really?”

“If he isn’t a delight, would you bring him here?” Old Man Ding had the look of saying “all you know is to be stubborn with your words”, and mercilessly refused to give him an out. “You even tried to get me to lure him here for food, you think I didn’t know?”
Jiang Tian drained the water in the bowl, stubbornly refusing to admit it, “Since when did I try to manipulate you to say anything.”
Old Man Ding scoffed, indicating that he refused to lower himself down to the same level as the young’uns.

He mulled for several moments, and added, “You picked someone with a smooth tongue, who knows what’s what, and is better at praising than you do.”
Jiang Tian internally said, old people are truly easy to lie to.

In conclusion, Old Man Ding and Sheng Wang managed to hit it off all the way across the insurmountable chasm of 60+ years of differences in their ages, and the old man began his journey of invention from then onwards. Every few days or so, he would create some strange and new dishes, with Sheng Wang even being especially supportive, pleasing the old man until he couldn’t tell north south from the east west. Ultimately, the unfortunate one was still Jiang Tian.
In accordance to how he could tolerate anything, the new dishes would always be presented to him first. When his reaction told them it was edible, the pair of old man and youngster would then start to eat.
From that onwards, Jiang Tian developed a new habit: when he ate, he had to request for “not too weird”, because when certain people started to mess around, they were absolutely unstoppable.

When Sheng Wang heard this request, he started laughing. His head was lowered as he scrolled on his phone. Who knew what sort of no good was he up to, but it managed to wash away the awkwardness from that earlier moment of tension.
However, he was unable to unleash the no good he was up to in the end, because the masses from next door over dropped in again.

Old Mao lifted his phone high up as he said, “Babas! Let us go wild for tonight? The people delivering food can enter campus during the holidays, I’ve ordered some crayfish and clams, it’ll be reaching real soon!”

Tong-zi was even more amazing; he straight up pulled a mini suitcase over.

Jiang Tian’s brows were knitted as he asked, “You’re moving?”
“Nonononono,” Tong-zi hurriedly waved as he said, “don’t they always conduct random spot checks on the dorms? The auntie would check the tables and cabinets, but not open up the suitcases, so therefore—”

He opened up the suitcase, and gestured proudly, “Tada!”
Sheng Wang took a look, and damn, the suitcase was full of canned beer!

Tong-zi was still asking for credit, “Tell me, is this not awesome!”
Sheng Wang slowly raised his thumb at him, saying, “You might as well open a shop too.”

“I did!” Tong-zi said, “Oh, yeah, just did for a week. It’s a business running on a small capital, the publicity hasn’t caught up yet, also mostly because I didn’t come to your dorm for business. I don’t exactly like your dorm’s Shi Yu, and that Qiu Wenbin looks like a law-abiding man, what if he tells the residence manager later?”

Old Mao pointed at Tong-zi as he said, “Our sixth floor makes going up and down pretty troublesome, right? This bastard had taken over all of the instant noodles, ham, spicy sticks, chips from the convenience store downstairs, he even supplies hot water for the entire day. So many people on the sixth floor would make their way here to buy noodles from him when they get hungry at night.
Tong-zi said, “I even hid poker cards and mahjong tiles under my bed board, they’re available for rent.”

Sheng Wang was rendered speechless from everything he heard, and ordered BBQ delivery on the spot in order to shut this commerce whiz’s mouth.
“Two packets of crayfish for four people isn’t exactly enough, that’s true,” Old Mao said, “but Sheng-ge, don’t order too much either.”
Sheng Wang said, “I roughly ordered a few sticks, probably not that much.”
Old Mao wanted to say sure, but when he saw Jiang Tian’s expression, he wasn’t so sure. Therefore, Tong-zi and him waited for the food delivery, half believing and half doubting.

Soon, Sheng Wang’s phone received a call, and the crayfish coincidentally arrived too. Tong-zi and Old Mao jumped at the chance to go down and take it, Jiang Tian added, “I’ll go downstairs too.”
Tong-zi: “No need, the two of us will do.”
Jiang Tian: “You can say ‘will do’ later.”
Tong-zi was utterly lost. “Isn’t it just a few more skewers?”

Two minutes later, when he stood dumbfounded on the ground upon seeing four giant bags printed with “During Those Years BBQ”, he internally said, the fuck you mean a few sticks.
Old Mao finally understood why Jiang Tian insisted on coming down along too, without him, it would really be too difficult to carry everything.
“Does Sheng-ge always eat so extravagantly?” he asked as he quivered in fear.

Jiang Tian wanted to say that he was always very generous when it came to treating people, but praises like this would cause him to be sold out by them all too easily. Therefore, he swallowed his words, and changed it to “He usually isn’t like this.”
The implication being that he bought it especially for them, please have some self-awareness.
Old Mao and Tong-zi hastily nodded.

Jiang Tian also said, “Don’t waste food.”
“……”
Old Mao and Tong-zi wanted to kneel down before him.

They carried four giant bags of BBQ, two packets of crayfish as well as a packet of extremely spicy clams. Just as they were about to head upstairs, Jiang Tian said instead, “You two go ahead first.”
“Don’t tell me there’s still more???” Tong-zi was on the verge of breaking down.
“Nothing to do with you two,” Jiang Tian said.
Tong-zi sighed in relief.

A moment barely passed before Jiang Tian also received an order of food delivery. Tong-zi and Old Mao peered at the packaging: it appeared to be plain tasting dishes like coconut chicken. They thought Jiang Tian himself was the one who wanted to eat it, but when they opened up everything upstairs, they found out that it was the ‘casualty’s meal’ that he ordered for Sheng Wang.

The casualty kicked up a fuss on the spot, nearly taking JT down with him by hooking an arm around his neck, tightening it.
“The crayfish and BBQ are right in front of me, and yet you’re making me eat these tasteless things. Are you doing it on freaking purpose?” Sheng Wang was angered.
Jiang Tian was caught in his death hug, and had lowered his head out of necessity. Perhaps it was out of friction from rubbing against his arm, or maybe his throat was rumbling from his deep chuckle, but his Adam’s apple as well as the surrounding skin started to flush a pale red.

The laugh disappeared from him, and he dragged over two boxes of medicine from the head of the bed as he remained in the hostage position. With a twitch of his pointer finger, he turned the box to the back, pointing at the instructions as he said, “Take a look yourself.”
Sheng Wang didn’t need to read it to already know what was written on it—the patient is supposed to avoid hot and spicy food, and anything too unhealthy, that’s all……
Jiang Tian said, “Release me.”
Sheng Wang laughed contemptuously, and released his paw. He grudgingly ate the plain-tasting food, and as he ate, he watched the surrounding masses with bitterness in his eyes. Tong-zi and Old Mao internally said, what sins did we commit to be going through this suffering now?

The two busied themself with gorging on food as they regretted dropping in, and managed to get rid of most of the food. In the end, they both gave up when they reached the last skewer. They leaned back against the chair, and fell into a food coma as they rubbed their stomachs, watching Jiang Tian take away the last stick of chicken cartilage skewers.

Just as he ate the topmost piece, his phone suddenly vibrated twice. While he looked down to reply to the message with a single hand, Sheng Wang’s keen eyes and even faster acting mouth snatched away the meat with the stick still attached to it.
Jiang Tian tossed his phone back onto his bed, giving him a flat look.
Sheng Wang smirked provocatively, and finished the cartilage noisily.

Tong-zi’s slow reaction caused him to spend several moments zoning out; he supported his stomach as he straightened up, saying, “Let’s go, Old Mao, I’m so full that I’m gonna burst.”

*
Three days of break, if they were described to be long, they were indeed longer than a weekend break. But, when they were described as short, then they were truly short. Time flew past like a whoosh.
Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian were fast, and only spent a day and a half on completing all their homework. If Sheng Wang didn’t sprain his ankle, they even still had time to go out and roam freely. Unfortunately, reality kept them rooted to the same spot.

Before that, when Sheng Wang got anything and everything he wanted in his house, he was so bored to the point of nearly growing mould. He was stuck in the dorm for a day and a half, with nearly zero entertainment, yet he felt relaxed and content. Comfortable, even.
Oh humans, what mystifying creatures.

After National Day, the weather became warmer all of a sudden. The dorms were frustratingly stuffy at night. The air condition in both the dorms and the classroom were directly controlled by the school, after the start of September, they were no longer switched on.
Boys at this age were naturally warm and full of heat, they couldn’t tolerate warm temperatures. Therefore, the geniuses of 602 decided to sleep with their door open at night, taking advantage of the safety of the school as well as the high floor they stayed on, experiencing the feeling of “doors wide open at night” for themselves. With the door and the balcony both open to the wind, and the night wind going from the south to the north, the entire dorm was quite cooling.

According to them, this was past experience passed down from the seniors of previous batches, they did this every year. Up till now, nothing went wrong. Upon seeing someone take the lead, the other dorms all followed suit. Other than 601, that is.

Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian weren’t particularly sticklers for rules, and they didn’t exactly avoid doing things that resulted in them getting directly called out by the residence manager on the public blackboard too. The reason why they didn’t do so, was because they merely felt that the dorm at night was a very private personal space, just like how one would close the bedroom door in their own home too.
With the door wide open, what are they supposed to do when they decide to have a lie-in? There’s no barrier when other people want to pop over, how unseemly that would be.

As the saying goes, You can’t help but to run into ghosts if you keep walking at night. With an entire row of dormitory rooms leaving their doors wide open recklessly for several days, a ghost finally paid them a visit in the last sprawling night of the National Day break.

When Sheng Wang saw a figure, he had just broken free of a dream that was akin to someone chasing him down to kill him. He wasn’t fully awake yet, and as he blearily opened his eyes, he faintly saw someone go past his bed.

He thought it was Jiang Tian on instinct, and even mumbled a “What time is it?”, as unclear as sleep talk. The other person didn’t answer, and he soon fell into a new round of dreams.

He didn’t go completely unconscious, he even clearly knew that he was dreaming. As he followed along his dream, he recalled the figure that passed by his bed, and suddenly realised that something was wrong: Jiang Tian wore a white T-shirt to bed, why would the figure be all black? Not to mention, he had a cold white skin tone, as long as there was a tiny bit of light shining in at night, there was no way the figure would be this unclear.

Sheng Wang turned around, wrapped up in his blankets, and then was startled awake with a jerk.

He sat up straight, and scanned around. Both the upper bunks and lower bunks opposite him were empty, there were only clothes left hanging at the balcony, floating upwards and sinking with the wind. There wasn’t any noise in the direction of the bathroom.

Sheng Wang got down from the bed, and reached up to tap on the person on the upper bunk.
“Jiang Tian,” he softly called.
The other person wasn’t in a deep sleep either, with one call and he was awake. His eyes were barely open as he looked at the side of the bed, hoarseness in his voice, “What’s going on?”

“Did you come down just now?” Sheng Wang asked.
“No.” Jiang Tian understood the meaning after he answered the question. He sat up, rubbed the bridge of his nose to get himself awake, and came down from the upper bunk. “What did you see?”
“Maybe I was just dreaming?” Sheng Wang said.

The two walked one round around the dorm. Initially, they didn’t find anything wrong either. Just as they both silently agreed that it was a dream, and were prepared to go back to sleep, Jiang Tian paused.

His foot was already on the ladder; he took it back down, and opened up the door to the balcony when he walked over there.

The clothes were still wet after they were washed and left hanging to dry, causing puddles to form on the floor. Someone accidentally stepped into a puddle, and left a few footprints behind. If they woke up any later, the footprints would be dried by the wind.

Without a second word, Sheng Wang grabbed his phone and called the people on duty for the dormitories. Before long, the auntie on duty came up with two security guards, the row of dorms on the sixth floor all lit up one by one.

The dorm check took roughly more than an hour, and it was basically confirmed that they were visited by a thief. The dorms that left their doors wide open more or less had some losses, with Tong-zi suffering the heaviest loss. 601, on the contrary, didn’t really lose anything at all. It was possible that Sheng Wang’s sleep talk managed to spook the thief.

Now that trouble had occurred in the dorms, the school didn’t dare to drag their feet to manage it at all. The dormitory office soon made a police report, and the auntie summoned the few residential students who left their dorms open for guests for a bout of reprimands.
By the time various issues were settled, it was already four in the morning.

The auntie made a blacklist, and hurried them back to sleep. Before they left, she reminded, still apprehensive, “Even if they are investigating, it still takes a few days, we can’t guarantee that the thief wouldn’t be daring enough to sneak in again. He even dared to climb around the sixth floor. All of you, watch out when you sleep at night for the next few days, if you’re scared, share beds or go home for a couple of days. Anything is fine, as long as safety comes first. If you’re going back, be sure to sign out with me.”

Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian returned back to the dorm.
If they wanted to stop thieves, it was actually still quite difficult. After all, the dorms were so stuffy, even if they closed the door at night, there was no way they would shut the windows too. That thief probably reached in from the window to open the door to the balcony.

The dormitory auntie was worried that something bad would happen to the students, it was pretty normal for her to nag a few more times. However, Sheng Wang felt that the thief probably wouldn’t be coming again any time soon, therefore, he continued to leave the window open for ventilation.

Sheng Wang washed his hands, and chatted with Jiang Tian for awhile as he sat cross-legged on his bed. Only when the sound of human voices gradually faded, and the night was restored to its tranquil state, he then felt a few hints of sleepiness.

When Jiang Tian was prepared to go to the upper bunk, Sheng Wang was slumped sideways against the wall, on the verge of dozing off with his blanket wrapped around him.
His eyes were half-open as he quietly watched Jiang Tian place his phone on the upper bunk. His spacious white T-shirt loosely pressed against the bed railing, creating two horizontal creases.

He saw Jiang Tian stop in the midst of his action. He suddenly lowered his head, looking over to Sheng Wang as he leaned against the bed railing. He asked, “Scared?”
Sheng Wang was submerged in drowsiness, he was a little slow to react. He said a “hm” in doubt before he realised why Jiang Tian was saying.

He was actually rather bold: he dared to watch horror films with the lights off, and play the VR edition of horror games. He had been alone in his house for so long, it was enough for his nerves to be thicker than anyone else’s. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone straight to leaving his bed to check upon realising someone else was in the dorm.

He totally could have said “No way I’ll be scared”, but his lips only moved wordlessly, the line not leaving his mouth.
The breeze permeated through the sheer curtain; the mosquito net on Qiu Wenbin’s bed opposite them lightly trembled. Sheng Wang suddenly made space by moving inwards on his bed. He lifted his chin at the empty spot, saying, “The auntie said we can share beds. It may not be possible to share the upper and lower bunk, but I can spare you half.”

TO BE CONTINUED.