A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 081 – “Neighbours”

Sheng Wang Laughed Forcefully, Saying, “Ah…Yeah. Reminiscing About Childhood and Stuff.”

Only at this time then did Sheng Wang discover that he may talk big, but when it came down to it his actions were rather pathetic. Teasing Jiang Tian came as easy as breathing, but now because of a single line — four words — his world was sent into an upheaval, and his defenses collapsed just like that.
The two did not dare to stay in the living room in the endï¼› they chose to return to the second floor.
//It was clearly winter, but the room remained warm and stuffy nonetheless. The air-condition hummed as it operated, Sheng Wang felt like his brain was approaching that state too.
His eyes, covered by the back of his hand, were a little teary as he remained leaning backwards. His eyelashes fluttered, and his pupils lost focus as his mind blanked out, wave after wave.

Jiang Tian’s breathing was heavy too. He took out a few pieces of tissue, intending to wipe his hand, but the hand was held down by Sheng Wang instead.

Such a tall lanky boy can weigh down quite heavily too. He said, his voice hoarse, “I nearly thought I’m the only one who’s this affected by a little touch. I believe in reciprocity, let me help you too.”

It was the first time Sheng Wang saw Jiang Tian like this — his eyes slightly lidded, the Adam’s apple on his throat a flushed red. His gaze was piercing and full of turmoil as he lowered his eyes.
This sight belongs to me alone, nobody else will get to see him like this, he thought.

The room seemed to have heated up, his own neck and ears were boiling red too. He narrowed his eyes,tightening his grasp. He said to Jiang Tian, “Ge, I want to take a picture of the way you are now.”
Jiang Tian curled a single leg and closed his eyes. A moment later, he opened them again, and pulled Sheng Wang into a kiss with his hand at the back of Sheng Wang’s head, his head turned aside.//

Sheng Wang was startled awake by the commotion on the stairs the next day.
Jiang Tian had already gotten out from the blanket, and sat at the edge of the bed, frowning as he listened to the noise outside. He felt for his phone and checked the time. He lowered his voice, “When are they returning?”

Sheng Wang was still trapped in the grogginess from opening his eyes, and his mind was blank for a few seconds before he understood that Jiang Tian was asking about Sheng Mingyang and Jiang Ou. “Thursday, I thought.”
His throat was terribly hoarse. After he spoke, he gulped two mouthfuls of water from the glass by the head of the bed, and then he froze, the water almost spilling out..
The voices downstairs weren’t quite clear, but he could still tell: it was indeed Sheng Mingyang and Jiang Ou.
“Why are they back already?!” Sheng Wang shot up straight, combed his hair with his fingers and then hurried downstairs.

He did not even bother wearing slippers, and went to the door while walking barefooted on the carpet. He merely wanted to sneakily survey around, but there was someone unexpectedly in the bathroom opposite—
Auntie Sun was holding a mop. Seeing the way he stilled, she asked, “Did auntie accidentally wake you up?”
Sheng Wang was a little confused. “Auntie, why are you in this bathroom?”
“The tap downstairs stopped working.” After Auntie Sun said that, she asked in surprise, “Eh? Xiao-Tian? You slept here last night?”

Sheng Wang then recalled that there was someone behind him, and nearly closed the door on instinct. Fortunately, Jiang Tian was much more composed. He took a jacket, draped it over Sheng Wang’s shoulders, and slipped past him, coming out of the bedroom. He said to Auntie Sun, “We talked too late into the night.”
“Hm?” Sheng Wang paused for a moment before he agreed, “Mn.”
Those who were extremely familiar with Jiang Tian would know that it was abnormal for him to bother explaining with this many words. Luckily, Auntie Sun did not actually see him every day, and didn’t know him well enough to tell that something was amiss. As for Sheng Wang, he was always half a beat behind every time he just woke up, it could not be anymore normal for Auntie Sun.

“I saw the guitar in the living room just now,” Auntie Sun said.
Sheng Wang was stuped once more, thinking, oh no. Last night, they went upstairs in a frenzy, and did not manage to keep the things like the guitar. He explained reflexively, “I took it out. Last time, I told him I’ll teach him to play the guitar, and then later I told him quite a bit of my hobby classes when I was younger, and then….and then I brought him up to see my certificates, so I forgot to keep the things downstairs. Yeah.”

Auntie Sun laughed. “Hey, you’re not that old, you’re already chatting about your younger days?”
Sheng Wang laughed forcefully, saying, “Ah…yeah. Reminiscing about childhood and stuff.”
Jiang Tian — who was on his way back to the neighbouring room — paused in his steps, and glanced at him. He twisted the knob and entered his own bedroom.

Sheng Wang ducked back inside too, and aimlessly walked around the room with his messy bed hair.
Leaving the guitar downstairs was no big deal, and neither was it strange for two brothers to share a room. Most importantly, Auntie Sun was busy with cleaning and tidying after she washed the mop. She forgot what she asked the moment the conversation ended, her mind did not linger on any of these things at all.

He changed his clothes, washed up, and the coolness of mint added some sense back into his head — he was his usual self again. Whatever that happened just now no longer felt like any major at all.

He tossed all the panicky things to the back of his mind, and what happened last night reared its head instead. Therefore, Sheng Wang was a foot out of the bathroom before he turned back and splashed cold water on his face once more.

He was too lazy to wipe away the water droplets coalescing by the corner of his brows, so he simply used his phone, leaning against the sink, and he waited for his face to dry.

His phone screen lit up non-stop, new messages kept streaming in. He briefly looked through them and then entered Moments on WeChat, and ended up chancing upon a new status posted.

This status was posted a minute ago, and in this short period of time, there was already a long queue of comments beneath the post, the contents more of less the same thing — either “wtf did the sun rise from the west look what I found” or “are my eyes deceiving me Tian-ge actually posted in Moments omg”. Gao Tianyang, Song Sirui and their fellow clowns were straight up singing “Today Is a Good Day”.

In this early morning, Jiang Tian — whose Moments was once a barren land — posted a status for once. The content was rather simple; he merely shared a guitar version of a song, the song titled “Childhood”.

The class monitor, Little Carp, asked below: are you planning to practise this song? that’s great, I happen to be less out of tune for this song.
There were a few other classmates who agreed too, saying they were cool with this idea, the song being both simple and pleasing to the ears.

Only Sheng Wang knew: someone was shading him for his reply to Auntie Sun, the “we were reminiscing about our childhood last night.”

Because of this sharing, Sheng Wang splashed water on his face again, and then left a comment beneath that long chain of replies.
You Say That Again: you can go learn by yourself now.
A few seconds later, Gao Tianyang replied: what a fierce little brother.
Song Sirui immediately followed. However, the moment he just copypasted, Gao Tianyang deleted his original comment, and changed it into: what a fierce Sheng-ge.
Da-Song: ……am i just a joke to you?

Sheng Wang was amused by the two clowns, so he was in a relatively relaxed state by the time he went downstairs.

He was actually still a little terrified of seeing Sheng Mingyang and Jiang Ou, hence he kept dilly-dallying, not wanting to go down. However, when he got to the living room, he saw that Jiang Tian was a step ahead of him, already sitting on the couch. He felt assured.

“Didn’t you say that you’ll be back on Thursday? Why are you suddenly back today?” Sheng Wang asked.
Sheng Mingyang said, “It was initially Thursday, but with something so serious happening by Fuzhong’s school gate, I definitely have to come back and check up on you guys. And I heard the old grandpa feeding you two lunch has gotten sick too?”

“You even know this?” Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian met each other’s eyes, and he was astounded. “I don’t think I brought that up?”
Sheng Mingyang laughed, “I do know plenty of people in Fuzhong, isn’t it quite normal for me to be a little more well-informed?”
That was partially the reason why he transferred Sheng Wang here; Sheng Mingyang knew quite a few people in Fuzhong, and as such it was easier to take care of Sheng Wang that way. It was Sheng Wang who first forgot about this.

Sheng Mingyang did not notice his split-second odd behaviour, and asked, “How’s the old man now?”
“He’s hospitalised, think it’s a slight brain hemorrhage or something. He’s on an IV drip, and is already awake. The doctor said that it isn’t serious,” Sheng Wang answered.

There was no way the two parents wouldn’t pay the old man a visit after he had taken care of the two of them for so long. Therefore, the group of four went to the hospital that afternoon.
That hospital was well known for their neurology, there was always a large crowd every day. The inpatient department was the only place on the quieter side.
A few buildings of uneven heights were clustered around the artificial lake and garden, connected by long stretches of passages. It was a place ideal for recovery and healing. There were families pushing the patients on wheelchairs around, taking them for a stroll, chit-chatting and relaxing.

Sheng Mingyang brought a mountain of gift packs containing food, and managed to get himself familiarised with the old man with the aid of Jiang Ou introducing them to each other. Soon, they were laughing and chatting.
Jiang Ou went to get hot water with the bottle in the ward, saying that she’ll be washing two persimmons to peel. The people inside chatted, and the topic of the conversation soon went back to the woman fished up in front of Fuzhong’s school gate.

Honestly, this incident had nothing to do with any of them, but old people do love to spend their time worrying and fretting, finding out more about this issue in order to relieve boredom.. With such a big city, cases like this weren’t exactly many in numbers, but neither were they little. Before an actual conclusion came out, it was bound to be the topic of the day for the entire zone. Therefore, all sorts of rumours flew around.

The elderly man next bed over enigmatically said, “When I went for a stroll downstairs, I heard someone say that that girl has been claimed.”
“That’s good,” Old Man Ding nodded, “It would be terribly sad if nobody claimed that poor girl. Still, this family is quite the work, wouldn’t they know if someone that grown has gone missing?”
“No,” the elderly man waved his hand, “she wasn’t claimed by her family, it was another woman.”
“Another woman? What does that mean?”
“Was she her friend?” Sheng Mingyang wasn’t quite into this topic, but he would play along and insert questions as needed.
“No, no!” The elderly man splayed his hand, and crooked his thumbs. “They are like this.”
Sheng Mingyang had not realised. The elderly man tsked, and specified, “They weren’t friends at all, they were partners!”

“Two girls?” Sheng Wang stilled.
“Yes!” The elderly man shook his head, “Apparently the deceased girl wasn’t a good student, she messed around outside, her family had excommunicated her, and this time she owed a loan shark money or made an enemy out of someone or something, in any case—”

He smacked his lips, shaking his head, “She wasn’t a good student, and messed around with a women, what are they called again, homo—”
“Homosexuals?” Sheng Mingyang reminded him.

Sheng Wang was a little drowsy from hearing them chat. Just as he was about to drag Jiang Tian out for a walk, he froze when he heard this word pop out from his dad’s mouth.

He hastily snuck a look at Jiang Tian, and then turned to face Sheng Mingyang. He saw the other person still remaining his same cultured and refined self, and listened to the elderly man concluding, “Yes, how screwed up.”
Sheng Wang’s hand, dangling by his side, chilled.
His face turned pale, and he rubbed his own thumb forcefully. He wanted to refute the old man — that was his first reaction — but Jiang Tian tugged at him the moment he opened his mouth.

Sheng Wang frowned. He thought Jiang Tian wanted to pull him out, pretending that they heard nothing. However, the other person simply pulled him behind him, and spoke up himself. “It isn’t quite nice to speak of people like that though?”
He had always been direct, Old Man Ding and Sheng Mingyang both knew. It was indeed normal for him to say that. The elderly man was astonished by his question, and Sheng Mingyang immediately smoothed things over, “That is true, the person isn’t alive any more, and who knows what actually happened. We aren’t the police too, right?”

Old Man Ding funnily did not speak up at all, and was extremely quiet. Until he followed Jiang Tian sownstairs, Sheng Wang then realised that the old man had never actually said anything about “Homosexuality”.
He suddenly had a gut feeling that although Old Man Ding never brought it up, he probably did know certain issues in regards to Ji Huanyu a long time ago — it was just that his attitude was a little odd……

More specifically, Old Man Ding’s attitude towards Ji Huanyu had always been a little strange — like he wasn’t merely his neighbour. No neighbour would yell at Ji Huanyu the way Old Man Ding yelled at him, and neither would they dig out old photo albums to flip through them after they scolded him.

Sheng Wang had just left the lift. He suddenly grabbed Jiang Tian, asking, “It was you who registered the old man in the hospital, right? You have his social insurance card?”
Jiang Tian asked, “Why are you asking this?”
“May I take a look?”
“It’s not with me.”

“Oh.” Sheng Wang thought, and then asked again, “Do you know what’s the old man’s actual surname?”
Jiang Tian did not expect him to ask that. He was momentarily silent before he answered, “His surname is Ji.”
Sheng Wang halted.

He recalled what Old Man Ding told him a long time ago, saying that Ji Huanyu was quite a pitiful thing when he was young, he had no parents and was an orphan. He was picked up by someone and raised with a few other kids, in a place that wasn’t a proper orphanage. The person simply thought that they were poor little things, so the person gave them some food. Later, due to the lack of proper protocols, the place was ordered to stop. Everyone dispersed, only Ji Huanyu remained here, and lasted into high school.
The old man said, Ji Huanyu’s name was given by the person who picked him up, following the surname of that person.

Jiang Tian saw the way Sheng Wang was astounded, and said, “Did the old man tell you about Ji Huanyu’s past before?”
Sheng Wang nodded, hesitant. He wasn’t sure if Jiang Tian’s mood would turn sour with the mention of Ji Huanyu’s name, but it seemed like he was still fine for now.
“He said that Ji Huanyu was an orphan, and was picked up and raised by someone?”
“Yeah……”
“The old man was the one who picked him up,” Jiang Tian said.

Sheng Wang suddenly understood why Old Man Ding had such a strange attitude towards Ji Huanyu — he wasn’t merely seeing a neighbour, he was seeing an ingrate of a “son”. He was filled with anger and also self-reproach.
He was angry at him for turning out to be a scumbag, for not becoming a good person, for being an asshole. The self-reproach was aimed at asking himself where did he go wrong, where did he mess up in raising the kid he picked up.

After all, they weren’t real father and son. He wanted to intervene and take charge, but on what grounds did he have to do so? He could only do a few things here and there as an old neighbour. He was probably both rueful and gratified as he watched Jiang Tian grow up — lamenting over the kid that grew up wrong, glad that Jiang Tian had always been on the right path.

But what if……he finds out on a certain day that Jiang Tian likes boys too?
Sheng Wang suddenly did not dare to go down that train of thought any further.

TO BED CONTINUED.