A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 089 – Needle Tip

Then You Ought to Remember to Stay Guarded Against Your Son, Who Knows if He’s the Same as Me?

“The province hospital?!” Sheng Wang looked at Jiang Tian, and asked frantically, “What happened to Auntie Jiang? Why is she in the hospital?”
“She’s not unwell, she’s not sick.” Sheng Mingyang seemed to be caught up in a mess there too. He could tell that he was stuck right in the middle of a dispute that came like a bolt from the blue. His words were hurried, but he did not want to cause Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian to also panic. “It’s some minor thing, you and Xiao-Tian — Xiao-Chen? Go notify the nurse.”

He was only halfway through with his words and urgently ordered the person next to him before he continued saying to Sheng Wang, “Go home with Xiao-Tian on your own later, as for dad—”
“No,” Sheng Wang was resolute. “We’re heading over now. What’s the room number?”
Sheng Mingyang’s voice was interspersed with the chaos. He briefly hesitated before he relented, “Fine, you can come over here. 903, be careful on your way here.”

Sheng Wang was afraid that Jiang Tian would worry, he hung up and immediately comforted, “Don’t worry, Auntie Jiang is alright, she isn’t sick. Something else probably happe—”
“Ji Huanyu.”
“What?”
“Ji Huanyu must have looked for her.”

Jiang Tian’s expression was stormy, he was smoldering with anger. As they spoke, he had already hailed a passing cab, and strided over to open the door. Sheng Wang paused, hurriedly notified Zhao Xi and Lin Beiting and quickly followed after him, entering the car too.
The driver probably had already been told to rush, the car shot off straight away.

Jiang Tian’s family life was complicated, and would become an even greater mess the moment the name “Ji Huanyu” was involved. Zhao Xi did know about that, and he also understood very well that this was a forbidden topic to Jiang Tian, a taboo. Hence, he did not hastily get himself involved. He merely sent the two little brothers a message each: Call Ge if you need anything.

Jiang Tian was abnormally silent on the car ride over, the screen on his phone stopped at the chat with Jiang Ou. He stared at the bottom of the screen unblinkingly. The moment he saw Jiang Ou’s question, he knew the cat was out of the bag.
He had spent so many years building a protective wall, laying brick by brick, only to fall short with someone swinging a hammer against it. Everything thus came crashing down with a boom.

Ji Huanyu must have said something to Jiang Ou, otherwise she wouldn’t have suspected something out of nowhere.
Jiang Tian thought.

The province hospital was the same one where Old Man Ding had stayed previously, it wasn’t too far from Wu Tong Wai — merely 3 km away. The driver managed to drive like a racer, and weaved between the vehicles on the crowded road, somehow managing to send them to their destination within 10 minutes.

They saw Ji Huanyu outside of ward 903.
He appeared from a turn of a corner, his coat and jacket wide open, dark circles around his eyes, half-shaven stubble still left on his jaws. His clothes suggested that he was a gentleman, but his behaviour had none of that fine aura. There was nothing but irritation and loathing in his tightly knitted brows. He nearly crashed into them with his phone in his grasp, and a “sorry” came rushing out of his mouth before he saw clearly who exactly he bumped into.

“Xiao-Tian?”
Ji Huanyu barely opened his mouth before Jiang Tian was grabbing his collar and swinging his fist at him. A chorus of shocked gasps appeared around them, and the corridor instantly fell into discord. It was a mess of people avoiding them, people trying to pull them apart, people trying to mediate and dissuade. His brain was filled with only buzzing, and managed to land several consecutive hits on him before he was dragged away by a hug from the back.
“Ge! Not here,” Sheng Wang immobilised him, “don’t fight over here.”
“Xiao-Tian!” Sheng Mingyang and Xiao-Chen’s voices were mixed within.
The nurses and doctors all rushed over here, they were surrounded by people, voices of men and women bled into each other, sharply jabbing at his brain — like frogs in a pond causing a giant racket.

“I’ve told you before, don’t you go look for her—” the air around Jiang Tian was stifling, a dark look on his face.
“I didn’t look for her!” Ji Huanyu staggered as he stood up straight, the look on his face equally ugly. “I’ve never looked for her!”
“Who else could it be but you?”
“I……”
He faltered, and an expletive exploded from his mouth in front of everyone in an unprecedented moment. He lowered his head as he mouthed “fuck”, rubbing the cut by the corner of his mouth.

“Xiao-Tian! We’ll continue later, go inside first,” Sheng Mingyang cut in horizontally to grab Jiang Tian’s elbows, and Sheng Wang was half hugging, half dragging Jiang Tian from behind, pulling him inside 903.
Jiang Ou stood right inside there, her usually neatly tied up hair was a disheveled mess, quite a few strands fell by the side of her face. Her eyes were lowered, the corner of her lips were turned down. Her eyes were slightly puffy, possibly having just cried, or she was simply over exhausted.

Jiang Tian wanted to call out to her, but before he spoke, he spotted the person holding onto the railing of the bed.
For a split second, he thought this person was both familiar and unfamiliar to him. He was unfamiliar towards the way the person was gravely ill, but was familiar in regards to the mannerism the person had upon setting his eyes on him.

He stilled for two seconds and finally recalled: this was the man who was entangled up with Ji Huanyu in the dim bedroom.

Jiang Tian could not remember the person’s face. A long time of repulsion in his childhood allowed him to forget his appearance, like an intentionally applied mosaic. However, he remembered the deer in the headlight look in his eyes — that moment of eye contact had disgusted him for many years.
To the point that the moment he saw him again, the overwhelming feeling of nausea had hit him once more, turning his stomach upside down.

Jiang Tian’s expression instantly chilled, and touched the scar behind his neck subconsciously. This action was not missed by Jiang Ou; she froze for quite a while, and slowly looked up, her voice hoarse as she asked, “Xiao-Tian, you know him?”

Although this was a question, her tone was already certain and numb.
Jiang Tian shook his head, so slightly that it was as though he simply moved a little.
“You know him,” Jiang Ou said yet again.

This time, Jiang Tian did not deny that. He fell into a silence instead.
“How did you know him?” Jiang Ou’s voice was soft, and rather slow too. Standing up was undoubtedly the only thing she was doing at the moment, but it seemed that even that was taking all of her strength. “You saw him before? In that old house next to Fuzhong?”
Several moments later, Jiang Tian’s brows furrowed as he faintly replied. “Mn.”

“So……” Jiang Ou choked, like she was smothering the turmoil of emotions within her, while simultaneously trying to keep her disgust down. “So you already knew? You knew what sort of relationship your dad……Ji Huanyu was in with him?”
“Mn.”

In that instant, Jiang Ou’s heart ached a little. However, the absurdity of the situation washed over her like a tsunami, to the point that she was struggling within, overlooking that tiny bit of heartache.
She said, “So I’m the only one who didn’t know. Just me, just like a fool who didn’t know a single thing at all.”

“Xiao-Ou—” Ji Huanyu called out.
“DON’T CALL OUT TO ME!” Jiang Ou’s voice was nearly broken. She was usually gentle and calm, she had never raised her voice to such a shrill pitch before. “DON’T CALL OUT TO ME, I’M DISGUSTED!”

Actually, before she came to the hospital, she thought she could stay rational. Du Cheng sent her a lot of messages, and she read all of them — line by line, word by word — on the sofa. She did not break down, nor was she dazed. All she felt was a chill, a chill so cold that it caused the cavity of her chest and the lengths of her limbs to tremble.
Du Cheng said, “Every single cent that Huanyu transferred over to Xiao-Tian was rejected, he did not keep anything. He kept feeling like he didn’t fulfill his responsibility.” When she saw that, her mind had yet to turn blank, she even replied to Jiang Tian’s message.

She thought she could remain collected, she did not realise that her emotions were simply too intense and were delayed along the way. It was only at this moment, then her feelings surged up and erupted. And by the time she realised, her entire body was shaking, her eyes instantly reddened.

She said, “I really feel so disgusted, Ji Huanyu. I was together with you since I was 18, do you even know how many years that was? I’ll ever only turn 18 once in my whole life, can you return that back to me? Have you ever counted how many times I’ve quarreled with my mom over you?! Even when she’s old and can’t remember anyone anymore she still grabbed onto me, telling me, don’t set all of your heart on that boy, mother knows people better than you. How many times have I coaxed her? How many times did I tell her to not worry? My mom had never stopped worrying even until she passed. Can you bring her back to me? You told me at the start, you’ll take care of our son. Did you? When I brought him back, he would even squirm away even if I was just tucking his blanket over him in his sleep, did you know?”

Ji Huanyu froze there, a humiliating wreck. It was as though he was forcefully paraded on the streets, but also doing some self-reflection at the same time. He seemed to be both resentful and ashamed.
“You didn’t know. You only knew to muck around with Du Cheng,” Jiang Ou said.

It was the first time her words were aimed so sharply, so directly at someone. She was completely blunt, and the words were not sandpapered down at all. Like a hysterical swan song before a complete breakdown. “Xiao-Wang—”

Sheng Wang was suddenly summoned, and looked at her dazedly.
Jiang Ou pointed at the man by the side of the bed. “Do you know what kind of person he is?”

Sheng Wang moved his lips. He felt a little sorry for Jiang Ou, wanting for her to stop doing this to herself. Because every word from her was a double-edged blade, stabbing both Ji Huanyu and herself. Still, he did not have the grounds nor the right to dissuade her. It wasn’t just him — nobody here had the rights to.

“He was Auntie’s middle-high school classmate, he sat right behind Auntie.” Jiang Ou said in all seriousness, “Auntie treated him as one of her best friends, that kind of friend where I’ll be godmother to after he has kids.”

“Such a good friend, and he ended up on the same bed with my husband.” Jiang Ou was still speaking to Sheng Wang, but her eyes were fixed on Ji Huanyu. Her hands, dangled by the side, kept trembling. “A man and another man — how disgusting is that?”
She knew Ji Huanyu was full of pride, he did not like to have the worst of him exposed before outsiders. Therefore she had to say that, she even said them to someone who had the least of anything to do with him at all.
All her attention was focused on Ji Huanyu, so she did not discover the moment she said that, Sheng Wang’s face turned deathly white.
He blinked ever so slightly, and retreated a step. Jiang Tian grabbed his wrist.

It was the first time Ji Huanyu had encountered a Jiang Ou in this state, his sore spots were trampled all over. That bit of guilt instantly vanished, and was replaced with a chest full of anger born from humiliation. He took a deep breath, and said with restraint, “Xiao-Ou, I’ve never wanted to disgust you on purpose. I swear, what I felt for you when we got together was real, I—”

Jiang Ou shut her eyes, as though she had blocked him outside. She had lost too many times against Ji Huanyu, she was already scarred from it. Before, she tried to believe every line he spouted; now, she refused to believe a single letter. She even sunken into a state of panic, feeling like nobody around her was innocent, nobody was telling the truth.

“Okay, let’s not talk about this. I know you wouldn’t believe me even if I tried.” Ji Huanyu ended the topic, and tried to explain, “I’ve promised Xiao-Tian to not look for you, to not cause you trouble. Even if Xiao-Tian didn’t bring that up, that’s what I intended too. Neither did I have the nerve to go look for you, even I myself thought I’m disgusting and vile. But Du Cheng is different, he always thought you knew, just that you’ve made peace with it after time passed. Du Cheng—”

“Are you helping your adultery partner explain himself to me?” Jiang Ou said, “Or were you homosexual in the first place, you were already with him in high school, and I’m the one who got inbetween the two of you?”
Ji Huanyu was a little agitated. “No, I just—”

Jiang Ou’s face was completely drained of blood. These words were meant to provoke Ji Huanyu, but the moment she said it, she then realised the person she was truly provoking was herself.
If that was really the case, then her whole life had been a giant joke. She had never made a single right choice, she was blind from the start to the end.

She felt her stomach turn, and her legs were starting to give way. Therefore, she said to Ji Huanyu, her face pale, “I don’t want to hear anything from you. I want to vomit whenever I see people like you two.”

“People like us?” Ji Huanyu’s patience was exhausted at last. His expression chilled as he asked pointedly, “What kind? The kind that got with a man? Homosexuals?”
His personality was rather extreme. When he truly fumed with rage, he wasn’t selective about his words at all, he only wanted to shoot back all the arrows aimed at him, specifically making sure he was hurting the person where it would hurt the most; the thing that occupied the person’s heart. There was probably only a son that was that to Jiang Ou.
Therefore, Ji Huanyu glanced at Jiang Tian, and acutely caught a whiff of that something between him and Sheng Wang. Ji Huanyu sneered, and said to Jiang Ou, “Then you ought to remember to stay guarded against your son, who knows if he’s the same as me?”
Jiang Ou and Sheng Mingyang looked at Jiang Tian on instinct.
Before their gazes landed on them, Sheng Wang withdrew his hand from Jiang Tian’s fingers.

Jiang Tian’s grasp on him was firm, so his removal was equally firm.
It was just to cover up, but the moment his wrist slipped out of Jiang Tian’s fingers, his heart plummeted — like he was standing in a malfunctioning lift, and there was suddenly nothing but air beneath his feet.

Jiang Ou was startled for only a split second. The very next, she straightened up and slapped Ji Huanyu.
She was obedient as a child, lively as a youth. In her middle age, she ended up being frail and timid. More than 40 years of her life, and she had never laid hands on anyone; this was the first.
She shielded Jiang Tian behind her, saying to Ji Huanyu, “Don’t worry, Xiao-Tian has nothing in common with you, he’ll never be the same as you.”
This slap seemed to have drained all of Jiang Ou’s strength, and after that hit, her entire person was swaying — she was about to collapse. Sheng Mingyang hurriedly supported her with lightning reflexes, and turned to call for the nurse.
A bunch of people rushed in in a flurry, and poured out of the room with Jiang Ou and the rest.

Sheng Wang could not recall how he followed them home, he only remembered the way everyone looked terrible. His head was a mess, like a flock of birds, dispersed. When this entire mess was over and they were home, Sheng Wang sat on the couch, and belatedly felt a stinging pain on his palms. He looked down, and both his palms were riddled with a line of red marks, the skin nearly broken and bleeding.
He clenched too tightly……

Auntie Sun did not return home at night that day, and was busy all over in the Sheng household. The atmosphere in the house was heavy and depressing, everyone spoke softly and slowly, like they were all thoroughly worn out.
Jiang Tian leaned against the sofa, deep in thought in silence. A long while later, Sheng Wang turned to look at him, and saw that he had unknowingly fallen asleep with his phone in his hand. Yet, his brows were furrowed.

Sheng Wang stared at the hands of the clock, lost. He watched the hands tick and tick, finally reaching midnight.
He wanted to kiss Jiang Tian, telling him: Ge, happy birthday.
But he couldn’t bring himself to say it, because there was no way for Jiang Tian to be happy at all.
Not a single bit.

TO BE CONTINUED.