A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 094 – Passing Years

“What I Like Are Boys.”

Sheng Wang had once envisioned running into Jiang Tian at the finals for some competition, or some other summer camp.
He could imagine that scene — right down to the details of the weather, and the features of the people rushing about around them. But he couldn’t imagine what he would say. Perhaps he would call out a “Ge”, or maybe he would greet him, trying to act completely natural. Maybe……he would start feeling sad even before he managed to speak.

Later on, after receiving news of Jiang Tian’s move overseas, he did not have the room left to even imagine anymore.

Sheng Wang devoted all of his time into competitions. He was busy as a bee, not sparing his brain a single second of freedom to relax and space out. He was studying and learning at a rate that was practically self abuse. Personally, he thought he was smart, but he was nowhere near being a genius. Trying to “touch the tiger’s butt” back then already took quite a bit of time and energy from him, and at the later parts of competitions, he felt the difficulty even more so acutely.

As compared to normal students, he could still be jokingly called “running on hacks”, but as he managed to worm his way into the cream of the entire nation’s crop, he was only so-so. No matter how he vented his feelings by studying, he only had so much energy.
Therefore, he managed to end up with a passable second class award in the province for physics, and entered the selection camp for chemistry, his specialisation. Along with how he happened to perform well that time, he entered the national training team, and acquired direct recommendation to university after all of that trouble.

The parent and the teachers were happy, but it felt like every step he took landed on thin air; no matter how he walked, he wasn’t met with solid ground. It was as though a certain feeling was pushing him to run forward continuously, not daring to stop, not daring to look around — and then his chest was suddenly met with a stripe of red, and the people at the side cheered, telling him, “Congratulations, you’ve reached the finishing line.”

Independent recruitment to all sorts of universities always came pouring as a group, each top school all recruiting the top students on their own accords. Class A had a great performance overall during competitions this year. Everyone went all over the place to deliver their application material, their certificates in hand. Nearly everyone had gotten a few selection places.

Gao Tianyang only possessed a single certificate, neither was its level particularly high. During that time, he constantly joked “I’m about to become the only left-behind children” to the point that Sheng Wang couldn’t bear to see it anymore. He searched all over the internet on his laptop for several days, and somehow managed to find a few famous schools with suitable conditions. He helped Gao Tianyang edit the essay as well as English material needed for preliminary application. They handed it up, and he was unexpectedly accepted.

For that entire month, Gao Tianyang was this close to giving Sheng Wang three loud kowtows each day, and so he also covered his breakfast. Old Gao was more obtuse than 179°; he did not put too much thought into his actions. He would constantly bring Sheng Wang whatever he personally found delicious. After 20+ days of burgers and cola straight, Sheng Wang ate so much that he was automatically full the moment he even saw him.

At the end of the month, this idiot had finally realised that Sheng Wang was sick of the food, and so he went back to Chinese cuisine. He tried his best to recall the breakfast Sheng Wang had eaten before, and went to queue up in the cafeteria bright and early in the morning in a truly unprecedented move. He entered the classroom with beancurd, an egg, and a red can of milk……
And then for that entire day, other than the “thank you” upon receiving the breakfast, Sheng Wang had never spoken another word since.

Around winter break, the students who had passed the preliminary rounds for independent recruitment and comprehensive tests had headed to all sorts of universities for their exams. During that time, He Jin had signed absence slips until her hands turned jelly. More than half of the class was empty, there was no way for lessons to be carried out, so they often ended up with self-study all day long.

It was pouring with rain one day, the weather had been dark and gloomy since morning. Sheng Wang was stepping on the bar below the table, a book spreaded open on his lap, and was half-heartedly doing questions when he suddenly heard someone rap on his table with a knock.
He suddenly fell into a stupor, nearly mixing time up. It was as though he was back to a day when he just arrived at Fuzhong. It was raining heavily that day too, and as he sprawled over the desk, burning with a fever. Jiang Tian had made a trip to the sickbay, and also knocked on his table in the same exact manner while he talked to Gao Tianyang, a bag of medicine in his hand.

Sheng Wang withdrew his gaze from the question, and looked up in a fluster. He saw the class monitor, Carp, asking him, “When are you leaving school?”
He was momentarily silent. “I don’t know. Around April, I think.”
Carp recorded down the general time on the form, and peered at him, slightly worried. “You look terrible, have you fallen sick?”
“No,” Sheng Wang pointed at the top of his head with his pen, “it’s the lighting.”
He only lowered his eyes again after Carp left for a long while.

Much later, Sheng Wang then suddenly recalled — the day Jiang Tian was talking to Gao Tianyang with medicine, he didn’t knock on his table. The time he knocked on his table, he wasn’t sick either.
It had clearly only been a year and a little more, but he was already starting to lose track of his memories……

He sat in silence for a while, and hastily dug his earpiece out from the depth of his bag, stuffing it in his ears. He found a random heavy metal rock playlist, and turned the volume to the loudest.
The classroom was too empty, too quiet.

Fuzhong had a bountiful harvest that year, reaping a giant batch of direct recommendations and points deduction for entry into top schools that year. Chili received the admissions into a top university, same as Sheng Wang’s, Song Sirui and some others had direct recommendations to the foundational classes of various top universities in the province, and Carp was heading to Shanghai.

Gao Tianyang was probably drama personified, managing to add so many twists and turns in the independent recruitment process. He initially performed quite well, earning himself a discount of 15 points for entry into university. With the premise that the full mark was 480, that was already rather significant. Just as his parents were overjoyed, he changed his mind and rejected that with a generous wave of his hands.
“My dad got so mad that he bought a feather duster on Taobao,” Gao Tianyang said, with much pride, “He swore to be chill in regards to my education ever since elementary school, and he nearly broke that promise this time.”
Sheng Wang asked him, “Why don’t you want that discount? You have an ace up your sleeve for gaokao?”
“Didn’t wanna go to that school anymore, suddenly had a complete awakening, wanted to go apeshit while I’m still young.” Gao Tianyang said, “Just you wait, bro will go accompany you in Beijing.”

The batch of people entering university via independent recruitment left school in mid-April. Sheng Wang was calm from the start to the end, but Song Sirui and the rest had been going insane from all the repression. The day they left, they insisted on creating the atmosphere for it, and tossed the mountains of test papers they’d received during high school down from the top floor; the white pieces of papers were littered all over the ground like snow. And then they got cursed out by the students downstairs — whose suffering were yet to end — while also receiving the invitation to the administration office for a final friendly chat.

Sheng Wang got implicated while being entirely innocent, and was forcibly punished to sweep the floors with those few idiots, not being allowed to leave until they cleaned everything up. Class A — that group of dumb birds — laughed as they rushed downstairs to help them out.
Yang Jing rolled her eyes as she got someone to drive a recycling truck over, getting them to pile their papers there instead.

That season was already slightly warm. Sheng Wang was lightly sweating by the time they were done clearing up the mess. He bought a bottle of iced water in Xi Le — the shop assistant now changed — and shedded the stuffy school jacket.

He swung the jacket onto his shoulders. The moment he walked out of school with the bottle of water, the bustling crowd of people traversing about in the mundane world was but a flash to him as he weaved through the streets.

His frenetic, restless teenage years thus received its curtain fall in such a flurry. Only once in a lifetime, no more going back.

*
Due to being directly recommended, Sheng Wang had twice the time for his summer break, but he did not stay at home for too long. Truth was, ever since Jiang Tian left, he hardly went home.
He would be lying if he didn’t feel any resentment, but more of it was out of avoidance. As long as he returned to that house in White Horse Alley, he would uncontrollably start thinking about many things.

He found the Chu-ge who was running supplementary classes, and took on what Jiang Tian was doing before. He made use of those few months of holiday to earn himself a lump of money, and unbinded all bank cards that Sheng Mingyang had tied to his account.

Chu-ge’s business was doing quite well for these two years. He didn’t want to focus solely on Fuzhong’s area, so he opened up several outlets in a few areas around the city. He said that now they were operating on a larger scale, the demand had increased too. He wanted for Sheng Wang to not forget about him amidst his hardwork in university, and help him out whenever he’s free….and also act as his walking golden signboard for the business.
Sheng Wang said, “Seeing how we’re on good terms, I can give you a little discount — I won’t take advertisement fees from you.”
Chu-ge laughed heartily, and gave him a big red packet before school started.

He was more like one who belonged in the Jianghu as compared to a businessman, every move of his was filled with loyalty and righteousness, it was just that his method of expressing such values was more singular — in the form of money, that was. He liked Sheng Wang’s personality very much, and they just so happen to get along rather well too, so he was always particularly generous whenever he paid his salary. In Sheng Wang’s very long university life later, this was the reason behind Sheng Wang’s confidence in becoming independent from Sheng Mingyang.
Of course, independence alone wasn’t quite enough.
The first time Sheng Mingyang discovered that Sheng Wang wasn’t spending his money was after he left for Beijing. He rarely checked on those few cards, and only ever did keep an eye on them during the period of time after Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian’s relationship had just gotten exposed. To his surprise, he discovered that expenditure had stopped a long time ago. He was a little shocked, but didn’t think too much of it.

He regarded himself as someone who knew Sheng Wang very well; he knew his son was used to spending generously, he would buy the bill and treat everyone every time he ate with others. Yet, his personality was a little prideful, and a little lazy. Unbinding the bank cards from his account was just an impulsive move, probably just a rebellious act against certain bygone issues. He would tie the cards back after a short while with his head hung low.
However, he waited for a long time and the “just as expected” did not arrive for him.

It was Sheng Wang’s year two at university when he truly felt that his son was gradually leaving his control. Once, when he went to Beijing on a business trip during a holiday. He contacted a few old business friends for a meal, and called Sheng Wang along too. He only discovered while at the dining table that Sheng Wang had already changed his major, and he knew literally nothing of it.

Sheng Wang said that at the start, he got his direct recommendation through competition, so his major was naturally relevant to that subject. However, he only stayed in that major for a year before he went towards the economics side of things, and went for a double degree in legal studies while he was at it.

Sheng Mingyang asked what exactly he was thinking. Sheng Wang didn’t come up with all kinds of reasons, instead only saying a “Didn’t like it, so I changed it.”
Sheng Mingyang personally disagreed with the behaviour of changing after barely studying for a couple of days, he kept feeling like it was a little too reckless. However, he did not know particularly much about Sheng Wang’s original major; he had no evidence to prove that that was a reckless move, so he could only let it be.

Sheng Wang would occasionally run into Chili during class. Her actual major was legal studies. If the timing was good, they would have lunch or a dinner together after class. However, it wasn’t just the two of them, but three—
Under the threat of the feather duster, Gao Tianyang had performed well for his gaokao, and successfully fulfilled his promise to “accompany Sheng Wang in Beijing”. His school wasn’t too far from Sheng Wang’s — no matter which direction he went, all it took was a few stops on the public bus to get there.

It was just that Baofusi Bridge and Wudaokou often had traffic jams during peak hours, year round. He would often scratch his head frantically, spamming messages in the group chat, saying “I’m reaching soon” “I can see the gate”, all while still being stuck in the flow of traffic on the bus. Therefore the trio’s lunch and dinner were never on time.
In a fit of rage, Gao Tianyang switched to riding a bike instead. That area often had “evil wind”, and frequently, by the time he arrived, his brain was already blown away too.

Sheng Wang bought his bullshit at the start, and was rather touched by it. The more he watched however the more he realised something was up. Finally, on one fine day, he pulled him aside and asked, “Gao Tianyang, tell me the truth: you’re in Beijing to accompany me or to pursue Chili?”
Gao Tianyang had been in the Jianghu for 20 years, and it was the first time his face was as red as a baboon’s butt. “What are you saying, of course I’m here to accompany you!”
Sheng Wang let out a cold laugh, and said, “Off with your bullshit.”

Gao Tianyang kept up with his foolish spirit for two years, and had successfully acquired Chili at the end of year two. Therefore the trio became a couple and a single dog.
As Sheng Wang felt glad that the idiot had finally enlightened, he also thought, fucking hell…

One time, they ran into his friend from student council while they ate. That person watched the way Sheng Wang was disdainful of the dog food he was being fed from the two, and couldn’t help but tease, “What are ya scared of, you can go find one too! Just with this face alone, as long as you say you wanna date, an entire major worth of girls would rush over. You totally can piss these two off.”

He said that out of the intention of cracking a joke, but he did not expect the people around the table to meet each others’ eyes and then fall into a strange quiet the moment he said that. Gao Tianyang kept winking and making faces at him, the frequency so high that it was like he was spasming. He didn’t know what’s so wrong with what he said either, so he started drinking his soup intently. Sheng Wang was eating with his eyes lowered; there wasn’t anything visibly wrong with the look on his face. He swallowed the food, took a gulp of ice water, and then flashed a smile at the friend, saying, “Kinda makes sense.”

Chili added in from the side, chewing her straw, “He’s so freaking busy, where is he supposed to find the time?”
The student council friend went “oh, oh”, and said, “That’s true.”

University was different from high school, it wasn’t over just in a matter of doing questions and participating in competitions. Sheng Wang still kept himself very busy nonetheless — with a double degree, student council, events and competitions, as well as the projects he was assisting his teacher with, it seemed that he wouldn’t be able to live if he didn’t fill up all 24 hours of his day.

Time always flies whenever a person gets busy.
Time in high school was measured in days, but in university, it’s measured in years. It was like he slept a few times, opened his eyes up again, and the year had abruptly come to an end.
The first second he was a freshman who just enrolled, the next he became a senior.

He was stopped by a girl behind a building. When he heard the other person call him “senior”, he had a feeling like time was but a blur. At that time, he already had a job worth envying over lined up for him. Other than handling procedures and writing his thesis, he rarely returned to school.
The girl wasn’t tall, and when she smiled, the dimples showed on her cheeks, rather sweet. She said, “I’m also from the faculty of law, I thought you are together with senior Li Jia, so I didn’t dare to confess. I discovered that she has a boyfriend later, so I boldly made my way here. I had to wait for so long before I managed to corner you here. So, senior, it will be the new year soon. New year, new times, can I be your girlfriend?”

In the near distance, there was a new year’s eve party held by the school, the sponsors were even pulled in by their student council’s public relations team. However, Sheng Wang seemed to have just realised that, and stilled for two seconds before he asked, not answering her question, “What day is it today?”
“The 29th,” the girl said.
Sheng Wang nodded.

How odd. He had clearly left Fuzhong for a while, but whenever he heard words like “year end” and “new year”, his first reaction was still “Fuzhong always holds their cultural festival at the end of the year”.

Fuzhong always holds their cultural festival at the end of the year, it would be quite late by the time the event ended. Heavy crowds of people and their shadows filled up Road #3, and by the time he made it back to the dorms, he was already sleepy too. The next time he opened his eyes, the year had come to an end.

He clearly did do many things, filling up every single day. Yet, his memory did not refresh along in time. In the occasions he spaced out, all he could think of was the past, years ago, ages ago……

“Senior, do I have a chance?” The girl wasn’t the shy type, she even waved her hands before him, like she was in a rush.
Sheng Wang came back to himself. He apologised, “Sorry.”

“Ah……” she drawled, and asked, “Why though? Am I not good looking? I think I am plenty good looking though.”
Sheng Wang was amused. He nodded, “Yeah, you are. But……”
The girl blinked, waiting for the continuation after the “but”.

Sheng Wang looked at her, and suddenly felt that time was truly magical. Rumours that spread like wildfire in Fuzhong once were no longer brought up by anyone barely a few months later. It became bygone happenings after a few years, and then there wasn’t anyone who knew anymore.

Nobody around this area knew that there was only a single person in his bygone happenings. He only stopped for a bit before he left, but he had been staring at that empty spot for a long, long time.

Sheng Wang flipped his collar up, blocking out the wintry night wind.
He grinned at that girl, saying, “What I like are boys.”

TO BE CONTINUED.