A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 110 – Hometown

“There’s Air Conditioning in the Classroom; See, My Hand Is Warm.”

Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian bought an early flight for the 24th, and the moment they have just landed, he received a message from Sheng Mingyang on WeChat, saying that he had another work dinner to attend in the day, so the two of them will have to go home and rest for a bit by themselves. The Chinese New Year eve dinner was already booked in advance.

In the past, no matter how busy Sheng Mingyang was, he would definitely make sure that the eve of Chinese New Year would always be free. This year, with him suddenly having to attend the dinner, it was pretty easy to figure out that he was avoiding them.
As he hoped for them to come back for the new year, he also couldn’t quite afford to let go of his pride. The small building in White Horse Alley was a special existence — it had witnessed separations and reunions between two families and four people. He honestly did not know what’s the first thing he should even say to Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian upon seeing them arriving together — hand in hand — in that sort of scenario.
The old comrade had been astute for a good majority of his life, and was apt at saying all sorts of pretty words in different scenarios. When it came down to it, his son was still the only one who he didn’t know how to deal with.
Sheng Wang knew the mindset he held, of course, so he merely accepted the location of the restaurant his father shared in silence, and did not call him out on it.

As they were waiting for their suitcases, Sheng Wang received a phone call. Jiang Tian listened to him confirm the location and the zone the car was parked at, and asked, “Who called?”
Sheng Wang said, “Uncle Xiao-Chen.”

It’s been ages since Jiang Tian last heard this address, and was briefly stunned before he came out of it. Sheng Wang had already pushed the suitcases here. He reached his hand out and snapped his fingers right in front of Jiang Tian, saying, “Come back to life.”
Jiang Tian pressed down his meddling fingers. “He’s already here?”
“Yup, he’s at the parking lot already.”
Jiang Tian turned to look at the directions to the car park above him on instinct, but Sheng Wang dragged him towards the direction of the escalator instead. “Why are you looking at the sign? I’m all that you need to look at.”

Jiang Tian had only ever departed from this airport, he had never gone through arrival before. Sheng Wang did come here quite a few times throughout these years, with every time being in a rush. This time was the only exception.
The young master was visibly in a good mood, and somewhat carried the air of the emperor on tour, boasting in front of his Ge without any qualms, “Not so sure about the other places, but I am seriously familiar with airports — I can be a living GPS for you, all for free.”
Jiang Tian was pushing the luggage trolley. “Mn, the free ones are more prone to issues.”
“Bullshit.” Sheng Wang stuck his hand out, “You can pay me if you insist.”
Jiang Tian dug his phone out from his pocket, and slapped it onto his palm — he lifted it up again before he could grasp it, “I need some proof first.”
“What proof?”
“That you’re worth the price.”
“Go ahead and ask, I can point out the location of literally any shop here.”
Jiang Tian let out yet another “Mn”, asking, “Where is the west?”
Sheng Wang: “……”
Alright, guess this entire part went wrong.

The young master had ran freely in the Jianghu for several years, he had been to many different places all over the country, but he still was unable to tell north south from east west. The living GPS met its Waterloo barely seconds into operation, and did not scam in a single cent.
During the Spring Festival rush, everywhere was busy; the car park was flooded with people. The private cars and booked cabs all formed a long jam, it was impossible to tell who’s who in the crowd. Sheng Wang called Uncle Xiao-Chen’s phone, and so a “where exactly is the car” began a back and forth Q&A session.
Xiao-Chen had used countless different descriptions, and in the end, he said on the verge of a breakdown, “I’m right behind a white car, and my car has double flashing lights.”
Sheng Wang said, “Uncle, literally most of the cars here are white, which one doesn’t have flashing lights on? How about you give me a general area, and we will look for you along the way.”
Xiao-Chen said again, “Northish part of area K.”
Sheng Wang was silent for two seconds. He shoved his phone at Jiang Tian straight away. “You do it, I only recognise left and right and front and backt.”
His Ge did not forget to ask, “Aren’t you a living GPS?”
“It’s closed down now.”
Jiang Tian spent merely two minutes before he found the car. The living GPS went from closed down to shutting down entirely.

Xiao-Chen funnily did not change at all — his haircut was still the simplest kind, and the clothes he wore for this season was the unchanging short jacket with its collars flipped up. He came out of the car to help bring in the suitcases. When he saw Jiang Tian, he briefly stopped in his tracks, and then said wistfully “You’ve grown taller again, and still as handsome as ever, huh?”

Some places are just like this: the existence of a single person, a single road, a single block of building are enough to let people feel like they are dreaming about their youth again. Jiang Tian sat in the backseat of Xiao-Chen’s car, watching Sheng Wang getting increasingly sleepier as he leaned by his side; that was what he was feeling. It was to the point that for a moment, he even wanted to roll his sleeves up to his elbows, as though what he was wearing was still that blue and white uniform.

Xiao-Chen still had something else to do; after he sent them to the entrance of the courtyard to White Horse Alley, he drove away on another road. Jiang Tian watched Sheng Wang key in the password at the door, and discovered that digits were unchanged despite so many years passing by — it was still the one he was told of at the start. And after the door was opened, the faint scent of detergent inside was the same as before.

In these few years, every time Jiang Tian thought of this house, this scent would always float up in his nose. That was his last memory of this place, and not a particularly good one either. It was such that when he smelled it, he unconsciously felt like he had just sprinted for a few thousand miles.
Fortunately, the person he couldn’t find no matter what back then, was standing next to him at this very instant; he was chatting and laughing, he was within reach. So that scent became gentle too, and was no longer that empty and desolate.

The moment he hooked his fingers around Sheng Wang’s, he came to a clear realisation at last: they would have much, much time ahead of them, so much that it could gradually bury those years full of loss, full of hurt, full of emptiness.

The lighting in the building was great, but as long as it was shortly cleaned up before with nobody being around for a while, the house would become dark and cold. Sheng Wang was the same as before; the moment he changed his shoes, he would start looking for the remote, switching on the air conditioner as he walked. Who cares where he would actually be spending his time at, either way, none of those that should be switched on would be missed out. The temperature indoors during the summer would be cold enough to warrant wrapping themselves up in a quilt; the winter would be warm enough for them to go around in a single layer of clothes. Nobody knows where on earth he acquired this questionable habit that he had since birth.

Jiang Tian followed behind him. The trace of discomfort he felt at the entrance earlier slowly faded away in all sorts of little actions Sheng Wang took, not a single bit was left.
The young master shot straight to the second floor like he was catching a thief, and twisted open the door to the bedroom where Jiang Tian used to live. “I knew it!”
“What?” Jiang Tian asked.
“Didn’t I say cleaning up one room is enough?” Sheng Wang pushed the door completely wide open, and tilted his chin towards the inside, saying, “There — the old comrade did not cooperate at all, he got Auntie Sun to clean two up.”

When he was a teenager, he felt that Sheng Mingyang had never listened to him. Now that he saw this sort of behaviour, all he felt was some amusement.
Sheng Mingyang demonstrated the flexibility a businessman ought to have. Despite how unwilling he was, he still fully displayed the graciousness of a senior in the issue of tidying Jiang Tian’s bedroom. The bedsheet and duvet cover were all new, he did not settle for letting Auntie Sun just change them out; the quilt had been sunned at the very least, it was fluffy and warm……
Of course, his mindset of wanting Jiang Tian to obediently sleep in here was as clear as day.

Sheng Wang twisted open the knob on the door to his bedroom, and wanted to laugh even more at the end.
It was because there were two sets of quilts on the bed, looking incredibly out of place. It was obvious that it wasn’t Auntie Sun’s usual tidying methods. He beckoned at Jiang Tian, and bent over to check the corner of the sheets. He then pinched the corner of one, saying, “See this? You can tell: this duvet cover isn’t covering the bed properly, even a caving in an area. It has to be what my dad did himself.”

From this, it could be deduced that Auntie Sun initially laid out one quilt in here, and after some thinking, Sheng Mingyang thought, that can’t do — what if the two insist on squeezing on a bed? Therefore he obstinately added yet another one. Sheng Wang saw the old comrade’s struggle in the sunken corner of the sheet.
He laughed with a hand on Jiang Tian’s shoulder for quite a long while, and then took his phone out to take a picture of the corners. He sent it to Sheng Mingyang on WeChat.

I No Longer Want This Hand Of Mine: dad, you did this?
A moment later, Sheng Mingyang replied: Where would I find the energy to
I No Longer Want This Hand Of Mine: ok
I No Longer Want This Hand Of Mine: then I’ll go ask Auntie Sun, how did her craft worsen this much after a year of not seeing her

With the push of these lines, those few bits of pride and reservedness the old comrade once held had completely shattered into pieces. The moment Sheng Wang just replied, he chased him down with a call, his tone extremely resigned, “You’re already home?”
“Just came in,” Sheng Wang said.
“I can’t leave anytime soon, you two will have to make do for lunch first.” Sheng Mingyang was deep in thought for a moment, and finally brought up the other person on his own accord, “Don’t get food delivery. If I recall correctly, Xiao-Tian knows how to cook, right? There are ingredients in the kitchen, or you can give Sun-jie a call.”

Jiang Tian was a little surprised when he heard the address “Xiao-Tian” coming out from his mouth again.
Sheng Wang winked at his Ge, and said to the phone, “We’ll be heading to Wu Tong Wai later. Grandpa Ding just got home yesterday, so we’ll probably be settling our lunch there.”
“Sure, the private room I booked tonight should have enough seats. If the old sir is fine with it, we can have a Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner together.” Sheng Mingyang had always been like this, setting aside other issues, he would never neglect a single bit of the courtesy and respect he ought to give.

Sheng Wang let out an “okay”, and casually chatted a little while more. Before he hung up, he added on mischievously, “Oh yeah, dad—”
Sheng Mingyang thought he still had something to say. “Hm?”
“I’ve been on speaker mode all along.”
“You……”
Sheng Mingyang was silent for two seconds, and hung up straight away.

*
It was already nearly noon by the time the two were done tidying up and headed to Wu Tong Wai. The aroma of food wafted all over the alley, there were even various old men and women strolling around, holding their grandchild’s hand. When they saw Jiang Tian, they would say, tugging at him, “It’s been a few years since I saw you, how grown up you are!”

Jiang Tian had probably not been made to make so much small talk in such frequency for his entire life, and yet, there were only so many questions that old people could ask no matter what they say; he was forced to be a repeater. Sheng Wang grinned as he watched the show from the side, both hands tucked in his pockets. It’s fine if he didn’t help, but he purposely prompted the old folks to ask a couple more questions.
A straight and simple alley somehow caused them to spend half an hour walking through it. By the time they made it to the end, Dr. Jiang’s face was already paralyzed. He side-eyed a certain person, asking, “Was it fun?”
“It’s alright,” Sheng Wang couldn’t even hide the mirth in his eyes even if he wanted to.

But soon enough, he could smile anymore — the moment he stepped into the tiny yard he hadn’t been to for a long time, the old man who was busy watering and trimming the plants turned around.

When Old Man Ding had a stern face, the wrinkles by the corners of his mouth would be downturned, making him appear fierce and unapproachable. However, the moment he saw clearly that it was Sheng Wang, those stiff, straight wrinkles curved, and his entire person became amiable and kind. He took off his presbyopic glasses, set down the old fashioned giant scissors, and grabbed Sheng Wang with his dried twig-like hand.

For that one split second, Sheng Wang thought he would call out a couple of “Xiao-Wang”, or made a mistake and say “Xiao-Tian.” And then he would exclaim like those old people in the alley, saying “It’s been so long since I last saw you, look at how grown up you are”, making small talk.
Unexpectedly, the old man simply squeezed his shoulders, saying in displeasure, “Why are you dressed in so little again! Aren’t you cold during class?”

Sheng Wang was stunned for a few seconds.
Jiang Tian whispered next to his ears, his head lowered, “There isn’t anything else wrong with the old man, his concept of time is sometimes a little messed up, that’s all.”
……Maybe he still thinks that we would come here every day.

Sheng Wang let out an “oh”, and covered the old man’s hand instead. He lowered his head, blinking rapidly until the warmth in his eyes receded. He then said to the old man, “It’s fine, grandpa. There’s air conditioning in the classroom; see, my hands are warm.”

TO BE CONTINUED.