A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 027 – Extorted Confession

Canned: Thanks.

Gao Tianyang’s Wechat profile picture was a ray of light in the universe, his nickname was ‘Boom’, declaring himself as roughly the origin of all things.
According to Song Sirui’s explanation, this person’s first nickname was the English version of the Big Bang, but he ended up clashing names with someone. After compromising by taking half of it out, he named himself ‘Bang’, which had a double meaning to it, of being both explosive(ly cool) and awesome. In the end, he got pissed off and changed his name when Song Sirui and co sweetly called him ‘bang bang’.

Sheng Wang was also a peacock, he couldn’t really stand other people tooting their own trumpets right in front of him, so he changed the additional label to this person as ‘Unassuming Gao Tianyang’.

At that moment, Unassuming Gao Tianyang sent him a voice message.
Sheng Wang opened it by accident, and howling laughter came bursting from his phone. Both Sheng Mingyang and Jiang Ou turned to look at him.
The heck.
He hurriedly muffled it, switched away from the voice message and changed to text.

Unassuming Gao Tianyang: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I saw the pictures, Xi-ge sent them to me, hold on I’ll send them to you.
The next second, Sheng Wang’s screen was taken over by a disgraceful picture.

The two hooligans were hugging their heads as they squatted in a corner of ‘In Those Years’ BBQ shop, in a wimpy state of being all pissed off and yet too cowardly to fight back. This picture was likely taken by Zhao Xi, he took the pictures from north south east west, 360 degrees, fully presenting their miserable state.

Unassuming Gao Tianyang: Sheng-ge look at the faces, it’s the two idiots who ambushed you right
Canned: I don’t know the faces
Unassuming Gao Tianyang: …….
Canned: Looks like it from the hair though
Unassuming Gao Tianyang: Fk
Unassuming Gao Tianyang: Why did you still take a huge breath to say it, idc, I’m laughing at them today!!!

Sheng Wang actually felt especially good, but he didn’t care to laugh with Gao Tianyang. He was thinking how there wasn’t such a coincidence in this world, those two idiots sabotaged him in the morning, and got hit by karma by night.
He suspected that this had to do with Jiang Tian, but he had no proof.

“What were you talking about?” Sheng Mingyang opened a can of drinks for him, “One moment you’re laughing and the next you’re serious.”
Ever since Sheng Wang entered Fuzhong he had never eaten his dinner at home, the only time was the day he first met Jiang Tian. It ended badly and he even starved for the whole night.
The meal today was the first dinner truly shared together. Sheng Wang, Sheng Mingyang, Jiang Ou were all seated, waiting for Jiang Tian.

After the chemistry paper, Jiang Tian was called away by an unfamiliar looking teacher. People say that that teacher was part of the school’s admin team, the school internet was handled by him and Jiang Tian. Every time there was any problem, he would call Jiang Tian over.
Before Jiang Tian left he did let Sheng Wang know, saying that he would be going home slightly late, no need to wait for him for dinner. But Sheng Mingyang was insistent — those two kids had agreed to have dinner as a table of four for the first time, why would they ever start eating before everyone arrived.

For this period of time Sheng Mingyang was always on a business trip. He didn’t actually understand why the relationship between Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian warmed up, still, this didn’t get in the way of his happiness either, the excitement was clear on his face. It also manifested in how while he usually didn’t look at Sheng Wang’s phone on his own accord, he didn’t notice today, and he huddled closer to take a look.

It’s been ages since Sheng Wang was this close with his dad, was it a couple of years or three to five? He could no longer tell.

He wasn’t the healthiest as a kid, he was bones all over and barely weighed a thing. Sheng Mingyang often lifted him over his head, letting him ride on his neck, telling Sheng Wang’s mom, “Did we get the wrong kid? Even your dad’s cat is heavier than him, if they start fighting, Wang-zai might not even win.”
And then Sheng Wang would pull at his ears, he always feigned pain and went ow ow ow.

He was busy and also careless, when he played with Sheng Wang there were often bumps and bruises. Yet, every time he came back from a business trip, Sheng Wang would bring him his giant slippers, and squat at the entrance hall like a cat, waiting for him to put it on and come in.
This closeness lasted until Sheng Wang was 10, those two years they sort of lived like they only have each other. When Sheng Wang felt upset on the occasions he dreamt of his mom, he would hug his blanket and squeeze into the same bed as Sheng Mingyang in the middle of the night, as though having someone next to him would make him feel a little better.

And later on……Maybe it was because it was puberty, or maybe it was because Sheng Mingyang got busier, that form of closeness became difficult to maintain.
Sheng Wang would still be startled awake in the middle of the night, but as he opened the door to the bedroom next to his, a blanket in his arms, he no longer found anyone he could squeeze with. The houses he lived in became bigger and bigger. He wandered from upstairs to downstairs. He drank water, he ate food, he couch surfed, he played his games. In the end he would fall asleep on the couch, curling up into a ball all by himself.
Once it’s been long enough, he no longer needs to be close to anyone.

He started marking out boundaries at a frequent rate — Don’t come upstairs if it’s nothing, don’t knock on the door if it’s not important. Better not to get too involved over trifle matters too. He rarely threw a tantrum as that was really unseemly, but for many things one could feel his displeasure even without throwing one.
Therefore, a gap grew between the father and son from who knows when. Some people thought that this was called being ‘open-minded’, but Sheng Wang understood what was between him and Sheng Mingyang was ‘politeness’.

Just like all he needed to do was to look up, and Sheng Mingyang would retract his gaze from his phone screen, smiling it off as he said, “Aiya, sorry, dad’s so happy that he forgot himself, didn’t mean to peek on purpose.”
Sheng Wang didn’t lock his phone screen. The chat interface between him and Gao Tianyang was right there, all up for his dad to see, but Sheng Mingyang didn’t lean over anymore.

“This one’s a Class A classmate?” Sheng Mingyang casually asked.
“Mm.” Sheng Wang didn’t look up either, his thumbs flew as he typed in the chat.

The roaring laughter from Gao Tianyang that leaked out was enough to demonstrate that they were on very good terms. Sheng Mingyang was gratified as he said to Jiang Ou, “This kid is quite awesome in this aspect, he’s quick to adapt no matter where he goes, and a few days is enough for him to make many friends.”
Sheng Wang’s fingers paused, as if he was thinking of something. Still, he soon quickly typed again, and tapped on ‘send’.

Canned: Did Xi-ge say how they were caught
Canned: Isn’t this too coincidental, was someone helping
Unassuming Gao Tianyang: I was just chatting with Xi-ge, he didn’t know that these two hooligans sabotaged you this morning, he was even quite shocked when I told him, it’s probably a coincidence

As he spoke he even sent a screenshot of a conversation. In the screenshot, Zhao Xi behaved as if he wasn’t older than them by more than ten years, and sent several memes in a row to express shock.

Unassuming Gao Tianyang: See this yet, this is called justice sent from the heaven
……

Sheng Wang scrolled through the chat, his attention was caught by a certain thing all of a sudden.
He opened the picture containing the two hooligans once again. One of the pictures captured the shoes of the surrounding spectators, both near and far. The one furthest away was standing behind a certain table, nearly out of the picture, if he paid any less attention he wouldn’t catch it at all.

Sheng Wang abruptly felt that the colour scheme of the shoes was a little familiar. He zoomed in on the picture, and could finally ascertain that it wasn’t just familiar, he really did see it before. It was right in the shoe cabinet in the entrance hall.

Sheng Wang stood up and went to the living room without a second word.
Sheng Mingyang let out an ‘Eh’, and followed up, “Is there something wrong, you’re not eating anymore?”
“I’m eating.” Sheng Wang turned into the entrance hall without a single look back, “These slippers aren’t comfortable, I’m changing it.”

Considering how picky he usually was, Sheng Mingyang wasn’t baffled by the sudden action of changing his slippers.
Sheng Wang opened up the shoes cabinet. Just as expected, the pair of shoes in the picture wasn’t there, they were worn by a certain someone today.

Just as he was zoning out while staring at that empty slot, the beeping sound of a passcode being keyed in a door away was heard. Sheng Wang lightly froze, and instantly came back to himself.

His phone vibrated. He looked down at it, Gao Tianyang was still forming phrases with the word ‘heaven’. He pursed his lips as he hurriedly typed.

Unassuming Gao Tianyang: The heaven has eyes
Unassuming Gao Tianyang: Heaven’s nets have wide meshes and one can never escape
Canned: brb
Unassuming Gao Tianyang: k, something’s up?
Unassuming Gao Tianyang: Mm
Canned: Heaven just came in
Unassuming Gao Tianyang: ?????

Jiang Tian didn’t expect anybody to be standing at the entrance hall, when he entered he nearly ran right into Sheng Wang’s face.
“Why are you standing here?” He came to an abrupt halt, and frowned as he asked.

Sheng Wang opened his mouth but before he spoke, he sneaked a glance behind.
Sheng Mingyang and Jiang Ou were joking around and chatting. The dining hall was far from the entrance hall. It was barely night, far from being dead quiet yet. They didn’t catch the sound of Jiang Tian opening the doors.

Sheng Wang unintentionally lowered his voice, “Have you heard about the two hooligans getting arrested?
Jiang Tian raised his phone, “Gao Tianyang has been giving me a live report.”

The loudspeaker truly lived up to his name,
“He told me too,” Sheng Wang stared at his pupils that turned into a light colour from the lamp at the door reflecting into it, “were you the one who found them?”
Jiang Tian half squatted to switch into slippers, “What do you mean if I found them?”
“The two idiots who sabotaged me,” Sheng Wang said, “were you the one who found them?”
Jiang Tian’s gaze tilted up before it lowered again to continue untying his shoes. “Where would I find the time.”

“You didn’t go to the BBQ shop?” Sheng Wang asked again.
“No.” Jiang Tian was clear cut in his answers, “Just came out from the com lab.”
Sheng Wang said an ‘oh’, and silently zoomed in on a picture. He bent over, propping himself against his knees, and presented the phone screen directly in front of Jiang Tian, asking, “Zhao Xi sent Gao Tianyang the pictures, and Gao Tianyang sent them to me too. I think that this pair of shoes is quite cool, won’t you take a look?”

The moment Jiang Tian looked, he couldn’t untie his shoelaces anymore.
He let go of the shoelaces, looked aside and sighed with much speechlessness. He then straightened up, and faced Sheng Wang with his eyes heavy, generally having the air of ‘as long as I don’t want to talk not even the whole world can make me talk’.
Sheng Wang suddenly wanted to laugh very much.

His first impression towards Jiang Tian was B-king, later on it was cold and aloof and disliked talking. Now, he felt that though he was cool he was really a little amusing.

Sheng Wang stifled his laughter as he stood off against him for several seconds. After shooting a glance at the dining hall, he straightened up, hooked his arm around Jiang Tian’s neck and dragged him outside.
“Tell me again, was it you who found them?” Once they’re out, Sheng Wang’s voice wasn’t as soft as before.
Jiang Tian was a little taller than him, when he was hooked like this he could only slightly bend over and bow his head. His eyes were looking down, and saw Sheng Wang pointing at him, laughter evident in the eyes that were crescent with a smile.

“Let go first.” Jiang Tian was stiff.
“No way.” Sheng Wang’s was super gutsy, as if he was certain that the other person wouldn’t get pissed off, “Are you spilling or nah? If you’re not we’re just going to wait this out to death right here.”
“……”

Jiang Tian was all headaches, after a long while later he awkwardly tossed out a line, “Xi Le caught the footage, the friend that Zhao Xi is running the BBQ shop with happens to know a lot of people, I just sent the footage while I’m at it.”
“I just knew it.” Sheng Wang looked like he had all his questions answered.

Jiang Tian was thrown off. He actually didn’t quite understand why Sheng Wang was so certain that he “knew it”, after all many people who were supposed to be closer to him would rarely say to him “I just knew it”.

“I should change your personal remark.” Sheng Wang finally released him, he waved as he said, “To do good deeds anonymously, I should change your personal remark to Living Lei Feng of the Present Era.”

Jiang Tian stretched around while holding his hand to his neck, and coldly said, “You dare.”

“What wouldn’t I dare, let’s leave and go have dinner.” As Sheng Wang spoke he dug out his phone, and started typing as he ducked inside the house.
Jiang Tian followed behind him, and coud properly finish changing his shoes at last.
His phone suddenly vibrated twice. Jiang Tian took it out, and saw two additional new messages, all coming from the person ahead of him walking towards the dining hall.

Canned: Thanks.
Canned: Felt especially good watching them get beaten up, really.

After Jiang Tian thought for a bit, he wanted to reply: Can also check the security camera in the school corridor, can see if it was Zhai Tao who’s behind this.
But this hasn’t been done, there weren’t any results yet either. If he told too early it made him seem like he was asking for recognition or something. Jiang Tian swept a glance at the entire line and felt a little childish, he pressed backspace and cleared the input box.

Although the WeChat messages in the chat were solely from Sheng Wang for the day, Jiang Tian treasured his words like gold as per normal, Sheng Wang still felt a change.
He almost could understand some things from that cold face of Jiang Tian’s. Just like he left quite a few eyes in the bushes in a game, and suddenly opened Jiang Tian POV.

TO BE CONTINUED.