A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 041 – Honour

He Shot a Grin at Yang Jing. “Jing-jie, Are You Still Settling Scores With Us?”

“What do you mean what did I just call you?” Sheng Wang played dumb. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to answer on purpose, it was just the “My Ge” that came out so smoothly towards other people, he couldn’t bring himself to say it towards Jiang Tian no matter what.
Probably out of the inexplicable competitive spirit of boys, Sheng Wang thought.

Jiang Tian was still looking at him with his brows half-raised.
Sheng Wang wanted to standoff against him, but not even half a second passed before he conceded. He removed his right hand from Jiang Tian’s fingers. “I called you didi.”

Pure boy Qiu Wenbin giggled as he witnessed their conversation. Sheng Wang, who was on the losing end, finally became the general who was gaining the upper hand at last. He lifted his chin, pleased with himself, and said, “Ok, no more playing around, let’s study.”
He squeezed the joints of his right hand as though he was messing around; he lowered his head, and started focusing on studying.

Out of his peripheral vision, Jiang Tian finally looked away and stuffed in his earpiece after a beat. The water-based pen soundlessly spun between his fingers. Occasionally, it would stop, and scritch-scratched against the notebook.
Qiu Wenbin, who sat opposite him, started to figure out the correction collection with a frown on his face. He took out a pair of scissors from his pencil case, and didn’t manage to bring himself to start cutting.

The homeroom teacher of Class 11 was old fashioned, there was no such thing as turning a blind eye. No phones in the classroom, and they meant it. Qiu Wenbin was a good student who followed the rules, and under the oppression of his homeroom teacher, he had developed the good habit of not playing on his phone. He was better than 90% of the students in this regard, but he had gone slightly overboard with it.

After struggling by himself for so long, he finally recalled that the phone is a tool too. He peered at the two top students in embarrassment before realising that those two had not even looked up at any point, too engrossed in what they were doing. Therefore, he hurriedly dug out his phone and searched for a highly efficient method towards compiling a corrections collection. He downloaded a camera scanner app for the time being, and started taking pictures of the questions he made a mistake on.

This method was indeed much less troublesome than copying over. There was a self-service printer in the residential block, all he needed to do was to print out the questions and redo them on a regular basis.
The questions that he used to spend an entire night on copying, he only took five minutes to back them up today.

God knows how long it has been since he felt the satisfaction of finishing a task ahead of time; this was the first time he felt exhilaration when it came to the matter of studying ever since he entered Fuzhong.

Qiu Wenbin wanted to express his gratitude towards Sheng Wang for reminding him, but he also felt a little awkward about it.
He quickly glanced at the other person a few times. Just as he was about to open his mouth, he saw the bigshot suddenly relaxing his fingers, grabbing the pen that had been lying idly for twenty years now, and started writing on the notebook.

Qiu Wenbin was befuddled for several moments when he finally remembered: Oh yeah! Wasn’t the bigshot practising his handwriting? Then what exactly was he concentrating on for so long? The copybook?
A question mark gradually rose over Qiu Wenbin’s head.
He suspected that the bigshot zoned out, but he had no proof, and neither did he dare to ask him.

Shi Yu came out from the bathroom. His hair was only slightly longer than a buzzcut, a few rough wipes with a towel and it would already be 70-80% dry. As he cleaned the water out from his ears, he said to the others, “I’m done, who’s next?”
Sheng Wang replied with an “Mn”. After he finished writing two characters he then looked up to ask him, “What time is lights out in Fuzhong?”
“11.20pm, I think,” Shi Yu said.
“Oh, I’m not rushing then.” Sheng Wang was done with today’s workload. He kept the copybook, and yet he also dug out another book.

Shi Yu sat down by the bed; he replied a few messages, and played a round of games. He stood up when he felt that his hair was all dry. He was spurred on by tonight, and he wanted to feel what it was like to be diligent for once after so long.

But he had already completed the papers given out in the day by rushing them before night self-study. Despite how his language homework was copied, his English was also half-copied, was he seriously going to take them out and redo them all over again?
He had been doing the bare minimum for such a long time now, that other than these, he genuinely couldn’t figure out he could at that moment.

Shi Yu went one round around the room, stopped by Jiang Tian and tapped him. “Tian-ge.”
Jiang Tian’s brow lightly scrunched up for a moment, and removed an earpiece. He disliked the feeling of having his train of thoughts being interrupted by people; his expression, which wasn’t warm in the first place, became more and more colder.

Shi Yu was a little sheepish, but he still asked, “What’s that that you’re reading?”
Jiang Tian lifted up the cover of the book, indicating that he take a look himself.

“Oh, this one,” Shi Yu straightened up, “our physics teacher recommended this one too, saying that your class uses this one for competition preparation. Is it good? If it’s good I’ll go buy one too.”
Jiang Tian: “It’s so-so.”
Shi Yu: “……”

They could feel him freezing to death from a table away.
As Sheng Wang said internally “I’m such an angel”, he added on in the midst of studying, “That book really is so-so, Old He picked like 10+ questions from it, and we’ll be switching over to a new book after we’re done with those.”

“This book is already useless after only 10+ questions?” Shi Yu was stunned, “What else do you guys use then?”
“Quite a lot, actually. But we only pick a bit from every book.” Sheng Wang asked, “Do you want to do it? The books are all in the cabinet there, you can take down the names if you want.”

Shi Yu waved his hands. “I’m not the type to work hard, I’m just asking.”
Sheng Wang only smiled.

He initially wanted to say that the competition preparation classes in Class A were open to everyone; recently, more and more people from Class B had been gatecrashing the lesson. If you really wanted to participate in the Olympiads you could come too.
However, judging from Shi Yu’s reaction, he felt that there was no need to mention that.

Shi Yu was standing next to Jiang Tian at the start. As he chatted, he had shifted all the way to behind Sheng Wang.
“What’s this that you’re doing? English?” Shi Yu was much more casual when conversing with him; he probably felt that he had a good temperament and his grades weren’t so good to the point of being intimidating.

Sheng Wang: “Yup.”
He too was also starting to get impatient. As he swept through the questions, he replied perfunctorily, “Jing-jie said the Olympiad results will be out soon, I’m studying first.”
“Olympiad?” Shi Yu was briefly stumped before he realised. “Ohohoh, you’re talking about the English Olympiad from before”

“Mn.”

“Uhh He Shi from my class went too,” Shi Yu spoke while waving his phone, “I was just chatting with her, I was like why was she so nervous.”
Sheng Wang’s expression was akin to having amnesia. He remembered that other than Qi Jiahao and Li Yu, there were two girls from other classes who participated. However, as to who’s who, he had never figured out clearly.

“The competition is already over, what are you still studying for?” Shi Yu was even more mystified.
Sheng Wang replied mindlessly, “Maybe there’ll be a semifinal.”

Semifinal?
In the midst of bafflement, Shi Yu’s phone vibrated once again. He Shi replied to the previous teasing message he sent; she didn’t appear to be in high spirits.
Shi Yu took the chance to ask: that English Olympiad of yours still has a semifinal?
This time round, He Shi was much quicker to respond: Yeah, why are you asking this?

Shi Yu eyed the questions Sheng Wang was doing again, and typed: do u need some preparations or sth? I’ve just seen a pretty decent competition book, want it?
He Shi: ……
He Shi sent a meme: [You’re fucking kidding me?]

Shi Yu: who’s fucking kidding you
Shi Yu: really, do you want it?
He Shi: How about you go check the conditions for entering the semifinals?
Shi Yu: too lazy to, what are they?
He Shi: Top 40 in the province
He Shi: You know what does it mean to be top 40 in the province?
He Shi: It means nothing you’ll understand
Shi Yu: ……

Shi Yu did not expect ridicule from simply asking a question; even though this was the girl he liked, he was also a little put on the spot.
His thumbs slammed as he typed: I’m just asking, if not forget it
He Shi: Your questions bring nothing but heartache……

Seeing that she sent a crying emoji, Shi Yu softened up again. He replied: I didn’t mean to do that, I saw Sheng Wang preparing, and I wanted to help you out with a set too.
He Shi: Sheng Wang is preparing for semifinals???
He Shi: ……
He Shi: He came in from other province, he probably didn’t exactly understand the system here
She sent quite a few emojis that said she didn’t know if she should laugh or cry.

Shi Yu pondered: is top 40 really that difficult?
He Shi: Duh
He Shi: Haven’t you discovered that our school silently acknowledged that there wouldn’t be a semifinal? Did you see anyone else preparing for that?
Shi Yu: nope
He Shi: Our school hasn’t seen anyone entering the top 40 in years, English is Yizhong’s homeground.
He Shi: If only I went to Yizhong instead…I’m no good at Fuzhong’s STEM niche

Afterwards, no matter what she said, Shi Yu was inattentive in his replies.
As he read the message, he was hesitating if he should remind Sheng Wang. After all, it wouldn’t feel good to prepare for nothing.

Sheng Wang certainly didn’t know what he was talking about, he could only hear how his phone was vibrating non-stop, while Shi Yu was scratching his head like a black monkey.

“Do you want to say something?” Sheng Wang couldn’t help it.
“Ah,” Shi Yu gave a hoarse laugh. He pointed at his phone. “No, I was just chatting with He Shi. I wanted to buy her an Olympiad assessment book, she said she definitely wouldn’t be entering semifinals and therefore has no use for it. Is the semifinals really hard to get in?”
Shi Yu was like a long legged heron, he started testing the waters with his legs. He was much more tactful than Jiang Tian, he even knew to create a natural lead-in.

Sheng Wang was rather calm on the contrary. “A little, Jing-jie said top 40 in the province is all it takes.”
Shi Yu: “……you knew?”
Sheng Wang: “?”

“Nothing,” Shi Yu pointed at the book, “do continue.”
After he spoke his thumbs flew as he typed in WeChat: Sheng Wang knew the conditions for semifinals
He Shi: Huh?
Shi Yu: he probably thought that he could create Fuzhong history
Shi Yu: confident
Shi Yu: badass
Shi Yu: can’t wait to see it
He Shi: ……

Shi Yu didn’t actually dislike Sheng Wang, neither was he targeting Sheng Wang on purpose. It was just that he was a little unused to an overly frank personality like his.
He himself wasn’t exactly hardworking on a normal basis, every time there was an exam or a competition he would modestly say, “I’m screwed, I didn’t really prepare, I’m just here to pad the results.”
This type of person had seen too many people similar to him, upon seeing someone who seriously said “I think I’ll be fine”, one would think that the other was kind of too full of themself. It was likely the mindset from teenage rebellion stirring trouble or something, he wanted to see the madman mess up.

At the beginning, they all viewed Jiang Tian like that too. However, Jiang Tian was too stable and not once did he ever mess up, he even brought them to their knees. His usual gaming, drinking, and sports bros called Jiang Tian “cheat mode” behind his back.

Never would he ever think that the heavens had sent a Sheng Wang.
According to the rules of probability, he would definitely mess up this time, Shi Yu thought.There was no way that cheat modes come in buy one get one free!

Three days after this conversation, the results for the English Olympiad came out.

Yang Jing was in a black skirt with a golden rim as she walked into the classroom. Even as she opened the doors, it was followed by a gust of wind. She slapped the papers she was about to go through on the table, and propped herself against the edge of the table with only one palm. She looked down on the entire class from above.
Her face remained stony, the students below started panicking.

Gao Tianyang leaned backwards with his back kept ramrod straight, whispering to Sheng Wang, “Why does Jing-jie’s face look like someone died? The Olympiad got screwed up?”
Sheng Wang’s lips nearly didn’t move at all, the words came out more like a hum. “I don’t know, the group of teachers have a tight mouth. Until today, I haven’t heard a single thing either.”
Gao Tianyang: “Then did Jing-jie give you and Tian-ge any orders? You two have the most potential to get a prize, right?”
Sheng Wang thought a bit, and said, “She did.”
Gao Tianyang: “What was it?”
Sheng Wang said, “The two of us handed in ahead of time, she declared last time to tell us to watch out, she’ll settle scores with us when the results are out.”
Gao Tianyang: “……”

Yang Jing pursed her lips, her already horizontal lips even sunk a little.
Just as the atmosphere in Class A was about to turn solid, this madame finally deigned to open her golden mouth. “The outcome of the Olympiad is out, let me just talk about it for a bit.”

Her tone was breezy, the students didn’t dare to breathe either.
Yang Jing stuck out a slender pointer finger, saying, “I have two certificates in total with me, one second prize, one first prize.”

Most of the students heaved a sigh of relief, internally saying, a prize is all we need, if not Jing-jie will take everyone down with her.
Gao Tianyang went all the way to directly slumping over, he shot a thumbs up behind him, saying, “Good sign, now all we need is to see who’s the second and who’s the first prize here. To be honest, there’s not much of a difference here, a prize is good enough.”

Sheng Wang raised an eyebrow, and his hand quietly snuck into his bag.
Last time round, Sheng Mingyang went to the administration office. He wasn’t sure what kind of scolding Big Mouth Xu went through, either way he returned his phone the next day, and warned: don’t let him catch him for a second time.

Therefore, Sheng Wang became much more well-behaved—he changed all notifications to silent in all propriety; the screen would light up, but it wouldn’t vibrate. He even forced Jiang Tian to change too.

He jabbed into Jiang Tian’s WeChat, and speedily typed: wanna bet?
Jiang Tian: what?
Sticker: who’s first who’s second
Jiang Tian: stake
Stickers: I want skewers!
Jiang Tian: ok

Sticker: do you want to guess what prize you’ll get?
Jiang Tian: not the second for sure
Sticker: ……
Sticker: what a coincidence, I too also don’t think I’ll get the second prize

Just as he was one-sidedly fighting Jiang Tian with memes, Yang Jing spoke again.

“First, let us congratulate the rep.” Yang Jing said, “Qi Jiahao has performed within expectations, and has gotten a second prize.”
The entire class was momentarily quiet, before a few sparse claps came in from here and there. A sizable portion of the class all turned to look at the back row, including Gao Tianyang.
“The heck’s happening?!” Gao Tianyang mouthed exaggeratedly, “One of you didn’t get it???”

Sheng Wang pressed his fingers, indicating him to chill out a little.
The moment Gao Tianyang turned back, he sent a new message to Jiang Tian: ok, now we can guess if you’re ded or I’m ded
Jiang Tian: I don’t think I’m ded.

Sheng Wang one-sidedly picked a fight via memes again.

The sparse applause stopped, Yang Jing continued, “Then let us also congratulate our class monitor, student Li Yu. The class monitor gave me a pleasant surprise this time round, but I wouldn’t call this a performance out of the ordinary. You just get nervous too easily, as long as you plan your time well and relax, you deserve good grades. See, you surpassed the rep this time. You, have gotten a first prize.”

Li Yu was cute and had a nice personality, her classmates all quite liked her too. Normally, there would already be table slamming and cheers, but there was none today. Even Li Yu herself didn’t manage to feel excited.
Because everyone all turned to look at Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian in that instant.

Gao Tianyang’s eyeballs were nearly falling out of his sockets. “No way, you two……”

Sheng Wang felt a little wronged, but was also rather surprised at the same time. In his honest opinion, he thought he did pretty well, otherwise he wouldn’t hand in ahead of time. As for Jiang Tian…he was a little conceited when it came to exams, but he definitely wasn’t the type to mess around; he ought to have done well too.
It was at this time that Yang Jing opened her mouth again. “I’ve just said, I only have two certificates with me. One first prize, one second prize. I’ve finished announcing which prize goes to who. But there are four people who participated in our class, so what’s going on when the remaining two didn’t get their certificates?”

Yeah!
40+ pairs of eyes were all on her, waiting for her to continue.

Yang Jing took a dramatic pause, and said, “That’s because they will need to participate in the next round of exams.”
The entire class was completely thrown off, and next it all dawned upon them like a comet, the buzz of discussion was like boiling water entering hot oil, and it all exploded.

“Yes, the top 40 in the province will be participating in a training camp, and after the training camp, will be the semifinals. If you can still get a placing, it will be on the national level. If not, it will be the first prize in the province instead.” Yang Jing pointed at Jiang Tian, “You, 11th place in the province.”

She also pointed at Sheng Wang, “You, 5th place in the province. You two only have a difference of two marks, the brats in the middle were all from Yizhong. But, that’s okay—”

Yang Jing finally couldn’t keep it up anymore, she cracked into a grin, and lifted her chin as she said, “Each of you already earned a voucher for advance admission. It’s the first time that our school has two top 40 at once from the same batch, you literally made history. Therefore, you definitely have a spot on the wall of honour!”

She raised her pitch, and smiled as she asked, “Is our class badass?”
“BAD—ASS!!!”

The entire block could hear Class A’s ghostly howls, Class B even felt as though their ceiling was about to collapse.

The other classes all received a scare, and as they all knew from their teachers of this, the entire block reached boiling point.
Gao Tianyang grabbed Sheng Wang’s shoulders and shook him back and forth; he was jubilant.
Sheng Wang pushed through his dizziness with an iron will and sent his deskmate from the back last two messages—

Sticker: we’re equals
Stickers: therefore, two meals of skewers!

After he sent that, he shot a grin at Yang Jing. “Jing-jie, are you still settling scores with us?”
Yang Jing scolded with a laugh, “To hell with settling! Don’t pretend that you aren’t happy!”

TO BE CONTINUED.