A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 045 – Stubborn Donkey

“Between the Wheelchair and Being Carried on the Back, I Choose to Be Carried.”

Ji Huanyu didn’t leave just simply because of the cold treatment.
He descended from the stairs, and followed behind Jiang Tian and Sheng Wang. Occasionally, he called Jiang Tian’s name a few more times, carrying the resigned tone of “I don’t know what to do with you”.
This tone made him gain the upper hand. In the ears of ignorant passerbys, it was like a cultured and refined father who was trying to coax his temperamental son.
Sheng Wang felt more irritated the more he listened to it.

Behind the grandstand was the script collection area for the broadcast, the roll-call area as well as the assistance area. Students and teachers milled around the area, and curious looks came from the surroundings again and again. Yet, they were only brief in lieu of Jiang Tian’s icy expression.

“The 8 x 200 event, right?” The teacher at the roll-call waved at them from afar.
Everyone knew the people of the hour. The teacher didn’t ask any further questions, and went straight to taking out a form, pointing to an empty spot and saying, “There’s only the two of you left in your class who haven’t registered, please sign your name here.”

Jiang Tian received the pen, and wrote his name expressionlessly.
Sheng Wang lightly nudged him. “Help me sign too, the artistry in my handwriting is too much, I’m afraid the teacher couldn’t cope.”
The way he spoke was too full of himself, the teacher hmphed in annoyance.

Jiang Tian’s motion of settling the pen down stopped for a moment, and his expression relaxed in that instant. As he signed Sheng Wang’s name, he said, “Didn’t you practise.”
Thank goodness, thank goodness. He wasn’t pissed off to the point of not speaking.
Sheng Wang internally heaved a sigh of relief, but his mouth continued anyways, “I mean, I did practise, but I gotta hide my true powers. I plan to give Jing-jie a scare during midterms.”

The two of them chatted as if there was nobody else around, Ji Huanyu was waiting approximately 2 steps away. The roll-call teacher looked up, and exchanged civilities. “Here as a parent to watch your kid?”
Ji Huanyu nodded, remorse and guilt hidden in his light smile. “It’s rare that I have the chance to look.”
The teacher then politely expressed that hey, everyone gets busy, it’s understandable. It was as though all and any problems were so easily swept aside with this casual line.

The upturned curve of Sheng Wang’s lips instantly disappeared; he pursed his lips and shot a glance at Ji Huanyu.
By the time he turned back, Jiang Tian’s face chilled once more.

Sheng Wang looked at the teacher sourly, internally saying, I just freaking cheered him up and you screwed it up for me.
Jiang Tian settled the pen down, straightened up and asked, “You’ve been stalking us for half a day now, spill it.”

Ji Huanyu was still smiling; one couldn’t find any trace of awkwardness or unease in his smile. He was excellent at keeping up appearances, but Jiang Tian knew that he already was starting to regret following them over.
He was vain and was thin-skinned. He always had the need to appear charming and appropriate in front of other people, he disliked to lose control in any case.

The teacher at the roll-call felt a little awkward, but someone had to man this area. He couldn’t leave, but he couldn’t exactly stay either. He could only force a smile at the three of them.
Ji Huanyu pointed at the empty spot in the distance. “The teacher still has to attend to other matters, let’s go there?”
“Out of the way,” Jiang Tian replied.
Ji Huanyu sighed, and called him yet again. “Xiao-Tian.”
Jiang Tian still remained ice cold, and was completely unmoved.

The roll-call teacher was watching with increasing stress, and Ji Huanyu finally gave up. Even up till this point, he still kept up the appearance of polite and refined. He smiled and said, “Sure, let’s not talk about any unhappy things today. I happened to hear that there’s a sports carnival at Fuzhong today, and planned to take a look, that’s all.”
“Then just watch it by yourself.”
After Jiang Tian spoke, he tugged at Sheng Wang, and the two of them entered the sports ground without looking back.

Midway through, Sheng Wang turned back to take a look, and discovered Ji Huanyu seriously went up to the grandstand. He found a seat by the edge of the parents’ zone and sat down. He greeted the person next to him and started watching the competitions quietly.

This afternoon ought to be the highlight of the sports carnival, most of the competition on the tracks was concentrated here. The events where Class A had a chance to score were included within too.
Gao Tianyang surpassed the second place by an entire round for the 1500m event, and a round and a half for the 3000m event. Chilli got 2nd place for both the 200m and 400m event. Li Yu and Zhao Qiaona performed better than usual at the three-legged race, earning them 3rd place. Other people more or less earned a few positions too.

Class A students were basically living in heaven for this half-day. They watched how their accumulated points jump higher and higher, and suddenly they were 3rd in the level. They were only 10 points away from the second place, Class 5, and only 18 points from the first place, Class 7.
Everyone’s last hopes rested on Jiang Tian and Sheng Wang. The former was participating in high jump right now, the latter in hurdles.

The high jump was at the southeast corner of the sports ground. Due to how there was a need to run-up, the site was thoroughly cleared. People could only wait by the grass patch 10m away. Most of the people in Class A disappeared from the grandstand, and nearly everyone crowded over.
The site manager had no other choice but to bring over a few white metal barriers, forming a straight line. A huge group of people stood beyond the barrier.

Song Sirui eyed the surroundings and asked, “Since when did our class have so many girls?”
Gao Tianyang let out an “Ay” in a sigh, and said, “Dream on, if we really have this many I will die of happiness here and now.”
A group of girls from the other classes giggled, saying to him, “We do want to enter, but your Class A don’t want us.”
Gao Tianyang threw his arm around Sheng Wang’s shoulders, asking, “Then, are you here to watch my Tian-ge or my Sheng-ge?”
The girls all nudged and pushed each other as they giggled, but refused to answer too.

The crowd was bustling and lively, but Sheng Wang was completely out of it; Jiang Tian no longer smiled for the whole afternoon.

As the horizontal bar increased in height, Jiang Tian ran up to the bar again and again. He leapt as he turned around; he had a tall height and long legs, the moment he went across was honestly attention grabbing.
The crowd always held their breath whenever he started to run, and burst out into cheers the moment he landed, becoming more and more keyed up than before.
The more heated the surroundings were, the colder he appeared by contrast.

The group of girls at the side seemed to even eat this exact type up well, a girl whispered to her pal, “I can’t believe he actually sweats, I feel cold just from looking at him.”
Sheng Wang caught the main gist of it, and didn’t know if he should laugh or cry.

The sound of a whistle pierced through from the near distance, the broadcast at the sports ground started to summon the participants for hurdles for roll-call. Sheng Wang shot a glance over there: boys from all over the place walked to the back of the grandstand with their number bibs.
The girl at the side suddenly cried out in surprise. Sheng Wang turned around, and saw that Jiang Tian didn’t go back to the starting point after going across a bar. Rather, he came towards the barrier.

Gao Tianyang asked, “Tian-ge! Tired?”
Jiang Tian stood by the barrier, and took a bottle from Sheng Wang. “I’m fine.”
Class 3 and Class 9 were pests; nobody was disqualified yet after going through three heights with him. Sweat had already gathered at his forehead and next to his temples. The beads of sweat rolled down from his lower jaw to his neck; when his head was lifted as he drank water, even his Adam’s apple was dripping wet.

Sheng Wang’s eyes quickly narrowed as he squeezed the bottle cap, and abruptly tore himself away from the sight.
“Are hurdles about to begin soon?” Jiang Tian suddenly asked.
“Hm?” Sheng Wang briefly stopped; he didn’t react on time.

Jiang Tian passed the half-drank bottle back to him, lifted his chin at the broadcast area and said, “I heard that roll-call is starting.”
“Oh, yeah.” Sheng Wang put the cap back on, saying, “I’m going over now.”
Jiang Tian nodded. “All the best.”

The white wooden hurdles were already placed on the tracks. A portion of the spectators also followed Sheng Wang to the tracks, but the majority still remained by the southeast corner; Sheng Wang’s finishing line was there too.

As he warmed up, he could see from this distance that the high jump increased in height once more. The boy from Class 9 couldn’t succeed after three tries, and had already left the competition venue. The one from Class 3 was still on his second try.

Sheng Wang lifted his leg, and rolled up his sleeves next. He leaned downwards.
The moment the starting pistol was fired, the boy from Class 3 couldn’t make it pass after three tries too, and was also disqualified.

Sheng Wang grinned, and leapt over the second hurdle.

It’s usually difficult to create a giant gap for 100m races in the school sports carnivals, especially for the men’s events. There was only a mere difference between first and second place. However, hurdles was different. Some people were used to it, some people couldn’t. The difference was clear in a moment.

After three hurdles, Sheng Wang had arrived at the first segment. The segment consisted of only two people: him, and the sports rep from Class B.
Prior to this, the sports rep had practised on the tracks for an entire week. He had way more practice than Sheng Wang, and he was smooth in his leaps too; never did he make a mistake.

Perhaps it was the way Sheng Wang was too stunning in his performance in the mixed relay race, he felt overwhelming pressure all of a sudden. When it came to the point of the formal event itself, he ended up fumbling in his leaps, and knocked over quite a few wooden hurdles.

At the last hurdle, a wave of screams suddenly burst from the corner of the sports ground nearby. Gao Tianyang’s hoarse shouts travelled particularly well. “TIAN-GE, YOU’RE BADASS—”

He won?
Sheng Wang shot a glance at that corner subconsciously, and could only see how the crowd gathered around there, the girls were animated.

As evidence shows, karma easily comes for people who don’t concentrate on what they are supposed to be doing. He took less than a second to zone out, the sports rep from Class B was spooked by the cheer, and fell down to the ground along with the hurdle. He fell face-down, dog-eating-mud style onto Sheng Wang’s track.

Sheng Wang wanted to avoid him on instinct, however, his legs were already in thin air.
He only had time to internally swear, “fuck”, and then he was back on the ground.
With a loud “crack” in his left ankle, he knelt down straight away.

In that instant, Sheng Wang was stupefied from the pain.
There were instantly cries of alarm from the grass patch, someone was panicking, someone was calling his name. He couldn’t hear them clearly; all he knew was the buzzing in his ears, and the clamour outside of it.

Soon, the tinnitus that came from the pain faded away like the tide. He opened his eyes with his hands clutching his ankles, only to hear that beast from Class B clutching his butt, going “OWOWOW”. This scene seemed pretty ridiculous to him—the first and second place both fell into a mess, how embarrassing.
Sheng Wang frowned, but he couldn’t help to start laughing too.

“You’re laughing?!” A voice descended on him.
Sheng Wang looked up, only to see Jiang Tian to have come over from the high-jump area at some unknown time, and squatted down right in front of him.

“Don’t squat anymore, hurry and pull me up—” Sheng Wang hooked onto him all at once, and stood up with one leg using him.
Jiang Tian didn’t know what sort of no good Sheng Wang was up to. His brows were knitted as he glared at him. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“There’s still a few metres left, I’ll continue after I hop over!” Sheng Wang let go, curled his left leg up and hopped forward.
“You!”

He didn’t even need to look; from this word alone he could already tell that Jiang Tian wanted to hoist him up and whack him.

The people in other classes were initially quite far behind them, and they all stopped for a bit by this abrupt twist in events. By the time they reacted and kept running, they were only delayed by a little bit.
“Shit!” As Sheng Wang cursed through the pain, he watched the person from Class 9 shoot pass him, becoming the first to break through the finishing line.

When he jumped, he gave off the vibe of being both light and valiant. Even if he was performing “golden rooster on a leg”, the distance in his jumps were larger than other people’s. Soon enough, he was arriving at the finishing line.

The people at the grandstand thought that he would be the last place for sure; they never saw any of this coming, not in a million years, and instantly started cheering for him. The cheers from Class A were thunderous.
The person from Class 2 brushed past him, and arrived first.

Sheng Wang made another jump, and finally caught up. The white stripe on the ground streaked past the bottom of his foot, and from then on the dust had settled. The next second, he saw Jiang Tian entering from the side of the venue, and supporting him right on the dot.

“Fuck, that was so painful!” Sheng Wang draped his entire body weight over him with zero restrain.
The sports rep from Class B initially planned to just lie down there and give up, but was provoked by him enough to get up again and stumbled his way across the finishing line. He seriously made it to 6th place, gaining 1 point.

“You’re so goddamn badass!” He sat his ass down on the track, yelling at Sheng Wang as he dealt with his scraped knee.
“You’re goddamn not bad too!” Sheng Wang copied his tone and heartily laughed back. The moment he turned back after that reply, he was met with Jiang Tian’s expression that bore resemblance to a corpse in a coffin.
“……”

Sheng Wang’s smile immediately died down, and he acted obedient again. He even curled his left leg, saying, “Ow ow ow.”
“Ow you ass.” Jiang Tian said, with a stony face, “Let me take a look.”

As he spoke, he already squatted down. Sheng Wang rested three fingers against his shoulders for balance.
“Can you move?” Jiang Tian asked.
Sheng Wang tried to move using his left ankle. “It’s fine. It hurts, but not to the point that—”

As he spoke, he jammed up halfway through; Jiang Tian’s fingers light pressed on his ankle joint twice.
“What are you hiding for,” Jiang Tian looked up, asking, “it hurts now?”
Sheng Wang felt as though the entire school was watching his foot, a pale red flush started to appear on his neck. “I’m fine, you get up first. We’ll continue when we’re back at the grandstand.”

“What do you mean grandstand!” Gao Tianyang rushed over with He Jin as well as a group of classmates.
“Straight to the sickbay you go,” He Jin’s expression was stern as she said, “Just you try to act tough next time!”

“No, eh wait hold on, don’t pull my hand.” Sheng Wang felt an entire chain of people wanting to support him, and instantly leaned closer to Jiang Tian while feeling particularly mixed feelings. “Him supporting me over is good enough, you all still have events after this, no need to join in the crowd here.”

A group of people squeezed and shoved their way onto Road #3. Sheng Wang had finally convinced most people. They gave concerned advice for a long while, and finally dispersed back to the sports ground.
Jiang Tian took a look at the distance of Road #3. “I’ll carry you on the back.”
Sheng Wang hurriedly waved, “No need, it’s embarrassing enough to go lame, I don’t want to be spectated by passersby all the way too.”

Gao Tianyang also said, “We can take turns to carry you, it doesn’t take much energy.”
Sheng Wang immediately let go, and hopped on forward by himself. “Goodbye, I’m going on my own now.”
Gao Tianyang called, “Is your zodiac a donkey? So stubborn and for what?”
Sheng Wang: “Correct.”

Jiang Tian sped up in two steps and caught him. He turned around to say to Gao Tianyang, “I’ll bring him over, you go back first.”
Gao Tianyang wanted to say something else, but stopped. In the end, something occurred to him and he said, “Sure, you two go ahead first. I’ll bring something good and will be over soon.”
Sheng Wang hurriedly hopped forward by a few steps again.

It actually wasn’t that far from the sports ground to the sickbay. Judging by the distance alone, hopping his way there doesn’t seem nigh impossible. But, the road wasn’t completely flat; from the forked path out from Road #3, there was a winding road on a slope, going two entire rounds before they reached the sickbay.

Sheng Wang draped on Jiang Tian as he hopped the entire way there, and argued the entire way there too. All for “to carry or not to carry”.
Just as they were about to reach the top of the slope, Sheng Wang heard the sound of wheels rolling behind him.

He turned around in confusion and saw Gao Tianyang. This big bro was pushing an even bigger thingy in his hands, giddily saying, “Sheng-ge, I asked for a wheelchair for you. If you really don’t want to be carried, then sit on the wheelchair!”
Sheng Wang was dumbstruck.

“Is it a bit too ceremonious?” After being dazed for a good while, he then pushed Jiang Tian, saying, “Finefinefine, you turn around.”
Upon finishing his words, he hooped his arms around Jiang Tian’s neck, and sprawled onto his back with the momentum. “Between the wheelchair and being carried on the back, I choose to be carried.”

TO BE CONTINUED.