A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 047 – Mis-entry

“Wow, There’s So Many People Here. No Wonder It’s Called Magpie Bridge.”

The on-going construction of a new train station cable had accidentally severed the electric cables. Around evening time, Fuzhong was suddenly faced with a blackout.
The school actually had its own backup electric generator, and yet, coincidentally, it malfunctioned and was thus unable to deliver any electricity. Each level had a short meeting and decided to cancel night self-study for the day, and give them a night of break. The students were overjoyed.

The day students shot out of the school, bag in their hands. Due to the difference in their school cards, the residential students couldn’t leave, and could only go back to the dormitories to obediently wait for the electricity to come back.
The weekly test was just over, nobody was in the mood to calm down and study. After going two rounds in the dormitories and receiving a couple of calls, Shi Yu finally managed to put down his pride and asked Jiang Tian, “Tian-ge, I’ve heard that you can mimic the teachers’ signatures very well.”
Jiang Tian happened to be chatting on WeChat as he sat by his bed. Upon hearing that, he frowned. “Who said that?”

The rumour had a long history to it, Class A students more or less mentioned it at one point. It was mostly because Jiang Tian had a nice handwriting, and both his messy scrawls and proper handwriting were comparatively decent. According to the rumour, he only needed a single look at the teacher’s signature and he could copy it to a great degree.
Shi Yu didn’t know who started the rumour, he only knew he was at his mercy, therefore he had to play according to the actual circumstances. Hence, he pondered for two seconds, and answered, “Sheng Wang said so.”
Jiang Tian pursed his lips, and said an “oh”.

Shi Yu let out a sigh of relief, and felt that he was already halfway there.
Jiang Tian lowered his head to start typing again.

He appeared to be in a decent mood; at the very least, his eyebrows were relaxed, and were not as frosty. Shi Yu was a little curious about who’s on the other end of the chat, but he didn’t dare to peek.
There were so many girls who were wooing Jiang Tian in Fuzhong, that as a roommate, people would often ask him for his WeChat. Odds are, this was one of them, and finally managed to make this ice statue melt after trying all her might to hug it.

Shi Yu took out an ‘exit slip’, wanting to take advantage of Jiang Tian’s good mood to get him to copy Big Mouth Xu’s signature. However, the moment he passed it out, Jiang Tian flashed his phone screen at him.

The screen was of a WeChat chat interface, the top was the other person’s nickname, called Sticker.
Shi Yu internally said, wtf, you’re telling me you’re chatting with your freaking brother all along???
Just as he silently cursed in his head, he saw the few messages at the bottom—

Jiang Tian: You’ve told people I know how to mimic teachers’ signatures?
Sticker: no wtf
Sticker: i swear 2 god
Sticker: which creature is spreading slander about me?

What is called public sentencing? This would be it.
The rumour spreading creature knelt on the ground as he hugged the bed frame. He was miserable as he said, “Tian-ge, I’m sorry, Tian-ge, please do a kind deed and sign his name, Tian-ge, I wanna go out and play……”
“Sign it yourself,” Jiang Tian said.

Upon seeing how he had utterly failed due to a factor in the end, he went to the balcony to make a phone call with his head hung low.
Jiang Tian didn’t care. He went to the table, pulled out a chair and sat down. He whisked out a book from the stack of question collections, and asked Qiu Wenbin, who sat opposite him, “Can you lend me your portable lamp?”
Qiu Wenbin nodded, “Please, go ahead.”
Jiang Tian turned on the light, and started writing away after opening up a notebook.

Qiu Wenbin was already lying down on his bed; he did not want to do anything at all tonight, and the blackout was a marvelous excuse. It was totally understandable that he took the chance to have the day off.
But the first of the level was furiously working away, on what basis did he have to slack off? Qiu Wenbin instantly felt as though he was sleeping on a bed made of iron nails. He tossed and turned a few times before he sat upright as if he completely gave up.

It was when he sat opposite of Jiang Tian then he realised that this #1 in the level bigshot wasn’t studying; he flipped through several pages at once, his gaze would hurriedly sweep across, and then note down the page and question number.

“Deity, what are you doing?” Qiu Wenbin couldn’t help but ask.
“Compiling.” Jiang Tian said.
“Compiling what?”
“Interesting questions.”

Qiu Wenbin glanced at the question he marked down, and internally said, us mortals can truly never understand the joy of top students, as long as You’re happy I guess.

Of course, Jiang Tian wasn’t doing this for fun.
Before yesterday’s papers, He Jin said that this weekly test was the last warm-up; midterms would be here soon, and Class A’s “screw off style streaming” might be changing. In order to increase the sense of urgency, the streaming style will become much more exciting. It’s no longer just the matter of being the last three in class.

The exact regulations weren’t out yet, but Jiang Tian felt that Sheng Wang was in no way safe. Despite his improvement of 200 places in the recent two months to the point that even the teachers have nothing but admiration, his current ranking was 79. He’s still at risk.

Gao Tianyang and the rest joked that Sheng Wang was running on hacks, but it takes time for hacks to level up too; one cannot simply max out their level in a day. Jiang Tian wanted to cut down the time it took for him to level up.
Furthermore……
Someone had been babbling non-stop in his WeChat for the whole day, saying that he’s so bored that he’s rotting away.
Jiang Tian wanted to compile a set of level up questions for him to spend his time on; they were all selected from the questions he recently did, and extracted the finest from the crude.

Shi Yu made two more phone calls, and left the dorm with a face that said he’s throwing caution to the wind. Qiu Wenbin was fighting the question to his death while biting the pen opposite him. Jiang Tian was done with the first book and was just about to select the second before his phone screen quietly lit up a few times.

He took his phone and sure enough, it was still the one who’s rotting away.
Sticker: Jiang Tian
Sticker: Jiang Tian
Sticker: Jiang Tian
Jiang Tian: ……
Jiang Tian: here

He felt that Sheng Wang’s tone was a little exuberant for some mysterious reason.

Sticker: is the electricity back yet
Jiang Tian: not yet
Sticker: oh yeah, didn’t you say you have something on tonight
Jiang Tian: yeah
Sticker: what is it?

Jiang Tian glanced at the book by his hand. He casually mentioned it yesterday, and this was what exactly he was referring to: to help Sheng Wang compile top questions. However, his bad habit of not easily admitting to things was deep-rooted; there was no way for him to be straightforward about it. It made him seem pretentious, and even like he’s trying to ask for credit.

Before he answered, another line popped up in the chat—
Sticker: do you have to do it out of school
Jiang Tian hadn’t thought of an excuse, so he played along: yeah, to Beyond Parasol Trees

Everyday, he would go to Old Man Ding’s with Sheng Wang for food. They had communicated this with Big Mouth Xu before, and the other person left a long-term exit slip at the school security at the entrance so that he wouldn’t have to bother him for his signature everyday. They only needed to ensure that they were back in their dorms before the teachers conducted the room checks.

Sticker: then you go do your thing, Imma eat now
After he said that, he quieted down.

The screen had not lit up for a while now, Jiang Tian felt a little unused to it. As he picked out the questions, he would occasionally glance at his phone. Picked a few more questions, and yet another glance. It’s been nearly half an hour, and still no movement on Sheng Wang’s end.

Nothing was happening around him, and there was nothing to talk about. Jiang Tian’s gaze landed on an abnormally troublesome question, and just as he was thinking whether he should take a picture and send it to him as bait, the other person finally sent him a message.

Sticker: i’m done eating, are you still busy?
Jiang Tian: done
Sticker: so fast???
Jiang Tian: why?
Sticker: nothing, you’re back in school already?

Jiang Tian shortly deliberated between “yeah” and “not yet”, and picked the one with more words.
After he sent that, he also added on: I’m on my way back
Sheng Wang replied to him with a sticker of a smile that didn’t reveal teeth, like he was up to no good; it’s a little cheeky.

Jiang Tian was briefly confused.
Two minutes later, Sheng Wang sent: You’re at the west gate now?
Jiang Tian: I just left the alley, I’ll be at the west gate after I cross the road.

The other side was quiet for yet a few more seconds. Jiang Tian’s brows slowly began to furrow; something was definitely wrong the more he thought about it.
Suddenly, the fluorescent light above flashed, and the cold white light encased the room without any prior warning. The surroundings changed from darkness to brightness, and Jiang Tian was dazed enough to squint.
The phone screen lit up again at that moment.

Jiang Tian blocked out the white light, and lowered his eyes to look. He saw two new messages from Sheng Wang—
Sticker: you’re really at the west gate?
Sticker: why am I not seeing you???

Perhaps it was because of how dazzling the light was, when Jiang Tian saw those two messages, he fell into a moment of stupor. By the time he realised, he was already going downstairs with his phone in his hand.

Qiu Wenbin’s voice came out from upstairs, asking in confusion, “Deity, where are you going?”
“Fetching someone,” Jiang Tian said.

The whole school was attempting to shed off the darkness; the teaching block and the office block at one side of Road #3 gradually lit up, room by room. The milky white light pierced through the glass, tilting out of various floors and casting onto the ground.
There were quite a number of staff and students who weren’t back in the dorms; they gathered in small groups, and were chatting and strolling. They also instantly halted in their steps the moment the lights came back on.
Jiang Tian weaved through the crowd. His skin was pale, and when he sweated upon doing physical activities like running and jumping he even gave off an impression of coldness, causing the girls who were passing by to turn around to stare at him, and yet too afraid to approach.

After much wheedling and cajoling, Sheng Wang finally convinced Uncle Xiao-Chen to leave. He stood by the security guard booth outside of the west gate, his bag slung over a single shoulder.
These two days, he could finally manage to walk, but he was still unable to put too much weight on his left foot; even as he stood, he put most of the weight of his body on his right, and so he wasn’t exactly standing upright. He appeared to be lazy, and a little casual.

His back faced the school entrance, and his front faced the entrance of the alley at Beyond Parasol Trees. He typed with one hand, furiously reprimanding a certain somebody. Just as he was halfway through his message and didn’t manage to send it out yet, a phone call cut in.

Jiang Tian’s name jumped on the screen. Sheng Wang slammed the button, and instantly said, “You scammed me?!”
He shot another look at the alley entrance: there were only two old people slowly shuffling past as they supported each other, there was no one else to be seen.

“I’ve been standing here for ages, the security uncle even thought that I was striking up a pose. You only need to cross the road before you reach the west gate, right? So where are you?”

Just as he asked, he suddenly heard footsteps coming closer to him from behind. Someone was running over here. He turned around, and saw Jiang Tian stop in front of him.
Maybe it was because of how fast he sprinted, his breathing was a little heavy. His slender arms dangled by the side, and a slightly protruding green vein could be seen near his inner wrist.
He lowered his head to catch his breath, and then removed an earpiece, saying to Sheng Wang, “I’m here now.”

Sheng Wang didn’t know what to say all of a sudden.
He met Jiang Tian’s eyes, spaced out for a moment before he abruptly looked away, let out an “oh” and said, “Well, seeing how fast you made it here, I can be more magnanimous.”

“Why are you suddenly coming back to school?” Jiang Tian asked.
“Why else.” Sheng Wang said, exasperated, “I get to move around a bit if I come to school; back at home, they refused to even let me out of the bedroom. You go back and lie down for five days and you’ll know how much it sucks.”

Jiang Tian took his bag from him. Initially, he desperately wanted to save face and refused to give it to him. Afterwards, he realised how long Road #3 went and gave in—going back on his own legs was good enough already, he could make do without the extra weight.
“Also, can you believe that Auntie Sun literally made braised pork trotters for me for all three meals every single day?” Sheng Wang nagged as he grumbled, the moment he opened his mouth he could list countless reasons why he was forced to come back to school out of resignation. “Other people get tube bone soup, the heck does she mean with pork trotters?”
Jiang Tian said, “It means you gain what you eat.”
“Scram.”

As Sheng Wang spoke, he turned around with some apprehension, asking Jiang Tian, “Did I change anywhere?”
Jiang Tian: “Yeah.”
Sheng Wang stared at him. “Think before you speak.”
Jiang Tian nodded. “You’re fatter now.”
Sheng Wang was instantly a little depressed; however, before he was depressed for even two seconds, he caught a glimpse of Jiang Tian looking aside.

“……”
He freaking knew it, he’s lying!
Sheng Wang reached out, wanting to rein in his neck. “You can’t live without mocking me for even a single day, can you?”

Jiang Tian wasn’t really trying to avoid him, probably worried that he would break his leg again from overexertion. As the two of them messed around, they looked up and realised they subconsciously ended up taking the shortcut near the Garden of Conduct.

The garden in the day was quiet and tranquil, they would often go through there and not feel like anything was wrong. But, the garden at this timing was slightly different; it took Sheng Wang only a glance to see two figures holding hands in the near distance, walking amidst the woods and quietly exchanging private words. Even further away, a boy put on a brave act and was boldly putting his arm over a girl’s shoulders, and used his forehead to brush against her cheeks.

The atmosphere in the woods was overly suggestive; Sheng Wang felt that he was thoroughly out of place there, feeling an indescribable sense of unease at the same time too.
He wanted to say, “How about we take a different path”, but the moment he turned around and met Jiang Tian’s gaze, he felt his heart beat a little faster for some strange reason, even though this was clearly no different from usual.

He abruptly retracted his gaze, licked the corner of his lips that was drying up, and said, “Wow, there’s so many people here. No wonder it’s called Magpie Bridge.”
Jiang Tian’s gaze had already shifted aside; he seemed to be looking for the fork in the path to get out. His low, throaty voice rumbled next to Sheng Wang’s ears, “Mn.”

TO BE CONTINUED.