A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 049 – Strange

The Two Discussed and Settled on Not Leaving the Dorms for the Three Days of Break.

The sky still lit up relatively early in this season. It was just past 5am, and the clear morning rays slowly seeped into the balcony, the window pane as well as the metallic railing gradually turned brighter. The reflection bounced onto Sheng Wang’s face.

The temperature in the morning wasn’t high; a hint of the autumn chill was hidden within. He had always been a messy sleeper, only half of his blanket stayed on him, his arms as well his lower leg were both exposed to the outside. He finally felt the cold after tossing and turning for the whole night.
He flipped over, and shrunk his hands and legs back into the blanket. The soft fabric wrapped him all the way under his chin, like a cat tucked away on its belly.

Jiang Tian used the same body wash as he did: the fragrance of wood mixed within sea salt. It was a type of scent that was both light and refreshing, but upon coming into contact with two beds, it was stained with different smells, a smell that was both familiar and yet special.

Sheng Wang was enveloped by this scent, and squinted his eyes against the reflection caused by the railings; he finally felt drowsy at last. However, just as he was about to lose consciousness, he was awakened by the painful swollen feeling in his ankle.

Sheng Wang was thoroughly displeased, and sulked away, wrapped up in the blanket. Finally, he sat upright, having completely given up. His ankle throbbed in incredible pain. He lifted up his blanket, and just as expected, it swelled up again.
Auntie Sun’s logic of making up from what you eat had some truth to it, he truly grew pork trotters now.

There was suddenly a bit of movement from above. Sheng Wang covered up his pork trotter and turned to look, and saw Jiang Tian coming down from the upper bunk.
The other two in the dorm were still snoring. Sheng Wang asked, using his breath, “Did I awaken you because of my turning?”
“No.” Jiang Tian said, “I just happen to wake up.”
Jiang Tian did not look bleary-eyed indeed, as though he had been awake for a while now.

Sheng Wang asked in shock, “So early?”
Jiang Tian moved his lips. “Body clock.”
Sheng Wang grabbed his phone to check. 5.20am.
The hell with body clock.

There were no morning classes for Fuzhong’s residential students, it took less than five minutes to walk from the dorms to the classroom, with the cafeteria right smack in the middle. He Jin did mention before that those who wished to sleep in a little more could bring food into the classroom, as long as they weren’t too brazen with it. Therefore, the best part about staying on campus was that they could sleep earlier, and wake up later too.
It wasn’t like he had just moved in for two days; the body clock from before ought to have long changed.

Sheng Wang shoved the screen right into Jiang Tian’s face, and immediately exposed him. Jiang Tian merely glanced, grabbed his phone and brought it away with him.
“You’re even getting angry from embarrassment?” These words left Sheng Wang’s mouth, and next he also lowered his voice, asking “Where are you bringing my phone to?”
Jiang Tian tossed the phone into his pants pockets, and went to the sink. A short while later, he came back by the bed with the cooling mist smelling of mint.

“Eh, help me out,” Sheng Wang said.
“Speak.”
“I left the ointment by the cabinet yesterday, help me grab it? I’ll make too much noise if I walk now,” Sheng Wang said softly.

Jiang Tian took a cotton bud, and uncapped the tube of ointment as he returned.
“Let me take a look.” He came to a stop by the bed, indicating Sheng Wang to remove the blanket he was covering himself with.

Sheng Wang was a little apprehensive. After all, pork trotters do not look good. Out of some unknown mindset, presently, he wasn’t particularly inclined towards revealing an un-handsome side of him toward Jiang Tian (despite having lost his face an N number of times before him).
Jiang Tian dabbed a bit of ointment with the cotton bud at the opening, and upon seeing his lack of any reaction for a long while now, he shot him a questioning look.
Sheng Wang stuck out a leg in complete reluctance.

“Why is it so swollen?” Jiang Tian furrowed his brows.
“I don’t know.” Sheng Wang gave a hollow laugh, “Isn’t it freaking ugly?”

He reached over to take the cotton bud, but Jiang Tian avoided him. Next, he saw the other person bend over, use the hand that sandwiched the ointment between the fingers to lightly hold onto this foot, and use the cotton bud to apply the ointment on the swollen area.

Applying the ointment himself felt completely different from when other people apply it on him. The ointment was extremely cool, and Sheng Wang was in no way mentally prepared at all. When the ointment landed on his skin, he was caught by surprise. He was so startled that the top of his foot tightened.
“Eh you—”
“It hurts a lot?” His reaction was too obvious; Jiang Tian immediately stopped, even thinking that the sensation of the ointment was too strong.
“It wasn’t painful.” Sheng Wang didn’t know how to explain either. The ointment came into effect rather quickly, and the places the ointment was applied on instantly went from cool to warm, like a towel was placed on it. The throbbing pain slightly died down. He moved his ankle, and gave in. “Whatever, you can just go ahead. Don’t be too light, that’s all.”

The ointment was brown in colour. Jiang Tian applied two layers on him before he finally straightened up. Sheng Wang propped himself against the bed and admired it, and said self-mockingly, “It was like a mantou just now, and now it looks like a deep-fried mantou.”Jiang Tian: “……”
Now that he mentioned it, it was really quite alike.

He stopped in the midst of twisting the cap back on, and said, exasperated, “Behave and stay in the dorm today, alright? Don’t go to the classroom.”
“Why?” Sheng Wang sat up straight.
“Your ankle is already this swollen from walking yesterday, you want to repeat it again today?” Jiang Tian tossed the cotton bud into the dustbin. “Do you not want your leg anymore?”

He wasn’t wrong, Sheng Wang couldn’t find a reason to rebut him with, therefore he could only stare at him unhappily. However, this person went back up his bunk to retrieve something after setting down the ointment, not giving him a single chance to stand off against him at all.

Jiang Tian wore light grey cotton sweatpants inside the dorm, when he lifted his arm, a white drawstring was revealed at his waist. There was a right angle protruding out from his right pocket; that was where he put his phone.
Sheng Wang’s eyes narrowed as he launched a surprise attack, reaching his hand into that pocket.

He regretted immediately after he reached out.
Jiang Tian did not expect that move from him, and caved inwards on instinct. He gripped Sheng Wang’s hand in front of the pocket, and as they lost their balance in the tugging and pushing, one fell sideways onto the bed, the other didn’t fall only because he grabbed onto the bed’s railing.
Still, they were too close; so close that they could hear each other breathing.

“Trying to sneak attack?” Jiang Tian lifted his eyes.
Sheng Wang pursed his lips, his hair a little mussled. The air coming out of his nose was a little quick, and he was a beat slower when he replied, “Why don’t you say who’s the one who snatched my phone first?”
This position was slightly awkward. He was in a hurry to take his hand back, but only after two wriggles then he realised that that pocket was next to Jiang Tian’s leg.
The both of them were momentarily quiet; a strange tension started to bloom around them, flooding this cramped and tiny corner.

Yet, the dorm’s residents consisted of a wooden club—
Shi Yu drank a lot of water last night in order to relieve his nervousness, and now he had to face the music. Before the alarm clock even rang, his bladder woke him up first. He rubbed his eyes and sat up straight, and saw two figures entangled with each other at the head of the bed.
He opened his mouth, and said, as though he was sleep talking, “Motherfuck……”

Sheng Wang was summoned back to reality by this “mother”.
Jiang Tian looked aside, loosened his pocket and stood up straight; Sheng Wang withdrew his hand accordingly. His wrist wasn’t sprained at all, but he still shook his hand twice, as though if he didn’t take any further action, that strange tension between them would hardly dissipate.

“What are you two doing?” Shi Yu looked for his slippers as he walked on the floor, barefooted. Mentally speaking, he still hadn’t left his dream yet.
Jiang Tian said, “Didn’t stand properly.”
Sheng Wang said, “Taking my phone.”

The two lines had zero link at all, not to mention any trace of logic. Yet, Shi Yu nodded. He yawned, and unsteadily shuffled to the bathroom in his slippers, mumbling, “I thought it’s something else, I was shook.”

Jiang Tian removed his gaze from him, dug out the phone and returned it to Sheng Wang. Then, he walked straight to the closet for clothes meant for going out. Sheng Wang scratched his head, and melted downwards against the head of the bed, shrinking back under his blankets.
There were no further words exchanged after this.

The other three left at 6.45am, around 6.50am Sheng Wang received a call from the homeroom teacher, He Jin,
Old He managed to voluminously express her thoughts on the topic of “100 days to recover from serious injuries” on the phone, took several shots at him, and ended the conversation with an order for him to stay put in the dorm, barred from going anywhere at all.

He replied with “okokok” all the way, and coaxed Old He until she hung up. Qiu Wenbin then came rushing back again.
“I forgot my paper.” He placed three packets of food on the table, turned around and started flipping through the test paper on his upper bunk. “The deity happened to help you buy breakfast, so I helped to bring it back.”

“So much? Is he feeding a pig.” Sheng Wang made it to the table with a single hop on a foot, and as he looked through the packets, he asked, “Why didn’t he come here himself?”
“Ran into your math teacher, Old Wu, the moment he stepped out of the cafeteria. He got called away,” Qiu Wenbin explained.
“Oh.”

Sheng Wang opened up the last packet, and saw a neat row of deep-fried mini mantous; he immediately rolled his eyes.
He’s not even back but somehow freaking managed to piss him off anyways.

Just for this row of mini mantous alone, Sheng Wang single-sidedly conducted a cold war for an entire morning. Usually, he would make use of breaks between classes to tease Jiang Tian with a couple of lines. But, for today, he didn’t even open WeChat, choosing instead to do three practice papers to vent his resentment.

By the time he finished the last question, stretched and rotated his neck, he then realised that it was already past 12. There was suddenly a bustle of human activity outside the balcony, like water about to reach its boiling point.
Sheng Wang hopped over with the support of the wall, and saw a vast sea of black hair shoot straight for the cafeteria like an avalanche. From his angle, it was spectacularly glorious.

Gao Tianyang was tall and sturdy, his energy as vibrant as the rainbow; he was especially outstanding as the forerunner of the crowd.
Maybe good bros are telepathically connected or something, as he ran he suddenly looked up, and spotted Sheng Wang, who was standing at the balcony, instantly. He waved and called, “Sheng-ge—”
Sheng Wang’s face may be wearing a smile, but he wanted to squat down on the spot. This idiot’s loud voice caused a countless number of people to look towards him, he really lost face until his entire body was gone.

Sheng Wang pointed at the cafeteria, indicating for him to shut up, scram, and stop calling out to him. However, this idiot misunderstood, and thought Sheng Wang was hungry. He yelled again at once, “Hold on, Tian-ge went to get lunch for you—”
Great, now there’s twice the number of people looking up.
Sheng Wang turned back with zero hesitation, and closed the balcony door.

Ever since the second day they moved into the dormitory, the entire school heard of how the famously brilliant Jiang Tian of year two as well as the transfer student running on hacks, Sheng Wang, were from the same family. They were brothers.
Hearsay is still hearsay after all, there was no concrete evidence. Jiang Tian was infamously aloof too, and those who wanted to gossip didn’t dare to be too obvious about it, only daring to secretly discuss in small groups. Then, they would spot some traces of it in daily interactions.

Two lines from Gao Tianyang basically trapped him in the vast sea of people. With Sheng Wang slipping away, he was thoroughly surrounded by the people around him, and all sorts of questions came pelting at him—
“Yang-ge! They’re really brothers?”
“Why do I recall that they both weren’t on good terms at the start?”
“Yeah. I’ve heard it before too.”

“Your Class A is really quite something, just with Sheng Wang’s improvement rate alone, he’s definitely a bigshot in the future. A single family produced two like this, my god, that has to be way too exhilarating.”
“That’s still up for debate, the higher up you go the more difficult it is to change your placing. You think people like Tian-ge can be mass-produced?”
“Even if he can’t make it into the top five, top 10 is amazing too.”
“Nobody knows for sure what lies ahead in the future, I scored first fucking place for middle school’s combined exams too, but now I can’t even get into top 20?”

Gao Tianyang’s head threatened to explode, and he started to seriously reflect on his loudspeaker trait for the first time ever. He could barely move an inch due to the crowd surrounding him, and as he watched the number of people in the cafeteria increase with his very own eyes, he asked in despair, “Don’t you all need to fucking eat? Can gossiping sustain you with magical energy or? They’re bros, related, on hella good terms, any more and I’ll KMS.”

When his good bro was left to struggle alone downstairs, Sheng Wang heard the jingle of keys outside the dorm’s door.
Jiang Tian came in with a plastic bag filled with containers of food, and closed the door behind him.

“Didn’t the cafeteria just open?” Sheng Wang did not expect him to be this quick at all. He asked, full of doubt, “Old Gao hasn’t even made it there, but you did?”
He wasn’t saying that Jiang Tian ran slower than Gao Tianyang, more like Jiang Tian never ran for the sake of lunch.

“Not from the cafeteria.” Jiang Tian took out the containers from the plastic one by one, and the first box already showed suisines unavailable in the cafeteria.
Old Man Ding was excellent at cooking, there were a few signature dishes that nobody could mimic at all, one of which was this container of tofu with minced pork. Sheng Wang had mentioned this to the nanny, Auntie Sun before, and both she and Jiang Ou had tried to recreate it. The tofu was either too tough, or the minced pork wasn’t fine enough, the flavours were different too.

“You went to Beyond Parasol Trees?” Sheng Wang asked.
Jiang Tian said, “The old man made it in advance and got uncle mute to bring it here.”

This line of his skipped out on countless details: first of all, someone had to tell Old Man Ding that Sheng Wang sprained his ankles. Secondly, they also had to tell him that Sheng Wang came back to school. Thirdly, that his ankle was swollen again and he couldn’t go up and down the stairs. Lastly……someone had to know what he wanted to eat the most.

Sheng Wang sat down by the table with respect and veneration; the moment the lid came off, the aroma spilled out. He single-sidedly ended the cold war he started this morning, and decided to resolve the awkwardness with Jiang Tian and bury the hatchet.

He dug a spoonful of tofu, and felt that Sheng Mingyang and Jiang Ou were being extra with their worries—
Look, he could have his food delivered right to him even in the dorm, living an even more comfortable life here than at home.

Sheng Wang lazed away in the dorms for barely two days, and National Day had arrived. Fuzhong did not accommodate according to the public holidays, if they said three days of break, they meant three days of break. Still, this was enough to send students over the moon.
Only at this time, did Sheng Wang realise what an awkward timing he picked to go back to school at. He only had to grit his teeth for a few more days and Jiang Tian would have already gone back. Great, now he made himself look extremely impatient to return before.

Putting aside the issue of his dignity, if he decided to rush back home today with a broken leg with Jiang Tian, he still had to come back with a broken leg three days later? He clearly harboured hatred towards his foot if he did so.
Therefore, the two discussed and settled on not leaving the dorms for the three days of break, choosing to remain on campus.

TO BE CONTINUED.