A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 053 – Meal Gathering

Have You Done Something Like This Back in High School Before?

The businesses in front of Fuzhong’s school gates were the exact opposite of other places: the others were the busiest during the holidays, they were busiest during the school term instead.
There was a monthly break for this weekend, and most students already left the school. There were slightly fewer customers in the BBQ store than usual, but there was still a queue. Fortunately, the boss gave them special privileges and left Class A the biggest spot.

Sheng Wang’s previous classes had also held gatherings like this before, but when they said “the whole class”, having only half who showed up out of 40-50 people was considered pretty decent. He thought that it would be the same this time round, thus he did not expect 37 people to actually turn up in the end. Other than those with their personal grudges and issues with Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian, along with those who were genuinely busy, everyone was basically there.

Zhao Xi saved enough seats for them, but he did not expect them to be literally filled up in all honesty. When he saw the sea of black hair swarming in, the term “The whole nest has come out” was the only thing left in his mind.

“Your class really is on good terms, I see,” he remarked, and shot straight to the kitchen—they all said that young man can easily eat an old man broke, eating skewers already had the effect of the appetite of 1 + 1 > appetite of 2, with 37 young people gathered together……are you serious? It’s no different from having a plague of locusts descending upon them?

Not even a moment later, Chuizi, who was in charge of loading and unloading the stocks, left the shop hectically in his vehicle.
Sheng Wang went to find Zhao Xi and Lin Beiting, upon seeing the back of the vehicle, he asked, bemused, “Why’s Chuizi-ge leaving? He’s not going to have some too?”
“Later, probably. No need to hurry.” Xi-ge directed the servers around as they carried the buckets of beer and drinks along. “When he saw this many people, he ran away like his ass was on fire. He’s scared that you guys wouldn’t have enough to eat, so he went to top-up the stocks.”

Gao Tianyang stuck out his head from the private booth. “What top-up?”
Sheng Wang was concise, “Scared that you all will eat the store empty.”

“I don’t think there’s no need to be this scared, we’re not gluttons. Besides, we still have girls around.” Gao Tianyang pointed at Chilli, Li Yu and the girls, “They keep going on about losing weight and dieting and practising inedia and ascending to the heavens, they probably would barely make a dent.”

Chilli smacked his back with her palm. “You’re the one who’s ascending!”
“Aiyo what the f—” Gao Tianyang’s swear had already half exploded from his mouth, and yet he swallowed it back down under the girls’ glares. He was like a long-armed orang utan with the way he was covering his back. “How are you this strong? My back is already swollen.”

“Deserved!” Chilli said.
Gao Tianyang put his palms together, “Okokok, my bad. You don’t need to fast and lose weight, you don’t need to practise inedia and ascend to the heavens. You’ll eat more than us, is this fine now?”

He used a few lines to mould the impression of a female Li Kui, Chilli peered at Sheng Wang before hurriedly looking away again, and chased Gao Tianyang away.

Zhao Xi took it all in, and suddenly used his shoulder to nudge Sheng Wang, teasing, “You’re quite popular, I see.”
Sheng Wang stumbled from the nudge. “What’s popular?”
“Keep pretending.” Zhao Xi lifted an eyebrow.
Sheng Wang crooked his pointer finger as he rubbed his nose, not saying a single word. He roughly understood what Zhao Xi was poking fun at him about: Little Chilli’s blush was too obvious, and he wasn’t blind either.
Still, he did not feel that this meant anything, some people just happen to flush easily. There was a boy named Cheng Wen in their class, he was born easily flushed, and his face turned red regardless of who he spoke to in class. According to this logic, he ought to be in love with the entire class.

Just as Sheng Wang was about to debate with Zhao Xi using that boy as an example, he heard Zhao Xi rib, “The little girl has chased Xiao-Gao around for two entire rounds already, why is this so? That’s because Xiao-Gao said that she ate more than boys right in front of you.”
Sheng Wang thought, weren’t we talking about blushing?

His grounds for an argument instantly lost its purpose, therefore his mouth opened and silently closed again.
When teenage boys and girls started playing around, they were actually a little noisy, but Zhao Xi was engrossed in watching them. He seemed to have recalled quite a few things, and when they were through, he even commented, “It’s during these years when you have the most vigour, you can do any stupid thing that you can think of, you want your dignity only in front of the person you want to woo.”

“Who said that?” Sheng Wang rebutted.
Zhao Xi pointed at his own nose, “I said that, got a problem?”

Sheng Wang internally said, I want my face aplenty in front of everyone, thank you very much, go ask Jiang Tian if you don’t buy it. However, after some mulling over he figured to not take it seriously, and made an inviting gesture with much veneration, “Whatever, I don’t dare to have one. Teacher Zhao, please take your seat.”
Zhao Xi playfully smacked him.
Other than that period of time when they just started their business, Zhao Xi and Lin Beiting didn’t consciously behave like the boss. The two of them actually came down to the store quite rarely, and even when they did, they merely took up a table and enjoyed the skewers.
Therefore, even without the both of them, the servers still did their jobs quite well. Class A saved the two of them seats, and after notifying the servers, Zhao Xi entered the booth with an easy conscience.

“Mini beef skewers, mini chicken skewers, lamb skewers, tendon…this, this and this, all of them.” Sheng Wang checked his order with the server, washed his hands and entered too.

The moment he entered, he heard someone ask Gao Tianyang, “Where’s Tian-ge, why isn’t he here yet?”
Gao Tianyang had just escaped from Chilli’s clutches, and was standing directly in front of the air conditioner, using his face to enjoy it. He replied, without even looking back, “Beats me, I’m too warm to be sending a message right now, go ask Sheng-ge.”
Another person added on, “Yeah, definitely ask Sheng Wang for sure, why even ask Old Gao.”

“Eh, Sheng-ge’s here.” That person asked Sheng Wang, “Where did Tian-ge go?”
“He went to the alley in front to pass someone something.” Sheng Wang glanced around, asking, “Did someone save me a seat? Where do I sit?”
Gao Tianyang pointed at the two empty spots between him and Zhao Xi. “There, you sit here with Tian-ge.”

Next, someone was acting worrisome again. “How about Lin-ge then? Why isn’t Lin-ge here too?”
Zhao Xi said, “He went to retrieve medicine.”
“Lin-ge’s sick?” Concern was visible on everyone’s faces.
Zhao Xi hurriedly waved, “No, it’s for the alcohol. Scared that you all lose control and get too drunk, it’s there just in case.”
“Don’t lie to kids. Be clear that who’s the one that’s scared of getting too drunk,” a gravelly voice cut in, mercilessly exposing him.
Everyone followed the direction of where the voice came from, and saw Lin Beiting standing at the entrance with a tiny box of pills.

“Why are you so good at picking the time,” Zhao Xi said, annoyed.
“Punctuality.” Lin Beiting weaved through various tables, and sat down by the seat to Zhao Xi’s right. When he settled the box in front of Zhao Xi, it was six o’ clock on the dot. It was the stipulated time of the BBQ, yup, he’s indeed on time.

“Is this really useful?” Sheng Wang asked, puzzled.
“It’s okay, I guess.” Zhao Xi popped one out and gulped.
Sheng Wang recalled the dumbassery he got up to the last time he drank too much, and was a little tempted. “You wouldn’t get drunk after eating this?”

“Nope, the damage is relatively light, I think.” Zhao Xi said, “What, you wanna eat?”
Sheng Wang considered it, and nodded.
However. Zhao Xi said as though he was making a joke out of him, “Nuh-uh.”
Sheng Wang: “……”

He looked down and sent Jiang Tian messages on WeChat—
Sticker: Xi-ge – a stingy asshole
Jiang Tian : ?
Sticker: he wouldn’t even let me eat a pill of his
Jiang Tian: ?
Jiang Tian: Why would you need to eat a pill
Sticker: it’s no ordinary pill, it’s for the alcohol
Jiang Tian: ……

A few seconds later, a voice message suddenly popped up on the chat interface, and Sheng Wang tapped it on reflex.
“He has a reason for doing so—”

Due to the fact that he wasn’t wearing his earpiece, WeChat, that braindead piece of shit, automatically switched to playing out loud.

Jiang Tian’s cold voice was overly distinguishable, a few words alone was able to attract the attention of the entire table. Sheng Wang let out a “shit”, and hastily turned down the volume to the lowest.

“Jiang Tian?” Zhao Xi asked.
“Mn,” Sheng Wang nodded.
“Why you gotta act like a thief just to listen to his voice message,” Zhao Xi teased, “are you speaking bad of people?”

Sheng Wang was caught in the act, and figured that he might as well show the message to the topic of the conversation himself. Zhao Xi snorted, and changed Jiang Tian’s voice message to text. “Lemme hear what he replied.”

Jiang Tian: He has a reason for doing so, back when he just came back he hurt himself by drinking at too many gatherings, so now he has them for backup. You need it with how easily drunk you get?

Although the speech was converted to text, Sheng Wang’s brain still automatically converted it into Jiang Tian’s tone nonetheless. When he said the last line with that indifferent voice of his, the ridicule that came through was honestly quite something.
Zhao Xi laughed from the message; he recalled the way Sheng Wang held onto the beer mug last time, and just as he was about to follow up with a couple lines of ribbing, a new message popped up on the chat interface.

Jiang Tian: You think a pill alone can stop you from making me film you?
Sheng Wang: “……”

This asshole was truly a marvel at making conversation. To touch a sore spot.
Sheng Wang’s fingers flew and mercilessly sent him an entire column of “Lao-zi is telling you to die” memes.

After he beat Jiang Tian up, locked his screen and lifted his head, he saw an odd expression on Zhao Xi.
“Xi-ge?” Sheng Wang called out to him.
Zhao Xi then came back to himself and looked up. “Hm?”

“You okay?” Sheng Wang asked.
“Nothing.” Zhao Xi drank a mouthful of water, and grinned, “I was just thinking of stuff. Jiang Tian’s arriving soon, right?”

“Oh, I forgot to ask.” Sheng Wang unlocked his screen again, and asked if Jiang Tian was done with his delivery.

This time round, it took Jiang Tian a while to reply: Didn’t pass it.
Those were the specialty fragrant pears that Sheng Mingyang and Jiang Ou had brought back a few days ago, they picked some to give to Old Man Ding.

Sheng Wang was a little bemused, and sent a question mark over.
Jiang Tian: Someone is over at the old man’s.
Jiang Tian: I turned back, will be going there afterwards
Sticker: k
Sticker: so where are you now?
Jiang Tian: the entrance of the booth

Sheng Wang stilled, and looked up on instinct. The doors were half-open, and Jiang Tian stood there with a hand on the handle. He lowered his eyes as he locked his phone screen, and tossed the phone into his pocket.

“Tian-ge!”
Various voices chorused disjointedly as they greeted him, Gao Tianyang called, “Your ass is finally here! I’m about to die from hunger.”

“Why don’t you eat if you’re going to die from hunger?” Jiang Tian slid past the gaps between the stools as he talked to Gao Tianyang, automatically pulling out the stool next to Sheng Wang and sitting down.

“We’re waiting for you, duh!” Gao Tianyang said, “With so many gaping maws around, if we don’t wait for you before serving the food, you will literally not even get to eat the sticks.”
Jiang Tian leaned against the chair, and scoffed. He then greeted Zhao Xi and Lin Beiting too before turning his eyes to Sheng Wang. His head was slightly tilted down, and he quietly said, “Let’s go to Beyond Parasol Trees after this?”
“Sure,” Sheng Wang said, “and the pears?”
“Left it at the counter, will take it when we leave.”

The server came over to double check the number of people, and finally started to serve the skewers in giant platters. Platters after platters were served. There were a lot of people today, and Sheng Wang had 100 as a minimum for every type. When they served the food, it was truly quite the spectacular sight.

The voices of those slamming their palms on the tables and clinking their cups all blended in together in a ghastly howl, those who could drink all poured themselves iced beer, and the gathering was suddenly in full swing.

Zhao Xi and Lin Beiting were older than this group of boys and girls by more than 10 years, but they didn’t appear out of place as they sat amongst them. As compared to teachers, Class A students felt that they were more like their seniors, and friendliness was mixed in with their admiration towards them. They dared to joke with them, and tease too.

When a group of people are gathered together, they can only enjoy themselves when there’s a common topic.
They complained about various aspects of the school with zero qualms: the new class changing regulation was too evil, Old Xu was catching rulebreakers in increasingly ridiculous ways, there were a bunch of morons in year 1 who tragically got caught for climbing over the wall to go on the internet, and when Old Xu dragged them down their heads were still covered in black trash bags, XXX from Class 7 was caught for dating XXX from Class 9 and their parents were called down, etc etc.

Sixteen-seventeen are the ages where hearts begin to stir, so the last topic went on for especially long. With Gao Tianyang in lead, a bunch of ‘dogs’ with zero experience in dating developed a strong interest in the young couple getting caught.

Due to their overly excited state, they even reached out their claws of gossip towards Zhao Xi. Lin Beiting was sterner, and everyone didn’t exactly dare to ask.
“Xi-ge, have you done something like this back in high school before?” Gao Tianyang smirked as he asked.

“What thing?” Zhao Xi wasn’t bothered either, he asked as he spun his mug around.
“What else? Dating, that’s all,” Gao Tianyang said.

Everyone started joining in the cajoling, and all fixed their eyes on Zhao Xi as they held back on their laughter.
Zhao Xi raised an eyebrow. “Me? If you ask me now, from a rational, objective point of view, I suggest you do your best to suppress any fluttering of the heart. You wouldn’t miss out by not doing anything for these two years, you have to properly study when you ought to. You wouldn’t want to flashback to liking so-so-so in high school, and flunking everything just because of that, and that’s why you are in this state now etc. That would be unfortunate.”

Everyone thought he was about to preach at them, and instantly behaved. A few even sat up properly.
Unexpectedly, just as he said that, he continued, “But, when I was in high school I wasn’t a stickler for rules either…sooooooo, that’s right, I did break the rules and fall in love too.”

Sheng Wang chugged down three glasses of iced beer with the skewers. He was composed on the surface, but his mind was starting to swim. Maybe he was affected by the alcohol or something, but he kept feeling like Zhao Xi gave Lin Beiting a look when he said that.

Next……
Maybe he was still affected by the alcohol, but he instinctively looked at Jiang Tian too.

TO BE CONTINUED.