A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 065 – Implied Words

“It Has Already Backfired for a While Now.”

The alley fell into dead silence. Sheng Wang was stupefied for several seconds before he got what Ji Huanyu was implying. He shot a look at Jiang Tian on instinct, but due to the darkness of the night, he couldn’t tell Jiang Tian’s expression.
He did not know what Jiang Tian was feeling now: embarrassment? Fury? Or disgust upon disgust?
Personally, he was this close to snapping.

He had never seen someone like Ji Huanyu, who messed up so terribly and yet still insisted on dragging other people down with him. He lost his face, therefore he had to make other people feel ashamed too.
He looked at Ji Huanyu’s figure, turning blurrier by the second, half of his face covered in the shadow. He suddenly felt he was seriously blind when he looked at the old photos at Old Man Ding’s, why would he ever think that Jiang Tian resembled that scumbag when he was young in any way?

Sheng Wang tugged at his bag strap, and moved forward half a step. “Uncle, I actually don’t have anything to do with whatever you said, but I really want to interrupt.”
It was part of what he learned from Sheng Mingyang: the more he was this close to losing it, the more he could instantly welcome the person with a brilliant smile. He had the looks that said he was a cultured good student, so Ji Huanyu treated him as some random classmate who was accompanying him. Despite hearing the mockery in his voice, he did not really take it seriously.

“What are you interrupting with?” Ji Huanyu asked.
Sheng Wang took down the bag that was on his shoulder, lifted it up and presented it before him. “I just wanted to say, if it’s not for you being Jiang Tian’s father, this bag would be bludgeoning against your face now.”

Ji Huanyu’s left foot subconsciously retreated by half a step, and stopped. He frowned as he looked down at Sheng Wang, either thinking that Sheng Wang was sticking his nose in other people’s business, or he was certain that an outsider wouldn’t intervene in private affairs between him and Jiang Tian.
However, the boy before him spoke again—
He shot a glance at Jiang Tian, and said, “But, I think Jiang Tian doesn’t have any plans to call you his father, right?”
The moment after he spoke, he swung the bag and smashed it against Ji Huanyu.

“It’s none of your goddamn business how Jiang Tian is doing now? He has a home now, fuck.” After Sheng Wang swung his bag, he grabbed Jiang Tian and walked to Old Man Ding’s house.
It had been a while since Ji Huanyu was around seventeen-eighteen years old boys, he did not know of people who kept his words if he said he was going to hit you. He rubbed his face, dishevelled, and strided after them as he frowned.
Sheng Wang heard his footsteps, and just as he wanted to turn behind to look, Jiang Tian moved him behind him with his hands pressed down on his shoulder.

With a slump of his right shoulder, Jiang Tian’s bag slid to his elbow. He lifted up his bag strap, and said to Ji Huanyu, “Haven’t you had enough after a hit?”
Ji Huanyu braked in his steps.

He knew it damn well how much he owed his son, the halted footsteps was the evidence. That was because he clearly understood that Sheng Wang’s move was just for that one time, he was standing up for him as he was truly pissed. If Jiang Tian made a move, then he would be settling several years of debt all at once.
Old Man Ding could not see the battle situation, and banged on the door from the inside of the house. He yelled, “XIAO-TIAN? XIAO-WANG! XIAO-WANG! HELP ME OPEN THE DOOR, I’M GOING TO BEAT THIS USELESS THING TO DEATH! WHO DOES HE THINK HE’S BULLYING, AND DOING IT AT MY DOORSTEPS TOO!”

His voice was loud, and with that the dogs from some random house in the alley began barking too, causing a giant racket. Coughs and human voices began to come nearer too. Ji Huanyu hesitated, and his feet finally moved.

He had always been eager to be first, he split hairs over the smallest issues, he cared about his face to an extreme degree. Every time he appeared before people, he would always be immaculately dressed, suave and refined. Yet, there was always someone—someone who remembered the hideous state he was in in that dim room, to the point that he could never truly glow and be respected in front of everyone.
After so many years of struggling, he still felt that he was an utter disgrace in certain moments.
Disgrace.

A corner of Jiang Tian’s lips jerked, like a jeer that he couldn’t be arsed to even sound out. He walked to the door at the old courtyard, and unlatched the closed door. He pulled Sheng Wang and walked in.
Old Man Ding, red in the face and the neck, was blocked from him by Sheng Wang holding him below his armpits. Jiang Tian closed the door once more, and the person was separated out of the door in the night. He did not spare him another look.

After a long while later, Sheng Wang checked around the surroundings as he poked his head out from the patterned cement on the courtyard walls. The spot before the door had long since been void of people, only the used cardboard boxes and plastic bottles that uncle mute left to pile up in the corner were left, knocking against each other in the wind.

Old Man Ding was a little sheepish tonight, he kept thinking that it was his fault for not notifying them on time. “If I managed to squeeze out time to make a call, then maybe Xiao-Tian wouldn’t have met Ji Huanyu, that mongrel.”
When Sheng Wang went to wash the cups in the kitchen, that was the Nth time he heard him grumble like that. After grumbling, the old sir took a kitchen knife and turned towards him, asking, “Dried bamboo shoots, lotus roots, chestnuts. Which one do you think Xiao-Tian likes more?”

Sheng Wang avoided his blade, and felt a little like he didn’t know if he should laugh or cry. The elderly man was no good when it came to cheering people up, especially when it came to Jiang Tian. After all, Jiang Tian was quite rational ever since he was a kid, and rarely did he need consoling. The only solution the old man could think of was to whip up something good. The person was already angered, so let’s not mistreat the stomach any further too.

As to what Jiang Tian liked to eat, that would be a philosophical question. Old Man Ding had raised him like his flesh and blood grandson, and he never understood this either. It was because, everytime he asked, he always replied with an “Anything”.
Sheng Wang thought that not even he knew, but unexpectedly, after some thought, he did manage to sort out an order from the three items. “Dried bamboo shoots, I think. He seems to prefer crunchier stuff, and eat them more than the others. He rarely touches food like eggplant and luffa on his own accord.”
The old man flashed a thumbs up at him, and went to dig things out from the fridge.

Sheng Wang initially wanted to pour two glasses of water. However, thanks to inspiration from the old man, he searched all over the kitchen and found a packet of chamomile. He sprinkled a few in the glass, wanting to quell some of Jiang Tian’s anger. That would still be better than nothing at all.

That night, the old and the young tried with all their might, but Jiang Tian remained silent from the start to end.

Sheng Wang suddenly flashbacked to the first time he met Jiang Tian. He was baffled for quite a while, thinking why the long face all the time. Now, he finally understood. If he ended up with a dad like that, witnessed all those hideous things, and became an adult under an environment like that, he would also be hard pressed to find anything worth being happy about.

The luggages were long since packed in the dorm, and there was no need for night self-study either. They stayed at Old Man Ding’s for a lengthy amount of time, and by the time they went back to school, the residential students were done with night self-study too.

Students were everywhere along Road #3, some would ‘travel from afar’ to Xi Le to buy the snacks that the other convenience stores didn’t stock. Some had a basketball in their hand, and when they passed by the basketball court, they aimed the ball at the basket a couple of times for the fun of it.

Jiang Tian would occasionally look over at the sports ground, and his eyes would half narrow. A while later, he would retract his gaze again. He was zoning out, something was on his mind.
Sheng Wang shot a few glances at him, and spoke, “Ge?”
A few students whooshed past them, Jiang Tian seemed to not catch that.
Sheng Wang thought, and called again, “Jiang Tian!”

“Hm?” The other person finally came back to himself, and turned his eyes to him.
“Inheritance is just bullshit.” Sheng Wang said, “It’s just that he couldn’t find a fault worth mentioning with you, that’s why he even brought in heredity. He merely wanted to upset you, just ignore him.”

“Besides, Auntie Jiang has merits all over, there’s enough to pass on. There’s no way it would be his turn. You’re the one who gets the final say in anything you do, it has nothing to do with him. You’re different from him……”
Sheng Wang thought about the implication behind heredity, and was quiet for a few seconds. He said, “Don’t worry, you’ll be different.”

Jiang Tian, however, did not reply.
They’d reached the dormitory block at a certain point in time, and a lot of people were making their way downstairs. Some were getting water, buying things, or just popping over. They went against the flow, and all the lights were lit in the sixth floor corridor. The door belonging to the dorm at the corner was wide open; Shi Yu and Qiu Wenbin probably just reached too.

When they were about to reach the dormitory door, Jiang Tian, who had been silent for the entire journey, suddenly spoke. “Xi-ge said something before.”
“What did he say?” Sheng Wang asked.
“To not overcorrect myself to the extreme, that’s how I’ll easily overdo it and have it backfire on me,” Jiang Tian said.

Zhao Xi said: The more you force yourself to go the opposite direction, the more you will pay attention to the path behind you. The more you want to get rid of something, the more acutely you can feel its presence.
Lin Beiting said: There will be all sorts of people you will meet in the future, too many, really. No way that as long as you go a little closer, you’ll definitely start thinking the wrong way.
Sheng Wang said: Don’t worry, you will be different.

He actually did understand all of that, but……
Jiang Tian tore his eyes away from Sheng Wang, unloaded his bag and walked inside the dorm. The lights out signal had yet to sound, and the room was brightly lit, encasing the boy who returned late in a fuzzy halo of light.

When he walked through that door, he whispered, “It has already backfired for a while now.”

TO BE CONTINUED.