A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 071 – Shop’s Anniversary Celebration

His Personal Nickname Changed to Three Words: Shop’s Anniversary Celebration

Sheng Wang’s heart was beating so fast it was about to explode.
He felt as though he was a hot air balloon; someone sneakily turned on the heat, and everything above his neck was dazed from the warmth—yet his limbs felt like they were floating in thin air. By the crash back to the ground sent him awake with a start, it was already morning.
He glared at the ceiling—which was nothing but white—as he spaced out, and was suddenly a little confused. He was unsure if he slept at all, and even doubted if “yesterday” as a concept actually existed.

He groped around by his pillow for quite a while before he found his phone and turned the screen on. The lock screen said that today was December 4th, it’s a sunny day. Every word could not be any clearer. He then felt by the right side of his pillow, and his hand landed on the leather cover of the photo album. He was certain he truly wasn’t dreaming at last.

Half of the sunlight was blocked by the door, and it shone onto the upper bunk from the side. After all that mess, Sheng Wang finally flopped back onto the pillow like a weight had been lifted off his back. A few seconds later, he suddenly tugged the quilt over his head.

In the darkness and stuffiness, he thought: fuck, he kissed his Ge.
Just this verb alone was enough to cause his heart to start speeding up.

Sheng Wang couldn’t recall any bit of how he climbed back up or how he buried himself under the quilt last night. In times of high stress, the memory tends to be scrambled up, along the lines of suddenly losing track of the very idea of time. When did what come first? How long did it last?

Did I say anything?
No, I think. Any pretexts were completely forgotten, like his mouth was sawed off.

What about Jiang Tian?
He didn’t either, I think.
Sheng Wang tried his best to recall, but all that popped out was the way Jiang Tian’s breath was feather light on the corner of his lips when he leaned over, and how soft his lips were. They were a little cool to the touch.

What the……
Fuck.

Sheng Wang’s arms splayed open at the side of the bed, having the air of someone who was ready to leave for a better place on the spot. After muffling himself for a while, he rolled around in his quilt again, and buried his face deep in the pillow.
There was a likelihood that he did want to suffocate himself to death, but he did not succeed. In the end, he gave up and got up.

The quilt was tossed aside, and his hair was untidy from all the tossing and turning. Sheng Wang ran his fingers through it, and got on his knees, wanting to lean over the railing to peer at the person in the lower bunk. That was, until he felt pain shoot up his right knee.

He hissed, sucking in air through his mouth, and rolled up his pants in confusion. Two bruises formed on his knee and shin. He was briefly stupefied before he remembered how he tried to keep it together after the kiss, and wanted to climb back upstairs like he was experienced and unfazed. That’s how he bumped into the corner of the stairs twice in a row.

Comparatively, Jiang Tian was much more calmer, he—

Where is he???
Sheng Wang leaned over the bed railing; the lower bunk was as empty as it could be. The quilt was neatly folded, placed at the foot of the bed. The person on the bed had long since disappeared.

He unrolled his pants legs, and after going down two steps he gave up and jumped down with a hand on the railing. He went around the dorm twice; he truly couldn’t find Jiang Tian.
It was 7am now, there was still an hour until the first period of classes for the training camp. How was the person gone just like that?

Sheng Wang grabbed his phone from the upper bunk, and called Jiang Tian without a second thought. Yet, the moment he pressed ‘call’ the regret started to hit him. As compared to talking, the two of them were more suited to just typing and sending each other messages on WeChat now.
He just managed to figure this out when the phone call was picked up.

The people on both ends of the call were near synchronously silent for quite a while.
Sheng Wang listened to Jiang Tian’s rather light breathing, and thought of the breath that landed on the corner of his lips last night.

He licked the edge of his lips, and took a glass of water from the table, drinking some. Jiang Tian’s deep voice finally rang next to his ear. “Hello.”
Sheng Wang’s fingers, still holding the glass, tightened. He put down the glass.
“Where are you?” he asked.
“Cafeteria,” Jiang Tian answered, “you’re up?”
“Just.”

Sheng Wang sat down at his bed, and continued, “That scared me, I thought you—”
He lagged, and skipped the words “kissed me” in a fumble, “—and escaped just like that.”
The person on the other end of the call seemed to be briefly at a loss for words too. Next, Jiang Tian’s voice came through again. “I didn’t.”
Sheng Wang nodded, and only after he did then he realised that the person on the other end couldn’t see him.

A sound of a whistle indistinctly came through the call. It was distant, like the gathering whistle the PE teacher will blow during class. Sheng Wang asked, with suspicion, “You’re really at the cafeteria?”

……
Needless to say, he wasn’t there.
This school sounded the waking bell at 5.40am, and the regular students began their morning run by 6.10am. At 6.30am, the crowd spilled from the sports ground, and walked towards the teaching block as they chatted and laughed. That was when the sky lightened up.

Presently, a wave of sports students just arrived, and they did their warm up stretches along the track. The training teacher blew their whistle at the other end of the sports ground, and they all headed there. Jiang Tian was sitting at the top row of the spectator’s seats on this side.

Of course, Jiang Tian wasn’t as composed as he seemed either—otherwise his brain wouldn’t have short circuited, letting the other person go back to the upper bunk forgetting to say anything at all.
In the period of time before dawn, he slept a little, and went to the sports ground after he woke up. He tried to calm himself down with the morning breeze, until Sheng Wang called him.

He stood up from the grandstand, and went down the giant flight of stairs. He said to the person at the other end of the phone, “What do you want to eat, I’ll buy and wait for you.”

*
The sky in this season appeared to be much further than ever. Sheng Wang pulled the collar of his shirt up, buried his chin inside and walked towards the cafeteria.

The sunlight was especially friendly today. It wasn’t raining, yet the flora by the side of the road were abnormally pristine. Even the withered leaves that landed on the ground were coated in a golden gleam.
The air was cold but clean. Sheng Wang inhaled, and a lazy bliss emanated throughout his entire body—like he would be pretty happy even without doing anything.

Only the special window was open in the canteen, a few people from the training camp were the only ones scattered all over such a giant place. He spotted Jiang Tian immediately.

Sheng Wang scampered over and sat down opposite Jiang Tian. In the end, his right knee accidentally bumped into the table, and he instantly hissed in pain.

“What happened?” Jiang Tian looked below the table.
Sheng Wang rubbed it carelessly. “Nothin’, accidentally knocked against a bruise.”
“Why is there a bruise?” Jiang Tian was a little puzzled as he watched the area he rubbed.
“Accidentally bumped against the staircase last night.”
“……”
As to why he accidentally bumped against the staircase, there wasn’t a need to further elaborate.

Sheng Wang’s motion of rubbing his bruise suddenly became mechanical. Jiang Tian’s eyes were still stuck there, and after a while he then quietly looked up.
The two’s eyes met each other, and started busying themselves with eating breakfast.

They were both hiding secrets, and did not notice their surroundings. Only when they looked up upon vaguely catching laughter and words around them, then they realised that the surrounding empty tables were all taken up by girls.

The two girls at the right probably just sat down. The classmate next to them teased, “Eh, can you two be any more obvious?”
“Seriously?” A girl with reddened ears rebutted, “You’re so annoying.”
“Okokok, let’s eat,” that boy answered. “Lemme take a look at your script later, please? Both Mazi and I thought that this subject is kinda tough to tackle.”
The girl flashed a look at Jiang Tian and Sheng Wang’s table. “Ours aren’t any better either—”

As the conversation kept continuing and Jiang Tian happened to look up at the same time, that girl turned to Jiang Tian, her face as red as a tomato, “Jiang Tian? The script for the spoken English lesson and the few questions the teacher left us yesterday……do you mind lending us a look?”
For a split second, Jiang Tian’s face blanked out.
Sheng Wang choked on a mouthful of porridge, and coughed until he turned red.

The girl who asked this question did not expect a response like this at all and was startled. She hurriedly took out a tissue and gave it to Sheng Wang.
“Thanks.” Sheng Wang calmed down as he sprawled over the table, his pale and thin hand weakly waving the tissue at her.

That girl cautiously asked, “Why did you suddenly choke?”
Jiang Tian got up to buy a bottle of water from the vending machine, and touched Sheng Wang’s hand with the bottom of the bottle, settling it next to him. He then finally said to the girl, “You should borrow from other people, I suppose.”

“Huh?” the girl stopped.
Jiang Tian said, “I didn’t do it.”
The girl: “???”

Sheng Wang looked up from the crook of his elbow, the redness was fading down from his neck. He opened the bottle of water Jiang Tian bought, downed two gulps, and saw the girl turn towards him again out of the corner of his eyes.

He swallowed the water, and smiled awkwardly, “I didn’t do it either.”
The girl: “???”

“Are you two not planning to write anymore or……”
Sheng Wang gave a forceful laugh. “We forgot.”

The teacher in charge of the public speaking lesson was very strict; a little fierce, even. The girl thought of the teacher’s face and couldn’t help but say, “So much time last night……and you two didn’t write a single word?”

Sheng Wang was planning to take a couple of mouthfuls again, and upon hearing that, he made himself stop as he refused to choke to death for the second time. He met eyes with Jiang Tian and looked away again. “Yeah, not a word. Guess we’ll catch up at noon break.”

When he heard Jiang Tian and Sheng Wang didn’t do their homework, Bian Chen instantly came alive. It wasn’t that he was enjoying their misfortune, but rather he thought he could score for PK today at last.

He also did return back late last night, but he did not really dare to forget about the speech at all. Therefore, he burned the midnight oil until it was three plus in the morning, and polished out a script that he was very satisfied with.

Noon break was only an hour, to finish writing a script as well as figuring out the questions the teacher left yesterday—and to also prepare for today’s improv speech—there was no way they would succeed unless they were doped or something.
Bian Chen kept waiting, and the public speaking lesson in the afternoon came at last. Before the lesson started, he even said to his deskmate, “Just you wait, your daddy, I, will slay everyone here.”
In the end, he soon noticed he was being too imaginative.

The two bastards probably did take drugs; not only did they settle the script, they even performed especially well. Judging by the reactions of the few girls in front of them, they were likely jaw-droppingly handsome while doing it.
Bian Chen thought, annoyed: they are just like peacocks opening their feathers, who are they even showing off to!

The gap between him and Sheng Wang wasn’t that big with the normal public speaking PK on the first day. Today, with impromptu Q&A as well as the speech, the disparity in their scores was soul crushing.

As such, for the second half of the lesson, he was entirely out of it. He sprawled over his table like he was on the verge of death, thinking that he had to be sleepwalking.
What he didn’t know was that the two behind him weren’t exactly in the right mood too—especially Sheng Wang.

The moment Sheng Wang finished his improv speech and left the stage, he received some WeChat messages from his old classmates, all wishing him a happy birthday.
He replied to everyone one by one, and chatted a bit more with Bajiao Crab.

Crab was an abnormally gossipy person, he was not outdone by Gao Tianyang in this aspect. It was obvious from the way he followed Fuzhong’s confession wall. However, he was different from Gao Tianyang when it came to one point: Gao Tianyang’s EQ was lower than the grass. Crab was different; he was especially perceptive when he gossiped.

After bullshitting around with Sheng Wang, he suddenly said, suspiciously: Sheng-ge, I’ve noticed something
Recyclable: what?
Bajiao Crab: in order for you to not mistake me for some screwed up person, lemme first explain
Recyclable: ?
Bajiao Crab: we started competition classes recently too. those questions disgust me so much that I’m turning bald, every time I can’t solve them, I want to message you. but!
Bajiao Crab: I’m so considerate, I know your papers are more disgusting than mine, so I endured it
Bajiao Crab: however!
Bajiao Crab: I didn’t send any questions to you in the end, but I have tapped on your chat countless times
Recyclable: ……
Recyclable: if you keep talking in such a disgusting manner I am going to unfriend you
Bajiao Crab: no pls
Bajiao Crab: kowtows
Bajiao Crab: I’m done building up
Bajiao Crab: I just wanna say, bro your profile picture is changing kinda quite frequently these past few months
Recyclable: ……

Sheng Wang stared at the chat interface, and could vaguely guess what that idiot on the other side wanted to say.
Just as expected, several new messages popped up in his chat at once.

Bajiao Crab: I figured
Bajiao Crab: Sheng-ge, is something up?
Bajiao Crab: [fly rubbing its hands]
Bajiao Crab: [narrowed eyes smile]
Bajiao Crab: look at how long you’ve used ‘canned’? ever since I know you, all you used is canned, even after you left you still didn’t change
Recyclable: ……

Bajiao Crab: you’ve changed enough recently to last for several years
Bajiao Crab: are you dating someone now?
Sheng Wang’s brows twitched.
He stared at that line for a long while, and then turned to look at Jiang Tian.

The other person noticed his gaze landing on him. His head was slightly lowered as he asked, “What?”
Sheng Wang made use of the boy impassionately speaking on stage as a cover, and said, “Was talking on WeChat with a bro from before.”

Out of who knew what mindset, he turned over his phone screen and showed it to the other person.
Jiang Tian’s eyes moved down; from that angle, he probably saw the line “dating someone” immediately. He stilled for a few seconds, and his eyes moved up to look at Sheng Wang.

The teachers on stage were scoring the student, most of the students in the classroom were all at the edge of their seats. This corner of this classroom was the only place that was thoroughly filled by some ineffable thing.

That boy walked down from the stage. The teacher made some brief comments, and a girl went up next. Sheng Wang shot a hurried glance over there, lowered his eyes and typed out a reply to Crab.

Recyclable: u just reminded me
Bajiao Crab: ?
Recyclable: it’s time for me to change my profile picture
Bajiao Crab: ???

Jiang Tian watched him reply with those. He also saw the scoring teacher—who was watching the speech—leave the stage, and sit down on a random empty spot in the back of the classroom.
Jiang Tian had no choice but to look away, and watched the improv speech in complete disinterest. A while later, he looked down once more, dug his phone out from the bag, opened Sheng Wang’s WeChat profile and refreshed.

This person changed his profile picture to a giant Wang-zai gift pack, his personal nickname changed to three words: Shop’s Anniversary Celebration.
Jiang Tian: “……”

After Sheng Wang changed his profile picture, he went to mess with Crab again, causing the other person to keep spamming memes as well as cawing and yelling in his replies. He finally stopped with much satisfaction.
There were only a few minutes left until class was over. He casually went through Moments a few times, and thought everyone’s moments were pretty interesting. Lastly, he unknowingly tapped into the chat with “Someone”.

The real person was sitting next to him, but he was looking at this person’s WeChat personal info page instead.
Compared to him, Jiang Tian had a much more consistent profile picture and personal nickname. Always Leader the cat, always the full stop.

Although he could predict how his Moment was empty just as usual, he tapped in nonetheless. That was when he saw a change.

The cover for Jiang Tian’s moments was originally the default one, nothing was changed. However, it was different today—it became a photo.
The photo was taken before dawn break, the morning light was pale and shone in from the patio, dividing the dorm clearly into darkness and light.
That empty table was right in the middle of the boundary; half received the bask of the light, the other remained at night.
Nobody knew that a few hours prior, the table witnessed the pounding of hearts between youths, and the seamless intimacy between them.

Sheng Wang stared at that photo, and a wave of red crawled up his neck.

Fuck……
He didn’t know how much Jiang Tian drank when he took that photo last night, but either way, he was never getting sober from that.

TO BE CONTINUED.