A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 111 – The Human World

He Instantly Heated Up After He Was Done Eating.

Other than the occasional bursts of confusion, the slight hunch of his back, the old man was fine everywhere else. His voice was still as loud as before, he still looked as fierce whenever he kept up a stern expression. His greatest hobby was still watching television, the channels forever looping between military affairs, the news, and agriculture. The moment the television started jamming, he would roll up his sleeves and apply his slaps. If there was still a naughty creature like Gao Tianyang who climbed his roof, he could most definitely grab a broom and beat the person down.

Initially, Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian agreed before this to cook, but the moment they finished washing their hands, they were chased out of the kitchen by the old man like he was rushing ducks. He said with a fierce look, “What has it got anything to do with the two of you, stay outta the way.”
“I still can, you know,” Sheng Wang struggled, “You should let me have a try if you don’t believe it.”
“Shoo!” The old man was merciless. “Who’s gonna eat it if you give me a pot of broken dumplings again?”
“Don’t worry, I eat what I make,” after Sheng Wang said that, he stuck a finger out and poked his Ge.
Jiang Tian: “……I’ll eat it, too.”
The old man rolled his eyes. “Who else other than Jiang Tian would play along with you.”
Sheng Wang laughed as he leaned against the side of the kitchen door, an arm hooked around Jiang Tian. The old man gestured at them with the kitchen knife, and then with a loud holler, summoned in the Mute who just entered.

Actually, in the past few years, Sheng Wang would pass by Wu Tong Wai for a short while every time he came back to his home. The old man wasn’t around, Xi Le’s Boss Zhao wasn’t around either; he was worried that the Mute’s days would become both boring and dreary. Unfortunately, every time he came by, the door to this courtyard was always locked. The Mute was always busy at some random spot, picking up scraps, or tending to his little vegetable field.
It was later when Sheng Wang finally heard from Zhao Xi that his parents couldn’t stay put in Beijing at all — every time their health were doing slightly better, they would constantly come back to Jiangsu. Quite a significant number of months was spent in their home, their roots; half of it was because they couldn’t let Xi Le go, the other was because of this lonesome mute friend.
When Sheng Wang heard that, he felt that the ties and bonds between people often run much deeper, much longer than they seem on the surface.

The Mute had been ecstatic for the past few days. In his eyes, the friends and neighbours he was familiar with had all come home, one group after another, it was extraordinarily lively — it’s the way it ought to be for the New Year.
He had been spending all his time in Xi Le recently. Boss Zhao had acquired a huge batch of top tier longan and candy jujubes, he helped to pack them separately and seal the bag up. On the last day before the New Year, he brought back with him two giant packets — one of the old man, one for the two young’uns.
Both Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian didn’t actually quite like to eat overly-sweet things, but they were plenty happy to receive it. They knew, to someone the Mute’s age, the best blessing for the New Year is that everyday in the future will be just as sweet.

The two were no good at preparing new year gifts for their seniors. They initially bought tonic as per the norm, as they wished for the older people to live a long and blessed life after all. However, they changed their mind again as they waited for the food, and snuck over to the nearest shopping centre. They bought two smartphones that were old people friendly.
No need to mention why for Old Man Ding; he had always been using the phone, they were merely helping him upgrade into the newer generation. As for the Mute……
Their hearts really couldn’t bear to see the way he was all by himself, especially when the noise and life faded away. He would stand there, gesturing with “uh-uh-ah-ah” coming out of his throat; the sight of it was so heart wrenching that one wouldn’t bear to leave. Although he still wouldn’t be able to make phone calls despite having a phone, he could write at the very least.
Sheng Wang helped him set up the input method, guiding him on how to use it step by step. “You can chat about whatever you like, you can send it to Boss Zhao, to the old man, to me and to Jiang Tian too.”
The Mute and the old man were thrilled upon getting new things, and spent a whole afternoon sending messages to each other while sitting directly opposite in their small rattan chairs. It was funnily more effective than their invented sign language.

Jiang Tian pointed at the old man’s back. “Does this look familiar to you?”
Question marks rose all over Sheng Wang’s head. “No…? Why?”
Jiang Tian: “It is to me.”
“Why?” the young master asked in seriousness.
However, Dr. Jiang said without batting an eye, “That’s your posture when you sent messages on WeChat during class before.”
Sheng Wang: “……”
He quieted for two seconds. He held the flesh of the tangerine he just finished peeling in his mouth, and then chased his Ge out with the tangerine peel.

Tonight’s dinner was booked at a private restaurant. The boss was a classic Beijingese, and Sheng Wang loved his cooked hawthorns, boiled shrimp balls and sweet pease pudding; he sent out the imperial edict to eat there every other day. Save for the lack of time to accompany him, Sheng Mingyang would satisfy any requests of his, and so with this he became on good terms with the boss.
Actually, Sheng Wang’s taste buds changed after he grew up — but the old comrade’s rate in which he learned new information was akin to changing a new generation of mobile phones: always behind the young people by a few steps. It lingered in all those years ago, stubbornly remembering those three dishes.

This had to be the Chinese New Year eve’s dinner with the most people present; Sheng Wang even brought along the old man and the Mute, but it wasn’t lively at all. After all, comrade Sheng Mingyang still had some objection in his heart, chit-chatting was sustained all by EQ; its content, upon recalling, was nothing to write home about. It wasn’t exactly cheerful, but it wasn’t really depressing either. Most of which were insignificant and lighthearted matters.

The old comrade had been to too many work dinners, and had a bit of “occupational disease” — he felt that the dinner couldn’t go to waste, and some development should more or less happen. Therefore, as it reached its end, he was suddenly unable to hold himself back, and attempted to push forward development—
He swirled the last bit of alcohol in his glass, and tried to play it casual as he asked, “Xiao-Tian hasn’t graduated, right?”
Jiang Tian nodded. “I still have two more years.”
“Then you still have to leave after you’re done with the project?”
“Yes.”

The old comrade let out an “oh”, took a sip of alcohol, and gave his son a meaningful look. However, his son suddenly spoke, “Since we’re on this topic, I’m filling you in on something first.”
Sheng Mingyang instinctively felt alarmed. His fingers, holding the glass, came to a pause. He asked, “About what?”
Sheng Wang said, “I’ll probably go overseas at that time too.”
Sheng Mingyang was agitated. “What do you mean you’re going overseas too? What are you doing overseas?”
“My company does outpost personnels,” Sheng Wang said, “I had a chat with them a while ago……”

Sheng Mingyang spat out blood internally, and put down the glass quietly. The old comrade did not care about the hell kind of chat he had, he only knew that he had a moment of regret.
It was like he had played a round of fancy pool, and a strike of the cue stick sent it knocking into a black ball. After bumping all around the table for ages, it clashed against a white ball with a bang, and then both ended up in the pocket. When he sent Jiang Tian away at the start, no way in hell he thought that there would be such a roundabout sequel to this. After more than six years, he sent Sheng Wang out at last.
But he couldn’t say anything to object — he was the one who delivered the first strike back then.

The old friend running the restaurant gave them a lamb spine stew on the house. The comrade ate a bit as he chatted, and he instantly heated up after he was done eating; his mouth hurt. Even more so when he went home and saw the two young ones entering the same room.

In comparison, Sheng Wang was in a rather good mood.
Although the atmosphere for the dinner was still far from “joy and harmony”, that was still within expectations. In reality, the fact that they could have a complete dinner at the same table together already did imply the beginning of the melting of the glacier.
In addition, at 12 midnight on the dot, Jiang Tian received a message from Jiang Ou. Its content was rather simple — it was nothing else but wishing her son a happy new year, telling him to rest appropriately. Only, she added an additional line at the end of the well wishing.
She said: Everyone drank, right? Remember to brew up some honey water, so there wouldn’t be a headache tomorrow.

The message may be sent to one person and all, but it was clear that this wasn’t meant for only one. Perhaps it was just a simple show of concern, irrelevant to anything else. However, when Sheng Wang saw this message, he felt for some inexplicable reason that maybe after a year or two, they might really end up sitting around at the same table together; like that night many years ago in Wu Tong Wai, enjoying a good meal of dumplings.

*
The morning on the second day of the New Year, Sheng Wang still accidentally overslept a little despite setting an alarm.
It was past eight in the morning by the time he opened his eyes. The bedroom door downstairs was wide open, the bed neatly made. Sheng Mingyang had already left for his morning flight, and did not manage to have a departure breakfast with his son in time.
Of course, it was possible that he did not want to have that meal on purpose, seeing that the old comrade was still heated up, a giant blister having formed by the side of his mouth.

The air condition had barely been shut off when Sheng Wang switched the all of them back on one by one while looking for food downstairs in his sweatshirt and long pants. He scratched his head as he searched through the entire kitchen, and ended back up at the fridge again. He saw the note stuck on top of it.
Sheng Mingyang wrote in neat handwriting that Sheng Wang did not inherit. Compared to Jiang Tian’s, Sheng Mingyang’s handwriting was a little thicker and rounder — it was clear that he was the businessy type.
[Rushing for flight, not sure when I’ll be back. If I’m still not home by day seven, you and Xiao-Tian should head to Beijing on your own. — Dad]

When Sheng Wang was gripping the slip, Jiang Tian came over with the scent of mint from having just washed up. A certain young master loved to keep the air condition on all night, and his throat would be dry and heated when he woke up in the morning; not even the humidifier could save him.
Jiang Tian took out a bottle of water from the fridge, uncapped it, and then took two gulps to wet his throat before finally asking, “Your dad left this?”
“Yeah,” Sheng Wang’s voice was still hoarse from not being completely awake yet. “You haven’t seen his notes before, right? Let me translate this for you: I’ve left, you two are on your own, hurry and screw off after the holiday is over.”

Jiang Tian gave a brief grunt in reply, and bumped a certain person’s bottom lip with the mouth of the bottle, asking, “You haven’t drank any water yet, have you?”
“Oh, I forgot.” Sheng Wang took a few gulps using Jiang Tian’s hand. “I was just thinking why is my throat so sore, I even thought you must have sneakily done something to me while I was dead asleep.”
After he said that, his mouth was open, wanting to drink more. Jiang Tian had already taken the bottle away, turned around, and left.

The young master’s attempt at drinking water was in vain, and followed over with a grin. “Hey, don’t run away, Dr. Jiang. Why couldn’t you take a little teasing?”
Jiang Tian switched on the television, and sat down on the sofa with half a bottle of water. He selected an app with the remote. “Do the teasing in front of your father if you dare.”
“No way, a middle-aged man’s circulatory systems aren’t all that unclogged, don’t give him a blood clot.” Sheng Wang took the bottle out of his hand, saying, “Besides, in the eyes of comrade Sheng Mingyang, his son is refined and polite, he isn’t lecherous at all. If there’s something, it has to be someone else’s fault.”

After he spoke of himself, he pondered, and said to Jiang Tian, “I can nearly imagine my dad’s impression of you in his mind.”
Jiang Tian: “……”

The young master held the bottle in his mouth, thought and said, “You have been wronged, so to make up for it, I’ve decided to cook breakfast for you with my own two hands. Happy?”
Dr. Jiang did not feel happy at all. He glanced at a certain person, dug his phone out from the pocket, and started going through the food delivery app. Sheng Wang set the water bottle aside, pressed down on the sofa with a knee, and hooked his arm around his neck. “What’s the meaning behind you looking through the food delivery app now?”
Jiang Tian was trapped in the crook of his elbow, and his throat bobbed as he chuckled.

Although Jiang Tian had not a single drop of hope for a certain person’s culinary skills, he could still be persuaded to be a white mouse this one time. Either way, back in that year, a certain person had colluded with Old Man Ding to feed him all sorts of weird things. An additional round wouldn’t hurt.
After all, that’s the boyfriend he picked for himself; what else was he supposed to do.
Jiang Tian initially wanted to keep an eye on him with the guise of “helping”, but someone went straight for locking the sliding door. He gestured a “please” at him through the glass door, indicating for him to stay far far away; he wasn’t allowed to intervene at all. So, he could only stop at that.

Sheng Wang actually had his reasons — the moment Jiang Tian left, he took his phone out from the pocket of his long pants, opened WeChat and started chatting with Gao Tianyang and co.
The main group for Fuzhong Class A had been ridiculously active, and it was for no reason other than the fact that they hadn’t settled on the date to return back to school. Most people were free from day three to day five, and with more room for choices, the harder it was to settle on a date.

Due to his own personal agenda, Sheng Wang wanted to get Gao Tianyang and Song Sirui to subtly guide the group. It was best that they set the reunion on tomorrow, as it would be Jiang Tian’s birthday.

Unassuming Gao Tianyang: that’s easy! isn’t saying “happy birthday Tian-ge” in the group chat good enough?
I No Longer Want This Hand Of Mine: no, that’s too high-key. I’m scared that he wouldn’t even go if he knew.
Da-Song: why? he’s celebrating his birthday, shouldn’t he be all happy and stuff?

Sheng Wang’s thumb hovered over the keyboard, recalling what he had heard before returning to Jiangsu—
They would be coming back for only a week, and the cat son would easily fall ill if its environment is changed too hurriedly. Therefore, before they left, they left their door card to Chen Chen, who’s Jiang Tian’s shixiong for his PhD. Chen Chen would send them a short video every day when he fed the cat, and as such he became familiar with Sheng Wang too. They would occasionally chat a little. That day, one thing led to another and so it was brought up. Chen Chen said something that caused Sheng Wang’s heart to secretly ache for Jiang Tian for a long time.
He said: Jiang Tian never celebrated his birthdays, the more we prepared, the more he hid. Most of the time, he’s already gone a few days prior to it. We don’t know why he shunned it so badly.

Sheng Wang stood with downcasted eyes for a while, and squeezed his fingers as he typed: either ways, just don’t bring it up
The good thing was that Gao Tianyang and Song Sirui knew everything about the two of them, and he didn’t need to explicitly say anything before they already got the main gist of it. The two didn’t ask any further questions, neither did they insist on going about it ostentatiously. They sent an emoji that said “okay”, and tunnelled back to the class group chat. With the intervention of a few lines, they managed to settle on the date they returned to school.

TO BE CONTINUED.