A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 001 – Jiang Tian

BEST DESKMATE OF THE BATCH

「The chirping of cicadas that year was louder than any other, the tree branches outside the classroom grew as madly as they could; but no matter what, they could not block the scorching sun.」

The inter-class breaks were always full of noise in the top floor of Mingli Block in Fuzhong. The study rep of Year 2 Class A drifted from the corridor into the classroom, hollering, “Reporting—our class is getting a new student!”
“The little eunuch from the Respectability room is here to mess with us again,” somebody mocked.
(t/n: Respectability room: It’s the imperial household department in the Ming Dynasty within the Forbidden City, it was where the eunuchs and palace maids were managed. Essentially, this referred to the teachers as ‘emperors’/ ‘empresses’ to be served, and the poor study rep as a d*ckless eunuch in retrospect)“You’re the one who’s a little eunuch, I’m serious.”
“It’s not even midterm or end of term, what is even going to come in?”
“It’s a transfer student.”

With this said, the ones who were actually awake in the classroom became more alive. “Boy or girl? For sure?”
“Absolutely sure! I just saw him, he’s a guy, quite tidy looking and dashing.” The study rep mulled a little, and added, “Who knows which teacher decided to be a bastard and grabbed the school prince of another campus.”
A chorus of jeering and squawking resounded within the classroom, a few girls stole a quick glance at the corner of the last row amidst the chaos. There was a guy resting his head on his table, catching up on his sleep; a hand covered the back of his head, his long digits slightly curved, and his wrist bone jutting out.
The surroundings were really too noisy, he ran his fingers through his short hair, and leaned his head towards a different direction.

The girls retracted their gaze, and their voices instantly became much softer. “Where did he transfer from?”
The study rep sounded out a name.
“What’s that? There’s a school like this nearby?”
“I’ve never heard of its name too, but it has to be a key province school, otherwise there’s no way he could transfer into our class.”
“Wait, let me check.” The boy speaking dug out his phone from the bottom of his table as if he was a thief. “There’s no teacher around right? Help me keep a lookout.”

He speedily searched on his phone, and after he was done he was dumbfounded. “Fuck?”
“What is it?”
The boy holding the phone displayed the results for a single round, and the remaining people also went dumb.
Only a long while later then did someone finally come back to their senses. “He’s not from this province? Someone not from this province finished year one and transferred into Jiangsu? Did that handsome guy’s head get stuck between the doors?”

Sheng Wang, whose head was allegedly stuck between the doors, was waiting for orders at the student affairs office.
The cicadas released its long cries in the heavy shade, he only managed to get a clear listen from the new voice messages sent from his dad after distancing from the windows and stuffing in his earpiece. Three messages in a row, each message a minute long, the usual style of Sheng Mingyang.

“Your Uncle Xiao-Chen just called me and told me you went upstairs by yourself. Why didn’t you wait for him? New place new classmates, it’s better for someone to guide you—”
“How’s the atmosphere of the school, is there much of a difference from First High? Even though both are key schools of the province, but after all it’s not just a province—”

“Have you seen Old Xu yet—”

The air condition in the student affairs office was a little old, and could only manage local air conditioning, suitable for the middle age and old. Sheng Wang stood at the front of the air outlet, the tip of his hair, slightly dampened by sweat, was blown to the point of being ice cold. His fingers tapped his screen, and cut the voice message off only after listening to the first few bits, rolling his eyes once every message. By the time he rolled his eyes for the third time he was already a little lost.

He of course already knew about Uncle Xiao-Chen, that was the driver who sent him to report in. The teaching zone did not allow for cars to enter, and the parking spot was also far apart, Sheng Wang felt that the extra effort was a waste of energy, and decided to might as well let him go back first.
Then……

Who’s Old Xu?”
“You cut off my voice message again?” Sheng Mingyang instantly replied.
Sheng Wang fanned himself with his own collars, and pretended that he lost connection.

Sheng Mingyang chased after him with a phone call, his tone grudging. “Old Xu is the head of the office, he isn’t very tall, and he looks quite proper, and maybe a little strict. Logically speaking he should be the one fetching you, seen him yet?”
Sheng Wang recalled according to his descriptions. “I don’t think so. The teacher who brought me upstairs was quite amiable, he kept smiling, it’s just that he looks like a big mouth monkey.”
(t/n: Big Mouth Monkey, the name for Paul Frank in chinese. Google it and see what it’s like. Personally I decided that big mouth monkey would make more sense as a nickname in English than paul frank. ) He’s also short, and his direct gaze only reached Sheng Wang’s shoulders, he had to lean upwards to talk to him. After he settled Sheng Wang here he headed downstairs, saying that he was getting someone to help him carry the new teaching material.

Sheng Mingyang’s brain jammed a little. “Oh, kinda there, that’s him.”
Sheng Wang: “……”
After a thought, he said, “Dad, do you think that I look proper?”
Sheng Mingyang wanted to smack him.
As a businessman, his ability to speak human to humans and speak ghost to ghosts was trained to the point of perfection, only here when facing his son then it failed.

The sound of people came from outside the door, Sheng Wang turned around and glanced. “Monkey—no—Dean Xu is here, I’ll hang up now.”
Sheng Mingyang increased his talking speed. “Sure, do well, try to make a good first impression in front of your teachers on your first day, don’t recklessly give them nicknames.”
“Ok,” Sheng Wang drawled in response.
“I’ll get Xiao-Chen to fetch you at night, I should be able to reach home around that time, I’ll show you—”
He hesitated a little, and acted as if he was relaxed and casual as he said, “Let’s invite your Auntie Jiang for a meal; it’s that thing your dad discussed with you about last time, alright?”
Sheng Wang pursed his lips.

Auntie Jiang’s name was Jiang Ou, and had a son. He never met Jiang Ou herself, he only saw two pictures, and even so he barely put any effort into it.
He had been hearing that name on-and-off for nearly a year now, the frequency went from once every two to three months to nearly every day; he really was getting used to it soon. It had to be said that Sheng Mingyang was a pro at controlling the mood, and fault could not be found with what he was doing. It was to the point that Sheng Wang could not even find a suitable entry point for him to throw a tantrum.

Last month, Sheng Mingyang said that he would be twice as busy for the second half of the year, and could barely stay a few days at home. He also said that Jiang Ou ran into some issues with her house and could no longer stay there. Therefore, he wanted to let Jiang Ou move in, and thus she would have a place to stay, and would be able to help take care of Sheng Wang at the same time.

Honestly, taking care was a lie; there was already a lady hired for cleaning and cooking. The issue might not even be real, it was only for the sake of a breakthrough: by the time they really live together could she even still leave?

This issue appeared to be a discussion between them, but in reality before Sheng Wang actually agreed, new items began appearing in his house, everything was prepared to welcome that woman, oh, and that son of hers.
No matter if he showed up for dinner tonight, there was only one outcome.

Sheng Wang’s reply did not come after a long while, Sheng Mingyang called out for him from the other side of the phone.
Dean Xu, who looked like a big mouth monkey, walked in just at that moment. Sheng Wang immediately hung up after a short pause.
It was a new student reporting in after all, the head of administration Dean Xu was able to maintain his basic benevolence. “You were calling your home? No worries, don’t need to hurry and hang up, informing your family is what you ought to do.”
Sheng Wang turned his head, his laugh youthful. “Thank you, teacher, I was nearly done anyways.”

Dean Xu pointed at the teacher behind him and nodded. He said it downstairs just now, that this new transfer student may have looks that spelled trouble for girls, but he seemed to be a good student, and would not overstep in his behaviour.

“Come, sit.” Dean Xu pointed at the stack of books newly brought over and said, “This is the teaching material we will theoretically be using this semester, you can take a look.”
What did he mean by theoretically?
Sheng Wang did not understand the meaning of this sentence at the moment. He opened the chemistry book on the top of the pile and flipped through two pages, its content roughly matched up to what he learned before; there was not much of a difference, it should not be a challenge when he has to learn it.

“I’ve read your information, you transferred quite a few times?” Dean Xu said.
Sheng Wang nodded. “Mm, transferred a few times.” He basically went wherever Sheng Mingyang went.
He did his elementary school in Jiangsu, he transferred two more times between middle school and first year of high school, this was the third time. Thanks to these transfers, he held no special regard for any particular place, he did not stay for long in anywhere at all.

“I’ve also seen your results, you are a brilliant student, basically never leaving the top three of the year in your exams. You definitely have the quality, it’s just that there might be a slight tiny difference for the progress on the academic programme between the schools.” Dean Xu used his fingers to demonstrate a difference of less than 1cm, and consoled, “You will more or less run into problems like this when you transfer schools, with a bit of effort you can catch up, no need to be scared.”

Student Sheng Wang always had a smooth journey, and never actually did face any fear when it came to academics, there was no way he would be scared. But, he could not act as if he was not humble, so he could only let down the tail that was sticking up behind him. “I did some mental preparation before coming here, I’ll do my best to catch up.”

Dean Xu looked even more benevolent. “Have you been through subject streaming in your first year?”
Sheng Wang said, “No, my school tried a semester of fluid classes.”
(t/n: I am..not sure about the term ‘fluid classes’ actually. It’s just a term I came up with. The one Sheng Wang went to allowed students to choose their subjects, and attended classes according to those subjects as compared to having a single class where everyone takes the same subjects in the same class. This school’s version however is probably subject banding + a good dose of elitism.)“Oh.” Dean Xu nodded. “Actually, we also have fluid classes, it’s just slightly more special.”
Sheng Wang was a little confused. “Special? How special?”

“The Class A you are about to enter is the best of year 2 sciences, we shift around every half a term.

Isn’t there two major exams in the form of midterms and end of terms? Last three places would go to Class B after every major test, then the top three from then would enter. This is our streamed class.”
Sheng Wang: “……”
Simply put, other people’s fluidity was freedom of choice for their subjects, over here for them their fluidity was to let people screw off.

Dean Xu was done with scaring little kids, and finally decided to be humane.
He led Sheng Wang towards Mingli Block through the flower corridors. Sheng Wang could not help to take a few more glances after passing by the wall of honour, as the wall full of expressionless “ID picture” really bore too much similarity to a wanted poster.
This school’s taste was truly something, he thought.

However, Dean Xu tiptoed a little, and preened like a peacock on the spot. He said rather proudly, “There really aren’t a lot of Olympiads for year ones, but our performance is still quite decent. Most of the people on this wall will become your classmates, you may familiarise yourself with them in advance.”

Sheng Wang was bad with faces, and had no interest in getting to know his classmates in advance; he only remembered a single face.
First, it was because the repetition rate of his face was too high, and managed to single handedly turn the wall of honour into a match the puzzle game. Second, was because his surname was Jiang, his full name was Jiang Tian.
The important part was the second part.
Sheng Wang self admittedly would be an incapable ruler as an emperor; he enjoyed ‘guilt by association’. If he was petty then he was petty, in any case he held no pleasant feelings for anyone with the surname Jiang at all recently.

Dean Xu was admiring the wall for the thousandth time, and yet he suddenly pulled a long face. He closed up on that Jiang Tian’s picture, reached out and wiped it for a bit, and angered, “Who doodled hearts on the wall of honour, how dare they disregard the rules!”

Sheng Wang grunted and added fuel to the fire at the side. “And it’s not only one person.”
The school photographer’s methods were too unorthodox, still the person in the picture still kept a certain air to it; in Dean Xu’s words he could spell trouble for girls everywhere. But, Sheng Wang felt that cold guys like him have a high chance of ‘B-king’.

He prayed that he would be able to stay further away from this person, to avoid having to fight him the day when he could no longer stand him.

However not even five minutes since he made the wish, he was forcibly placed right next to the real life B-king himself. The reason was that he just started and it would be difficult for him, the best solution was to find his deskmate whenever he has questions.
Dean Xu said, “When you look at the entire batch, you probably can’t find a better deskmate than Jiang Tian.”
The moment his voice stopped, 40+ pairs of eyes all directed their suffocating gazes at him.

Sheng Wang dully gave Big Mouth Monkey a look, and internally said screw you.

  TO BE CONTINUED.