A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 043 – Bet

How about you call me Ge once?

For the majority of the students, the true meaning behind the sports carnival wasn’t for the competition amongst youth and the chance to display vitality; but rather, it was the rare chance to relax and take a breath amidst the mountain of exams. There weren’t any classes for these two days, which was basically a monthly break. The entire school was excited, and were abnormally diligent in their preparation. In contrast, the teachers were much more unperturbed.

He Jin said that there weren’t any requirements for the minimum number in the audience. If they want to spectate, they could go. If not, they could stay behind for self-study too.
The bigshots of Class A had always put their studies first!
……
You have to be a fool to stay behind for self-study.
When He Jin returned from the office for a tag, not a single soul was left in the classroom.

“That bunch of brats,” she laughed as she cursed too, and walked towards the sports ground with the other homeroom teachers. Though in its core, the sports carnival was primarily for relaxation, friendship comes first and competition second etc etc, the moment they truly entered the place the competitive spirits of these middle-aged people all came out as they got caught up in this heart-racing atmosphere.
The teachers all appeared to be humble as they said “Our class can’t make it”, deep down they hoped that their students surpassed everyone else.

As He Jin entered as part of the formation of teachers, she nearly blacked out upon seeing Class A in the grandstand.
The top of their class had a giant banner, and the class slogan was written in white, on top of the red fabric. Everyone else had some inspirational line like ‘charge forward bravely, hot blooded youthful energy, second place at least and fight for the first, overcoming all difficulties’ etc etc, their class however looked like this:
Year 2 Class A, win or lose, it’s ok! Life is painful and brief, it’s over and that’s a relief!
The entire formation of teachers was doubled over in laughter.
He Jin charged over here as she covered her face, caught a boy nearby and asked, “Whose good idea was it for the slogan?”
“Oh, it’s Gao Tianyang’s.” The boy sold his bro out with zero hesitation.

Over there, Gao Tianyang was giving out team uniforms to the participants. Upon hearing his name, he turned around and gave a toothy grin. “Teacher! Look, we even got a uniform!”
The T-shirts were good T-shirts, the two vertical lines of dark blue at the side added a shapely outline to the shirt. The front of the shirt was an absolute ‘A’, behind was an even more absolute ‘Super A’. He Jin felt like she picked up a ghost.

Just as she was about to distance herself from them in order to not lose face, she was stopped by Yang Jing who strolled in, fashionably late. Today, Yang Jing had a completely different style from usual. She wore a white slim fit shirt and a sports skirt. She also wore a high ponytail and a white baseball cap, unexpectedly giving her a degree of vivaciousness. Class A students nearly couldn’t recognise her, and next they all turned agape one by one, their mouths couldn’t be closed.

“What are you guys even doing? Trying to copy administration’s Old Xu?” Yang Jing raised an eyebrow and turned her nose up at them. “How unsightly, shut it.”
The group of students near here all obediently shut their mouths.

“Hereherehere, let’s take a picture with the banner.” She beckoned He Jin who no longer had any will to live, and her long legs made its way to the top.
“It’s too silly, what’s the point?” He Jin said, exasperated.
“To post it in the friendship circle,” Yang Jing said, “flex our treasure of a class.”
He Jin ‘pffted’ into laughter.

“Holyshitwho’sthat?” Just as Sheng Wang was wrangling with Gao Tianyang about the dumbass uniform, he was given a scare by Yang Jing the moment he looked up.
The way he was thoroughly lost was so funny that it completely amused Yang Jing. She looked down, and saw another person sitting by Sheng Wang, his long legs propped up. He had his white earpiece stuffed in his ears, and his back was hunched over as he used his phone.

“How brazen, you’re this audacious with your phone in the public eye?” Yang Jing asked.
Sheng Wang’s dangling fingers furiously knocked on Jiang Tian’s shoulders. “Wake up! Keep your phone!”

Jiang Tian’s eyes lifted up as he shot a glance at Sheng Wang’s meddling fingers before he looked at Yang Jing and He Jin, saying, “Teacher.”
Class A students all knew that as long as they weren’t using their phones in the middle of class or get caught by Big Mouth, nothing would happen if the other remaining teachers saw. Jiang Tian was already cold and unfaltering, he barely reacted at all when the teachers came. He even swiped across the screen twice after he greeted them.

“Who pissed him off? He seems pretty upset,” Yang Jing asked.
“He’s shutting the world out,” Sheng Wang said, holding back his laughter, “Gao Tianyang’s uniform was too cringey and he refuses to wear it even if it kills him.”
Jiang Tian played deaf with his earpiece stuffed in.

Yang Jing trembled with laughter as she saw the way he was, and then left after taking a few pictures with He Jin.

After Sheng Wang had his fill of admiring Jiang Tian’s aloof head from the back, he suddenly wanted to tease him.
He was also completely unwilling to wear the shirt, he even wanted to beat Gao Tianyang up. But, upon seeing Jiang Tian’s state, he couldn’t help but change his mind—
He waved at Gao Tianyang. “Come here, give me two.”
Gao Tianyang was overjoyed at this twist of events. “Hm? You’ve finally discovered the artistry in my taste?”
“The hell is your artistry,” Sheng Wang mercilessly judged.
“Then why did you change your mind suddenly?”
“My skin is itching.”

My skin is truly itching for a beating, Sheng Wang internally said, but his hands dangled the shirt in front of Jiang Tian anyways.
Jiang Tian looked up, removed his earpiece and asked, “What?”
Sheng Wang said, “I suddenly felt that this shirt is passable.”
Jiang Tian looked at him with an expression that said “Did your aesthetics cells all die”.
“Take a closer look,” Sheng Wang said.
Jiang Tian gave a cold laugh; he wasn’t interested.
“C’moon, it’s the sports carnival, you gotta put hot-bloodedness first,” Sheng Wang did his best to not laugh, appearing particularly sincere. “It’s normal to be a little chunni and stupid, Old Gao has already put in so much effort anyways.”

“Therefore?” A single word jumped out of Jiang Tian’s deadpan face.
Sheng Wang started to stick his head into the verge of asking for a beating. “Therefore I kinda want to wear it.”
“……”

Jiang Tian’s gaze travelled over him. “You wear it then.”
Upon seeing that he was about to stuff in his earpiece again, Sheng Wang grabbed his wrist, saying, “It’s too embarrassing if I wear it alone.”
Jiang Tian’s expression screamed “I fucking knew it”, and numbly said, “I’m not wearing that.”

“With a close of your eyes and a kick of your legs, put it on you and tada, it’s all over,” Sheng Wang said.
“No.”
“Just one day.”
“No.”
“Ge.”
“……”

Jiang Tian also felt like he picked up a ghost.

A few minutes later, under the shellshocked gaze of everyone else in Class A, Sheng Wang walked down the grandstand with him pushing Jiang Tian’s shoulders. He suppressed his laughter behind him, and even motioned an ‘ok’ at Gao Tianyang behind his back. As for Jiang Tian……his aura was so chilling he nearly froze into an ice sculpture; every single cell in him from head to toe was a ‘I reject’ in capslock.

It was rare that everyone could see Jiang Tian taken down a peg like this, they instantly whistled and howled. They blindly kicked up a ruckus.
Sheng Wang used his pointer finger to shush them, and said laughingly, “Don’t you dare scream, don’t mess this up for me. I shed blood, sweat and tears to finally coax him down here. If he gets angry and goes to sit on the rooftop, are you gonna do the coaxing?”
Jiang Tian halted in his steps, his brows furrowed as he looked at him.
Sheng Wang instantly went, “I’m sorry, I’m not speaking anymore.”

Everyone planned to watch the show at first, but when they legitimately changed and came back…oh my god, they look so good?
Gao Tianyang was like a giant monkey that was bouncing up and down. He pointed at the two walking signboards and said, “Look! I was totally right! The effect is super explosive! The shirt is so wild and savage and dashing, who the hell still dares to say my taste has died?! Who!”
“Unbeatable!” Song Sirui made a huge stride forward, whisked a shirt from Gao Tianyang’s hands and ran.
With merely a few seconds, the classmates who previously would rather die than give in had collectively switched sides; the team uniforms were instantly all gone, there was even someone who didn’t need to participate attempting to snag one for himself amidst the chaos, and was instantly caught red handed by Gao Tianyang. “Eh, fuck off! If you take even this one I’ll have to go up in my birthday suit!”
The troublemaker boy retracted his hands with a grin. “Fine, fine, that’ll be an eyesore.”

As seen from the evidence, Gao Tianyang’s taste was really passable. The clothes looked chunni as hell, but the effect was exceptional upon being worn. All the athletes of Class A did at roll-call was to stand together, and the year one classes closest to them all exploded into commotion. The girls exchanged excited whispers, and the booklet containing the register of the athletes that every class got a copy of was nearly fell apart from all the flipping. The girls were all looking for the events Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian would be participating in, and there were even some calls of “Gao Tianyang” mixed within.

Gao Tianyang was jokingly called a tyrant of Class A by other classes, because this creature could continue to score first place after a consecutive round of 1500m followed by 3000m. At the finishing line, he didn’t even need to rest to catch his breath before he was off to summon his friends to go play ball. His stamina was simply inhumane.
Sports carnival in Fuzhong ran on point accumulation. There were 12 classes in year two, the first six places in each event will all get points. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd place gets 15, 10 and 5 points respectively. The 4th-6th place gets 3-1 points in descending order.

“Old Gao scored three 15s last year, thus managing to drag our class to 6th place by force,” Song Sirui said.
“Is the 6th place supposed to be phenomenal?” Sheng Wang wasn’t exactly clear on how good the other classes were.
Song Sirui explained everything with only a single line. “Let’s put it this way: if not for Old Gao last year, we would probably score a total of 15 points for last year, and end up last in the level.”
Sheng Wang: “……”

His first reaction was to look at Jiang Tian, his expression a little incredulous.

Jiang Tian didn’t exactly care about these sorts of things initially, but upon seeing Sheng Wang’s questioning gaze, he couldn’t help but add, “Don’t look at me, I wasn’t here last year.”

“Oh, yeah,” Gao Tianyang said, “I think he was in a training camp, therefore not in school.”
Sheng Wang let out an “oh”, and said, “Exactly my thoughts, you don’t look like the type to not score after all.”

“What place did our class come in for the relay race last year?” Sheng Wang said, “Give me a good estimate.”
Gao Tianyang dryly laughed. “We came in last.”
“But! This year! Let us strive for 6th place minimum and fight for the top three? Everybody, put your all into it!” Song Sirui yelled.

2.30pm, afternoon. Roll-call had begun for the 8 x 200 event. Before entering, every class’ order of relay was constantly changing. All the other classes were attempting to get the other class to divulge their strategy, trying to figure out their opponent’s formation. That is, except for Class A. All the girls surrounding them were just there to scream about how hot they are, there wasn’t a single spy. It was the most blatant display of condescension from other classes.

“Whatever, let’s just go in this order!” Gao Tianyang said, “I go first, and try to create as much distance as possible. Next is Old Song and Little Carp, you two just do your best. Sheng-ge, you go in the middle, and try to make up for these two’s distance a bit. Little Chilli is decent at running, so 5th leg goes to her. Next is Qiaona and Dai Xiaohuan, um….don’t feel too pressured about this, not puking is already victory. And then Tian-ge for the last leg, we’ll take whatever position you can get.”

Soon, everyone was in place. One round around the track was 400m, two legs made up one round. Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian’s exchange zone happened to be together, so before their turn, they stood next to the track with each other.
Sheng Wang’s hand was propped against the tent; he squinted as he watched the starting point.

The sun at the start of autumn was not as eye piercing as the one in the height of summer, hanging high up in the sky. The air was filled with the fresh scent of turf from the football field. He saw Gao Tianyang bending over at the starting point, and the teacher raising the starting pistol at an even further spot.
The moment the shot was fired, Jiang Tian, who was next to him, suddenly spoke. “Wanna bet?”

It was rare that he took initiative, Sheng Wang felt somewhat surprised. “We’re on the same team this time, did you forget?”
Jiang Tian: “That’s why I’m betting.”

Sheng Wang asked, “Bet what?”
“Bet if we can get 1st place.”

“The stake?”
Jiang Tian’s brows were lightly knitted as he pondered. “I haven’t thought of one yet.”

Sheng Wang “tsked”, and said, “What’s the point of betting then?”

Gao Tianyang was sprinting along the track in the distance, as swift as the wind. Sheng Wang watched him leave all 11 people from the other classes behind him, and then pass the baton to Song Sirui. Class A’s cheers could be heard from across the grass field, causing everyone’s hearts to race.
As Gao Tianyang shook off his sweat while he walked over here, Sheng Wang waved at him.
Just as he thought nothing was going to come to fruit of the topic of gambling, Jiang Tian’s gaze suddenly returned from the distance. He took a glance at him and said, “How about you call me Ge once?”

TO BE CONTINUED.