A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 060 – Swayed

He Tried So Hard to Crush Certain Feelings in Its Roots, but Before It Even Had a Chance to Work, He Nearly Failed Because of One Thing.

The atmosphere of learning in Class B wasn’t particularly thick; in fact, just as Shi Yu said, half of the class have their heads lowered in the middle of lesson. There were those on their PSP with their hands inside the desk, playing mobile games, chatting on QQ and WeChat etc. There were even people who stuffed their phone inside their pencil case horizontally in order to read novels, or make use of their long hair to cover the wireless earpiece hidden away as they watched videos.

The relation between teachers and students illustrated that virtue may be one foot tall, but the devil ten. One side always had a way to check, the other always had a way to play.

The few classmates from Class A weren’t quite used to this either, or maybe they were not in a good mood in the first place. A few of them all pulled a long face.
Sheng Wang was the only exception.

When Shi Yu told Sheng Wang about this at the start., there were a few elements of flexing. However, he forgot one thing: Sheng Wang had changed through too many places, and had seen too many classes.
Each class has their own vibe, Sheng Wang had even stayed in a class more unruly than Class B: when they moved on to high school, the cream of the crop eligible for the direct recommendations exam were selected, forming a pre-exam final sprint class that truly straight up disregarded the rules.

With a lock of the classroom doors and the pull of the curtains, it was a normal sight to see people grouping up to play poker, chess, and even mobile games together. Sheng Wang brought a foldable basketball hoop and nailed it to the back of the classroom. When boys start to get fidgety, they could toss anything inside. They even dared to compete. The main credit behind Sheng Wang’s shockingly good accuracy in shooting into the basket went to mainly those two months.

There were even people who brought dice, and used a mug as a dice cup. Those who lost will have to treat the entire class to supper. Sheng Wang had terrible luck, and had treated everyone many times.
Back then, the school cafeteria’s supper was meant for teachers on duty only. Theoretically, students shouldn’t be able to buy it, as the school did not want to delay lights out and sleep. However, they have succeeded again and again. Someone ratted them out twice, and the teacher on duty came to catch them with the penalty book. They split into three teams as they fled, and managed to shake the teachers off despite the ambush and being cut off. They snuck food back to the dorms, and toasted each other in celebration. On Monday, they would come to have a joyous reunion as they were forced to attend “The Public Criticism Beneath the National Flag”.

Whether Shi Yu had seen it before, Sheng Wang probably did it all. Big Mouth Xu was correct about one thing: he simply happened to be getting away because his good looks, his obedience was all surface level.

At one point, he thought that he liked that class that best; because of the utter lack of restraint, because of the liveliness. Because he could avoid returning to the empty and boring house.
Afterwards, when the recommendation exams were over, and that class that was formed in the last minute dispersed, he then discovered his so called ‘like’ was only just that—

The second day of vacation, those crazy days that overstepped boundaries started to blur in his mind. A month later, he couldn’t even get the names of some classmates straight, only remembering a few nicknames. Much later, the people in those days all became “them”.
Because, as he recalled, those were odds and ends of things he never had to work hard for; they were nothing to write home about.
The lessons in the afternoon were all taken up by physics and mathematics. The teacher was doing their best to go through the thought process behind solving the question, but there was only a pathetic amount of people holding their pen as they cooperated with the teacher. Sheng Wang was one of them.
However, he wasn’t taking down notes.

During the inter-class break, the study rep had given the few new classmates the homework left behind by the language and English teacher. He spared an ear for the person at the lectern, his pen however leisurely scrawled away for English.

When he flipped to a new page, he slightly rocked his chair with his foot on the bar, and felt that there wasn’t a huge difference between upstairs and downstairs.
The teacher’s speed of talking was slightly slow, the breakdown behind the thought process was too detailed. The difficulty of the question wasn’t as in depth as what Old He and the rest did, the expansion was slightly too little, the number of repeated questions on the practice paper a little too much. But, he could adjust and cope with all those by himself. Other than those, there did not seem to be any flaws at all.

I told you it wouldn’t be that hard. Look, you’re already getting used to it.
He told himself.

The downpour outside went on non-stop. For a very long period of time, the beads of rain constantly pattered against the window pane, so rhythmic to the point that it was monotonous; like the wall clock at the back of the classroom, continuously repeating the same sound, and time quietly streaming on in this sort of noise.

The sky outside was dark and gloomy, it resembled neither day nor night. The teacher’s voice was sleep inducing.
Sheng Wang looked up for a bit in the midst of doing questions, and suddenly was unable to tell what day it was. He took out a language paper, spent an entire period and a half on it until he reached the last comprehension passage, and then his words started to break apart.

He scribbled a couple of times before he realised that the ink level in his pen had reached its bottom, leaving him with only a layer of slight yellow oil; language paper was truly ink consuming as usual.
Out of habit, he twisted open the tip of the pen, his chair tilted backwards, and knocked on the table behind him without even looking back, his palm wide open as he waited.

Nothing happened at all in that several few seconds, nobody stuffed something into his palm. He didn’t manage to get a new pen refill, only Shi Yu’s confused question. “What, do you want to borrow a ruler or pen?”
Sheng Wang blanked out for a moment, and was suddenly mortified.

The sound of rain seemed to have become louder from that instant, noisy enough to irritate. He turned around in that chaotic background noise, and wanted to say to Shi Yu, who was confused, “Do you have any extra pen refills? Lend me one, I’ll return it tomorrow.”
However, before he spoke, he already no longer wanted to speak anymore.

Shi Yu was still completely befuddled. Sheng Wang flashed a smile, and said, “It’s nothing, I got confused from all those questions.”
“Okay……” Shi Yu replied, unsure.
Sheng Wang didn’t wait for anything more to leave his mouth, he already turned back to the front.

He looked at the ballpoint pen that he dismantled into half in his hand, and was abruptly no longer in the mood to keep doing questions. He sat for a long time in the clamour of the pouring rain, and finally admitted to himself that he did somewhat take certain things for granted.
He overestimated his ability to adapt; he also overestimated his endurance.

Not even half a day went by, and he already began to miss that seat upstairs.

Sheng Wang could no longer remember how he spent that remaining half of the period. He only recalled coming back to himself upon the sound of the school bell ringing, signalling the end of class. He dug out the umbrella that was basically unused, and hurried to Xi Le Convenience Store.

Boss Zhao was flabbergasted. He nagged, “Aiyoh, why come here in the heavy rain? Look at the pant leg of yours, how much water got on it. You’ll cry when you have to wash it.”
“It’s okay, there’s the laundry lady.” Sheng Wang went straight into the most inner part of the store.
Boss Zhao stretched his neck out to look in bafflement, and saw Sheng Wang taking three boxes of pen refill, for all red and blue and black. Other than those, there were also a paper knife, ruler, scotch tape, and correction fluid……

“Okay okay okay, what are you doing? Trying to open up a wholesale market?” Boss Zhao zoomed out from behind the cashier, and followed Sheng Wang around the shelf back and forth, like a parent worried about his son misusing his money.
Sheng Wang’s eyes were still darting around the shelf. “I’m not doing wholesale, these are all what I need.”

Boss Zhao was even more confused. “I get it for the pen refill, I know you all use it way too quickly. But why wouldn’t you have a ruler and a pen knife and correction fluid? You haven’t gone to class before?”
Sheng Wang explained in all seriousness, “I did, but I’ve always lost my stuff. They just disappeared into thin air, and I needed to borrow.”

Boss Zhao tsked, and said, “All mischievous sons in the world are the same, scatterbrained and leaving their things everywhere.”
Just after he spoke, he saw Sheng Wang take three stacks of post-it notes. He couldn’t help himself once more and chided, “One stack is enough, why take so many?”
“I’m using it to remind me to not keep losing my things.” Sheng Wang said, “So I wouldn’t have to keep borrowing from other people.”
He took a few more items, and nearly couldn’t hold all of them at once when he finally softly said, “I don’t want to borrow from others anymore.”

A difference of three years constitutes a generational gap; Boss Zhao felt that that was an entire Pacific Ocean between him and Sheng Wang. He couldn’t understand what exactly were current students thinking, he only understood that if Sheng Wang kept shopping around, he would be late for class.
Furthermore, the way Sheng Wang was lingering before the shelves was actually a little lost, like not even he knew what he still wanted to buy. Boss Zhao clapped his back as he pushed him towards the check out area, and said, “Don’t pick anymore, and put down the repeated items too. You can come take more when you’re done with using them. And that’s all for the items, let me scan and check your things out.”

He found a plastic bag to contain the items, and after some thought, he then wrapped another layer in order to prevent the rain from drenching them. When he passed the bag to Sheng Wang, Boss Zhao couldn’t help but say, “Actually, it would be dinner time after one more period. You totally could have come here around that time, either way you have to go to Beyond Parasol Trees for food. This isn’t any particular emergency.”
Sheng Wang said, “My pen just happened to run out of ink; if I don’t buy now, I wouldn’t be able to use it for the next period.”

Boss Zhao nodded. He bought that reason.
However, Sheng Wang knew it himself, that these were all excuses: he simply didn’t want to drag it out to dinnertime, because Jiang Tian would definitely be next to him, and he didn’t want to let Jiang Tian witness the way he was when he bought those things.

Flustered, and aimless.
He definitely looked foolish.

Sheng Wang hurried back to Mingli Block with a plastic bag in his hands. Perhaps it was the urgency that the bell for lesson prep brought about, or maybe people tend to be more confused in rainy weather, his legs moved faster than his brain. Either way, by the time he realised, he was already at the top floor.

Old Wu walked to Class A with a thermos, and stopped a boy who was walking past him on the way. “Jiang Tian, please take the papers and give them out first.”
Jiang Tian received the papers, and strided towards the classroom. When he passed by the stairs, he spotted Sheng Wang, who was rooted to the ground.

He carried an umbrella in his hand, the beads of water drip dropping off and forming a giant puddle on the floor. His other hand held a plastic bag, the name Xi Le Convenience Store was printed on it along with Fuzhong’s school logo. He probably just bought something, and was in a rush to go back to class.
With one look and Jiang Tian already knew: he came to the wrong floor. His expression was vacant and awkwardness filled every fibre of his being, he even looked a little sorry for some strange reason.

Jiang Tian looked away and his brows furrowed in a flash. He turned back to face Sheng Wang as he said, “Here to find Jing-jie?”
Sheng Wang shook his head. His dark pupils stared at Jiang Tian unblinkingly. Yet a moment later, he shook his head again as though he just came back to himself. “No, I just……”
He paused, and then said in resignation and self-mockery, “Came to the wrong place.”
Jiang Tian eyed the forced smile at the corner of his lips, and didn’t continue the conversation.

Sheng Wang was the one who flunked on purpose, who decided to go further away like he was minding his own business. Yet, when he saw that smile, he still felt upset, and a little heartache too.

“This is way too embarrassing, just treat it as you’ve never seen me, yeah? I’m heading down now.” After Sheng Wang spoke, he turned around to go downstairs. When he went around the corner, his eyes lifted towards his direction.

However, Old Wu had already arrived. He asked, not understanding, “Why aren’t you in class yet?”
By the time he finished his words, Sheng Wang had already disappeared from the corridor.

*
When he returned to his seat, Shi Yu was startled by that giant bag of items. “What are you doing? You plan to live in the classroom?”
Sheng Wang placed the items inside his desk one by one, and said without looking back, “I wish.”
“Why? You received a blow?”
“I didn’t.” Sheng Wang opened a box of refill and took a new pen ink refill out, and changed the pen which ink just ran out last period. “It’s just that the rain is too troublesome, and I’m too lazy.”

It was because the rainy day spelled trouble, that after he tried so hard to crush certain feelings in its roots, before it even had a chance to work, he nearly failed because of one thing.
All it took was a single glance at Jiang Tian when he was upstairs.

A while later, with dinner and going back to the dorms to sleep and what not……fuck, can he even live?
Perhaps the heavens heard his cries, he didn’t manage to have that dinner at Beyond Parasol Trees in the end. That was because Jiang Tian’s father, Ji Huanyu, went to Old Man Ding’s house.

TO BE CONTINUED.