A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 062 – Wooden Block

“You Don’t Know About Lin-zi and I, but Jiang Tian Already Knew Though?”

Sheng Wang’s heart abruptly hurt.
It was as though someone pinched the corner of his beating heart, and instantly, all he felt was a sour ache as his heart weakened.

Upon facing a Jiang Tian like this, he was physically incapable of bringing himself to say the word “no” at all. All of a sudden, he thought that he was quite the fool: after so many days of busying himself here and there, when it came down to it, all it took was a single line from his Ge and he was back at square zero. He wanted to say “You really are quite something”, but he could not speak at all.

For a long while, all he could do was to hold that notebook in a deathgrip; he did not speak, nor did he look up. He did not move at all. Only when that sour, aching feeling dissipated with the pumping of his heart and the flow of blood, and that it no longer hurt so much anymore, then he rapidly blinked his eyes several times.

“I can,” he softly spoke, his voice still slightly cracked. He pursed his lips as he cleared his throat, and then waved the notebook. “With this, if I still can’t go back, then I don’t even deserve to be here.”

Jiang Tian didn’t say anything.
His eyes were born gorgeous, his eyelids were paper thin, the crease at the end of his eyes weren’t long, but instead, they slightly tilt upwards. When his gaze swept across here from the tailend of his eyes, it always appeared both cold and arrogant, like he held no regard for anything at all. However, when he plainly made eye contact, his gaze slightly sunken and reflecting the sparse dots of lights—barely bright at all—you were the one that stood within his eyes.

Sheng Wang stood in his eyes for eons, and finally nodded, saying, “Okay.” Afterwards, the sharp edges he seemed to put up around him all gradually softened, like he finally let out a sigh of relief.

In that few seconds, Sheng Wang even had the illusion that he was on the same wavelength as his Ge. This illusion gave birth to an impulse within him, he wanted to ask, “Ge, can I hug you”. However, just as he was about to speak, the bell for lights out rang.
He was startled and snapped out of it.

There was a ever so slight trace of osmanthus fragrance in the air outside the balcony; under the temperature in late November, the flowers ought to have all wilted and fallen off. Yet, somewhere, there were those scarce few flowers who were stubbornly giving out that nearly imperceptible fragrance. That bit of impulse within Sheng Wang gently faded amidst the remnant scent.

He straightened up as he grabbed the book, and said to Jiang Tian, “Let’s go in?”
“Mn, the temperature has dropped.” Jiang Tian glanced beyond the railing, and side-stepped to open the balcony door, motioning for Sheng Wang to go in.

Earlier on, his grip on the book was too tight, and relaxing his hand out of the blue caused it to feel both numb and sore. Sheng Wang rotated his joints as he walked into the dorm, and when he went over the short doorstep at the balcony door, he felt a light pat on the back of his head.
Maybe it was some form of soothing, or something else.

Sheng Wang stopped, and whipped his head back; Jiang Tian had already entered. He went straight past the long study table, grabbed his clothes and towel from the closet, and said, “I’m taking a shower.”
Shi Yu was sending messages with his legs crossed on the bed. Qiu Wenbin clipped the portable lamp onto his bed’s railings, and reminded, “Deity, you gotta hurry up, the teacher on patrol will be coming here later.”
“I know,” as Jiang Tian spoke, he entered the bathroom.

“Sheng-ge, why are you still standing here?” Qiu Wenbin left the bed to retrieve a book. Due to Sheng Wang standing rooted next to the balcony door, the area seemed a little squeezy.
“Hm?” Sheng Wang ran his fingers through the hair at the back of his head, and said, “Oh, it’s nothing. I was just thinking.”

Jiang Tian was soon done with his shower and came out. Sheng Wang proceeded to take over his shift as he grabbed his clothes and towel. Water vapour still fogged within the bathroom, and as the hot water descended upon him, he suddenly could see it all clearly now; or rather, the moment he told Jiang Tian he could “go back”, he already figured it out.

All he did was to like someone, what’s the big deal? A lifespan of a human is like 80-90 years, he’s still at the start. The future is so long, so far that he couldn’t see the end of it at all. He just happened to fall for Jiang Tian in this period of time, that’s all. He wouldn’t know how long it would last, and he wasn’t planning to say anything either. He also understood that there is no way anything is going to come out of this.

The future is a straight line; he only wanted to go side-ways at this point for a bit, he will have to go back sooner or later. Was this really a serious issue?
Not at all.

The hot water for the day was finally completely used up, the water pouring down on him soon turned cold. Sheng Wang slammed the tap shut, took a towel and started drying his hair.
He sneezed in the midst of the dissipating steam, and thought: to hell with cooling down, I’m going back to Class A.

Sixteen-seventeen years old, the time for living to the fullest.
Other people gaze at flowers as they ride on horses, is he hurting anyone with a few more glances at his Ge? It’s not like he’ll be missing a slice of flesh or anything. Besides, his Ge is a wooden block, what is there to be scared of.

The moods of teenagers are just like weather in June: when it’s pouring and storming and the dark clouds loomed above everyone, it seems that the clouds are there to stay forever. The moment the rain stops however, the sky is clear, and the warm rays of the sun shine upon the earth.
Sheng Wang was the embodiment of the shining sun himself for these few days.

As Sheng Wang’s dormmate slash new deskmate from behind, Shi Yu received the most direct impact.
A while ago, Sheng Wang was buried in studying like he did not want to talk to anyone else at all, finishing one book after another. It was to the point that not even Shi Yu was entirely unaffected, and took a few sets of questions to secretly compete too. He found out that no matter how fast he went, he could never catch up to the other person.

Recently, Sheng Wang suddenly slacked off again. Oftentimes, the teacher would be meticulously going through the question at the front, he would be experimenting with papercutting instead. The few question banks he previously completed were given another round of combing through, and after some picking and choosing, he managed to cut out a few pages worth of questions while the rest went into the trash.

He no longer kept completing questions ceaselessly, and did not pay any particular attention to the lesson. More often than not, he would be reading a dark brown leather notebook while spinning a pen, and occasionally taking out a notebook to scribble down a couple of lines as draft. As he wrote, he would even dig his phone out and chat with people on WeChat.

Shi Yu stole a glance before, and due to how fleeting that glance was, he did not catch any of the content clearly. He could only see the word “Changbai” for the alias. He was baffled for quite a while over that, he still could not recall anyone around them being named “Changbai”.
It was only at night self-study on Wednesday then did he find out who exactly the mysterious “Changbai” was.
Night self-study meant for residential students only began after the day students ended classes. Students from every class would all go to the specified lecture theatre one after another, a bag in hand. There would be a teacher in charge of answering questions at the lectern, and the teachers in the level would usually be the one on duty.

There was plenty enough space in the lecture theatre, and there was free seating. Nobody was restricted by class. Sheng Wang sat in his usual seat at the last row as per the norm, and Shi Yu and Qiu Wenbin sat right in front of him, so that they could go back to the dorms together after night self-study.
When the bell to start prepping rang, roughly everyone had moved in, and the classroom gradually quieted.

The teacher on duty scanned around, and figured that everyone had arrived. Just as the teacher was about to stand up to close the door, a boy with a school bag on his shoulder came in. The teacher froze, and questioned without thinking, “Why are you here?”
The students in the midst of self-studying all turned to look over there, and next, commotion began to stir.
The person who just came in was Jiang Tian, the commotion was because as everyone knew, Class A has special privileges, they don’t need to come to the lecture theatre for self-study at all.

Sheng Wang looked up amidst the buzz of discussion; Jiang Tian was conversing with the teacher on duty. As he spoke, he looked up, his eyes swept around the lecture theatre, briefly paused on Sheng Wang, and then said something to the teacher in a low voice. Next, he calmly climbed upstairs, going two steps at a time, and went past an entire row of tables and chairs.
The every goose—no, every person—in the lecture theatre all stuck their heads out to look. Shi Yu was the nearest, and accidentally caught a glimpse of Sheng Wang’s phone.

There was zero obstruction to the phone’s interface, laying on the table in plain sight just like that, like he didn’t care if anyone saw either. On the screen was a WeChat chat. At the top of the frame, was the alias for the other person. This time, he managed to get a full view of the name at last: Changbai Mountain’s Divine Tree
This Changbai Mountain’s Divine Tree had just sent a message half a minute ago, asking Sheng Wang: Which row do you sit at for self-study.
Sheng Wang answered: the last row.
And so Jiang Tian came, the identity of the Divine Tree became clear as day. Shi Yu internally said, as expected, I can never truly understand terms of endearment between brothers, what the heck even are these.

Jiang Tian turned a blind eye to the attention he was receiving. He sat down next to Sheng Wang, and dug out a thick book with a dark blue cover from his bag as well with a pen. After all that, his eyelids finally shifted as he asked the person next to him, “Why so dazed?”
Sheng Wang opened his mouth, and asked in bafflement, “I thought you can study upstairs?”
Jiang Tian flipped open the book, and replied with a “Mn”.
“Then why did you come down?”
Jiang Tian said without looking up, “Sitting there for self-study by myself is quite stupid.”
“Oh.” Sheng Wang felt a twitch in his heart, and continued reading his own book. Yet a while later, he suddenly chortled.
Jiang Tian looked towards him with a frown. Sheng Wang said, “I imagined it, it is quite stupid.”
“……”
Jiang Tian ignored him for the entire night self-study.

*
On Friday, Yang Jing looked for them, and gave them two forms. She said the training camp would begin next week, and they will have to fill up the form as well as prepare two sets of ID photos, sized two inches.

“Photos again?” Jiang Tian said, “Didn’t we submit before?”
Yang Jing said in annoyance, “They all went up on the wall of honour thanks to the man surnamed Xu from administration. You want me to go tear it down or what?”
Sheng Wang initially planned to go to the printing shop at the school entrance for a random photo and make do, but Yang Jing then said, “Take a good one, smile at the very least, yeah? Your photo will still have to go up the wall after you do well, don’t make it look like a mugshot.”
“Okaaaay,” Sheng Wang dragged his voice in response.

There was a printing shop next to Xi Le. On the way there, Sheng Wang kept going through his phone gallery. He lived like he had an “auto-follow” function activated, and was constantly half a step behind Jiang Tian. As he turned, he also turned. As he stopped, he also stopped. He did not look up for the whole time.

Jiang Tian told him “eyes on the road” twice, and they all went in one ear and out the other. When he could no longer stand it anymore, Jiang Tian led him towards the tree at the side without a single word. It was only when it was too late to brake and his forehead bumped into something then did Sheng Wang was startled enough to look up: Jiang Tian’s palm was in front of him, and a single step further would be the tree trunk.
“You really dare to not watch where you’re going?” Jiang Tian said incredulously.
Sheng Wang was even more incredulous, “You really dare to lead me to crash into the tree?”

Jiang Tian rendered speechless by Sheng Wang’s words, and he started looking around expressionlessly.
Sheng Wang followed him and looked around too. There was nothing but leaves and more leaves. “What are you looking for?”
Jiang Tian said, “A straighter tree branch.”
Sheng Wang didn’t realise what was going on, and took his words seriously and pointed to a bunch of twigs and leaves, “This is pretty straight, what are you planning to do?”
Jiang Tian said, “Break it and make a walking stick for you.”
Sheng Wang never expected his Ge to have a build up to insulting him, and was rendered rather speechless too. He imagined him holding an end of the walking stick, Jiang Tian holding the other, and someone wearing a pair of round dark glasses….oh my god.“What are you laughing at?” Jiang Tian was exasperated.
With a skip in his heart, Sheng Wang stuck out his left arm and presented to him, “There, a human walking stick for you. Do you dare to hold it?”
He saw Jiang Tian pause, and took his arm back, pretending to sneer as he said, “I can’t believe you even have to think about it. We’re leaving.”
After he spoke, he went ahead with his head down, still busy using his phone.

Ever since the day he made peace with himself, he had been in this state.
“Changbai Mountain’s Divine Tree”, meaning a cold and aloof wooden block. It was as though a tiny person with an itchy hand lived inside his body, and as he took advantage of Jiang Tian not knowing anything at all, he would paw at him for a bit, and scratch at him for another too. Like that cat picking a fight in the meme, it teetered at the edge, completely unrestrained, having zero respect for the law.
They were all false moves anyway, Jiang Tian wasn’t on the same wavelength as him at all, there wasn’t a single chance that he could manage to paw at the real figure himself.

However, this opinion only lasted for a week or so before it was busted with a bang.
It was a Thursday that day, and there was still a day before they had to leave for the training camp. Yang Jing had begun urging them to start packing their luggage, and they managed to acquire two absence slips excusing them from night self-study as an exception. Regardless, they had to go to class that day.
The last period on Thursday afternoon was Class A’s Olympiad coaching. It was physics. He Jin had been going through a portion of the content of physics at the university level. However, He Jin was unwell for the day and went to the hospital, so the coaching class got Zhao Xi as a substitute.

Sheng Wang did promise a few teachers to definitely go upstairs and listen in for the competition classes. Despite that scene he witnessed in the alley having happened a long time ago already, there was still a flash of uneasiness when he saw Zhao Xi in the classroom.
He personally thought that he managed to hide that uneasiness very well, but when lesson ended, Zhao Xi went to the office to put down his teaching plan before returning to Class A, and sat down at the edge of the table in front of Sheng Wang.

“Xi-ge,” Sheng Wang greeted.
“Waiting for Jiang Tian?” Zhao Xi shot a glance outside the window: Class A students were eating or heading to shower, they had already all left. There was just Sheng Wang and him. “Management’s Old Zhao dragged him away again?”
Sheng Wang nodded, saying, “We’re not having night self-study tonight anyway, so I’m waiting for him to go have dinner at Wu Tong Wai.”
“Oh.”

“Xi-ge, aren’t you going back?” Sheng Wang asked.
Zhao Xi laughed, and said, “I’m not in a rush, let’s have a chat.”
Sheng Wang asked hesitantly, “What are we talking about?”
“Talk about why you, kiddo, are avoiding me and Lin-zi recently?” Zhao Xi said.

Sheng Wang’s awkwardness instantly reached its limit.
“Sigh, what are you so awkward about?” The way Zhao Xi conversed was very hooligan-like, entirely different from the way he was during class. He was more like a delinquent senior. “I personally am not awkward.”
Sheng Wang was shocked, and asked, “You knew?”
“Roughly, I suppose.” Zhao Xi switched to a more relaxed position. “Heard a bit of noise from the alley that time, nobody usually walks through that alley, the few old houses are vacated for a long time already, mute and the old man are the only ones living there. Older people tend to sleep earlier, so there’s no way he would be up and about at the time. The only ones who will go there would be you and Jiang Tian.”

“We thought that we could just let this pass by. But, after a chat with Lin-zi, I was worried that we accidentally traumatised a kid going through puberty—” as he joked, he accidentally broke into laughter too as he spoke, “So while there’s free time today, I came to have a chat with you. Were you…spooked?”

Sheng Wang realised that after being torn up on the inside over this for so many days, he ended up forgetting whether his first reaction was terror. He was hesitant for a moment, and answered, “I’m okay I think.”
“Really? Are you this accepting?” Zhao Xi raised an eyebrow.
“It’s just that I really didn’t think of that, I was slightly surprised, and afterwards I gave it more thought……” Sheng Wang’s expression was complicated for an instant, and he gradually relaxed again. “……and then I figured it’s no big deal in the end.”

Zhao Xi stared at him, and nodded thoughtfully.
The colour of his pupils was a little lighter than normal people, closer to a golden brown. Perhaps it was the window pane that reflected a swath of brightness into his eyes, that when he looked at him like this, Sheng Wang had the illusion that his thoughts were bared wide open to him.

He lowered his eyes, and the top of the book spun around beneath his finger tip for a few rounds. He wanted to change the topic, so he asked Zhao Xi as if he was making small talk, “Aren’t you scared of traumatising people? Then why find only me and not Jiang Tian? You and Lin-ge are this certain that I’m the only one who saw?”
“Not certain,” Zhao Xi said, “but it’s different though.”
“What’s different?”
Zhao Xi said, “You don’t know about Lin-zi and I, but Jiang Tian already knew though?”

TO BE CONTINUED.