A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 069 – Impulse

Happy Birthday, Wang-zai.

Sheng Wang honestly thought the so-called “a few shops” did mean a handful, but as it turned out, it was an entire street when they saw it for themselves at the gate at the campus behind the hill.

The terrain around the school wasn’t smooth at all; the street winded down along the gentle slope of the hill, surrounding the school a little by half. Its end was obscured behind the wall at the side of the hill, nigh impossible to see the end of the street with a single look.
This was the only place anywhere near prosperous nearby, it was also the only place people in this school could go to. Therefore as evening approached, not only did this place not become unfrequented, it was bustling with people instead.

Still, the regular students here still had night self-study; even if they came out, they had time for only a dinner. Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian picked an unfortunate timing, and happened to arrive at peak hour. All the eateries were filled to the brim.

Sheng Wang checked all around before he couldn’t stand it anymore. “How bad must the canteen food be that everyone’s this repressed?”
The school opened up a separate cafeteria window for them. Regular students used school cards, they used dining vouchers. The meals from that window were so-so, its merit was that there was no need to queue. Yesterday, they were still mumbling on about how the normal window looked like they had a greater variety of food, likely tasting better too. Now, it seemed that there wasn’t that much difference after all, so the students seized the chance to gorge on good food by the school gate the moment they could.

Jiang Tian took his phone out and checked the time. School ended at 5.40pm, the students have just entered the shop. By the time they were done and seats were cleared out, it would be 6.30pm at the very least.
He asked Sheng Wang, “Any place you want to go?”

This place consisted of only a single street. There were only so many gimmicks to be found here; if Sheng Wang came by himself, he wouldn’t be interested in any store at all. However, things were absolutely different with Jiang Tian by his side.
His eyes swept before and behind him, and said, “I want to go everywhere.”
Jiang Tian: “……”
Sheng Wang said, “How now?”
“Pick one.”
“I’m indecisive, can’t pick one.”
“……”

Mischief was clearly written in Sheng Wang’s eyes. “Aren’t you my Ge? You have the duty to settle on a direction.”
Jiang Tian’s brows were knitted as he looked at him, speechless. A while later he nodded and stuck his hand out. He deadpanned, “Pass me the knife, I’ll help to divide you up. How many places do you want to go?”
Sheng Wang: “……the hell, who are you trying to scare. Can you bear to?”
He merely intended to let it be a casual continuation of the conversation. No matter if they were brothers or friends, lines like these were nothing out of the ordinary. Yet, when it was spoken to the special someone, it took on an entirely different meaning.

Jiang Tian paused.
They were still traversing up that gentle slope, shoulders to shoulders. Their footsteps were leisurely, as though they were having a pleasant stroll. Jiang Tian’s palm was still spreaded open, his slender digits slightly crooked.

That was where Sheng Wang’s peripheral view landed on. He saw Jiang Tian’s fingers curl, and then went back into the pockets of his long pants. For a few seconds, Jiang Tian did not make a second sound; like he was mulling over the issue of whether he could bear to, like he was also digesting those few traces of the inexplicable something between them.
He spoke after a moment. “Then…forget about it.”
Yet another while later, Sheng Wang then softly replied with an “oh”.
As such, the wind slipped through them, every gust taking twists and turns.

The streetlights at the side gradually lit up one by one. The two suddenly became silent. Sheng Wang walked a few steps, and played natural as he looked around at the various shops. Amongst the numerous fancy and overly accessorised signs, a store stood out with its truly unique style.

One level of that store was above ground, the other level was below the surface of the road, with a wooden staircase that led down to it. A few golden rain trees were planted at both sides of the store, with the tree branches sprawling over the roof. The top half of the treetop was pink and orange, the lower half was shades of green. In the wavering darkness of the night, they blurred into each other.
A bone-white paper lantern hung on a tree on the left, and beneath that lantern, was a sign that pointed downstairs. On the right was an extremely modern blue-white ring of light with an arrow pointing upstairs.
Graffiti made out of glow in the dark material was splashed across the merchant’s wall, the words “Escape Room” were written on it.

However, what truly caught Sheng Wang’s attention was in fact the crowd before the entrance. A group of boys and girls gathered there, clearly having just come up from the lower floor. Some of them were patting their chests, looking like they had their souls scared out of them.
“That was so scary,” a girl said.
“I’m gonna have nightmares tonight.” Another person added, “The room itself is still okay, it’s just that the mechanics are too on point, the decor has too much effort put into it, that’s why they are so scary. Where’s Bian Chen? Bian Chen, are you okay? You look so pale.”

The few boys began to openly laugh, mocking, “He can still be scared pale with that face of his?”
“Fuck to the off, you’re the one who can’t turn pale from fear.” Bian Chen’s voice was rather distinctive amidst the crowd. After he cursed at them, he felt that something was wrong with his words. He roared, in the hoots of laughter, now louder than ever, “Who’s the goddamn one who said that I came out because I was too scared? It’s just too stuffy inside, hello?! Dumbass, you have the nerve to laugh at me? Who’s the one who screamed louder than the girls just now?”
“You,” the boy, who was the target of his accusation, replied ruthlessly.
Bian Chen cussed, and the two began chasing each other around on the steps.

One girl asked, “Are we still playing?”
The boys—who were still mocking each other earlier—said simultaneously, “To hell with playing!”
The girl snorted. “So many cowards but none refusing to admit it. But anyway, we don’t have seats even if we want to eat now. How about let’s head upstairs to play the futuristic version of the escape room? Or play tabletop games for a while?”
“Tabletop I suppose, let’s go, c’mon,” as they said that, they ran upstairs.

“Then you guys can go up first, we’ll go down and keep looking,” a girl said. She wasn’t through with playing yet, and dragged two other boys who wanted to play downstairs; the three entered the store again.

Sheng Wang stared at the store, the gears in his head turning, and turned to look at Jiang Tian. The words “I wanna play” were written all over his face.
Jiang Tian looked at the horror style decor downstairs, and turned to look at Sheng Wang’s eager expression again. He seemed to want to remind him of something, but stopped short of it. In the end, he nodded and said, “Let’s go.”

The boss of the escape room was a young person. In order to coordinate with the theme, he dressed himself spookily. When Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian went in, the three from Yizhong were still conflicted over which one to play.
That girl pointed at the escape room meant for groups of 2-3, and said, “How about let’s play this one?”
One of the boys roasted, “Ain’t no fun in small escape rooms, if we’re gonna play, let’s play the one with five people and above.”
“We don’t have enough people though.”
“Boss, can three people play the room for five?” that boy asked.
The boss nodded. “Sure, but it’ll be slightly difficult. How about you try asking the two over there whether they want to join you?”

“Who?” They turned around in confusion, and saw Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian.
“Eh? ! It’s you guys! Perfect timing—” the boy who showed a disdain towards the small escape room earlier was instantly full of zeal. He wasn’t actually familiar with both Jiang Tian and Sheng Wang, but having someone was better than none. Therefore, he invited, “We’re missing a couple of people, let’s go together?”

There was no way Sheng Wang was going to do this with other people. However, before he expressed his thoughts, he heard Jiang Tian say to that person, “No need.”
He knocked on the counter, asking the boss, “Is the two person room still empty?”
The boss pointed at the one with the haunted school theme. “Yep, this one’s empty.”

“Ay, Jiang-ge, what are you doing with the one with two people?” the boy from Yizhong said, “Aren’t they for couples? It’ll be boring.”
The person who said it didn’t mean anything, but the ones who heard took it personally.
It was just a casual grumble, but Sheng Wang froze in the midst of unloading this bag. He shot a look at Jiang Tian on instinct, only to see Jiang Tian tell that person, “‘Kay.”

*
After that, no matter what Yizhong’s people said or what the boss said, Sheng Wang did not bother paying attention to them. Neither could he make himself listen at all. He knew that Jiang Tian usually did not care for people who acted close even though they weren’t, and that “‘Kay” was just to shut the person up. Still, his heart violently skipped a beat.

He suddenly recalled what Sheng Mingyang said when he was young. “Other people’s kids act crazy in front of new people, why hasn’t mine gone nuts before? So lazy.”
For a point in time, he thought that he wasn’t wrong; he wouldn’t be hyped up or filled with adrenaline just because someone was looking at him or was next to him. It was today then he found out: he just never met the right person.

Tonight, he was slightly “crazy before people”, throughout the entire escape room, his mind was in a state of constant euphoria; although it wasn’t particularly obvious from his face.

Before entering the escape room, the boss said something like “this escape room is much scarier than the other bigger escape rooms”. Who knows what other people felt, in any case Sheng Wang did not feel a single trace of fear from the start to the end. This had nothing to do with his bravery at all, it was simply because his mind was in no way on those things at all.

Never was he ever stuck when solving the puzzles with Jiang Tian at any point, the entire process flowed as smooth as water. From opening the doors in the dim classroom to the corridor where the lights were spoilt, and then to the bed inside the girls’ dormitory with the bed board underneath filled with words written in blood, and lastly to the bathroom in the deepest depth of the corridor.

There were three mirrors with mechanics in the bathroom. The last step to solving the puzzle required them to turn on the tap and wash their faces, and the face of a female ghost would appear in the mirror, hinting which cubicle she was in. Next, they had to knock thrice on the door to the cubicle, and a board in the ceiling above their heads would move away, a human model with ragged long hair would drop from above, hanging on a rope.

The story “The Girl Who Went Missing” thus ended, the hidden door on the wall would slowly rise up, and that would be the exit of the escape room.
However, when Sheng Wang knocked on the cubicle door, the human model hit the wall, and the wig accidentally fell off. Only a bald head was left hanging on the rope.

As such, when the secret door rose up, the two walked out, still doubled over. Sheng Wang directly sprawled over the counter in laughter, and Jiang Tian couldn’t help himself either.
The spooky boss was numb from watching them.
He had seen customers who said “It’s not that scary”, seen those who cried from fear, seen those who discussed the storyline as they walked, but he had never seen those who were nearly dying from laughter.

“You sure you came out by pressing the right buttons? You didn’t open the door with your feet?” the boss couldn’t help but ask.
Sheng Wang laughed until his neck was flushed, and couldn’t reply at all as he turned to goo over the counter. Jiang Tian scanned the QR code and paid. He said to the boss, “Remember to glue the wig.”
After he spoke, he tapped Sheng Wang, “Stop laughing already, dinner now.”

Only when they sat down in a restaurant selling Hangzhou cuisine then did Sheng Wang finally get over it. He let out a long exhale, and fanned himself with his hand, “All that laughter is making me feel so warm now.”
Jiang Tian was ordering food on his phone. He then passed the phone to him, saying. “See what you want to eat.”
Sheng Wang’s eyes were still crescented; they were brilliant beneath the light. He said, “Dinner’s on me, don’t you dare snatch this from me. You can snatch on any other day, just not today.”

“What’s up with today?” Jiang Tian asked.
“My birthday.” Sheng Wang said, “Rules of the Jianghu, I’ll treat you.”
Jiang Tian stopped, and didn’t manage to rebut his bullshit rules of the Jianghu. He opened the calendar on instinct and took another look. He frowned, “Isn’t your birthday December 4th? It’s the 3rd today.”

“Yeah, I know.” Sheng Wang scanned the QR code to the menu on the table, saying, “Theoretically it’s tomorrow, but I don’t like to celebrate on that day.”
“Why?”
Sheng Wang looked up, and saw the slightly befuddled expression on Jiang Tian’s face. It was such a rare sight for this expression on his Ge’s face, to the point that he also stilled with him. He asked, “Why the look on your face?”

Jiang Tian then got his face back under control, saying, “Nothing.”
Sheng Wang stared at him for a while. He suddenly leaned forward, “Ge.”
The lights in Jiang Tian’s pupils flickered, his eyes moved up to meet him.
Sheng Wang narrowed his eyes. “Could it be that you’re planning to celebrate my birthday tomorrow? Or rather……did you prepare a gift for me?”

“No,” Jiang Tian said.
“Oh.” Sheng Wang leaned back against his chair, his phone in his hand as he ordered his food.

“Why don’t you like celebrating on the day itself?” Sheng Wang heard Jiang Tian suddenly speak.
“It’s nothing much, really. It’s just that I spent mine with mom and dad when I was young, so I have a kinda deep impression of it. And then my mom isn’t around anymore, so there’s always a person missing on my birthdays, it’s a little subdued.” Sheng Wang studied the menu seriously. “When it comes to birthdays…it’s better to eat and drink, have a little more joy. If I celebrate it tomorrow……I might miss my mom.”

He ticked some, and passed the phone to Jiang Tian. “Celebrate with me today, okay?”
Perhaps it was the lighting, Jiang Tian’s brows were knitted ever so slightly, but his gaze was unexpectedly gentle instead. He said, “Okay.”

Just for this line, Jiang Tian granted his every wish tonight, he even held back on snarking Sheng Wang with his words by quite a lot. A Jiang Tian like this was truly a rare sight to see too, Sheng Wang felt that if he didn’t take the chance to tease him a little more, he would be literally wasting this day away.
The signature dish in this restaurant wasn’t its food, but its rice wine. The rice wine was served in a specially made goblet bowl, and was given a stage name of “White Jade Brew”. Sheng Wang asked for a giant jug, and brazenly served it before Jiang Tian, saying “You’ve seen me become a roaring drunk several times already, and I still haven’t witnessed how you’re like when you’re drunk. Isn’t this kinda unfair?”

He pointed at that jug of “White Jade Brew”, saying, “Tell me the truth, how much does it take to get you drunk, is this enough?”
Jiang Tian: “……I don’t know.”
Sheng Wang: “???”
He nearly made the server bring another jug on the spot. Fortunately, Jiang Tian stopped him. With two giant jugs of rice wine down the throat, getting drunk wasn’t the issue, but many many trips to the bathroom would definitely happen.

In the end, it was the server who couldn’t bear to listen anymore. They reminded him, “Our rice wine kicks in quite strongly afterwards. You might not feel anything after you just drank it, but when it kicks in you’ll get drunk easily.”
At that time, Sheng Wang just finished a glass. It was indeed quite tasty, and he wanted a bit more. He heard “strong kick afterwards”, and then pushed the glass opposite him without a second word, saying, “For you, the rest is for you too. I’m not drinking anymore.”

For this so-called afterkick, Sheng Wang deliberately dilly-dallied, and managed to spend nearly two hours on a single dinner. However, when it was time to settle the bill already, Jiang Tian still remained sober.
This restaurant was still relatively new; they still had on-going promotions, and gave Sheng Wang a small gift: two porcelain wine jars strung together with a piece of rope, containing the signature “White Jade Brew”.

It was nearly 10 when they left the restaurant.
Internal heat ran high in the bodies of young people. Although Sheng Wang only had had a glass of rice wine, a thin sheen of sweat still appeared on his body. With a caress of the night breeze, particular to the transition between late-autumn and the beginning of winter, he managed to feel much better.
He hooked the rope, and brought the wine before him. He measured the size of the jar, and asked Jiang Tian, “You’re sober, right?”
“Mn,” Jiang Tian answered.
“How about you add these two jars too?” Sheng Wang asked.
“I’ll probably still be sober too,” Jiang Tian said.
Sheng Wang tsked, and his hand lowered. “Whatever, I give up.”

“There’s no need,” Jiang Tian said.
“Hm?” Sheng Wang paused, and turned to face him.

The night breeze rustled at the hair before his forehead, the contours of his features were exceptionally highlighted by the streetlights at the side, spring-like and handsome. The patches of lights were reflected in his eyes as he shot a glance at Sheng Wang, saying, “We can try again next year.”

“Makes sense.” Sheng Wang suddenly grew happier; either from his birthday next year being planned in advance or something else. He swung the wine in his hand, and the porcelain jars clanged as they knocked against each other.
After he spoke, he then immediately continued, “No wait! I nearly got tricked by you. I can’t test you other than on the day of my birthday??”
Jiang Tian said, “Forget about normally.”
“And on what basis?”
“I’m the one who has to deal with you after you accidentally get yourself drunk again,” Jiang Tian said.
“Fuck.”

Sheng Wang was rendered speechless by Jiang Tian’s retort; his hands reached out, wanting to choke him. Jiang Tian was especially nimble as he avoided him, he even reminded, “Don’t keep swishing around, the wine is still with you.”

The two messed around as they walked back to the school. Jiang Tian would occasionally send some WeChat messages to other people on the way. When he received the message for the fifth time, they happened to reach the ground floor of the dormitory.
Jiang Tian said, “You head up first.”
“How about you?” Sheng Wang asked.
“I’m going to take something.”

Sheng Wang was a little confused even as he reached the dorm. He first played on his phone as he leaned against the balcony for quite a while. He took a shower, waited by the corridor for even longer, and Jiang Tian was still nowhere to be found. He still didn’t know where Jiang Tian went and what he was taking.
The server in that Hangzhou cuisine restaurant was right; you might not feel anything while drinking the rice wine, but the after kick was plenty strong. After going around the dorm for a while, the alcohol slowly started to kick in.

Sheng Wang was starting to feel sleepy, but he was still a little unwilling to sleep.
This was the birthday he personally designated, he planned to spend it with Jiang Tian several days ago. This day passed, he laughed, he played around, and there were even moments where his heart raced and something else amidst his excitement. He did manage to do so many things, but something still felt like it was missing.

The current day was about to end soon; the night was dark, the surroundings void of sound. Yet, he still felt a little empty, who knows if he hadn’t had his fill of fun, or something else.
……

*
By the time Jiang Tian got back, it was already 11.30pm. The entire campus was trapped in the thick atmosphere of silence. Only when he went around the hill, then did he hear the sound of a few boys and girls chatting and laughing by the autumn woods. Probably the people from Yizhong; Bian Chen’s voice seemed to be there too. However, he didn’t really notice. He merely ran past them, and then strided up the stairs.

There were indistinct murmurs and furtive whispers from the girls behind him. Someone called out to him too, but by the time he heard, he was already upstairs.
He braked in his steps before the dorm. His hair, ruffled by the wind, dropped down. He evened his breathing outside the door as he held a thick paper package in his hand.

Most of the lights were out in the dorms along the corridor. Other than the few downstairs who just came back, most people ought to be asleep. Jiang Tian opened the door with a tap of his card, and was about to greet the person inside before he noticed the complete silence inside. The quilt on the upper bunk was slightly disarrayed; Sheng Wang was already asleep.
From his awkward position, he probably dozed off in the midst of waiting, and accidentally fell onto the pillow.

Jiang Tian stilled.
He stood at the door for a while; his eyes lowered as he stared at the paper package in his hand. Quite a while later, a corner of his lips jerked as he smiled, either out of self-mockery or something else.
He did prepare a gift; but no matter how he rushed it, it appeared that he was still late.

Sheng Wang’s sleep was a little heavy, half his face was buried in his quilt, his hair slightly messy, scattered on the pillow. He seemed to be a little warm, a very thin layer of sweat gathered at the corner of his forehead. Jiang Tian walked to the bed, and placed that paper package in the lower bunk.
He stood by the bed and watched him for a long while. His thumb wiped away the sweat that gathered at Sheng Wang’s forehead; the other person noticed nothing at all.

He looked up at the cold light—too glaring to the eyes—and walked to the wall, switching the light off. The dorm instantly fell into darkness. He left out a torchlight on his phone for him, and with the limited blob of light, he placed the porcelain jars of wine in the fridge, got his clothes to shower, and walked back to the lower bunk as he dried his hair.

The soundproofing in the dormitory block was rather well done, the group of students who returned late did not make much noise either. It was quiet all around.
Jiang Tian leaned against the head of the bed, and hung the towel around his neck. A bead of water slid off from the tip of his hair, quietly falling onto the towel. He took the paper package beside his pillow, looked at it in silence, and settled it down again.

Outside the balcony, silver-white light flooded in as they climbed over the railing. From his angle, he could see the contours of the mountains in the distance, equally silent, standing in the night for an eternity.

The person on the upper bunk seemed to have turned around in his deep sleep, the bed slightly moved. Sheng Wang’s arm dangled down from the side of the bed, his thin and snowy fingers were slightly crooked, slender and clean.

Jiang Tian raised his eyes and looked over.
He remained leaning against the railing at the head of his bed, a leg sticking straight, the other one curled up. The gift he brought back rested on his thigh, just like that. It wasn’t particularly eye-catching, like the feelings he had constantly kept hidden away, tucked in a secret corner, unknown and unshown to anyone else.
But—just in this moment—perhaps from the quietude of the night—those feelings were itching to burst out.

The rice wine he downed from more than two hours ago finally started to rear its head. He was a little tired, but drowsiness completely evaded him.
On his phone screen, the hands on the clock in the app slowly walked, approaching 00:00 ever so closely.

From 10, 9, 8, 7, it leisurely went to 4, 3, 2, 1.

It’s December 4th, today is a sunny day. The moon at this moment is stunning. The person he likes turns 17.
The entire universe was quiet in this moment, nobody would ever know of this. Therefore, he held Sheng Wang’s dangling hand, and murmured, “Happy birthday.”
Happy birthday, Wang-zai.

He held his hand for a long time, till the hand he was holding suddenly curled, and he snapped back to himself. Next, Sheng Wang’s slightly husky voice rang next to him.
He said, “I heard that.”

TO BE CONTINUED.