A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 101 – Loosening Up

“I Know, I’m Wrong, I’m Trying to Get a Lighter Sentence for Confessing,” Sheng Wang Insisted.

Sheng Wang’s mind went vacant for a split second, and the mirth began fading away from the edges of his eyes, the corner of his lips.
Jiang Tian lightly bumped his cheek with the glass of milk. He received it and drank it. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Jiang Tian replying to the messages from his shixiongs in the group chat.
Sheng Wang watched for a while, and settled the glass down. He said to the person on the other end of the phone, “Sure, you set the time?”
Sheng Mingyang had been waiting for his reply. Upon hearing that, he smiled, “I’ll reach here in the afternoon, and will be free for these two days. Your father as of now isn’t as busy as you, so you should pick the time instead.”
Sheng Wang said, “Then how about tonight? What time will you arrive? I’ll go fetch you.”

When Jiang Tian looked over at him, he had already hung up.
“Do you have work again?”
Sheng Wang draped a hand on his shoulder, and tossed his phone by the table. “Mn. I snuck a look just now, do you have to treat the prof to a meal today too?”

Such is the world of adults, they get busier as the holidays arrive.
Snow swirled around in the air of Beijing during the New Year, the glorious dream of hiding away indoors for the day was killed in its roots by plans. Jiang Tian was summoned away by the shixiongs, mainly to celebrate the Gregorian New year with the professor, and also to gossip about the status of his relationship with his “old classmate” along the way. As for Sheng Wang, he went to see Sheng Mingyang.

Despite the poor show of weather, it was still the New Year after all, and everywhere was absolutely flooded with people. Sheng Wang reserved a table in Hot Pot Sun — it was less noisy here.

Sheng Mingyang took off his jacket, draping it over the back of his chair. He folded the sleeves of his shirt over his grey cashmere vest, and scanned around, saying, “Isn’t there a mall and restaurant below that block of yours? Why did you want to come all the way here?”
“Don’t you like the wagyu beef here quite a bit?” Sheng Wang said.
Sheng Mingyang stilled.
He did quite like the wagyu beef here, and had invited his friends and summoned Sheng Wang here for a couple of meals previously. Maybe he casually mentioned it in passing, or he didn’t explicitly state it, but either way he no longer had any impression. Unexpectedly, his son still remembered.

The father and son relationship between them for these few years had always been like this. Sheng Wang was filial, very filial; he took care of all sorts of things in all sorts of areas, right down to the smallest details, even to the point that it could be counted as serene. He grew up matching the expectations Sheng Mingyang held towards that tiny little thing years ago: outstanding amongst the crowd, handsome and refined. Rationally speaking, he ought to feel relieved and glad, but he would always feel desolate in certain moments.

People say that there has to be a tug of war between father and son on the issue of getting his say, just like male animals fighting over the territory; from controlling to being controlled. Some people could spend their entire lives fighting over this.
But they were different — he disliked poiseless racket making, neither did Sheng Wang like a war that disregarded the feelings of others.

Sheng Mingyang at one point thought that he was lenient; he and his son took up their own spaces equally, and got along in harmony. A long time later he then realised: he had never stopped drawing out his territory. Only, everytime his territory expanded, Sheng Wang would move to the side a little. He did it without putting up a fight, ending up going further and further away.
By the time he finally realised, he could not even catch sight of his shadow anymore.

Occasionally, he would miss the fidgeting and clumsy Wang-zai a little, the Wang-zai who would show disdain over how his voice messages were too long and would only listen to the beginning, who would freely change his personal alias according to the content he shared with him. He would hang up directly if he was in a bad mood, and if he was happy, he would call him “Old comrade Sheng Mingyang”.
He would often get headaches over that in the past, but now he no longer has the chance to enjoy it anymore.

Sometimes, at his most dejected, he wanted to ask with the bravery alcohol would lend him, “Is this your revenge against your father?”
But he knew that that wasn’t the case — Sheng Wang’s heart was soft, he wouldn’t do it on purpose. It was precisely because he wasn’t doing it on purpose that Sheng Mingyang felt even more dejected and upset.

The trip to Beijing this time wasn’t actually that needed, whether he wanted to come was up to him. But last night, when he was washing up before sleeping, he looked in the mirror, and to his disbelief, he found white hair growing by his temples. Not a couple of strands — no — it was as though they sprouted out overnight.
He pushed aside his hair and stood before the mirror for a while, wanting to see his son for a bit all of a sudden. He wanted to have a nice meal with Sheng Wang on the first day of the new year.

Perhaps he was getting old, as compared to having a successful career and looking respectable, he would rather Sheng Wang use the tone he had when he was 10, saying, “Comrade Sheng Mingyang, you’re growing white hairs.”

Instead, when he looked up, he only caught Sheng Wang closing the menu, smiling at the waiter genially. He turned and asked, “Dad, do you want alcohol?”
He would be lying if he said he wasn’t disappointed. Sheng Mingyang was silent momentarily before he waved, “Nah, water will do. I’ve seen quite a few who got gout from drinking; I have to control my intake a bit.”

If it was little Sheng Wang, he would have definitely said “it would be too late by the time you limp”. Now, he merely nodded, saying, “You should probably drink less if it isn’t a business dinner.”

The server served the fish maw chicken soup base and two small dishes of dippings. Sheng Mingyang drank a mouthful of plain water, and lightheartedly started another conversation topic. “I went to Hangzhou a while ago, and had a meal with Xiao-Pang. He even complained to me, saying that your schedule gets all topsy turvy whenever you get busy — it’s difficult to catch you.”

The Xiao-Pang in Sheng Mingyang’s mouth had the full name of Pang Xie, with the WeChat name of Bajiao Crab. He had stayed in touch with Sheng Wang on and off throughout the course of this many years. He went to university in Guangdong, and Sheng Wang had met up a couple of times with him before. He also did visit Beijing. After graduation, they were so busy with work they spun all over the place like a spinning top, and so meeting up for casual chit chat became a much more herculean task.

Pang Xie came from a relatively well off family, and couldn’t bear to stay under the control of others after a couple of months at a job upon graduation. So he borrowed a bit of venture capital from his father, quit his job and took the plunge to make more money. Due to his sufficient upholding of righteousness and loyalty, along with the ability to speak and drink well, he seriously did end up doing quite well.
For a period of time, Sheng Mingyang ran into an obstacle in his business ventures, and wanted to find someone to clear the way a little. After ending up with his son, it was Crab who Sheng Wang found.
With the connection of two sides, Sheng Mingyang voluntarily went across the ranks of seniority, and became business partners with Crab.

“It’s still okay,” Sheng Wang finished setting aside the dipping, and passed the empty plate to the server. “He was super excited over becoming a dad the last time, didn’t I stay up chatting with him all the way until 3am?”
Sheng Mingyang started smiling, and flipped through a few photos on his phone showing them to Sheng Wang. “Have you seen that kid of his yet? I managed to get a glimpse when I went over that day. Delicate features, looking pretty proper.”
“You can already tell that the baby has delicate features only after a few months?” Sheng Wang was exasperated. “You even said administration’s Dean Xu looked proper back then too.”
Sheng Mingyang had to take quite a bit of time before he recalled who was the Dean Xu he spoke of. He stilled.

For these few years, whenever the father and son met up for a chat, they would rarely mention the people and things in Fuzhong. It was a taboo topic; the moment it was brought up, 80-90% of the time the chat would end in silence. Sheng Mingyang did not like to court for a snub.
This was the first time Sheng Wang brought it up on his own, and it was in a joking tone even. A wave of sourness hit Sheng Mingyang’s heart for some mysterious reason — it was as though a rock he had been prying at for a long time finally showed some signs of loosening. As a father, he was nearly touched.

The saturated golden yellow colour of fish maw chicken soup simmered in the pot. The server scalded the wagyu beef for them, and placed it onto their plates with chopsticks. Sheng Mingyang lowered his head among the steaming air. Due to how quickly he was eating, the tip of his tongue even got scalded.
He drank a few mouthfuls of water in a row, wanting to continue the conversation as well as the pleasant mood surrounding it. Therefore, he extracted as much as possible using Crab. He chatted about how he got married immediately upon graduation, about how he had finally finished paying off the loan from his dad this year, about how the family of three had a similar look to them, faces all that foretold great fortune. His parents didn’t do anything at all as of late, and revolved around their granddaughter all day long. If the girl asked for the stars, they wouldn’t bring the moon

His spirits were so high that he accidentally talked his way into a dangerous topic.
Sheng Mingyang said, “When you get a tiny little thing for me too, dad can retire at last and enjoy domestic bliss.”
This line happened to pop up solely because he was following up on the conversation, and the moment he said that, he could already feel that it was quite inappropriate. Upon seeing Sheng Wang’s chopsticks — they stopped— he even felt more regretful. However, in lieu of the server still scalding meat for them, he gradually relaxed again — there’s an outsider around, Sheng Wang wouldn’t go too far to say something too extreme.

Sheng Wang only paused for a single moment, and continued dipping his food into the sauces. After taking that bite, he drank a mouthful of water before settling his glass down, saying, “I’m afraid that’s probably out of the question. How about I get you a cat instead, or maybe I’ll adopt one in the future. You get to decide if you get a grandson or a granddaughter.”
Sheng Mingyang just picked up a piece of beef with his chopsticks, and stopped in his actions upon hearing that. Chopsticks hovering in their air, he stiffened for a few seconds before he smiled pacficatingly. “Sure, you’re still young. I know you young people are always like this at this age. If I ask, the only answer is a no, and anymore questions, you wouldn’t even want it anymore. Let’s not talk about this for now, in the future—”

Sheng Wang cut him off, but his tone was very tranquil. “It will probably be like this in the future too.”
Sheng Mingyang looked up. Just as he was about to speak, Sheng Wang continued, “Jiang Tian is back in the country now.”

Silence instantly unfurled between the father and son. Sheng Mingyang finally lost his appetite, and settled the chopsticks down. He shot a look at the server, and the server finished scalding the last piece of meat without looking anywhere else at all, placing it onto the plate, said a “please enjoy” before leaving as the situation called for.

That instant, time seemed to have reversed back to a certain day years ago. They also sat in the car in silence like this, until one of them spoke first.
Back then, it was Sheng Mingyang. This time, it was Sheng Wang.
He said, “It happened a few days ago. He’s back in the country for a project, and we met at a business dinner.”
Any expression on Sheng Mingyang’s face was indiscernible. His brows were furrowed, and only continued the conversation after a good while. “And then?”

“When you called me this morning, I was over at his place.” Sheng Wang paused, and frankly admitted, “I still like him, and I still plan to be together with him.”
Sheng Mingyang’s fingers, resting on the table, twitched.

For a split second, he thought, if only we aren’t in this restaurant, if only there aren’t so many people around……but he quickly realised: so what if they were alone? Sheng Wang wasn’t the youth that would leave just because he tugged at him anymore.
And then later, an awareness surged up within him like it was high tide. He understood at last why there was joy in Sheng Wang’s voice the moment he picked up the call, and also understood why the rock was loosening up.
How absurd. As a father, he had been anticipating this day in apprehension, but at the same time, he wanted to smother all of these back down. He wanted the result, but not the cause behind it,
However, none of this was up to his prerogative. He could only choose to accept it in its entirety, or completely shatter everything.

Sheng Mingyang zoned out for a fair bit as he stared at some random spot on the table. He took a deep breath before he looked up. “What if my attitude is still the same as before.”
“That’s perfectly normal.” Sheng Wang said, “If you’re willing to change just like that, I’m more surprised instead. But what I want to say now is different from before.”

“That time, you said I should try telling everyone around me that I like men, see what their reactions are like,” Sheng Wang gave a smile that was barely there. “You weren’t here for the past few years, so perhaps you didn’t know — I’ve told many people before. As long as they ask, I dare to say it. I reached a pretty funny result, actually. Not a single person pointed at me, asking if I’ve gone insane.”

Sheng Mingyang blurted, “Those are all outsiders, of course they wouldn’t care about you!”
“So if the outsiders don’t care, then what exactly is my family worried about? Worried about people saying that I’m ridiculous, that I’m screwed up? What a strange logic, don’t you think so?” Sheng Wang stopped smiling, and said, a little resigned, “Dad, other than you, I’ve genuinely never heard a single person say something like that to me, ever.”

Sheng Mingyang instantly quieted.
A long while later, his voice was solemn as he held his glass. “That’s what they’re saying to your face, how do you know what they’d say behind your back?”
“There are so many people on the streets, so many things that they can say behind my back, it’s countless. Like oh, this person’s smooth, that person’s wooden, this person’s too tall, that person’s too short, this person’s super amazing shining in gold, that person’s is a piece of garbage, totally useless. So those who talk about my interest in men behind my back, how are they any different from what I’ve said just now? Who doesn’t get talked behind the back?”

Sheng Mingyang was wordless.
Sheng Wang watched him, and continued, “That time, you even asked me: If I didn’t feel like it’s absurd, why was I upset? What else could it be, dad?”

Of course Sheng Mingyang knew why he was upset, just that he secretly switched out the main idea as he interrogated him. He told Jiang Tian before that “Sheng Wang has a soft heart”, how would he not know why his son was upset.
The world was like a giant cycle. In order to make him happy, Sheng Wang had never been happy ever since for these few years. Now it was him who was tip-toeing around, all in exchange for a smile from Sheng Wang.

Sheng Wang said, “I dare to go to the public cemetery now, I also dare to tell my mom that I like Jiang Tian, and that I want to be together with him. I think my mom probably wouldn’t scold me; she might even wish me a Happy New Year.”

He was quiet for a fair while. Looking up, he said to Sheng Mingyang, “Are you able to say this to me?”

For that one very split second, Sheng Mingyang was this close to saying that. But perhaps he had been silent for too long, and his tongue and teeth had rusted over. His heart ached bitterly, but no matter what, he couldn’t bring himself to say those three words.
Sheng Wang didn’t force him either. He had the dignity and versatility of an adult, yet a heart of cotton like the way he was as a youth.

They finished this meal in near total silence. Sheng Wang initially wanted to drive him back, but Sheng Mingyang claimed that the road would be too slippery from the snow, telling him to not bother with all that trouble of travelling back and forth.
Perhaps that’s just how it is between father and son; those things that they want to hear couldn’t leave the other person’s mouth no matter what, but useless nagging always came out as easy as water. In the end, it was Sheng Wang who still called a car for him.

When Sheng Mingyang boarded, Sheng Wang helped to support the door for him as he stood by the car window. Before departing, he said to him, “Dad, Happy New Year.”
This line stabbed at his heart, an awful numbness spreading.

Sheng Wang stood beneath the yellow streetlight for a while, until that car melted into the chain of headlights that formed along the street. The snow stopped for an afternoon, and began drifting down all over the place again. Sheng Wang pulled his scarf up, and just as he was about to head to the parking lot, he saw a familiar figure heading down from the overhead bridge, an umbrella in his hand.

That person remained the same as he was as a youth, still preferring to leave the front unbuttoned. He seemed both tall and lean and desolate in the northern night. The edge of his coat was flying up from the wind, bits of snow landing there, dotting spots of wetness.
He went to the store front as he came down from the stairs, and swept away the snow on his front before saying to Sheng Wang, “You didn’t use an umbrella again, do you enjoy getting soaked?”
Sheng Wang’s features, stiff for the entire night, had finally relaxed once more. He dangled the keys in his hand, “I drove.”

“Why did you come here?” Sheng Wang went towards the car, shoulder to shoulder with him.
Jiang Tian pointed at the business district opposite. “Happened to be eating over there, decided to come here after you mentioned Hot Pot Sun’.”

“Thank god I stood for a while then, otherwise would you have to chase after my car?” Sheng Wang said.
“Have I gone nuts? To chase after the car in the snow?” Jiang Tian said plainly,
“Makes our bond seem way deeper.”
“Then forget about it.”

Sheng Wang’s free hand silently stuck a middle finger out. Before it was completely straightened, it was pressed back down by his Ge with an accuracy.
“How did your work chat go?” Jiang Tian asked.
Sheng Wang sat in the driver’s seat, and was buckling his safety belt with his head lowered. He started the car, wiping away the thin layer of snow on the windshield. The car had converged into the traffic on the main street before he spoke, “Actually, it wasn’t for work. My dad looked for me for a meal, so I came out to him for the second time while I’m at it.”

Jiang Tian was this close from being scarred in regards to “Sheng Mingyang finding Sheng Wang on his own”, and upon hearing that, he instantly looked over with a frown.
Sheng Wang internally said, maybe I should have spoken after I floored the gas pedal. He spared a free hand, blocking Jiang Tian’s eyes. “Hey, I’m driving. It’s too easy to get into car accidents in the snow, do not disrupt me with your gaze.”

“Then, you lied to me, saying that it’s for work?”
“I know, I’m wrong, I’m trying to get a lighter sentence for confessing,” Sheng Wang insisted.

Jiang Tian glanced at the look on his face, and internally said, who are you trying to caox here, the hell do you know.
“Mainly because if I go by myself, it’s called trying to reason with an old comrade. If it’s two of us, that’s called a protest — wouldn’t he end up flipping a pot?” Sheng Wang watched the traffic ahead with a smile, and a moment later, he was serious once more. “Don’t worry, it wouldn’t be the same as last time anymore.”

A long while later, Jiang Tian gradually relaxed at last, and grunted a reply. “Mn.”
Sheng Wang said, “I think my dad is loosening up a little.”

TO BE CONTINUED.