A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 103 – Gathering

Current Boyfriend, Thank You Very Much.

As people say, desiring food and sex is only part of the human nature. It would have been fine if certain things weren’t brought up, but once they were brought up, they couldn’t help but to cause one to think more about them.
When Sheng Wang was seventeen, he felt like he couldn’t withstand another person’s touch at all, even kissing a little bit with Jiang Tian would cause him to get a reaction. Messing around to the point of locking themselves up in the bathroom couldn’t be anymore usual. That couldn’t even be said to be young people being full of vim and having a furnace inside the body, more like a straight up having a Sun.

Later on, after Jiang Tian left, he became uninterested in those earthly desires. He filled his days up with way too many things, so busy to the point that even sleep was an activity done when he found the spare time to. Naturally, he wouldn’t have the time to think about those and what nots.

Now, everything has changed once more.
Sheng Wang sat cross legged on the floor, and in between being on his phone, his eyes drifted to Jiang Tian’s hand — currently petting the cat — for the third time, watching his thin and pale and slender fingers appearing and disappearing amidst the cat’s fur. He kept thinking about how those fingers sank into fabric a short while ago, as well as the outline of his fingers and joints contracting and relaxing beneath the fabric……

He stared at it for a few minutes, and stood up while looking perfectly composed. He dug out a bottle of iced water, chugged down two mouthfuls, and then grabbed his fresh clothes, entering the bathroom for the second time. He felt like he had once again returned to being seventeen, when the inner fire in him roared, the sex — no wait, the sun had started rising again once more.
Dr. Jiang’s research abilities were too strong, allowing one to retain youth forever.

As Sheng Wang silently cursed himself out for being a pervert, he also sneakily went to search up some things. As the saying goes, the motivation behind top students striving and forging ahead came from “maintaining a vigorous curiosity towards the world”; this applies to proper issues, and also for the not-so-proper issues.
The last time he had watched something like that was actually year one of university; three out of six people in his dorms were all seasoned perverts. They had a wide variety of resources, they had anything you wanted. Not even two months passed since school opened when they rallied under the flag of “sharing good things together will deepen bonds”, and meticulously selected a few videos, forcing Sheng Wang and the rest to watch all of them.

Those few bros did have good intentions, and they picked up what they’d considered the crème de la crème according to their aesthetical framework. The only problem……was that Sheng Wang did not share the same frame as them at all.
They liked those with nice voices, big boobs and skinny waists. The remaining part would suffice with being simple and straight to the point. For Sheng Wang, the one with the nice voice was his Ge, the one with the nice body was also his Ge. Due to having dated before, straight to the point wasn’t working for him. Therefore, that afternoon, his viewing experience only consisted of two words: I’m blinded.
Those few videos managed to directly send him from a serene heart and mind to straight up no longer having any needs any more, and was on tenterhooks for a very long period of time after that.

However, the spirit of human nature is of goldfish, and recovering from the scars is enough to forget what caused the pain in the first place.
Therefore, many years later, with the original intention of “deepening bonds”, Sheng Wang reached out the hands of sin on his own accord. He wanted to explore and filter out what he’s watching by himself — it had to be better than whatever those bros picked out in any case.
Besides, his goal wasn’t just to spice things up; he just wanted to see how things should be done in a more scientific way.

Unfortunately, the young master had forgotten one thing — those which were filmed down, they usually wouldn’t be quite scientific. Some images, when freeze-framed, looked rather artistic and intimate, as though they were truly a couple. But the moment it started moving, all that was left in Sheng Wang’s mind was “what the hell”.

Jiang Tian received a phone call from the professor before he slept, and was on his mailbox on his computer as he went to the living room, chatting for a long time. As Sheng Wang listened to English shooting out of his mouth like it’s nothing in a calm and rational way, he sat on the head of the bed, searching on and off for “Heart”.

When Jiang Tian returned to the bedroom, young master Sheng happened to be watching one where the person dared to stuff anything and everything inside. He caught the movement by the door out of the corner of his eyes, and put on a show of being calm while removing his earpiece. He then closed the laptop up with a pop.
“What were you looking at? Why does your face look so awful?” Jiang Tian’s eyes sized up his face, and asked in bafflement.
The young master thought, and said, “Horror film.”
Jiang Tian’s expression turned even stranger. “Which one can scare you to the point of looking like this?”
“Didn’t catch the name.”
“What was it about?”
“……” Sheng Wang’s expression was complicated, like a cat laid down upon the neutering surgery table. He wanted to say something, but changed his mind. “The mystery of black holes, I guess.”
Jiang Tian: “?”

Perhaps that film was honestly too terrifying; when Jiang Tian was typing out an email at the head of the bed, a certain person zoned out for a while as he petted the cat, which was deep in sleep. He fiddled with his phone a few more times before he laid down.
By the time Jiang Tian turned to look after he sent the email, he was already asleep, sprawling over the pillow. His messy fringe half covered his eyes, his mouth was slightly open, the curvature of his back was like a line with a dip.

Jiang Tian watched him for a while, his eyes lowered. His pointer finger reached out to pick at Sheng Wang’s hair. He suddenly recalled how someone was fiddling on his phone with his legs crossed, extremely similar to the way he changed his profile picture for fun back in those days.
A thought popped up in his head, and he tapped into WeChat to check.
Perhaps they were telepathically connected, there really was a change to Sheng Wang’s personal information page. The blank profile picture he had been using ever since he started working had been removed at last, changing into a cartoonish render of a palm.

Jiang Tian knew about his habits all too well, and did not need to look carefully at it before he knew this hand was cropped from a Wangzai sticker, sprawled out. And a certain person’s nickname switched from a question mark to a line: I No Longer Want This Hand Of Mine
Jiang Tian: “……”
What kind of eyes-blinding film he watched that was enough to scare him into being like this?

“Thanks” to his itchy hands, Sheng Wang no longer thought about those obscene things for the next few days straight. In reality, he had also forgotten about other things due to the mess he made. Only when he received a call from Gao Tianyang afternoon on the 4th, did he remember that there was a gathering of friends waiting for him.

“Same old same old, BBQ skewers!” Gao Tianyang’s voice was as loud as it always was, and it was apparent he was in high spirits, “It’s the one the three of us went to last time, the one by the train station entrance. The roasted oysters and razor clams are so freaking good, I’ve told Old Song about them quite a few times, and even sent him pictures. He has been craving for them for a long while now, this time he specifically requested to eat those.”

Naturally, Sheng Wang didn’t have any particular opinions. His taste buds were way too picky, and shops that had passed his inspection definitely were definitely way less risky than those new shops he had yet to try. Besides, that place was honestly quite decent. He had met up with Zhao Xi and Lin Beiting there twice.

He had the bad habit of presenting treasures in the past — whenever he ate good food, heard of something fun, he always wanted to find Jiang Tian to experience them together. Later when they weren’t together, the habit couldn’t be gotten rid of no matter what. So he could only skip a step — he thought of it in his heart, and treated it the same as actually having happened.

Every time he went to that BBQ store, he would think: Jiang Tian would probably like the deep-fried lotus root sandwich here. The meat isn’t too filling and oily, the lotus root is crunchy too. If he ever gets the chance on a certain day, a certain month, a certain year, he would like to drag Jiang Tian here for a try. He didn’t know how long it would take for the “certain” to arrive, so he could only treat it as a delusion from the start to end.

He did not expect his delusion to come true. Sheng Wang was in an excellent mood, and worked at a highly efficient rate too. He finished everything early under Zhang Chao’s curious and suspicious gaze. The moment it was time to clock out, Sheng Wang had already worn his coat and left. He carried the wind with him as he entered the lift, the gust causing two new female interns to blush.

He received a message from Zhang Chao on WeChat the moment he just sat down in the car: I’ve known you for so long and this is the first time I’ve seen you rushing to end work. Is this the power of old flames?
As Sheng Wang pulled out from the parking spot with a single hand on the steering wheel, his other hand hurriedly typed: current boyfriend, thank you very much.
Zhang Chao: ???????
Zhang Chao: Fuck

*
That store was closer to Jiang Tian’s location. If Sheng Wang looked for Jiang Tian first, he had to detour instead — so the two weren’t mushy enough to forcibly go an entire circle just to walk together. The gathering was set to start at 7pm; he initially had more than enough time to reach there, but the addition of a traffic jam was enough to come for his throat.
Sheng Wang’s car stopped and continued and stopped and continued; by the time he finally managed to nudge his car there, it was already 6.55pm. He parked his car, and entered the private room according to Gao Tianyang’s message — an entire table of people sat down there, synchronously looking at him with smiles on their faces.

“See, what did I say, what did I say!” Song Sirui tapped the watch on his wrist, saying, “Sheng-ge would definitely arrive on the dot, with an error of less than two minutes. I was spot on, right? Wanna bet, gotta be ready to accept losing, don’t try to get away with this. Pay up!”
The spectacles he wore for so many years had been taken off from his face after he graduated from university, switching into contact lenses instead. He even shot up a bit. Though he might not be considered tall, at the very least he no longer resembled his beansprout self from before.

Ever since graduating from high school, the number of times Sheng Wang had seen most of the people around the table could be counted on his fingers. For those like Song Sirui who had a massive change in vibes, he probably wouldn’t quite dare to say that that’s him if he ran into him on the street. There might even be a few traces of unfamiliarity the moment he just entered. However, the moment words were exchanged, they could instantly travel back to a few years ago.

The table of people took their phones out in sighs and despair, their fingers speedily tapping on something.
Sheng Wang felt a vibration from his fingers, and swiped to unlock the screen. Gao Tianyang had already made a WeChat group chat, and the chat was continuously popping up with red packets; Song Sirui received them until his hands turned jelly.

When he got to Gao Tianyang, that guy acutely retracted that message.
Song Sirui swore a “fuck”, and cursed, “Are you a decent human or not? You want to take back even two bucks?!”
Gao Tianyang appeared to be completely shameless. “Is this the first day you know if I’m a decent human?”

The familiar arguments had appeared once more, and Sheng Wang laughed. He waved his phone, saying, “Hey, isn’t this too much? I wasn’t here yet, and you’re using me as a reason to gamble together? I’m reporting you guys.”
“No don’t, people would only bet if they’re betting on you. If we used Old Song instead, who the hell would have cared, right? He’s not worth that money,” Gao Tianyang said.
“Scram!” Song Sirui cursed across the table. He patted the empty seat beside him, saying to Sheng Wang, “Sheng-ge, please take the seat of honour.”

That empty seat was the nearest to Sheng Wang, so he didn’t think too much about it, and sat down straight after he hung up his coat. Just as he was about to ask if Jiang Tian has arrived yet, the door to the private room was pushed open.
Jiang Tian had something going on with his project, and managed to let Gao Tianyang know ahead of time. Still, he wasn’t considered late in the end, he was behind by only two minutes. He entered, scanned around, and his gaze met with Sheng Wang’s. Just as he was about to speak, a magical sight appeared in the private room—

Carp, Old Song, Gao Tianyang and the rest all lifted their chairs and shifted, everyone squeezing together. In the spot furthest away from Sheng Wang, which was next to Gao Tianyang, yet another empty spot was made. They said to Jiang Tian, “Tian-ge, sit here.”
Sheng Wang: “???”

Question marks popped up all over Sheng Wang’s head and he was dumbfounded for several moments before he finally recalled: oh, these kind hearted residents still thought that his and Jiang Tian’s relationship was still in tatters.

TO BE CONTINUED.