The Only Difference Was That He No Longer
Came Over To Mooch Off The 'Study Room'
Anymore.
Jiang Tian completed all the practice papers at 11.30pm, and
finished 3 major questions each from maths, physics and chem
olympiad questions. He then took out all the further extension
papers, and went through his mistakes for the second time.
As he really barely made any mistake, this part only took less
than 10 minutes.
12.40am, and he already had nothing left to do.
The neighbouring room remained dead quiet throughout.
Sheng Wang did not shuffle around in his slippers, nor did he
show any signs of intending to buddy up to study. Last week, he
even joked that Jiang Tian's bedroom became a study room he
took over by force. In the end, the moment the monthly exam
ended, the 'study room' lost its purpose.
Jiang Tian stood in front of his bag, his fingers picking
through its content. He already read everything he could read.
After two rounds or so of picking through, he took out a thick
book with a poker face, the cover had the words 'A Guide to
Lyrical Writing' written on it.
He stared at the cover for a couple of seconds, it was hard to
say if he was pondering over what exactly he was doing, or if he
was pondering if there was any point in reading that.
Maybe there was a point after all, because he went to sit at
the windowsill with it in the end.
This mini unit was talking about the clever use of parallelism
in sentences, two minutes later, Jiang Tian already zoned out.
The White Horse Alley at this time didn't have the particular
type of tranquility found at 2am yet. People occasionally passed
by the lane once in a while, casting fleeting shadows in between
the walls. The main street in the distance also had some traffic,
sometimes, it would be utterly quiet, and the other times, there
would be the light sound of car tyres rolling past the surface of
the road, like the sound of waves that the wind occasionally
carried over.
His phone suddenly buzzed, and Jiang Tian retracted his gaze
from outside the window. The lines of his lips and brows shifted
on a miniscule level, like the moment he heard the vibration, they
instantly relaxed a little.
He closed the guide that he couldn't bring himself to read,
and scooped over his phone——
It was Gao Tianyang's message.
Jiang Tian: "..."
Boom: Are you still awake, Tian-ge?
Jiang Tian: Still am.
Boom: Great, have you seen the olympiad questions Old He
sent in advance?
Jiang Tian: Yeah.
Boom: I just knew you won't wait until next week,
Boom: I have 3 questions.
Jiang Tian: Speak.
Boom: May I ask
Boom: How do you do
Boom: The three questions
Jiang Tian: ...
Gao Tianyang sent several memes about life being rough,
and explained that the questions this time round were much
more troublesome than before, there was too little information
given, and he didn't know where to begin.
A portion of physics questions were all like this, at first look
the question said nothing at all, they dared people to find an
answer without any condition given.
Boom: The hell with answering, I can't even list a damn
formula.
Jiang Tian was already idle anyway, he dug out the practice
paper he completed from his bag, and took a picture of the
question. He used a black pen to underline 10+ parts.
He sent the picture to Gao Tianyang, and said: Just need to
find all the hidden conditions.
Which term represents an additional force, which term
represents that a certain state can be set at a certain value, which
other term represents the limitations etc etc. They were all hidden
in the parts he underlined.
He Jin mentioned before that at this stage, physics would be
testing them on their attention to details. When they consider all
given factors completely, one would be hard-pressed to even
make a mistake. The three questions she gave this time were
classic examples, they have to search for the conditions all on
their own, managing to cause an entire class of students to nearly
vomit over trying to find it.
Boom: There's so many hidden conditions???
Boom: Fuck, I missed out 4, no wonder there's something
wrong no matter how I tried to calculate
Boom: Where did Old He find these questions
Boom: Speaking of which you're acting quite abnormal today
Jiang Tian: What kind of abnormal?
Boom: Didn't you usually skip the steps in your questions in
the past? I can't believe you seriously wrote all of them down
today
Boom: This is literally the answer key holy shit
Boom: [buff guy covering his face]
Boom: Are you telling me you wrote it so completely on
purpose? Just waiting for us butt citizens to ask? Touched.
Jiang Tian's eyelid briefly lifted up. It remained dead quiet
next door, who knew if he skipped doing these questions or he
already finished them all with no trouble.
He typed a few words to remind Gao Tianyang: It's already
1am.
Boom: Oh oh yeah right, it's time for your normal bedtime
Jiang Tian hesitated, deleted the four words "screw off and
do your work", and changed it into a "Mn."
If it wasn't for Gao Tianyang he would have forgotten, other
than having extra matters after night self study, 1am was his
normal bedtime.
Boom: Then you should go sleep then, Imma tinker around
with the questions
Jiang Tian: Sure
His words said 'sure', but when he quit WeChat he opened
up 'A Guide to Lyrical Writing' again. Tonight, he spent a whole
hour on the guide to composition writing, if Beckon Money knew
she would die from joy…...
Or possibly be scared to death too.
Six in the morning the next day, Jiang Tian was packing his
bag after he washed up. He suddenly received two messages on
his phone. Due to the fact that his phone was on his blanket, the
vibration wasn't particularly obvious. His screen only abruptly lit
up twice, but he still spotted it instantly.
He pulled the zip on his bag all the way to the bottom in one
shot, and his long arm reached over to grab his phone.
The person who was dead all night finally gave a reply.
Shop's Closed: Accidentally fell asleep last night, just saw the
message
Shop's Closed: What's wrong?
Jiang Tian looked at the screen next to his bed, his eyes
lowered.
He already typed the answer out on the keyboard, but did
not send the message.
He wanted to ask "Why did you change your profile picture
and personal nickname out of the blue", but he did know the
actual cause all along. The question mark he sent last night fit the
occasion, but overnight, it became meaningless.
And the first message in the chat always reminded him of
the "Signal's bad, just saw the message" that he replied Qi Jiahao
with before the English Olympiad.
Jiang Tian was silent for a moment, and replied: Nothing,
come out for breakfast.
He grabbed his bag and walked out of the bedroom. He
started reading the news in English as he leaned against the
staircase railing, waiting for the boy named 'Shop's Closed' to get
up.
*
Even though Sheng Wang changed his WeChat name, he
acted the same as usual.
He would do the practice papers as he listened in class, and
after class he would still banter and joke around with the people
around him. When his pen ran out of ink, he would ask to borrow
the ink refill from Jiang Tian, when he found something
entertaining he would try to scam Jiang Tian into laughing along
too, sometimes he would hide his phone inside the desk and
complain via WeChat.
There was still five minutes before the last lesson in the
morning ended. Jiang Tian sent a message to the deskmate in
front of him: Let's go to Beyond Parasol Tree for lunch?
Sheng Wang was busy with doing his chemistry paper. As his
right hand speedily calculated, his left hand reached into his desk,
grabbing hold of the lightly vibrating phone.
A while later, he finally took his phone out and looked down.
Boys at this age have wide shoulders, but they were of
hardly any substance. Any minor movement would cause the
fabric of the shirt to highlight the contours of the scapula.
Jiang Tian received a reply a couple of seconds later.
Shop's Closed: Sure, I'm starving to death already.
The mute went to Xi Le to help out at noon, Boss Zhao took
care of the meals. Jiang Tian initially thought that there would be
only three people in that courtyard that day in Beyond Parasol
Trees, he did not expect twice that number, not even in his
dreams——
Just as they turned around the corner of the lane, they saw a
mini truck parked in front of the empty space in front of Old Man
Ding's front door, a giant cardboard box as well as some foam
packaging against the wall, like they just unpackaged a giant piece
of furniture.
The moment Jiang Tian entered the house, he saw two
people in dark blue jackets carrying a silver-white refrigerator into
the hall, there was also a man in a similar uniform connecting the
circuit boards.
Upon spotting him, Old Man Ding scurried over, and gave his
arm a slap. "You bought this?!"
Jiang Tian shook his head. He wanted to say something, but
the moment he opened his mouth he turned to look at Sheng
Wang as if he abruptly remembered something, the old man
followed along.
He hated owing people favours of any kind in his life the
most, and he disliked receiving benefits from other people for no
good reason at all. His temperament was as stubborn as a mule,
even to the point that when Jiang Tian tried to give him
something, he needed the excuse of "I can't just freeload", he
wouldn't even accept a single penny from other people at all.
Old Man Ding treated Jiang Tian like half a flesh and blood
grandson, when he had no other choice he could use his hands.
But that did not apply towards Sheng Wang, after all, that boy was
a guest, and he seemed like he wouldn't withstand a hit.
He asked Sheng Wang with a stern face: "You bought it?"
Sheng Wang copied Jiang Tian, he shook his head as he
denied: "No."
Old Man Ding's eagle eyes were bulging as he ferociously
glared: "Who else would dare to buy me this, say that again!"
The old man was enlisted as part of the army before, he had
never lost to anyone in terms of aura. People like Gao Tianyang
who were beaten up by him before, would dissolve into panic as
soon as he glared at them. Yet, out of all people, the one who
looked clean and tidy and unable to withstand a single hit,
appeared to be thoroughly unintimidated by him.
Sheng Wang let out an "oh" and said: "Then…...take it as I'm
the one who bought it then."
Old Man Ding internally said what kind of bullshit is this, but
the person who spoke looked rather sheepish, he didn't have the
heart to be harsh with him.
The old man glared at him for a good while, before that aura
of his deflated like a balloon and asked: "Why did you buy this
for?"
Sheng Wang broke out into a smile: "You wanted to take care
of my lunch right? I'm just contributing to food expenses."
"What do you mean food expenses? I'm not keeping that!"
Old Man Ding said, "I'm just providing food, that's all, do I really
need such a big fuss over it? Y-y-y-you get rid of it soon, send it
back to wherever it came from.
Sheng Wang let out yet another "oh", and said: "That's fine,
then I'll be leaving with the fridge."
"Wait!" Old Man Ding said.
"Sure, I'll wait." Sheng Wang lowered the hand that was
about to wave the people over here, looking especially obedient.
The old man nearly spat out blood.
He walked in circles over and over again, downed two
mouthfuls of cold tea, and then pestered Jiang Tian as he reached
his wits' end. "Are you gonna do anything about the classmate you
brought over?!"
Jiang Tian: "..."
Sheng Wang was amused by that line, "Not even my dad can
control me."
Old Man Ding spat out the tea leaf bits and said: "What kinda
temper a kid like you even has?"
"Mule temper, around the same as Yours." After Sheng Wang
said that, he covered half his face, the manner of someone who
was defending himself from getting hit.
The old man was so angry that he laughed.
He put his hands on his waist and played the role of the
obstinate mule in the courtyard. Several minutes of being
obstinate later, he finally admitted defeat. He grumbled a "stinkin'
brat" under his breath, and entered the kitchen, reaching a
compromise.
Old people have the same mentality as kids, they may say "I
don't want" for all they like, but when he actually kept it he was
more happy than anyone.
Old Man Ding was too used to being hard headed, he
couldn't let go of his pride. He wanted to touch the fridge, but he
was too embarrassed to. Therefore, he kept finding excuses. One
moment he would say that it doesn't appear to be functioning, the
other he would say the powerboard was messy. With the effort of
making a single lunch, he already went back and forth to the
fridge 7-8 times.
The two younger people were well aware, neither of them
exposed him.
Jiang Tian grabbed a stool out from the room in order to
make sure everyone got a seat, and saw Sheng Wang leaning
against the door, eyeing Old Man Ding as he played a game on his
phone, laughter barely restrained at the corner of his lips.
Jiang Tian settled the stool next to the table, and walked
towards him, asking: "When did you buy it?"
Sheng Wang didn't look up from his game. "Just two days
ago."
He turned on the scope, sniped someone, and spoke again:
"The day you said to take care of my meals."
Jiang Tian's fingers, dangling at the side of his body, lightly
twitched.
Sheng Wang happened to finish one round, before he spoke
he flexed the outcome of his battle in front of him. "Cool, right?"
He really appeared to not change at all on the surface. They
went to school together, went to eat lunch and the convenience
store together. If you treated him a little nicer, he would dig out
something even better in repayment.
The only difference was that he no longer came over to
mooch off the 'study room' anymore.