MM | Chapter 51

The Thief

Sheng Wang pulled back his hand and stood up straight.

“Finally done,” he muttered, picking up his phone and opening an app. “Let’s get something to eat. I’m starving. What do you want?”

“As long as it’s not too weird.”

Jiang Tian was the complete opposite of Sheng Wang. He wasn’t picky at all. No matter how good or bad the food was, he could swallow it without changing his expression. If you asked him how it tasted, he’d just say, “It’s okay.”

If he was in a bad mood, he’d reduce it to just “edible.”

Ever since Sheng Wang started eating at Wutongwai, Old Man Ding felt rejuvenated. More than once, he pointed at Jiang Tian and complained to Sheng Wang, “This kid has no sense of taste. Whether I add too much salt, sugar, or whether it’s soy sauce or vinegar, he can’t tell!”

Whenever the old man got a whim to invent a new dish, Jiang Tian wouldn’t notice. Every time, the old man had to point at the plate and ask, “Look, I made something new. How is it?”

Only then would this rascal show a hint of surprise and say, “You haven’t made this before?”

It made the old man want to hit him with chopsticks.

When Sheng Wang first came over, the old man heard he was picky and expected another troublesome guest, so he didn’t have high hopes. But the next day, he realized he was totally wrong—he just swapped the green peppers for Hangzhou peppers in a stir-fry, and Sheng Wang noticed, saying he preferred the new version.

Old Man Ding felt like he’d struck gold.

This puzzled Jiang Tian for a while. Once, he couldn’t help but ask the old man in the kitchen why that was.

The old man confidently replied, “Because he’s likable, why else?”

Jiang Tian was washing dishes at the sink and casually replied, “Is he?”

“If he wasn’t likable, would you bring him here?” The old man looked at him as if he was just being stubborn and said, “You even used my words to trick him into coming over to eat. You think I don’t know?”

Jiang Tian drained the water from the dishes, refusing to admit it. “When did I ever use your words?”

Old Man Ding snorted, too lazy to argue with the younger generation.

After pondering for a moment, he added, “Picky eaters have sensitive tongues. They know what’s good and give better compliments than you.”

Jiang Tian thought to himself, old people are indeed easy to fool.

In any case, Old Man Ding and Sheng Wang, despite their sixty-year age gap, hit it off instantly. Since then, the old man began his culinary invention journey, constantly coming up with strange dishes, and Sheng Wang enthusiastically praised them, making the old man so happy he didn’t know which way was north. Ultimately, it was Jiang Tian who suffered.

Since he could eat anything, new dishes were always tested on him first. Once deemed edible, the old man and Sheng Wang would dig in.

After that, Jiang Tian developed a new habit—always requesting “nothing too weird” when eating, because some people could be surprisingly unpredictable.

Sheng Wang laughed at this request, scrolling through his phone, plotting something mischievous, which eased the subtle awkwardness from a moment ago.

However, he didn’t get to carry out his mischief because the neighbors came over again.

Old Mao raised his phone and said, “Hey guys! How about a party tonight? Delivery guys can enter the school during the holidays. I ordered crayfish and clams; they’ll be here soon!”

Tongzi was even better, dragging a small suitcase with him.

Jiang Tian frowned and asked, “Are you moving?”

“No, no,” Tongzi quickly waved his hand. “The dorms always have surprise inspections, right? The auntie checks the desks and cabinets but doesn’t look in suitcases, so—”

He opened the suitcase and proudly revealed, “Ta-da!”

Sheng Wang looked and thought, wow! A suitcase full of canned beer.

Tongzi was still boasting, “Isn’t that awesome?”

Sheng Wang slowly gave him a thumbs-up and said, “Why don’t you just open a shop?”

“I did!” Tongzi said. “Oh right, just opened a week ago. Small business, not much promotion, mainly because I haven’t come to your dorm to drum up business. I don’t really like your dorm’s Shi Yu, and Qiu Wenbin looks like an honest guy who’d report me to the dorm manager.”

Old Mao pointed at him and said, “Isn’t it inconvenient for us on the sixth floor? This guy monopolized the convenience store downstairs with instant noodles, sausages, spicy strips, and chips, even providing hot water around the clock. Several dorms on the sixth floor sneak over for noodles at night.”

Tongzi said, “I also have poker and mahjong under my bed for rent.”

Sheng Wang was amazed and immediately ordered barbecue delivery to shut this business genius up.

“Two boxes of crayfish for four people isn’t enough,” Old Mao said. “But don’t order too much, Sheng.”

Sheng Wang said, “I ordered a few skewers, shouldn’t be too much.”

Old Mao was about to agree but saw Jiang Tian’s expression, which seemed to disagree. So he and Tongzi waited skeptically for the delivery.

In no time, a call came to Sheng Wang’s phone, just as the crayfish arrived. Tongzi and Old Mao eagerly volunteered to go downstairs, and Jiang Tian added, “I’ll go with you.”

Tongzi said, “No need, the two of us can handle it.”

Jiang Tian replied, “You’ll see.”

Tongzi was puzzled, “It’s just a few more skewers, right?”

Two minutes later, he stood dumbfounded in front of four large bags labeled “Those Years BBQ,” thinking, damn, a few more skewers my foot.

Old Mao finally understood why Jiang Tian insisted on coming along; without him, it would’ve been hard to carry.

“Does Sheng always eat like this?” he asked, trembling.

Jiang Tian wanted to say Sheng was always generous when treating others, but such compliments were easily repeated. So he swallowed his words and said, “Not usually.”

The implication was that it was especially for you two, so be grateful.

Old Mao and Tongzi nodded quickly.

Jiang Tian added, “Don’t waste it.”

“…”

Old Mao and Tongzi felt like kneeling in gratitude.

They carried the four big bags of barbecue, two boxes of crayfish, and a box of spicy clams, ready to head upstairs, but Jiang Tian said, “You guys go ahead.”

“There’s more???” Tongzi was a bit overwhelmed.

“Not related to you,” Jiang Tian said.

Tongzi sighed in relief.

In no time, Jiang Tian received another delivery. Tongzi and Old Mao glanced at the packaging, which seemed to be something like coconut chicken. They thought it was for Jiang Tian himself, but once they got upstairs and laid everything out, they realized it was a “recovery meal” for Sheng Wang.

The “patient” threw a fit, almost strangling Jiang Tian in protest.

“With crayfish and barbecue right in front of me, you make me eat this bland stuff. Are you doing this on purpose?” Sheng Wang fumed.

Jiang Tian, held tightly, had to lower his head to cooperate. It was unclear if it was from the friction or his deep laughter, but his Adam’s apple and the surrounding skin turned a light shade of red.

He stopped laughing and, still in the hold, reached for two medicine boxes from the bedside, flipping them over with his finger to the instructions, and pointed, “See for yourself.”

Sheng Wang didn’t need to look to know what it said—no spicy or stimulating foods allowed.

Jiang Tian said, “Let go.”

Sheng Wang let go with a cold laugh, reluctantly eating the bland food while casting resentful glances at the onlookers. Tongzi and Old Mao thought, what did we do to deserve this?

Regretting their visit, they buried themselves in eating, finishing most of the food, and finally surrendering to the last skewer. They leaned back in their chairs, rubbing their bellies in a post-meal daze, watching Jiang Tian take the last soft bone skewer.

Just as he bit into the top piece, his phone buzzed twice. As he lowered his head to type a reply with one hand, Sheng Wang quickly snatched the skewer, meat and all.

Jiang Tian tossed his phone back on the bed, looking over with a blank face.

Sheng Wang gave a challenging smile and crunched on the soft bone.

Tongzi, slow to react, stared blankly for a while before standing up, holding his belly, and said, “Old Mao, let’s go. I’m about to burst.”

*

The three-day holiday felt longer than a weekend but short nonetheless, flying by in a flash.

Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian were quick, finishing all their homework in just a day and a half. If it weren’t for the injured foot, they could’ve gone out for some fun, but reality kept them grounded.

Back home, Sheng Wang had everything he needed, but he was bored out of his mind. Spending a day and a half in the dorm with almost zero entertainment, he found it relaxing and enjoyable, surprisingly comfortable.

People are truly fascinating creatures.

The temperature suddenly rose before and after National Day, making the dorm stuffy at night. The air conditioning in the classrooms and dorms was centrally controlled by the school and turned off after early September.

At this age, boys are full of energy and can’t stand the heat, so the guys in 602, trusting the school’s safety and the dorm’s high floor, decided to sleep with the door open at night, experiencing a sense of security. With the door and balcony open, the night breeze blew straight through, cooling the entire dorm.

It’s said this is a tradition passed down by seniors, done every year without incident. Other dorms followed suit, except for 601.

Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian weren’t particularly rule-abiding; they’d done plenty to get on the dorm manager’s bad side before. They didn’t do this because they felt the dorm at night was a private space, like closing the bedroom door at home.

With the door wide open, what if they slept in late in the morning? Anyone could just walk in without a barrier—that’d be embarrassing.

As the saying goes, walk the night road enough, and you’ll run into ghosts. After a few days of leaving the doors open, they finally encountered a “ghost” on the last long night of the National Day holiday—

When Sheng Wang saw the figure, he had just escaped a dream that felt like a battle royale. Not fully awake, he groggily opened his eyes and vaguely saw someone pass by his bed.

He instinctively thought it was Jiang Tian and mumbled, “What time is it?” It was so muddled it sounded like a dream. The figure didn’t answer, and he quickly fell into another round of dreaming.

He wasn’t sleeping deeply and was even aware he was dreaming. As he followed the dream, he recalled the figure passing by his bed and suddenly felt something was off: Jiang Tian wore a white T-shirt to sleep, so why was it all black? Moreover, his skin was so pale that even a little light would make him stand out at night.

Sheng Wang turned over in his bed, then suddenly jolted awake.

He sat up, scanning the room. The opposite bunks were empty, the balcony only had clothes hanging high, swaying with the night breeze, and there was no sound from the bathroom.

Sheng Wang got out of bed and reached up to pat the person on the top bunk.

“Jiang Tian,” he called softly.

The other person wasn’t sleeping deeply and woke up with a single call. He squinted at the edge of the bed and asked in a hoarse voice, “What’s up?”

“Did you come down just now?” Sheng Wang asked.

“No,” Jiang Tian replied, understanding immediately. He sat up, pinching the bridge of his nose to wake up, and climbed down from the top bunk. “Did you see something?”

“Maybe I was dreaming?” Sheng Wang said.

The two of them checked the dorm but initially found nothing wrong. Just as they assumed it was a dream and were about to go back to bed, Jiang Tian paused.

One foot was already on the ladder, but he stepped back down, walked to the balcony, and opened the door.

The clothes they had hung up to dry after washing were still wet, with puddles of water on the floor. Someone had accidentally stepped in one, leaving several footprints. If they had woken up any later, the footprints would have dried in the wind.

Without a word, Sheng Wang grabbed his phone and called the dorm’s duty room. In no time, the duty auntie brought two security guards up, and the sixth-floor dorms lit up one by one.

The dorm inspection took over an hour, and it was confirmed—they’d been robbed. The dorms with open doors had varying degrees of loss, with Tongzi suffering the worst. Fortunately, 601 hadn’t lost anything, possibly because Sheng Wang’s sleep-talk had scared the thief away.

The school didn’t dare delay when there was an issue in the dorms. The dorm management quickly reported it, and the auntie called the students who had left their doors open for a scolding.

By the time all these miscellaneous things were settled, it was already 4 a.m.

The auntie noted down a page of names for the blacklist and urged them to go back to sleep. Before leaving, she reminded them, “Even if there’s an investigation, it will take a few days. There’s no guarantee the thief won’t come back. He dared to climb to the sixth floor, after all. Be careful at night for the next few days. If you’re scared, you can bunk together or go home for a couple of days. Safety first. Remember to register with me if you do.”

Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian returned to their dorm.

It was actually quite difficult for them to guard against thieves. The dorm was stuffy, and even if they closed the door at night, they couldn’t possibly keep the windows shut. The thief probably reached in through the window to open the balcony door.

The dorm manager was understandably worried about student safety, but Sheng Wang felt the thief probably wouldn’t return so soon, so he left the window open for ventilation.

Sheng Wang washed his hands and sat cross-legged on the bed, chatting with Jiang Tian for a while. As the voices downstairs gradually faded and the night returned to silence, he felt a bit sleepy again.

Jiang Tian was about to climb to the top bunk when Sheng Wang, leaning against the wall, wrapped in his blanket, began to doze off.

Half-opening his eyes, he quietly watched Jiang Tian place his phone on the top bunk. The loose white T-shirt pressed against the bed rail, forming two horizontal creases.

He saw Jiang Tian pause for a moment, then suddenly hold onto the bed rail and look down, asking, “Are you scared?”

Sheng Wang, engulfed in drowsiness, reacted slowly. He made a questioning sound before realizing what Jiang Tian meant.

He wasn’t easily scared. He could watch horror movies with the lights off and play VR horror games. Having spent a lot of time alone at home, his nerves were quite resilient. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gotten out of bed to check when he realized someone was in the dorm.

He could easily say, “Of course not,” but he moved his lips without saying it.

A gentle breeze blew through the window screen, lightly shaking Qiu Wenbin’s mosquito net across the room. Sheng Wang suddenly shifted inward on the bed, gesturing to the empty space with a nod and said, “The auntie said we could bunk together. We can’t combine the top and bottom bunks, but I can share half with you.”