MM | Chapter 6

Catching Someone

“Hello, is this Xiao Tian? It’s your Uncle Sheng.” On the other end of the phone, Sheng Mingyang’s tone became more polite, thinking he was speaking to someone else.

Sheng Wang glanced around and replied, “Hello, Uncle Sheng. It’s your son, Sheng Wang.”

Sheng Mingyang: “…”

“Come on,” Sheng Mingyang said irritably, “Didn’t you say you’d pass the phone to Xiao Tian?”

“I did, but he’s gone.”

“What do you mean?” Sheng Mingyang was clearly puzzled. “What do you mean he’s gone?”

“He’s not in the classroom.”

Over there, Sheng Mingyang murmured a few words to someone, then said to Sheng Wang, “Don’t hang up yet. I’ll have your Aunt Jiang ask around.”

Sheng Wang rolled his eyes and tossed the phone back onto the desk.

A few classmates had approached, seemingly wanting to discuss the exam. Seeing him on the phone, they stopped, greeted him, and left.

In just a few minutes, Sheng Wang was the only one left in the classroom.

Bored, he played with his backpack strap, listening to the fading noise of people retreating, from the corridor to the stairs, until the entire top floor was quiet.

He looked at the phone screen, still showing “in call,” and suddenly remembered how it used to be when he was a child. Back then, his mom had just passed away, and perhaps afraid he would overthink, Sheng Mingyang insisted on picking him up from school every day.

During busy periods in business, Sheng Mingyang was often late, leaving Sheng Wang to wait while doing homework. By the time he finished, the students were gone, and Sheng Mingyang would arrive, apologizing with “Wang Zai” this and “Wang Zai” that while carrying his backpack.

Later, with the driver Uncle Xiao Chen, Sheng Wang rarely had to wait. After a few protests, Sheng Mingyang stopped calling him “Wang Zai” so often.

Suddenly, the sound of high heels clicking echoed in the corridor, snapping Sheng Wang back to reality. He saw a figure with long straight hair passing by the window. Just from her posture, he knew it was their English teacher, Yang Jing.

Though Sheng Wang had been here for three days and hadn’t attended an English class, he had a deep impression of this teacher. The students in Class A seemed terrified of her. At the mere mention of “Sister Jing is looking for you,” they would turn pale.

From their descriptions, Sheng Wang imagined their English teacher to be a yaksha.

But when he met her, he realized she wasn’t. Yang Jing was tall and slender, not exactly pretty, with slightly high cheekbones, but she stood out in a crowd.

Click, click, click.

Yang Jing walked past, then returned, knocking on the door with her chin raised.

“Jing—” Sheng Wang almost blurted out “Sister Jing,” but caught himself just in time. “Teacher Yang.”

“Mm.” Yang Jing asked, “Still here? What are you doing?”

Her speech was fast and her chin always slightly raised, making her sound like she was interrogating.

However, Sheng Wang was never afraid of teachers. He smiled and said, “Waiting for someone.”

“Oh.” Yang Jing glanced at his desk. “You’ve got some nerve, leaving your phone out in front of me like that?”

Sheng Wang froze, picked up his phone, and silently handed it over.

The young master was a master at pretending to be obedient. Yang Jing raised her thin, long eyebrows, scanning the empty classroom before giving him a once-over. “Why give it to me? I’m not Director Xu. Take it to the Political and Educational Office yourself.”

With that, she walked away in her high heels.

Sheng Wang placed the phone back on the desk. Just as he was about to let go, someone on the other end said, “Hello?”

“Yeah, go on,” Sheng Wang replied nonchalantly.

“Jiang Ou called him.”

“Called who?” Sheng Wang almost didn’t react, then said “Oh,” following up with, “Jiang Tian, huh? Didn’t expect him to be bold enough to bring a phone.”

Sheng Mingyang grumbled, “Who are you muttering about? Call him brother from now on.”

“No way, forget it.” With no one else around, Sheng Wang was straightforward.

Sheng Mingyang was adept at dealing with his son. Since Sheng Wang refused to call him brother, he changed the subject first. “Jiang Ou said your brother was called to the office by a teacher.”

I…

Sheng Wang mouthed a curse.

“You think I can’t tell what you’re trying to say?” Sheng Mingyang teased. “Alright, just come back with Uncle Xiao Chen.”

“Oh, so I don’t have to wait?” Sheng Wang asked coolly.

He vaguely heard Jiang Ou whispering on the other end, “Maybe it’s about a competition or something else. It often happens, and he doesn’t get home until 11. Don’t let Xiao Wang wait, just come back.”

What kind of teacher could keep him until 11? Sheng Wang picked up his backpack, puzzled, and headed for the door.

“Okay, you head back. I’ll have Uncle Xiao Chen make another trip later.” Sheng Mingyang said, then reminded him, “Say goodbye to your brother before you leave.”

In your dreams.

Sheng Wang flicked off the classroom light and hung up without another word.

The office was on the way downstairs. Though he said it was a dream, he still glanced inside as he passed. He saw five heads buried in work, either with papers or lesson plans in front of them. As for the supposedly summoned Jiang Tian, there wasn’t even a shadow.

Sheng Wang paused, full of questions: Don’t some people coordinate their lies? Aren’t they afraid of being exposed? Or… is he really not in this office and went somewhere else?

He looked around, intending to ask a teacher, but Uncle Xiao Chen had already texted, saying he was at the school gate and couldn’t park for long.

So he hesitated for a few seconds but still went downstairs.

There were several key schools in the city, but most were located in the suburbs, far from the city and people, as if they wanted to retreat into seclusion.

The Affiliated High School was a rare exception. It was established early on, finding a prime location in the city center, and had been there for 130 years. As the surrounding area became more bustling, the school enclosed a large area of forest around its teaching and dormitory zones, isolating itself from the noise.

The school named that forest and its flowers “Xiushen Garden,” but students called it “Magpie Bridge.”

Adult couples in the mundane world walk hand in hand down the street, but young couples in the temple of early love, to avoid pursuit and capture, could only trudge through the mud in the forest. At night, it was truly ghostly.

Sheng Wang had been startled by those “ghosts” several times in the past three days.

Outside the school gate, there were several residential areas with simple demographics: school staff, students, and parents renting to accompany their children for study.

Sheng Wang walked out the school gate along the haunted path and saw Uncle Xiao Chen rolling down the car window, gesturing to him.

He waited by the gate for Xiao Chen to turn the car around when he suddenly heard voices from a nearby residential building. The lights there flickered as if broken.

Sheng Wang vaguely saw two figures, one following the other, coming out of the building and turning onto another road.

“The streetlight’s a bit loose, it’s pretty dark. Want me to walk with you?”

“No need.”

He faintly heard this conversation, but it wasn’t very clear over the noise of traffic and the fence separating them. He just felt the responder’s voice was cold, somewhat familiar.

“Xiao Wang,” Uncle Xiao Chen called.

Sheng Wang responded and walked toward the car.

In his peripheral vision, the figure under the residential building seemed to turn back, but it might have been a trick of the overlapping shadows. Sheng Wang sat in the back seat, leaning his head against the window, trying to take a nap.

As the lights blurred together in his vision, he suddenly remembered why the voice was familiar. It sounded a bit like Jiang Tian. But it couldn’t be. What would Jiang Tian be doing here?

Sheng Wang snapped out of his drowsiness, then slowly sank back into it, not thinking further.

After all, whether it was Jiang Ou or Jiang Tian, they were just guests under the same roof, unrelated to him.

Having new people at home didn’t change much, just some details.

When Sheng Wang entered, Sheng Mingyang and Jiang Ou were waiting at the door, while the usual housekeeper auntie had already left.

Without lifting his eyes, he opened the shoe cabinet, only to find a row of unfamiliar shoes at the bottom. Some were similar to his athletic shoes, while others were women’s shoes.

Since his mother’s passing, such things hadn’t appeared at home for a long time.

“Your shoes are here.” Sheng Mingyang bent down, picked up his slippers, and handed them over. “I got them ready for you.”

Sheng Wang stood in front of the shoe cabinet for a moment, closed the door, and silently squatted to untie his shoelaces.

“You were fine on the phone, why ignore us now?” Sheng Mingyang patted Jiang Ou’s shoulder, squatted halfway in front of Sheng Wang, and asked, “I spoke with Old Xu today, oh, that’s your Political and Educational Office director. He said my son is doing great at school, the teachers like you, and I heard you did well on yesterday’s exam?”

Hearing this, Sheng Wang paused in changing his shoes.

He looked up at Sheng Mingyang, straightened up, and slung his backpack over his shoulder. “Yeah, great. Three subjects failed.”

With that, he walked past them and headed upstairs.

Sheng Mingyang and Jiang Ou exchanged glances, awkwardly frozen for a moment.

“I said I shouldn’t stand here,” Jiang Ou remarked.

“It takes time to adapt.” Sheng Mingyang heard the bedroom door slam shut upstairs and sighed. “That kid’s got a hard mouth but a soft heart. He knows who’s good and who’s not. It’s not about you, he just…”

“Just misses his mom, I know,” Jiang Ou said.

She glanced toward the kitchen and told Sheng Mingyang, “I won’t bring the congee. You give it to him.”

“He’s probably still mad, won’t open the door for me.” Sheng Mingyang chuckled dryly. “You think that ‘No Knocking’ sign on his door is for decoration? Leave the congee warm, he’ll come down when he’s hungry.”

“I think there’s something wrong with how you interact with Xiao Wang…” Jiang Ou couldn’t help but say.

“What do you mean? We’ve been interacting like this for years,” Sheng Mingyang replied irritably.

Jiang Ou glanced upstairs, still uneasy.

“Don’t worry, as long as he’s not crying, it’s fine,” Sheng Mingyang assured her confidently.

Jiang Ou: “???”

Upstairs in his bedroom, Sheng Wang was oblivious to his dad’s comments.

He dug out a pack of sunflower seeds from his snack cabinet, nestled by the desk, cracking them while listening to Crab’s enthusiastic chatter over voice chat.

Eight-leg Crab: “So what if that guy got a perfect score? You’ve aced plenty before. Once you go through the book properly, you’ll get perfect scores easily!”

Sheng Wang dusted off the seeds from his hands and replied, “Stop stuttering, speak properly.”

“Properly?” Crab whimpered, “If I ever get a perfect score, I’ll bow to my ancestors’ graves. But you only studied for a day and scored so high. Imagine a week!”

“Have you been drinking?” Sheng Wang asked.

“Nope.”

“Then why are you talking nonsense?” Sheng Wang said. “I only got the basic points, the kind anyone can get after going through the textbook. If a week of studying got me perfect scores, why would I even go to school?”

“I never realized there were so many basic points,” Crab said, aggrieved.

“You’re blind.”

“Alright, need any more papers? I can ask those second-year seniors,” Crab offered eagerly.

Sheng Wang glanced at the homework he brought back. “Not for now. I bought some workbooks, I’ll work through them first.”

During evening self-study, he finished two reading comprehensions for Chinese and basic exercises for math, physics, and chemistry, planning to tackle the rest at night. But two hours later, he was stuck.

Crab was probably also working on problems, feeling a bit lonely. He poked Sheng Wang, asking, “How’s it going, Sheng-ge? Feeling like you’re one with the universe, all meridians flowing, smooth and effortless?”

Sheng Wang chuckled, “Can’t do it.”

Crab: “What? Impossible!”

Sheng Wang was also frustrated.

He’d always been efficient at self-study. Though it might sound arrogant, he was aware of his strengths. On his desk were three things: the textbook on the left, the test paper in the middle, and the workbook on the right.

He would first read the test question, identify the knowledge point, quickly go through the corresponding section in the textbook, then pick a couple of similar problems from the workbook to practice before tackling the test paper.

This method allowed him to quickly solve most of the homework, except for the last physics problem, which he couldn’t find a corresponding type for.

“Really? Can’t be,” Crab said. “Send me a picture of the problem?”

“What for, you gonna solve it for me?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Crab said. “I’ll ask the seniors in the next dorm, they’re pretty sharp.”

Sheng Wang took a photo and sent it to him, then turned on his computer to search online.

After about half an hour, Crab returned sheepishly. “The seniors are working on it by flashlight, cursing me, saying I have a grudge against them. If they can’t solve it tonight, they won’t sleep.”

Sheng Wang was biting his lip, staring at his computer screen, not responding.

Crab sent three more messages, then called directly.

As soon as the call connected, he asked, “How’s it going?”

Sheng Wang replied dryly, “Found one that’s kind of similar.”

Crab said, “Oh! Then go for it!”

“Go for what, it’s an olympiad-level problem.”

Crab: “…Your homework is that intense?”

Expecting someone who hasn’t studied to tackle an olympiad problem, isn’t that a bit too much?

“I’ll hang up now, going downstairs for some ice water to cool off,” Sheng Wang said, cutting the call and mumbling as he went downstairs.

The living room was dark, with only the entrance light on. He glanced at the clock, realizing it was already 11 PM. He took a bottle of ice water from the fridge and went back upstairs, leaning against the window to take a sip. Just as he was about to return to his desk, he noticed someone standing by the streetlight outside.

The person had a backpack slung over their shoulder and was on the phone.

Maybe it was the bright streetlight, or maybe his eyesight was good. Through the window glass and the yard, Sheng Wang could see the annoyance and displeasure on the other person’s face.

Who was he talking to that made him so angry?

Sheng Wang was a bit curious. He saw Jiang Tian tap the screen, toss his phone into his pocket, but he didn’t enter the yard immediately. Instead, he stood outside for a while, then turned to look at the small building.

Sheng Wang reflexively pulled the curtain to hide, only realizing afterward that it made more noise.

Forget it, that was stupid.

He thought for a moment and opened the curtain again, looking out openly, only to see Jiang Tian turning away, heading in the opposite direction.

“Hey?” Sheng Wang was puzzled.

By the time he realized, he had already opened the window and shouted, “Where are you going? Can’t open the gate?”

The noise was loud. After he spoke, the bedroom window downstairs also opened.

Sheng Mingyang poked his head out, looking at him, “Who are you talking to?”

Before Sheng Wang could answer, he quickly figured it out. “Jiang Tian?”

“Who else? A thief?” Sheng Wang replied.

But he soon regretted it.

Two minutes later, Jiang Tian, who had intended to leave, was dragged into the living room by his mom and Sheng Mingyang, trapped at the junction of the first and second floors.

The young master Sheng opened the door a crack to watch, but as soon as he peeked out, he met Jiang Tian’s icy gaze. He thought for a moment and silently closed the door again.