MM | Chapter 7

The Note

After all the fuss, it was already midnight.

Sheng Wang wasn’t sure what method Sheng Mingyang and Jiang Ou used, but Jiang Tian ended up staying. Sheng Wang pressed his ear against the bedroom door, but couldn’t make out much. Based on what he had seen earlier, he guessed Jiang Ou played the pity card. Whenever Jiang Ou showed that cautious yet slightly pleading expression, Jiang Tian couldn’t say anything too harsh.

Footsteps shuffled upstairs, and Sheng Wang, leaning against the door, heard Sheng Mingyang say, “Xiao Tian, you can stay in this room.”

Opposite Sheng Wang’s room was a private bathroom and study. The “bedroom” his dad mentioned was right next to his. Although the house was old, it had been fully renovated and was quite soundproof. But with the rooms sharing a wall, they could still hear each other a bit.

Sheng Wang felt his personal space was being invaded, a mix of annoyance and subtle embarrassment.

His phone buzzed twice, and Sheng Wang glanced down wearily. Eight-leg Crab was still giving live updates on the progress of those two seniors.

Eight-leg Crab:

Good news, they finally solved the first question. I could feel their excitement through the wall, and then their dorm got warned by the patrolling teacher.

Eight-leg Crab: Hey, still awake?

Eight-leg Crab: ??

Sheng Wang brought the phone to his lips: “It’s still early, I’m awake.”

Eight-leg Crab: It’s 12:30, bro. How about you? How’s your progress?

Canned: “Haven’t had the chance to start.”

Eight-leg Crab: Huh? Then what have you been doing all this time?

Canned: “Watching a family drama unfold.”

Since Crab was his former roommate and they were close, he knew a bit about Sheng Wang’s family situation. The phone, which had been buzzing non-stop, suddenly went quiet. After a while, Crab cautiously asked: What’s going on?

Sheng Wang pressed the voice button, then released it after a few seconds, switching to typing instead.

Crab received an empty voice message and sent back a string of question marks.

Ignoring it, Sheng Wang leaned against the door, typing on the keypad: Someone who’s about to become my stepmom and her son moved in. Her son lives next door to me. I…

What about me? Sharing this with others seemed pointless and a bit melodramatic. Mainly, it felt melodramatic, which didn’t match his cool image. Thinking this, Sheng Wang deleted the text and used voice: “Nothing much, just some brat temporarily living next door, and out of courtesy, I have to call him ‘brother.'”

The ambiguous statement made Crab think it was some annoying distant relative, so he wasn’t worried anymore.

Eight-leg Crab: Did you call him that?

Canned: “No way, I’m never polite.”

Eight-leg Crab: Hahaha, then kick him out.

Canned: “I’d love to. Don’t you have a dog? Lend it to me, I’ll let it pee all over that room and see who can stand it.”

Eight-leg Crab: Damn, don’t describe it, I can smell it already.

Sheng Wang laughed. He enjoyed the banter but suddenly remembered Jiang Tian standing alone outside the courtyard. The streetlight stretched his shadow long, proud yet a bit… lonely.

The young master clicked his tongue and said, “Forget it, as long as he doesn’t talk to me or disturb my reading, I’m fine. Out of sight, out of mind. I’m going to grind through the questions.”

Eight-leg Crab: Hey? Wait a minute.

Eight-leg Crab: Speaking of grinding questions, since you have to call him ‘brother,’ the brat next door should be older, right?

Eight-leg Crab: At least a second-year senior? Why not show him the last question, if he can solve it, great. If not, it’ll annoy him.

This logic was a bit twisted, and Sheng Wang was stunned for a moment before replying without hesitation: You’re annoying me.

Canned: I’m out!

The last message was a bit harsh, and Eight-leg Crab backed down, falling silent.

Sheng Mingyang, having settled Jiang Tian, hesitated for a moment before walking to Sheng Wang’s door, softly calling, “Son?” His voice was low, and he didn’t knock, as if afraid of disturbing someone.

Sheng Wang was actually standing right behind the door. Only a door panel separated father and son, and he heard clearly but didn’t respond.

“Son?” Sheng Mingyang called again.

Sheng Wang still didn’t answer.

After a while, he heard Sheng Mingyang quietly say to Jiang Ou, “It’s been over an hour, he’s probably asleep.”

“Really asleep?” Jiang Ou sounded uncertain.

“Should be.” Sheng Mingyang probably glanced at the clock and muttered, “It’s almost 1 o’clock, let’s go downstairs.”

The deliberately light footsteps grew more distant, heading down the stairs.

Sheng Wang vaguely heard his dad say, “I have an early flight tomorrow, take care.”

Once the sounds from downstairs completely disappeared, Sheng Wang returned to his desk. He brushed aside the books and sat on the desk, feet on the chair, the exam paper spread across his bent knees. He stared at it for ten minutes, his mind a tangled mess with no clear thoughts.

He looked up, leaning back slightly.

From that angle, he could see the half-open window of the room next door. The glow of a desk lamp shone through the curtains onto the glass. From the looks of it, Jiang Tian was also busy with homework.

I wonder if he’s finished physics…

He should have, he was working on it during evening self-study. If he hasn’t finished by now, he’s not much of a top student.

What if he can’t solve the last question?

But he got a perfect score.

Sheng Wang’s mind seemed to house a crab, debating with him noisily.

The paper or pride, one had to be chosen.

Sheng Wang twirled his pen rapidly, finally slamming it on the desk: I choose pride.

Five minutes later, the young master, with his shattered pride, stood at the door next door. After hesitating three times, he reluctantly knocked.

“Who?” Jiang Tian’s voice came from inside, cold.

Even when “living under someone else’s roof,” this person showed no sign of timidity, and the blunt “who” almost sent Sheng Wang back to his room. His left foot moved but then he held back, strategically pretending to be deaf.

Receiving no response, Jiang Tian shuffled over in slippers. The handle clicked, and the door opened halfway.

He clearly didn’t expect Sheng Wang, pausing momentarily. Perhaps remembering being dragged inside earlier, his expression was unfriendly, like he had a toothache or some other pain.

“What kind of face is that?” Sheng Wang said.

“If you have something to say, say it.” Jiang Tian clearly didn’t want to chat.

Sheng Wang opened his mouth, reaching out: “Give me back my pen.”

Jiang Tian stared at him expressionlessly for two seconds, then turned back into the room.

Seeing the empty doorway, Sheng Wang turned and slapped his own mouth.

Are you scared, handsome? Just asking, are you scared?! He mocked himself internally, then resumed his lazy demeanor just as Jiang Tian returned to the door.

Jiang Tian handed the pen back and asked, “Anything else?”

“That’s it,” Sheng Wang said.

Jiang Tian nodded, closing the door without another word.

“…”

Sheng Wang stared at the pen for a few seconds, then slowly extended a middle finger at the door before heading back to his room to continue wrestling with the physics paper.

For a student who had always had a smooth ride, he had encountered wrong questions before, but this feeling of having no entry point was a first. Such students have a quirk: they can’t sleep unless the paper is logically filled out.

He tried several approaches, each time scratching it out halfway. People who do a lot of papers develop a sense—while they may not always find the right answer, they can tell which ones are wrong.

Caught in a vortex of mistakes, Sheng Wang struggled for twenty minutes before finally tossing the pen aside.

His focus had been on the small ball, water droplets, and adhesive forces, so when he stood up, he only vaguely heard some noise outside the door. He didn’t know what Jiang Tian was doing out there.

Driven mad by the questions, maybe he was taking a walk?

Sheng Wang hesitated for a moment, then went over to turn the handle.

When the door opened, a rush of humid air hit him. Sheng Wang was stunned, realizing Jiang Tian was coming out of the bathroom opposite. He had changed into a loose gray T-shirt, his short black hair half-dry, combed back, clearly just showered.

He held a towel, shaking his head to clear water from his ears, then looked up at Sheng Wang and asked, “Anything else?”

Sheng Wang turned on his heel, heading straight for the stairs: “Just getting water, go finish your shower.”

He grabbed a bottle of cold water from the fridge, opened it, and found he couldn’t drink it. So he sheepishly carried it back upstairs, retreating to his room.

Sheng Wang pressed the cold water against his forehead, lying on the desk for a while. As sleepiness crept in, he finally convinced himself—since they were going to share a space for a while, it couldn’t stay awkward forever. There had to be a way to ease the tension.

This physics problem was the way.

Sheng Wang stood up for the third time, this time taking the paper with him, determined to see it through.

He was mentally prepared to knock on the door next door, but as soon as he opened his door, there was Jiang Tian, leaning against the wall. His left hand casually dried his hair with a towel, while his right hand held a phone, scrolling through it with his usual expressionless face.

“Why are you standing at my door?” Sheng Wang was startled.

“Waiting for the rabbit,” Jiang Tian said, finally looking up from his phone.

Sheng Wang: “…”

If it weren’t for his unhappy expression, Sheng Wang would have thought he was joking.

Jiang Tian put his phone back in his pocket and asked, “You’ve been in and out several times, what do you want?”

Sheng Wang hid the paper behind him, unable to come up with a word for a long time, finally saying, “What does it have to do with you?” and then closed the door.

A man’s pride is everything.

Sheng Wang deeply understood this for the first time, finally giving up on the question and collapsing onto the bed in frustration. Before falling asleep, he couldn’t help but recall the moment he closed the door, when Jiang Tian seemed to glance at his fingers. He wondered if he saw the paper.

Sheng Wang was jolted awake by his alarm at 6:10, struggling to get out of bed.

His room had its own bathroom, so he didn’t need to compete with Jiang Tian for space, making his morning routine quick. By the time he was ready and heading downstairs with his backpack, he realized he was the last one up…

Usually, when he got up, the only moving beings in the house were him and the housekeeper.

Today, with an unexpected addition, he was a bit slow to react, his morning grogginess showing as a big “huh” on his face. It wasn’t until Jiang Ou came out of the kitchen with a bowl that he snapped back to reality.

By then, Jiang Tian was already at the entrance, squatting to change shoes. He seemed to be up before the crack of dawn, probably to avoid unnecessary encounters with Sheng Wang, like going to school together.

Actually, Sheng Wang had thought the same, pondering during his morning brush how to stagger their school entrance times. But now that Jiang Tian actually did it, he felt a bit subtly annoyed. In his sixteen years, despite frequent moves, he hadn’t formed many deep friendships, but he’d always had good rapport.

Jiang Tian was the first to dislike him so openly.

Lost in thought, Jiang Tian’s phone on the shoe cabinet buzzed a few times. He straightened up, glanced at it, and his expression subtly changed, looking both stiff and hesitant.

Then, he quickly tapped a few times on the screen, saying while putting on another shoe, “Ji Huanyu transferred money to me, I’ll send it to you.”

Sheng Wang paused before realizing Jiang Tian was talking to his mom.

Jiang Ou paused while serving Sheng Wang porridge, looking up at the clock in surprise: “What day is it today? He transferred money to you at 6 in the morning?”

Jiang Tian paused, and Sheng Wang saw his brow furrow, as if he really disliked the topic.

“No, I just mentioned it casually.” Sensing her son’s displeasure, Jiang Ou quickly changed the subject: “Are you heading to school now? Not waiting for Xiao Wang?”

“Yeah, I have something to do.” Jiang Tian lied without blinking, leaving without looking back.

Sheng Wang, affected by low blood sugar upon waking, was slow to react, still stuck on the “Ji Huanyu” comment. For some reason, the name seemed familiar, like he’d heard it somewhere.

It wasn’t until he reflexively took the bowl, burning his tongue on the first sip of porridge, that he suddenly remembered. Sheng Mingyang had mentioned long ago that Jiang Ou’s ex-husband was named Ji Huanyu.

Wasn’t that… Jiang Tian’s dad?

According to Sheng Mingyang, Jiang Ou and her ex-husband had divorced peacefully, without intense conflict or ugly disputes. Although their son was young, he was mature beyond his years and didn’t even try to stop it.

So, after thirteen years of living together, they went their separate ways. Ji Huanyu went abroad for business, and Jiang Ou took their son, with no further interaction.

Sheng Wang didn’t know the specifics, but at least now it seemed Ji Huanyu still remembered to send money regularly, and Jiang Ou didn’t seem resentful, which was a blessing in disguise. But judging by Jiang Tian’s reaction, he seemed to really dislike his dad, maybe even… loathe him?

But in the end, it had nothing to do with Sheng Wang. He only thought about it briefly before putting it out of his mind.

He didn’t want to accept Jiang Ou’s closeness, but he couldn’t bring himself to hit a smiling face, so breakfast was awkward and felt like a last meal.

He finally managed to finish the porridge, mumbled a goodbye, and left.

Uncle Xiao Chen had just returned from dropping off Sheng Mingyang and picked up Sheng Wang right on schedule. He asked curiously from the front seat, “Sheng told me to take both you and Xiao Jiang. Where is he?”

“He left early.” Sheng Wang rolled his eyes, urging, “Uncle, drive quickly, I still have a question waiting to save my life.”

The second-year morning class at the Affiliated High School started at 7, but most students arrived about 20 minutes early to finish homework or check answers.

Sheng Wang used to enter the classroom just as the bell rang, but today he was unusually eager.

The classroom buzzed like a marketplace, with no one staying put. Everyone was either huddled with their neighbors or crossing desks to find help further away. Some even walked around with papers, like a moving feast.

Gao Tianyang, who sat in front of Sheng Wang, was one of those moving feasts, currently mingling with the farthest group. As for Sheng Wang’s rear seat, forget it.

In short, he had no one to huddle with.

While he was clutching his paper in distress, Jiang Tian’s chair behind him suddenly moved, and a tall figure stood up. As he passed by, he tapped Sheng Wang’s desk with his finger.

What was that for?

Sheng Wang was puzzled, but Jiang Tian didn’t pause, walking straight to the office.

It wasn’t until Jiang Tian’s figure disappeared down the hallway that Sheng Wang noticed a palm-sized note on his desk, filled with formulas and calculations.

After struggling with the problem for hours last night, Sheng Wang immediately recognized it as the solution to the last physics question.

But besides that, at the bottom of the note was a sentence in thin, scrawled handwriting: Next time, please don’t meddle in other people’s business.