MM | Chapter 79

Accident

Gao Tianyang’s words reminded Sheng Wang that he and Jiang Tian had too many mutual friends. With such distinctive avatars, anyone who glanced at their chat could figure things out, especially since not everyone was as straightforward as Gao Tianyang.

What if someone else happened to see it? What if they didn’t confess but instead kept it to themselves and speculated?

He suddenly felt that the connections between people were quite troublesome. It would be nice if he and Jiang Tian didn’t have these ties, no strings attached, unrelated to anyone, allowing them to be carefree.

*

On the morning of the weekly exam, the weather suddenly turned cloudy. The air was heavy with moisture, and a gray mist drifted from the river on the east side of the Affiliated High School, wrapping around the sycamore and camphor tree crowns throughout the campus.

Sheng Wang hadn’t slept well the night before, and his eyelid kept twitching early in the morning. As he and Jiang Tian walked towards Mingli Building, they encountered a few teachers. He vaguely heard them discussing something in low voices, but as soon as they saw students approaching, they clammed up, looking secretive.

“Did you hear what Old Wu just said?” Sheng Wang asked as they climbed the stairs, glancing over the railing to see the balding head of Class A’s math teacher below.

“No,” Jiang Tian replied, stopping at the third-floor corner and gesturing for Sheng Wang to head towards Class B.

“Alright, it probably doesn’t concern us anyway.” Sheng Wang withdrew his gaze and instinctively walked towards the classroom, but after a few steps, he stopped and came back.

“Just thought of something—shouldn’t we have something special to cheer us on for the exam?” He looked at Jiang Tian with a half-smile.

“What do you mean by special?” Jiang Tian had already taken a step up but turned back to look at him.

Sheng Wang was just teasing and hadn’t planned anything. Seeing Jiang Tian ask, he casually said, “Give me your hand.”

Jiang Tian pulled his hand from his pocket, palm up.

Sheng Wang brushed his palm and the back of his hand, saying, “A little immortal luck.”

Jiang Tian raised an eyebrow, but before he could lower his hand, a group of people rushed up the stairs, shouting, “Wait, wait! Shouldn’t everyone share in the immortal luck?”

Gao Tianyang was at the front, followed closely by Song Sirui and a few other boys who pounced like hungry wolves, “Let me touch Tian-ge too!”

Without a word, Jiang Tian shoved his hand back into his pocket.

Gao Tianyang missed and, undeterred, patted Jiang Tian’s shoulder, saying, “Does the shoulder count? I don’t care, I got some luck.”

“Beast! How dare you touch Tian-ge’s shoulder? Move aside! I need some luck too; I bombed the last exam.” Song Sirui charged in.

In seconds, Jiang Tian was surrounded by the group of boys.

Pointing at the crowd, Jiang Tian asked Sheng Wang with a headache, “Enjoying throwing me under the bus?”

Sheng Wang laughed, leaning against the railing, and blew him a kiss when no one was looking, then tried to escape. But before he could take a step, he was blocked.

A group of chattering girls from Class B came up the stairs. Sheng Wang leaned against the railing to let them pass. The girls glanced at Jiang Tian, giggling and greeting Sheng Wang.

Sheng Wang nodded, politely responding, but as soon as he finished smiling, he felt a light tap on his head.

“What?” Sheng Wang turned to look up, “Getting back at me already? Want Old Gao and the others to touch me too?”

“No.” Jiang Tian pointed to the corner of his own mouth, “You’ve got a cut here.”

Gao Tianyang, Song Sirui, and the others instinctively looked over, and the passing girls also glanced at his mouth. Sheng Wang licked the spot, finding a small cut.

He’d gotten it last night in the dorm. Jiang Tian was at the sink washing up, and Sheng Wang had sneaked over under the pretense of going to the bathroom. Catching Jiang Tian’s shoulder, he had playfully bitten him, but in his guilty haste, he’d accidentally cut his lower lip and then ran off covering his mouth.

Jiang Tian, having witnessed the whole thing, knew exactly what had happened but chose to subtly mention it now.

Amidst the greetings and laughter, Sheng Wang felt his face heat up. He licked the cut, tugged at his collar for some air, and gave Jiang Tian a thumbs-up, saying, “You win.”

He was increasingly aware of one truth: when it came to subtlety, no one could outdo his brother.

Sheng Wang’s exam seat was the third in Class B, by the window. As soon as he sat down, he overheard a few day students behind him talking, “Hey, did you hear?”

“Hear what?”

“Something happened at the river by the east gate. Didn’t you know?”

“We’re boarders, how would we know? Don’t keep us in suspense.” This was Shi Yu.

“They say a body was found.”

“What???” Someone gasped, “Really?”

“Don’t know, I didn’t see it myself.”

“Where’d the body come from?” Someone speculated, “Could it be a student who jumped into the river?”

“Our school wouldn’t have that, right?”

Almost every student had heard rumors of someone jumping off a building, into a river, or hanging themselves at some school. Usually, after hearing and lamenting, they’d stop discussing it until the next incident. Although the Affiliated High School had a dense schedule of classes and exams, the overall atmosphere wasn’t oppressive.

There was a common saying among students that whenever someone jumped from a building at another school, the Affiliated High School would add another layer of soft mud at the base of every teaching and dormitory building. By now, there was nowhere left to jump from.

Last year, a senior student had his test paper blown out the window. In a panic, he reached out to grab it and fell from the fourth floor, scaring the teachers out of their wits. It’s said that Big Mouth Xu’s legs went weak, and he rushed to the hospital only to find it was just a minor fracture.

Even so, the next day, the school hired more workers to add another layer of soft mud, determined to ensure that if a student fell, they wouldn’t even scratch their skin.

The group’s discussion led nowhere, as students had little time to investigate such matters, shuttling between school and home.

But the classroom atmosphere became heavy, and many struggled to focus on their answers.

It wasn’t until noon, at Wutongwai, that Sheng Wang heard the full story from Old Man Ding.

The old man was serving soup to Jiang Tian as he spoke, “I didn’t see it, but Da Mei did. Doesn’t she like to clap around the streets at night?”

There was a group of elderly ladies in the alley who couldn’t dance anymore, so they liked to stroll around the school, clapping their hands as they walked, claiming it activated the acupoints and promoted longevity.

Old Man Ding always referred to this as clapping.

“It must be uncomfortable to be soaked in water. They say when they pulled it out, it was all swollen.” He gestured an exaggerated distance, “Swollen this big. And it didn’t all float up together.”

“What do you mean it didn’t float up together?” Sheng Wang’s face turned a bit green.

“It was dismembered,” the old man said.

“It wasn’t a student who jumped?”

“Of course not,” Old Man Ding said, “With your school’s rules, boarders need a slip to leave. If they wanted to jump, they’d have to get a slip from a teacher first, right? And day students wouldn’t come all the way from home just to jump.”

The old man said, “Nothing like that has ever happened here. Yesterday, half the alley went to see, but I missed it. They’d already taken it away. It was a mess, all pale and bloated.”

“Let’s not talk about this. I made chicken soup for your exams.” He placed the bowl in front of Jiang Tian, where a pale chicken leg floated.

Jiang Tian: “…”

The incident killed the boys’ appetites, but they didn’t want to waste the old man’s hard work, so they ate slowly. By the time they finished the soup, Old Man Ding had already finished a big bowl of rice and was heading to the kitchen to make dough, planning to make some buns in the next few days.

Jiang Tian said, “Leave it, I’ll help you after the exam tonight.”

The old man replied, “Do I need your help?”

“Kneading dough is hard work.” Sheng Wang asked, “Grandpa, how many are you planning to make?”

The old man said, “Not many, just a few.”

Jiang Tian unhesitatingly exposed him, “At least 200. Every year around late December or early January, he makes a huge batch, but he only eats a few himself and gives the rest away.”

“200?” Sheng Wang was surprised, “How much dough is that? No way, we’ll come help tonight.”

“Mind your own business, eat your food. I won’t need your help for at least another 20 years.”

The old man was stubborn and muttered as he left. But not long after, a sudden clatter came from the kitchen, as if something heavy had fallen and knocked over a dish.

Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian froze for a second, then pushed their bowls aside and rushed into the kitchen.

The old man had been a soldier in his youth, and even in old age, he’d disciplined unruly kids, relying on his strength and appetite to defy aging, as if he were still in his prime, far from being hunched over.

But sometimes, aging happens in an instant—

He had seen a few grains of rice on the floor, bent down to pick them up, and stood up too quickly. When he opened his eyes again, he was already in the hospital.

He was confused for a while, and when he figured out what had happened, his first thought was, “At least I can still open my eyes.”

Old Man Ding liked strong tea and cooked with a salty taste. Jiang Tian had eaten in silence for a long time until Zhao Xi and the others mentioned it during a meal, which was when he realized he’d been cooking too salty and started to adjust.

Oh, he also used to smoke, occasionally enjoying peanuts and a drink, though Jiang Tian had kept an eye on him to reduce it in recent years, but he still craved it sometimes.

In short, various direct and indirect reasons led to this accident. When he woke up, it was almost evening. Zhao Xi and Lin Beiting were in the ward with a bag of fruit and a change of clothes, saying, “Luckily, it was just a minor brain hemorrhage, and thankfully Jiang Tian and Sheng Wang were there for lunch.”

The old man still had an IV in his hand, the smell of disinfectant mixed with medicine piercing his nose. He looked at his loose, wrinkled hand and suddenly realized he might really be getting old, unable to defy aging any longer.

“Where are the boys?” he asked.

“We sent them back to school,” Zhao Xi said. “They were so stubborn, almost skipped the afternoon exam. Since it’s just a weekly test, not strictly monitored, and at their own school, it was easier to handle. Otherwise, being so late, who would let them into the exam room?”

The old man got anxious, “Did they take the exam?”

“They did, they did,” Zhao Xi quickly reassured. “You just lie down. Even a minor hemorrhage requires bed rest. Don’t worry. If you faint again, they’ll have to come back.”

He didn’t want the old man to worry, so he didn’t mention anything else. In reality, when Jiang Tian and Sheng Wang were sent back to school, the afternoon exam had already started long ago. They took it, but their scores would definitely be affected.