Beyond the OutlineChapter 15

After the several great ups and downs in life, coupled with the emergencies that suddenly happened one after another today, Xu Sheng had almost adapted to this rollercoaster-like experience.

Xu Sheng was quite comfortable with the fact that he was now “Shao Zhan”. DqgZ6m

He turned over a page of the vocabulary manual in a detailed and calm manner.

Shao Zhan entered class ten minutes later than him.

Read more BL at chrysanthemumgarden (dot) com

He passed by the back window, and the class quietened before he even showed his face. The student at the front row desk lowered his head as if he was immersed in learning gossip. The discussion about “there’s no waves without wind” had also come to an end.

Shao Zhan pulled his chair out, and the first thing he said was, “You already memorised this page yesterday.” UCRkwy

Xu Sheng was spinning a pen in his hand, and when he heard that he tilted his head to look at him. He flipped the page of the manual back, then flipped it again. He checked it repeatedly, but still didn’t have any impression of it in the end. “Did I memorise it already?”

Shao Zhan stretched out his hand, and pointed at the word “Blame”.

Xu Sheng, “Not possible, I’ve never seen this word before.”

“Blame.” When Shao Zhan spoke English, his pronunciation was very good. At least, Xu Sheng had never heard such accurate pronunciation come out from his own mouth before. The ending sound was clear and neat. When he finished speaking, he retracted his hand, leaned back and continued, “You stared at this page of words for twenty minutes, and you tell me you’ve never seen it before.”

Xu Sheng, “…”

When he put it like that, this word did seem to ring a little bell.

“This page, I thought I already memorised it well.” Xu Sheng flipped back to it once again and said, “But when I look at it again today, it has become very unfamiliar.”

Shao Zhan was in despair when it came to this top-grade school scum inside his body. eg6Kmo

Xu Sheng also thought it strange. His familiarity towards which word he had memorised couldn’t compare to this person who split his attention while reading manhua and glanced over at him.

Just what kind of a creature was an exam prodigy?

Unknowingly, Shao Zhan was also thinking the same: Just what is inside the head of a school scum?

Today was Friday. QtPefG

The class schedule for Friday was a bit special. The last period was homeroom. Before class, the class leader had received a notification, and went up to the podium and said, “Classmates, let’s talk about something. Later on, Lao Meng plans to re-select the class committee members. If you have the intention of competing for the position of a class committee member, you can make preparations in advance.”

“Hou ge, aren’t you going to be the class president anymore?”

Hou Jun said, “You guys still have the audacity to say that, just how were you all treating me that day——”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Hou ge’s real name was Hou Jun. In addition to his looks, this nickname had a lot to do with his surname. He was straightforward and righteous, he wasn’t the kind of class president that only liked to mix with the teachers, and he was daring enough to speak for the students. coYQVN

Ktf alwf ktfc atflg qtsrlmji fvemjalbc mijrr riba kjr yflcu rcjamtfv, tf kjr qertfv bea ab cfubaljaf klat atf Scuilrt afjmtfg. “Yxjs, obg sbe uesr, P’ii oluta la bea.” Ktfc tf rabbv eq jcv rjlv ab atf Scuilrt afjmtfg, “Kfjmtfg, P atlcx atja mbwqjgfv ab xcbkifvuf, j ragbcu ybvs jcv rbei lr jirb nfgs lwqbgajca!”

The conclusion was that he was immediately made to do twenty push-ups in class.

Please visit chrysanthemumgarden (dot) com

The English teacher asked him while counting, “Is it strong enough yet, does it need to become stronger, need ten more?” The English teacher turned to the rest of the class. “Is there anyone else who wants to have a strong body and soul?”

The entire class said in unison, turning around on the spot, “We’re different from the class president, we all think that knowledge is more important!” vrF4xq

Xu Sheng was happy. He played with his phone for a while between classes, then stretched out his hand to knock on Shao Zhan’s desk. “Later when we’re choosing the class committee members, do you want to keep being the language class representative?”

It was said to be a formal class committee selection, but it was actually an adjustment.

The day before school started, Lin Jiang Sixth High had pervertedly assigned them a mock preliminary exam. The students’ introductions and class committee assignments were before the exam and had been chosen in a very short time before that.

People who wanted to become part of the class committee would raise their hands. If no one raised their hands, then names would be selected directly. They would make do with it for a week, and then discuss it again after a few days. pMIqNn

As such, before the students in Class Seven could even match the names to the faces of their classmates, they were hit by the mock exam into a brain full of problem sets and fear towards their final grades.

Shao Zhan had been called on to be a class representative by Meng Guowei. He said, “No need. Too troublesome.”

Shao Zhan finished speaking, then asked back, “What about you.”

Xu Sheng was stunned for a while, then realised that he was asking if he wanted to compete for the class committee. Whatever he and Shao Zhan did now, they really had to think about each other. He said, “I don’t need to either. Not only is it a troublesome thing, if I become part of the class committee, the class meeting period doesn’t even have to end but I bet the whole year will think Class Seven has gone insane.” vTOoG0

Shao Zhan didn’t speak again and lowered his head to look at his exam problems. He had survived the past few days, and his patience had run out. He didn’t want to waste any more time, and had long since pulled out a mock test paper that had been under his textbook. “I’m going to do a paper. Call me if anything happens.”

Xu Sheng reassured him, “This class representative thing, I’ll definitely get rid of it for you. Going to Lao Meng’s office every day to hand in assignments is too risky. I’m afraid he’ll happily ask me a question one day.

The bell rang for class.

Meng Guowei carried some neatly folded papers into class. “First order of business, our class committee has been running for almost a week. If anyone wants to retire as a class committee member, they can now voice it out, and we’ll do a new vote.” WQ9GoL

Xu Sheng sitting in the back row was the first to raise his hand.

Initially, the others had been too embarrassed, but seeing the study god stepping down so readily, they also raised their hands.

The reason Meng Guowei had wanted to call on names was to snatch Shao Zhan over. Who would have thought that his proudest student would be the first to quit. “Shao Zhan, say, why don’t you want to be class representative?”

Xu Sheng stood up. He had already prepared himself to quit. With one hand resting on the table, he said formally, “Teacher, because I want to put my limited life into infinite learning.” IPL1JX

Meng Guowei, “…”

Shao Zhan, “…”

Read more BL at chrysanthemumgarden (dot) com

Xu Sheng had just finished one word of his next sentence. “I…”

But Xu Sheng quickly stopped himself, because Shao Zhan had grabbed the wrist that was hanging by his side. The youth’s palm was scorching hot, and immediately pulled him back down into his seat. hOFp9Y

Xu Sheng, “I haven’t finished speaking.”

Shao Zhan, “You don’t need to speak.”

Meng Guowei was stunned by what “Shao Zhan” said, stunned to the point that he didn’t know what to say. “You can sit down. Since student Shao Zhan wants to put his life into infinite learning… Who else wants to take up the duty?”

A boy one table behind Hou Jun stood up amidst the nudges and cheers of other people. Those people had basically become a support group. “Teacher, Wenhao!” YeowZI

“Give Wenhao a chance, teacher. He’s been wanting to be class representative for a long time!”

That boy looked weak, and wore gold-framed glasses. His voice wasn’t very loud when he spoke, but one could hear that he had gathered the courage to stand up. He lifted two fingers to push up the frame of his glasses that were slipping down his nose bridge. “Teacher, I want to try.”

Although Shen Wenhao had weak literary skills, he had quite a personality. The moment he stood on the podium he fished out a piece of paper that had been folded into shredded tofu. After opening it up, he cleared his throat and said, “For this class committee period, I have written a poem.”

How exciting. zpf46j

It even came with a poetry reading.

The applause under the podium was thunderous.

“In remembrance of my youth, I set foot upon my journey—”

Xu Sheng clapped along a few times. He had never been adverse to this kind of informal curriculum and even listened with rapt attention. “Is his last name Shen?” o9ei0Z

Shao Zhan did problems while expressing his surprise over the fact that he remembered the name of his classmate. “Did you use the back of your head to remember this person during the preliminary exam that day?”

Although before, he couldn’t place a face to the name Xu Sheng, they had been only separated by an aisle. Along with the fact that Xu Sheng had completely sprawled over his desk and slept that day during the preliminary exam, his messy locks covering his face and his hand resting casually against the back of his neck and looking very low-key, it was impossible for others to overlook him.

“No, he wrote an article for the school paper. I read it while being scolded in Gu Yanwang’s office before.” When Xu Sheng recalled the memory in detail, he remembered several plot points. “It was pretty interesting. He wrote it like a novel.”

As Xu Sheng spoke, he continued listening to Wenhao read the poem out loud. F2XiNd

Shen Wenhao’s poem began from the line about his youth and spoke of his journey from being shy, to plucking up his courage to stand on stage. He lowered his head. “Like a flower—a rose blushing with shame in Bordeaux.”

“…”

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Meng Guowei had just taken over this class and did not understand the abilities of each student. He didn’t think that other than the Xu Sheng who took exams lazily and wrote absolute bullshit, there was also this kind of talent.

Afterwards, there were a few other students who went on stage. hGkuUz

Shao Zhan finished figuring out the problem and felt that it had gotten a lot quieter around him.

He turned his head sideways and saw that Xu Sheng’s chair was quite a distance from his desk. He leaned against the back of his chair, looking as casual as usual, his eyes lowered as he listened to the short-haired girl on the stage speak. “Hello everyone, my name is Qiuqiu and I’m running for our class’s literature and arts committee. In our first year, I led our class to second place for the blackboard competition. I hope everyone can give me a chance.”

Meng Guowei led the students in applause. “Good, then this class will end here. If you have any more questions feel free to find me in between classes. Residential students should be mindful of their safety and follow the student behaviour rules…”

The rules for breaks at Lin Jiang Sixth High were very strict, especially for residential students. It was a completely closed-door management and they could only go home about once a month. Vx4a9K

Xu Sheng hadn’t thought that having had a full-on argument with Xu Yaping before the start of the semester and had directly moved out of home to the dorms would make the current situation much easier.

Xu Sheng didn’t dare think what would happen if Shao Zhan, with that cold expression, went home in his place instead.

Thinking of this, Xu Sheng asked, “Are you going back this weekend.”

Shao Zhan didn’t raise his head and retorted, “You want to go to my house?” x9mHi3

… Of course not.

Shao Zhan was almost done with the practice problemsheet. He was very fast at filling it out; after reading the problem, he would tear out a sheet of paper and work out the answer in two or three lines.

Xu Sheng was waiting for Meng Guowei to hurry up and finish announcing the class committee results so he could go back to his dorm room. However, Meng Guowei spoke for a long time without any intention of ending.

As Xu Sheng listened and listened, he couldn’t resist looking over to see the state of the wound at the corner of Shao Zhan’s mouth. It wasn’t a very deep wound; after one night, there were faint signs of scabbing. GosPz3

After all, it was his own face.

Xu Sheng glanced at it and said worriedly, “You better not pick at it. Later, I’ll buy you some scar lightening medicine.

Xu Sheng looked at it again. “Although this image right now looks pretty handsome… I’m not complimenting you, I’m complimenting myself.”

“…” qpsHj5

Shao Zhan put his pen down. Normally, no one would dare babble on nonstop into his ears. He didn’t raise his head and flipped through the problem sheet. At the same time he pressed Xu Sheng’s head and forced him to turn back around. “Be quiet.”

Perhaps the change in identity made him extremely aware of every little detail and movement of the opposite party. Xu Sheng realised that Shao Zhan was sometimes really emotionless. High school life for him was just exam papers and textbooks. When he stared at these two things, his gaze was warmer than it was towards any person.

Please support our translators at chrysanthemumgarden (dot) com

And although Shao Zhan didn’t really care what Xu Sheng’s real personality was like, after the event at the internet cafe and the misleading rumours of “one versus five” and “school tyrant”, the person he saw was rather different. Sometimes he put on airs, sometimes he stood up for others, and he really didn’t walk on a straight path.