Beyond the OutlineChapter 23

Xu Sheng had only just begun reminiscing over his difficult daily life.

This was forcing a school tyrant who had never listened to a single class since the beginning of high school to face one problem he couldn’t understand after another, memorise vocabulary, and also leaving time for him to practise his handwriting. x1SVK

The desk in Xu Sheng’s dorm room had always been completely empty. Other than the A4 paper he used to write disciplinary reviews, he never placed anything on the desk related to studying.

Now study materials were piling up higher and higher, almost covering the entire desk.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

The one on top was Shao Zhan’s notes.

They were the study god’s notes that the members of the school forum dreamed of glancing at. qgChj8

After the lights went out, Shao Zhan had handed him the notes from their first year of high school to him. “The notes from the blackboard and main points for each class are within. If you still have things you don’t understand, go check them out for yourself.”

Xu Sheng had taken the notes and casually flipped through a few pages like he was flipping through a manhua.

The handwriting for these casual notes were different from the handwriting he had seen on official tests. Shao Zhan’s handwriting wasn’t as neat as the handwriting Xu Sheng had glanced at from his exam papers, however, it was still strong in its scrawl, carrying the hint of an ordinarily unseen wild flair.

Xu Sheng, “What to do if I don’t understand anything.”

3McjQC

Shao Zhan looked at him and the words he spat out had been as cold as the person himself. “Nine years of compulsory education, I suggest you redo them.”

Xu Sheng, “…”

The motion sensitive lights in the corridor detected something, and immediately lit up. Shao Zhan happened to have his back against the source of light, and the lamps bathed him in a ring of light. Then, he relaxed his tone of voice, and said, with his back to the light, “If you don’t understand, send me a WeChat message. Before 1 o’clock, I’m there.”

At first, Xu Sheng was bored and wanted to find something to do, and had the intention of disturbing him. HMs0i6

-Are you there.

Then he realised that Shao Zhan really was always online before 1, it was just that his replies were a little delayed.

-Yes

Xu Sheng cheered himself up. He bit down on the pen cap, and sat at his desk typing back a reply. lg8ztc

-Chat a bit?

-This makes me think you’re reminding me

-Reminding you of what?

-That I didn’t leave you enough problems to do RVTx4B

“…”

Xu Sheng stopped disturbing and tossed his phone to the side, continuing his memorisation of the papers that Shao Zhan had left.

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Before sleeping, Xu Sheng shut his eyes and thought to himself, hell couldn’t be worse than this.

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.

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…What was he thinking.

Xu Sheng tossed those inexplicable thoughts out of his head. Wasn’t that his own hand? VJmZ86

The night study sessions were still dominated by the students who stayed in the dorms.

Some unknown person had managed to find out that Gu Yanwang wouldn’t be in school for a few days, and the group of people in the night study session became even more excited, “He’s not here, he’s really not here. Hou ge and I specially went to sniff around outside Gu Yanwang’s office, and after a long while, the door still remained closed.”

“Have you knocked on the door? This piece of news, can you guarantee it’s correct?”

“I’ve knocked.” Hou Jun closed the classroom door. “I initially even thought about what I should say if Gu Yanwang really had been inside, that kid Tan Kai came up with the idea of me crying and wailing to Gu Yanwang about the psychological stress… He really wasn’t there.” ODo6Jq

The other people in the class had initially still pretended to lower their heads and do their assignments, but upon hearing this they each raised their heads. “Brothers- Let’s go online.”

Hou Jun had looked for “Zhan ge” several times to play games. Ever since Zhan ge had come around, Tan Kai had been kicked out of Hou Jun’s little gaming group.

Hou Jun held onto his phone, and came over from the third row. “Zhan ge, are you coming, let’s research the parabolic curve together?”

This “parabolic curve” was Xu Sheng’s famous phrase from his first battle, and after that it became the code for Hou Jun and the others to play games. t2U1mT

After all, those teachers were always appearing out of nowhere. If one day someone yelled out “let’s play games”, and then turned around to discover Gu Yanwang’s face nearby, then that would be terrible.

“Sure.” Xu Sheng was anxious to study the parabola with them every day. He pulled out his phone moving forward a bit and asked, “Do you still have space in your team?”

“Yes, we’ll make a space for you right away.” Hou Jun tilted his head and shouted to Tan Kai. “Tan Kai, leave the team, we don’t need you anymore, leave the spot for our Zhan ge.”

Tan Kai who was playing along, was about to cry. He stretched out an index finger towards Hou Jun, and said with a gravelly voice, “Hou Jun, where’s your conscience? Just now, you said sweetly that (in this team) you can’t live without me~ Now the one who abandoned me is also you~~” HvirtN

Hou Jun touched his chest and said, “Kai, listen to me- Although you’re no longer in the team, you’ll forever be in my heart.”

Tan Kai probably wanted to emulate the movements of female leads in movies, and expressed a sort of playful frustration, however this motion ended up looking like vigorous shaking. “I’m not listening, I’m not listening!”

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Xu Sheng went online while being amused as he listened to the two of them. “I think I’ll just not separate the two of you.”

Hou Jun. “Don’t.” z0HnC1

Tan Kai was also only saying those things for fun. He was still very happy to watch the study god’s movements. “Get ready, I’ll spectate.”

At the back of Class Seven, a group of people formed around Xu Sheng.

Xu Sheng went online, going to the props store to change his gear. After exiting, he was about to begin a match when the empty seat next to him was pulled away by someone. He glimpsed the corner of a black shirt.

He didn’t need to see who it was. He could hear it from the low voices of the group of people around him. xsLhwZ

Since the start of school, the school scum really hadn’t done much, and the class representative Hou Jun had the belief that “the school tyrant wants to be involved with the group that is Class Seven”. In class, “Xu Sheng’s” conduct was decent, but because of his chilling aura, it really didn’t allow other classmates to dare come near.

Xu Sheng tried to talk to him about this problem. “Next time when Zhang Tong comes over, don’t just immediately turn him away and make him go back, talk more, lest people think I’m really distancing from her on purpose.”

Shao Zhan didn’t say anything.

“Also, Hou Zi is looking for you. Don’t always ask him whether he has nothing better to do, learn how to care for your schoolmates” u1pJey

Shao Zhan finally reacted. “Have you said enough.”

In the end, Xu Sheng directly threw a book titled “The Art of Communication: Why Emotional Intelligence is More Important than Intelligence”” to Shao Zhan. “This book is for you. I went to the library just for you, don’t be too moved. Read it carefully.”

Shao Zhan, “…”

Xu Sheng had just glimpsed the corner of that black clothing, the next second, he stared as the phone in his hand was taken away. Shao Zhan emotionlessly tapped the ‘cancel preparation’ on the screen and threw it at the Tan Kai opposite them. “He’s not playing.” HDLGzA

Tan Kai, “?”

Shao Zhan, “He needs to study.”

The monthly exams were just around the corner. They had to race against the clock.

When Shao Zhan’s words came out, everyone was shocked: What kind of situation was this, the school tyrant pushing study god to study?! What kind of puzzling mystery was this that they couldn’t guess? 2CYXFx

And study god didn’t even contradict the school tyrant.

The confused crowd waited for a long time, only to receive a singular phrase from “Zhan ge”. “Ah, right.”

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Hou Jun, Tan Kai, etc.: ???

Xu Sheng realized there was no love left in life. “I have to study, you guys go play.” b6rONA

The circle of people at the back of the classroom scattered in confusion.

The first person to holler “let’s all go” was Hou Jun. He had already experienced the scene of knocking on study god’s door in the early morning only to have the school tyrant open the door. No matter what inexplicable things happened in the future, he wouldn’t think them out of the ordinary. “Let’s go, we shouldn’t bother the two of them…no, I was just saying, don’t disturb the study god studying.”

Xu Sheng was pinned in front of the table by Shao Zhan, confronted by Shao Zhan again and again over knowledge points, continuing to memorise formulas.

Occasionally, Shao Zhan would feed him some chicken soup for the soul to increase his motivation to study. He had realised it was really very difficult for Xu Sheng to hold on. But if Xu Sheng couldn’t hold on this time, the consequences would be dire. IXhyDs

In order for Xu Sheng to have a stronger mindset in facing the monthly exam, Shao Zhan would encourage him from time to time.

It was just that the way Shao Zhan fed others chicken soup for the soul made their hairs stand on edge. He circled two questions and handed them to him without any expression on his face, saying emotionlessly, “Write them…you can do it.”

Xu Sheng’s mind was completely filled with tangled formulas, continuously wandering to the brink of collapse. “I can’t.”

Shao Zhan broke apart Xu Sheng’s rebellious hands, firmly thrusting the exam questions back at him and handed him the black fountain pen. “You can do it.” Qne4JK

Xu Sheng could learn this, and replied suffocatingly, “I can’t do it.”

This time, there was really no point in pushing him to the limit. Even if there was a cliff in front of him, he had to jump. Survival was completely not an option in front of these exam problems, and there was no operation to pull at the last minute.

Half a week before the monthly exams.

Under Shao Zhan’s inhumane hell mode training, Xu Sheng had completed most of the exam points at an unimaginable speed. P9cONE

Xu Sheng had just showered and was toweling his hair when he opened the door for Shao Zhan. “What are we doing today?”

“No tutoring questions.” Shao Zhan wasn’t carrying a lot of things, only a few exam papers. He said, “I wrote a practice exam, I’ll score it for you.”

Although the monthly exams had cumulative questions, the main point was to test what they had learned in that month. There were too many things Xu Sheng had missed in their first year of high school. Shao Zhan could only pick some important questions to fill in along with some commonly seen ones…after the first round of cramming, he had finished teaching all the problems that needed to be taught and Xu Sheng felt like he had some certainty towards the monthly exam.

The test exam was full of problems Shao Zhan had come up with. “There isn’t enough time to answer the questions, I didn’t make too many. There are only twenty questions per subject, every question is five points, sixty points is passing.” gjsxaJ

In order to make Xu Sheng willingly do practise exams, there had to be conditions.

Shao Zhan said again, “After you finish this set of problems, rest tomorrow.”

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There was a pile of things forcibly pumped into Xu Sheng’s mind every day. After a while, he exuded a gush of self-confidence from who knows where. He felt like he could really fight for the monthly exam this time. Besides, the conditions this time were really too tempting. “Okay.”

Shao Zhan started the timer. CcgwJU

Xu Sheng only found a pen after a long while and began answering questions.

The questions Shao Zhan came up with were very appropriate. After Xu Sheng finished answering them, there was still half an hour before the lights went out. He capped the pen and slapped the papers in front of Shao Zhan.

Shao Zhan was working on the extra problems the math teacher had specifically given him. The question looked different from what they were learning at a glance, because even if the problem was broken down into steps, he wouldn’t be able to understand it.

Shao Zhan didn’t lift his gaze, asking after he had sorted the papers Xu Sheng had slapped over, “Not going to double check?” hsDEY9

Double check what, his head hurt from even looking at these problems for an extra second.

Xu Sheng loosened his hands and threw the pen down. He supported his head with a hand as he looked at Shao Zhan’s answers.

At the start, both of them thought “maybe we might actually get by during the monthly exams”, but Xu Sheng’s mock exam completely extinguished the hope and confidence they shouldn’t have had.

Shao Zhan didn’t even know what he was feeling as he put down the final scores on these mock exam papers. 4zUBia

Examinee name: Xu Sheng.

Literature score: 43 points.

Math: 40 points.

English: 34 points. h8HJlg

Sciences: 41 points.

Examinee Xu Sheng, no passing scores.

Leave a Comment

9 comments

  1. Poor guy. Dw, everything will be fine Xu Sheng… Shao Zhan’s lucky af, he gets to relax while poor guy Cu still has to suffer…

  2. it seems really impossible for Xu Sheng. maybe something will suddenly happen that will cause them to switch back during the exams 😂