The next week.
An endless stream of cars passed by the entrance of the school. The students carried their backpacks and walked into the campus in hordes. The bookstore was crammed full of people. The store sold some study tools branded with popular idols which attracted crowds every time new merchandise came out. Although Lin Jiang Sixth High didn’t force students to stay at school over the weekend, the students who lived in the dorms only went back once a month. This became an unspoken rule.
The side door on campus.
Gu Yanwang had just caught a few school rule-breakers and had pulled them out to stand at the side in a row. “You, where’s your school uniform? And you, you think you can just do anything after going home for a weekend and coming back? You think others wouldn’t notice you dyeing your hair into such coarseness?!”
In order to catch up with the times, some students had only dared to dye the undersides of their hair, covering the colour with their outer layers of hair. If it hadn’t been blown into a mess by the wind, it wouldn’t have been so easy for others to discover.
Gu Yanwang very naturally took out a pair of scissors from his pocket. “Cut off your hair before you enter.”
Gu Yanwang finished scolding each of them and walked towards the back of the group. He saw the corner of a black t-shirt. The youth was slender, and immediately stood out among the people around him.
Xu Sheng stood in the line with his breakfast in hand. “Good morning, homeroom teacher Gu.”
Gu Yanwang’s mood was relatively calm, but as long as he saw Xu Sheng, everything would flip on its head in an instant. A surge of anger rushed from his chest to his head. “Xu Sheng, what are you here for? Did I catch you earlier?”
“Nope.” Xu Sheng had joined the group out of self-responsibility. “I just wanted to come and greet you. I haven’t seen you these two days over the weekend, I kind of missed you.”
“No thanks, you should focus on thinking about Sixth High’s rules. Doing less things in front of me is the best way to show your care—not wearing your school uniform again, and that stud in your ear. How many times have I told you.” Gu Yanwang’s head started to hurt. “Hurry up and get out of here! Get away from me as much as you can!”
Xu Sheng had come for a scolding on purpose.
He had never missed Gu Yanwang’s loud voice so much.
When he was Shao Zhan, Gu Yanwang’s tone had been so kind and gentle his scalp had gone numb. After facing words like “You’re really my little pride” for an entire month, Xu Sheng had always felt rather nauseated on the inside. Now that he had been scolded by Gu Yanwang, he felt a lot more comfortable. The feeling that he didn’t belong from earlier had disappeared, and he had now returned to his previous state.
Xu Sheng ran off with a phrase, “Bye, homeroom teacher Gu.”
Xu Sheng always came to class late. If he wasn’t late, he was absent. But after a month, his school habits had encountered changes: he woke up on time at 6 A.M., got to the classroom 20 minutes early, and didn’t think anything was wrong with it.
Not many of the second years in Class Seven had arrived yet. Apart from the students on duty, there weren’t many others.
That was when he realised how his deskmate’s life had also unconsciously changed:
Hou Jun, Gao Zhibo, and Tan Kai were currently circling around Shao Zhan, calling him “Zhan ge”.
“Zhan ge, could you please lend your homework to this disciple to take a look at.” Hou Jun said, “I guarantee you, I only want to take a look, I won’t copy.”
Tan Kai, “Zhan ge, although I can’t guarantee anything, I will try my best to control myself.”
Gao Zhibo, “Zhan ge, I thought about this question for a very long time by myself and still haven’t made a breakthrough. Must I continue to think about this myself?”
Since he had entered the classroom, the voices next to Shao Zhan’s ears had not ceased. It was as if there were ten Xu Shengs talking to him, but contrary to expectations, he didn’t think it was that annoying.
Xu Sheng entered from the back and broke through the circle. Hou Jun first saw a hand reach over, two fingers hooked around a plastic bag. Only then did he see the school tyrant’s representative t-shirt. Xu Sheng placed the breakfast he was carrying on Shao Zhan’s desk and pulled out his chair and sat down. “I don’t know what you like to eat, so I just bought whatever.”
Shao Zhan reached over to take his homework out and threw it directly to Hou Jun and the others, then said, “What’s this.”
Xu Sheng, “Breakfast, ah.”
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.
Everyone in that moment extracted a critical piece of information:
Vmtbbi asgjca tjv ybeuta ygfjxojra obg raevs ubv.
Lbe Aec gfjmtfv tlr tjcv bea mjealberis jcv mjeuta atf tbwfkbgx Vtjb Itjc tjv atgbkc bnfg. Llr atbeutar mbwqilmjafv, tf atbeuta, kts vb atfrf akb vb atlcur fnfgs vjs atja wjxf batfg qfbqif atlcx bo batfg atlcur?!
“Thanks, Zhan ge.” Hou Jun knocked on both Tan Kai and Gao Zhibo’s heads, leading the two of them in a tactical retreat. “Kindness must be returned with kindness. We won’t bother you guys anymore.”
Vtjb Itjc atbeuta atf ygfjxojra kjr pera rbwfatlcu mjreji. Lf rjlv mbivis, “Rb cffv.”
Xu Sheng, “I’m the type of person to do what I say.”
Shao Zhan fell silent for two seconds, then closed the notebook full of wrong answers on his desk. He leaned back, his brows cold and handsome, a hint of deeper, intriguing meaning in his eyes. He said something ambiguous that carried an oppressive pressure to it. “So I can make you do anything?”
“…” Xu Sheng asked, “You saw?”
Fuck.
If there had been a hole in the ground at this moment, he would have immediately jumped into it.
It was a good thing that the weird aura immediately dissipated from Shao Zhan. It was almost time for class, and he said as he took the bag, “I don’t have any other requests for you. Shut up and don’t say too much during class. Be quiet.”
“…”
Xu Sheng actually had something else important he didn’t dare say. Eat more, so you can leave well after eating your fill.
Hou Jun was very fast at looking over the homework. He found the steps he had made mistakes on and discovered that the charts he drew had issues. He responsibly returned Shao Zhan’s homework, while reporting the news to the two of them. “I went to Lao Meng’s office this morning. They’ve already finished grading the tests. They were on the last steps this morning, so I think the scores will come out before class.”
Xu Sheng and Shao Zhan’s breaths merged.
Hou Jun sighed. “Zhan ge, I really envy you. Ai, I’m nervous to death.”
Xu Sheng thought to himself, no, you don’t even know how nervous we are.
To tell the truth, Xu Sheng hadn’t even slept last night. Shao Zhan wasn’t doing much better.
Xu Sheng tried to sound out the situation. “When you went this morning, was the atmosphere in the office normal?”
Hou Jun didn’t understand what Xu Sheng’s words meant. He thought about it and said, “Pretty…pretty calm, I guess.”
Xu Sheng asked again, “How was Lao Meng’s attitude? Normal? Maybe not just his attitude, for example, his blood pressure readings, heartbeat readings, these kinds of issues that come up in bodies. Or even more serious…have any ambulances come in and out of the school today?”
Hou Jun, “Huh?”
Meng Guowei’s attitude was exactly the same as his normal attitude, all the way until he flipped over a test that revealed the page underneath it. Meng Guowei glanced at it, and automatically went to his computer to enter it in: Examinee Shao Zhan, Exam Number 1, Literature Score…
He had been grading too many exams these days. The information only truly entered his brain after Meng Guowei finished typing, and it took him a second to react.
He violently stopped the actions of his hands, opened his eyes wide, took the page out, and looked at it one more time.
Literature score…
Meng Guowei’s nostrils flared, and the hand holding the mouse trembled slightly. His entire being froze into his seat. When the other teachers at the side called out to him, he couldn’t respond. “Teacher Meng, Teacher Meng!”
—65 points.
Meng Guowei lowered his head to look at the exam paper. The handwriting on the paper was wild, messy, like the weeds growing haphazardly in the plains. It was definitely not Shao Zhan’s usual handwriting.
After the length of half a century, he heard another teacher’s shout as if from far away by his ear. “Teacher Meng…”
Meng Guowei’s soul unwillingly returned back to his body. “Ah?”
Zhou Yuan’s hands shook and as he stood up, he almost couldn’t stabilise himself. He propped himself up on the desk with one hand to support his body. The teacher next to him also had an exam paper in their hands!
From far away, words came intermittently from Zhou Yuan. “Shan Zhan, Shan Zhan’s math score is out, 5, 59 points.”
Meng Guowei, “…”
Bad news came one after another. Finally, there were four exam papers displayed on Meng Guowei’s table. In the space for the student’s name, there were all two crooked words: Shao Zhan.
Not only Meng Guowei himself, in all of the teacher’s hearts, the heavens had fallen and the earth had split apart.
“Study god.” Before the morning self-study had even begun, right after Hou Jun had given them the news, a head popped up at the entrance of Class Seven. It was a student from another class. “The teachers are calling for you to go to the office.”
Xu Sheng was originally preparing to play games at the side. The moment the phrase was uttered, he immediately quit his game.
He immediately sat up straight, thinking to himself that the time had come, and he couldn’t avoid it.
Before Shao Zhan got up, he said deeply, “I’ll settle accounts with you afterwards.”
Xu Sheng shrunk his neck back.
It was Hou Jun, who was still basking in his envy of Shao Zhan, who gave out a prediction. “Zhan ge, it’s definitely because the grades come out. Lao Meng can’t even wait to praise you!”
The atmosphere in the office was very different from usual.
To this point, the office was full of people coming in and out, so noisy that half the hallway outside could hear them; yet when Shao Zhan walked in, everything became very quiet.
He raised his hand and knocked on the door. “Reporting.”
Meng Guowei threw two pills into his mouth, steadied his heart, and swallowed them with a mouthful of water. He only then adjusted his tone and said, “Come, come in.”
“Teacher.” Although he really didn’t want to face the situation at hand, Shao Zhan still took a deep breath and said calmly, “You were looking for me.”
Meng Guowei watched his once stellar student with a complicated expression.
His genius youth Shao Zhan.
Lin Jiang Sixth High’s pride.
…
Meng Guowei was just about to speak when another sound came from the door. “Reporting.”
After Xu Sheng knocked on the door, before Meng Guowei could say anything, he raised the book he had randomly grabbed from the desk. His gaze met Shao Zhan’s for a moment, then he immediately began bluffing. “Teacher, I have a few questions that I can’t do and wanted to ask you for your help.”
Meng Guowei had received enough attacks today, adding on a “Xu Sheng who had come to ask for help”, everything reversed, and his mood lost all tumultuous ripples.
Meng Guowei sighed, temporarily pausing his conversation with Shao Zhan, and said, “Come in.”
“What are you doing here,” Shao Zhan asked in a low voice the moment Meng Guowei took the book
“…I was afraid you’d die in the office,” Xu Sheng said by his ear.
The book Xu Sheng took really was just randomly grabbed and he hadn’t even looked at it. He only realised he had taken the wrong book when Meng Guowei asked, “This is a first year workbook?”
Xu Sheng said hurriedly, “Ah, right, my…basics are weak.”
Meng Guowei, “…”
Meng Guowei really wasn’t in the mood for this. He closed the very new first year textbook and told Xu Sheng, “You go out first, come back after the next class. I have some things to talk about with student Shao Zhan.”
Xu Sheng originally had fast reactions, especially after practising this past month. He acted naturally in any situation, and said as he took the book, “No worries, I was going to find Teacher Zhou and ask about two math questions too.”
Zhou Yuan’s office table was at the side, very close by.
Xu Sheng hadn’t prepared any questions, and randomly said, “I don’t really understand the things we learned in class last week,” then listened to Zhou Yuan talk about basic functions with one ear, while listening to Meng Guowei talk to Shao Zhan with the other.
Meng Guowei spent a huge amount of effort before saying out loud, “It’s like this. The grades for this month’s exam have come out.”
Shao Zhan made a noise of agreement.
Meng Guowei, “Recently in your life, nothing has happened, right?”
Shao Zhan, “No.”
Meng Guowei, “About the monthly exam scores…teacher has a few questions I want to ask you. Don’t be nervous, you can tell teacher anything you want, let’s face it and solve this together.”
As he spoke, Meng Guowei pushed over a few exam papers.
Shao Zhan finally got to see what kind of answers Xu Sheng had answered with.
A line of bright red scores rushed into everyone’s vision.
Meng Guowei, “This handwriting, what’s up with it?”
He had no way of explaining Xu Sheng’s handwriting.
Shao Zhan closed his eyes. “I’ve been practicing how to emulate weeds recently.”
“…”
Meng Guowei had too many questions he wanted to ask. He felt that every question on every exam was very confusing. He actually wanted to directly ask, “How could you end up with this kind of result”, but he was afraid of hurting Shao Zhan before clarifying the situation.
Meng Guowei could only pick out a few representative questions. He pointed at the English essay portion. The subject for the English essay this time was “reading comprehension”. The main point was to have the examinees discuss the pros of practicing reading comprehension. He said with much difficulty, “In the English essay, you wrote this phrase, ‘Old people said, read huahuahua, write shuashuashua’. What does that mean?”
Shao Zhan, “…?”
Shao Zhan: i don’t even want to know
‘Old people said, read huahuahua, write shuashuashua’.
SZ “…?”
XS “That right there was the most intellectual line I have written appreciate the beauty”
OMGGG, I wonder how XS can b*llsht their way out of this now XD
Thanks for the chapter (:3 」∠)
,🤣🤣🤣 really XS is really otherworldly, he can come up with just anything…
Thanks for the chapter ♥️♥️
Lol, truly amazing, a true school tyrant, can’t get anything right.
Rip Shao Zhan. Your past grades will not be forgotten.
Thanks for the chapter!
Xu Sheng omg xD
thanks for the chapter <3
Nooo I got to the end of translated chapters
Honestly considering learning chinese to be able to read this
😂😂😂 Thanks for the chapter ❤️
What cracks me up the most is that the scores are always improvements for XS 😭