Beyond the OutlineChapter 4

There were a lot of people in the office at this time, all of them were class representatives who had rushed in after the flag-raising ceremony to hand in homework assignments, but that voice was really hard to miss, like a sudden cool breeze in the middle of a hot summer’s day.

Aside from it being hard to miss, there was a hint of familiarity too, to the point that Xu Sheng could hear the word ‘reporting’ very clearly in this place that was as noisy as a supermarket. 6eCArq

“You came at just the right time.” Meng Guowei put down his glass of water. “Did you collect all the assignments?”

“There’s one missing.”

Chrysanthemum Garden.

Xu Sheng casually lowered his eyes, he first saw the corner of a grey-blue school uniform, then the person beside him placing a stack of assignments on the table. As a result, Xu Sheng moved his eyes up a couple of inches and saw a hand with well-defined joints in front of him.

His wrist bones were prominent, the fingers were very long. 6U5pQO

Meng Guowei wanted to ask whose assignment was missing, but after seeing the student who had just come down from the stage after the disciplinary review, he realised that this question didn’t even need to be asked, so he said, “You asked for leave yesterday, so you’re not very familiar with the people in the class. It just so happens that the person who didn’t submit his assignment is right here, you two… get to know each other. It will make collecting assignments easier in the future too.”

“I never do assignments, it won’t make anything easier.”

As Xu Sheng spoke, he saw the study god’s righteous expression on the side. Shao Zhan just happened to also look in his direction. Four eyes met and the words ‘was there anything else’ that were left in his mouth took a turn. “…How come it’s you?”

It was still that overly proper school uniform.

The youth’s skin was pale and his hair black. His five features were very outstanding, and it was only the ‘keep away from me’ that exuded from his cold expression which seemed to wash away some of the aggressiveness from his looks. As he stood there, his entire being seemed to be separated from everyone else.

Xu Sheng’s ‘was Sixth High’s school uniform that good looking?” question from earlier had received an answer because he was the only one who stood out in an office full of school uniforms.

Meng Guowei was overjoyed, his delight beyond words. “You know each other?”

More than just knowing each other. pR8sSt

We’ve even spent the holidays together.

The two of them replied almost at the same time—

Xu Sheng, “I guess.”

Shao Zhan, “I don’t know him.” pKDamX

Xu Sheng, “?”

Shao Zhao’s statement was said without a single fluctuation, cold to the extreme.

Meng Guowei was a little confused by the two of them, wondering whether they actually knew each other or not.

Xu Sheng wasn’t clear what mood he was in at the moment. He had stayed up all night writing the disciplinary review, gritting his teeth as he wrote it. He had thought to himself that if he’d known who had done this to him, he might have rushed over to their room in the middle of the night to give them a good thrashing. But the other party didn’t even remember this event. sOEn2G

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.

“Dorm building, three thousand word disciplinary review,” Xu Sheng said. “Or I can remind you of something more specific. The wall.”

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Shao Zhan clearly had nothing he wanted to say. He lowered his gaze to look at him and reluctantly commented on the disciplinary review. “Your review was decently written.”

Xu Sheng: “…” Did you need to comment? LPKGxN

Xu Sheng’s current mood was now a large ‘fuck’.

Meng Guowei couldn’t figure it out and decided to cut straight to the point. “It’s great if the two of you actually know each other. It’s like this. There are several students in the class who have applied for seat changes. I’m planning on slightly adjusting the seating chart and my preliminary plan is to have the two of you sit together. Do you guys have any objections?”

The two of them once again spoke at the same time—

But this time it was in perfect agreement. fGcYZt

“Yes.”

Xu Sheng really couldn’t bear staying in the office any longer. In front of him was the new homeroom teacher with unfathomable thoughts, trying to introduce him to new classmates, and to his side was the classmate who had screwed him over the day before.

He was afraid he would lose all reason.

“Teacher, classmate Shao Zhan and I.” Xu Sheng wasn’t sure how to phrase it, and finally choked out, “The two of us are fucking incompatible.” A7oLiU

Meng Guowei, “…”

“There’s an affinity between people. Tough melons won’t be sweet. I get along pretty well with my seatmate right now, we love each other very affectionately, and the atmosphere is very harmonious. We have similar goals. I sleep while he listens to class. We don’t bother each other.”

Meng Guowei tried to interrupt him.

Xu Sheng had another point. “Forced camaraderie between students won’t have any good results.” q3J9H4

“…”

The more Xu Sheng spoke, the more he felt that what he had said was strange, so he changed the topic, straightforwardly pulling open the office door, “I wrote the disciplinary review already. As for the punishment, do whatever you want to do. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going back to class.”

This was the second time Meng Guowei had been choked like this by Xu Sheng. This attitude was obviously a refusal to communicate and didn’t falter in the face of both harsh and soft methods. He wanted to teach him but he couldn’t even find a weak spot to hit at.

One walked away, leaving the other behind. Meng Guowei organised his mood before asking Shao Zhan, “You also don’t want to be his seatmate?” QxsD2p

“Yes.”

Meng Guowei had run into two walls in succession today, stopping his momentum completely. “May I ask for the reason?”

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Shao Zhan’s reasons were much more realistic; he merely thought changing seats was bothersome and he had no interest in getting to know anyone. “It’s troublesome.”

Meng Guowei’s plans hadn’t even taken the first step before they died. Y5Cxsf

To be honest, in Meng Guowei’s perspective, compared to saying that Xu Sheng was not easy to get along with, it was actually Shao Zhan who was the one who was difficult to get along with.

The first time Meng Guowei had met Shao Zhan was during his first year of high school. Although he didn’t teach the first years, Shao Zhan was representing the high school in the academic competition.

After signing up for the math competition, he began self-studying at night. He was the only first year in the entire academic conference; Meng Guowei approached the competition with a spirit to win and specially prepared a set of basic competition problems for him.

But the youth had only sat in the back row for less than ten minutes before he raised his hand and walked up with his paper. He slapped the filled-out paper in front of him. “You don’t need to specially prepare basic competition problems for me next time.” XJbOqT

The competition preparation period was more than a month. He came and left on his own. He didn’t have a bad relationship with anyone, but he also didn’t have any good relationships either. His gaze towards his exam papers was much warmer than his gaze towards the people at the entire conference.

Meng Guowei paused for two seconds and decided to change his angle of approach. “Then that’s fine. There’s another thing. You weren’t here yesterday and we haven’t finished choosing our class committee yet. Is there any position you want?”

“I have to prepare for the competition later. I might not have enough time for it.”

Shao Zhan rebutted Meng Guowei’s words. ovCDx1

But Meng Guowei refused to give up so easily. He patted his thigh and said, “What a coincidence, the position I reserved for you doesn’t require much time or energy.”

Shao Zhan realised that the homeroom teacher was determined to make him a class committee member. “Say it then, please.”

Meng Guowei said happily, “Our class just happens to be lacking a disciplinary committee!”

“It won’t take up a lot of time, right? It’s perfect, you can manage Xu Sheng…ah, no, when you’re in charge of the discipline, focus on student Xu Sheng in our class.” rz4IxN

Meng Guowei, “He might use various methods to skip class every once in a while, climbing over the wall to get out of school, not staying in his dorm at night, fighting outside of school…”

When Xu Shen returned to the classroom, he didn’t know that Meng Guowei had kept a trump card hidden behind his back.

When Zhang Feng heard that the study god was coming to class today, he leaned against the window of Class Seven to observe after the morning exercises. Xu Sheng was not there, so he found Xu Sheng’s seatmate to chat with. “Yong Shi, why do I miss the study god every time? Do we really not have any affinity?”

Xu Sheng’s seatmate was a boy wearing glasses. He looked scholarly and weak, and his nickname was Yong Shi. Other than the fact that his name had a ‘Yong’, it was also because he dared to sit next to Xu Sheng, and had even survived the past two days. 8muWP1

Li Mingyong wasn’t very brave at all. Because the bus had temporarily broken down, he had been late to class. He had no choice but sit next to Xu Sheng.

The moment he walked into Class Seven, he had almost wanted to end his high school career on the spot.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

Li Mingyong was also awed by this school tyrant’s friend. “The study god went to the office. You can come back next period.”

Zhang Feng, “Why is your voice shaking? You sit at the same table with our boss. How does it feel?” qkCYQb

Seatmate Li Mingyong, who had just been described with ‘we love each other very affectionately, and the atmosphere is very harmonious; we have similar goals’ by Xu Sheng in the office, thought to himself: I want to drop out of school.

“First of all, our boss doesn’t beat people up, and second of all he very rarely curses at them. He’s very sophisticated.” Zhang Feng said, “You don’t have to be so afraid.”

As he spoke, Xu Sheng happened to walk by the window. He didn’t enter the classroom and stood by Zhang Feng, leaning against the window as he asked, “Afraid of what?”

Zhang Feng, “We’re talking about you. Your seatmate seems to be pretty scared of you.” ieVhCx

Xu Sheng had no hint of self-awareness. He was sure he hadn’t done anything in the past few days; if he wasn’t sleeping during class, then he was playing on his phone. When he went outside as punishment, he was giving his seatmate a completely quiet environment for studying. That’s why his statement to Meng Guowei hadn’t been a complete lie. “My relationship with my seatmate is pretty good.”

Xu Sheng said this, then asked, “Right, Li Yong?”

Li Mingyong, “…”

Zhang Feng, “His name is Li Mingyong. Even someone like me from such a faraway classroom has remembered it. What’s with you?” wdCR46

Xu Sheng rubbed his nose and avoided the topic. He had been so busy that morning he hadn’t eaten anything yet. Now that he thought of it, he realised he was hungry. “Do you have any food?”

Zhang Feng took out a box of cigarettes from his pocket.

Xu Sheng gave him a look.

Zhang Feng responsibly stuffed the cigarettes back in. This Sixth High school tyrant did not smoke. Smoking didn’t suit him at all either. reokjC

Zhang Feng fished about in his pocket for a while before taking out a lollipop. “I only have this.   I got it when I was buying the cigarettes to round up the price. You didn’t eat breakfast?”

“I was too focused on writing my disciplinary review last night and overslept this morning.” Xu Sheng had been resting his elbows against the windowsill. After reaching over to receive the lollipop, he turned around and unpackaged the candy with his back to the window. “Why are you coming to loiter around Class Seven again?”

Before Zhang Feng could say ‘I came to see a joke. Didn’t you say you wouldn’t get caught?’, the bell rang and he hurriedly walked backwards. “I won’t chat anymore. Next class is lao Li’s class. If I’m late by a second he’ll claw all my skin off.”

Xu Sheng put a hand into his pocket and casually waved at him before entering the classroom with the candy in his mouth. 8jryi5

He sat down in his chair before finally realising he should figure out what class this was. He leaned his entire body back and squinted his eyes, but discovered that the corner of the blackboard was blocked by a person. All he could see was a school uniform with its buttons buttoned all the way to the top. Above that was a youth’s protruding Adam’s apple, black hair, and a cold expression.

Only when Shao Zhan walked over to the back row and moved away did Xu Sheng clearly see that the blackboard had the word ‘mathematics’ written on it.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

Xu Sheng chewed up the candy in his mouth. He stayed in his leaning-back, cross-legged position and lowered his head to flip through the book under his desk. His book looked the same as it did when he had brought it back; he hadn’t even written his name on the front page.

As he flipped, he heard a cry of surprise, followed by the entire class breaking out into whispers. wsWjAa

Xu Sheng didn’t look up and didn’t notice that the sunlight from the window had been blocked by a person. His entire figure had originally been basking in the sunlight, but now that the weather had suddenly become cloudy; even the desk was cast with a shadow.

He was forced to lift his head.

Shao Zhan passed the students in the front rows and didn’t directly return to his own seat. He went to the other side of the passageway and leaned slightly down. Two fingers pinched at the lollipop stick dangling out of Xu Sheng’s mouth. Xu Sheng startled, and the white plastic lollipop stick was drawn out by Shao Zhan. “Eating candy in class is not allowed.”