After showering, Shao Zhan dried his hair while he went to knock on the other door for his homework.
Xu Sheng was inexplicably somewhat uncomfortable when facing the smell of body wash on “himself”. When he remembered the words they had just exchanged, he felt a little out of it. He handed over the A4 papers. “The questions are here.”
Shao Zhan took the papers, but before he could even look through them, Xu Sheng pointed at the door and ordered his guest to leave. “Remember to close the door when you go out.”
Shao Zhan didn’t say much more. He took the pile of paper between his hands and stopped when he reached the doorway.
“Why do I have to close my eyes when showering.”
Shao Zhan said, “Are you shy?”
“…”
Xu Sheng stared at Shao Zhan’s back. It took a long time before he realised he was being teased.
The topic of the shower passed quickly, because when Shao Zhan got his homework, he discovered an issue.
He took a picture of the homework Xu Sheng had copied down. To say that those few lines of Xu Sheng’s had been scratched out by a dog was looking down on the dog.
– Translate this.
– What did you write.
Xu Sheng laughed and said “fuck.” For the time being, he didn’t continue playing games, nor did he have any intention of playing games.
– Isn’t my handwriting pretty good.
– Go search up what “good” means on Baidu.
The two of them started chatting like this. Xu Sheng went to take a shower in between. The person across from him seemed to have an eye on his dorm room; not long after his shower, he sent another picture.
The conversation topic continued on just like this.
Xu Sheng’s hair was half dry. He started off by sitting on his bed while responding to messages. When his hair had dried completely, he lay down straight away.
– Are all you competition people going to keep having meetings.
– We might.
– Can the meetings be postponed.
– If you want to die, you can try.
– If you can’t figure it out, just write a disciplinary review. A high school experience without writing a review isn’t complete. Your school life is too unexciting; at least you were the tyrant of Nanping before.
Shao Zhan’s identity as a former school tyrant was rather exhilarating to think about, no matter the angle.
When Xu Sheng finished sending out that message, he couldn’t resist thinking about what the Shao Zhan at that time was like.
– Did you wear your school uniform when you were a school tyrant?
– Occasionally.
– Occasionally?
– The dean was too nosy, so we had a clothing inspection every week.
The conversation naturally flowed from Shao Zhan’s school tyrant identity back to the art studio.
His homework and exam papers were beside him. Shao Zhan didn’t even touch them.
Instead, after talking with Xu Sheng for a while, he typed out word for word: You draw very well.
You draw very well.
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.
We Vtfcu rajgfv ja atlr ilcf bo kbgvr obg j ktlif.
Ktf alqr bo tlr olcufgr abemtfv atf rmgffc bo tlr qtbcf. Ktf cluta kjr vjgx bearlvf tlr klcvbk. Ktbrf olnf kbgvr rffwfv ab qbxf ja rbwfatlcu vffq lcrlvf tlw, ab atf qblca atja tf vlvc’a xcbk ktja ab gfqis klat.
Xu Sheng turned over.
He always did whatever he wanted to do to his heart’s desires, and he had always carried a reckless air about him. His grades in middle school hadn’t been very good. In order to get into Li Yang Second High, he had bitterly worked hard for a whole school year. The high school exams were not as difficult as the college ones; as long as he thoroughly memorised the materials, it wasn’t very difficult. When the exams came at last, he exceeded expectations and even managed to reach a key high school.
Even if Xu Yaping had originally lowered her head and let out a breath, when the Lin Jiang Sixth High report came, she still had to do what she had to do.
During the first semester of high school, the incidents of him not wearing the school uniform became a hot topic at school.
The Xu Sheng at that point was like this. Even if he lowered his head, his bones hadn’t been broken—at the age of sixteen, sometimes one didn’t know what they wanted to do, and it was difficult to find a clear path forward.
Xu Sheng finally responded with a “I think I’m pretty good at drawing too.” He changed the subject, and didn’t even realise he had fallen asleep as they chatted. When he opened his eyes in the morning and swiped at his phone screen to take a look at the time, he saw a “good night” from one in the morning.
After the two of them had exchanged their phones back, their social interactions temporarily returned back to normal.
Kang Kai finished changing the foundational colours based off of Xu Sheng’s corrections, and had continued drawing. He broadcasted his progress to his instructor live, but it was just that the discussion topic would go on a tangent as they chatted.
Kang Kai: Your deskmate is very handsome ah. Those five features, so cold.
S: Nonsense.
S: He’s my deskmate. Of course he’s handsome.
Kang Kai: He probably has a lot of people chasing after him at school. You were always the campus beau at whatever school you went to, and someone who was at the level of having no rivals. You’ve met a difficult opponent now.
S: He’s just a little bit worse than me, but he truly fits it.
Kang Kai: …Keep bragging.
If Xu Sheng didn’t have to go to the classroom during the weekend, he wouldn’t go to the classroom. He spent all his time doing nothing while hiding in his dorm room.
He thought that Shao Zhan would force him to go to the classroom and study, and was ready to hold onto the door and refuse to go, but Shao Zhan merely glanced at him. “You don’t want to go?”
Xu Sheng grasped the corner of Shao zhan’s shirt, and tried his usual bag of tricks. He said shamelessly, “I don’t want to. I’m begging you.”
Shan Zhan fell silent. “…Let go.”
Xu Sheng, “I won’t.”
Shao Zhan, “You don’t want to go to self study but you want to pull at my clothes in the hallway?”
It took Xu Sheng a few seconds to understand that he meant for him to let go.
Xu Sheng let his hand go, and said half jokingly, half casually, “When did our study god become so easy to talk to?”
Shao Zhan looked at him. He was wearing the clothes Xu Sheng had been wearing when they swapped the other day: that pair of ripped jeans that had been touched by “Shao Zhan”. Xu Sheng and him were standing quite close, it was as though he was about to sink into Xu Sheng’s eyes. Xu Sheng’s habit of raising his voice was suppressed by him. “With you, have I ever been difficult to talk to?”
Actually, before Shao Zhan had even replied, as soon as Xu Sheng’s brain conjured up the thought, he had paused.
It really was true. It seemed somehow, even from very early on, that he had always been easy to talk to.
Xu Sheng’s thoughts stopped there, and he slowly deleted the message he had been about to send to Kang Kai.
Instead, as though possessed, he typed the sentence: Have you ever fallen in love?
This time, Kang Kai didn’t take several minutes to reply like before. The response was immediate: ???
Kang Kai: You.
Kang Kai: Brother, there’s fucking something going on with you.
Kang Kai: Give me the full deets. What happened??
Xu Sheng typed a whole lot of words, but deleted all of them, but he didn’t deny that there was “something going on” with him: Forget it. There’s no point in talking to someone chronically single like you.
The Kang Kai who hadn’t figured out anything and had been mercilessly mocked: Fk?
After Xu Sheng sent that, he tossed his phone aside.
Although he mocked Kang Kai for being single, it wasn’t as if he was any better.
Kang Kai was always unlucky when it came to love. No matter if it was a secret or obvious crush, he would always walk the path of rejection. In the end, he decided to throw himself into his art. He focused on painting saints and sages, closing himself off to the idea of feelings.
Xu Sheng was the opposite. He had an affinity for the ladies since he was young, a player for all types of people.
If he wanted to, having good relationships with people fully depended on whether he wanted to or not.
Those who did art tended to have more intricate minds, and they took better care of girls. In addition to his looks, it was hard for it to not become a disaster.
Even though he was the opposite of Kang Kai, the ending was still the same.
When Xu Sheng felt like the other party had feelings, and he had no way of reciprocating them, he would wordlessly put distance between them.
Kang Kai had noticed it one time. He had put down his pen, tilted his head and looked at him, then glanced behind him. “Where’s that girl who always comes with you to the art studio?”
“It’s exam week, so I gave her some more time to study.”
Kang Kai, “?”
“She probably won’t be coming here as often anymore. She likes me.” Xu Sheng sighed and said, “You couldn’t tell?”
Kang Kai, “??” She looked like a normal girl.
Xu Sheng would never lead someone on, or give them hope before rejecting them. However one looked at it, that was hurtful.
— Brother, there’s fucking something going on with you.
Xu Sheng cradled both hands behind his head, that sentence replaying endlessly in his head.
—
The Xu Sheng at this time didn’t know the two days of this weekend were the only relaxing days he had left. If he had known, he definitely wouldn’t have wasted his time in his dorm. He would have gone on a walk outside and experienced the outside world a bit more, breathed in the fresh air…he would have experienced what it was like to “live”.
After this weekend, when Xu Sheng opened his eyes and woke up, he raised his hand and discovered he was still “Shao Zhan.” The test would still continue.
The competition prep meetings would continue nonstop.
Before the flag-raising ceremony on Monday, Xu Sheng was called out from the crowd of people by Meng Guowei. “Shao Zhan, come over here for a moment.”
Xu Sheng halted his steps and swung over. “Teacher Meng.”
Meng Guowei still needed to follow the class in their exercises so he simply instructed, “Go to the conference room. Homeroom Teacher Gu is holding a meeting for you guys. Go go go, why are you just standing there.”
A meeting was just a meeting. After the meeting last Friday, Xu Sheng believed he had already figured out the process.
It wasn’t very difficult.
Wasn’t it just a little meeting, and he’d figure out how to copy the practise problems from someone else afterwards?
—The Xu Sheng on his way to the meeting truly thought like this.
On the track field.
The host stood on the flag-raising podium and gave a speech, to be specific they summarised the performance of the second-years at the Green Boat Base last week.
The speech was split into five major parts, and Xu Sheng was in charge of one of those parts.
“Xu Sheng of Class Seven, given the incident that happened on the base where you intended to harm seven students from Hong Hai,” the host said, “and since you were so eager to write a self-reflection essay, we call upon you especially!”
“Mr. Meng!” They called for him.
Meng Guowei was taken by surprise.
He was just thinking about how to escape from this situation. This entire thing was basically falling entirely on his shoulders! Meng Guowei couldn’t count the number of times he had to endure this career torture because of Xu Sheng.
“Teacher Meng.” The voice was cold as it called for him again.
Meng Guowei raised his head, and saw that the main perpetrator was standing right in front of him.
Shao Zhan was now “Xu Sheng”, the face that every subject teacher didn’t like. Meng Guowei said, “If you’re not standing in line properly, what are you doing here embarrassing yourself for?”
Although the contestants would have a lot of meetings, it was always at a scheduled time, but they were all hurriedly called to gather on a Monday morning before assembly. It was quite a predicament.
Shao Zhan, “I’m looking for Shao Zhan…Something happened. Is he not here?”
“He went for the meeting. Before the inter-school competition this year, Director Gu wanted to talk to them about some matters relating to it. This inter-school competition…” Meng Guowei stopped talking halfway and changed the subject. “Never mind. Why am I even telling you this? As if you know anything about competitions.”
“Inter-school competition?”
Shao Zhan suspected he had heard incorrectly.
At that moment, whatever the person on the podium was saying became blurry. Underneath that hot summer sky, every single sound became distant.
—
“The inter-school competition—” In the conference room, Director Gu had a smile on his face as he presented the details about the competition. “I believe everyone is familiar. Since we have new students joining us this year, I’ll give you a simple rundown. Four schools—basically, the four major schools in our district—will be involved.”
Next powerpoint slide.
The four school logos were arranged neatly on the slide.
“Lin Jiang Sixth, Song Ye High, Ying Hua, and Xing Jian.”
Xu Sheng had found a seat farthest away from Gu Yanwang.
These four schools were not unfamiliar. These were the dream schools of countless students for every high school entrance examination.
Xu Sheng listened on and off to the presentation. He couldn’t gather what the inter-school competition was about just based on those few sentences.
“Every year, our four schools will join a contest to show off our strengths. We will maintain a kind and competitive spirit and progress together. This annual inter-school competition will have the best of the best contestants sitting together to complete the competition questions. The shorthand name for it will be the Four School Competition League.”
Upon hearing this, Xu Sheng’s calm demeanor started to crack.
As a school tyrant, he had never even heard of this competition before.
Gu Yanwang continued on proudly as he went to the next powerpoint slide, “Last year, the winner was our Lin Jiang—No, rather, the honor was brought home by our student Shao Zhan!”
The accompanying picture on the powerpoint was one of Shao Zhan claiming the winning title of the contest!
There wasn’t much of an expression on the youth’s face. He was wearing the school uniform, his head slightly bowed. From this angle, his nose bridge looked particularly straight. From his hair to the curve of his fingers holding the pen, there was a sense of mystery around him, as though he was completely separate from the scene around him.
Once Gu Yanwang said these words, the gazes from all four corners of the room attacked and landed upon Xu Sheng’s body.
Faced with this kind of school versus school competition, there was no teacher who could remain calm. Gu Yanwang curled his hand into a fist and raised it high. “We will create miracles again this year! And leave with Lin Jiang as the champion!”
Under Gu Yanwang’s leadership, the competing students under the podium also ignited their passion. They followed in shouting, “Leave the championship with Lin Jiang!”
“…”
The four words of “Four School Competition League” was like another sound of thunder. It was impossible to get in a word among the crowd of people. Xu Sheng’s world collapsed to the ground.
He had only one word he wanted to say.
Fuck.
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