The door to the rooftop was unlocked. They could probably push it open with some force, but the range of motion was so limited that they were blocked by a long chain after pushing through the gap.
The wind blew unscrupulously through the cracks.
Before Xu Sheng could even respond, Shao Zhan had already taken two steps forward. He reached his hand out and grabbed the back of Xu Sheng’s hand—only this time, his movements were not so light. He seems to have unsealed some kind of binding, and removed the ‘honour student’ label that bound him. Along with the fact that he had exchanged bodies with Xu Sheng, the aura around him was enhanced by his T-shirt blowing in the wind.
Suddenly, his soul seemed to have been misplaced. It was almost as if Xu Sheng was seeing the Nan Ping tyrant Shao Zhan from over a year ago standing in front of him.
Shao Zhan tightened his grip slightly, holding him strongly and oppressively, drawing him closer to himself.
This hug was different from a normal one.
Xu Sheng was pressed immobile by him, forcibly pressed into his embrace by Shao Zhan’s oppressive hand.
The two of them stuck closely together; the unique cold smell of Shao Zhan’s aura swept in with the wind. Then the force against his head relaxed slightly, and Shao Zhan’s hand slid downward, finally resting behind his neck.
“…”
The youth’s palm was burning, and it was somewhere he could not see. His senses were sensitive. Xu Sheng blinked. His entire body felt like it was covered in a layer of electricity.
If someone had passed by at this moment, they would have surely stopped in shock.
This hug might have only lasted a very short time.
Or it might have been a very long time.
Through the thin fabric, he could clearly feel the other’s body temperature rising higher and higher. At the same time, he heard the secret heartbeat rising uncontrollably from his chest.
It was clear that they had not undergone any changes, and that they weren’t hearing the sound of thunder, but this moment seemed to freeze in time, stretching infinitely into a parallel universe.
Xu Sheng realised that his actions with Shao Zhan were really too similar to that of two students sneaking off to the rooftop after school to do naughty things together.
Xu Sheng thought to himself, “Fuck”, then asked, “How long do we need to hug for?”
Shao Zhan asked in response, “Have you switched back.”
Xu Sheng glanced at Shao Zhan. Shao Zhan was still wearing that black T-shirt. It was obvious they hadn’t switched.
“…No.”
So if they hadn’t switched back, why did they continue hugging?
Xu Sheng’s trust in the master was starting to shake.
He hadn’t been scammed, right?
Xu Sheng tried to recall how long the master had said they should hug.
It seemed as if he hadn’t mentioned the duration.
After the master had spoken about the requirements for changing back, he had only shaken his head no matter what they asked afterwards, mysteriously saying, “The secrets of the heavens cannot be exposed. I have already spoken too much. Remember, you must keep a sincere heart.”
The words “keep a sincere heart” were too mysterious; it had so many different meanings.
It was only then that Xu Sheng came to his senses about this master that seemed to dig a deeper hole with every sentence he spoke.
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.
In a normal situation, Xu Sheng was definitely not the kind of person to be irrational, but the current situation was very unique so it could only use a unique solution. He could jump over a wall for the monthly exams, so why not lose his wits for the Four School Competition League?
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His smile wasn’t very apparent. His Adam’s apple bobbed twice, before he released his hand and said, “You’re so easy to scam.”
Xu Sheng, “…”
“I what?” Xu Sheng thoroughly returned to his senses. “Fuck, are you playing with me?”
While Xu Sheng was very into it when they were at the Half Deity House, Shao Zhan had been much calmer.
Although Xu Sheng didn’t really use his brain very much, Shao Zhan was just too smart for that. It was impossible for him not to have figured out the cracks in the master’s instructions. It was clear that the master had changed his words afterwards to fit Xu Sheng’s revealing words.
Shao Zhan didn’t expose him, and just played along with him. He played along with him from the insulation suits to the fortune telling place.
“I’m not playing with you.”
“If this isn’t playing with me then what is it?”
“Getting back at you.”
“…”
Shao Zhan said, “I told you I’d get back at you after class.”
‘Get back at you’ was a very convenient phrase. To temporarily cover up his erratic heartbeat that would not calm down, Xu Sheng lay in his bed after returning to his dorm room and clicked on his messages with Zhang Feng. The chat room was paused on the ‘you fucking have a situation going on’ message.
He read that line over and over again, wanting to send something. Finally, he didn’t send anything and threw his phone to the side before closing his eyes.
At the same time, on the other side.
A few steps away, Shao Zhan faced several newly issued practice exams for the competition on his desk in his dorm room, but he hadn’t begun writing.
He held the pen and read the question over and over again. Shao Zhan, who had always had a strong sense of self-control, couldn’t pay attention to anything from the beginning and unexpectedly didn’t comprehend a single word.
He decided to just put his pen down. At that time, his phone happened to ping.
You have a new message.
There were immediately several tens of messages in the Nan Ping group chat.
– I passed by our school today. Tsk, the school got renovated.
– I know, it looks so proper now. Fuck.
– They also fixed the surveillance system. I don’t think escaping the school will be as easy now as it was for us.
They were all part of that group of friends he used to know. Shao Zhan began burying his head in books a bit over a hundred days before the high school examinations. After graduation, they all went to different schools.
This group of friends mainly went to secondary schools, and most of them went to learn auto repair.
Shao Zhan rarely made an appearance in the group chat. He wasn’t sure if it was because he was trying to run away or if it was because he really had nothing to say. He was also quite busy with the schoolwork at Lin Jiang Sixth High.
But at this moment, when faced with this group chat, he felt different from before. It could have been because his secret had been found…his past self seemed to have been brushed away by others.
Along with the fact that Shao Zhan currently really needed to find a certain someone for a good chat.
He moved his fingers, and sent in the group: Is that true.
The moment Shao Zhan made his entrance, the group messages scrolled past quickly.
Even if their big boss had washed his hands clean in a golden basin, he was still their big boss!
Shao Zhan at that time was ruthless beyond measure. Never mind Yang Shiwei, even ten of him would not be able to shake Shao Zhan out of his position as a school tyrant, and he was even cooler than any average tyrant, if he said he was stopping, he stopped.
The people in the group still remembered when Shao Zhan had started studying, some fool from a neighbouring class had come by to aggravate him.
At that time, Shao Zhan did not even lift his gaze, one hand still over his test paper, easily filling in the answers, while his other hand held the other person down against his desk. “I have no time to play with you. Go away.”
The group chat went crazy. Finally, someone could no longer hold back the gossip.
– Zhan ge hasn’t appeared in a long time. Did he abandon us to find love?
Shao Zhan suddenly chose to start studying that year, and after a hundred days or so became first place, and even got into a prestigious school. This event was tantamount to a storm in Nan Ping. Nan Ping’s enrolment rate skyrocketed in the second year, and many theories as to why Shao Zhan was suddenly so hardworking started to pop up.
Out of the many theories, the most widespread one was about “puppy love”: “I heard that Shao Zhan is in love, why else would he suddenly want to get into Lin Jiang Sixth? There’s definitely someone he likes in that school.”
Many people even asked Shao Zhan’s close friends, but even they were quite bewildered. “Maybe? We don’t really know either. Fuck, these guesses really seem like the real deal.”
Why on earth was Shao Zhan studying so hard?
This became Nan Ping’s greatest unsolved mystery.
Shao Zhan replied: No.
After Shao Zhan’s “no” was sent out, someone in the group chat said, “Look, I told you, this is all bullshit. Who do you think our Zhan ge is? Does he seem like someone who would get manipulated by his feelings for a girl? Falling in love? Bah!”
After that person sent that, the aforementioned Zhan ge, who was watching the group chat, sent yet another message: But I do like someone.
– ???
He didn’t study hard for anyone in particular, but he did end up meeting someone.
Why did he let go of Xu Sheng so quickly when they were on the rooftop?
Because his heart was pounding too fast.
He almost couldn’t hide it.
It was easy to read other people, but it seemed that it wasn’t so easy when he was the one in the midst of it.
Shao Zhan put his phone down.
The lights were off in the bedroom. He sat there for a while before reaching out to turn on his table lamp.
Xu Sheng turned over on the bed. He had trouble falling asleep. When he closed his eyes, all he could see was him and Shao Zhan hugging on the rooftop. He let out a “Fuck”, then opened his eyes again.
It wasn’t easy, not because he couldn’t read other people.
Many people thought that when young people fell in love, they didn’t care about anything else. But since that moment, it was all cautious restraint, and it was the bewilderment and helplessness that came from the overwhelming madness of it all.
Xu Sheng was losing sleep, and after forcing himself not to think about what happened on the rooftop, he then remembered that Master scamming him out of a few hundred bucks, and felt even more awake.
Helpless, he could only lie in his bed and scroll through his phone, wanting to hit up Zhang Feng for some games.
Zhang Feng had sent over a message first.
Zhang Feng had been at the forefront of observing the gossip. “Fuck, Boss, have you seen the forums?”
Xu Sheng saw the word “forums” and shuddered, unable to stop himself from remembering something about “peach-like eyes”, and his entire body was covered in goosebumps.
S: ?
Zhang Feng: Take a look. It’s blowing up. People from Yinghua are posting on our school’s forum, trying to smear our Study God’s name. Fuck, it’s so arrogant.
S: ??
Zhang Feng then remembered that Xu Sheng usually didn’t pay any attention to anything related to school or studies, so he probably would not know about the inter-school competition. Therefore, he decided to educate him a bit: You’re probably not aware, but it’s like this. Every year, our school will join up with three other schools and host a sort of competition, and every year, Ying Hua is the champion.
Xu Sheng’s two question marks were entirely directed at “Ying Hua”. He was asking about what the Yinghua people were up to.
Of course he knew about the competition, he didn’t need Zhang Feng’s patronising. After all, he might very well be the one who had to attend! He had a 50% chance of going on stage as a contestant, how could he not know!
S: I know, no need to explain.
S: What are the Ying Hua people doing there… Never mind, just send me the link.
Zhang Feng very quickly forwarded him a link.
The title of the post was simple and crude. It was titled “War”.
The post was as follows: Shao Zhan, consider yourself lucky last year. This year, we won’t lose the competition. Just you wait. Victory belongs to Ying Hua. It belongs to me.
The last line was a signature.
Undefeated and proud, a man of my word, Duan Yaosheng.
Xu Sheng, “…”
Just like Zhang Feng said, this person was indeed arrogant to the extreme.
Barely three hours after the post was made, a steady flow of Lin Jiang Sixth students commented on it.
2L: Who’s the person in the previous comment?
3L: Where did this come from? Creating drama for yourself?
4L: No idea who this is. Study God won so easily last year. I barely managed to check out the other contestants in the inter-school competition before it was already over.
5L: Prev comment is so savage, I love it.
There was only one objective comment in this mess.
89L: I’ve heard of this Duan fellow. He is pretty amazing. I heard that he stumbled last year and that’s why he lost. He’s #1 in Ying Hua, just like the Study God, undefeatable… No. Our Study God has already fallen to 2nd place because of love.
thank you for the update! 🥰
Thanks for the chapter!
Thank you so much❤️
Thank u for the update .
And they like Each other!! ≧◡≦ ৻( •̀ ᗜ •́ ৻)
💜💜💜💜
❤