BTO CH38

The elastic waistband on the military training trousers was clearly not tight enough for Xu Sheng. Even after buttoning it to the rightmost hole, it still sagged loosely around his hips.

Furthermore, Xu Sheng hadn’t even bothered putting the uniform top on properly—likely rushing to change, throwing it on in three swift motions. It was a thin, long-sleeved jacket, and he had rolled the sleeves up to his elbows. He wore nothing underneath. Only the bottom few buttons were fastened, leaving the collar wide open, making the outfit look exceptionally improper draped over his body. Anyone who didn’t know better would think he was hiding in the bathroom doing something illicit.

Xu Sheng didn’t usually have a habit of using sunscreen, so the skin typically exposed to the sun contrasted with the rest of his body. Tracing downward from his sharply defined, deep collarbones, that patch of skin was blindingly white.

Shao Zhan didn’t respond. The stall in front of him faced the row of sinks. Leaning against the tiled wall by the sink, he watched him, the expression in his eyes inscrutable.

Instead, it was Hou Jun, having finished changing and emerging from the stall next door, who spoke up: “Belt? Do these pants even need a belt? Ziqiang and I fit perfectly.”

Yuan Ziqiang was sturdily built and tall, looking much more like a sports representative than Tan Kai with his 1.7-meter frame. While adjusting his clothes, he said somewhat sheepishly, “Well, actually, it’s not a perfect fit. It’s a bit tight on me, kinda suffocating.”

“Ziqiang, do you know what this means?” Hou Jun said. “It’s time to lose weight. If there’s meat in the cafeteria later, bro will take care of it for you.”

Yuan Ziqiang: “…Monkey Bro, I truly thank you.”

While chatting, the two stood by the stall door for a moment, finishing adjusting their clothes, preparing to come over and see exactly what was wrong with Xu Sheng’s pants: “Could they have given you a size too big? That auntie handing out the uniforms just glanced once and tossed a set over like she has x-ray vision. Maybe she tossed the wrong size…”

However, Hou Jun couldn’t finish his sentence, nor did he get to see what was wrong with Xu Sheng’s pants.

Because Shao Zhan blocked their line of sight. Hou Jun could only see the Study God’s icy silhouette. The teenager’s face was expressionless, his posture ramrod straight. He cleanly raised a hand, pressing his palm flat against the school tyrant’s forehead, directly shoving the person back into the stall, and closed the door with a sharp clack.

“I’m heading back to the dorm for a bit,” Shao Zhan only spoke after shoving the person back in. “Who has the key.”

Hou Jun let out a dazed “Oh,” pulling the key from his pocket and handing it over.

Shao Zhan took it, rapped his knuckles twice on the door panel, and told the person inside: “Put your clothes on properly before coming out.”

This time, the person saying “Oh” became Xu Sheng inside the stall.

The sound of footsteps outside the stall faded away.

Belatedly, Xu Sheng looked down, finally noticing the improperly worn military training uniform on his body, and cursed in a low voice: “…Fuck.”

He was so preoccupied with the pants that he forgot his top wasn’t even on properly.

So he had been hanging around in front of Shao Zhan dressed like this for ages just now?

“Sheng-ge, we’ll wait for you outside—” After a while, Hou Jun and the others called out.

Xu Sheng buttoned up his top and replied, “Got it.”

Stepping out of the restroom, Shao Zhan couldn’t restrain himself from looking down at his own palm. He had always been rational, but just now, his physical actions had moved faster than any thought in his brain.

Many people in the residential area had already changed and were walking out. At a glance, students in blue and green training uniforms were mixed together.

Sixth High’s accommodation was assigned to Area A. Rows of detached buildings with distinct architectural styles, named after various countries, sat alongside the tree-lined avenues.

He knocked on the door of the neighboring dorm and explained his purpose. It just so happened a freshman-year classmate of Shao Zhan’s was in that dorm. The classmate’s eyes lit up: “Study God? I have one, I have one. Just happened not to need it, take it.”

Holding the belt, Shao Zhan said: “Thanks.”

The classmate glanced at the uniform on Shao Zhan’s body and casually asked: “Don’t mention it. Is your training uniform the wrong size?”

“It’s not for me,” as Shao Zhan said this, even he didn’t realize the expression in his eyes softening. “…It’s for a friend.”

The classmate rubbed the back of his head, looking slightly uncomfortable, and smiled, saying: “We were classmates for a year, and I think… this is the first time I’ve ever spoken this much to you.”

Shao Zhan was a myth in the school.

And his coldness was genuinely cold.

When the class organized activities in the past, approaching him always resulted in three words: Not interested.

If someone tried to say a few more sentences, the response would be a polite yet slightly impatient, Are you done speaking?

Let alone confessing, more than half the girls in the class who liked him didn’t even dare to ask him a homework question: “Forget it, sisters. Even if you climbed Mount Everest ten times, you might not catch up to this massive iceberg. Last time, the class beauty from next door gathered her courage to go over, and within three minutes, she ran back to class crying… At this level, us mortals should just admire from afar.”

…

After finishing his recollection, the classmate silently thought to himself: Why do I feel like the Study God seems to have gained a bit of humanity?

Xu Sheng sat with his legs bent on the toilet lid for a while, fiddling with his phone before opening WeChat.

Xu Yaping had sent a message saying, Be safe.

He replied with an Mhm, then clicked on Shao Zhan’s profile picture.

S: Where are you.

Just as this message was sent, the restroom door creaked open, followed immediately by two knocks on his stall door: “Open up.”

Xu Sheng leaned forward, pulling the door open a crack. Shao Zhan handed the belt over.

Thinking of the scene that had just occurred, Xu Sheng took it, coughing lightly: “Just now…”

Shao Zhan guessed what he wanted to say: “It’s not like I haven’t seen it.”

From head to toe, what hadn’t he seen.

Xu Sheng: “…”

What kind of hooligan statement is that!

However, Shao Zhan wasn’t wrong. Not only had they seen everything, they had even experienced a certain natural physiological reaction upon waking up in the morning.

Xu Sheng quickly fastened the belt in three swift motions. Shao Zhan was in the stall next door changing clothes.

Ten minutes later, they assembled at the plaza.

When the two came out, Tan Kai was busy complaining that this military training uniform was hindering his handsomeness: “With this hat pressed down, my hairstyle has completely collapsed. And don’t even get me started on the clothes. One word: tacky. Three words: insanely fucking tacky. Who could possibly pull this off—”

Right as Tan Kai said this, he came face-to-face with the top 2 school grass contenders walking over one after the other.

The rest of his sentence died in his throat.

He was wrong, dead wrong. With this exact military training uniform, there really were people who could pull it off.

If Xu Sheng were just a bit more rule-abiding, his looks would absolutely be one of the faces of Linjiang Sixth High. He belonged to the category of people whose photos on an admissions brochure could single-handedly spike the school’s application rate. Unfortunately, that face basically only ever appeared on the disciplinary notice board, accompanied by the following lines in large print: Student Xu Sheng of Class 7, Sophomore Year, violated School Rule No. X on date XX.

And Shao Zhan went without saying.

Just one of these two walking down the street would cause head-turning rates to explode, let alone the fact that both lords were walking together right now—a double critical hit.

Xu Sheng walked behind Shao Zhan. The sunlight hit them both. Xu Sheng’s lips curved in a smile, seemingly saying something. Receiving no reaction from Shao Zhan, Xu Sheng mischievously reached out and snatched Shao Zhan’s hat off his head. Only then did Shao Zhan turn around.

Students from other schools in green camouflage uniforms lining up nearby couldn’t help but whisper: “I’ve been struck! With this comparison, our school grass doesn’t even deserve the title, okay?! Does anyone know which school they’re from?”

“No idea. There are four schools training together this time.”

“Say no more, we picked the wrong school, friends.”

“I think they’re from Sixth High. I saw my former classmate in their formation.”

“Then what are you waiting for,” another classmate said excitedly. “Hurry up and go ask your classmate!”

Before the opening ceremony even started, the Tieba forums of the schools wearing green training uniforms quickly fell.

“Has anyone checked our school’s Tieba?” someone said. “People are already posting threads looking for them. They even included pictures, asking if anyone knows which school they’re from and what their names are. This lethality is way too high, committing murder across schools…”

The picture was blurry and unrelated to their own school, so there weren’t many replies.

But among the few replies, there was a rather special one: Directing you to Linjiang Sixth High. Look up Zhan-Wu-Bu-Sheng: Aloof Study God x Rebellious School Tyrant. Investing in this ship is a guaranteed profit.

…

The students of Linjiang Sixth High could never have imagined that the fire of their school’s ship would spread to other schools.

On the plaza.

The leaders of various schools stood in a row under the shade of the trees, audio equipment set up on the ground in front of them, looking very much like they were about to give speeches one by one.

Meng Guowei searched the front for a long while. Seeing Shao Zhan arrive, he quickly called him over.

Xu Sheng and the others were at the back of the formation. Although he didn’t know what Meng Guowei wanted with Shao Zhan, Xu Sheng didn’t ask, simply saying casually: “How long is this opening ceremony?”

Tan Kai: “Considering the number of schools this time, an hour at the shortest. If it goes long, it could take the entire morning.”

Xu Sheng was never the type to willingly stand baking in the sun for hours just to listen to leaders spout formalities. He said: “If it goes over half an hour, I’m out.”

No one wanted to listen to leaders give speeches under the scorching sun, but clearly, even fewer people had the guts to just leave.

Tan Kai couldn’t fathom it: “Out? How do you get out? That’s probably not a good idea. With so many schools here this time, King of Hell Gu will definitely go crazy.”

“If you want to be tactful, find an excuse,” Xu Sheng said. “If you don’t want to be tactful, just walk away. How else do you get out? Stand here like an idiot photosynthesizing all morning?”

Badass.

Tan Kai yielded.

Tan Kai added: “Half an hour is definitely impossible. After the leaders finish speaking, there’s the student representative speech segment. Our school’s student representative this time is Zhan-ge.”

Unlike Xu Sheng, whose every appearance on the flag-raising platform was to read a self-reflection, Shao Zhan was the student representative almost every time.

No wonder Meng Guowei was in such a hurry to call him over.

Xu Sheng didn’t usually like listening to those speeches. Even when he was “behaving” and pinned down on the sports field by King of Hell Gu, he would have an earbud in. He hadn’t really seen Shao Zhan giving a speech on stage before.

Suddenly, Xu Sheng felt that photosynthesizing all morning wasn’t an entirely intolerable prospect.

Half an hour later, Tan Kai turned around to find the person who said he was going to leave still standing at the back of the formation. He asked: “Sheng-ge, aren’t you leaving? Are you planning to leave tactfully or…?”

Xu Sheng: “Leave what? I think you’re right.”

Tan Kai: “?”

Xu Sheng: “Leaving early really isn’t a good look. As a student, I need to uphold the school’s image.”

You never usually uphold it!

But Tan Kai didn’t dare say that out loud.

Meanwhile, the stage had proceeded to the next segment.

“…Thank you to Director Gu for the speech,” both hosts were from other schools. After speaking, they glanced at the script in their hands, then immediately looked forward, speaking with deep emotion: “Just as Director Gu said, National Defense Education is extremely important, and we should all cultivate a strong sense of national defense. Next, please welcome the student representative from Linjiang Sixth High, student Shao Zhan, to speak to us on ‘What is National Defense’.”

At first, the applause from the audience was highly perfunctory and sparse. After all, baking in the sun for this long would drain anyone’s energy.

However, when Shao Zhan stepped out from the crowd, the applause grew noticeably more enthusiastic.

The teenager was dressed in camouflage fatigues as ordinary as could be, worn strictly by the book. Yet they accentuated his lean, upright figure; he was a natural clothes hanger. Compared to his facial features, which were blurry from a distance, the faint outline of his jaw and the chilling aura he couldn’t suppress were far more memorable.

The representatives from the other schools had all carried stacks of paper; he was the only one who went up empty-handed.

Among the several schools present, only Sixth High was a key school. The other schools’ rules weren’t as strict, and there were even quite a few people secretly chatting in the audience.

Shao Zhan took the microphone from the host.

He had barely spoken a few words when screams actually erupted from the neighboring school.

“…”

Shao Zhan acted as if he hadn’t heard. Soon, Xu Sheng discovered this guy also had a very unique style when giving speeches on stage. When Director Gu used to scold him for acting so arrogantly that he couldn’t find a second person like him in Sixth High, he was truly mistaken. There was clearly an even more arrogant one right here; it was just that the guy’s conversational skills were so high it took people a moment to realize it.

Because after Shao Zhan delivered a paragraph on stage, he paused and said coldly: “Please, all schools, manage your students’ discipline.”

Translating that sentence resulted in four words: Shut the fuck up.

And that wasn’t the end of it.

Hou Jun, who had originally been standing next to Meng Guowei managing the class discipline, retreated to the back, lowering his voice to say sneakily: “Holy shit, earth-shattering news.”

“The student representative was originally someone else, but they suddenly fell ill, and the speech script went missing.”

“So Zhan-ge is improvising on the spot, can you believe it?”