BTO CH43

“Unity is strength~!”

The broadcast continued to batter everyone’s eardrums. The loudspeaker was hidden behind the door, and the broadcast was playing not only inside the dorm room, but the speakers on the tree-lined path outside the window were also singing, “This strength is iron, this strength is steel!”

Wails echoed through the corridor. Despite their reluctance, everyone still began to actively respond.

After rolling over, Hou Jun remembered the assembly time the instructor had set yesterday. He abruptly sat up in bed, closed his eyes, and began searching for his military training uniform, throwing it on in three swift motions: “We only have fifteen minutes; every second counts. Everyone wake up! Kaizi! Stop sleeping!”

Tan Kai was like a walking corpse, his behavior disconnected from his consciousness, his hands heavy as lead: “I’m so sleepy… I suddenly feel studying is much happier…”

Hou Jun threw a pillow over. When it came to organizing and mobilizing, Monitor Hou feared no one. Another pillow landed squarely on Xu Sheng’s head: “Forget studying or not studying; everyone get up!”

Xu Sheng: “…”

Only then did Xu Sheng sit up. Propping himself up with both hands on the bedsheet, he cast a sideways glance and saw that Shao Zhan had already put on his military training trousers and was standing by the bed, his back turned to him as he put on his top. The boy’s upper body was bare, his spine smoothly contoured, his shoulder blades sharp and protruding, tapering down to a lean waist—still carrying the youthful innocence unique to teenagers of this age.

Xu Sheng caught only a glimpse of this single second; a second later, the tattoo and his back were both covered.

Shao Zhan raised his hands to button his shirt. He didn’t pursue the gaze Xu Sheng had cast on him, only reminding him: “You have ten minutes left.”

Only then did Xu Sheng utter a “Fuck,” pulled back the quilt, and began changing.

Putting on clothes, brushing teeth, and washing his face didn’t take much time; tidying up his things was what took the most time and effort. Hou Jun finally managed to fold his quilt into a neat tofu block. Worried the school tyrant wouldn’t follow the rules again, if he remembered correctly, when Instructor Wang was demonstrating yesterday, this lord hadn’t listened at all.

Hou Jun turned his head, intending to urge him, and sure enough, met the eyes of Lord Xu, who was leaning against the bed rail with nothing to do: “Sheng-ge, you…”

Can’t you follow the rules for once?!

Hou Jun couldn’t utter these words because he saw the Study God currently helping to fold the quilt. The words on the tip of his tongue pivoted: “…Your quilt is folded pretty well.”

Xu Sheng expressed approval: “I also think my desk mate folds quilts pretty well.”

Yesterday, Xu Sheng had thick-skinnedly begged Shao Zhan. Today, he was even more direct: I don’t know how. You slept in this bed yesterday anyway. You wanna turn cold and disown the bed after sleeping in it?

After folding it, Shao Zhan dropped a sentence: “Fold it yourself tomorrow.”

Xu Sheng: “Sure, tomorrow I’ll figure out another way to beg you.”

Shao Zhan hesitated to speak but finally, with a cold face, picked up the military training cap Xu Sheng had left at the head of the bed, clapping it onto his head and blocking most of his line of sight: “Button your shirt, go down to assemble.”

Ten minutes later, the broadcast switched from “Unity is Strength” to a rapid whistle sound. Accompanying the whistle was the voice of the instructor using a bullhorn at the entrance of the dorm building for a countdown: “Students, you now have five minutes left, three minutes, two minutes… last minute!”

The stairwell was packed with people, students flustered as they walked out.

Xu Sheng was in no rush, sauntering lazily over and stepping into formation right at the last second.

The morning march consisted of running around the sports field: five laps for girls and eight laps for boys.

Even Tan Kai, as the sports representative, nearly lost half his life running.

Instructor Wang said, “Keep pushing, two laps left, believe in yourselves…” After speaking, seeing Tan Kai’s pace growing increasingly sluggish as he fell to the back row parallel with the first row students, the instructor asked a soul-piercing question: “Is your kid self really the sports representative?”

Speaking made Tan Kai lose even more energy, and he fell straight into the second row: “…I am.”

With this drop, the entire class couldn’t hold back and started laughing at him: “Kaizi, isn’t that embarrassing!”

Tan Kai: “…”

Xu Sheng was also getting a kick out of it. Laughing while running, he nudged Shao Zhan beside him with his elbow: “How did he become the class representative? If the PE teacher were here, he’d fire him on the spot.”

Shao Zhan cold-heartedly recreated the situation on the day class committee members were chosen: “Because no one else wanted to do it.”

Real.

This harsh reality.

Sunlight poured over the crowd, a thin layer of sweat seeping onto their backs. As the sweltering wind blew past, Xu Sheng laughed without the slightest restraint, his tone rising. Before long, he un-shut himself and rolled up his sleeves again while running. Listening to the teenager’s bright laughter beside his ear, Shao Zhan’s heart rate inexplicably lost its balance for a split second.

Amidst everyone’s laughter, Tan Kai simply gave up on himself, falling further and further behind, until he reached the very back row, running side by side with Xu Sheng and Shao Zhan: “Sheng-ge, Zhan-ge, don’t make fun of me anymore. If you strike at me any further, I’m gonna drop into another company…”

Hou Jun was frustrated by his lack of ambition: “If you drop into another company, don’t come back!”

Not just the person beside him, but the voices of everyone in Class 7 also charged in with an unstoppable momentum.

Shao Zhan narrowed his eyes, thinking to himself: Was the morning sun usually this intense?

“Good, very good. Our Company Seven, without anyone leading the pace, managed to rely on our own formidable willpower—except for the sports representative; everyone else persevered to the end,” after the march ended, Instructor Wang said. “Worthy of praise.”

After the march, the students of Company Seven lined up to go to the cafeteria for breakfast.

There was a half-hour break in between, assembling again at nine o’clock, followed immediately by the morning’s activities.

Having spent yesterday getting familiar with Lüzhou Base, the students were already very familiar with the cafeteria and were starving. The cafeteria food at Lüzhou was average at best, the kind that would normally be disdained, yet eating it now felt surprisingly good: “I must be fainting from hunger. How can this boiled egg taste so delicious?”

“And this white steamed bun, so delicate!”

Shen Wenhao praised grandly: “Soft yet resilient, sweet after the initial blandness, sliding from the tip of the tongue to the heart, the aroma of flour filling the nose—”

Not to be outdone, Hou Jun took a sip of porridge and marveled along. “This bowl of millet porridge—few grains, lots of soup. Drinking it down takes just two words: smooth!”

Tan Kai watched helplessly as all the items on the table were praised to the skies by them, able only to cast his eyes on the remaining pickled vegetables: “This… the difficulty for this one is a bit high.”

Xu Sheng: “…”

Shao Zhan: “…”

Xu Sheng set his chopsticks down, joining the rainbow-fart army, and said: “Let me.”

“These pickled vegetables…” Xu Sheng paused, having completely forgotten his Chinese language proficiency. It took him a long while before he thought of the word “refreshing.” However, before he could blow his trumpet, the corner of the table was bumped into by someone.

Their table was very close to the food window, separated from the neighboring row by an aisle. That bump was far from small, knocking the entire table crooked by a few centimeters.

“How do you walk, bumping into people’s tables?” The voice sounded very familiar.

Xu Sheng looked up and saw Yang Shiwei carrying a tray as he stepped out from behind the person who had bumped into the table. Several of them were wearing Honghai’s military training uniforms, looking like they were together. He said with a half-smile: “—Why aren’t you apologizing to them?”

Xu Sheng instinctively checked Shao Zhan’s reaction and found his expression frightfully cold.

The person dragged back by Yang Shiwei apologized with a grin: “Sorry about that, carrying stuff, misjudged the distance.”

After he finished apologizing, Yang Shiwei released his grip on the guy’s collar, standing still beside Shao Zhan’s table: “Ran into you last time and didn’t get to have a proper chat. Didn’t expect you and I to actually have some fate between us. Ah, right, let me introduce myself. I’m Shao Zhan’s junior high classmate.”

These words sounded fine on the surface, but the atmosphere was wrong, and the tone was even more wrong.

Hou Jun and Tan Kai exchanged glances, not knowing whether they should greet him or not.

Yang Shiwei’s provocation was just starting, and there was clearly a bigger scene to follow.

Shao Zhan wasn’t afraid of him, nor was he afraid of him spouting nonsense here. Ever since Xu Sheng told him he ran into the Honghai guys, he had already prepared himself mentally. Yang Shiwei wasn’t that easy to deal with, but this matter was ultimately troublesome. Just as he put down his chopsticks and stood up, before the sentence “If you’ve got something to say, let’s talk outside” could leave his mouth, Xu Sheng across from him said cleanly: “Self-introduction is unnecessary. There’s nothing worth getting to know.”

Originally, Yang Shiwei’s attention had been entirely on Shao Zhan. Having a sentence pop out unexpectedly from across the table took him by surprise.

He turned his head to look over, only then noticing the teenager across the table.

Never seen him before.

With a face like that, anyone who had seen it would hardly forget it. He looked nonchalant, and at the end of his words, even gifted a bonus smile as if it cost nothing, though this smile concealed two words: Please scram.

“Also,” Xu Sheng added, “don’t stand there like a pole blocking the way.”

Yang Shiwei considered himself someone few people in his life dared to act arrogant around. In junior high, Shao Zhan had been one, and this guy popping out of nowhere counted as the second.

Who the fuck is this?! Yang Shiwei shouted in his mind.

Where did he pop out from, daring to challenge him?

Yang Shiwei was thrown completely off by Xu Sheng’s two sentences, forgetting his upcoming lines entirely.

Hou Jun was very adept at reading the room. This was clearly an enmity. He picked up his tray and said: “Everyone finished eating? Let’s go, let’s go, let us hurry back to rest.”

Yet Shen Wenhao and Yuan Ziqiang couldn’t read the room at all: “Haven’t finished eating yet…”

“Eat what, my ass!” Hou Jun forcibly snatched the white steamed bun from Shen Wenhao’s hand, put it on the tray, and told him calmly: “You’re done eating.”

Yang Shiwei: “Fine, then I’ll just say it straight. You guys probably don’t know…”

Xu Sheng looked behind him and dropped a line: “—Hello, instructor.”

Yang Shiwei froze and turned his head.

After Shao Zhan had his cap tugged by Xu Sheng and Hou Jun’s group retreated, Xu Sheng also picked up his tray and stood up lazily. He used his other hand to tug at Shao Zhan’s cap brim, signaling: “What are you standing there for? Let’s go.”

This confrontation filled with faint gunpowder smoke was smoothed over by Xu Sheng’s casual trickery and the timely retreat of his classmates.

“Where? I don’t see an instructor.”

“Instructor my ass,” Yang Shiwei cursed in a low voice, saying, “Got played.”

After speaking, Yang Shiwei glared fixedly at Shao Zhan’s departing back, gritting his teeth: “…This isn’t over.”

After Shao Zhan dumped his tray, Hou Jun and the others were waiting at the cafeteria entrance. Seeing Shao Zhan, they didn’t ask further questions, directly glossing over the incident in the cafeteria.

Today’s activities, besides standing at attention, goose-stepping, and other drills, also included touring the military museum, so they didn’t really run into the Honghai group. Lüzhou Base was too large; even people from one’s own school wouldn’t necessarily bump into each other, let alone Honghai, unless the other party directly came knocking on the door—the chances of bumping into each other accidentally like the previous two times were low.

The evening activities ended early.

After Xu Sheng finished showering and came out, Shao Zhan was no longer in the dorm: “Where’s my desk mate?”

Hou Jun: “Old Meng came over earlier and called Zhan-ge away. Seems like it’s about being the host for the closing ceremony gala, I’m not entirely sure about the details.”

Xu Sheng didn’t ask further, grabbing his phone to check the time. There were several unread messages in the notification bar.

One was from Zhang Feng: Wanna game?

The others were sent by Kang Kai.

Kang Kai: My mom said the exam reform happened this year. These are the new textbooks handed out for intensive training.

Kang Kai: The scope of the exam content has expanded quite a bit.

The images Kang Kai attached showed a few books, with a sample drawing on the cover. The top book was “Scene Sketching,” and besides that one, there were two volumes of “Landscape Color.”

Xu Sheng had been away from the art studio for a long time, but Kang Kai would occasionally send him relevant news, most of the time under the pretext of “help me take a look at this drawing,” without ever making it explicit.

Kang Kai was also worried if his intent was too obvious. After that day at the bus stop, the online contact between the two mainly revolved around casual chatting.

He happened to be in the studio.

After waiting for a long while without getting a reply from Xu Sheng, he couldn’t resist opening WeChat and adding: My mom had me send this to you, nothing else intended.

After this message was sent, that lord across the screen finally replied.

S: Mhm.

S: How’s Aunt Kang doing lately?

Kang Kai: Pretty good. She keeps nagging about when you’re coming back to see her again. I almost suspect I wasn’t born to her.

The two chatted casually. After Xu Sheng replied, while waiting for Kang Kai’s response, he scrolled back through the chat history, hesitated for two seconds, and pressed save on that picture.

Just then, the dorm door was knocked on. A male student with an unfamiliar face hesitantly pushed the door open: “Is the Study God here?”

Hou Jun was close to the door: “My Zhan-ge isn’t here. If you’ve got something, I’ll pass it on to him when he comes back.”

“There are a few people outside… not from our school, who said they’re looking for him,” the boy said. “They also said if they don’t see him within five minutes, don’t blame them for being ruthless. They said they’ll spill… spill whatever matter out directly.”

Hou Jun: “Ah?”

Xu Sheng’s typing hand paused.

Just as he thought that unless the other party came knocking, they’d never meet in Lüzhou Base, they actually came knocking on the door.

Five minutes.

Whether Shao Zhan could make it back within five minutes was a question in itself.

Xu Sheng remembered again how Shao Zhan had sat against the wind on the windowsill last night, and the posture of those guys stirring up trouble in the cafeteria this morning. He felt a surge of anger out of nowhere: “Where are they?”

The boy delivering the message had also been stopped by someone before coming in and asked to deliver the word: “In… in the alley next to Building 2 in Area A…”

On the other side.

Kang Kai was planning to take things step-by-step, figuring that after finishing this casual chat, he’d steer the topic back. This Art God Xu wasn’t painting anymore; it wasn’t just him who felt heartbroken, his mom felt immense pain as well.

Heartbroken over the art world losing a prodigy! It was a loss for all major art academies!

Even now, a few of Xu Sheng’s drawings from two years ago were still pinned to the studio wall by his mom, never taken down.

Just as Kang Kai was about to type, a message came back from the other side.

S: Gotta go, something came up.

Kang Kai: ?

S: Gotta go fight first.