BTO CH48

During the National Defense Education event, it had been clear and sunny for five consecutive days. As the students of Class 7 were hunched over their desks writing their essays, the sky outside began to turn overcast.

Shao Zhan was as familiar with the handwriting on that paper slip as could be, because he had imitated it before.

Linjiang Sixth High was unlike other high schools that focused on fine arts, such as Liyang Second High, where art students made up 80% of the student body each year. At Linjiang Sixth High, even if one flipped back hundreds of pages in the school archives, they wouldn’t find a single art student.

Writing “Central Academy of Fine Arts” on that slip looked almost like a joke.

If Meng Guowei were to see it, he would probably think some student was fooling around and cough up three buckets of blood on the spot.

Dark clouds gathered from afar, completely obscuring the last sliver of sunlight filtering through the cloud cover.

“All organized?” Meng Guowei returned to the office carrying the notice forms and saw the neatly stacked pile of paper. “Alright, thanks for your hard work. Next period is English, right? Go back and do your prep work in advance.”

Shao Zhan stood up, his hands moving faster than his brain. Taking advantage of a moment when Meng Guowei wasn’t looking, he pulled out the slip of paper with “Central Academy of Fine Arts” written on it.

“Shao Zhan,” Meng Guowei called him back again.

Shao Zhan paused in his tracks.

Without missing a beat, he covered the slip of paper with the graded essay sheets from Meng Guowei and held them in his hand.

Meng Guowei recalled the first time he met the teenager during their freshman year. The moment he walked into the room, the air temperature seemed to drop several degrees. Aside from that perfect score paper handed in early, what impressed him most was the sharp, aloof expression between the teenager’s brows. The Shao Zhan standing before him now wasn’t much different from back then, yet Meng Guowei always felt something had changed.

Perhaps that cold distance had imperceptibly softened, especially whenever Xu Sheng was mentioned.

“About Xu Sheng fighting at Lüzhou Base…”

Meng Guowei had been wanting to talk to Shao Zhan. Setting down the notice forms, he said, “In teacher’s eyes, you’ve always been an outstanding student. You were in the past, and you still are now. There are some things in life we cannot choose when we’re born, which is why we must seize the present all the more. If you ever face any difficulties, you can always come to me.”

Shao Zhan froze for a moment.

Meng Guowei stopped there, knowing when to leave things unsaid. Not being one for sentimental speeches, he turned his head, cleared his throat, and said, “Go on then.”

Just as Shao Zhan walked out of the office, a classmate followed right behind him and summoned the courage to call out, “Student Shao Zhan.”

The person who came was the perennial runner-up.

No.

After this monthly exam, he had now turned the tables and claimed first place.

Shao Zhan truly didn’t understand what there was to talk about between them. “Is something wrong?”

The perennial runner-up had a dark expression. “I know you weren’t actually feeling unwell during the monthly exams.”

Shao Zhan stopped to look at him, unsure of where the secret had leaked. “…?”

The perennial runner-up continued, “After the very first exam, you were still saying the questions were too easy, that there was no difficulty at all, and that you could finish ten exam papers like that in a hundred and twenty minutes.”

That was the posturing Xu Sheng had put on.

The runner-up pressed on, “Are you looking down on me?”

“…”

“You’ve changed,” something in the runner-up’s eyes was gradually shattering. “I used to view you as my strongest rival, because like me, you respected the exam hall, respected the test, and cherished every single exam opportunity. I thought we shared the same faith in studying.”

“…”

Holding his exercise workbook, the runner-up finally turned around and walked right past Shao Zhan’s side.

When Shao Zhan returned to class, he saw a crowd gathered around his seat with Xu Sheng as the center. Hou Jun sat across from Xu Sheng, and several people were chatting animatedly.

Setting aside the intimidating “school tyrant” title, Xu Sheng’s popularity was genuinely far from bad.

Xu Sheng unscrewed his water bottle, listening to Hou Jun share first-hand gossip. Hou Jun lowered his voice and said, “Sheng-ge, do you know that Yang Shiwei got beaten up again afterward?”

Xu Sheng’s hand wobbled, a bit of water spilling out of the bottle.

“Beaten up again?” Did the guy have that many enemies?

“Yeah, it happened the day after we did our self-reflections on stage.”

Speaking of this Yang Shiwei, after Xu Sheng had issued that public threat on stage, the fact that he didn’t come back to stir up trouble afterward was strange enough in itself. Hou Jun knew a few old classmates at Honghai, and after the self-reflection, many of them actively reached out to chat. The content of their messages was extremely pointed, aiming straight at the two class heartthrobs: Monkey, let me ask, do they have partners?

Hou Jun: Our class’s Study God or School Tyrant, which one are you asking about?

Old classmate hastily replied: I’m fine with either! Both are fine!

Hou Jun: …Got that big of an appetite?

However, Hou Jun could only say in his heart: Friend, you’re not really fine, because they might be dating, though I have no proof. Besides, the two of them even have a CP name; feel free to turn right out the door and check the Linjiang Sixth High forum to see how tall the thread has built.

None of this stopped Hou Jun from enjoying the gossip though.

Old classmate: He got beaten up again. Seems like someone cornered him near the dorm building at night and beat him into depression.

As for what actually happened, one might only be able to interview Yang Shiwei himself.

Yang Shiwei originally hadn’t intended to let Xu Sheng off easily, already figuring out how to cause trouble in a way that seemed natural. However, right after the evening march ended on their way back to the dorm, a figure slowly stepped out from the alleyway.

A figure he was all too familiar with.

Having showered and not wearing the blue military uniform of Linjiang Sixth High, wearing only a thin T-shirt, he overlapped even more closely with the person in his memory.

Before Yang Shiwei could react, his back made intimate contact with the asphalt road of Lüzhou Base the very next second, followed by an explosive surge of pain erupting from his ribs.

The teenager’s voice was terrifyingly cold, the suppressed hostility and sharpness almost sweeping over him. He hadn’t fought anyone in a long time. “I didn’t come looking for you because of your big mouth.”

“Which hand hit him?” The teenager’s voice dropped. “Speak.”

“…”

Halfway through enjoying the gossip, Xu Sheng noticed Hou Jun looking at him strangely. He tilted his head back, took a gulp of water, and laughed: “Can you figure out the whole story before coming to talk?”

Xu Sheng saw Shao Zhan come in from the classroom door, screwed the cap back on, and called out, “Desk mate.”

Shao Zhan had lost his temper and couldn’t be bothered to settle the old monthly exam account with him anymore.

The class bell rang.

Hou Jun and the others dispersed, and Shao Zhan pulled out his chair to sit down: “What were you chatting about?”

Xu Sheng said, “Talking about an unimportant person. Monkey said Yang Shiwei got beaten up again. That guy really has countless enemies. Although I don’t know who did it, good job on the beating.”

Shao Zhan didn’t say anything.

Xu Sheng turned his head, staring at Shao Zhan for a moment. Looking past Shao Zhan’s uniform jacket, which was no longer buttoned up to the top, a thought inexplicably popped into his mind, something that could also be called intuition. He asked, “The night of the self-reflection, you weren’t in the dorm, were you?”

Shao Zhan: “Checking up on me?”

The phrase checking up on me sounded strangely loaded.

Xu Sheng: “…Not really.”

Shao Zhan shifted the topic, reminding him: “Class started.”

Throughout the entire morning, dark clouds surged continuously across the sky.

Xu Sheng sat through class feeling extremely uneasy, so anxious that he couldn’t fall asleep leaning on his desk. Playing games was no longer possible as he couldn’t keep an overview of the match like before, logging off halfway through.

This damn weather.

Would a sudden thunderclap strike in a moment?

Xu Sheng was genuinely terrified of that elusive, unpredictable thunder.

Unable to sleep, he slouched on the desk and poked Shao Zhan with a pen. “Hey.”

The last period of the morning was biology class. The biology teacher left a problem on the blackboard and asked them to write it down in their exercise workbooks.

Shao Zhan’s problem-solving speed was exceptionally fast. While the others were still copying the problem, he had already scribbled down the answer with a flick of his pen: “Speak.”

Xu Sheng: “What if it thunders in a bit?”

The tip of Shao Zhan’s pen paused.

Xu Sheng continued to construct this terrifying hypothetical in his mind: “Even though the last two swaps weren’t caused by rain, and other people couldn’t hear the thunder, it doesn’t rule out the possibility that normal thunder will swap us too…”

Outside the window, after the gloomy sky brewed for a long while, dark clouds surged, lightning flashed, and a torrential downpour poured down.

“Holy fuck.”

Xu Sheng panicked even more.

He, Xu Sheng, was someone who had virtually nothing to fear in this life.

Crime movies counted as one.

Now there was one more: thunder.

The shirt Xu Sheng wore today had a hood. Slouching lazily over the desk, only half of his smoothly contoured chin could be seen, along with a faint glimpse of his nose tip, his bangs covering his eyes.

After writing down the answer, Shao Zhan raised his hand and used the hand holding the pen to pull the hood over Xu Sheng’s head forward a bit, covering the remaining half of his face: “What wild thoughts are you having?”

Standing on the podium, the biology teacher saw the small commotion below with absolute clarity.

Teachers were always biased toward students with good grades. Xu Sheng caused trouble regularly, and it was indeed Xu Sheng who initiated the conversation with Shao Zhan. She said sternly, “Xu Sheng, stand up.”

Xu Sheng pulled off his hood and stood up.

The biology teacher was furious, her high heels clicking on the floor as she walked over a couple of steps: “What were you doing just now? I’ll give you a chance to admit your mistake yourself.”

Xu Sheng: “I was harassing my desk mate?”

Shao Zhan: “…”

The biology teacher, who hadn’t expected Xu Sheng to be so blunt: “…”

The other students below: “…”

Hou Jun: “As expected of Sheng-ge. The word ‘harassing’ was used with real soul.”

Although a minor incident occurred in class, the rain outside the window grew heavier, with faint rumbles of thunder. Yet like an engine constantly stalling, the lightning never actually struck down.

After class, Xu Sheng unlocked his phone screen.

Weather forecast.

Rain, temperature 34°C.

Even though this rain was likely just a natural weather phenomenon, it served as a reminder to Xu Sheng.

If he and Shao Zhan could suddenly swap a second time at Lüzhou Base, there would be a third, a fourth…

After evening self-study, the rain weakened. Xu Sheng carried a full day’s worth of tense nerves and couldn’t fall asleep for a long time.

Lying in bed, after pondering for a long while, he tapped open Shao Zhan’s profile picture.

S: I’ve thought it over.

Shao Zhan: Thought what over.

S: We have to figure out a plan.

S: Strike first before the thunder strikes.

S: We can’t just sit and wait for death.

Xu Sheng sometimes truly admired his own brilliance.

His original intention was to consult Shao Zhan to brainstorm a strategy, but after sending those few messages, a brilliant idea automatically popped into his head.

Xu Sheng exited WeChat and opened the Taobao app.

He typed three words into the search bar. The network speed in the dorm wasn’t great, taking a few seconds to load the page.

On the screen, a row of images with lightning effects prominently appeared.

The pictures were labeled: Stainless Steel Premium Lightning Rod.

Xu Sheng pondered these images for two seconds, remembering that the school should already have lightning rods installed, which clearly were useless. He needed something even more hardcore.

Another brilliant idea popped up in Xu Sheng’s mind.

He typed into the search page: High-Voltage Insulating Suit.

Soon, a full yellow suit resembling a raincoat loaded up.

Double-layer flame-retardant, insulated fabric.

Voltage resistance: 1KV / 3KV / 5KV, time 1 min.

Three-layer EVA, magic tape buckle, overalls style with suspenders.

This insulating suit came fully equipped from gloves to boots.

On the detailed product description page, a line of bold, heavy yellow font appeared in the same style as roadside flyers, looking at first glance like “20% off for two items,” except right now those yellow lines read:

Safe and durable, proof against thunder and electricity.

Ultimate craftsmanship, built to last: an insulating suit created for your safety, born specifically for lightning protection.

We promise: Lightning-proof!

If not lightning-proof, unconditional refund!

Would you like to proceed with translating Chapter 49 next, or would you prefer to explore a summary of the next arc?