BTO CH50

The two of them began stripping off their clothes.

Shao Zhan took off the rubber gloves, then shed the top and overalls in two or three moves. When he removed the insulating suit Xu Sheng was wearing, Shao Zhan looked down and saw the black low-rise jeans Xu Sheng wore underneath.

Ripped.

Two slashes ran above the knees. The boy had lean legs, showing a few creases as he moved, the denim outlining the shape of his legs.

Xu Sheng’s dressing style was, most of the time, just as flamboyant as his personality.

Shao Zhan raised his hand.

However, after Xu Sheng had uttered that line “feel around yourself,” looking at Shao Zhan’s fingers that were nearly brushing against his upper thigh, he felt as if he had been struck by an extremely faint bolt of lightning out of nowhere, stirring up a tingling, numb sensation. He instantly regretted it, cleared his throat, and said: “…I’ll do it myself instead.”

Shao Zhan had no objections. His knuckles paused slightly before changing course mid-way and dropping to his side: “Then you feel around.”

“…”

Even though it was clearly his own body.

Why did those words coming out of Shao Zhan’s mouth sound like he was trying to molest him instead?

Xu Sheng took two steps forward, right as Shao Zhan was leaning against the wall.

With their identities currently swapped, Xu Sheng was slightly taller than Shao Zhan. Stepping forward, he completely dwarfed Shao Zhan; at first glance, it looked as if he had pinned him against the wall to do who-knows-what.

Xu Sheng suddenly felt that his proposal to feel around himself might not have been so wise after all.

…Because right now, he was Shao Zhan.

Using Shao Zhan’s distinctively jointed hands, Xu Sheng held open the pocket rim and slowly slid his fingers inside.

His mind was a bit of a mess.

Ignoring the question of who was who.

The scene before them was indisputably Shao Zhan pinning Xu Sheng against the wall and getting handsy with him, while Xu Sheng had zero intention of resisting.

Xu Sheng reached down a bit further until his fingers finally touched the back shell of the phone. Taking a breath, he hooked the phone body with his fingers and pulled it out.

Once he recovered from the shock of that damn thunder, he remembered that when he bought the outfit, there was a promise in the advertisement: full refund if not lightning-proof.

[Insulating Suit Specialty Store]: Hello, dear customer!

[S]: Not doing so great.

[Insulating Suit Specialty Store]: We see that you’ve already received the item. Is there any issue with the product~?

[S]: Your suit isn’t lightning-proof.

Faced with Xu Sheng’s accusation, the customer service agent was clearly stunned.

[Insulating Suit Specialty Store]: Our suits use professional lightning-protection and pressure-resistant materials. May I boldly ask, when you say it’s not lightning-proof, do you mean lightning has already struck you?

[Insulating Suit Specialty Store]: Could you… maybe provide proof that you were struck by lightning?

Xu Sheng: “…”

Where the hell was he supposed to get proof?

Shao Zhan saw the chat interface with absolute clarity: “If you keep chatting, the seller will suspect you’re pulling a scam.”

Xu Sheng: “Fuck.”

“Dorm rooms,” Shao Zhan added, “are we swapping back?”

After swapping, many things needed to be considered: dorms, phones, seats.

During the previous swap, Xu Sheng had single-handedly destroyed Shao Zhan’s aloof persona completely, establishing an approachable Study God image instead. Later, the incident at Lüzhou Base further narrowed the distance between the Study God and the class collective. Hou Jun and his gang weren’t scared of Shao Zhan at all anymore, even daring to tease him.

Whenever they encountered a problem they couldn’t solve, they would call out “Zhan-ge, Zhan-ge” exceptionally warmly.

The next day, Friday, before morning self-study.

Carrying complex feelings, Xu Sheng sat in Shao Zhan’s seat. Just as he opened a familiar yet foreign vocabulary handbook, Hou Jun rushed over: “Zhan-ge!”

Xu Sheng’s right eyelid twitched violently.

Sure enough, the next second, Hou Jun pulled out a chemistry exercise workbook from behind his back: “Zhan-ge, I didn’t quite understand the homework assigned yesterday. For the last question of the final lab problem, Tan Kai and I discussed it for ages, and he didn’t know how to write it either. Could you give us a few pointers?”

Xu Sheng actually wanted so badly to ask him back: Did chemistry have homework?

No, was there even chemistry class yesterday?

A myriad of thoughts flashed through Xu Sheng’s mind in an instant.

Yet he still swiftly adjusted his professional decorum and superb mindset, facing Hou Jun with feigned composure.

Not knowing which page the homework was on, he raised his chin and said: “Open it up.”

Hou Jun flipped the exercise book open with a series of swish-swish-swishes, conveniently leaning down to respectfully hand over a pre-prepared pen to Shao Zhan: “Big Bro, please.”

Before Xu Sheng left the dorm, Shao Zhan had said he would be over in a few minutes.

Holding the pen Hou Jun handed over with one hand, unable to wait even a few minutes, Xu Sheng reached into the desk drawer with his other hand, unlocked his phone screen, and typed at lightning speed.

• If you don’t make it to the classroom within one minute, prepare to collect your own corpse.

“Before explaining this problem, I hope you first reflect upon yourself.”

“Why don’t you know how to do it?” Midway through waiting for Shao Zhan to arrive, Xu Sheng could only do his best to stall for time. Twirling the pen, he said, “It’s because your understanding of the knowledge from last class wasn’t thorough enough.”

Hou Jun lowered his head in shame: “I was only thinking about my new sneakers, so I really didn’t listen properly last period…”

Xu Sheng, a guy who never listened in class, advised earnestly: “Listen properly in class next time.”

Xu Sheng added: “For this problem, wait until Xu Sheng comes over to explain it to you.”

Hou Jun: “Ah?”

Hou Jun suspected he had misheard.

Wait for Xu Sheng to do what?

That Xu Sheng whose average score was failing?

Receiving the message, Shao Zhan hurried to the classroom. Arriving at the back door of the classroom, he just so happened to hear Xu Sheng saying: “I just went over it with him last night. To test how well he mastered the knowledge I imparted to him, you have him explain this problem to you.”

Hou Jun nodded: “Ah, I see! I didn’t expect Sheng-ge to be so passionate about studying lately.”

Shao Zhan: “…”

“How did I teach you yesterday?” Xu Sheng shoved the pen into the hands of the freshly arrived Shao Zhan. “The best way to consolidate knowledge is to explain it to another classmate once more.”

If Gao Zhibo were to hear these words, he might be dazed for an entire day.

That wasn’t what the Study God said last time!

What happened to “the most important thing in studying is independent thinking”—where did independent thinking go?

Hou Jun’s final sub-question required writing out a chemical equation.

Shao Zhan circled the key points in two or three moves, then wrote down a line of words with his left hand, being succinct: “Here, write catalyst. Heat.”

Rather than how to actually write this problem, Hou Jun’s thoughts strayed off track. The question troubling him even more right now was: early in the morning, he was actually listening to Xu Sheng explain a problem to him.

Hou Jun’s attention couldn’t focus no matter what.

Was there anything more surreal than this?

His consciousness hazy, Hou Jun praised: “Sheng-ge, your problem-solving logic is super clear.”

Shao Zhan set down the pen, intentionally or unintentionally glancing at Xu Sheng: “It’s all thanks to the teacher teaching well.”

Teacher Xu Sheng didn’t dare utter a word.

Only after Hou Jun returned to his seat with the workbook did Xu Sheng and Shao Zhan both secretly let out a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, today’s classes were no different from previous days: presenting new material while reviewing previously covered concepts for quick practice. Since the first body swap lasted until after the monthly exams, the two had developed quite a knack for impersonating each other. Once Shao Zhan finished in-class assignments, he pushed them over to Xu Sheng.

Unable to play on his phone, Xu Sheng was forced to listen to the lectures, occasionally even getting called on by teachers to answer questions.

Chief among them was a representative figure—Zhou Yuan.

Zhou Yuan particularly liked Shao Zhan. As the math curriculum progressed, he was increasingly able to assign comprehensive, highly difficult problems for the students to solve.

During the final math period before school ended, Zhou Yuan flipped the PPT slide to the last page—yet another comprehensive problem displayed above!

Zhou Yuan: “Last ten minutes! Let’s see which of you can solve it.”

Saying this, Zhou Yuan pinched a small nub of chalk in his fingers, tossing it through the air in a parabolic arc that landed right on “Xu Sheng’s” head: “Put the phone down.”

Shao Zhan switched out of the Sudoku screen.

Zhou Yuan added: “Shao Zhan, come up and solve this problem.”

Propping his chin in his hand, although Xu Sheng looked like he was listening intently to the lecture, his thoughts had long floated off to who-knows-where. He only snapped back to reality when Shao Zhan nudged him with his elbow: “…Ah?”

Xu Sheng didn’t want to go up.

Was he crazy?

Even if Shao Zhan could slip him the answers under the guise of going to the bathroom later, once his handwriting appeared on the blackboard, there’d be no washing it clean.

Xu Sheng nudged Shao Zhan back, meaning: What do we do?

As Xu Sheng hesitated, Zhou Yuan asked him triumphantly: “How is the problem I set today?”

Xu Sheng weighed his words: “Well-structured.”

Zhou Yuan: “Then why aren’t you coming up here already?”

Xu Sheng: “…”

Xu Sheng felt as if he were being pushed to the edge of a cliff every single day.

Shao Zhan was just about to remind him that he could feign feeling unwell to avoid going up.

However, Xu Sheng’s mind worked faster than his. In a moment of desperation, he displayed his instinct for survival, grabbing Shao Zhan’s hand and raising “Xu Sheng’s” hand high into the air: “Teacher, my desk mate says he really wants to come up and solve the problem. He hopes you can give him a chance.”

“…” His hand held in Xu Sheng’s grip, Shao Zhan remained silent for two seconds before saying, “You sell me out just like that.”

Xu Sheng carried zero mental burden: “You aren’t Xu Sheng anyway. At most, it’s just me selling out myself.”

Xu Sheng added: “Besides, am I not helping you out too?”

Things having reached this point, it was impossible to distinguish who was selling out whom anymore.

Following Hou Jun, Zhou Yuan also welcomed a “highlight” moment in his life.

His unstudious student Xu Sheng, who probably couldn’t even understand the problem statement, had actually applied on his own initiative to go up and solve the problem.

Zhou Yuan choked for a moment. Thinking that he shouldn’t dampen a student’s enthusiasm no matter what, he said: “…You, then you come up.”

What else could Shao Zhan do?

Out of sheer necessity, Shao Zhan could only step up to the blackboard. Imitating Xu Sheng’s answering style, he wrote down “Solution:” and then froze, completely unmoving.

He had truly captured the essence.

In the end, Shao Zhan’s fate was getting pelted off the stage by Zhou Yuan with chalk nubs. A succession of colorful chalk nubs traced several arcs through the air: “Xu Sheng, are you playing with me?! Writing just ‘Solution:’ on your daily homework isn’t enough to anger me, you actually wanted to come up here just to show off your crookedly written word ‘Solution,’ didn’t you?! Get the hell down there!”

This problem directly became a post-class reflection question.

“Don’t think you can slack off just because it’s the weekend. Weekend time should be utilized even better!”

After speaking, Zhou Yuan conveniently called “Shao Zhan” over. Shao Zhan’s homework was slightly different from the other students; some genuinely difficult problems couldn’t be assigned to the rest, let alone that stack of Olympiad competition problems: “Shao Zhan, come over for a moment. I’ll assign a few problems to you individually.”

After Xu Sheng walked out, Shao Zhan pulled out the phone pressed under his textbook.

There were two new messages in the phone’s notification bar.

This time, the two of them had swapped phones as well, but hadn’t gotten around to switching accounts yet. The WeChat on Xu Sheng’s phone was still his own, with the nickname displayed as “S.”

The avatar was still that silhouette.

Fingerprint unlock was too fast, unlocking the instant he picked up the phone. Two new messages appeared before Shao Zhan’s eyes.

Kang Kai: Help!

Kang Kai: Urgent emergency, come over as fast as you can!