BTO CH26

Meng Guowei’s expression was utterly disturbed. His eyes brimmed with profound anxiety, practically screaming the words, How could this happen? How could it come to this? He opened his mouth, but out of sheer nerves, his first two words were barely a squeak: “It’s like this, don’t you two panic…”

Xu Sheng couldn’t fathom why Meng Guowei was reacting this way. So they felt a little under the weather—so what? A slight headache and fever—so what?

Was it really necessary to act like this?

Someone who didn’t know better would think he and Shao Zhan had just been diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Xu Sheng: “We aren’t panicking.”

Meng Guowei didn’t know how to continue. He wanted a sip of water to calm his nerves, but Xu Sheng and Shao Zhan could only watch helplessly as his trembling hand lifted the teacup, sloshing the water back and forth and sending ripples across the surface.

…

Just who exactly was the one panicking here?

“What’s wrong with Old Meng?” Xu Sheng turned his head and whispered, “Parkinson’s?”

Shao Zhan spat out four words: “How should I know.”

During the break, the office was packed. Glancing around, it was a sea of grayish-blue uniforms.

Wearing a mask paired with his T-shirt, Shao Zhan stuck out like a sore thumb in the office. Standing up, he said, “Teacher, if there isn’t anything else, student Shao Zhan and I will just…” head back first.

Before he could finish, Meng Guowei slammed his teacup down and shouted, “Hold it!”

With that, Meng Guowei leaned over to grab the desk phone and punched in a string of numbers. After a few rings, a gentle, warm female voice answered: “Hello? This is the school clinic.”

“Dr. Li,” Meng Guowei gulped hard, panic edging into his voice, “this is the Sophomore Grade Office! Please dispatch someone to the clinic immediately! I have two students here who need to be quarantined right away! Please, hurry—!”

Hearing the first half of Meng Guowei’s sentence, Xu Sheng felt only surprise. But the moment the word quarantined dropped, his brain short-circuited entirely.

He and Shao Zhan exchanged a glance, instantly spotting a massive question mark in each other’s eyes: ?

Quarantined?!

“Is there some sort of misunderstanding here?” Xu Sheng was so frantic he pulled off his mask. “What quarantine?”

“Shao Zhan, put your mask back on immediately!” Meng Guowei was terrified. Hoping to keep the students calm until the doctor arrived, he joined Ms. Zhou in evacuating the office: “Students, get out, evacuate! Return to your classrooms! Everyone stay calm and listen to me! Go back and tell your classmates that no one is allowed to step foot in this office again without a broadcasted directive! Get out! Go, go, go! Run!”

In a flash, the office descended into chaos.

Students who were handing in homework, reporting progress, or standing for a scolding were shooed out. Driven by the forceful urging of the two teachers, they scrambled for the door, abandoning their belongings.

Xu Sheng was standing close to the doorway. As the crowd surged forward, a boy sprinting at the front of the pack, clutching a pen and ruler, was about to collide right into him. Suddenly, a hand shot out and yanked Xu Sheng back.

Pulled by the unexpected force, Xu Sheng dodged sideways, narrowly avoiding the oncoming student.

In a matter of seconds, the doorway was completely jammed with people.

Lowering his gaze, Xu Sheng watched the hand clutching the hem of his shirt slowly release its grip.

Shao Zhan hadn’t even looked at him, maintaining his usual keep away from me demeanor, even though his physical actions completely contradicted it.

Shao Zhan: “Don’t block the path.”

Despite not having a clue what was going on, and despite Shao Zhan’s tone practically begging for a retort, Xu Sheng said anyway: “Thanks.”

Meng Guowei quickly finished evacuating the crowd. Even the other teachers had fled, covering their noses and mouths. Two minutes later, only the three of them remained in the office. The staff dispatched by the clinic arrived swiftly, sprinting past two academic buildings like lightning to reach the sophomore office.

Wearing a white coat and a medical mask, the school doctor charged through the door: “Where are the students who need quarantine?”

Meng Guowei threw a hand in the air: “Here, here, here!”

Sixth High’s medical facilities were famously top-tier. The clinic alone occupied half a floor, comprised of a main office, a resting room, and an isolation ward that was virtually never used.

The isolation ward was fitted with a double door system and sealed windows, equipped internally with basic amenities and specialized sterilization gear.

SLAM!

After shoving Xu Sheng and Shao Zhan inside, the doctor shut the door firmly.

It was at that exact moment the campus broadcast crackled to life: “Emergency broadcast. Recently, two cases of a novel influenza virus, identified as the N411 strain, have been reported in Dong Province—”

“Two students at our school are suspected to be infected… Do not panic. Under the guidance of your teachers, all classes must promptly conduct organized, disciplined sanitation procedures.”

“…”

What the fuck kind of coincidence was this?

The odds of getting crushed by a falling billboard on a random street had to be higher!

Standing side-by-side facing the cold, iron-barred window, the two were thoroughly, utterly losing their minds.

“Teacher,” giving up, Shao Zhan pulled off his mask. Facing Meng Guowei, who was standing outside the isolation window, he said, “I think I feel better now.”

Gripping the iron bars, Xu Sheng chimed in: “I think I’m better too.”

How could Meng Guowei possibly believe them? With immense pity, he coaxed, “Don’t worry. As long as we maintain a calm state of mind and actively cooperate with the treatment, the novel virus is nothing to fear.”

Even if Xu Sheng had racked his brains until they bled, he never could have imagined things developing in this direction: “I really think I’m completely fine.”

Meng Guowei: “I know it’s hard for you to accept right now.”

Forcing himself to stay rational, Shao Zhan proposed: “We can take a test.”

“Silly child,” Meng Guowei sighed, truly heartbroken that something like this had befallen his students. “It can’t be detected during the incubation period.”

Shao Zhan, Xu Sheng: “…”

After Meng Guowei left, Xu Sheng and Shao Zhan were the only ones left in the isolation ward. The stinging smell of disinfectant permeated the room, forcing Xu Sheng to pull his mask back up. Leaning against the wall, he asked, “What do we do now?”

Shao Zhan was realizing that every single minute spent with Xu Sheng guaranteed the occurrence of something wildly unpredictable.

Xu Sheng might have terrible grades, but he never lacked for ideas.

“We wait,” Shao Zhan said. “We’ll see when someone else shows up.”

True enough.

Aside from waiting, they had no other options.

The isolation ward contained a single bed, similar to the ones in their dorms. Never one to let himself suffer, Xu Sheng noticed Shao Zhan observing the situation out the window. By the time Shao Zhan turned around, Xu Sheng had already found a comfortable position and lain down: “What are you doing?”

“Taking a nap,” Xu Sheng was excellent at rationalizing things to himself. “Look at it from another angle: this is a great excuse to skip class.”

As he spoke, Xu Sheng shifted sideways, making a bit of room for Shao Zhan: “Wanna sleep a bit too? We’re just killing time anyway. Who knows how long they’ll keep us for observation? We can’t stand until school gets out.”

Staring at the bed, Shao Zhan turned his head away and refused: “Sleep by yourself.”

Right now, he felt that taking the exam in the dead-last testing room—or having Xu Sheng take it in Testing Room 1 under his name—wasn’t quite as unacceptable anymore.

But Xu Sheng was right about one thing: there was more than half a day left before school ended, and standing the whole time wasn’t an option. Aside from the bed, the isolation ward’s only other furniture was a backless stool.

The iron window locked the sweltering summer wind outside, but the scorching sun stubbornly pierced through the barriers. The cicadas’ hum drifted further away, replaced by the clean scent of afternoon grass—a smell resembling freshly laundered school uniforms drying in the sun.

Upon hearing the news, Zhang Feng bolted for the isolation ward the second class dismissed. Bumping into Hou Jun and Tan Kai on the way, the three of them sprinted frantically to the clinic. Peering through the window, they were greeted by this exact scene:

Their Zhan-ge had half his face buried in the school tyrant’s chest. Perhaps sensing their gazes, the school tyrant cracked an eyelid open, then propped himself up halfway, reaching out to shove Shao Zhan slightly to the side. “Shove” might be too harsh a word, because “Xu Sheng’s” actions were nowhere near as cold and ruthless as his expression suggested.

Only when the Study God’s head rested smoothly back onto the pillow did he retract his hand.

Zhang Feng: “Whoa.”

Tan Kai: “What’s going on here?”

Only Hou Jun, whose heart was as clear as a mirror, thought to himself: Everyone on Tieba probably shipped it the wrong way around…

But was the school tyrant usually this cold?

Searching his memory, Hou Jun could only recall the careless, occasionally smirking, joking Xu Sheng from the start of the term. It seemed… he wasn’t this cold?

The thought merely flashed through Hou Jun’s mind without deeper scrutiny, because “Xu Sheng” had already walked up to the window: “What do you want?”

Remembering his purpose, Zhang Feng lunged forward, practically pressing his face against the glass: “Boss, I just came to tell you: you have to hold on! Don’t give up hope! Staying alive is more important than anything!”

Shao Zhan: “…”

Zhang Feng: “Seriously, it’s definitely not as bad as we think! The patient in Dong Province was successfully discharged too!”

“We’re perfectly fine,” Shao Zhan had been waiting half the day just for someone to show up. He cut him off: “Go get the school doctor.”

Zhang Feng: “Huh?”

Although the virus had a long incubation period and couldn’t be detected, violent coughing was indeed a key symptom. They had been faking the cough anyway, so stopping now simply meant returning to normal.

The school doctor was highly experienced. After observing them for half the day and noting the complete cessation of their coughing symptoms, she internally downgraded the probability of infection from 80% to 20%.

Even so, she had to verify: “Then what was the coughing in class about?”

Shao Zhan found an excuse instantly, lying without batting an eye: “There was too much dust in the classroom.”

Xu Sheng had also thought of “dust,” leaving him to scramble for a different angle: “Vocal strain.”

“?”

“I’ve recently developed a fondness for reciting textbook passages out loud for an hour every morning,” Xu Sheng said. “That’s just how we students passionate about learning are. Memory retention is best in the morning, so I just felt a burning desire to read aloud.”

Doctor: “…”

Shao Zhan: “…”

After half a day of chaos, it turned out to be a massive misunderstanding. Following another two hours of observation, the doctor confirmed they were perfectly fine. Let alone not coughing, they could probably run ten laps around the track right now.

Thus, the monumental monthly exams quietly descended upon them.

“The monthly exams begin today and will run for two consecutive days. Everyone, look alive! We still have half an hour of morning study—try to consolidate and review your knowledge points one last time,” Meng Guowei declared passionately from the podium. “Though the baseline exam was less than satisfactory, Teacher believes that in this exam, we will definitely see the outstanding progress you’ve all made over the past month!”

As he delivered this speech, he completely failed to notice the rigid, petrified expressions and body language of two students down below.

“You’re going to the first testing room later,” Shao Zhan said. “First seat on your left as you walk in.”

Cramming hadn’t worked, faking an illness had backfired spectacularly, and heading to the exam halls to face their doom was now unavoidable. Sighing, Xu Sheng said, “I’m in the dead-last room. Just flip all your coordinates completely upside down, and that’s me.”

With that, the two simultaneously plunged into despair.