BTO CH35

Floor 1989: You’re in the dead-last testing room, I’m in the first testing room. The distance between us is too vast. Since you have no way to approach me, then let me walk toward you.

Floor 1990: The commenter above speaks the truth. This must definitely be the inner voice of our Study God!

Floor 1991: There’s a sentence I’m already tired of saying…

Floor 1992: Zhan-Wu-Bu-Sheng szd (is real).

…

Fortunately, Xu Sheng had developed an embarrassing post-traumatic stress response toward Tieba after that incident and had never logged into his account again. Otherwise, he would have been shocked to discover that he had single-handedly carried the shipping banner, blown his own rainbow farts, and taken the monthly exams all by himself.

Besides these people, all the examinees in the last testing room also felt a sense of surrealism: Does this mean we’ll be in the same testing room as the Study God for the midterms?

They imagined the lineup for the midterms and simultaneously felt their hair stand on end in terror. This was truly a bizarre event in their slacker careers.

As the frontline spectators, the students of Class 7 couldn’t suppress the questions in their hearts either. After PE class, Hou Jun grabbed his uniform collar and fanned himself: “Zhan-ge, last period, two guys from the class next door made a bet. One said if you could score second to last, he would eat shit. Now he’s being pinned in the bathroom by his classmates. What’s going on?”

Shao Zhan: “…”

Xu Sheng: “…”

Not only did Shao Zhan have to deal with teachers of every subject, but he also had to handle the students of the entire grade, and even the whole school. He glanced at Xu Sheng. Xu Sheng very consciously gave a “cough,” then sat down in his seat with an it has nothing to do with me attitude, leaning against the wall by the window and looking down to fiddle with his phone.

Shao Zhan flipped a page in his book and succinctly summarized what he had said in the office: “Felt unwell, underperformed.”

Only after Hou Jun left did Xu Sheng put down his phone, think for a moment, and then proactively reach out his hand.

Shao Zhan was just about to work on a thought-provoking problem left by a teacher earlier. He opened his textbook and found it completely covered in Xu Sheng’s handwriting, wild and messy. The guy had lost patience halfway through taking notes and had drawn quite a few doodles. What caught Shao Zhan’s eye was a chibi portrait of Zhou Yuan tucked into the notes. Zhou Yuan had probably lost her temper in class and stopped to lecture them on discipline. With just a few strokes, he had accurately captured Zhou Yuan’s furious expression. However, he only managed a single glance before the doodle was abruptly covered by a hand.

Xu Sheng’s palm faced upward, pressing on his textbook. Probably because the sun on the field earlier was too intense, his fingers were slightly flushed.

Shao Zhan didn’t know what he was trying to do: “Move.”

Xu Sheng’s skin was getting thicker; he no longer cared about these details. Propping his chin with his other hand, he said, “Don’t you like getting physical? Here, I’ll let you hit me once, and we’ll consider this matter settled.”

“Who likes getting physical.”

“Whoever pinned me against the wall knows it in their heart.”

The student sitting in front of them simply couldn’t bear to look or listen. Moving his seat forward discreetly, he sighed internally: The relationship between the two bosses in their class is truly becoming more and more unfathomable.

Today’s classes were basically just reviewing the test papers.

Rarely had an exam finished without the Study God’s model paper being distributed; the students in the class weren’t used to it. Meng Guowei delivered a summary of the monthly exam from the podium: “Our class’s average score isn’t particularly ideal this time, but that’s okay. The monthly exam is already in the past. Let’s look to the future and study hard every day from now on! A single failure doesn’t define anything!”

The first and second-to-last ranked students in the grade were both in Class 7. It would be a miracle if the average score could go up; they sat securely at the bottom in terms of class average.

He had originally thought putting Shao Zhan in Class 7 would balance out Xu Sheng’s score. He never expected both of them to crash and burn.

Meng Guowei wasn’t discouraged. As he said, the monthly exam scores didn’t represent everything. Everyone’s usual homework performance was very good, so their overall level was still decent.

“Wenhao, hand out the test papers. Let’s briefly go over this monthly exam paper—”

Xu Sheng spread his test paper open. Before receiving it, he had thought Shao Zhan would just help him control his score by leaving most of the questions blank. Unexpectedly, he discovered that the answers Shao Zhan had written for him perfectly aligned with the thought process of a true slacker—it was simply a flawless slacker’s answer sheet.

Question: ( ), the sudden rain just stops.

Answer: (The sky is dark and the earth is gloomy), the sudden rain just stops.

Although he hadn’t produced any famous Hamlet-esque quotes, his performance was believable enough not to arouse suspicion.

Xu Sheng: “Couldn’t tell, you’re actually pretty good at taking tests.”

Shao Zhan didn’t share his good mood. He flipped the answer sheet over and saw the “off-topic composition” Meng Guowei had mentioned in the office: Respected teachers, with a solemn heart, I write this composition.

…You’ve written too many self-reflections, haven’t you.

Shao Zhan truly had a headache. As he spoke, he flipped the answer sheet back, and finally just folded it and stuffed it into his desk: “You’re pretty good at it too. Were you writing a self-reflection or a composition?”

Xu Sheng: “…”

Xu Sheng forced himself to listen to the class for a while, then started debating whether to put his head down for a nap or pull out his phone to play games.

Ultimately, he chose the latter.

Having not played for a full month, Xu Sheng’s game ranking had dropped quite a bit, falling outside the top three hundred. However, he had made a name for himself on the “Sudoku” game leaderboard. Xu Sheng had accidentally clicked into it once and found quite a few people kneeling and calling him daddy.

Of course, Shao Zhan hadn’t replied with a single word.

As soon as he logged on, Zhang Feng’s private message arrived immediately: Boss?

S: ?

Kuang Feng Lang Die (Wild Wind and Roving Butterfly): Didn’t you say you weren’t going to play games anymore.

…

Only then did Xu Sheng remember the nonsense he had spouted earlier about studying hard.

S: People inevitably go astray.

Kuang Feng Lang Die: Ah?

S: I was ignorant before, but now I’ve figured it out. Studying is meaningless. One should still pursue freedom and happiness, and invest one’s limited life into boundless gaming.

S: Let’s play a round, I’ll team up with you.

Kuang Feng Lang Die: Oh O.O

Zhang Feng hid his phone in his desk, operating it with one hand. He glanced at the podium, terrified of being caught, then lowered his head again, completely baffled by Xu Sheng’s words.

This lord’s attitude changed way too fast. Was he studying or not studying?

Mondays were always the strictest days for behavioral discipline. King of Hell Gu would occasionally patrol the sophomore hallway to inspect how students were behaving in class.

Xu Sheng looked careless playing his game, as if just killing time. Head lowered, he leaned into the corner. Because he was thin, a certain bone on the back of his neck protruded slightly. Halfway through his game, a shadow covered his phone screen.

He looked up and saw it was Shao Zhan’s hand.

Xu Sheng: “What are you doing?”

Just as Xu Sheng was about to click his tongue and say, Is a certain discipline committee member trying to control whether I play on my phone in class again?

Shao Zhan didn’t speak. One hand held a pen to take notes from the board, while his other hand reached over horizontally. The teenager’s prominent knuckles pressed against Xu Sheng’s phone, guiding him to toss it back into the desk. Xu Sheng didn’t react immediately, and Shao Zhan’s force, though not heavy, carried an undeniable authority.

The word “Fuck” had just reached Xu Sheng’s lips when the distinct sound of several footsteps approached from the back door in the corridor.

King of Hell Gu’s large face was plastered against the window beside Xu Sheng—

King of Hell Gu had come for a sneak attack but failed to catch him in the act. Meeting Xu Sheng’s eyes, King of Hell Gu awkwardly pointed a finger at him fiercely, signaling before he left: You better behave yourself, boy. Don’t let me catch you.

Xu Sheng retracted his gaze, only then realizing Shao Zhan had been covering for him just now.

Shao Zhan still didn’t look at him. After finishing his notes from the board, he looked up at Meng Guowei, but said coldly: “Do you not want your phone anymore?”

“…So connecting this paragraph, we look back at the question. Do you know where the problem is? You all found the wrong central paragraph. Now answer me again, what is the main theme of this article?”

Meng Guowei’s lecture, the sound of flipping test papers, the overhead fan swirling the sweltering summer wind… Xu Sheng seemed to feel his fingertips heat up along with it, exactly where Shao Zhan’s fingertips had just brushed past.

Before school ended, all the test papers had been reviewed.

The teachers of various subjects didn’t assign them too much homework; it was mainly correcting the test papers and previewing new lessons.

Last Friday, the day they swapped back, they immediately swapped dorms as well.

Everything returned to its original place.

When Hou Jun sent a message, Xu Sheng was just about to get into bed to sleep. After a whole day, he had completely forgotten about the arrangement made during PE class.

Hou Jun: When are you and Zhan-ge coming? I messaged Zhan-ge, he probably didn’t see it. We saved spots for you guys, it’s about to start.

S: Wait, coming right now.

Xu Sheng scratched his hair, remembering this matter. Padding in his slippers, he knocked on Shao Zhan’s dorm door, wondering what he should say to get this desk mate who only knew how to grind practice problems to agree to join a class activity.

There was no movement inside. After a while, the sound of the door lock turning came through.

Shao Zhan had just taken a shower. The lights were out, and the dim light from the corridor made things unclear. The teenager emanated a chilling aura, a few wet strands of hair covering his eyes, his nose high-bridged. Not wearing his school uniform, he wore a simple dark T-shirt: “What is it.”

Xu Sheng said directly: “Monkey asked me to ask you if you’re going to our class’s team-building event tonight.”

“Said they’re going to do something thrilling,” Xu Sheng felt this sounded a bit dangerous after saying it, and added, “Monkey said that.”

Shao Zhan: “Not going.”

“…” This answer was well within expectations.

Shao Zhan prepared to close the door. Xu Sheng was quick-witted and wedged the door open, exuding an aura of I won’t let go until you agree. He had just gotten out of bed; his hair was a bit messy, and his collar was crooked because he hadn’t straightened it properly after getting up and had made large movements.

Though they had never spoken of it to each other.

Both of them were intimately familiar with the other’s body. Just looking at the deeply indented collarbone, Shao Zhan didn’t even need to think; the image of the teenager’s lean waistline and the few abdominal muscles usually hidden under fabric naturally surfaced in his mind.

Thinking of this, Shao Zhan looked away.

Xu Sheng usually belonged to the “if you don’t want to go, then fine” personality type.

But for some reason, the desire for Shao Zhan to go—or rather, the hope that he wouldn’t always keep a straight face and stare at test papers all day—stuck in his mind. Xu Sheng instinctively said: “Why don’t you want to go?”

Shao Zhan wasn’t actually that resistant; he just found it troublesome. But Xu Sheng’s words were very interesting.

Shao Zhan leaned down to look at him, closing in: “You want me to go?”

The atmosphere was indescribably strange. Clearly, Monkey was the one inviting him, not him.

Xu Sheng’s thoughts wandered aimlessly. Finally, he thought to himself: Fuck it if he wants to go or not, I don’t care anymore.

“Let go,” Shao Zhan stepped back a bit, saying: “If you’re blocking me from the outside, how am I supposed to get out.”

Hou Jun’s dorm was upstairs, not far away. After lights out, besides the sensor lights flickering in the corridor, the entire dorm building was plunged into darkness. Including him and Shao Zhan, a total of six or seven boys were gathered in Hou Jun’s dorm.

Once everyone arrived, Hou Jun solemnly pulled the secretly stashed tablet from under his bed and pressed the power button: “Only 45% battery left. Brothers, cherish this rare night.”

The phrase “do something thrilling” sounded mysterious, but it was actually just watching a movie.

However, in the dogmatic, rigid, and strict Linjiang Sixth High, it was indeed considered thrilling.

Xu Sheng sat on the empty bed opposite Hou Jun, one leg bent, not taking it seriously.

Yet, less than twenty seconds into the movie, a gory scene assaulted Xu Sheng’s eyes. His entire body froze, and he cursed “Fuck” in his heart.