BTO CH39

Meng Guowei had just hurriedly called Shao Zhan over for exactly this reason. The previously designated student representative had suddenly come down with diarrhea, and after a chaotic scramble while changing into military training uniforms, the speech script was nowhere to be found, lost to who knows where. For this opening ceremony, after the leaders’ speeches concluded, the very first student representative scheduled to speak was from their Sixth High.

This had the Sixth High teachers terribly anxious.

Meng Guowei: “What are we going to do?”

Zhou Yuan: “Can we push the student representative’s slot back? Keep looking for the script.”

Director Gu’s intense sense of honor surged forth: “With so many schools training together this time, we absolutely must showcase our school’s excellence!”

But the opening ceremony was about to start! Where was the time to write a new speech from scratch?!

The situation was incredibly urgent. After racking their brains, only one candidate came to the teachers’ minds: the pride of Linjiang Sixth High, their genius boy, Shao Zhan!

If they had to find a student in the entire school capable of improvising on the spot, there was no one else but Shao Zhan.

Only Shao Zhan could control a situation like this.

Having agreed on the plan, King of Hell Gu said: “I’ll try to stall for as long as possible when it’s my turn, to buy Shao Zhan more time to prepare offstage.”

Thus, as soon as Shao Zhan finished changing his clothes, he was dragged away by Meng Guowei.

“…So that’s the situation right now. You don’t have a problem improvising, right?” Meng Guowei asked.

“Time,” Shao Zhan went straight to the point. “How long?”

Meng Guowei calculated: “A two-thousand-word speech, roughly eight to ten minutes.”

Shao Zhan maintained a blank expression throughout, lacking even surprise or astonishment. Only upon hearing ‘ten minutes’ did his eyelids twitch slightly. He asked nothing else; after confirming the duration, he simply said: “Okay.”

That seemingly aloof “okay” acted like a powerful tranquilizer, allowing Meng Guowei’s heart, which had been in his throat, to finally settle back into his chest.

“The significance of National Defense Education lies in,” Shao Zhan stood on stage, and after delivering that sentence akin to ‘shut the fuck up,’ he began his speech, “building and consolidating the foundation of national defense, and elevating the entire nation’s defense awareness and spirit.”

“It is also a crucial pathway to strengthening national cohesion.”

Shao Zhan’s logic was crystal clear. Right off the bat, he divided national defense into three major sections, starting from its significance and moving to its implementation.

The teenager’s features were slightly blurred due to the distance, but the innate, oppressive aura and a chilling tone that commanded respect still resonated in his voice.

Was the sun too bright?

The intense sunlight was so blinding it was hard to keep one’s eyes open.

Xu Sheng squinted. His sleeves were still rolled up a few folds, exposing his wrists, the prominent wrist bones clearly visible. Amidst a sea of students who had obediently buttoned their cuffs, he remained the one who gave teachers and instructors the biggest headache. Facing the harsh light, his gaze pierced through layers of crowds to look at the teenager on stage. For a moment, he couldn’t distinguish whose body this light was actually radiating from.

Hou Jun: “Badass.”

Tan Kai: “This is truly badass. I’m utterly convinced.”

“Pretty badass indeed,” Xu Sheng agreed, chuckling. “As expected of my desk mate.”

From the moment Shao Zhan stepped up empty-handed, people in the audience were already whispering: “Holy shit, is this bro going off-script?”

“Badass! He has to talk for ten minutes, right? I don’t believe he won’t slip up even once.”

Someone specifically timing it said: “It’s been three minutes, and he really hasn’t slipped up.” Let alone slipping up, he hadn’t even stuttered.

However, none of these students from other schools could have predicted that the truth was far more outrageous than just going off-script.

Improvising on the spot—can you believe it?

Meng Guowei, Director Gu, and the other teachers stood side-by-side in the shade, unable to stop themselves from thinking: Nailed it.

Steady.

Perfect!

Linjiang Sixth High was definitely going to showcase its excellence this time, firing a rousing opening shot among the assembled schools, making the eight thousand-plus students present remember that Linjiang Sixth High was an outstanding school fostering comprehensive development in morality, intelligence, physical education, arts, and labor!

Meng Guowei: “I knew he could do it.”

King of Hell Gu: “Having a student as excellent as Shao Zhan in our school is truly a blessing accumulated over several graduating classes.”

Radiant smiles bloomed on both their faces.

While everyone else was marveling, Is that Sixth High student representative up there even human?, Xu Sheng chimed in with his own marveling. Then, he faintly heard what sounded like a clap of thunder from the distant horizon.

Xu Sheng: “…”

After the previous body-swapping incident, Xu Sheng now had a conditioned stress response to thunder. The specific symptoms were: hair standing on end, a chill down his spine, and feeling as if electricity had shot from his toes straight to his hair. His entire body went rigid, thinking to himself that it must have been an auditory hallucination.

This blazing sun must have given two girls from the neighboring school heatstroke.

The weather forecast also said it would be sunny all week; otherwise, the school wouldn’t have picked these dates for military training.

It definitely had to be an auditory hallucination.

Swapping once was enough; how could they possibly swap again?

This is a world of science. Science changes destiny. We must believe in science.

Just as Xu Sheng finished comforting himself, that thunderclap moved from far to near, striking solidly right next to his ear with a massive BOOM.

“RUMBLE!”

Holy, fuck.

Xu Sheng was nearly shocked stupid by the sound.

On stage.

“Regarding the popularization of youth national defense…”

Shao Zhan’s fluent, stutter-free speech paused for a rare moment.

Even with Shao Zhan’s pause, Hou Jun and the others could still blindly praise him: “A full five minutes before he paused even once! Old Meng said the total speech time is about ten minutes. What level is this? Our Zhan-ge is simply incredible! Mind-blowingly badass!”

Xu Sheng patted Hou Jun on the shoulder from behind: “Monkey.”

Hou Jun turned his head: “?”

Xu Sheng asked: “Did you hear any sounds?”

“I heard it,” Hou Jun said. “It’s the sound of our Zhan-ge delivering a badass speech on stage.”

“…”

Xu Sheng didn’t dare ask too obviously. He said: “No, I thought I just heard thunder. Did you guys hear it? Is it going to rain today?”

Hou Jun’s gaze turned somewhat confused, not understanding what Xu Sheng’s baffling words meant. He said: “No? Where would thunder come from? The weather is so nice today, the forecast said the probability of rain is practically zero.”

Tan Kai and Yuan Ziqiang also chimed in: “What thunder? You must have misheard.”

As they spoke, another earth-shattering clap of thunder boomed.

— “RUMBLE!”

Both Xu Sheng and Shao Zhan, who was barely maintaining his speech on stage, felt the blood in their veins run cold inch by inch.

No. Way.

This fucking broken thunder still won’t let them off?!

Wasn’t once enough? Why is it happening again?!

And why did it have to pick THIS exact moment?!!!

The person feeling the most frustrated was Xu Sheng. Shao Zhan could stand on stage and improvise a two-thousand-word essay, but he certainly couldn’t. At best, he could improvise a two-thousand-word self-reflection—the kind that every teacher and student at Linjiang Sixth High had heard so many times their ears were growing calluses.

No matter how much Xu Sheng wanted to die right now, the thunder didn’t stop because of it.

The thunder grew louder and louder, finally sounding as if it exploded right next to their ears—BOOM!

Xu Sheng: “…”

Shao Zhan: “…”

Xu Sheng’s entire body went rigid.

In an instant, it was as if all sounds rushed away from them, and time and space froze. The scene before their eyes shattered into starlike fragments, whirling rapidly before their vision and scattering under the intense sunlight, slowly reconstructing the world before them piece by piece.

Xu Sheng’s consciousness blanked for a second. When he reacted again, he only felt a slight headache. He had absolutely no idea where he was standing, nor did he realize he was holding a microphone.

Xu Sheng cursed in a low voice: “…Fuck.”

His voice wasn’t loud. However, accompanied by the static crackle of the microphone, this “fuck” was instantly amplified. The eight thousand teachers and students below the stage were all frozen in place by this single curse.

Those eight thousand people had been listening perfectly well to Linjiang Sixth High’s Shao Zhan, thoroughly impressed by this teenager who had spoken off-script for five minutes. Yet, when this student representative coldly uttered, “Therefore, we should actively take action,” he paused for two seconds, and shockingly followed it up with a lazy, drawn-out “Fuck.”

What was going on?

Was Linjiang Sixth High’s student representative really that arrogant? Even swearing?

It wasn’t just those eight thousand people; Xu Sheng himself was shocked by the loud boom of his own voice: “…………”

Only then did he clearly see that he was holding a microphone. The electrical box was right behind him, the bright red opening ceremony banner was propped up behind him, and under his feet was the podium in the center of the plaza.

It was glaringly obvious: he, Xu Sheng, was now the Linjiang Sixth High student representative.

Standing on stage giving a speech.

Xu Sheng looked back down at the audience, spotting Meng Guowei standing with his hands behind his back at a glance. The student next to Meng Guowei was holding the placard for Company Seven, so he followed that row to the back. Sure enough, at the end of the line, he saw “himself,” face ashen.

As their eyes met, the two clearly saw the exact same emotion in each other’s gaze.

Shao Zhan’s current mood wasn’t any better.

He had a bigger headache now than Meng Guowei did when he found out the previous student representative was sick and the speech script was lost.

The two of them truly hadn’t considered the possibility of swapping again. Otherwise, he definitely would have made Xu Sheng continue practicing his copybooks.

Experiencing this kind of magical realism once was enough; how could there possibly be a second time?!

Yet, this second soul transfer truly happened just as unexpectedly.

The student representative on stage had become Xu Sheng. How could Xu Sheng give a speech? Having him go up to read a self-reflection was more like it… Shao Zhan suddenly didn’t dare to look at the scene, nor did he dare predict what was about to happen next.

—Xu Sheng himself didn’t dare think about it either.

“Fuck… Following the call of the Party and the state.”

In his desperation, Xu Sheng pulled a 180-degree turn: “Actively engaging in National Defense Education.”

The moment this sentence was spoken, the murmurs in the audience stopped: “Scared me to death, I thought this handsome guy from Sixth High had gone crazy.”

Shao Zhan had finally realized: Xu Sheng had a knack for keeping his heart in his throat every single time.

Always keeping him in suspense.

Xu Sheng’s maneuver was basically repeatedly testing the waters on the edge of disaster. He barely managed to pull that curse word back… But what next? What else was there to say?

When it was thundering, Hou Jun had mentioned that Shao Zhan had already improvised for five minutes.

Which meant there were still five minutes of speech time left.

Xu Sheng actually wasn’t nervous in front of so many people; after all, he was someone who had seen big scenes. If you really counted the number of times he had spoken on stage, he might have done it even more often than Shao Zhan. It was just that the subject matter was too big of a leap.

What exactly should he say?

So, the people near the front of the stage saw the cool, handsome guy from Sixth High stop speaking, suddenly raise a hand, and unbutton one button of his previously properly fastened military training uniform.

As Xu Sheng made this move, another wave of irrepressible commotion rippled through the audience.

Xu Sheng had no idea just how visually impactful it was to do such a flirtatious move while wearing Shao Zhan’s unapproachable iceberg face. He lowered his hand. In just those few seconds, an idea formed in his mind. He first followed up on what Shao Zhan had said earlier, looking toward the future: “I believe that through this National Defense Education event, everyone can truly elevate their defense awareness. The future will definitely be more beautiful. We must grasp the present, and use our actions to look forward to the future.”

Shao Zhan raised an eyebrow. This speech about looking toward the future felt awfully familiar.

Meng Guowei, Director Gu, and the others were also stunned: This… this sounds a bit familiar.

Xu Sheng dragged out this nonsense about looking toward the future for about two or three minutes.

He repeated it back and forth twice, yet he still hadn’t filled the time.

Then, Xu Sheng pivoted sharply, expertly shifting to another topic: “Perhaps some people here aren’t very familiar with Linjiang Sixth High. Our Linjiang Sixth High is a highly orderly middle school with a beautiful campus environment. The motto of Linjiang Sixth High is civilization, harmony…”

Shao Zhan finally remembered where he had heard it.

On the first day of their swap last time, when Xu Sheng slapped that stack of A4 paper in front of him, the Xu Sheng-style self-reflection tutorial he had given included this exact section.

“Generally, the structure of a self-reflection is divided into three main blocks: admitting fault, kissing ass, and looking toward the future.”

“Kissing ass means hyping up the teachers and the school, saying things like Linjiang Sixth High is…”

“…”

Xu Sheng kissed ass for a full three minutes, hyping Linjiang Sixth High up as if it were a paradise on earth, making the Sixth High school leaders beam with joy.

Hou Jun listened, dumbfounded: “What’s wrong with my Zhan-ge? Why did he start blowing our school’s trumpet?”

Tan Kai: “What do you know? With so many schools here this time, we definitely have to fully showcase our school’s excellence! It’s all about prestige, understand? Zhan-ge’s move is brilliant, truly brilliant! But don’t you think these lines sound a bit familiar?”

More than just familiar.

Xu Sheng had stood on stage reading self-reflections countless times, and his standard closing was exactly this speech. It was just that everyone couldn’t immediately connect the Study God’s speech with the school tyrant’s self-reflection.

As they spoke, they turned their heads, wanting to discuss it with Xu Sheng. “Xu Sheng” looked like he was in a bad mood, making Hou Jun suddenly afraid to speak to him, feeling a piercing coldness.

However, just as Hou Jun was about to turn his head back, he unexpectedly caught a fleeting smile on “Xu Sheng’s” lips.

That smile was truly imperceptible.

Shao Zhan’s first reaction wasn’t fear of his persona collapsing, nor was it fear of this speech failing.

It was as if time and space had connected from the first day they swapped, from when Xu Sheng taught him how to write a self-reflection, all the way to the present.

Seeing Xu Sheng on stage, pretending to be calm while spouting absolute nonsense… it was surprisingly very interesting.