BTO CH44

“I’m going to a fight first.”

It sounded as casual as “Hold on, I’m going to eat first.”

Kang Kai: …

“Art God, help me take a look at how to draw this drape,” someone in the studio called out to him. “I always feel like the colors I drew are too close, hard to distinguish.”

Kang Kai raised his voice: “Alright, wait a minute.”

“Who are you chatting with?” That classmate swished his paintbrush in water, picked it up to wipe on the absorbent sponge, and casually asked, “…But why do you have that expression? Did something happen?”

The expression on Kang Kai’s face was indeed very complex. If one looked closely, there seemed to be a tiny hint of… sympathy in it.

Although he didn’t know who had provoked Xu Sheng, he habitually offered silent condolences for the other party in advance.

Xu Sheng was someone who rarely got physical.

As long as it wasn’t too excessive or touching his principles, he didn’t even bother to care.

In Kang Kai’s memory, he had only witnessed it once back in junior high at the school gate: this lord didn’t make a move often, but once he did, the other side was completely done for. It was quite literally being pinned down and beaten.

“The real Art God who came to the studio last time,” Kang Kai set his phone aside, shook his head, and muttered to himself, “I don’t know who walked around without eyes to provoke him. Forget it; let’s not talk about that. Get up; let me take a look at your drawing.”

After Xu Sheng sent that sentence, he turned off his phone screen, casually shoved it into his pocket, kicked off the floor with one foot, and stood up: “I’m heading out for a bit.”

There was no expression on his face when he spoke, his usually smiling eyes cooling down, the slightly upturned peach-blossom eyes radiating a sharp, fierce hostility. Having just showered, his hair wasn’t even fully dry. Swapping out of his military uniform, he wore a loose T-shirt, his jeans creased in a way that accentuated his long, straight legs.

“If my desk mate comes back later,” Xu Sheng added before leaving, “don’t tell him about this yet.”

Yuan Ziqiang, who was closest to him, froze and gave a blank “Oh.”

After Xu Sheng left, the more Hou Jun thought about it, the more wrong it felt. He patted Tan Kai’s shoulder: “Kaizi, did you feel that?”

Tan Kai: “Feel what?”

Hou Jun: “Murderous intent.”

Tan Kai: “Faintly… felt a bit of it, I think.”

Hou Jun slapped the back of Tan Kai’s head: “How is that just a bit!” After saying that, Hou Jun’s sharpness and intuition led him to connect this morning’s cafeteria incident with the current situation. He stood up abruptly. “No way, I feel like something bad is going to happen. I need to follow him and check it out.”

Hearing him say this, Tan Kai also realized: “Holy crap, could it be those guys from this morning…”

Hou Jun surveyed the remaining three people in the dorm and urgently deployed them: “Kaizi, Ziqiang, you two come with me. Wenhao, if none of us are back after ten minutes, you go straight to Old Meng.”

At this time, the sky outside had long darkened.

Only the streetlights of Lüzhou Base remained lit, a continuous line of light along the tree-lined path. There were hardly any people on the road, the night outside dark and windy. Even those who went to the snack shop after showering to sneakily buy instant noodles had already returned to their dorms.

When Xu Sheng arrived empty-handed at the entrance of the alley, Yang Shiwei and his gang were leaning against the wall smoking. He narrowed his eyes and slowly exhaled a puff of smoke, waiting for Shao Zhan to come see him. Yet after blowing out that smoke, the mist scattered before his eyes, covering the scenery in a light haze. Only after most of the haze cleared did he see clearly under the streetlight the teenager standing at the alley’s entrance.

The one who came wasn’t Shao Zhan.

Seeing that face, Yang Shiwei immediately remembered that it was the guy who sat opposite Shao Zhan this morning and played him.

Yang Shiwei: “…Who the fuck are you? I’m looking for Shao Zhan. I haven’t settled the account from earlier today with you, and you’re eagerly rushing over to seek death?”

Linjiang Sixth High’s School Tyrant, Xu Sheng, didn’t answer who he was, nor did he bother to introduce himself.

“Me? Who I am isn’t important. You can call me Daddy.” Half of the key chain around Xu Sheng’s neck slipped out; he raised a hand, pinched the key, tucked the black cord back inside his collar, and asked directly, “Are you guys coming all at once, or one by one?”

Counting Yang Shiwei, there were six people total on the opposite side.

None held weapons.

Xu Sheng hadn’t fought anyone in a long time. After counting the number of people, he discreetly cracked his knuckles.

Shouldn’t be a big problem.

Without waiting for the other side to answer, Xu Sheng picked a fighting style for them: “Come all at once, saves time.”

Yang Shiwei laughed in anger. He pulled the cigarette away from his mouth. The brothers beside him wanted to rush forward to teach Xu Sheng a lesson, but Yang Shiwei raised his hand to stop them. After being provoked, he only wanted everyone to see how he was going to beat this guy’s head in: “You guys step back.”

Yang Shiwei stepped forward alone, standing face-to-face with Xu Sheng.

“Fine,” Yang Shiwei tossed his cigarette. “Since you want to die so badly, I’ll fulfill your wish.”

Before coming out, Xu Sheng estimated that this fight should end quickly. If this dumbass in front of him wanted a one-on-one duel, it would end even faster. The rising heat at the bottom of his heart unexpectedly cooled down quite a bit, to the point where he could habitually curl his lips into a smile, though that smile was extraordinarily chilly: “Care to make a bet? In my hands, you won’t last five minutes.”

Yang Shiwei clenched his fists and cursed as he threw a punch. Having been in Nanping for so many years wasn’t for nothing; from that swift and decisive punch, it was clear he had real skills. Xu Sheng sidestepped, cleanly and decisively trapping the hand smashing straight toward him. His hand gripped Yang Shiwei’s wrist. Yang Shiwei truly hadn’t expected that Xu Sheng, who looked like a guy who doesn’t fight and usually just plays with people’s feelings, actually possessed considerable strength. He struggled several times but couldn’t break free.

Yang Shiwei: “You fucking… Who the hell are you?”

Xu Sheng: “Told you, I’m your dad.”

Yang Shiwei couldn’t save face. The few people behind him didn’t know whether to step up and help. Xu Sheng raised his other hand and grabbed Yang Shiwei’s collar directly. He was just about to knock him down in two or three moves and then deal with the rest behind him. The atmosphere was extremely tense when, just at that moment, rapid footsteps came from outside the alleyway. The footsteps drew closer, sounding like someone wearing flip-flops.

Tap, tap.

Hou Jun ran at the very front. Utilizing the light from the streetlight, he sure enough saw Xu Sheng holding someone, perfectly overlapping with his previous guess. This lord really did come out to fight!

As class monitor, he couldn’t allow classmates to get into fights during military training. He hurriedly shouted: “Sheng-ge! Hold on! Spare his life!”

Xu Sheng was stunned by his shout, his hand unconsciously loosening its grip a bit, allowing Yang Shiwei to break free from his grasp.

Hou Jun ran over out of breath, with Tan Kai and Yuan Ziqiang close behind.

Xu Sheng shook his wrist, wanting to ask what they came here for, when Hou Jun already courageously wedged himself between him and Yang Shiwei. He solemnly placed both hands on Xu Sheng’s shoulders, forcing Xu Sheng to lower his eyes and look at him. Hou Jun even bravely called out his full name, scolding: “Xu Sheng!”

“…” Xu Sheng said, “What are you guys coming to join the commotion for?”

Hou Jun interrupted: “Fighting is wrong! This military training of ours represents not just our class collective, but even more so our school! Besides, have you thought about what consequences fighting brings? King of Hell Gu will definitely not spare you. What is there that can’t be spoken out nicely with this classmate?”

Xu Sheng: “…”

Tan Kai also advised: “Yeah, Sheng-ge, don’t fight. Let’s talk things out nicely.”

Yuan Ziqiang: “What is the school motto of our Linjiang Sixth High? Civilization! Harmony! We have to let students from other schools know that our Sixth High students are reasonable, and only savages speak with their fists!”

What the hell.

Xu Sheng was completely baffled by the three of them.

He sighed, wanting so badly to tell them to stop messing around and quickly go back, turn around, and march back.

Hou Jun: “Besides, if Zhan-ge finds out about you like this, he definitely wouldn’t want you fighting here either.”

When Hou Jun and the others suddenly popped up to speak earlier, Yang Shiwei hadn’t reacted in time. Adjusting his collar that Xu Sheng had pulled open, hearing the phrase “Zhan-ge,” Yang Shiwei finally remembered the important purpose of this trip.

Having just been pinned down by Xu Sheng and unable to move, losing face, with new and old grudges piling together, Yang Shiwei stepped forward, clapping his hands while saying, “Zhan-ge? Sounds like you guys have a pretty good relationship with Shao Zhan.”

Reaching this point, Yang Shiwei leaned closer to their side. Hou Jun was closest to him, feeling as if someone was speaking right against his ear, making his hair stand on end: “Since your relationship is so good, do you know what kind of person your precious Zhan-ge is? Do you know his dad is…” The remaining words were spoken even lower, yet exploded right beside everyone’s ears.

In an instant, silence fell over the alleyway.

In fact, it wasn’t much different from what Xu Sheng had guessed earlier.

It was just that the nature of it was indeed more serious.

Xu Sheng couldn’t help but wonder: behind those words, how many rumors and gossips had Shao Zhan carried on his back all those years?

How much had he carried before pulling himself out of it?

Xu Sheng had run out to fight this time precisely because he didn’t want this guy spreading Shao Zhan’s business around. No matter what the truth was, if the person concerned didn’t want to bring it up, what gave this guy the right to trumpet it around?

Fuck.

Why did he hold back his hands earlier instead of knocking him down directly?

Thinking of this, Xu Sheng couldn’t help but wonder: what would Hou Jun and the others think?

“Don’t join in on the chaos,” Xu Sheng said. “Go back to where you came from.”

What Yang Shiwei wanted to see was exactly this reaction. Seeing Shao Zhan’s classmates rendered speechless one by one, before he could feel a single shred of satisfaction, the next second, the one who had rushed into the alleyway first to break up the fight actually cursed out loud.

Hou Jun completely forgot his identity as class monitor, who was supposed to maintain the order of Linjiang Sixth High: “Fuck!”

Not just Hou Jun, Tan Kai and Yuan Ziqiang also released their hands holding Xu Sheng back.

And then, Xu Sheng watched with wide eyes as Hou Jun, who a second ago was saying “fighting is wrong,” pulled a 180-degree turn: “Can we endure this? They really think our Class 7 is easy to pick on?”

Tan Kai: “Is our Study God any of your business to talk about? Who the hell are you, and what the fuck does it have to do with you?”

Yuan Ziqiang was built burly, his speech carrying considerable intimidation. As he spoke, he stepped forward, throwing Sixth High’s school motto to the back of his mind: “Fine then, come on! Isn’t it just a fight?”

Yang Shiwei: “…”

Yang Shiwei and his brothers hadn’t anticipated that things would develop this way.

What was the situation?

Weren’t these guys here to break up a fight?

And why this kind of reaction?

After Hou Jun finished speaking, he patted Xu Sheng’s shoulder again. Although they usually didn’t dare talk much during class at school, they were, after all, hot-blooded sixteen and seventeen-year-old teenagers. It was inevitable that there were times they couldn’t hold back. The dormant factors in his body were shouting wildly: “Sheng-ge, I get how you feel. Don’t worry, go wild and fight, leave those guys in the back to us.”

On the other side.

Shen Wenhao, who was left in the dorm, paced back and forth in an agony of anxiety, checking the time repeatedly.

Ten minutes had passed.

They hadn’t come back yet, so something must have happened!

Shen Wenhao firmly remembered the monitor’s order. Meng Guowei’s room was in Area B. After hesitating for two seconds, he grabbed his phone and rushed out the door.

Area B, inside the teachers’ dorms.

“Alright, think over the hosting gig some more,” Meng Guowei said. “I won’t force you.”

There was a dedicated desk in the teacher’s dorm. Shao Zhan stood before the desk: “Thank you, Teacher.”

Meng Guowei set aside the matter of the gala host for the time being, remembering another thing: “Our competition this year, counting preparation time, isn’t…” far away.

Before Meng Guowei could finish, a blood-curdling roar echoed from outside the door: “T-Teacher Meng!”

“Teacher Meng!”

“…”

Meng Guowei looked up. This pig-slaughtering scream came from his class representative, Student Shen Wenhao: “Wenhao? What’s wrong with you?”

Shen Wenhao ran all the way to Area B and climbed up to the third floor, his legs turning to jelly from running. He rushed in panting, leaning against the door for two seconds to catch his breath before saying: “Something happened! It seems like Xu Sheng got into a fight with the people from Honghai!”

Meng Guowei was dumbfounded: “A fight?”

From the start of this military training, counting generously, less than two days had passed. In under 48 hours, Xu Sheng managed to pull something like this off in Lüzhou Base?!

Shen Wenhao continued to explain: “Monkey took some people and chased after him, but they haven’t come back even now.”

As Shen Wenhao reached this point, the light before his eyes dimmed.

It was Shao Zhan.

The teenager spoke with an unconscious sense of pressure, his voice icy cold as he closed in: “Where is he?”