BTO CH5

After Shao Zhan said this, the murmurs in the class came to a grinding halt.

The classroom fell dead silent.

Upon learning the class placements, Class 7 students had rapidly created a class group chat, the kind that didn’t have teachers in it yet. The original intent was simply to have a place to cry with their comrades, mourn their impending hellish sophomore year, and encourage each other to stay strong and survive.

Aside from the teachers and the school tyrant not being in the chat, the Study God wasn’t there either. The Study God’s absence was entirely due to their reverence for their idol; they were too embarrassed to add him. Furthermore, Shao Zhan had been on leave, and former freshmen classmates had mentioned he never looked at class chats anyway.

Who would have thought this situation would give them the perfect opportunity to gossip.

In this eerie silence, someone took the lead in the group chat.

[Student B]: Um, what’s the deal with those two? Things seem a bit off?

[Student C]: I’ve got some news. Can’t guarantee it’s true, but rumor has it the school tyrant was caught climbing the wall, and it was the Study God who busted him.

Student A: Spicy. Where’d you get this intel?

[Student C]: The dorm supervisor is my classmate’s cousin’s second uncle. I heard it from him. The connection is a bit distant, but it should be somewhat credible.

[Student D]: Then didn’t the school tyrant and the Study God just form a grudge? As expected of the Study God, daring to touch even the school tyrant. Does the Warrior know? @Li Mingyong

[Li Mingyong]: …I don’t know.

[Student D]: I don’t dare turn my head. Warrior, give us a live broadcast. How is the school tyrant reacting right now?

[Li Mingyong]: …I don’t dare look either.

[Student D]: Be brave! Are you a man or not!

Li Mingyong took over ten seconds to reply: The reaction… looks… a bit dangerous.

The candy Xu Sheng had just crunched into pieces melted in his mouth. The taste was overly sweet, rushing to his head and momentarily stunning him.

After the stun wore off, his first thought was: Are you out of your fucking mind?

Shao Zhan, acting like nothing happened, tossed the plastic stick into the trash can at the back. He pulled out his chair and sat down across the not-too-wide, not-too-narrow aisle from Xu Sheng.

“Why is it so quiet today?” The math teacher walked in holding a set square. She had assumed that because she was a few minutes late, the class would be a chaotic mess. “Good behavior. I’ll make sure to give you guys a big compliment to your Mr. Meng later.”

The math teacher wasn’t old, not even thirty. She had short hair and a resolute, no-nonsense demeanor. She put down the set square, picked a piece of chalk from the box, snapped it in half with one hand, and said, “Today we’re on the second lesson. Have you all previewed it? Did you figure out the assigned problems?”

Everyone flipped open their books; for a moment, the only sound was the rustling of pages.

Xu Sheng used every ounce of his upbringing and rationality to stop himself from marching over right there in class to demand if the guy had a mental illness.

He had originally planned to catch up on sleep during class, but now his drowsiness was completely gone. He opened his book and, for the first time ever, actually followed along as the teacher explained two formulas.

Whether he understood them or not was a different story.

Xu Sheng had just barely managed to calm down when, halfway through the class, a message from Zhang Feng completely incinerated his remaining rationality.

Zhang Feng: I heard the Study God snatched your lollipop to eat?

Xu Sheng: …

Zhang Feng, eager for gossip: Is it true? The rumor just made its way over from Class 4. Why did he snatch your candy?

This kind of rumor went from one to ten, ten to a hundred. By the time it reached the end of the line, the flavor had completely changed, like how a story about Xiaoming’s grandpa living to a hundred could mutate into Xiaoming not having a grandpa at all.

Xu Sheng: Do you guys have nothing better to do?

Xu Sheng: He didn’t snatch the candy.

Xu Sheng: He

Before Xu Sheng could finish typing “He’s just a psycho,” someone knocked on the edge of his desk.

“Phone,” Shao Zhan said. “Put it away.”

Shao Zhan didn’t even turn his head when he said this. He merely reached over during a gap in the lecture and tapped the edge of Xu Sheng’s desk twice with his pen. The aisle between the first and second groups of desks wasn’t wide, just an arm’s length apart.

Xu Sheng froze for a second, then laughed out of sheer anger.

He ran his tongue over his back teeth, then directly tossed his phone into his desk with a thud.

He felt that if he kept holding this in, he’d actually get sick from the anger.

When Xu Sheng was truly furious, he habitually wore a faint smile. Just like when he was threatening those punks outside the internet cafe, at first glance, he looked quite peaceful. “What’s your deal?”

Li Mingyong dragged his chair to shift sideways.

Shao Zhan used his pen to casually mark the key points of a formula in his book. He actually couldn’t be bothered to manage this guy next to him who ate candy and played on his phone, but given the homeroom teacher’s blatant and subtle hints in the office, he squeezed out a shred of patience and said, “No chatting during class.”

Xu Sheng: “What the hell does me chatting have to do with you?”

“If you don’t understand the words ‘no chatting,’ I’ll put it another way,” Shao Zhan switched to a simpler phrase. “Shut up.”

“…”

The student at the desk in front of them also started dragging his chair away.

Refusing to back down, Xu Sheng leaned back against his chair and said, “I’ll only say this once: mind your own business.”

The temperature plummeted, and the atmosphere grew increasingly tense.

“I’ll also only say this once. You can chat if you want.” Shao Zhan finally looked up. He let go of his pen, letting it drop to the desk, and his tone shifted, turning icy. “After you finish chatting, hand over a three-thousand-five-hundred-word reflection.”

“…” Xu Sheng was rendered speechless.

“Still want to chat?” Shao Zhan asked.

“If not, turn your head back and listen to the lecture.”

For the first time in his history of running amok and acting recklessly at Linjiang Sixth High, Xu Sheng had crashed headfirst into a brick wall.

He had truly never met someone who wasn’t afraid of him and carried an attitude of whether you submit or not, you will submit to me.

The rumors intensified. The gossip that the Study God and the school tyrant were at odds spread all the way from Class 7 down the corridor to Class 1. In the end, not only was the entire sophomore grade shocked, but the whole high school division was boiling with excitement.

Shao Zhan’s “fame” was different from Xu Sheng’s.

Starting from taking first place in the high school entrance exams, on his very first day, let alone the entire grade, almost the whole school knew that Sixth High had enrolled a top scholar. This top scholar was also insanely handsome, just a bit unapproachable.

Student ID number 01. Whether it was a major exam or a minor quiz, he sat firmly in first place and had never come down. He was a permanent resident of the first testing room, and the big posters at the school gate multiplied, all showcasing his awards.

In short, it was very hard to connect the two of them.

Playing on his phone, passing notes, sleeping, eating, and reading manga all became things of the past for Xu Sheng. He did, however, inexplicably memorize a lot of school rules, so much so that when Zhang Feng messaged him to ask if he was going to the internet cafe tonight, Xu Sheng almost replied: Students are strictly forbidden from going out after school.

By the time Xu Sheng replied, the dismissal bell had already rung. He unplugged his power bank and typed as he stood up: I’m going.

The last period had been swapped with the previous one, so just like yesterday, it was Biology.

The biology teacher assigned homework from the podium. While checking off the assigned questions with the class rep, she glanced over and caught sight of Xu Sheng walking out.

She had just hit a wall with Xu Sheng yesterday. Old grudges and new resentments mixing together, it was the first time she had seen such an unruly student. Determined to teach him a proper lesson, she said in a deep voice, “Xu Sheng, step outside for a moment.”

The biology teacher clicked out in her high heels, passing several rows of empty desks, and led him to a deserted spot at the end of the corridor before stopping. “Didn’t hand in your homework again?”

Xu Sheng leaned against the nearest railing and gave a “Mn.” “Didn’t know how to do it.”

As throngs of students poured out from the nearby classrooms, the biology teacher grew furious. “If you don’t know how to do it, then pay attention in class! Is ‘I didn’t know how’ an acceptable excuse?”

It went in Xu Sheng’s left ear and out his right. Having heard this kind of talk so many times, it completely failed to leave a mark.

He even spared some attention to look at the framed painting hanging on the corridor wall—a portrait in a grayish-brown frame with an inspirational quote underneath.

He was snapped back to reality by the biology teacher’s question: “What exactly do you want to do with your future?”

The biology teacher’s voice was sharp, and she raised her pitch, her words stabbing straight over like a needle. “What’s the difference between you and someone just waiting to die? You have no thoughts in your head, no passions, and you don’t even know what you want to do later in life. You’re just drifting through your days.”

The post-school rush had finally cleared out, leaving the corridor empty with hardly a soul in sight.

Xu Sheng, who was usually sharp-tongued and had never lost a verbal spar with a teacher, was uncharacteristically silent for a long time.

-Boss, where are you?

-I’ve played three rounds already. Didn’t we say the usual place?

-Are you coming or not?

Zhang Feng waited bitterly in the internet cafe. Finally, he grabbed his phone and typed a final message: If you don’t come soon, my mom is gonna nag me to come home for dinner!

By the time Xu Sheng snapped out of his daze and realized where he was, he had already gotten off the bus.

He stood near the bus stop for a moment before replying to Zhang Feng: Something came up, not coming.

In front of him were familiar alleyways. The buildings were very old style; even though they got a fresh coat of paint every year, it still couldn’t hide the decaying, ancient textures underneath. The branches and leaves of the sycamore trees on both sides of the road crowded together, and the intense sound of cicadas blanketed the entire street along with the foliage.

Xu Sheng walked along the street for a while. The sky gradually darkened. He stopped in front of a small, abandoned warehouse. Goodness knows what this warehouse used to store, but its iron door was long rusted.

Xu Sheng reached into the collar of his T-shirt and followed an inconspicuous thin black string to pull out a brass key. His usual style was quite flashy, so wearing a black string around his neck wasn’t much of a standout, and few people paid it any mind.

Knowing this door was difficult to open, Xu Sheng grabbed the handle with one hand and pulled the door tight before inserting the key. He twisted it, and pushing the door open produced a harsh, ear-piercing creak.

This warehouse was barely over twenty square meters. Numerous empty paint buckets lay haphazardly on the floor, and the roof beams partitioned the ceiling into long strips. Completely incongruous with the rest of the warehouse’s environment, an easel stood right in the center.

There was no artist’s stool; only a half-meter-tall old wooden crate sat in front of the easel for seating.

Piles of drawing paper were stacked on both sides.

A few sample drawings torn from instructional books were taped to the walls. Several pages of sketches were scattered near the crate, the top one being a drawing of David. The lines of the plaster cast drawing were clean and sharp, the contrast between light and shadow built up with immense visual impact.

Xu Sheng himself didn’t even know why he had come here. He closed the warehouse door, took a few strides up, and sat on the old crate for a while in the dim light spilling from the skylight.

He bent one leg and rested his foot on the bottom rung of the easel, staring at the blank canvas in front of him.

A dulled 4B pencil rested in the tray.

It wasn’t until the very last trace of light from the skylight faded that Xu Sheng suddenly pushed off the ground, got up from the old crate, and pinched the key, slipping it back under his collar.

The buses ran infrequently, one every half hour. By the time Xu Sheng went out and returned to school, he was just in time to get locked out.

In the past, this wouldn’t have been a big deal; he’d just climb the wall. But now, he had a bit of trauma regarding wall-climbing.

And for some reason, his right eyelid started twitching for no reason.

Xu Sheng had a vague premonition in his heart. When he quickly vaulted up and crouched on the wall, one glance at the familiar school uniform proved that God was indeed screwing with him.

“Do you have nothing better to do,” Xu Sheng said, pausing for a second to take a deep breath, “…than to specially camp out here for me?”

Although Shao Zhan had temporarily accepted the position of Disciplinary Committee Member at Meng Guowei’s repeated pleading, he wasn’t that bored. It was purely a coincidence: “I’m not that free.”

He wasn’t free, but someone happened to climb the wall right in front of him, and he couldn’t just ignore it.

Shao Zhan added, “Get down.”

Going down meant a 3,500-word self-reflection.

Xu Sheng was just about to properly negotiate with him, but unfortunately, he couldn’t reign in the momentum from his previous preparation to jump. His footing lost its balance—

Shao Zhan had just walked up to the bottom of the wall when his vision was filled with white. The clothes on Xu Sheng’s body fluttered backward in the wind, making him look like a white bird from afar. However, this bird could not escape gravity and was plummeting downward at an alarming speed.

BOOM!

In an instant, the wind surged and clouds churned in the sky. A clap of thunder exploded from out of nowhere, and amidst the flashes of lightning and rumbling thunder, the entire night sky began to flicker.