BTO CH55

When morning exercise finished, the national flag reached the top of the pole, fluttering in the breeze. Before the background audio was turned off, students dispersed back to their classrooms accompanied by the sound echoing from the loudspeakers. Someone whispered in discussion, “Big news! Have you heard? The Four Schools Joint Competition has been moved forward this year…”

“I heard! It was just posted in the class group. My hands were trembling when I saw the message,” another person chimed in.

“Really? The Four Schools Joint Competition moved up? Didn’t it usually start after the midterm exams?”

The tone of these classmates rose with excitement. They couldn’t suppress their thrilled hearts at all. It sounded like this Four Schools Joint Competition held far more appeal for them than a basketball game or an e-sports match.

Normally, students tortured by various exams wouldn’t be interested in boring academic competitions. But the Four Schools Joint Competition was different. For the students of Linjiang Sixth High, watching any match couldn’t compare to how thrilling last year’s competition had been.

First off, the Four Schools Joint Competition differed from other competitions in its format. It wasn’t as rigid. Jointly hosted by four schools under the name of a friendly match, the competition format leaned heavily toward entertainment.

Competition students answered questions on-site in front of an audience, and spectators could cheer for their own school while watching. Every round had different rules; some questions tested who had more ways to solve a problem, while others tested speed. It could be said that the Four Schools Joint Competition reached the absolute limit in terms of spectator appeal and entertainment.

Of course, the reason people were so hyped wasn’t purely because of the format. Most importantly, it was because a certain contestant from Linjiang Sixth High had burst onto the scene like a demon king last year.

Inside the meeting room, all the competition students were high-spirited. After leading the students through the slogans, Director Gu briefly outlined the schedule: “There’s less than two weeks left before the Four Schools Joint Competition. During this period, competition students need to gather here frequently for intensive training to prepare for the tournament. I’ve also drafted a plan for you all…”

Before Xu Sheng could even recover from the news about the competition, he was dragged right back to the edge of the cliff by the surrounding competition students.

The student sitting beside him leaned over and bashfully confessed, “Study God, your battle last year was simply way too handsome.”

“Ah,” Xu Sheng had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. He shifted to the side a bit, trying to distance himself. “Is that so?”

He truly didn’t know what Shao Zhan had done in the competition. Usually, when major events took place, the school gave time off. It was hard to say whether he had even stayed on campus that day; he had most likely gone to an internet café.

Someone opened the memory box first, and the topic quickly spread among the competition students.

“During the finals that day, I didn’t even dare blink for the whole match. Even now, I can still recall every little detail of your problem-solving back then. It was so terrifying! That wasn’t a match, that was a complete slaughter. When we faced Yinghua in last year’s finals, the Yinghua students’ faces were green when they stepped off the stage.”

“Especially the last match! Your problem-solving speed blew the Yinghua school leaders away.”

Faced with numerous admiring gazes, 24K pure academic slacker Xu Sheng sat as if on a bed of nails.

A freshman competition student expressed confusion at the sudden explosion of chatter around him: “What happened last year? Was he that amazing?”

A senior competition student slapped him on the forehead and said, “You don’t even know the story of how the Study God shocked all four schools as a freshman in the competition? Are you even a student of our Linjiang? He beat Yinghua until they yelled ‘daddy’! Can you still not feel how legendary that was?”

“Study God’s performance last year was truly insane.”

As everyone knew, among the rankings of the four schools in C City, Linjiang Sixth High wasn’t the most famous; Yinghua Experimental High was number one. A century-old school with a terrifyingly high university admission rate, it had been stepping on Linjiang’s head for countless years.

Yet Linjiang had fought a beautiful turnaround battle last year! And it was a complete slaughter!

What did a complete slaughter mean? Calling him the demon king of the competition was no exaggeration.

Looking at that PPT slide earlier, Xu Sheng hadn’t fully grasped Shao Zhan’s championship victory, unaware of how mind-bogglingly extraordinary it was. After these competition students reconstructed the scene detail by detail, he realized it.

The Four Schools Joint Competition didn’t separate grades, but the ones who reached the finals were almost always senior high three students; that was practically the tournament’s default standard. High three students had learned far more material, making it extremely hard for lower-grade students to beat them across grades.

As a freshman, Shao Zhan fought his way into the finals and completely crushed Yinghua on the final stage. Supposedly, whenever Yinghua students heard the name Shao Zhan even now, they would still recall the suffocating feeling on the stage that day.

Xu Sheng realized how naive and fragile he had been when he wanted to drop out over a silly school heartthrob evaluation. What was forgetting to switch accounts? What was a monthly exam? What was standing on stage temporarily as a school representative?

Compared to the Four Schools Joint Competition, those weren’t even worthy of carrying the competition’s shoes. How had he let such minor setbacks drive him to want to drop out back then?

The more he realized this, the more Xu Sheng wanted to leave this world. He turned to look at the window beside him, wishing he could climb up right now and leap recklessly down from the fifth floor.

Carrying a thick stack of freshly printed competition test papers, Xu Sheng intended to head back to class. But the fanatical crowd of Shao Zhan’s fanboys and fangirls in the meeting room clearly weren’t going to let him off so easily. Before Xu Sheng reached the door, other competition students sitting further away swarmed over: “Study God, I believe in you! With you here this year, we can definitely keep the championship in Linjiang!”

Another student poked his head out from behind the others with a grin: “Isn’t first place a done deal for Study God anyway? What’s that word again? Ah right, repeat champion!”

“No doubt about it! Repeat champion!”

“It has to be a repeat champion! Have you guys checked the forum? People have already started making banner slogans!”

Xu Sheng thought to himself: Repeat champion, my ass. Maybe he’d end up kneeling down in the first round and calling someone else daddy.

Surrounded by this gang of competition students, Xu Sheng couldn’t break free, wrapped three layers deep inside and out. Fortunately, “Shao Zhan” was tall; otherwise, he’d have been smothered to the point of suffocating.

Xu Sheng raised his chin, holding the test papers while peering outside the crowd. Just as his heart felt like cold ashes, he spotted a ray of hope: “himself,” emanating cold air all over, was walking down the hallway from the other end. It seemed the activities on the sports field had already disbanded.

Indeed, they had disbanded. After returning to class and not seeing him, Shao Zhan guessed he was still in the meeting room, and fearing an accident, he came up to look for him.

Grasping at a lifesaving straw, Xu Sheng mouthed silently as their eyes met: Come here. Save me.

The competition students in the meeting room were still babbling in discussion over the phrase “repeat champion,” attempting to steer the topic to the competition problems Director Gu had just handed out. Nobody noticed a figure appearing in the room. The teenager’s T-shirt stood completely out of place in the whole meeting room. He entered through the back door, and only when he walked up beside them did people quiet down, stepping aside in hindsight.

After the Lüzhou Base incident, the power of the name Xu Sheng was even stronger than before. In the past, they had only heard about him fighting. This time he had actually fought, even provoking students from another school! Not only was his reputation resounding, but his presence in person made people afraid to approach.

A few students who saw “Xu Sheng” first expressed confusion: “Why is the school tyrant here?”

“Don’t know. Speaking of which, is the school tyrant really this scary? Why do I feel like just one glance from him gives me the illusion of living in winter?”

Naturally, these discussions vanished the instant “Xu Sheng” reached out toward the “Study God.” “Xu Sheng” didn’t even look at them, his voice icy cold: “Done chatting?”

“…”

“If you’re done, can you give my desk mate back to me?”

“…”

Without waiting for a response, “Xu Sheng” simply grabbed “Study God’s” wrist, tugging him along as he walked out.

Once out of the meeting room, Shao Zhan released his grip and said, “Usually you’re quite talkative, so why did you go mute at a time like this?”

Xu Sheng was mainly suffering from severe shock, causing his cognitive speed to plummet. Any slacker who learned they might have to become the “Light of the School” and compete with the mission of being a “repeat champion” wouldn’t stay calm.

Yet Xu Sheng himself hadn’t realized that his chaotic mind, along with the frantically scrolling thoughts of “Fuck, what do I do?”, surprisingly settled down the moment he saw Shao Zhan.

What was the situation? The school tyrant and the Study God, these two?

The pair had left, leaving a meeting room full of competition students standing bewildered in the wind, so thoroughly stunned that they almost forgot what the Four Schools Joint Competition was.

Next period was PE class, so there was no rush to return to class. Near the stairwell on the right side of the sixth floor were a few empty classrooms where nobody usually passed by.

Xu Sheng sat straddling a step. Raising a hand, he unbuttoned two shirt buttons and handed the competition test papers to Shao Zhan: “Here, freshly handed out by King of Hell Gu.”

Shao Zhan stood beside him, leaning against the railing as he took them.

“The Four Schools Joint Competition…”

Both spoke at the same time.

After a pause, Shao Zhan held the test papers and said, “You go first.”

Xu Sheng: “Can you drop out of school?”

Shao Zhan: “…”

Xu Sheng: “Taking a leave of absence works too.”

Xu Sheng scratched his hair, lowered his hands to prop them on the edge of the step, and added, “Forget it, just let me die.”

Shao Zhan’s state of collapse wasn’t any less than his; he hadn’t heard a single word the school leaders said during the flag-raising ceremony either.

The difficulty of the Four Schools Joint Competition problems wasn’t actually that absurd, but with Xu Sheng’s academic performance, when he scored like that on basic monthly exams, having him do competition problems was harder than asking him to ascend to heaven. If the two hadn’t swapped back by the day of the Four Schools Joint Competition, Xu Sheng would have to enter the contest carrying his name.

Shao Zhan didn’t even dare think about such a scenario. But it didn’t seem quite that terrible either.

Slowly rolling up the test papers, Shao Zhan turned his head and actually let out a low chuckle.

Xu Sheng suspected Shao Zhan had been driven mad by anxiety: “What are you laughing at?”

“Nothing. Just feeling that after meeting you,” Shao Zhan said, “every impossible thing in this world seems to have become possible.”

Whether it was something scientifically inexplicable like swapping bodies, or a life growing increasingly chaotic and full of drama, or a certain someone getting closer and closer…

Xu Sheng froze for a moment.

Shao Zhan: “There are still two weeks. There will always be a way.”

Those words were true. Ways were created by people.

After school, Xu Sheng spent a long time searching on his phone: Lightning rod pin.

Previously he wanted to dodge the damn thunder, but now he was practically begging it to come.

Thinking for a moment, Xu Sheng deleted it again. Even insulating suits were useless, so science clearly couldn’t be trusted.

Xu Sheng closed his eyes in despair. Right at the instant he closed them, he suddenly thought of the opposite of science: Metaphysics.