BTO CH61

The sky outside the classroom had darkened considerably. After playing on his phone for a while, Xu Sheng watched Shao Zhan finish his own test paper, switch to his left hand, and then scribble out a bunch of nonsense in response to the correct answers, intending to help him fill out his paper.

“Hey,” Shao Zhan glanced sideways at him, twirling the black gel pen through his slender fingers. “How many questions does the one with ‘competition talent’ want to get right?”

When Shao Zhan said “hey,” his voice was low and cold.

Xu Sheng had already slouched onto his desk, his phone pressed against his cheek, having just plugged in his earphones to play some music.

The classmates in front didn’t dare turn their heads, so they didn’t notice how worldview-shattering the scene on their side was: the School Tyrant held two test papers in his hands and was actively doing problems, while the Study God adopted a lazy posture that screamed, ‘This lord wants to draw a clear line between myself and you competition students,’ and looked ready to close his eyes and sleep.

Xu Sheng wasn’t polite at all, pondering for two seconds before saying: “Then just casually get two problems right to showcase my talent.”

The pen in Shao Zhan’s hand stopped twirling. Curling his finger, he said: “Understood.”

Before falling asleep, Xu Sheng thought in his heart:

Damn, this feels kinda awesome.

As an academic slacker, who hadn’t fantasized about someone helping them do their homework, having it automatically completed without even touching a problem?

Especially when the person helping was the top student in the entire school.

This was practically a human cheat code.

The human cheat code, Shao Zhan, solved problems very quickly. Plus, he was copying based on the answers. Taking Xu Sheng’s strength and level into consideration, he didn’t even let him get the two correct questions perfectly right; after filling in the framework, he deliberately made a few minor errors in the middle.

The competition students didn’t dare turn back, but they didn’t lack discussion.

In the competition group chat.

[Anonymous A]: A classmate in our class ran into the Study God and the School Tyrant in the office. [Anonymous B]: What happened? I really want to know why the School Tyrant came to our meeting room. [Anonymous C]: They said the School Tyrant signed up for the Four Schools Joint Competition.

The anonymous group fell into collective silence.

A full three minutes passed before exclamation marks and question marks started spamming the chat.

After the competition practice papers were handed in, King of Hell Gu—who had heard that Xu Sheng joined the competition team upon Student Shao Zhan’s recommendation—held the test paper and scrutinized it carefully: “…”

The students had already returned to the dorms.

The only ones left in the meeting room were him, Meng Guowei, and Zhou Yuan, who couldn’t resist following them to check the test papers.

As soon as Zhou Yuan saw it, he was astounded, immediately spotting the clue Shao Zhan had deliberately left behind: “Although not many questions are right, he was actually able to find this auxiliary line in this solid geometry problem—!”

“Not only that,” Director Gu said, “the final answer to this problem is wrong, but look at his problem-solving logic here.”

Having said this, they all fell silent.

If they had still harbored some reservations before agreeing to let Xu Sheng participate in the competition, the answer sheet before them proved everything.

Meng Guowei said: “It seems Xu Sheng truly has a bit of talent. He just usually doesn’t study, but when he does, he’s actually quite capable.”

The newly minted talented competition contestant, Xu Sheng, was currently lying in the dorm, playing a game.

Zhang Feng used voice chat directly while playing, but Xu Sheng couldn’t, so he could only reply by typing.

“There’s one in the bush on the opposite side! Boss, shoot him!”

Xu Sheng maneuvered his character, then succinctly typed in the team channel: Dead.

Zhang Feng: “Why aren’t you using voice? Is your phone still not fixed?”

S: No.

Playing the game, Zhang Feng didn’t forget to gossip: “Then can I ask you something… Are you participating in the Four Schools Joint Competition? Are you serious?”

Xu Sheng replied with a string of ellipses.

Zhang Feng: “They all say you’re participating for the Study God’s sake, is it true?”

Xu Sheng truly hadn’t expected news to spread so quickly.

He expected even less that a brand new thread was rising steadily on the Linjiang Sixth High forum: As Long as You Take One Step Closer to Me, I Will Walk the Rest of the Way Toward You.

The specific content was as follows:

What’s the situation? First we have the top student testing second-to-last for love, and now we have the school tyrant joining the competition for love?Is the ambiguity between handsome guys nowadays this challenging to themselves?What kind of feeling is this, what kind of love is this? …

A game round happened to be nearing its end.

Participating for Shao Zhan? Thinking about it carefully, that wasn’t wrong either.

A few seconds before the game ended, Xu Sheng replied to Zhang Feng: You can understand it that way.

Before Zhang Feng had time to react, the game ended, returning directly to the lobby, leaving no time to use voice chat.

Xu Sheng exited the game, thinking of Shao Zhan again.

Although Shao Zhan could help him do the competition test papers and regular homework, he couldn’t just shamelessly dump everything on him to write. Besides, Shao Zhan had to seriously prepare for the competition, writing who-knows-how-late every night… Xu Sheng ignored the pile of messages sent by Zhang Feng, uncontrollably tapping open Shao Zhan’s profile picture.

• Open the door.

After sending these three words while squatting outside Shao Zhan’s dorm door, Xu Sheng doubted for a moment whether he had gone crazy.

To think that he, Xu Sheng, would actually find a time to seek out homework to do himself?

Shao Zhan’s dorm room hadn’t changed at all since the last time he visited. Opening the door, he saw Xu Sheng squatting at his door like some large pet: “What is it?”

Aside from his phone, Xu Sheng was also holding a pen. He stood up and said, “Bored, so I came to wander around your dorm.”

Xu Sheng couldn’t swallow his pride and say he came to do problems. Slackers had baggage, slackers had dignity too.

Shao Zhan, however, gave him a glance and actively offered a way out: “Since you’re here, finish your pile of homework before leaving.”

Xu Sheng yielded the chair to Shao Zhan, sitting on the edge of the bed himself, facing the side of the desk. But he didn’t sit properly, simply pulling a book from Shao Zhan’s desk, resting it on his knee, and pressing the paper against it to write.

Biting the pen cap, Xu Sheng asked vaguely: “Where do we write the math workbook? Page 48, did Old Zhou cover this today?”

This was the first time Xu Sheng had been this self-motivated.

Even though he hadn’t listened in class, he still knew to flip through the book to look at the example problems.

Shao Zhan: “He covered it.”

Xu Sheng: “Then I probably didn’t pay attention.”

“When have you ever paid attention?” Noticing he couldn’t find the problem, Shao Zhan reached out and flipped the textbook in his hands back a few pages. “If you don’t know, ask me.”

Xu Sheng stayed in Shao Zhan’s dorm until lights out. The post-class homework wasn’t that hard to write; the knowledge points were clear, and after looking at the examples, anything he didn’t understand, Shao Zhan could clarify in a few words. In the end, Xu Sheng surprisingly managed to digest the homework Zhou Yuan assigned.

He finished writing the last problem and raised his eyes to look at Shao Zhan.

Halfway through his competition test paper, Shao Zhan was currently calculating a problem on scratch paper.

Xu Sheng couldn’t clearly explain whether he came for the homework or for the person.

Or maybe both.

Xu Sheng lowered his head, looking at the homework he had done today under the desk lamp’s light. Suddenly, he discovered another fact: he didn’t seem to be… quite as repulsed by academic subjects anymore.

For the next week or so, Xu Sheng spent almost every day doing problems in Shao Zhan’s dorm. Sometimes Shao Zhan would even explain common problem-solving methods used in competition questions to him.

This was Xu Sheng’s second time receiving tutoring from Shao Zhan, and his level of acceptance was much higher than the last time.

Actually, the hellish tutoring before the monthly exam yielded more results than either had imagined. Shao Zhan was good at predicting questions, but Xu Sheng had fallen far too behind on freshman knowledge points. Most of the time was spent on freshman materials, yet aside from English, his other subjects showed significant improvement.

This kind of “special training” gave Xu Sheng a tiny bit more confidence for the Four Schools Joint Competition kicking off on Sunday.

The reason the Four Schools Joint Competition was held on Sunday was simple.

Because the audience wasn’t just Sixth High students; spectators from the other three schools would also take buses over. The host venue was decided by drawing lots, and this time it landed on Linjiang Sixth High’s gymnasium again.

The last time Shao Zhan won the championship was also at Linjiang. Drawing it again this time made the school leaders ecstatic, believing it was an omen for a repeat championship.

Linjiang Sixth High’s facilities were famously good. The gymnasium, renovated just a few years ago, could accommodate over a thousand people and was divided into two floors.

To prepare the venue in advance, the gymnasium had been locked a week prior, strictly forbidding student entry.

At this moment, the gymnasium had already taken on an entirely new look. Not only was the competition stage set up, but the spectator seating was also prepared. A bright banner hung at the entrance of the gymnasium: The 15th Four Schools Joint Competition.

“Selling binoculars!”

Taking advantage of the time before the start, not far from the gymnasium, some students began doing business.

“Come take a look, come take a look!”

“The only thing between you and the Study God is the distance of a pair of binoculars! Don’t you want to see the Study God’s problem-solving posture clearly? Don’t you want to feel the passion of the competition up close? Fifty each, no bargaining!”

As one of the contestants in this year’s competition, Xu Sheng gathered at the meeting room early at 9:00 AM.

At the same time, contestants from other schools arrived one after another.

The first bus to drive into Linjiang’s school gate was from Yinghua Experimental High School.

Yinghua Experimental High School’s uniforms were easy to spot: red and black, with a red stripe down the side of the black uniform pants. The bus doors slowly opened, and the advising teachers stepped down first, standing beside the bus to maintain order.

Director Gu briefly explained the rules: “Our competition this year has been reformed. It’s divided into a team match and an individual match. The team match primarily involves a buzzer round for points, while the individual match requires contestants to solve a competition test paper on the spot—five problems per paper. Don’t be nervous, make sure to read the problems carefully. The other three schools came prepared this time, so we need to bring 120,000% of our focus.”

At the same time.

The second and third buses followed Yinghua inside.

The morning sunlight shone brightly on the buses, making them gleam. Many Sixth High students gathered near the school gate to watch the excitement.

“Was that Yinghua just now? This bus is from Songye, right…” “Holy crap, these guys look fierce.” “I can feel the blazing murderous intent before they even get off the bus—especially from Yinghua.” “The annual slaughterhouse! Last year was fierce enough, didn’t expect this year to be exceptionally brutal.”

Several buses parked at Linjiang’s gate at once.

Songye Auxiliary High and Xingjian High had also arrived.

After finishing his speech, Director Gu checked the time. It was about time to head to the arena to prepare: “Then let’s set off for the gymnasium.”

Xu Sheng barely memorized the format for the first-half team match and the second-half individual match. Before even stepping into the gymnasium, he could feel the tense pre-match atmosphere filling the campus. Support banners hung everywhere, and the two trees closest to the gymnasium bore the words: Shao Zhan Repeat Champion.

“During the team match, you sit next to me,” Shao Zhan said. “There are ten questions total. The moment I tap the desk, you press the buzzer immediately.”

The team match wasn’t a huge issue. With Shao Zhan prompting him, Xu Sheng just had to act as the buzzer-presser.

Xu Sheng gave a sound of agreement. Aside from going on stage to deliver a self-reflection, he had never stepped onto such a grand “stage” before. Saying he wasn’t nervous would definitely be a lie, especially when he carried the honor of Linjiang Sixth High on his shoulders.

Xu Sheng raised a hand, unbuttoning his collar a bit.

His mind a mess, he thought: I should still drop out to ensure my safety.

What competition was he participating in? Was this place suitable for him? Was this somewhere he belonged?

Because the front entrance was too crowded, contestants lined up uniformly to enter through the back door.

Before entering, Shao Zhan’s hand rested on Xu Sheng’s head for a second. After the brief touch, he heard the teenager’s characteristically cold voice say: “Don’t be nervous.”

The gymnasium was boiling with voices.

The Linjiang Sixth High contestants made their entrance amidst passionate cheers that nearly blew the roof off the venue.

With this, the Four Schools Joint Competition officially began.