BTO CH63

“Team match, winning school—Linjiang Sixth High!”

“Linjiang Sixth High took first place in the team match with a score of 50. The school cafeteria has provided lunch for all schools. We will take a short break; the second-half individual match will begin at 1:30 PM.”

After announcing the afternoon schedule, the commentators began organizing the audience’s departure.

The students began evacuating from the first floor first, followed by the audience in the second-floor spectator stands moving slowly.

The contestants still used the dedicated tunnel they entered through. The red curtain covering the tunnel was pulled up as Yinghua’s contestants exited first.

“Brother Duan, let’s go. We still have the second half,” an Yinghua contestant patted their captain’s shoulder. “Losing the first half is nothing. The other side just luckily got two more questions right than us. We must stay steady.”

Even though Duan Yaosheng snatched 30 points, his complexion remained poor.

It was impossible for him to be fine. After fighting hard for a year, he came back this time wanting to reclaim first place—only to find his opponent had also grown stronger. Although it sounded like just two more correct answers, out of ten total questions, his opponent single-handedly secured half the points.

Of Yinghua’s three questions, Duan Yaosheng only secured two; a teammate buzzed in for the other one.

What made people even more depressed was that Shao Zhan hadn’t used scratch paper the entire time!

Duan Yaosheng considered his calculation abilities top-tier at Yinghua. For most questions, it wasn’t impossible for him to calculate mentally, but the computation volume for the competition questions was massive. Mental calculation was an almost impossible task.

Was Shao Zhan already this strong?

The opponent’s strength left Duan Yaosheng appalled!

He had become this strong?!

Xu Sheng knew nothing of this. He didn’t know that currently wearing Shao Zhan’s shell, his leisurely pen-twirling and steady-as-a-rock posture during the team match had blinded everyone, planting seeds of fear in their hearts.

Before leaving, Duan Yaosheng glared at Xu Sheng: “Just you wait. I might not lose to you in this afternoon’s individual match.”

Xu Sheng didn’t back down. Eyes curving, he said: “Sure, I’ll be waiting.”

Only after finishing acting tough did Xu Sheng feel hungry. Especially after surviving the team match, the main event was next, and he and Shao Zhan still didn’t know what to do about the individual match. “Eat together?”

Shao Zhan had just hummed in agreement when Director Gu, unable to contain his joy, came up from the spectator stands. “Good job! Shao Zhan, keep it up. Your current condition is excellent. I knew this year’s championship would definitely still belong to our Linjiang!”

Xu Sheng: “…”

Director Gu smiled happily, “Relax your mind, get a good rest after eating, and let’s see your performance this afternoon.”

Don’t be so quick to rejoice, we might die this afternoon.

Xu Sheng thought in his heart.

“What do we do this afternoon?” As they exited, taking advantage of Director Gu not paying attention, Xu Sheng couldn’t help but ask. “And you…”

Xu Sheng paused mid-sentence, coughed, and then said, “Why were you writing the answers on my hand?”

Shao Zhan didn’t answer. Walking behind him, the teenager radiated a cold aura, but the look in his eyes when he looked at him wasn’t like that at all. “What do you think?”

Xu Sheng was speechless.

He couldn’t exactly say: I think you’re flirting with me.

Xu Sheng couldn’t control his thoughts lately—or rather, for a long time now, his thoughts would uncontrollably drift toward Shao Zhan. Gradually, he would even overthink, and some unexpected thoughts would spring up out of nowhere.

After a long moment, Shao Zhan said, “To save time.”

To save the time of a stroke or two?

Who knew if anyone would believe this kind of nonsense.

Shao Zhan himself didn’t believe it. He just wanted to get closer to him. He even wanted to get a little closer.

Xu Sheng naturally didn’t believe it either. But before he could continue thinking about it, a head popped over: “Reporting—”

Exiting the tunnel, the Class 7 students, who supposedly should have left early, surprisingly hadn’t left and were waiting in the back tunnel.

Led by Hou Jun, the group swarmed up when they saw them come out.

Hou Jun: “Reporting. The cafeteria aunties’ cooking standards have significantly improved today. I even suspect our school changed chefs. If they could maintain this level normally, those restaurants on the street outside would have gone out of business ages ago.”

Xu Sheng was surprised: “Why are you guys here?”

Tan Kai: “Waiting to eat together with you! Also, Zhan-ge was absolutely badass on stage just now. The way you pressed that buzzer gave me goosebumps.”

Xu Sheng: “You flatter me, you flatter me.”

As the class monitor, Hou Jun wasn’t just simply waiting. He had arranged everything clearly: “I had Zi Qiang head to the cafeteria early to grab chicken legs for you two. He runs fast, so we can eat straight away when we get there. Sheng-ge should nourish himself too. Even without merits, you put in hard work, and you held down the fort pretty well.”

Shao Zhan, who had been the one solving problems and performing the entire time: “…”

The cafeteria food had indeed improved significantly.

It was probably because the students from the other three schools were also eating there today. There were actually ribs in the rib soup—not minced meat, but a whole, massive chunk of rib meat!

Sixth High students were overjoyed.

Especially Yuan Ziqiang. By the time they arrived, he was already eating. “I could eat two bowls of our school’s rice in one breath today.”

Xu Sheng wasn’t as optimistic as they were.

No matter how delicious the food was, it tasted like wax in his mouth.

Both he and Shao Zhan knew that the real crux of this competition was the upcoming individual match.

“Only eating this much?” Shao Zhan asked.

“Thinking about the individual match kills my appetite,” Xu Sheng said.

Although Xu Sheng was hungry, he truly didn’t eat much.

“Don’t think too much about the second-half individual match.”

Shao Zhan was worried too, but for the individual match, they could only resign themselves to fate. No matter how much they thought about it, there was no solution.

He added, “We’ve already tested second-to-last. What else could possibly not happen?”

Xu Sheng: “…” That makes fucking sense too.

An hour of rest after lunch.

At exactly 1:00 PM, the audience began entering one after another. The second-half individual match officially began.

“Students, please return to your previous viewing seats, keep quiet, and wait for the second-half individual match.” Having seen Linjiang Sixth High take the team championship, commentator Lao Ye was beaming, his tone involuntarily rising. “The rules for the second-half individual match are as follows: the match lasts 120 minutes. After completing the test within the allotted time, the contestant with the highest score wins.”

“Contestants are forbidden from bringing items unrelated to this competition, forbidden from whispering, forbidden from cheating…”

After reading the competition rules, the commentator added: “The two referees on stage will closely monitor the movements of every examinee. Do not harbor any illusions of getting lucky.”

Before Xu Sheng entered, the spectator stands had already started warming up.

The first half’s victory had sent all Linjiang Sixth High students into a frenzy, cheering collectively: “Study God! Study God!”

“Study God Double Champion!!!”

“Individual Match Champion!!!”

“…”

The shouts shook the heavens and earth.

After losing in the first half, Yinghua’s students pinned all their hopes entirely on the second half. Infected by Sixth High’s students, they also strained their throats shouting: “Brother Duan, Brother Duan! Who can rival you!”

“Go Songye!”

“Xingjian is the strongest!”

The students from the four schools seemed to be competing over who had the louder voices. The atmosphere for the second-half individual match was even more tense than the first half.

It felt like countless tiny flammables were buried in the gymnasium’s air, ready to explode one after another with just a slight increase in decibels.

“I gotta say, having the School Tyrant on the field gives me a really surreal feeling. But why isn’t the Study God looking at us?”

“There’s no expression on the Study God’s face either.”

Some students noticed that “Shao Zhan” seemed emotionally off, especially compared to the previous match.

Soon, another student helped explain: “What do you know? This is what you call Study God’s composure. He’s steadied himself.”

Xu Sheng was not steady at all right now.

He was panicking like crazy inside.

The competition stage was set up with individual single seats. Since Shao Zhan had won the championship last year, his seat number was naturally No. 1.

Duan Yaosheng sat right on “Shao Zhan’s” right side.

Meanwhile, the new contestant this year, the “Xu Sheng” who claimed to have a bit of competition talent, sat in the very back row.

Their positions were diagonal to each other, separated by over ten contestants.

This distance was so far it made Xu Sheng despair.

Even if they wanted to pull a few tricks to hint at the answers, they couldn’t.

However, from the seating arrangement of the second-half match, one could tell Yinghua’s contestants were truly formidable. From Seat 1 to Seat 10, apart from Shao Zhan, everyone else was wearing the black-and-red uniform, occasionally interspersed with two or three students from Songye or Xingjian, though those two or three could be ignored.

Xu Sheng had completely lost his mood for acting tough like the wind from the first half.

The clock ticked by minute by second, pointing to 1:30.

The two commentators were originally reviewing the morning’s match and looking forward to the afternoon’s individual match: “The morning’s team match was truly spectacular. The students from all four schools performed exceptionally well. Linjiang ultimately took the lead with a 20-point advantage, but Yinghua secured the final, pivotal question. The contest between the two sides was extremely fierce. So, until the very last second, we won’t know which school the championship will fall to. Let’s look forward to the second-half individual match together.”

“Student Shao Zhan in Seat 1 looks well-prepared, and Contestant Duan Yaosheng in Seat 2 also looks determined to win.”

The time reached 1:30.

The two commentators announced in unison: “The second-half individual match—officially begins!”

“The referees will distribute the test papers and answer sheets.”

There were only five questions, but the blank answering areas left were terrifyingly large.

The first line on the first page of the test paper read: The 15th Four Schools Joint Competition Individual Paper.

Exam Time: 120 minutes. Total Score: 100.

Question Setters: Yang Chongguang (Yinghua), Gu Hua (Linjiang), Li Yong (Songye), Zheng Feng (Xingjian).

Question 1: Find all 3-element sets {a, b, c} consisting of distinct positive odd integers such that: a² + b² + c² = 2019.

Xu Sheng: “…”

Xu Sheng looked completely bewildered.

Xu Sheng’s mind was a mess, and finally, it just went “bang” and exploded.

What was being tested?

What the hell were distinct positive odd integers?

What exactly was the question setter’s intention?

Was this the legendary type of problem where the shorter the question, the more beastly it was?

Receiving the questions, Shao Zhan sighed, knowing Xu Sheng wouldn’t be able to bluff his way through this time no matter what.

Answering questions using Xu Sheng’s body didn’t make sense no matter how you thought about it, but this concerned the school’s honor.

Shao Zhan hesitated for a moment, then lowered his head and started answering Xu Sheng’s paper.

“I heard this year’s competition questions are harder than last year’s, set by the grade directors of the four schools,” Commentator Lao Ye said. “It looks like there’s indeed some difficulty. Student Shao Zhan from Linjiang Sixth High has a slightly solemn expression… Student Duan Yaosheng has buried his head in solving the problems. Let’s silently cheer for the contestants on the field in our hearts. Regardless of the results, they are the best!”

A Shao Zhan fangirl in the audience couldn’t hold back and shouted: “Go Study God!”

Xu Sheng bit the bullet and filled in Shao Zhan’s name in the name column.

Then he wrote the word “Solution” under the first question.

A colon.

After writing that, his pen tip paused. Xu Sheng unbuttoned his collar a bit to catch his breath.

Was the air in the gymnasium that thin?

“Student Shao Zhan has also started answering!” the commentator said. “Ten minutes have already passed in the individual match. Contestants, please keep track of time.”

Xu Sheng strained over the first question for ten minutes, eventually scribbling a few steps of nonsense before simply giving up on it.

Look at the next question.

Maybe the next one would work.

Harboring this unrealistic thought, Xu Sheng looked at the second question.

Question 2: Let {an} and {bn} be two arithmetic sequences.

Let Cn = max{b1-a1n, b2-a2n, …, bn-ann} (n=1, 2, 3, …), where max{x1, x2, …, xs} represents the maximum of x1, x2…

He actually knew the concept of arithmetic sequences; Shao Zhan had tutored him on it.

But this was completely different from the questions in the textbook.

It made Xu Sheng’s eyes spin.

What to do? Move on to the next question again?

He couldn’t write the answers, but he couldn’t just hold the pen without moving either. Not knowing what to write, Xu Sheng could only stubbornly dump the knowledge points about arithmetic sequences Shao Zhan had told him onto the paper.

Halfway through writing, amidst his panic, he couldn’t help but ponder the feasibility of stepping off the stage early.

Rather than making this test paper he answered on Shao Zhan’s behalf public, it would be better for Shao Zhan to just retire from the match.

A Great Demon King who slaughtered everyone in last year’s competition finds this year’s competition particularly boring, and after winning the first-half team championship, feels the match is even more dull—this setting was quite logical.

Xu Sheng even thought of the lines for Shao Zhan: “The new world is yours. I’m already tired of these meaningless, suspense-less, opponent-less competitions. I intend to leave the opportunity to more people.”

Xu Sheng mustered his courage and glanced down the stage, coincidentally meeting Director Gu’s expectant gaze. Director Gu even pumped his fist vigorously at him encouragingly: Go get ’em, kid!

Xu Sheng: “…”

If he actually said that, Director Gu would have to be sent to the ER the next second.

Just then, the commentator said: “Yinghua’s contestant Duan Yaosheng has already turned the page! He turned the page!”

From the moment he received the test paper, Duan Yaosheng had started answering questions at lightning speed. While this individual match didn’t stipulate that the fastest to hand in the paper won, the painful memory of Shao Zhan finishing a full five minutes ahead of him last year ignited his fighting spirit.

This year, he didn’t just want the highest score; he wanted to be the fastest one too!

This year was Duan Yaosheng’s battle for revenge.

He wanted to show Shao Zhan who was truly number one in the competition!

The blazing fighting spirit of the contestant next door seemed to materialize, burning onto a piece of scrap iron like Xu Sheng: “…”

Xu Sheng really wanted to turn around and see what Shao Zhan was doing right now. Was he answering the questions?

Actually, Shao Zhan had turned the page even earlier than Duan Yaosheng—it was just that in Xu Sheng’s body, absolutely no one paid attention to him.

Commentator Lao Ye understood Sixth High’s infamous delinquent through and through. Although he heard that “Xu Sheng” had come to participate in the competition with a resolve to turn over a new leaf, his dark history was simply too extensive. Lao Ye didn’t pay any attention to this contestant who couldn’t possibly place.

There was no clock in the gymnasium; everyone relied entirely on the commentators calling out the time at regular intervals:

“The individual match is halfway over. Contestants, please allocate your time reasonably.”

“…”

“The individual match has entered its countdown. Final twenty minutes.”

Xu Sheng’s palms were covered in sweat.

The closer the time came, the more he couldn’t sit still.

Fuck.

Don’t understand.

Don’t understand a single question.

If he didn’t have such a good mindset, anyone else sitting here would have shut down completely by now.

“The individual match enters its countdown! Final ten minutes, contestants please note, final ten minutes!”

Although Shao Zhan was answering the paper, answering under the identity of “Xu Sheng” was the worst-case scenario.

The time check hit the final ten minutes.

It’s over.

Xu Sheng closed his eyes. Both he and Shao Zhan in the back row simultaneously had the exact same thought flash through their minds: Let lightning strike me dead.

Right as this thought crossed their minds, the very next second, the faint sound of thunder echoed from the distant horizon!

Rumble!

Xu Sheng and Shao Zhan violently opened their eyes at the same time.

The force of Xu Sheng’s grip on his pen grew heavier, the raised edge of the black gel pen pressing tightly against the pad of his finger.

Was it what he thought it was?

As if to confirm this conjecture, the thunder drew closer, finally arriving right above the gymnasium. Combined with the stadium’s hollow, naturally echoing acoustics, it struck solidly right above their heads: “BOOM—!”

After a momentary sensation of weightlessness, the paper under Xu Sheng’s hand had evidently changed.

Though the handwriting was messy and somewhat similar to his, he hadn’t filled the paper this fully.

This test paper pressed under his hand had already reached the last question, stopping at the final part of the last question with only the ultimate solution left unwritten.

Belatedly, Xu Sheng shifted his gaze away from the test paper and saw his own hand. Then he looked down and saw he was wearing a loose-hemmed T-shirt.

So he raised his head again, looking past the several rows of contestants in front, and saw Shao Zhan sitting in the very first row.

Shao Zhan had his back to him, his sitting posture upright. From his angle, he could only see the teenager’s pen-holding hand and half of his wrist.

The commentator gave one last reminder: “Attention, there are only ten minutes left.”

They had swapped back.

Shao Zhan exhaled a breath, steadying his mind to look at the test paper under his hand: “…”

Answered… in a complete mess.

From the answer sheet, he could tell Xu Sheng truly didn’t know what to write. He started silently recalling concepts, but even remembered the concept for arithmetic sequences wrong.

Later on, with no concepts he knew, he just started writing blindly. Next to the final problem, he even wrote two words: Save me.

Next to “Save me,” there was a simple stick figure doodle of a little person kneeling on the ground, hands clasped together, crying bitterly.

Shao Zhan couldn’t help but laugh.

He thought he would be very anxious, yet he still stared at that doodle for a couple of extra glances.

These questions were way beyond Xu Sheng’s syllabus level.

For example, for the third question, Shao Zhan could tell at a glance that since the last digits of squares of odd numbers only take the forms 1, 5, and 9, the last digits of a², b², and c² must either be 5, 5, 9 or 1, 9, 9. Xu Sheng could rack his brain and still never think of these knowledge points.

Xu Sheng didn’t take up much space answering; he essentially left a huge blank chunk for every question.

Shao Zhan crossed out all of Xu Sheng’s nonsense, taking advantage of the fact that no one could read what the hell Xu Sheng’s handwriting said anyway. Then, gathering his focus, he raced against the clock to write the answers.

Ten minutes was indeed urgent.

Logically speaking, it was impossible to finish.

But while in Xu Sheng’s body, he had already written out every problem. The answers and steps were still in his head. By speeding up his hand, finishing within ten minutes wasn’t impossible.

Commentator: “Final two minutes.”

Shao Zhan filled in the answers and steps for the previous sections and started writing the final question.

Commentator: “Final minute—”

A minute later, the referee blew the whistle.

Commentator: “Time’s up. Examinees, please put down your pens and stop answering.”

The grading mechanism was live grading, with scores announced on the spot.

With the paper Shao Zhan had answered for him, Xu Sheng couldn’t really modify it. Unless he blacked out the entire answer sheet, it was hard to change, and even if he did, it would be obvious at a glance.

Plus, during the last ten minutes, the referee kept pacing back and forth beside Xu Sheng, leaving him no chance to do anything.

The test paper was pulled away by the referee.

Xu Sheng thought to himself, wondering if Shao Zhan had finished writing the problems and how he did.

During grading time, contestants had to remain seated and couldn’t walk around freely. Sensing the gaze from behind, Shao Zhan slightly turned around after handing in his paper, his eyes locking with Xu Sheng’s.

How did it go? Xu Sheng mouthed.

Don’t worry. Shao Zhan replied.

What did ‘Don’t worry’ mean?

On the other side of the stage, four desks and chairs had been temporarily brought out—teachers from the four schools were sitting at the side, jointly grading the papers.

There weren’t many contestants; all together, they didn’t even make up a full class.

The students in the audience had kept quiet during the exam out of fear of disturbing the contestants, but once the papers were collected, everyone went crazy: “Study God!!!!”

The Class 7 students had sweat in their palms. Hou Jun led the charge, yelling from amidst the crowd: “Zhan-ge is number one!”

In their entire student lives, these classmates had never anticipated test results as eagerly as they did right now, wishing the grading teachers could mark the papers even faster.

In reality, the teachers graded very quickly. In less than twenty minutes, all the test papers were fully graded.

For fairness, the examinees’ names were covered during grading, so they didn’t know whose paper was whose.

“Testing, testing,” one of the teachers took off his glasses, organized a stack of test papers in his hands, and stood up as the representative to announce the scores. “Next, I will announce the results for this Four Schools Joint Competition individual match.”

Due to the tension, the gymnasium’s atmosphere seemed unusually quiet.

Xu Sheng soon found out exactly what ‘Don’t worry’ meant.

This Songye High School teacher’s pronunciation was very distinctive; he liked to place heavy emphasis. His voice echoed through the microphone across the entire stadium:

“First place, Linjiang Sixth High, Shao Zhan.”

Forming a stark contrast with the silence just moments ago.

The spectator stands boiled over!

This cheer was more enthusiastic than any before.

Many Linjiang Sixth High students tried to yell out, but quickly found they couldn’t be heard at all, their voices completely drowned in the thunderous cheering.

Duan Yaosheng clenched his fists, not expecting to experience yet another crushing defeat.

Shao Zhan himself showed no fluctuation in emotion. Holding his pen, it was as if he had just casually grabbed first place.

Director Gu couldn’t conceal his joy: “Our school’s student, Shao Zhan! He took first in the team match this morning too! It was him last year as well! Our Linjiang’s outstanding student—”

Xu Sheng’s suspended heart finally settled.

He couldn’t quite articulate his thoughts, maybe it was just a single notion: Shao Zhan is the one who deserves first place.

Good thing the lightning struck just in time, and everything returned to normal.

Xu Sheng had absolutely no idea he had let his heart settle too early.

Because the representative teacher flipped past a test paper sorted by score and read out the next name: “Second place, Linjiang Sixth High, Xu Sheng.”

Xu Sheng: “…?”

Who did you say?

Director Gu was just pumping his fist, itching to tell the whole world how outstanding his school’s student was. Halfway through speaking, upon hearing the words ‘Xu Sheng’, he froze: “…Ah?”

Not only did he freeze, but the second-place winner himself froze too.

All Linjiang Sixth High students—anyone who knew Xu Sheng and who he was—completely froze. Their cheers for Shao Zhan got stuck in their throats: “…?”

Only the students from other schools had relatively normal reactions.

“Don’t cry, Brother Duan.” The Yinghua contestants had assumed that if their Brother Duan wasn’t first, he would definitely be second. Instead, the name announced for second place was unfamiliar, and it was another contestant from Linjiang Sixth High. “Brother Duan, it’s okay. We’ll come back next year.”

Duan Yaosheng fought back tears, perfectly acting out what it meant to be bullied into crying alive: “I graduate next year!!!!”

“Linjiang Sixth High’s Xu Sheng, who is he?” Duan Yaosheng added, “Who is he?!”

Everyone was shocked by the fact that Xu Sheng took second place—so shocked it felt like the gymnasium was about to collapse.

Only Xu Sheng cursed a ‘Fuck’ in his heart, knowing that while in his body, Shao Zhan had finished his paper, swapped back to finish his own paper, and ultimately single-handedly swept both first and second place.