BTO CH67

Following his second-place win in the competition, Xu Sheng used the power of the school uniform to generate another hot topic thread on Sixth High’s forum.

For a time, the popularity remained sky-high, even showing a momentum that threatened to surpass Shao Zhan’s.

“Him wearing a school uniform is SO my type!!!”

“Same here, I never realized our school uniform looked that good.”

“Back then when I didn’t vote for Xu Sheng, my eyes must have been crushed by a door.”

Mingled among them was a new post made by Contestant Duan Yaosheng from Yinghua Experimental High School.

The subject was concise and clear: Who is Xu Sheng?

The students of Sixth High currently felt full of sympathy and pity for this third-place contestant.

1L: Little Duan, better not ask. Telling you might make you go into isolation.

2L: Little Duan, sometimes it’s better not to know the truth.

3L: Since the folks upstairs are embarrassed to say it, let me do it. Xu Sheng, rank one from the bottom in our grade.

Duan Yaosheng probably skipped the step of going into isolation and went straight to losing his mind.

However, Xu Sheng had a strong capacity for acceptance.

Having already scored second place, he quickly realized that after being stared at enough, it was no big deal. With a personality capable of acting casually cool on the stage of the Four Schools Joint Competition, what was wearing a school uniform? If they weren’t used to seeing it, once he wore it for a few more days, they would get used to it.

It was just that Zhou Yuan had clearly thought along the same lines as King of Hell Gu.

He firmly believed that his student, a talented-type contestant, was now turning over a new leaf and reforming himself.

“Xu Sheng,” during the second math period, Zhou Yuan’s gaze at him made Xu Sheng’s heart jump in terror, “You finally look presentable. Very good. Seeing you return to the right path makes this teacher very relieved.”

Xu Sheng cooperated, speaking up: “…Thank you, Teacher. I also think I look pretty decent in it.”

Zhou Yuan left a problem on the blackboard. After speaking, he turned sideways: “Come up and solve this problem. Teacher believes in your talent. You no longer need to hide yourself. Come on up.”

Xu Sheng: “…”

Sorry about that.

He had zero talent.

It seemed this talent running joke was never going to pass.

Having no choice, Xu Sheng lowered his hand underneath, tugging at Shao Zhan’s clothes, begging him in a low voice: “…I don’t know how.”

He kept his voice very low, so only Shao Zhan could hear.

All of Shao Zhan’s principles were completely ruined by those three words. Regardless of whether helping his desk mate cheat was a bit inappropriate, he solved problems fast. Combined with the fact that he started calculating right when Zhou Yuan finished writing the problem on the board, the solution was already more than halfway done. He simply finished solving it on scratch paper in two or three moves, folded it up, and handed it to him: “Pick and choose what to copy yourself.”

His desk mate truly was a cheat code.

Clutching the piece of paper tightly, Xu Sheng walked up with feigned composure.

After this period, Xu Sheng was driven like a duck onto a perch by the title of “hidden top student,” pestering Shao Zhan to explain problems.

He reached out directly to hook Shao Zhan’s shoulder, then shoved the exercise book in front of him: “Zhan-ge, question three. Teach me.”

Shao Zhan raised his head to glance at it: “Didn’t the teacher just cover that.”

Xu Sheng didn’t hide it at all: “Holding out to listen for half a class was already my limit. I didn’t listen to the second half.”

Even if Xu Sheng’s attitude toward learning had indeed shifted somewhat and he began actively making up for missed lessons, he still easily got sleepy during academic classes.

Over this period of time, Shao Zhan had gotten used to explaining problems to him. Subconsciously twirling his pen to teach him, he recalled Xu Sheng’s form of address just now: “What did you call me?”

Xu Sheng: “Study God?”

Shao Zhan: “The sentence just now.”

Xu Sheng thought for a moment: “Zhan-ge?”

When Xu Sheng spoke those two words, his tone curved upward at the end.

He had zero baggage about calling someone Ge. Laughing softly, he said as if teasing: “Ge, as many times as you like hearing me call you that is fine.”

Shao Zhan suspected he was asking for torment.

Unlike the sudden silence in the corridor before morning self-study, two periods later, the corridor gradually filled with people. There were also quite a few students squeezed at Class 7’s door standing around pretending to chat, refusing to leave.

Mostly girls.

Through the back window, one could just catch sight of Xu Sheng. The teenager was initially sitting obediently listening to the person beside him explain a problem, but after no more than five minutes of being well-behaved, he quickly slouched down again.

“Derive the theorem yourself one more time.”

Shao Zhan pushed the exercise book over to him, while also hearing the noisy sounds outside the window.

Yet the culprit who triggered the crowd watching was completely oblivious to it all. Shao Zhan bent his fingers and tapped on his desk, saying: “School uniform. Wear it properly.”

Xu Sheng looked down, discovering that his collar was indeed opened a bit too wide: “…Oh.”

Xu Sheng was very well-behaved the entire morning, not even playing games, yet he was still scolded during the last class of the morning.

The substitute teacher Hou Jun and the others gossiped about at the victory banquet happened to be Xu Sheng’s teacher during his freshman year. The two had quite a history. Normally Xu Sheng wouldn’t hold a real grudge against any teacher, but this teacher was different. She disliked underperforming students with an instinctive disdain, so Xu Sheng naturally wouldn’t be polite to her either.

So when the substitute entered the classroom, her brows furrowed the moment she saw Xu Sheng.

“Class begins,” Hou Jun was determined to leave a good impression on the substitute teacher, “Stand up.”

“Hello, Teacher…”

The substitute teacher moved her gaze away from Xu Sheng, her face softening slightly: “Sit down.”

The substitute teacher’s surname was Yang. In her forties, wearing a neat uniform, her teaching style was just like the vibe she gave off.

Xu Sheng was most afraid of attending this kind of class.

He listened for a bit, then lowered his head and began doodling casually on the textbook. At first he drew objects commonly seen on the desk, but halfway through, his thoughts drifted. Sketching a few outlines of a face, he uncontrollably drew Shao Zhan.

Those few strokes were mixed into messy notes and textbook text, drawing Shao Zhan’s side profile.

Only after finishing drawing did Xu Sheng realize what he had done. He stared blankly at those few strokes for a moment, hastily turning the textbook over a page. Halfway through class, the substitute teacher caught Xu Sheng slacking off, slapped the podium and said: “Xu Sheng, stand up. Slacking off, right? Go outside and stand.”

Xu Sheng was scolded daily and didn’t feel anything about it.

There were plenty of teachers who had scolded him.

Yet this teacher probably wanted to settle old and new grudges together, rattling on endlessly: “I don’t even know how you got that second place score. What kind of class attitude is this? I thought you would change a bit in sophomore year, but looking at you now, you’re still the same. You’re just idling away your time here every day, right? And that thing on your ear…”

This teacher possessed terrifying combat power, fighting continuously for two and a half minutes, hurling insulting words like “delinquent.” Even with Xu Sheng’s casual attitude of letting people say whatever they wanted, he couldn’t quite stay casual.

The entire class fell dead silent.

Hou Jun finally realized why everyone in Class 4 hated this “Abbess Miejue” when listening to gossip earlier.

The substitute teacher continued her rant, intending to set off the top student: “Look at Shao Zhan…”

Xu Sheng found it humorous, just about to say, “Isn’t it just standing outside class? Don’t waste your breath.”

However, before he could speak the words out loud, he heard the screech of a chair sliding against the floor. From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the top student beside him standing up: “Teacher.”

“I wasn’t listening to the lesson just now either.”

The substitute teacher froze: “What?”

Shao Zhan: “I spaced out.”

Shao Zhan already looked cold. Meeting his eyes, the substitute teacher unexpectedly forgot what she was going to say in the second half of her sentence. He spoke very casually, but standing up, he looked completely different from usual. As if failing to control himself for a moment, his eyes bore a trace of sharp chill, looking even more like a so-called “school tyrant” than Xu Sheng beside him. After speaking, he picked up the textbook on the desk, turned around, and walked outside.

Shao Zhan’s two simple sentences choked back all the rest of the substitute teacher’s words, slapping her face hard invisibly.

She had said so much earlier, especially having explicitly brought up Shao Zhan just a second ago.

Hou Jun was filled with admiration: “Holy shit, I could tell back when he read the self-reflection at Green Boat Base. Our Zhan-ge is a real man.”

Tan Kai: “Strong.”

Yuan Ziqiang: “Truly strong. Our Zhan-ge astounds the world with a single feat. That aura just now was incredible, Abbess Miejue’s face turned completely green.”

Xu Sheng hadn’t expected Shao Zhan to pull this move at all. Once he snapped out of it, he also picked up his textbook and walked out: “…I’m going out too. Please continue with class, Teacher.”

The substitute teacher’s face turned alternating shades of green and white.

Xu Sheng had stood out in the hall as punishment countless times, almost forming a revolutionary friendship with the wall and railing outside the classroom, and being intimately familiar with the neighboring class’s open door. However, standing in the hall with Shao Zhan was a first. If any student walked by and saw the Study God standing here as punishment, they might question their life choices.

Standing side by side, Xu Sheng asked: “Did you really space out just now?”

Shao Zhan held his book: “False.”

Xu Sheng: “I’m only standing for one class. No need to be that reluctant to part with me.”

Shao Zhan wanted to say he was reluctant, reluctant to see him being scolded by someone.

Xu Sheng wasn’t embarrassed because of those words. Although those words were a bit excessive, he had simply heard them too many times: “Old Yang probably dislikes the sight of me. She taught our class during freshman year, and we argued a few times. It’s actually nothing. Besides, I really was quite a slacker.”

Especially freshman year, idling away the days, skipping class.

There were few people in the corridor, with only the sound of clear reading echoing from various classrooms. The sun was burning brightly in the corridor, filtering through layers of leaves to break into scattered spots of light shining onto the walkway.

After a long silence, Shao Zhan said: “I don’t think so.”

Xu Sheng froze for a second: “What?”

“I don’t think you’re a slacker, and I don’t think you’re like what she said.”

When chemistry class ended, the substitute teacher returned to the office with a dark face.

Before school ended that day, Director Gu also handed out plenty of competition prizes to the contestants. After evening self-study ended, Xu Sheng carried half a box of study supplies back to the dorm. Sixth High’s school leaders were generous, including a complete set of Huanggang test papers, mock competition papers from various years, and a carefully crafted College Entrance Exam countdown calendar.

When had Xu Sheng ever enjoyed this kind of “welfare treatment”?

He threw the calendar back, and after taking a shower, intended to go to sleep early, but couldn’t fall asleep for a long time.

Even though he closed his eyes, a certain someone was still swaying before his eyes.

Swaying along with it was also that line from today: “I don’t think you’re a slacker.”

Rewinding back in time, Xu Sheng suddenly recalled when the two had first met, neither liking the sight of the other. Back then, Shao Zhan was just a meddlesome merit student in his eyes.

Then what he recalled was the familiar frequency of heartbeats, and the hand held in the dark night.

…

Xu Sheng opened his eyes, swiping open his phone to check unread messages.

Zhang Feng had sent him messages during the day, but he rarely checked his phone during class recently, so he hadn’t received them: Holy crap, you really wore it! I sat in the classroom this morning counting down the time waiting. As expected, right before class started, the whole school exploded.

Xu Sheng replied: That’s how it is when someone is too handsome, high level of attention.

Zhang Feng replied very quickly: Do you even have any shame left?

The second one was Kang Kai: You there???

Kang Kai: [Crying loudly emoji]

Kang Kai: Deadline is tomorrow, and someone splashed paint on my drawing.