BTO CH7

Xu Sheng’s dorm room was missing practically everything except for an abundance of A4 paper, all dedicated entirely to writing self-reflections. King of Hell Gu had lamented more than once that if Xu Sheng could only channel this passion for writing reflections into his studies, his average score could somehow scrape its way up to a forty.

Faced with this stack of A4 paper roughly five centimeters thick, Shao Zhan momentarily forgot about their bizarre circumstances. “Are you planning to publish a book?”

Xu Sheng slapped the paper and pen onto the desk. “Just write first.”

Shao Zhan calmed down and reminded him, “My handwriting is different from yours.”

Xu Sheng had plenty of self-awareness regarding his own chicken-scratch handwriting. “My handwriting is simple. Just write with your left hand, and it’ll definitely come out looking as unrestrained as mine.”

What goes around comes around.

During the day, Shao Zhan had just used the reflection issue to suppress him. He hadn’t expected it to fall on his own head now.

Shao Zhan held the pen and, using his left hand, crookedly wrote three words: “Self-Reflection Letter”. He happened to have a discarded draft from Xu Sheng’s last reflection next to him. At first glance, the handwriting genuinely didn’t look much different. “…”

Xu Sheng’s handwriting truly commanded a certain kind of awe.

There weren’t many boarding students in the sophomore year. Aside from a few dorms housing two people, the dorm building consisted mostly of single rooms. Linjiang Sixth High didn’t mandate boarding, and they tried their best to accommodate the boarding students’ requests.

Shao Zhan had applied for a single room himself. Xu Sheng was different. He didn’t mind having roommates; in fact, he wasn’t an unsociable person, but there had to be someone unafraid of death willing to be his roommate.

There was only one desk and chair. Unable to find a place to sit, Xu Sheng simply sat down on the bed not far from the desk.

At first, Xu Sheng was worried that the top scholar wouldn’t know how to write one and would ruin his reputation. “Do you know how to write it?”

Shao Zhan ignored him.

Xu Sheng bent one leg and rested his elbow on his knee. He didn’t know how to do a single exam question across any subject, but when it came to the philosophy of writing reflections, he could talk logically and systematically. “A general reflection structure is divided into three main chunks: admitting your mistake, flattering, and looking forward to the future.”

“Admitting the mistake is easy to understand. Flattering means praising the teachers and the school—saying things like Linjiang Sixth High is a highly orderly middle school that educates and nurtures students, making huge contributions to society,” Xu Sheng unwittingly started giving the Study God a lecture. He leaned back, resting against the wall, and concluded, “Just spout some nonsense.”

Shao Zhan finally moved. He flipped to a fresh sheet of A4 paper, lowered his eyes, and said, “Stop annoying me.”

When Shao Zhan spoke, he habitually cut off the endings of his sentences, unlike Xu Sheng who dragged them out lazily. This manner of speaking made him sound extremely cold.

Xu Sheng listened with complex and subtle feelings, thinking to himself that this Study God currently occupying his body looked more like a school tyrant than he did.

It had to be said, writing a reflection was indeed a method that could calm a person down in the shortest amount of time.

Setting everything else aside, only the reflection remained.

Shao Zhan wrote those 3,500 words very quickly. Xu Sheng couldn’t help but wonder if the brain structure of a top scholar was different from ordinary people; how could he be so talented even at writing reflections?

By the time Shao Zhan finished writing, both of them had been forced to accept their current situation: Xu Sheng jumped over a wall, landed on Shao Zhan, and then… just like countless transmigration stories in web novels.

The two of them transmigrated.

There were no signs of rain outside the dorm window. Swiping open the phone, the weather forecast from yesterday through the day after tomorrow showed nothing but a solid row of bright suns. The sudden clap of thunder exactly when Xu Sheng jumped over the wall seemed to have come completely out of nowhere.

The school uniform Xu Sheng was wearing made him uncomfortable all over. He had already unbuttoned one button earlier, and after sitting uncomfortably on the bed for ages, he raised his hand and unbuttoned the second one.

His collar immediately fell open, revealing his entire collarbone following the line of his prominent Adam’s apple.

Shao Zhan normally presented an image of an ascetic iceberg. If his other classmates saw the way he was sitting on the bed right now, they’d probably question their sanity.

Shao Zhan didn’t know how other classmates would react, but he was the first one who couldn’t stand the sight of it. “Clothes. Button them.”

Xu Sheng’s nature had always been casual, doing whatever he wanted. “Aren’t you suffocating, buttoning it up like that all day?”

Shao Zhan repeated himself a second time: “Button them.”

Xu Sheng clicked his tongue and reluctantly buttoned the second one. “Let’s make a compromise, this is as far as it goes. Any higher and I can’t take it.”

From jumping the wall to falling unconscious to finishing the reflection, it was already 10 PM. There was no point in agonizing over their current supernatural problem; there simply wasn’t an answer. Rather than mulling it over, it was more practical to just pin their hopes on closing their eyes and waking up to find they had swapped back.

Fortunately, the dorm building only required signing in and out, and the dorm supervisor didn’t do room checks after lights out. They decided it was best to sleep in their original rooms.

When Shao Zhan was leaving, Xu Sheng leaned against the doorway. A thought suddenly popped into his head: “Are you taking a shower tonight?”

The moment this question was voiced, both of them froze.

After Shao Zhan left, Xu Sheng turned off the lights and groped his way into the bathroom in the dark.

He didn’t know what Shao Zhan’s situation was over there. Even though he knew he couldn’t hide forever, he decided to avoid it for as long as he could. When he undressed with his eyes closed, pushed open the glass door with his eyes closed, and relied on feeling to turn the shower knob with his eyes closed… a torrential downpour of scalding hot water immediately poured over him. He couldn’t help but curse, his eyes snapping open violently: “Fuck me!”

Taking this shower was truly arduous.

Xu Sheng felt like he was going crazy.

On the verge of a breakdown, Xu Sheng haphazardly rinsed the soap out of his hair. Only then did he belatedly notice that his back hurt a little.

He turned off the shower, lowered his head to shake the water from his hair, pulled over a towel and hung it around his neck. He figured he might have scraped against the pebbles on the ground when he fell earlier, and the hot water just now had magnified the pain of the wound.

Relying on the faint light streaming in from the window, Xu Sheng leaned close to the sink mirror and turned sideways to look.

Because the human body has limited mobility, even though Xu Sheng twisted his neck until it nearly broke, he could only see half of a shoulder. To be honest, Shao Zhan’s figure was genuinely quite nice—he had everything he should have, even abs. At seventeen or eighteen, having some muscle wasn’t exaggerated, exuding a youthful vitality unique to teenage boys.

His shoulder blades were prominent, lean and…

And…

Xu Sheng’s adjectives suddenly got stuck.

He paused before leaning closer to the mirror. The angle made it hard to see clearly, and his neck was already unbearably sore, but if he wasn’t blind, there was definitely a tattoo on Shao Zhan’s shoulder blade.

Linjiang Sixth High was a very traditional, academic-oriented school with many strict rules. The offenses Xu Sheng usually committed were already considered “felonies,” but even adding ten of them together probably couldn’t compare to this one rule the Study God had broken: Students are strictly forbidden from having tattoos during their time at school.

Shao Zhan’s usual demeanor was like that of a disciplinary committee member, and he could even recite the school rules backward. Yet he actually had a tattoo?

Xu Sheng froze for a moment, not looking any further, and only then realized he seemed to have stumbled upon a secret.

Shao Zhan’s situation wasn’t much better.

He closed the door. The dorm room was exactly as it had been yesterday, with a freshly completed College Entrance Examination Mock Paper spread open on the desk. Nothing had changed.

A few minutes later, he was bare-chested, hesitating to proceed to the next step. During this standstill, he noticed something around his neck resting against his chest, cold to the touch. Looking down, he discovered it was a key.

Who would have thought that the dignified school tyrant would wear a key around his neck?

For a split second, Shao Zhan thought of those pitiful, homeless children. But upon facing the reflection in the mirror—a face whose very eyebrows and eyes screamed the words “Improper, Don’t Mess With Me”—he quickly banished that thought from his mind.

This night was destined to be a sleepless one.

Both of them were thinking that maybe a good sleep would fix it, and when they opened their eyes the next morning, he would still be the same…

Xu Sheng and Shao Zhan lay wide awake until midnight before finally falling asleep. They were subsequently woken up by the sunlight streaming in from the window. Raising an arm to cover their eyes, they rested for a moment before getting up.

When washing up and facing the mirror again, the despair-inducing face was still there.

Thus, they were forced to admit a cruel reality:

Xu Sheng was still that “Shao Zhan.”

And Shao Zhan was still that “Xu Sheng.”

At this hour, the campus was already bustling under the morning sun. Students were continuously finishing up their grooming and walking out of the dorm building. “See you at the cafeteria.”

“Hey, did you finish your homework? Let me use it for reference later.”

“Is that referencing? That’s copying!”

“We’re bros, why draw such a clear line? Your homework is my homework.”

“…”

Xu Sheng cupped some water in his hands and buried his face in it. After a night had passed, he realized he no longer had any thoughts about their current situation.

Sometimes, human adaptability is just that strong.

He believed that no matter what happened today, he would be able to remain unruffled and handle it calmly.

Thinking this, Xu Sheng finished washing up and pulled open his door. By sheer coincidence, the door to the dorm across the hall opened at the exact same time. Then he saw “Xu Sheng” appear in the doorway wearing a school uniform.

Xu Sheng’s rationality began to waver: “…”

The shock Shao Zhan received wasn’t small either. “Shao Zhan” was wearing a T-shirt with a letter pattern and ripped jeans, looking as if he was going skateboarding on the streets the next second.

Their heights weren’t much different, and the clothes were all one-size-fits-all, so they could barely manage to wear each other’s outfits.

Xu Sheng and Shao Zhan rarely spoke in such perfect unison or shared the exact same thought: “What are you wearing?!”

Xu Sheng: “I don’t wear school uniforms. Since you are currently in my body…” Upon saying this, he suddenly realized how suggestive that sounded. He paused, then added, “Anyway, take it off right now.”

Shao Zhan’s expression was just as bad. He said coldly, “You change your clothes too.”

In the end, both of them took a step back. After changing clothes, they verbally agreed on three basic rules:

First, don’t break character.

Second, don’t break character.

Third, don’t break character.

Although they didn’t know when this situation would end, a well-behaved good student suddenly letting loose would be a massive shock to the teachers, classmates, and the good student himself. The same applied to the bad student.

The three rules were established.

Shao Zhan asked, “What do you usually do during morning study hall?”

Xu Sheng: “Sleep.”

Xu Sheng felt that might still be a bit difficult for Shao Zhan, so he added, “If you can’t sleep, I have two manga volumes in my desk. Your turn.”

Summarizing their morning study hall routines like this felt incredibly bizarre. Shao Zhan remained silent for a moment before saying, “Memorize vocabulary, collect homework.”

Xu Sheng thought about it: That’s not too hard.

Both of them tacitly avoided mentioning the tattoo and the key.

Strictly speaking, those were personal privacy matters. They were currently in a special situation, and besides, their relationship wasn’t close enough for that.

By the time they finished breakfast and entered the classroom, most of the students in Class 7 had already arrived.

After entering the class, Xu Sheng dug around for ages before finding a college entrance exam English vocabulary booklet. He casually flipped to a page and propped up his chin, starting to read.

Shao Zhan’s desk mate was a male student who wore glasses. Xu Sheng didn’t have a deep impression of him, but since they only had an aisle between them, he knew the guy studied quite seriously and belonged to the bookworm type.

Xu Sheng hadn’t flipped past a few pages of the vocabulary booklet when the desk mate carefully poked him with a pen.

Xu Sheng turned his head. “Do you need something?”

The desk mate’s reverence for the Study God usually flowed like a raging river. He had an introverted personality and looked a bit shy, even embarrassed to speak. Xu Sheng saw him flush red, as if mustering immense courage, before pulling out a High School Mathematics Enhancement Workbook from behind his back. “Study God, there’s a function problem. I read the answer key, but I still don’t quite understand it.”

As the desk mate spoke, he flipped open the green-covered workbook that made Xu Sheng’s liver tremble for a moment.

Given the functions f(x)=|x-a| and g(x)=x^2+2ax+1 (where a is a positive constant), and the graphs of the functions f(x) and g(x) have equal y-intercepts.
(1) Find the value of a.
(2) Find the monotonically increasing interval of the function f(x)+g(x).
(3) If n is a positive integer, prove: 10^f(n) * (4/5)^g(n) < 4.

Separately, Xu Sheng recognized all of these characters.

Put together in a sentence, he couldn’t understand a single one.

He even wanted to ask Shao Zhan’s desk mate: What is a y-intercept?

He also really wanted to ask Shao Zhan himself: Why wasn’t ‘explaining problems to your desk mate’ included in your promised morning study hall activities? I don’t know how to do this fucking problem.