Chapter 1: 1

‘Xinghai Cup’ selection round.

‘Xinghai Cup’ was a large-scale art competition hosted by A City. There was a terrifying amount of big names this time around, including a renowned professor from a famous art academy who was acting as a judge. Because of the large scale and infrequency of the competition, it was quite apparent how difficult it was. 

There were a total of ten finalists from various art schools. Each one was a virtuous artist; their drawing skills were so high they would basically be automatically accepted into famous schools like Tsinghua Academy of the Arts or Central Academy of Fine Arts as long as they signed up for the college entrance exams.

The selection round was halfway done, and second and third place had already been decided. It was time to choose the first place.

 

 

The competition this time had been so fierce partly because of a judge—elderly Yang Mingzong, a legendary figure in the art world. Not a single artist didn’t respect him, and not a single person didn’t set him as their goal.

Along with the ceaseless sounds of a cane tapping against the floor, an elderly man went through the remaining eight artworks and finally stopped in front of one of them. 

This artwork was just as good as the others surrounding it.

 

The elderly man was Yang Mingzong. After he stopped, he glanced at the contestant’s name: Kang Kai.

The other judges were all his juniors and followed behind Yang Mingzong. When they saw he had finally chosen this artwork, they sighed. “The old sir’s eyes are good; this piece stands out.”

It didn’t just stand out.

 

Even a single glance revealed that it was on a different level compared to the other contestants’ works. The strokes of the brush left an extremely powerful impression.

But this was not the reason Yang Mingzong chose this piece.

“Who helped you change the piece?”

 

Although the painting was excellent, Yang Mingzong immediately noticed that the painting had been altered by someone else. The person who had changed it had only used a few strokes to elevate the entire level of the artwork. The skills used were obviously different from the other sections of the painting. 

The competition allowed for mentors and cooperative works. This was not a violation.

This kind of high-quality work that evoked a sense of religious affinity in people was something Yang Mingzong had very rarely seen in his dozens of years teaching art.

“Sheng ge, I met Yang Mingzong today! He’s so amazing, he immediately saw that you had changed my artwork.”

“He also asked me who had changed it.” 

“Seriously, what kind of person are you. You didn’t even let me say your name. Is it really worth hiding so deeply?”

“He’s definitely interested in those strokes you drew. There were so many contestants and he only chatted with me.”

In the school corridor, a person leaned against the corner at the entrance of the staircase during class time. Because the light was blocked, only the youth’s t-shirt was visible, swaying in the wind. He was very tall, with long, thin fingers. After listening to the voice message, he tapped it again, and listened to it once more.

“…Sheng ge, if you participated, I bet you’d be immediately taken away and won’t even have to take your college entrance exams. You could attend any school you wanted to.” 

After Xu Sheng replayed the message, he paused for a very long time before loosening up.

After a while, he laughed and thought to himself, fool, no one would give up their college entrance exams.

 

The name at the top of the chat was Kang Kai.

Kang Kai was his childhood friend and his neighbour in his apartment building. His family ran an art studio. Kang Kai had learned about the Xinghai Cup fairly late and almost missed the registration deadline. He didn’t have time to start from scratch and could only use an old artwork—this old artwork had been his pride and joy when he had painted it a year ago, and Xu Sheng had helped him change it up. 

At the end of the corridor, Class Seven of the second years.

The homeroom teacher entered the classroom and glanced at the empty seat in the back row. He frowned, and failed to refrain from asking, “Where is Xu Sheng—is he skipping class again? Is he not clear on how he did during the preliminary assessment and still dares to skip class? If anyone sees him, have him come to my office after class.”

Lin Jiang Sixth High School’s 2018 preliminary assessment test, literature exam.

Test time 150 minutes, total points 150. 

Examinee’s score: 48.

Mathematics: 36.

English: 22.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

General sciences: 59. 

…

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In the name field, two characters were scrawled messily like weeds, but the penmanship was swift and fierce.

Examinee’s name: Xu Sheng. 

“Take a look at your scores for this preliminary assessment test.”

“An average score of 30 marks is a huge gap, never mind rushing for college entrance exams, I think at your level, you’ll have to retake junior high!”

The voice of the headteacher, Meng Guowei, kept rising as he continued to talk, all the way until his shouting could be heard by people walking in the corridor outside the office. “Which of these questions haven’t I already gone through in class, these are all free marks! If I scatter some rice on the test paper, a chicken blindly pecking at the questions would get more correct than you did. What is going on with you—did you come to school to learn or to slack away your days?!”

Xu Sheng had been standing in the office for six minutes. 

He had heard similar words countless times before. He looked off into the distance. His gaze fell on the clock on the wall behind Meng Guowei, and he made a guess that the classic “If you don’t want to learn then get out while it’s still early” would make an appearance next.

As expected.

 

With a ‘bam’, Meng Guowei slammed the stack of detained test papers on the corner of the desk. “I don’t care what you were like before, but now that you’re in Class Seven of your second year, you better buckle up. If you don’t want to learn properly, then get out while it’s still early!”

Xu Sheng looked very sleepy, and closed his eyes a bit, clearly indicating that he didn’t want to listen to anyone’s crap. 

Meng Guowei, “…”

Although Meng Guowei’s words were harsh, his heart was soft.

In fact, he didn’t really dare speak to this student, but since he had just taken over this class, he had to demonstrate his authority.

The second years had just split classes. No one knew what the school was thinking; it was probably to balance the classes, so they shoved two ‘number ones’ into his class—the number one student in the grade and the number one from the bottom—both of them had come over. 

The youth standing beside his office table was out of place with the environment of the entire office.

The students coming in and out of the office were all wearing their school uniforms properly. He was the only one wearing a black graphic t-shirt. Even upon closer inspection, it was hard to tell clearly what the image was.

The youth was tall and thin, his eyes droopy as though he hadn’t slept enough during morning study. As he stood there, he looked like he didn’t care about anything.

In his many years of teaching, this was the first time Meng Guowei had met a problem student who had scores so low it was bizarre, had broken the rules inside and outside of the school more times than he could even count on ten fingers, and who never wore the school uniform. 

No matter how one looked at it, Lin Jiang Sixth High School was a key high school. However, it wasn’t among the top of the key schools in A District and its scores had barely qualified it to rise from the status of a normal high school two years ago.

For the time being, Meng Guowei let the matter of this preliminary test go and said, “Where did you go again after yesterday’s exam, did you sneak out of school?”

When he said this, the youth forced himself to stand straighter, asking carelessly, “Did someone see me leave the school?”

Meng Guowei, “No, not that.” 

Xu Sheng was quiet for a moment. “The surveillance cameras caught it?”

Meng Guowei, “… Also no.”

Xu Sheng was obviously confirming if his sneaking out of school had been carried out without leaving any evidence behind. Only then did he reply magnanimously, “I didn’t leave the school.”

“…” 

Meng Guowei organised his thoughts in his head as he thought of all the other things he wanted to say.

But Xu Sheng really didn’t have the patience anymore.

 

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“Teacher,” he said, “if it’s because of my grades, then we can stop discussing here. You teach your classes, whether or not I study and how much I study is my own business. You really don’t have to tell me all this.”

Xu Sheng’s voice wasn’t very loud and the noisy office was filled with the sounds of book pages being flipped, the voices of teachers in various departments, and the laughter and chatter of classmates as they went in and out. His words were spoken casually and didn’t attract anyone’s attention. 

But Meng Guowei heard his words very clearly. He was stunned by this casual and impudent remark and could only say after a few moments, “What are you saying, is this the attitude you should be using to talk with a teacher—then what’s the point of you coming to school?!”

Xu Sheng did not dodge his gaze.

It was only then that Meng Guowei discovered that the youth in front of him had not only broken the school rules by not wearing his uniform, but he even had an earring stud in his right ear. It was a black crystal set in a ringed layer of silver. Although the black earring could not be considered low-key at all, it was half hidden by his messy fringe.

What’s the point of you coming to school? 

This phrase spun around a few times in Xu Sheng’s head.

“Just take it as if I’m here to muddle along.” After a while, Xu Sheng reached his hand out and withdrew the exam papers from the desk. He grasped them and said unconcernedly, “Don’t mind me.”

In the entire class, only Xu Sheng’s paper had been detained. When he took his paper back to class, the initially enthusiastic class fell silent, as though someone had suddenly pressed the mute button on a movie that had been playing perfectly fine.

A boy in the front row of the class had his butt out as he leaned over a table, his arm reaching over to the second row to steal a classmate’s biscuits. When he saw Xu Sheng return, he strangely held that position and remained unmoving. 

“The school tyrant’s killing aura is too strong,” that boy said softly. “I don’t dare to move. I’m really tired like this. That, that biscuit of yours, just let me eat one…”

To the second year students of Class Seven, the moment they saw their class list, their mood could only be described by the word ‘suffocation’.

Two days ago, the students of that year had stood fearfully in front of the school entrance.

“What class is Xu Sheng in?” 

“Oh, Class Seven. That’s good, I’m in Class Six.”

“Fuck, I’m in Class Seven…”

“What luck is this, xiongdi. Hang in there, there are only two years of high school left. It’s only two years, time passes like a white horse’s shadow over a crevice. It’ll be over soon.”

What kind of person was Xu Sheng? 

The famous school tyrant.

The famous anomaly of the school.

 

Because he didn’t wear his uniform in his first year, the Head of that year lost his temper many times; he had made him stand as punishment, called his parents, and even made him stand in front of the whole school and do a disciplinary review. In the end, it didn’t work at all, and he still didn’t wear the uniform as he should.

There was no one else who was like this in the past ten or so years at Lin Jiang Sixth High School, a school where its teachers were extremely experienced, the school spirit rigorous, and the motto was ‘civility and harmony, diligence and truth’. 

Xu Sheng walked past all of them and headed towards the last row.

Even after walking out of the office, the t-shirt and jeans on his body didn’t fit in with their surroundings, and in the sea of grey-blue uniforms in the classroom, it stood out even more.

He was tall, and since he had arrived late that day, there were only two seats left available in the class. Other than the last row, he had no other seats to choose from. The remaining seat was on his left, across the aisle. It had been empty since yesterday. Apparently that student was on leave.

Xu Sheng didn’t care who the owner of that empty seat was. He pulled out a chair, planning on continuing to sleep. When he pulled out the chair, the boy sitting in the row in front of him couldn’t help but tremble as he held his pen. 

Xu Sheng thought about it for a while. With his hand on his chair, he bent down slightly, and used his other hand to pat the other boy’s shoulder.

The pen in the boy’s hand nearly flew out. He had no choice but to turn around. “What… What orders do you have for me?”

Xu Sheng, “Don’t you feel cramped?”

“Ah?” 

Xu Sheng pointed to the boy’s chest that was tightly pressed to the edge of his desk, observing that the range of motion he had left for himself did not exceed 30cm. If he wanted to go to the toilet, then the only way left to do so was to slide his whole body down,  squat, then crawl out from under his desk. Xu Sheng asked again, “Don’t you feel cramped?”

That boy opened his mouth, “I…”

Of course I do, but I don’t dare to say it! And I dare even less to get close to you!

Xu Sheng waited for a reply until he was tired, then moved his desk back a little. 

The first class of the morning was English. Xu Sheng was ready to lie down and meet Zhou Gong when someone knocked twice on the window beside him.

A few heads worked hard to open the window, and peeked in through the outside corridor. “Boss.”

Xu Sheng placed his hands on the back of his neck, and tilted his head slightly when he heard the voices. “I want to sleep. If you have a fart, let it out quickly.”

The leader of this group of people had trendy, thick bangs. His skin was a little dark, but he had a very energetic look. He sighed and said, “We’ve been split too far apart this time. You’re in Class Seven, I’m in Class One, the start and end. How are we going to play games together in class from now on?” 

Although Xu Sheng was famous, most people avoided him. But at this youthful, hot-blooded age, boys sometimes didn’t need any special conditions to hang out together, just playing a couple of games was enough. Xu Sheng’s popularity was really not bad. In every class during the first year, there was always a circle of people in the back row of the class.

Sometimes, gaming skills were much more practical than academic results.

 

The first time that Xu Sheng and Zhang Feng started playing games together began when Xu Sheng first stood in front of the school and did his self-reflection. At that time, after Xu Sheng had finished reading his reflection, his last sentence was “I was wrong, but I don’t promise that I won’t do it again.”

After saying that, the whole school was in an uproar. 

After he got off the flag-raising podium, Zhang Feng sincerely said to him, “Fuck, you’re pretty amazing.”

Zhang Feng continued, “You went to the teacher’s office just now? I heard you made our class’ Old Meng so angry he could choke.”

Xu Sheng declined to comment.

After Zhang Feng had finished lamenting, he continued attempting to look into the classroom through the window. This time, not only did he stick his whole head in, the upper half of his body also squeezed in so he could look around all of the second year’s Class Seven. 

Xu Sheng was quite overwhelmed. He leaned back. He had long legs, and even with his legs bent, they still stretched out quite a long distance. “What the hell are you here for?”

Zhang Feng finally revealed his true goal. “We’re here to see the study god.”

Xu Sheng, who only cared about sleeping after the preliminary assessments and didn’t care at all about who the other students in his class were, “?”

“No, ‘see’ isn’t an appropriate enough word, it should be paying tribute, yes, I’m here to pay tribute to the study god,” Zhang Feng said. “––The one who scored first in the entire school for the high school entrance exams, then won first prize in the municipal league in the first year of high school, the one who was made into a poster and placed on the wall of honour at the entrance of the school, that one. Don’t you know? Your class is really interesting this year. There’s you, and there’s the study god.” 

After hearing this, Xu Sheng suddenly laughed.

He waved at Zhang Feng. “You, come here. Come closer.”

Zhang Feng innocently came closer.

Xu Sheng simply rolled up the test paper he had brought back from the teacher’s office and smacked him on the head with it. “Fucking hell, do you want to get beaten up? If you want to see the study god, then go see the study god, yet you still talk shit? It will be pretty interesting if today you came in here standing upright but went out sideways. Do you want to try?” 

“I was wrong, da ge, I shouldn’t have asked you.” Zhang Feng bent at the waist and retreated backwards, muttering as he hid, “But, da ge, how come I’ve been searching the whole day but haven’t found him. Has everyone in your class arrived?”

Indeed, not everyone had arrived yet.

Xu Sheng tossed his test paper onto the table, his gaze sweeping across the narrow aisle and falling on the empty seat.

In the teacher’s office. 

The class bell rang. Meng Guowei was still deep in thought about the conversation he had just had with that problem student in his new class, and was unable to snap himself out of it for quite a long time.

A teacher carrying their lesson plans passed by and saw that he was still studying Xu Sheng’s scores. They stopped in their steps and said, “Meng laoshi, don’t think too much about it. That child has always been like that. When he was in his first year, many teachers tried to catch him to no avail. If it doesn’t work out, just let it go. Not every student wants to study hard.”

 

Meng Guowei was different from other teachers. His temper flared up. “I still don’t believe that I’m unable to change him for the better. I, Meng Guowei, have not had the words ‘give up’ in my dictionary in my twenty years of teaching.”

“Meng laoshi, I’ll support you in spirit.” That teacher looked at the time and said, “Ai, no more talk, I have to get to class.” 

Apparently other teachers had been interested in this conversation, and asked while reviewing homework assignments, “Lao Meng, do you have a plan?”

Just now when Meng Guowei was deep in thought, he had also been reading a few books titled “How to Correctly Guide Students”, and it really had given him an idea. “He might be resistant towards teachers. I’ll try a one-on-one method and find a good student to lead him.”

As Meng Guowei said that, he pulled over another stack of test papers.

Xu Sheng was not the only person to have had his test papers detained. There had been another stack of test papers beside Xu Sheng’s, just that the reason for detaining it was very different—Xu Sheng’s test scores were just too terrible, while this stack’s answers were just too good, and had been kept by the teacher as an example. Several copies had been printed and distributed to each of the classes. 

Other than the six marks deducted from the language paper, the other subjects all had full scores.

At the top of the stack of test papers, the first line wrote: Lin Jiang Sixth High School 2018 First Preliminary Assessment, Mathematics, Full Score 150, Score 150.

Examinee’s Name: Shao Zhan.

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