Chapter 12: 12

Coming face to face with “yourself” was an intriguing feeling. Xu Sheng was a little dumbfounded while he slept. At one point he’d think he was still in a dream, and after a while he would realise that this was a reality that he and Shao Zhan were currently experiencing. A reality more intriguing than a dream. 

Shao Zhan woke up earlier than him. First, he accepted the fact that he was still “Xu Sheng” today. He passed his book bag over. “Go to the classroom and hand in the homework.”

Usually, he wouldn’t bring his book bag back to the dorm. The bits of homework that each subject teacher assigned could be finished during class time, but now it wasn’t convenient to do them during class.

 

 

Xu Sheng took the bag and carried it in his hand. He was remembering what he usually did during morning self-study. After he finished recalling it, he said with admiration, “You can go back to sleep. Wait for the others to finish their exercise and then head to the classroom. I don’t really self-study in the morning.”

The frequency of Xu Sheng self-studying in the morning really wasn’t high. If he could persist for three days in a week, the teachers would start to wonder if the sun was rising from the west. 

If he were to go day after day, it wouldn’t fit with his usual habits.

 

Shao Zhan was silent for a while, and glossed over the part about going back to sleep. “Hand over your copybook.”

Xu Sheng pointed to the study desk, gesturing for him to go over and check it himself.

The first few pages of practice Xu Sheng had done had been written quite seriously, each line and stroke written according to the steps. However, this piece of patient didn’t persist past a few pages. After fix or six, the writing became messier and messier, going for speed and not quality. The grids couldn’t even contain him.

 

A youth’s personality was wild; the words carried that insuppressible aura.

Shao Zhan flipped to the very end and stared at the way Xu Sheng had broken away from “standard script” to create his own style of writing unlike any other.

Xu Sheng holstered the backpack and followed Shao Zhan. Taking advantage of the time he spent flipping through the pages, with one hand resting on the edge of the table, he asked stubbornly, “Zhang Feng remembered wrong. I’ve never described you like that. Am I really the type of person who would talk about others behind their backs like this… I’m not asking for too much. If 10 pages isn’t enough, how about fifteen.”

 

Shao Zhan closed the copybook, and said a sentence that made Xu Sheng’s heart die. “If you write like this again tomorrow, it’ll be thirty pages a day.” 

Xu Sheng, “…”

After inspecting the copybook, in order to confront any possible emergency situations that might occur today, the two of them decided to communicate each other’s usual habits during class.

After communication.

Shao Zhan instructed one last time, “No sleeping during morning self-study. After exercise, hand in assignments.” 

Xu Sheng agreed readily. “Okay, then remember to go and ask Gu Yanwang for the manhua book back.”

It was the morning self-study period. Xu Sheng sat in the classroom, facing the English vocabulary manual and daydreaming.

During that time, a teacher came over to instruct the class representative to come to his office later. He raised his gaze and saw that the seat beside Xu Sheng was empty. He frowned, but didn’t say anything, not surprised that after Xu Sheng had mustered coming to self-study for one day, he skipped on the second day.

Gao Zhibo was separated from him by an aisle, and it wasn’t convenient even if he wanted to ask a question. 

The two students in the front seat had just been switched over because of the study god. He didn’t feel comfortable asking them either.

Xu Sheng was uncharacteristically awake for once. He even felt like the college exam English vocabulary manual in front of him had become more pleasing to the eye. He was really too bored; after staring at the list for half an hour, he had actually memorised most of them.

 

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.

After the exercises, Xu Sheng counted the homework assignments and went to Meng Guowei’s office.

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Ktf We Vtfcu ktb tjv kjcafv ab ifjnf joafg aegclcu lc atf tbwfkbgx, “…”

Meng Guowei turned the laptop screen towards him. “Look at these two questions.”

Xu Sheng scooted over a bit. The screen displayed two literature comprehension questions.

He… didn’t understand. 

If he had to answer these on the spot, he would be able to perfectly miss all the main points.

Good thing Meng Guowei also didn’t want him to answer the questions. He was just too conflicted and thought that both questions were excellent, and was unable to choose which one to leave for the students. “According to the contents of our next class’s coursework, which reading comprehension question do you think is better to give to everyone?”

It was easy to talk as long as it wasn’t doing problem sets. Xu Sheng’s mood was now very calm. “I feel like each question has its own specialty.”

Meng Guowei also thought like this. 

Truth be told, within these two comprehension questions, one passage was lyrical, the other argumentative.

Xu Sheng glanced up at the time on the clock. Rather than deciding which question to pose, he was more concerned whether Shao Zhan had left the dorm and whether he had gotten the manhua back yet.

Meng Guowei, “Then in your opinion, which should I choose?”

Xu Sheng realised that he had been Shao Zhan for too long. He could subconsciously already guess Shao Zhan’s temperament. He said to himself, I’m currently Shao Zhan. I’m the study god. What is the reasoning pattern of a study god? 

As Meng Guowei fretted, he heard “Shao Zhan” call out “Teacher” with a cold, calm expression.

Xu Sheng said with a cold, calm expression, “Both of these questions are equally easy for me… You want me to choose, but I really can’t tell the difference.”

Shao Zhan went over a practice math exam in the dorm before leaving the dorm just in time.

As soon as the flag raising ceremony ended, the crowd poured out of the field and separated into two groups at the basketball court. One went in the direction of the school buildings while the other went to the little convenience store across the school cafeteria. 

The little convenience store was in the same direction as the dormitories. Sharp-eyed students saw him from afar and avoided him.

On the second day of being “Xu Sheng”, Shao Zhan couldn’t really say what kind of feeling this gave him.

 

He went up the stairs in twos and threes.

Gu Yanwang’s office was on the third floor. 

When Shao Zhan arrived, there were already a few people lined up outside the office entrance. They had all been caught violating the school rules by Gu Yanwang that morning. The office door was open. Gu Yanwang summoned them like a king, finishing scolding one before calling out, “Next—”

Gu Yanwang called out a few times, and raised his head. “Xu Sheng?”

Gu Yanwang reflected in closer detail and realized he hadn’t asked Xu Sheng to come to his office. He sat in his office chair with his hands folded together, preparing himself for a battle. “What did you come here for? Did you break some rule and was bothered by your guilty conscience so you came to confess?”

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Shao Zhan didn’t know how Xu Sheng usually took back the things that had been confiscated. He chose a phrase that wouldn’t go wrong in order to touch upon the subject. “Director Gu, can you return the manhua to me.” 

Gu Yanwang had long since forgotten about confiscating his manhua. He also wasn’t the type of person who wouldn’t return things after taking them away, but Xu Sheng wouldn’t mend his ways and had butted against him many times. He sat up sharply. “You still have the face to ask me for it?!”

Shao Zhan, “…”

Gu Yanwang had caught onto an opportunity and began bringing up old scores for a thorough scolding. “Forget about the fact that you usually don’t listen properly in class, but you leave school all day. Do you think I don’t know about the time you climbed over the wall to go out after school— A few days ago, another student confessed to me that they saw you at the internet cafe fighting with a few others. I didn’t call for you but you’ve brought yourself to my door for this. Tell me, what exactly happened with the fight at the internet cafe?!”

Shao Zhan was speechless. 

How was he supposed to know what had happened at the internet cafe.

He only came for the manhua.

There were many legends about Xu Sheng. Although Shao Zhan didn’t pay attention to them, he had heard of a few.

Even though Xu Sheng rarely got caught climbing the wall, he leisurely ran around the school all day long. Gradually, the rumours of “fighting people outside school” became more and more heated, from something like fighting 1 vs. 5 against the neighbouring school today to making an appointment with some big bro tomorrow for a fight to the death. 

And as for these rumours that no one had personally witnessed, Xu Sheng had never denied them.

Good thing it was almost time for class. Gu Yanwang saw that there were still several people lined up for a scolding behind Shao Zhan and decided to reasonably organise his time. Thus, he didn’t plan on wasting any more words with “Xu Sheng”. “Will you dare to read unrelated books during class next time?”

He was currently Xu Sheng.

If Xu Sheng were here, how would he respond? 

Gu Yanwang saw Shao Zhan sink into deep thought for two seconds before saying four words with a cold face that almost made him unable to endure his anger on the spot. “I still dare.”

Neither of them realised that it was sometimes counterproductive to maintain their counterpart’s personality in order to be considerate to each other.

 

Shao Zhan entered the classroom just as the bell rang. When he pulled his seat out to sit down, Xu Sheng put his pen down. “Where’s my manhua? What did Gu Yanwang say.”

Shao Zhan conveyed to him the words Gu Yanwang had told him before he had left. “He said, get the hell out.” 

“…”

Although Xu Sheng thought this was strange, when he thought carefully, he realised this was within his expectations. Gu Yanwang really wasn’t very easy to talk to and this ‘get the hell out’ was also very much his style. “Is his temper really that explosive today? Fine, I’ll go myself next time.”

This class was marked as physical education on their schedules, but normally, they would usually have other lessons.

Someone in the classroom asked, “Class president, what class are we taking this time?” 

Class Seven’s class president was a tall boy with a short haircut. Because he was thin, he slightly resembled a monkey. Other than the title of class president, everyone usually also called him Hou ge. “Yesterday, the math teacher started fighting with the English teacher over this. They went crazy trying to snatch the spot. I’m also not clear which family’s house the class flower landed in today..”

His words had just been said when the class broke out into desolate sighs.

In the end, the English teacher was the one who entered the classroom.

For Xu Sheng, at least the other classes involved speaking human speech. Forcing himself to not fall asleep to listen to class was possible, but he couldn’t understand English nor read it. Xu Sheng was bored from listening and poked at Shao Zhan with a pen. 

“Don’t move around during class.”

“If I don’t move any more I’ll fall asleep.” Xu Sheng leaned his head back. “Don’t always play this game, remember to do the daily logins for the other games, there’s gifts.”

Shao Zhan ignored him.

Xu Sheng really couldn’t stay awake anymore. An icy cold face was still more interesting than English class. He took out his phone and said, “Have we added each other as friends yet?” 

Their relationship wasn’t to the point of adding each other as friends, but the situation now was rather special. In this age of being online, there would be no way to contact the other if anything happened after school.

Thinking of this, Shao Zhan didn’t reject him. “I’ll add you next class.”

Xu Sheng threw his phone into the pocket under his desk. “Sure.”

Shao Zhan’s username and profile picture was exactly like his person; it was immersed in a dense feeling of “I have no emotions.” His profile picture was the default avatar and his username was just his actual name. It was simple and crude. 

Xu Sheng’s sunlit selfie was gaudy in comparison, even though the so-called selfie was just his shadow against the light.

Xu Sheng didn’t know what to send and only left a note so the other party wouldn’t forget who he was after adding him.

 

S: Xu Sheng.

After a day of class, it could be said that not much had happened. After the last class of the day which was literature, Xu Sheng was called over by Meng Guowei. “Shao Zhan, come here for a moment, distribute the marked homework for everyone.” 

Xu Sheng had just walked forward.

Shao Zhan finished organising the homework and was about to leave from the back door of the classroom when a male student basically rushed up and pounced on him. “Boss—”

Zhang Feng pounced on empty air, then turned his head towards “Xu Sheng.” He said enthusiastically, “Let’s go.”

Go where. 

Zhang Feng said, “I’ve already saved the spot in the internet cafe. My mom isn’t home today, I can play a few more rounds!”

Shao Zhan hadn’t thought of an excuse to refuse when a few more people popped up from behind Zhang Feng. They were all classmates who hung out with Xu Sheng during their first year. “Let’s go, we haven’t hung out like this in a long time.”

With so many people around talking, Shao Zhan didn’t get the chance to speak and was pushed out the school gate by them.

There were quite a few people inside the internet cafe. Shao Zhan was pressed down in front of a computer by the others. He turned on the computer and remembered that he had just added Xu Sheng as a friend during class. 

He tapped open the chat called “S”: Hurry up and

He didn’t finish typing the three words ‘get over here’.

The glass doors of the internet cafe that would open with a bang every time someone entered banged again. A few people rushed in furiously! They weren’t very old and looked very hip, craning their necks around as if they were looking for someone.

The internet cafe was already loud. Shao Zhan raised his gaze impatiently after hearing that sound. 

His gaze just happened to meet the people’s eyes.

In the next second, Shao Zhan saw one of them begin shivering over-excitedly. He stretched out a finger to point at him, shouting out, “You still have the face to come?!” After this, the person turned around and said, “Boss, I’ve found him, it’s him!”

For a moment, the words Gu Yanwang had asked him in his office as he pointed at him overlapped with the scene in front of him: Exactly what happened with the fight at the internet cafe?!

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