Chapter 26: 24

These icy cold and emotionless vibrant red scores that led people to despair lay side by side on the desk. For a time, the room fell into a deathly silence.

Shao Zhan quietly set down the red pen. Neither of them wanted to take the lead in breaking the silence. 

Shao Zhan, “…”

Xu Sheng, “…”

 

 

After a while, Shao Zhan spat out three words with much difficulty in order to comfort both the examinee and himself. “You have improved.”

Faced with this terrible score, Xu Sheng couldn’t possibly imagine how he had improved. “You can even praise this kind of score, are you trying to comfort me?” 

Shao Zhan, “If you had taken a 150 point exam paper without studying, you would have gotten the same number of points.”

 

Xu Sheng, “……”

Shao Zhan continued, “This exam paper has a total of 100 points.”

Xu Sheng had no idea if he was supposed to be happy or not at this moment.

 

It could be said for sure that compared to his previous scores, Xu Sheng’s points had certainly improved. If this had been changed to a 150 point exam paper, then his average score really had gone up by leaps and bounds. Meng Guowei would actually shed tears of emotion, offering Xu Sheng’s papers up for display. “The Buddha has shown signs of enlightenment, Xu Sheng has actually scored this kind of score, is this our Class Seven’s Xu Sheng? He finally wants to study!”

After Shao Zhan had finished speaking, he began looking carefully at the parts Xu Sheng had gotten wrong, looking for the places that he had lost marks in.

The score was just one part of it. Xu Sheng’s foundations were weak, and one wouldn’t be able to understand where he was lacking just by looking at his score. A simple example would be that if one question needed three steps to get to the final answer, the previous Xu Sheng wouldn’t even have been able to get one step down.

 

But after Shao Zhan had compiled all the calculations done by Xu Sheng, he discovered that Xu Sheng had at least gotten one step right. 

Sometimes, he even got two.

Although Xu Sheng didn’t like studying, with Shao Zhan breathing down his neck all the time, no one would want to suffer in vain. “I’ve really improved?”

“You could say that,” Shao Zhan said. “Although in the grand scheme of filling in the blank questions, the process isn’t important.”

Xu Sheng, “Then what use is that.” 

Shao Zhan, “But your understanding of the question has gotten better.”

Those words couldn’t comfort Xu Sheng. Xu Sheng only felt more suffocated. “It doesn’t matter what my understanding of the question is, what’s important is what do we do now?”

What do they do now?

A serious problem that the two of them couldn’t avoid facing. 

After switching bodies, they had faced many obstacles, and no matter which one it was, none of them had been as hard as the “monthly exams”. Those peach-blossom looking eyes or whatever it was paled in comparison to the exams.

Shao Zhan initially thought that the exams, for him, would be very easy, but after looking over several of Xu Sheng’s exam papers, he realised he really couldn’t imitate Xu Sheng’s way of thinking.

 

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.

Xu Sheng wasn’t the kind of low-scoring candidate who simply handed in a blank paper. He would always answer the questions he could with his own style of thinking, and of course whatever he wrote would still be wrong. Even the questions that he couldn’t answer, he still filled in, probably because the duration of the exam was too boring, so he would write in some rubbish.

Mbg atf ijcuejuf qjqfg’r frrjs kglalcu, tf jirb kbeivc’a yf jyif ab kglaf rbwf mgjqqs jcv ecgfjrbcjyif qbfags. 

Pc atf ojmf bo vlrjrafg, We Vtfcu uba jc lvfj. Lf tjv yffc tjio ifjclcu jujlcra atf raevs ajyif, yea tf kjr rlaalcu eqgluta lc atf cfza rfmbcv jcv jrxlcu, “Pr atfgf rbwf kjs kf mjc wlrr atf fzjw?”

Missing the exam was probably the only remaining path they could take. If they didn’t take the exam, then wouldn’t the problem be gone?

If they could delay it, then it was still time gained.

The more he thought about it, the more he thought that this was a viable option. 

Shao Zhan remembered the school’s regulations very clearly. He said coldly, “Students must adhere strictly to the rules. Those with special circumstances may be temporarily excused from examinations, and the corresponding notice of re-examination will be issued. One, family emergencies…”

“Emergencies,” Xu Sheng said. “It’s hard to lie about it properly. Pass.”

Shao Zhan began to question what on earth he was doing. He raised a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose and continued, “Two, major illness…”

Shao Zhan had only said those two words and Xu Sheng slapped the table. “This is doable.” 

Shao Zhan looked at him.

Xu Sheng, “Faking sickness, that’s easy.”

“It’s not easy to fake a migraine or a fever, even if you go to the school clinic and they can’t find a problem it’s okay. Just say that school stress is too much, and just bullshit something, as long as the root cause can’t be detected physically we can say that it’s a psychological problem.”

In order to give Shao Zhan some confidence, Xu Sheng continued, “I’ve done this before in the past, anyway it’s way easier than faking a family emergency. Where would we find someone to pretend to be parents and come into school, it would be exposed in a few sentences, and Lao Meng isn’t a fool.” 

The two of them decided on the reason for missing the exams, and confirmed that they would start their plan tomorrow. Before Shao Zhan stood up and left, Xu Sheng tugged at him. “That… The topical medicine you gave me that time, do you still have it? I think I aggravated it too much, and soaking it in water when bathing—the wound is a little itchy.”

As Xu Sheng spoke, he tugged on his shirt collar. The collar of the t-shirt was loose and large, and the tugging exposed a bit of his shoulder, as well as a corner of the tattoo.

After applying the medicine for him, most of the lights in the dormitory had gone out. Shao Zhan took the exam papers and returned to his room.

The door closed, and it was silent once again. 

There were no more excessive noises. Shao Zhan placed the papers on the table. He saw the two characters of Xu Sheng’s name. There wasn’t much difference between Xu Sheng’s writing now and last time. One of the strokes in the “Sheng” character stuck out like a barb.

At this time, his phone screen lit up, with the label “Nanping” in the group chat notification.

 

Shao Zhan didn’t look at it, and just turned off the screen. While the lights hadn’t gone off completely in the dormitory yet, he took the chance to take a shower.

The weather was hot, and the cool water flowed down— 

In these past few days, Shao Zhan had jumped over walls and tutored Xu Sheng, and in the end he had to fail every one of the subject papers. His mind was a bit of a mess. He closed his eyes, and after a while, the image of Xu Sheng while he applied the medicine for him floated to mind, as well as that tattoo.

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Even though he closed his eyes, the image was still clear before his eyes.

It was the first time he had seen it so clearly.

Hundreds of images came to mind, turning and flitting by. Finally, what he saw was the alley beside Nanping Middle School. It was a very familiar sight, with the dilapidated brick walls. It was damp and didn’t get much sunlight, so it was always very dark. There was a person standing in that gloomy alleyway, leaning against the wall. They had their head bowed low, they were tall and their legs were long, and they were wearing a Nanping school uniform. They were wearing a simple t-shirt, and the wind whipping through the alley was nearly making it fly up. 

Because it was so dark, only the spark of the cigarette held between his fingers could be seen.

That light seemed to mimic breathing, growing bright then dark again

Shao Zhan seemed to hear someone in the alley shout “Zhan ge”.

Then, that image slowly started to change. Shao Zhan saw that person lift their head—The corner of the youth’s mouth had an injury from a fight, his gaze was sharp and hostile and cold, eyes were slightly hooded, giving off a rather arrogant vibe. 

That was himself.

…

Clatter.

Shao Zhan turned off the shower and opened his eyes, the water flowing in incessant streams through his hair. 

He opened the bathroom door and went out. His phone wasn’t flashing with notifications from the group chat anymore, instead showing ‘S’.

Xu Sheng had changed his profile picture. The original photo of himself under the rainbow light had been changed to a landscape photo, but it was a little different from normal scenic photos. He didn’t photograph the clear blue sky, but instead the light that had penetrated through clouds to shine on a wall. The shadows formed by hands created the shape of a flying bird upon the wall.

Those two hands were Xu Sheng’s own.

Shao Zhan himself also didn’t know why but after glancing for a moment, he was able to recognise the silhouette. 

S: Leave later tomorrow.

S: I have something to give you.

 

Shao Zhan replied: Give what

S: Mask, pretending to be sick is something that needs foreshadowing. You can’t just suddenly become very sick, it’s not realistic. Tomorrow, let’s first wear masks, pretend we have a cold. 

Shao Zhan: …

The next day, Xu Sheng actually rummaged through the cabinet to find two disposable masks. He took the masks and knocked on Shao Zhan’s dorm room. Before heading out, he passed over one for him to put on, warning him, “Today, let’s first cough a bit. Coughing is the main focus.”

In his entire time in high school, Shao Zhan had never experienced something so magical.

He took the mask. 

Xu Sheng was currently Shao Zhan and had to go to the classroom earlier. He had already put on his own mask in advance, then lifted his hand to use one finger to pull the black mask down a bit to say, “If a teacher asks you what’s wrong, just say you’re fine.”

Shao Zhan hooked his mask down. “You’re pretty experienced at this job.”

Xu Sheng released his finger and pulled his mask back up again. “I’m okay at it.”

If Xu Sheng said he had experience, he truly did have experience. In order to skip class during middle school, he had fooled many teachers. His acting skills were so good a teacher had once personally advised him, “Xu Sheng, based on your grades, you’re a long way off from going to high school. Why don’t you consider going to acting school? You have more hope for that.” 

Xu Sheng finished breakfast and walked onto campus with his mask on. Before he had even entered the classroom, he had already caught the attention of many gazes.

Hou Jun was currently doing make up homework. He raised his head and was shocked into stopping by the sight of a Xu Sheng with half his face covered by a mask. He even forgot where he was while writing for his homework. “Damn, Zhan ge, what’s wrong?”

Half of Xu Sheng’s face was covered, but this made his eyebrows even more prominent. He pretended to cough a few times then said, “Nothing, I think I have a bit of a cold.”

Hou Jun thought to himself, recently the weather has been very stable, how could he catch a cold in this weather? 

But he didn’t think too much of it. As the class president, he put caring for his classmates as his number one priority. “This, you have to take care of your own body. Your health is the tool for your studying. If you don’t feel well anywhere, let me know. I’ll take you to the school nurse to get it checked out.”

Xu Sheng waved his hand, coughing as he said, “…I’m really fine.”

Hou Jun watched as the sickly, weak body of “study god” passed the first row of students, continued towards the back row, and only withdrew his gaze when Zhan ge sat down, continuing on with his make-up homework.

After he had finished making up for a subject, and took out another to continue filling it in, he casually raised his eyes—and saw the moment school tyrant, who was also wearing a mask, entered the classroom. Hou Jun felt a little uneasy. 

What, was this, situation.

School tyrant was emitting cold air from his entire being.

 

And was not wearing the school uniform.

The black mask on his face made others feel he was extremely mysterious. 

Xu Sheng flipped over a page in his vocabulary book and raised his head to also see this scene. He had long wanted to say that Shao Zhan’s own aura was very cold already, cold to an arrogant degree.

What was more was that it was that kind of unconscious arrogance he was completely unaware of.

He thought to himself, I told you to pretend to be sick, not to pretend to be coerced.

“Xu…” Hou Jun felt that calling out to Xu Sheng by his name sounded too unfamiliar, so he changed his tone. “Sheng ge, you?” 

Shao Zhan, “I’m fine.”

How come both of them said they were fine!

This definitely did not seem like they were fine.

Hou Jun queried, “Just now, Zhan ge said he had a cold, you can’t have…” 

The phrase about having a cold reminded Shao Zhan. He tilted his head slightly and lifted his hand across his lips under the mask, coughing once coldly.

Hou Jun, “…”

Catching a cold in this weather, and it was the two of them catching a cold together?

In spite of himself, Hou Jun came up with a question in the depths of his mind: School tyrant and study god, these two, what did they do in order for them to catch a cold together in this weather?! 

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