Chapter 49: 47

“Homeroom Teacher Gu.” Xu Sheng hid behind Shao Zhan, using the words Gu Yanwang had once used to warn him, to remind him, “There are so many students under the stage, and other schools. We need to display Lin Jiang Sixth High’s tranquil and elegant school environment…”

Gu Yanwang had been completely held back by Meng Guowei and the other teachers. His entire being was basically suspended in the air, both feet off the ground as he fluttered in the air. “Lin Jiang Sixth High doesn’t have any bullshit graceful school environment! Shao Zhan, why are you on stage? Don’t protect him, move aside.” 

Shao Zhan was shielding Xu Sheng, so Gu Yanwang couldn’t make a move.

Under the stage, Zhang Feng laughed so hard he was all over the place. “Fuck.”

 

 

His big boss was still his big boss. Zhang Feng took out his phone and recorded this world-shattering scene. The scene shook, and accidentally focused on the blazing sun overhead.

There was no doubt about it. 

Lin Jiang Sixth High’s Xu Sheng’s name would become famous after the joint school military defence education training this time.

 

This time, Xu Sheng’s disciplinary review ended up with Gu Yanwang hollering on stage, “Write me three thousand words.” In the next few days, they continued their usual training exercises, visited the various national defence exhibition halls at Green Boat Base, and experienced the specialty of Green Boat Base—an aircraft carrier simulation.

“Who hasn’t dreamed of being a part of the Navy as a child?” Halfway through the exhibition, a classmate said emotionally, “Look at this equipment, it’s so cool.”

“I’ve always dreamed of being a writer.” Shen Wenhao pushed at his glasses and said, “I just posted my debut work on XX site. Everyone can go and support it.”

 

Shao Zhan, “A website?”

Shen Wenhao had never given up on writing novels. The school newspaper could no longer contain his wild heart. XX site was apparently a new literary site.

Shao Zhan wasn’t very clued in on the hobbies of his classmates. Xu Sheng had heard a little about it before and explained, “Wenhao seems to have been writing a sci-fi novel online recently. You can just click on it a few times as a habit. Hou zi also encouraged everyone in the class group chat to leave comments last time.

 

Shao Zhan heard this, then saw that the others were about to change the topic to this, when they inexplicably turned the subject back to Xu Sheng. “What does Sheng ge want to do in the future?” 

The moment this question appeared, the Xu Sheng who could always bullshit around fell into silence for two seconds. It was just that this silence didn’t catch the attention of others in this bustling environment. Shao Zhan glanced at him a few extra times and saw that Xu Sheng’s gaze was aimed down. With one hand inserted into his pocket, he slid out of the door and walked out onto the outside patio.

“I don’t know.” After a while, he said casually, “Haven’t thought about it before.”

The instructor began introducing the new equipment and the crowd’s conversation quickly shifted somewhere else.

On the fifth day of the national defence training, after the closing ceremony ended, everyone went back to their lodging rooms to pack up their things. They would take the buses back to school the next morning. 

On the last night of the military training, many students fell into an inexplicable state of ecstasy. Perhaps because they thought about how they would have to return to a state of endless learning once they got back to school, they all cherished this last night at Green Boat Bay.

Xu Sheng finished showering. When he opened the door and stepped out of the bathroom, Hou Jun and the others had just finished discussing how they should spend this precious evening.

Hou Jun, “We’ve discussed this, let’s do a dorm activity tonight.”

Xu Sheng didn’t mind. “Let’s hear it.” 

Hou Jun snickered. “The movie we watched last time, it has a sequel. Bet you didn’t think of that.”

Xu Sheng, “…”

 

He really hadn’t thought of it.

Xu Sheng’s back felt cold. He tried to think of an excuse he could use later. 

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.

Dea Lbe Aec vlvc’a fnfc ulnf tlw alwf ab atlcx bo jc fzmerf. Lf rcfjxlis abbx bea tlr ajyifa ogbw tlr yjmxqjmx. “Yeg rmtbbi vbgwr vbc’a tjnf mtjgulcu qbgar, yea P vlvc’a atlcx kf mbeiv erf atf rbmxfar ja Xgffc Dbja Djrf. Xbbv atlcu P’w rwjga jcv ygbeuta ws ajyifa bnfg.”

At this time, Shao Zhan was in Meng Guowei’s lodging room.

Meng Guowei had looked for him the last time to talk about the competition, but had been interrupted by Shen Haowei rushing in before he had finished. This time he discussed the competition clearly, so by the time Shao Zhan returned to his lodging, the movie was already ending.

Xu Sheng’s hair was half dry. He sat on his bed. Although his expression was unmoving, he shivered uncontrollably at the sound of Shao Zhan pushing the door open. 

Shao Zhan closed the door and asked, “What are you guys watching?”

Hou Jun, “Murder Games Two. You came back too late Zhan ge, it’s almost over.”

After the movie, the group of them played a few games together. Right after midnight, this bunch of people who had been shouting “let’s pull an all-nighter tonight” all couldn’t handle it anymore, and one by one threw their phones away and fell deeply asleep.

Xu Sheng’s mind was full of action scenes, especially those that had made him go “fuck”, and those few rounds of gaming just now hadn’t helped him recover from those movie scenes. 

It was a hot day, and the temperature inside the lodging wasn’t low. Despite that, Xu Sheng still covered himself fully with his quilt, and burrowed beneath the blankets, randomly looking for someone to chat with in his friends list.

Zhang Feng: Boss, you’re still not asleep?

Xu Sheng: Looking for you to get in touch with our feelings.

Zhang Feng: It’s so late, let’s get in touch tomorrow. 

Xu Sheng: Are we not brothers.

Zhang Feng: We are brothers, but let’s contact each other in our dreams. I’m too tired from the military training these past few days, I want to sleep early.

In the completely dark lodging room after the lights went out, only Xu Sheng’s bed was effused with a faint light from his phone screen.

Xu Sheng replied to Zhang Feng with a “Fine go the heck to sleep then” then received a new message when he exited the chat. 

It was Shao Zhan.

Simple and concise, three words.

 

– Still not sleeping.

Xu Sheng was very flustered, completely different from his famous battle ready image during the disciplinary review two days ago. If his current state was seen by his new group of fanatics, they would probably question their own lives. His fingers paused, but he still held up a pretense of calmness with his reply: Isn’t it normal for youths to cultivate at night. You haven’t fallen asleep either. 

Shao Zhan: I’m about to sleep.

It was difficult to find someone else who wasn’t sleeping at this time.

For some unknown reason, Xu Sheng had felt much more at ease after seeing those three words. Perhaps it was because this person who hadn’t slept yet was also reachable beyond a network and was physically half an arm across the aisle.

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Xu Sheng succumbed to his instincts and replied: Don’t. 

Many seconds later, the chat interface showed that someone was currently typing.

The words Shao Zhan sent over seemed to hold a magical power. Xu Sheng could almost even hear the youth’s cold and low voice in his head.

– Still watched even though you’re scared?

The phone light shone on Xu Sheng’s face. He lowered the brightness to its lowest setting. 

– Fuck.

– Who said I was scared.

– Just a little thing, how could your Sheng ge be scared?

A while later, a rustling sounded from the bed across from him. The sound was very slight, sounding like a quilt rustling against the bedsheets. It was very clear in the stillness of the night. 

Then Xu Sheng saw two extra words in his chat log.

– Reach out.

Reach out?

Reach what out. 

Xu Sheng didn’t react at first. He stared at the chat log for a while before finally releasing a hand and reached his hand out from the quilt little by little.

Xu Sheng was actually rather hot under the quilts. The heat within the quilts quickly dissipated after he reached his hand out. He had reached out halfway when his knuckles touched something—very familiar, somewhat boney, temperature almost scalding. Xu Sheng’s mind seemed to explode after a period of confusion. He couldn’t help withdrawing his hand, but the other party didn’t say anything and directly covered his hand.

 

This feeling was completely different from that last time Xu Sheng had accidentally grabbed Shao Zhan’s hand while watching the movie in the dorms with Hou Jun and the others.

In the silence, his phone screen automatically dimmed. 

As everything in front of his eyes dimmed, all the sounds by his ears and his nervousness retreated. For a moment, all other senses and feelings disappeared, leaving only his sense of touch.

After an indefinite period of time, his phone screen lit up again.

Shao Zhan: I’ll let you grab by mistake once.

Xu Sheng didn’t know how he fell asleep that night, and didn’t know how long he and Shao Zhan held hands like this for. Hou Jun and the others slept sweetly in the lodging. Tan Kai’s snoring and Yuan Ziqiang’s occasionally sleep talking from his dreams—perhaps only the moonlight that shone through the window could witness a glimpse of what had happened that night. 

“We have to go back to school…” The next morning, Hou Jun put on his clothes with his eyes closed, and reminded everyone to get up and pack their things. “We gather at eight, hurry up and get up.”

Hou Jun’s voice was loud, and more effective than an alarm. “Brothers, stop sleeping!”

Xu Sheng was awakened by Hou Jun’s shouts. He squinted his eyes, unable to open them from the sunlight streaming in through the window.

When his consciousness gradually returned, the hand he used to shield his eyes stopped in midair. It didn’t move for a while before he slowly put his hand away. He stared at the gaps between his spread-out fingers for two seconds, then remembered what he had done with Shao Zhan last night. “…” 

He sat up and saw that Shao Zhan had long since changed into his clothes, and was currently carrying a water cup as he entered from the door.

Shao Zhan glanced at him. “You’re awake.”

“Ah.” Xu Sheng looked away, and said unnaturally, “Morning.”

Hou Jun bent down to grab his water cup and toothbrush. He rubbed his back as he walked to the bathroom. “Right, did you guys sleep well last night? How come I feel like the bed is harder than the ones at school…maybe there’s a difference in the materials for the wooden boards?” 

Xu Sheng couldn’t answer this.

He had held hands with someone for who knows how long at night, and he still had to say he slept pretty well last night?

But when Hou Jun asked this question he was completely facing towards him. Xu Sheng got off the bed and stole Hou Jun’s spot to enter the bathroom first.

Hou Jun was blocked outside the door. “…Sheng ge, even if you’re handsome you can’t skip the line.” 

In a few short days, Green Boat Base had left many memories for the students.

The shady road already looked very familiar to people, as well as the disassembled guns, the military equipment they saw, the instant ramen they furiously looted for, and the words they shouted across rooms, even the…fights they had fought.

 

After the closing ceremony last night, Instructor Wang was also a little reluctant to see them go. He was nice and kind, and all of the students in the Seventh Company liked him a lot. When a student shouted “Instructor” disheartenedly, he also smiled slightly and said, “You are all going back to school tomorrow. Study well when you go back. I’m very happy to have been able to spend these five days with you, and very happy to have met all of you.”

The students of the Seventh Company packed their things, and went to eat at Green Boat Cafeteria’s cafeteria one last time. 

After eating, Instructor Wang sent them off at the buses. He said his final goodbyes to everyone across the bus doors.

And then the buses slowly started and pulled out of Green Boat Base.

The feeling of returning to campus was both familiar and strange. Meng Guowei was afraid that this bunch of students wouldn’t be able to readjust their moods so he made them write an essay in their first literature class back at the school. “Let’s settle down in this class and write an essay. The topic is ‘My Dream’. It’s also a reminder for you all to plan well for your remaining study schedules…I didn’t know you guys would just go crazy after going out to play for a few days.”

Meng Guowei had a wide range of ideas,  and in conjunction with this essay, also thought of a flamboyant event in which he made the students write down their target universities. “When you graduate, you can see if you’ve realised your goals or not.” 

Meng Guowei wrote the essay topic on the blackboard.

Xu Sheng merely glanced at it, and straight away sprawled down to sleep.

Shao Zhan, “Not writing?”

Xu Sheng didn’t even lift his head. “Writing poetry requires a stroke of inspiration.” 

Shao Zhan, “…”

He had forgotten that this deskmate of his was also a ‘big poet’ who never wrote his essays properly.

In this class, Xu Sheng turned in a completely blank essay, having not written a single word.

Shao Zhan was called over by Meng Guowei in between classes. Meng Guowei always specifically gave Shao Zhan critique on his essays after class, and this time round was no exception. After he explained it simply, Meng Guowei was busy with other matters, so he handed over the anonymous paper strips he had collected to Shao Zhan. “Shao Zhan, help teacher sort these. Open them up and then fold them neatly. You can put them into my files folder after you’re done.” 

Shao Zhan made a noise of agreement.

There were many different handwritings on the notes. Since it was anonymous, this bunch of people had written all sorts of schools. Besides many normal universities, there were many name schools, especially the fantasies of Tsinghua and Peking University.

But within these paper strips, there was the name of an institution that completely did not fit in with the other schools.

—Central Academy of the Fine Arts. 

nao: i’ve probably read this chapter like 50 times already since i first read this book lmao pt. 2 of u can hold my hand if you’re scared w h e e z e my fave

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