Chapter 52

After Kang Kai finished speaking, he didn’t wait for “Xu Sheng” to answer before stuffing a brush into Shao Zhan’s hand with clear intent. “Ge, please go ahead.”

Shao Zhan, “…” 

Xu Sheng had mentioned before that he had taken specialised classes. It seemed like he had been telling  the truth.

Shao Zhan faced the painting of a church landscape in front of him, and fell into silence.

 

 

Although Shao Zhan was Lin Jiang Sixth High’s pride, and despite being praised by many as a genius youth, there were times when even geniuses couldn’t do everything. Geniuses could also have blind spots…not all geniuses had the ability to appreciate art.

If what was in front of him was a pile of examination papers, he wouldn’t even blink. 

Shao Zhan put the brush down, lest others saw that he was holding the brush incorrectly.

 

Kang Kai tilted his head and looked at him. “Why aren’t you drawing?”

Shao Zhan, “My thoughts are brewing.”

Kang Kai, “…Oh.”

 

After all, they had known each other since early childhood. Kang Kai probably understood Xu Sheng just that slightest bit deeper than Xu Sheng understood himself. Today, from the moment “Xu Sheng” had appeared at the entrance of the art studio, he had realized something didn’t feel quite right. “Xu Sheng” walked with his back much straighter than usual and no longer had his lazy appearance. The depths of his gaze emitted a chill.

He had an indescribable feeling of someone who was difficult to get close to.

Kang Kai, “Are you uncomfortable today? Or unhappy?”

 

Shao Zhan said expressionlessly, “Unhappy.” 

Now this explained everything.

Kang Kai said, “No matter what happened, think about it some more. There’s nothing you can’t overcome.”

Shao Zhan didn’t want to say too much. The more he spoke, the easier it was to make mistakes. He found an excuse to get rid of him. “Do you have something to drink.”

“Yes yes yes.” Kang Kai got up. “Do you want to drink bottled water or juice?” 

Shao Zhan, “Bottled water is fine.”

Kang Kai left the studio. Based on the sound of his footsteps, he was going upstairs.

Shao Zhan swiped his phone screen and lowered his head to type.

– Hurry up 

– He wants you to help him with his art.

– Are you finished over there.

 

Finished?

This recollection of the competition seemed to have no intention of ending. Gu Yanwang monologued for an entire ten minutes before handing out the papers. 

Xu Sheng was completely surrounded by competition students and he couldn’t understand anything on the competition paper. He spun his pen and sat in the back row. The entire conference room was infused with a thick, academic atmosphere.

How could a school tyrant like him possibly have experienced a battle like this before?

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.

– I think it’ll be a bit longer, you have to hold on.

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Shao Zhan, “…”

Kang Kai grabbed water from the fridge, went down the stairs, and pushed the door open. As he entered, he said, “Catch.” 

Shao Zhan caught it.

Kang Kai anxiously returned to his original question, “I’m stressed to death. Take a look, is this the right hue?”

The atmosphere instantly stilled.

If Shao Zhan had anticipated this situation beforehand, he would have told the him from ten years earlier to remember to definitely take an art class. 

Maybe it was because he had been influenced by Xu Sheng. Shao Zhan very naturally thought of how Xu Sheng would bullshit his way out of here if he were here right now.

Once his thoughts began shifting towards this direction, his thoughts naturally also turned towards Xu Sheng.

The thoughts that had been interrupted by thunder the day before yesterday once again reconnected.

He thought of the youth’s pair of peach blossom eyes, thought of the way his voice lilted at the end of his sentences, and the way he carelessly sprawled across his desk as he slept. 

Shao Zhan realised that as long as he thought of these things, even the temperature of his blood seemed to rise by a few degrees.

“Ge,” Kang Kai urged, “Hurry up.”

 

Shao Zhan returned to his senses. He raised his hand and pinched his knuckles, then set his heart to an answer. “Redraw it.”

“Oh, redraw…” Anyways, whatever art god Xu Sheng said was right. Kang Kai unconsciously nodded his head in agreement, then stopped halfway. “Redraw?!” 

What else could Shao Zhan do? He couldn’t possibly help him fix anything, and he could only make him redraw it to buy time for himself. “Instead of thinking of how to fix it, it’s better to just redraw it. Give up on this right now, continue thinking of ideas, and maybe you’ll be able to think of something even better.”

This…truly sounded like there was some logic behind it?

Kang Kai truly looked up to Xu Sheng too much. If there were two people who disagreed about something within the art, then it was always Xu Sheng who was right.

This kind of blind idolatry actually fooled Kang Kai this time round. 

“What you’ve said does have some logic behind it.” Kang Kai said, “Mankind must be able to return to the start, abandon everything, and start afresh.”

As long as you believe it.

Shao Zhan glanced at the time. It was already half an hour after school had ended for the day.

– How is it over there? 

Xu Sheng only responded after a few minutes.

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– How could a mere competition review be difficult for me? I’m already done.

– Wait for me, I just got to the bus stop.

The person sitting in front of Xu Sheng was Thousand Year Second…no, he had gotten first place this time around during the monthly exams. 

After sitting in the back row idly for half an hour, Xu Sheng came up with a brilliant idea. He decided to use the excuse of ‘give me your test paper, I’ll help you by taking a look at your answers’ to copy the answers of the seat in front of him, even if the seat in front of him didn’t seem too welcoming towards him.

Thousand Year Second Place, “What do you want my test paper for.”

Xu Sheng said, “I want to help you by taking a look. Sometimes when people answer problem sets, they’re too caught up in their own world and need an outside party to help them by taking a look.”

This was the first time Thousand Year Second Place had heard of this unusual way of studying. 

After a moment, he handed his test paper over to “Shao Zhan”.

Although last time he had plucked up his courage to stop Shao Zhan by the teachers’ office doorway and even said all that to him, Thousand Year Second Place still felt very complicated regarding Shao Zhan. He really couldn’t understand how his strongest opponent could have performed like that during the monthly exams.

 

Shao Zhan, how…how could his attitude towards studying be so skewed?!

When Xu Sheng handed him back the test paper, Thousand Year Second Place grabbed the paper and stared at him steadily. Xu Sheng was stunned by his stare. 

Thousand Year Second Place spoke slowly. “What exactly is wrong with you? You weren’t like this before.”

Xu Sheng, “?”

– What’s wrong with number two?

– You bothered him? 

– His words are very mysterious. I can’t understand him.

Shao Zhan replied: He found out that you didn’t actually feel unwell during the monthly exams.

Xu Sheng, “…” He really “cared” about “Shao Zhan.”

It seemed that Thousand Year Second Place wouldn’t turn back around until he got an answer. 

Xu Sheng was in a hurry to hand in his paper and leave, and really had no motivation to spare to have a discussion with him. He stood up with his exam papers and said, “I now think that life shouldn’t be just about studying. I wasn’t very knowledgeable before. Now I understand that I should look up at the world. There are many things that are more important than studying in this world…I’ll discuss the details with you some other day. I still have something urgent, so I’ll leave first.”

It was fine to leave the exam paper on their desks after they were finished; the teacher would come by to collect them later.

Xu Sheng looked around at all four corners and discovered that Gu Yanwang was sitting by the lecture podium reading a book. All the other students had their heads buried as they solved their problem sets.

His seat just happened to be against the back window, and the back window was open. Xu Sheng was pressed for time, and along with the fact that he had been in Shao Zhan’s body for quite some time, he was no longer constantly extremely aware of the fact that he was Shao Zhan. No matter how much one tried to conceal it, a person’s instincts could not be hidden—Xu Sheng stepped on the desk, then propped himself up with a hand on the windowsill. His long legs directly stretched out. 

His movements were very quick. Only the student sitting at the side noticed it, and looked up to see a very casually worn school uniform.

The youth noticed him looking over. Before he left, his footsteps paused for a moment, and he stretched his finger out in a “shh” motion before slouching off towards the staircase under the student’s blank stare.

The student took a very long time to return to his senses.

…Study god? 

This was the study god he knew?

Study god actually jumped out of the window?

 

As Xu Sheng got off the bus and ran all the way to the art studio, Kang Kai was scratching at his head as he stared at a blank new piece of canvas.

Kang Kai’s mood was very bitter. “I feel like after I gave up, I still don’t really have any new thoughts.” 

Shao Zhan’s tone did not have any ups or downs. “Continue thinking.”

Kang Kai, “Okay.”

Kang Kai’s voice had just landed when he felt a movement outside the art studio. There was no class today, so there was no reason for anyone to come by. Kang Kai was still mid-thought when a youth wearing a school uniform directly opened the door—

Two pairs of eyes met each other. 

“Hello handsome guy.” Kang Kai blinked and made sure he hadn’t met this person before, and wasn’t a student at his art studio. After all, he would definitely have an impression of someone this handsome. “Who are you?”

Being asked this question made Xu Sheng feel very complicated.

“I’m Xu Sheng’s…deskmate.”

Shao Zhan shut the ‘General Art Book’ he had found on the side. “I called him over.” 

Xu Sheng, “Right, we usually stay at the dorms and are always shut inside school. Today…we came out to play for a bit.”

Kang Kai looked at this one, then looked at the other.

Occasionally when they chatted, Xu Sheng would mention his study god deskmate. The study god in Kang Kai’s mind was someone with lenses as thick as a bottle cap, who spent all day being a bookworm. Xu Sheng had not mentioned that this study god deskmate of his looked like this.

A brother’s friend was Kang Kai’s friend. Kang Kai reached his hand out. “Hello hello, my name is Kang Kai.” 

Xu Sheng, “I, Shao Zhan.”

Xu Sheng had arrived relatively quickly. He scanned the painting that Kang Kai had taken down and immediately figured out how to change it. But he definitely couldn’t change it with Kang Kai here.

Xu Sheng gave Shao Zhan a look: Find an excuse to get rid of him.

The issue was, what excuse. 

Before Shao Zhan came, he noticed that the surrounding district had many convenience stores and marts nearby. However, the pharmacy was quite a few blocks away.

Shao Zhan finally used the excuse of “my stomach is uncomfortable” to get rid of Kang Kai.

 

Xu Sheng sat down with his legs crossed. He taped the painting back on to the easel, mixed his colours, and immediately began filling in the spaces.

Shao Zhan leaned against the bookcase at the side and watched him. 

The Xu Sheng currently sitting on his artist’s stool with a brush in his hand wasn’t quite the same as the Xu Sheng that had been taking over all his thoughts for the past few days.

He was no longer so indifferent and casual.

Xu Sheng’s art style was fierce. His brush strokes were bold, the choice of colours refreshing. He wasn’t afraid at all to completely change Kang Kai’s painting. After a few minutes of simple adjustments, he finally set down the brush. “Okay, after a while you can sit here.”

Xu Sheng calculated the time. It was about time for Kang Kai to come back with the medicine. 

Xu Sheng gave up his seat and stuffed the brush in Shao Zhan’s hand. When the angle he viewed the  painting with changed, he discovered a patch of background colour he had forgotten to paint.

Because he was worried Kang Kai would suddenly rush in, along with the fact that there was only a single brushstroke left to fill in and it was inconvenient to change his position—Xu Sheng merely bent over.

His hand reached out from Shao Zhan’s side and grasped Shao Zhan’s hand holding the brush. He immediately covered his hand, their five fingers overlapping.

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