Beyond The Outline

Shao Zhan, who had been forced to take responsibility for this, was thinking the same thing as Meng Guowei at that moment. The same question floated into their minds: What’s wrong with Xu Sheng.

Xu Sheng didn’t dare to look at what kind of expression Shao Zhan had on his face right now. He just sat down after getting praised by Meng Guowei. 

This was the first time he had received such passionate praise from Meng Guowei. He was unaccustomed to it.

And he could feel a little chill on his back.

“What did you write?” Hou Jun was curious, and stretched his neck to see from two groups over. “Who can see it, share it around.”

The one sitting in front of Xu Sheng turned his head back curiously, and took a sneak peek, and then like magic, the answer travelled from the first group to the fourth group. 

Hou Jun said admiringly, “Genius.”

“Hamlet.” Tang Kai also praised him sincerely. “Impressed, I’m really impressed.”

Meng Guowei did not have the intention of continuing the class without listening to “Xu Sheng”’s explanation. He was very determined, and was abnormally stubborn. “Tell me, explain it to me.”

Shao Zhan’s hair had been messed up a little bit from wearing the hoodie earlier. In a place where Meng Guowei couldn’t see, he stretched his hand out and pinched Xu Sheng on the back of his neck, expressing his anger and seeming to say wordlessly: You, wait for me after class.

Xu Sheng immediately felt even more chilly.

Then, Shao Zhan retracted his hand and, according to Xu Sheng’s answer, immersed himself into Xu Sheng’s language level, read and understood Hamlet for the second time and said, “I think everyone can interpret the meaning differently.”

Meng Guowei, “So you answered like this? There is only one correct answer in the exam!”

Shao Zhao realised that he was getting a better and better grasp of Xu Sheng’s logical reasoning. At this time, it was as though he was speaking as Xu Sheng and helping him answer. He said, “Correct answers are dead, it is the people who are alive.” 

“…”

No one in class had ever heard such an ethereal answer, and it totally refreshed all the many years of knowledge they had learned in school.

Hou Jun, “Amazing!”

Tan Kai, “Super amazing!” 

Not only did this answer increase “Xu Sheng”’s standing amongst the classmates’ hearts, he was also made to stand for the entire duration of the class. Meng Guowei just said one sentence “Stand up and listen for this class” before beginning to discuss the paper. “Let’s look at the first question…”

He waited for Meng Guowei to turn around, then Shao Zhan’s face became so cold it could freeze water. “That question, what were you thinking.”

Xu Sheng grinned as he lay on the table, but he didn’t dare to grin too much, so he held it back for a while then said, “Actually, you analysed it pretty well, but the most important reason is that I actually didn’t know how to answer it.”

If he didn’t know how, then he naturally couldn’t understand it. 

Shao Zhan’s understanding of this ‘school tyrant’ creature improved by yet another step.

The next period was English class. The English teacher also passed by Class Seven before the bell rang, holding a glass of water as they stood in the doorway and said, “Monthly exams are soon, as we learn the new lessons, don’t forget to review your previous lessons.”

Under the emphasis of the various subject teachers, the existence of this thing called monthly exams were gradually becoming more and more prominent. Results were the best tool to measure effective learning. Not just Meng Guowei, all of the teachers viewed the monthly exams very importantly.

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.

Ktf olgra alwf We Vtfcu tfjgv Zfcu Xebkfl wfcalbc la, tf vlvc’a gfjiis ecvfgrajcv la oeiis, agfjalcu la jr jc lcragemalbc rb atja atfs kbeivc’a rijmx boo, ecali jii atf reypfma afjmtfgr gfjiis rajgafv ab gfqfja atja lcobgwjalbc, “Qf’gf qgfqjglcu obg atf wbcatis fzjwr, P’ii rewwjglrf jii atf lcobgwjalbc obg sbe.” 

These monthly exams barged into the field of view of him and Shao Zhan.

“I heard that the exams this time are especially strict.” Before class, Hou Jun had lamented while doing his homework. “I heard from Lao Meng’s office, one exam hall has four invigilators, how sick is that?”

“I also heard, they even said that the difficulty is even higher than those mock exams, a lot of comprehensive hard questions. How are these monthly exams? It’s more like mid-term exams already.”

The pen fell from Xu Sheng’s hand. 

In Shao Zhan’s hands, he also used the wrong skill in the game, and was cut down by his opponent.

Neither of them had thought of keeping this up and taking part in the monthly exams. Every day before they slept, they thought five days, ten days, fifteen days… fifteen days at most, and they could probably change back after that.

Over the past weekend, the first thing Xu Sheng did when he woke up was to get up and look in the mirror.

Who would have thought that the monthly exams were coming, and the two of them hadn’t switched back! 

Who would have thought.

Xu Sheng dumbly imagined the exam hall with four invigilators. LIn Jiang Sixth’s exams were divided into examination rooms according to their results. He would sit in the first exam hall, in the first row, in the first seat.

He would also have to fill in Shao Zhan’s name on the exam paper… Using the study god’s identity to answer the questions, Xu Sheng was already breaking into cold sweat from the mere thought.

Just from imagining that scene alone, Xu Sheng was about to go insane. 

Shao Zhan also wasn’t much better off. According to the Hamlet answer that Xu Sheng had given, if he was to assume Xu Sheng’s identity and go to the last exam hall to take the exam, it would be even harder than making him do several Olympiad math questions.

Xu Sheng suddenly felt like it was hard to breathe, and he undid a button on his shirt, revealing his collarbone.

“I heard you always came in first place last time?” Xu Sheng asked.

“I heard you always came in last place,” Shao Zhan said. 

“…”

There was an endless silence after those two sentences were said.

Xu Sheng realised that his previous thoughts of dropping out of school had been premature.

“Can you stand to the side.” 

“Fuck, it wasn’t this position last time—stand there and face that tree at the back, right, go right, go right a bit more.”

“You weren’t in this position last time either.”

“Where were you last time? Wasn’t I fucking here?”

“…” 

It was already nighttime, the sky darkening. The dry, hot summer wind blew through the shadows of the trees along with the chirping of cicadas. Only the dim, nearby streetlamps shone a single ray of light. m

In the midst of everything, the voice that had spoken first said again, “Are you serious?”

The other voice said “Fuck” quietly.

After Xu Sheng said “Fuck”, he raised one long leg up and hung the other lazily off the wall. He sat at the edge of the wall and said, “Unless you have another plan?” 

Shao Zhan stood under the wall. The position he was currently standing at was where Xu Sheng had just managed to hit him when he was jumping off more than ten days ago. This angle was perfect, just managing to avoid the two parasol trees on the road behind him.

He also thought he was going crazy!

He didn’t even directly refuse when Xu Sheng raised the idea of jumping the wall again.

His remaining sanity was lost under the provocation of the two words, “monthly exam”. 

“Jumping again truly is…truly is a dumb idea, but can you think of a better method than jumping off the wall? The last time you collided with me was right around the end of class.” Xu Sheng’s phone had almost been out of battery that day and he had glanced at the time because of that, right after he got off the bus. “Today happens to be the same day of the week and it takes about ten minutes to walk from the bus stop. So we can start jumping at twenty.”

As Xu Sheng spoke, he took his phone out and propped himself against the wall with one hand. His phone screen displayed that the current time was 8:14 PM. “In six minutes, I’ll jump down.”

Shao Zhan, “How can we confirm whether you should jump or I should jump. Who counts as ‘Xu Sheng’ right now?”

This was a good question. 

Xu Sheng hadn’t thought that much when he proposed the idea of jumping off the wall. He had unconsciously assumed he was Xu Sheng, but although Xu Sheng’s soul was currently here, his physical body was with Shao Zhan.

Exactly which one counted as him?!

Xu Sheng thought deeply for a while and thought of a solution. “If there’s no reaction after I jump down, then let’s switch to you jumping off.”

Shao Zhan, “…” 

In the time they spent talking, the time on the phone screen jumped from “8:14” to “8:19”.

“Are you ready,” Xu Sheng asked.

“Jump,” Shao Zhan said.

Shao Zhan looked a bit calmer than him. He was dressed in all black today, and when he stood there, it was like they had been transported back to that scene. The youth’s entire being seemed to merge with the darkness, his coldness seemingly piercing through the dark night. 

But this calmness was merely a facade. No matter who stood here, facing a wall where someone was going to jump off onto them, they would not be able to remain calm.

Xu Sheng let out a deep breath, feeling like he was currently standing on a racing track, his body tense as he waited for the sound of the starting gun. He spread his hands open, warming up his joints. Shao Zhan’s body had the vitality and strength of youth. He wasn’t very worried that something would happen from jumping off the wall.

40秒。

40 seconds. 

41秒。

41 seconds.

…

Xu Sheng counted to himself and got up slightly, putting the phone back into his pocket. He kept his movement of propping himself up with one hand, but the leg he had originally bent had changed its position, stepping on the edge of the wall in preparation— 

58.

59.

Xu Sheng kept the time. Other than the numbers he was silently counting to himself, he could also hear the immense pounding of his heart.

At the same time the phone screen that hadn’t dimmed yet changed from 8:19 to 8:20, he simply let go of his hand, put some force under his feet, and directly jumped down the wall! 

Shao Zhan used all his self-control to break away from his human instinct to escape. He stood in his original position and watched Xu Sheng hurtle towards him at an astonishing speed.

The two of them fell to the ground together.

There was no sound of thunder this time and neither of them fell unconscious. The damage done was perfectly normal for jumping off a rather low wall; it was just that his elbows were a bit sore from colliding with the turf.

Right afterwards, the two of them switched positions and jumped again. The result was the same. 

The second time around, Xu Sheng lay on the turf and didn’t get up for a while. He leaned his head back to gaze at the far off heavens, his head filled with one sentence: how could it be like this.

Shao Zhan had originally collided with Xu Sheng’s body, but he reacted quickly. After the two of them fell over in unison, he propped himself up with one hand next to Xu Sheng’s waist, his palm almost able to feel the other’s body temperature. “Are you okay.”

“Fuck.” Xu Sheng’s back had landed on the pebbles. He didn’t have the capacity to notice these small wounds. “I’m fine.”

Xu Sheng only got up after recovering for a bit. His mood had really collapsed this time. “…Can we really not change back?” 

Shao Zhan had calmed down after jumping off the wall. “Maybe there are other conditions for switching back.”

But exactly what those conditions were, was something they couldn’t think of.

Xu Sheng, “Didn’t we jump off this wall for nothing.”

Shao Zhan, “Yes, and we even jumped twice.” 

Xu Sheng, “…”

Something stupid like jumping off the wall, if it had actually worked, wouldn’t have been much. But it was very awkward and embarrassing after jumping and having nothing happen.

Shao Zhan sighed. “Get up, go back to the dorm.”

Xu Sheng returned to the dorm, took off his shirt, got into the shower and then looked in the mirror for a while. 

It was still Shao Zhan’s face in the mirror.

When he saw Shao Zhan’s face, he thought about the monthly exams, and deeply felt that his world was currently… quickly falling apart.