Beyond The Outline

After he came out from the shower, he realised he hadn’t done his daily copybook exercises yet.

So after Xu Sheng finished jumping over the wall, he began practicing his handwriting while holding onto his difficult to explain emotions. 

In between this time, Zhang Feng came looking for him twice.

Zhang Feng: Why did you walk off so fast after school, do you have other brothers outside.

I was in a hurry to jump over the wall.

Zhang Feng: Wanna play games. 

Practicing characters, not playing.

Zhang Feng: I saw that you haven’t hung out with our group for several days, what have you been up to recently.

Recently I’ve been trying to figure out every day how to drop out of school.

The messages Zhang Feng sent made the phone screen light up and dim again. The final time the screen lit up, the person contacting him wasn’t Zhang Feng.

It was his study god deskmate.

Xu Sheng put his pen down and brought his phone over. Shah Zhan had only sent three short words: Open the door.

By the time Xu Sheng put his pen down and got up to open the door, Shao Zhan had already been standing in front of his door for a while. When Xu Sheng opened the door, Shao Zhan was currently using his phone with one hand and his head lowered. He had just taken a shower, his wet hair draped over his forehead. He was wearing a dark blue tracksuit, the clothing gently outlying in the lines of his legs. He only raised his head when he saw Xu Sheng come over.

Xu Sheng wanted to ask “What’s up”, but right when his words came up, his gaze landed on the multiple workbooks in Shao Zhan’s hands. “You…” 

Within these workbooks, one had a black cover and the title “Complete Math Solutions for 2nd Years” and the other two were “Studying English” and “Learn Physics Well”.

Alarm bells rang in Xu Sheng’s heart.

Fuck, this scene gave him deja vu!

Those few Liu Qingchun’s workbooks had come into his hands like this. The damage done to him was difficult to extinguish. 

Xu Sheng paused for a few seconds before finishing the second half of his phrase with much difficulty. “You can’t be wanting me to begin doing worksheet problems starting today, right.”

Are you still human.

Shao Zhan had just put his phone away and didn’t have the chance to speak before Xu Sheng surprisingly directly shut the door with a bang. “…Come out.”

“Go away,” Xu Sheng said from behind the door. “I’m not doing problems.” 

“…”

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 stood with his back facing the door despite knowing that the person outside wouldn’t be able to come in anyways, still stubbornly insisting, “I’d rather commit suicide.”

Ktf akb bo atfw yibmxfv atf vbbg, fcujulcu lc ifcuats rff-rjklcu.

“P’ii kjamt sbe vb atfw,” Vtjb Itjc rjlv. “Po sbe vbc’a xcbk tbk ab vb la sbe mjc jrx wf.” 

Po atlr kfgf jcs batfg qfgrbc lc Vlzat Llut, atfs kbeiv tjnf vfolclafis rkbbcfv bnfg lo atfs tfjgv atlr.

It had to be known that study god rarely helped others out with schoolwork and no one dared to bother him. The two words “Shao Zhan” had long since ascended to legend. It was one of those things one had to internally pray to before tests.

But Xu Sheng absolutely did not want to receive this favour. “With this effort, it’s faster for me to randomly guess the answers than it is to teach me.”

Shao Zhan, “The monthly exam isn’t difficult.” 

Xu Sheng had even recently told Gu Yanwang, “The only difficult point I can think of right now is that it’s too simple”. This time around, he had to refute his own thoughts. “Our understanding of the word difficult might be different.”

It was silent for a long while outside his door.

Right afterwards, Shao Zhan finally said, “I have the key.”

“…” 

The first thing Shao Zhan did after entering wasn’t to hand the workbooks over to Xu Sheng and make him do them. His other hand held a bottle of iodine. He lowered his jaw slightly and said, “Take off your clothes.”

Xu Sheng, “?”

Shao Zhan stretched his hand out to point at his elbow, then at his back. “Did you not wound yourself hard enough?”

It was only then that Xu Sheng realised the places he had landed on had a bit of skin broken. He hadn’t realised himself. 

This time, the pain in his back was significantly harsher than last time’s. It was probably because his luck wasn’t too good and he had landed on rather sharp pebbles.

Xu Sheng grabbed the edge of his T-shirt and slowly folded it up, exposing the youthful, thin waist, back and shoulder blades–– finally, there was that eye-catching tattoo on the shoulder blade.

It was on Shao Zhan’s body, and it was unspeakably abrupt, but in this abruptness, something else seemed to be hidden.

Xu Sheng tilted his head, feeling like the two of them could be considered as having suffered together and had affinity, so he couldn’t help but ask, “Your… That… This thing on your body, is it to cover a scar or something?” 

This was the first time the tattoo had been pointed out.

Xu Sheng, “Don’t worry, it’s not like I’m going to tell the teacher.”

The movement of Shao Zhan’s hands didn’t stop. The wound was close to that wing, so his gaze just happened to fall on the tattoo.

The feeling of being able to see this tattoo on the back from the perspective of a bystander was somewhat strange. For the past hundred days and nights, he seemingly almost hadn’t been able to feel its existence, or rather, he purposely hadn’t wanted to feel its existence. 

Xu Sheng didn’t wait for a response.

Shao Zhan dipped a cotton swab into the medicine. Xu Sheng had his back to him, and he couldn’t see his face clearly, he could only hear one sentence, “Don’t move.”

There was one week left until the monthly exams.

Xu Sheng didn’t trouble himself over this matter of the tattoo. He didn’t have the energy to worry about it either. After the medicine was applied, he was stunned by the first aid materials tossed his way. 

Xu Sheng sat on the bed. Right now, he was facing the side of the study desk, with the desk about one arm’s length away. He bit down on the pen cap and was forced to turn open a page of “Complete Math Solutions for 2nd Years”.

Shao Zhan was sitting across from him, doing test papers in his dormitory. His sitting position never changed, he would only occasionally stop when he was scanning the questions, then hold his pen to do some calculations on the paper. He could even spare the attention to warn him, “Read the question properly.”

Xu Sheng really wanted to search it up on his phone: the procedure to drop out of Lin Jiang Sixth, or to transfer schools.

Other people usually had the one task of studying when they went to school, but he had to think about how to survive each day. Life was really too hard. 

Shao Zhan didn’t randomly choose these exam books. When Xu Sheng opened the books, he could see red pen markings. The red ink underlined a formula, and there would be a single word written sharply beside it. The indifferent tone of the writer could almost be discerned through that word alone: Memorise.

The scope of the monthly exams wasn’t large. Shao Zhan had underlined the key points, and a few compulsory exam questions.

If it were anyone else from Class Seven sitting here, looking at the key points and the questions Shao Zhan had marked, they would definitely suddenly understand, become enlightened, and feel like they could run towards top fifty in the monthly exams!

“You probably don’t quite understand me.” However, Xu Sheng was different. Xu Sheng held the question book, admitting to the situation he was in right now and sighed, asking, “Do you have materials for first years?” 

Shao Zhan, “…”

Xu Sheng was extremely familiar with his own level of knowledge. “I’ll review the basics first.”

Shao Zhan’s pen stopped writing his answer halfway, unsure what to pay attention to in that moment. He originally thought that such a thing could be done by just underlining the key points and doing a few compulsory exam questions and there would be no problem.

He asked a question that even Meng Guowei also wanted to know the answer to, “How did you do your high school entrance exams?” 

When he mentioned the high school entrance exams, Xu Sheng surprisingly didn’t retort, and was instead stunned.

His memory suddenly went back to a long time ago.

Xu Sheng pursed his lips. The words inside the 2nd Year exam book in front of him suddenly became blurry. Suddenly, he seemed to be holding a familiar copy of the “Sprinting Towards High School Entrance Exams” book.

That stack of papers wasnearly flipped over until they were messy. The papers were densely packed with formula derivations and corrections. However, with another flash, the illusion-like words suddenly disappeared, and there was a slender hand in front of him. 

There was a pen in Shao Zhan’s hand, its tip lightly tapping against the question book. He said, “Hand it over.”

“Which part don’t you understand.”

Xu Sheng didn’t know if it was his imagination. The youth was clearly speaking in that tone, but it didn’t sound so cold anymore.

Xu Sheng pointed at the first compulsory question. 

Not only did this problem include the new knowledge learned in the second year of high school, it even combined the formulas and theorems learned in the first year. It was a cumulative question. Shao Zhan took the scratch paper from the side and wrote down the formulas from the first year. “I’ll solve it once, watch carefully.”

As he spoke, he drew a coordinate axis on the paper.

“The mathematical definition of a function is a given non-empty set of numbers, A.” Shao Zhan wrote an A at the edge of the coordinate axis. “The corresponding rule applied to A with f is written as f(A).”

Shao Zhan began lecturing from the basics. 

Xu Sheng had thought Shao Zhan’s lectures would be like the person himself, completely uncaring whether others would understand. This aloof personality didn’t seem like the type to be able to explain things well to others at all.

But surprisingly, Shao Zhan’s explanations were clear and didn’t waste any words. He even paused for a bit after speaking to ask him, “Do you understand?”

Xu Sheng actually did understand, but a person like him really lacked enthusiasm for studying. Even though Shao Zhan’s explanation made him understand, he wasn’t in a proper state of mind, leaving him no opportunities to break away from these studies.

With one hand supporting his cheek, Shao Zhan’s naturally icy mountain of a face seemed a bit more relaxed. Xu Sheng leaned back slightly as he asked in a drawl, “Teacher, if I say I don’t understand, will you explain again.” 

This “teacher” was said rather ambiguously.

To say Xu Sheng was someone who got along well with women was not completely accurate. If he wasn’t being sincere, then it was very easy for others to come up with all sorts of misunderstandings about him. For example, at this moment, he seemed like he was an extremely absent-minded student who was trying to stir up his tutor.

“If you understand then you should do it once by yourself.”

Shao Zhan ignored him and continued coldly, “Look at your problems, not me.” 

“If you’re not looking at me,” Xu Sheng said as he hooked his pen in his mouth, “How do you know I’m looking at you?”

As long as they didn’t talk about studying, Xu Sheng could say all sorts of nonsense.

“A cold face like yours will reduce the effectiveness of studying…don’t you need to take care of the mood of your student.”

“Or let’s chat about something else,” Xu Sheng said again. “If you don’t have a significant other, then what about someone you like?” 

The chirping of cicadas outside faded away. It was almost time for the lights to go out and the dorm hallway seemed unusually quiet. Shao Zhan pinched the pen, his face cold as he remained silent. When he raised his gaze, he only met a pair of eyes carrying the hint of a smile.

Shao Zhan’s soul was shaken for a moment.

It was just then that it turned 10 o’clock, when lights were supposed to go out. The entire building plunged into darkness.

Xu Sheng thought to himself, the lights were already out, this meant studying time was also over. He blindly reached out, wanting to close the workbook, but the room was extremely dark after the lights went out. He couldn’t get used to it for a while and couldn’t see anything in front of him clearly, directly grabbing Shao Zhan’s hand. 

It was clearly his own hand, but it seemed to be a different temperature than usual.

It remained like this until a low, cold voice asked within the darkness, “Have you touched enough.”

Xu Sheng blinked, finally reacting, and drew his hand back like he had been electrocuted.