Beyond The Outline

“Student… can you hear me, student?”

“So strange, why aren’t they awake yet.” 

“Didn’t you say there weren’t any problems with him? Since he’s all good, why can’t you wake him up?”

“I checked everything, there really weren’t any noticeable problems.”

“…”

Those voices seemed to come from behind a film and were muffled as they passed into Xu Sheng’s ears. 

“Ai, Head Teacher Gu, don’t worry.”

“What do you mean don’t worry, the two of them were lying together under the wall, looking like two corpses at first glance, how can I not be worried! There really aren’t any signs of a fight on him? It wasn’t done by that kid Xu Sheng?”

When he heard his own name, Xu Sheng’s mind cleared a little. There was still a strong headache that followed. That cramping sensation stretched to the ends of the nerves in his brain and didn’t fade away, causing him to not realise that it was a bit strange for his name to appear in these circumstances.

The head of the year had the last name Gu. He was Gu Yanwang from Jianghu. He had a reputation in Linjiang Sixth, and there were claims that there wasn’t a student that he couldn’t fix. Until, during his teaching career, he ran into Xu Sheng.

Xu Sheng had fought with Gu Yanwang his entire first year of high school. If Gu Yanwang told him to go east, he would go west. Even talking back during a disciplinary review was a normal occurrence. The sentence ‘I was wrong, I don’t promise not to do it again’ would make Gu Yanwang so furious he would leave.

“Xu Sheng, you better fucking come back here. If I don’t put some colour onto your face, it seems like you won’t know why flowers are so red. Stand properly, you––”

However, Gu Yanwang’s voice now could be called gentle, using a tone that Xu Sheng had never heard before, a tone that could easily give people goosebumps, to say into his ear, “Child…”

Xu Sheng woke up completely. 

“He’s awake, He’s awake. I told you he’s fine!” The school doctor said in pleasant surprise.

Xu Sheng opened his eyes and noticed that he was lying in an unfamiliar bedroom. In front of him was Gu Yanwang’s large face, the middle-aged man’s slightly prosperous face was full of worry. “Do you know how worried I was for you?”

Xu Sheng, “…”

You really don’t want to smack me to let me know why flowers are so red, rather you’re worried? 

Xu Sheng had just woken up, and he was still a little dazed. He realised the spot that was hurting was the back of his head. He thought belatedly: a wall not even over 2 metres tall; the most he could do was twist his ankle. He actually fainted?

Gu Yanwang’s gaze became even more affectionate. “Hurry and move your arms and legs around, see if there’s anything hurt. Does your head hurt? Do you need anything to drink? Should I get you a cup of water?”

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.

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We Vtfcu reqqbgafv tlwrfio jujlcra atf yfv jcv rja eq. “P gfjiis vbc’a…” Gbc’a kjca ab vglcx kjafg, qifjrf vbc’a qbeg la obg wf.

If he had heard something out of the ordinary earlier, this time he had confirmed for sure that this was not his voice.

Xu Sheng raised his hand in belated realisation.

His hands were slimmer than the hands of other boys. When he was young, his mother had always said they were like those of a little girl’s. He even had a period of rebelliousness, but the joints of the hands in front of him were long and slender, the fingers straight, the skin coldly pale. 

Xu Sheng’s gaze moved down a notch. What entered his vision was the trademark Sixth High school uniform he hadn’t even worn on the first day of school.

Gu Yanwang actually went and poured him a glass of water. He pulled out a one-use paper cup from beneath the water cooler and very kindly added a bit of hot water to the cold water. “You gave me a scare. They gave me a call just as I was about to get off work, saying that you and…”

Xu Sheng ignored him. He got off the bed sharply. There was a mirror on the wall of the dorm room, probably left behind by a student from the previous cohort. It didn’t seem to have been used very often and looked a bit old.

He rushed to the front of the mirror. In the mirror was a familiar, and cold-looking face, so cold to the point that it was like there were two words ‘go away’ written on it. 

Gu Yanwang let go off the hot water button and finished the last half of his sentence. “Saying that you and Xu Sheng were lying on the ground. Tell me honestly, did that Xu Sheng kid hit you?”

Meng Guowei had already paced three rounds around Xu Sheng’s dorm room. His hands were behind his back, and he was extremely anxious. While waiting for “Xu Sheng” to wake up, he had calmed down and composed his emotions. “Did you hit him?”

“How many times have I said to follow the rules, to be friendly with schoolmates, how…” Meng Guowei said these words with much difficulty. “How can you raise your hand? And even hit him until they were on the ground. In the end, both of you got hurt, what kind of grudge is this?”

Hit him? 

Hit who.

The moment Shao Zhan opened his eyes he was greeted with the accusation of “breaking the rules and beating a student to the ground”.

Shao Zhan couldn’t understand what Meng Guowei was saying at all. He tried to remember the last thing he saw before he had been knocked unconscious–– It was Xu Sheng flying towards him and then banging into him, his nose violently smashing into his chest. He had been knocked off balance, and the two of them had collapsed.

As Shao Zhan remembered up to that point, he could feel that his nose also vaguely hurt for some reason. 

A few seconds later, he realised that the pain was actually real.

Meng Guowei was still continuing on with counting his transgressions. “You often sleep in class, your exam results are a mess, nevermind those, now you’re even using violence on your schoolmates!”

Shao Zhan, “…”

Meng Guowei didn’t have any grievances with this problem youth, other than Xu Sheng’s stubborn impenetrable “leave me alone” demeanour, he had a cheeky smile other times. Whatever you said, he had no opinion, after all Xu Sheng was his own student. Even when he was angry he was still a little biased. “Even Head Teacher Gu was alarmed by this incident, even the principal can’t save you. You had better reflect properly.” 

Shao Zhan had figured out his current situation clearly in the short span of ten seconds. It was no doubt a dorm room, but it obviously wasn’t his dorm room–– He wouldn’t put up manhua posters on his room walls.

It also wasn’t possible for his desk to not have a single exercise book.

Not to mention that the clothes on his body seemed to belong to Xu Sheng.

Xu Sheng’s usual, exaggerated behaviour was fully carried out through his clothes. He never wore a school uniform. It was difficult for this white t-shirt not to draw people’s attention. 

Meng Guowei, “What is our Linjiang Sixth’s school motto, what is it! It’s civility and harmony!”

Shao Zhan interrupted him, “Where is this place?”

Once Shao Zhan said that or rather when the youth’s clear, loud voice came out, he didn’t even need Meng Guowei’s answer. All his suspicions pointed towards the most fantastical and impossible answer.

“You don’t even recognise your own dorm room anymore?” Meng Guowei was shocked for a second, and then surprisingly got angry. “Don’t act dumb with me! If you made a mistake, admit it. Men have to bear the consequences of their own actions. Get up, go and apologise to student Shao Zhan.” 

On the other end, Xu Sheng was still giving a final struggle. His whole head was filled with the face in the mirror. There was no way for him to accept that after jumping off the wall, he had jumped into someone else’s body. “Gu Yan… Head Teacher Gu, what day is it today?”

Gu Yanwang, “Wednesday.”

“What year has the human race developed to?” Xu Sheng closed his eyes, several sci-fi films flashing through his mind, the most prominent one being “Those Years Lost in the Cracks of Time”. “This year is 2019?”

Gu Yanwang was worried. “… Not only is it 2019, you’re also now in Linjiang Sixth. We just finished the prelim exams, do you remember? Did you hit your head too hard?” 

“…”

Xu Sheng confirmed that he wasn’t dreaming.

Gu Yanwang watched that usually cold, logical Shao Zhan suddenly start to talk nonsense, and hated the culprit of this incident even more. “Xu Sheng isn’t capable of doing anything, but when it comes to causing trouble, he always comes in first place.”

Whether or not cracks in time existed, whether or not he was dreaming, he still had his instincts. When Shao Zhan followed behind Meng Guowei and walked into the opposite dorm room, Xu Sheng had already spoken with Gu Yanwang for seven or eight minutes. 

“My current situation has nothing to do with him, Head Director Gu, you’ve misunderstood him. I have to clear student Xu Sheng’s name. Although he looks wild, he also has many good points.”

“No need to mention that he’s handsome.”

“Of course, other than that, he also has many personal qualities, such as his heart is actually very kind, and he’s usually very friendly to students, he’s happy to help others.” The way Xu Sheng said it made it seem like that really was the case. “Ah, and also, he stands out, he’s very unique. I admire him a lot.”

Xu Sheng gave a simple conclusion at the end. “So, this Xu Sheng person, is not who you think he is.” 

Gu Yanwang was listening in a daze. “Is that so…” Do we even know the same person.

Meng Guowei who had just opened the door, “…”

Shao Zhan who was following behind, “…”

No matter who, they wouldn’t be able to calm down from this kind of situation. Shao Zhan had just pulled himself back from the verge of a breakdown, only to be kicked back by Xu Sheng. He stood by the door and said, “You, come out.” 

Xu Sheng turned around and discovered that his own face could look cold to this extent.

Both Gu Yanwang and Meng Guowei couldn’t figure out what was going on, but after hearing Shao Zhan praise Xu Sheng so much, they were starting to become confused. When they saw that these two students seemed to be in quite good spirits, they thought in their hearts that there shouldn’t be any major issue.

“All right, then the two of you better rest well,” Gu Yanwang said, then added, “Oh right, this matter of fighting, I’ve misunderstood, but you can’t escape the issue of you climbing the wall. Tomorrow, hand in a 3,500-word disciplinary review.”

Shao Zhan froze and only realised a few seconds later that Gu Yanwang had been talking to him. 

He still had to write a damn 3,500-word review.

At this moment, Xu Sheng didn’t know who he should feel sympathy for.

In the end, the two of them went to Xu Sheng’s dorm. Only then did Xu Sheng realise that their rooms were across each other. After they closed the door, the two of them stood facing each other, wanting to say something but unable to say it.

Finally, Xu Sheng was the one who let out a curse. 

“Fuck,” Xu Sheng said. “What’s going on?”

Shao Zhan couldn’t handle listening to Xu Sheng using his voice to swear. “Don’t curse.”

“Okay.” Xu Sheng uncomfortably raised his hand to undo the first button on his school uniform, then opened his own desk drawer and pulled out a stack of A4 paper, setting down a black pen on the side. “Then write the disciplinary review first.”

Shao Zhan looked at his posture, which didn’t look like he was about to write the review himself. “Who’s writing it?” 

Although the situation was very fucked up, he didn’t want to talk about it yet. Xu Sheng was using this as an opportunity to get back at him for that time at the wall. “Whoever is Xu Sheng will write. If you think you’re not him now, then go outside and shout and see if anyone agrees.”