Chapter 6

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Chapter 5 | 🤝 Contents 🤝 | Chapter 7

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Translator: Silvery

PR: Decadence

Yu Sheng scowls, looking up briefly from his ferocious showdown with the System.

Black Blouse is rooted to the entrance with two cups of congee in his hands. He was so stunned to be singled out by the voice from the Heavens, half of his aggravatingly laidback countenance is dissipated. Raising his head, he looks at the loudspeakers still making a din.

Then, under everyone’s gazes, Black Blouse lifts his nose and looks down at them. Carrying an air of ‘Is your esteemed school really that amazing?’, his gaze flies right past the crowd and towards Yu Sheng, who is seated in the very last row.

Yu Sheng: “……”

Duan Lei stretches his head out by his side, sneaking a wary glance forward.

He is a bit short-sighted and the front is too far away, so he cannot catch that person’s appearance clearly. All he knows is this is a broad-shouldered, long-legged man who looks taller than 1.85m and seems to be bespectacled. Besides that, he is also dressed in an obviously costly black button-up belonging to the closet of a workplace elite.

If not for the two cups of millet congee carried in his hands that at first glance, clearly comes from the porridge shop in the shopping district outside the southern fence, he might even look a tad more noble.

No matter how one packages it, if one were to go by just his appearance alone, this being clearly does not belong to the same plane of existence as students like them, who scuttle about everywhere in their school uniforms.

Duan Lei looks from the door to Yu Sheng. He gulps, then he carefully selects his words:

“Sheng Gē. Your Dad… Is he really that young?”

Yu Sheng meets Black Blouse’s eyes and expressionlessly takes a deep breath.

Tormented to its limit, the mouse finally could not withstand the burden and – Crack! – It breaks.

2 minutes later, bearing 2 additional band-aids on his hand, Yu Sheng stands in the empty corridor looking physically and mentally drained.

The mouse has to be changed to a new one once it is broken, and that booth can no longer be used. Under the head teacher’s relentless and repetitive badgering, Yu Sheng had no choice but to force back that mouthful of blood and close his eyes, deciding to move out viciously.

Black Blouse has long since made his retreat after being shaken up. Bearing two cups of congee, he stands outside, waiting for him.

It is probably because he didn’t quite expect things to snowball to this extent. When he sees Yu Sheng, he opens his mouth and for once, he actually coughs lightly:

“That—”

Yu Sheng is chilly right down to the roots of his hair:

“Daddy?”

Black Blouse: “……”

Looks like there’s no talking his way out of this.

Yu Sheng looks him up and down and seeing those two cups of congee, he shuts his eyes, fighting back the rage that is surging to the top of his head:

“Whether my stomach hurts has nothing to do with you.”

Black Blouse stills, drawing his brows together.

“You didn’t have to—”

Yu Sheng has only just opened his mouth when he realizes how much he would have gotten ahead of himself with his next words. Swallowing the words still left on his tongue, he stiffly and indifferently spits out:

“It’s just hunger pangs. Don’t you dare blame it on the pancake.”

Black Blouse opens his mouth. He can’t help it. He lets out a chuckle.

Just the sight of him laughing is enough to infuriate Yu Sheng. Having said his piece, he turns to head back in, only to be held back gently by the wrist.

Before he can lash out, a hand has already settled over the crown of his head, patting twice evenly. Two weighty cups of millet congee are subsequently placed in his arms:

“Listen to me.”

Yu Sheng stills slightly.

He has not heard this phrase for a long time now.

That deep and mellow voice seems to rumble out from the centre of his chest. His last syllable hides a rather careless and indolent, yet patient indulgence.

The hand covering his head is warm and dry. A bit of his heat sinks in through the top of his head with the faint scent of rooibos tea permeating from somewhere. The millet congee is still warm. Its heat clings to his abdomen through the shirt, and bafflingly enough, the sporadic pangs in his abdomen are gentled down by it.

With these two cups of congee in his arms, Yu Sheng drifts off for a short moment.

Before he snaps back and thrusts the congee back, Black Blouse has already withdrawn his hands and timingly evacuated his immediate radius.

Yu Sheng has never thought of himself as a really violent person. Navigating the congee into his hands, he eyes him irritably:

“The exams’ still going on. I don’t intend to lay a hand on you.”

In an unexpected turn of events, Black Blouse was actually promoted to being his family elder by the headteacher. He does well by his role and nods in a pleased manner while standing 1m away:

“Good boy.”

Yu Sheng: “……”

He should be able to book a fight after this exam.

The kind of fight where you use your fists right off the bat and beat the other to death.

The examiner makes a few more trips before the mouse at his booth is fixed.

Yu Sheng does not want to spend a minute more of his precious afternoon throwing himself at this meaningless, time-consuming event. Rubbing his temples, he prepares to head back in when his gaze lands on Black Blouse, who has regained his previous laidback demeanour and is leaning against the wall. His footsteps halt despite himself.

The shopping district outside the southern fence is not that far off. One can easily get there by fence-vaulting. But to fence-vault in the middle of the exam just for the sake of two cups of congee, even Yu Sheng who has never aimed to pass has never seen such free-spirited behaviour.

Especially when the other looks so much like a good student too.

Yu Sheng’s own scores have always been firmly stuck below the passing mark. However, he has always respected the efforts of those students with good scores. As a matter of fact, it is only by being under his wing, that those handful of good students from Central Third manage to get the space and time needed to study.

Yu Sheng looks at the time then back at the person leaning leisurely against the corridor. An uncontrollable frown tugs on his lips:

“Aren’t you going?”

“I am.”

Black Blouse rubs his temples:

“The System’s way too perverse. I have to retake the question whenever I pick up speed. It’s too frustrating, so I’m taking a breather over here.”

Yu Sheng’s eyes widen in disbelief.

He’s actually a slacker like him.

Just by his appearance alone, he would never have thought the other is in the same miserable situation as him.

Most likely, it is because he was crushed too badly by those questions. Upon finding an ally on the same side of the battlefield as him, Yu Sheng suddenly feels the most mystifying sense of camaraderie. Half of his initial irritation vapourize into thin air:

“You were also stopped?”

“13 times.”

Black Blouse inhales lightly then does he notice he used the word “also”. He raises his brows too in surprise, “Friend, were you also hindered this badly?”

“You’re at 13 times already, and yet you still haven’t found the right technique…”

Yu Sheng is exasperated and relays what he learnt from experience:

“Just answer while monitoring your pulse. 6 beats for every question. That’s the right amount of time to avoid getting blocked and to prevent wasting time.”

To keep examinees from knowing the time, there is no timer anywhere on the question bank’s screen. Yu Sheng thus tried to look at the clock in the examination hall, but who would have thought that that sonuvabitch, dead-quiet quartz clock actually had its second hand ticking at a constant speed. The question bank’s 5 seconds was totally inaccurate.

Having completely flipped his guess of Black Blouse being an academic tyrant, Yu Sheng takes one look at him and rolls back his sleeve:

“Do you know how to take your own pulse?”

Before the youth begins his formal demonstration, a section of his thin and gently bending arm is revealed by the cuffs of his sleeves.

There is hardly an inkling of his decisively efficient strength from when he was beating up others.

Black Blouse raises his brows slightly.

Looking at the youth before him, his long and narrow eyes curve a little behind his glasses with great interest.

“I don’t.”

He leans forward and he hunches down his tall, broad shoulders. He extends his hand, asking in his deep voice:

“Can you teach me?”

Yu Sheng: “……”

This person always has the talent of reminding him how much he wants to uppercut him just when he doesn’t want to hit him.

Having been hindered by the System for 7 times, Yu Sheng looks at the warrior before him who has been blocked for 13 times and still didn’t make the slightest progress. He pulls himself together and yanks his wrist over, grabbing at his other hand to press down on his wrist:

“Have you found it?”

The male’s hands are long with prominent knuckles. When their palm and fingers pressed together, they can quickly detect the other’s warmth.

Black Blouse knits his brows together, eyes flicking up:

“Why are your hands so cold?”

Yu Sheng takes a long and deep breath.

When he’s teaching him the technique, he doesn’t know how to take his own pulse. When he’s teaching him how to take his pulse, he’s actually complaining about his hands being too cold.

This person is seriously asking for a beating. To survive up till now, it must be a miracle created by this face of his.

Reminding himself once more that the other was stuck for a full 13 times, Yu Sheng ignores his words and jabs his pointer and middle fingers downwards. He punctuates each jab with a word:

“Have. You. Found. It?”

Noticing the thick waves of KI ready to explode from the youth, Black Blouse nods his head without missing a beat, answering succinctly:

“Yes, I’ve found it.”

Mission accomplished. Yu Sheng dumps his hand and turns back to the classroom.

3 hours tick by second by second, minute by minute.

With a bit of solemnness, after making his guess for the last question, Yu Sheng clicks to submit and tosses his mouse before sinking heavily into the back of his chair.

The bell rings to signal the end of the morning session.

Nearly driven nuts by the overwhelming number of questions, the students instantly spill out of every exam hall on campus.

Being more familiar with this terrain, Central Third students make a beeline for the cafeteria and crowd the stalls like locust swarms. Province Point students who came over for the exam on the other hand have classrooms specially prepared for their lunch break. Most had brought their own lunch. They fill their bellies as they heatedly discuss the questions they had run into.

Not only did the question bank not allow one to skip any questions, the questions also did not follow the same order. Countless students tried to remember their own answers to check with each other once they were out, but the moment they met, they realized everyone’s questions came in different orders. Adding that to the impossible number of questions and everyone’s varied levels of understanding, they don’t even know where to begin. In the end, they can only regretfully leave it at that and bury their noses in their notes to study up for the next few subjects in the afternoon.

Yu Sheng doesn’t squeeze in with the crowd. Slumping back in his chair, he concentrates on drifting off and recovering some HP.

“Sheng Gē, Sheng Gē?”

Duan Lei has gone over to pick up his bag, and he brought his jacket along with him:

“Does your belly still hurt? Do you need to rest for a while? Do you need me to go grab you something to eat?”

Yu Sheng rubs his wrist and shakes his head:

“It’s fine. I’m done guessing.”

He rises to his feet and glances at the two empty congee cups. His footsteps falter, and he picks them up to dump in the bin.

He’s normally not fond of drinking porridge at all. It is not very filling, he feels, and hardly as invigorating as rice, noodles, or buns.

But with that said, today’s congee was brewed quite well indeed. Delectable and sweet, there were even a lot of red dates. Answering the MCQ’s while sucking on the straw, he finished both cups of congee before he knew it.

With something in his stomach, it no longer hurts. Yu Sheng stares at the screen which stares back at his sore eyes. He puts on his jacket:

“Let’s go. We should get something to eat.”

“Yep, yep-! Sheng Gē, you’re all done guessing already?”

Duan Lei breaks into a small jog to keep up:

“I was simply destroyed near the end, so I tried going with my guts. Then, I couldn’t go any faster nor could I go any slower nor could I even wail in despair. In the end, I had no choice but to do the questions properly.”

He messes with his hair, feeling a bit frustrated:

“With this speed, I probably can’t finish the test even if I use the entire day…”

His jacket shrugged over his back, Yu Sheng is just about to head downstairs when he hears him say that. He halts.

Duan Lei follows suit and stops in surprise:

“What’s wrong… Did you forget something?”

“……”

A migraine is pulsing at the back of his eyes. Yu Sheng closes his eyes and presses down hard on his temples:

“It’s nothing.”

1000 MCQ. Of course, it is only natural not to finish clearing all of them.

It’s not as if the question bank could force them to stay till they finish up. Otherwise, the computer would only be fried.

…So pray tell, why did he not sleep through the morning and submit an incomplete paper, but instead chose to finish all 1000 MCQ like a good boy?

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Next Time on DTTM!

Chapter 7: <I’ll let you flip me for real next time. So don’t be mad anymore.>

Preview: You’re wrong if you think that’s the last time you see Black Blousie Boy, YS.

Silvery: Here is our new schedule from now on:

For 1-7 of every month, we will be updating daily @1PM GMT.

In addition, we are a site that focuses on charity as a side, so for every $3 donations made to a charity of your choice, we will be releasing a chapter on that very same day (subject to availability). Links to some recommended charities and donation chapters will be made available next update.

In other words, see you next week at the usual time on Wedz, and it’ll be the start of the July Party~! 🌞

2020-07-01T21:00:00

days

hours minutes seconds

until

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Chapter 5 | 🤝 Contents 🤝 | Chapter 7

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