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Translator: Silvery
PR: Decadence
7AM.
Yu Sheng drags a rough hand through sleep-mussed hair. One hand stretches out from the ball of sheets and slaps down blindly.
The incessant racket of the phone is finally silenced.
In the early morn, the house is dimly lit.
Through the gaps of the loosely drawn curtains, eye-piercing rays of sunbeams force their way through, shimmering and quivering where they scatter on the floor.
The phone stubbornly comes back alive.
The default ringtone blares aloud, its volume utterly treacherous. Vibrating to add, it buzzes away to no goddamn end.
It seems likely to keep that up all day if he doesn’t pick up the phone.
Yu Sheng has his eyes half-closed when he wrangles free from the clingy tendrils of sleep. One hand scoops up his phone to answer the call.
“SHENG GĒ*! COME TO SCHOOL!”
(*Gē 哥 : Big Bro)
The moment the call’s picked up, a voice booms out from the phone, deafeningly loud:
“It’s 7 already! Where are you? The sun’s out and shining…”
Yu Sheng sits up abruptly.
Instincts ingrained from years of ploughing through school gates takes over. Yu Sheng ditches his phone and pulls on his short-sleeved polo, just about downing half a large glass of water. He is just about to fly out of his bed when his gaze abruptly lands upon the newly torn calendar.
16th July, Friday.
It is the 3rd day of summer vacation.
“……”
Yu Sheng clamps his hand over his phone and inhales sharply through his teeth:
“To hell with your Granddad! It’s summer vacation!”
Last night, he’d ran into a potential substitute player* and ended up trouncing that White Silver for some 10 consecutive matches. Reluctant to wrap it up, he’d ended up battling through the whole night. As a result, his head is now muddled as if stuffed with glue. Every little bit of movement draws a dull throb.
(*Someone you hire to help you level up your account)
He had initially been intending to make up on lost sleep by sleeping through today. But alas, he’s ripped out of his sleep at just 7 by a call.
“It is summer vacation, alright. But there’s another exam today. Sheng Gē, did you forget? Starting at 8, gotta arrive half an hour sooner – It’s that city-wide unified exam!”
Loudmouth obviously doesn’t feel his pain, because he goes on to boom thunderously in his ear:
“They’ve looked at the name list already! I hear that this time, Jin Linkun’s also coming to our school for the exam! It’s that Study God who tops the unified exam every time! Last year, we were all waiting for him to top it, but then for some mysterious reason, he suddenly got suspended…”
The legend of the Study God kept circulating amongst the high schools of City A ever since then. The voice from the phone grows increasingly excitable, rambling non-stop. It’s almost as if he has suddenly received a spark of inspiration to turn over a new leaf and plunge into the sea of knowledge as a know-all.
Yu Sheng’s pounding headache ratchets in intensity. He covers his eyes with one hand and pulls the phone further away from himself. Bit by bit, he pulls himself out of the muddle this ground-breaking news had thrown him into.
There does seem to be such a thing.
Though they have all clearly sat through their end of year examinations, it’s hard to say what caused the authorities to go bonkers, but they organized a city-wide unified examination out of the blues.
It’s a computer-based examination with 9 subjects back to back, consisting of 1000 MCQ.
They even separated the students specially for this, sparing no effort in setting up the exam venues, splitting up the city, and making a simultaneous announcement everywhere throughout the city.
Thus they speedily succeeded in spiking the pre-existing killing intent of City A’s high schoolers.
Yu Sheng yawns and massages his temples, flopping back down:
“I’m not going.”
He lies on the bed, one arm blocking out his eyes and mind wholly fogged by his previously dispelled sleepiness:
“I’m a lost cause anyways. Might as well skip it.”
1000 MCQ is capable of forcing one to an early grave.
Why not spend the time on Round 2 of sleep instead? That sounds more meaningful.
Although Yu Sheng does not flinch away from staying up late, sleep has always been important to him. Even when turning in at 3AM, he must still sleep for a full eight hours. It’s for this very purpose that he has even mastered the superb skill of napping while standing when punished to stand in the hallways.
As for mundane things like the epic clash between Study Gods and Academic Tyrants, he doesn’t intend to skip over and join in that particular fun at all.
Loudmouth heaves a heavy sigh:
“Who’d want to take it? Isn’t it ’cause of what Old He said?! ‘It’s fine to go in totally clueless, but it’s not okay to miss the exam. Otherwise, the school admin will send a direct message to the parents.’ If not for that, I wouldn’t come even if I was beaten to death…”
Yu Sheng pulls his arm off.
He pushes himself up and massages his temples:
“When did they say it? Why have I never heard of that?”
“Right before holidays started—”
Loudmouth thinks it over again and he slaps his thigh:
“Right. It’s the day you were punished to sleep out in the hallway by the Geog teach!”
Yu Sheng: “……”
Old He is their class’ form teacher. His full name is He Jianguo, a tiny little old man in his early fifties. Although they are a class whose total marks can’t even compare to a scrap student from the top class, he gets along with them winningly. Now that he thinks about it, he also lacks the sternness of the typical teacher.
Occasionally, he would even drop them a hint or two before playing dumb. His tip-offs are highly accurate.
If Old He said they will message the parents, they will most definitely do that for sure.
For all he knows, they might even attach some hideous report card, put in some teacher’s final comments, and toss in some advertisement slogan ripped off from who-knows-where about the school and parents joining hands for the greater good.
Yu Sheng sits up in his bed. He inhales deeply and wipes his face:
“Alright. Guess we can only hunker down and meet it head on.”
Loudmouth’s instantly at high tension, running his mouth off as he dramatically reports the situation live from the school gates, where students from various high schools are meeting up.
Yu Sheng feels his head pounding again. He swiftly hangs up and flings away the phone.
The phone bounces twice on the bed. Its screen blackens at once.
Yu Sheng exhales through his mouth, rising to his feet with a hand on his forehead. After picking up his blanket to carelessly fold it twice, he struts over to the window and tears open the curtains with his eyes closed.
Summer has just passed by. The day is bright early on.
The sunrise showers him head-on with light, instantly illuminating all within the house.
His is a very spacious bedroom, its furnishings all obviously expensive.
A Thinkpad X1 secret edition laptop was carelessly strewn on the desk, the shining red light indicating low battery activated. On a corner of its screen, there dangles a pair of sleek black earphones decorated with three small, intertwining green snakes.
It is dead quiet outside the bedroom. There is not a single person around.
The Auntie he’d hired to maintain the house resigned half a month ago and went home. Apparently, her son is entering the 3rd year of high school as well and got too stressed, so his mother graciously let go of her work to stay over and help lighten his load.
He was still staying in the school dorms back then. After sending a red packet to the Auntie, he couldn’t be bothered to hire a new housekeeper.
Yu Sheng half-opens his eyes as he staggers to the washroom. He splashes his face with cold water, circles over to the kitchen, and he pulls the fridge doors open to peer in.
Cleaned out and near empty. Two or three cans of beer stand there. A few containers of fast-food takeout were chucked carelessly to a corner. Who knows how long they’ve been in there.
All exactly the same as when he’d just returned.
Yu Sheng is already used to this. Riffling a hand through his hair, he pulls out a plastic bag to dump the takeout boxes. He ties a knot before leaving it at the door, intending to clear it when he’s on his way out.
The exam starts at 8. They have to enter the venue half an hour before. So, he has to be there by 7.30.
He lives quite close to the school. It’s only a 10 min walk, so time’s not that tight for him.
Since this is an online examination that will be evaluated in a similar manner, he doesn’t even have to bring a pen. Yu Sheng locates his uniform and puts it on before circling around the kitchen again.
There are still a few apples on the window sill. They were brought here by the Auntie who left. She said they were from her fruit farm back home, and they’re for him to have a taste. He had brought a whole bag of it to school back then. Now, there are only these few, and they have been left on the tiny window sill ever since.
After being aired by the winds for half a month, they have already become wrinkled.
Having stayed up through the whole night, Yu Sheng does not have much of an appetite nor can he be bothered to cook up a meal for himself. Scanning the sad-looking instant noodles in the corner of his kitchen, he smoothly picks out a few somewhat better-looking apples to pocket and walks out of the door with the garbage.
Out of the five high schools in City A, Central Third has always been the most chaotic and consistent. That consistent being how its demerit points and student promotion percentage are always at the tail end of all high schools.
It just so happens that they are even located in the immediate vicinity of the top of the top high school.
These two schools are polar opposites. Their students all come from different backgrounds. Yet, though their school gates are some ten kilometres away back-to-back, the back of their campuses are actually up close and personal with each other; Only two streets separate them.
Both of these streets are pedestrian-only shopping districts. The vendors directly face out to either studious students focused on studying diligently, or students diligently focused on skipping school. Jam packed with internet cafes, KTVs*, and various cheap shops, it is an utterly chaotic place constantly bustling with activity.
(*KTV: Karaoke)
So chaotic, in fact, that every time something happens, the root cause must definitely be a Central Third student.
With Central Third High School’s uniform shrugged over his back, Yu Sheng makes his 17th yawn of the day and evades the booths fervently advertising sure-pass exam packs to students.
For a shopping district that is as heavily reliant on student traffic as this one, their businesses visibly slow to a trickle during winter and summer vacations. But since it’s the city-wide unified exams today, many stalls have already rolled out their products early on. With either side of the path chucked full of last-minute booths, the originally hectic place instantly seems two-fold more crowded.
“Right from the Temple of Confucius! Sure pass for all exams!”
One booth owner is extra zealous. He raises a set square to the winds and waves it as he stalks passing students and advertises loudly:
“2 dollars for the plastic ones, 5 for the metal ones! It’s the Geodreieck sort! Sure to save at least half an hour during your exam!”
“A must-have tool for exams! So easy to use, you’ll know it at a glance!”
“Free bookmark for every purchase! A brocade koi design for the exams, guaranteed to help pass and boost marks!”
……
The outcry for business continues with dubious promises repeated like a constant refrain. A couple of students give in to the temptation not long later and drift over uncertainly.
Yu Sheng rubs his ear, purposely rounding about the stalls again.
These stall owners are shrewder than anyone else, never reaching out to Central Third’s students. Therefore, just their uniform on his back saves him a great deal of trouble.
There is nothing good about this sort of examination. For all they know, it could be a new means of selection for that competition known to deceive and abduct all good students to go on a special voyage exploring the wonder-filled sea of information.
Yu Sheng comes here today with the intention of answering all questions with his eyes closed. Navigating around the messily organized booths, he purchases two buns and a bag of soy milk before making off to the back of the school.
There is a gap in the fencing around the back of the school. It has not been fixed despite the years, thus benefiting generation after generation of fence-vaulting Central Third schoolers.
Yu Sheng’s house is located at the high-end housing estate recently built behind the school. If he circles around to enter from the front gates, he needs at least half an hour. Fence-vaulting and going from the back, on the other hand, requires just 10 mins.
By the standards of a high schooler, if one is able to benefit from an extra 20 mins of sleep but can’t scale a fence with 100% certainty, this setting will give nothing more than a flimsy advantage.
Yu Sheng is quite experienced. Trotting along and wandering to the back of the fence, he finds a quiet and peaceful place to hold the bag of soy milk between his teeth and open the paper bag with the buns.
These buns are freshly out of the stove with steam still wafting off them. They are still puffing with heat.
Yu Sheng switches hands. He has only just ripped open the bag of soy milk with his teeth and drank a mouthful when a clamour suddenly infiltrates the secluded area. In the distance, a gang of students come prancing into view.
There are six to seven of them.
Aggressive, truculent, and even bringing his pals over with him.
The one in lead is a guy with broom-like hair. With a cigarette between his teeth, Province Point’s uniform sloppily donned, and shoes that only makes him seem doubly pompous clicking against white pavement, he doesn’t seem the part of a Province Point student at all.
It’s easy for the plastic bag to spill, so Yu Sheng cradles his soy milk protectively as he politely turns to make way.
He has only just turned around when he is surrounded on all sides by these guys.
The couple of huge, burly men bulging with muscles stand up front, their arms folded and their faces clearly showing how they should not be trifled with.
Yu Sheng nips at the soft edge of the soy milk bag. He peers at the gloomy-looking Broom Head dead-fixed on staring at him. After a careful scrutinization, he gives him a greeting:
“Friend, do I know you?”
It would have been better if he didn’t ask. The moment the words are out, Broom Head’s expression instantly turns ugly:
“You son of a bitch—”
Only half the cuss has slipped out when he remembers he’s the one who brought his bros to corner this guy. Voice faltering, the simmering outrage in his eyes gradually turn into contempt:
“Yu Sheng, do you really think you can get off lightly by acting dumb?”
Broom Head takes a puff of his cigarette, sniggering with his eyes closed as he rubs his jaw lightly:
“Lao Zi* shall tell you. If we don’t beat you into submission today, we will have come for nothing! You—”
(*Ore-sama / This great one)
Yu Sheng utters without thinking:
“Ah.”
Broom Head: “……”
The tension caused by them ganging up on him is abruptly cut off. Broom Head seems to be spitting wildfire from his eyes as he glares at him. Just when he’s about to explode, Yu Sheng lifts the soy bag up again and seizes the opportunity to take another two sips of his rapidly cooling soy milk.
“Friend…”
Yu Sheng finally recalls who he is. He rubs the ear throbbing from the volume, thankful he had cut off the conversation before more of his time is wasted on his bullshit.
“I only said it casually the other day. Don’t tell me… You really summoned rain the moment you walked out, crashed into walls, and got caught cheating thrice during your exams?”
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Next Time on DTTM!
Chapter 2 : They scared him so badly, even his buns fell to the ground.
Preview: In the midst of the friendly crowd, there he is. *Whispers* The Love Interest.
Yu Sheng’s Buns 🍑
(Updates @ 1PM GMT every Wednesday till we collate enough chapters.
Then, we’ll up the frequency with a little bonus~ 😉 )
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Aubade 
Thanks for translation
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Thank you so much for your hard work!
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Im checking back on this novel and i just noticed theres different emojis on each chapters since chapter 1, thats cute as heck! Thanks for the tl
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