Xie Lan simply shut himself off.
He walked along, listening to the buzzing in his ears.
Yingzhong only had one student representative to listen to the exam outline, but No. 3 Middle School, No. 9 Middle School, and the Affiliated Middle School all had more than 20 students. Xie Lan went in and sat in the back row. Dou Sheng sat next to him, opened everyone's schoolbag under the table, and transferred the uniform from Xie Lan's bag to his own bag.
He whispered, "I had a reasonable suspicion that you were trying to throw it away secretly. Fortunately, I found it in time. It's a thousand dollars."
Xie Lan said nothing.
He knew Dou Sheng wanted to comfort him, but he was so autistic that the language area of his brain short-circuited and he selectively lost his Chinese function.
Destroy it.
The lecturer distributed materials to every student who attended the lecture, one was an introduction to the provincial training camp, and the other was this year's exam syllabus.
Xie Lan could not hear what the teacher said at the moment. He just lowered his head and unconsciously drew pieces of paulownia trees on the paper to relieve his stress.
Xie Lan learned to draw the simple sketch of phoenix tree leaves when Xiao Langjing was in the hospital, and he drew them to entertain her.
Human psychology is a difficult thing to explain. When he first entered junior high school, he liked sports and was active in the school basketball and tennis teams. Later, he joined the school symphony orchestra and became the first violinist in half a year. He got along well with everyone around him and had many weekend reading clubs and parties.
But since Xiao Langjing suddenly fell ill, his life has suddenly become a gray line between school and hospital. Perhaps because the hospital is too quiet, he gradually became introverted and cautious, not very talkative, unwilling to attract attention, as if he carried a mobile phone case wherever he went, and even refused to show his face in front of the camera when he was a YouTuber to entertain Xiao Langjing.
If it was a child, this kind of blunder could probably be laughed off, but now Xie Lan felt it was a calamity.
Xie Lan was shutting himself in when suddenly a strange-looking object came into his sight.
The paper was folded like a frog, and it would jump forward if you pressed its butt.
Xie Lan was startled, "What the hell?"
Dou Sheng whispered, "Let the little jumping frog watch your social death for me."
"What is social death?"
"You can check it on your phone."
Dou Sheng tore the little jumping frog apart and wrote the word "social death" on the wrinkled paper.
Social death is the abbreviation of social death. It is so shameful that one cannot face others. The body is still alive, but the spirit is dead.
Xie Lan nodded expressionlessly, "Oh. I'm dead."
"Pfft." Dou Sheng couldn't hold back his laughter, "Why are you so funny?"
"The one in the back row, which school are you from?"
The teacher's stern voice suddenly sounded.
Dou Sheng stood up and said, "I'm sorry, teacher. I didn't wake up this morning and I'm a little confused."
The students in the front row turned around and looked at Dou Sheng's hair and clothes with shocked eyes, and some were talking in low voices.
The teacher also frowned, "I asked you which school you are from?"
"English-Chinese."
"Why are you dressed like this?" The teacher frowned and asked, "Isn't your dean Mr. Hu?"
Dou Sheng simply blurted out, "It's her."
The teacher choked.
Logically, after saying "it's her", you should ask further questions, such as why does she allow you to dress like that, and what level of student are you
But the teacher from the Municipal Education Bureau was kind. He frowned for a long time and then said, "Sit down and listen carefully."
Dou Sheng nodded, "I'm really sorry."
The presentation is divided into two parts. The first part introduces the provincial training arrangements, and the second part explains this year's examination syllabus, which belongs to the series of "I tell you what will be tested this year, but you still don't know how to answer the questions when you get the examination paper."
During the break, Xie Lan lay on the table and played with his phone.
A group of people from the Affiliated High School went to the grocery store to buy food, and Guo Ruize was also there.
"I'm going to the store too." Dou Sheng stood up and said, "Do you want to eat something?"
Xie Lan rested his chin on his left back and poked the screen with his right hand, "I'm not hungry."
"You've been socially dead for forty minutes, and you haven't revived yet?" Dou Sheng sighed, and stretched his hand to touch the back of his head and rubbed it, "You're still young, but you've set a lot of rules for yourself. Then I'll buy them for you casually."
Xie Lan weakly turned his head away, "I'm upset, don't touch me."
I can't blame anyone for where I am today, I can only hate myself.
You must be crazy to play with someone else's uniform in the middle of the night when you have nothing better to do.
Xie Lan sighed and scratched the exam outline with the tip of his pen.
After a while, he got up and went to the bathroom, and when he came back, he ran into Dou Sheng and Guo Ruize. Guo Ruize was not with the people from their school, but was walking behind Dou Sheng, his eyes a little dazed.
Dou Sheng had one hand in his pocket and the other holding a bag of food. His cold expression matched his gangster outfit, and he exuded the aura of a gangster who could explode at any time.
Xie Lan guessed that Guo Ruize was frightened by him. After all, anyone who could say "I am the best in our school" upon seeing him must be extremely innocent and have never seen a real "delinquent teenager".
Xie Lan stopped and waited for Dou Sheng. Guo Ruize passed by them all. When he passed by Xie Lan, a trace of sympathy suddenly appeared in his distracted eyes.
Xie Lan didn't react until she saw Guo Ruize passing by and joining the crowd of people from the Affiliated High School to chat and laugh.
He hesitated for a moment and asked in a low voice, "Do you think Guo Ruize will tell others what he saw?"
Dou Sheng seemed to curl the corners of his lips, "I think he's very talented. He's quite talkative. I just heard him talking to people from his school in the store, and he was very talkative."
Xie Lan suffocated.
He walked back alone, and Dou Sheng followed behind him.
"Don't you need a uniform?" Dou Sheng said from behind, "Why do you care if he says he will go?"
Xie Lan turned around and looked at him, "What do you mean by the rules and regulations you just mentioned?"
Dou Sheng thought for a moment, "Rules and regulations mean that a person always tells himself that he should be this way or that he must not be that way, and that if something happens to him, he will be doomed. It's like building a cage for himself and then swallowing the key. Why bother?"
Xie Lan was stunned for a moment.
He had heard many similar truths, but this kind of metaphor was new to him.
Dou Sheng suddenly stretched out his hand, hooked his shoulders, smiled, and made his signature scissors gesture.
"What are you doing?" Xie Lan suspected that he wanted to take another photo - "The Big Cat and the Socially Dead Two Cats" or something like that.
But Dou Sheng didn't take out his phone. He just shook a finger and said, "Now that things have come to this, you have a choice."
Xie Lan looked at him without saying a word. Dou Sheng smiled and said, "First, think of this as shock therapy. Take it to the extreme of social death in one step, and use the powerful force of shame to shatter the cage on your body. From now on, the sky is high and the birds fly freely, the sea is wide and the fish leap freely. Open the door to a new world and grasp the truth that leads to happiness."
Xie Lan looked at him sideways and said, "Speaking of people."
Dou Sheng said: "Since we've already found out, why not have some fun together?"
"… "
Xie Lan used all his greatest self-control in this life to not punch Dou Sheng at this moment.
He walked back quickly with a gloomy face. Dou Sheng caught up with him while laughing, and put his arms around his neck without saying a word.
"What are you doing?" Xie Lan struggled desperately.
"I haven't finished yet. There are two more options." Dou Sheng raised his eyebrows. "These two options are more practical. We can do something else to suppress Guo Ruize and make him forget about you."
Xie Lan paused, "What do you mean?"
Dou Sheng smiled, "Quickly give him a second, stronger attack. Use fear to suppress fear, and use magic to defeat magic."
Xie Lan seemed to understand.
"You mean that I should prepare well for the placement test, shock him academically, and get a perfect score?"
Dou Sheng's expression disappeared instantly. After a moment of silence, he couldn't help but said, "Enterprise-level understanding."
Xie Lan: “What?”
Dou Sheng sighed, "Actually what I mean is that we can show Guo Ruize something more intuitive, such as what I just said..."
"I understand." Xie Lan nodded seriously and made an OK gesture.
Dou Sheng was confused, "What do you understand? I haven't finished yet."
The teacher patted the desk, and Xie Lan quickly returned to his seat, turned to the second page of the presentation materials, and tried hard to put aside all distractions and listen.
Dou Sheng muttered beside him, "I feel like you don't understand, but never mind, it's not important. I sincerely recommend that you be more open-minded. After all, JK uniforms are not fun. The fun is trying something that the whole world thinks is crazy. The reason you try it is just because you are curious or it's a spur of the moment thing. That feeling of having no taboos is simply amazing."
Xie Lan could no longer hear.
He had heard of using magic to defeat magic before and he agreed with it.
In the second class, the exam outline was discussed. Xie Lan listened carefully, wrote down the English names of all the mathematical theories in the outline, and checked them several times in Chinese and English.
Dou Sheng hesitated several times and finally shut up silently.
When I returned to school, the classroom inside and outside was in a state of excitement.
The welfare video Dou Sheng successfully uploaded in the early morning for his millions of fans not only made it to the front page, but also set the school on fire. Class 4 was jammed in all the doors during the break, and everyone felt a little sorry that the big boss in the grade didn't wear a uniform to the school.
When Xie Lan squeezed through the crowd and returned to his seat, he heard a girl sighing with emotion: "I still think Douzi is handsome even in women's clothes. Is he hopeless?"
Another person said, "Sister, I am sinking with you!"
Xie Lan couldn't stand the word "women's clothing" at this moment. He leaned back in his seat to work on math competition questions, intending to immerse himself in the ocean of knowledge and let the abundant human wisdom clear the haze in his heart.
This book of competition questions was given to him by Lao Ma. Since he could not attend the competition training class on weekends, Lao Ma divided the things to be taught this semester into a book of handouts and a book of exercises and gave them to him so that he could study on his own.
He had roughly read the lecture notes before, but there was one thing he didn't quite understand. He made up for it this time, then opened the exercise book and started working hard on it.
I took half a morning off to look after my grandma. As soon as the car was closed, I ran to the seat and glared at Dou Sheng, saying, "Are you crazy? I was so scared when I saw the video that I almost threw my grandma away."
"What the hell are you talking about." Dou Sheng raised his eyebrows nonchalantly, "Can you still beat your grandmother?"
Wang Gou said from the side: "He has some self-awareness."
The car choked, "I was just making a metaphor, no, what do you think? I follow so many people who say they wear women's clothes with millions of fans, but few of them actually wear women's clothes."
Wang Gou shook his head, "No! Yes!"
Dou Sheng didn't show any expression. "I just had a sudden thought and wanted to wear it. What's the matter?"
He glanced at Xie Lan and said calmly, "The human brain is a black box. You can't control when and what weird thoughts will pop up."
Unfortunately, Xie Lan could no longer hear. He was immersed in the ocean of study and finally found a little bit of transcendent peace in the vast amount of calculations.
In the days before the exam, Xie Lan learned a method to forget social deaths and it worked wonders.
Wang Gou commented that he was "at the pinnacle of perfection", while Che Zi said that he was "possessed".
In fact, it was not that exaggerated. Xie Lan just read the handouts given by Lao Ma from beginning to end to make sure he knew every Chinese word. Then he went through the competition questions again, using one method the first time and another method the second time. He tried to use all the mathematical principles that were mentioned in the exam guidelines and all the methods that could be used to solve the problems.
“Isn’t this an exaggeration?”
On the school bus going to the examination venue, the driver was frantically flipping through the exercise book he had filled with answers, and he was dumbfounded.
"You are probably the 18th generation descendant of Gauss, right? Oh my god, I'm so scared." He looked at the densely packed formulas in shock, "Some of the solutions I can't understand at all?"
Upon hearing this, Dou Sheng leaned over to take a look at the notebook, then smiled and sat back down.
The car glared at him, "Can you understand?"
Dou Sheng hummed, "Basically."
"Basically?" Che Zi pointed at Dou Sheng and yelled at Xie Lan, "You actually let this man say the word 'basically'?!"
It’s so noisy and deafening.
Xie Lan leaned back in his seat sullenly.
I've been studying a bit crazy these days.
Practicing competition questions took up almost all of his self-study and evening rest time. He also had to get up in the morning to recite ancient poetry and organic chemistry, which caused him to suffer from brain hypoxia.
But the good thing is that the social death scene of that day has basically been cleared from my mind. Perhaps feeling shame is a relatively advanced brain activity, and when the human brain is working at a high intensity, this activity will be suspended.
Moreover, Che Zi has several good friends from the affiliated high school, and Xie Lan has hinted to them several times through Che Zi in the past few days.
There were no headlines like "There is a boy in Yingzhong who wears a female high school uniform to school" in the Affiliated High School. In contrast, Dou Sheng's personality in the Affiliated High School was quite full-fledged - I ranked first in the city in the middle school entrance examination, and I was always in the first grade in high school. I dyed my hair, I had diamonds in my ears, my clothes had shoe prints, and my pants had a one-meter hole, but I was a good student.
There were about 150 people from the city taking the graded test, and they were divided into six examination rooms. The order of the examination rooms was deliberately arranged to separate students from the same school as much as possible. Dou Sheng and Xie Lan were not in the same examination room.
Dou Sheng followed Xie Lan to the entrance of his examination room and raised an eyebrow at him, "Do your best on the exam, young man. If you can get into the top 30, we can go to the provincial training together."
Xie Lan hummed.
As soon as he entered the building of the Municipal Education Bureau, he had a psychological trauma, even to his schoolbag. He hesitated for a while before taking his pencil case and leaving his schoolbag on the windowsill in the corridor, leaving it to die.
The exam lasts four hours and the total score is 360.
The number of questions in the high school basics section was surprisingly large. The questions were not difficult, but the amount of calculations was incredible. Xie Lan felt his wrists sore when he calculated the last question. He shook them for a long time before continuing to do the competition section.
As for the competition standards and the level of competition, Xie Lan actually didn't feel much difference.
The AMC system he studied was more about abstract mathematical principles, which were not common in domestic competitions, so it was more of a so-called "competition advancement" system. This led to him feeling that his thoughts flowed more and more as he went on.
The extensive training that day was indeed effective. He was able to read the questions and write the answers in Chinese very smoothly. Solving the questions was a breeze, and it was the first time since returning to China that he felt the long-lost joy of taking an exam.
In the last hour of the exam, Xie Lan could clearly feel that half of the people in the room had fallen down. The pens that were marking on the papers became weak. Not only was the exam difficult, but their physical strength was also exhausted.
But he felt he was still capable, so with fifteen minutes left before the end of the exam, he rearranged the twelve math papers from 1 to 12, checked each one, wrote his name on it, and then put the pen cap back on.
With a crisp click.
Guo Ruize, who was sitting on his right, shuddered, turned his head and stared at him in disbelief.
The invigilator just turned around, and Guo Ruize sat on the stool with his buttocks, twisted his upper body to the middle of the group, and almost rested his chin on Xie Lan's desk.
"What are you doing?" Xie Lan's tone was a little alert.
He has a psychological trauma about this person, even though he can't blame him for the last accident.
Guo Ruize whispered, "My thoughts are so stuck that my own mother can't understand me, and you actually finished it?"
"Oh." Xie Lan breathed a sigh of relief and then flipped through the last few papers. "Yeah, I'm done."
Guo Ruize's eyes widened.
Xie Lan glanced at his paper - there were 12 papers on the top, with five big questions on it. Guo Ruize had written about three of them, leaving one blank, and one that he filled in but had a big cross on.
Xie Lan was a little surprised, "Is there anything you don't know?"
Guo Ruize: “?”
The invigilator turned around and frowned, "No communication allowed!"
Guo Ruize had a strong desire to survive, so he immediately pulled back and raised his hands and said, "There was no exchange. I was the only one who was insulted."
All the top students in the room were happy. They didn’t know what happened, but they just wanted to have fun.
The invigilator glared at him, and Guo Ruize said, "Forget it, I'll hand in the paper. Math is something I don't know. There's no point in struggling."
He stood up with a dignified look, rolled up the test paper and slammed it on the table, then left in a dashing manner with the dignity of being the top student in the affiliated high school.
The invigilator looked at Xie Lan.
Xie Lan had no choice but to stand up silently and hand in the paper.
Guo Ruize was the only one in the corridor, leaning against the windowsill and sending messages on his cell phone.
Seeing him standing there, Guo Ruize said with emotion: "Big brother, you told me that you were ranked 400th in the school year? You must be kidding. With your IQ, you can't get 190 in the comprehensive science exam with your eyes closed, right?"
Xie Lan paused, "I got 64 in the comprehensive science test."
"Let me tell you..." Guo Ruize smiled, "What is the minimum score you need to get in the comprehensive science exam?"
His face was frozen as if struck by lightning, "Six, ten, fourteen?"
Xie Lan thought for a moment, "I didn't answer Chemistry and Biology, but my Physics score was 64. Would that be better?"
Guo Ruize: “…No thanks.”
"Big brother, let's add each other on WeChat." Guo Ruize sent another message, "Although we are from different schools, we will probably meet again in the provincial training camp, so let's get to know each other in advance."
Xie Lan was reluctant to add strangers, but he suddenly remembered that Guo Ruize was the one who knew his shameful little secret, so he had to take out his phone.
"I'll scan you, don't forget to pass me." Guo Ruize smiled, "I'll go first, sir. See you at the provincial training camp."
Xie Lan looked at his back and thought that this man was quite confident.
Only the top thirty out of a hundred and fifty people were selected. He at least left one big question blank, and he even dared to say that he had won the provincial exam.
I don't know if it was because Guo Ruize didn't mention the JK uniform the second time they met, or because the exam was finally over, but Xie Lan felt relaxed all of a sudden on the way back. She was so relaxed that she fell asleep on the bus.
After arriving home, Dou Sheng had to wake him up. He walked into the house in a daze and fell directly onto the bed and continued to lie there.
The orange cat, which had not been seen for a week, jumped onto the bed, lay down beside the pillow, and snored contentedly.
Dou Sheng stood at the door and smiled, "Are you feeling a little more relaxed?"
"It's not a heavy exam at all." Xie Lan muttered, "It's just a small exam."
"The test was not difficult. I was just shocked that someone would be upset for so many days because of a little skirt."
Xie Lan sighed, "What's wrong?"
Dou Sheng smiled, "Nothing. Ms. Zhao Wenying is not at home. I just want to tell you that today is my last day to record my character design. I still have a lot of storyboards to go. I plan to go get some materials. I may be back very late tonight. You can order takeout yourself."
"Oh." Xie Lan nodded dazedly, "I see. Then you also want to eat."
It was three o'clock in the afternoon when Xie Lan got home from the exam. He fell asleep on the bed and slept soundly. When he opened his eyes, the whole house was dark.
The moment he got up, he felt a little nervous. It was too dark. Just as he was about to touch the phone, he suddenly heard the snoring sound of a kitten beside the bed.
I stayed by his side and slept for the entire afternoon and night, from dawn to dusk.
Seeing that he woke up, the orange cat turned over on its belly, stretched, and whimpered again.
"Big cat. No, Wutong." Xie Lan smiled and touched its belly.
The cat is very well behaved, let me pet it.
22:30.
The house was silent, Dou Sheng hadn't returned yet.
Xie Lan sat up and stretched his shoulders which were numb from sleeping, then opened the food delivery app to get dinner.
There is an unread message on WeChat, hours ago.
Guo Ruizeze: Boss, I don't think I can understand the third question of the competition group, which is to prove that the number of left and right turns of an ant is equal. I am confused when it comes to spatial graphics questions.
Xie Lan was deeply impressed by that question because it was the one that required writing the most Chinese characters in the entire test paper.
He replied succinctly: Make all the vertices into a set, count the number of edges and turns in each direction at each point, and use Euler's theorem.
In fact, it is still very simple. There are many more difficult questions than this one, and Guo Ruize is probably not very good at this kind of questions.
Xie Lan thought the other party would not reply immediately, but before he could close WeChat, he received a reply.
Guo Ruizeze: Damn, you said exactly the same thing as my teacher. I couldn’t help but ask my teacher this afternoon, hehe.
Guo Ruizeze: It's so terrifying. With you here, I don't have to worry about getting a place in the competition this year.
Guo Ruizeze: But I’m more curious about Dou Sheng in your school.
Xie Lan was stunned.
Renaissance: What happened to him
Guo Ruizeze: I’m just curious about what kind of person he is.
Guo Ruize simply sent a voice message, "I don't mean to discriminate against women's clothing. Everyone has the freedom to dress however they want. But I don't understand why he stuffed a little skirt in his schoolbag and took it to the Municipal Education Bureau to listen to the lecture. What kind of spirit is that? Especially since he is an excellent student who took the exam with us. Oh my God, I really want to gossip with him, but I don't dare because he is so fierce."
Xie Lan was stunned for a while and listened to the recording several times.
Did Guo Ruize misunderstand? That schoolbag was definitely his. The situation on that day was very accurate. It was his schoolbag that had a small skirt found in it, and Dou Sheng helped him cover it up.
Guo Ruizeze: Don’t think I’m talking behind people’s backs. I was hurt so badly. You know, he not only wore a skirt to the lecture, but also recorded a video wearing it! During the break of the last lecture, he stopped me and showed me the video with great pride, asking me what I thought?!
Guo Ruizeze: Damn, I had nightmares for four consecutive days. He was in every dream. If you didn’t know, you would think I was in love.
Xie Lan was completely stunned.
Guo Ruize sent another string of shocking emojis, but Xie Lan didn't reply.
He sat in a quiet room, the orange cat lying beside him, snoring softly.
No wonder Guo Ruize went with the people from the attached middle school last time, but ended up coming back after Dou Sheng. Xie Lan never expected that when Dou Sheng said "give him a bigger shock", he actually just put the uniform on him, and didn't say anything after the matter was settled, letting him shut himself up and study math like crazy for a week, while he just watched from the side with a smile.
I feel a little complicated.
Suddenly, there was the sound of music of a door unlocking from downstairs. Not long after, Dou Sheng came up the stairs with a clattering sound. He walked to the door of his room and knocked on it.
Xie Lan turned around and exclaimed.
Dou Sheng pushed the door open, stared at the darkness for a few seconds, then turned on the light.
"You guys are fine, why don't you take a nap for the afternoon?"
Xie Lan squinted in the light, "How's your recording?"
"All done." Dou Sheng smiled. "I'm going to dye my hair back tonight and donate my clothes to the Hope Primary School in the mountainous area. I'm going to sweep away the negative energy and be myself again."
Xie Lan nodded, but couldn't help wondering if the children in Hope Primary School would really be willing to accept a pair of pants with a one-meter-long hole.
When Dou Sheng was at home, he turned on every light he passed by. He walked leisurely around every corner of the house, stretched out his finger and gently pressed the snow-white switch. Click, click, it didn't take long before all the lights upstairs and downstairs were turned on, and the whole house was shrouded in a sparkling light.
When Zhao Wenying was at home, she would scold him for being wasteful, but when Xie Lan just woke up, he thought that the warm and bright light was very good.
He is not the only one at home.
He stroked the cat beside him, then stood up and went to the next room, where Dou Sheng was packing up the pile of lenses and batteries on the cart.
"that… "
Xie Lan hesitated halfway through calling him.
Dou Sheng turned around, "What's wrong?"
Xie Lan didn't say anything, and was speechless for a moment. He stood at the door for a while, and suddenly remembered something. He ran back to his room and searched in his pencil case for a long time.
This thing was given to him by the auntie in the canteen. She gave him an extra RMB 200 that day and gave him the change.
Dou Sheng straightened up and looked back at Xie Lan, only to see Xie Lan running past with a head of messy hair.
"My wallet at B-station is empty again, so I'll give you one on credit. Do you read on credit? Anyway, when I have coins, you can take this and come to me to replenish them." Xie Lan said, "Thank you for helping me defeat the magic with magic in Guo Ruize's place."
As he spoke, he took out a few coins from his pajama pocket and placed them one by one on Dou Sheng's desk.
Crisp.
Dou Sheng was stunned.