The Entire School Is Trying to Prove He Doesn't Exist

[Dual Male Leads | Campus Mystery | Power Couple | Pretending to Be Poor Students | Mutual Salvation | HE]

At Nanjiang No. 1 High School, a student can stand in the classroom while the school declares that “no such person exists.”

Three years ago, the school secretly piloted “Plan S”: it used data to predict students' future value, then allocated competition spots, teachers, and opportunities for further study accordingly. Later, to prove that the system was always right, the people in charge began altering grades, records, and disciplinary outcomes. Students deemed “erroneous samples” did not simply vanish, but their accounts were disabled, they were removed from their classes, and they were forced to transfer. In the end, they could not even produce proof that they had ever attended the school.

That year, Shen Tinglan's older brother went missing on campus, and competition prodigy Xu Mian was accused of cheating. From then on, he went by Xu Zhimian.

Three years later, the two become deskmates under the guise of being poor students. On the night they return to school, an encrypted verification module in the old classroom building suddenly reboots. Their classmate Jiang He is still in his dorm, but his key card, enrollment records, and class roster all stop working at once. If they cannot find evidence of tampering before midnight, he will be processed as someone who “was never properly enrolled.”

One is good at proving that a problem is wrong. The other knows how to make people hiding the truth speak up.

From mutual suspicion, they move on to jointly verifying six kinds of records: identities, attendance, scores, answers, conduct, and responsibility. Bit by bit, they recover the names the school denied, and get closer to the final thirty-four minutes before Shen Wenzhou disappeared.

But the deeper Shen Tinglan investigates, the more he suspects that Xu Zhimian was the last person to witness his brother before he vanished.

This school cannot erase a person, but it can make it impossible for him to prove he was ever here.

Unless someone is willing to use their own name to testify for him.