Ethan Young pointed at the joint petition in Luke Carter's hand, which already had signatures from half the class: "The fact that I’m even signing it is already giving you a lot of face, understand?"

Manager Jensen stopped him, said a few words, and then left.

Henry Howard ran all the way back to the classroom, and while the English teacher wasn’t paying attention, slipped in through the back door, then quietly sat down and took out a cup of hot soy milk from his nearly empty bag, pushing it toward Ethan Young: "Here."

Ethan Young looked at the soy milk and the straw: "What’s this for?"

"Drink it," Henry Howard hung his backpack on the back of the chair, "Didn’t you say you wanted it unsweetened?"

Ever since he found out he lived across the hall from Ethan Young, Henry Howard would often drop by for no reason. Of course, Ethan Young made it clear he didn’t welcome this behavior. Sometimes, when Henry Howard got up early, he’d go across the hall to wake Ethan Young up too: "Come on, let’s go have breakfast together."

Then Henry Howard discovered that Ethan Young was really picky about food—if he couldn’t get what he wanted, he’d rather not eat at all.

"Soy milk is soy milk, what’s the difference?" Henry Howard asked.

Ethan Young: "I don’t drink sweet soy milk."

The school cafeteria didn’t have many kinds of soy milk; only breakfast shops outside did. Henry Howard originally wanted to treat Ethan Young to a meal to thank him for his help, but in the end, he became the errand boy.

"What are you doing? Solving problems? What’s this?" Henry Howard spent ages just looking for his English book, and after opening it, was even more confused, "When was this assigned?"

Ethan Young was copying homework from the desk in front, not even looking up: "I don’t know, probably when you were deciding whether lace puff skirts or punk leather pants looked better."

Henry Howard's little movements didn’t escape the teacher’s notice.

After writing the question on the blackboard, the English teacher put down the chalk and called out Henry Howard's name: "You, the one who’s late, tell us: when you encounter this type of question, what’s the first step?"

Henry Howard got up lazily, hesitated for a moment, and said six words: "Give up, move to the next."

Ethan Young was halfway through copying the translation question, and when he heard this answer, the letter c at the end of his sentence trailed off in a long line: ""

English teacher: ""

The whole class: ""

Henry Howard added, "If you don’t know how to do a question, don’t waste time on it."

After a moment of silence, someone couldn’t hold back and laughed out loud, and then the whole class burst into laughter.

"Hahahahahaha, next question."

"Genius, genius."

The English teacher tried hard to keep a straight face, but in the end couldn’t help it: "Sit down and listen carefully."

After morning self-study, rumors about Chelsea Shaw being transferred to the first-year group spread through the class.

"There’s a teacher in the first-year group who needs throat surgery, so Chelsea Shaw will probably go take over that class. Our soon-to-be new homeroom teacher’s surname is Tang."

Mr. Know-it-All had been eavesdropping outside the office and came back to the class with the latest news, spreading it around: "He’s transferred from a key school, a special-grade teacher, sounds really impressive."

Wanda, whose surname just happened to be ‘Wan’, always had endless gossip, though no one knew where he got it from—some true, some false, always mysterious. He bragged that, except for Liyang No. 2 High School, there was nothing in half the city he didn’t know, so people called him ‘Mr. Know-it-All’.

Luke Carter was collecting homework and casually said, "You even dare to eavesdrop on Mad Dog’s office?"

Wanda replied, "Of course, if you want first-hand information, you have to risk your life."

Mr. Know-it-All's information was rarely accurate, but this time he was right—the new homeroom teacher’s surname was Tang, and he had a unique name: Thomas Thompson.

Thomas Thompson looked like an ordinary man about to enter middle age, wore a string of Buddhist beads on his wrist, and taught seriously. In just two days, he matched all the names and faces in the class.

He was easy to talk to, not stuck-up, just a bit naggy—quite a chatterbox, and could somehow link together a bunch of unrelated things in one sentence without it sounding strange.

"Duty students, clean the classroom before you leave, go to bed early tonight, getting enough sleep is important, don’t eat too much greasy food, if you can’t solve a problem just leave it, you can ask but absolutely can’t copy, remember to care about your parents when you get home, they’re tired too, oh right, it looks like it’ll rain tomorrow, you’d better bring an umbrella—"

""

After the last class, the boarders stayed for evening self-study.

It was quite a coincidence—Henry Howard and Ethan Young both often skipped evening self-study. If one didn’t go, the other usually didn’t either, and after nearly half a month of school, they still didn’t know the other was a boarder.

Most of the class left, leaving about ten people who started chatting while doing homework.

It was already dark outside.

Wanda asked mysteriously, "Do you guys know about the ghost stories in our dorm building?"

When Mr. Know-it-All started this supernatural topic, Henry Howard was pulling Ethan Young to play a team game. He was completely absorbed in his own skills: "I’m really awesome—see that? Double kill. Come here, I’ll cover you."

Ethan Young: "Look carefully, I was the one who got that kill."

If it weren’t for the fact that you couldn’t attack teammates, Ethan Young might have taken him out first.

"On our floor, there have been strange noises every night lately, especially after midnight, and knocking on doors," Wanda's voice got lower and lower, "I heard that a few days ago it was only on the first floor, but last night, weird things started happening on the second floor too. I heard the knocking myself. When I opened the door, there was nothing outside, just a shadow flickering at the end of the hallway."

Wanda continued, "I don’t know if I saw it wrong. But our school already has that rumor, you all know, right? The one about the person who jumped off the building."

Other students chimed in, "Yeah, yeah, the one who jumped from the roof."

"I live on the first floor, I’ve heard it, several times, always knocking, I don’t even dare to open the door. But last night it really stopped, could it have moved upstairs?"

Ethan Young wasn’t listening to them, focused on the game. They were about to fight two big bosses, but when he turned his head, he found his teammate had already died: "Tsk. Weren’t you going to cover me?"

Henry Howard looked a bit off: "Which floor do we live on? Third floor?"

------------

19. Chapter Nineteen

There are always a few terrifying legends in every school.

The story about a student jumping off the building actually has no real evidence; it’s just something passed down by generations of students. They say the school covered it up for the sake of its reputation, so there are no reports about it.

As for the reason for the jump, there are all kinds of theories: academic pressure, failed romance, family bankruptcy, campus bullying.

Wanda and the others got more and more excited, turning the dorm building into a haunted house with their stories, and even ceremoniously went "snap" and turned off the lights.

At eight in the evening, it was so dark outside you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face, only a few scattered lights visible. There was a big building near the school, which was having an anniversary celebration recently, and its lighting effects made everything glow red. Now that the classroom lights were off, that red glow made things look especially eerie.

A girl screamed, "Wanda, what are you doing!"

"Are you crazy!"

"Turn on the lights, hurry!"

Wanda was unmoved, insisting, "Telling a story, atmosphere is important, atmosphere."

Almost the moment the lights went out, Henry Howard grabbed Ethan Young's wrist and cursed under his breath: "Shit."

The game ended, and Ethan Young's phone screen went dark too. He turned his head, but didn’t shake off Henry Howard's hand. Instead, he asked with interest, "Are you afraid of ghosts?"

Wanda still didn’t know what was happening in the back corner. He was about to start telling the haunted barbershop story and called the two big shots over: "Bro Henry, Brother Yu—come on, join us? Absolutely terrifying, super exciting. If you can still sleep alone tonight after hearing it, I’ll give you fifty cents."

Henry Howard hadn’t had time to refuse when his extremely antisocial, reclusive, never-joins-in deskmate said, "Sure."

""

There were only twelve people in the classroom.

Eight boys, four girls.

Wanda sat in the middle, the rest formed a circle around him. The girls huddled together, and those without a seat dragged their chairs over.

Ethan Young sat on the outermost edge, near the corner, with Henry Howard next to him.

Ethan Young looked down and saw that Henry Howard was still holding his hand: "Are you planning to let go or not?"

As they spoke, the haunted barbershop story began. Wanda deliberately imitated a doomsday, world-weary voice: "Xiao Jie was a very beautiful girl, with long, shiny black hair. Everyone who saw her was impressed by her gorgeous hair..."