Ethan Young frowned, and the pain from Henry Howard's five fingers digging into his wrist was also quite distinct.

Wanda's storytelling skills were actually pretty average, but he was earnest and stayed in character, plus the atmosphere was great, so halfway through he still managed to make those four girls scream in unison.

The girls' screams were even scarier than the story itself.

Listening intently to the story, then suddenly hearing a scream like that really made one's heart jump.

Ethan Young thought Henry Howard should go join the girls and scream with them, but Henry Howard demonstrated to everyone that "even the big boss has to save face" and stubbornly kept quiet, pretending to be calm.

"The barber turned around, a deeply bizarre smile appearing on his face, the corners of his mouth slowly, bit by bit, curling upward. He held scissors, standing at the storage room door, his overly long bangs covering one eye. That lifeless look made him seem nothing like a normal person, not even like a living person."

Wanda's voice grew lower and lower as he spoke, but at the key moment, his tone suddenly rose: "He opened the door! Inside the storage room were rows and rows of shelves, and at a glance, they were packed full of—human heads!"

Henry Howard's hand slid down a few inches and directly grabbed Ethan Young's hand.

Ethan Young tried to shake him off a few times but couldn't.

"Still attached to the scalp, long black hair hanging beside their faces, their expressions showed just how painful their deaths had been—ferocious, terrified, twisted."

"Let go," Ethan Young said, "Are you going to let go or not?"

Henry Howard: "No."

"Are you really scared of this?"

"Who says I'm scared?"

"Then let go."

"No."

Just as Wanda was pouring his heart into describing how terrifying those severed heads were, a face appeared at the classroom window.

Half of the face was covered by the curtain, only the other half showing, hazy and indistinct.

The features couldn't be seen clearly, just a vague outline.

But it was clear it was a man.

After a moment, the man opened his mouth and asked, "—What are you all doing?"

Wanda was halfway through his story, turned around and saw a face at the window, and was startled himself: "Oh my god."

The girls screamed together: "Ah!"

"What are you screaming about," Manager Jensen pushed open the door and walked in, found the switch and turned on the lights, "Evening self-study, what are you all doing? Have you finished your homework? Huh? Gathering here for a tea party?"

He was getting a headache from all the noise, and tapped the podium with his book: "I could hear your class from across the hallway. Do you think you have too little homework or what? Tell me and I'll let your teacher know."

Wanda: "No, no, no, no need, Manager Jensen, we have enough homework, really, any more and our bodies can't take it."

Manager Jensen had a habit of making a few rounds through the classes before leaving work. Maybe because he was about to get off work and was in a good mood, he didn't press further, just gave a couple of reminders: "Keep it down, follow the rules, if I catch you again—"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes."

After Manager Jensen left, they finally breathed a sigh of relief. Just as they were about to drag their chairs back to their seats, a girl suddenly cried out again.

"Order, quiet," Wanda said, "Quinn Shaw, was my story really that scary?"

Quinn Shaw insisted she wasn't as timid as they thought, then kept making eyes at everyone, finally succeeding in drawing everyone's attention to the two big bosses' tightly clasped hands.

Wanda and the other classmates: "!"

Ethan Young had been holding hands for so long, he hadn't even realized anything was odd.

Henry Howard was still thinking about the story: "Did she escape in the end?"

"Either dead or insane," Ethan Young said calmly, "otherwise it wouldn't be called a horror story."

Henry Howard and Ethan Young, besides their reputation as "problem students," were also quite eye-catching in appearance.

When they first entered the school, there was a poll for the most handsome boys on the school forum, and these two were at the top. Although the students at their own school didn't really dare to approach them, for some reason, maybe "distance makes the heart grow fonder," there were always students from other schools posting, "Who's that xx at your school, can I get their contact info, they're really handsome ah (/＼)."

There were lots of rumors, but their relationship history remained a mystery.

Ever since Wanda was assigned to Class 3, all the girls he used to know, whether he kept in touch or not, swarmed to ask him about them. He figured he could finally give them an answer: forget it, our class might just keep things internal.

Evening self-study ended at 8:30.

Wanda packed up and left with them. After spending these days together, he already felt like everyone was one big loving family, especially after the teacher change incident—by now, they were basically comrades-in-arms.

"Let me tell you some inside info," Wanda said as he walked ahead, "next week's monthly exam, I heard it in Mr. Thompson's office, the grade teachers are writing the questions themselves, and the difficulty will be on par with No. 4 High, anyway, it'll be harder than our usual tests."

Ethan Young: "And you tell me this inside info?"

Henry Howard also found it baffling. He and Ethan Young had long monopolized the bottom two spots in the school rankings, so exams meant nothing to them: "What's the point of this info?"

Wanda: "To remind you to get ready to cheat early, they're cracking down hard this time, I heard there'll be three teachers in each exam room."

Only the streetlights were still on at school, with the faint sound of cicadas. The height of summer was almost over, and the wind carried a hint of coolness.

Henry Howard: "Ah."

Ethan Young: "Thanks a lot."

Back in his room, Ethan Young washed up and opened "Mock Test Papers—Monthly Exam Edition," which included all the monthly exam papers from every high school in A City over the years. He found last year's No. 4 High monthly exam and glanced through it.

He just skimmed the easy questions, only stopping to work on the interesting hard ones.

Before he knew it, it was lights-out. Ethan Young figured his desk lamp could last another hour, and was working through problems when his phone screen suddenly lit up.

A message on Penguin.

Henry Howard: Are you asleep?

Ethan Young: ?

Henry Howard: Lonely night, want to chat.

Ethan Young: No time, not chatting, get lost.

Henry Howard was clearly used to his deskmate's emotionless way of talking, and didn't feel the chat was awkward at all. He replied: What are you busy with?

Facing a thick stack of math papers and a half-solved function problem, Ethan Young calmly typed three words: Playing games.

Henry Howard: What game?

These four words were full of "invite me, let's duo, let's play together" vibes, but Ethan Young stayed cool and determined to kill the conversation: Single-player game.

Henry Howard:

Ethan Young put down his phone, suddenly thinking of this guy's behavior during evening self-study, and sent another message: Are you too scared to sleep?

This time Henry Howard didn't keep forcing the conversation.

Henry Howard: [/smile].

Henry Howard: Are you kidding, who have I ever been afraid of.

Henry Howard: [/wave].

Ethan Young hadn't taken that story about the haunted dorm seriously, just thought of it as a story, like the horror barbershop, just listening for fun.

He'd boarded at school in his first year too, and nothing had ever happened.

Strange knocking sounds? People really had wild imaginations.

By the time he lay down, it was almost midnight. Ethan Young lay in bed scrolling through his Moments, saw that Ray Jones had uploaded a photo of Aunt May pinning a shifty-looking young man to the ground, with the caption: Caught a thief barehanded, awesome awesome.

Aunt May complained in the comments about Big Ray's photography skills.

Ray's Mom fiercely defended her son: It's all about the subject, not the technique! My son takes great photos!

Ethan Young looked for a long time, but in the end didn't comment, just gave it a like. He had just put down his phone when he heard a faint sound in the previously quiet hallway.

—It seemed to be very slow, very slow footsteps.

The sound came closer and closer.

Then it stopped in front of some dorm room door.

Ethan Young clearly heard two knocks.

"Dong."

"Dong."

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

20. Chapter Twenty

Sean Parker got a call from Henry Howard at almost one in the morning.

He groggily reached for his phone, fumbling for a long time and only finding a puddle of drool by his mouth, then sat up in a daze, not in a great mood: "Who is it in the middle of the night?"

Anyone would be a bit annoyed to be woken up from a good sleep, but when Sean Parker saw "朝哥" on the screen, his attitude changed immediately.