The song on the radio had stopped, but Manager Jensen's speech was just beginning: "Hello? Can you hear me? Ah, good, good morning, students. As the saying goes, the plan for the day lies in the morning—"

Henry Howard was completely shocked: "Damn, it's not over yet?"

Ethan Young raised his hand and rubbed his temple.

With this, even if he wanted to sleep, he couldn't, so he simply closed the door and turned to wash up.

"That math test yesterday, seriously, even the math teacher would be moved to tears after seeing it," Ethan Young was brushing his teeth, and Henry Howard leaned against the wall, standing at the bathroom door arguing with him, "Just wait for him to praise me. I've never had such a good feeling answering questions before, I recognized every single one."

Ethan Young finished brushing his teeth, scooped some water with his hand, and splashed it on his face.

When Henry Howard said, "I'll definitely pass this time," Ethan Young finished wiping his face and directly threw the towel at Henry Howard's face.

It would have been better if he hadn't brought it up; mentioning the monthly exam paper made Ethan Young feel utterly annoyed, thinking, "Pass my ass."

"What are you doing," Henry Howard took the towel off his face, "morning grumpiness?"

Ethan Young put his hand on the edge of his pants zipper, fingers tugging it down a bit, his intentions obvious: "Close the door and get lost."

"What's there to be shy about, we're all men here."

Henry Howard said that, but still very cooperatively turned and walked over to the desk.

Ethan Young unzipped his pants, ignoring him.

Yesterday afternoon during the math test, Ethan Young wanted to know the score range, so he asked Henry Howard midway how he was doing.

The questions on this test paper were basically all from the exercises at the end of the textbook, with only minor changes, like changing 10 to 20. Scoring too low would really make you look like an idiot.

When Henry Howard said he did well, Ethan Young actually believed him.

After all, Henry Howard usually didn't completely ignore class. Ever since he angered the math teacher last time, his math classes hadn't been so easy, and he couldn't play on his phone, so he had to look up at the blackboard.

Who knows if he actually understood anything; anyway, this guy would always say a few words from the side: "Oh, so that's how it is, so simple. Did you get this one? I got it."

He didn't get shit.

When the papers were collected, Ethan Young glanced at his answers and immediately knew Henry Howard had completely betrayed his trust.

Henry Howard paced around the room twice, then finally sat down on Ethan Young's bed.

After using the bathroom, Ethan Young cleaned it up as well. When he finished washing his hands and came out, he saw Henry Howard, who had come knocking and yelling about breakfast, now lying on his bed asleep again.

Henry Howard's shirt was rolled up at the hem, and although he looked tall and thin, he had everything he should have.

The muscles where his waist met his lower abdomen were well-defined, especially as he breathed, but the youthful innocence diluted any sense of aggression.

Henry Howard had half his face buried in the blanket.

Ethan Young flexed his wrists a few times, really wanting to punch someone.

The monthly exam was over, and regardless of the results, everyone had already returned to that relaxed state that, to put it nicely, could be called a love of life.

In the morning, students entering the school gate were busy chatting about idol stars and last night's hit TV drama, while the "mad dog" stood at the gate catching latecomers as the morning reading bell rang.

The teachers at No. 2 High were extremely efficient at grading papers, taking them home at night to work overtime, so the results would be out the next day.

Wanda squatted outside the teachers' office for an entire break, tilting his head with his ear pressed to the door. Just as Thomas Thompson opened the door to take out the trash, he suddenly stood up and darted off to the bathroom.

"Wait a second," Thomas Thompson wasn't blind, he waved at Wanda, "Come here."

When Thomas Thompson first started, other teachers had told him this kid loved eavesdropping, and today he finally saw it for himself. Holding a trash bag, he walked a few steps forward and asked, "So, what did you hear?"

Wanda said, "Our class is at the bottom, but the top two in the grade are also in our class—just from the bottom. Class 2 has the highest average, someone got a perfect score in math, Xu Qingqing did well in English, and the Chinese teacher from the next class is getting married next month."

Thomas Thompson had only vaguely seen a bit of Wanda's head from inside, and hadn't expected him to hear so much: "Your ears are pretty sharp, huh? How many ears do you have, anyway? Anything else?"

Wanda: "Nope, that's all. Report complete."

Seeing that class was about to start, Thomas Thompson didn't have time to lecture him: "Read more when you have time, get to class. Oh, right—tell Henry Howard to come to my office at noon."

Wanda quickly agreed.

Thomas Thompson walked a few steps, then came back and added, "Bring Ethan Young with you too."

In the classroom.

Henry Howard was sitting at his desk with Ethan Young, playing a low-budget homemade paper game—Gomoku—that they hadn't finished last period. Last period's Chinese class had ended in a 2:2 tie.

Henry Howard had strong logical thinking skills, and the game would drag on forever. Every time Ethan Young was about to get five in a row, Henry Howard would always block him. With Henry Howard's IQ, Ethan Young couldn't tell if it was luck or skill.

Wanda came back as the bell rang, "Bro Henry, Yu-ge, Old Tang wants you two to go to his office at noon. How can you two always be at the bottom of the class?"

Hearing this, Henry Howard knew Wanda had found out the results, put down his pen and asked, "Me? How far down am I?"

Ethan Young had already guessed the outcome and didn't even look up.

Sure enough, Wanda said, "Dead last, and you only got ten points in math."

Henry Howard still seemed lost in his dream of passing, but when he heard "ten points," he was a bit surprised: "I'm only one step away from single digits?"

Wanda said, "Exactly, amazing, you dragged our class average down by two points."

After saying this, Wanda noticed Henry Howard's mood had dropped, and asked, "What's wrong, Bro Henry?"

"Ignore him, he's not awake yet," Ethan Young said, "Still waiting for the math teacher to praise him in his sleep. You can have anything in your dreams."

Lately, Wanda felt he was getting pretty familiar with Ethan Young, so he blurted out, "Yu-ge, you got twenty points. You two are about the same, not much better."

Ethan Young: "Looking for a beating?"

Henry Howard burst out laughing, getting more and more exaggerated.

At noon, Thomas Thompson finished lunch early and hurried back to the office, waiting for the two students who had taken the bottom two spots to come see him.

He wrote several outlines for the talk, but in the end decided to just wing it.

"Mr. Thompson, they've been like this since the first year," another teacher nearby watched Thomas Thompson analyze their test papers for a long time and heard he was meeting them at noon, "Just teach them normally. If they really won't listen, there's nothing you can do. I'm not saying you should give up on them, but really, those two, there's just no way."

Thomas Thompson continued flipping through Henry Howard and Ethan Young's test papers, not directly denying the other teacher's words, and didn't feel at all like he was doing something thankless. He said, "I'll just teach normally, do my best—it's not like I've given it my all yet."

After more than ten minutes, the two finally arrived and knocked on the door: "Reporting in."

Thomas Thompson closed the lesson plan in his hand: "Come in."

It wasn't hard to guess why Old Tang wanted to see them—just to criticize their grades. All the teachers had talked to them like this in the first year, and after the talk, nothing ever changed.

Henry Howard looked completely relaxed, probably used to this kind of situation.

"You two, sit," Thomas Thompson put the test papers on the desk, "I want to ask, what difficulties do you have in your studies? Tell me and we'll try to solve them together."

In other words: "Why on earth did you two score so low?"

Ethan Young couldn't come up with a reason. He knew the real answer, so he avoided it perfectly—saying it out loud would probably scare him.

But Henry Howard answered fluently, "Everything is difficult."

"Henry Howard, I just praised you to your homeroom teacher for your recent performance in math class," as he spoke, the math teacher came in after lunch, picking his teeth with a toothpick, "So how did you end up with this result?"

Henry Howard didn't say anything.

Ethan Young answered for his deskmate: "In class, he thought he understood it too."

This time, the math teacher didn't know what to say. He shook his head and went back to his seat: "You two really are something else."

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32. Chapter Thirty-Two

Six test papers were laid out on the desk. Ethan Young thought Old Tang was going to go over the monthly exam in detail.

But Thomas Thompson asked, "Do you guys usually like playing games?"

To make it look convincing, even if they didn't really like it, they had to nod.

Ethan Young: "Yeah."