Henry Howard's body was a bit stiff, and he didn't speak for a long time.

Jay Ray lowered his head, ran his hand through his hair, pressed the cigarette butt harder into the ground, and asked again, "You're in your second year of high school this year?"

This time Henry Howard didn't stay silent. He gave a quiet "mm".

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

45. Chapter Forty-Five

"You think this way, you think—" Jay Ray stopped halfway through his sentence. He fished a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, took one out, lit it, and cursed, "Fuck."

Jay Ray squatted there smoking a cigarette. After a while, he stood up, and before leaving, he said, "What do you think this is, just to make yourself feel better? Stop messing around with all that useless crap. This thing can't be gotten over, and it won't just pass. Next time, don't let me see you again. Stay out of my way, or I might not be able to stop myself from getting someone to beat you half to death."

Henry Howard wanted to say it wasn't like that, but the words circled around his mouth several times and still didn't come out.

Jay Ray didn't plan to say anything more either. After speaking, he patted his pants and left.

Henry Howard didn't go straight back to the classroom. He climbed up to the sixth floor—the rooftop of the teaching building was locked, but that lock could be opened with a piece of wire. No one knew which class's lockpicking expert had figured out that trick.

He pushed open the door and went up. The wind on the rooftop was strong, messing up his hair and clearing his mind a bit.

Occasionally, someone would come up to the rooftop. There were a few crushed beer cans piled in the corner, and when the wind blew, they clattered and rolled to the side.

Henry Howard lay on the rooftop, staring up without blinking, as if he could see himself from his third year of middle school, and the chubby-faced Felix Carter.

"There shouldn't be anyone left in the lab, right? It's so late already."

"Bro Henry, didn't the lab teacher say this was really dangerous? We're sneaking in like this—"

"I've memorized all the steps from the video, it'll be fine."

"Where did you get the key?"

"Stole it."

""

Countless voices echoed in his ears, dragging him down into a bottomless place.

Thick black smoke, so choking it was hard to breathe.

The sound of fire trucks.

And the anxious tone of the security guard making a phone call.

Finally, a woman harshly questioned them: "Who allowed you to go in and do experiments on your own?! Teacher Liu was in the inner office, almost didn't make it out alive—who's going to take responsibility for this?!"

The incident caused a huge stir. Students had stolen a key to do a chemistry experiment on their own, and not only did something go wrong, but it almost cost a life.

The chemistry lab at Moral Education Middle School was strictly managed, and there was a small inner office for the teacher on duty. That day, it happened to be Teacher Liu's shift. No one expected that Teacher Liu hadn't left after work, but had fallen asleep at the desk from exhaustion.

If the security guard hadn't mentioned not seeing Teacher Liu leave the school, they wouldn't even have known someone was still inside.

"What exactly happened? Felix Carter, you won't say? Henry Howard, you tell me."

"I stole the key," Henry Howard heard his own voice slowly emerge. Even though he was flustered by what had happened, he still told the truth. "I did the experiment too. I asked him to come with me, it had nothing to do with him."

The woman sat at her desk, holding a red pen, pushing the cap back and forth with her thumb for a long time. Finally, she calmed down, pinched the bridge of her nose, and said, "I understand. You two go back to class for now. Don't talk about this to anyone, no matter who asks."

When they left the office, Felix Carter was so scared he was shaking.

"The teacher said she'll figure something out," Henry Howard patted Ray Jr.'s head and said, "This has nothing to do with you. If anyone gets punished, it'll be me."

At the time, Henry Howard didn't know what the homeroom teacher's "figure something out" meant. The so-called solution was to sacrifice the weaker student to protect the better one—until Felix Carter was forced to withdraw from school.

With Felix Carter's grades, getting into high school was basically impossible. Rather than dragging down the school's advancement rate, it was better to just let him go.

There were only a few days left before the high school entrance exam. By the time he found out, it was already too late.

He couldn't get in touch with Ray Jr.; they said he'd gone back to his hometown. Since they dared to make this move, they must have known Ray Jr.'s family didn't have high hopes for him. Learning a trade and making money early actually suited them better.

The school's attitude was the same as the homeroom teacher's. Taking back an expulsion notice after sending it out would be a slap in the face.

He, the one who should have been expelled, was kept and treated like a treasure, while the one who shouldn't have left was gone.

"Henry Howard, I have a mock exam for the high school entrance exam here. Do it and bring it to me when you're done, I'll grade it for you myself," the woman said with a smile. "The exam is coming up soon, just focus on your revision."

Thinking of this, Henry Howard felt a wave of nausea. He propped himself up and sat, wiping his face almost desperately.

Not long before this happened, Felix Carter would often come to him with questions, always carrying a book, which even scared Jay Ray.

Felix Carter said, "I want to study hard. I can't keep messing around like this."

Jay Ray patted his head. "Wow, Ray Jr., you've got ambition now, huh? Which school are you planning to apply to?"

"Hehe, I want to get into No. 2 High School."

"Because it has the lowest cutoff score?"

Was it to ease his guilt? Henry Howard asked himself.

Skipping the entrance exam, dropping out for a year, and finally coming to No. 2 High, always coming in last in every exam—was it all for this?

Maybe not.

Some things were just absurd, with countless "whys" bubbling up, and he didn't even know what kind of answer he was looking for.

Henry Howard didn't go back to the classroom for the entire evening self-study.

When the bell rang for the end of class, Wanda and the others cheered, grabbed their bags, and went downstairs in groups. "Want to come to my room and watch a movie tonight? I downloaded it at home, it's a sci-fi action film, supposed to be super cool—"

Wanda stopped halfway and turned to ask, "Ethan Bro, you coming?"

Ethan Young said, "No." What movie? He still had two sets of papers to finish.

After showering, Ethan Young picked out a few midterm papers from major universities in City A to do in advance. Even though a lot of the content hadn't been covered yet, he'd been quietly flipping through the books in class lately and had pretty much figured it out.

This level of difficulty shouldn't be a problem.

But as Ethan Young worked on the papers, he found himself getting distracted.

Henry Howard was about to turn off his phone when he received a text from Ethan Young.

Calling it a text was no exaggeration—it was really short, just two words: Where are you?

Henry Howard planned to ignore it, but when his hand touched the screen, almost involuntarily, he replied with two words: Internet café.

Which one?

Mm. You coming? Not sleeping tonight?

There were several internet cafés near the school, but Forum Blaster was the most well-known because it had good protection measures. If teachers came to check, they'd give the students an emergency warning.

In fact, all the staff at the internet café could recognize the teachers most likely to do spot checks, especially Manager Jensen. If they saw that mad dog, they'd immediately sound the alarm.

Determined to create a safe and secure internet environment for all students.

Ethan Young rarely went to these underground internet cafés. He didn't like the stuffy, dimly lit environment. Sitting inside, he looked like a disaffected youth, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, long bangs covering his sorrowful eyes.

But as Ethan Young climbed over the wall to leave, he suddenly couldn't understand himself—what exactly was he doing?

It was already completely dark, with only the streetlights still on outside. The leaves rustled in the wind.

A chill crept in under his clothes. Just as Ethan Young was about to jump down, he heard a voice not far away: "Don't want your legs anymore, huh? Pretty impressive, still climbing walls like this."

""

Henry Howard walked over from across the street. The light was too dim to see his expression, but he slowly came closer, stood under the wall, and said, "Why are you climbing out?"

Ethan Young said, "To play games."

Given Ethan Young's usual behavior, this reason was totally believable. Second-to-last in the grade, can't sleep at night, wants to hang out at the internet café—completely normal.

Henry Howard didn't let him jump down directly. He stood below to catch him.

"Cripple," Henry Howard spread his arms and looked up at him. "Jump."

Ethan Young: "You're the fucking cripple."

Forum Blaster was across from Jinbang Restaurant. You went up through the side door of the clothing store, up a few steps, and it was on the second floor.

A certain decadent youth surnamed He had headphones hanging around his neck, his fingers tapping away at the keyboard. Other people had cigarettes in their mouths; he had a piece of candy.

He was still in his school uniform, hadn't changed.

It was already late, and there were quite a few people in Forum Blaster. Some of them looked familiar—Ethan Young thought for a while before remembering he'd seen them in the last exam room during the monthly test.