However, Luke Carter and the others simply couldn’t wait any longer. They had been skeptical about the average score, but now that even Old Thompson had personally confirmed it, an unbelievable wave of joy swept over them.

—Their class had really managed to defy the odds this time, dragging up the class average with their own efforts, even pulling up the two students at the bottom of the grade!

The group was beside themselves with excitement.

It wasn’t until Ethan Young curled his fingers and, with no expression on his face, knocked twice on the door: “Reporting in.”

“You two came at just the right time, come over here, stand to the side.”

Old Thompson said, flipping to the next page of the grade sheet in his hand, still pondering how to announce the news.

The entire Class Three watched as the two students at the bottom of the grade stood side by side at the podium. Ethan Young looked like he hadn’t slept well, hands in his pockets, leaning against the wall.

“Here’s the situation: this time, both the first and second place in the grade are in our class. Ethan Young ranked first with a math score of 150, Chinese 146, English 148, science 300, and a total score of 744.”

“Henry Howard was just one point behind, but—”

Old Thompson hadn’t finished speaking when there was a loud “thud” from the audience.

Luke Carter fell to the ground along with his chair. As he was falling, he tried to grab the desk for support, but missed and landed hard on the floor: “”

As his deskmate, Wanda didn’t reach out to help: “Does it hurt? It shouldn’t, right? How could it hurt in a dream?”

Not only did the entire Class Three, who had just been shouting “We’re amazing, we’ve created a miracle,” fall into a daze, but the students in Class Four next door weren’t doing much better.

Leonard Brooks’s face alternated between pale and flushed.

During PE class that morning, he had already bought drinks to share with his class, celebrating and saying that this time they’d definitely crush Class Three in the midterms.

Now, every word he’d said felt like a slap in the face, hitting him over and over.

How could this be possible?

“Did they cheat? Are those two in their class for real?”

“Don’t talk nonsense, they already retook the test,” the Class Four homeroom teacher was also surprised, but some things couldn’t be said carelessly. “The grade teachers made a new test overnight, and it was much harder than your midterm.”

The whole room was silent.

Then someone whispered, “That score is almost a perfect score in every subject.”

Leonard Brooks said nothing, nearly snapping the pen in his hand.

Thomas Thompson finished announcing the grades, and for the rest of the class, no one said another word.

Ethan Young took his test paper and went back to his seat to catch up on sleep.

Luke Carter’s butt still hurt, and that pain was the only thing reminding him that this really wasn’t a dream—this was actually real.

While Old Thompson had his back turned writing on the board, Luke Carter took the chance to glance at the last row, his mind still buzzing.

—Mouse, you’re ignoring me now, but one day I’ll be out of your league!

—Getting a few perfect scores with Old Young is no problem for me.

—I know how to do this problem, I really do. Give it to me and I’ll show you.

Luke Carter buried his head lower and lower, finally pressing his face into his palm, muttering a complicated “damn” to himself.

Ethan Young had no idea his classmates had so many inner thoughts. He and Henry Howard had already hinted to them before, but they just refused to believe it, obsessed with the idea of defying fate.

“What are we going to say later?” Henry Howard poked him with a pen, and after being stared at by Luke Carter for a while, he smiled back, then asked in a low voice, “Did you see the look Mouse gave me? Feels like he wants to kill me.”

Ethan Young didn’t open his eyes, replying sarcastically, “What else can we say? Just say you’ve always been this outstanding?”

Henry Howard had nothing to say.

That morning in the office, Old Thompson had also asked them once, but they didn’t know what to say at the time. After a long pause, Old Thompson thought it was something they couldn’t talk about and didn’t press, just said, “If it’s inconvenient, forget it. Come find me when you’re ready to talk. But about these grades, no matter what, I have to tell your parents.”

When he called their parents, Ms. Miller was still reserved, apologizing repeatedly: “Sorry, teacher, sorry for the trouble.”

Henry Howard’s dad, on the other hand, immediately said, “I know. My son has always been this outstanding.”

That left Old Thompson speechless: “Ah, okay, Henry Howard’s parent, as long as you know.”

The bell rang for the end of class just as Old Thompson finished the new lesson.

He assigned some homework, then noticed the students still sitting in their seats, not moving at all: “Next is PE, why are you all still sitting here? This isn’t like you. Are you really that attached to my class?”

After Old Thompson packed up and left the classroom, Luke Carter, as class representative, finally stood up slowly: “Care to explain?”

As soon as Luke Carter finished speaking, the rest of Class Three all turned to look at the back row.

For the first time, Ethan Young felt that his classmates were actually exuding a kind of intimidating aura.

That mix of extreme shock, feeling deceived, and the complicated emotions from refusing to believe these two and then having their “nonsense” come true all blended together.

Maybe it was from hanging out with Ethan Young for so long, but these classmates actually wanted to vent their feelings and solve the problem with violence.

Henry Howard quietly backed away, chair and all, to the door, making up nonsense to try to ease the tension: “Actually, during winter break, Old Young and I got into a car accident together. It was a dark and windy night, and we were walking down the road when a little electric scooter came straight at us—”

Ethan Young couldn’t hold it in when he heard “little electric scooter”: “Are you crazy? Can’t you make up something normal?”

Henry Howard: “Let me think again.”

Before Henry Howard could finish, Luke Carter took the lead, rolling up his sleeves and stepping over two rows of desks, the whole group heading for the back row: “Brothers, let’s beat them up first and talk later.”

Xavier Stone was even more dramatic than Luke Carter; as he passed the duty corner, he even grabbed a broom.

“Old Young,” Henry Howard stood up and pulled Ethan Young out of his seat, “run.”

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

102. Chapter 102

Henry Howard’s shout of “run” had barely left his mouth when Ethan Young was already being pulled by the wrist and dragged out of the classroom.

The Class Three students surged after them in a crowd.

Ethan Young dashed down the stairs, skipping steps, and with only a few left, he just jumped down. Since the next class was PE anyway, they ran straight out of the teaching building toward the sports field: “What the hell?”

Xavier Stone couldn’t keep up, so after a couple of steps, he just threw the broom forward, barely missing Henry Howard’s feet.

“So fierce,” Henry Howard staggered, “Is this really the class monitor I know?”

The scene was quite spectacular, the commotion so loud that everyone in the hallway stopped messing around and retreated to their own classrooms.

The two notorious school bullies were being chased and beaten by their entire class, from the fourth floor all the way downstairs, and it looked like they were going to take it to the sports field too. It was practically a mass brawl.

The other classes didn’t dare make a sound. Once the crowd had gone downstairs, they crowded by the railing to watch, all exclaiming in unison, “So intense, that’s awesome.”

“Stop! Don’t run!”

“Brothers, go around and cut them off on the track!”

“Qing-ge, take the girls and prepare to attack from the left!”

After a bunch of strange strategic commands, Xavier Stone shouted across the field, his anger level maxed out: “You’re deliberately dragging down the class average—you’ve gone too far, no sense of collective honor at all!”

“”

For the first time in his life, Ethan Young was chased around the sports field for several laps, and wherever he ran, people gathered to watch. He felt both complicated and embarrassed.

As he ran, he nudged the person beside him with his elbow: “Still running?”

The Class Three group changed tactics several times as they ran, swarming from all directions like a zombie siege.

Henry Howard was also scared of them. He caught his breath and stopped: “Let’s stop running. If we keep going, we’ll be running the whole class period.”

They had barely stopped when Luke Carter tackled Ethan Young from behind, sending him stumbling forward a few steps, right into Henry Howard.

Henry Howard was caught off guard, only managing to grab Ethan Young by the waist.

The next second, he lost his balance too.

“Brothers,” Luke Carter shouted as soon as he caught them, “got them—”