Henry Howard closed the door behind him, was about to go downstairs, but stopped at the stairway: “Manager Jensen.”

Manager Jensen turned around: “Anything else?”

Henry Howard smiled and said, “I did pretty well on this exam.”

“Hm?”

“My deskmate did pretty well too.”

This was quite a roundabout way of saying things. Manager Jensen still couldn’t figure out what Henry Howard was getting at: “Mm.”

Then Henry Howard finally said, “So can we change dorms now?”

Last time Henry Howard came to apply for a dorm change, Manager Jensen was furious—two students at the bottom of their grades wanting to share a room? That was just asking for trouble, so he kicked them out without a second thought.

He didn’t expect they were still thinking about it.

Manager Jensen hesitated: “You two—”

Henry Howard: “We help each other, study together, and make progress together.”

Ethan Young leaned against the stair railing, listening to this nonsense, and halfway through couldn’t help but lift his foot and give a light kick.

Manager Jensen thought for a while, and considering their grades this time, he was actually convinced by Henry Howard’s “making progress together” line. In the end, he relented: “Fine, fill out the application form and hand it in to my office before school’s out.”

The efficiency at No. 2 High was impressive.

The application was submitted, and not long after, all the procedures were completed.

By the time evening self-study ended that day, there was already a new name on the occupancy list by Ethan Young’s dorm room.

Ethan Young was used to living alone. A test paper was spread out on his desk, and he sat curled up in his chair, watching Henry Howard bustle back and forth. The previously empty half of the room was now piled up with stuff, and for a moment, he felt a bit out of place.

He tried to focus on the questions, but after glancing at them for a bit, he put down his pen and noticed that Henry Howard’s things were already packed neatly in cardboard boxes: “When did you start getting ready?”

“A few days ago.”

“Wanted to be closer to my little friend,” Henry Howard said, carrying things back and forth, a bit sweaty on his back, taking off his jacket as he spoke, “Best if I could see him the moment I open my eyes every day.”

Ethan Young was a bit stunned by that.

When Henry Howard was almost done making the bed, he finally realized he’d forgotten all about the questions he was supposed to be working on.

Henry Howard didn’t have much stuff—just a few boxes, and he even brought over the “Sprint to the College Entrance Exam” poster that had been on his door for ages.

When Aunt May called, Henry Howard had just finished tidying up and was heading to the bathroom with a change of clothes to shower.

Yvonne Shaw was so excited she could barely speak: “Really got first place?”

Ethan Young listened to the sound of running water from the bathroom and replied absentmindedly, “Mm.”

“That guy at your house, that idiot, didn’t give you any trouble, did he?” Yvonne Shaw calmed down and, following up on “idiot,” let loose a string of curses.

Ethan Young had to think for a moment before realizing that “idiot” referred to Jack Cooper.

“No, don’t worry about it.”

He didn’t really know how Jack Cooper reacted, but Ms. Miller told him not to bother with it. It had been days since the results came out, and he really hadn’t gotten any calls from Jack Cooper.

They chatted for a while, and as they talked, Ethan Young absentmindedly solved the last problem at hand.

“Alright, I’ll stop bothering you. Take care of yourself—”

After Aunt May finished nagging, Ethan Young hung up, tossed his phone aside, and finally saw a certain someone, fresh out of the shower and not bothering to dress properly, pulling open the door.

Henry Howard’s hair was still wet, and he was only wearing a shirt, with barely any buttons done up.

Ethan Young started to think that maybe sharing a dorm with this guy wasn’t such a wise decision after all.

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

105. Chapter 105

“Do you even know how to put on clothes?”

“Huh?”

Ethan Young pointed at the shirt he was wearing.

Henry Howard closed the bathroom door behind him, only focused on drying his hair. He’d actually planned to just come out shirtless: “What’s there to be shy about? You’ve seen me naked anyway.”

Ethan Young shifted his sitting position, straddling the chair backwards, wrist resting on the back, long legs bent, and in that pose, crooked his finger at Henry Howard.

Henry Howard gave his hair a quick rub and hung the towel around his neck.

When he got closer, Ethan Young finally reached out and started buttoning his shirt from the bottom up, one button at a time.

Ethan Young’s fingers moved slowly over the fabric, occasionally brushing lightly over his waist and stomach.

At first, Henry Howard didn’t think much of it, but with the close distance, and as those fingers moved from his waist up to his chest, he started to feel a bit overwhelmed.

Ethan Young looked up along the line of buttons, and when he got to the top few, his eyes met Henry Howard’s.

Neither of them said a word.

After a moment of eye contact, Henry Howard bent down slightly, about to lean in, when the dorm door was suddenly banged on with a loud “bang bang.”

“”

“Bro!”

“Are you guys in there?”

“Hello?”

Several voices mixed together outside the door, with Wanda’s especially loud, his “bro” shout full of enthusiasm.

Henry Howard couldn’t help his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down: “Damn.”

Ethan Young found it a bit funny, slid his hand up a few inches, grabbed him by the collar, and without another word, yanked him over.

Henry Howard lost his balance in an instant.

Ethan Young didn’t control his strength, rough and direct, and gave him a quick, soothing kiss on the lips.

Then Ethan Young let go, lifted his chin, and said, “Go open the door.”

The few boarders from Class 3 had been waiting at the door for two minutes, just about to bang on it again when someone pulled it open from inside.

Henry Howard blocked the doorway: “What’s up?”

Wanda shoved an apple he’d swiped from another dorm into his hand: “Bro Henry, heard you moved dorms? Housewarming! We came to congratulate you.”

Henry Howard took the apple, thinking these guys were being a bit much: “Thanks, but I just moved across the hall.”

“No need to be polite, moving across the hall is still moving!”

The housewarming was just an excuse. Each of them was holding a thick exercise book, and all that was missing was a little stool to sit in a row for a lesson.

There were so many questions, and Ethan Young was never the patient type to explain things over and over. He rubbed his brow and said to the one at the back, “Try to get a feel for the problem yourself.”

Henry Howard: “Close your eyes and feel it with your heart.”

Wanda hugged his math workbook and sighed: “I’ve already had a soul-to-soul exchange with this problem in my dorm for over forty minutes, really tried to feel it, but I still don’t get what it means.”

“”

After sighing, Wanda took advantage of the wait to peek at the half-finished test paper on Ethan Young’s desk.

With questions this hard, forget forty minutes—even forty hours wouldn’t be enough for him to solve them.

Henry Howard had boasted that the homework was too easy, so the teachers didn’t get mad. Given the level of these two, they got assigned extra work. Especially William Warren, who made the questions as hard as those from top schools.

Wanda had even overheard William Warren happily saying in the office, “I usually have to hold back, can’t give them the really tough ones, but I don’t believe I can’t stump them. Do they really think I’m a pushover?”

By the time they finished going over the questions, it was almost lights out. The dorm supervisor was whistling and wandering around downstairs, flashlight beam sweeping everywhere, occasionally shining through the window and lighting up the whole dorm.

Ethan Young was about to kick them out when he realized the group had started chatting, and the topic was getting more and more off track: “I downloaded a movie over the weekend, wanna watch together?”

“What kind of movie?”

“What else? The kind guys watch.”

Among boys, there aren’t that many ways to spice up nightlife.

Ethan Young had no intention of joining this late-night high school boys’ passionate chat, nor did he want to watch movies to liven up the night. But saying “No, get lost” was pointless—one of the guys had already pulled up a video on his phone: “I’m telling you, this one’s really intense, an absolute masterpiece, you can’t stop watching—”

The others were intrigued: “Oh?”

Henry Howard: “Don’t mess around, go watch in your own dorm—”

He hadn’t finished when a terrifying, explosive sound effect blasted through the dorm.

Eerie, gloomy, rising and falling.

The once pitch-black phone screen slowly revealed a human figure, coming closer and closer, holding a filthy doll—until it was right up close, suddenly raising its head to reveal a face covered in horrific scars, mostly hidden by long hair!

The person’s mouth twisted into a creepy grin, stretching wider and wider.

Movie title: 《Haunted Soul》.

“”