“Why are you just standing here, bro?”

Royce smacked Ethan hard on the shoulder, making him wince in pain. The scratch wounds from the claws of the oversized cat that had appeared during the race with Autumn still hadn’t fully healed.

Not only did his shoulder hurt, but Ethan’s whole body ached. His legs, in particular, felt extremely sore and weak due to muscle strain. He finally understood the pain the little mermaid endured with each step in Andersen’s fairy tale.

To make up for the physical pain and mental effort he had put in to defeat “the descendant of Trung Trac and Trung Nhi,” in addition to the promised reward envelope, Mr. Bach also gifted Ethan a voucher for 50% off the membership fee at the Kickboxing Club.

And Ethan nearly passed out when he opened the prize envelope: another discount voucher—this one for 50% off the Parkour Club membership.

Both rewards felt more like invitations to hell for a bookworm like Ethan, who rarely engaged in any physical activity.

“This is the results board for the beginning-of-year quality assessment.”

Ethan briefly explained to Royce why he had been standing frozen in the first-floor hallway for so long. Clearly, Royce wasn’t very interested in exams or grades.

It didn’t take long for Ethan to find his name among the nearly 400 students on the results board. He was the only one at Harmony High School with the last name Duong.

He figured it was because the town of Harmony was geographically close to the former capital, Hue—home of the Nguyen royal family, which ruled Vietnam from 1802 to 1945—so the majority of students here bore the surname Nguyen.

Normally, the Nguyen surname accounts for about 31.5% of Vietnam’s population, but the proportion at Harmony High was abnormally high—maybe up to 70%.

Ethan focused on the names and classes of the top 10 students in Grade 11, ranked from highest to lowest:

• Camellia Nguyen – 11D

• Victor Nguyen – 11A

• Royce Nguyen – 11D

• Flora Nguyen – 11C

• Ethan Duong – 11D

• Ruby Nguyen – 11A

• Anya Nguyen – 11A

• Yara Nguyen – 11A

• Nathaniel Nguyen – 11B

• Autumn Nguyen – 11D

Ethan frowned. He had just noticed something strange—not only was Royce ranked third despite seemingly never studying, but…

“Autumn was absent until mid-September and missed the assessment entirely—so how is she in the top 10?”

“Why don’t you ask ‘your girl’ yourself? He he!”

“And Camellia’s the top scorer in our class 11D, but I’ve never even seen her before?”

“She’s doing Homeschooling. See? You don’t need to study at Harmony to get high marks. Homeschooling is your ticket to survival—away from the deadly girls of this school.”

Once again, Royce brought up Homeschooling. Say what you will, the guy was persistent—but not particularly persuasive.

“Hey Royce, how much money did you make off my ‘life’ the other day?”

“Hehehe. A decent amount, bro.”

“How much, exactly…?”

Ethan pressed until Royce finally revealed the amount he had won from the Death Race bets. It was quite a big number—understandable, since Harmony was full of rich kids. Ethan had to admit: Royce truly lived up to his title of ‘Numerology Guru’.

Of course, Ethan didn’t want a cut of the winnings. He just wanted to prove to Royce that having him stay at Harmony benefited Royce more than he realized.

“Excuse me, are you Ethan Duong from class 11D? Can I ask you something?”

A gentle, soft female voice called from behind Ethan and Royce.

At the sound of a girl, Royce immediately froze, put on a cold, indifferent expression, and turned away. His fear of girls kicked in, giving him the aloof vibe of some arrogant CEO character.

He left Ethan behind—alone with Flora, a student from class 11C—the girl who had fainted during the memorial for Felix Hoang.

It wasn’t ideal to keep blocking the results board and interfering with other students trying to check their names, so Ethan and Flora moved toward the canteen area to talk more comfortably.

“So, what did you want to ask?”

Seeing that Flora remained silent, even though she was the one who approached him first, Ethan had to speak up, breaking the awkward silence between them.

“Back when you and Royce took me to the infirmary, I never got the chance to properly thank you two.”

“Mm.”

“Thank you. And please pass my thanks to Royce too.”

“It’s nothing. I’ll let him know.”

Flora fell silent again for a moment before continuing.

“During the race… when you were running with that small, cute girl…”

“Yeah?”

Ethan was starting to get impatient with how hesitant and shy Flora was being.

“There was an orange cat that jumped down onto the field… and then climbed up onto your shoulder.”

“There was a cat, but I don’t remember what color it was.”

Ethan shivered as he recalled those sharp claws. A bratty cat like that? Yeah, probably orange. Still, he was grateful—it had, after all, helped him win against Autumn.

“That orange cat was mine. His name’s Orange…”

“Wait, how did you even bring a cat to school?”

“The place I rent doesn’t allow pets…”

“Ohhh.”

“So I left him with the school canteen staff. The cooks agreed to let him stay in the kitchen to help catch mice.”

“Got it.”

“Do you know where Orange ran off to afterward?”

It took a while, but finally Flora got to the real reason she came.

“Uh… I’m not sure.”

“What?”

Seeing how sad she looked, Ethan tried to recall the embarrassing sequence of events that took place after he collapsed on the track.

If he remembered correctly… it was Autumn and Royce who hoisted him onto the stretcher and dragged him to the infirmary. Orange, at that time, had moved onto his stomach and refused to budge.

Nurse Trina hadn’t been there—probably off on her lunch break.

Oddly enough, Royce didn’t seem afraid of Autumn the way he was with other girls. Normally, he’d be scrambling for an excuse to escape if left alone with a girl.

Then came the moment where Autumn personally peeled off Ethan’s sweaty PE uniform. She had to wipe down his upper body all by herself—because Royce refused to touch another guy.

Meanwhile, Royce just stood there cuddling Orange and grinning wickedly… without lifting a single finger to help.

(That lazy devil…)

After that, Autumn carefully disinfected the scratch on Ethan’s shoulder with alcohol, like a trained nurse. Then she struggled to dress him in a loose-fitting hospital gown.

In his semi-conscious state, Ethan couldn’t control his reactions. He even screamed out loud when Autumn jabbed him with a rabies vaccine—according to the label on the box. She made him read out the expiration date before administering it, just like proper vaccination procedure.

Then she even managed to find a vein in his arm to hook up an IV drip.

By then, Ethan was so drained he couldn’t even open his mouth to ask whether Autumn was legally certified to do any of this.

Once it was all done, she ordered Royce to take his blood-stained uniform and medical supplies and destroy them immediately.

It felt wasteful—and weird. Now Ethan would have to buy a whole new PE uniform.

Wait. A full uniform means shirt and PANTS.

Which meant…?

Nope. He wasn’t going to think about that. He was NOT thinking about that.

Anyway, where had Orange gone by then?

Half-asleep in the infirmary bed, Ethan had opened his eyes just a crack a few times. He remembered seeing Autumn nodding off in a chair next to him.

Curled up in her lap was a giant, fluffy yellow-orange ball of fur with half-lidded eyes and a soft, steady purring.

By the time nurse Trina returned to take over the infirmary, Autumn —and the cat—had vanished.

“Hic… hic…”

Suddenly, Flora covered her face and burst into tears—right in the middle of the canteen. Every curious eye turned toward their table.

“Hey, calm down! Please don’t cry. People are staring!”

“Hic hic… Orange is everything to me!”

No matter how panicked Ethan got, begging and coaxing her to stop crying, Flora just wouldn’t stop. For cat lovers, a missing pet was worse than losing a limb.

“Okay, okay. I’ll take you to talk to Autumn. She might know something about Orange!”

That was what Ethan said to comfort her—but the truth was, he had no idea where Autumn was right now.

He’d never once seen her show up at the canteen, whether for breakfast or lunch.