“Bullshit real talent and learning! I thought you had everything settled and all I needed to do was go in and study, but in the end, I have to take the entrance exam myself! Eric Grant is separate from the college entrance exam, and it’s rumored that the entrance test requires the level of a Stanford sophomore. You want me to take that?! I spent all three years of high school sleeping in class during the day and... uh... working part-time at night. Graduating high school was already a miracle, and now you want my life!”

Mr. Cat, however, remained calm and collected: “I also found out a few things about you. You didn’t take the college entrance exam, but you somehow got a perfect score on your high school graduation exams... Looks like you’re just as good at Old Henry and cheating. Should I call you the God of Gamblers?”

Once again, William Carter was caught at a sore spot and flew into a rage. “I prepared for days for that, okay! And the answers were within a set range. This time, I have no idea what the test questions will be—how am I supposed to cheat? If I could cheat under these circumstances, I would’ve taken the college entrance exam ages ago!”

But Mr. Cat simply ignored William Carter’s reasonable refusal. “That’s your problem. I’ll be waiting for your good news tomorrow.”

In fact, William Carter was a very smart person. As a child, he thought studying and taking exams was a breeze, that he could excel without even trying. But you can’t have it all. The once calm and aloof William Carter had, three years ago, turned into a lazy, ambitionless teenager. Over the next three years, he mastered advanced gambling and cheating techniques, but hadn’t properly read a single book.

So the next day, William Carter, filled with anxiety, arrived in front of the teaching building at Eric Grant for the entrance exam. He was like a horse in a narrow alley—no turning back now. All his savings had been spent by Mr. Cat on preparations for the entrance, with tens of thousands basically used to package him as a student who wouldn’t look “too shabby” here. Mr. Cat had even gotten William Carter a recommendation letter from a high school principal. To get into Eric Grant, besides meeting the sky-high requirements Mr. Cat had mentioned, you also needed to take the entrance exam, and not everyone was eligible. Only students of the right age, with handwritten recommendation letters from one of several dozen nationally designated high school principals, could apply.

Looking at the letter in his hand, William Carter only knew that the sender, Principal Ford, wasn’t his actual high school principal, and probably not the eternally twenty-five-year-old one either. Most likely, it was another friend of Mr. Cat’s—maybe even someone who owed him a lot of money. Since each principal could only recommend five students, and he’d included a stranger like William Carter, the debt must not be small.

With all these messy thoughts swirling in his mind, William Carter handed the letter to the staff to confirm his identity, then entered his exam classroom in a daze. He’d thought of dozens of ways to cheat, but the only feasible one seemed to be peeking at someone else’s answers. This was the highest-risk, most difficult, and most “back-to-basics” move in the world of cheating—the ultimate technique. Success or failure would be decided here...

At that moment, he didn’t notice that a pair of eyes had been fixed on him the whole time, filled with fear and surprise, following him into the classroom.

After sitting down, William Carter let out a deep sigh. Every year, over four hundred people took this exam; in the best year, three hundred passed, and in the worst, fewer than a hundred. “Let’s hope the unlucky soul sitting next to me today is a bookworm who can make the top hundred,” he muttered. He sat in the corner of the last row—a good spot for cheating—but if he wanted to peek, his only option was the person sitting next to him. He turned to look: it was a girl, wearing an orange T-shirt and jeans. The clothes weren’t anything special, but her figure was truly impressive—slender and well-proportioned, with certain features especially prominent. William Carter felt his throat go dry. He moved his gaze upward to see her face, and saw that her hair was as smooth as flowing mercury, her skin flawless as snow, and her features so beautiful that William Carter was utterly stunned.

“She must be some rich family’s daughter—talented and beautiful. She could’ve gotten in with her family background, but still chose to take the entrance exam,” William Carter fantasized endlessly in his mind. In fact, he was right about this.

But just as he was lost in admiration, he noticed the girl seemed to be burying her face deeper and deeper, as if she was terrified of William Carter and didn’t dare look his way. In reality, she was already the focus of the entire classroom, but others only snuck glances at her now and then. Unlike William Carter, who was practically drooling and blatantly ogling her with a look of “leering without guilt.” A few bespectacled, scholarly-looking boys were even tempted to step up and scold William Carter for his behavior.

“Oh, it’s you!” William Carter suddenly blurted out. The girl seemed to tremble in fear and didn’t dare make a sound. It turned out she was the beauty William Carter had followed during the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade. Today, all her bodyguards were waiting outside the school. She was shocked to see William Carter again, thinking that the stalker had found her and was here for revenge. With bodyguards present that night, she hadn’t been afraid of William Carter, but now, seeing him enter the same exam room and even sit next to her, she was so anxious she was about to cry.

In her mind, William Carter’s image as a scoundrel was deeply ingrained. She hadn’t even considered how William Carter managed to get into the exam room. Now, with William Carter’s words clearly showing he recognized her, she was so frightened she was at a complete loss for what to do.