"Can't someone who shaves the dead also shave the living? It's all about shaving, it's for survival!" The chubby guy said nonchalantly, in his opinion, anyone who uses a razor is called a barber.

I knocked on the chubby guy's head and scolded him for being ignorant. Shaving the dead is different from being a hairstylist. A barber who shaves the dead definitely cannot shave the living. If a barber shaves the living, it means there is something wrong with that barber. That's why I felt that the owner of the barber shop was suspicious.

I solemnly explained to the chubby guy that the razors in the hands of barbers are not ordinary razors, they are called "Yin Shaving Blades". Legend has it that the ancestral Yin Shaving Blade passed down by barbers is a blade used by underworld figures. That's why it's also called the "Underworld Blade". Barbers worship the image of the underworld figure and thank him for providing a livelihood.

The chubby guy rubbed his temples and said, yawning, "Yang Cheng, after all you've said, what are you trying to say? All I understood is that the owner is a barber, so what? Do you think he wants to harm us?"

I counted on my fingers and asked the chubby guy, "Normally, barbers carry their tools and travel around rural areas wherever there is work. Just think, a barber who shaves the dead wouldn't open a barber shop in town, right? Just this point alone, don't you find it strange?"

The chubby guy muttered, "Maybe he got tired of wandering and wanted to settle down!"

I sneered, "Settle down? Let me ask you, he charges such low prices, and his attitude towards business is so rigid. He probably can't even earn enough to pay the rent, so how can he settle down?"

The chubby guy rubbed his chin, "Now that you put it that way, it does make sense!"

A barber opening a barber shop in town without wanting to make money can only mean one thing!

"What is it?" The chubby guy looked at me, eager to know the answer.

I touched my nose and said seriously, "He carries some kind of secret that he can't reveal!"

"You're f**king kidding me!" The chubby guy almost spat out blood on my face. "Does saying that count as not saying anything?"

I frowned, "How would I know the barber's intentions? I'm not a mind reader. Anyway, I find him suspicious. Let's not go there for now. I'm worried that something might happen!"

The chubby guy nodded, "Alright, if we don't go, we don't go. Let's go to another place. I heard F4 Hair Salon at the end of town is pretty good. I heard Dragon Young Master gets his hair done there!"

To comply with the disciplinary office's inspection, the chubby guy and I had no choice but to get our haircuts. We couldn't go to the strange barber shop across the street, so we went to F4 Hair Salon instead, where they quickly shaved our hair off with clippers and charged us ten yuan each.

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As we walked back, we lamented and cursed the old-fashioned ideas of the disciplinary office.

When we returned to the dormitory, we found that Xu Wenbo had also gotten his hair cut.

The chubby guy touched Xu Wenbo's head and said enviously, "Yang Cheng, look at this, this is what a proper haircut looks like. The lines, the contours, so smooth and natural. Clearly the work of a master. Unlike our hair, it's so ugly. I could do a better job cutting it myself!"

Xu Wenbo's crew cut was indeed well done. Suddenly, an idea struck me, and I quickly asked Xu Wenbo where he had gotten his haircut.

Yawning and feeling drowsy, Xu Wenbo lazily replied, "I got it done at the barber shop across from the school, the newly opened one. There's an old master there with good skills and low prices. I was too lazy to go far, so I got my hair cut right at the entrance and came back! But you guys won't be able to go there for sure because after he finished cutting my hair, he closed the shop!"

The chubby guy and I glanced at each other. The chubby guy patted Xu Wenbo's shoulder, "Are you... alright?"

The chubby guy's question seemed abrupt, and Xu Wenbo looked confused, "I'm fine! What's wrong?"

The chubby guy pulled me aside and whispered, "Yang Cheng, don't you think you're overthinking this? Look at Xu Wenbo, he got his hair cut at the barber's place and nothing happened. He even came back all safe and sound, didn't he?"

I glanced at Xu Wenbo and felt that something was off, but I couldn't pinpoint what it was.

I looked at the setting sun sinking in the sky and wished that I was just being overly cautious.

The next morning, we all got up and prepared to go to the classroom for class.

But Xu Wenbo was still curled up in bed, fast asleep. It took a lot of effort to wake him up.

In our impression, Xu Wenbo was a diligent student. He was always the first one in the dormitory to wake up. By the time we were having breakfast, he had already gone to the classroom for self-study. So what happened today? It was the first time we saw him unable to get out of bed.

I asked Xu Wenbo if he wasn't feeling well, but Xu Wenbo shook his head and said he was just very tired and wanted to doze off.

I touched his forehead, but there were no signs of fever or a cold.

On the way to the classroom, I asked the chubby guy, "Didn't you find Xu Wenbo acting strange? Ever since he got his hair cut yesterday, he's been lethargic and dizzy all the time!"

The chubby guy said, "Maybe he's sick!"

When we arrived in the classroom, I noticed that apart from Xu Wenbo, there was another student named Liu Qiang who had also gotten his hair cut at that strange barber shop. Just by looking at the crew cut hairstyle, it was clearly done by the same master as Xu Wenbo's.

What surprised me even more was that this Liu Qiang showed the same "symptoms" as Xu Wenbo – dizziness and sleepiness. He was like a stranded fish, with extremely poor mental state, sleeping on the desk all day long. The teacher called his name several times but couldn't wake him up, making the teacher furious.

Several days in a row, boys went to the barber shop across the school to get their haircuts.

Low prices and good skills were the main reasons why many students went there.

What puzzled me was that every student who came back after getting their hair cut from the barber shop showed the same symptoms of drowsiness and sleepiness.

In our class alone, several boys had gotten their hair cut, and ever since then, they had been falling asleep all the time. This infuriated our homeroom teacher, who scolded them for wasting their time sleeping at school during this crisp and pleasant autumn season, telling them to go home if they wanted to sleep and not waste time at school.

I became increasingly convinced that something was wrong. Even the chubby guy noticed something was off and whispered to me, "After getting their hair cut, why do all these people become drowsy? It can't be a coincidence, right?"

I nodded, "I've been telling you there's something wrong with that barber shop, but you didn't believe me!"

The chubby guy rubbed his hands, still frightened, and said, "Hmph, luckily I was sharp enough that day to realize that the old man was really weird. It was so close!"