Red Fingernails: Half a Year

When his parents came home from work and saw the barely passable dishes on the table, they were delighted for their son. In their eyes, the son they had raised for so many years had finally grown up. Besides, Father's health was getting better and better. Within days, he had returned to normal, able to eat and work, though the little pouch hanging from his arm had never been removed.

That night, Zhang Chen lay in bed, recalling everything that had happened over the past few days, and merely smiled. Clenching his fists, he said to himself, "Since heaven wants to change me, then I'll seize this opportunity."

Half a year passed, and quite a few things happened during that time.

First, during the first month, what puzzled Zhang Chen was that the police never came knocking. That day, at Wen Juan's hometown, Grandma Yu had died in Wen Juan's bedroom. She should have been discovered long ago. And besides himself, Zhang Chen truly couldn't think of anyone else who had gone to that house. The old man from the village committee had at least known that he had been there, right?

It was no good worrying about it every day, so Zhang Chen took a day off over the weekend and rode the bus back to Xiashui Village. But when he followed his memories to look for Grandma Yu's house, all he found was an empty plot of land.

Zhang Chen found the old man who had brought him there that day. The old man said Grandma Yu had lived alone all along and seemed to have moved to another province to live with some relatives. Not long after she left, the demolition crew tore down the house. Naturally, Zhang Chen found this unbelievable. Someone had died, yet no one knew about it, and the house had even been demolished. The more he thought about it, the more he felt as though he had fallen into some enormous conspiracy.

Second, after returning to school, Zhang Chen no longer spent every day discussing games with Tan Fei and Er Wa. Still, the three of them remained together all day, eating and chatting. After studying seriously for several months, his grades actually soared. His ranking steadily climbed in one monthly exam after another, and by the final exams, he had somehow reached seventeenth place in the class.

Thinking back to the past, his highest ranking had only ever been fortieth. The instant he received his final report card, he began wondering whether he was some kind of study god. Influenced by Zhang Chen, although Tan Fei and Er Wa still dragged him to internet cafés on weekends to have some fun, the two of them also began paying attention in class. That left Zhang Chen utterly astonished.

Third, there was a turning point for Zhang Chen's family. Not long after Father recovered, Mother came up with the idea of opening a mahjong parlor. Mother Zhang's older sister—Zhang Chen's aunt—had a storefront in the county town. It had always been rented out, but the tenant had moved out that month. His aunt offered to rent it to Mother Zhang at a very low price so she could start a business.

After considering it for a long time, Mother Zhang took out the family's savings. Thinking about the money Zhang Chen would need in the future, she still decided to give it a try. Yet after the mahjong parlor opened, business boomed, and the family's financial situation gradually improved. They slowly replaced their old television with a large-screen color TV, bought a big sofa, and renovated the whole house.

After evening self-study every night, Zhang Chen would also go to the mahjong parlor to help out. He gradually lost weight, and since this was also a period when he was growing, he shot up from one meter seventy-five to one meter eighty. With a little money at home, Zhang Chen no longer wore his old tracksuits and sneakers. He started buying shirts and jeans, wearing canvas shoes, and, encouraged by a hairstylist during one haircut, switched to a fluffy short hairstyle with a small fringe. He also gradually began paying attention to his appearance.

Fourth, Zhang Chen made new discoveries about his abilities. Whenever his abilities increased, the prompt voice would notify him. First came the strength in his limbs. To keep others from finding out, he got up at six every morning and went to the Sports Ground. On the first day, he assessed himself: with a vertical jump, he could rise high enough to hit the basketball hoop with his head; he could run one hundred meters in around ten seconds. Moreover, Zhang Chen found that his abilities continued to improve through daily training.

Once, while resting against an iron railing, he tested how powerful his mouth was. He bit down on an iron bar as thick as his arm and actually snapped it with ease. After half a year, Zhang Chen could run one hundred meters in less than nine seconds, and his jump had increased by nearly ten centimeters. Yet according to the prompt voice, his physical functions were still relatively poor.

Most importantly, Zhang Chen began trying to use Telekinesis. At first, he did not dare use it more than twice, afraid he would get another nosebleed. Later, he realized that the reason he had bled after using it Three Times before was because his body had been weak after the battle and he had not eaten much. Now, as long as he ate his fill, he could use it six times in succession every day.

At first, he could only make pencils float. A month later, he could slowly move desks. After half a year, moving objects under one hundred and fifty jin was no longer a problem. Small, sharp objects like Xiaodao could be used as weapons. His proficiency had also risen from 0% to 37%. He had no idea whether that counted as fast progress.

Fifth, over the past half year, Zhang Chen had encountered quite a few ghosts and monsters, all of them wandering spirits on the streets. But ninety-nine percent of them ran the moment they saw Zhang Chen. Although he wanted to eat them every time he saw one, he could never catch up. Sometimes, after thinking it over, he let it go. After all, if they had not provoked him, why should he eat them the instant they met?

But there was one incident that made Zhang Chen furious. One day after evening self-study, Mother was feeling unwell and went home to rest, while Father stayed home with her. Zhang Chen remained at the mahjong parlor until nearly midnight, when the final table of customers finally packed up and left. After closing the rolling shutter door, he rode his bicycle home. It was his first time returning so late, and there were almost no pedestrians left on the road. As Zhang Chen passed a corner, he saw a beggar with his entire head buried in a dumpster, searching for something.

The corner was narrow. As Zhang Chen turned it, the beggar suddenly straightened up and lunged at him, knocking the unprepared Zhang Chen and his bicycle flying. Looking closely after falling to the ground, Zhang Chen realized the beggar had not buried his head in the dumpster—he had no head at all.

Seeing Zhang Chen knocked to the ground, the headless beggar slowly shuffled over. An ordinary person would have been scared out of their wits.

Zhang Chen got to his feet and rushed before it in an instant, opening his mouth to swallow it whole. To his surprise, he only bit into a piece of clothing. Looking carefully, he saw that the beggar had turned into a puddle of Rotten Flesh on the ground and quickly slipped into the nearby sewer. With no other choice, Zhang Chen looked at his bicycle and found that its chain had been broken in the collision. He could only push it home in a sorry state.

From then on, Zhang Chen lingered there for a while every night on his way home, but unfortunately, he never saw that headless beggar again.

Finally, because Zhang Chen trained every morning, he arrived at the classroom very early. At that time, Wang Yizhi was the only one there, reading English. Within a few days, the two became familiar with each other. They read together every morning, and Zhang Chen would occasionally ask Wang Yizhi questions. Naturally, this earned him the scorn of his other two best buddies.

Also, after Zhang Chen's family opened the mahjong parlor, his route changed and no longer coincided with Tan Fei and Er Wa's. That was not the important part. The important part was that the mahjong parlor was in the same direction as Wang Yizhi's home. After they ran into each other on the road once, they began riding home together after evening self-study every day.

Originally, Zhang Chen had seen Wang Yizhi as a sacred goddess beyond reach. But after their relationship improved, he discovered that she was not nearly as difficult to approach as he had imagined. One day, Zhang Chen and Wang Yizhi were riding their bikes together. Zhang Chen was supposed to reach the mahjong parlor first, but the power lines on the road had broken. The repair crew was still working on them, and all the streetlights had gone out.

Given that, Zhang Chen had wanted to say it was too dark and offer to take Wang Yizhi home. Before he could speak, however, Wang Yizhi took the initiative and asked him to escort her home. Zhang Chen, who had never blushed before, actually became nervous. They did not speak the entire way, and only when they reached Wang Yizhi's door did Zhang Chen finally squeeze out a sentence.

"How about I take you home every day from now on? It's not far anyway, and Mother doesn't need my help over there," Zhang Chen said. Afterward, he stared at Wang Yizhi. The faint light at the entrance to the residential complex shone on her face, and it was the first time Zhang Chen had looked at her so carefully.

Her large eyes were framed by long lashes. Beneath a neither-high-nor-low nose was a small cherry mouth, while her hair fell along her cheeks to her shoulders. Zhang Chen could not help blushing again, though the darkness concealed it. Hearing him, Wang Yizhi happily said two words. "Okay."

That night, Zhang Chen's emotions did not settle even after he returned home. He almost stayed awake all night. From then on, Zhang Chen would take Wang Yizhi home every evening before returning to the mahjong parlor. The two gradually began talking about their family lives and exchanged phone numbers.

But Zhang Chen never took the initiative to text her at night, afraid of disturbing Wang Yizhi's studies. He knew Wang Yizhi's family was better off than his. Her father worked for a state-owned enterprise, her mother worked at a bank, and they had a harmonious family. But he did not think too much about it. He only knew that it was already incredible for him to have gone from a loser to where he was now. No matter how difficult it became, he had to seize this chance.

During summer vacation, Zhang Chen turned down Tan Fei and Er Wa's invitations to go online many times. On the day school let out, he and Wang Yizhi had agreed to study hard and make progress every day. Throughout the vacation, they would find a place to read together every afternoon. After considering it from every angle, they finally chose Zhang Chen's home, because the family mahjong parlor was getting bigger and bigger, and his parents generally went out during the day and returned at night. That night, Zhang Chen had another sleepless night, constantly wondering whether it was all a Dreamscape.

However, the next afternoon, Zhang Chen was alone at home when his phone rang at one o'clock sharp. He looked at the caller ID and saw the three words "Wang Yizhi." Swallowing nervously, he answered. A sweet voice came through, asking Zhang Chen to come downstairs and meet her. She had already arrived at the entrance of his residential complex.

Zhang Chen hurriedly got dressed, fixed his hair, and ran toward the entrance. Seeing Wang Yizhi that day, holding two books and wearing a light-colored long dress patterned with blue petals, Zhang Chen stared for a long while before coming back to his senses.

And so, every afternoon, Wang Yizhi came at one and left at five. If there was something to do at home, she would even have dinner with Zhang Chen. Of course, there were also a few little interruptions.

One afternoon at two, Zhang Chen saw that Wang Yizhi was a little thirsty, so he went to the kitchen to get the chilled Mung Bean Soup he had prepared in the refrigerator. But just as he carried it over to her, someone knocked on the door. Zhang Chen became a little nervous, thinking his parents had returned, but then he realized that could not be right. His parents usually did not knock.

So he ran over and opened the door, only to find Tan Fei and Er Wa. The moment they entered, things got interesting. Tan Fei looked at Zhang Chen, then at Wang Yizhi. The flesh on his face trembled as he said,

"Oh, so sister-in-law is here. No wonder Brother Chen hasn't gone online with us since vacation started."

At Tan Fei's words, a blush rose on Wang Yizhi's face. Seeing her embarrassment, Zhang Chen immediately said, "All right, all right, stop joking around. What are you two doing here?"

Er Wa directly pulled a huge pile of test papers from his backpack. "Copying homework."

Then the four of them sat together and began "reading."

As Tan Fei copied, he suddenly added, "Ah, being able to copy homework handwritten by the class flower herself is all thanks to Brother Chen."

Zhang Chen looked at Wang Yizhi, but could not bring himself to say anything.

A moment later, Er Wa added, "Why does only sister-in-law get Mung Bean Soup? We want some too."

Zhang Chen truly had no way to deal with these two brothers, so he could only pour each of them a cup as well.

At last, that afternoon came to an end. After seeing off his two troublesome brothers, Zhang Chen looked at Wang Yizhi and found himself unable to speak. His face flushed bright red before he finally squeezed out three words: "I'll take you." Wang Yizhi nodded. After they rode to Wang Yizhi's door, Zhang Chen felt awkward. Afraid she would not come the next day, he gathered his courage and asked, "Will you come again tomorrow?"

Wang Yizhi merely nodded before turning and leaving. Zhang Chen let out a huge sigh of relief and happily walked home.

And so Zhang Chen's happiest half year came to an end. Next came a new semester...

PS: The second arc begins! If you like it, remember to bookmark it and vote with recommendation tickets!~~~