Graduating from Middle School

He spent several days wandering around the shopping mall.

In the end, Lin Zichen found an old man to be his personal shopper.

The old man was a local landlord who owned several buildings he rented out. In his spare time, he wandered around the mall in shorts and slippers, helping clean tables or rummaging through trash cans for empty bottles to sell.

He didn't need the money, but he liked collecting recyclables and saving up.

Every time he found an empty bottle, he felt so satisfied he could have soared to heaven.

Lin Zichen only had to tell him that all the empty bottles from his home would be his from then on, and the old man happily agreed to shop for him.

Once he had a personal shopper,

the thirty thousand yuan he had on hand was soon spent.

He used it all to buy Ghost Shadow Squid meat to devour. After eating thirty jin in a row, he raised the Ghost Shadow Squid's catalog unlock progress to 33%.

During the next half month of summer vacation,

Lin Zichen exercised every day, working out once in the morning, once at noon, and once in the evening. Each session was intense.

Whenever he took a break, he called Shen Qinghan over and helped her train.

The days passed one by one.

When summer vacation ended and he began his second year of middle school,

Lin Zichen's biological rank broke through.

He successfully advanced from Ordinary Tier 3 to Ordinary Tier 4.

At the same time, all his physical stats improved tremendously.

He could easily lift a 1,090-kilogram weight with one hand.

His standing vertical jump reached 5.65 meters.

He could sprint a hundred meters in just 4.49 seconds.

But on closer inspection, the improvement in these three stats wasn't as outrageous as the previous two evolutions, when they had multiplied several times over or doubled.

Lin Zichen understood. The stronger one's body became, the harder it was to improve. And the gains couldn't keep multiplying forever; they also depended on the starting values.

Take strength, for example.

Going from 100 kilograms to 400 kilograms meant the value had quadrupled.

But going from 400 kilograms to 800 kilograms meant it had only doubled.

Even so, the latter improvement was clearly greater, with an extra 100 kilograms gained.

I used to think that advancing to Ordinary Tier 4 before graduating middle school would count as a success. I didn't expect to pull it off while I'm only in my second year. Looks like I underestimated myself...

Lin Zichen smiled to himself.

Time flew by, and two years passed in the blink of an eye.

Lin Zichen and Shen Qinghan both took the high school entrance exams and graduated from the middle school division of Shanhai High School.

On graduation day, both sets of parents took time off to attend their graduation ceremony.

"Come on, you two, move a little closer and smile brighter!"

As always, Zhang Wanxin took photos of the childhood sweethearts, preserving their growth at every stage of their schooling.

As the two posed for pictures, quite a few girls nearby watched them.

Seeing Shen Qinghan pressed right up against Lin Zichen, all the girls watching looked terribly envious. They wished they could pull Shen Qinghan away and take her place against Lin Zichen.

Feeling the envious looks of the other girls her age, Shen Qinghan was over the moon. She felt like the happiest girl in the world.

Nearly half an hour later,

the photo session ended.

Lin Zichen looked down at Shen Qinghan beside him and realized that, before he knew it, he was almost a head taller than her.

Shen Qinghan noticed him looking at her and turned toward him, lifting her lovely face. Her eyes glimmered as she asked,

"Why do you keep looking at the top of my head? Is there something stuck in my hair?"

"No, I just realized I'm almost a head taller than you."

"Don't make things up. You're not a head taller. We measured our heights just a few days ago—you're 1.78 meters, and I'm 1.62. That's only a 16-centimeter difference. A whole head is at least 20 centimeters."

Shen Qinghan pursed her rosy lips, displeased with Lin Zichen's imprecise wording.

As their height difference grew, she had become very particular about her own height. Every centimeter mattered.

Lin Zichen corrected her. "Don't get worked up. I said I'm almost a head taller. Don't ignore the word 'almost.'"

Shen Qinghan said petulantly, "I don't care. 'Almost' doesn't count either. You have to be accurate down to every centimeter!"

Then, looking at how their height difference kept growing, she couldn't help worrying. "You're almost 1.8 meters tall already. If you keep growing in high school, I'll probably have to stand on tiptoe just to wipe the sweat off your face."

"You're overthinking it. You're so short that standing on tiptoe won't get you anywhere near my face. You'll have to stand on a chair at the very least."

Lin Zichen teased her as he reached out and patted her head.

"Oh, sure!" Shen Qinghan shot him an exasperated look. "In a few years, I'll be so short I'll have to jump up just to hit your knees!"

Zhang Wanxin watched them with an indulgent smile. "It's all right, Hanhan. If you still can't reach even on tiptoe, Xiao Chen can just pick you up. Then you'll be able to wipe the sweat off his face."

"Aunt Xin, you're teasing me again~" Zhang Wanxin's remark made Shen Qinghan's cheeks flush hot, and she felt terribly embarrassed.

Lin Zichen didn't seem to mind. He just smiled without saying anything.

But come to think of it, it had been a long time since he'd held Shen Qinghan.

Back in kindergarten, he used to hold her all the time. Whenever they napped at school, Shen Qinghan liked crawling into his blanket and cuddling up with him. Over the course of three years, she'd wet his bed nearly a hundred times.

In elementary school, he'd only held her a few times, but he'd carried her on his back quite a lot.

As for the three years of middle school, he'd only held her once, when Heretic Cult believers caused trouble. He hadn't held her since.

They had, after all, grown up.

Their physical differences had become more pronounced, their sexual characteristics more apparent, and they had grown more sensitive to physical contact with the opposite sex.

With so many things to consider, they could no longer casually hug and cuddle like they had as children.

Half a month later,

the high school entrance exam results came out.

Just as everyone had expected, Lin Zichen ranked first in the entire district.

He was unquestionably first in the district in both academic subjects and the Physical Fitness Test Data required for applying to the Martial Arts Class.

He could have ranked first in the entire city, but he decided it was better to keep a low profile. First in the district was enough.

As for Shen Qinghan, things had taken an unexpected turn.

She'd done extremely well in her academic subjects, performing beyond expectations and placing in the top hundred across the district. That was more than enough to get into Shanhai High School's senior high division.

But her Physical Fitness Test scores hadn't reached the admissions cutoff for Shanhai High School's Martial Arts Elite Class. She'd fallen more than ten points short, which was quite a gap.

"Xiao Chen, I really have been working hard to exercise, but my Physical Fitness Test scores just won't improve. I feel like martial arts aren't right for me."

Shen Qinghan lay flat on her bed, her right arm covering her eyes. She looked utterly discouraged.

Lin Zichen sat on the edge of the bed and comforted her. "Don't lose faith in yourself. You just didn't get into the Elite Class. You're already better than a lot of people. And you're still young—only fifteen. Your body hasn't finished developing yet, so you still have plenty of potential."

"What do you mean, I'm still young? You're only a day older than me. Why do you sound like you could be my dad?" Shen Qinghan couldn't help complaining.

Lin Zichen smiled and teased her. "I wouldn't mind being your dad."

"Ugh, you're so annoying! I'm already this upset, and you're still making fun of me!"

Shen Qinghan reached out and hit Lin Zichen, but she didn't put much force into it. It was more like playful banter between a couple.

Then she quickly looked dejected again. "Our bodies are both still developing, but your Physical Fitness Test stats are way better than mine. Compared to you, I'm just a useless shut-in."

Lin Zichen was about to comfort her when the phone in his pocket suddenly rang.

It was Zhang Wanxin calling.

When he answered, he learned that the principal of Shanhai High School's senior high division had come to his house, specifically to visit the genius top scorer who had ranked first in the district.

The principal's purpose was to make sure he would continue his studies at Shanhai High School's senior high division, rather than get secretly poached by another high school.

After hanging up, Lin Zichen looked at Shen Qinghan on the bed and said, "Hanhan, the senior high division principal has come over. Come with me and say hello."

"I don't want to go..." Shen Qinghan was in a terrible mood and just wanted to be alone in her room for a while.

Lin Zichen gently coaxed her. "Come with me anyway. Say hello to the principal and let him get to know you too. Then we can stay classmates and desk mates when school starts."

Hearing that, Shen Qinghan pressed her lips together, then reluctantly got out of bed and followed Lin Zichen to meet the senior high division principal.

After all, with her ordinary Physical Fitness Test scores, there was no way she could get into the senior high division's Martial Arts Elite Class.

If she still wanted to be in the same class as Lin Zichen, she could only pull strings through her relationship with him, just as she had when she'd moved from elementary to middle school, and get in through connections.