The Sound of the Sea

During these few days of vacation by the sea, Lin Zichen only did two things every day.

First, during the day, he would have Shen Qinghan perform various underwater movements while he observed from the side, trying to see if he could unearth the secrets hidden within her.

Second, at night, he would sneak to the bottom of the sea when no one was around to engage in high-intensity training, improving his various capabilities in the water.

In this way, several days passed in succession.

In the blink of an eye, the time arrived at the final night of the seaside vacation.

That evening, just after finishing dinner, Lin Zichen was lying on the bed using his phone to watch videos, learning all sorts of knowledge related to the ocean.

Not long after he started, Shen Qinghan sent him a message on WeChat.

[Hanhan: Xiao Chen, come to my room for a moment. I have a surprise for you!]

[Zichen: Alright, coming now.]

After replying to the message, Lin Zichen got out of bed and headed toward Shen Qinghan's room to see what kind of surprise she had prepared.

"Hanhan, open the door."

In front of the room, Lin Zichen reached out and knocked on the door.

Ever since the lesson he learned last time when he entered without knocking and accidentally saw Shen Qinghan wearing a diaper, he had become much more cautious.

"The door isn't locked, just come on in."

Shen Qinghan's voice came from inside the room, sounding a bit nervous and shy.

Lin Zichen sensed that something was off about her tone, and his curiosity was instantly piqued.

What kind of surprise could Shen Qinghan have prepared that made her voice sound so nervous and shy?

With that thought, he opened the door and walked in.

The scene that immediately met his eyes was Shen Qinghan standing by the bed in a swimsuit, her face flushed with a faint crimson, looking at him with a shy expression as he entered.

This swimsuit was different from the one she wore at the beach during the day.

It looked more conventional, yet revealed much more; it was practically no different from wearing lingerie.

"Xiao Chen, do you think it looks good?" Shen Qinghan suppressed her inner shyness, walked up to Lin Zichen, and did a spin to show off her figure in the swimsuit.

This swimsuit had been prepared for her by Xu Meng back at home, with the intention that she would wear it once they reached the seaside.

Unfortunately, she had been too embarrassed to wear it, and despite being on vacation for so many days, she hadn't worn it even once.

Precisely because of that, she felt it would be a pity not to wear it at all, so she decided to put it on in her room for Lin Zichen to see and get his opinion.

"It looks very good, it suits you especially well."

Lin Zichen looked over the swimsuit-clad Shen Qinghan and gave her an honest answer.

"Really?"

"Really."

Lin Zichen did not speak against his conscience; he was telling the truth.

After all, with Shen Qinghan in that swimsuit, both her face and her figure were perfect, and the combination was truly beautiful.

If she were to walk on the beach outside, she would easily command an 80% head-turning rate, if not more.

"By the way, it's quite comfortable to take a walk on the beach at night with the sea breeze blowing. Do you want to go down with me and experience it?"

Lin Zichen was at a hot-blooded age, and facing Shen Qinghan in her swimsuit, he knew that if he kept looking, he would easily develop inappropriate thoughts, so he made this suggestion.

Shen Qinghan didn't hesitate at all. "We must go experience it. Wait for me a moment, I'm going to change my clothes."

As she spoke, she picked up the casual outfit from the bed and went into the room's en-suite bathroom to change.

She didn't treat Lin Zichen as an outsider at all, not even asking him to wait outside the room.

On the beach at night.

A gentle breeze was blowing.

Neither Lin Zichen nor Shen Qinghan wore shoes; they walked barefoot on the sand, enjoying the sensation coming from the grains of sand beneath their feet.

"Xiao Chen, walking on the beach at night is really so comfortable. I can't believe I didn't come for a walk on the beach the past few nights; it's such a pity."

Shen Qinghan thought about it and felt it was a real loss.

Lin Zichen smiled. "It's fine, there will be plenty of opportunities to come to the seaside in the future; we can come every summer vacation."

"That's true. From now on, whenever there's a break, our two families will come to the seaside to play, swim together, play beach volleyball together, have barbecues on the shore together, and eat all kinds of delicious meat skewers!"

At the mention of meat skewers, Shen Qinghan couldn't help but swallow her saliva, feeling a bit greedy.

Seeing her like this, Lin Zichen was reminded of scenes from when they were children visiting the mall.

Back then, Zhang Wanxin loved visiting the mall and would often invite Xu Meng to go with her.

Shen Qinghan, who would tag along with Xu Meng, couldn't help but drool every time they passed a place selling snacks, and she would stop in her tracks, pleading in a milky voice to buy some snacks to eat.

It was always like this, without a single exception.

As he thought about it, Lin Zichen couldn't help but size up Shen Qinghan, comparing her to the little glutton from back then.

In a word, a girl changes eighteen times by the time she grows up.

She used to be a little loli with chubby cheeks and short legs; now, she was a youthful girl with a petite face and long, slender legs, her attributes shifting from cute to beautiful.

"Is my face that good to look at? We've walked over a hundred meters, and you've been staring at it the whole time."

Shen Qinghan couldn't stand Lin Zichen's gaze anymore, her small face flushing red as she spoke.

Lin Zichen laughed. "It really is beautiful, better than many so-called female celebrities."

"Oh, stop saying things like that! You're just being mischievous, wanting to see me blush!"

Shen Qinghan truly couldn't handle being complimented like this; she felt so embarrassed that she couldn't even walk naturally.

At this moment, the two of them had unknowingly walked into the seawater at the edge.

Feeling the cool water soaking their feet was refreshing.

Lin Zichen looked at the seawater beneath his feet, thought of the colorful splendor of the underwater world, and on a whim, turned to ask Shen Qinghan, "Do you want to go diving with me and appreciate the rich and colorful underwater world?"

"How do we dive?"

"I'll teach you."

With that, Lin Zichen led Shen Qinghan toward the deeper part of the shallows, submerging together into the underwater world just a few meters deep.

However, less than two seconds after they submerged, Shen Qinghan suddenly began to pat Lin Zichen with a nervous expression, signaling that she wanted to surface and wouldn't dive anymore.

Seeing this, Lin Zichen quickly brought her back to the surface.

The moment they broke the surface, Shen Qinghan's small face turned deathly pale. "Quick, Xiao Chen, let's get to the shore, away from the sea!"

Lin Zichen didn't understand what was happening, but he didn't rush to ask, instead swimming to the shore with her first.

Once they were up, he immediately asked with a puzzled expression, "What happened? Why did you suddenly get so nervous?"

"The sound—I heard a sound. When I just dived to the bottom, a very strange sound kept coming into my ears, so strange it was a bit terrifying."

"What kind of sound?"

"I couldn't understand it; it might have been a language I don't know. I only know it was a woman's voice. It sounded very real and kept echoing in my ears until I surfaced and it disappeared."

Shen Qinghan said, still feeling lingering fear.

Lin Zichen was even more confused. A woman's voice? An incomprehensible language? Echoing in her ears? How come he, who was diving at the same time, didn't hear a thing?

"Let's go, Xiao Chen, let's go back quickly. I don't want to stay on this beach anymore. I keep feeling a chill down my back; it's a bit scary."

Shen Qinghan said, looking terrified.

Seeing her so scared, Lin Zichen didn't linger on the beach and quickly took her back to their seaside room.

Late at night.

In bed.

Lin Zichen hadn't slept, his mind filled with what Shen Qinghan had told him—hearing a woman's voice while diving.

The more he thought about it, the more his skin crawled, and he couldn't help but let his mind drift toward thoughts of water ghosts.

But soon, he realized these were meaningless, wandering thoughts, and the more he dwelled on them, the more time he wasted.

So, to stop thinking about it, he took out his phone and started scrolling through current events online.

He hadn't been scrolling long when he saw an unexpected piece of news.

In Shanhai City, traces of a Giant Mutant Rat had appeared again!

An angling enthusiast had gone to the riverbank for night fishing, only to be snatched away by a suddenly appearing Giant Mutant Rat, his fate still unknown.

After reading the news, Lin Zichen was suddenly filled with a sense of urgency. Thinking that his mind was a mess and he couldn't sleep anyway, he decided he might as well get out of bed and train.

And so... he got out of bed and began to train.

[You performed 1000 weighted push-ups, Blood Qi +2000, arm muscle strength +2000, chest muscle strength +2000, push-up proficiency +1000]

[You performed 1000 weighted sit-ups, Blood Qi +2000, abdominal muscle strength +2000, sit-up proficiency +1000]

[You performed 1000 weighted squats, Blood Qi +2000, leg muscle strength +2000, squat proficiency +1000]

[Your Biological Rank has increased to ordinary Tier 5]

As he trained, Lin Zichen was pleasantly surprised to find that he had actually evolved!

His Biological Rank had evolved from ordinary Tier 4 to ordinary Tier 5!

ordinary Tier 5—this was a biological rank capable of contending with an adult Giant Mutant Rat!

"I wonder how much the data for those three basic attributes has increased; I have to go measure them..."

With that thought, Lin Zichen immediately took the measuring tools from his luggage bag and couldn't wait to go outside to find a place to test his physical data.

It took about half an hour to measure the data for all three basic attributes.

A 100-meter sprint takes only 3.64 seconds.

The vertical jump reaches up to 6.98 meters.

It is possible to lift a car weighing around 1600kg with one hand.

Compared to when I first broke through to ordinary Tier 4, the improvement in these stats is quite considerable.

The 100-meter sprint time has been shortened by 0.85 seconds, the vertical jump height has increased by 1.33 meters, and the weight lifted with one hand has increased by 510kg.

PS: Setting out my bowl, begging for monthly tickets and recommendation votes!