"Xiao Chen, I've got my things packed. Let's go."
"Let me carry your bag."
"Okay."
Shen Qinghan didn't stand on ceremony with Lin Zichen. She handed him the bag containing her uniform.
Lin Zichen took the bag, and the two of them left the classroom together.
Watching them walk away, a girl in the class who had deliberately transferred from Shanhai No. 1 Middle School to be in Lin Zichen's class gazed after him dreamily.
"Lin Zichen is such a gentleman. He even knows to carry a girl's bag. I wish I were his childhood sweetheart instead."
"A gentleman? More like a show-off. It's free time today. Everyone else is either chatting or touring the campus, but he has to go off by himself to work out. What a poser!"
The tall, lanky boy beside her said with disdain.
He had been Shanhai No. 1 Middle School's top scorer on the high school entrance exam. He had excellent grades and was pretty handsome, too. Throughout middle school, he'd been the school's Favored Child of Heaven, doted on by his peers and practically buried in love letters.
The girl sitting beside him had been the only one who could compete with him for first place during their three years of middle school.
As they competed, he had gradually developed feelings for her.
After the high school entrance exam, he learned that she had chosen Shanhai High School. Without hesitation, he turned down the principal of Shanhai No. 1 Middle School's high school division, who had tried to persuade him to stay, and chose Shanhai High School too.
Now, seeing that the girl had eyes only for Lin Zichen, he felt deeply irritated.
I was here first!
What gave that guy the right?!
How had things ended up like this?!
"Hey, we're all classmates. Don't talk about people behind their backs. If you really can't stand him, challenge him to a spar during martial arts class."
Lu Gang, who could lift a 300-kilogram weight with one hand, had overheard what the tall boy said. He walked over and addressed him directly.
Caught off guard by the jab, the tall boy instinctively prepared to snap back.
But when he turned and saw a giant of a man standing nearly two meters tall, he immediately lost his nerve and didn't dare utter a word.
Seeing how cowardly he was, the girl beside him gleefully kicked him while he was down.
"Exactly. If you can't stand Lin Zichen, go spar with him. Just be careful not to end up like you did at the Eight-School League, when you got kicked off the Martial Platform the moment you stepped on it and landed flat on your face."
"You...!"
The tall boy was so furious he couldn't get a word out. Suddenly, he thought the girl in front of him was disgusting.
Lu Gang turned to her. "Is that Lin Zichen guy really that good?"
Whenever she talked about Lin Zichen, the girl's eyes lit up. She immediately gave Lu Gang a detailed rundown of her idol, brimming with enthusiasm.
"He's good! Really good! Practically unbeatable!"
"Lin Zichen is the most incredible top student I've ever met in real life!"
"You might not believe this, but when Lin Zichen had just started seventh grade, he beat every middle schooler in the district!"
"Pay attention: every single middle schooler, including the eighth and ninth graders!"
"And it wasn't just a simple one-on-one!"
The more she talked, the more excited she got. Her entire face flushed red, and she could barely contain herself, as if Lin Zichen were someone special to her.
A moment later.
After listening to her introduction to Lin Zichen, Lu Gang smiled with interest. "Sounds interesting. If I get the chance, I'll have to spar with him."
"Forget it, Lu Gang."
A well-built boy walked over just then.
He was the third-place scorer on the high school entrance exam in Nanguan City.
A genius named Wang Shujie, who could sprint a hundred meters in 7.98 seconds.
Wang Shujie stopped in front of Lu Gang, his expression as calm as still water. "No matter how good that guy is, he's still just the top scorer from one district of Shanhai City. He's only king because there are no tigers in the mountains."
"And you're one of the top five talents in Nanguan City. You don't need to be so desperate for a sparring partner that you settle for someone like him."
"If you want to spar, just come to me."
The genius named Wang Shujie spoke with an air of superiority toward students from Shanhai City. Quite a few locals in the class were uncomfortable hearing it.
Lu Gang waved a hand. "Forget it. Sparring with you would be pointless. You're fast, so I can't hit you, and you're weak, so you can't hurt me. We could fight on the platform for ages without deciding a winner."
Wang Shujie smiled. "How about this: I'm planning to challenge the students in the Elite Class for sophomores before long. Want to go together?"
"Sure. That's exactly what I had in mind!" Lu Gang agreed without a second thought.
After that, the two soon left the classroom together.
They were prodigies the school had paid a fortune to recruit, and both lived in the teachers' residences provided by the school.
The two of them shared a three-bedroom, one-living-room apartment. It was extremely luxurious.
After they left, the boy and girl from Shanhai No. 1 Middle School were both completely dumbfounded.
One of the top five talents in Nanguan City?
What was going on?
Why did their class have top students from Nanguan City?
After all, Nanguan City's education system was far better than Shanhai City's. A Provincial Top Scholar emerged there every few years.
As for Shanhai City, it had been lucky enough to produce just one Provincial Top Scholar in the past several decades—and that had been more than twenty years ago. It was so long ago that Shanhai City couldn't compare with Nanguan City at all.
So why had these two top students from Nanguan City come to study at Shanhai High School?
The boy and girl from Shanhai No. 1 Middle School couldn't make heads or tails of it.
On the campus path, Lin Zichen and Shen Qinghan walked side by side at an unhurried pace.
After leaving the classroom, Shen Qinghan became much more lively. She chatted with Lin Zichen the whole way, talking nonstop.
As they walked, she suddenly remembered something and said to Lin Zichen, "Oh, right. Mom just messaged me on WeChat. She said she has to work late at school today, so she asked me to pick up some groceries on my way home. Let's get them at the market just around the corner to the right."
"Let's go to the mall instead. We're young, and we don't usually buy groceries. We could easily get ripped off at a roadside stall."
"Then let's go to the mall."
After that brief exchange, they soon left the school grounds and took a bus to the nearest mall to buy groceries.
After the bus arrived, they still had to walk a little farther to reach the mall.
On the way, they passed an alley. Shen Qinghan suddenly jumped in fright and pointed inside. "Xiao Chen, there are so many rats in there!"
Lin Zichen followed where she was pointing and saw several rats in the alley.
He even saw a large rat fighting a cat for its food.
Seeing this, Lin Zichen frowned. He picked up a stone, intending to kill the large rat fighting the cat for its food.
But after a moment's thought, he ultimately decided against it.
For now, it was best not to provoke rats.
After all, the Giant Mutant Rats were still shrouded in mystery.
No one knew how they had suddenly appeared in human society, or whether they were connected to ordinary rats.
Lin Zichen worried that killing the large rat in the alley might bring him trouble.
Before you continue