The Eighteenth-Birthday Coming-of-Age Ceremony

In the blink of an eye, more than a year has passed.

Lin Zichen and Shen Qinghan's campus life has now entered its fifteenth year.

That is, the senior year of high school.

Over the past year or so.

Lin Zichen's Biological Rank has successfully evolved to the Ordinary Rank 6, and all of his physical stats have been greatly improved.

It only takes 2.87 seconds to sprint 100 meters.

A vertical jump of up to 8.32 meters is possible.

He can lift 2450kg with one hand.

During the summer vacation of his second year of high school, he once again brought a Champion Trophy to Shanhai High School, achieving an unprecedented two-peat, breaking the school's history, and becoming the first person in Shanhai High School to achieve this feat.

Shen Qinghan wasn't as dazzling as him, but she also gained a lot in the past year or so, and her studies have been steadily improving.

Through her daily efforts, she successfully broke out of the bottom 10 in martial arts performance in her class and came in 12th from the bottom.

Counting from the top, she is 34th in the class, ranking among the top among the dozen or so girls in the class.

Even if she got the job through connections, no one will use that to attack her now that she's achieved such a good result.

Thanks to this, her personality became more cheerful and outgoing day by day, as if she had returned to her childhood before starting school, and she loved to laugh every day.

As for researching superpowers, there has been little progress in the past year or so.

This day was October 14th.

Shen Qinghan celebrated her 18th birthday.

Lin Zichen is only one day older than her; he just celebrated his birthday yesterday.

So, the two families gathered together that evening and set up a simple celebration at home to mark the 18th birthday of the two childhood sweethearts who had grown up together.

"Alright, the candles are out, it's time to exchange gifts."

"You two handsome young man and beautiful young woman, hurry up and take out the gifts you carefully prepared and give them to each other. I'll take a picture of you to remember the occasion."

"I'll be in charge of recording."

Lin Yansheng and Zhang Wanxin, a married couple, were working together; the former was recording video with his phone, and the latter was taking photos with a camera.

The couple, Shen Jianye and Xu Meng, were quiet and simply sat with smiles on their faces, witnessing their two children exchanging adult gifts.

"Xiao Chen, this is a gift for you."

Shen Qinghan picked up a photo frame covered with a cloth from behind her, carefully placed it upright on the table, and looked at Lin Zichen with a sweet smile.

The picture frame is very large, its length and width appear to be close to one meter.

I don't know what kind of painting is inside that requires such a large frame to display it.

"Hurry up and lift the cover; you'll be pleasantly surprised when you see the painting inside."

Shen Qinghan said with a confident smile.

Zhang Wanxin, who was taking photos, couldn't help but tease, "Hanhan's words sound like the bride urging the groom to lift the red veil."

Lin Yansheng chimed in, "Haha, indeed, I wonder when my son will be able to lift his red veil."

Shen Qinghan blushed from the teasing and shyly looked away from Lin Zichen, too embarrassed to meet his gaze.

Lin Zichen remained calm, a faint smile naturally appearing at the corners of his mouth. He quickly stepped forward, grabbed a corner of the sheet, and lifted it with a hint of anticipation.

The next moment, a richly colored portrait came into his view.

It is a watercolor painting.

It depicts three people standing together.

One is him, another is him, and the last one is also him.

However, these three versions of "he" are all different.

The one on the left, towards the back, is Gene Fusionist being with wings on his back, his eyes revealing a wildness.

He was in the middle, near the front, dressed in a school uniform, and looked harmless.

The man on the right, towards the back, is a Mechanical Cyborg body is mostly covered in alloy, exuding a cold and ruthless aura.

The three forms standing together create a sense of contrast, as if angels and demons are always by the side of an ordinary person, which is very artistic.

As soon as the painting was unveiled, before Lin Zichen could even express his feelings, Zhang Wanxin in front of him exclaimed in surprise:

"Hanhan, you're amazing! This drawing is so beautiful! Aunt Xin is truly blown away!"

"This watercolor painting is a Hanhan spent a whole year creating, and finally finished it the day before yesterday. The amount of paper she used before it was finished could fill a whole schoolbag."

Xu Meng said with a smile.

She had witnessed the entire process of Shen Qinghan's dedication to this painting over the past year.

As a mother, she felt it was essential to fully convey her daughter's feelings to Lin Zichen and further deepen their relationship.

Looking at the three versions of himself in the painting and listening to the conversation between the two mothers, Lin Zichen looked up at Shen Qinghan in front of him, gazed into her eyes, and said with genuine emotion:

"This is the best gift I've ever received; I will cherish it for the rest of my life."

"Absolutely."

Shen Qinghan's eyes curved into crescents, and her pretty face was full of smiles.

After hearing Lin Zichen's answer, she felt that all the effort she had put into this watercolor painting over the past year had been rewarded.

Lin Zichen carefully put away the watercolor painting on the table and placed it on the sofa next to him.

He then picked up a bag from the sofa and handed it to Shen Qinghan, saying in a gentle voice:

"This is a gift for you, all handmade by me. I hope you like it."

"You'll definitely like it."

Shen Qinghan took the bag with a look of anticipation and smiled softly.

Then, without waiting, I opened the bag and found that the gift inside was also a photo frame.

However, this picture frame is smaller, about the same length and width as a student's award certificate.

But it's very thick, as thick as a dictionary.

The frame doesn't contain paintings, but rather specimens of up to 20 different small flowers.

There are baby's breath, morning glories, plum blossoms, orchids, and so on.

The small flower in the very center of the frame is her favorite dandelion.

At this moment, these small flower specimens are fixed in the layers of the picture frame by special soft silicone filling material, making them look lifelike and very beautiful.

"Xiao Chen, I love this gift so much!"

Looking at the flowers in the specimen photo frame, Shen Qinghan's eyes were full of joy, and she couldn't put down the birthday gift Lin Zichen had given her.

Seeing that both of their gifts were picture frames, Zhang Wanxin couldn't help but ask curiously, "Both of your gifts are picture frames. Did you two agree beforehand to give each other these?"

Shen Qinghan replied, "It wasn't pre-arranged; it was just a coincidence."

Zhang Wanxin laughed and said, "No wonder you're childhood sweethearts who grew up together. You even thought of the same gift for each other. It seems you've developed a bond of mutual understanding."

After saying that, she continued, "Come on, everyone, sit together with your gifts, I'll take a picture of you all."

Upon hearing this, Lin Zichen and Shen Qinghan took the gifts they received and sat down on the sofa.

The two sat very close, their legs touching and their shoulders close together, looking very intimate.

P. S.: I'm setting up the bowls, please vote with your monthly tickets and recommendations!