With a bang!, the blow sent a tremendous noise booming from the padded cushion, and the impact also made Lan Shengxue's heart stir.
After a brief moment of shock, Lan Shengxue's gaze landed on the instrument's display.
81N!
At the sight, Lan Shengxue's pupils abruptly widened. She did not even know when she had stood up.
Strictly speaking, 81N of blood qi was nothing much. It barely reached the level of an early phase martial apprentice. Ordinarily, she would not have given it a second glance.
But the person before her was Jiang Fan, the trash everyone at Ancheng No. 9 Middle School knew about, whose blood qi was only 19N, worse than even an elementary school student's.
Yet now he had made astonishing progress, his blood qi shooting all the way up to 81N!
This was simply too inconceivable.
Lan Shengxue sank into deep doubt. The last schoolwide blood qi test had been a month ago, and Jiang Fan's blood qi still being 19N had been a running joke at Ancheng No. 9 Middle School for days.
Even if she had not wanted to know, those remarks had filled her ears.
She did not understand. How had Jiang Fan gone from 19N to 81N in just one month?
Or had Jiang Fan not used his full strength back then, casually throwing a limp, feeble punch at the blood qi tester?
Lan Shengxue thought it had to be the latter. Jiang Fan was playing the pig to eat the tiger, hiding his strength. Otherwise, no one could suddenly gain so much blood qi in a single month.
But-there was something else she could not understand. Why exactly would Jiang Fan do that?
The Jiang Family kicking Jiang Fan out had caused such a stir that everyone in Ancheng knew about it. If Jiang Fan had revealed his strength to the Jiang Family, she thought that unless something was wrong with their brains, there was no way they would have thrown out Jiang Fan, an early-stage martial apprentice.
The more she thought about it, the less she understood. With suspicion in her sharp eyes, Lan Shengxue kept sizing Jiang Fan up.
Jiang Fan withdrew his fist and looked at the display.
81N, huh...
He wondered how much force a punch would carry if he attached all his psychic power to his arm.
Of course, this instrument would not be able to measure that, either.
Gathering his thoughts, Jiang Fan turned to Lan Shengxue.
"Can I sign up now?"
Looking at the calm expression on Jiang Fan's face, Lan Shengxue could not help furrowing her brows. She felt increasingly unable to see through this boy her own age.
"Yes, you can."
Lan Shengxue took out a registration form. "Fill this out."
"Okay."
Jiang Fan took it and saw that his class information and name had already been filled in.
Below were some other basic details, such as age, sex, ID number, and so on...
The final field caught Jiang Fan's attention.
[What do you practice martial arts for?]
What for?
The corners of Jiang Fan's mouth curved upward, warmth showing in his eyes.
He picked up a pen and swiftly wrote on the form.
"Done." Jiang Fan handed the registration form back to Lan Shengxue.
Seeing Jiang Fan about to get up and leave, Lan Shengxue hesitated for two seconds before finally giving in and speaking.
"Jiang Fan, I'm really curious. I remember you only had 19N in the test a month ago. How did you become an early-stage martial apprentice in just one month?"
Jiang Fan looked steadily at Lan Shengxue and said, "That's my secret."
Lan Shengxue could tell that Jiang Fan did not want to say.
"Is there anything else? If not, I'll be going," Jiang Fan said.
Lan Shengxue pressed her lips together. Although she really wanted to know the truth, she could hardly force him if he did not want to tell her.
"No, you can go."
"Okay."
Just as Jiang Fan was nearing the door, he suddenly remembered something and stopped.
"Oh, right. I have something to give you."
Watching Jiang Fan rummage through his backpack, Lan Shengxue furrowed her delicate brows. He isn't going to slip me a love letter like those boring boys, is he?
Just as she was thinking that, Jiang Fan found what he was looking for in his backpack, took out several notebooks, and set them on the desk.
"These are the ones Teacher Lu borrowed for me. Thanks."
Lan Shengxue stared at the notebooks on the desk, looking a little dazed.
Suddenly, her gaze shifted, her attention falling on the registration form Jiang Fan had just filled out.
She saw the final field on the form.
[What do you practice martial arts for?]
Jiang Fan's answer was: family.
Looking at that single, concise word, Lan Shengxue remained lost in thought for a long time.
After leaving the student council office, Jiang Fan discovered that Wei Qi and Tong Shuyao were still there, along with quite a few other students waiting outside.
"How did it go, Jiang Fan? Did you manage to sign up?" Wei Qi asked in a mocking tone.
Tong Shuyao rolled her eyes dramatically at Jiang Fan, declaring that if Jiang Fan could successfully sign up, she would dance in a bikini right there.
The other students watching the show laughed derisively, especially Jiang Youtian.
"Wei Qi, that question is a little insulting," Jiang Youtian said contemptuously. "How could Jiang Fan possibly pass?"
"Exactly. Let him save a little face. He's your classmate, after all."
Wei Qi spat. "I don't want to be classmates with trash like him. I'm telling you, once you graduate and leave, don't tell anyone Jiang Fan was my classmate. Having a classmate like him is embarrassing."
Just then, Lan Shengxue suddenly came running out after him. She called to Jiang Fan, "Jiang Fan, I forgot to mention this earlier. Your parent needs to come to school this Friday to sign the paperwork. It's a procedure every exam candidate has to go through to enter the special training class. Also, have your family bring a hundred thousand yuan. That covers registration and the special training afterward."
At those words, the entire place fell so silent that a pin dropping could have been heard.
Everyone stared at Jiang Fan in disbelief, their mouths hanging wide enough to fit an egg.
"Wh-what's going on? Wait, wh-what did I just hear? Am I hearing things?"
"Probably not, because I heard it too. Everyone heard it. We can't all be hearing things, can we?"
"B-but Jiang Fan, h-he-how could he have successfully signed up?"
Jiang Fan raised a hand toward Lan Shengxue. "Okay, got it."
With that, he walked straight ahead without looking back. As for the people behind him, he had never taken them to heart from beginning to end.
Everyone watched Jiang Fan's departing figure until he disappeared completely. Only then did they recover from their shock.
"Can someone tell me what exactly is going on?" someone asked the question everyone wanted answered.
Tong Shuyao looked uncertain, her expression complicated. She, too, wanted to know what had happened.
Jiang Youtian's expression was also ugly. Compared with everyone else's shock, what he felt more was fear.
If Jiang Fan really had become an early-stage martial apprentice, would the Jiang Family make an exception and let him return once they found out?
He knew Jiang Fan. Although Jiang Fan had now become defiant and unruly, rebellious and unrestrained, the old Jiang Fan had meekly accepted everything and had desperately craved affection from the Jiang Family.
Otherwise, he could not have kept Jiang Fan so firmly under his thumb all these years.
If the Jiang Family learned that Jiang Fan had become an early-stage martial apprentice, they might lower themselves a little, give Jiang Fan a way to step down gracefully, then show him a little concern and offer him some familial affection and care. Jiang Fan would definitely come scurrying back.