Over the next few days, Evan Lin spent most of his time tutoring the three girls: Nina Pei, whose foundation was a bit weaker, and Claire Sheng and Lynn Chen, who were much better off.
Joy Zheng stayed in Minghai City for seven days, then returned to Whitewood County, leaving Evan Lin alone here.
Lily Zhong started working on founding the company. After much thought, she settled on the name Angel Epoch. When the name was finalized, Lily even called Evan Lin to ask his opinion. Evan didn’t care much about the name—as long as it served his purpose, any name would do.
Evan Lin checked in with Warren Wu about the progress at Miracle Hand Sect. There was some good news: although the sect’s alchemists were still weak, with help from the Heart Sutra of the Pill Master and the use of low-year ginseng and He Shou Wu in the Youth-Preserving Beauty Pills they practiced with, some of them could already successfully refine the pills.
Everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion. Warren Wu also began selecting people with talent for pill refining, although for now the search was limited to Seacrest Prefecture.
Sometimes Evan Lin would get calls from Ken Feng and Hank Chu, mostly just shooting the breeze and talking about random things. It was from Hank that Evan learned Ken, right after New Year, had rushed to Jinnan to spend three days with Mandy Yu.
With two days left before the end of winter break, Evan Lin made a quick trip home from Minghai, then the break ended.
The snow melted, and all things revived.
Evan Lin didn’t return to Capitalview City with Lynn Chen and the others—instead, he chose to take the high-speed train there by himself.
When Evan Lin arrived back in Capitalview City and opened the apartment door, Irene Xu was sprawled lazily on the sofa watching TV, while Stella Huang was busy writing her manuscript. Both turned their heads at the sound of the door opening, and when they saw Evan, their faces lit up with surprise.
I thought you weren’t coming back to stay—I was so worried about Stella. She’s been talking about you nonstop." Irene Xu got up from the sofa, grinning.
You’re the one who’s been worried! Who was it always fussing about cleaning Evan Lin’s room, and learning new recipes just to cook for him?" Stella rolled her eyes.
Irene just laughed it off, but she kept pestering Evan Lin about how he spent New Year’s. When she asked, Stella Huang also put down her pen, clearly interested.
To them, Evan Lin was always a mysterious guy.
Evan Lin, with nothing else to do, casually talked about his winter break—but focused on tutoring Lynn Chen. He left out the parts about killing Mo Yang and the Minghai events, not wanting to worry them.
That girl’s name is Lynn Chen, right? She probably wants to get into the same college as you.
As Evan Lin spoke, Irene Xu’s words took on a sour note.
And those girls—Claire Sheng and Nina Pei—they seem to be interested in you too. Face it, your whole break was surrounded by girls.
Stella Huang sighed, as if she’d seen this coming all along.
That night, Irene Xu insisted on showing off her cooking skills and dragged Stella Huang to the supermarket. They spent two hours making five dishes and a soup.
After dinner, Irene Xu and Stella Huang shooed Evan Lin back to his room to study. After all, the college entrance exam was getting closer, and Evan was, at the end of the day, still a Senior 3 student.
Now all that’s left is to wait for the exam to be over and let time pass.
Evan Lin stood at the window, looking out at the cityscape of Capitalview, his expression indifferent.
Alchemists need time to be trained, and Lily Zhong’s company needs time to build its market. Evan Lin didn’t like this feeling of waiting, but for now, it seemed like that was all he could do.
The next morning, Evan Lin went to school.
Just walking through the school gates, he was already attracting plenty of attention from the students around him.
As the most legendary transfer student in Capitalview First High’s history, Evan Lin’s face was known to everyone. Everything he’d done during the first semester of Senior 3 had repeatedly shattered the students’ expectations, making them realize for the first time that a student who could fight well wasn’t necessarily a hopeless slacker.
Outside the Senior Year Class 32 classroom.
Today was the first day of the new term. Byron Yang was already standing at the door of Class 32, hands behind his back, head held high, gazing down the corridor at the doors of the three Experimental Classrooms across the way, his mind a little dazed.
Not so long ago, as the homeroom teacher of the worst class at Capitalview First High, Byron Yang could barely lift his head in front of the other teachers. Facing terrible average scores was humiliating, but now, all of that had changed thanks to one student.
Every year at the start of the second term, there was a Teacher–Student Motivation Assembly to fire everyone up and help them give their all in the final semester and get into a good university.
The assembly would be held tomorrow. In the past, the student representative who gave the speech was always a top student from the Experimental Classes.
No one from an ordinary class had ever managed to break through the wall of those overachieving Experimental Class students and pull off a true underdog reversal.
But this year—a miracle happened.
Byron Yang clenched his fists slightly and took a deep breath, glancing now and then toward the end of the hallway, searching the students’ faces for the one he most wanted to see.
Finally, at 7:05, Byron Yang spotted Evan Lin walking slowly down the hallway.
"Evan, come here for a second—I have something to talk to you about."
Byron Yang could hardly contain himself. Before Evan even got close, he was already beaming and stepping forward to meet him.
"What’s up?"
Evan looked at Byron Yang and asked.
"Take this and look it over—use it as a reference. Tomorrow, try to write a speech, about ten minutes long. Mainly talk about your study methods, your life experience, and how you face difficulties when they come up."
Byron Yang handed Evan Lin a sheet of A4 paper.
On the paper, neat handwriting in black gel pen filled the page.
Evan Lin glanced over it—the words on the page were powerful and forceful, every character seemed to leap off the paper.
At the top of the page, the first sentence read:
"When you become completely obsessed with doing one thing, you’ve already succeeded halfway."