Lynn Chen sat alone in her room, the light dim. She took the Teen Hero banner out of her backpack—the four words gleamed faintly in the gloom, their glory now silent.
She stared blankly for a long time, clutching her phone, her eyes fixed on Evan Lin's number on the screen. In the end, she couldn’t bring herself to call.
For a moment, Lynn regretted what she’d said to Evan that afternoon, regretted how she’d impulsively agreed to go to Peiying High to watch Ryan Ren play piano, and most of all regretted getting into the Ren family’s car right in front of Evan after school.
But there’s no way back now. She looked up—the room was empty, the starry night outside stretched vast, and the city lights beyond the window felt cold and lonely.
...
Evan Lin hung up the phone and found a hotel to stay for the night.
'My Foundation-Building stage has stalled for ages—there’s still not enough spiritual qi.'
Sitting on the hotel bed, Evan pulled out a Nourishing Spirit Pill, swallowed it, and felt a small surge of spiritual qi in his body, which he quickly refined and absorbed.
'The Nourishing Spirit Pill can boost my cultivation, but the effect is still too small.'
Evan Lin fell into deep thought.
"Right now, Brightsea City is held down by Big Tank, Shawn Shi, and Dong Zi. Imperial Grand won’t cause trouble for a while. Whitewood County is stable with Thomas Liu watching over things, so Mom will be safe too."
"Medicine King Valley is under Warren Wu’s control for now. If I can get some items from there and set up a medicine garden, I might be able to harvest a few spirit herbs."
"River City’s Summer Family and Wansheng Real Estate under Wayne Wang both know to keep their heads down. As for the Ding family in Sunrise City, they wouldn’t dare stir up trouble either."
Evan glanced out at the night beyond the window. From inside his bag, the Three Maiden Spirits from the Soul-Sacrifice Beauty Scroll floated out, their delicate forms circling him, gazing at him with a mix of fear and closeness.
"As for Jinnan, when I’m free I can visit the Su family. Now that I have the Scarlet Flame Command, I might be able to extract the fire spirit from Molly Su’s Fire Spirit Physique."
One thought after another flashed through Evan’s mind. He shook his head and sighed: "It’s just a shame that true spirit medicines are so scarce in this world."
...
The next morning, Evan had just arrived at the school gate when the Ren family’s car pulled up. Lynn Chen, who hadn’t slept all night, looked distracted and lost as she got out, head bowed.
Lucy Lu was supposed to take Lynn to school, but something came up. Lynn woke late and nearly missed class, so when Madam Han happened to drive by, Lynn ended up taking their car.
In the car, Ryan Ren and Madam Han tried every way to chat with Lynn, but she brushed them off. Even after she got out, Ryan rolled down the window and called out, "Lynn, take care of yourself!"
Lynn ignored him and headed straight for the gate. Suddenly she sensed something, looked up, and saw Evan’s back ahead of her, not even glancing her way. Her face went pale—she wanted to speak, but before she could, Evan had already turned the corner and disappeared up the stairs.
On the way in, plenty of students watched Evan, whispering among themselves. The girls looked at him with admiration and curiosity, while the boys mostly seethed with jealousy.
Just as Evan was about to reach the Class 12 classroom, Wendy Wen stood at the corridor door, notebook in hand, dressed in a pale blue skirt. Hearing footsteps, she turned, saw Evan, and hurried over: "Evan Lin, do you have a minute?"
After yesterday, Wendy had started preparing an interview with Evan at Principal Deng’s request. After Director Chen left, Principal Deng even called a Capitalview City reporter to set up a TV segment.
Wendy was in charge of editing the school journal, which had to be published by the afternoon. That morning, she came by to ask about Evan’s background.
"No time."
Evan said it flatly and walked right past Wendy. The whole classroom overheard and looked on in awe.
Wendy hadn’t expected such a direct rejection. She froze, then spun around, frowning at Evan: "I need to interview you. The school wants to write a feature for today’s journal, and the city TV station plans to do a segment too!"
"I already talked to your homeroom teacher—he’s giving you a class off for this!"
Wendy called after him, but Evan didn’t stop or turn around. He just went straight to his seat, treating her words like air.
"He won’t even accept Wendy Wen’s interview?"
"That’s some attitude. If you get featured in the journal, you’ll be someone the younger students look up to. Evan really doesn’t seem to care about anything."
"I bet he’s got a grudge against Wendy—she’s the one who filmed his fight the other day, after all."
Many students glanced at Wendy with a touch of helplessness; when it came to Evan, all they felt was envy and resentment. Any other guy would’ve jumped at the chance for an interview with Wendy Wen.
"Still, it makes sense—Evan’s got Lynn Chen, so he’s not interested in Wendy. Honestly, Lynn’s just as classy as Wendy, but she’s even prettier."
A boy in the front row speculated, nodding smugly. He’d barely finished when he felt a wave of killing intent. Looking up, he blanched—Wendy was standing at the door, face cold, and she grabbed a book from his desk and smacked him on the head.
"Forget the interview! I don’t even care about interviewing you!"
Wendy stormed off, her pale-blue skirt swishing, drawing every boy’s gaze.
"That’s wild. But isn’t it a shame to skip the interview? Getting in the journal could earn you Merit Student honors in Capitalview City—it might even help with the college entrance exams."
Jason Liu looked at Evan, his admiration growing.
"I’m not interested in being a Merit Student."
That afternoon, the school journal was released. Each issue was only five or six pages, mixing news, essays, and a few character profiles.
This time, the featured profile was none other than 'Teen Hero Evan Lin.' The writeup was mostly scattered praise and flattery cobbled together by Wendy Wen, since she hadn’t had a chance to actually interview Evan.
But what really caught everyone’s attention was the announcement that the National Team Reserves would be coming to Capitalview First High for an exhibition match—among them, the rising 'Chinese soccer prodigy,' Ethan Yi.