At this point, the young examiner paused, asking two pointed questions: "Have you eaten anything unusual recently? Or encountered anything special?"
Jiang Zhaoye adopted a thoughtful expression, then shook his head with apparent honesty.
"No, I've been cultivating at home all summer break. At first, I was practicing Water-Ice Attribute Conversion."
"It was really tough in the beginning. It took a whole month just to convert a tiny bit of water attribute into ice... then one day I woke up and realized my eyes had mutated."
As he spoke, his fingernails dug rhythmically into his tightly clenched palm. "Then I started growing taller, and after that, my stats began rising. The speed at which I absorb psionic energy and convert attributes kept getting faster and faster."
The woman nodded without pressing further. Turning to operate the display screen, she flipped through his file and buried her head in writing notes.
"We've logged your situation," the middle-aged man interjected, his tone somewhat reassuring. "Awakening a spirit eye and a physical constitution takes time. There's no need to rush."
"From what we can tell, your eyes belong to a perception type, though the specific type can't be determined until they fully awaken. You might see a further breakthrough during the high school awakening ceremony."
With that, his expression grew a bit serious as he added, "We will flag you as high potential. Someone from the Psionic Bureau might contact you later for further observation and evaluation."
"Just cooperate when the time comes."
Jiang Zhaoye nodded like a chicken pecking rice. "Alright, thank you, Teacher."
"Head on out and call the next one in."
Jiang Zhaoye turned and stepped out of the tent. The blistering sunlight slammed into his face, forcing him to raise an arm to shield his eyes. Tilted slightly away beneath the shadow, his face squeezed into a squint.
His heart was still beating slightly faster than normal. Walking toward the teaching building, he quietly took deep breaths to force himself to calm down.
Chen Tuizhi and Lin Shutong both crowded over.
"How'd it go?" Chen Tuizhi asked.
"Not bad," Jiang Zhaoye said. "Metal 13, Water 36, Ice 62."
"Oh... Water 36, Ice 62." Chen Tuizhi froze for a moment, utterly shocked. "Ice 62?!"
"Yeah."
"Are you for real, bro?!"
A touch of pride crossed Jiang Zhaoye's cool face, and he raised his chin toward him. "For real."
Chen Tuizhi's mouth gaped wide, remaining open for a good while before he finally closed it. In the end, he patted Jiang Zhaoye on the shoulder and choked out, "...If you hit it rich, don't forget me!"
Lin Shutong leaned against the adjacent railing, twirling the ends of her hair around her finger. Hearing his words, she scoffed, sized Chen Tuizhi up and down, and curled her lips into a smile.
She didn't say a word, yet it felt as if she had said everything.
"Hey!" Old Chen broke down a little. "Class Rep! What kind of look is that supposed to be, Class Rep?!"
"I wonder who said earlier that he wanted to cling to my thigh~" A teasing sneer appeared on Lin Shutong's handsome face. "What's wrong? Now that you've found a higher branch, you look down on your Sister Lin?"
"Sigh—how could I? I, Chen Tuizhi, might look down on anyone, but I'd never look down on my Sister Shutong! Yours truly will forever loyally follow in your footsteps! You will always be my big boss, Sis!"
Listening to their banter, the smile on Jiang Zhaoye's lips gradually faded into something faint.
Standing under the sun, he looked off toward the distant teaching building, his mind occupied by something else entirely... He wondered how much of what he had said back there the staff had actually believed.
Touching the spot between his eyebrows that the probe had touched earlier, he felt as though a lingering trace of chill still remained. In his mind, Jiang Zhaoye replayed everything he had said inside the tent—his excuses, the two examiners' reactions—going over every single detail. Only after confirming that there were no loopholes did he let out a quiet sigh of relief.
At the very least, not only had they not flagged him as abnormal, but they had also labeled him as having high potential. That was enough.
He looked down at his hand; a trace of sweat still clung to his palm.
The world didn't need that much prying into things.
"Jiang Zhaoye... Jiang Zhaoye!"
A voice suddenly sounded nearby. Sweet and soft, its volume—not particularly loud even when intentionally raised—carried a slight tremble, sounding somewhat timid. It seemed as though she was afraid of disturbing him, or perhaps as though she had already called his name more than once.
Jiang Zhaoye's shoulders twitched slightly as he snapped out of his deep thought and turned toward the sound.
A dark, fluffy head of hair entered his view.
The girl was thin and small, standing shyly before him with her head lowered. At first glance, all Jiang Zhaoye could see was the round top of her head.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
Hearing his response, the girl looked up slightly. Her fluffy black hair fell over her shoulders, and a few stray bangs in front of her forehead were stuck to her cheeks with sweat, fine beads of perspiration glistening on the tip of her nose.
Jiang Zhaoye recognized the girl. It was Zhou Tiantian, the Chinese language class representative in his class and Old Zhou's niece. She usually kept to herself and didn't have much interaction with him.
Dressed in a light-blue short-sleeved shirt, Zhou Tiantian slowly brought out a stack of forms from behind her back. "The homeroom teacher asked me to collect everyone's psionic census confirmation slips. You haven't handed yours in yet."
When she spoke, her head was always slightly lowered, her voice soft and gentle, as if afraid of scaring anyone.
Jiang Zhaoye paused for a moment before remembering that before the census, Old Zhou had indeed had a confirmation slip sent to them, instructing them to bring it back to school after getting a parent's signature.
He patted his pockets—empty. Next, he checked his spatial button, retrieved his backpack from inside it, and searched through it again and again until he finally found the neatly folded piece of paper in an inner compartment.
The class representative simply stood quietly to the side, watching him search.
"Sorry, I almost forgot." He gave a slightly apologetic smile and handed her the confirmation slip.
Zhou Tiantian hurriedly reached out to take it. Her skin was very pale, and her slender wrist was exposed, appearing almost translucent in the sunlight, revealing the faint light-blue paths of her veins.
Having put away the confirmation slip, this clearly socially anxious girl didn't leave immediately. She lingered in place for a good while, as if hesitating over something.
Jiang Zhaoye waited for her silently.
The girl's naturally fair face grew increasingly red, flushed bright and looking timid—whether from the sun or from sheer nervousness, it was hard to tell.
In the end, she seemed to finally summon her courage, quietly exclaiming to him, "You've really changed so much!"
"..." Jiang Zhaoye didn't know how to respond to that, so he merely smiled. "Yeah, my spirit eye awakened over summer break."
"Mm! I know, the girls were talking about it in the chat group!" Zhou Tiantian replied instinctively. Then, she gave him a flustered look, as if she had used up all her courage, turned around, and ran off.
Chat group?
What chat group?
Jiang Zhaoye watched her retreating back, feeling somewhat bewildered. He hadn't seen anyone post any news about his spirit eye awakening in any of the class chat groups.
"It's our girls-only group~" Lin Shutong strolled over from the side, a lollipop from who-knows-where tucked in her mouth, creating a small bulge in her cheek. "Of course you guys aren't in it~"
As she spoke, she pulled a handful of various candies from her pocket and offered them to Jiang Zhaoye and Chen Tuizhi. "Here, pick one each. The girls in our class fed all these to me."
Accustomed to Lin Shutong's popularity, Chen Tuizhi sourly picked a peach-flavored hard candy, then turned his envy toward Jiang Zhaoye. "So many girls were looking at you today..."
Hearing his sarcastic, jealous tone, Jiang Zhaoye couldn't quite describe how he felt for a moment.
Aside from having fairly decent grades, he used to be the unremarkable type in class most of the time. His personality wasn't particularly outgoing, and his relationships with most classmates were lukewarm.
Today, he was suddenly shoved into the spotlight—envied and jealous of by the boys, secretly stolen glances at and discussed by the girls, instantly becoming the center of attention.
There was certainly vanity, and there was a thrill, but more than that, was it unfamiliarity? Discomfort? No, it was more than that... even he couldn't quite put it into words.
Rate on N.U.
