Back to the Peak

Chapter 49: A Year Later

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Nowadays, the way people’s school holidays were arranged were similar to how it was before the great disaster.
There were winter and summer holidays, which were passed down by those who survived the great disaster.

The world had long been beyond recognition.
They always wanted to keep something the same as before, so some things were preserved.

In February, 2018, all cities in China welcomed the final exam just before winter vacation.
Ten days after the exam, the Spring Festival, the most important festival in China, would occur.

Although this Spring Festival was very different from how it had been in the past, people still looked forward to it.
However, as a student, if you wanted to have a good Spring Festival, you had to get a good test score.
This kind of tradition would, unfortunately for those students, probably not change even after another thousand years.

Of course, this only applied to those children with parents… Shi Qingyang remembered that his parents had always attached great importance to his studies, and he hadn’t let them down.
It was a pity that even now, no matter how good his grades were, his parents couldn’t see them.

Yes, Shi Qingyang’s scores were very good.
His actual combat score was first in the grade, and his written test score was second in the grade.
As for why his written test was the second… There was no other way, who made Cheng Ran exist in this world?

Shi Qingyang smiled at the name listed above him.
Cheng Ran’s written examination in his previous life was only above average, mostly because he had hidden his talent.
Thinking about back then, at that time, Shi Qingyang’s own score wasn’t over average, so a group of people laughed at him.
Now that he performed very well, who knew how many people were jealous.

Cheng Ran was simple, but he was not stupid.
It seemed that he did get the first place in the exam back then, but no one believed him in the end…

But the past was the past, and the present was the present.
Shi Qingyang saved his grades on the communicator and smiled–now no matter what Cheng Ran did, there would only a group of people clinging onto him, and no one dared to bully him.

On the one hand, this was because Cheng Ran’s identity had been known by many people in the upper levels of Spark City.
Although they had never publicized this matter, they had a friendly attitude towards Cheng Ran.
Naturally, the people below weren’t capable of picking on him.

On the other hand, it was because Cheng Ran did have some skills, which he had now shown to others…

In the second half of 3016, Cheng Ran was “recuperating”, so he had to go back to school only half a year after he got the freedom pass.

Originally, Shi Qingyang had thought about letting Cheng Ran drop out of school directly.
After all, it didn’t really matter whether he studied or not.
But Shi Qingyang had his own things to do.
He should strive to become stronger, and can’t always accompany Cheng Ran.
Instead of letting Cheng Ran stay at home with Gu Changjin all day, his life not changing at all, he might as well let him study at Spark Academy.

If nothing else, Cheng Ran could get to know some people and broaden his horizons.

Now Cheng Ran had grown a lot compared to the past.
Shi Qingyang admitted that he really wanted Cheng Ran to stay innocent and naive by his side all the time, but he also knew that this was not good for Cheng Ran, so he would try to make Cheng Ran more exposed to the outside world.

Of course, being exposed to social contact just involved socializing.
It wasn’t necessary for him to be bullied.
In fact, it wasn’t difficult to keep Cheng Ran from being bullied.
After all, Cheng Ran was very capable, and Shi Qingyang was there to protect him.

Although he had a freedom pass, Shi Qingyang went back to school with Cheng Ran last year and helped Cheng Ran get along with others.

It wasn’t difficult to do this.
In the days when Cheng Ran was recovering from illness, they first worried that Cheng Hong would make a surprise inspection and kept Cheng Ran in bed.
But later, he learned from Cheng Xuze that Cheng Hong had been transferred to Yangtze City for half a year to concentrate on learning the broadcast exercises.
This made them reduce their worries.

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At that time, Cheng Ran began to learn medicine from Ran Xue privately, and began to prepare various medications at home.

Ran Xue also knew that Cheng Ran didn’t have radiation energy.
For this reason, Ran Xue specially collected a lot of potions that could be refined without radiant energy and gave them to Cheng Ran.
Cheng Ran also refined a lot of potions.
The two cooperated with each other to study these kinds of medicines that could be refined without radiant energy.
Finally, their studies even resulted in letting the Cheng family’s pharmaceutical factory produce more medicine.

Of course, this was not the key point.
In fact, the most important result was the potions made by Cheng Ran.
They didn’t lack money, so Cheng Ran didn’t have to sell these potions for income.
Cheng Ran couldn’t take them, and Shi Qingyang couldn’t use all of them up himself either.

So, when he and Cheng Ran returned to school, all these potions were used by him as gifts.
On the first day of school, Cheng Ran generously handed out potions.
Later, the monitor of class 10 helped Cheng Ran everywhere.
After he volunteered to help Cheng Ran with some work, Cheng Ran generously gave him a bottle of Almighty Elixir.

Although this wasn’t the best method as Cheng Ran wouldn’t make sincere friends, but they didn’t plan to make friends at the beginning.
They just wanted Cheng Ran to know more people.

If Cheng Ran really had another close friend, Shi Qingyang thought he would probably get jealous.

After first throwing out money, Cheng Ran slowly showed some strength under his guidance.
As long as it was about theory, and other people in the class didn’t understand it, Cheng Ran could always explain it clearly.
Not only that, in terms of pharmacy, there were few students in Spark Academy who could compare with Cheng Ran.

Yes, Cheng Ran may not have radiant energy, but in some aspects, he completely exceeded those who luckily had energy… There were many people wanted to curry favor with Cheng Ran, and they naturally tried their best to praise him, with Shi Qingyang beside him guiding them.
Slowly, Cheng Ran became known as an inspirational figure who didn’t give up and was determined to fight to succeed.

Shi Qingyang saw himself and Cheng Ran on the list, then looked down and saw Yin Tiancheng’s name.

After the decline of the Yang family more than a year ago, the Yin Family suddenly fell silent.
These days, Yin Tiancheng was very low-key, and naturally he was no longer the favored child of heaven.

In fact, Yin Tiancheng now worked harder than how he did in Shi Qingyang’s memory.
Now, in just one year, the total amount of radiation energy in his body had reached level-2 after testing.
Unfortunately, although Yin Tiancheng was very strong, and the total amount of radiation energy in his body was more than Shi Qingyang’s, in terms of actual combat…

A young man who was really only 18 years old, how could he compare with an uncle who wore an 18-year-old skin? Yin Tiancheng made rapid progress, but no matter how much progress he made, he could only be abused.
In the practical test not long ago, Shi Qingyang beat the increasingly gloomy young master down again.

When Yin Tiancheng was beaten down by him for the first time, many people thought it was incredible, but now when they saw Yin Tiancheng being beaten down by him, no one showed any surprise.

This was also due to his “efforts”.

In the past year, Cheng Ran’s motivation had been spread along with Shi Qingyang’s ferocity.

Shi Qingyang had already learned what he should learn, so he naturally didn’t need to take classes again.
Therefore, coming to school every day was either to exercise his physical strength or to practice radiation energy in the practice room.
It was also a completely deadly exercise method.

If someone else practised like this, it would probably cause some hidden dangers to the body.
But Shi Qingyang knew that his situation was different.
He drank all kinds of health-care potions, not to mention a bottle of Almighty Elixir a day.
Later, he bought an expensive body monitor.
This latest intelligent monitor could detect the body condition, make the best fitness plan, and help a person develop his potential.
At the same time, the price was also extremely expensive.

This configuration was unique in Spark City.
Yin Tiancheng couldn’t even reach one-fifth of his workout conditions, but Shi Qingyang remained very ordinary and wasn’t outstanding at all…

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Though he was really strong, his talent was very poor.
Therefore, in the eyes of many people, his strength was within reach, that was everyone could achieve what he did, which naturally made people more jealous.
Shi Qingyang even heard people yelling at him more than once, saying that if they had such conditions where they were taught by Gu Changjin, a level 5 rad-warrior, they’d be even better than Shi Qingyang.

Shi Qingyang knew whta other people thought of him.
In the eyes of those people, he clearly had poor talent.
He was born mediocre, and his parents were dead.
Because of good luck, he could drink the best medicine and use the best things every day.
It was absolutely the type of existence that spurred the most hatred.

For this reason, there were always people challenging him.
Unfortunately, in Spark Academy, most of the teachers only reached level-3, and the strongest among the students was level-3.
Others were either level-1 or level-2, and had no combat experience at all…

If he was outside the city, he might not dare to compete with people with many more levels than himself, but on the competition platform of Spark Academy…

The radiation energy here was very weak, and the damage was far less than that outside the city.
Sometimes, fists and feet were even better than using radiation power.

Shi Qingyang would not refuse anyone.
He took all the challenges.
He simply took those people to practice his radiant energy, and practiced his hand-to-hand combat.
A year ago, a level-2 senior asked him to fight.
In the end, he didn’t use any radiant energy at all.
He directly waved his fists and rushed up…

Such a thing happened not once or twice, but many times.

Shi Qingyang looked around him.
Then he saw that many people stood far away from him, and he smiled slightly.

“Shi Qingyang, congratulations!” a voice sounded, and then Shi Qingyang saw an acquaintance, He Ming.

After the Yang family was convicted, the former aphid farm of the Zhao family returned to He Ming.
However, He Ming did not manage it himself, but split it up and sold it.

Many people didn’t understand why He Ming did this, but Shi Qingyang thought that He Ming’s choice was the most appropriate one.
He Ming was not old enough, and He Lan was not capable of running the farm.
Instead of trying to run the farm, he might as well sell it for money.
In this way, it would avoid the next time someone would try to calculate against them for the farm.

“Congratulations.” Shi Qingyang smiled.
Even if He Ming’s performance was not so outstanding, He Ming was in the top ten in both categories.

“Shi Qingyang, we organized a group of people to go out of the city for hunting this winter vacation.
Are you interested?” He Ming asked.
Although they haven’t graduated, the students still yearned to go outside the city.
Therefore, in winter and summer holidays, they often organized a group of people to go out of the city for hunting and adapting to the wild environment.

Shi Qingyang was not interested in going with a group of people to besiege some small things that he could catch alone.
He directly refused: “No thanks, I have something else to do.”

“I thought so.” He Ming smiled.
Many people wanted to know if Shi Qingyang was as strong outside the city, but Shi Qingyang seemed determined not to leave the city.

He Ming left soon, but Shi Qingyang really did think about going outside the city.

In his last life, in May of that year, he was pushed into the ant nest.
Now it was time to investigate.

With this in mind, Shi Qingyang went directly to the pharmacy room where Cheng Ran was located.
Cheng Ran now had a free pass, but he still come to school with Shi Qingyang.
After they went to school, Shi Qingyang went to exercise, and Cheng Ran came here to prepare medicine.

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These days, Cheng Ran and Ran Xue had also obtained an ancient book about ancient plants.
It was said that there were also ancient prescriptions for treating diseases with plants as materials.
Although mutant plants were completely different from those from back then, many plants that used to be medicinal herbs were still medicinal herbs after mutating.
Ran Xue and Cheng Ran wanted to find more new medicinal materials through this ancient book.

The Cheng family had sold Almighty Eilxirs for more than a year, but no one had cracked the prescription.
Even similar potions could not be made by others since it made use of two newly discovered medicinal herbs.

In the past, Ran Xue often envied those pharmacists trained by big families because they had access to many wonderful prescriptions.
Now, she hoped to create some prescriptions by herself.

In fact, half a year ago, she improved a medication for treating radiation trauma, making the effect better.
Now her medicine had become the second profitable medication of the Cheng’s pharmaceutical factory.

As for the first, there was no doubt that it was the Almighty Elixir.

With the Almighy Elixir, the Cheng family, who had only been a little famous in Yangtze City before, became known by everyone in the country in the short one and a half year period.

When Shi Qingyang went to Cheng Ran’s place, Cheng Ran was already sorting out his equipment.
He was much taller than before, but compared with Shi Qingyang, the gap between them was even greater than the past.

In his previous life, Shi Qingyang had been malnourished when he was in the growth and development stage.
Later, he was only medium-sized.
But this life was different.
Now he had sufficient nutrition, insisted on exercising, and had a special monitor to detect his physical condition and make suggestions on his diet…

Now, he was taller than he was in his previous life.
He should have a chance to grow even taller in the future.

“Qingyang, there you are!” Seeing Shi Qingyang, Cheng Ran smiled, and the movement of his hands accelerated for a few minutes.

Shi Qingyang came forward to help clean up: “How are you still here now?”

“Someone asked me some questions just now,” Cheng Ran said, “The man wrote down a lot of questions.
It took me a lot of time.”

“Who is it? What grade?” Shi Qingyang asked.
The Cheng family were not bad looking, and Cheng Ran was of course the same.
Although he looked like Cheng Hong, his temperament was completely different, and he inevitably attracted others.
Although Shi Qingyang didn’t think that others would compare to him in Cheng Ran’s heart, he still paid attention.

“I don’t know.” Cheng Ran was a little confused: “I will ask his name next time I see him.” Although he never forgot anything, when it came to memorizing, he had to do so deliberately.
But before, he was eager to answer the questions quickly so that he could go home with Shi Qingyang, so he didn’t pay attention at all.

“Forget it if you don’t remember.
How much time would it take to remember him?” Shi Qingyang smiled.

“In fact, it doesn’t take much effort…” Cheng Ran laughed, his two dimples showing.

“You just have to remember me,” Shi Qingyang whispered.
Sure enough, Cheng Ran’s ears turned red.

In the past, Cheng Ran would have nodded his head in agreement seriously when he heard this, but now… After knowing more, Cheng Ran had learned to be shy.

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Although this situation had greatly reduced how many times Cheng Ran threw himself into his arms, it had also increased the subtle sense of interest.

“I… what place did I get in the exam?” Cheng Ran changed the subject.

“What place do you think? First, of course.” Shi Qingyang laughed.

“Would there be two firsts? Must be one first place, and one last place.” Cheng Ran smiled.
He didn’t participate in combat, so in this category he was last every time.

“Well, let’s go to Grandpa Gu.
He said he would cook delicious food for us.” Shi Qingyang didn’t want to continue this topic.
Cheng Ran didn’t care about his lack of radiant energy, but Shi Qingyang always felt a little sorry.

Shi Qingyang drove to school.
When they got home, they saw that Gu Changjin had already cooked a table of food.

Gu Changjin had to keep an eye on Cheng Ran before.
He was always worried about things, and was naturally not very happy.
But now Cheng Hong hadn’t contacted him for nearly a year, which made him a lot more at ease.
When he contacted his niece and asked her to move to another city, the stone in his heart fell to the ground.

As a result, he, who would usually cook when he was depressed, had actually begun to study cuisine.

However, the meal at this table was interrupted before much food was eaten.
Cheng Ran received a communication from Cheng Xuze.

“Xiao Ran, will you come back for dinner this New Year?”

“Grandpa, I have something to do, so I won’t go back,” Cheng Ran said directly.
He didn’t want to go to the Cheng’s house for the new year.

“That’s alright.
Grandpa will send you something and give you a big red envelope.” Cheng Xuze had planned to give Cheng Ran some extra money, because he was sure Cheng Hong wouldn’t be giving a single dime.

Although Cheng Ran’s current status was awkward, Cheng Xuze liked this grandson very much.

“Thank you, Grandpa.
I also prepared a gift for you.
I’ll send it tomorrow,” Cheng Ran also said.

“Good.
Such a good child.” Cheng Xuze laughed and was about to say something else, but suddenly there was a startling cry behind him.

“Grandpa, what’s going on?” Cheng Ran asked.
At the same time, Cheng Xuze turned his head and asked, “What’s the matter?”

“Grandpa, Grandpa, my dad, he broke through!” Cheng Sisi suddenly rushed in from outside.

Cheng Hui, had a breakthrough?