Chapter 6: Childhood Pacts

Seeing Heqing’s eyes suddenly well up and turn red, she started dropping tears for no clear reason.

Lin Zheng Ran couldn’t resist tugging on her soft, chubby cheeks: “Why are you crying?! Aren’t you happy I’m not taking your stuff anymore? This way, you can eat more snacks every day!”

Heqing’s face hurt from the tugging, and she looked at Lin Zheng Ran with pleading eyes, mumbling, “But you used to take my things every day. Why not today?”

Lin Zheng Ran stopped and didn’t know what to say: “Do you have a problem? Have you gotten addicted to me bullying you?”

Heqing covered her face, still clutching the candy, and gazed at him with a pitiful expression.

Lin Zheng Ran grew tired of discussing the candy: “Didn’t you say you wanted your mom to sign you up for taekwondo? Did you sign up?”

She shook her head: “I haven’t said anything yet…”

“Don’t want to sign up anymore?”

“I do want to…”

Seeing Lin Zheng Ran about to scold her for not speaking up, she quickly waved her hands and explained: “It’s not that I don’t want to say. It’s just that Mom recently divorced Dad, and they’re both busy with that. I plan to tell her tonight.”

Lin Zheng Ran nodded approvingly: “That’s good. Though you’re hesitant on small things, you handle big ones pretty well.”

The kindergarten teacher was already calling students inside, so Lin Zheng Ran and Heqing walked in.

Heqing said: “Mainly, Mom and Dad haven’t slept together for a while. If they’re not happy together, it’s better they split up early.”

Lin Zheng Ran looked at her admiringly: “You’re talking a lot more comfortably now. It makes you sound smart.”

Heqing blushed and lowered her head, thinking the comment sounded odd.

The teacher called out from a distance: “Heqing, are you here?”

Before Lin Zheng Ran could respond out of habit, Heqing raised her hand first: “Teacher, I’m here!”

The teacher replied: “Okay, get in line and don’t run around.”

Lin Zheng Ran watched Heqing’s shy gesture with satisfaction, feeling his two months of effort had paid off.

During morning study, Lin Zheng Ran sat staring at Heqing, who blinked her cute eyes while holding onto her chair, wondering what he was up to.

Lin Zheng Ran said: “Heqing, do you want to stick with me forever?”

The System hadn’t specified how to form a contract, but he figured a sincere question and answer would do.

Heqing didn’t understand: “What do you mean by sticking with you forever…”

Then she overheard someone in class reading a book with cartoons of a bride and groom at a wedding, saying, ‘The two of them will be together forever.’

Heqing’s quick mind pieced it together, and her face flushed red instantly.

Sticking together forever meant getting married when they grew up, becoming bride and groom, and sleeping together.

Lin Zheng Ran didn’t know how to explain: “It’s nothing special. You can think of it however you want. Maybe as us being good friends…”

She turned back to Lin Zheng Ran and, before he finished, nodded slowly and whispered:

“Okay, I agree.”

Lin Zheng Ran thought she was straightforward and held out his hand: “Then let’s pinky swear! No backing out!”

Heqing extended her pinky and hooked it with his, repeating: “No backing out!”

[You successfully bound fate with Fairy He, poaching her from the sect. From now on, when Fairy He advances her cultivation, you’ll gain double the benefits. However, when she made the contract with you, it seems she developed other feelings.]

Forming the contract was simpler than expected, but what about those other feelings?

Lin Zheng Ran asked directly: “What are you thinking about me now?”

Heqing, still holding the pinky swear, looked confused and innocently replied: “What thoughts? I don’t have any. I’m just thinking about sticking with you from now on.”

Lin Zheng Ran pulled his hand back and placed a kindergarten book in front of her. As a time-traveler, he hadn’t thought of her that way at all: “Forget it. Think whatever you want. Let’s just read the book.”

“Hmm.”

By the end of the day, Lin Zheng Ran watched Heqing flip through the book seriously and checked the System’s cultivation progress bar.

He thought the progress bar hadn’t changed. Maybe for Heqing, reading didn’t count as cultivation?

After school, Heqing went to find her mom and said: “Mom, I want to sign up for a class.”

Aunt He, picking up her daughter, was genuinely surprised. Lately, during the divorce, her daughter had been quiet and withdrawn.

Now that the divorce was done, Heqing seemed to talk more, making Aunt He feel like the whole family was moving toward a fresh start.

She crouched down to meet her daughter’s eyes: “Sunny, what kind of class do you want? Something to learn elementary school stuff early?”

Heqing shook her head and pulled out a flyer from her pocket.

It was from the time Lin Zheng Ran had gone with her to the taekwondo gym to get it.

“No, it’s this one.”

Aunt He took the flyer and was even more shocked after reading the title. She glanced at her usually meek daughter and then at the cheerful kids on the flyer:

“Taekwondo?! You’re old enough to know what that’s about—people fighting each other. You want to learn that? Can you handle it? It’s easy to get hurt.”

Heqing nodded: “I can handle it. I’m not afraid of getting hurt.”

Aunt He laughed and, after thinking it over, stroked her daughter’s head: “They say kids grow up suddenly, and our Sunny has turned into such a big kid overnight. I don’t even know when you got so strong.”

She stood up and took her daughter’s hand: “Alright, Mom will take you to check it out now. If you really want to, I’ll sign you up and pay today.”

“Thank you, Mom!” Heqing grinned.

Soon after, Aunt He led her daughter to the children’s taekwondo gym in the nearby mall, where she watched the kids spar and felt a bit worried for her daughter.

But Heqing, seeing her peers looking so strong and brave, felt full of excitement inside.

Finally, with the taekwondo coach assuring safety, Heqing signed up and became a novice taekwondo practitioner.

And from the day she started practicing, Lin Zheng Ran noticed his cultivation progress bar finally began to rise.

[Fairy He has left the sect and wandered for months, finally finding her own path of cultivation. Her current level is Junior Martial Artist. As you’re bound to her fate, you automatically advance to Low-level Martial Artist, gaining two points in strength and one in spiritual energy.]

[Your total level is now eleven.]

So Heqing’s path to cultivation was through taekwondo? He could already picture her future…

Time flew by as the year-end approached, and snow fell earlier than usual.

The kindergarten went on winter break.

At the taekwondo gym entrance, Lin Zheng Ran stood in the spectator area, watching Heqing in her small uniform spar with others.

Her cute face paired with powerful kicks made for a strange sight.

He had to say, her talents were unexpected. This girl, once always bullied, was now shining in taekwondo.

In just over a month, she’d gone from getting beaten to defeating many boys.

She’d even become the recognized expert in the class.

Of course, at least half the credit went to Lin Zheng Ran, since he secretly taught her during free time.