I feel like your heart is racing.

Tang Yi watched the live stream of the match from start to finish. Once it ended, Ralts wore a rather solemn expression.

"This is so difficult," the girl said with worry.

During the match, Fletchinder had displayed astonishing speed and offensive power. Its overall strength was visibly much higher than that of Ralts.

In fact, Tang Yi had also noticed that among the thirty-two contestants, quite a few already possessed Pokémon in their evolved forms, such as Wang Yamang and her Kirlia, as well as the Fletchinder belonging to his next opponent.

Evolution naturally brought a small, leap-like increase in overall strength, further widening the power gap.

Tang Yi felt rather helpless. In her first match, Ralts hadn't actually revealed all her trump cards and had still kept a few moves hidden, but facing the Fletchinder in the video, things would probably become difficult.

The opponent possessed the ability to fly, and a superior one at that, which meant the flying-type trump cards Ralts had held back would become entirely meaningless.

"If only I could evolve," Ralts sighed with regret.

Over the past month, Ralts had muttered similar things on more than one occasion.

The girl wanted to evolve.

Tang Yi comforted her, "Evolution is something that happens naturally when the conditions are ripe. You don't need to rush."

Ever since learning that set of Pokémon massage techniques, Tang Yi had persisted in giving Ralts a massage every day. However, he himself had no clear idea of what stage they had reached, or whether they had hit the bottleneck where evolution was possible.

"If I could evolve, maybe I could advance in the tournament," Ralts knew very well that facing an evolved Fletchinder, she held virtually no advantages to speak of.

"Perhaps we could ask Wang Yamang," Tang Yi thought of that girl, though he didn't hold out much hope. After all, the two of them weren't very familiar with each other, and even if they might not meet in the tournament, they were still opponents.

Without hesitating, Tang Yi took out his phone and sent a WeChat message to Wang Yamang.

Guessing that the other party was likely still in the training room, he didn't expect an immediate reply. Instead, he continued watching the recorded footage with Ralts and chatted about the match the day after tomorrow.

Twenty minutes later, a reply arrived on WeChat.

Wang Yamang: *Kirlia's evolution? Actually, my Kirlia only finished evolving a while ago as well.*

Tang Yi: *Could you share the specifics of how it happened? If it's inconvenient, never mind haha.*

Wang Yamang: *[Smiling Face.JPG]* *It's fine! After all, we're both trainers of Ralts. To be honest, I can't really explain the evolution aspect either. Before it happened, I was also troubled about how to trigger it, and even signed Ralts up for an evolution training class, but it was all to no avail.*

At the time, even Wang Yamang herself had given up on the idea of evolution. Yet, who would have thought that around dusk half a month ago, while she and Kirlia were out for a stroll, it suddenly evolved all on its own.

After showing the chat with Wang Yamang to Ralts, the two of them looked at each other in dismay.

"So should we go out for a walk too?" Ralts asked hesitantly.

Tang Yi smiled and said, "Sure, let's go out and get some fresh air."

They had watched enough of the match recordings, and sitting around in the hotel overthinking things wouldn't help anyway.

After tidying up, the two of them soon headed out.

The Department of Education didn't place many restrictions on students' movements during non-match periods, though going out still required notifying the staff in charge.

"Should we call Butterfree and Feebas along?" Ralts asked suddenly not long after leaving the hotel.

"Why bring lightbulbs along?"

"Heehee, they aren't lightbulbs at all. I can feel that Feebas really wants to have friends."

"Once she gets used to things at the shelter, she will," Tang Yi thought of the misunderstanding regarding Feebas, but he didn't mention it to Ralts.

Ralts hesitated for a moment. "Actually, I used to think... what if we adopted Feebas?"

Tang Yi wasn't surprised and smiled. "I guessed as much. So, what about now?"

"I feel a bit reluctant again."

"Reluctant to part with Feebas?"

"Reluctant to part with you. Once you have other Pokémon, it feels like I won't be the only one anymore." Ralts tried her best to conceal the strange tone in her voice.

Tang Yi paused. Although he wasn't qualified to own a second Pokémon yet, Ralts's words were still the truth.

If the goal was competing in tournaments, or even just pursuing academic research, owning more Pokémon was bound to happen sooner or later.

Tang Yi took a deep breath, and just as he was about to answer, Ralts suddenly turned her head and beamed with a smile.

"Actually, I know that having multiple Pokémon is normal. Sister Butterfree and the others get along very well too. So... so I occasionally think, if you're going to have other Pokémon sooner or later anyway, we might as well just adopt Feebas."

Tang Yi was dumbfounded. After a moment of silence, he asked, "Since when have you had this idea?"

He felt a bit self-reproachful for not noticing it at all.

"In the past, I often thought about it."

"Have you mentioned this to anyone else?"

"No, I haven't."

Tang Yi let out a breath. "That's good. Don't bring this up again. Even if you're my only Pokémon, I think that's completely acceptable."

In the past, Tang Yi might not have said something like this, but now, he meant it quite sincerely.

Ralts chuckled softly. "Then what about future matches?"

"If worst comes to worst, we just won't participate."

"How can you say that? This is your dream." Ralts still remembered the story Tang Yi had told her about a dream of someone named Red.

Tang Yi's words hitched, which was precisely why he was feeling conflicted.

Looking at the trainer beside her, Ralts softened her tone. "I'm very glad that you can help me realize our dream of buying a big house through your hard work. Therefore, I also want to help you fulfill your dream."

After a brief pause, Ralts suddenly took the initiative to hold Tang Yi's hand, and said with a quirky expression, "Besides, I can sense that you're actually a bit tempted by my suggestion."

Huh?

Tang Yi gave a dry cough. "This is a man's—ah bah, a trainer's instinct, it doesn't count."

"Anyway, even if we wanted to adopt Feebas, there are two problems. First of all, I'm not qualified to own another one, and second, Feebas herself might not necessarily agree."

Ralts sighed. "That's true. I checked it up later, and it really doesn't seem possible."

Tang Yi smiled and rubbed the girl's hair. "So, stop thinking about this matter."

Tang Yi turned his hand over to hold Ralts's hand instead, gently stroked it, and continued.

"Don't put pressure on yourself. Compared to the matches, what I care about is you."

"Mhm, I know." A faint warmth crept onto Ralts's face.

Tang Yi gave a wry smile. While he said that, Ralts's pressure wouldn't simply vanish because of a couple of sentences from him.

The fact that Ralts was talking to him like this out of character today was actually a reflection of that pressure.

Tang Yi could even guess the words Ralts had left unsaid: if she couldn't evolve, then if he had other Pokémon, he could send them into battle instead.

Only reaching the top eight would grant extra points.

The match against Fletchinder on Wednesday thus appeared crucial.

However, this was yet another extremely difficult match to win—even harder than the one this morning.

At least for now, that was how it looked.