Chapter 298 - 175: A Little Interlude
The door clicked shut softly behind her, cutting off Shen Yuan’s gaze.
Li Zhi leaned back against the cool surface of the door and let out a long sigh.
Hearing the sound, Xu Chan, who was in the kitchen preparing dinner, poked her head out.
"Zhizhi, you’re back."
"Yeah! I-I’m going to my room."
The words had barely left her mouth before Li Zhi scurried back to her room.
Li Zhi didn’t even dare to mention taking a shower in front of her parents.
If she said she needed a shower right after coming back from Shen Yuan’s house, wouldn’t that just invite misunderstandings?
Li Zhi rushed back to her bedroom and shut the door, her heart hammering nervously in her chest.
The feeling of her sweat-damp clothes clinging to her skin became more and more distinct.
Li Zhi practically fled to the window to draw the curtains.
Then, her fingertips trembling slightly, she unzipped her school uniform.
Beads of sweat trickled down the nape of her neck, seeping into the cotton fabric. Right now, all she wanted was to wash away this sticky dampness of embarrassment and excitement.
As her fingertips hooked the hem of her undershirt, Li Zhi’s gaze unintentionally swept over her reflection in the mirror.
Her flushed, hot face was tinged a peachy color from the sweat, her lips slightly parted from her rapid breathing.
Suddenly, Shen Yuan’s words echoed in her mind: "You’re really beautiful."
Li Zhi spun around abruptly, as if trying to shake off the embarrassing thought, and walked quickly toward the adjoining bathroom.
Pushing open the door, Li Zhi stripped off her clothes and tossed them into the laundry hamper.
Li Zhi stepped into the shower.
Warm water poured down from the showerhead, falling like dense rain against her skin.
The pleasant warmth of the water eased her tense nerves. Steam began to fill the air, blurring the smooth tiled walls and her own faint reflection in the mirror.
Li Zhi closed her eyes and tilted her head back, letting the stream wash over her sweaty black hair, then meander down her neck and collarbone.
The sticky sweat and the faint flush from her rising body temperature gradually faded away under the gushing water.
Her body, which had been tense the whole way home, finally softened under the water’s caress. Tiny droplets danced on her shoulders and arms.
They eventually merged into small streams, gliding over the youthful, slender curve of her waist and long legs before disappearing down the shower floor.
The water enveloped her tense body, slowly easing her out of her earlier nervousness.
...
Shen Yuan watched Li Zhi return to her house before slowly closing his own door.
The room fell silent in an instant. The previous excitement and noise felt like nothing more than a hallucination.
Shen Yuan turned and went back to his room. As he pushed open the door, his gaze fell involuntarily upon his bed.
The bed, which had been neatly made before, was now a complete mess.
The comforter was thrown back at a large angle, crumpled into a heap on one side—the exact trace left when Li Zhi had scrambled out from under it.
The once-neat pillow was also deeply indented from their pillow fight.
The sheets were covered in wrinkles, outlining the traces of where the girl had been just moments before.
The air seemed to be filled with her familiar, faint, sweet scent, mixed with that clean fragrance unique to a young woman, warmed by her body heat.
Wisps of this scent clung to the bedding, which still held her body heat.
Shen Yuan’s gaze slid from the turned-up corner of the comforter, over the indented pillow, and finally settled on the deep wrinkles in the sheet.
The messy scene was like a silent film, clearly replaying everything that had just happened between them.
The silence in the room felt infinitely amplified, leaving only the sound of his own breathing. The tangled emotions in his heart were stirred up all over again by the messy scene.
Shen Yuan’s fingers curled unconsciously, as if he could still feel the force of his arms wrapped around her body through the comforter.
Staring at the mess on the bed, his heartbeat once again quickened uncontrollably.
He sat down on the edge of the bed, his body sinking into the soft mattress. Shen Yuan’s fingertips brushed over the crumpled pile of the comforter.
A faint trace of the girl’s body heat still lingered in the fabric.
In that instant, Shen Yuan was jolted back to his senses. He snatched his hand back, his gaze darting away from the bed in a panic as a burning sense of shame washed over him.
"Damn it, Shen Yuan, are you a pervert?!"
Shen Yuan ran a hand through his hair in frustration. The feeling of shame spread through his chest like a vine.
He let out a heavy sigh and simply fell backward, his entire body sinking into the soft mattress.
The moment he lay down, his body pressed against the rumpled sheets, and the familiar wrinkles seemed to remind him of their earlier playful roughhousing.
The damn association only made him more frustrated. He closed his eyes, trying to shake off these distracting thoughts.
The next second, Shen Yuan took out his phone and sent Li Zhi a message, asking her to give him a call when she was about to eat dinner.
After the message sent successfully, Shen Yuan tossed his phone carelessly onto the bed, closed his eyes, and tried to fall asleep.
Soon, Shen Yuan’s breathing started to even out.
In a deep sleep, he unconsciously turned over, his arm naturally wrapping around the fluffy comforter.
Assuming a cuddling posture, he nestled into the bedding.
「The hands on the wall clock slipped silently past 4:30 PM.」
In the Li family’s living room, Old Li was placing the last dish on the dining table.
Li Zhi’s eyes glanced at the simple message from Shen Yuan on her phone screen, and her heart felt like it had been gently squeezed.
She bit her lower lip, her finger hovering over Shen Yuan’s name for a moment before she finally pressed the call button.
Shen Yuan was dragged from the edge of a deep dream by the persistent, insistent vibration of his phone.