Chapter 342 - 187: Do you want me to give you a little massage?
Seeing this, the girl quickly ran into the room, complaining to her kittens as she went.
"Genggeng, Naonao, your daddy is bullying me!"
Li Zhi’s clear voice echoed through the room. The moment her accusation rang out, Shen Yuan’s heart skipped a beat for no apparent reason.
The sudden, unexpected flutter made him freeze.
For a guy, being called that was a critical hit.
He could feel his cheeks growing warm against his will, and the muscles in his neck tightened.
The girl’s joke had effortlessly torn through a thin veil, revealing the blurry edges of some new expectation.
Shen Yuan stood at the bathroom door, watching the girl still pleading her case to the kittens, unable to suppress a smile.
However, just as Shen Yuan walked out of the bathroom smiling, Li Zhi, who had been bent over and complaining pitifully to her kittens, flinched almost instinctively.
She shot upright. Her eyes, which moments before had been full of mock grievance, instantly switched to alert mode. She stared fixedly at Shen Yuan without blinking, her body tensing slightly.
She struck a defensive pose that screamed, ’What do you think you’re doing? I’m warning you.’
Shen Yuan’s smile vanished.
Seeing the wariness that filled her eyes, Shen Yuan rolled his. "Go on, go play or something!"
With that, Shen Yuan went into the study, sat down, and prepared to start on the rest of his practice tests.
When she saw Shen Yuan enter the study, Li Zhi’s tense posture gradually relaxed.
Then, Li Zhi peeked her head around the study doorway. She watched as Shen Yuan really did sit down at the desk, spread out a practice test, and begin working.
The light from the window fell on his focused profile, outlining a sense of calm completely different from his playful demeanor moments ago.
Li Zhi pursed her lips, a prickle of curiosity tickling her like a kitten’s paw.
"Hey, Shen Yuan,"
her voice lilting softly with a probing tone, "why are you studying so hard today?"
Shen Yuan didn’t look up, his pen gliding across the paper, but the corner of his mouth curled up involuntarily.
After writing down an answer, Shen Yuan looked up at Li Zhi. He deliberately slowed his pace, his voice low and earnest, as if he were stating the obvious:
"To catch up to you, of course. Once I’ve caught up, shouldn’t we go register our marriage?"
Register their marriage.
Li Zhi’s eyes instantly flew wide.
The smile on her lips froze, replaced by a sudden wave of indignant embarrassment.
She shot to her feet, a hint of imperceptible panic mixed into her glare. "You... Who said anything about registering a marriage with you? You pervert!"
Seeing her all riled up, Shen Yuan laughed. "What? Backing out already? Hey, who was it that promised me, with their own lips, that if my total score surpassed yours, you’d grant me any one request?"
Li Zhi’s fingers tightened abruptly on the doorframe.
Shen Yuan’s gaze locked onto her suddenly pressed lips. His laughter mingled with the cats’ meows. "Or are you saying you’re planning to back out?"
Stung by his words, Li Zhi felt her cheeks flush again, but her pride and competitive spirit instantly overrode her embarrassment.
The girl snapped her spine straight, her chin lifting slightly as she tried to muster a look of disdainful defiance.
"Back out?! Who said I’m backing out!"
Her voice shot up, laced with forced certainty. "Shen Yuan, you listen to me—"
She jabbed a finger from across the doorway toward Shen Yuan at his desk. "You think you can catch up to me? Dream on! I, Li Zhi, won’t let you get your way that easily. Just you watch. In this lifetime, you can forget about ever catching up to me! Hmph!"
"Wanna bet?" Shen Yuan asked, grinning at Li Zhi.
"Bet my ass!"
Li Zhi snorted and strode into the study. "Bet, bet, bet!"
The girl jabbed a finger hard into Shen Yuan’s shoulder. "All you think about day in and day out is gambling instead of studying! Are you trying to get an earful?"
"Hey, hey, hey, I wasn’t the one who brought up betting in the first place!"
Hearing this, Li Zhi huffed at him again. "Get back to your work! It’s 12:30. Let’s just see how long it takes you to finish!"
With that, Li Zhi went to the bedroom, put the kittens in their cage, and then started on her own work.
Both of them were the type who could really focus on a task. Once they started their work, everything that had just happened was temporarily set aside.
Although Li Zhi might try to pressure Shen Yuan after she finished, the afternoon’s assignments were considerably easier than the morning’s.
A little after two o’clock, Shen Yuan set down his pen.
"Done!"
After a satisfying stretch, Shen Yuan turned to look at Li Zhi.
The girl was slumped over her desk, fast asleep.
Shen Yuan gazed at Li Zhi’s defenseless face as she slept, a mischievous smile involuntarily spreading across his lips.
The image of his own face, drawn on to look like a pig, flashed through his mind.
’Tsk, how the tables have turned...’ he thought, gingerly picking up the pen he had just been using.
A crafty glint flickered in his eyes. He leaned forward slightly, held his breath, and slowly, silently, lowered the tip of the pen toward Li Zhi’s fair, smooth cheek.
However, just as the cool tip of the pen was about to touch her skin, Shen Yuan’s hand froze.
The warm afternoon light spilled softly onto Li Zhi’s sleeping face, tracing the delicate, beautiful lines of her features.
Perhaps she was dreaming of something pleasant, as her long, thick eyelashes fluttered slightly, revealing a touch of childlike innocence.