Chapter 281 - 169: This Is How the Bottom Line Is Broken
"What are you doing?" Her voice was hushed, but held a sharp warning. "Just walk properly, and don’t get any funny ideas! This is a school!"
Her tone was a clear rejection, but the crimson tips of her ears betrayed her shyness.
Looking at Li Zhi, Shen Yuan knew that holding hands on campus was a non-starter for now.
Shen Yuan raised his hands in surrender. "My bad. I won’t do it again."
"Hmph! You’d better mean it!"
Li Zhi silently quickened her pace, leaving him with a view of her back.
Shen Yuan hurried to catch up. Gazing at the faint blush on her neck, he couldn’t help but smile.
But as he smiled at Li Zhi, Shen Yuan was completely unaware of just how fast his own heart was beating.
...
The long, drawn-out bell for the end of evening self-study rang, announcing a temporary end to the day’s learning.
After all, Shen Yuan still had to keep studying when he got home.
After packing his schoolbag and carefully stowing the exquisite gift box containing the pearl necklace and hair clip, Shen Yuan went to the back of the classroom to wait for Li Zhi.
The student on duty opened the classroom windows, and the evening breeze blew away the stuffy air that had accumulated in the school building all day.
Li Zhi organized her books, grabbed her bag, and walked toward Shen Yuan with light steps, her dark hair swaying gently on her shoulders.
"Let’s go." Shen Yuan naturally took her schoolbag, and the two of them walked side-by-side, merging into the stream of students heading home.
All around them were students heading home in groups of two and three, their laughter and the sound of colliding schoolbags rising and falling.
They had only walked a few steps from the school when Shen Yuan’s arm began to drift unconsciously toward Li Zhi’s side. His fingertips tentatively sliced through the air, drawing closer and closer to the back of her hand.
As if she had eyes on her hands, Li Zhi turned her head before Shen Yuan could even get close and asked warily, "What do you think you’re doing?"
The girl’s tone carried a warning.
"Ahem," Shen Yuan, caught red-handed, felt the tips of his ears grow hot, but he refused to back down. "Just... stretching my fingers. Is that a problem?"
"Don’t give me that." Li Zhi mercilessly called his bluff. "Shen Yuan, I’m telling you, don’t push your luck! You want..."
The beautiful girl swallowed the words "to hold hands" and continued, "Anyway, we’ll talk about it once we’re back in the neighborhood! Don’t even think about it out here! Don’t you dare cross the line!"
The beautiful girl quickened her pace for a few steps, her voice carried back to Shen Yuan’s ears on the evening wind.
"You greedy jerk!"
Watching Li Zhi’s retreating back, Shen Yuan just smiled and shook his head.
’"The line"? That sounds so serious.’
After catching up to her, Shen Yuan explained with a smile, "My fingers really were sore. I was doing problems for so long during self-study, of course I have to stretch them out."
A friendly smile suddenly appeared on Li Zhi’s face. "So, you want me to give them a stretch for you, is that right?"
"Well, that’s not entirely out of the question..." Shen Yuan said coyly.
"Get lost!"
"You got it."
After being rebuked by Li Zhi, Shen Yuan behaved himself for a while.
The two walked in silence, crossing the street and heading wordlessly toward their neighborhood.
As they passed a late-night snack stall, Shen Yuan was about to ask if she wanted to eat, but Li Zhi quickened her pace and walked right past without a backward glance.
It seemed the experience of being stuffed from yesterday’s meal still cast a bit of a shadow on the beautiful girl’s heart.
Without the late-night snack, there was no fragrant aroma of food, no lingering over cups and plates. The air held only the cool autumn night’s breeze and the sound of their footsteps.
BEEP. The neighborhood gate’s sensor recognized them, and the warm yellow ground lights of the complex spread out at their feet like a familiar river of stars.
The clamor of the outside world was shut out, and the world seemed to fall silent in an instant.
Without a word, the moment Shen Yuan’s feet were steady on the tree-shadowed path, his hand eagerly emerged from his pocket. It moved with a natural, undeniable certainty, accurately finding and clasping Li Zhi’s hand, which had just relaxed at her side.
Li Zhi’s fingers curled slightly, an instinctive retreat as if startled by his searing heat, but they relaxed and unfurled under the firm pressure of his grip.
On the night breeze, the girl let out a very soft sigh, a mixture of helplessness and a certain sense of inevitability.
"Selaan."
Shen Yuan didn’t reply, only held Li Zhi’s hand in silence.
The streetlights stretched their shadows long, and the silhouette of their tightly clasped hands swayed in the interplay of light and shadow, a silent declaration of the secret understanding that belonged only to these neighborhood nights.
This tacit understanding was broken the moment Li Zhi saw the time on her phone change to 10:05 PM.
"Crap! Go, go, go, we have to get back now."
They both quickened their pace almost simultaneously, Shen Yuan gripping Li Zhi’s hand tightly as they hurried toward her apartment building.
As they walked, Shen Yuan said, "I told my mom yesterday that I stayed after school to ask you for help with some problems. You can tell your parents the same thing today."
This discussion, legally speaking, would be called colluding on their stories.
Seeing Shen Yuan’s nervous expression, Li Zhi suddenly let out a snort of laughter.
"What are you laughing at?" Shen Yuan looked at Li Zhi in confusion.
She tilted her head slightly, a smile spreading from the corners of her pursed lips to the corners of her eyes. "It’s just funny. Coming home late two days in a row, with the exact same excuse. Don’t you think that’s funny?"
The beautiful girl blinked, her eyes shining with blatant amusement.
Almost the instant the words left Li Zhi’s mouth, Shen Yuan stopped short, using their momentum to pull her back to his side.
Shen Yuan raised their joined hands right into the space between them, where their gazes met.
"The excuse isn’t plausible?" The boy’s Adam’s apple bobbed. His voice was low, but the end of his sentence curled up with a hint of roguish impertinence.
"Then how about this—" He shook their interlocked hands, the streetlight casting their overlapping shadows on the ground, which trembled slightly with the motion. "We walk right into our homes holding hands and tell our families *this* is the reason we’re late?"
Hearing Shen Yuan’s words, Li Zhi’s pupils contracted, and her ears instantly began to burn.
She didn’t even have time to curse at him; her other hand had already shot up in a conditioned reflex, chopping down toward Shen Yuan’s arm with a WHOOSH.
"Are you crazy?!" the girl hissed through gritted teeth, but there was no real force behind the blow—and the hand he was holding hadn’t struggled in the slightest.
Shen Yuan took the light blow and just grinned in response.
He leaned in, closing in on her suddenly hot ear, and his whisper, wrapped in a scalding breath, crashed into her: "Scared now? Then you’d better cooperate and get our story straight!"