Chapter 306 - 177: Li Zhi Buries Herself in the Quilt Again
The moment Shen Yuan opened the door, he saw a white furball wriggle out from under his covers.
Shen Yuan reached out and turned on the room light.
The light instantly dispelled the shadows in the room, illuminating the mess even more clearly, but the harsh glare did nothing to dispel the ripples in his heart.
"Meow~"
Hearing the kitten’s cry, Shen Yuan bent down and picked up San Geng.
"You smelly cat, did you miss me?"
Just as Shen Yuan was about to press his face against the cat, San Geng raised a hind paw and planted it on Shen Yuan’s face, refusing the human’s approach.
"Hey! You stinking cat!"
After dropping San Geng, Shen Yuan found Naonao by the covers and took a deep, long sniff.
’Such a cute little cat.’
Shen Yuan looked at Naonao in his hands, paused for a moment, and then said with conviction, "Still, your mom is cuter."
If San Geng and Naonao knew what Shen Yuan was thinking, they would probably ask if he was a freaking idiot.
How could you compare a kitten to Mom?
How could a kitten possibly be cuter than Mom?!
After horsing around with the cats for a while, Shen Yuan put them down and let them run free.
Watching the two kittens frolic around the room, Shen Yuan couldn’t help but feel a sense of quietude.
’What was that saying again?’
’Oh, right. The party is all theirs, and I have nothing.’
Shen Yuan’s hand fell upon the covers.
He stroked the collapsed vortex in the bedding where she had lain. After a long moment, Shen Yuan let out a soft sigh.
The melancholy in his chest, not heavy but exceptionally clear, was like a pebble dropped into a quiet lake.
The spreading ripples diffused silently, echoing in the suddenly quiet bedroom.
Shen Yuan shook his head. ’What am I thinking? Time for a shower.’
With that, Shen Yuan stood up and walked toward the bathroom.
At the exact same moment Shen Yuan gently closed his door, Li Zhi leaned her back against the cool metal of her own front door and let out a long sigh, the surging heat in her chest finally finding a small escape.
"You’re back? What took you so long today?" Xu Chan poked her head out from the living room and asked with concern.
"Ah... ahem! It’s Sunday. We had to change seats after evening study hall."
Li Zhi answered quickly, her voice perfectly calm.
Xu Chan nodded, seeming to believe her daughter’s words.
"Um, I’m going to go to my room now."
With that, Li Zhi scurried back to her bedroom.
As the lock clicked shut, Li Zhi felt a profound sense of relief.
Beneath the warm white light, everything on her desk, bookshelf, and bed was neat and orderly.
And yet, at this moment, the young woman’s fluttering heart could not be calmed.
Li Zhi sat down at her desk. Her fingertips still tingled with the feeling and warmth of Shen Yuan’s tight grip, as if the heat from his palm had yet to completely fade.
Li Zhi glanced at the time.
10:12 PM.
She was getting home later and later.
—They had, after all, lingered for a while walking through the residential complex.
And because of that walk, they had nearly lost track of time again.
The beautiful young woman let out a long sigh, a soft huff escaping her nose. "It’s all that bastard Shen Yuan’s fault! I can’t let him get his way next time."
As the words faded, Li Zhi raised her hand and removed the hairpin from her hair.
Under the light, its pearlescent glow resembled a frozen moon halo.
She examined it closely, her fingertips gently caressing the cool metal base and the smooth pearl.
In the solitude of her room, her usual tsundere shell quietly peeled away, revealing the softest, most genuine side of her.
The corners of the young woman’s lips, no longer forced into a cool, indifferent line, unconsciously curved into a tiny, yet incredibly sweet, smile.
Li Zhi lowered her head slightly, her gaze fixed with concentration on the hairpin in her palm, as if she could glimpse Shen Yuan’s smiling face within its pearly luster.
But the very instant Shen Yuan’s smiling face appeared in her mind’s eye, her tsundere shell snapped right back on.
"Hmph! You idiot Shen Yuan! Don’t think I’ll be nice to you just because you gave me a hairpin!"
Li Zhi opened the hairpin’s box and gently placed it back inside.
After closing the lid, Li Zhi picked up the test paper spread out on her desk, took a deep breath, and tried to pull her focus back to the questions before her.
Soon, it was time for bed.
Li Zhi lay under her covers. The familiar softness and texture, which she was usually accustomed to, now inexplicably made it hard to fall asleep.
In the darkness, the young woman turned over, tilting her head to one side and curling her legs up, but the faint sense of discomfort did not disappear.
’It’s like... something’s not right.’
Li Zhi rolled over again, this time with a larger movement that rustled the quilt.
’Still not comfortable.’
’This blanket... why isn’t it at all like... that blanket?’
’What’s the problem?’
A strange frustration intertwined with an indescribable feeling.
Finally, after another failed attempt to get comfortable, Li Zhi, as if in a fit of pique, suddenly yanked the edge of the blanket upward.
The young woman buried her head and shoulders under the covers.
Just like... just like how she had wrapped herself into a small cocoon on Shen Yuan’s bed.
Feeling the covers envelop her completely, Li Zhi finally felt a little more comfortable.
As her heart calmed, Li Zhi’s thoughts once again drifted to the hug she and Shen Yuan had shared through the blanket.
The tips of her ears quickly turned red, and Li Zhi buried her head even deeper.
But this feeling also brought a special kind of comfort.
Enveloped in this sensation, the young woman gradually drifted off to sleep under the covers.
On the other side of the wall, Shen Yuan wasn’t sleeping well either.
"Ah Xi..."
Shen Yuan had also tried several sleeping positions in the dark.
Whether lying on his back or on his side, the area of the bed beneath him—the very spot that had held their playful antics, imprinted with the warmth and delicate scent she left behind—now seemed to possess a stubborn gravity, tugging at his senses.
That feeling of having been distinctly filled, only to be suddenly left empty, was infinitely magnified in the dead silence of the night.
Shen Yuan tossed and turned in frustration, the blanket becoming more and more tangled.
His consciousness was torn between drowsiness and a whirlwind of memories.
Just as he turned onto his side again in frustration, about to bury his entire head in the pillow, his movement suddenly froze.
Almost without thinking, his arm fumbled in the darkness, pulling the fluffy, soft blanket closer and precisely wrapping around a large corner of it.
Then, as if following some latent instinct, he buried his face deep into the folds of the fabric.
His body curled up in an extremely clingy posture, nestling into the soft embrace constructed by the blanket.
This was no longer an unconscious embrace in a dream, but a clumsy imitation and stubborn attempt to hold onto the tenderness he had briefly possessed now that he was awake.
The familiar posture returned, bringing with it a strange sense of comfort that slightly eased the restless, stuffy feeling in his chest.
Although the young woman’s warmth was long gone from the blanket, it felt as though just by wrapping it tightly in this position, he could find a sense of peace and drift into a deep sleep.
Shen Yuan rested his head on the cool bedding and took a deep breath, as if he could still catch a faint, almost-vanished trace of her delicate scent.
"Whatever, if I’m a pervert, I’m a pervert..."
He closed his eyes as if accepting his fate, his arms hugging the bundle of blankets even tighter.
After Shen Yuan fell asleep, San Geng and Naonao leaped softly onto the bed.
After sniffing around for a moment, the two little ones lay down in a spot near the blanket.
Sensing the familiar scent, the two kittens began licking their fur on the bed, a soft purring sound rumbling in their throats.