Chapter 151: Chapter 123: Icy and Sweet, From Too Much Ice Cream
The little authors didn’t tag along today; it was just a simple meal, after all.
As they strolled out of the school gates, Shen Yuan let out a timely yawn.
"What’s wrong? Didn’t sleep well last night?"
Shen Yuan shook his head. "Yawning doesn’t necessarily mean you’re tired. The intense process of studying consumes a lot of energy in the nervous system, producing a large amount of carbon dioxide. When the carbon dioxide level in the blood is higher than normal, it stimulates the respiratory center, causing a deep breathing reflex—in other words, a yawn."
After listening, Li Zhi tilted her head. "Then why aren’t *I* tired?"
"Hey, hey, hey! Are you indirectly calling me stupid?!" Shen Yuan shot her a mock-offended look.
"Well, you’re not *that* stupid."
Shen Yuan blinked, feeling like he’d just been insulted again.
Walking down the street, the pair of Shen Yuan and Li Zhi naturally attracted a lot of attention.
Although it wasn’t uncommon to see boys and girls walking together, they were the only ones doing so in school uniforms.
Parents tend to be against things like school romances.
After all, the term "puppy love" can be the source of a whole series of problems.
The most serious of which is a drop in grades.
However, the uniforms Shen Yuan and Li Zhi wore also represented their academic achievements.
It’s not as if Jiyang Middle School didn’t have its share of poor students, but those parents should probably worry about their own children’s grades first.
Shen Yuan had already placed their order in advance. By the time they arrived at the restaurant, the food was already ready, with only the two ice cream sundaes waiting to be made upon their arrival.
Watching the employee place the freshly made ice cream sundaes on a tray, Li Zhi’s eyes instantly lit up.
Seeing the beautiful girl’s eager expression, Shen Yuan shook his head. "I see you really made a whole plate of dumplings just for the dipping sauce."
"You got a problem with that?" Li Zhi lifted her chin, taking the lead by picking up her spoon and starting on the ice cream sundae.
She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, then poked the tip of the plastic spoon into the swirl of cream at the top of the sundae, scooping up a bit of the chocolate-sauce-covered cream and bringing it to her lips.
The moment the sweet flavor hit her tongue, Li Zhi’s eyes narrowed in pleasure as her lashes fluttered. As her tongue darted out to lick a spot of white cream from the corner of her mouth, even the tip of her nose wrinkled slightly.
Li Zhi was focused on scooping up a second spoonful of ice cream dripping with chocolate sauce. Just as the sweet cream touched her tongue, a soft chuckle reached her ears.
She instinctively looked up, her gaze meeting Shen Yuan’s. He was resting his chin on his hand, his eyes fixed on her with a burning intensity.
The corner of the boy’s lips curled up slightly. His gaze traveled from her fingertips, red from the cold, up to the smudge of cream she hadn’t wiped from her lips, taking in every detail, even the way her eyelashes trembled from the chill.
"Have you stared enough?" Li Zhi’s knuckles whitened as she gripped the plastic spoon, the tips of her ears suddenly burning hot, but her tone was deliberately prickly.
"If you’re not going to eat your ice cream, I will."
Shen Yuan tilted his head and blinked, then dramatically imitated the way she had just narrowed her eyes in enjoyment. "A certain someone eats a sundae like she’s starring in a teen drama, and she won’t even allow the audience to comment?"
"Just say I’m being dramatic."
Shen Yuan didn’t answer, instead picking up a hamburger.
"I’m hungry. Time to eat."
"Hmph!"
Li Zhi snorted coldly, then went back to eating her ice cream.
As Shen Yuan ate, he glanced at Li Zhi, and a thought popped into his head.
’It must be from eating so much ice cream. That’s why she’s so cold, yet so sweet.’
Li Zhi knew Shen Yuan had a big appetite, but she never imagined it was *this* big.
"No, seriously, can you still eat more?"
Li Zhi stared in disbelief at Shen Yuan, who had already finished two hamburgers, an ice cream sundae, most of a cup of coke, and a pile of sides.
"What’s wrong with a young man having a big appetite?" Shen Yuan lifted his chin slightly.
Li Zhi shook her head. "If you’re still hungry, you can have the rest of this. I’m pretty much full."
Shen Yuan glanced at what Li Zhi had managed to eat and smiled faintly.
"Well, if we’re being honest, I only ate one more hamburger and a few more sides than you. You ate quite a bit yourself, Young Master Li."
"What’s wrong with a young woman having a big appetite?"
"Hey!"
They glared at each other for a moment, then simultaneously broke into laughter.
"Let’s go, let’s go. Time to head back for a nap. After our nap, the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday will be here."
Shen Yuan finished the rest of his Coke in one gulp, and then the two of them got up to head back to school.
"You should finish your homework before the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday starts."
"I think our school is completely inhumane. It’s a one-day holiday, and they’ve already assigned five test papers. What the hell, are they trying to give us a break or not? Even exams aren’t this back-to-back!"
Shen Yuan couldn’t help but complain.
"One at school before the break starts, one at home this afternoon after school, one tonight, and then one each for tomorrow morning, noon, and night. That’s probably how they’ve scheduled it for you."
Li Zhi let out a breath. "Looking at it that way, it really is inhumane."
"Right? Right? When they just dump a mountain of test papers on you, what’s the difference between having a holiday and not having one?" Shen Yuan seized the chance to drive his point home.
"You could just copy the homework."
"Hey! What kind of thing is that to say? I’ve been doing all my own homework lately, okay?"
Li Zhi said scornfully, "As if you didn’t use to copy your homework."
"The past is the past, and now is now. Can you stop bringing up old stuff all the time?"
Shen Yuan turned to look at Li Zhi and asked, "Didn’t you used to follow me around everywhere, yelling ’Shen Yuan’..."
Before Shen Yuan could finish, Li Zhi clamped a hand over his mouth.
"Shen! Yuan!" The girl squeezed the two words out through her teeth, the ends of her hair trembling along with her heaving shoulders.
"Do not bring up ancient history!"
The beautiful girl glared at Shen Yuan, but the end of her words betrayed a slight tremor, and a faint blush spread across her neck.
Shen Yuan nodded repeatedly, simultaneously raising both hands in surrender.
"Hmph!"
Seeing him act like this, Li Zhi finally let go, reassured.
The moment she let go, the warmth of his lips lingered on her palm. Li Zhi, feigning disgust, grabbed the collar of Shen Yuan’s school uniform and wiped her hand on it.
"So gross! Don’t you know how to wipe your mouth after eating?!"
Li Zhi’s hurried movements betrayed her inner panic.
The beautiful girl was desperate to move past this incident.
Shen Yuan watched Li Zhi’s faintly blushing face, a smile spreading across his own.
When Shen Yuan didn’t react, Li Zhi looked up, and the moment she did, her eyes met his smiling gaze.
The slight upward curve of the boy’s eyes seemed to be dipped in honey, his pupils reflecting her flustered expression. Even the faint warmth radiating from under his uniform seemed to travel up her fingertips and burn her.
She saw his Adam’s apple bob as a soft, airy chuckle escaped him, and instantly, she felt her neck flush with heat.
If He Zhiyu and Zhuo Peipei ever found out about this moment, they would definitely wail about missing such a golden opportunity!
This was practically a gift from the romance gods!
Why did we have to eat in the cafeteria!
Were we really that short on cash we couldn’t afford KFC?!
But regardless, it was too late to say any of this now.
"What are you looking at!"
The beautiful girl smacked Shen Yuan hard, the end of her voice trembling with tension, her eyelashes fluttering like a butterfly’s wings under his gaze.
Her feignedly fierce glare held no threat at all in Shen Yuan’s eyes.
As she spun around abruptly, the ends of her hair flew about her shoulders in disarray.
Li Zhi walked briskly toward the school gate, the pale pink tips of her ears glowing like amber in the afternoon sun.
The hem of her uniform rustled, forming small wrinkles with her hurried steps.
The beautiful girl’s slender neck was bowed, and a hint of crimson could still be seen through the wisps of hair on her nape. Her clenched fists crumpled the cuffs of her uniform into crescent-shaped creases.
Her shoes made a soft crunching sound as she stepped on fallen leaves, as if she were trying to crush the fluttering in her heart from their shared gaze underfoot.
Her ponytail swung frantically with the rhythm of her steps, its end tracing hasty arcs in the air. Even her shadow seemed to be tinged with a lingering heat.
Shen Yuan watched Li Zhi’s retreating figure, the smile on his lips gradually widening.
"And now she’s getting shy."
