Chapter 240: Chapter 156: Making Li Bao Cry
The inky-black darkness enveloped the entire room. Only a few wisps of ethereal blue moonlight seeped through the gaps around the curtains.
A RUSTLE of fabric suddenly broke the silence. Shen Yuan pushed himself up from the carpet on his elbows, fine fibers clinging to the tips of his slightly messy hair.
Li Zhi knew it was Shen Yuan getting up from the carpet.
"Huh? What’s this?"
Shen Yuan’s fingertips suddenly brushed against some kind of soft fabric.
"Hmm?"
Just as Li Zhi’s confused voice sounded out, she heard Shen Yuan patting a doll.
Li Zhi was quite familiar with that sound; after all, she kicked it often.
"Why’d you put the doll here?"
"Makes it easier to kick."
Her nonchalant answer made Shen Yuan freeze.
He turned his head toward the source of the voice, vaguely making out a silhouette deep in the shadows, swaying slightly, like a feline that had just retracted its claws.
The sound of his Adam’s apple bobbing was clearly audible. Shen Yuan’s hand, clutching the doll, suddenly tightened, and cotton stuffing squeezed out from the seams.
"Don’t tell me..."
Li Zhi knew exactly what Shen Yuan was about to say.
"Yep. I was imagining it was you when I kicked it."
Shen Yuan pursed his lips. "That’s pretty lame of you."
The last syllable of his words was still vibrating in the darkness when he felt a touch on his calf, neither too light nor too heavy.
Li Zhi’s voice, laced with feigned impatience, drifted from the shadows. "What? You’re the one who made me mad. Can’t I kick you a couple of times to blow off steam?"
Shen Yuan drew up the leg that had been kicked, a low chuckle escaping his throat. His fingertips unconsciously toyed with the doll’s cotton stuffing. "Alright, alright."
With that, he suddenly leaned forward. "Next time you want to kick something, just let me know. I’ll come over personally and let you kick me."
From the sound of his voice, he even seemed a little excited about it.
A rustle of fabric came from the darkness, followed by a cold scoff from Li Zhi.
"Hmph! Dream on!"
Before the sound of her voice faded, there was the soft scrape of silk stockings against the carpet, like the heart-stirring, gentle scratch of a cat retracting its claws.
But before Li Zhi could pull her leg back, Shen Yuan’s palm, still warm from the cotton stuffing, shot through the darkness and pressed down.
His fingers closed, perfectly encircling the most delicate curve of her arch. The cicada-wing-thin silk fabric rubbed against the crook of his thumb.
The sudden development startled Li Zhi.
In a panic, she instinctively tensed her toes and kicked out at his chest.
Shen Yuan wasn’t using much force, allowing her kick to land squarely on his chest. But just as her foot made impact, he pressed it back into place.
Her pearl-like, rounded toes sank into the hollow of his pectoral muscle through the thin fabric of his shirt.
"In such a hurry to leave your mark?"
His warm breath seeped through her stocking and onto the top of her foot, startling her toes into curling up like frightened clams. Yet her foot was still trapped in his searing palm. The helpless predicament sent a coral flush creeping up to the tips of her ears.
"Let go."
Li Zhi’s voice was low, the coral flush spreading from her ears to her neck.
Shen Yuan’s thumb suddenly pressed into the sole of her foot, grinding precisely against a sensitive spot through the paper-thin silk. The sensation made her voice tremble on the last word.
"Ah! That tickles!"
Sensing the way her toes tensed against him, a low chuckle rumbled in Shen Yuan’s chest. The vibration traveled from her foot all the way up her spine.
Shen Yuan’s voice cut through the darkness.
"I’ll give you two choices. I can let go now, and we can shake hands instead."
As he spoke, he deliberately loosened his grip, his fingertips gently grazing the sole of her foot.
The faint tickling made her hands grip the hem of her skirt even tighter.
Before Li Zhi could make a decision, Shen Yuan spoke again.
"Or perhaps..."
In the darkness, the heat of his palm devoured the curve of her arch inch by inch. He guided her foot firmly against his collarbone, until her toes rested just beside his throat.
"...you’d prefer I hold you like this?"
Li Zhi could clearly feel his throat bob as he swallowed.
In the darkness, it felt as if the lines of Shen Yuan’s palm were mapping every inch of her arch. The sensation of silk rubbing against skin was magnified to an impossible degree in the silence.
She tried to curl her pearl-like toes, but he just pressed their tips deeper into the hollow of his collarbone.
The top of her foot grew damp from his warm breath. She bit her lip, but she couldn’t suppress the trembling sound that escaped her throat.
Shen Yuan’s voice broke the silence again.
"If you choose to shake hands—"
Suddenly, he released his grip, his palm hovering half an inch above the top of her foot.
"You can escape now, you know."
Her breath caught in her throat as a humiliated flush instantly flooded her cheeks.
Li Zhi kicked out abruptly, but her foot landed right in Shen Yuan’s waiting palm.
"So you’d rather I hold your foot, huh."
As Shen Yuan’s amused voice rang out in the darkness, Li Zhi shot back.
"Pervert! Who—who asked you to hold it!"
Li Zhi tried to pull her foot back, but Shen Yuan had a firm grip on her ankle, and she couldn’t budge.
"Didn’t you put your own foot in my hand?"
"Who—who put their foot in your hand!"
Li Zhi denied it breathlessly, "I was trying to kick you!"
"That kick was so weak, it was more like you were throwing a damn fit."
Shen Yuan had just finished speaking when a muffled THUD sounded in the darkness.
The next second, a soft pillow smashed directly onto his head.
"Pervert! Selaan! Who the hell is throwing a fit?! You damn pervert!"
The pillow rained blows on Shen Yuan’s head, the soft THWACKS punctuated by her trembling, indignant shouts.
"Foot fetishist! You asshole, Shen Yuan! You stinking pervert!"
The coral flush had already crept past her collarbones to the corners of her eyes. Li Zhi swung the pillow wildly, raining blows on Shen Yuan in the dark.
"You just love to bully me! You just love to bully me! You just love to bully me!"
In the darkness, just as the soft pillow whistled through the air toward his head, Shen Yuan’s left hand, which had been hanging by his side, quietly snaked up and found her dangling right foot.
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