Chapter 393 - 203: A Surprise Inspection?
Chapter 393: Chapter 203: A Surprise Inspection?
At first, the quiet in the room was tinged with a faint awkwardness. It was an invisible haze that seemed to make the air more stagnant than elsewhere.
But as their minds settled on the problems before them, the initial tension they both felt gradually eased.
The tips of their pens touched the paper, creating a faint, rhythmic rustling.
Li Zhi’s straight back relaxed a fraction, but her fingertips still subconsciously gripped her pen tightly.
She took a soft breath, her gaze locking onto the first math problem. She worked to drive away all the heart-pounding words swirling in her mind—words like "hotel," "alone together," and "ambiguous"—and replace them with clear formulas and logical steps.
Beside her, Shen Yuan also let out a breath, as if a great weight had been lifted.
The awkwardness from his blurted-out comment about "1,000 yuan" and "a big place to do homework" finally dissipated.
He lowered his gaze, forcing himself to concentrate on the physics test in front of him.
Force analysis, electromagnetic induction—things that had once given him headaches—now unexpectedly served as a reliable anchor, steadily pulling his wandering thoughts back to the present.
He frowned and began to seriously read the problems and draw diagrams.
Silence still flowed through the room, but the previous sense of unnerving awkwardness had quietly faded away.
In its place was a quiet, focused peace.
The soft hum of the air conditioner, the rhythm of pen on paper, and the occasional rustle of a turning page formed a perfectly harmonious backdrop of sound.
Outside the window, the city lights began to glow, but within this space, time seemed to slow down, broken up and filled by the series of problems that needed to be solved.
While working, Li Zhi ran into a problem. She paused for a moment, pen in hand, an unconscious frown creasing her brow.
The instincts of a top student quickly replaced any lingering shyness.
Immersed in the world of problem-solving, her gaze grew sharp and focused. The faint blush on her cheeks, brought on by fatigue and nervousness, gradually subsided, smoothed over by cool-headed thought.
She lost herself in the calculation of formulas. The stiffness in her fingers vanished at some point, leaving only the fluid motion of her writing.
Shen Yuan was in a similar state.
Once he was truly engrossed in solving the problems, his thoughts became as fluid as the tip of his pen rustling across the paper.
He would occasionally scratch his head with the end of his pen, not out of awkwardness, but from either deep thought or a sudden moment of clarity.
Before their shared Concentration, that ambiguous atmosphere of intertwined nervousness and anticipation quietly melted away.
Now, every symbol on the test paper commanded his attention more directly than the rhythm of his own heartbeat.
The bright lamp in the room illuminated the desktop, and it also seemed to illuminate the pure and peaceful state of their minds.
At least, the state of mind they were in while studying.
Shen Yuan was more than halfway through his physics test. He was habitually chewing on his pen cap, his brow slightly furrowed over a difficult problem.
He stared at a problem about a complex electric field. Various formulas battled in his mind, and every approach he tried felt wrong.
In his peripheral vision, Li Zhi was bent over her work, her pen gliding smoothly across her math test, making a steady, rhythmic rustling sound.
Her immersion and confidence made Shen Yuan hesitate for a moment.
After a moment, however, he gently cleared his throat, breaking the tranquility that had been dedicated to pen and paper.
"Ahem..."
Shen Yuan’s voice wasn’t loud. It carried a hint of frustration from being stuck on a problem, as well as a touch of caution at having to disturb her.
Li Zhi, lost in her world of formulas, paused mid-stroke.
She looked up, gazing somewhat blankly in Shen Yuan’s direction. Her eyes still held the sharp glint of someone focused on a math problem, as if silently asking what he wanted.
Seeing that he had "fished" her out of a sea of problems, Shen Yuan quickly tapped his finger on his test paper and leaned slightly toward her.
"Li Bao... this problem... I’m stuck."
He tried to make his tone sound normal, but it carried a hint of a plea for help, the last word drawn out slightly longer than usual.
Taking the opportunity, he picked up his physics test and scratch paper, stood up, and quietly made his way around the coffee table to Li Zhi’s desk.
Shen Yuan placed the test on her desk, his fingertip pointing precisely to the problem that had been troubling him.
The blank look on Li Zhi’s face vanished, and her bright eyes quickly focused on the spot where Shen Yuan was pointing.
Her expression immediately shifted from slight annoyance at being interrupted to the focused scrutiny of someone facing a challenge.
Her habitual teaching posture emerged naturally.
The girl’s brow furrowed slightly, just as Shen Yuan’s had moments before.
She turned her head, glanced at Shen Yuan, and gestured for him to come closer. "Which step are you stuck on?"
Her tone had the familiar quality of a teacher quizzing a student.
But there was no impatience in it, and it clearly defined their shared goal for the moment.
To defeat the enemy on this physics test.
She pushed her own math test aside for the time being.
Shen Yuan took the cue and leaned over the desk, pointing to the chaotic calculations and symbols on his scratch paper. "Here," he said in a low voice. "Right here. You know how it is, in my head, electrons travel through Magic circuits."
Shen Yuan began to explain where his thinking had gone wrong.
In an instant, the atmosphere of quiet focus was replaced by one of a study session, yet it remained just as pure, confined to the realm of homework.
Li Zhi picked up her pen and tapped it on Shen Yuan’s scratch paper. "Magic circuits? You idiot, look here..."
Her voice was clear and calm. With a few words, the tip of her pen cut cleanly to the heart of the problem, shattering the mental maze Shen Yuan had gotten himself lost in.