Chapter 429 - 210: Shen Yuan Decides to Confess on New Year’s Eve
Chapter 429: Chapter 210: Shen Yuan Decides to Confess on New Year’s Eve
Jarred by Ah Jie’s sudden shout, an intensely helpless expression flashed across Shen Yuan’s face.
He sucked in a sharp breath, turning to bare his teeth at the disruptive Ah Jie, his face practically overflowing with disgust and an unspoken accusation that he had just ruined a perfect moment.
"Who asked you to buy it! Get lost!"
This almost-furious retort was laced with thick annoyance, but more than that, a sense of helplessness at having a sweet moment interrupted.
Li Zhi, whose hand was still held tightly by Shen Yuan, naturally heard this as well.
The young woman’s eyelashes, which had been lowered in shyness, lifted slightly. Shen Yuan’s frustrated and bristling expression came clearly into view.
The fluster and bashfulness ignited by his gaze moments ago now seemed to find an escape, mostly washed away by this sudden comedic interruption.
Li Zhi seized the opportunity to quickly snatch back the hand Shen Yuan had been secretly holding, hiding it under the table.
Her cheeks, which had been scorching and crimson just now, were still flushed, but she had forcefully suppressed her feeling of utter fluster.
The young woman quickly turned her face away, leaving him with only the sight of a slightly puffed-out cheek and a soft huff that held a hint of a smile.
"Dumbass..."
This customary, disdainful curse was like a switch, declaring that the barrier of that enchanting, ambiguous atmosphere from before had been completely shattered.
The air began to move again, and the lively clamor of a meal among young people seemed to flood back in.
Shen Yuan looked at Li Zhi’s deliberately composed profile, then shot a glare at Ah Jie, silently mouthing the words, ’You just wait.’ In the end, he could only rub his nose in defeat.
That little budding idea of wanting to continue had been forcibly nipped in the bud.
He Zhiyu clutched her chest, lamenting Ah Jie’s interference and the lost opportunity to witness the super-sweet interaction up close. But at the same time, she was immensely satisfied by Li Zhi’s vivid and proud reaction after her successful "escape." The little stars in her eyes began to sparkle again.
Shen Yuan’s gaze refocused on Li Zhi’s hand, which was protectively hovering over her ice cream. But his eyes soon shifted, and his attention fell upon the hot pot in front of him and the system’s task.
’A confession?’
The task the system had thrown at him at this critical juncture was like dropping another giant boulder into the already churning lake of his heart.
’Express my feelings to Li Zhi?’
’It seems my 35-year-old self also reached this point.’
’Or rather, because of that night when he didn’t leave, the time had come to sound the charge and lay his heart bare.’
’Li Zhi has already gone that far for you. If you’re still going to be all wishy-washy, you’re not even a real man.’
’It still comes down to the same thing.’
’Shen Yuan, you fucking deserve to die!’
He was referring to that 35-year-old Zhongdeng.
Shen Yuan clicked his tongue internally, but his thoughts had already begun to drift.
’How should I confess? When should I confess? Where should I confess?’
’Should I meticulously plan a grand, ceremonial confession, or just say it as naturally as I took her hand, amidst the gentle flow of daily life?’
The system said the reward would "depend on the confession process." The ambiguous words were full of temptation—perhaps it would be a powerful new skill, or maybe some kind of unexpected gift.
But in the next second, Shen Yuan’s mind flashed back to the words Li Zhi had said to him on the steps of Faxi Temple.
That line of thought about the system’s reward was like a pebble tossed into the ocean; it stirred a single ripple before sinking without a trace.
’To hell with the task reward!’
Shen Yuan almost violently cut off that line of calculation.
’The reward and all that has only ever been a side bonus.’
All this time, he had been desperately using Concentration, enduring the mentally draining fatigue, all to close the distance on his 650-point promise with Li Zhi.
It was so he could stand beside her, proud and deserving, so he could see approval and satisfaction in her eyes—not for some extra benefit the system might bestow.
The appearance of the system’s confession task had merely, by coincidence, poked through the thin paper window he himself was about to break.
It had stamped the name "task" onto something his heart had already been set on, something he had already yearned for.
The core of this task was, in essence, his own most intense impulse.
It was just a reminder that it was time to take that step.
And the true reward for confessing had only ever been one thing.
Li Zhi nodding and saying yes.
It was getting her affirmative response, it was every dawn and dusk of a long future together, it was being able to always hold those hands he cherished so much—not some external object from the system.
The young woman sitting beside him right now—the one who would blush for him, glare at him, and subtly defend him when others teased—she was the only treasure he was striving with all his might to pursue and protect.
Confessing to her was the inevitable result of his overflowing emotions, the pinnacle of his heart’s desires. Its meaning alone had long since surpassed any additional gift.
’So, the reward depends on the process?’
’Then I’ll just let it happen naturally.’
’The outcome of the confession itself is the greatest, and the only, reward.’
’But then again...’
’Why am I so nervous?’
’Just imagining the scene is making me nervous!’
—Everything around him would seem to have its sound stripped away, leaving only the thunderous drumming of his own heart in his ears.
Looking into Li Zhi’s eyes, his Adam’s apple bobbing nervously, the words that had churned in his heart a thousand times over would finally break free of their shackles.
"Li Zhi, I..."
’And then what?’
Shen Yuan could even clearly foresee himself stumbling over his words or awkwardly freezing up at that moment.
And the most crucial part, the part that made his heart surge the most, was the image frozen in that brief, suspended moment of silence after she heard him out.
Her lips would be slightly parted. What kind of light would be in those eyes, which were usually filled with feigned anger or calm scrutiny?