Chapter 544: Does Kissing the Corner of the Mouth Count as a First Kiss?
The terrifying image from just a moment ago seemed to fade away amidst their childish, intimate roughhousing.
The last embers of awkwardness hanging in the air were completely scattered and extinguished by the sudden pillow fight.
After a while, the girl seemed to have tired herself out. Her breathing was a little ragged, and beads of sweat dampened a few strands of hair at her temples.
She looked at the boy before her, who still had a silly grin on his face, wrinkled her nose, and let out a short “Hmph!”
With a sudden, forceful swing of her arm—
SMACK!
The soft, fluffy down pillow landed squarely and precisely on Shen Yuan’s head!
It instantly “drowned” him in a sea of softness.
Shen Yuan’s vision went black as his nose was instantly filled with the faint, dusty scent characteristic of down and fabric.
Almost immediately, Shen Yuan raised his hands and ripped the pillow off his face.
His vision refocused, and the first thing he did was frantically scan in Li Zhi’s direction.
She was just a few steps away.
Li Zhi had already straightened up, no longer in the aggressive posture she had while whacking him with the pillow.
A few messy strands of hair clung to her slightly flushed cheeks. Her eyes, which had just been twinkling with a mischievous smile, were now veiled with a calm, watery sheen, clearly reflecting his image.
The girl’s beautiful eyes were fixed on him, and she pressed her lips together slightly.
“Li Bao?” Shen Yuan looked at her, a hint of confusion in his voice.
“I’m going home.”
Li Zhi’s voice was soft, like a feather landing on a still lake.
For a moment, the air in the room seemed to freeze.
Shen Yuan blurted out almost instinctively, “Going home so early?”
His gaze followed her intently, his body leaning forward slightly without him realizing it. His fingers unconsciously tightened on the hem of his sweater.
“It’s… it’s only a little after nine, isn’t it?”
Li Zhi met his confused gaze, and the blush that had just started to fade from her cheeks threatened to flare up again.
She quickly lowered her lashes, avoiding his burning stare. The tips of her small ears glowed faintly red under the light.
“What do you mean, early?!”
She averted her gaze, her eyes drifting to the closed bedroom door, then quickly sweeping over the messy bed where they had just “tumbled” into a heap, before finally looking away as if she’d been burned.
The beautiful girl tilted her small chin up slightly and let out a clear huff of disdain. “Besides…”
Her voice softened, as if she were talking to him, yet also muttering to herself, but it was still clear enough for Shen Yuan to hear. “It’s too dangerous here!”
Shen Yuan scratched his head.
“Alright then… should I walk you home?”
Before he could finish, the boy was already pushing himself up on the mattress to get up. The movement made the mattress springs groan under the strain.
But at that moment, Li Zhi’s voice suddenly shot up an octave.
“No, no, no! You just stay right there! I can go by myself!”
Without waiting for Shen Yuan’s reply, Li Zhi grabbed her down jacket and bolted for the door without looking back. The sound of her slippers slapping against the floor mingled with the feigned fierceness in her voice.
“You’re dead meat if you dare follow me!”
SLAM!
The door shut behind her with a hurried, crisp sound that seemed to strike a chord in Shen Yuan’s heart.
Footsteps quickly faded away outside the door, disappearing in the direction of the entryway.
The room suddenly fell silent, leaving only the messy aftermath of the intense pillow fight and the sweet scent of peaches still lingering in the air.
Shen Yuan remained frozen by the side of the bed, still in the posture of getting up.
From outside, he faintly heard the thud of the main door opening and then closing again.
This time, she was really gone.
He slowly exhaled and fell backward, crashing onto the soft bed.
The playful, dazed look on his face faded, replaced by a more turbulent silence.
In his mind’s eye, he could still see her face before she fled in a panic—a mixture of embarrassment and feigned ferocity.
He also remembered the momentary softness and warmth when she straddled him, and… the look in her eyes afterward, filled with shock and mortification.
The shocking image and the subtle provocation of the word “dangerous” hit him a hundred times harder than the pillow to his face.
Of course, what lingered in Shen Yuan’s mind even more was the light kiss she had placed on the corner of his lips.
Shen Yuan raised his hand, the pad of his finger gently touching the corner of his own mouth.
A mix of sweetness and longing surged silently in his chest.
“Heh…”
Shen Yuan’s voice held a helpless chuckle, but also a palpitation far stronger than before.
“…Running away so fast.”
“Let’s see you run once the scores are out!”
Li Zhi practically fled through the hallway between their two apartments. With trembling fingers, she fumbled for her keys, unlocked her front door with a CLICK, and stumbled into her room without even bothering to change her shoes properly.
SLAM!
The heavy bedroom door shut tight behind her, completely blocking out the faint light from the entryway.
The room was pitch black, save for the faint glow of the city at night filtering through a gap in the curtains.
The girl’s chest heaved violently. Her earlier panting was now infinitely amplified in the silence, and an inextinguishable heat lingered on her scorching cheeks.
The spot on her neck where Shen Yuan had branded her with a kiss still seemed to tingle with a soft touch. With every rustle of her clothes, she could almost feel the heat from his arms wrapped tightly around her waist.
And then there was the unforgettable, clearly seen outline burned into her mind…
But that wasn’t the worst of it.
Li Zhi’s fingertips unconsciously traced her own lips.
The kiss she had just planted on the corner of his mouth was now replaying clearly in the calm that followed her panic.
‘Why in the world did I just press my lips there like I was possessed?’
‘And… on *that* spot?’
A wave of belated shyness mixed with a subtle regret washed over her, making her want to groan out loud.
Instead of cooling down, the heat in her cheeks burned even hotter.
‘Stupid Li Zhi! You idiot! Are you insane? That was his mouth! His mouth!!’
The girl screamed at herself internally, her fingers tightly clenching the hem of her clothes.
‘Didn’t I promise to only kiss his cheek? Didn’t we agree I’d wait until he got the score before…’
‘How could I…’
‘How could I not hold back?!’
‘Whatever!’
‘It’s all that idiot Shen Yuan’s fault!’
…
‘Li Zhi! You’re an idiot too! If you were going to kiss him, you should’ve just gone for it! Why did you have to kiss the corner of his mouth?!’
‘Then again… does kissing the corner of the mouth count as a first kiss?’
The thought suddenly flashed through Li Zhi’s mind.
“It probably… doesn’t count, right?”
“There wasn’t even any tongue.”