Chapter 565: Can I Kiss You Now?
“Hmph! Anyway, I’ll be staying at home for the next two days. If you’ve got the guts, try kissing me right under Old Li’s nose!”
Her heart was still pounding like a drum, but deep within that ineffable shyness and embarrassment, a secret spark of devil-may-care courage had quietly begun to sprout.
But Li Zhi soon realized she had miscalculated.
Sure, she was on break, but Old Li and Ms. Xu Chan weren’t!
By the same token, their next-door neighbors, Old Shen and Ms. Zhang Yuyan, weren’t on break either.
And by the time Li Zhi realized this, it was already the next morning.
Watching Old Li and her mom get ready to leave for work, Li Zhi was a little stunned for a moment.
Xu Chan looked at Li Zhi and said softly, “Zhizhi, you’ll have to make your own lunch at home. Oh, right, that Shen Yuan kid has to figure out lunch on his own too. Why don’t you…”
Seeing the teasing look in her mother’s eyes, a blush immediately bloomed on Li Zhi’s face.
“No way!”
Li Zhi huffed.
At that moment, the beautiful girl had already realized something.
Today was the 28th of the twelfth lunar month. Old Li and her mom wouldn’t be on break until tomorrow, which meant…
For the next two days, during the daytime, she and Shen Yuan would be the only ones on the 19A floor.
‘A miscalculation…’
‘Winter break has started, but the days of bustling family fun and being fed by my parents are still two days away!’
Right now, she and that moron, who was single-mindedly focused on “kissing,” would have to sort out this all-important lunch by themselves, wouldn’t they?
“That moron Shen Yuan…”
Li Zhi muttered to the empty living room, her tone a mix of annoyance that her plan had been foiled and a slight sense of helplessness.
The next second, as if by some telepathic connection, the phone in her pocket started to vibrate.
That idiot’s name popped up on the screen.
Li Zhi’s fingertip hovered over the screen. She watched the flashing name for a few seconds before gently swiping to answer.
“Hello…” Li Zhi’s voice echoed in the empty living room, carrying a faint, almost imperceptible tremor.
On the other end of the line, Shen Yuan’s deep, clear voice came through the receiver, instantly filling the silence around her. “Li Bao? You home?”
He was asking the obvious.
“Yeah…” Li Zhi replied, her cheeks inexplicably starting to heat up again.
A brief silence followed, during which they could almost hear each other breathing through the line.
“What is it, moron?” Li Zhi tried to make her voice sound as normal as possible.
“Ahem…”
Shen Yuan cleared his throat as if organizing his thoughts, but the slight upward tilt at the end of his words carried a clear, probing intent.
“So, uh, my parents went to work. Do you have any plans today?”
On her end of the line, Li Zhi’s heart felt like it had been snagged by a hook in his tone.
She subconsciously bit the inside of her lower lip, forcing a calm tone. “No, just at home. Studying, I guess.”
“Oh~ Studying, huh…”
Shen Yuan’s amusement was clearly audible in his voice. He drew out his words, each one seeming to be coated in honey—slow, deliberate, and full of insinuation.
“So… want to come over to my place to do homework? Hmm… I’ve got the AC on in my room.”
Li Zhi held her phone, listening to his casual-sounding voice through the receiver, and for a moment, she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“Turn on the AC?”
Li Zhi’s mouth twitched almost imperceptibly. Her pretty eyes widened slightly as she repeated the phrase to the empty air in disbelief.
She could even picture the mischievous smirk on Shen Yuan’s face on the other end of the line.
The beautiful girl could practically feel three black lines of exasperation forming on her forehead.
‘This moron… Can’t he come up with a slightly better excuse?’
“Moron… can’t you come up with a better excuse?”
On the other end of the line, Shen Yuan seemed completely unfazed. She could even hear him let out a low chuckle.
“Oh. Then… how about ‘my cat can do a backflip’?”
Li Zhi couldn’t help but roll her eyes dramatically at the phone, her cheeks puffed out. “Get lost, Shen Yuan! That excuse is even worse than the AC one!”
The line went quiet for a moment, leaving only a faint static.
Li Zhi thought he had finally given up and was about to hang up when Shen Yuan’s voice suddenly came through, catching her off guard.
“I miss you.”
Silence.
An absolute silence suddenly fell over both ends of the line.
Li Zhi’s fingers tightened slightly around her phone.
The girl held her breath, as if even the slightest gasp would betray the panic in her heart.
There was no sound from the other end either, only a strange tension that grew, silently entwining their two young hearts.
After what felt like an eternity—though it might have been mere seconds, or even a fleeting moment—Li Zhi took a deep breath.
Her tone still held a trace of her usual disdain.
“Oh.”
A single word, short and soft, like a falling feather.
Then, her feigned impatient tone returned, a little stronger now, as if trying to hide something.
“That’s more like it… hmph.”
Those few words, like the most precise of magic spells, instantly shattered the anxiety that had solidified in Shen Yuan as he waited.
The next second, a silly grin spread across Shen Yuan’s handsome face like a rising tide.
Before Shen Yuan could say anything, Li Zhi’s voice reached his ears again.
“Come over and get me.”
The moment she finished speaking, a chaotic flurry of sounds came clearly through the receiver to Li Zhi’s end.
“Okay! Huh? Huh! Alright! Okay! Wait for me! Wait for me! I’ll be right there!!”
Before his voice had even faded, Li Zhi could clearly hear a chair being shoved back violently in the background, followed by the sound of slippers slapping hurriedly against the floor.
Listening to the commotion, a faint smile appeared on Li Zhi’s face.
The beautiful girl was still holding the phone up, her fingertips slightly white from how tightly she was gripping it.