Chapter 605 - 243: How About Staying at My Place Tonight?
Chapter 605: Chapter 243: How About Staying at My Place Tonight?
This short gasp was like a stone tossed into a still pond.
"Ha..."
The next second, Li Zhi lost her composure too.
She could no longer contain the overwhelming sense of contrast and the sudden ridiculousness of the situation.
Her slender shoulders began to tremble violently as a clear, crisp snort of laughter escaped her lips.
She tried to press her lips together to stifle her laughter, but the image in her mind made the corners of her eyes crinkle.
Her eyes, which had been misty just a moment ago, were now filled with a sparkling mirth and deep embarrassment.
"Pfft... Ha, hahaha..."
Shen Yuan finally couldn’t hold it in either. Seeing her looking so shy and amused, a deep laugh rumbled up from his chest, no longer suppressed.
The rise and fall of his chest made Li Zhi, who was pressed tightly against him, tremble slightly as well.
"You-you idiot, Shen Yuan!" Li Zhi laughed, unable to resist lightly pounding his shoulder with her small fist. Her voice, still trembling, was thick with embarrassment.
"It’s, it’s all your fault... for su-suddenly falling over like that..."
"Hey, hey..."
Shen Yuan laughed as he raised a hand to catch her misbehaving little fist. "Wasn’t it because you provoked me? Who told you to suddenly be so...!"
His gaze swept meaningfully over her lips and her exceptionally bright eyes, swallowing the more provocative words that followed. But his teasing look said it all.
"Shut up! You moron!"
Li Zhi’s cheeks flushed beet red again.
The brief bout of laughter dispelled all the awkwardness and the tension of being on the verge of passion.
They had already been kissing intensely, so for a moment, they were both laughing so hard they couldn’t catch their breath.
Li Zhi finally relaxed, and with the smile still lingering on her face, she gently rested her hot cheek against Shen Yuan’s broad chest.
Shen Yuan tightened his arms as well, holding her more securely.
The thick, tense ambiguity from before, like an arrow drawn taut on a bow, had quietly transformed into a different kind of warmth that soothed the heart, all thanks to this unexpected burst of laughter.
Li Zhi’s cheek was still pressed against Shen Yuan’s chest, and she could clearly feel the steady beat and rise and fall of his heart. Shen Yuan’s hand was still resting lightly on the small of her back, unconsciously caressing the outline of her body beneath the soft, knitted dress.
Naonao and San Geng seemed to have seen enough, wandering over to find a comfortable spot by the bed to lie down.
Shen Yuan lowered his head. With a touch of languor from having just calmed down from his laughter, he spoke in a low voice filled with tenderness.
"Li Bao?"
He tightened the arm around her back slightly and gently stroked her head.
"Still lingering here?" His voice held a clear smile and an incredibly thick, doting affection. "You really not planning on getting up?"
The young woman nestled against his chest stirred.
Li Zhi rubbed her cheek against the fabric of Shen Yuan’s shirt, not looking up right away.
"Hmph..."
The nasal sound was long and drawn out, its end trailing upward slightly.
"What is it?" Li Zhi finally lifted her head slightly. With her chin resting on his chest, she glared at him with her beautiful, misty eyes, her gaze carrying a hint of a coquettish accusation, as if she had suffered a great injustice.
"Shen Yuan..." She enunciated each word, her tone like a kitten’s paw scratching gently at his heart. "Are you trying to kick me out?"
Her bright eyes were filled with the grievance of someone about to be kicked out.
Looking at those aggrieved eyes and that slightly pouting lower lip, any thought of urging her to leave was washed completely away.
’Kick her out? He only wished he could hold her even tighter.’
Shen Yuan chuckled helplessly, the vibration in his chest clearly transmitting to the young woman in his arms.
His hand on the small of her back gave her soft, slender waist a punitive little squeeze, but then he simply tightened his arms, locking her deeper into his embrace.
His voice grew a little hoarse, filled with a doting sense of surrender and endless joy.
"Kick you out? How could I bear to kick my Li Bao out?"
He said in a low, sincere voice, "I wish you’d stay here forever."
The warmth and trust in the embrace seemed to make time slow down.
Li Zhi nuzzled her cheek against his chest, finding a more comfortable position, and mumbled, "You know what’s good for you..."
The sweet fragrance of her hair lingered at the tip of Shen Yuan’s nose.
A thought, tinged with a heart-pounding tentativeness, quietly surfaced in the warm air.
His fingers unconsciously traced small circles on the fabric of the knitted dress at her waist.
"Li Bao..."
Shen Yuan paused, as if gathering his words, or perhaps giving her a moment to react.
"You think... Old Li and my dad... they probably won’t be done until the middle of the night, right?"
"Mm... probably?"
Li Zhi answered vaguely from his embrace, seemingly not yet realizing the probing nature of his words.
"Didn’t they often hang out until two or three in the morning before?"
"True."
Shen Yuan’s voice was muffled, carrying a hint of casual nonchalance.
He glanced at his phone. "It’s... not even ten o’clock yet."
Shen Yuan fell silent again, and the atmosphere grew subtly quiet for a moment.
Li Zhi seemed to finally sense something from the subtle changes in his body and his over-emphasis on the time. She stirred slightly, as if wanting to look up at him.
He took a deep breath. The warmth radiating from her filled his senses, giving him the courage to continue.
His voice was a little hoarse as, from an extremely close distance, he tentatively delivered the question that had been lingering in his mind into Li Zhi’s ear.
"So... tonight..."
His Adam’s apple bobbed. The next few words seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth with a hot breath, full of caution and a bewitching anticipation.
"Why don’t you... stay here with me?"
He quickly added, as if afraid she would immediately refuse, and as if making an excuse for himself.
"After all, your parents... won’t be home until very late."
As his words fell, the world seemed to fall silent for a moment.
Shen Yuan clearly felt the slender, soft body in his arms stiffen for an instant.
’She must be shocked by how direct and bold I’m being,’ he imagined.
"Shen! Yuan!"
Sure enough, a few seconds later, an indignant voice came muffled from his chest.
"What-what kind of moronic things are you thinking about all day!"
Like a little animal whose vital point had been struck, the beautiful girl struggled forcefully to sit up in his arms.
Her fierce accusation was less a scolding and more a pouting annoyance born of extreme embarrassment, the end of her words even trembling slightly.
Under the light, Li Zhi’s small face was flushed like a ripe peach, the blush spreading all the way down her slender neck to her delicate collarbones peeking out from her neckline.
She was utterly flustered by his bold suggestion.
However, just as she propped herself up indignantly, about to scold this moron a little more, she suddenly met Shen Yuan’s gaze.
His gaze was intense, filled with an indescribable Concentration and fervor. It was glued precisely to the spot just below her neck, on the tantalizing view half-hidden by her clothes.
Li Zhi’s heart skipped a beat. She instinctively followed his line of sight and looked down.
In the midst of her recent pulling and struggling, her proper, off-white, V-neck knitted dress had silently loosened a bit.
The neckline had been pushed down slightly at some point, the soft fabric sliding back along the smooth curve of her shoulder to reveal a gap.
The edge of the fabric that wrapped around her full, round curves, along with a small patch of dazzlingly white skin, was suddenly and defenselessly exposed to the warm air.
"—!!!"
BOOM! A wave of heat even more turbulent than before rushed to Li Zhi’s head!
She felt like her cheeks were hot enough to fry an egg. She frantically covered the open neckline with her hand and yanked it back up.