Shen Yuan lay face-up, sinking into the soft mattress. The afterimage of the swaying pendant light on the ceiling gradually blurred into Li Zhi’s figure.
’It’s over. I must be under an Illusion Technique,’ Shen Yuan murmured to himself.
Just then, Shen Yuan felt a weight settle on his chest.
Looking up, he saw a big, white butt squatting down.
"San Geng, you dumbass, are you trying to crush ?"
Shen Yuan grabbed the little cat under its front legs, lifted it up, and turned it around so its head was facing him.
"San Geng, don’t you think... your mom is actually pretty cute?"
As Shen Yuan spoke, his fingertips unconsciously fiddled with San Geng’s soft, pink paw pads.
San Geng twitched its ears and pulled its paws back.
Another weight landed on the bed as Naonao cautiously crept up next to Shen Yuan.
The one human and two cats just stared into space.
’Ah, forget it. Whatever. Ti for sleep.’
Shen Yuan reached out and turned off the bedroom light.
In the darkness, Shen Yuan turned over. His fingertips unconsciously brushed against the bedsheet, as if he could still feel the damp ends of her hair.
The mory of Li Zhi, barefoot in her slippers, suddenly beca vivid.
Her not-quite-dry hair fell over her shoulders, the scent of citrus wafting from it in the warm light of the entryway. Her skin was tinged with a faint pink from her bath.
When she’d picked up the test paper to hit him, her knit cardigan had slipped, revealing half of her collarbone, like a white jade paperweight resting on fine Xuan paper.
But the most fatal detail was her curled toes. The round tips had flushed a coral pink in her fluster, like a startled mollusk slowly closing its shell.
Shen Yuan buried his face in his pillow, the tips of his ears burning hot.
’A problem that requires staring at soone to solve?’
The mory of her voice, tinged with the scent of citrus and the white peach sachet from her closet, crashed into his mind, startling him so much he yanked the comforter over his head.
The arch of her foot, which had stepped on his slipper, seed to leave a lingering warmth. The faint blue veins on the top of her foot were perfectly clear in the warm light, and the arc her ankle bone traced as she shifted her weight was more bewitching than any physics problem Shen Yuan had ever solved.
"AHHHH!!!!"
Shen Yuan clamped the pillow over his head, but his legs involuntarily clenched the corner of the blanket, curling up like a shrimp. His heels rubbed restlessly against the sheets, making a rustling sound.
The mattress springs creaked with his squirming, as if in ti with the frantic drumming of his heart.
After squirming for a while, Shen Yuan suddenly flopped onto his back, his body spread out. The back of his head ground a hollow into the pillow.
The comforter, which had gotten tangled around his neck as he tossed and turned, was haphazardly ripped off and thrown to the foot of the bed.
The young man raised a hand in the darkness, as if trying to grasp the citrus scent that was fading from his mory.
Just then, the phone Shen Yuan had placed on his nightstand suddenly vibrated.
Shen Yuan quickly grabbed the phone and saw a ssage from Li Zhi.
Li Zhi: "Rember to treat next ti."
Shen Yuan stared at the ssage bubble and let out a soft laugh, but the final scene at the door flashed before his eyes.
—The pretty girl’s knuckles had been white as she gripped the doorknob, her scattered bangs unable to hide the shyness in her eyes.
Shen Yuan quickly typed a reply.
Shen Yuan: "Got it, San Geng’s mom."
Li Zhi didn’t reply.
Shen Yuan lay on the bed, smiling like an idiot.
The moonlight filtering through the sheer curtains illuminated the chaotic state of the bed, which looked like a wheat field ravaged by a typhoon.
...
「The second typhoon arrived quickly.」
However, this ti it didn’t make landfall in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, but rather sowhere further south.
Even though it didn’t hit their province directly, the effects of the typhoon were still felt.
It rained from Wednesday all the way through Sunday.
The dryer at Shen Yuan’s house ran for three days straight.
And so, the second round of the badminton match against Li Zhi, originally scheduled for Thursday, was naturally postponed to next Tuesday’s gym class.
Assuming, of course, that a teacher didn’t commandeer the class next Tuesday.
In fact, the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday was supposed to start on Friday.
But the wretched seniors in their third year of high school didn’t get a holiday. In fact, to make up for the Mid-Autumn Festival break, the seniors even had to sacrifice their Sunday.
But all the sacrifices were worth it.
After all, they only had to sacrifice their Sunday until the second period in the afternoon.
After that, it was finally the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.
So when Shen Yuan arrived in the classroom, he could easily feel the cheerful atmosphere.
Even though, aside from him and Li Zhi, there were only a few other people in the room.
Zhuo Peipei walked into the classroom in high spirits, just like always.
Her face was lit up with a brilliant smile, and she was humming a cheerful little tune.
"Hello there!"
The words of her signature "Sweet Sister" greeting had barely faded when Zhuo Peipei was apprehended by Shen Yuan.
"Peipei, are you going to update or not?"
Seeing Shen Yuan’s serious expression, Zhuo Peipei opted to play dumb.
"Update? Aren’t I updating?"
Zhuo Peipei looked at Shen Yuan innocently. "Isn’t the confession wall always being updated?"
With that, Zhuo Peipei’s eyes suddenly sharpened. She shot Shen Yuan a mock-threatening glare. "Tell , are you just checking the confession wall to see if anyone’s confessed to Li Zhi!"
Shen Yuan sternly pushed away Zhuo Peipei’s hand, his voice low. "You know perfectly well what I’m talking about!"
However, Zhuo Peipei didn’t seem inclined to admit anything. She continued her ignorant act, retorting, "What do I know?"
"’Defend and Steal’!" Shen Yuan had no intention of playing guessing gas with Zhuo Peipei, so he got straight to the point.
When Zhuo Peipei heard the title "Defend and Steal," she first gave a light cough, then said to Shen Yuan nonchalantly, "Oh, so that’s what you were talking about."
Then, she unhurriedly explained, "I told the author to take so ti to let their ideas mature. They’ll update again once they’re ready. That’s the only way to guarantee the quality of the work, you know. What’s wrong? You have a problem with that?"
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