Chapter 440 - 212: Li Zhi Decides to Go on the Offensive

Chapter 440: Chapter 212: Li Zhi Decides to Go on the Offensive

He scanned the three shocked and "devastated" faces before him. "Besides, it’s perfectly natural for me to hold my childhood sweetheart’s hand. What business is it of yours?"

With that, the grin on Shen Yuan’s lips widened. "I’m not just holding her hand now. I’ve been holding it since we were little, right up to today."

"Fuck!"

The three of them swore in unison.

Ah Jie rubbed his arms as if he couldn’t bear it. "Gross! That’s so gross! This is a cafeteria, dude! Have some decency!"

Yang Ze wore a constipated expression, feeling as though his pure heart had been corrupted.

Chen Mingyu, on the other hand, shook his head in anguish. "It’s over, it’s over. The boy is a lost cause."

At the same time, at an empty table a little ways off, the atmosphere was just as fever-pitched.

Just as Li Zhi was about to sit down, He Zhiyu and Zhuo Peipei swooped in like a gust of wind, sitting right beside her on either side. Their four eyes, shining as brightly as searchlights, were locked onto her.

"Zhizhi!!"

Zhuo Peipei’s voice quivered with suppressed excitement, her hand gripping Li Zhi’s arm tightly. "Just now! Shen Yuan! He... he held your hand, didn’t he? Huh? Right out in the open! In front of everyone!"

Zhuo Peipei felt like after shipping them for so long, a giant block of sugar had suddenly dropped from the sky. She was so blissful she was about to faint.

Li Zhi looked at Zhuo Peipei and blinked. "What are you so excited for?"

Zhuo Peipei was taken aback. "Is this not something to be excited about?"

Hearing Zhuo Peipei’s words, Li Zhi instinctively looked at He Zhiyu.

"You didn’t tell Peipei?"

Now it was Zhuo Peipei’s turn to be baffled.

’What is this new development?’

Zhuo Peipei looked at He Zhiyu, only to see the little author with a sheepish smile on her face.

It clicked for Zhuo Peipei instantly.

’So you were keeping the good stuff all to yourself!!’

Under their gazes, He Zhiyu shrank back and told the truth.

"Actually... Zhizhi and Shen Yuan have held hands before. It was just outside of school."

At that moment, Zhuo Peipei was still shocked that He Zhiyu had kept this from her, her face full of anguish.

He Zhiyu looked at the president, clutching her head and saying weakly, "They... they threatened me. They threatened me not to tell anyone."

Zhuo Peipei took a deep breath, but then she realized something else.

"Wait? Outside of school? Aha! No wonder I always felt like the vibe between you two was strange! So something’s been going on for a while!"

Logically speaking, it’s perfectly normal for a couple in a relationship to hold hands.

Some people in a relationship can’t wait for the whole world to know about it, but Li Zhi and Shen Yuan were clearly the type to be very low-key.

So why did they suddenly "go public" today?

Zhuo Peipei’s mind went back to the scene from that afternoon.

"So were you two talking about going public this afternoon?"

"Huh?"

Li Zhi blinked.

Seeing the clueless look on Li Zhi’s face, Zhuo Peipei couldn’t resist asking, "This afternoon, when third period ended, Shen Yuan had you cornered at your desk. What were you two whispering about?"

Hearing Zhuo Peipei’s words, that voice seemed to reappear in Li Zhi’s mind.

’Tsundere...’

The pretty girl’s face flushed red in an instant.

"Alright, alright, that’s enough! Let’s eat! Ask me one more time and our friendship is over!" a command, feigning ferocity but laced with obvious shyness, came from within her hood.

He Zhiyu and Zhuo Peipei exchanged a look, then burst into a fit of giggles they could no longer hold back.

Looking at Li Zhi, who had buried her head in her fluffy hood like an ostrich, the smiles on both their faces were brighter and warmer than the lights of the cafeteria.

From a short distance away, Shen Yuan was walking over with two food trays.

Meanwhile, Ah Jie and Yang Ze were each carrying two trays, having evidently gotten food for He Zhiyu and Zhuo Peipei too.

The three of them crowded around Shen Yuan, still relentlessly criticizing his shameless act of abandoning the group.

Listening to the noise, an almost imperceptible smile graced Li Zhi’s lips.

Perhaps because they had "gone public," Li Zhi was no longer as shy as before.

By evening self-study, Li Zhi had completely accepted the situation.

She was now tacitly allowing Shen Yuan to hold her hand at school.

As for their relationship...

’Li Zhi didn’t feel like anything had really progressed between her and Shen Yuan.’

’She had only agreed that they could hold hands at school, that’s all!’

’Hmph!’

...

The classroom was brightly lit for evening self-study, but the young woman’s thoughts had already wandered far.

The pen in her hand hovered over her workbook, a dot of ink quietly blooming into a small blue mark on the page, but she didn’t notice at all.

Li Zhi’s fingertips unconsciously fiddled with the edge of the paper.

The scene from the afternoon flashed through her mind again and again—

She’d spent the whole afternoon avoiding him, had dodged their questions twice, but the third time, when he’d cornered her at her desk, Li Zhi felt her heartbeat was loud enough to drown out all the noise in the classroom.

Shen Yuan’s casually uttered "tsundere" was like a stone tossed into the lake of her heart, making the tips of her ears burn so hotly she almost fled in a panic.

’It was so humiliating.’

She quietly bit her lower lip.

’When had she, Young Master Li, ever been cornered so wretchedly by a single word?’

’What was worse, the smile playing on his lips was clearly one of confident victory!’

’It was as if he’d seen through her struggle with her own rule, just waiting for her to fall into his trap.’

’But she was the one who’d made the rule.’

’The line "I won’t date anyone who scores under 650" had just been a harsh remark she’d tossed out, but now it had become a noose around her own neck.’

A sudden wave of indignation surged through her.

The mortification she had forcefully suppressed when he’d cornered her at her desk began to boil over.

’He thought it was funny to call her a tsundere?’

An idea, born of defiant determination, cut through the fog in her mind.

’I’ll let you, Shen Yuan, have a taste of what it’s like to have your heart stop when you least expect it.’

At this thought, Li Zhi already began to envision the scene.

The windowpane reflected her brightly shining eyes, and a hint of a sly curve quietly crept onto her lips.