Chapter 497 - 224: A Reward for Good Performance (Part 2)

Chapter 497: Chapter 224: A Reward for Good Performance (Part 2)

Arriving at her grandpa’s house, Li Zhi took out her phone, unable to resist lighting up the screen again.

Message after message filled the chat window, and Shen Yuan hadn’t replied to a single one!

The girl had been trying to make excuses for Shen Yuan, but now, that last shred of understanding in her heart had been kindled into a small flame of irritation.

Not even the warmth of her grandpa’s living room could chase the cold from her cheeks. It was a chill born from a mixture of dissatisfaction at being ignored and the annoyance of, ’Is this guy getting full of himself?’

"Dumbass Shen Yuan..."

Li Zhi muttered a curse, jabbing her finger hard at the screen as if she were poking a certain someone’s very punchable face.

Li Zhi decided to ignore this "missing person" for the time being.

But if he dared to be even a little later...

Hmph!

Time slipped by, and the hands on the clock swept past twelve noon.

"Shen Yuan!!!"

Hearing his mom’s voice, Shen Yuan, who was still in his state of Concentration, jolted and was abruptly pulled out of it.

"Lunch is ready!"

Zhang Yuyan’s voice rang out from outside the door again, accompanied by a gentle knock.

Shen Yuan immediately responded on instinct, "Oh... coming!"

Only then did he feel the soreness in his lower back from holding the same posture for so long, the pang of hunger in his stomach, and, of course, the side effects of his Concentration.

’My head hurts a little.’

Shen Yuan frowned. After a brief rest, the headache began to subside.

He put down his pen and rolled his stiff neck, which let out a faint CRACK. Shen Yuan rubbed his dry eyes, looking with satisfaction at the test papers and scratch paper before him, all densely covered in writing.

’Such astonishing efficiency for a single morning!’

Shen Yuan stretched, then casually picked up the phone from the corner of his desk—the one he had forgotten about all morning.

The screen lit up. On the lock screen, a stack of notifications, all from the same name, doused him like a bucket of ice water.

BZZZT!

His mind went blank for a second. The satisfaction he’d felt from solving problems vanished, replaced by an enormous, overwhelming feeling of ’I’m so dead!’ that exploded in his head like a pressure cooker.

From "I’m on the highway!" to a furious interrogation accompanied by an "angry cat" sticker, the messages spanned the entire morning.

Every single message was a silent accusation of his neglect!

Shen Yuan could vividly picture Li Zhi’s mood shifting from waiting, to confusion, then to worry, and finally to simmering anger, culminating in her grinding her teeth and muttering "dumbass."

"Oh no, no, no!" Shen Yuan cradled his phone as if it were a red-hot coal, muttering to himself, "I’m completely done for this time..."

Shen Yuan frantically typed out a reply to Li Zhi.

Shen Yuan: "[frantic_kowtow.gif]"

Shen Yuan: "I was doing homework, I didn’t see your messages."

Shen Yuan: "I really wasn’t ignoring you on purpose, I swear! I only snapped out of it when my mom called me for lunch!"

Shen Yuan: "Please don’t be mad, Li Bao!"

Shen Yuan: "[test_paper.jpg]"

Shen Yuan: "See? Look! I’m really not lying to you! I’ve been sitting right here working ever since you sent that first message!"

Shen Yuan: "San Geng and Naonao can even vouch for me. They’ve been with me all morning, and I haven’t even paid any attention to them..."

The picture sent successfully. Shen Yuan let out a long breath, as if he’d just finished a stressful exam, but his heart was still in his throat.

His fingers nervously traced the edge of his phone as he stared hopefully at the top of the screen, waiting for the "..." to appear, or for a reply that would grant him a suspended death sentence.

The phone buzzed, startling Li Zhi from her boredom as she idly flipped through the channels on her grandpa’s TV.

She swiped the screen open almost instantly. The first thing she saw was a rapid-fire series of messages from Shen Yuan, complete with a kowtowing GIF and a picture of a test paper.

Li Zhi pursed her lips. The last traces of her anger hadn’t quite faded, but when she saw the photo of the test paper, which was covered in dense writing, a small corner of her heart quietly softened.

"Hmph... you dumbass."

Li Zhi’s fingertip hovered over the screen as she muttered the word, but she couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from twitching into a slight smile.

The picture was quite clear. She could see large swaths of calculations and notes, both new and old. It was clearly the result of a morning spent hard at work.

She could even picture that guy Shen Yuan, diving headfirst into a sea of practice problems and completely forgetting about his phone.

That burst of intense focus in pursuit of his "665" goal... while it had made her wait and had been annoying, it was also... strangely attractive.

Li Zhi’s fingers tapped on the screen, firing off an indisputable command.

Li Zhi: "[smirking_cat.jpg]"

Li Zhi: "Dumbass! You’re just now replying?"

Li Zhi: "You think I’ll believe you just from a picture of one corner? Trying to pull a fast one, are you?"

Li Zhi: "Take clear pictures of the front and back of the test! I! WANT! TO! CHECK! IT!"

After sending that, Li Zhi paused for a moment before her fingers flew across the screen to add another line.

Li Zhi: "Within thirty seconds! I want to see the clear, complete, and unobstructed paper! From the first question to the last!"

Li Zhi hugged her phone to her chest and looked out the window at the quiet, wintry countryside. The last of her annoyance was completely replaced by a soft smile, a mixture of triumph and anticipation.

’Checking his homework.’

’Yep! This is a girlfriend’s duty!’

Li Zhi didn’t have to wait long before new messages from Shen Yuan appeared on her phone.

It was a series of photos of the test paper.

Shen Yuan added one last message, something about how Ms. Zhang Yuyan was rushing him to come eat.

A small smile touched Li Zhi’s lips when she saw that message.

But Shen Yuan, on the other hand, wasn’t smiling.

When Shen Yuan walked out of his room, he saw Ms. Zhang Yuyan standing in the doorway, watching him with a wide, knowing smile.

"What’s wrong? What took you so long? Did you finish reporting in to Zhizhi?"