Chapter 516 - 227: Killing the Dog

Chapter 516: Chapter 227: Killing the Dog

The winter night flowed silently outside the window. Inside, two figures sat side-by-side, shoulders touching, their silhouettes haloed in the warm, bright light of the lamp.

Concentration activated. Shen Yuan’s focus quickly narrowed to the exam paper in front of him.

As time went by, the light in the evening study hall grew pure and quiet.

Ah Jie took a moment to sneak a glance at Shen Yuan and was stunned to find he wasn’t showing the slightest sign of fatigue.

Even when the bell rang for the end of class, Shen Yuan was still engrossed in his book.

’Dude...’

Ah Jie was bewildered.

’Shen Yuan, are you even human?!’

’The bell rang! Li Bao is sitting right next to you!’

’How are you so rock-steady, cozying up with an exam paper?!’

’Is this your ascetic brand of romance?’

’I was just completely fried by you two and your "big brother" and "are the strawberries sweeter or am I?" routine, and now you’re putting on this "hopelessly addicted to studying" act for me??’

Ah Jie felt like his entire worldview had been shattered.

’What the hell is wrong with this Shen Yuan kid?’

’He just started dating and he’s already ditching his girlfriend to be deeply in love with his test papers?’

’And the craziest part is, Sister Li, why don’t you have a single complaint?!’

Ah Jie looked over at Li Zhi, who had stopped writing, her gaze fixed intently on Shen Yuan.

Seeing the beautiful girl’s lips curve into what looked like an indulgent smile, Ah Jie instantly felt like the world had gone mad.

The young man silently screamed his indignation at the ceiling. ’Dammit! You get into a relationship and you’re not even clingy? You’re grinding harder than us single guys?!’

In truth, this was only the beginning.

After the holiday break, Shen Yuan was like a finely-tuned machine that had been wound tight, officially entering an unprecedented state of combat readiness.

During the precious ten-minute breaks between classes, the clamor and horseplay in the hallway became mere background noise.

But Shen Yuan, as if equipped with his own soundproof barrier, sat firmly in his seat. With a workbook open on the corner of his desk, the tip of his pen almost never stopped moving.

Ah Jie, returning from the bathroom, saw this scene. He clutched his chest dramatically and muttered to Yang Ze beside him in a pained whisper.

"It’s over, it’s over, the beast has completely lost it... He doesn’t even take a break between classes! He’s grinding harder than me, a single guy!"

Shen Yuan turned a deaf ear to this. His brow was slightly furrowed, and his knuckles were white from the focused pressure of his grip. He was battling to crack the core steps of a challenging final math problem, his scratch paper densely packed with formula derivations.

After finishing the problem, Shen Yuan even grabbed Ah Jie and immediately made him look over his work.

"You’re killing me, Shen Yuan! We have no beef!"

But even though Ah Jie said that, he still explained to Shen Yuan how to solve the problem.

At lunchtime, Ah Jie had just sat down with his tray when his eyes went wide.

He saw Shen Yuan holding chopsticks in one hand and a notebook of corrected mistakes in the other, discussing a physics problem with Li Zhi.

"A beast, a true beast! He’s in a relationship and still cramming problems like he’s on steroids... Is there no justice in this world?!"

During the lunch break, other students were either napping on their desks or chatting in small groups.

But in front of Shen Yuan were past exam papers and his notebook of corrected mistakes.

He held a red pen, rapidly marking something on the multiple-choice options. Beside him, Li Zhi sat quietly, eating ice cream with small bites, a look of pure contentment on her face.

As for where the ice cream came from, Shen Yuan had of course been sent to buy it.

Even though it was the final sprint before exams, Shen Yuan felt he could spare a little time to buy his girlfriend a tub of ice cream.

Evening study hall, however, had become Shen Yuan’s home turf.

With no teacher present, Shen Yuan was as still as a stone statue, the only movement being the pen in his hand flying across his scratch paper, making a fine, continuous SCRITCH-SCRATCH sound.

Exam papers, workbooks, and practice test collections were stacked and swapped before him, seemingly endless, yet he meticulously conquered them one by one.

The rate at which he went through scratch paper was astounding, and eraser dust quietly piled up into a small hill beside his pen tip.

He was completely immersed in his own rhythm.

His eyes were locked on the problems, sometimes scanning the question stem quickly, other times pausing on key information to think deeply.

Once he broke through, the tip of his pen became like a flood released from a dam, flowing smoothly into lines of rigorous solutions.

Li Zhi would sometimes look up, pulling her gaze away from her own workbook to quietly watch his focused profile for a few seconds.

The fine strands of hair on his forehead fell down, but they couldn’t block the light that emanated from him when he was so absorbed in his studies.

The beautiful girl’s lips would involuntarily curve into a barely perceptible arc, and then she too would gather her thoughts and return to her own tasks.

The SCRITCH-SCRATCH of pen on paper formed the main melody of Shen Yuan’s little world of study.

It was as if all his energy was focused on the problems and formulas right in front of him.

Ah Jie shot him several sidelong glances, often unable to resist wailing at Yang Ze and Chen Mingyu.

"Dammit! Where do you get the instruction manual for this perpetual motion machine? So getting a girlfriend just refuels you for studying? Are you even letting the rest of us live?! A beast! This is absolutely a beast!"

What could Yang Ze and Chen Mingyu say? They were envious too!

"This must be the power of love!"

"Case closed. Lao Yuan only got into the honors class for Li Zhi."

Hearing this, He Zhiyu, who was nearby, immediately got a look on her face like she was shipping them hard.

’I can’t, I can’t take it anymore.’

’I need to stop shipping them for a while.’

Ever since Shen Yuan and Li Zhi went public with their relationship, those two had been engaging in high-intensity public displays of affection.

He Zhiyu felt like she was overdosing on the sweetness.

But Shen Yuan was completely oblivious to all of this.

That calendar page, circled in bright red—January 21st—was like a brilliant lighthouse standing at the end of a mountain of books and an ocean of questions, illuminating his struggle every minute of every second.