Chapter 524: The Same Exam Hall (2)

Chapter 524 -229: The Same Exam Hall (2)

He subconsciously rubbed the pen in his hand.

“Hard to say,”

Shen Yuan said in a low voice, his words exceptionally clear in the quiet classroom.

“The clouds are so thick, and the wind has stopped… The low pressure makes it a little hard to breathe.”

He seemed to recall something. The Concentration in his eyes faded, replaced by a subtle, unwavering certainty.

“But…”

Shen Yuan paused, pulling his gaze from the window and letting it fall back on his test paper.

“I don’t think it’s going to rain.”

Ah Jie turned his head, looking at Shen Yuan’s mysterious confidence that seemed to come from nowhere. He mumbled a rebuttal, “The hell? Since when are you a part-time weatherman? Look how gloomy it is. No doubt about it, it’s definitely gonna rain! Just you wait!”

“Let me tell you, it always rains during finals for your Brother Jie!”

Shen Yuan looked at Ah Jie. “Is that because you cry when you fail English?”

Ah Jie had been preparing a whole meteorological analysis to counter Shen Yuan’s amateur forecast, but that single, viciously accurate jab hit him right where it hurt.

“You—!!!”

Ah Jie’s defiant face instantly turned beet-red, his eyes wide and round.

“You—!!!” He pointed at Shen Yuan, his finger trembling, so angry he could barely form a coherent sentence.

“You… You’re making a personal attack! That’s malicious slander!!!”

The day before the joint final exams, Shen Yuan had ruthlessly prodded his sore spot—his guaranteed failure in English. It was like a dam bursting, setting off an instant chain reaction.

Ah Jie had been studying very diligently these past few days, but he just couldn’t pass English.

The anxiety from being caught up in Shen Yuan’s hyper-competitive studying, the latent fear of the unknown exam results tomorrow, plus this incredibly precise verbal blow…

All his emotions mixed together and erupted like a volcano!

“BOO HOO—! You monster! You’re a monster—!!” Ah Jie abruptly covered his face with his hands, letting out a desperate, muffled sob.

The more Ah Jie thought about it, the more miserable he became. The thought of actually having to face the English exam the day after tomorrow, combined with Shen Yuan’s “fail English” comment echoing in his ears…

Tears actually started to well up in his eyes!

He slammed his forehead onto the desk with a dull THUD.

“Oh, God! Save this child! Can finals please just give me a break!”

His muffled voice, full of despair and self-mockery, came from beneath the desk.

Shen Yuan watched the full-blown meltdown happening right in front of him, and the corner of his mouth, which he had kept straight after his sharp remark, almost broke into a smile.

He didn’t twist the knife. He just shook his head, speechless, and gently knocked his knuckles against Ah Jie’s head, which was still resting on the desk.

“Alright, you. Hurry up and study your vocabulary… Rescue every point you can before you completely lose all hope.”

Ah Jie’s shoulders slumped dejectedly. After a long moment, he slowly lifted his head from the desk.

He didn’t look sorry in the slightest—it was all an act!

He vented his frustration by snatching the dog-eared vocabulary booklet from the corner of his desk.

He randomly flipped to the section starting with the letter ‘A’, finally sighed heavily in resignation, buried his face in the book, and began to mumble.

“Abandon, to give up…”

“Shit!”

Outside, the lead-gray clouds churned silently. As Shen Yuan pulled his gaze back, his eyes drifted unconsciously to his side.

At some point, Li Zhi had fallen asleep, slumped over a stack of practice exams.

Half of the girl’s face was nestled in the crook of her arm. Strands of her hair fanned out over a test paper where the ink was still wet, rising and falling gently with her breathing.

The fluffy trim of her down jacket’s hood brushed against her slightly flushed ear, blurring into a soft silhouette in the gloomy daylight.

Shen Yuan’s fingers, which had been flipping through his error correction notebook, suddenly slowed. His pen tip hovered above the page, forming a still arc.

He watched the faint shadows her eyelashes cast below her eyes, like the resting wings of a butterfly.

The exhaustion from staying up for days to grade his practice problems was finally visible. Even the corners of her mouth, which usually held a sly curve, had relaxed, leaving only a trace of unguarded softness.

The damp, cold air seeping in from the window frame seemed to be shut out from this small space. Only the boy’s quieted breaths and Ah Jie’s distant, mechanical muttering of vocabulary words flowed through the pre-exam silence.

Shen Yuan carefully closed his error correction notebook, his movements so gentle they didn’t make a sound.

He turned slightly, leaning a little closer to the sleeping girl.

His gaze fixed on her peaceful sleeping face. Her brow, slightly furrowed from days of hard work, had not yet fully relaxed.

A silent flutter welled up in his chest, dispelling the gloom brought on by the overcast sky outside. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

His Adam’s apple bobbed slightly. His lips moved without a sound, finally forming a breathy whisper, as if he were afraid of disturbing a precious, fragile dream.

‘Li Bao is so cute when she’s sleeping.’

After watching her for a while, Shen Yuan’s gaze fell back to the test paper in front of him.

‘665 points…’

His pen tip lowered, and it began to move across the scratch paper again. The quiet SCRITCH-SCRATCH of writing resumed.

The sleeping girl’s lips seemed to curve upward, almost imperceptibly.

Amid the rhythmic scratching sounds, Li Zhi’s eyelashes trembled slightly.

After a brief, deep sleep, her consciousness, like a floating feather, slowly began to settle.

She instinctively shifted her cheek, which was buried in her arm. The all-too-familiar sound of writing made her vaguely remember where she was.

She groggily opened her eyes. The first thing to come into focus was Shen Yuan’s hand gripping the pen, his knuckles distinct, moving it across the paper with a focused force and incredible speed.

Then, his slightly tensed jawline, and the side of his face, so absorbed it seemed nothing else in the world existed.

Shen Yuan seemed completely unaware that she had woken up. His brow was slightly furrowed and his eyes were glued to the question. The tip of his pen scratched against the paper at an astonishing speed.