Chapter 529: Rainy Days and Finals Go Better Together

Chapter 529 -230: Rainy Days and Finals Go Better Together

Her expression held a natural intimacy, as if it were a matter of course, and even a hint of smug satisfaction as a faint smile bloomed on her lips.

“I got it this time. Next time,” she said, her voice lilting with a playful yet slightly commanding tone, “you go get it.”

Shen Yuan caught the admission ticket she handed him. This sudden “command” made him seem a bit clueless about romantic gestures.

‘Actually, I should have been the one to go up and get it when they called the pretty girl’s name, shouldn’t I have?’

Shen Yuan smiled and nodded. “Got it. From now on, I’ll get them.”

“Hmph!” Li Zhi huffed, seemingly displeased that Shen Yuan had been so slow on the uptake.

Shen Yuan watched the girl beside him turn her face away slightly, trying to maintain her usual nonchalant expression as she started organizing her stationery.

But in the dim, gray light filtering through the window, an almost imperceptible rosy glow seemed to spread across her fair ears.

The two of them—oh, no, the three of them—were in the same examination hall.

As Shen Yuan and Li Zhi walked hand-in-hand toward Exam Hall 211, a dejected and resentful figure trailed behind them, shoulders slumped and feet dragging.

“Heh… heh…”

Ah Jie let out a series of plaintive whimpers, deliberately kept low but just loud enough for the couple in front to hear.

He clutched his pencil case, his spine seemingly bent under the weight of their public display of affection as he deliberately lagged diagonally behind Shen Yuan and Li Zhi.

“This is a crime…”

“My poor, innocent heart… Boo-hoo…”

“The language exam hasn’t even started, and I feel like they’re already setting the tables for my essay’s funeral…”

Ah Jie kept muttering behind Shen Yuan, leaving him utterly exasperated.

Finally unable to take it anymore, Shen Yuan turned to look at Ah Jie.

“Keep whining, and I’ll tell Zhuo Peipei you’re into *Silent Reading*!”

Ah Jie stared back at Shen Yuan, his neck stiff. “Go on, tell her! Go ahead! I, Zhou Shaojie, have nothing to fear but death itself!”

“You’re really something else…”

Shen Yuan sighed. ‘Forget it.’

Just then, however, Li Zhi’s voice drifted lightly to their ears.

“Quiet down, both of you.”

The two boys immediately shrunk back.

Ah Jie looked at Shen Yuan, silently mouthing his opinion.

“Totally whipped!”

Shen Yuan flashed Ah Jie an internationally recognized gesture of friendship.

Their silent “confrontation” ended in the chilly hallway air as their feet carried them onto the second-floor corridor, home to Exam Hall 211.

The east wing corridor on the second floor, where Exam Hall 211 was located, had become a small pre-exam staging area.

There was still some time before the official entry, yet the spacious corridor was somehow more crowded than during a normal break between classes.

An energy tinged with anxiety permeated the air.

Near the classroom door, several students were frantically flipping through pocket-sized booklets of classical poetry, their lips moving silently as they tried to cram in more knowledge at the last second.

A little farther off, some more composed students leaned against the windowsills or walls, conversing in hushed tones in small groups.

Their discussion was quiet, but it wove clearly into the background clamor.

“I hope the reading comprehension section isn’t on some obscure topic…”

“Classical Chinese is what’s really gonna kill me!”

“…Tsk, this rain is really getting on my nerves.”

Others tried to ease the tension with small talk, but the strain in their voices was hard to miss:

“Hey, do you think the proctors will be super strict? Remember how they were during the mid-term joint exams.”

“Stop thinking about that and just calm your nerves. Did you go to the bathroom? You don’t wanna have to go in the middle of the test…”

“Do you have an extra hand warmer? This god-awful weather is freezing…”

Shen Yuan and his two friends stood to one side of the corridor. They would have been completely inconspicuous if not for the fact that Li Zhi was stunningly beautiful.

“Holy shit? There’s a girl this gorgeous in our school?”

“Girls, girls! It’s the joint exams and you’re still checking out girls! If she’s in your exam hall, you can just stare at her instead of the test paper!”

“Hey! It’s not the college entrance exam!”

“Fuck…”

Shen Yuan’s gaze rested on the group as they passed, but he said nothing.

Just then, he felt a light poke on his arm from a slender fingertip.

Shen Yuan turned his head instinctively.

Beside him, Li Zhi had turned slightly, her clear eyes fixed on him.

The rain pattered against the windows, and the corridor was filled with the sounds of hushed, jumbled discussions and rustling pages.

Amid this backdrop of nervous and anxious noise, Li Zhi’s voice, laced with concern, reached Shen Yuan’s ears.

“Hey, dumbass, you nervous?”

She blinked, her eyes scanning his face searchingly, as if trying to find a trace of anxiety beneath his feigned calm.

Shen Yuan froze for a second.

He looked at Li Zhi’s face, illuminated by the corridor’s cold, white lights, and the gloomy tension brought on by the rainy night and exam atmosphere suddenly eased by more than half.

A smile quickly spread across his lips. Almost without thinking, he lifted his chin. “I’m good!”

His tone exuded a composure and confidence that had been honed by grinding through countless high-intensity practice exams.

Li Zhi stared at his “everything-is-under-control” expression for two seconds before letting out a soft huff.

“Heh… Easy for you to say. You’d better not bomb this test!”

The young man leaned forward slightly, his breath tickling Li Zhi’s ear. “Don’t worry, Li Bao! Just you wait to get kissed by me!”

The warmth in his voice instantly dispelled the damp chill of the corridor and all the tension and clamor from the previous moment.

As his warm breath brushed past her ear, Li Zhi instinctively shrank back.

The pretty girl looked into his startlingly bright eyes, and hearing his promise once again, the corners of her lips curved up in a minuscule, irrepressible arc before she quickly pursed them and turned her head away.

“Hmph! You’d better.”

“Hey! Hey! Hey!”

Standing to the side, Ah Jie finally snapped.