I'm a senior in high school, and the system says I'm going on a blind date with my childho

Chapter 205 Nothing Happened
Before Li Zhi's voice, which had risen eight octaves and was filled with the embarrassment of having his tail stepped on, had even finished, the phone screen suddenly went black.

The call ended with a cold, abrupt tone.

Under the bright lights of the living room, Xu Chan remained holding her phone, her smile and lingering concern freezing instantly, then dissolving into a blank expression of astonishment.

She stared at the phone screen that went dark in an instant, as if the echo of that "Mom" was still ringing in her ears, but all that remained on the screen was her own reflection, a face filled with a hint of confusion.

She stared at the phone screen that went dark in an instant, as if the echo of that "Mom" was still ringing in her ears, but all that remained on the screen was her own reflection, a face filled with a hint of confusion.

In the end, all her emotions condensed into a long, deep sigh of helplessness, which escaped from her lips.

She slowly lowered her stiff arm and shook her head at the black screen of her phone, feeling both amused and exasperated.

Old Li, sitting on the sofa to the side, was leisurely holding a teacup and witnessed the lightning-fast hanging up.

Seeing his wife's stunned expression, he could no longer hold back and let out a low, gloating laugh.

He put down his teacup and casually patted his muscular thigh.

"Hahahaha!" Laughter finally burst out, sounding exceptionally clear in the quiet living room.

“Look, look,” Old Li laughed, his eyes crinkling with fine lines. “What did I tell you? Making this call is pointless! Don’t even think about checking up on me.”

He leaned forward and winked at Xu Chan teasingly: "What's the use of finding out now? They won't be back until tomorrow."

Xu Chan rolled her eyes at Lao Li, annoyed: "That's your daughter! Aren't you worried at all?"

Hearing this, Old Li sighed deeply: "Of course I'm worried, but I trust Shen Yuan. Besides, look at our daughter, she can still think about doing her homework even when she's out playing. What do you think Shen Yuan is doing right now?"

Xu Chan blinked and replied helplessly, "She's probably doing her homework too."

Old Li laughed heartily: "Otherwise what? Do you think he can disobey Zhizhi?"

Xu Chan rolled her eyes at Lao Li, but her helpless expression still revealed a hint of gentle resignation.

She glanced down at the now silent phone screen, then gently placed it on the coffee table, muttering under her breath, "That brat..."

……

Outside the hotel, Shen Yuan's back was pressed against the cold door panel, his ears almost embedded in the door.

Inside the door, Li Zhi's clear and distinct cry of "Mom—!!", filled with embarrassment, anger, and a sense of being on edge, was perfectly audible.

Then, there was silence in the room.

Shen Yuan: (⊙⊙)…

He held his breath and listened intently to the door for a few more seconds.

The room was eerily quiet.

There was no sound of a phone call, nor any of Li Zhi's complaints or relaxed mutterings.

Having just finished a life-or-death check-up, Li Zhi should be able to breathe a sigh of relief now, so why is he suddenly silent?
"Li Bao?" Shen Yuan tentatively called out in a low voice through the crack in the door.

no respond.

He raised his voice slightly: "Li Zhi? Are you alright?"

...still deathly silent.

The cold sweat from avoiding the inspection hadn't even dried yet when a new doubt crept up on Shen Yuan's spine.

The call ended so abruptly, and Li Zhi's voice sounded both agitated and annoyed at the end...

Could it be that Aunt Xu Chan said something harsh to him through the screen, and now he's hiding in his room sulking?

No, we have to go in and check!

Without further hesitation, Shen Yuan took out the secondary key card for his room from his pocket.

When he booked the room, Shen Yuan remembered to keep a spare card, just in case.

Of course, the best way to prevent this is to remove the card yourself when you go out.

With his fingers on the doorknob, he could even feel his pounding heartbeat amplified countless times in the silent corridor.

"Di-"

With a soft click, the door lock unlocked.

Shen Yuan took a deep breath, filled with worry and urgency, and suddenly pushed open the door!
Bright lights instantly flooded the room.

Shen Yuan's gaze swept eagerly across the entire space.

Li Zhizheng sat upright on the sofa in the center of the room.

She stood upright, her hands on her knees, her face still flushed, her eyes fixed on the entrance hall, or more precisely, on Shen Yuan who had just entered.

Just as Shen Yuan's left foot stepped into the room, before he had even fully entered, while he was still in the entryway...

Li Zhi suddenly bent down, grabbed a cushion from the sofa next to him, and with all his might, smashed it hard against the familiar yet hateful face at the door!
"boom!"

"...Idiot!!!"

The soft cushion smothered Shen Yuan's face, bringing with it a gust of wind and his complete bewilderment.

"Well!"

Shen Yuan's head snapped back from the blow, and he instinctively grabbed the weapon with his hand. His face burned—not from pain, but from the shock of the sudden attack and the complete inexplicable injustice.

With his hair slightly disheveled from being hit, he stood frozen in the entryway, clutching the cushion.

Li Zhi's chest was still rising and falling slightly, her eyes glaring fiercely at him, her cheeks as red as ripe apples, her lips tightly pursed, clearly still angry.

The air seemed to freeze for a few seconds.

Looking at Li Zhi's expression of shame and indignation, as if he were about to rush up and kill him at any moment, all the words, all the explanations and questions that Shen Yuan wanted to say turned into bubbles in those eyes.

"..."

Shen Yuan moved his feet carefully, holding the "flying pillow," and like a punching bag, he shuffled to the bedside.

Then, he sat down in a cowardly manner, only daring to sit a little closer to the edge of the bed.

Shen Yuan lowered his head, his fingers unconsciously picking at the edge of the cushion, which was propped up on his lap, almost completely obscuring half of his body.

He raised his eyelids and furtively glanced at Li Zhi on the sofa with a strong sense of theft.

After a few suffocating seconds of silence, the heaving of Li Zhi's chest finally subsided.

The embarrassment and anger that had erupted from her mother's questioning gaze gradually subsided like a deflated balloon after she had hurled a punch at the "culprit."

Seeing Shen Yuan cowering by the bed like a frightened dog, Li Zhi pursed her lips, and her previously tense lips twitched almost imperceptibly.

She cleared her throat, her voice still a bit harsh, but noticeably less furious than before: "Hey..."

Shen Yuan jolted awake and immediately sat up straight, his face clearly saying, "I know I was wrong."

"...idiot...did it hurt when you hit me?"

Li Zhi's tone was stiff, like reciting a memorized text, but his eyes involuntarily drifted away, as if he had casually asked an unimportant question.

But the girl's slightly red ear tips betrayed the lingering awkwardness and a very faint... concern.

Upon hearing this, Shen Yuan immediately shook his head vigorously, almost throwing the pillow away.

"No, no! It doesn't hurt at all! Really! This pillow is so soft, it's like a tickle! Li Bao, your strength... your aim... hey, that's great, that's great!"

He finished speaking in one breath, wishing he could make every shake of his head bigger. His expression was sincere yet cowardly, and he dared not admit the slightest discomfort. He just wanted to turn the page as soon as possible, afraid that Li Zhi would remember what had just happened and do it again.

Looking at Shen Yuan's exaggeratedly cowardly appearance, as if he wanted to shake his head so hard it left afterimages, Li Zhi's puffed-out cheeks suddenly deflated.

Her tightly pursed lips involuntarily relaxed, and a faint smile spread across her lips like a pebble thrown into a lake.

The smile was initially a little awkward, as if she was trying her best to suppress it, but seeing Shen Yuan's eyes filled with a strong sense of illicit pleasure, she ultimately couldn't hold back.

"Puch-"

A short, crisp laugh suddenly escaped from Li Zhi's throat.

Shen Yuan was shaking his head and acting cowardly with all his might when he suddenly heard Li Zhi's laughter, and he froze.

He looked up and saw that although the girl's face, which had been puffed up with anger just moments before, was still flushed, an irrepressible smile was spreading across her brows and eyes.

Those clear eyes curved into crescent moons, filled with bright light, even more vivid than the lights of West Lake outside the window.

Li Zhi smiled, and her smile was so... natural and beautiful.

Shen Yuan instantly caught the signal of this unexpected turn of events, and the alarm in his heart was cleared up with a "click".

The immense sense of surviving a disaster mixed with a slight feeling of relief that "it's finally all settled," causing a tentative, silly grin to unconsciously spread across his face.

The smile was initially quite reserved, the corners of her mouth carefully curving upwards, her eyes shining as she looked at Li Zhi, afraid that the smile might offend him again.

But he saw that Li Zhi was no longer angry; on the contrary, the smile in his eyes deepened because of his silly grin.

As if he had discovered something interesting, Shen Yuan immediately became a little bolder.

The corners of his mouth widened as he chuckled, unconsciously scratching the back of his slightly messy hair as he laughed.

The suffocating tension in the room was completely shattered by those two brief bursts of laughter, instantly becoming lively and relaxed.

The low hum of the air conditioner became clear again, the papers and pens spread out on the table lay quietly under the lamplight, and the city lights outside the window flowed silently.

Seeing Shen Yuan's silly grin, Li Zhi suddenly realized she'd messed up. Her face flushed, and the lingering embarrassment returned. Her eyebrows shot up, her eyes widened instantly, and she demanded, "You idiot! What are you laughing at?!"

"Uh!" Shen Yuan's wide smile froze instantly, as if an invisible hand had grabbed his neck.

He instinctively gasped, and the corners of his mouth, which had been turned up, snapped back like a kite with a broken string, his expression changing with astonishing speed.

The atmosphere in the room tensed up slightly again, but it was completely different from the previous thrilling atmosphere, carrying a touch of awkwardness unique to childhood sweethearts.

Looking at his sudden silence, as if a pause button had been pressed, Li Zhi felt a flicker of the fierce light that had been hidden deep in his eyes.

A hint of a smile, hard to suppress, finally crept onto the slightly reddened corners of the beautiful girl's eyes and brows.

Just then, a clear and slightly abrupt "gurgling" sound came from the direction of Li Zhi's stomach.

Li Zhi's body stiffened instantly, and his eyes, which still held a hint of slyness, widened even more.

"..."

The girl pursed her lips tightly, trying to swallow back the awkward sound.

Shen Yuan was also taken aback. He had just recovered from the tense instruction of "not to laugh" when he was confused by this sudden "extra meal" signal.

He looked at Li Zhi, who was like an ostrich trying to bury its head in the sofa, and hesitated for less than two seconds—

"Pfft...cough cough..." He quickly covered his mouth with his hand, turning his almost uncontrollable laughter into a proper cough, but his shoulders twitched suspiciously.

"You idiot Shen Yuan! What are you laughing at?!"

Li Zhi's voice suddenly rose a notch, filled with the embarrassment and anger of being caught red-handed, but she quickly glanced at Shen Yuan and then looked away in a flash, her momentum clearly lacking, and her bright red ears gave everything away.

"No! I didn't laugh! I really didn't laugh! Just now it was... um... my throat was itchy!"

Shen Yuan quickly tried to straighten his face.

Yes, shopping is exhausting, and I ate dinner early. Now I've been battling through so many problems for so long... How could I not be hungry?
His heart softened, and his playful intentions were immediately replaced by concern.

Shen Yuan cleared his throat, took out his phone, swiped through the food delivery app a couple of times, and resumed his usual questioning tone.

"What do you want to eat? How about barbecue? Pork tenderloin, pork belly, enoki mushrooms..."

Shen Yuan tentatively ordered a few of the barbecue skewers that Li Zhi usually liked.

Before the words were finished, a clear "gurgling" sound rang out again.

Li Zhi seemed to be paused, her cheeks instantly turning from a blush to a ripe tomato color, and even her ears and neck were tinged with pink.

Shen Yuan looked at Li Zhi's head, which was almost buried in his chest, and her ears, which were bright red. His heart skipped a beat, and he almost couldn't hold back the smile on his lips.

Now, holding back laughter is much harder than solving that electric field problem!
After a brief silence, Li Zhi suddenly raised his head, as if trying to cover something up, his eyebrows raised, glaring fiercely at Shen Yuan.

"Did you hear me! If you heard me, go order some food!!"

Li Zhi grabbed another pillow from the sofa and quickly threw it at Shen Yuan.

"Tap, tap, tap now!"

Shen Yuanfei quickly opened the food delivery app.

"Pork belly, enoki mushrooms, and rice cakes, how about some potato slices? And a couple of grilled chicken wings? And some eggplant?"

Shen Yuan rattled off the menu quickly while his fingers tapped nimbly on the screen.

At this moment, Li Zhi wished she could shut Shen Yuan up.

If you're going to order it, just order it! Why did you have to say it out loud?

Fortunately, Shen Yuan ordered quickly and finished in no time.

"All done! Delivered within 40 minutes!"

After Shen Yuan finished speaking, he looked up and met Li Zhi's eyes, which were filled with indifference.

Li Zhi didn't speak, but just gave him a cold, sidelong glance that seemed to say, "Let's see how long you can stay stupid."

The room fell silent instantly.

The silence that had lasted only a few seconds seemed to stretch out several times over.

In the end, it was Li Zhi who broke the strange silence first.

She cleared her throat and gently tapped the coffee table with the knuckles of her index and middle fingers, making two soft "tap, tap" sounds.

Her voice wasn't loud, but it carried a hint of being forcibly pulled back.

"Have you finished your math test?"

"Huh?" Shen Yuan was taken aback, and subconsciously replied, "No."

Li Zhi immediately glared at Shen Yuan: "Then why don't you hurry up and do it! Don't just stand there waiting for the takeout!"

"oh oh!"

Shen Yuanfei quickly pulled out his homework.

……

The aroma of barbecue, mixed with the scents of cumin and oil, still lingered faintly in the room.

Several empty plastic boxes were piled up in a corner of the coffee table, with bamboo skewers scattered haphazardly among them, silently announcing the "victories" of the extra meal just now.

The feeling of fullness relieved most of the previous tension and fatigue.

Li Zhi let out a satisfied breath, subconsciously touching his slightly bloated belly, his face still showing the satisfaction of being full.

Shen Yuan leaned back on the sofa, casually tidying up the skewers on the coffee table while watching Li Zhi's obviously happy eating, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously turned up.

Just then, the alarm on Li Zhi's phone, which she had placed aside, rang softly—it was a reminder that her study time had ended.

The crisp sound of the bell, like a tiny needle, pierced the languid tranquility at just the right moment.

Li Zhi's eyes brightened instantly. She stretched and got up nimbly.

"Okay," she said, her voice tinged with a languidness after a meal, but her tone was crisp.

"I've eaten well and rested enough."

After saying that, Li Zhi neatly tidied up the test papers, pens, and the unfinished milk tea that were spread out on the desk.

The movements had a sense of swiftness.

Seeing her actions, Shen Yuan understood. His relaxed smile froze slightly, and a hint of disappointment flashed in his eyes.

But he immediately stood up as well.

"Oh... um, okay." He replied subconsciously, his eyes following Li Zhi's tidying up.

Li Zhi quickly gathered her school supplies and hugged them to her chest.

She turned around to face Shen Yuan.

The girl's gaze swept quickly across Shen Yuan's face, and then, as if she had found a reasonable conclusion, she spoke with a relaxed tone, as if she had completed a task.

"You did alright with today's worksheet assignment... Tomorrow... Remember to get up early on time tomorrow. We're going to the temple."

Shen Yuan nodded: "I understand. Breakfast will be at the hotel tomorrow, and it's included in the room rate. So... I'll wake you up early."

Li Zhi responded.

At this moment, the two had already arrived at the door.

Li Zhi opened the door, stepped outside, and smiled slightly at Shen Yuan.

"They're leaving."

A brief greeting drifted in through the doorway, accompanied by the soft click of the door closing.

boom.

Crisp and clean.

The door was simply closed in front of Shen Yuan.

Shen Yuan remained standing there, staring blankly at the closed door.

The barbecue box left on the coffee table seemed even emptier than before.

Only a faint smell of food remained in the air, along with the sounds of things being completely shut out from outside.

Shen Yuan stood alone in the hotel room and let out a soft sigh.

Meanwhile, next door, Li Zhi, holding the exam paper, leaned against the door and also let out a long sigh of relief.

There were no plots like those in TV dramas and novels, nothing that would spark any imagination, and everything was just like any other day.

Plain and simple.

Nothing happened; everything proceeded as usual.

“...idiot.”

Shen Yuan and Li Zhi spoke almost simultaneously in the room.

(End of this chapter)