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

Chapter 281 Three Models
The last rays of golden light had not yet faded from the twilight of late May, and a warm breeze carrying the slight heat of summer swept through the empty corridor.

Bathed in the twilight, the number "31" on the scarlet banner stood out like a heavy brand, breathing silently in the warm orange light.

Shen Yuan skillfully raised his left hand, and the phone camera steadily framed the striking symbol in front of him that proclaimed the passage of time.

"come on."

Shen Yuan placed the can of cola in front of the camera.

Li Zhi raised her glass slightly, and with a crisp clinking sound, her ice cream cup gently touched the cola in Shen Yuan's hand.

Her clear voice carried a hint of coolness, as if touched by the evening breeze.

"come on."

The red ribbons on their wrists shimmered with a warm glow in the setting sun.

Shen Yuan put down his phone and glanced at the numbers on the banner.

At that moment, Li Zhi's gaze also fell on the banner.

"Let's go, sweetheart, it's time to read."

"Ah."

Li Zhi responded, his gaze finally sweeping over the huge, silent number.

The two walked side by side into the classroom, their long shadows cast by the setting sun.

The moment the door was pushed open, a slightly lively atmosphere rushed out.

Evening self-study had not officially started yet, and the classroom was filled with relaxed laughter and the rustling sound of turning pages.

Some students were organizing their notes from the previous class, while others were discussing the tricky problems in their homework.

Shen Yuan led Li Zhi to her seat and naturally pulled out her chair.

Li Zhi stuffed his schoolbag into his desk and habitually glanced around.

He Zhiyu and Zhuo Peipei huddled together, looking at their phone screens and chuckling softly.

Ah Jie, having done something unknown, was being carried by Yang Ze and the others towards the back door of the classroom.

“Speaking of which, the third mock exam is in a couple of days,” Li Zhi suddenly said.

Shen Yuan responded softly, then looked up and followed her gaze to survey the surroundings.

"It all feels pretty easy."

Li Zhi nodded.

"The last major exam is basically about maintaining a good mindset. The questions are generally easier than the college entrance exam, and ultimately it's not the final blow."

"Doing well on the exam is reassuring, but if you do poorly... there's still a month to fill in the gaps in your knowledge, so there's still time."

After Li Zhi finished speaking, he scooped up a spoonful of ice cream and ate it.

The girl turned her head and found that Shen Yuan was not looking at the front of the classroom or other students, but was looking at her with an unusually focused expression and a somewhat ambiguous smile.

There was an indescribable depth in his eyes, which made her heart skip a beat.

"Hey, you idiot," Li Zhi felt a little uncomfortable under his gaze and subconsciously nudged him with her shoulder, "What are you grinning about? Hurry up and read your book!"

Shen Yuan swayed slightly, but instead of calming down, his smile widened.

He leaned closer, his warm breath brushing against Li Zhi's ear, his voice low, almost a whisper, "Teacher Li...can we talk about something?"

Li Zhi was somewhat bewildered by his sudden closeness and mysterious tone. She turned her head slightly, her clear eyes looking at him questioningly, waiting for him to continue.

Shen Yuan's smile deepened, his voice carrying a hint of deliberate pleading.

"Look, the third mock exam is coming up soon. How about... this time..."

He deliberately dragged out his tone, his eyes gleaming with a dazzling smile.

"...Could you let me pass?"

"Why?" Li Zhi paused, her fingers holding the ice cream scoop, and frowned as she looked at him.

Why bring this up all of a sudden?

Shen Yuan propped his head up and met her gaze: "I probably really can't beat you in the college entrance exam..."

He tapped the science exam paper spread out on the table lightly with his fingertips, his expression serious yet playful.

"The third mock exam is the easiest, and it's not the final battle, so the questions are a bit easier—"

He suddenly leaned closer, a low, hushed voice rolling from his throat: "This is probably my only chance to surpass Teacher Li."

Li Zhi was suddenly stunned.

Those images, deliberately sealed deep inside the drawer, were suddenly flung open—

The boy's defiant voice pierced through time: "One day I will surpass you!"

She tossed her chin up and made a reckless bet: "If your total score surpasses mine, I'll grant you any wish."

Then, unexpectedly...

"I'll take you straight to get the marriage certificate then."

……

The setting sun streamed through the windowpane, casting a translucent crimson glow on her suddenly clenched fingers, and her porcelain-white earlobes instantly glowed with a scalding red.

The girl abruptly turned her head away, letting out a forced, calm snort: "Idiot! All you ever do is try to find loopholes!"

The harsh, menacing tone at the end of the sentence was like honey, sweetly coating the suddenly disordered heartbeat.

She raised her hand and pinched Shen Yuan's arm lightly, her watery eyes widening in surprise.

"Dream on! Release the water? No way!"

Li Zhi's voice carried a hint of deliberate ferocity, yet a sly smile involuntarily crept onto his lips.

"Shen Yuan, you're thinking of taking shortcuts and cheating in all three mock exams. Your moral character is seriously flawed!"

"Huh? I..." Shen Yuan was pinched so hard he was grimacing, and he was about to make a fuss.

Li Zhi didn't give him a chance, and with a "snap," her fingertip tapped the science practice book spread out on the table.

She leaned forward slightly, her beautiful eyes locking onto Shen Yuan from a distance of only inches, her gaze carrying a blatant hint of provocation.

"You really want to beat me? Fine—go and start filling in the gaps in your knowledge!"

Her voice trailed off, like a tiny hook gently scratching at Shen Yuan's heart.

"If you're so capable... why don't you achieve your little goal by passing the college entrance exam with your real ability?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the noisy background noise in the classroom seemed to be instantly filtered out.

Li Zhi suddenly leaned closer, his warm breath brushing against Shen Yuan's earlobe without any obstruction, causing a slight tingling sensation.

The girl's sweet scent, mixed with a faint aroma of ice cream, instantly enveloped him.

Shen Yuan could even feel the subtle touch of her soft sideburns brushing against the side of his face.

A very soft whisper, yet carrying a clear smile, like a breathy sound carrying an electric current, precisely pierced Shen Yuan's ear canal.

"You bastard, you were so bold yesterday, and now you're chickening out and want to go easy on us in the third mock exam?"

Her voice was soft, yet clear, carrying an intimacy that only he could perceive.

"...Let me see just how determined you are to get the marriage certificate?"

The moment the words left his mouth, the smile on Shen Yuan's face froze.

He suddenly raised his head, and his hand, which had been supporting him on the edge of the table, unconsciously tightened its grip, almost squeezing the paper until it crumpled.

Those eyes, which always held a smile when they looked at Li Zhishi, now clearly reflected Li Zhishi's face so close to theirs, and deep in their pupils was an undisguised shock.

The air in the classroom seemed to freeze for a moment.

The term "bad dog," an affectionate yet shameful name she only heard when she was sobbing and accusing him, was clearly uttered by her in the classroom where the sound of reading was faint!
And then there was that so-called "determination to get the marriage certificate," that sudden surge of heat, like an electric current, shot from Shen Yuan's ears through his spine, even hotter than Li Zhi's breath.

His Adam's apple bobbed unconsciously, causing the veins on the side of his neck to tense for a moment.

Li Zhici's porcelain-white earlobes were visibly flushed with a layer of blood, and that thin red color looked particularly alluring as she raised her chin slightly in a deliberately provocative pose.

She seemed to realize that she had impulsively revealed the most private code between the two of them.

The girl's long eyelashes fluttered rapidly, but she stubbornly refused to look away. Instead, she met Shen Yuan's gaze, her eyes seeming to silently question him.

"What? You're afraid to accept the challenge?"

The astonishment in Shen Yuan's eyes lasted only a moment before it was replaced by a surge of determination.

The boy's gaze was sharp and unwavering, locking onto those watery yet stubborn eyes so close to his.

He leaned forward almost imperceptibly, silently drawing Li Zhi into his own small territory.

Shen Yuan's voice was very low, each word clearly entering Li Zhi's suddenly contracting pupils:

"it is good."

"...Just wait."

Without any exaggerated volume or unnecessary embellishment, it was like a red-hot branding iron, unexpectedly scalding Li Zhi's heart, which had just been filled with cunning and teasing.

The girl's heartbeat suddenly went out of control after his deep and powerful "You wait," but she quickly suppressed the excitement and transformed it into a provocative and bright smile on her lips.

Instead of backing away, she slightly raised her chin and retorted, word by word.

"Okay."

"I am waiting."

Li Zhi raised his voice slightly, his dark eyes gleaming with a light and determination no less than his own.

"I'm waiting for you to take me to get our marriage certificate."

Just as the two locked eyes—

"Click."

A clear, crisp sound of a mobile phone camera shutter rang out in front of me without warning.

The two, engrossed in their eye contact, were suddenly startled!
The certainty on Shen Yuan's face and the stubbornness in Li Zhi's eyes froze instantly. Both of them seemed to be paused, simultaneously turning their heads sharply in the direction of the sound—

He Zhiyu was holding up her phone with a grin, the camera pointed directly at the two of them.

The warm light of the setting sun shone through the window, illuminating a corner of her phone's camera lens and clearly reflecting the happy look on her face as if she had just tasted candy.

Her fingers were still in the same position where she had pressed the shutter button; clearly, the precious photo with its subtle and captivating atmosphere had been perfectly captured and added to her phone's album.

He Zhiyu noticed the two of them looking at her at the same time. Instead of panicking at being caught, she smiled even more brightly.

He Zhiyu shook her phone; the screen was still showing the image she had just captured.

She moved closer to Zhuo Peipei, deliberately showing the screen towards Li Zhi and Shen Yuan, her voice brimming with barely concealed excitement.

"Look, look! What a 'masterpiece of atmosphere'! Wow, the lighting, the composition, the angle..."

She tapped the screen with her finger, commenting on Shen Yuan and Li Zhi in the photo.

"His eyes are so expressive! The sunset is shining on his profile...tsk, Li Zhi, your little expression, stubborn yet shy...and Shen Yuan's eyes too."

"Tsk tsk, the 'I will definitely win' aura is practically overflowing! I can feel the pink bubbles even through the screen! Now we have matching profile pictures!"

After speaking, He Zhiyu turned her smiling gaze back to the two parties involved, who were still not fully recovered from the bombshell of "getting their marriage certificate."

She blinked, leaned forward slightly, and asked in a low voice, her eyes brimming with gossip and curiosity.

"Hey, tell me, tell me, you were all so close and whispering just now, what earth-shattering thing were you talking about?"

The classroom lights came on just then, the incandescent light diluting the warm yellow of the setting sun, but making the slight blush on Li Zhi's face from the conversation and the shyness brought on by He Zhiyu's direct questioning even clearer.

She took a deep breath and met He Zhiyu's eyes, which were sparkling with gossip. Her gaze instantly switched to the familiar "death stare".

"He Zhiyu! Are you trying to die?!"

……

Before the cicadas had fully awakened in May, the numbers on the countdown banner had quietly slipped from "31" into the red line of "25".

In the final mock exam room, the air conditioning slowly adjusted the temperature to keep the senior high school students in a comfortable state.

Shen Yuan's back was ramrod straight, his pen tip hovering above the final, most challenging question. The question stem contained nested composite functions, intertwined with derivative symbols and parameter constraints.

Simple derivatives, ultimate enjoyment.

The question seems simple, but in reality, it's incredibly difficult.

The afternoon sun slanted across the blue-painted window frame, casting geometrically shaped spots of light on his open math paper.

The pen tip scribbled across the draft paper, listing key equations and deriving critical points of parameters.

In the science exam, Shen Yuan's performance was incredibly smooth.

Although the questions were not all 'gentle' as Shen Yuan had initially anticipated, the overall style of the third mock exam did indeed emphasize solid foundations and comprehensive application, deliberately avoiding overly difficult or unusual questions.

This is precisely Shen Yuan's area of ​​expertise.

The biology multiple-choice questions were clear and had few traps, so he had a smooth ride.

In the chemistry section, the process questions were well-structured and the amount of calculation was moderate. He wrote steadily and the equations were neatly written.

The physics section remains challenging, but its difficulty is on par with the second mock exam, far less of a hurdle than the first one.

Shen Yuan calmly dissected the problem, analyzing mechanics, electromagnetic conversion, and energy conservation, the knowledge points fitting together in his mind like mortise and tenon joints.

The complex trajectory of motion is eventually broken down into several clear parts, presenting logically distinct solution steps in the answer area.

Time flowed by calmly as he wrote efficiently and attentively. He even had time to quickly review his answers to ensure they were perfect.

When the proctor announced, "There are fifteen minutes left in the exam," Shen Yuan had already finished checking.

He didn't relax at all, but instead turned his attention back to the answer sheet, using the last bit of time to check for any omissions or oversights. His fingertips lightly touched the paper, his composure belying that of someone in a countdown exam room.

When the bell finally pierced the air as the exam ended, Shen Yuan calmly put down his pen, a sense of post-exam relief creeping onto his face. He had passed the science section with a steady and solid performance.

The English exam in the afternoon was Shen Yuan's true home turf.

The moment the exam paper was unfolded, a familiar language structure immediately came into view.

The dialogues in the listening section were clear and natural, and the vocabulary was completely within my grasp.

As the sun began to set, casting long shadows across the examination hall, Shen Yuan felt as if he had an abundance of time.

After checking his answers twice and confirming that there were no omissions, he looked up at the clock and saw that there was still some time before the exam ended.

Unlike the tension before the exam, his face now showed a calm and composed demeanor. He leaned back slightly in his chair, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

It wasn't fatigue, but rather a feeling of accumulating energy for the post-exam transition.

For some reason, Li Zhi's words, "I'm waiting for you to take me to get our marriage certificate," flashed through my mind again.

A faint smile crept across Shen Yuan's lips, but he quickly suppressed it, focusing instead on the calm waiting before him.

The final bell finally rang as scheduled, its sharp and announcing sound sweeping across the entire teaching building.

"Stop writing!"

The proctor's calm voice rang out.

Almost simultaneously, Shen Yuan relaxed his straight back.

Overall, the three mock exams went smoothly and in a controlled manner for him.

A weight has been lifted from my heart.

We're one step closer to the final battlefield.

(End of this chapter)