Chapter 103: Chapter 97: Her Gaze Against the Crowd

Li Zhi’s almond-shaped eyes shot wide, and she shrank back like a startled fawn.

Her right hand shot out, snatching a gel pen from the desk. She held it between them like a small dagger, its metal tip a clear warning for Shen Yuan not to cross the line.

"Hey! Selaan, where are your eyes wandering!" Li Zhi snapped, her voice tinged with annoyance.

Startled by her sudden outburst, Shen Yuan flinched backward, his hands shooting up beside his head as if in surrender.

"I swear, I was just appreciating beauty. Don’t look at me with such a biased view," Shen Yuan tried to argue.

As he spoke, he even made a show of pushing up a pair of non-existent glasses.

"You should be praising me for having an eye for beauty."

But the beautiful girl wasn’t having any of it.

Li Zhi thrust the pen forward another half-inch, its tip aimed right at Shen Yuan’s eyes. "Pah! As if my beauty needs *you* to discover it."

Shen Yuan frantically waved his hands. "That’s not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?"

"’I find the maiden so bewitching; I expect she finds me the same.’"

Shen Yuan chuckled slyly. "You should be complimenting me."

Hearing this, Li Zhi took a deep breath and gave Shen Yuan a massive eye-roll.

"You are unbelievably narcissistic."

Shen Yuan giggled. "I call it self-love."

Li Zhi waved a dismissive hand, no longer wanting to continue the conversation.

She was afraid that if she talked to Shen Yuan any longer, she’d throw up her lunch.

Seeing Li Zhi raise a book to create a physical barrier, Shen Yuan decided to drop the subject.

’What does she mean, wandering? I was looking openly!’

’Hmph. What’s the point of blocking the view now? I’m moving over on Sunday, and we’ll be desk mates again then.’

At this thought, the corners of Shen Yuan’s mouth turned up slightly.

Nearby, Ah Jie, who was copying vocabulary, propped his head on his hand and scoffed.

’Stupid Shen Yuan,’ he thought. ’What a poser.’

"Have you memorized your vocabulary yet? Finished your English exam paper? Do you need me to petition my sister to become your English tutor?"

Ah Jie, who had been grinning, immediately wiped the smile from his face.

"Bro, my mistake. I’ll copy the words right now. I’ll memorize them, I’ll study hard, I’ll grind!"

Ah Jie said with a placating smile.

Shen Yuan just snorted coldly.

During the midday nap, Shen Yuan slept for only 10 minutes, just as he always did.

Ten minutes was more than enough for him.

Shen Yuan figured that if his [Vigorous and Full of Energy] skill leveled up, he wouldn’t even need to sleep at noon anymore.

He’d probably be able to stay full of energy the entire day.

Then he could out-hustle everyone even more effectively.

That left just one problem.

’When would the Stupid System give him a quest?’

Shen Yuan wasn’t anxious at all. Really.

「After the second period in the afternoon」

Shen Yuan could already hear the cheers from the first and second-year students.

’There was a time he was one of them, too!’

Just as Shen Yuan was lost in nostalgia, the Chinese class representative, Chen Tingting, walked into the classroom carrying a stack of exam papers.

"Weekly Chinese quiz!"

As her voice fell, a collective groan of despair rose from the students of Class 15.

"Gaia! Another test!"

"Just take it, I guess. What else can we do?"

Shen Yuan snapped out of his pleasant reverie and accepted his fate.

The papers fluttered down like snowflakes. Shen Yuan passed the stack behind him, then hunched over his own desk.

’Alright, let’s do this!’

The main purpose of these weekly quizzes was to supplement the first round of systematic review, helping students consolidate the material they had covered that week.

The minutes ticked by as the exam progressed.

As Shen Yuan finished the last sentence of his essay, his gaze drifted involuntarily to his right.

Li Zhi was already done.

She was currently twirling her pen between her fingers, her eyes on her paper as if admiring her own masterpiece.

Shen Yuan gazed at the beautiful girl’s profile, staring boldly.

He was completely undeterred by what had happened at noon.

’He was simply discovering beauty, that’s all!’

Just as Shen Yuan was gazing at Li Zhi, the rain began to subside, and a crack opened in the clouds.

A single ray of sunlight, like a sliver of gold foil, pierced the clouds and sliced diagonally into the classroom.

In the refracting light, the wisps of hair by Li Zhi’s ear were gilded in a fuzzy halo.

He watched as dancing motes of light flowed down her eyelashes, pooling on the bridge of her nose into a tiny golden lake that rippled every time she blinked.

The brilliant light seemed to dazzle the beautiful girl. As she raised a hand to shield her eyes, the sunbeam slid down her swan-like neck and past her collar, filling the hollow of her clavicle with liquid daylight.

CLACK. The pen between Shen Yuan’s fingers suddenly dropped.

The soft sound startled the sprite in the light and shadow. Li Zhi turned her head abruptly, her hair flinging up a fine powder of gold.

The moment their eyes met, it was as if a silencing spell had been cast over the entire classroom.

"Whoa!!"

It was unclear who gasped, but the sound tore through the silence.

The students of Class 15 raised their heads one after another, their gazes drawn to the world outside the window.

The rain had passed, and the sky was clear.

The moment the storm clouds outside the window fully parted, a waterfall of light cascaded down upon them.

Sister Lan watched this beautiful scene unfold without a word of interruption. Instead, she slyly took out her phone and snapped a picture of the classroom.

And in a corner of that photo, the girl’s gaze went against the flow of the crowd, landing on the boy’s stunned face.

For the third-year students, the beautiful scenery outside was a moment of respite from their heavy academic burden.