Chapter 578: Chapter 239: Li Zhi: I’m Not Ready Yet

Her heart skipped a beat. The panic that had faded during their playful scuffle came rushing back like ice water, instantly washing away the sweet warmth on her lips.

Her body, which had relaxed slightly from the kiss, suddenly went rigid! Like a fully drawn bowstring, every inch of her muscles tensed in resistance against his unfamiliar touch.

This was especially true when Shen Yuan’s palm pressed flat against the smooth, sensitive skin between her taut shoulder blades.

A wave of immense embarrassment, mixed with the panic of having some deeper privacy invaded, shattered all of Li Zhi’s forced composure.

She could clearly feel her slender spine arch upwards under Shen Yuan’s palm, forming a subtle yet fragile arc, as if instinctively trying to flee his deeper, scorching exploration.

Her toes curled helplessly inside her socks, clenching tight. Her knuckles ached, strained within the tight grip of Shen Yuan’s interlaced fingers.

Shen Yuan’s breath was like a dense, inescapable net, closing in around her.

Their lips hadn’t parted. In fact, her trembling only seemed to make him deepen the kiss with a slightly more possessive force, tinged with an indescribable obsession.

But his wandering hand—the depth it reached and the unfamiliar sensations it brought—had completely surpassed the limits of what Li Zhi could accept.

His warm breath ghosted across her cheek. It should have felt intimate and tender, but now it felt like dangerous, searing sparks.

The body pinning her down felt immensely powerful, like shackles cast from steel, leaving her no room to struggle free.

An image of ’the troublemaker’ with his smug, wicked grin flashed through Li Zhi’s mind, overlapping with the boy before her—the one lost in the moment, breathing heavily, and pressing ever closer.

The fear of losing herself to the unknown coiled around her heart like a cold vine, squeezing tighter and tighter.

A silent sense of suffocation crept up and seized her throat.

Her subtle trembling failed to register as a warning to Shen Yuan. Instead, it seemed to act as an encouraging signal.

The calloused pads of his fingers, on the hand roaming her back, grazed against her delicate skin in an attempt to ease her tension.

However, in this situation, such a slight attempt at reassurance was woefully inadequate.

When Shen Yuan’s fingertips unintentionally brushed across a particularly sensitive dip in her spine, she jerked violently, as if seared by a hot iron!

It wasn’t a rejection of the kiss, but a visceral terror and resistance erupting from deep within her, a reaction to an exploration more intimate than she could have ever imagined.

"Shen Yuan..."

His name escaped from between her lips, muffled and heavy with emotion, laced with an unprecedented, bewildered panic.

She was adrift in a chaotic sea of consciousness, barely able to hear her own voice.

But in the next instant, that bone-deep fear finally shattered all her barriers. It broke through with a faint sob and a distinct tremor in her voice, shattering the heavy atmosphere in the room.

"I... I’m a little scared..."

Li Zhi’s voice, laced with a faint sob, pierced through Shen Yuan’s consciousness like an ice pick.

The boy’s body went rigid. The fire blazing in his eyes was instantly extinguished, replaced by shock and overwhelming panic.

"Li Bao..."

All his impulses to push things further crumbled at the sound of her words, which were laced with fear and a plea for mercy.

Only then did he realize what he had done.

The air, which had felt scorching hot moments before, suddenly felt disturbed.

It was as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head. The surging, demanding lava of desire in his body instantly cooled and solidified.

Shen Yuan took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the passion that had nearly overwhelmed his reason.

He immediately released most of his weight, and the heavy pressure on Li Zhi vanished.

The muscles in the arms supporting him beside Li Zhi tensed sharply. But rather than shoving himself away, he slowly relaxed, easing his rigid posture.

The fingers that had been tightly clasped around her wrist slowly slid away from her skin.

Shen Yuan looked at the girl beneath him.

Li Zhi looked like a terrified little animal, curled up in the wrinkled sheets where he had been pressing against her.

Her dark hair was splayed across the pillow. The color had drained from her cheeks, and her eyes, shimmering with unshed tears, were rimmed with red as she stared at him in a panic.

The girl’s slender body was trembling uncontrollably. Her lips were pressed into a thin, tight line, and even her breaths were shallow and careful.

Shen Yuan’s Adam’s apple bobbed violently. His heart felt like it was being squeezed by an invisible hand, a painful, bitter ache. Regret washed over him like a tidal wave.

Shen Yuan used his arms to support his heavy frame, pushing himself back bit by bit. He tried to put some distance between them, to undo the way he had been completely blanketing her.

His movements were filled with an unspoken urgency as he shifted back across the mattress, returning to his original spot.

As he moved, his back brushed lightly against the soft headboard, creating the faint rustle of fabric on fabric.

Amid the low hum of the air conditioner and the fading echo of their racing hearts, the faint sound was no longer startling or abrupt.

He looked into Li Zhi’s panicked, unsettled eyes, the memory of her small whimper and her whispered "scared" echoing in his mind.

"Li Bao... I..."

Shen Yuan’s voice was unbearably hoarse. He opened his mouth but couldn’t find the right words.

All traces of dazed passion and confident determination had vanished from the boy’s face, replaced by utter helplessness and heartache.

He stared at her, carefully watching for the slightest change in her expression.

"I... I..."

Shen Yuan repeated the word with difficulty, but it dissolved into a heavy, self-reproaching sigh.

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