I'm in Senior Year, and the System Says I'm Going on a Blind Date with My Childhood Sweetheart

A smile lingered on the boy’s lips as he spoke to Li Zhi. "Want some? You treated me to lunch, so I’ll treat you to ice cream."

Hearing Shen Yuan’s words, Li Zhi frowned slightly, seeming to hesitate.

She glanced at the meal card in his hand.

"But we just finished eating. Eating something cold right now... wouldn’t that be bad for you?"

Shen Yuan chuckled. "Let me ask you this, then. When you’re eating hot pot, do you or do you not drink ice-cold soda?"

Li Zhi blinked, then suddenly turned away.

The beautiful girl’s voice drifted back to the other three.

"I just remembered, I think I need to buy some pen refills."

Li Zhi walked off at a brisk pace, and Shen Yuan followed with his long-legged strides.

Zhuo Peipei and He Zhiyu exchanged a look, then tacitly followed along.

*They’d missed the honey-sweet moment earlier, but now, even if it was just a sprinkle of sugar at the supermarket, Zhuo Peipei and He Zhiyu were determined to get their fill today!*

Shen Yuan pulled open the glass door of the supermarket freezer with one hand, and a wave of cold air mixed with the sweet scent of vanilla rushed out to meet them.

"Pick whatever you want, but I’ll say it now—only one."

The moment Shen Yuan’s voice fell, a small pout formed on the beautiful girl’s face.

*You really did want two, didn’t you?* Shen Yuan thought.

Li Zhi stared at the white frost coating the inside of the freezer, the tips of her ears turning faintly red in the cold air.

After a moment of observation, she locked onto her target, reaching for a chocolate torch on the bottom shelf.

Just then, Shen Yuan suddenly spoke. "Oh, dear. I wonder if my allowance this month is enough for two..."

"You don’t have to eat one."

Li Zhi lifted her foot as if to step on his sneaker, but Shen Yuan, having anticipated this, took half a step back.

"Nope, can’t do that. I can’t let you have two."

As he said this, Shen Yuan produced two chocolate torches as if by magic. "To the checkout we go! Ice cream time."

Watching Shen Yuan’s cheerful back, the corners of Li Zhi’s mouth lifted into a slight curve, like an acacia blossom on an early summer branch, poised between clinging and falling.

Just as Li Zhi was about to leave the supermarket, her gaze inadvertently swept past the candy aisle and fell upon the quietly hanging bags of White Rabbit Creamy Candy.

Her eyes fixed on a bag, and she reached out and took it down.

"Could you pay for this for me? I’ll transfer you the money later."

At that moment, He Zhiyu, who was at the checkout, saw the White Rabbit candy. Her brain was instantly flooded with sweetness.

He Zhiyu’s mouth fell open, and for a moment, she seemed to have lost the ability to speak.

If Zhuo Peipei hadn’t been there to maintain her composure, He Zhiyu probably wouldn’t have even been able to finish paying.

As Shen Yuan pushed aside the supermarket’s plastic curtain, two chocolate torches in hand, the drone of summer cicadas flooded his ears. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

He squinted against the bright sun, his gaze traveling across the concrete ground, from which heatwaves shimmered, and landed on a silhouette dappled by the swaying shadows of a tree.

Li Zhi was standing under the tree, head tilted back, her loose strands of hair dyed amber by a stray sunbeam.

Two boys carrying a basketball walked past. One of them suddenly stumbled into his friend, his eyes fixed on the beautiful girl in the shade.

Shen Yuan strode toward Li Zhi and handed her the ice cream. He was about to speak when, at that very moment, she turned her head. Her face, fractured by the tree’s shadow into fine shards of light, left him speechless.

Shen Yuan momentarily forgot what he was going to say. It wasn’t until Li Zhi reached out and took the ice cream from him that he snapped out of it.

"Let’s go."

Li Zhi made no mention of his earlier trance, simply tearing open the wrapper and starting back toward the classroom.

Shen Yuan nodded and followed.

He Zhiyu stood where the two had been, staring blankly at the backs of her childhood friends.

"Wow, that moment just now... it had such a vibe."

After she spoke, she noticed a single tear tracing its way down the President’s serene face.

Alright, their brains were completely full of sugar now.

"Peipei, let’s go! They’re getting away! If we don’t hurry, we won’t get any more of the sweet stuff!"

At He Zhiyu’s urging, the President immediately snapped back to reality.

"Go, go, go! Getting our sugar fix is what’s important!"

Shen Yuan walked beside Li Zhi, with two sugar fiends trailing behind him.

The four of them had already forgotten Li Zhi’s original excuse for going to the supermarket.

Pen refills? These two were practically making heart-signs at each other!

But the path back to class was destined to disappoint the two sugar fiends.

The weather was too hot; no one wanted to spend a single extra second under the blazing sun. Everyone was rushing.

It wasn’t until they were back in the classroom, feeling the temperature that had been lowered by the air conditioner, that the group let out a collective sigh of relief.

As Li Zhi sat down in her seat, Shen Yuan heard the rustle of plastic.

He didn’t pay it much mind, turning instead to chat with Ah Jie beside him.

But he hadn’t exchanged more than a couple of sentences when the sound of a plastic wrapper reached his ears again.

"What tasty thing did you secretly buy?"

Shen Yuan turned his head to see Li Zhi holding a blue and white bag of White Rabbit Creamy Candy between her fingertips.

Her slender fingers fiddled with the packaging, making a crinkling sound.

"Whoa. And here I thought someone just turned her nose up at the candy *I* bought."

Shen Yuan deliberately leaned closer, smiling as he said, "So, was my masterpiece of a choice so memorable you had to go get it yourself?"

"Boring."

With that, Li Zhi opened the bag, took out a single piece, and unwrapped it.

When the candy, wrapped in its thin layer of edible rice paper, was suddenly pressed against his lips, Shen Yuan froze completely.

A split second later, he reflexively leaned back, the motion so abrupt it caused the fringe of hair on his forehead to sway.

The boy’s pupils contracted, and his Adam’s apple bobbed unconsciously. The hand that had been tucked into his pocket shot out to brace himself on the edge of the desk, his fingertips nudging a book askew by half an inch.

Outside, the drone of the cicadas suddenly seemed to crescendo. The cool air from the conditioner, now carrying the sweet, creamy scent of the candy, rushed into his nose.