Forced into a romantic relationship

Chapter 140 The First Lesson of University

[Temporary task completed, 25 points earned]

Han Zhou returned to his dormitory wearing a mask.

The dormitory supervisor was surprised to see a student wearing a mask entering the dormitory for the first time. If she hadn't remembered the handsome young man with a cast on his arm who would greet her every time he entered or left the dormitory, she probably would have immediately regarded him as a suspicious person and stopped him from entering the dormitory.

After recognizing Han Zhou's identity, she naturally chose to let him pass and asked him a few questions with great concern. Her gossip was burning brightly in her heart. She wondered if this young man had cheated on her with a girl and scratched her face.

I don't know how she came up with that idea.

Han Zhou pushed open the dormitory door. Chen Long was sitting at the table playing games. He was stunned for two seconds when he saw him, and then asked in confusion, "Han Zhou, why are you wearing a mask again?"

Hearing his words, Chen Zheng, who was browsing his classmates' WeChat Moments one by one, got up, put on his glasses, glanced at the mask, and casually said, "I've seen this mask before. It's sold near a park outside the east gate of the school. Who did you go to the park with tonight? Probably a girl, right?"

Chen Long was taken aback and exclaimed with respect, "Amazing, Brother Hai! You were able to analyze so much from just a small mask?"

He has never been stingy with flattery, especially towards Chen Zheng, since it's not so easy to get a sense of accomplishment from flattering someone else.

Chen Zheng pushed up his glasses and said earnestly, "I told you to play fewer games and spend more time paying attention to information online. This mask appeared on the school's confession wall before. I heard that it is usually sold as a set, one for boys and one for girls. Later, some people even used it as a special way to confess their feelings."

"Han Zhou's personality is clearly not the type to actively buy masks for fun, so he must have gone to buy them with someone. They might have even been to the park beforehand, so we can be pretty sure that person is a girl. I guess it's a girl who wants to confess her feelings to him in this way. And it's possible that this girl is an older woman, like a senior, since freshmen might not understand the meaning of these masks."

Chen Long's eyes widened, and Huo Zhencheng, who was hanging clothes on the balcony, was also somewhat surprised. To be honest, Chen Zheng's analysis was quite interesting and made a lot of sense.

"Hey bro, you're awesome."

Chen Long offered another compliment, then thought for a moment and felt puzzled, "But there's one thing I don't understand. How can you tell if someone is a girl just by looking in the park and buying a mask? Can't it be a boy?"

Chen Zheng shook his head, thinking that this guy was hopeless, and asked in return, "Would you go for a walk in the park late at night with a boy?"

"Yes."

I thought Chen Long would suddenly understand and gladly accept my teaching, but to my surprise, he nodded honestly and said with a nostalgic look, "Back in high school, what I liked most was going to the park and strolling around with my brothers. We even bought masks together during the Lunar New Year, and I still keep them at home as souvenirs."

Chen Zheng was taken aback, feeling a little embarrassed. He coughed twice and said, "It's normal to have one or two exceptions now and then, but you've definitely never had a girlfriend, right?"

"No, that's why I'm determined to find a girlfriend in my freshman year!" Chen Long was full of fighting spirit.

"It's exactly what I expected."

Chen Zheng pushed up his glasses, a look of "I see" on his face, and said with pity, "After all, he's never had a girlfriend, so it's normal that he doesn't understand the meaning of going to the park."

Chen Long was silent for a moment, then gave him a pitying look: "I don't think you've ever had a girlfriend, have you?"

No, we're all single, what's there for you to be so proud of?
Chen Zheng's expression froze.

Just then, Huo Zhencheng finished hanging up the laundry and walked into the dormitory, asking, "Han Zhou, what's wrong with you? Did a girl really confess her feelings to you?"

Chen Zheng then came to his senses and looked at Han Zhou with Chen Long.

Old Huo is indeed straightforward; it's much more practical to ask him directly than to spend ages analyzing and speculating.

Han Zhou didn't say anything, closed the dormitory door, and silently took off his mask.

The dormitory was silent for a full five seconds, then erupted in a deafening burst of laughter.

"Pfft! Hahahaha, if you're not Han Zhou, where did you come from, some kind of Dalmatian that has come to life, or an imported Dalmatian? How come your face is covered in watercolor marks?"

Chen Long laughed until tears streamed down his face. He simply went AFK and ignored his teammates' friendly greetings, slapping the table and laughing uncontrollably.

Chen Zheng also laughed heartily: "That's a brilliant analogy! Han Zhou, have you ever looked in a mirror?"

Of the group, Huo Zhencheng was the only one who laughed somewhat subtly. His burly body trembled uncontrollably as he forced a laugh and asked, "What's wrong with you?"

Han Zhou sighed. He knew everyone would react this way, which was why he closed the dormitory door before taking off his mask. Otherwise, he would have a headache if other students gathered around.

He never imagined that what Ouyang Lianyu meant by "doing hard labor" was actually playing "games" with her.

According to Ouyang Lianyu herself, the reason she was so forgetful and prone to injury was not because she was a careless person, but because she was always too focused on one thing, often neglecting things outside of that thing, which made her seem careless.

In an effort to break this habit, she has tried many things recently, but none of them have been very effective. Recently, she learned about a way to distract herself: "face drawing".

The method is simple. First, choose something you are interested in and make it your main task. Then, find someone to help you by having them lie down near your left or right side. This person doesn't need to do anything but simply "offer" their face.

Participants need to hold a colored pencil, raise their hand and place the pencil slightly above the person helping them's face, and then hold this position.

Next, participants need to focus their attention on the first task they choose, while also keeping some attention on their hand holding the colored pencil. Otherwise, their hand might slip and leave a dot on the person they are helping.

That's right.

Han Zhou's temporary task was to play this absurd game with Ouyang Lianyu.

He strongly suspected that this was actually a prank game. Although the introduction explained in great detail the theories about why it could help people distract themselves, and even the reason why a face was needed as a "game prop" was explained in a very reasonable way, he still doubted the rationality of the game.

If this point is only in doubt, then another point is absolutely certain—Ouyang Lianyu definitely deliberately asked him to play this game!

Otherwise, why would that guy have suggested he buy a mask in the first place?
During the hour-long game, Han Zhou's face was covered with colorful ink dots. Ouyang Lianyu was completely absorbed in the puzzles she had bought, ignoring his life and death. She would put an ink dot on his face every ten seconds or so, without even noticing herself, still engrossed in the puzzles. She even drew many colorful lines on his face.

It's hard to say whether she did it on purpose or not...

Although he was a bit disheveled, he managed to get the points. In a sense, this temporary task was quite simple; he could get points just by lying there without moving. If Ouyang Lianyu hadn't been so stupid, Han Zhou felt he might have been able to get a good hour of sleep.

He ignored his roommates' mockery, went to the mirror to check himself, and his face immediately darkened. He grabbed a change of clothes and went into the bathroom to take a shower, washing his face thoroughly several times as well.

When he came out of the bathroom, his roommates had stopped laughing, probably having had enough, and were doing their own things.

Chen Long is still playing video games, which is one of his biggest hobbies in his spare time. If he has a lot of free time, he will also go to the gym to work out.

Chen Zheng lay in bed, mostly browsing his WeChat Moments or the campus confession wall. In his own words, this was called building an intelligence network to collect information, but Chen Long thought it was just a repressed flirt. He had peeked a few times and found that this guy looked at girls' WeChat Moments more often.

Huo Zhencheng was on the balcony making a phone call, which sounded like he was talking to his family again. This was something he did every night lately. Although he looked tall and sturdy, Huo Zhencheng was clearly a thoughtful person and probably couldn't accept the fact that he was away from his family for a while.

Han Zhou and the others understood this feeling, so they never complained about Huo Zhencheng's late-night phone calls. At first, Chen Long thought he was having a long phone conversation with his girlfriend and even chimed in with a few jokes. But after learning that he was just letting his family know he was safe, he stopped and even offered a few words of comfort.

However, after learning that Huo Zhencheng really did have a girlfriend, he instantly lost the desire to comfort him.

Seeing Han Zhou walk into the dormitory while drying his hair, Chen Long grinned, wanting to laugh. Han Zhou gave him an annoyed look and said, "Why don't you go to sleep earlier? Classes start tomorrow. You probably don't want to leave a bad impression on the counselor by sleeping on your first day of class, right?"

Chen Long was taken aback and asked in confusion, "Isn't it advanced mathematics class tomorrow morning? Will our counselor be teaching us?"

Chen Zheng, as expected, knew quite a bit of information. He said, "Our counselor is Ouyang Lianyu, whom you've been longing for. She's the youngest math professor in the school, so of course she can teach us. But Han Zhou, do you mean the counselor will be responsible for teaching us advanced mathematics?" "Yes."

Han Zhou nodded. This was something Ouyang Lianyu had told him personally, adding that she would quiz him on questions the next morning and that he had to listen carefully.

Chen Long knew, of course, that their department's counselor was Ouyang Lianyu. Upon hearing this, he exclaimed with delight, "That's wonderful! I've always dreamed of taking her class. I've heard she's a really nice person."

Chen Zheng saw through his thoughts at a glance and said disdainfully, "It has nothing to do with whether the person is good or not. You just want to attend the class of the beautiful teacher."

He put down his phone and prepared to go to sleep.

"You're the same..."

Chen Long secretly grimaced. This guy usually wouldn't go to bed so early during military training, but now that he heard that the class tomorrow morning was taught by the counselor, he immediately put down his phone and prepared to go to sleep. What else could this be but a repressed pervert?
He turned off his computer, climbed into bed to sleep, and suddenly remembered something. He said, "But that's not right. I remember our counselor injured her leg. I saw her in a wheelchair today. Tomorrow's classroom is on the sixth floor, and there's no elevator in the building. Will she be able to teach us?"

"I don't know about that."

Han Zhou looked puzzled. He hadn't thought about this question before. How was Ouyang Lianyu supposed to get upstairs?

"If you don't know, then forget it. Alright, it's getting late, everyone should go to bed early. Tomorrow morning is the first class of the semester, and none of us can be late."

As the dormitory head democratically elected by everyone in the dormitory, Chen Longyi issued an order in a righteous tone: "Old Huo, turn off the lights later. Also, I will be getting up very early tomorrow, so it may be a bit noisy. I will try not to disturb you."

Huo Zhencheng nodded.

"Why are you up so early?" Han Zhou asked curiously.

"Do you even need to ask?"

Chen Zheng yawned, clearly sleepy, but still couldn't help saying, "Some people are probably already dreaming of 'Looks like I'll have a chance to carry the beautiful teacher upstairs, it's time to show all the girls in the school my boyfriend power,' and they'll definitely want to get up early tomorrow to wait at the entrance of the teaching building."

"Hehehehe, bro, you're awesome!"

Chen Long was quite frank, offering no rebuttal, and closed his eyes after letting out two strange laughs.

Han Zhou was taken aback when he heard this, then climbed into bed and quickly fell asleep.

Silent all night.

The next morning at seven o'clock, when he woke up, he indeed did not see Chen Long. He chuckled to himself, and after washing up, he woke up Chen Zheng and Huo Zhencheng. He then went ahead to the cafeteria to buy breakfast and ate as he headed to the classroom.

The advanced mathematics class was in room 611. It was still early, and there weren't many people in the classroom. Han Zhou walked in, and a slightly chubby girl sitting near the door greeted him with a blush and said in a low voice, "Han Zhou, good morning."

Han Zhou smiled and said, "Good morning, Deng Xue."

Deng Xue was somewhat surprised, but then exclaimed excitedly, "Do you still remember my name?"

"Of course I remember, I also remember you were the vice class monitor."

"It's only temporary..."

"Isn't being a temporary deputy squad leader? And you'll definitely be promoted to a permanent one."

Han Zhou joked, "Keep up the good work, and remember to take care of me after you get a permanent position."

He might skip class again in the future, so it's still necessary for him to maintain good relationships with the class committee members.

"Okay...okay." Deng Xue lowered her head somewhat shyly.

Sitting next to Deng Xue, Tang Wenshuang smiled and asked, "Do you think I can get a permanent position?"

"Of course I can. I'll have to trouble you to look after me then, class monitor."

Tang Wenshuang seemed to see through his thoughts and said with a half-smile, "I will take care of every student, but skipping class is not allowed."

"That's a real shame." Han Zhou looked disappointed.

He shook his head, and then heard a helpless voice suddenly sound behind him: "You're already thinking about skipping class on your very first day?"

It was Ouyang Lianyu's voice.

"Teacher Ouyang?"

Han Zhou was taken aback and turned to look at her in surprise, "How did you manage to go upstairs so quickly while in a wheelchair?"

Keep in mind that Ouyang Lianyu arrived at the classroom only half a minute later than him, which means that she went upstairs at a normal speed, but there is no elevator in the teaching building.

Deng Xue whispered a reminder: "Um... Teacher Ouyang arrived quite early, but just now he went to check on the other classrooms on the sixth floor."

“That’s it,” Ouyang Lianyu said. “Go find a seat anywhere, but don’t sit in the last row.”

Han Zhou thought for a moment: "How about the second to last row?"

"What do you think?" Ouyang Lianyu pointed to the third row. "You can sit there; it'll be easier for you to listen to the lecture."

"Didn't you say you could just find any seat...?"

Han Zhou muttered to himself, but still obediently sat in the third row, right next to Chen Long on his left.

Seeing Chen Long's blank expression and lifeless look, he asked in confusion, "What's wrong with you?"

"My dream has been shattered."

Chen Long took a few seconds to answer, sighing repeatedly.

"What, you got up so early and didn't see Teacher Ouyang?"

Chen Long shook his head and sighed: "No, I did see it, but it wasn't just the counselor. I also saw a very terrifying scene."

Han Zhou chuckled and joked, "How terrifying? Has Teacher Ouyang turned into a monster?"

"Don't talk nonsense, but I did see a monster."

Chen Long sighed deeply. He had arrived at the teaching building early in the morning and had seen Ouyang Lianyu as he had hoped. However, he didn't even have a chance to offer to carry her upstairs because a short-haired girl was faster than him.

What's even more outrageous is that the other party actually carried Ouyang Lianyu upstairs in her wheelchair, without even breaking a sweat after climbing six flights of stairs...

Thinking of this, Chen Long asked with mixed feelings, "Han Zhou, can you tell me what your friend ate to grow up like that?"

(End of this chapter)