Forced into a romantic relationship

Chapter 196 Laugh If You Want

"Is your massage limited to the face?"

When she asked this question, Mo Yixia closed her eyes, as if she was recalling something.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

The subtle tone almost made Han Zhou spit out the water he had just drunk. He coughed a few times and choked out, "What nonsense are you talking about?"

Mo Yixia tilted her head and said slowly, "Otherwise, why would I feel warm all over, especially in my chest?"

Of course it's because I fed you a super-strength pill!
Han Zhou muttered to himself, of course he couldn't tell Mo Yixia this. The Power Pill was a product of the status bar, with miraculous effects and unknown ingredients. Unless it was absolutely necessary, it should never be easily exposed to others.

While the saying "experience makes one a doctor" is powerful, it can only treat illnesses that Han Zhou himself has suffered and healed. He has had fevers and recovered from them since he was a child, so he naturally has the ability to treat fevers. Helping Mo Yixia reduce her fever is no problem, but he is powerless to treat other symptoms such as frostbite, since he has never been frostbitten before.

While the "power pill" isn't exactly a panacea and can't cure any ailment, it excels in its comprehensive effects. Simply put, it can temporarily boost a person's mental and physical condition, and can play a certain role in promoting physical recovery. That's why he thought of giving Mo Yixia one.

As it turned out, this decision was absolutely correct. After taking the stimulant, Mo Yixia quickly woke up, and her pale face regained some color.

Besides wanting Mo Yixia to recover as soon as possible, Han Zhou also wanted to take this opportunity to verify his conjecture. The fact that Mo Yixia was able to successfully take the Power Pill and feel its effects meant that items like the Power Pill, which could materialize in reality, were indeed real objects that not only he could touch, but others could also touch.

This is good news. The status bar will definitely offer more useful items in the future. Although he doesn't intend to make a profit from these items, he could certainly use them to benefit those around him if the opportunity arises.

It is known that long-term use of the Power Pill can increase health attributes. Although Han Zhou is still not quite clear about the specific meaning of this attribute, even if it cannot prolong life, it would be a good thing if everyone could just stay healthy.

"Don't you even look at how many layers you're wearing? Isn't it normal to want to stay warm?"

Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Han Zhou casually replied, then asked with a suspicious look, "By the way, why have you been keeping your eyes closed the whole time?"

"I'm trying to remember what happened while I was unconscious." Mo Yixia's eyes were closed, her expression serene, her long eyelashes trembling slightly. "Did you take off my clothes?"

Although it was a question, the tone was quite confident.

Han Zhou shrugged and said frankly, "It's just an overcoat. Who knows if snow got inside your clothes? It would be troublesome if it melted inside. There's no way to start a fire for warmth here."

"Just a coat?" Seemingly unconvinced, Mo Yixia asked again to confirm.

"Correct."

Mo Yixia was silent for a moment, then sighed and said, "Aren't you afraid that snow might get into my underwear?"

The tone conveyed a sense of disdain, as if saying, "You're given a chance but you're useless."

Han Zhou: "..."

"When are you ever going to be serious?"

Han Zhou chuckled, first shaking his head helplessly, then he hesitated for a moment before saying, "Our current situation isn't too good."

"I know."

Mo Yixia spoke calmly, opened her eyes to look at him, got up and picked up her down jacket, gesturing for him to put it on. "What's the general situation now?"

Han Zhou put on his coat and was about to speak when he saw Mo Yixia approaching with her trench coat in her arms. She sat down close to him and then wrapped the sheets and duvet cover around them.

He was stunned: "What's this...?"

"You said it yourself, there's no way to start a fire for warmth here," Mo Yixia said casually. "And in this situation, maintaining body temperature is very important."

After saying that, she moved closer to Han Zhou.

She was right. In such a freezing environment, it is easier for two people to keep their body temperature warm when they are close together.

Han Zhou looked at the girl beside him.

Mo Yixia was a head shorter than him, her head resting roughly on his shoulder, and he could smell her faint hair fragrance without even having to bend down.

Even though she looked a bit disheveled, the girl's profile was still quite delicate. From this angle, you could clearly see the beauty mark under her right eye. A few strands of hair fell to her ears, and her slightly pale face made her look pitiful.

Just like before she fell off the cliff, the girl's eyes showed no worry or fear about her current situation; instead, they held a satisfied smile.

Han Zhou was stunned for a moment, then said, "We were very lucky. We landed on a protruding rock wall right after falling off the cliff. There was a cave next to the rock wall, and I rolled in with you in my arms."

His tone was quite relaxed, but the reality was not as simple as he made it sound.

The so-called "protruding stone wall" is exactly what it sounds like; it's just a small protrusion that's difficult for even one person to stand on, let alone catch two people who fall down.

Han Zhou was very lucky. He fell almost entirely along the cliff face. The falling snow did not push him down, but instead gave him a force that pushed him towards the cliff. This allowed him to land steadily on the protruding rock face, which enabled him to support his body with amazing strength and roll into the cave immediately.

Moreover, the rock face was already covered with a lot of snow, which provided him with some cushioning. Otherwise, he might have lost consciousness the moment he landed and wouldn't have had the chance to roll into the cave.

It's no exaggeration to say that luck accounts for at least 90% of the reason he and Mo Yixia have survived this long.

Han Zhou felt this might be attributed to the effect of the "passionate youth"—

[Passionate Youth: You are a courageous and righteous young man. Once activated, all your attributes will receive a slight boost. Good deeds will be rewarded more easily, and this effect can be turned on and off at any time.]

Good deeds will be rewarded.

Perhaps this is the answer to this stroke of luck.

Of course, luck wasn't entirely on Han Zhou's side. After rolling into the cave, a large amount of snow also rushed in, completely sealing the entrance. He tried to clear the snow quickly, but it wasn't an easy task. If it wasn't cleared in time, he and Mo Yixia might be trapped here and die.

However, that's a matter for later. At least for now, the snow has helped to block the snow wind and prevent the cave from getting too cold.

Even before Mo Yixia woke up, he was already thinking about how to leave. Although he left a flashlight outside, hoping to get help from the people he found, he dared not put all his hopes on others. It was still unknown whether Xiao Yuyan and the others would realize that they were still alive.

After listening to Han Zhou's explanation, Mo Yixia said thoughtfully, "So, if you want to leave here, the first thing you need to do is clear away the snow blocking the cave entrance?"

"Hmm." Han Zhou nodded. "I've checked it. This cave is just a cave with only one exit and no other passages. The more troublesome thing is yet to come. Even if we clear the snow, it will be difficult for us to get up without tools and rescue."

There's no foothold on that little protrusion on the rock wall outside the cave entrance. Let alone going up, you'd have to consider whether the wind would blow you off the cliff if you wanted to go out and check the situation.

“Then we can probably only wait for rescue,” Mo Yixia analyzed. “We should clear the snow as soon as possible and try to send a signal that we are here. As long as the people searching from above see us, they can drop a rope to pull us up. Even if they can’t pull us up, they can ask professional rescuers for help.”

Han Zhou thought so too. Although he didn't want to place all his hopes on others, it was the only option at the moment.

He was fully conscious when he jumped off the cliff and could roughly determine that the cave was only five or six meters away from the cliff above him, which was not too high. He thought that it would not be difficult to leave if there was a rescue. The difficulty was how to send a signal in time.

Nearly an hour had passed since he and Mo Yixia fell off the cliff. If Xiao Yuyan and the others had already searched the area and decided to give up after finding nothing, then he would really have to rely entirely on himself.

Both of them understood that time was of the essence, and Mo Yixia said, "Then let's start clearing the snow now."

"Have you recovered?" Han Zhou asked her worriedly. "If you haven't, just rest here. I can clean up by myself."

"much better."

Mo Yixia calmly stood up and took out the brand-new snow shovel from her pocket. "Besides, it's just shoveling snow, it's not a strenuous task."

Unexpectedly, this thing could actually be used in this place... Han Zhou smiled bitterly to himself and said no more. The two of them came to the cave entrance and tried to dig out the snow blocking the entrance.

The cave is small, and the snow blocking the entrance is probably not very thick. If the two of them work together, they should be able to dig through it quickly.

"To be honest, I've wanted to ask this for a long time..."

As they were digging, Han Zhou seemed to suddenly remember something and turned to look at Mo Yixia beside him. "Yixia, how did you end up here?"

This question had been bothering him for a long time, and now he finally had the opportunity to ask.

Mo Yixia paused in her movements, remaining silent without answering.

"What's wrong?" Han Zhou noticed her unusual expression and raised an eyebrow. "Is it inconvenient to say this?"

"No."

Mo Yixia shook her head, looked down at the small snow shovel in her hand, and after two seconds spoke softly, "When I went to the toilet, I saw Chen Xiang and that guy named Liao Xinyu."

"Hmm?" Han Zhou immediately realized something and frowned, "Is this related to the two of them?"

Mo Yixia didn't answer, but said to herself, "They seem to be talking about something they don't really want others to hear."

"what's up?"

"I don't know, I only heard a small part of it, it seems to be related to your friend Xiao Yuyan."

"Sister Yuyan?" Han Zhou was stunned, his expression becoming even more confused. He asked, puzzled, "Could it be that they were afraid their secret would be exposed, so they just dumped you here?"

Mo Yixia was silent for a moment: "Their eyes were definitely not right, so I started backing away, wanting to go back to find you."

Han Zhou listened intently. Since their eyes looked strange, it meant that the two people might indeed have designs on Mo Yixia. His expression gradually became serious.

"I tripped and fell while backing up."

At this point, Mo Yixia suddenly turned her head away, avoiding looking at Han Zhou's expression.

"and then?"

Han Zhou pressed for answers, his mind immediately conjuring up the image of Mo Yixia falling and being grabbed by Chen Xiang and his companion with malicious intent, then thrown onto the snow. His brows furrowed even more.

"Then...then I just happened to fall into the cart behind me, and the cart slid all the way down until it came here."

Han Zhou's expression froze.

This was quite different from what he had imagined.

He was bewildered for a moment, then realized something was wrong: "Wait a minute, does pushing a cart have that much power? Even if you keep sliding downhill and gravity is the driving force, it shouldn't be able to completely ignore the resistance of the snow, right?"

He meant that a pushcart shouldn't normally slide that far, let alone to this spot, so he suspected that someone had pushed the pushcart.

Mo Yixia remained silent for a long time before saying, "That cart has an electric push, and I accidentally touched the switch."

Han Zhou thought he might be mistaken, but he seemed to detect a hint of annoyance in her voice.

He paused for a moment, then cautiously asked, "So you mean... this was entirely due to your carelessness, and has nothing to do with anyone else?"

"Ah."

The cave was quiet for a while. Han Zhou looked tense and focused on clearing the snow from the cave entrance.

"Laugh if you want."

Mo Yixia finally turned her face around and immediately saw his constantly shrugging shoulders.

"I didn't laugh. What's so funny?"

Han Zhou wiped his face hard, took several deep breaths, and tried to put on a serious expression, but finally couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Mo Yixia looked at him expressionlessly.

"Yixia, believe me, I'm really not laughing at you, I just... hahahahahaha!"

Han Zhou almost laughed until tears streamed down his face. It was the first time he had ever seen Mo Yixia so embarrassed, having accidentally gotten herself into this state.

The key point is that this usually thick-skinned guy seemed a little embarrassed by it, otherwise he wouldn't have answered so hesitantly and deliberately avoided his gaze.

He thought that was the funniest thing.

The laughter lingered in the cave for a long time.

However, Han Zhou didn't dare to keep laughing, because he noticed that Mo Yixia had stopped shoveling snow at some point and was instead holding a small snow shovel and making some kind of gesture towards his neck.

Laugh if you want to, you might not have the chance later.

Han Zhou read that meaning from her eyes.

call……

He took a deep breath and finally managed to suppress his smile, then suddenly frowned: "Wait... Chen Xiang and Liao Xinyu must have seen you sliding down, right?"

"Ah."

Mo Yixia put down her snow shovel and continued shoveling snow.

"So they know which direction you disappeared from?"

"of course."

Didn't they think about helping you?

"It seems they caught up for a while, but I don't know what happened after that."

Mo Yixia hesitated for a moment, then turned her head again and added, "I tried to save myself halfway down the slide, but I accidentally bumped into the handrail of the cart and then passed out."

Han Zhou's lips twitched, and he quickly wiped his face again.

She accidentally fell into the cart, accidentally touched the switch, and even accidentally knocked herself unconscious... I don't know whether to say she was unlucky today or that she was clumsy.

Seeing Mo Yixia staring at him expressionlessly again, Han Zhou didn't dare laugh out loud this time. He said coldly, "So, those two people at least knew which direction you disappeared from, but they didn't tell us, and even pretended not to know at all..."

Without a doubt, this was a very bad act. Although Chen Xiang and Liao Xinyu were not the culprits who caused Mo Yixia to fall off the cliff, deliberately failing to report such a thing was no different from indirectly harming someone.

They're all adults; they must know the consequences of delaying rescue efforts, yet they still did it...

Thinking about how he almost lost Mo Yixia, Han Zhou felt that he needed to settle accounts with them properly when he got back.

(End of this chapter)