Forced into a romantic relationship

I quite liked Chapter 247 too.
The sky seemed to have been scorched by fire, and the afterglow of the setting sun danced on the girl's hair, then climbed up her cheeks, painting them with a faint blush.

Gu Zheng sat on a yoga mat on the balcony, stretching her ligaments while holding a book. Her cheeks were slightly flushed as she gazed at the sky in a daze, her eyes occasionally curving upwards to reveal a faint and bright smile.

The roommates exchanged bewildered glances, and finally, one of the girls couldn't hold back any longer and asked curiously, "Guzheng, did something good happen to you today?"

The guzheng did not respond, seemingly lost in its own world, mechanically stretching its ligaments like a robot, completely unaware that it was holding the book upside down.

"Guzheng? Guzheng?"

The constant shouts in her ears pulled Guzheng back to reality. She then asked, "What's wrong?"

My roommate sighed and rubbed his forehead, saying helplessly, "I was just about to ask you what's wrong. You've been acting all distracted ever since you got back. I remember you used to be in your club around this time, right?"

"I had some things to take care of today, so I came back early," Gu Zheng explained.

"Is this a good thing?"

The three roommates exchanged glances, their expressions immediately turning gossipy, their smiles rather ambiguous.

Gu Zheng understood the expression and knew her roommate was teasing her. Her face turned a little redder: "Well... not really."

This is amazing, you get it now...

Her joyful yet slightly shy tone further confirmed her roommates' guesses. One girl guessed, "Did the boy you like confess to you? But I've been observing for so long and I still can't figure out who you like."

“Your observation is way behind the times,” another roommate said. “Don’t you know? Guzheng often hangs out with a very handsome guy, and they often eat together.”

"Why didn't I know when it happened?"

"You spend all your free time with the student council, I don't know what's so strange about that."

"What I mean is, why didn't you tell me there was a handsome guy?"

"What good would it do to tell you? You're too scared to approach him anyway, and besides, that's someone Guzheng likes, so just forget about it. But to be honest, that guy is really handsome, and he's my type."

"Is he really that handsome? Can you be more specific about his type? Which celebrity does he resemble?"

"I don't follow celebrities, so how would I know which star he looks like? But if he went into the entertainment industry, he could probably become a star. Anyway, I think he's better than those young male idols who are popular online recently."

"Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration?"

“It’s not an exaggeration.” A roommate who hadn’t spoken until now chimed in, “I’ve also met Guzheng’s boyfriend. ‘His face is a good match for Guzheng,’ I think that’s fair.”

"Now I understand..."

Qiu Yu suddenly realized that Gu Zheng was a recognized beauty, and if she dressed up, she would definitely be a contender for the school beauty. Therefore, the boys who could match her looks should be about the same.

She was a little annoyed because she had been busy with student council affairs lately and had become the most out-of-touch person in the dormitory. She didn't even know that Guzheng had a very handsome boyfriend.

Seeing her roommates discussing Han Zhou as if no one else was around, and even quite naturally referring to him as their boyfriend, Gu Zheng, who was stretching her legs, accidentally used too much force and pressed her waist completely onto her legs.

"hiss--"

She gasped sharply, and her roommates rushed over, asking with concern, "Guzheng, what's wrong? Are you alright?"

"It's nothing." Gu Zheng gritted her teeth and sat up straight, inwardly blaming Han Zhou for his bad luck. She endured the pain and explained, "You've misunderstood. Han Zhou isn't my boyfriend."

She hadn't pressed down too hard, so her ligaments weren't torn, but they were a little sore for a short time.

Qiu Yu smiled and said, "So it's not a misunderstanding that you like him, is it?"

"This one……"

"Stop with the 'this' and 'that'. Your signs of liking someone are just too obvious: blushing, spacing out, secretly smiling... Didn't you even notice you're holding the book upside down?"

Gu Zheng was startled and realized that she was indeed holding the book upside down. She quickly turned the book right side up and kept her mouth shut without saying a word.

She has decided to get rid of her bad habit of subconsciously denying things, at least she can't deny that she likes Han Zhou, so that she will be fully prepared whether Han Zhou confesses to her or she confesses to him in the future.

"How shy."

Qiu Yu observed Gu Zheng's expression with interest and asked, "So he really confessed to you?"

"No," Gu Zheng shook her head. "He invited me to dance with him at a social gathering."

She got along fairly well with her roommates, so there was no need to hide it. Besides, her roommates would be attending the social event anyway, and even if she didn't say anything now, they would see it for themselves and might even make a fuss. So she might as well just say it.

Despite her efforts to keep her tone calm, she couldn't hide her excitement when she said those words.

"Dancing? That's so romantic..."

The roommates were slightly taken aback, then half-jokingly and half-enviously remarked that it would be a lie to say they weren't envious. Putting everything else aside, if a handsome guy were to invite them to dance, even if they didn't accept, it would still be a very prestigious thing.

"You two knew each other back in high school?" Qiu Yu asked curiously.

After spending time together, she discovered that Guzheng and she were actually quite similar. Both of them were very ambitious, self-disciplined, and busy. They usually planned out their time well in advance and generally wouldn't actively seek out boys for dating, let alone fall in love with them.

"Ah."

"classmate?"

"Ah."

"Are you really classmates?" Qiu Yu looked surprised and said with emotion, "To get into the same university as someone you like, especially a neighboring university, that's really rare. You two didn't already make a plan to go to the same university, did you?"

"Pretty much, we discussed it when we were filling out college applications."

"I see... Can you tell me about what happened between you two?"

Gu Zheng felt a little uncomfortable with Qiu Yu's enthusiastic inquiries. She had never gotten along well with her classmates and roommates in the past, and they had hardly ever talked. She mostly studied alone, and the girls would never include her when they talked about love. So today was the first time she had faced this situation where her roommates were surrounding her and asking about her relationship progress.

Of course, she wasn't offended by this; on the contrary, she was quite happy because it seemed that her roommates thought she and Han Zhou were a good match.

"Okay, you scared the guzheng."

Just then, her relatively quiet roommate, Yin Youyou, said, "Go take a shower quickly, I heard the hot water might be turned off tonight."

Her tone was somewhat languid, as if she hadn't slept well.

"The hot water's off?" Qiu Yu was startled and hurriedly went to the closet to find clothes, asking as she searched, "Why is the hot water off so late at night?"

"Who knows?" Yin Youyou yawned. "Even if the hot water isn't turned on, I still suggest you go to bed early. There have been strange noises outside the dorm lately, and I'm worried you won't be able to go to the bathroom."

Qiu Yu was indeed a little scared: "You're not talking about the rumors about that boy who jumped off the building, are you?"

"What rumors about the boy who jumped off the building?" Gu Zheng asked curiously.

"Haven't you heard yet?"

Qiu Yu said mysteriously, "I heard that a boy in school confessed his feelings to a girl but was rejected. He was so heartbroken that he jumped off a building and died. Then he turned into a vengeful ghost and now he wanders around the girls' dormitory at night. People often hear strange noises." Although Gu Zheng was afraid of ghosts, she scoffed at this rumor and said dismissively, "How can someone become a ghost to seek revenge after being rejected? That's just too illogical!"

“There’s no logic to ghosts…” Qiu Yu smiled bitterly, then said seriously, “However, this rumor may not be reliable, but it is true that strange noises often come out outside the dormitory. Some senior students in the student council have been talking about this.”

"Really?" Another roommate, Chen Xiaofei, looked terrified. "Don't scare me."

"Anyway, I heard something last night," Yin Youyou said wearily. "It sounded like someone was talking to themselves while walking back and forth in the hallway, which kept me from sleeping well all night."

Gu Zheng and Chen Xiaofei were horrified by what they heard.

The latter said with a long face, "Tomorrow will be the weekend, you guys won't leave me alone in the dorm, will you? I'm scared?"

She was a very timid girl; she was terrified just from hearing a little bit of a rumor.

"I'm not leaving, don't worry," Qiu Yu reassured her.

"I need to go home for a bit, but I'm not leaving until Saturday. I'll be back this afternoon and stay in the dorm with you guys tonight," Yin Youyou said, trying to comfort you.

Gu Zheng said apologetically, "I have to ask for leave tomorrow and leave school in the morning. I won't be back until Sunday, so I won't be able to stay with you."

"You're taking leave? What happened?" Qiu Yu asked with concern.

The topic of conversation in the dormitory changed again.

"No, I just have something to take care of."

"Okay, it's alright. With the three of us here, the dorm is already impregnable. Even if there really are ghosts, they can't get in," Qiu Yu said with a smile.

Yin Youyou seemed to be deep in thought. She got up and walked to Guzheng's side, whispering in her ear, "Guzheng, I have something to remind you of."

"what?"

"When you go out, don't easily believe a guy's sweet talk. Even if you trust him a lot, you should still be careful. It's best not to go to a hotel with him casually. If you really have to go that far... make sure he wears a condom properly and never takes it off."

Gu Zheng froze for two seconds, her face instantly turning red, like a ripe apple in autumn.

……

At six o'clock in the morning, before dawn, a thin layer of fog covered Yantai. Han Zhou brushed his teeth while checking the messages sent by Lin Anyu.

Today is Friday, the day he and Guzheng Xiao Xiaoxiao set off for Beicheng. Lin Anyu was also part of the group. They had originally agreed to meet at the station, but the other party suddenly changed their mind and said they would drive to pick them up.

"You should think this through. If you drive here, you'll have to park near the station and stay outside for days. Isn't that inconvenient?"

"What trouble? I can drive you back to school when I get back."

Han Zhou sensed something was wrong. Although it wasn't a serious matter, Lin Anyu wasn't the type to change his mind on the spot, so he asked, puzzled, "Could it be that you've run into some trouble?"

He was just asking casually, but Lin Anyu quickly replied with a crying emoji and said, "It's really like seeing a ghost! It's so early in the morning, it's not even dawn yet, who else would get up so early besides us? But guess who I ran into when I went out?"

"Bai Tongtong".

"?"

Lin Anyu was shocked. "How did you know? Could it be that you betrayed me?!"

She really is white...

Han Zhou was also somewhat surprised and said helplessly, "The fact that you let me guess means that I know this person too. Among all the people in your school, I only know Bai Tongtong. Oh right, there was also that senior from the game last time, but you wouldn't consider her a nuisance, so it can only be Bai Tongtong."

Of course, it's not impossible for her to run into a counselor, but Lin Anyu had taken leave, so there's no reason for her to be afraid of a counselor.

"Awesome." Lin Anyu said with awe, then added, "So, guess what she's planning?"

"She was probably going to Beicheng too, so she suggested going to the station with you. You didn't want to stay with her, so you said you would pick us up by car and told her to go to the station by herself."

Lin Anyu was dumbfounded: "Are you sure you really didn't tip anyone off?"

"I don't have that kind of free time."

Han Zhou spat out his mouthwash. "If you're going to drive, then drive over. Be careful on the road. That's all. I'll tell Gu Zheng and the others that I'll wait for you at the school gate when it's almost time."

Lin Anyu put down his phone, looked at the quiet girl beside him, and gave an awkward but polite smile: "I'm sorry, I really wanted to go to the station with you, but that kid Han Zhou suddenly asked me to drive him to pick him up, so what do you think..."

"It's alright," Bai Tongtong said nonchalantly. "A car can hold quite a few people, so giving me a ride shouldn't be considered a bother, right?"

Lin Anyu's smile froze: "But besides Han Zhou, I also have to pick up other people..."

“You just said that it was Han Zhou, Gu Zheng, and another girl, right? Including me, there are four of us in total. One car can fit them all.”

Seeing Lin Anyu's troubled expression, Bai Tongtong kindly added, "Don't worry, I'll pay for the fare. If it's really difficult, then forget it."

"That's not what I meant. The main thing is that I need to go to Han Zhou's school first, and going to the station after that might take a bit longer..."

"It's okay, I'm not in a hurry."

"……All right."

Lin Anyu opened his mouth, but couldn't find any other excuse, so he had no choice but to agree.

Actually, as a classmate, and a girl who still makes his heart flutter whenever he sees her, he doesn't mind accompanying Bai Tongtong to the train station or even Beicheng. The problem is that he still has a lot of trauma from her bald father.

He led Bai Tongtong to the parking spot without saying a word the whole way.

Opening the car door, Bai Tongtong politely asked, "May I sit in the passenger seat?"

“Okay.” Lin Anyu opened the car door for her before getting into the driver’s seat.

Bai Tongtong slowly got into the car and silently looked around for a while. She found the car to be quite tidy. Just as she was about to speak, she suddenly noticed a chubby doll as a decoration in front of the driver's seat.

"what is this?"

Lin Anyu followed her gaze and smiled awkwardly: "Han Zhou gave it to me, saying it could bless my marriage. That guy is just bored, all he does is think about these kinds of things all day long. I never wanted to be in a relationship, but he insisted that I accept it."

"So you don't like this doll?"

"I really like it, after all, it was a gift from Han Zhou."

"Oh, I see. You two still have such a good relationship."

Bai Tongtong chuckled softly, raised her hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, and glanced at the chubby baby again.

"I quite like it too."

(End of this chapter)