Forced into a romantic relationship

Chapter 295 Guess
Unlike Han Zhou, who had some guesses about the whole thing, Gu Zheng naturally didn't know the truth about the so-called "ghosting".

The reason she appeared with Han Zhou was because she happened to see Han Zhou hurriedly leaving the teaching building through the window during class. She was a little concerned, so she immediately contacted him, got a general understanding of the situation, and then asked for leave to come along.

Inside the cafeteria, after listening to Wang Runxue's detailed account, Gu Zheng's face showed obvious confusion. She quietly nudged Han Zhou's arm and asked in a low voice, "Han Zhou, tell me honestly, is this one of your pranks?"

Despite her fear of ghosts, she was a staunch atheist deep down. Compared to the idea that her dormitory was haunted, she preferred to believe that it was Han Zhou's prank. Although it sounded equally absurd, it was still more plausible than a ghost story.

If I had a way to control the electronic devices in the girls' dormitory, I would never waste that ability on pranks...

Han Zhou thought to himself, then shook his head and said, "Where would I get such great abilities?"

It's no wonder Gu Zheng would suspect him. After all, Wang Runxue's description was too bizarre. If it were just the lights in the hallway that were malfunctioning, that would be one thing, but even cell phones were being interfered with, and there were even strange figures flashing by. This sounded quite supernatural and couldn't be explained by science.

If it were him, he would probably immediately think in a more reasonable direction.

"It can't really be a ghost, can it?" Gu Zheng looked puzzled; she still didn't believe in ghosts.

"I don't know."

Han Zhou wasn't sure if Wang Runxue's strange encounter was related to Xiao Xiaoxiao. After thinking for a moment, he looked at the pale-faced girl across the table and asked, "On which floor did you see... um, see a ghost?"

"Fifth floor, I live on the fifth floor. I was originally planning to go back to my dorm."

Even though she had escaped the dormitory for a while, Wang Runxue still looked shaken, her face full of worry as she said, "I had heard my roommates say before that there would be strange noises in the hallway at night, but I didn't see anything when I opened the door several times. I never thought I would actually stumble upon it today..."

The fifth floor...

The cafeteria was right across from the girls' dormitory. Han Zhou looked up at the dormitory building not far away. From this angle, he could see the windows of the corridor. The lights on the fifth floor were bright, and there seemed to be nothing unusual.

He pondered for a moment, then took out his phone and sent a message to Zhou Ting, Xiao Xiaoxiao's roommate, asking for the location of their dormitory.

It would be more convenient to ask Xiao Xiaoxiao directly about this. Han Zhou had just sent her a message, but she hadn't replied. She was probably asleep, which is why he chose to ask Xiao Xiaoxiao's roommate.

He was actually a little worried. If the strangeness tonight really came from Xiao Xiaoxiao, then the fact that the ghostly events that used to happen in the middle of the night suddenly happened earlier than usual, could this abnormal change mean that something was also happening to Xiao Xiaoxiao?
Han Zhou was a little worried about Xiao Xiaoxiao's condition, so he asked Zhou Ting to go back to the dormitory immediately after evening self-study to check on her, because Xiao Xiaoxiao was sick and might need someone to take care of her.

There are less than ten minutes left before the end of evening self-study, so even if there is a problem, I should be able to deal with it in time.

When Zhou Ting, who was in the classroom, received Han Zhou's message, she felt that the two of them had been too close lately. Her thoughts were racing, but she didn't ask any more questions. She said that she would go back to the dormitory to take care of Xiao Xiao after evening self-study.

Seeing Han Zhou's nonchalant attitude, and even having time to look down at his phone, Wang Runxue couldn't help but ask, "Don't you have anything to say?"

"What did you say?" Han Zhou put away his phone and looked up at her.

"Since you foresaw that I would encounter something terrible tonight, you should also know what it is, right?"

Wang Runxue was now convinced that Han Zhou was a master diviner, and she felt from the bottom of her heart that he knew something about this matter, otherwise she wouldn't have specifically contacted this scumbag.

"Unfortunately, I don't know." Han Zhou shrugged.

"do not know?"

"I don't know, and even if I did, I couldn't tell you. You should understand what it means for heavenly secrets to be kept secret."

Han Zhou gave a few perfunctory replies, not giving the other party a chance to pry, and continued, "But you don't need to worry too much. As I said before, this is not a dangerous thing, so you don't need to care too much."

“How could I not care?” Wang Runxue said with dissatisfaction. “You have no idea how critical the situation was at the time. If I hadn’t reacted quickly, I might not be sitting here now.”

Han Zhou didn't take it seriously: "Are you sure it's because you react quickly and not because you run fast?"

"What's the difference?"

"The former is fast in the mind, the latter is fast in the body."

“The body acts before the brain; isn’t that quick reaction?” Wang Runxue said confidently.

Han Zhou was taken aback, then clapped and exclaimed, "Genius!"

The guzheng player beside her was puzzled by the relationship between the two. Suddenly, she pouted and muttered resentfully, "My reaction is faster than hers..."

Han Zhou chuckled and said with a laugh, "You're even more of a genius than her."

Gu Zheng beamed, but quickly realized this wasn't the time for jokes, and said seriously, "Wang Runxue, are you sure you really saw a ghost?"

Wang Runxue hesitated. The ghost she had just mentioned was more about encountering inexplicable strange phenomena. As for whether the figure she saw when she went downstairs was an illusion, she wasn't really sure. It might have been a hallucination caused by her being too nervous at the time.

"No, I'm not entirely sure... but I can assure you that what I just said is true!"

Gu Zheng nodded to indicate that she understood, but couldn't think of a solution for the time being. Just as she was about to ask Han Zhou for his opinion, she heard him suddenly say seriously, "How much do you know about the ghost stories in the girls' dormitory?"

Gu Zheng was taken aback, not quite understanding why Han Zhou would suddenly ask this. Did he really think Wang Runxue had encountered a ghost?
Wang Runxue didn't think too much about it and quickly said, "I've heard this rumor. It's said that a boy confessed his feelings to someone and was rejected..."

Han Zhou shook his head, interrupting her: "That's not what I want to ask. Tell me the time and place where the ghost is said to appear, and the unusual phenomena that occur when it appears."

Wang Runxue paused for a moment, then hesitated and said, "I don't know much about these things either, and I mostly heard about them from other people..." "It's okay, just say whatever you know."

Ever since hearing Mo Yixia's analysis that Xiao Xiaoxiao was the cause of the haunting in the girls' dormitory, Han Zhou has been quite concerned about this matter, but he hasn't had much time to pay attention to it. He's taking this opportunity to study it properly.

"If I say something wrong, you can't blame me," Wang Runxue whispered a reminder.

"No, just say it."

Han Zhou wasn't going to exorcise demons; he just wanted to try to organize the information. Even if there were some fabricated elements in the rumors he heard, it didn't matter.

Wang Runxue nodded, thought for a moment, and said, "I've heard that ghosts usually appear after midnight and like to wander around different floors. I go to bed early, usually around 11 pm, so I've never seen one with my own eyes. But according to my two night owl roommates, once a ghost appears, all sorts of strange noises will be heard outside the hallway..."

"What a strange method?"

Gu Zheng looked curious. Like Han Zhou, she only knew that there were rumors of ghosts in the girls' dormitory, but her understanding was quite limited.

"It was basically just some intermittent talking sounds. My roommate said it sounded like a cassette tape got stuck, with the sound coming and going, sometimes near and sometimes far, like someone was pacing back and forth outside the door. One day, my roommate mustered up the courage to open the door and peek out, but there was nothing there."

Swallowing quietly, Wang Runxue continued, "What's even scarier is that the voice is a man's... It's not just my roommate who says so; I've heard that many people have heard this male voice—a man's voice in a girls' dormitory, what else could it be but a ghost?"

She used to suspect that her two roommates had conspired to scare her, but now she thought that was probably not the case. The thought of how she had just escaped death from a male ghost made her feel a wave of fear.

Han Zhou asked thoughtfully, "Are you sure it's a man's voice?"

“At least that’s what everyone says.” Wang Runxue nodded seriously.

Gu Zheng chimed in, "I've heard about this too. Apparently, it's because the voice is male that there's a rumor that the ghost in the girls' dormitory is a boy who was rejected after confessing his love."

Han Zhou was a little puzzled, but quickly dismissed the idea that it might be because a woman's voice was too rough, which made it sound like a man's voice. After all, Xiao Xiaoxiao's voice was clear and pleasant, and it was impossible for anyone to mistake it for a man's voice.

But if this matter is really related to Xiao Xiaoxiao, then why is there a man's voice?
He gathered his thoughts and asked, "Has anyone heard what that voice was saying?"

"Of course not."

Wang Runxue rolled her eyes. "When your internet is lagging, can you even hear what they're saying in the video, even if it's intermittent? And nobody dares to stand right next to the door to listen... I heard someone tried it before and heard a terrifying laugh and a very eerie 'Be my girlfriend,' but I think it's mostly made up. This rumor came from another dormitory building. Our dormitory building is clearly the only one that's haunted. Their dormitory building is perfectly safe. Where would that terrifying laugh come from?"

Why do you seem so proud...? Han Zhou nodded: "I understand. Is there anything else?"

"Let me think... there shouldn't be any more. That's all I know. Come to think of it, there haven't been any ghost stories in the dorm lately. I don't know why I had to stumble upon one." Wang Runxue looked troubled.

"You said there haven't been any ghost stories lately?" Han Zhou raised an eyebrow slightly, keenly catching the key point in the other person's words.

"Yes, I heard that we haven't heard any strange noises outside the stairwell lately."

"What period of time do you mean by 'recently'?" Han Zhou pressed.

"I don't know, maybe a week or two... What's wrong? Is this important? Have you thought of something?" Wang Runxue looked expectant, thinking to herself that this guy really knew something about ghosts.

Han Zhou ignored her gaze, a certain possibility suddenly emerging in his mind.

If what this guy said is true, and the ghost story is indeed related to Xiao Xiaoxiao, then the reason why the girls' dormitory was haunted before but has suddenly stopped recently is mostly due to some kind of change that has recently happened to Xiao Xiaoxiao.

According to his understanding, the biggest change in Xiao Xiaoxiao over the past week or two was only one—

She no longer suffers from insomnia!

With the help of sleeping pills, Xiao Xiaoxiao has temporarily gotten rid of her insomnia. She has been sleeping very well every day recently and doesn't need to catch up on sleep in class the next day. She is extremely happy about this and even spent a lot of money to treat Han Zhou to a meal, which is unprecedented for her.

The reason Han Zhou immediately connected the ghost incident with Xiao Xiaoxiao's insomnia was because her insomnia was strange in itself, so strange that her status bar would actually offer corresponding products.

Moreover, Wang Runxue just said that the previous ghost stories all happened after midnight, and only night owls who don't sleep can see them. Xiao Xiaoxiao always suffers from insomnia until the middle of the night, and can't fall asleep until two or three in the morning, which coincides with the time when ghosts are "active".

If this is just a coincidence, then as long as it can be confirmed that the haunting of the girls' dormitory stopped as soon as Xiao Xiaoxiao fell asleep peacefully, then it can be basically determined that Xiao Xiaoxiao's insomnia was the key factor causing the haunting of the girls' dormitory.

In other words, the purpose of sleeping pills is actually to suppress "haunting," which may be the most important reason why this item is provided in the status bar.

Han Zhou thought about it more and more and it seemed to make sense, because if he thought about it in this direction, then perhaps even the unusual things that Wang Runxue had experienced that night could be explained—

As usual, Xiao Xiaoxiao needed sleeping pills to fall asleep today.

If that's all there is to it, then everything should be the same as before, and no more unusual situations will occur.

However, Han Zhou knew very well that there was something different about today compared to the past: Xiao Xiaoxiao had caught a cold, and she would most likely take cold medicine before going to sleep.

So, is it possible that...?

Could it be that the effects of the sleeping pills and the cold medicine conflicted, or that some special chemical reaction occurred, causing the sleeping pills to fail to "suppress ghosts" or even mutate...?

That's why Wang Runxue experienced such a terrible event tonight.

(End of this chapter)