Forced into a romantic relationship

Chapter 318 Serious Advice

The bathroom door opened, and Zhong Ling, her hair damp, carefully walked out of the bathroom.

She didn't change into her yukata, but wore her previous clothes. Although she had only gotten her outer jacket wet in the heavy rain and her inner layer was dry, her trouser legs were soaked, making them quite noticeable.

However, Zhang Xinyue breathed a sigh of relief. If even this girl was completely unguarded around Han Zhou, then she might really have to consider the truth of what the receptionist said.

Feeling sticky and wet, she shifted uncomfortably, turned to the two girls on the sofa, and smiled, "I'm going to take a shower too. When Sister Lianyu comes back, could you please ask her to bring my clothes into the bathroom?"

Seeing the girl with a beauty mark at the corner of her eye nod slightly, she said "thank you" and then eagerly headed towards the bathroom.

As she brushed past Zhong Ling, she couldn't help but sigh inwardly—young people these days are not only rich, but they're also incredibly well-developed; she wondered what they ate to grow up like that.

Zhong Ling walked to the sofa, looked around, and asked in confusion, "Where are my junior and Teacher Ouyang?"

Mo Yixia couldn't hear her voice, but she could guess what she was saying, and replied, "They went to buy clothes."

"buying clothes?"

"It's for changing clothes, after all, not everyone in this world can be completely honest with each other."

If it were Han Zhou, he would definitely question whether this "frankness" was proper or not, but Zhong Ling didn't understand these things and just nodded without knowing why.

Mo Yixia put away her phone, picked up the hairdryer, walked behind her, and said, "Senior, let me help you dry your hair too."

"Thank you."

Zhong Ling smiled and nodded, then sat obediently on the sofa, quietly feeling the intense warmth and the delicate hand moving through her hair.

It's a little warmer than my sister's hand...

She kept her neck stiff and motionless so as not to cause trouble for Mo Yixia. She remembered that when she was a child, the hairdresser always disliked customers moving around.

"Senior, you're too nervous," Mo Yixia said from behind. "Although I'm used to cutting my own hair, I'm not a hairdresser, and this isn't a haircut. Just relax."

"Okay, okay..."

Although she didn't know how Yixia knew what she was thinking, Zhong Ling quickly responded, though her neck remained stiff.

Mo Yixia noticed this, but didn't say anything more. She just carefully dried the other person's hair little by little until she turned off the hairdryer. Then she turned to look at the torrential rain outside the window and lazily stretched.

"I heard that the buses back to school have been suspended," she said.

Zhong Ling was taken aback. She noticed that Mo Yixia didn't seem worried at all; on the contrary, her tone carried a hint of satisfaction.

"Are you happy?" she asked tentatively.

Mo Yixia didn't hear her words or notice her expression, and continued, "Not only that, the school just issued a notice to suspend classes, which means we may have to stay here tonight."

"us?"

Wang Lengqiu, who had been absent-minded, spoke up for once.

Mo Yixia glanced at her: "If it's really important, of course you can choose to leave in the heavy rain, but it will be hard to get a taxi now. My suggestion is to buy a few more raincoats to wear. With this much rain, an umbrella won't be of any use."

Perhaps to prove her words, the door was opened as soon as she finished speaking, and Han Zhou and Ouyang Lianyu appeared in the doorway, looking disheveled and still dripping water.

Han Zhou folded up the nearly deformed umbrella, sighed, and walked into the room: "Next time I must buy a better quality umbrella. This thing almost got pierced by the rain."

He looked as if he had fallen into the water. His disheveled appearance startled Zhong Ling, who quickly got up and handed towels to the two of them. Mo Yixia then refilled two cups of hot water, placed one on the coffee table after thinking for a moment, and handed the other to Han Zhou.

"Looks like your jinx came true," she said.

"It's clearly the weather forecast for Lincheng that's wrong. You have to read it backwards, especially when you're going out," Han Zhou said irritably, taking off his wet coat and finding that his clothes underneath were also wet.

Mo Yixia glanced at it, took the coat and hung it in the walk-in closet. Her voice came from inside: "Have you bought yourself a change of clothes?"

"I'd like to, but it's a women's clothing store."

Han Zhou shook his head regretfully, then suddenly noticed that Zhong Ling was still wearing pants that were half wet, and was momentarily stunned.

Noticing his gaze, the latter quickly lowered his head and explained somewhat embarrassedly, "Um... the yukata is too small..."

Small?
Han Zhou glanced at the other person's chest subconsciously, and immediately understood. He then looked away and smiled, "It's okay. Yi Xia is very thoughtful. She asked me to buy you a set of clothes as well. Teacher Ouyang picked out the style. You should like it."

He was stunned because he felt that Mo Yixia was truly shrewd and resourceful, even considering that the bathrobe was too small for Zhong Ling to wear, which made him feel deeply impressed.

In fact, Han Zhou was overthinking it. Mo Yixia just thought that Zhong Ling was conservative, probably similar to Ouyang Lianyu, so she reminded him to buy an extra set of clothes, without considering the problem of the bathrobe not fitting properly.

"Eh?"

After hearing Han Zhou's words and seeing Ouyang Lianyu take out a brand new set of clothes, Zhong Ling froze for two seconds before quickly waving her hand and saying, "No need, no need, my clothes will dry in a little while, there's no need to buy new clothes..."

"Since we've already bought them, let's go change them," Han Zhou said.

Ouyang Lianyu nodded in agreement and gently advised, "Wearing wet clothes is bad for your health. I heard you just recovered from a cold, so please don't get sick again."

After some persuasion from the two, and even with Han Zhou bringing Zhong Yin along, Zhong Ling finally thanked them softly, hesitated before taking the clothes, and went into the bedroom to change.

At the same time, Mo Yixia came out of the dressing room and reminded her, "Teacher Ouyang, your friend said that you should take your clothes into the bathroom for her after you come back."

"I understand, thank you."

Ouyang Lianyu nodded, took the new clothes, and walked to the bathroom door.

Mo Yixia glanced at her retreating figure as she approached Han Zhou and asked, "How was it?"

Han Zhou naturally couldn't understand such a nonsensical sentence and asked in confusion, "What do you mean, 'how'?"

"How does it feel to be in a room with so many pretty girls?"

"I don't feel anything special." Han Zhou looked wary, suspecting that this guy was trying to set him up again.

"Is that so?" Mo Yixia said unhurriedly, "If nothing unexpected happens, we should stay in this room until tomorrow morning."

"What do you mean?" Han Zhou was taken aback.

Mo Yixia told him about the suspension of bus services and school closures.

Han Zhou frowned slightly. Generally speaking, bus service disruptions are usually caused by major natural disasters, so it seems this rainstorm won't stop anytime soon.

"You seem very happy?" He scrutinized Mo Yixia's expression.

"I'm so happy that I don't have to go back to class and can be with you."

"What about your mother?"

With the school closed, such a big event would definitely be communicated to the parents. It would be better if Jiang Baiqian were furious when she found out that Mo Yi was not at school today. The real fear is that she might further restrict Mo Yi's freedom in the future.

"What do you think we should do?" Mo Yixia asked him.

Han Zhou thought for a moment and said, "I'll call your mom and tell her you're with me."

No matter what reason you use, saying that Mo Yixia is with him won't make Jiang Baiqian turn against you immediately.

What are we doing together?

"Tell her the truth, we're at the zoo."

Mo Yixia shook her head slightly and said calmly, "My mother won't accept such a reason. If you want her to accept it, whether it's the truth or a lie, you'd better mix in some elements related to learning so that she can see a favorable outcome."

"The elements of learning?" Han Zhou humbly asked for advice. If anyone knew Jiang Baiqian best, it would undoubtedly be Mo Yixia, her daughter and expert in reading minds.

"We can admit we're visiting a zoo, but the content needs some artistic embellishment."

Mo Yixia considered it carefully for a while, "Visiting the zoo helps us understand the relationship between humans and nature, and we can also see a lot of animals, so it can be summarized as us learning about biology; today we were in the wind and rain at the zoo, and we went to so many places to look for cats, so it is not unreasonable to say that we were learning geography."

She paused, then continued, "As for booking a hotel room, although it's something we can't avoid, it's best to embellish it a bit. Hmm, let's say you're giving me a crash course, summarizing all the elements together..."

"I'll give you a crash course in human physiology in the room?" Han Zhou replied expressionlessly.

The other person had been so serious just now, and he thought this guy would offer some serious advice, but it turns out he was just talking nonsense again.

“I never said the word ‘human body’,” Mo Yixia said innocently.

"Aren't we just human beings?" Han Zhou remained expressionless.

"Makes sense."

Mo Yixia's eyes lit up, and she immediately pretended to suddenly realize something, exclaiming, "How come I didn't think of that?"

You'd be crazy to believe it; who are you trying to fool with such exaggerated acting...?

Han Zhou's lips twitched. He glanced at her helplessly, said nothing more, silently adjusted his emotions, and then took out his phone to call Jiang Baiqian.

"Hello, Auntie, yes, this is Han Zhou. Please listen to me, it's like this, Yi Xia is with me right now..."

Outside the window, the rain was still pouring down, the French windows were being battered by raindrops with a loud clanging sound, and the lights in the distance were blurred by the heavy rain, appearing to flicker uncertainly.

The world was so quiet—even with the noise of the exposed gales everywhere.

Mo Yixia remained silent, watching Han Zhou make a phone call. Seeing that he was still dripping wet, yet kept assuring her that he would absolutely guarantee her safety, she couldn't help but purse her lips.

"Okay, okay, don't worry, I'll take Yu Yi back and drop by to see you... Would you like to chat with Yi Xia for a bit? Sure, that's all for now, bye."

Two minutes later, Han Zhou put away his phone, breathed a slight sigh of relief, and then looked at the long-haired girl with black hair beside him with her arms crossed as if watching a show.

The girl's eyes sparkled, and she seemed to be smiling.

“When I first asked you what to do, you didn’t answer ‘we can just elope,’ so I thought you would give me a serious answer this time.”

"After all, no matter how I answer, you've already decided to tell my mom the truth, haven't you?"

Mo Yixia seemed to have seen through his thoughts long ago, and calmly added, "Besides, I've always been very serious."

Han Zhou did not embellish his story on the phone; he simply told Jiang Baiqian that the two of them had arranged to go to the zoo that day, though some details were omitted.

Han Zhou wasn't surprised that Mo Yixia could see through his thoughts. He said helplessly, "If I want to be with you, I'll have to get past your mother eventually. There's no need to hide everything from her. This is a good opportunity to test her attitude."

He paused, then continued, “And I know that you and your mother aren’t completely incompatible, otherwise she wouldn’t be able to control you—so even for the sake of the future, I should try to gain her approval.”

Mo Yixia's words in the elevator, "I'm learning to be a good wife," touched him deeply. Since she was seriously thinking about the future, he should also take action, and he needed to take a lot of action.

After all, his future is quite troublesome.

Mo Yixia raised her hand, seemingly wanting to lower the brim of her hat, but quickly realized she wasn't wearing one. She tapped her forehead with her fingers and said thoughtfully, "Can I interpret this as a confession?"

"can."

Mo Yixia sighed: "Other people confess their love with flowers and candles, but you're like a drowned rat telling me you have to try to please your mother-in-law?"

"You said it yourself, that's my mother-in-law." Han Zhou smiled.

Mo Yixia remained noncommittal, seemingly satisfied with the answer, and asked, "She didn't get angry with you, did she?"

"No."

Speaking of this, Han Zhou seemed quite proud, and immediately showed a smug expression, tentatively asking, "Does your mother still like me quite a bit?"

"Correct."

Mo Yixia glanced at him. "She was indeed quite satisfied with you, unaware that you wanted to have your cake and eat it too—Gu Zheng's parents seemed to feel the same way."

Han Zhou's smile froze as he realized he had gotten too carried away.

"I'm reminding you of the difficulty of enjoying the blessings of having multiple wives."

Mo Yixia withdrew her gaze and said calmly, "If you don't want to give up everything and elope with me, then you'll have even more to consider."

"I know……"

Han Zhou felt a little awkward. He wasn't sure if Mo Yixia was being sarcastic, but as she said, he had many things to consider, including how to get Gu Zheng and Mo Yixia's parents to accept him.

Although Mo Yixia said that she would be her last challenge and that she should figure out how to win over Guzheng before she could win over Guzheng, it would never hurt to try to improve Jiang Baiqian's favorability in the meantime.

...That way, at least I won't get beaten up as much when things come to a head in the future.

Han Zhou inwardly mocked himself, pondered for a moment, and suddenly thought of a possibility. He said with a serious expression, "Um... I mean Yi Xia."

"Ah."

"I've heard that rich people like to marry into other rich families. Is your family like that too?"

Mo Yixia was stunned for a moment, seemingly not expecting him to ask such a stupid question, and couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Have you been watching too many TV dramas...?" This question swirled in my mind, but it turned into something else entirely when I said it.

"What do you think?"

She suppressed a laugh and looked at the other person with great interest.

Han Zhou thought for a moment and said, "I think it's not impossible. After all, your mother focuses on results. If she could see a better outcome, she might not be willing to marry you off to me."

"Will you marry me...?"

Mo Yixia seemed lost in thought for a moment, then said thoughtfully, "That makes sense. So what do you plan to do?"

"Of course, it's to show her that I have a better future." Han Zhou considered for a moment, then said seriously, "I believe I have that potential."

He also believes in the potential of the status bar.

“What if she still doesn’t think you’re the better outcome? I also believe you have potential, but potential often comes down to the process, not the result, which is not convincing to my mom—unless you can turn the process into the result as soon as possible.”

"You mean..." Han Zhou looked at him with a listening expression.

“Raw rice makes cooked rice.”

Han Zhou's lips twitched: "Can't you give me some serious advice?"

"Of course, although I think this is a serious suggestion."

Mo Yixia tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“It’s simple. If my mom really doesn’t agree… then you can really elope with me.”

It needs to be adjusted.

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(End of this chapter)