Forced into a romantic relationship

Chapter 32 Are you still human?
Saturday arrived in the blink of an eye. Exhausted, Han Zhou boarded the subway and headed to Huadu Residential Area.

There were only three days left until Mo Yixia's test. In the previous four days, he tried every possible way to improve Mo Yixia's performance, and even made effective use of his guzheng notes, but unfortunately, he did not achieve any significant results.

But thinking about it, it's normal. Even the best teachers have struggling students in their classes. If these teachers were to try to teach Mo Yixia in seven days, they would probably be completely lost, let alone a high school graduate like him.

To be fair, Han Zhou doesn't have much talent for teaching. He just uses the methods taught in the classroom. However, because he has more time and teaches one-on-one, he can do a little more than ordinary teachers. He spends time patiently explaining from multiple angles.

However, Jiang Baiqian clearly hadn't considered these things from the beginning. She had been smiling all day, and her daily routine was basically the same as at the beginning. Apart from asking "How's today?" every day, she didn't pay much attention to the teaching progress.

It seems they are just waiting for the test in three days.

But Han Zhou grew increasingly disgusted with her. This kind of result-oriented parent was really hard to like. She thought everything she did was for the children, but she never really tried to understand the children's inner thoughts.

They don't care about the process, the pressure, or the children's thoughts; they just relentlessly force their children to meet their expectations, as if the children were born to grow up for them.

Han Zhou doesn't dislike strict parents. His father in his previous life was very strict, but he never gave him this suffocating feeling.

Of course, the reason he disliked Jiang Baiqian so much might also be because he understood Mo Yixia better and felt indignant on behalf of his friend.

Although Mo Yixia hasn't considered him a friend yet.

The subway arrived at the station soon. Han Zhou gave up thinking about these messy things and saw Gu Zheng standing at the bottom of the stairs as soon as he stepped off the platform. She was looking at a vocabulary book the size of her palm.

Today she was wearing a light blue dress, with a fish-shaped pendant around her neck, a small silver handbag in her hand, and delicate little sandals on her feet, looking very cool and refreshing.

"Guzheng!" Han Zhou called out.

Upon hearing the voice, Guzheng's face lit up with joy, and she ran over with her eyes crinkling. She said with satisfaction, "Not bad, you weren't late today."

“The class monitor gave me those instructions, and last night he even posted a thread about ‘a tragedy caused by being late’ to remind me. How could I dare to be late? But why are you waiting for me here?”

Today is Saturday, the day the two of them agreed to have dinner together. Logically, the other person should be waiting at home.

Gu Zheng laughed and said, "It's cooler here, and my mom keeps urging me to come out quickly."

Han Zhou smiled, then looked at the vocabulary book and asked, "Why did you suddenly bring the vocabulary book with you? The college entrance exam is over."

Gu Zheng rolled her eyes at him: "There are exams in university, and you'll always need to use English. You'll also have to take proficiency tests. How can you not prepare in advance?"

Han Zhou knew that Gu Zheng was working very hard, and it was common for her to spend the whole day with her books in the days leading up to the exam. But she wasn't usually that stressed. Even if she was preparing for university, she wouldn't choose to study when she was out having fun.

So he quickly understood what had happened and said helplessly, "Are you arguing with someone again?"

"No!"

Gu Zheng instinctively retorted, reluctantly explaining, "My mom said this morning that a friend's daughter is very good at English and might go abroad to study in the future. I thought since I'm free anyway, I might as well improve myself in my spare time."

"You're not going to study abroad, so why are you fussing over this? That girl's English is definitely not as good as yours."

Han Zhou reached out to snatch the vocabulary book, but Gu Zheng was too strong, and he couldn't budge it for a moment. He could only pretend to be sad and said, "Sigh, some people even have to look up words when they go out to eat. It seems I can only stand here like an idiot."

Gu Zheng paused for a moment, then hesitated slightly before saying, "I can... I can look at the words while chatting with you..."

"Stop kidding me." Taking advantage of his momentary lapse in attention, Han Zhou snatched the vocabulary book and stuffed it into his pocket, saying, "I'll give it back to you after I take you home."

Gu Zheng was initially a little angry, but upon hearing the words "I'll take you home," she beamed with joy. However, she quickly suppressed her anger and pretended to be unhappy.

The two got off the bus at Yinghuo, one of the most bustling streets in Lincheng. It was only a little before five o'clock, so it was impossible to eat so early. Guzheng planned to take Han Zhou shopping.

The weather was pretty good today. The sun was hidden by the clouds, and the temperature was a bit lower than usual. However, if you wanted to go shopping, you would probably still be too hot. There weren't many pedestrians on the street.

Gu Zheng walked down the bustling street and said with no small amount of pride, "How about that? I picked a good day, didn't I? Before I left, my mom insisted that I put on a lot of sunscreen, betting that it would be very hot later, but now we can't even see the sun. I obviously won."

Han Zhou, who was next to him, laughed and thought to himself, "If you really don't think it's hot, then don't use an umbrella: Is it because you have such a bad temper that you've scared the sun away from coming out?"

Gu Zheng rolled her eyes and lightly tapped him with her bag. "What do you want to eat later?"

Han Zhou was also holding an umbrella, which Gu Zheng had specially brought for him. Although he always believed that a real man didn't need a parasol, he decided to be a flexible real man for the time being, considering that it was indeed very hot.

"Hmm... I'll check it on my phone later."

There were many restaurants on this street, but Guzheng looked around and lost interest. After thinking for a while, she felt a little angry and glared at him, saying, "But you're the one who invited me to dinner, why didn't you book a place in advance?"

Han Zhou glanced at her: "I invited you twice before, and each time you were not satisfied after the place was booked, so this time I learned my lesson and let you decide for yourself."

Gu Zheng snorted, tucked her hair behind her ear, and said with dissatisfaction, "It's all because the places you chose don't taste good."

Han Zhou shrugged: "That's why I'm letting you choose this time, so I can see how delicious it is."

"No need to rush about eating. Let's go shopping at the mall ahead first. You can carry my things if I buy them."

"Yes, yes, yes," Han Zhou replied indifferently.

The two entered the mall.

It was seven o'clock in a flash. Han Zhou walked to the mall entrance like a dead dog, his previous composure gone. He suddenly recalled the fear he had felt five days ago, dominated by the cardboard box full of notes.

He misjudged two things.

Firstly, I didn't expect Guzheng to be such a good shopper. She could spend more than an hour in such a small shopping mall. If she hadn't been too hot to go shopping on the street outside, she probably still wouldn't have had enough.

Secondly, I didn't expect that Guzheng could buy so many things. At least the girls on TV only buy clothes and such, but this guy put all sorts of random things into his shopping cart. I don't know if he's shopping or buying supplies.

Han Zhou's face was ashen, his back was hunched, and his hands were full of all sorts of bags. He didn't even have the strength to care about the stares of passersby. He said with a pained expression, "Class monitor, you shouldn't have forgotten that I used to be a patient, right?"

Gu Zheng was standing at the mall entrance, happily looking at her phone. Hearing this, she turned around and gave him a strange look: "Didn't you say you were fully recovered? Even your strength has increased so much."

Han Zhou thought she was referring to the day he saved Lin Youya, and quickly said, "That day I was so eager to save her, my adrenaline surged, and my potential was unleashed, so that's why..."

If it were Mo Yixia, he definitely wouldn't be able to spout such nonsense, because the other party could easily see through his guilty conscience. But Gu Zheng never cared about such trivial matters, so Han Zhou planned to keep belittling himself, so that this guy would quickly remember that he was a "delicate" man who needed to be protected, and that he was strong enough to share some of the burden.

Guzheng couldn't understand and asked in confusion, "What nonsense are you talking about? The other day I lent you a notebook and stuffed several bricks inside. I just wanted to tease you, but you didn't seem to find it heavy at all. You just picked up the box and ran off without saying a word. You were quite efficient, so I didn't bother chasing after you."

As she spoke, a smile appeared on her lips.

Han Zhou's expression froze instantly: "You really put bricks in? Are you even human?"

He did have similar suspicions at the time because the box was really heavy, but he didn't expect the other party to actually do such a thing.

"I never expected you to be so silly, hahaha."

Gu Zheng burst into laughter at his expression, her eyes curving into crescents. She barely managed to suppress her laughter before asking curiously, "But haven't you noticed this yet?"

"No."

Han Zhou was somewhat melancholy, as Mo Yixia hadn't told him about the bricks in the box.

However, he suddenly remembered something.

One day, when he pointed to the notebook and asked Mo Yixia if the things in her box were of much help to her, she gave a rather puzzling answer—

"It's very helpful, much funnier than your lame jokes."

At the time, he didn't understand what it meant. After receiving a smile from the other party, he was even more confused and didn't know what the problem was.

And now, he finally understands the meaning of those words...

(End of this chapter)