Forced into a romantic relationship

Chapter 320 Rose Earrings
In hotel room 1207, Han Zhou was also discussing Xiao Xiaoxiao with Mo Yixia.

Just now, at Mo Yixia's request, he told her in detail about his experience in Beicheng, especially the journey back to Yancun. Mo Yixia asked him to tell her as much as possible, seemingly trying to find some useful clues.

Han Zhou had a photographic memory, so such a request was no challenge for him. Just as he was talking about the rumors of pirates and human traffickers running rampant in Beicheng, Mo Yixia suddenly interrupted him.

"Didn't you notice? There's something wrong with what you just said."

"what is the problem?"

Han Zhou immediately stopped narrating and showed an expression of attentive listening.

“You just said that the bus driver told you that unless you drive yourself, almost everyone going to Linhai Town has to take his bus, and he could tell at a glance that you were from out of town.”

"Yes, what's wrong with that..."

Han Zhou was about to ask what the problem was when he suddenly froze for a moment and immediately understood what the problem was that Mo Yixia was talking about.

Although the other party did not finish speaking, their meaning was already self-evident.

"You mean..."

"Yes."

Mo Yixia saw what he was trying to say and said calmly, "The driver's meaning is very clear. He doesn't know all of you, including Xiao Xiaoxiao. Before this, he emphasized that you were all handsome men and beautiful women. If you were residents of Linhai Town, he couldn't possibly not remember you."

After a moment of silence, Han Zhou continued her words with a complicated expression: "And given her slight recognizability, if she had ridden in that car before, the driver shouldn't have forgotten her..."

Under his gaze, which seemed to seek confirmation, Mo Yixia nodded firmly and voiced the guess that had surfaced in his mind—

"Unless he has never met Xiao Xiaoxiao before."

A white light streaked across the sky, followed by deafening thunder. On the sofa on the other side of the room, Zhang Xinyue, who had just received a good hand of cards, was startled and almost dropped her cards. She quickly got up and drew the curtains.

Everyone was gathered in the room. Han Zhou and Mo Yixia were chatting at the door, while the other four were playing cards together.

It is worth mentioning that this suggestion was made by Ouyang Lianyu. Although she did not say it explicitly, everyone could see her good intentions, which were simply to liven up Wang Lengqiu, who had been in low spirits.

At this time, both Ouyang Lianyu and Zhang Xinyue learned that Wang Lengqiu had lost his dog, but they were powerless to help and could only try to comfort him.

Wang Lengqiu was quite cooperative; although she didn't say much, she joined Zhong Ling and the other two in playing cards.

"Sister Lianyu, what do you think those two are talking about? They deliberately went to such a far place, obviously they don't want us to hear."

Zhang Xinyue returned to her seat, muttering to herself as she played her cards.

"How would I know? Young people have their own topics to discuss. Why are you so concerned?" Ouyang Lianyu pushed up her glasses and shook her head helplessly.

"Look at what you're saying, we're not old," Zhang Xinyue corrected, somewhat displeased. "I just wanted to invite them to play cards. Who knows when this rain will stop? It's a rare opportunity, wouldn't it be better for everyone to play some group games together?"

"They may have something important to talk about, they'll come over when they're done. Okay, it's your turn to play."

"A pair of Kings! Heh heh, I have a really good hand, you're all going to lose!"

Zhang Xinyue was smug, but the smile on her face froze the next second. Wang Lengqiu calmly played a pair of Kings and then played all his cards in one go. The whole process was very smooth, as if he knew no one could play them.

Zhang Xinyue was dumbfounded.

"You won again, Wang Lengqiu." Ouyang Lianyu smiled at Wang Lengqiu.

"Thank you."

The latter slowly opened his mouth, turned his head to look at Han Zhou and the other person, and then stared blankly at the scattered playing cards on the table.

Zhong Ling clumsily began shuffling the cards. Although she lost another round, she was not discouraged. She was the type of person who would take everything seriously and be fully committed to whatever she did. Even though she wasn't very good at playing cards, she still gave it her all.

On the other side, Han Zhou fell into deep thought, recalling the details of his journey to Linhai Town, and quickly came to a conclusion—

Mo Yixia was right. Judging from the driver's reaction at the time, he had probably never seen Xiao Xiaoxiao before.

Or perhaps they have lost the memory of ever having met the other person.

It's important to know that Xiao Xiaoxiao is already beautiful, and coupled with her petite figure, she has a high degree of recognizability. She's the type that most people won't forget after seeing her for a short time, and even if they forget her, they can easily remember her when they see her a second time.

Judging from the driver's rather smug tone, he was clearly very confident in his observation and memory skills. He was able to say with such certainty that they were from out of town, which obviously included Xiao Xiaoxiao. In other words, he did not think he had seen Xiao Xiaoxiao before.

...But this is unreasonable.

Even if we take the most extreme scenario, Xiao Xiaoxiao had never left Linhai Town before going to university, meaning she had never ridden on the bus with the driver before that, but at least she would have ridden on that bus on the day she went to university, right?

Moreover, Xiao Xiaoxiao had gone back once during the National Day holiday, which required at least two car rides and at least three encounters. It's impossible for the driver to have no memory of her at all.

Han Zhou remembered that the driver had said that he was specifically responsible for the Linhai Town route, making one round trip each in the morning, noon and evening, and never switching shifts with anyone. He had been doing this job for several years.

In addition, Xiao Xiaoxiao mentioned more than once that it was the only bus that ran between Linhai Town and Beicheng; otherwise, they wouldn't have needed to rush to catch the bus so early in the morning.

Therefore, there was no situation where Xiao Xiaoxiao encountered other drivers when she got on the bus.

So... why didn't that driver remember Xiao Xiaoxiao?
Assuming this is some kind of "memory erasure" method, if the driver doesn't remember Xiao Xiaoxiao, will Xiao Xiaoxiao still remember the driver?

Is this just a coincidence or is there some unknown reason behind it?
Is it simply forgetting, or is there some kind of human interference involved?

Many questions arose in Han Zhou's mind, but then another point that was worth noting came to mind—

The driver was unaware that there was a place called Jianyan Village near Linhai Town.

As a seasoned driver who had traveled between Beicheng and Linhai Town for many years, he should have been familiar with most of the areas around Linhai Town. However, he was completely unaware of the existence of Jianyan Village.

This isn't actually that strange. After all, even an experienced driver might not have heard of some obscure place names. But if you connect it to not remembering Xiao Xiaoxiao, then it seems a bit suspicious.

Could this be the consequence of "forgetting" Xiao Xiaoxiao?

Han Zhou told Mo Yixia about his suspicion, and she replied without hesitation, "Instead of spending time thinking about it, you should just ask the person involved."

She wasn't referring to the driver, but to Xiao Xiaoxiao. Whether Xiao Xiaoxiao still remembers the driver is very important.

"I think so too."

Han Zhou immediately picked up his phone and called Xiao Xiaoxiao, but quickly frowned and looked at the screen, saying, "No signal at this hour?"

Mo Yixia was searching for information about Jianyan Village online when she saw the same error message. Seeing that her phone had no signal, she looked up at the window. Although the window was covered by curtains, it was still easy to tell how heavy the rain was from the sound of the torrential rain.

But this isn't some remote snow-capped mountain; even if the rain were to get heavier, there shouldn't be no cell phone signal.

She sensed something was wrong.

Han Zhou also sensed something was wrong, and walked over to the group of people playing cards, asking, "Do you guys have a signal on your phones?"

This question was directed at Zhong Ling and Wang Lengqiu, since Ouyang Lianyu and Zhang Xinyue's phones were both unusable.

Zhong Ling immediately put down her cards, took out her phone from her small cloth bag, looked at it, and then shook her head in confusion, seemingly feeling a little strange.

"No, not a single bar of signal." Wang Lengqiu silently took out his phone and shook his head as well.

Mo Yixia glanced at her thoughtfully. Although this girl wasn't completely taciturn, she only responded completely to Han Zhou's words.

Zhang Xinyue asked in surprise, "What's wrong? None of your phones have a signal?"

"Ah."

Han Zhou seemed somewhat absent-minded.

"Is there a problem?" Ouyang Lianyu noticed the worry in his eyes and asked with concern.

"It's nothing, I just feel like I've forgotten something important."

Han Zhou smiled and shook his head, saying, "You guys continue playing. Yi Xia and I have some things to talk about."

After saying that, he and Mo Yixia returned to the doorway.

"So disgusting..."

Zhang Xinyue muttered something to herself, then refocused her attention on the card game, saying smugly, "Come on, let's continue. I have three Aces, who can beat me?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Lengqiu silently typed three twos.

The air becomes quiet.

This girl is toxic...

Zhang Xinyue looked depressed.

Han Zhou walked to the door and pondered for almost a minute, but he still couldn't remember what he had forgotten.

This is abnormal. You should know that he now has a photographic memory. Recalling the past is like flipping through a book. As long as he is patient enough, it is impossible for him to miss anything that happened.

...unless that event is erased from memory.

He immediately realized what was happening and said urgently, "Yixia, I think I can almost remember what happened that night during the live broadcast."

Mo Yixia glanced at him and said calmly, "If you want me to use hypnosis to help you regain your memories, then I'm sorry, I can't do that. I don't know hypnosis."

"It's rare that there's something you don't know." Han Zhou gave a wry smile, quickly calming himself down. "But it's okay, no rush, I'll remember eventually."

He wasn't in a hurry. After thinking for a moment, he continued, "By the way, I'd like you to help me analyze a sentence: 'The end of remembering is forgetting'—what do you think of this sentence?"

"Is it important?" Mo Yixia looked into his eyes.

“It’s very important, and it should be related to Xiao Xiaoxiao’s matter, but I can’t tell you the source of this statement for the time being.” Han Zhou looked at her seriously.

"I understand." Mo Yixia nodded slightly. "Please continue."

Han Zhou first finished recounting his experience of going to Jianyan Village, and then told Mo Yixia about the clues he had seen in the "mysterious brocade pouch"—

"The end of remembering is forgetting."

“Go back to your old home and search patiently; you may discover things that don’t exist in your memory.”

"If you get nothing, you can seek help from others."

"If you still come up empty-handed, I suggest you put this matter out of your mind and focus on living your life now."

"The end of remembering is forgetting, and the end of forgetting is remembering."

Mo Yixia fell into thought.

About half a minute later, she shook her head slightly: "Without knowing the cause and effect, I can't determine the specific meaning of this sentence unless we find more clues. But you should have noticed that this content is reminding... no, warning you."

Her tone became unusually serious.

Han Zhou was silent for a moment, then said, "I know, this content is telling me that once I start looking for the truth of this matter, I may lose my current life."

“But you still want to find it.” Mo Yixia saw through his thoughts as easily as ever.

"Yes, my intuition tells me I don't want to forget this." Han Zhou let out a long sigh and said frankly, "But I will prepare in advance, I don't want to lose my current life."

He has a status bar, so even in the worst-case scenario, he can recover.

Of course, this is on the premise that you have enough points.

Mo Yixia remained noncommittal, then thought for a moment and reminded her, "Perhaps forgetting is a good thing for you. After all, as you just said, 'The end of remembering is forgetting, and the end of forgetting is remembering.'"

She looked at Han Zhou's face, her tone revealing neither joy nor anger, "Perhaps your current state is the true way you remember what you forgot, while trying to recall it is the true way of forgetting."

"Is this your interpretation?" Han Zhou looked at her curiously.

"One of them."

Han Zhou hesitated for a moment, then asked uncertainly, "Do you think I shouldn't try to find out the truth about this?"

Mo Yixia pondered for a moment: "From childhood to adulthood, exploring the unknown has never been an interesting thing for me, and it still is now, so to be honest, I don't really like to look for the so-called truth."

“I guess there’s a ‘but’ at the end,” Han Zhou tentatively suggested.

"There is no 'but', but there is 'however'."

Mo Yixia glanced at him, "However... if this is what you expect, then exploring the truth might not be such an interesting thing."

"However" and "but" seem to be almost the same...

Han Zhou smiled and said, "I knew you would help me."

"After all, I'm also very curious about your relationship with that girl named Xiao Xiaoxiao," Mo Yixia said, casually brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

Han Zhou hesitated for a moment: "Although I don't remember, I think we are innocent..."

Did I say you were not innocent?

"I didn't mean that..."

"It goes without saying."

Mo Yixia interrupted her, "Now that you've made up your mind to find the truth, it's time for me to tell you about the thing you've forgotten—"

"Go check what's in the inside pocket of your coat."

Han Zhou was startled. The feeling of remembering something in his mind grew stronger. He quickly walked into the dressing room, found his wet coat, and pulled out two small, slightly cold items from the inside pocket.

Those were a pair of silver rose earrings.

(End of this chapter)