Forced into a romantic relationship

Chapter 329 Important Day

The torrential rain continued until the afternoon of the following day, when it finally began to subside around 3 p.m.

Before the weather had completely cleared up, Han Zhou and Mo Yixia boarded the bus home, accompanied by Ouyang Lianyu and Zhang Xinyue, as well as Zhong Ling, who was also going home to get her sister some warm clothes. Only Wang Lengqiu returned to school alone, her slender figure looking somewhat lonely.

Especially when they thought about the possibility that she might have completely lost her beloved pet dog, everyone felt a pang of sadness, yet they were powerless to help.

“I spoke with Wang Lengqiu’s counselor. She is a left-behind child who grew up with her grandfather. Her parents are always away working. Although they send money home every month, they don’t really care about her and rarely come home for the Chinese New Year.”

Sitting by the window, Ouyang Lianyu said with a look of pity, "Wang Lengqiu has been beautiful since she was a child, and she is also honest. Therefore, not only her peers, but sometimes older boys would also harass her. Once, the matter became a big deal, and her grandfather went to the school to make a scene. Although those children were punished, she was hospitalized a few days later due to the children's parents' retaliation."

"Wang Lengqiu called her parents in tears, but instead of comforting her, her parents thought it was her fault and told her to be good at home, to be patient, and not to provoke others."

Wang Lengqiu was one of Ouyang Lianyu's most concerned students. At first, she only knew that Wang Lengqiu was ridiculed because of her obesity, which left her with great psychological trauma. Therefore, she always wanted to try to help Wang Lengqiu get rid of her mental illness.

However, the more she learned about the child, the more heartbroken she became. This child had been bullied since childhood, and her psychological work had not been effective to this day. This made her feel very guilty, believing that she was not a qualified teacher.

"This is too much!"

When Zhang Xinyue first heard about Wang Lengqiu, she was immediately filled with righteous indignation. Although she had always lost to her opponent in the card game the day before, she really liked that quiet girl.

The "excessive" she was referring to wasn't just the group of unruly children and their domineering family, but also Wang Lengqiu's irresponsible parents.

It was clearly the child and father who were bullied, but instead of helping them get justice, they blamed the child for the mistake. As parents, son, and daughter-in-law, they were all extremely irresponsible.

"Yes."

Ouyang Lianyu sighed, "I heard that since then, Wang Lengqiu has developed a relatively timid personality, and he always says 'I'm sorry' no matter what he does."

"Isn't it 'thank you'?" Han Zhou asked.

"It used to be 'I'm sorry,' but I don't know why it changed to 'thank you' later."

Ouyang Lianyu explained, "Wang Lengqiu's grandfather is old, and her parents are irresponsible. On the day of registration, a kind-hearted couple drove her here. They are Wang Lengqiu's neighbors, and I learned about these things from them."

"Poor child." Zhang Xinyue said with a sorrowful and regretful expression, "If I had known, I should have deliberately lost a few more games yesterday."

No need to do it on purpose, you've almost lost out on the new pants you bought yesterday...

Han Zhou thought to himself, Wang Lengqiu was a master at playing cards. If Mo Yixia hadn't gotten involved later, she might have been able to keep winning until the end of the game. Even with Mo Yixia's involvement, she still ended up losing more than she won. It could be said that no one could stop her.

Of course, Han Zhou wasn't oblivious to the atmosphere, so he naturally wouldn't complain at this moment. He simply sighed, "Most tragedies stem from unhappy families, and most family unhappiness is due to incompetent parents."

The influence of one's family of origin is enormous. A bad family of origin not only brings misfortune to its own children, but also spreads this misfortune to many others, often leading to numerous tragedies.

"Although it's too absolute, I support your point of view," Mo Yixia said calmly beside her.

It is no exaggeration to say that, apart from Zhong Ling, none of the other people present had happy families. It's just a pity that Zhong Ling's parents passed away early, so her family was not happy either.

Ouyang Lianyu also felt that Han Zhou's words made a lot of sense, and nodded and continued: "According to that couple, Wang Lengqiu transferred schools after her grandfather's accident. She was very happy for a while after transferring schools, but later she returned to her old self and was harassed by boys again. It was also during that time that she gained weight."

"Why did you gain weight?" Zhang Xinyue was indignant about Wang Lengqiu's situation and asked in confusion, "Is it because you felt hopeless after being bullied, so you overate?"

"Do not."

The answer she received was not from Ouyang Lianyu, but from Mo Yixia: "The reason Wang Lengqiu is repeatedly harassed is because she is too beautiful. So the way to stop the harassment is very simple: make yourself not beautiful."

Ouyang Lianyu looked at her in surprise and nodded, "That's right. Wang Lengqiu binged to make herself less pretty. It is said that her grandfather kept going to the school for her during that time. She was worried that the same thing would happen again, so she used this method to isolate herself from other people's harassment. Although she would be ridiculed, she could protect her grandfather."

At this point, her tone became somewhat sorrowful.

At the time, Wang Lengqiu was still in elementary school. With no parents to rely on, she could only choose this childish and ridiculous way to protect herself and her grandfather, while her parents were indifferent to her situation.

Zhang Xinyue sighed, then suddenly realized something was wrong: "Wait a minute, although I'm not a beauty and haven't experienced this kind of trouble, I've seen how beautiful women are treated since I was little—generally speaking, beauties like you should have protectors, right?"

The "you guys" here naturally refers to Mo Yixia, Zhong Ling, and Ouyang Lianyu. All three are undeniably beautiful, and she is curious whether they have similar childhood experiences.

Being called a beauty so bluntly made Ouyang Lianyu a little embarrassed, and she laughed and said, "When I was a child, I got along well with the girls in my class. Everyone took good care of me, and I was chased away whenever a boy bothered me."

Zhong Ling's voice was too soft, so Han Zhou had to translate for her: "The senior said that she has an older sister to protect her, and her teachers and classmates also take good care of her, so she has never experienced anything like this."

Zhong Ling nodded, indicating that her junior was right.

All eyes turned to Mo Yixia.

The latter seemed uninterested in the topic and said casually, "I've always liked being alone since I was little, but no one bothers me."

"Why?" Zhang Xinyue asked with interest. "Could it be that you've been wearing masks and hats since you were a child?"

No, because they dare not.

……

The bus pulled into the station, and Han Zhou and his group parted ways as they each had their own things to do.

Before parting, Ouyang Lianyu specifically reminded Han Zhou that he had class the next day and told him to return to school as soon as possible, otherwise it would be considered late. Han Zhou had no intention of skipping class anyway, and he agreed to go back to school with her. Ouyang Lianyu was very satisfied and even asked Zhong Ling about her plans. In the end, they decided that the three of them would return to school together the next morning.

Han Zhou didn't rush home, but went to Mo Yixia's house first.

He promised Jiang Baiqian yesterday that he would take Mo Yixia home as soon as the rain stopped, and now is the time to fulfill that promise.

Although Jiang Baiqian was quite amiable on the phone yesterday, most parents are like that, used to reserving politeness for outsiders and harshness for their children. Seeing that he wasn't there, she might still blame Mo Yixia. He made a special trip to take the responsibility upon himself, to try to appease Jiang Baiqian so that Mo Yixia wouldn't be punished, and also to make the next trip go more smoothly.

The two didn't stop for a moment on the way; they kept discussing how they fell asleep together the night before.

Undoubtedly, the problem lies with those two rose earrings. As for whether they only help people fall asleep, that remains to be seen. The two have not yet found any useful clues.

However, it is worth mentioning that Han Zhou received a message from Gu Zheng this morning, informing him that she had spent some time alone with Xiao Xiaoxiao yesterday and had also fallen asleep for a period of time without any warning. The time she fell asleep and woke up was the same as the time when they were together.

This is something that is quite intriguing.

Prior to this, Han Zhou and Mo Yixia had already analyzed and concluded that the reason why Xiao Xiaoxiao had insomnia and even haunted her in the past was very likely due to the rose earrings. The range of influence of this thing is limited. Yesterday, Han Zhou went downstairs to ask the front desk and also asked the guests in the next room. He learned that none of them had suddenly fallen asleep, which means that the rose earrings can only make people in a small area fall asleep.

However, this conclusion was overturned after receiving news about Guzheng. The fact that Guzheng and Xiaoxiaoxiao, who were so far apart, could be affected suggests that the limiting factor for rose earrings might not be distance, but other factors.

Of course, it's also possible that Xiao Xiaoxiao and the rose earrings have coexisted for too long, and have absorbed each other's characteristics to the point that they are intertwined, thus both becoming factors that affect others' sleep.

Besides this news, Han Zhou also learned from Gu Zheng that Xiao Xiaoxiao had "dreamed" about his family, which is why he wanted to go home today.

As for Mo Yixia's suspicion yesterday that the two might have met before, they have also reached a conclusion.

Since there is now increasing evidence that Han Zhou and Xiao Xiaoxiao had met each other at some point in the past, it is not impossible that Mo Yixia and others existed in this forgotten memory.

Perhaps it was because of some kind of entanglement that they met again, which seemed to be predestined.

Mo Yixia needed to get home as soon as possible today, so she couldn't go to Han Zhou's house to find out what was going on. So she took the initiative to ask for the address and key, planning to go and check it out herself when she had time, and also to find out what was going on from the neighbors.

Han Zhou could tell that Mo Yixia genuinely wanted to help him find the truth, but he wondered if asking for the key was something she had been planning for a long time.

When the two arrived at Mo Yixia's house, Jiang Baiqian, who had already received a phone call, had prepared a table full of food and warmly invited Han Zhou to have dinner with her. She asked him a lot about his recent situation at the table and gave him two large bags of foreign specialties before he left. She was incredibly kind to him.

Han Zhou was worried that there was something fishy going on, but Mo Yixia signaled to him with her eyes that he didn't need to worry, and even put several fish heads on his plate in front of Jiang Baiqian.

He suspected that the mother and daughter were probably having some kind of unseen confrontation. After confirming several times that he was not needed there, he left Mo Yixia's house with two bags of local specialties.

It was winter, and it got dark very quickly. He first took a taxi back to his old home and searched the empty room for a long time, but he still couldn't find anything of value.

"Could it have been taken with you when you moved?"

Han Zhou refused to believe it and patiently searched again, but still found nothing.

He decisively gave up and decided to go back to the rented house to see if his belongings had really been moved there.

As he passed through the living room, looking at a wall with peeling paint, he suddenly remembered the old cabinet that used to stand there. Later, when the cabinet was discarded, other things were put in its place...

What is it?

His memory suddenly froze for a moment, then returned to normal.

After discarding the old cabinet, he went to the mall and bought a new one on sale. However, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. The new cabinet broke down after only a short time. From then on, he was reluctant to spend money on a new cabinet and developed the habit of putting his belongings in cardboard boxes.

That said, we could rummage through those cardboard boxes; there are quite a few odds and ends inside, and maybe some valuable clues are hidden there.

Han Zhou put the matter of the cabinet out of his mind and began to think about something else as he opened the door and went downstairs.

Given the strange events of yesterday, he naturally didn't miss the opportunity and seized the moment to use the "mysterious brocade pouch."

[Mysterious Pouch: A one-time use item. Opening it will grant you a mysterious message that may provide some clues or help in your current situation, or it may provide invalid information. Please use it with caution based on the current circumstances.]

The conditions for using this item are rather strict; it can only be used after a strange event has occurred. Fortunately, last night's situation met the conditions, and he received a rather simple hint.

"Next Saturday will be a nice sunny day."

To be honest, the moment Han Zhou saw this notification, he immediately suspected that the "mysterious brocade bag" had taken Lincheng's reverse weather forecast as a strange event. Otherwise, why would it give a notification about next week's weather?
But he quickly realized that it probably wasn't like that. After all, the "mysterious brocade pouch" was almost exclusively for Xiao Xiaoxiao, just like sleeping pills. So this hint was most likely also hinting at something about Xiao Xiaoxiao—although he couldn't figure it out for the time being.

Of course, it's also possible that this is just useless information. The item description clearly states that the "Mysterious Pouch" will provide invalid information.

However, Han Zhou still prefers to take it as a useful tip and pay close attention to factors related to sunny weather next Saturday.

By the way, what's next Saturday again?

Han Zhou calculated the dates and suddenly realized that next Saturday was a very important day—

The guzheng's birthday.

(End of this chapter)