Forced into a romantic relationship

Chapter 334 On This Day in History
The temperature wasn't low today, and the weather was even unusually sunny. However, when Han Zhou saw the news, he felt a chill inexplicably even though he was in the sunlight.

21:33.

Without a doubt, this was a message sent last night.

The scary thing is that he had no recollection of this news at all before learning about Xiao Xiaoxiao's situation from Ouyang Lianyu.

But he was absolutely certain that he had checked the chat list more than once, both last night and this morning. With his photographic memory, he should never forget a message once he saw it, but he only just remembered it.

This feeling isn't like amnesia; rather, it's more like the memory has been diluted and blurred, like the blurred background in a photo, giving a sense of insignificance. If you don't zoom in on the photo to find more details, you'll subconsciously ignore everything in the background.

including people.

This is undoubtedly a terrible thing.

A strange sense of helplessness lingered in Han Zhou's heart.

Especially when he realized that he had been stunned and pondered for two seconds after hearing Xiao Xiaoxiao's name, his heart sank - clearly, Xiao Xiaoxiao was the blurred background in the photo.

Thinking about it carefully, although he had seen Xiao Xiaoxiao many times during this week, he hadn't left much of an impression on her. It was as if a character with a name and a surname had suddenly become an NPC without a name or a face, to the point that he had almost forgotten the strange things that had happened to her.

"What's wrong, Han Zhou?"

Seeing that Han Zhou looked dazed after taking out his phone, Ouyang Lianyu asked with concern, "Did something happen?"

"No."

Han Zhou shook his head, collected his thoughts, and said seriously, "Teacher Ouyang, please let me know after you've checked on Xiaoxiao's condition at the hospital. Also, please apologize to her for me and tell her that I will make time to visit her this afternoon."

Seeing his unprecedentedly solemn expression, Ouyang Lianyu was taken aback. Although she didn't quite understand, she nodded and said, "I understand... but why did you apologize to Xiaoxiao? Could it be...?"

She frowned slightly, suspecting that this guy wasn't satisfied with just provoking Gu Zheng and Mo Yixia at the same time, but had also deceived Xiao Xiaoxiao's feelings, who knew nothing about it.

"Teacher, don't overthink it. It's definitely not what you think." Han Zhou saw through Ouyang Lianyu's thoughts and interrupted her helplessly. "I just forgot to reply to Xiaoxiao's message. That guy is probably cursing me in his heart right now."

"That's it?"

Ouyang Lianyu was skeptical. Upon reflection, she realized that Han Zhou and Xiao Xiao had been getting quite close lately, and she occasionally heard her classmates teasing them during class.

"That's really all there is to it," Han Zhou said, as if swearing to the heavens.

"Okay, although I always feel that you didn't tell the teacher the truth, I will believe you this time and hope you will not let the teacher down."

Ouyang Lianyu was understanding and didn't pry. She said gently, "Alright, go back now. If there are any problems you can't solve, remember to talk to your teacher. Your teacher will try to help you."

After saying that, he turned around and left.

"Wait, Teacher Ouyang!" Han Zhou called out to her, "I need your help with something right now!"

Ouyang Lianyu stopped and sighed softly. She turned around and glared at the student who showed no manners whatsoever: "Let me make it clear first, I can help you, but matters of the heart are an exception."

"It has nothing to do with feelings, it's a small matter. Why do you always think about things in this way?"

Han Zhou rummaged around in his pocket for a moment and took out a small box from the inside pocket of his coat. "Could you please give this to Xiao Xiao for me?"

"What is this?" Ouyang Lianyu asked curiously as she took the box.

"A small gift, she'll know when she sees it."

Ouyang Lianyu examined the box for a while, then glanced at Han Zhou, and said hesitantly, "You really like giving gifts to girls."

Han Zhou met her gaze with annoyance: "I brought you souvenirs when I went to Yecheng before. If you think they're too frivolous, you can give them back to me."

Ouyang Lianyu looked embarrassed and seemed a little guilty. She immediately turned around and quickened her pace to leave, saying, "I really have to go now. You should go back quickly."

Why is this guy running?
Han Zhou was puzzled, but then suddenly realized something and said with a strange expression, "Wait...you didn't lose the thing I gave you, did you?"

Ouyang Lianyu ran even faster.

Because she was running too fast, she accidentally bumped into a telephone pole in front of her, spun around on the spot, then covered her head and held onto the wall, continuing to stumble and run away.

You might have to make an appointment with the surgery department when you go to the hospital...

Han Zhou's lips twitched. Seeing that the other person's bump wasn't too serious and that their head was protected by a woolen hat, he didn't pay any attention and turned to leave after thinking for a moment.

Clearly, his memory was malfunctioning again, and it was mostly related to Xiao Xiaoxiao. However, what concerned him was whether only he was affected by the memory, or whether others were affected as well.
Judging from Ouyang Lianyu's reaction just now, the answer seems to be the former. When Xiao Xiaoxiao was mentioned, the other party did not show any abnormality. Both her expression and tone were normal, and she did not seem to have "forgotten" Xiao Xiaoxiao.

However, if we change the example, the answer seems to become the latter.

Han Zhou and Xiao Xiaoxiao have a good relationship, and Gu Zheng and Xiao Xiaoxiao are also friends who have met several times. Logically speaking, even if he temporarily ignores Xiao Xiaoxiao's existence, Gu Zheng would still invite her to her birthday party. However, Gu Zheng has never mentioned this.

This matter concerned him greatly, but he would have to ask Guzheng before he could make a judgment on the specifics.

When Han Zhou returned to the shop, everyone was still sitting around the table eating. Lin Anyu looked displeased as soon as he saw him and shouted, "Han Zhou, where have you been? Why are you only coming back now?"

He propped his forehead with one hand, covered half his face with his fingers, and kept winking at him, as if trying to convey some message with his eyes.

Unfortunately, Han Zhou didn't have the mind-reading ability like Mo Yixia, so he couldn't understand what she meant at all. However, he could sense that something was off about the atmosphere, so he kept a watchful eye on her.

"I discussed something with Teacher Ouyang."

As he explained, he sat down and noticed that everyone was looking at him with different expressions, and no one had touched their chopsticks. He couldn't help but wonder, "Why are you all looking at me? Are you all full?"

"I'm full." Wang Runxue said with a smug look on her face, "I'm full from eating melon seeds... hiss—"

As soon as she finished speaking, she gasped sharply, feeling as if her foot had been kicked hard. Just as she was about to loudly question which bastard it was, Lin Anyu coughed twice, interrupting her.

"Han Zhou, do you remember last year's birthday when you didn't know what gift to give Gu Zheng? You kept asking me for my opinion. I searched for all sorts of information online and racked my brains with you for several days, unable to eat or sleep. We finally chose the dolphin pendant that Gu Zheng is wearing now."

Is there such a thing?

Wasn't your original statement "Stop being a bootlicker, kid. What kind of birthday gift are you going to give? Just pick a blade of grass from the roadside as a token"?

Han Zhou thought to himself, but he also knew that Lin Anyu was definitely covering for him, so he cooperated and said, "Of course I remember. I am not very good at picking gifts, but it's not as exaggerated as not being able to eat."

"Ahem, anyway, that's the gist of it."

Lin Anyu waved his hand, then secretly winked at him again, saying nostalgically, "I remember you were working part-time back then, right? You even asked me for an advance on a month's salary before Guzheng's birthday. By the way, why didn't you tell me you had such amazing cooking skills sooner? Otherwise, I would have hired you as a chef at my family's restaurant."

He wasn't exaggerating or fabricating; he was just deliberately obscuring the facts to mislead everyone into thinking that Han Zhou's advance payment was to celebrate Gu Zheng's birthday.

Upon hearing this, Gu Zheng, who had been staring sullenly at her rice bowl, was indeed moved. Her gaze swept over the blue dolphin pendant hanging around her neck, and the scene of Han Zhou giving her her first birthday present gradually surfaced in her mind.

During that time, the two of them were in their senior year of high school and were under a lot of academic pressure. They had almost no holidays, and on her birthday, she was in school. Since she couldn't use her phone at school, she couldn't receive reminders from her parents, so much so that she forgot it was her birthday.

But Han Zhou remembered.

Back then, the class had a habit of running at night. In order to keep the students in good spirits, the class teacher would ask her, as the class monitor, to lead everyone to run three laps around the playground after the third period of evening self-study.

This requirement started at the beginning of the second semester of the second year of high school. At first, it caused a lot of complaints, since the weather was still very cold at that time and it would get very hot as summer approached. Running at night was like self-torture. Later, the homeroom teacher accepted the students' suggestions and stopped forcing everyone to run, but required them to at least walk a lap to warm up.

From then on, the class tradition of night running—or rather, night walking—was established.

Gu Zheng is the only one who truly sticks to running every night; for her, running three laps is no different from warming up.

That day seemed to be a rather special day, though she couldn't quite remember exactly what made it special. She only remembered that either get out of class ended very late or the lights went out very late, and when she went to the playground, she couldn't see a single person. Amidst the rhythmic footsteps, the only companions she had were the dim streetlights.

She was used to listening to English listening exercises with headphones while running, and at the same time summarizing the questions she got wrong that day in her mind. So she didn’t notice at all that when she finished her second lap, someone was chasing after her desperately and yelling at her to stop.

It is said that the noise was so loud that it woke up the vice principal, who lived in a residential building outside the school and had very poor sleep quality. He remembered the name Guzheng and suspected that a student was having an early romance. The next day, he called her and Han Zhou to his office and gave them a stern reprimand.

However, after learning that the two were the top two students in their senior year, the vice principal's attitude became quite mild, saying that the two had the unique vigor of youth and were able to balance sports and studies, which was very commendable.

Of course, these are things for later.

Guzheng was caught up with when she ran to the third street lamp.

The reason she remembered it so clearly was because Han Zhou was exhausted when he grabbed her hand from behind and almost fell into her arms. She panicked and, in her haste, pressed him against a lamppost.

It is said that this scene was witnessed by the head of the grade who was taking a walk, and it was because of his report about "female students pinning male students against the wall late at night on the playground" that the vice principal was furious.

She used a bit too much force, and Han Zhou's head hit the lamppost. But before she could apologize, she heard him gasp for breath, "Why...why did you run so fast? Didn't you hear...did you hear me calling you?"

"I wasn't running very fast, I was running at a normal, steady pace, okay?"

She pointed to the headphones hanging around her neck and muttered defiantly, "Besides, who knew you'd suddenly run up behind me and chase after me?"

"Don't you know that... your steady pace is faster than my full-speed sprint...?"

"Who told you not to exercise properly? I asked you to run with me before, but you wouldn't." She rolled her eyes at him.

Han Zhou gave a wry smile and said breathlessly, "I would like to train, but the conditions don't allow it."

He kept glancing at his watch as he spoke, perhaps feeling that time was running out, and suddenly hurriedly pulled a box out of his pocket.

"So what brings you here...?"

Gu Zheng was still wondering why he had caught up with her and was about to ask when she was interrupted by the sound of his panting.

Happy birthday, Guzheng!

Even now, Gu Zheng still remembers the way Han Zhou looked when he said those words.

Sweating profusely and panting, he clutched the back of his aching head with one hand and held the other's faded pencil case, which had originally been a beautifully wrapped gift box but seemed to have been mistakenly taken.

She was lost in thought for a moment, then suddenly understood why the other person had chased after her with all their might.

"You pursued me just for this?"

Realizing he had taken the wrong thing, Han Zhou's hand holding the pencil case froze in mid-air. He said awkwardly, "Heaven knows how time flew by today. It's almost midnight in the blink of an eye. You didn't answer when I called you, and I was afraid I would miss it, so I had no choice but to catch up."

"Is it almost midnight?"

"Yes, there's only one minute left. It's too late to rush back and get the gift now." Han Zhou coughed and said shamelessly, "How about you keep this pencil case for now? Consider it a gift already to you?"

"How can you be so casual!"

Gu Zheng rolled her eyes at him, then suddenly couldn't help but chuckle, asking with a smile, "If you were afraid you wouldn't make it in time, why didn't you run from the opposite direction?"

The air was quiet for a moment.

Seeing Han Zhou's already embarrassed expression turn into a blank look, she couldn't help but burst out laughing. She raised her hand and showed him the watch on her wrist: "Also, it's 10:59 now. Your broken watch is jumping the time wrong again. It's time to get a new one."

Han Zhou was taken aback for a moment, then let out a long sigh of relief: "I've been so busy today that I'm a little out of it... That's perfect, come back to the classroom with me and I'll give you your birthday present."

"What gift?" "If I tell you, there won't be any surprise."

"You already gave me the pencil case as a gift, what other surprise could there be?"

"Then you can keep the pencil case."

"I do not want it."

"..."

Last winter was a bit cold, with a cold wind sweeping across the playground from time to time. The shadows of the trees, elongated by the lights, swayed slightly, as did the shadows of two people walking side by side.

The track was littered with withered yellow leaves, which made a "crunching" sound when stepped on.

Gu Zheng looked at the fallen leaves all over the ground and complained, "The school only cares about the appearance when planting trees, and doesn't pay any attention to practicality. We have to clean the playground every day. It's so annoying."

Han Zhou smiled and said, "If we only focus on practicality, then some people will definitely say that the trees planted at school are not pleasing to the eye at all, and that it's impossible to relax even when doing morning exercises."

"How could there be such a person?" Gu Zheng rolled her eyes at him, thinking he was just arguing for the sake of arguing.

"Of course there are. There will never be a shortage of people in this world who complain about everything but never think about their own problems. Just ignore these people."

Gu Zheng paused, her expression becoming somewhat unnatural, and muttered, "Are you trying to comfort me?"

Because the homeroom teacher praised her again in class today and decided to use her as an example to give everyone an "intensive" workout during the final sprint of senior year, many students who already disliked her disliked her even more.

However, she was already used to this kind of thing.

"Do you need my comfort?" Han Zhou asked with a smile.

"of course not……"

Gu Zheng instinctively wanted to deny it, but faced with the other person's ambiguous smile, she decided to tell the truth and looked away, "I still need it occasionally... just occasionally!"

Even if you get used to it, it doesn't mean you don't care at all.

She didn't feel wronged, but she couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.

Han Zhou smiled, raised his hand to catch a fallen leaf that was flying towards the girl, crushed it, and threw it aside.

"Then just take it as me comforting you."

The leaves turned into fine dust, which was scattered on the playground by the wind and disappeared into the darkness.

Guzheng stared blankly at him.

"what happened?"

"It's nothing." She quickly looked away, hastily came up with an excuse, and said with dissatisfaction, "Don't throw the leaves around."

Han Zhou shrugged, a blank expression on his face. "Anyway, it's our class that's cleaning."

The air became quiet.

Cars sped past outside the wall, their music playing loudly—a currently popular song that happened to be playing a lyric that Guzheng liked.

"I want to share my headphones with you, but in return, you have to give me half of your heart. The other half can be kept as a secret file, which I want to spend the rest of my life slowly looking through."

She looked down at the headphones hanging around her neck, suddenly lost in thought, annoyed that she had only downloaded the English listening materials.

A gust of cold wind blew by, and she snapped back to reality. She tidied her wind-blown hair, quickly glanced at Han Zhou's profile, and asked casually, "Han Zhou, how did you know it was my birthday today?"

“I helped the teacher organize the class files a while ago. The files contained everyone’s birth dates. I was bored, so I wrote down your birthday.”

"What do you mean by being bored?" Gu Zheng asked, looking displeased.

"I misspoke. I should say I specifically wrote down your birthday."

"That's more like it." Gu Zheng's eyes crinkled into a smile, and she immediately beamed.

Han Zhou couldn't help but chuckle, saying, "You're really easy to fool."

"That's because I didn't want to get angry with you. Otherwise, it wouldn't have mattered if you tried to coax me; I wouldn't have paid any attention to you anyway." Gu Zheng rolled her eyes at him.

Han Zhou was shocked: "So heartless?"

"That's how heartless I am." Gu Zheng put on a stern face, indicating that she was serious.

"What if I really make you angry one day? Isn't there any way to make amends?"

"Let me think... If you had sincerely apologized back then, I might have considered forgiving you."

What constitutes a sincere apology?

"that is……"

"..."

The two chatted as they returned to the classroom. It was already past eleven o'clock, and the classroom was empty. Han Zhou turned on the light and walked towards his seat.

Gu Zheng's heart raced, and she tried her best to appear indifferent to the gift, silently following behind him.

"I knew I'd taken the wrong one."

Han Zhou took out an exquisite rectangular gift box from the drawer, placed it next to the pencil case, and said helplessly, "They are about the same size, I grabbed the wrong one in my haste."

"Oh."

Gu Zheng casually looked around, her hands behind her back, as if to say, "I don't care at all what the gift is," but in reality, she was already eagerly guessing what was inside the box.

She waited quietly for a while, her neck almost snapping from twisting, but Han Zhou still hadn't given her the gift. She grew impatient: "Why are you dawdling?"

Han Zhou stared at the gift box for a while, then smiled wryly and said, "I'm suddenly worried that you won't like this gift."

He hadn't had this worry before, but since he hadn't been able to give the gift the first time, Gu Zheng's expectations might continue to rise. So even though he knew the other party wouldn't mind, he was still somewhat worried that her expectations would be disappointed.

Gu Zheng rolled her eyes: "I'll like anything you give me. Even if it's just a blade of grass, I'll wear it with me every day. Here you go!"

She no longer hid her true emotions and boldly extended her hand. When the other party still didn't move, she simply snatched the gift box away.

"I want to see what this is..."

She muttered as she opened the gift box, inside which lay a string of blue dolphin pendants, not particularly ornate, but rather simple in style.

Happy birthday, Guzheng.

Han Zhou's voice rang in my ears, sounding somewhat embarrassed, "This is the perfect birthday gift I found online for a girl, but after buying it, I realized you never seem to wear jewelry, and you don't even use hair clips much, so I don't know if you'll like it..."

"I like it," Gu Zheng blurted out.

"Really?"

"I told you I would wear even a foxtail grass every day, let alone such a thoughtful gift."

Gu Zheng smiled and carefully took the pendant out of the box, gently stroking the little blue dolphin. "I thought you were going to give me something like dumbbells or boxing gloves."

Han Zhou asked, somewhat puzzled, "Why would you think that?"

"nothing."

Gu Zheng shook her head, gathered her hair behind her head, and smiled brightly, "I can't reach it, can you help me put it on?"

"it is good."

Han Zhou nodded, took the pendant, walked behind the guzheng, and gently helped her put it on.

"Does it look good?"

There were no mirrors in the classroom, so Gu Zheng had to ask Han Zhou, the only person present, for his opinion.

Of course, she doesn't care what other people think.

"Beautiful," Han Zhou commented earnestly. "At least ten times more beautiful than the mannequins in the store."

"You don't have to say that."

Gu Zheng gave him a smug look, then pressed the pendant tightly to her chest, her eyes curving into beautiful crescents.

"Thank you, Han Zhou. I really like your gift, and I will wear it forever."

Han Zhou was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and said, "I'm glad you like it."

"Oh, right, there's no cake today, but you can still make a wish. Have you decided what you want to wish for?"

"Think about it."

Guzheng seemed to have been waiting for him to say that, and immediately pulled him out of the classroom, saying, "Come with me to the playground for a run, and we'll see who runs faster."

"what?"

"This is my birthday wish. Aren't you going to help me make it come true?"

"No, that's not it, but how could I possibly outrun you..."

"I'll run at a steady pace, you run at full speed."

"Then I can't outrun you either."

"Do not."

Gu Zheng shook her head earnestly, her eyes curving into crescents.

"You just outran me."

This is her favorite gift.

Revising a chapter twice is really something else... This chapter is almost 2,500 words longer, so writing it twice adds up to 5,000 words, which rounds up to 10,000 words. So, please allow me to shamelessly reward myself with a day off. I'm taking a day off to relax today :.ヽ(*`).:

Also, I heard that a reader who scored 600 on the college entrance exam wanted to make me a leader, but because they didn't study hard, they dropped from third to thirtieth place. Their attitude was really not right, and I severely criticized them for this; they must correct their behavior! Please don't follow their example. The main point is to encourage everyone to study hard; it has nothing to do with being a leader...

Just kidding, but everyone really needs to focus on their studies, otherwise they'll end up like the author, writing novels.

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(End of this chapter)