Forced into a romantic relationship

Chapter 364 The Vanished Points

Gu Zheng rushed into the kitchen and immediately saw Han Zhou standing by the window in a daze. She quickly went up to him and asked, "What's wrong, Han Zhou? Are you alright?"

Han Zhou rarely shouted like that. She thought that the other person had also seen the ghost that Teacher Ouyang had mentioned and was worried that he was in danger, so he rushed over.

But it seems I was overthinking it.

Han Zhou simply looked blank, as if he was thinking about something, and did not show any fear or unease.

Outside, a torrential downpour was falling, the raindrops constantly pounding against the windowpane, accompanied by the howling of the wind, which sounded strangely eerie.

Gu Zheng wanted Han Zhou to stay away from the window, but felt that doing so would make her seem cowardly, so she swallowed her words.

"This is truly a ghost story..."

Han Zhou murmured to himself, his brows furrowed slightly, as if he had encountered something incomprehensible.

What the hell?

Gu Zheng's expression changed, and she immediately picked up the fire tongs next to the barbecue grill as a weapon, looking around warily: "Did you see the ghost that Teacher Ouyang mentioned?"

Han Zhou was taken aback. Seeing the girl's alarmed expression, he immediately composed himself, shook his head, and chuckled, "I'm not talking about the kind of ghost you're thinking of. It's just that there are some things I can't figure out."

"what's up?"

"It's nothing, it's a small matter."

Han Zhou smiled nonchalantly, then suddenly remembered something and asked curiously, "By the way, is the movie over? What are you doing here all of a sudden?"

"It'll be over soon..."

Gu Zheng's expression stiffened, and she put down the fire tongs somewhat dejectedly.

"Doesn't that mean it's not over yet?"

"Correct."

"Then why did you come here?"

Han Zhou looked surprised. According to the rules, Gu Zheng would concede defeat once her gaze left the TV screen. This guy cared so much about winning and losing, he definitely wouldn't have left the living room early unless there was some important reason.

Thinking of this, his heart suddenly tightened—

Oh no, could it be that Guzheng has figured something out?
He carefully observed Guzheng's expression and saw that she was indeed annoyed. After holding back for two seconds, she said irritably, "It's all because of you!"

"What's wrong with me?" he asked cautiously.

"What's wrong? It's all because you were shouting and yelling."

Gu Zheng rolled her eyes and muttered, "I thought you were in danger, how could I have the mind to fight that guy? Tch, I'll just let her win this time... I didn't lose!"

She had a sullen expression, and her eyes were full of resentment.

Upon learning that Gu Zheng hadn't come to settle scores with him, Han Zhou breathed a sigh of relief, then raised an eyebrow, puzzled, and asked, "When did I yell?"

Gu Zheng gave him a disgruntled look and said strangely, "Didn't you just call out to me... you know? Like you'd seen a ghost. I was a little worried, so I came to check on you. Anyway, I'm glad you're alright."

She never swears, so she was too embarrassed to say "damn it" out loud.

"Oh, I remember now, there was such a thing."

Han Zhou seemed to realize what had happened, smiled apologetically, and explained, "I just got burned and cried out without thinking. I'm sorry for making you worry."

"Where did you get burned? Your hand? Let me see."

Gu Zheng's attention was immediately diverted, and she made a move to take Han Zhou's hand.

"Cough cough!"

Just then, a cough suddenly sounded outside the door. Zhong Yin walked into the kitchen first, glanced at Han Zhou expressionlessly, and followed by Mo Yixia, who also had no expression.

The coughing sound just now was Zhong Yin's reminder. She thought Han Zhou was about to hold hands with Gu Zheng, but upon closer inspection, it seemed that wasn't the case.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Han Zhou was burned."

Gu Zheng answered without turning her head, then grabbed Han Zhou's hand and examined it closely for a while. Suddenly, a look of suspicion crossed her face, and she muttered, "Strange, I feel like this has been bitten..."

"Don't worry, it's all over now. I'll just rinse it with cold water."

Han Zhou subtly withdrew his hand and changed the subject, saying, "These barbecues are almost done; you can take them back to the living room to eat."

Zhong Yin frowned slightly and asked, "Aren't you going back to the living room?"

"I'm going to the restroom," Han Zhou said with a smile.

"I go with you!"

"I go with you."

As soon as she finished speaking, two female voices rang out at the same time. Gu Zheng was startled and turned around to find that Mo Yixia had also come over and was now looking at her meaningfully.

"What kind of look is that?" she asked, looking at him with displeasure.

"The way he looks at his defeated opponent."

Mo Yixia crossed her arms, speaking indifferently, as if she didn't take her seriously at all.

"That was for you!" Guzheng retorted, unconvinced.

"Then you are also my defeated opponent."

"cut."

Gu Zheng turned her head away and stopped making a sound. She wasn't someone who couldn't accept defeat. If she lost, she lost. There was no need to make excuses for her failure.

Mo Yixia glanced at Han Zhou, who was trying to sneak away from her, and said calmly, "Where are you going?"

"Go back to the living room."

Han Zhou's expression was solemn.

Didn't you just say you wanted to go to the bathroom?

"Suddenly I don't want to go anymore."

"Yeah."

Mo Yixia remained noncommittal, then thought for a moment and asked, "The TV malfunctioned again just now. Did you notice anything strange?"

She observed Han Zhou's expression.

Han Zhou looked at Zhong Yin.

The latter nodded: "Yes, the picture on the TV just started flickering again, I don't know what's wrong."

Zhong Yin came along specifically not only because she was worried about Han Zhou, but also to avoid the situation of the three of them being alone together. So she took the opportunity to suggest, "Let's hurry back to the living room. Everyone is very worried about you."

Gu Zheng seemed unwilling to give up and walked over to ask, "Han Zhou, are you really not going to the toilet?"

"I'm not going." Han Zhou shook his head.

Mo Yixia glanced at Guzheng: "If you're looking for someone to accompany you to the toilet, then I'd be willing to accompany you once."

"I don't need you to accompany me!" Gu Zheng snorted and strode towards the living room.

Her steps were hurried, and it was unclear whether her thoughts had been read.

"What exactly happened between you two when you went to the toilet earlier?" Han Zhou asked Mo Yixia quietly as Gu Zheng walked away.

Zhong Yin also pricked up her ears, wanting to hear the reason. "Oh," Mo Yixia said nonchalantly, watching Gu Zheng's retreating figure, "It's just that when she was washing her hands, she suddenly looked in the mirror and said her eyes were bigger than mine..."

"Okay, you don't need to say anything."

Han Zhou had already anticipated what would happen next.

Mo Yixia had previously mocked Gu Zheng for her small breasts, and it seems this time will be no exception.

Several people returned to the living room.

Upon learning that Han Zhou had only accidentally burned his hand, everyone was relieved. Only Ouyang Lianyu was a little puzzled, thinking to herself, "Hasn't Han Zhou burned his hand once before? How could he have burned it again? This is too careless!"

Han Zhou returned to the sofa thoughtfully, pondering what had just happened.

Just as he was about to take the barbecue off the automatic grill in the kitchen, he suddenly noticed something puzzling—his points in his status bar had inexplicably decreased by thirty!
He remembered clearly that after improving his hearing, he should have had 93 points left in his status bar, but when he opened the status bar again just now, he only had 63 points left.

During this period, he did not make any changes to his status or make any purchases in the points mall. In other words, he did not consume any points, but his points were reduced by thirty points on their own!
That's why he couldn't help but say, "It really is a ghost story."

He couldn't understand why the points had disappeared so mysteriously. Unfortunately, he couldn't view the "points history" in the status bar, so he could only rely on his photographic memory to recall the events. His memory concluded that the points had indeed disappeared inexplicably.

However, upon closer reflection, it seems that this is not the first time something similar has happened. A similar situation occurred when he went to explore the unfinished building at night with Xiao Xiaoxiao. At that time, he not only lost some of his memories, but also had his points depleted to almost nothing, almost returning him to square one.

However, unlike last time, he didn't lose his memory this time, nor did he lose a lot of points. If there was any unchanging commonality between the two things, it would probably be that he was with Xiao Xiaoxiao both times...

He planned to find an opportunity to ask Xiao Xiaoxiao if she had done anything special tonight.

Although the other party was almost always in his sight.

In addition to this, there is another strange thing.

Judging from everyone's reaction, it seems that everyone, like Guzheng, heard him "shouting" not long ago. However, in fact, he did not make any sound in the kitchen, and the burn story was a lie.

In other words, the "Holy shit" that everyone heard was not shouted by him at all!

It has to be said that, coupled with the terrifying woman that Teacher Ouyang saw not long ago, what happened tonight really does have the feel of a horror story. The reason he didn't tell everyone the truth was mainly to avoid causing panic.

With a typhoon and torrential rain outside, we definitely won't be able to leave here tonight. If I told everyone about this terrible thing, I'm afraid no one would be able to sleep tonight.

Of course, even if he couldn't figure it out for the time being, Han Zhou still didn't think it had anything to do with so-called ghosts and monsters. He planned to wait and see and then investigate it more carefully when he had the chance.

……

"Director, what are you doing?"

Seeing that the director had been constantly trying to change channels with the remote control since the beginning, as if he was getting some kind of pleasure from it, the assistant next to him looked confused and finally couldn't help but ask.

"I've figured out why a scene from a horror movie suddenly appeared on TV."

With a sinister grin, the director frantically pressed the channel-changing button, saying, "Because all the TVs in this villa area are connected to the same signal, as long as one TV is playing a movie, all the other TVs will show the same picture."

"You mean someone nearby is watching a horror movie?"

The assistant hesitated for a moment, then cautiously said, "But didn't you say that none of the villas around here are inhabited?"

"No, there are people, and they live in villa number eight right next to us." The director was still frantically pressing the channel-changing button. "I heard it's a group of young people."

"Gathering in a villa to watch a horror movie in this weather, isn't that just like our movies...?"

The assistant muttered something under his breath, then looked puzzled and asked, "But director, what does this have to do with you constantly changing the channel?"

"Of course."

The director sneered, "I told you, all the TVs around here use the same signal. So if I keep pressing the channel-changing button, the TVs next door will also be affected, and the picture will become very unstable. Hmph, these guys scared me, they won't have it easy either!"

You really are a petty and narrow-minded man...

The assistant thought to himself, but smiled and said, "Then why don't you show an even scarier movie? That would definitely scare them."

The director's eyes lit up, but he shook his head regretfully: "It's unnecessary. They didn't do it on purpose. A little revenge is enough. Filming is the priority."

After saying that, he frantically changed channels for another three minutes before reluctantly putting down the remote and telling everyone in the crew to turn off the lights in the room and prepare to start filming.

"Hurry, hurry, where's Xiao Liu?"

"Director, she went to the restroom!" someone replied.

"Wearing such terrible makeup to the bathroom, aren't you afraid of scaring yourself when you look in the mirror...?"

The director muttered to himself, then ordered, "Everyone, get into position. We'll start filming as soon as Xiaoliu returns!"

"understand!"

……

It was almost 10 o'clock when the movie ended.

The villa wasn't a restaurant, so naturally, they had to clean up properly after the barbecue. Since Han Zhou had been busy running around during the movie, the others took the initiative to clean up after the meal.

However, since the kitchen space was not that big, and not so many people were needed to clean it, Zhong Ling and Xiao Xiaoxiao were left in the living room, while the rest of the people went to the kitchen to wash dishes and clean.

It was pitch black outside the window; not even the raindrops could be seen, only the sound of the torrential rain could be heard.

"Junior, is something on your mind?"

Han Zhou stretched, and suddenly heard the soft sound of bells in his ears.

He paused for a moment, then turned to look at Zhong Ling, who had a concerned expression, and smiled, "No, it's nothing to worry about."

"really?"

"real."

"And your hand..."

"It's alright, I'll be fine after a night's rest," Han Zhou smiled.

"That's good." A smile also appeared on Zhong Ling's face.

She's been very quiet all evening, hardly saying a word. I don't know if it's because there are too many people in the room or because the weather has disturbed her peace of mind—

Because her parents died in a rainstorm, Zhong Ling seems to have a phobia of such weather.

After a moment's hesitation, Han Zhou tentatively asked, "Senior, is something on your mind?"

“Me?” Zhong Ling was stunned.

"Yes." Han Zhou smiled. "I heard from Sister Yin that you seem to have something you want to say to me."

"Sister?" Zhong Ling seemed somewhat surprised.

"Don't tell Sister Yin that I betrayed her."

Is this considered betrayal?

"It doesn't seem like it..."

Han Zhou thought for a moment, shook his head indifferently, and smiled, "That's not important. What's important is that if you really have something on your mind that you want to confide in, you can talk to me anytime."

Xiao Xiaoxiao yawned and gave him a disgruntled look.

Zhong Ling tugged at her small cloth bag, hesitatingly saying, "I'm worried you'll find it troublesome..."

"No, it won't happen." Han Zhou smiled.

Zhong Ling seemed somewhat tempted, continuing to clutch the small cloth bag, and after a moment of silence, asked, "Anytime...anytime is fine?"

"Yes, anytime."

(End of this chapter)