Forced into a romantic relationship

Chapter 387 Do you remember now?

As a wide-range skill that only requires ten points to activate once, "Asking Will Always Make You Ashamed" is much more powerful than Han Zhou had imagined.

Because he not only heard Xiao Xiaoxiao's response from upstairs, but also the voices of Mo Yixia, Gu Zheng, and others.

Although the voices of everyone except Xiao Xiaoxiao sounded somewhat ethereal, he was certain that this was not an illusion.

"Oh no, how could I have forgotten about that..."

After a two-second pause, Han Zhou suddenly remembered that although he was currently in what seemed to be a point in the past, according to his previous deductions, his voice could be heard by people in the same area who were at the same point in the past.

He shouted so loudly that anyone in the villa could hear it—regardless of the time—unless they were deaf or asleep.

In fact, everyone in the villa did hear his question; otherwise, the "asking a question will inevitably lead to guilt" effect would not have been triggered, forcing them to answer.

What he found hard to understand was why everyone's answer was "yes".
It's not hard to see from the description of "asking questions will inevitably lead to guilt" that this skill can force people to tell the truth. Everyone gave an affirmative answer. Is it because they all felt guilty towards him?

Han Zhou felt conflicted, and suddenly became worried about the situation he would face after returning.

Just because one's own memory cannot be preserved does not mean that other people's memories will also disappear; otherwise, no one would remember the "Holy crap!" that came from the kitchen.

The thought of everyone looking at him strangely when he got back made Han Zhou feel uneasy, especially the thought that everyone might have a frank discussion about the order in which they would enter his room tonight. It made his scalp tingle.

If Gu Zheng knew that Mo Yixia was the first person to enter his room and had been hiding under his blankets for so long, he would definitely be dead tonight...

Thinking about this, Han Zhou felt uneasy and suddenly had the thought that "maybe I shouldn't go back."

While worrying, he ran upstairs as fast as he could.

If he weren't so determined to find Xiao Xiaoxiao, he wouldn't have overlooked such an important issue. Now that things have already happened, if he still can't find Xiao Xiaoxiao, it would truly be a complete loss.

As he was going upstairs, a question suddenly occurred to him—

Based on previous speculation, taking 1 a.m. as a reference, his current time should be about two hours ago, around 11 p.m., when everyone was still in their rooms and had not yet gone back to sleep.

Compared to the "Holy crap" from the kitchen, his shout just now was obviously much louder, especially since everyone in the villa responded at almost the same volume. Strangely, he didn't seem to realize that he had actually heard it.

Everyone was shouting at the top of their lungs, but before that, he hadn't heard anyone else's voice at all, and no one else had ever come to question him about it.

It's as if this never happened.

In other words, the event that was supposed to happen at 11 p.m. did not happen, or rather, it did not happen at 11 p.m.

Han Zhou frowned slightly.

There are two possibilities: one is that, just like when we visited the unfinished building last time, some obviously abnormal events were corrected, so everyone forgot about it.

Secondly, the nature of "traveling to the past" may be much more complicated than he imagined—although he returned to the past in a sense, the time he was in was not flowing constantly like reality, but rather advancing in a leaping manner.

It was 11:01 just now, but it might be 11:15 in a minute.

That's right. Since the question-and-answer incident has already occurred, excluding the possibility of memory erasure, the most likely reason why he didn't realize this incident had happened before taking the sleeping pills is that it occurred after he took the sleeping pills, around 1 a.m.

...a point in time that is extremely close to or even overlaps with "now".

It would only make sense if this happened after he went back in time.

Since he no longer exists in reality at this point, he naturally wouldn't know what happened in reality.

This conjecture was not without basis. Han Zhou had noticed early on that Xiao Xiaoxiao's voice appeared only once in all the responses just now. Moreover, compared to the slightly ethereal voices of the others, her voice was particularly clear, and even the location was quite obvious, right on the second floor of the villa.

This should indicate that Xiao Xiaoxiao and he are in the same time and space.

If this had happened before Xiao Xiaoxiao disappeared, then Xiao Xiaoxiao's voice would have had a hazy, timeless quality, just like Mo Yixia and the others.

Therefore, Han Zhou suspected that the time he was in at this moment was probably no longer two hours ago, but a time that was relatively close to the present.

He had only been back in the past for a few minutes when two full hours had passed.

But if that's the case, wouldn't time flow into the future if we stayed here a little longer?

Han Zhou quickly gave up thinking about it. Questions about time were not something he could figure out, and besides, he couldn't determine for the time being whether this was a kind of time travel.

However, in order to verify his conjecture about the future, he planned to leave a message in his room later and see if he would hear the message he had just left at some point after returning to reality.

But I didn't have this thought or memory back then, and I don't know if I would have thought it was a ghost story...

Wait a minute... Han Zhou's eyes suddenly lit up.

Since this memory of leaving reality will inevitably disappear, and time has the possibility of flowing into the future, he could simply leave all his memories and thoughts from this place in his room later, so that his future self could know about this experience.

If successful, it would simultaneously verify the hypothesis that time flows very quickly here and that time flows from the past to the future. Even if it fails, there will be no loss.

You can give it a try.

Han Zhou was somewhat excited. He rushed upstairs in one go and pushed open the door with small blue flowers printed on it—it was Xiao Xiaoxiao's room.

He moved quickly, grabbing the hem of a white garment just before it disappeared behind the wall, and shouted as he pulled hard, "How long are you going to hide from me?"

"Let go!"

Xiao Xiaoxiao's angry voice came from inside the wall.

Han Zhou said irritably, "I won't let go. I finally found you, how could I let go and let you keep running?"

"I'm not running anymore! Let go!" An arm reached out from the wall and slapped his hand hard.

Han Zhou remained unmoved and expressionless, saying, "Come out of the wall first, then I'll believe you won't run away."

"Let go of me first, then I'll come out!"

"You come out first, then I'll let go."

"Let go of me first, then I'll come out!"

"You come out first, then I'll let go."

"Let go!"

"You come out."

"..."

After a long standoff, Xiao Xiaoxiao, who was hiding behind the wall, could no longer bear it and said angrily, "You've almost pulled my clothes off, how am I supposed to get out!"

Han Zhou was stunned. Only then did he notice that the corner of his clothes, which had only been partially exposed against the wall, had been torn off by some time. One sleeve had been ripped off. No wonder Xiao Xiaoxiao only used one hand to hit him. Her other hand was probably trying very hard to hold down the last piece of clothing she had left.

His face flushed red, and he said awkwardly, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."

"You didn't do it on purpose, so let go right now!" Xiao Xiaoxiao said fiercely.

"No, you'll run away if I let go." Han Zhou remained unmoved and warned, "I'll keep holding onto your clothes. If you dare to run, don't blame me for tearing all your clothes off."

"You stinking rascal!"

"Say what you will, but I'm not going to let you get away."

Han Zhou shook his head dismissively, and then loosened the grip on his hands, though he still held the hem of his clothes tightly.

Xiao Xiaoxiao seemed quite dissatisfied with this, pulling his arm into the wall and punching and kicking him, even biting him. Seeing that the guy didn't cry out in pain at all, she muttered to herself, "His skin is really thick," and had no choice but to give up the idea of ​​making him let go.

"Aren't you coming out yet? You're not thinking about how to escape, are you?"

Han Zhou's doubtful voice came from outside the wall.

"What's the rush? Getting dressed takes time!" Xiao Xiaoxiao said angrily. "It's all your fault for pulling my clothes down. It's so dark inside, I couldn't even find my sleeves!"

Han Zhou gave an awkward smile.

A moment later, Xiao Xiaoxiao, looking very dissatisfied, finally crawled out of the wall. Her hair was wet and her clothes were disheveled. If Ouyang Lianyu and the others saw her in this miserable state, they would probably think that Han Zhou had done something to her.

She sat on the bed, looking sullen. When she saw Han Zhou smirking beside her, she immediately frowned and demanded, "What are you laughing at over there!"

Han Zhou couldn't help but chuckle: "Where did you get these pajamas from? They're way too ill-fitting!"

"I want you to take care of it!"

Xiao Xiaoxiao stuck her foot out of her slipper and kicked him hard.

Han Zhou was already used to this, and casually patted his trouser leg. However, his laughter gradually stopped, and his expression became strange. He wondered, "Wait... why does this look so much like my pajamas?"

Xiao Xiao blushed and quickly turned her head away to deny it: "It's not your pajamas!"

This guy's reaction was suspicious, and Han Zhou became even more suspicious: "Could it be that you got your clothes wet when you ran out, so you just took my pajamas to wear?"

"I told you it's not yours!"

"Yeah."

Han Zhou stood up and said, "My pajamas are in my backpack. Come back to my room with me and take a look. I'm soaked too."

To prevent Xiao Xiaoxiao from escaping, he hadn't loosened his grip on her clothes. When he got up, he didn't notice and accidentally lifted her clothes up a little.

Xiao Xiaoxiao was both embarrassed and angry, and slapped his hand away: "Who wants to go back to your room with you to watch you change clothes!"

She felt a little guilty because the pajamas she was wearing at the moment did indeed belong to Han Zhou.

"It's okay, I can crawl inside the wall to change," Han Zhou said nonchalantly.

Xiao Xiaoxiao panicked: "I told you I'm not going!"

"Really not going?" Han Zhou glanced at her.

"Don't go!"

"It's fine if you don't want to go, but then lend me your clothes." Han Zhou sat back on the bed and said shamelessly, "You don't want me to catch a cold, do you?"

Xiao Xiaoxiao almost laughed out of anger, rolled her eyes at him and said, "You're shameless, you can't even fit into my clothes."

Han Zhou didn't mind and shook his head, saying, "Then hurry back with me. I'm going to take a hot shower."

He looked at Xiao Xiaoxiao's profile, wanting to see her reaction. If Xiao Xiaoxiao could understand the meaning of "going back," it would be enough to show that she understood her current situation very well.

Xiao Xiaoxiao fell silent, her expression turning somewhat dejected. After a long while, she stood up and said, "Let me go, I'll go get you some clothes."

"Take your clothes?" Han Zhou asked.

"Didn't you want to wear it?" Xiao Xiaoxiao gave him a disgruntled look.

Han Zhou had anticipated this, and sighed, saying, "It seems you really don't want to go back."

Xiao Xiaoxiao turned her head away and ignored him.

The room fell silent.

The girl gathered her damp long hair in front of her, and water droplets slid down the ends of her hair onto the clean floor, making a "drip-drip" sound.

"Wipe it."

A towel was handed to me. "In this cold weather, you might catch a cold if you only change your clothes and don't dry your hair."

"Thank you."

Xiao Xiao hesitated before taking the towel and gently wiping her hair over her head.

Han Zhou smiled and said regretfully, "It's a pity you won't come out with me, otherwise I could use a hairdryer to dry your hair. Don't let my lack of experience with hairdryers fool you, I'm quite good at it."

"How could you be good at blow-drying your hair if you don't use a hairdryer much?" Xiao Xiaoxiao said with disdain.

"In novels, sword prodigies can defeat top-tier masters on their first try at using a sword. What's so strange about me being able to blow-dry a hair dryer incredibly well on my first try?"

So you're a hair-blowing prodigy?

Han Zhou shrugged and laughed, "Doesn't it look like one?"

Xiao Xiaoxiao pulled the towel down to cover half of her face, and after a few seconds said in an annoyed tone, "I think you're a bragging genius."

She silently dried her hair, then tossed the towel in her hand onto Han Zhou's head, saying, "You're soaking wet, dry yourself off too."

Han Zhou picked up the towel and looked at it, asking with concern, "Is this towel clean?"

"Use it or not, take it or leave it!"

Xiao Xiao was furious and made a move to snatch the towel back.

"No, no, no, I'll use it."

Han Zhou was just joking and didn't mean to be disgusted by the towel. He quickly grabbed the towel and started drying his hair.

Although he doesn't catch a cold, the feeling of having wet hair is very uncomfortable.

Xiao Xiaoxiao rolled her eyes, stopped talking, and turned to look at the heavy rain outside the window.

It always rains at times like this… she thought.

After a long while, Han Zhou put down the towel and suddenly asked a question that caught her off guard.

"Xiaoxiao, have you started thinking about the past?"

(End of this chapter)