Forced into a romantic relationship

Chapter 397 Compound Fragrance

"What...is Yixia doing?"

Seeing Mo Yixia using the fishing rod in her hand as a long stick, sweeping it repeatedly towards the lake surface in front of the guzheng, the expressions of the people in the distance gradually became strange.

After a moment's hesitation, Xiao Xiaoxiao asked uncertainly, "She wouldn't be trying to interfere with Guzheng's fishing, would she?"

"It seems that way..." Ouyang Lianyu hesitated, "Isn't this a bit inappropriate?"

Everyone looked at each other, fearing that Guzheng might accidentally stab Mo Yixia with the bamboo pole in a fit of anger.

"It's not very good..."

Han Zhou gave a wry smile and said helplessly, "But they are competing to see who can catch more fish. The rules do not restrict the tools or prohibit interfering with other people's fishing, so what Yi Xia did is not considered a foul. She probably wanted to make sure that no one could catch any fish, so that it would be a tie."

"But won't the guzheng get angry?" Zhong Ling asked worriedly.

"Of course she'll be angry, but since Guzheng played the trick first, she can only put up with Yixia's tricks in return. However, this girl will never give up easily. I guess she'll use her physical advantage to shake off Yixia and run to the other side of the lake to spear fish."

Xiao Xiaoxiao thought for a moment and then raised an objection: "But Guzheng has already used up all her bait. Even if she shakes off Yixia, she still won't be able to find any fish, right?"

Han Zhou hesitated for a moment, then said uncertainly, "Doesn't Yi Xia still have some bait?"

Everyone was stunned: "Yi Xia would lend the bait to Gu Zheng?"

Mo Yixia had already started interfering with Guzheng's fishing, clearly not wanting her to catch any fish, so why would she lend Guzheng the bait?

“Yi Xia might not lend it,” Han Zhou shook his head, his expression strange. “But she might snatch the guzheng.”

As if confirming his guess, as soon as he finished speaking, Gu Zheng, who had been staring angrily at the lake, suddenly dropped her fishing rod and bamboo pole and rushed to Mo Yixia's side.

Mo Yixia seemed to have anticipated that Guzheng would snatch the bait and wanted to put it away in advance, but she underestimated the speed of the other party. Before she could even reach out, Guzheng snatched the bait away, leaving her holding nothing.

"I said I would be the winner."

Leaving behind a provocative remark, Guzheng gave Mo Yixia no chance to react, picked up the bamboo pole she had dropped on the ground, and fled the scene at lightning speed.

The crowd not far away stared in disbelief, looking at Han Zhou with astonishment: "You really guessed right!"

They never imagined that Gu Zheng, who always valued winning fairly and squarely, would do something like snatching the bait.

Han Zhou smiled wryly: "After all, the only rule is 'whoever catches the most fish wins.' They just need to find a way to catch fish, and they will stop at nothing to achieve this goal."

"So, could we try to incapacitate the opponent first, and then go after the fish?"

Wang Lengqiu, standing beside him, calmly pondered, "For example, throw the opponent into the river first."

The air suddenly became quiet.

Seeing everyone staring at her in horror, she tilted her head in confusion and asked, "Didn't you say we could use any means necessary?"

Her gaze fell on Han Zhou.

"Well..." Han Zhou chuckled dryly, "The basic rules still need to be followed..."

Although he wasn't entirely clear on the basic rules, throwing someone into the river just to win was going too far.

Wang Lengqiu nodded thoughtfully, then asked after a while, "What about knocking the opponent unconscious or tying them up?"

"This...this one won't do either..."

Han Zhou was taken aback and wanted to ask Wang Lengqiu if she was joking, but he quickly remembered that she had said more than once that she didn't joke, so he wisely refrained from asking further.

Seeing that Wang Lengqiu was not disappointed, but instead silently looked towards the riverbank as if thinking of other more practical solutions, Han Zhou felt a sense of relief for some reason. He thought to himself that it was a good thing that Wang Lengqiu did not participate in the fishing competition this time, otherwise it would have been a complete mess.

At the same time, he was somewhat worried, since the methods Wang Lengqiu had just mentioned were not prohibited by the rules. If Gu Zheng really wanted to throw Mo Yixia into the river, then he would have to quickly find an excuse to drag the two of them away.

"Senior Wang Lengqiu seems much more cheerful than usual today," Zhong Ling said with a light smile.

Only Han Zhou could hear her voice, and he smiled but didn't say anything.

Just then, Ouyang Lianyu said with some worry, "Yixia hasn't gone after Guzheng yet. Could it be that she's angry and doesn't want to compete anymore?"

She had been watching the battle unfold on the riverbank. Seeing that Guzheng had already run quite a distance, but Mo Yixia was still sitting on the small stool without moving, she couldn't help but feel a little worried.

"Guzheng runs so fast, even if she wanted to catch up, she couldn't," Xiao Xiaoxiao muttered.

“I don’t think Yixia will give up so easily.” Zhong Yin shook his head.

"That's what I thought too, but it's too late for her to stop Guzheng from catching the fish now, isn't it?"

Zhong Yin didn't know what Mo Yixia planned to do, so she turned to Han Zhou and asked, "What do you think?"

Upon hearing this, everyone's gaze fell upon Han Zhou, eager to hear his opinion.

Han Zhou pondered for a moment: "I can't figure out what Yi Xia is thinking, but she can be so calm, so she probably thinks that even if Gu Zheng takes away the bait, she won't be able to catch any fish... So I guess what Gu Zheng just took away might be an empty bottle."

As soon as she finished speaking, Guzheng, who had already run far away to prepare to scatter the bait, suddenly froze in place. Then she dropped the bottle in her hand and ran back at an even faster speed.

As they got closer, everyone could see the annoyance on her face, especially when they saw Mo Yixia slowly take a small square box out of her pocket, her annoyance turned into rage.

"What is that little box?" Ouyang Lianyu asked, puzzled.

"It should be...it should be bait..."

As if suddenly remembering something, Zhong Yin said somewhat uncertainly, "Yi Xia specifically asked me for an extra bottle before I went out today, but she didn't say what it was for. I couldn't find any extra bottles, so I gave her a box instead."

Everyone was stunned for a moment, then looked at the girl sitting casually on the small stool with shocked expressions, and said incredulously, "You mean, Yixia had already predicted that Guzheng would steal her bait before she even left the house?"

Judging from Gu Zheng's reaction, there was obviously no bait in the bottle she snatched, which is why she was so angry and felt tricked. Therefore, the real bait could only be in the small box that Mo Yixia just took out.

If that's really the case, then Mo Yixia's thinking is a bit too far ahead... Everyone was secretly alarmed.

Just then, Wang Lengqiu spoke up again: "There's a possibility that the box contains something else."

"What is it?" Xiao Xiaoxiao asked curiously.

“Poison.” Wang Lengqiu said seriously, “If we poison all the fish in the lake, then no one will be able to catch any fish.”

The air was silent for two seconds.

“No, that’s not right.” Everyone hesitated, then Wang Lengqiu suddenly shook his head, denying what he had just said. “It shouldn’t be poison.”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, only to hear the other person continue, "The poisoned fish might float to the surface, which could actually help the opponent with the harpoon win."

Han Zhou's lips twitched. Ever since he heard the phrase "any means necessary," this guy seemed to have let himself go, only thinking about winning regardless of anything else.

Xiao Xiao nudged him with her elbow and asked in a low voice, "Hey, what's wrong with this guy?"

"How would I know."

Han Zhou moved his lips, he didn't understand why Wang Lengqiu would suddenly be interested in the outcome of the match between Han Zhou and Gu Zheng.

"Why do I get the feeling that she really wants to get involved?" Xiao Xiaoxiao asked with a strange expression.

"I think so too..."

"Gu Zheng and Mo Yixia are ostensibly competing to catch fish, but they're actually rivals vying for your affections. Do you think this guy has figured that out yet?"

"I do not know."

"You don't know this, you don't know that, you're so stupid."

Xiao Xiaoxiao pouted, ignoring Han Zhou, and continued to pay attention to the situation with Gu Zheng and Mo Yixia.

The two had been speaking in hushed tones, so no one heard what they were saying.

Why is this guy so grumpy today?

Han Zhou raised an eyebrow slightly. He could tell that Wang Lengqiu was acting strangely today, but Xiao Xiaoxiao was acting strangely as well.

No, it wasn't just those two people; everyone, including Teacher Ouyang and Sister Yin, seemed to be looking at him strangely today…

"Did I do something that would incur divine wrath last night?"

Thinking of the lingering, unknown fragrance on the bed, Han Zhou thought to himself, "That stuff couldn't possibly be a compound fragrance, could it?"
He finally managed to gather his thoughts and continue observing the situation on the riverbank.

At this moment, Gu Zheng had already run quickly to Mo Yixia's side, looking at her angrily.

"You've been running back and forth for so long without even getting out of breath, you really are a gifted person."

Mo Yixia turned to look at her, feigning ignorance as she shook the box in her hand, "But why did you come back so quickly? Did you catch any fish?"

"You're playing me." Gu Zheng looked at her coldly.

"Playing tricks on you?" Mo Yixia seemed a little surprised. "You mean when you stole an empty bottle? I was really startled by you back then."

Without a word, Gu Zheng made a move to snatch the box from her hand, but this time Mo Yixia was prepared. Before the other party could get close, she got up and scattered all the bait in the box into the lake.

“Now you can only catch fish here,” she said.

Gu Zheng hadn't expected to catch any bait this time, so she stood there and stared at her expressionlessly.

Do you think I can't beat you just like that?

Mo Yixia remained noncommittal: "If you want to beat me, you'll have to find a way to restrict my movements, otherwise I'll keep interfering with you."

“I could easily throw you into the lake,” Guzheng threatened.

"Of course, this is within the rules."

Mo Yixia seemed completely unconcerned, and even offered a friendly suggestion: "You can knock me out, tie me up, whatever you do to restrict my movements, you'll have a chance to win."

She pointed to the fishing line on the ground, indicating that there was a ready-made prop right in front of her.

"Provocation doesn't work on me," Gu Zheng sneered. "Go ahead and try to distract me if you want."

“This isn’t a provocation,” Mo Yixia corrected earnestly.

"Whether it's true or not doesn't matter, I won't use such a boring method to beat you."

Seeing the atmosphere gradually becoming tense, the people in the distance couldn't help but feel nervous and worried, "Gu Zheng wouldn't really want to throw Yi Xia into the lake, would she?"

Their worries were not unfounded, because the guzheng was getting closer and closer to Mo Yixia.

"Han Zhou, go and stop Gu Zheng!" Ouyang Lianyu said anxiously, not wanting things to escalate to that point.

Han Zhou sat motionless on the ground, his tone somewhat helpless: "Don't worry, Teacher Ouyang, if Gu Zheng really wanted to do that, she would have done it long ago, there's no need to wait until now."

"What does she want to do?" Ouyang Lianyu's worry remained undiminished.

"do not know."

Han Zhou shook his head; he couldn't guess what Gu Zheng was trying to do either.

Fortunately, Guzheng quickly provided the answer to everyone with her actions.

She snatched the box from Guzheng's hand, then grabbed the edge of the box and pressed down hard to form a groove. She then picked up a bamboo pole from the ground, inserted the pointed end into the groove, and continued to press down to make the box firmly embedded in the bamboo pole, ultimately forming an enlarged version of a small spoon.

It has to be said that Guzheng's "hands-on ability" is really strong. Most people don't have the strength to easily press the box into the desired shape.

"What is she trying to do? Is she using it to catch fish?" Xiao Xiaoxiao asked, puzzled.

"They probably want to scoop up the bait from the water," Zhong Yin pondered. "After all, once they have bait, Gu Zheng can go far away from Yi Xia to catch fish."

Just as she had expected, Guzheng was indeed trying to scoop up the fish bait from the water. She quickly extended the bamboo pole into the river, attempting to retrieve the fish bait floating on the surface.

However, it was clear that since Mo Yixia could stop Gu Zheng from catching fish, she could also stop her from scooping up the bait. She immediately stretched out the fishing rod in her hand and slapped the water surface hard, causing the bait that was about to enter the box to scatter.

Gu Zheng wasn't annoyed and quickly changed her target—there were plenty of baits floating there, and even catching just a little would lay the foundation for victory in the afternoon.

But how could Mo Yixia let her have her way? Her fishing rod immediately followed. Even though Gu Zheng's movements were faster than hers, it was as if she could anticipate her thoughts, and she could scatter the bait in the target area in advance every time.

And so, Guzheng tried to scoop up the bait again and again, but Mo Yixia stopped her each time. After more than ten minutes, only a few crumbs were found in Guzheng's case.

The people in the distance had mixed feelings. They felt that the scene in front of them was somewhat childish, but also had a unique kind of tragicness.

(End of this chapter)