Forced into a romantic relationship

Chapter 400 Falling into the water
What is the most difficult question to answer in the world?
Han Zhou wasn't sure what the hardest questions to answer were, but the most difficult one was undoubtedly that classic, potentially fatal question—

If your wife and your mother both fell into the water at the same time, and you could only save one at a time, who would you save first?
If this were truly the question he needed to answer, he could simply reply in a slightly somber tone that his mother had passed away long ago, thus resolving the dilemma and even turning the tables. But the problem now was that he wasn't choosing between his wife and mother, but rather between Guzheng and Mo Yixia—

If Guzheng and Mo Yixia both fall into the river, who should I save first?

Upon hearing Xiao Xiaoxiao's shout, Han Zhou immediately rushed to the lakeside. Besides worry, this thought also uncontrollably popped into his mind.

If we disregard other factors and only consider rationally, it would be more reasonable to prioritize saving Mo Yixia. After all, Gu Zheng has excellent physical fitness and is proficient in swimming. Even if she falls into the river, she won't be in any danger. She might have already swum ashore by now.

Mo Yixia is different. This girl knows many things, but she can't swim. In addition, it is winter now, and the lake water is icy cold. Once she falls into the water, it will be difficult for her to get ashore on her own.

From a rational perspective, it would be more reasonable to prioritize saving Mo Yixia, but the key issue is that this problem cannot be analyzed purely from a rational point of view. To use a phrase that girls often say, what they want is just an attitude.

Even though Guzheng can swim back and forth in the lake in various styles, she is still a girl, and a girl with a strong competitive spirit.

Whether she was rescued first or not was not important to her, but she certainly longed to be the first to be rescued.

This means she beat Mo Yixia.

Similarly, given Mo Yixia's personality, she probably wouldn't care about the issue of who gets rescued first, but it's likely that she secretly hopes to be rescued first.

This means that she did not lose to the guzheng.

That's a really tricky question...

Han Zhou shook his head, trying to clear his mind of these random thoughts. The most important thing right now was to check on Gu Zheng and Mo Yixia. He wondered why these two people had ended up in the water in the first place...

……

Let's rewind a little.

While Han Zhou was trying his best to test Wang Lengqiu's identity as a time traveler, Gu Zheng and Mo Yixia's fishing competition continued.

Both of them knew very well that it was difficult to catch fish with a hook without bait, so they tried to place the hook as close as possible to the spot where they had previously cast the bait, hoping that some unsuspecting fish might accidentally bite the hook.

The bait that Guzheng had collected earlier came in handy. Although there was only a little bit, and it was difficult to even hang it on the hook, it was better than nothing and increased her chances of success.

Thinking of how Han Zhou had just helped her get dressed with a worried look on his face, and considering that her chances of winning were much higher than Mo Yixia's, Gu Zheng was in a pretty good mood. Her eyebrows curved into a smile as she patiently waited for the fish to take the bait.

Just then, Mo Yixia's slightly cold voice suddenly rang out: "You seem to think you've already won."

The harassment she had just done had exhausted her, so her voice sounded tired and gave off a languid feeling.

Guzheng's little face hardened: "Don't disturb my fishing!"

She was on guard. According to the rules, this guy could no longer bother her. He had no bait and could only fish with an empty hook. He was probably already anxious and pacing around. Since he had no chance of winning, he could only resort to underhanded tactics. He seemed to want to chat with her, but he probably wanted to scare away the fish that were getting close to the surface with his voice. What a deep scheme!

Therefore, she refused to chat with the other person.

As if she could read her mind, Mo Yixia said calmly, "You are quite cautious, but don't worry, I won't waste my energy on such a boring thing."

Gu Zheng didn't believe her at all, and said confidently, "Right now, only my fishing hook has bait. As long as I wait patiently, a fish will definitely bite. I've already won. Not talking to you is the best choice."

"is it?"

Mo Yixia remained noncommittal, slowly taking off her baseball cap, pulling out a small plastic bag from inside, and waving it in front of the other person with a half-smile, "Guess what this is?"

"Bait?"

Gu Zheng was stunned for a moment, then said incredulously, "How come you still have bait?"

The plastic bag in Mo Yixia's hand was not big, only about the size of a thumb, but it was clearly filled with a small bag of fish bait!

This guy not only hid the real bait, but he also hid a small bag of bait in his hat?

"No one says you can't divide the bait into three portions, whether it's an old rule or a new rule."

Mo Yixia reeled in the fishing line, held the hook in front of her, and said while opening the plastic bag, "Do you still think you have a better chance of winning?"

Gu Zheng was silent for a moment, then pouted and said, "You already guessed that Han Zhou would only let us fish with fishing rods?"

“No, I don’t know.” Mo Yixia shook her head and put her baseball cap back on. “I just thought you might be able to steal the box of bait I hid, so I kept it as a precaution.”

Her expression was indifferent, and it was impossible to tell whether she was telling the truth or not.

"That really disappoints you."

Gu Zheng felt mocked, after all, she hadn't even discovered the box of fish bait that she had hidden beforehand.

“I think we can talk, and that way I can guarantee I won’t use this bag of bait.”

After a pause, Mo Yixia added, "Don't worry, there's no conspiracy involved, and I wouldn't use my cunning for something like this."

"no need."

Gu Zheng frowned slightly. "It's your skill to be able to hide a bag of bait in advance. You can use it or not, but you don't need to let me have it. We have nothing to talk about."

Mo Yixia said thoughtfully, "Can I take that as you don't accept a draw?"

"Nonsense, all I want is to beat you."

"So much the better."

Mo Yixia nodded gently, said nothing more, baited the hook, and cast the fish into the lake.

She used significantly more bait than Guzheng did, so from that perspective, her chances of winning were undoubtedly higher than Guzheng's.

But Gu Zheng has no regrets.

She wanted to win, which was not wrong, but she also wanted to win with a clear conscience. The reason she wanted to win by spearfishing today was mainly to retaliate against this guy's despicable trick of tricking her away from watching a horror movie during the competition last night, and to take a hit at his arrogance. Otherwise, she would not have cheated first.

Besides, even if the bait wasn't much, she might still be able to beat this guy. In addition, Gu Zheng had another reason for refusing to chat with Mo Yixia. She had heard from Han Zhou that Mo Yixia's family was very wealthy, so she suspected that this guy would stage a scene like in the TV shows, saying, "Here's two million, leave Han Zhou and it's yours." Therefore, she resolutely did not want to chat with him.

It wasn't that she couldn't resist the temptation, but rather that she was worried she wouldn't be able to resist beating the guy up.

Mo Yixia was looking at the lake and didn't notice Gu Zheng's expression, so she didn't know what Gu Zheng was thinking.

Neither of them spoke again, but simply waited quietly for the fish to take the bait.

The lake was no longer exposed to the wind, and the surface was as smooth as a mirror.

Before long, a black fish cautiously approached the surface of the water, but it was still quite a distance from the two fishhooks, as if it was slowly swallowing the scattered bait on the surface.

Gu Zheng's eyes lit up, because the little black fish was moving closer to where her hook was. If it kept eating like this, it would eventually bite the hook.

As if she had thought of something, she turned her head and glanced warily at Mo Yixia. Seeing that the latter did not seem to intend to cause trouble, she relaxed a little, held her breath, and gripped the fishing rod tightly with both hands so as not to scare away the little black fish.

To her disappointment, the little black fish was quite wary, constantly feeding on the bait in the distance. Although it would occasionally move closer, it never actually got close to the hook, just swimming back and forth in one area, as if it knew there was danger there.

What worried her even more was that, perhaps because it had seen a large clump of bait underwater, the little black fish seemed to be gradually becoming interested in the waters near Mo Yixia's location. Although it was equally wary, it seemed to be heading in that direction.

The fish baits scattered all over the water are gradually making the fish less wary. Once it lets its guard down completely, it may immediately rush towards Mo Yixia's hook!
Guzheng realized she couldn't wait any longer.

You should know that Mo Yixia hasn't run out of bait yet. If she catches the first fish, it's basically a victory in advance. Fish don't have the same cunning as this one; they'll swim to wherever there's more bait.

Thinking of this, Guzheng slowly stood up, and with extremely slight movements, reeled in the fishing line and pulled the hook out of the water.

A ripple appeared on the water's surface, but it was so small that it didn't attract the attention of the small black fish in the distance.

“I want to discuss something with you,” she said in a low voice.

Mo Yixia's attention didn't seem to be on the little black fish; upon hearing this, she turned to look at her.

Gu Zheng took a deep breath: "The essence of fishing is to hook a fish with a hook, right? So if I can hook that fish, can I say that I've caught a fish?"

She knew her explanation was far-fetched, and that failure would inevitably scare away the only fish. So she was a little embarrassed, but she still asked the question shamelessly. After all, rules are made by people, and she was indeed fishing with a fishing rod. As long as Mo Yixia did not deny this idea, she was not breaking the rules.

If there's nothing she can do about opposing it, then she can try other methods.

Gu Zheng knew very well that Mo Yixia would most likely not agree with her statement. After all, the two were competitors, and if she agreed with this statement, it would mean that the other party had given her a chance to win, and she would find it difficult to agree to such a thing.

"can."

Unexpectedly, Mo Yixia nodded without hesitation, seemingly unconcerned. "However, you only have one chance. If you fail, you can't use this method again."

Gu Zheng was stunned, completely unexpected that the other party would actually give her such a chance, and asked doubtfully, "Aren't you worried that I'll beat you?"

"If you can beat me using this method, then that's a testament to your skill."

Mo Yixia rested her chin on her hand, idly observing the cautious little black fish on the lake's surface, and said meaningfully, "Besides, if I can give you a chance to set the rules, it means I also have a chance to change the rules, doesn't it?"

"I didn't say that."

Gu Zheng was somewhat reluctant, but after thinking for a moment, she hesitated and said, "If it's not that hard to accept, then I can give you this opportunity... but only for our competition!"

She added cautiously, just to avoid being tricked by this guy.

"of course."

Mo Yixia brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and repeated noncommittally, "Only within our competition."

Gu Zheng was relieved and stood up, saying, "Then I'm going to start. Don't blame me if the fish gets away."

Mo Yixia remained silent, giving off a "let's see what you do" look.

Gu Zheng withdrew her gaze and first removed the bait from the fishing hook. This way, if she failed, she could still use the remaining bait to catch fish and have a chance to turn the tables.

Then, she gazed at the small black fish in the center of the lake, as if silently calculating something, reeling in and letting out the fishing line, trying to adjust it to the perfect length.

What she was about to do could still be called fishing, but unlike the traditional method of waiting for fish to bite, her method was to take the initiative and stab the fish with the hook the moment she cast the line.

To achieve this, many conditions need to be met. First, you need tremendous strength; otherwise, you will not only fail to pierce the fish's body with the hook, but you will also lack sufficient speed, making it easy for the fish to escape before the hook even enters the water.

Secondly, extremely accurate accuracy is required. Casting the fishing rod from such a distance, how easy is it to hit a small fish? Not to mention that the fish is not an inanimate object, but is constantly swimming around, which makes it even more difficult to hit.
Next is controlling the length of the fishing line. As we all know, only a slightly shorter line can become a whip with destructive power. If the line is too long, it will be limp and not destructive at all. Therefore, only by shortening the fishing line can it have enough power.

But if the fishing line is too short, the combined length of the fishing rod and the fishing line will be insufficient to reach the center of the lake, making it impossible to catch that little black fish.

Therefore, controlling the fishing line to an optimal length is also a significant challenge for the guzheng.

In fact, Gu Zheng had no confidence in herself at all. She knew very well how difficult it was to "fish" like this, and the success rate was probably less than 10%. Mo Yixia also knew this very well, which is why she said something like, "If you can win like this, then it is your strength."

Even so, Gu Zheng still wanted to give it a try, because even an attempt with a success rate of less than 10% could increase her chances of winning to some extent.

Mo Yixia is very smart, so smart that she has to admit it, but she also has her own way of winning.

After adjusting the guzheng for a long time, the fishing line was finally adjusted to the optimal length. Now all that's left is to wait patiently for the right opportunity.

To increase her chances of success, she pondered for a moment and began to slowly move closer to the riverbank, trying to get as close to the fish as possible, until her toes were slightly off the bank. Then she stopped, leaned back slightly, and quietly adjusted her breathing.

The moment the little black fish in the distance stopped to take the bait, she gritted her teeth and swung the fishing rod forward with all her might. The hook flew rapidly towards the surface of the water, pulled by the fishing line.

The little black fish was focused on eating the bait, seemingly unaware of the approaching danger.

Have the opportunity!
Gu Zheng's eyes lit up, but before she could see the result, a sudden change occurred.

Suddenly, the soil beneath her feet loosened, causing her to lose her balance and fall uncontrollably towards the water.

(End of this chapter)