Forced into a romantic relationship

Chapter 436 Why did they all sign up?

Compared to the long, hot, and bright days of summer, the days in winter seem very short. It's only four o'clock in the afternoon, and the sun has already begun to move westward, and the temperature has started to drop.

It's time to buy a down jacket... Han Zhou thought to himself.

Even though he is now very resistant to catching colds, he still feels cold and needs to buy himself a few down jackets before New Year's Day.

If nothing unexpected happens, we should see a heavy snowfall this year, just as many people are hoping for.

In fact, this was exactly what Han Zhou had been looking forward to. Since his transmigration, he hadn't seen a decent snowfall in a long time.

Strangely enough, Lincheng, which rarely sees snow in the past, is likely to experience heavy snow this year. As the saying goes, a timely snow promises a good harvest, and Han Zhou feels that his luck this year is indeed very good. It may be a bit cold on a snowy day, but it is good to be able to see snow.

He just didn't know why, but when he thought of the words "snow" and "down jacket," he always had a sense of déjà vu, as if he had heard someone talk about these topics somewhere before.

However, he had too many things he couldn't remember, so one more wouldn't make a difference. He quickly gathered his thoughts and began to think about how to comfort Guzheng.

On the tree-lined path with few leaves left, Gu Zheng pushed her wheelchair forward. This was a campus path, commonly known as a "small grove." Not many people usually came and went—at least not during the day. Han Zhou had never been here at night, so he didn't know much about it.

Apart from Han Zhou and Gu Zheng, everyone else had left, including Wang Runxue, who didn't want to leave but was forcibly dragged away, just to create some time alone for the two of them.

Han Zhou was wondering why Gu Zheng would bring him to a place like this when he heard the girl behind him suddenly mutter, "You must be hiding something from me, otherwise everyone else wouldn't have left and only left me with you."

Han Zhou was taken aback at first, then smiled and said, "Can't you just leave me alone with you?"

He explained, "Besides, as I said, everyone else went to help Sister Yin. Tomorrow, Sister Yin will be taking care of me alone. I won't be able to stay in the store all day, so there are many things to prepare in advance."

"Stop talking nonsense. I know that Sister Yin is in charge of taking care of you tomorrow, but her shop can't possibly hold so many people. Don't think I don't know. Actually, everyone is worried about me, so they asked you to come and comfort me, right?"

Gu Zheng rolled her eyes, giving me a "don't play dumb with me" look.

"To say 'instruct' is a rather harsh word."

Han Zhou was both amused and exasperated, but he didn't intend to keep it a secret any longer. He half-jokingly said, "But since you already know what my mission is, why not take the initiative and tell me what's on your mind right now?"

"I do not want it."

Gu Zheng snorted and pouted, "You know I'm unhappy but you're still grinning like that. Be careful, or I'll tell everyone you don't know how to comfort people at all."

Han Zhou laughed: "I've never been good at comforting people."

"If you can't even comfort people, what are you doing here?"

"At least I can take a beating better than others," Han Zhou laughed. "If punching me a couple of times makes you happier, then my trip wasn't in vain."

"Stop being so cheeky." Guzheng pouted. "If you think this will make me happy, why don't you find me a punching bag?"

"Didn't I come here in person?"

Han Zhou spoke gently, and it was entirely within his expectations that Gu Zheng would throw a little tantrum. Although it happened earlier than anticipated, it was actually a good thing. His biggest worry was that Gu Zheng would refuse to communicate, keep everything bottled up inside, and pretend that she didn't care about this failure.

If someone gets angry, it means they have something to say. All you need to do is listen patiently; there's no need to guide them.

Gu Zheng was helpless against Han Zhou's shamelessness. After a long while, she pouted and said, "If you weren't injured right now, I would really have used you as a punching bag."

This guy still can't shake his stubbornness... Han Zhou smiled but didn't reply.

Gu Zheng also fell silent, pushing the wheelchair deeper into the path without saying a word.

"Have you been here before?" Han Zhou suddenly asked.

"No." Gu Zheng shook her head.

"Then you still dare to go further in? Aren't you afraid of encountering wolves?"

"This is a school, not the middle of nowhere. Where would a wolf come from?"

Gu Zheng raised her hand, but ultimately couldn't bring herself to strike the ball. She just tugged at Han Zhou's ear to express her dissatisfaction, and after a long while, she said, "I just think this place looks a bit like the bamboo forest behind my old home." Han Zhou suppressed a laugh: "It's a good thing it's winter now, otherwise I probably wouldn't be able to see any similarities between this place and the bamboo forest."

"What's so funny!" Gu Zheng blushed. "I only said that because it's winter, okay?"

Han Zhou lowered his head, observing the girl's expression through the reflection in the wheelchair armrest, his smile fading slightly: "And then?"

"What then?" Gu Zheng was taken aback.

"You rarely talk to me about your hometown. Aren't you going to talk more about it this time?"

"I……"

"Let's chat more. I can tell you more about my childhood. You can hear whatever you want to hear."

"Really?"

Gu Zheng was somewhat tempted. Although she was the girl who had spent the most time with Han Zhou among all the girls around him, she was not his true childhood sweetheart. Especially after learning that Wang Lengqiu was suspected to be Han Zhou's true childhood sweetheart, she felt a sense of crisis for no reason.

It wasn't a sense of crisis about Wang Lengqiu, but rather a sense of crisis about his own "identity".

She actually quite liked the childhood sweetheart relationship.

After all, in a sense, this is something "unique".

If I could know everything about Han Zhou's childhood, wouldn't I be able to become his true childhood sweetheart?
As Gu Zheng pondered, Han Zhou suddenly turned around and looked at her, smiling, "Have you made your decision?"

"make a deal!"

"..."

Solemn music rose in the distance, indicating that the closing ceremony and awards ceremony had begun, but Han Zhou was not in a hurry at all. Even if he couldn't attend the closing ceremony on time, Teacher Ouyang would take care of it for them.

Amidst the resounding and melodious music, he silently listened as the guzheng reminisced about his childhood, from climbing trees to steal bird eggs to catching loaches in the water, from running all over the mountains and fields to the utterly boring school—

Han Zhou realized that his guess was correct; Gu Zheng was not born with a competitive spirit for everything.

Gu Zheng used to find school boring, and her biggest childhood wish was to one day be able to accurately shoot down the pests that were always stealing crops with pebbles.

He now understood where the guzheng's "throwing prowess" came from.

In a sense, the other person's dream has already been realized in him.

Gu Zheng only started obsessing over being number one in junior high school, so Han Zhou knew long ago that something must have happened before junior high school that caused Gu Zheng to become like this.

The reason he hadn't asked was twofold: firstly, Guzheng seemed reluctant to talk about her childhood and wouldn't elaborate; secondly, and most importantly, he genuinely didn't care why Guzheng was so fixated on being number one. Since that was her wish, he simply needed to fully support her.

There's no need for so many "whys" in this world. If one insists on getting answers, Guzheng might see it as a wavering of support, which is something he doesn't want to see.

There are two reasons why I chose to ask about this again today.

Firstly, because Guzheng brought up her childhood experiences first, he believed this was likely a signal that she was proactively opening up. Secondly, he was unsure how much of an impact today's failure would have on Guzheng, or whether it would shake her long-held beliefs. Therefore, he felt it was necessary to understand her inner struggles in order to address the problem at its root.

It was clear that her childhood hometown had left a deep impression on Gu Zheng's memory. Han Zhou listened patiently without interrupting.

His phone rang once in the middle of the call; it was Xia Qing calling. He quickly hung up and replied that he was doing something very important and that they could talk later if there was nothing urgent.

On the other side, looking at the application forms that had already been submitted and were about to undergo final confirmation by the student council, Xia Qing hesitated, wondering whether she should tell Han Zhou the names on these application forms.

Zhong Ling, Wang Lengqiu, Xiao Xiaoxiao, and even Ouyang Lianyu...

She really wanted to figure something out.

Han Zhou had just recently signed up for a fun activity...

Why did they all sign up?
(End of this chapter)