Forced into a romantic relationship

Chapter 455 Asking for blessings
It was almost nine o'clock when Han Zhou left the pastry shop.

He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt that Sister Yin's gaze towards him was somewhat complicated before she left. However, when he asked her, she wouldn't say anything, only telling him to take care of himself.

It must have been those words spoken that afternoon that really affected her...

Han Zhou chuckled inwardly, without giving it much thought. He got up, put the wheelchair in the trunk of the car, opened the door, and sat in the passenger seat.

The car's air conditioning had been on for a while, and warm air filled the small space, so there was no feeling of coldness after getting in.

He fastened his seatbelt, turned to look at Ouyang Lianyu who was in a daze, and casually said, "By the way, Teacher Ouyang, you saw my brave performance today. My body has recovered quite well, and I shouldn't need to use a wheelchair anymore, right?"

"W-what bravery... How would the teacher know if you were in good health..."

Ouyang Lianyu froze, a blush creeping onto her pretty face, her eyes darting away, "Teacher didn't see anything..."

This kid is really something. Not only does she not do this in the bedroom, but she also has to announce it so openly. She has no shame at all. Besides, judging from Yixia's reaction, she's clearly not very brave...

"You were wearing glasses today, how could you not have seen anything?" Han Zhou said, both amused and exasperated. "You must have heard all that loud applause, right? Those were all compliments for me."

What loud applause, and all that praise? How dare you joke like that with your teacher...

Ouyang Lianyu's face turned even redder: "I didn't hear anything, and the teacher didn't hear anything either!"

Han Zhou laughed: "Pretending is going too far. Didn't you applaud back then?"

"I didn't—"

Ouyang Lianyu looked embarrassed and annoyed, then suddenly froze for a moment before belatedly realizing what she meant, "You...you mean the competition this morning?"

"Otherwise, when?"

Han Zhou looked completely bewildered. "Why are you turning your face away?"

"nothing……"

Ouyang Lianyu's cheeks flushed, and she realized that she had completely misunderstood. She wished she could find a crack in the ground to crawl into. She barely managed to suppress her urge to escape and tried to ease the awkwardness with a stern tone.

"How dare you say that? Your wound just reopened yesterday, and you dare to do such strenuous exercise today... Don't do that again!"

no no no...

Her mind was filled with those blush-inducing words she had heard not long ago—Han Zhou was at the age where he was full of energy, and even with his abdominal injury, he was still not behaving himself. Was it really a good idea to keep him at home?
"I don't want to do strenuous exercise either, but isn't it for the sake of the guzheng?" Han Zhou said helplessly.

Ouyang Lianyu gritted her teeth, so angry she almost yanked the steering wheel off: "You still have the nerve to say it's for the guzheng?"

Why are you reacting so strongly?

Han Zhou was startled and rubbed his slightly cold hands. "Okay... it's not entirely for the guzheng—after all, you're clumsy, teacher. If I don't try my best to widen the gap with my opponent, wouldn't you become the culprit for the guzheng's defeat?"

"So I'm doing this for you, teacher," he said, straightening his back.

"What do you mean 'for me'... I told you not to joke around like that..."

Ouyang Lianyu's face was still flushed, and now she looked even more beautiful. She felt even more embarrassed and opened her mouth, but found that she couldn't refute it.

Why do Teacher Ouyang and Sister Yin seem so strange tonight... Han Zhou wondered.

A short while later, the back door was opened, and Guzheng sat in the back seat, asking with a squinty eye, "What are you talking about?"

Ouyang Lianyu subconsciously covered her face and said with a wry smile, "Han Zhou said that his body has almost recovered and he doesn't want to continue sitting in a wheelchair."

The reason she hadn't started the car was to wait for Guzheng to return so she could take her back to school before going home herself.

"How about that?"

Gu Zheng glared at Han Zhou, crossed her arms, and said, "I heard from my parents that your injury reopened yesterday. You need to rest more. Unless you want to stay in the hospital, you'll have to sit in a wheelchair for the time being, understand?"

"Aren't you worried that my legs will degenerate...?" Han Zhou protested.

"So what if it degenerates? The wheelchair won't break anyway, I can just keep sitting in it forever," Gu Zheng sneered.

What did I do to offend this guy?

Han Zhou was suspicious. After thinking for a moment, he asked, "You seem to be in a good mood. What's wrong? Have you made up with your friends?"

Ouyang Lianyu also curiously turned around to look at the girl in the back seat. She had already heard about the story of the guzheng from Han Zhou.

"Ah."

Gu Zheng nodded. "We talked a lot about what happened after we separated, so we came back a little late."

"It's good that you've made up."

Ouyang Lianyu smiled gently, "In one's life, one may not have many close friends. It would be a great pity if we stopped contacting each other because of a small conflict."

A look of nostalgia appeared in her eyes as she spoke with the tone of someone who had been through it all, “I used to have many friends, but I gradually lost contact with most of them later on. I don’t want the same regret to happen to you. If you have time, you can contact your old friends more often, even if it’s just to ask how they are doing.”

Han Zhou coughed lightly and said in a low voice, "Um... Teacher Ouyang, I didn't have many friends playing guzheng until I went to university..."

"You're the only one who talks too much!"

Guzheng leaned over and punched him, saying with dissatisfaction, "You talk like you have a lot of friends!"

"I didn't say that, did I?"

"Then why did you say that to me!"

"..."

Ouyang Lianyu adjusted her glasses, her smile gentle, and quietly watched the two playfully bickering.

"Okay, stop making trouble."

After a while, she spoke up, "I have to drive now, Guzheng. Where's your friend? Do you need me to give her a ride?"

"No need, she's already gone back."

Gu Zheng was about to fasten her seatbelt when she suddenly remembered something and immediately opened the car door. "Wait a moment, Teacher Ouyang, I have something to say to that family... to Mo Yixia. I'll be right back!"

He then got out of the car and ran towards the pastry shop.

What does Guzheng want with Yixia?
Watching the girl's departing figure, Ouyang Lianyu looked worried. Seeing Han Zhou sitting calmly in his seat, she couldn't help but urge, "Aren't you going to go and see?"

"They have something to say, what would I do if I went over there?"

Han Zhou seemed unconcerned, not worried at all, but how could Ouyang Lianyu be at ease? Just as she was about to get out of the car, she heard Han Zhou continue, "Don't worry, Gu Zheng isn't going to cause trouble. She's probably going to thank Yi Xia."

"Thank you?" Ouyang Lianyu was taken aback.

"Ah."

Han Zhou smiled and turned to look in the direction of the pastry shop.

"Yi Xia played a crucial role in Gu Zheng's quick reconciliation with her friend."

……

As night deepened, a car stopped at the gate of the university.

"Teacher Ouyang, you go back first. I'll take the guzheng with me. I'll go back by myself later, so don't wait for me."

"It's okay, it's still early anyway, your teacher will wait for you here."

"It's really no need..."

"Don't stay out too late."

"Okay... I'll be back as soon as possible."

Seeing that he couldn't persuade Ouyang Lianyu, Han Zhou simply stopped talking, put on his hood and mask, opened the car door, and ran towards the school as if he were escaping.

Ouyang Lianyu looked puzzled and turned to look at Guzheng, who was still unbuckling her seatbelt in the back: "Didn't he say he was going to take you? Why did he leave without waiting for you?"

“He was afraid that if he walked too slowly, we would ask him to use a wheelchair.”

Gu Zheng rolled her eyes at the figure outside the car window. Although she didn't have the "mind-reading ability" like Mo Yixia, she still understood Han Zhou very well. "It's okay, let that guy walk around. Otherwise, his legs might really degenerate. I'll keep an eye on him."

"That's it..."

Ouyang Lianyu smiled bitterly, watching Han Zhou's receding figure, and suddenly asked, "Will he come back?"

"Of course, didn't he say he'd be back soon? I won't let him linger at school for too long."

As Gu Zheng spoke, she got out of the car, waved at the window, and said with a smile, "Then I'll be going now. See you tomorrow, Teacher Ouyang."

"See you tomorrow."

Ouyang Lianyu smiled and waved back, watching the girl's departing figure, and suddenly felt a little puzzled.

strangeness……

Why did I ask that question just now?

……

On the other side, Han Zhou, dressed like a paparazzi, waited for Gu Zheng under the tree.

Before he could even speak, the girl said with dissatisfaction, "Why are you dressed like this? I hate this kind of hiding and revealing outfit the most."

You might as well just say Yixia's name...

Han Zhou thought to himself, then explained, "I'm already famous at school. I'm going back with Teacher Ouyang later, so I need to cover my tracks to avoid giving her any gossip."

Gu Zheng snorted coldly: "It's passable... but you're not allowed to wear a mask next time."

"Then what should you wear, a mask?"

"You can wear whatever you want, just don't wear a mask."

"Okay, okay, I understand."

"..."

Under the cool night sky, all the lights in the school were turned on, casting long shadows that stretched into the shadows of the grass.

Perhaps because of the cold weather, the school was quite deserted at this time. There were hardly any people in sight, only the lights of the teaching buildings in the distance. The two walked under the lights, their breath rising and falling until it disappeared completely into the night.

Passing by Angel Lake, Gu Zheng reached out and plucked a willow twig, fiddled with it in her hand for a while, and suddenly asked, "Han Zhou, did you already know about He Ling? Did you also know that I lost the competition yesterday because of her?"

"Yes," Han Zhou readily admitted.

"Then why didn't you tell me sooner?" Gu Zheng asked, her face showing dissatisfaction.

"If I had to give a reason... it's because I'm not sure if you're mentally prepared to face this friend who still holds a grudge against you today."

"Do I look that fragile?" the girl asked defiantly.

"Of course you're not fragile, but keeping some things from you might make you happier."

Han Zhou shrugged and said regretfully, "I was originally planning to get revenge on your friend, but since you two have made up, I can only give up on that idea."

"How childish. You're such a grown-up, yet you're still thinking about revenge..."

Gu Zheng pouted, but although she said that, her eyes secretly curved into a smile.

Winter nights are when the wind blows most frequently, so much so that she had to fix her hair all the time. Finally, she couldn't stand it anymore, so she took out a baseball cap from the large pocket of her coat and put it on her head.

The baseball cap looked strangely familiar. Han Zhou's eyelids twitched, but he didn't ask where the baseball cap came from. He calmly recalled the past.

"Speaking of childishness, I remember once in high school I was cornered in an alley by a few boys, and someone kept..."

"Shut up!"

Gu Zheng blushed and quickly interrupted him.

Han Zhou didn't continue, but shook his head and smiled, "Anyway, you're not exactly mature either."

"I was young back then..." Gu Zheng muttered softly.

"I'm not that old now."

"cut."

Gu Zheng pouted, still feeling a little uneasy. After thinking for a moment, she reminded her again, "Anyway, this matter is over now. You are not allowed to cause trouble for He Ling and her boyfriend, nor should you cause trouble for that injured girl, understand?"

"understood."

Han Zhou sighed, "I did nothing precisely because I knew you would say that."

Guzheng smiled and stopped talking.

The path to the girls' dormitory wasn't long, but the two of them deliberately slowed down to admire the view of Angel Lake at night.

Feeling the breeze blowing across the lake, Gu Zheng suddenly asked, "By the way, Han Zhou, guess what He Ling and I talked about?"

"How would I know anything about girls' affairs..."

Han Zhou deliberately skipped this topic, fearing that Mo Yixia might reveal something during her conversation with He Ling, which would then reach Gu Zheng's ears.

Fortunately, his worries were unnecessary.

Under the cover of night, Guzheng could be heard saying, "He Ling asked me if I ultimately gave up participating in the competition for her sake. She's very curious about my choice back then—"

Han Zhou paused for a moment, then turned to meet the girl's smiling eyes. "Do you want to know my choice?"

"I said, no matter what decision you make..."

"I haven't given up."

On a winter night, by the lake under the streetlights, a young girl stood with her hands behind her back, her steps light, and spoke these firm words in a relaxed tone.

Without self-doubt or hesitation, it seemed as if they had no regrets about their initial choice.

Ripples spread across the surface of Lake Angel, shimmering under the streetlights, as if attentively listening to the girl's answer—

“You’re right. My dream is to keep winning first place. It was in the past, it is now, and it will be in the future. I want to keep winning, even if it doesn’t make me ‘unique’.”

“But you’re already unique enough,” Han Zhou said with a smile.

"That's not enough, I want to keep winning." The girl's expression was determined, and even the brim of her baseball cap couldn't hide the bright light in her eyes.

A cold wind swept across the lake, carrying those words far away.

Han Zhou chuckled and reached out to straighten the girl's baseball cap.

"Then keep winning."

Gu Zheng's heart skipped a beat, and she instinctively turned her head away to hide the panic in her eyes: "You... how come you're not disappointed at all?"

She seemed a little depressed.

"Should I be disappointed?" Han Zhou asked, feigning ignorance.

"That's not true..."

Seeing that the girl couldn't speak for a long time, Han Zhou chuckled and stopped teasing her.

“I heard that although you didn’t give up on participating in the competition, you went to several tutoring centers around the area to ‘challenge’ them beforehand.”

"You make a bet with the students at your tutoring center, saying that if no one can beat you on the same test, they'll give up on the competition that year. And if you lose, you'll do odd jobs at the tutoring center for a month—"

"You want to use this method to increase He Ling's chances of getting a ranking, right?"

Gu Zheng was stunned the moment Han Zhou uttered his first words: "Who told you all this?"

She hadn't told anyone about this, except for He Ling, whom she had told in the park not long ago. But hadn't He Ling promised her not to tell anyone else?

"It was Yixia who told me."

Han Zhou was once again impressed by the greatness of intelligence agents, and explained, "Yi Xia has a very good memory. After hearing about your past with He Ling, she quickly remembered something that happened when she was in tutoring classes in junior high school—"

“There was a girl who had just finished her test paper when the tutor kicked her out. No one was allowed to look at the paper. But even so, everyone understood that it was because the whole class had failed to beat that girl – and that girl was you.”

Gu Zheng was stunned, not because she was shocked by Mo Yixia's memory, but because she couldn't believe it. "Did I meet that guy so long ago?"

"I can hardly believe it myself."

Han Zhou shook his head and sighed, then asked curiously, "Yi Xia speculates that you originally intended to 'challenge' various schools, but you were kicked out before you even entered the school gates. Is that true?"

Gu Zheng turned her head away, her face flushed, and it took her a long time to stammer out a sentence.

"Who, who said I didn't even go inside the school gates..."

Well, it seems like all I did was get into the school...

Han Zhou, knowing the situation, said, "By the way, Yi Xia also said she was very grateful to you because of your 'challenge' that time. Her mother thought all the teachers in that tutoring center were incompetent, and didn't send her to any tutoring centers for a month afterward. She was originally required to participate in that competition, but in the end, it was dropped."

"What does this have to do with her thanking me?" Gu Zheng asked, puzzled.

Han Zhou smiled.

"You gave her a rare period of freedom."

Gu Zheng stood there stunned for a long time before finally coming to her senses. She pouted and said, "That guy's really having a tough time..."

After a long pause, she asked, feigning nonchalance, "So... what did that guy say about me?"

To this day, she certainly feels that her actions back then were very childish, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call them a dark history. That's why she doesn't plan to tell anyone about this dark history.

She strongly suspected that the guy was laughing at her behind her back.

“Childish, but cute,” Han Zhou replied.

"Really?"

Gu Zheng looked incredulous. Would that guy with eyes practically pointing to the sky praise her as cute?
"Really, that's basically what it means." Han Zhou said seriously.

In fact, Mo Yixia's assessment at the time was "stupid to the point of being laughable," but of course he wouldn't dare say that.

Being childish is a form of stupidity, and being ridiculous and being cute are only one word apart. So saying they mean almost the same thing isn't too far-fetched, is it?

Gu Zheng was still somewhat skeptical, but she wasn't determined to hear anything unpleasant. After hesitating for a moment, she asked, "What about you? Do you think I'm naive?"

Han Zhou hesitated for a moment, then cautiously said, "You were still young then..."

Isn't this just saying I'm naive?

Gu Zheng's face darkened, and she said with displeasure, "Speak plainly if you have something to say, don't beat around the bush!"

Han Zhou looked embarrassed, thinking to himself, "I'm just being direct, why are you yelling at me?"
After a moment of silence, he suddenly smiled.

"It is indeed a bit naive... but it's much more mature than simply giving up on participating in the competition, isn't it?"

"Besides... at your age, I don't have the courage to do the same thing as you."

Guzheng was stunned.

After a moment, she smiled and gave a soft "hmm," then punched Han Zhou without hesitation.

"You're just saying you're not as childish as me, aren't you!"

Han Zhou: "?"

He sighed deeply: "Guzheng, tell me honestly, what did I do to offend you today?"

But Gu Zheng not only did not deny it, she suddenly stopped, took off her baseball cap, and forcefully put it on his head.

"Before I answer you, answer one question for me first."

A bad premonition suddenly arose in Han Zhou's heart—

"I heard... you seem to have accepted that guy's personal belongings?"

A bead of cold sweat slid down his forehead.

He suddenly understood why Mo Yixia had asked him to prepare in advance not long ago.

(End of this chapter)