Forced into a romantic relationship

Chapter 93 Our age gap is too big
The shopping mall clearly put a lot of thought into organizing this Qixi Festival event.

A large area on the second floor was left empty, and a platform about one meter high was erected there. Small lanterns painted with magpies hung around it, densely packed together, presumably representing the Magpie Bridge.

A banner hangs above, proclaiming in large characters, "Heart to Heart, Gift of Love," with smaller print below, "Successful challenge earns a prize of 10,400 yuan."

The banner was quite eye-catching; you could see it as soon as you went upstairs, making it quite a gimmick.

The shelves were all moved to the distant merchandise area, which was mostly filled with promotional items, mostly gifts, accompanied by slogans such as "Give it to your beloved" and "A thoughtful gift at a discounted price is not cheap, and your feelings will grow stronger without any disappointment." With promotional discounts and the promise of heartfelt gifts, the mall's purpose was self-evident: to force everyone to spend money like crazy.

It seems that no matter the world, Valentine's Day like Qixi Festival is a money-making frenzy for businesses...

Han Zhou sighed inwardly. At this moment, the area around the high platform was crowded with people, looking very lively. The three of them quickly went over.

The game is in progress, with six couples competing simultaneously. Although no one has succeeded, some couples, caught up in the lively atmosphere, have broken through the final barrier and held hands on the spot. It's as if they lost the game but won in life, and the air is thick with the sweet scent of romance.

Most young people are shy and embarrassed to face the jeers from the audience. Seeing that the shopping area in the distance was quiet enough, they all ran away there.

This is precisely the cunning scheme of the shopping mall. If they don't let these newlywed couples, who are already passionate about their relationship, buy some tokens of their love, it just means that the merchants are not professional enough.

Tsk tsk, it's all a routine...

Seeing that Han Zhou had been looking around since earlier, Zhong Ling withdrew her bright gaze from the small characters on the banner and asked curiously, "Junior, what are you looking for?"

Han Zhou's gaze swept across the crowd as he replied, "Yes, I just saw a friend, but I don't know where he suddenly ran off to."

He was quite certain that he had just seen Lin Anyu downstairs. Logically speaking, that guy shouldn't have been here. He was acting suspiciously, which was obviously suspicious. So he had reason to suspect that the guy was planning to hide in the shadows and watch him go on stage to play this couples' game.

This explains why Zhang Chengfan was so eager to have him and Zhong Ling participate in the event; it's possible that Lin Anyu was behind it.

But if that's really the case, then that guy must have a lot of free time.

The mall was too noisy, which was a considerable burden on Han Zhou's hearing. It took him several minutes to barely get used to it.

Sensory enhancement is not all good, and we need to pay more attention to this aspect in the future.

Looking at the young couples participating in the game on stage, Zhang Chengfan smiled, seemingly quite satisfied with the scene.

He explained, "This game is called 'Telepathy,' and it has three parts. This is the first part. The vendor will give each of the two people six four-character phrases. Neither of them can speak; they can only express themselves through actions and gestures, and the other person has to guess the phrase. The guessing and gesturing process happens simultaneously. Each phrase has a time limit of twenty seconds, and the total time limit is two minutes. Both people can only move on to the next round if they guess all the phrases correctly."

"To be carried out simultaneously..."

Han Zhou watched the challengers jumping and hopping on the stage, raised an eyebrow and said, "You have to think about how to express the words with appropriate actions, and you also have to spend time guessing the meaning of the other person's actions. It's quite difficult to do two things at once."

"It is indeed difficult, but I don't think it can be called multitasking. It should be described as a process of heart-to-heart interaction, where both men and women are fully focused on feeling each other and expressing themselves, bringing their hearts closer together. Don't you think that's romantic?"

Zhang Chengfan laughed and said, "And you see, although it's quite difficult, this game is still very attractive, and many people line up to participate every day."

He pointed to the long queue by the platform, where a group of young men and women lined up side by side, watching the situation on the platform and whispering among themselves, presumably discussing countermeasures. Many of them had slightly flushed faces, whether from excitement or some other reason, it was hard to tell.

Han Zhou understood at a glance that most of these guys probably weren't there for the prize money, or rather, the prize money wasn't their main purpose. They were most likely just there to experience the ambiguous atmosphere. Their motives weren't pure.

Unlike him and Zhong Ling, who were simply after the prize money.

The two minutes passed quickly, and none of the six couples on stage succeeded in the challenge, so they had to leave the stage with regret.

Zhang Chengfan also felt regretful and shook his head slightly before continuing to explain: "The second round is very simple. Each of the two people will be given a piece of paper with the same sixteen rare characters on it. The two people cannot peek at each other's papers or make a sound. They must each circle three words within fifteen seconds. As long as both of them make the same choice, they can advance to the next round."

Han Zhou asked in astonishment, "It's so difficult, isn't it all about luck?"

“Of course it’s not easy, otherwise the mall would just be giving away money,” Zhang Chengfan explained. “The position of the words on each piece of paper is different. This is the same as choosing complex and rare characters. It’s all to prevent challengers from discussing their choices in advance, such as using radicals or strokes as the basis for their choices. Only those who are truly in sync can pass the challenge.”

"What if you guess right?"

Zhang Chengfan smiled dismissively: "If you can guess correctly under these circumstances, then it can be considered fate, or perhaps a kind of telepathy."

Zhong Ling, standing next to Han Zhou, nodded in deep agreement, seemingly quite in favor of the idea.

"And the third step?" Han Zhou asked.

"So far, no challenger has successfully entered the third stage, so I won't reveal the details yet. Let's keep it a secret. How about it, are you two interested in giving it a try?"

Zhang Chengfan looked at the two of them.

"Of course we have to try, otherwise we'd have come all this way for nothing."

Han Zhou was eager to try. Since he was already here, how could he not give it a shot? Besides, although the first two steps seemed very difficult, they were actually not difficult for him and Zhong Ling, since he had a "cheat code".

The difficulty in both the first and second stages lies in the inability to make a sound. However, with his current hearing, he can hear the answer directly from Zhong Ling without anyone noticing, and the latter only needs to slightly conceal the action of opening her mouth.

The only difficulty is that Zhong Ling doesn't have his hearing, so in the first round, the other party still needs to try their best to guess his movements, which will test Zhong Ling's comprehension and body language skills.

Even so, the difficulty has been reduced considerably, and there is a real possibility of success.

Seeing Han Zhou's confident demeanor, Zhang Chengfan took out a card from his pocket and handed it to him, yawning as he said, "Then go over there and line up. You need an admission ticket to participate in the game. Normally, you need to spend 100 yuan in the mall to get one, but since you are An Yu's friends, I'll just give you one for free."

His family's mobile phone store was one of the sponsors of this event, and they had quite a few of these easily printed admission tickets.

"Thank you."

Han Zhou took the admission ticket and thought to himself that it was all a scam after all, that he actually had to pay to participate.

Just then, as if suddenly remembering something, he asked curiously, "By the way, can we participate in this game repeatedly?"

"Probably not. I'm not sure what the mall's rules are. They might allow repeated participation to boost sales, but one thing is certain: you can't participate again once you've successfully completed the challenge."

Han Zhou tentatively asked, "What if we change the person?"

"Change the player?" Zhang Chengfan was taken aback.

“Yeah, like changing partners or something.” Zhang Chengfan was stunned for a few seconds before he understood what he meant: “Dude, I’m a pure love warrior…”

Han Zhou's lips twitched: "This has nothing to do with pure love..."

Just then, Zhong Ling, who hadn't said much, came to her senses and looked at Han Zhou, asking, "Are you worried that we're not on the same wavelength enough to get the bonus?"

No, are you so confident that you think the prize money is already ours?
"Of course not," Han Zhou explained. "I was thinking about whether there was a chance to win more bonuses. If there was, of course I wouldn't let it pass me by."

He thought to himself that Zhong Ling seemed to have a kind of inexplicable confidence, unaware that he was more confident than her.

"Oh."

Zhong Ling nodded and lowered her head to think of a solution.

However, Han Zhou didn't give her that chance. He called her aside and whispered, "Senior, the first two steps are relatively simple for us. The only difficult part is this one."

He told the other person his thoughts.

Zhong Ling hesitated after hearing this: "But the rules don't allow talking. If I whisper to you, wouldn't that be cheating?"

Han Zhou was taken aback, thinking to himself, "So you never even thought you could do this? Then why are you so confident?"
He explained, "How can this be considered cheating? It's a talent that belongs to us, and it's also our tacit understanding. No one else could do it."

He didn't think there was anything wrong with it. Although it did violate the rules of the game, it was his ability, and he wouldn't give up if given the chance.

"But……"

However, Zhong Ling was more stubborn than he had imagined. After hesitating for a while, she finally made a decision and said, "I'll ask my sister."

She still felt that this was not good.

Han Zhou wasn't impatient at all, and nodded with a smile.

A moment later, his phone rang in his pocket. He took it out and saw that it was indeed a message from Zhong Yin.

“I’ve heard about what happened. Xiaoling has always been well-behaved and honest, but she’s also naive and inflexible. I personally agree with your idea, but if Xiaoling really doesn’t want to, then please do as she wishes this time. You can try with other girls later.”

Han Zhou couldn't convey Zhong Yin's current emotions from words alone. After a moment's thought, he seized the opportunity to propose a condition: "I don't really care, but look at what happened before..."

To avoid the other person having a cold and sour face when they meet again, he decided to find a way to get the other person to forgive him first.

Zhong Yin understood what he meant. She had almost calmed down. After all, Han Zhou hadn't maliciously deceived them before. Moreover, in her opinion, not having a younger sister would be even more pitiful, and living alone would be very lonely.

"I can forgive you, and let this matter of you lying to us go, but you must promise that it will never happen again."

Han Zhou repeatedly assured him that the other party was no longer angry, so he joked and sent a message asking, "What if I can't find another girl to join this game?"

It's unclear whether Zhong Yin was stumped by the question, as it took her almost half a minute to reply with a kitchen knife emoji. A while later, Zhong sent another message.

"Then I'll go with you, but if we win the prize money, I want half of it. Also, that will even out the favor you did for me before."

You think beautifully.

Han Zhou chuckled. This guy had a good plan. He wouldn't give the other party a chance to even things out easily, otherwise the relationship might be hard to maintain. This guy had such a bad temper, what if he turned on him one day and stopped him from seeing Zhong Ling?
"Let's forget it, the age gap between us is too big."

He sent a message without fear of death, then quickly put his phone in his pocket, refusing to read the other party's reply, and then looked at Zhong Ling, who had also just put her phone away.

"Senior, I..."

Just as he was about to speak, Zhong Ling suddenly raised her hand and punched him in the chest with very little force. Then she carefully lowered her head and said softly, "I'm sorry, my sister said you said some very hurtful things to her, and she asked me to punch you for her."

She withdrew her fist, looking as if she had bowed her head in apology.

Han Zhou chuckled. Is this the legendary "little fist punching your chest"? He vehemently denied it, saying, "I didn't say anything offensive."

Seeing that he wasn't angry, Zhong Ling breathed a slight sigh of relief and asked疑惑地问道, "Then what did you say?"

My sister had never let me hit anyone before, so Han Zhou must have said something inappropriate.

Han Zhou kept his eyes down, seemingly lost in thought, and remained silent.

Zhong Ling took out her phone and asked a few questions. Soon after, she put on a serious face and adopted the demeanor of a senior student. She then lightly punched him and said earnestly, "Although it's the truth, what you said was really too much!"

Her voice was soft, and even when she expressed dissatisfaction, it was difficult to instill fear in anyone. It sounded very gentle, like a wind chime tinkling in a gentle breeze. It's a pity that so few people get to hear such a voice, which is undoubtedly a regrettable thing.

Han Zhou sighed inwardly, honestly admitted his mistake with a very proper attitude, and then changed the subject, saying, "Sister Yin hopes that I can respect your idea, and I also think that I should listen to my senior, so we will not cheat."

Zhong Ling is a simple and innocent girl. Zhong Yin must have always tried his best to protect this innocence, otherwise he wouldn't have such clear, unpolluted eyes. Therefore, Han Zhou is willing to respect their thoughts.

Zhong Ling understood that this was a compromise made by Han Zhou. She hesitated for a moment, wanting to say something but stopping herself, and finally nodded gently while holding the small cloth bag.

The two went to queue up.

The line was long, but fortunately it moved quickly. Almost all the challengers on stage failed in the first round. Many couldn't even guess the first word, so there was no point in continuing. As a result, a group of challengers would often be off the stage in less than two minutes.

This also illustrates the difficulty of the game.

Of course, some contestants did manage to advance to the second round, but unfortunately, they didn't make it to the third round and were eliminated after fifteen seconds.

The host on stage was very good at talking and kept heating up the atmosphere. In just a few words, he turned this game into one of the must-do challenges for couples, and suddenly there were more and more challengers.

Han Zhou and Zhong Ling chatted idly while waiting, when suddenly his expression changed.

Because he finally saw Lin Anyu in the mall again, but this time the guy actually appeared on the high platform, mixed in with this group of challengers with a girl.

(End of this chapter)