Forced into a romantic relationship

Wang Lengqiu's grandfather knew early in the morning that there would be guests, so he started cooking early. There was a gas stove in the kitchen, but the old man seemed to be more accustomed to cooking with the big iron pot. The firewood was burning very vigorously, and a pot of pork ribs soup was stewing in the pot, with an aromatic aroma.

When Han Zhou entered the kitchen, the old man was cutting bacon and sausages. There was also a pot of chicken and a pot of fish on the chopping board. It was not difficult to see that the old man wanted to prepare a sumptuous meal to entertain his granddaughter's friends.

Han Zhou naturally came into the kitchen to help. Seeing this, he smiled and said, "Grandpa Wang, Senior Sister, let me help."

At this time, Wang Lengqiu had already taken off his coat and was sitting by the stove, lighting a fire. His slightly pale face gradually became rosy under the light of the fire. Hearing this, he said, "Thank you."

"Then trouble you."

The old man didn't mince words and said with a smile, "Youyou often mentioned you to me, saying that your cooking is delicious. Today I finally have the chance to try it."

"No, Senior, thank you for the compliment."

Han Zhou said a few humble words and went forward to help process the vegetables. Seeing the old man pounding his lower back from time to time, as if his waist was not in good condition, he said with concern, "Why don't you go outside to rest, and leave this to me and my senior sister."

The old man shook his head and was about to refuse immediately: "How can that be possible? You are a guest, I..."

"grandfather."

Wang Lengqiu spoke softly. Although he hadn't said anything yet, the old man seemed to understand and sighed helplessly: "Well, then I'll go take a rest. I'll leave this place to you. I'll go make a pot of tea for the two girls."

He washed his hands, walked slowly to the door, and closed the kitchen door. "It's cold outside. I'll close the door for you."

After saying that, he closed the door and left.

Do I need to close the door when cooking?

Han Zhou was suspicious, but he didn't think much about it. After all, this place was quite cold. He asked, "Senior, is Youyou your nickname?"

This is what Wang Lengqiu’s grandfather called her just now.

Wang Lengqiu did not answer, but turned her head to look over. She didn't know if it was because the fire was too bright, but her originally lifeless eyes seemed a little brighter.

"It's just the two of us now," she said.

Han Zhou was stunned for a moment, but soon understood what the other party meant. The two had agreed that when they were alone, he would call the other person Qiuqiu or Qiuqiu.

This guy really has been thinking about this matter all the time...

He smiled bitterly in his heart, turned his head to look at the door, exhaled slightly, and said, "Qiu...Qiuqiu."

"Can you call me again?" Wang Lengqiu asked.

"Qiuqiu."

"Thank you."

Wang Lengqiu thanked him softly, stuffed a piece of firewood into the stove hole, and then replied, "Youyou is indeed my nickname, given by my grandfather."

"Is there any special meaning?" Han Zhou asked curiously.

"No."

"What about Qiuqiu? Does Qiuqiu have any special meaning?"

"nor."

Han Zhou was stunned for a moment, wondering: "Then why do you insist on me calling you that?"

Since there is no special meaning, why does the other party insist on using this title?
"Because it's a nickname." Wang Lengqiu said without thinking.

Ok……

Han Zhou sighed in his heart, but he didn't dwell on it too much, nor did he ask why he had to call her by a nickname. After all, he had asked this question before, and Wang Lengqiu's thinking was quite clear.

If two people are not familiar with each other, they need a nickname, because a nickname can quickly bring the two people closer together;
If two people are already very familiar with each other, they need a nickname even more, because only in this way can they show the close relationship between the two people.

It's simply impeccable logic.

But then again...if Qiuqiu and Qiuqiu are my nicknames for senior Wang Lengqiu, then what is her nickname for me?
Han Zhou was somewhat curious about this, but he didn't dare to ask too much, for fear of hearing Wang Lengqiu call him "Zhou Zhou" - although such a name wouldn't make him dig his toes into the ground, it would be troublesome if Gu Zheng heard it.

With Guzheng's omnipresent desire to win, since others can call her by nicknames, then she will naturally do so too, and every day. Han Zhou felt his scalp tingling when he thought of Guzheng calling her "Zhuo Zhuo" and "Zhuo Zhuo" every day.

He shook his head and quickly put aside these messy thoughts and began to prepare the ingredients seriously. Wang Lengqiu did not sit by the stove and keep burning the fire. Seeing that the fire would not go out for a while, he got up and came to help.

Perhaps it was because she had been sitting by the stove for too long, her body was warm, even her hair was a little warm, and her pitiful face had a touch of softness and a bit of warmth that was not seen on ordinary days.

Looking at the girl beside him with skillful movements, Han Zhou realized that this senior must have helped in the kitchen a lot in the past. However, when he thought about her family situation, he understood. It is said that children from poor families grow up early, and this saying is actually true for many left-behind children.

Of course, due to lack of discipline, many left-behind children have developed bad habits of being lazy and gluttonous, and may even go astray, but Wang Lengqiu obviously belongs to the former.

He smiled and said, "Senior, you should cook often, right?"

Wang Lengqiu did not answer, as if he did not hear it.

But the two of them were standing so close to each other, and Han Zhou's voice was not small, how could she not hear it?
Han Zhou smiled bitterly and quickly understood the problem. He had to ask again: "Qiuqiu, you should cook often, right?"

"Ah."

Wang Lengqiu seemed to have regained his hearing. He nodded slightly and replied, "I learned it when I was a child."

"Did you learn this from your grandfather?"

"Not at all."

"Not all of them means..."

"I just didn't learn all of it from grandpa."

"Uh, okay..."

Han Zhou's mouth twitched. He wanted to ask who else taught Wang Lengqiu to cook, but didn't want the other party to explain what he meant by "not all". Fortunately, it was not the first time that he had experienced this guy's train of thought, so he did not continue to ask.

He was not in a hurry to talk about looking at the photos. After all, the photos would not disappear, and it would not be too late to look at them sooner or later.

At this moment, Wang Lengqiu suddenly said, "It's raining today. Let's go out and pick some mushrooms later. I'll make you chicken stewed with mushrooms."

"Are there still mushrooms in winter?" Han Zhou asked in surprise.

"Yes, it is a yellow mushroom."

Yellow mushrooms... Han Zhou hesitated for a moment: "Xue...Qiuqiu, the mushrooms you are talking about are not umbrellas, right?"

He did not forget the scene when they first met. At that time, Wang Lengqiu called the umbrella a mushroom. He even suspected whether this girl was really mentally abnormal.

Wang Lengqiu tilted his head and looked at him strangely: "An umbrella is an umbrella, and a mushroom is a mushroom. Why do you think a mushroom is an umbrella?"

Han Zhou was stunned.

He saw a hint of worry in Wang Lengqiu's eyes, as if he was worried that he was suffering from some mental illness.

"..."

While the two were chatting and cooking in the kitchen, Guzheng and Zhongling were playing with the yellow dog outside. They wanted to help in the kitchen, but Wang Lengqiu's grandfather said that the kitchen was too small to accommodate so many people, so they had to give up. After staying in the house for a long time, they felt stuffy and went out to the yard to get some fresh air.

There was a group of hens in the yard, pecking at the food on the ground, and there were two quacking ducks. A yellow dog was lying under the eaves, yawning boredly.

Looking over the wall surrounded by thorns, you can see the continuous mountains in the distance and a winding mountain path vaguely. This should be the mountain road that Wang Lengqiu mentioned. It does look easy to walk on, but it will probably take quite a while to reach the top of the mountain.

Looking at the yellow dog lying lazily on the ground under the eaves, Gu Zheng couldn't help but think of the mighty general in Lin Youya's home. She always felt that the two had similar temperaments.

She looked around, took out a sausage from her pocket and threw it on the ground, and whispered, "Han Zhou, come here!"

Zhong Ling who was beside her thought that Han Zhou had come out of the kitchen. She turned around and looked, but did not see Han Zhou. She looked at Gu Zheng carefully for a while and saw that she was staring at the yellow dog. Then she realized that she was calling the yellow dog. She was confused and amused for a moment, and patted Gu Zheng's shoulder gently, signaling her not to do that.

Gu Zheng said seriously, "Senior, don't you think this dog looks a lot like Han Zhou?"

"Have it?"

Zhong Ling was a little curious. She squatted down and looked at the yellow dog carefully, then shook her head with a wry smile.

She couldn't tell how the yellow dog looked like her junior.

"He wags his tail at everyone he sees. Isn't that exactly the same as Han Zhou?"

Looking at the yellow dog wagging its tail and eating sausage in front of her, Guzheng curled her lips in dissatisfaction, looking quite resentful.

What she meant was that Han Zhou and Mo Yixia were getting too close, and she even shamelessly asked that guy for underwear. Although Han Zhou later explained that he only wanted a short-sleeved shirt and there was a reason for it, she still felt unhappy. After all, Han Zhou had never asked her for a short-sleeved shirt.

So she specially brought a short-sleeved shirt this time.

No other meaning, just be prepared.

What's wrong with winter? Can't we wear short sleeves in winter? What if the temperature suddenly rises?
Gu Zheng didn't mean anything else, but the speaker didn't mean it, but the listener took it to heart. Zhong Ling felt that the words were suggestive, and suddenly became uneasy, lowering his head, not knowing what to say.

"Oh, I was just kidding."

Seeing Zhong Ling's hesitant expression, Gu Zheng thought that this senior was too kind-hearted and couldn't bear to compare Han Zhou to a dog, so she curved her eyes and said, "Han Zhou is indeed not like this dog, but senior, why do I feel that this guy likes you very much? You seem to be very popular with animals."

She looked at the yellow dog wandering around Zhong Ling's legs and thought that gentle girls were really liked wherever they went. But she was not bad either. The two ducks liked her very much and kept quacking at her.

"How, how is it possible, how could he like me..."

Zhong Ling suddenly tightened the small cloth bag around her waist, her expression becoming more and more uneasy - as usual, the speaker was unintentional but the listener took it to heart. Gu Zheng first said that the dog looked very much like Han Zhou, and then said that the dog liked her. To her, this was obviously hinting at something, so much so that the last sentence "You are very popular with animals" had a hint of unclear meaning.

She lowered her head, somewhat afraid to look into Gu Zheng's eyes.

"Senior, what's wrong with you?"

Gu Zheng was greeting the two ducks and soon noticed that something was wrong with Zhong Ling. She immediately stepped forward and touched her forehead, asking with concern, "You look so bad. Are you feeling unwell? Are you catching a cold?"

"I...I'm fine, thank you."

Looking at Guzheng's concerned eyes, Zhong Ling was slightly startled and quickly shook her head to indicate that she was fine. At the same time, a strong sense of guilt arose from the bottom of her heart.

She realized that she was overthinking. Guzheng was a very frank person. Except that she did not dare to express her feelings directly to her junior, she was straightforward in everything she did. She never beat around the bush or spoke in a sarcastic way.

She will bravely express everything about herself instead of keeping everything in her heart.

In fact, Zhong Ling has always envied such frankness.

Whether it's Guzheng, Yixia, or her sister, or even Wang Lengqiu, they are all much more frank and braver than herself. Be it love or hate, they dare to express their thoughts without any consideration even if they are not understood. Only she is always so cowardly that she doesn't even have the courage to speak loudly.

Although she has clearly made up her mind to be independent, she still cannot leave her sister. When she thinks about leaving her sister and living alone one day in the future, she feels at a loss and dares not imagine such a future at all.

What's worse is...she found that she couldn't live without her junior.

She was like a shameless parasite, always wanting to depend on others for her life. Even if there was no place for her by the other person's side, she was still reluctant to leave.

She has been trying to forget this idea these days and has thought about using facts to deny her guess, but the facts did not deny it. She had obviously made up her mind to stay away from her junior, but this time she still followed everyone to this place.

Although this was Yixia's commission, she knew it was just an excuse.

Yixia's commission was to ask her to help keep an eye on her junior and prevent him from having too much close contact with Guzheng and senior Wang Lengqiu, but she always felt that she was not worthy of being the supervisor. Instead, she was like a despicable thief who betrayed Yixia's trust from the very beginning.

This feeling was really strange. She didn't know why she felt like a thief and why she was always prone to wild thoughts recently.

It seemed that something in her heart was shattered ever since she sent the message "I don't like my junior" to him.

She wanted to ask someone, but she didn't know who to ask. She didn't even dare to tell her sister about it.

And she didn't know if it was an illusion, but she always felt that her sister seemed to have more worries recently. Occasionally, she would stand by the windowsill in a daze, but when asked, she would always say it was nothing.

Not only her junior, Zhong Ling also felt that the distance between her and her sister seemed to be getting farther and farther. Even though this might just be an illusion, she knew that such a future would come sooner or later.

She was scared, but she must not show it.

Both the elder sister and the younger student were very considerate and treated her very well. Once they showed any unhappiness, they would make things difficult for themselves to accommodate her, which would ultimately make everyone unhappy.

She couldn't cause any trouble for anyone.

"Senior, you look so strange today, are you really okay?"

Seeing that Zhong Ling became absent-minded again, Gu looked worried. This didn't look like nothing happened. He immediately went to the kitchen and said, "Let Han Zhou talk to you. He can hear what you are saying clearly."

She was not good at comforting people, nor was she as smooth-talking as Han Zhou. She couldn't even communicate well with her senior, so she had to ask Han Zhou to comfort her.

"No, no need!"

Zhong Ling quickly grabbed her hand and shook her head to indicate that she was fine.

However, such an excited reaction not only did not reassure Gu Zheng, but made her more suspicious. She almost concluded that the senior student must be hiding something from her, and decided to tell Han Zhou about it later.

At this moment, Wang Lengqiu's grandfather came out of the house and saw the yellow dog circling around the two girls. He couldn't help but smile and said, "It seems that Dahuang likes you very much."

Guzheng looked curious: "Da Huang? Is this the dog's name?"

This is undoubtedly a rather plain name, just like the name "Zhang Wei" in people's names, the rate of duplication among dogs is quite high.

"Yes, I have had it for almost ten years."

The old man brought two stools from the house, motioned for the two to sit down, and said with a smile, "Youyou has seldom come home since you started high school. It has always been Dahuang who has been with me all these years."

"Grandpa Wang, let me do it."

Seeing that the old man wanted to move the stove out of the house, Gu Zheng immediately went over to help. The old man was about to say that the stove was heavy, but she saw Gu Zheng had already picked up the stove with one hand and carried it to the yard in three or two steps.

The old man was stunned for a moment, then laughed and said, "It seems that I am really old. I am not as strong as the little girl."

Gu Zheng curled her eyes and helped him sit down next to the stove: "My grandma always said that, but she always carried me on her back."

If it were someone else, even if Han Zhou said that, Gu Zheng would be able to stand up and answer, "It's not shameful to be stronger than me." But this is an old woman who almost raised her granddaughter alone, and she has no desire to compare. (End of this chapter)