Forced into a romantic relationship

The setting sun is shining obliquely.

The amber sunlight filtered through the branches, breaking into mottled spots of light, and hitting Han Zhou's face along with the falling yellow leaves.

It was not until he said, "Actually, I'm playing a mushroom" that Han Zhou finally realized that he seemed to have come to a completely unfamiliar place.

His mental state was really bad. He pressed his forehead to relax for a while before he had the strength to check the prompt information in the status bar.

[The response has taken effect. You have arrived near the target location. Please note that since this teleportation spans time, your mental strength will be greatly consumed. Please replenish your strength pills as soon as possible. In addition, since this status is temporarily generated, you will automatically return to the original time node after one month, and the status bar will actively make certain corrections to the changed timeline. During this period, please try to minimize interference with the timeline.]

[The entry detection recorder has taken effect and is continuously recording. If you need to keep the relevant records, please take the memory freeze pill in time before the end of the recording. The records will be implanted in your mind in the form of memory.]

Across time...

Han Zhou was startled.

Although he had vaguely guessed this possibility, when he actually confirmed it, he still found it hard to believe. If he could even travel through time, was there anything the status bar couldn't do?
His brain was dizzy and he quickly stuffed a few powerful pills into his mouth. Then he felt a little better, but he still felt weak as if his whole body was hollowed out, and it was even difficult for him to stand up.

This terrible feeling made him feel as if he had returned to the time when he was suffering from a terminal illness. He was a little dazed for a moment and didn't know how long it would take to recover.

But...traveling through time...

As if realizing something, Han Zhou looked at the little girl not far away with a complicated expression.

Sure enough, a very familiar word appeared above the girl's head, except that the original "Unlocked" was changed to "Unlockable".

[Name: Wang Lengqiu (unlockable)]

It was an autumn day in an unknown month, around dusk, and the weather was clear.

The wind is gentle and lingering, accompanied by the rustling sound of leaves. In the distance, you can occasionally see cattle and sheep leisurely walking across the fields.

On the other side of the field, in the dense forest with yellow leaves, separated by a huge tree stump, a "mushroom" holding an umbrella and a little girl with a schoolbag on her back were facing each other from a distance.

Across time, one gazes at the past, the other looks into the future.

This was the first time the two met in the true sense.

It's also a reunion.

Han Zhou didn't know how to describe his feelings at the moment.

The image of the little girl in front of him with her head slightly tilted quickly overlapped with the expressionless face in his memory. For some reason, he suddenly felt a little heartbroken. He opened his mouth to say something, but held back.

At the same time, seeing that the strange man was staring at him, Xiao Wang Lengqiu silently took a few steps back, obviously thinking he was a weirdo, but he did not leave immediately. Instead, he stood on the side of the road for a long time, and then seriously refuted him.

“Mushrooms can’t talk.”

After saying that, he turned around and trotted away.

But not long after, she came back with two small loaves of bread in her hands. She placed them on the huge tree stump, then stood a little further away and returned to the intersection. She didn't say a word, just looked at Han Zhou from afar.

Han Zhou was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and laughed in his heart, thinking that Senior Sister Wang Lengqiu was really kind when she was young. Maybe she thought he was a homeless vagrant, so she felt pity for him.

But then again, he did look quite disheveled now... Looking at the mud all over his body, he laughed at himself in his heart, his expression became a little complicated, and he couldn't help but look at Xiao Wang Lengqiu in the distance for a while longer.

It turns out that the senior sister is not thin because she eats less, but is naturally slim. However, it is also possible that she has not liked to eat since she was a child, so she does not gain weight.

That somewhat naive expression has been there since childhood. Even when he is serious, he looks inexplicably cute.

Has anything changed about this girl between now and the future?
Han Zhou looked for a long time and was about to look away when the little girl suddenly pointed at the powerful pill in his hand from a distance and said something.

"..."

Xiao Wang Lengqiu's voice was not loud, and she was quite far away, so it might be difficult for ordinary people to hear what she was saying. However, Han Zhou was in a state of "leaving everything to fate" at the moment, so he could easily hear the content of this sentence -

“Sheep dung cannot be eaten.”

He suddenly realized that the reason why Wang Lengqiu didn't leave was probably because he was worried that he would go to the field outside to pick up sheep dung to eat.

Thinking of this, Han Zhou's mouth twitched slightly, but he did not respond, nor did he get up to take the two small breads on the tree stump.

He just silently put away his umbrella and turned away.

At the present time, Wang Lengqiu is missing and is suspected to have gone to some place to try to end his life, or even committed suicide and his body is found somewhere no one can find. This has always been everyone's biggest worry, but no one dares to say it out loud, as if as long as it is not said out loud, such a thing will not happen.

But what if things really turned out like this?
"If I leave, you won't be unhappy?"

In the gradually cooling wind, a voice echoed in my ears again.

Han Zhou has always regretted not firmly denying this sentence last night. If Wang Lengqiu really chose to commit suicide because of this, then he would be to blame and would have to live in regret from now on.

He never understood why Wang Lengqiu cared about him so much, as if she had known him for a long time, but he had no impression of her at all.

But now he understands.

It all started with this time travel.

In Wang Lengqiu's memory, or according to the original development trajectory, he is very likely to have established a very deep relationship with the childhood Wang Lengqiu during this time travel.

...And it was this kind of emotion that indirectly led to Wang Lengqiu's death many years later.

This is the cause of everything and the result of everything.

In a trance, Han Zhou once again recalled what Wang Lengqiu said last night.

This girl is incredibly persistent. Even though so many years have passed, the feelings hidden in her heart are still hot and pure. It seems that time has stagnated for her, making her live forever in a short but unforgettable period of time.

Even though Han Zhou had made up his mind to force himself to be a cold-blooded and ruthless person, he couldn't help but be moved by such persistent waiting.

But he really couldn't respond to the other person's feelings.

He admitted that he was very greedy, so greedy that he wanted to embrace all the good things around him, but he could not feel at ease to hurt the feelings of Gu Zheng and Mo Yixia again and again.

He already owed them a lot.

Besides, he really didn't have much affection for this senior, and even now he just felt mostly guilty. If he had to force himself to answer with "Then let's be together", it would undoubtedly be unfair to anyone.

Perhaps it was because he was too greedy that Han Zhou always subconsciously wanted to see a happy ending, but in this matter he never knew what to do to satisfy everyone.

But now he knew——

All the problems arise from this time travel.

Or perhaps it was because he knew Wang Lengqiu too early.

From an objective point of view, this acquaintance had almost no positive meaning. It not only led to a meaningless wait of nearly ten years, but also indirectly led to Wang Lengqiu's death.

If nothing was done, Han Zhou was worried that he would find a cold corpse somewhere in the rainstorm when he returned to the "present".

And since everything originated from a premature encounter.

So……

If he had never appeared in Wang Lengqiu's life, and this encounter had ended the moment it began, would everything in the future have changed?
No more meaningless waiting.

No one will die.

He doesn't need to let down another girl's feelings.

Even if their futures are unlikely to intersect, or even become two completely parallel lines, it is still better than the current ending that makes no one satisfied, isn't it?
To be honest, Han Zhou didn't dare to guarantee this. He was not even sure whether what he was going to do next was right.

But he decided to try.

At the "present" point in time, Wang Lengqiu's life or death is uncertain. If he wants to save him, he can only start from now on and change his fate of committing suicide because of him.

Even if this might be some kind of exaggerated speculation and things might not be really that bad, he didn't dare to gamble and couldn't afford to gamble.

"There will be an echo" is a custom-generated powerful state. Otherwise, with the current level of the status bar, it is likely that the ability to travel through time will not be accessible at all.

This state is time-limited, and the probability of triggering time travel is probably quite low. Once he misses this opportunity, he may never have another chance to change the past.

So he could only seize this opportunity and avoid Wang Lengqiu from now on to avoid any more interactions with the other party until he returned to the "present".

Everything is done to save Wang Lengqiu. (End of this chapter)