Forced into a romantic relationship

Two hours have passed since Han Zhou and Xiao Wang Leng Qiu were trapped in the brick kiln.

During those two hours, Han Zhou kept thinking about how to get out of the predicament. He kept looking at the status bar, but he couldn't find any status or skill that would help him with the current situation. The items in the monthly store were also useless.

To leave the brick kiln, simply opening a gap at the blocked exit is not enough—once floodwaters rush in, the enormous impact could breach the opening again, or even cause the entire brick kiln to collapse.

With Han Zhou's physical abilities, he might be able to withstand the enormous impact and leave this place, but Xiao Wang Leng Qiu definitely couldn't. Therefore, unless there is no other choice, they must not take the risk.

In fact, the risks of rushing out are far greater than waiting for rescue inside the cave. Instead of thinking about how to leave, it would be better to think about how to survive in the brick kiln for as long as possible and wait for rescue.

Han Zhou was aware of this, but just as he had initially worried, the brick kiln was too well hidden, and the search and rescue team might not be able to find it in time. Even if they did find it, they would still face the problem of how to rescue the person.

The water was seeping into the cave at an accelerating rate, and he had to find a contingency plan before the cave was flooded, a contingency plan that did not rely on the search and rescue team.

But we're back to the initial question—

How can he find a way out without deliberately disrupting the exit?
There is no way to do it.

To leave this enclosed space completely surrounded by floodwaters, the only option would probably be spatial teleportation.

and many more……

Teleport?
Han Zhou's breath hitched, and he suddenly thought of a possibility. He looked up at Xiao Wang Leng Qiu, only to find that the latter was also staring at him.

"what happened to you?"

"I'm fine," Han Zhou retorted. "But you, why do you look so pale?"

He had been deep in thought, and the cave was dimly lit, so he only noticed now that the girl's face was as pale as paper. Even so, her tone of voice was still the same as usual.

"I'm fine too," Xiao Wang Leng Qiu said.

"Is it too cold?"

Han Zhou suddenly realized that it was late autumn and Xiao Wang's clothes were already soaked. Even if the air inside the cave was relatively dry, how could he not be cold sitting on the ground for two hours wearing soaked clothes?

The girl had been so calm that he almost forgot her age, forgot she was only twelve, and even subconsciously thought that she wouldn't feel cold until nightfall.

Thinking of this, Han Zhou felt a pang of guilt and bitterness. He had come to save Xiao Wang Leng Qiu, but in the end, all he did was eat an orange from her and did nothing else.

That's such a failure.

Seeing that Xiao Wang Leng Qiu did not answer, he stood up, walked to sit down next to the girl, and said with a wry smile, "Didn't I tell you not to force yourself? Leng didn't even say it."

He wanted to take off his coat and put it on the other person, but he couldn't find the zipper for a long time. Then he remembered that he had taken off and thrown away the coat before jumping into the flood, as well as the sweater.

However, even if he hadn't taken off his coat at the time, it would probably be swollen and cold by now, making it unsuitable to drape over Xiao Wang Leng Qiu for warmth.

"But you're forcing yourself too."

After a brief silence, Xiao Wang Lengqiu spoke softly. As she spoke, she picked up two candles from the ground and placed them closer to the two of them, seemingly intending to use the faint candlelight to keep warm.

Before this, the candle had always been further away from her.

Looking at the girl who was looking up at him, Han Zhou was lost in thought for a moment, then pretended to be calm and said, "You're overthinking it. I didn't force myself. But since you said 'also,' it seems you admit that you were forcing yourself."

"You look tired, but you don't have to work so hard."

The girl didn't answer, picked up the orange she had peeled and only eaten one segment of a while ago, and asked, "Want some?"

The candlelight flickered, casting a soft light in the girl's eyes.

Han Zhou was both amused and exasperated: "Why do you always want me to eat oranges?"

"Don't oranges taste good?"

"It's not a matter of whether it tastes good or not... How about this, you eat it and I'll eat it, we'll each have half of this orange."

"I can't eat that much."

"Are you kidding me? You can't even finish half an orange?"

"I'm not joking."

"Eat as much as you can, I'll watch you eat." Han Zhou adopted a roguish attitude. "I'll eat after you finish."

Xiao Wang remained silent and began stuffing segments of the orange into his mouth, his cheeks bulging. Before long, he had finished half an orange.

This was probably the first time Han Zhou had seen the girl eat herself into a hamster-like state, and he couldn't help but chuckle, teasing, "Didn't you say you couldn't finish it?"

Xiao Wang Leng Qiu was still chewing on an orange and couldn't speak. She just puffed out her cheeks and looked up at him, as if to say, "It's your turn to eat."

Han Zhou picked up the remaining half of the orange, but instead of eating it, he said, "Your enthusiasm has ignited my passion. Believe me, with every segment of orange I eat, my body temperature will rise a little more?"

Xiao Wang tilted his head, not understanding what nonsense he was spouting, but in the end he nodded in agreement, indicating that he believed him.

However, Han Zhou seemed to have suddenly gone blind, continuing his lines as if nothing had happened: "Don't believe me? You can come into my arms and feel it for yourself."

He braced himself and opened his arms wide, looking like he was saying, "Come on over if you dare."

Poor dialogue, poor acting.

It was so clumsy that anyone could see he just wanted Xiao Wang Leng Qiu to come into his arms for warmth.

Xiao Wang Lengqiu noticed it too. Although she didn't quite understand why this alien, who always told her to speak her mind, couldn't even do it herself, she still stood up, hugged the wet blanket, and snuggled into Han Zhou's arms. She then covered their legs with the blanket and brought the candle closer.

Her movements were so natural, so natural, as if they were always meant to be.

Han Zhou was stunned.

He was worried that Xiao Wang and Leng Qiu wouldn't cooperate, so he came up with this clumsy attempt to provoke them, but he didn't expect that the other party would fall for it so easily.

He simply couldn't understand what the girl was thinking.

Fortunately, at least the goal was achieved; what he just said wasn't nonsense. He truly has the ability to control his rising body temperature now.

[Passionate Youth (Modified) → Passionate Sunny Years: Your heart is burning, your blood is boiling. If you so desire, warmth will surround you. Once activated, you can adjust your body temperature to rise within a certain range and radiate it outwards over a wider area, placing all living beings around you in a warm, sunny environment. This state can be activated and deactivated at any time, consuming 5 points each time it is activated.]

While they couldn't find a way to safely leave the area, finding a way to keep warm wasn't a problem. Furthermore, he had found a way to allow them to avoid eating raw meat—

[University Student (modified) → Celestial Student: By the grace of Heaven, you will receive a slight boost in luck and can break through physical limitations to choose any non-fixed state for enhancement (Note that this enhancement will slightly exceed the status bar level limit, the points consumed depend on the state being enhanced, and the cooldown time is ten natural days)]

Han Zhou originally intended to give this status a similar effect to "Chosen One" to enhance his luck and make it easier to get Xiao Wang Leng Qiu out of danger. However, the current status bar could not satisfy this interpretation, so it became the current effect.

Unfortunately, although this status looks very powerful, it is not of much help in the current situation. However, it can be used to enhance the effect of "Advanced Chef", so that a delicious cooking can be carried out even without fire.

The moment Han Zhou touched the girl's cheek in his arms, his expression changed slightly. Xiao Wang Leng Qiu's body was colder than he had imagined, and her hands, tucked into her sleeves, were even trembling slightly.

He forgot all about pretending to eat oranges and quickly hugged the girl tighter, while simultaneously trying to control his body temperature from rising—it was a strange feeling. Although his body temperature had exceeded 40 degrees Celsius, he not only didn't have any symptoms similar to a fever, but he also felt more and more energetic, with a warm feeling all over his body.

Not only that, but his body gradually warmed up, as if he were on a sunny day.

This is the effect of "A Passionate and Sunny Year".

"Is it warmer?"

Han Zhou felt like he was about to burst into flames, but he couldn't be sure if Xiao Wang Leng Qiu could feel the same heat.

Xiao Wang Leng Qiu gave a soft "hmm," glanced at the half-eaten orange in his hand, and then looked up at him: "Didn't you say that eating a bite of orange would raise your body temperature? Why haven't you eaten a single bite?"

"No, isn't your focus a bit too strange..." Han Zhou thought to himself, finding the child's demeanor far too calm. He couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you surprised at all?"

"Ok?"

"What I mean is, my body temperature can get so high, don't you feel anything at all?"

Xiao Wang Leng Qiu thought for a moment, then took out the cold medicine he had gotten from the hospital yesterday from his schoolbag, and also took out a large plastic bottle filled with water, and handed it to him together.

"Why are you giving me cold medicine?" Han Zhou was taken aback.

"Didn't you catch a cold?"

"Who said I have a cold?"

Han Zhou was both amused and exasperated, suddenly finding the girl rather adorable. He explained, "What I mean is, my body temperature is clearly different from normal people's. Aren't you even a little curious or surprised?"

Xiao Wang Leng Qiu tilted his head: "But aren't you a stick figure? You said you could catch fire when we met for the second time."

Han Zhou was speechless for a moment, then gave a wry smile and said, "Even so, your ability to accept this is a bit too strong..."

He had initially thought the child had already figured out that the "stick figures" were all a hoax, but now he wasn't so sure anymore.

"Tick."

"Tick."

The air gradually quieted down, leaving only the sound of water droplets falling, which was noticeably faster than before. Han Zhou subconsciously looked towards the cave entrance, and before he could think further, he heard the girl in his arms suddenly say, "Don't worry, we will definitely be able to leave here safely."

The sound was very soft, but it sounded exceptionally clear in this space.

She paused, then continued, "If you're bored, tell me a story, like yesterday."

Han Zhou chuckled and said with a laugh, "Shouldn't you be the one telling me stories when I'm bored?"

“I can’t tell stories.”

Xiao Wang Leng Qiu shook his head, thought for a moment, and picked up the book "Witnessing Aliens" from the ground. "But I can read you the story from this book. Do you want to hear it?"

"Forget about reading aloud; reading in the dark isn't good for your eyes." Han Zhou smiled. "Why don't you tell me the story's outline instead?"

"But I haven't finished reading it yet."

"Then I'll just talk about the parts I've read... First, tell me who the main character of this book is."

"An alien named James and a little girl named Ross."

An alien and a little girl... What a coincidence?

Han Zhou was somewhat surprised: "So witnessing aliens means Ross saw James?"

"No, it's that they saw each other. In their eyes, the other was an alien, and a very bad one at that," Xiao Wang Lengqiu corrected.

"That makes sense... So what happened next?"

"James was an outpost sent from another planet. His original mission was to gather intelligence and pass it on to the general on the spaceship. However, he became friends with Ross and did not want to harm Ross, so he passed on false intelligence, saying that Earth was a very powerful planet, in an attempt to trick the general into withdrawing his troops."

Fighting the whole world for a newly made friend, what a cliché story... Han Zhou thought to himself.

However, the books he chose were intended for teenagers, so it's not surprising that the plot was clichéd.

"But James was wrong. The general was determined to take Earth. After receiving the news, he not only did not withdraw his troops, but also assembled a coalition army, promising to share Earth's resources with other planets."

"In order to protect Ross, James initially described Ross's homeland in the intelligence as the most fortified and dangerous bulwark on Earth, and the general, in order to show his determination to fight to the death, ordered the ship to fire the first shot toward this coordinate."

"James was furious, believing that his own cleverness had led to the complete destruction of Ross's homeland. Fortunately, Ross was lucky and was not hit by the cannon, but she was trapped in a crack in the ground. James tried his best to save her, but failed. The two of them were trapped in the underground cave, waiting for the destruction of the earth."

Han Zhou's expression grew increasingly strange. The more this story unfolded, the more it resembled his and Xiao Wang Leng Qiu's experiences. Could it be that some bastard had been following and observing him all this time, and that's why he wrote this story?
"And then? Did they escape the cave? Was the Earth ultimately destroyed?" He was curious about how the story ended.

"And then I stopped watching."

Xiao Wang Leng Qiu shook her head, tilted her head back, and glanced at Han Zhou with a complicated expression.

Han Zhou could roughly guess what she was thinking, and smiled, saying, "Don't you also think this story is a bit like ours?"

"Ah."

"It's just a coincidence. You have to believe me, I'm definitely not an outpost sent by aliens."

"The ending of this story will definitely not be the ending between you and me."

(End of this chapter)