Forced into a romantic relationship

On Saturday, the temperature in Lincheng dropped slightly. Early in the morning, windows were covered in fog. After wiping away the fog, it was discovered that the streets were also shrouded in fog, and everything was shrouded in mist.

"It's getting foggy..."

When Han Zhou woke up, it was eight o'clock in the morning. Xiao Yixia was still in the bedroom without making a sound. He didn't know if she was still asleep or didn't want to go out.

He quickly washed up and then went into the kitchen to make breakfast, pondering where he should take Xiao Yixia to play today.

We definitely have to go out. Today I need to figure out how to get two concert tickets. If I can't get them online, I'll have to get them in person. If that doesn't work, I'll have to go and scout out the concert venue first, and then try to sneak Xiao Yixia in tomorrow night.

Being in the past, Han Zhou felt that he didn't need to have too many concerns. Although the status bar suggested that he should keep a low profile, if the future was already predetermined, then there was no point in keeping a low profile.

Even if there's a chance for things to turn around in the future, his sneaking into the concert won't change anyone's life.

Unless he accidentally sneaks onto the stage.

Before long, a delicious aroma wafted from the kitchen. As if sensing something, Xiao Yixia, dressed in her pajamas, came out of the bedroom and sat down at the dining table to prepare for dinner.

This girl seems to have never had the habit of tying her hair up since she was a child. Her long, black hair falls to her waist, like a cascading waterfall of ink. I don't know if it's difficult to manage, but it's definitely beautiful.

Han Zhou was about to knock on the door to wake her up, but when he saw her, he laughed and teased, "You eat on time, don't you? You're not always in your room timing your meals, are you?"

Xiao Yixia ignored him and was looking down at her phone, as if she was typing.

Han Zhou was a little curious, so he put the omelet rice for breakfast on the table and peeked out to see what Xiao Yixia was doing. He saw that the girl had just put away her phone and looked up at him.

Where are the chopsticks?

No, even if I'm not a kidnapper, you can't treat me like a servant, can you?
Han Zhou's lips twitched. He went into the kitchen, grabbed two pairs of chopsticks, and asked as he sat down, "What were you doing just now?"

Xiao Yixia took the chopsticks, picked up a little egg skin, put it in her mouth and tasted it: "Chatting with others."

“Lying.” Han Zhou said seriously.

"Ok?"

"If you don't have any friends, who can you talk to?"

“She’s a new friend,” Xiao Yixia said casually.

"New friends..."

Han Zhou pondered for a moment, then his expression suddenly changed. "Could it be Sister Yin?"

After thinking it over, the only new friend this guy made yesterday was Zhong Yin.

Could it be that she sent a message to Sister Yin to complain?

Xiao Yixia remained calm, and instead of answering, asked, "Since you're so afraid of Sister Zhong Yin, why did you hide your relationship with me from her?"

Han Zhou didn't explain, but just sighed: "I can only say that one wrong step leads to another, and there's no turning back now."

"It sounds like the consequences are pretty serious." Xiao Yixia ate her food in small bites, her tone perfunctory.

"Yes, it is indeed very serious."

Han Zhou's expression became more serious. "So you absolutely must not tell anyone about me being with you last night and today!"

What would happen if someone told others?

"will die."

"Ok?"

"I will die."

"Then please give me a reason why I don't want you to die."

No, are you really only nine years old? How can you say such heartless things?
Han Zhou hesitated for a moment, then said sincerely, "I love you deeply, isn't that reason enough?"

"..."

"enough."

Xiao Yixia put down her chopsticks. "I'll call Sister Zhong Yin right now."

"This pervert absolutely cannot be allowed to continue living"—this was the expression written all over the girl's face.

"Don't!"

Han Zhou quickly stopped her, "I have other reasons!"

"What reason?"

"How about... I help you with your homework?" Han Zhou tentatively suggested.

He knew very well that Mo Yixia hated doing homework, and she would be more than happy to have someone help her with it.

Xiao Yixia glanced at him in surprise, seemingly not expecting that this guy would compromise to such an extent in order to "survive".

No... it's not about compromising, it's more like yielding. This guy has been giving in to me the whole time, as if he'll never get angry no matter what I do...

She pondered for a moment, seemingly moved by the suggestion, and slowly put down her phone, but a hint of doubt seemed to linger in her eyes.

"can you?"

"?"

Han Zhou almost spat out blood upon hearing this, feeling utterly insulted. As a college student, solving a few elementary school problems was a piece of cake for him.
He sneered and declared with great bravado, "After breakfast, hand me all your homework. If you get stuck on even one question, I'll eat all of it!"

"..."

After breakfast, Han Zhou stared blankly at the workbook Xiao Yixia had given him, sat on the sofa in silence for a long time, and began to question the meaning of life.

Damn it, which bastard came up with this question?
Looking for patterns? Are you sure these patterns weren't just randomly drawn by the person who created the questions with their eyes closed? What patterns are there to be found?

Why didn't I see this kind of question when I was in elementary school?

Under Xiao Yixia's disdainful gaze, he struggled to pick up the exercise book, his expression conflicted, as if he was hesitating about how to make it easier to digest.

Just then, Xiao Yixia sighed softly and said in a tone of "I knew it," "We don't need to eat anymore, otherwise I won't be able to hand in my homework next week."

Han Zhou blushed.

However, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. In fact, this was precisely his cunning. He had left himself a way out from the very beginning. Xiao Yixia was definitely going to hand in her homework next week, so how could he really be allowed to eat it? Using eating homework as a wager, he was in an invincible position from the start.

Little Yixia, you're still too young...

He was feeling smug when he saw the girl pull a thick English dictionary out of her bag: "You should eat this."

Han Zhou: "..."

He had never seen such a thick dictionary before.

If he were to actually eat it, he probably wouldn't need to eat for a week.

"That's going a bit too far."

He suddenly realized and asked in surprise, "A dictionary isn't homework, why would I eat this?"

"A dictionary is definitely homework."

Xiao Yixia said calmly, "The teacher requires us to learn three more pages of words from the dictionary every week. You can open it and take a look; there are notes I made on it."

Han Zhou was taken aback. He suspiciously flipped through the dictionary and found that what this guy said was actually true; there really were the other person's notes in the dictionary. He sighed softly, closed the dictionary, and pushed it back in front of Xiao Yixia, subtly changing the subject: "I didn't expect you to be studying so hard at such a young age."

This was indeed the truth. He had carefully reviewed it, and the notes in the dictionary were incredibly tedious, clearly following some kind of rigid format requirements—purely meaningless formalism. Yet even Xiao Yixia, who was always good at slacking off, couldn't escape these rules.

They're already learning vocabulary in fourth grade; it seems even schools for wealthy families aren't so easy...

Or rather, the school that belongs to Xiao Yixia is not easy.

Then, thinking about how small Xiao Yixia's body is, yet she still has to carry such a big schoolbag around every day, and even when she has time to pass, she can only look at art books. She has almost no free time. Even just imagining it makes Han Zhou feel suffocated.

His childhood wasn't happy, but at least he was free.

Mo Yixia's life from childhood to adulthood is clearly quite far removed from the word "freedom".

Especially during the period after she entered high school, there were more security cameras in her house than in a prison. She had to be careful about her behavior even in her bedroom. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that she was a caged bird.

Not to mention that every time the other person goes home, they have to face a broken family.

Thinking about it this way, it's no wonder that when Xiao Yixia first answered his call, she was willing to patiently chat with him for so long. Perhaps for this child, this was one of the few ways to pass the time.

She probably never expected that someone would actually take her words seriously.

The more Han Zhou thought about it, the more uneasy he felt. But just like the helplessness he felt when facing Xiao Lengqiu's situation, he had less and less time left to dwell on the past, and the things he could do were quite limited.

Changing Xiao Yixia's childhood is clearly not something that can be easily achieved by simply grabbing the other party's parents and beating them up.

"Our teacher told us that if we thoroughly understand the books, the knowledge will naturally enter our minds."

Xiao Yixia had no idea what Han Zhou was thinking, but she could tell that he wanted to change the subject, so she reached out and pushed the dictionary back to him, saying, "So you should try it too, you are what you eat."

Han Zhou knew it wouldn't be so easy to fool him, so he pretended to hesitate for two seconds and said in a troubled tone, "But isn't the dictionary your homework? Won't eating it affect your homework submission next week?"

He put on a noble air, as if to say, "I'm doing this for your own good."

"No, I'll just buy a new one."

Xiao Yixia was doing her homework when she heard this. Without even looking up, she said, "I need to go to the bookstore anyway."

"Oh? What are you going to the bookstore for?"

"Of course, we should buy a new dictionary."

"Why would you buy a new dictionary?" Han Zhou asked, feigning ignorance.

Xiao Yixia was silent for a moment: "Turn to page 113 of the dictionary and look at the last word."

Han Zhou opened the dictionary, his eyes quickly locking onto a word, and his eyes lit up. He exclaimed happily, "Brave? You mean I'm a brave person?"

As he spoke, he quietly pushed the dictionary back.

Xiao Yixia paused in her actions, looked up at him, then looked down at the dictionary in front of her, and suddenly sighed: "The fact that you can answer like that means you don't need to eat the dictionary."

"Why?" Han Zhou asked in surprise.

Could it be that Xiao Yixia was moved by his courage?
Xiao Yixia lowered her head and continued doing her homework: "The dictionary cover is so thick, I'm afraid your skin will become even thicker if you eat it."

"Also, the word I showed you is 'brazen,' which means shameless."

Han Zhou pretended not to hear: "Are we still going to the bookstore?"

"go."

Xiao Yixia said expressionlessly, "I'll buy you a book without a cover to eat."

……

The time soon came to noon.

It was cloudy all morning. Although it didn't rain, the streets were shrouded in fog. It didn't affect the visibility up close, but it was hard to see beyond ten meters.

Lunch was eaten at home. Although she didn't say it, Xiao Yixia clearly appreciated Han Zhou's cooking skills and ordered him to think of a way to make the newly bought book taste good that evening.

If you were to ask Han Zhou what the advantage of not having a cell phone is, it would probably be that when he's with a girl, he doesn't have to worry about another girl contacting him.

Of course, there are downsides too, namely that you also cannot be sure of the other girl's whereabouts, and you are not sure if you will accidentally bump into her on the street.

Fortunately, this wasn't something Han Zhou needed to worry about. It was a rare weekend, and Zhong Yin was spending time with her family today. She heard they were going to have some family activities planned. Unless they were extremely unlucky, it was impossible for them to bump into each other on the streets of Lincheng.

Not to mention, it's foggy everywhere today.

A grayish-white mist floated on the asphalt road, blurring the view of the sycamore trees on both sides. The withered yellow leaves hung from the branches, trembling slightly in the damp air.

On their way to the bookstore, Han Zhou noticed Xiao Yixia frequently looking down at the sketchbook in her hands and couldn't help but ask, "Are you really that interested in this sketchbook?"

He'd seen plenty of people glued to their phones, but this was the first time he'd ever seen someone looking down at a picture book and flipping through it.

“This is about cultivating a habit of reading anytime,” Xiao Yixia replied calmly.

"Is it to cultivate the habit of reading in front of others at any time?"

Han Zhou looked up at the low-hanging clouds and chuckled, "I think the reason you chose a picture book is because you felt that 'a picture book is better than a vocabulary book or something,' right?"

Xiao Yixia paused in her turning of the pages, and did not answer.

In the distance, buildings were reduced to varying shades of gray, their windowpanes reflecting the dim light of the sky. Nearby, utility poles were half-hidden in the mist, their black wires appearing and disappearing into the hazy horizon.

Han Zhou didn't look down at the girl's expression, but he knew he was probably right.

It wasn't because he suddenly unlocked his mind-reading abilities, but because he understood Yixia. Although there were significant differences between Yixia as a child and Yixia in the future, some essential things were unchangeable.

Mo Yixia hates other people's expectations, but she still tries her best to bear those expectations and play the role of someone who can satisfy the world.

Parents need a child who loves learning, so she becomes that child; teachers need an obedient student, so she becomes that student; the world needs a Mo Yixia like this, so she becomes that Mo Yixia.

Even if she didn't like it, she never made a big fuss. Her only protest was to pretend that she had no talent for studying.

She went to tutoring classes when she was supposed to, and studied at home when she was supposed to. Perhaps she had lost interest in everything. These things seemed like punishment, but in her eyes, they were no different from her usual role-playing.

If this point has faded somewhat in the future Yixia, it is very evident in the current little Yixia.

Perhaps it is precisely because she has been playing the role of what others expect of her for so long that this girl gradually came to find that bearing the expectations of others is a very unpleasant thing.

Han Zhou had never discussed these things with Mo Yixia, but if everything had to be discussed before a conclusion could be reached, then he had no right to talk about liking someone.

Even now, he still wouldn't dare say he fully understands Yixia, but he's certain he's the person who understands Yixia best in the world.

That girl who hated everything, kept spouting dirty jokes, and always tried to pry into other people's hearts, was actually always a good girl.

Seeing that Xiao Yixia didn't speak, Han Zhou thought for a moment, then suddenly reached out and grabbed a withered yellow leaf, saying, "Before we decide how to cook the homework tonight, I have something to tell you."

"What is it?" the girl asked calmly.

“You’re a good kid, but in front of someone like me, you don’t need to act like what others expect you to be.”

Xiao Yixia was silent for a while, with many questions she wanted to ask, such as why someone who wanted to make him eat his homework would be a good child, but in the end she only asked, "What kind of person are you?"

Han Zhou smiled, clenched his fist and crushed the leaf in his hand, then released his palm, letting the autumn wind blow the fine leaves into the mist.

"Brazen, you shameless bastard." (End of Chapter)