Forced into a romantic relationship.

A girl walked out of the narrow alley.

The girl was dressed simply, about 1.6 meters tall, and her hair was tied into a long ponytail with a pink hair tie. A row of neat bangs hung down in front of her forehead, just touching her eyebrows.

Her oval face was exceptionally fair and she looked very pretty. What was most attractive about her were her large, clear, and flawless eyes, but at this moment she was staring at the ground, seemingly somewhat absent-minded.

"Holy crap, she really is a beauty!" Lin Anyu exclaimed, his eyes wide.

【Name: Zhong Ling (Unlockable)】

Han Zhou was also a little excited. He didn't expect to get results on his first stakeout. He quickly patted Lin Anyu on the shoulder, signaling him to hurry up and go.

"Don't worry, leave it to me!"

Lin Anyu was quite confident this time. He thought to himself that this girl seemed like a shy and well-behaved girl, and it should be easy to strike up a conversation with her. Before making his move, he looked around for a while to make sure there were no boys around before striding up to the girl, taking off his sunglasses, and saying, "Hi, beautiful..."

"roll."

Noticing his approach, the girl seemed to frown slightly, gritted her teeth, and silently opened her mouth. Although only the shape of her mouth could be seen, it still instantly pierced Lin Anyu's fragile heart.

He silently lowered his hand, which was about to take off his sunglasses, and instead covered his left ear with the earphone. His right hand reached forward, and he brushed past the girl, walking unsteadily into the distance.

"Huh? You haven't...you haven't had lunch yet? Okay, okay, I'll come back and make it right away..."

Drawing on his previous experience, his portrayal of a blind man this time was even more heartbreaking, perhaps partly because he was genuinely heartbroken at the time.

The girl paused for a moment, then realized that he was blind. She quickly turned around and whispered, "I'm sorry."

But Lin Anyu didn't hear it, otherwise he might have shamelessly stayed to continue the mission. He quickened his pace after taking only a few steps and left as if he were escaping.

That's so damn shameful!

Han Zhou, standing some distance away, was dumbfounded. He thought to himself, "What kind of flirting expert is this? He's already failing?"

He had originally planned to study hard, thinking that if new unlockable characters appeared in the status bar in the future, he could learn some clever ways to flirt with them. Who knew this guy was so lame.

He took a deep breath and realized that he could only rely on himself now.

Well, greeting someone with "Hi, beautiful" is definitely not going to work. Although he was too far away to hear what the girl said, Lin Anyu looked like he was quite taken aback.

So how should we greet them...?

Han Zhou didn't hesitate for long. He approached the girl while thinking. The opportunity was rare, and there weren't many people watching this time. It was a great chance to establish a connection with her!

He quickly walked up to the girl, but before he could even speak, she looked up at him and asked curiously, "Hello, was that person your friend? I saw you two standing together."

Her voice was soft and low, so soft that it was impossible to hear what she was saying unless you listened carefully.

Han Zhou didn't hear clearly and asked in confusion, "What did you say?"

The girl tried to raise her voice, but it only got softer. She repeated, "Hello, I asked if that person was your friend. He seemed to be blind, but I not only misunderstood him but also insulted him. I'm so sorry..."

"what?"

Han Zhou frowned. The girl's voice was so soft it was like a mosquito's buzz. He only heard his friend's first sentence, and he couldn't hear a single word of what she said after that.

It seems like they're saying your friend is a jerk?

No way, what on earth did Lin Anyu do...?

The girl paused, a look of confusion flashing in her eyes. She thought to herself, "I spoke so loudly and this person still couldn't hear me. Is his hearing not very good?"

That must be it. He has hearing problems, and his friend is blind. They are both so pitiful.

One has hearing problems, and the other has poor eyesight... Could this be the lobster combination my sister was talking about?

Chapter 37 I have nothing more to teach you.

Under the scorching sun, the bluestone ground was burning hot, and even the occasional breeze felt exceptionally hot.

Lin Anyu had disappeared somewhere, leaving the girl and Han Zhou staring at each other at the alley entrance.

One thought the other had hearing problems, and the other suspected the other had a communication disorder. They hesitated to speak, their eyes sparkling with an unusual light as they looked at each other.

Standing there dumbfounded wasn't going to solve anything, so Han Zhou hesitated for a moment before politely saying, "Excuse me, I didn't hear you clearly just now. Could you please say it again?"

He pricked up his ears, held his breath, and thought to himself that he must hear clearly what the girl was saying this time.

Facing his gaze, the girl clenched her fists nervously, took a deep breath, and said loudly, "I...I said, I want to apologize to your friend. I shouldn't have insulted him!"

This is the loudest I can go, surely you should be able to hear me now?

Unfortunately, it was still just the girl's perception of being loud. Han Zhou couldn't even hear a single syllable this time. He only saw her lips moving and a strange expectation hidden in her eyes.

What do you mean? Are you messing with me?

Han Zhou was somewhat stunned, unable to figure out the girl's intentions for a moment. After a brief silence, he shook his head and said, "Sorry, I still didn't hear you clearly."

There's absolutely no way he could have a hearing problem, so the only one with a problem must be this person.

The girl frowned slightly, a trace of worry appearing in her clear eyes. She thought to herself that this person's hearing was not just bad, but extremely poor, and his friend had run away. What should she do?

Just then, her phone rang in the small cloth bag at her waist. She carefully took it out and looked at it. Suddenly, an idea struck her. She typed a line of text in the chat input box and then held the phone up to Han Zhou's eyes.

Han Zhou was stunned for a moment.

It wasn't because of the girl's behavior, but because the other person was using the same model of cracked phone as him, and it was even in a worse state than his phone, with a large crack in the lower left corner.

So, girl, this is what happens if you don't use a tempered glass screen protector...

He felt a sense of shared fate, like two people adrift in the same world.

The screen shows the Fetion chat interface. The sender is "Sister". She just sent a message asking the girl to buy a wrench on her way back, probably to fix something.

However, what the girl wanted to show Han Zhou was clearly not this, but the text she typed in the chat box below.

"I just insulted your friend and didn't apologize in time. Could you please apologize to him for me?"

The girl lowered her head slightly, seemingly feeling a little embarrassed.

Han Zhou suddenly realized that the other person really wanted to say something, but perhaps because of his personality, he couldn't make a sound for a long time.

However, it's amazing that she could come up with such a solution, especially since the two of them were face-to-face and had to type on their phones.

Is this guy extremely socially awkward? But he doesn't seem like it...

Han Zhou wasn't too surprised. After thinking about it carefully, he realized that among the first two unlockable targets, Gu Zheng had a very strong competitive spirit, while Mo Yixia was slightly misanthropic. Although they didn't show it all the time, they both had some issues.

Following this logic, it's not surprising that the third unlockable character has some issues.

But something's not right. Could it be that the target selected in the status bar is a problem girl?

He quickly put aside his unease and asked the question that had been bothering him: "So that's how it is. But why did you scold him?"

Did Lin Anyu say something offensive? Surely not.

The girl quickly typed on the screen and then showed him her phone: "I thought he was trying to pick me up. My sister told me to tell people like that to get lost, so I told him to get lost..."

Really? Then you just hope you don't find out I'm that kind of person too...

Han Zhou chuckled awkwardly, feeling guilty, and said, "It's okay, my friend is used to being scolded, he doesn't mind."

The girl paused, unsure if the comment was sarcastic. She stared at the screen, unsure what to type in reply.

Just then, Han Zhou's phone rang. Without even looking, he knew it was Lin Anyu calling. Sure enough, the guy was hiding somewhere peeking, and as soon as he answered the phone, he started swearing.

"Holy crap, how did you do that? I hadn't even finished speaking before the girl told me to get lost, and you got her Fetion in just a few words?"

When he saw the girl take out her phone, he mistakenly thought it was to add Han Zhou on Fetion, and for a moment he felt a deep sense of self-doubt.

Is this what they mean by "teaching the apprentice to starve the master"?

Han Zhou ignored him and started a monologue into his phone: "What, you're home? Really? That's good. By the way, a girl just said she accidentally cursed at you because of a misunderstanding and felt really guilty. She said she had to apologize to you... Oh, I knew you wouldn't mind. Okay, I'll pass it on to her."

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

Lin Anyu's expression was strange. "Forget it, let me tell you, striking up a conversation isn't that simple. Just getting their contact information isn't enough. You have to be shameless and chat for a while. The real skill is being able to quickly become familiar with them..."

Ignoring his friend's incessant chatter on the other end of the phone, Han Zhou decisively hung up and said to the girl, "It's okay. My friend said there's no need to apologize for such a small thing. He doesn't mind, so you don't need to take it to heart."

He was too embarrassed to tell the other person that Lin Anyu had indeed come to chat him up, and even more embarrassed to say that the guy had scouted the way for him, otherwise he might have had to leave this place too.

For the sake of points, lying temporarily is sometimes unavoidable.

Zhong Ling had just been guessing whether he was on the phone with his blind friend, and she breathed a sigh of relief when she heard this. However, she quickly realized a problem—wait a minute, isn't this person hard of hearing? How could he hear what his friend was saying?

But she didn't think too much about it and temporarily suppressed her suspicions. Her attention quickly focused on Han Zhou's cracked phone, thinking that this person was really pitiful, still using his phone even though it was so broken.

However, perhaps because they both used phones with cracked screens, she felt a sense of kinship with the person in front of her.

Han Zhou had no idea that using a broken-screen phone would have such an advantage; otherwise, he might have smashed the phone when he got back. He was still thinking about how to get the girl to say "I want to be in a relationship."

Since I'm already here, I should at least get the ten points to make today's hard work worthwhile. So I pretended to be hesitant and tentatively asked, "Are you going to the supermarket to buy a wrench? Can you take me with you? I don't know where the supermarket is."

The girl hesitated for a moment, then nodded slightly in agreement. She planned to buy the wrench at a hardware store, but she also needed to go to the supermarket; it was just a matter of showing the way. Besides, it was broad daylight and there wouldn't be any danger. Her sister probably wouldn't be angry if she found out…

Right?

And so, the two of them, standing more than two meters apart, went one after the other to a nearby supermarket.

The two did not exchange words along the way. Zhong Ling seemed to dislike talking to people, or perhaps she simply didn't want to type on the road.

Han Zhou didn't speak rashly, his mind filled with all sorts of random thoughts.

I need to find a way to get this girl named Zhong Ling to say "I want to be in a relationship" in person, and it can't be a text message, otherwise it won't work...

However, her voice was so soft that I don't know if not hearing it would affect the unlocking conditions.

Hopefully it won't cause any problems. I really don't want Jiang Baiqian to teach me how to read lips...

Zhong Ling was equally distracted, and so, each lost in their own thoughts, they gradually disappeared at the intersection.

Seeing this, Lin Anyu, who was watching from somewhere, suddenly took off his sunglasses, put his hands behind his back, and sighed forlornly.

"Han Zhou, I have nothing more to teach you."

He shamelessly took all the credit for himself, thinking to himself that Han Zhou was learning really fast and was already a qualified flirting expert. He thought that he might see his teacher's back soon.

This attempt to strike up a conversation was a great success!

Chapter 38 Zhong Yin

After following the girl named Zhong Ling for a while, Han Zhou realized just how remote her place was.

Hutongs and alleys are everywhere, surrounded by low-rise houses that have been in disrepair for many years. There are hardly any landmark buildings to be seen along the way. Perhaps it is because of the hot weather, but you can hardly even find a few people.