Forced into a romantic relationship.

Zhong Yin sat in silence for a long time before finally looking at Mo Yixia and Gu Zheng with a complicated expression: "I thought you would stop him."

“If Han Zhou could be stopped in this kind of thing, he wouldn’t be Han Zhou,” Mo Yixia and Gu Zheng said in unison.

The two exchanged a glance; the former showed no reaction, while the latter snorted coldly and turned his head away.

Mo Yixia dropped her nonchalant demeanor, took off her baseball cap and placed it beside her: "Now that the voting results are in, we should discuss our strategy."

"What countermeasures?" Zhong Yin asked, puzzled. "Besides Han Zhou, we can't go back to the past, and we don't even know what happened there. How can we formulate countermeasures?"

Her tone was somewhat frustrated. She was clearly one of the parties involved in the incident, but she had lost the most important part of her memory and was unable to provide Han Zhou with any help.

"We can't go back to the past, so let's do what we can do now."

Mo Yixia said in a calm tone, "Besides, we might not be unable to interfere with the past."

"What do you mean?"

Except for a few people, everyone else showed a surprised expression, including Han Zhou.

Wang Lengqiu said softly, "Brother Han Zhou, do you remember when I was little, you gave me a strange paper cup? You said it was a telephone, so I could contact you no matter how far away I was."

Han Zhou was taken aback. A strange paper cup?

He quickly realized: "You mean 'connected by a single thread'?"

Seeing Wang Lengqiu nod, he quickly took out a black paper cup from his inventory and began to check the item description:

【Connecting Lines: A disposable item, usable twice. After pressing the dial button, individuals at both ends of the line can communicate briefly for one minute via the microphone. Please refer to the detailed instructions after purchase for specific effects.】

The instruction manual was too complicated, so Han Zhou summarized it himself. Specifically, the two microphones provided by "One Line Connect" are actually different. If they are named "A" and "B" respectively, then the first call can only be made by microphone A, and microphone B can only choose whether to answer. The second call is the opposite, only microphone B can be made, and microphone A can be answered.

This thing was so useless that Han Zhou had almost forgotten that such an item existed in his inventory. But now Yi Xia was saying that it could interfere with the past.

Seemingly noticing Han Zhou's confusion, Mo Yixia calmly said, "You seem to have a lot of amazing little gadgets."

Upon hearing the words "magical little gadgets," almost everyone present blushed, especially Ouyang Lianyu, who wished she could disappear into the ground.

Fortunately, this wasn't Mo Yixia's main point. She continued, "I heard Senior Leng Qiu describe the function of this thing. Could you describe it again?"

Han Zhou immediately shared his summary of the instruction manual with everyone.

Mo Yixia nodded: "So my understanding is correct. This thing has two functions: one is to make calls regardless of distance, and the other is that as long as you 'dial' a call, it will definitely connect."

Han Zhou was taken aback. That's right, the One Line Connect also has this function. As long as one microphone initiates a call, the other microphone can only choose whether to answer or not. Doesn't that mean it will definitely connect?

Could it be that……

Indeed, seeing that almost everyone had a thoughtful expression, Mo Yixia said in a confident tone, "I suspect that the real function of this thing is to make calls across time and space. The so-called ignoring distance actually refers to ignoring time and space."

Upon hearing this, the others were more surprised and doubtful, but Han Zhou believed it to be true. After all, only he knew best that the items refreshed in the status bar were almost all the things he needed most at the moment. In fact, when he first returned to the past, he didn't really need such an outdated "telephone".

So... the time when this thing really needs to be used is now?

At this moment, Zhong Yin raised a question: "Even if this thing can really make calls across time and space, how can we use it? Aren't both 'phones' in the present?"

She saw Wang Lengqiu take out a paper cup just like Han Zhou's. If both paper cups were in the present, how could they be used to call someone from the past?

Mo Yixia smiled faintly: "It's simple, just make one of the current 'telephones' disappear."

"Let's assume that once the 'phone call' is made, it will definitely be connected. Now, let's think about this: if there were no microphone available to connect to phone A and B... then where would this 'phone call' go?"

Chapter 716 Spring

In Mo Yixia's view, the one-way communication characteristic of the One Line Connection is not all bad; it is precisely the key to its potential for communication across time and space.

If two-way communication is possible anytime, anywhere, then there are too many variables, and many things become uncontrollable.

After a long silence, Zhong Ling mustered her courage and asked, "Yi Xia... I know you're smart, and your guess might be right, but even if we can make one of the current 'phones' disappear and use another 'phone' to make a cross-time call, how can we guarantee that the time of the call will be correct?"

So far, there are four points in time when "A Thread Connects Us": the present, nine years ago, four years ago, and the future that she and her junior once experienced together. In order to influence the past and make her junior's second time travel journey smoother, they must make the call four years ago, and they must do so before that accident happened.

But how can this be done?

“Actually, I’ve already used the ‘One Line Connection’ once,” Wang Lengqiu said softly.

"What?" Han Zhou was stunned. "How come I didn't know?"

"Of course you don't know."

Gu Zheng rolled her eyes at him. "From the beginning, you wanted to solve the problem by yourself and thought we couldn't help you, so you didn't bother to find out the details from four years ago. But we've already found out that the 'One Line Connects' technique was used four years ago."

“Four years ago…” Han Zhou murmured, repeating.

"Brother Han Zhou, do you remember what I told you? I received a call from you four years ago."

Wang Lengqiu explained softly, "You were in a hurry and hung up the phone before I could even speak. I was worried about you, so I called you back, but you didn't answer, which is why I used the 'One Line Connection' method."

"And the result?" Zhong Yin asked instinctively.

"The call was only answered once before it was disconnected," Wang Lengqiu replied.

Han Zhou opened his mouth: "Why didn't you tell me about this before?"

"A long wait is a very agonizing thing, and it's not a pleasant memory. If you don't ask, it's normal that she doesn't want you to know."

The person who said this was Mo Yixia. She glanced at Wang Lengqiu and then looked away. "Compared to that, I'm more curious about why you hung up that phone call back then."

"Could it be that the situation was too urgent at the time, and Han Zhou was on his way to the scene and didn't have time to answer the phone?" Zhong Yin frowned.

"This is the ideal situation."

Ouyang Lianyu's expression was solemn. "What I'm most worried about right now is that our conversation is also part of the 'past.' If this conversation leads to Han Zhou hanging up the phone, then all of this will be meaningless."

"Teacher Ouyang, what do you mean by that?" Xiao Xiaoxiao asked, puzzled.

"This brings us back to the question Zhong Ling asked earlier—how exactly can we specify the exact time for a cross-time-space call?"

Ouyang Lianyu pushed up her glasses. "Do you remember the rules of the One Line Connection? The first time a call is made, it can only be A calling B. Only in this way can the second call be made, that is, B calling A."

“If the first call hadn’t taken place, and Han Zhou’s B ‘phone’ had disappeared, and Wang Lengqiu had made the call using A ‘phone’, theoretically, it would have been possible to make a call across time and space. But that would have created chaos. At the three known points in time, there are too many times when Han Zhou could have received the call, so even if the call had gone through, it would have been meaningless.”

"But if we reverse the process, use up the first call opportunity and make Wang Lengqiu's A 'phone' disappear, then we can directly eliminate the present and nine years ago. Don't forget, Wang Lengqiu did not use the One Line Connection nine years ago. At that time, she could only make one-way calls to B 'phone' and could not receive calls from B 'phone'."

"In addition, this will also eliminate future interference and control the timing of the call to be between four years ago when Han Zhou hung up the phone and now," Mo Yixia continued, picking up where Ouyang Lianyu left off.

Xiao Xiaoxiao was so confused by what she heard that she scratched her head and asked, "Then what? It's been a full four years since then. How can we pinpoint the exact time of the call?"

"That just depends on luck," Mo Yixia replied.

"Depend on luck?" Zhong Yin frowned.

"Well, because I'm not sure exactly when the call will be made, since there's a lack of data to support it."

Mo Yixia said calmly, "However, considering that the day of the accident four years ago was quite special, and that Senior Wang Lengqiu had just made a phone call, I am more inclined to believe that she will receive a call from the future after that."

“But the problem now is that Wang Lengqiu has never answered a call from the future,” Ouyang Lianyu said with a worried expression.

There are two possibilities.

Mo Yixia raised a finger. "First, this matter has not yet happened. Our current conversation is not part of the 'past,' which means that the past can be changed."

She paused, then raised her second finger. "Secondly, like Sister Yin, Senior Wang Lengqiu has also lost a portion of her key memories that could have changed the past. If that's the case, then we're in trouble."

The room fell silent again, and in this uncertainty, everything seemed to have returned to square one.

However, Han Zhou seemed quite optimistic, and said with a smile, "Having a plan is better than having no plan. Give me your lead first, and I'll make it disappear."

He reached out his hand to Wang Lengqiu.

Wang Lengqiu nodded and handed him the string that looked like a black paper cup.

Han Zhou had no shortage of points, so he quickly modified the status to make the A' phone disappear, leaving only a lonely B' phone.

With that, the next step is quite simple.

He took a deep breath and was about to dial the number when Guzheng stopped him, saying, "Wait! You only have one minute to talk. Have you thought about what you're going to say?"

Seeing Han Zhou's embarrassed expression, she rolled her eyes, snatched the string from his hand, and said irritably, "I think you've lost your mind. I'll keep this for you and give it back to you when you've thought it through."

Faced with those strong and sharp eyes, Han Zhou had no choice but to release his grip and looked at everyone, saying, "Gu Zheng is right. With only one minute, it's indeed necessary to think carefully about how to convey sufficiently effective information in such a short time. Let's discuss it further..."

Before he could finish speaking, his expression changed drastically. Taking advantage of his inattention, Guzheng had directly used the string connection, and just as Mo Yixia and the others had guessed, someone quickly answered the call on the other end.

He was shocked and suddenly realized something. He stood up to stop them, but was blocked by Wang Lengqiu and Mo Yixia, who also stood up. Gu Zheng spoke into the microphone while quickly distancing herself from him.

"Get out of my way!"

For the first time in his life, Han Zhou lost his temper with Mo Yixia, but Mo Yixia remained unmoved and said calmly, "You have your expectations, and we have ours. This is Xiaopingxiong's own choice, and you have no right to interfere."

As she spoke, she hugged Han Zhou tightly in a dangerous position, and if Han Zhou struggled, she would definitely get hurt.

Wang Lengqiu, standing to the side, did the same.

Clearly, Guzheng's decision was not a spur-of-the-moment thing; they had discussed it beforehand.

"Yi Xia! Leng Qiu! You—"

Han Zhou panicked completely and hurriedly looked at Zhong Yin and the others who seemed at a loss: "Sister Yin, Teacher Ouyang! You must stop Gu Zheng! She must be trying to contact her past self to help me at the accident scene, but she'll die if she does that!"

Zhong Yin's expression changed, and she finally realized the seriousness of the problem. At that moment, she finally understood why Gu Zheng had such an expression when she used the offer that "her disappearance would reduce one of the other party's rivals."

Perhaps, that's what Gu Zheng was thinking at the time.

She and Zhong Ling exchanged a glance and rushed toward the guzheng, but were stopped by Ouyang Lianyu with her arms outstretched.

Ouyang Lianyu turned her face away, seemingly hesitant to face the two of them, but still gritted her teeth and said, "I'm sorry, I was also deceived by Guzheng and the others, but I think this might not be a bad solution..."

In an instant, the room was in complete chaos. The once united group seemed to have split into two factions, with only Xiao Xiaoxiao remaining seated, silent.

Gradually, everyone quieted down.

Because Guzheng had already finished making the phone call and returned.

She seemed completely oblivious to the confrontation, and returned to her seat with light steps, her eyes crinkling into crescents, looking quite pleased with herself.

Han Zhou looked at her smile, his eyes gradually dimmed, and finally he sat back down in his seat, feeling utterly helpless: "What did you say on the phone?"

When he looked up again, his expression had become unusually stern.

Gu Zheng met his gaze without fear and said, word by word, "During the May Day holiday, at the Wushan Scenic Area, on the winding mountain road, I happened to be nearby four years ago. Only I can help you."

What can you do to help me?

Even though he tried hard to control his emotions, Han Zhou's tone was still somewhat out of control, "Do you know how dangerous that place is!"

Gu Zheng wasn't known for her good temper, and normally she would have already confronted him, but at this moment she seemed unusually calm: "I have to go precisely because it's dangerous. You make it sound so easy here, but someone has to keep an eye on you."