Forced into a romantic relationship.

After a long silence, Zhong Ling looked up, her eyes red-rimmed: "Junior, are you telling the truth?"

Han Zhou chuckled, "I told you, you can treat me like a liar."

"I never thought of it that way..."

"Then trust me."

"……Um."

Zhong Ling wiped away her tears, turned her head and saw everyone looking at her with different expressions. She blushed immediately, quickly broke free from Han Zhou's embrace, covered her cheeks and ran away, facing the wall to calm herself down.

Han Zhou smiled helplessly and looked at Mo Yixia with some embarrassment.

Mo Yixia seemed to have anticipated this, but didn't say much. She just clicked her tongue meaningfully and said, "I'll go check on Xiao Pingxiong. They know which ward it is."

After saying that, he turned and left.

Han Zhou watched her retreating figure, a deep sense of guilt welling up inside him, but he could only suppress it and look at Zhong Yin, who had not given him a kind look since they met.

"Sister Yin..."

"Can you hear me now?" Zhong Yin interrupted him.

Anyone could hear the anger in her tone. Ouyang Lianyu looked worried and opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end she held back and suggested in a low voice, "Why don't we go to the ward and see Guzheng?"

Xiao Xiaoxiao nodded repeatedly, grabbed Wang Lengqiu's hand, thought for a moment, then ran to the wall and pulled Zhong Ling, who was still "reflecting on her mistakes," over. The four of them went up the elevator together.

Seeing everyone leave, Han Zhou was left to bear Zhong Yin's wrath alone. He inwardly groaned, swallowed hard, and said, "I can hear you... but your ears..."

He looked at the hearing aid in Zhong Yin's ear, his expression somewhat complicated.

He remembered that Sister Yin's ear was clearly not injured at that time. Could something have happened later?

"These are headphones."

Zhong Yin took off her hearing aid expressionlessly and said coldly, "I originally thought I would lend you my hearing aid, just like Teacher Ouyang's wheelchair."

"Didn't I say I would recover...?" Han Zhou smiled bitterly.

"Do you think I would have believed that four years ago?" Zhong Yin asked rhetorically.

Han Zhou was about to speak when he froze. He saw that Zhong Yin still had a cold face, but as she spoke, two lines of tears quietly rolled down her cheeks.

The next second, he was tightly embraced by a soft body, his head was pressed down so he could hardly move and could barely breathe. At the same time, he heard a distant yet familiar voice with a sobbing tone.

"You bastard, do you know how worried I was about you?"

Four years have passed, and the voice of the girl in the rain in the past seems to overlap with that of Zhong Yin in the present.

Or rather, without the shadow cast by that accident, the two girls were never separated.

"Well……"

Han Zhou wanted to say "I'm sorry," but Zhong Yin's heart was so broad that his head was almost completely buried in it, and he couldn't make a sound.

He suspected this was Zhong Yin's punishment.

Fortunately, Zhong Yin didn't intend to suffocate him. She let go of his hand not long after, and although her face was still wet with tears, she had already returned to her cold and aloof appearance.

That shouldn't be the case... Han Zhou couldn't help but wonder, if that accident hadn't happened, what had turned Sister Yin into the person she is today?

The more he thought about it, the more guilty he felt. After much deliberation, he concluded that the reason Sister Yin had become like this was most likely because she was too worried about his safety, which was why she had become irritable and easily angered during this long wait.

He only said that we would meet again in the future, but forgot to mention how many years later. Putting yourself in his shoes, if it were him, he would probably go crazy over such a "promise" that is neither true nor false.

She was too embarrassed to confirm her guess and instead asked about the important matter: "Sister Yin, were Uncle and Aunt really rescued?"

Sister Yin nodded.

Before Han Zhou could even show a hint of joy, she continued, "However, they've become vegetative and haven't woken up yet."

Han Zhou's heart sank. It seemed that this was the "not-so-perfect result" that Yi Xia had mentioned.

He suspected that this was fate's self-correction. If two people who should have died were allowed to live on and thrive during the time when they shouldn't have existed, it might cause a lot of trouble. To avoid this, turning two people who should have died into vegetative states might be a compromise.

Seeing his solemn expression, Zhong Yin thought he was blaming himself, and said sternly, "I told you not to take all the responsibility on yourself. You have done your best. It is better to be in a vegetative state than to die. The doctor said they will wake up."

Han Zhou shook his head with a wry smile: "I'm not blaming myself, I'm just thinking that you and your senior seem to have had an even harder time these past few years."

Zhong Yin was taken aback, and the frost on her face gradually melted away, turning into a helpless tenderness.

She hugged Han Zhou again, but this time not as tightly as before, only gently stroking his hair.

"How can you still be so childish?"

If you look at this guy from this perspective, it doesn't seem to matter that he's a bit old.

"I guess it's because I've never changed," Han Zhou said with a smile. "After all, every version of me you've ever seen is the same version of me now."

"If that's the case, then I guess I'm the luckiest one."

Han Zhou was taken aback, and was about to ask what she meant when he saw Zhong Yin suddenly lean in and touch his lips to his, then immediately pull away and turn her back.

"Shall we go see my parents?"

……

Nine years later, or rather, thirty minutes later, Han Zhou met Zhong Yin's parents again.

Looking through the glass window in the door, the ward was quiet, with only the regular "beep-beep" sound of the monitor.

On two hospital beds, two figures lay side by side, covered with light blue blankets, with IV lines attached to their arms and oxygen tubes in their noses, and other instruments that Han Zhou did not recognize.

Compared to their last meeting, both of them had become much thinner and looked much older. Han Zhou couldn't help but think that if Uncle Zhong had been this thin four years ago, saving him might not have been so difficult.

Even so, it still couldn't change his fate of becoming a vegetable.

The two looked peaceful, as if they were asleep. Over the past four years, the Zhong sisters must have called them countless times, but they had never been able to wake them.

Seeing Han Zhou staring blankly at his parents in the ward, Zhong Yin said softly, "Thanks to you, otherwise Xiao Ling and I would only be talking to two rocks."

"I already said I'm not blaming myself."

Han Zhou looked helpless, but then his expression became firm. "Don't worry, Sister Yin, I will find a way to wake up Uncle and Aunt soon."

Zhong Yin, who had just been behaving quite gently, suddenly frowned: "If you dare to do anything dangerous again, I'll break your legs."

Han Zhou looked embarrassed: "Wasn't it perfectly safe when I treated Ouyang Lianyu's mother...?"

"What I mean is, don't take all the blame on yourself again. We've waited four years, what's a little more time?"

Zhong Yin glanced at him, then looked away. "Besides, if my parents really wake up, you'll be in for a headache."

"Why?" Han Zhou asked, puzzled.

"My parents won't allow me and Xiaoling to marry you at the same time."

Zhong Yin turned and walked towards the elevator, leaving him with only her back view. "Alright, it's time to go see the guzheng."

Han Zhou quickly followed.

Upon arriving at the ward, Guzheng was still the same as when she left. The only difference was that before she left, she was lively and energetic, but now she was lying quietly on the hospital bed, looking peaceful, as if she were asleep.

For a moment, Han Zhou even worried that she would become a vegetable like Zhong Yin's parents and never wake up again. Fortunately, after confirming with the doctor repeatedly, he learned that she had only fallen into a coma due to overwork and would wake up in one night at most.

He was finally relieved.

Since the doctor advised that Guzheng should rest more, he was in a hurry not to give her the stimulant, lest she wake up due to mental excitement and instead suffer from sleep deprivation.

It was already four in the morning. Seeing that everyone looked exhausted, he went out and bought a large portion of late-night snacks. Then, under everyone's questioning, he recounted everything he had done after returning to the past, including the sudden appearance of the guzheng and how it saved him at the last second.

Everyone was startled, while Mo Yixia looked thoughtful.