Forced into a relationship

Han Zhou did not notice the unusual sound of the bell. He had been adapting to his enhanced hearing along the way. After all, there were noises everywhere. Looking at the people coming and going, he couldn't help but wonder, "Is there any special festival recently?"

Zhong Ling thought for a moment and whispered, "It seems to be the Chinese Valentine's Day in a few days, but today shouldn't be a special day. I don't know why there are so many couples."

"Qixi Festival? I guess there's some Qixi Festival event going on around here."

Han Zhou didn't care. There were so many festivals for couples to celebrate these days, and there might be even more in the future. Couples' money was often the easiest to make. Ordinary items could be transformed by putting on a layer of skin, and their value could double under the name of love. Merchants would naturally try every means to make money during these days, and holding events was normal.

He withdrew his thoughts and asked, "By the way, has the senior sister been around here?"

Zhong Ling shook her head and said a little embarrassedly: "No, I seldom go out. I stay at home most of the time during holidays. My sister said that I am, yes..."

She tilted her head slightly, unable to remember the word for a moment, and her expression looked a little distressed.

"Homegirl?" Han Zhou tentatively took over her words.

"That's right, homegirl."

Zhong Ling's eyes lit up and she nodded, saying, "That's what my sister said to me. She told me to go out when I have time, but I still like to stay at home."

Han Zhou asked curiously, "What about when you were in school?"

"Then stay in the bedroom."

"She basically never goes out, so she can really be considered a stay-at-home girl..."

Zhong Ling turned her head to look at him and asked in confusion: "Do you think that staying at home girls are bad?"

"That's not what I meant..."

"what does that mean?"

"..."

The two chatted a lot along the way. Perhaps it was because it was a rare opportunity to meet someone with whom they could communicate normally, Zhong Ling had a strong desire to talk. She told Han Zhou over and over again what she had seen and heard in college, with a faint smile on her face the whole time.

Han Zhou listened very carefully. Being a good listener was his good habit. He also took this opportunity to learn more about the school. The start of school was not far away, and it was almost time for him to get ready.

However, it must be said that this senior's university life was quite dull, even a bit boring. She basically went between the dormitory, teaching building and library. She didn't go out much during her spare time. During her entire freshman year, she just went through the entire school and didn't even leave the school gate a few times.

His daily hobby is reading in the dormitory. He has excellent grades in school and is average in sports. He sounds like a very good student.

If her voice had not been so soft that many people even mistakenly thought she was a mute, Zhong Ling would have already become a goddess in many people's hearts.

The reason why Zhong Ling became a stay-at-home girl is not difficult to understand. Her personality is probably only a part of the factor, and more of it lies in her own problems.

Although she can speak, her language expression ability is basically equivalent to that of a mute. It is difficult for her to communicate normally with others. I am afraid it is difficult for her to get along with people around her, let alone go out.

Moreover, she has a cute face of a girl next door, which can arouse others' desire to protect her. There must be many people who want to chat with her in school. However, she doesn't seem to have any opinions of her own and lacks the language ability to directly reject others. It is inevitable that she will encounter some persistent guys who are difficult to deal with on weekdays, so she doesn't want to go out even more.

These were Han Zhou's speculations, and Zhong Ling was also very frank, saying that this was indeed the case. She didn't like people who approached her casually, and her sister hated such guys even more. She also taught her a way to deal with all approaches - that is, to tell anyone to get lost when she saw them.

When she first met Lin Anyu, Zhong Ling told him to get lost because she adopted the method Zhong Yin taught her. Although it was not very polite and might cause unnecessary misunderstandings, it was simple and effective, and it also allowed her to speak louder.

At this point, Zhong Ling tugged at the small cloth bag and whispered, "I rely too much on my sister, and I don't know how to adapt when encountering things. But my sister can't always be by my side, so she can only teach me this simplest and stupid way. Many times, I have to arrange what I want to do in advance."

This was obviously not something worthy of praise. To put it bluntly, it was a giant baby. Therefore, she was a little nervous and kept paying attention to Han Zhou's expression while speaking, worried that the latter would feel disgusted with her.

Han Zhou did not comment, but just smiled and said: "But once you have a set goal, you are still very efficient in doing things."

He still remembered the first time they met, when Zhong Ling was shopping in a supermarket. She was quite efficient at that time and found and bought all the items on the shopping list in a short time. If she hadn't been hesitant because the shampoo she wanted to buy was sold out, he might not have found an opportunity to continue talking to her.

Being too dependent is indeed a problem, but Han Zhou feels that this senior student is probably someone with strong execution ability.

Zhong Ling was stunned for a moment, then shook her head and said, "No, I'm always clumsy, and my sister doesn't want me to help her."

She's just overprotective of you... Han Zhou sighed inwardly and smiled bitterly, "I don't know if your hands are clumsy, but your feet are definitely not clumsy. You walk so fast that I can hardly keep up."

This was of course a joke, but Zhong Ling did walk very fast, as if she was being chased by someone. This seemed to be her walking habit.

Zhong Ling was stunned for two seconds before she realized that she was indeed walking too fast. Han Zhou should have been the one leading the way for her, but unknowingly she was the one leading Han Zhou.

So she quickly walked behind Han Zhou in small steps, then slowed down her pace and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, I'll walk slower and follow you. Sister has talked about this problem before, but I walk alone most of the time, so I didn't notice it."

She seemed a little embarrassed.

"No, no, no, don't apologize, I was just kidding."

Han Zhou didn't expect Zhong Ling to take this seriously and even apologize to him. He was stunned for a moment and said, "Besides, walking fast is not a bad thing. There is no need to apologize."

He sighed, "But Senior Sister really can't stop talking about Sister Yin. You two sisters have a really good relationship."

Zhong Ling followed him one step behind, a smile on her face: "Yes, my sister has been taking care of me since our parents passed away. I like her very much and I am very grateful to her."

After a pause, her expression became more serious, and she continued, "My sister treated you badly before, but she didn't mean to target you. I apologize to you on her behalf. I hope you don't mind."

Han Zhou said indifferently, "It's okay, I understand. By the way, is the repair shop behind your house owned by Sister Yin?"

He was somewhat curious whether the yellow-haired guy would cause trouble again.

"No, my father used to run the repair shop, and my sister took over the business after he passed away. We had originally agreed to sell the shop, but one day my sister suddenly changed her mind, quit her original job, learned repair skills, and continued to run the shop."

Han Zhou was silent for a moment. To be able to open such a large repair shop, Zhong Ling's family might have been quite wealthy in the past. However, an accident happened during the business that led to the death of his parents, and the family fell into poverty.

This is actually somewhat similar to his family's situation. If Han Long was not addicted to gambling, his family would actually be quite wealthy.

But the two are certainly incomparable. The sisters lost both their parents, which is a very heavy experience for any family.

After hesitating for a while, Han Zhou asked, "Senior, can I ask you a question?"

"what is the problem?"

Zhong Ling looked at him, seemed to realize something, and asked in confusion, "Are you wondering why I speak so softly?"

Han Zhou was stunned. What he originally wanted to ask was how Zhong Ling's parents died. As for Zhong Ling's own question, he would ask it later. However, he did not expect the other party to directly ask this question, so he nodded hesitantly.

"Yes, I'm just a little curious. It doesn't matter if you don't tell me..."

Han Zhou was a little nervous. Although they had just been talking and laughing, this was actually only their third meeting. It was really presumptuous to suddenly ask this question. The reason behind this might not be some good memories, and it might even involve the other person's privacy.

However, the two of them had just had a very pleasant conversation, and Zhong Ling's attitude was always very good, with a smile on her face, which inevitably gave him the thought that "this senior sister seems to have a good impression of me", otherwise he probably wouldn't even think of asking about the reason for her parents' death now.

However, this question will have to be asked sooner or later. The side quest is to make the girl cry from the bottom of her heart. This is undoubtedly a "technical job", and understanding the other person's past is naturally a very important part.

Zhong Ling was silent for a moment and let out a long sigh.

Fortunately, although it was presumptuous, she did not show any resistance to it. She just nodded slightly and said, "You can say that my sister asked me before if I was willing to tell you. I wanted to tell you about this."

She looked into the distance and quietly clutched the small blue cloth bag around her waist.

“It’s actually related to why my parents died.”

Plans cannot keep up with changes. There have been more things than expected in the past two days, so this chapter was rushed out. I will pay back what I owe.

This book is changed to a parallel world mainly to avoid censorship of place names. Many important traditional festivals and customs still exist by default, such as the Chinese Valentine's Day, so don't worry too much.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 89: So I am a rich second generation?

Zhong Ling seemed to have a lot to say. It was still early, and Han Zhou and the other two were a little thirsty, so they did not continue to go to the mobile phone store, but found a nearby milk tea shop.

There were quite a few people sitting in the store, most of them were couples as expected. When the two of them walked in, they attracted a lot of attention. Han Zhou first asked Zhong Ling what she wanted to drink, and then asked her to find a seat.

From the waiter's perspective, the girl hadn't answered what she wanted to drink yet, but the boy walked straight over to her, as if it was just a symbolic inquiry.

"Hello, please give me two medium cups of iced Coke."

The clerk smiled politely and said, "Okay, two Cokes, anything else?"

"No thanks."

Han Zhou took out his cell phone and prepared to pay.

"Okay, please wait a moment."

The shop assistant smiled and nodded, but was muttering in his heart, this boy is really handsome, but a little stingy. I didn’t hear the girl say she wanted to drink Coke just now. Coke should be the cheapest drink in the store. Wouldn’t it be better to just order a cup of milk tea?

Well, it seems that the family is in financial difficulty, as the screen of this customer's phone is broken into this state...

The customers in the store didn't pay much attention to this scene, and even if they noticed it, they didn't care. However, some people laughed at it contemptuously.

The sarcasm in the laughter was completely undisguised. Han Zhou now had excellent hearing and could hear the conversation in the distance. He knew that the laughter was directed at him, but he didn't care.

Like Guzheng, he doesn't care much about other people's opinions, let alone such childish ridicule, otherwise he would have changed his phone long ago.

Zhong Ling wanted to drink Coke probably to save money, and he chose Coke simply to quench his thirst. If he could order plain water, he would probably have just ordered a glass of plain water.

He could roughly understand the thoughts of those who laughed at him. Perhaps they thought he was too poor and Coke was too cheap. However, he really didn't understand what was so good about competing over drinking milk tea. Was it about who had a higher incidence of diabetes?

Han Zhou calmly paid the bill with his broken-screen phone, returned to his seat, put his phone on the table, and checked to see if there were any new messages.

Zhong Ling took out the broken phone from the small cloth bag and placed it on the table without hesitation. She folded her hands on her legs and asked softly, "Junior, how much is the Coke? I'll transfer it to you."

Han Zhou smiled and said, "No need, it's just a few dollars, consider it my treat."

Zhong Ling shook her head and said seriously, "No, my sister said that you can't accept gifts without merit. You can't just let others treat you, even if it's cheap."

Zhong Yin did say something similar, but the wording was much harsher. To sum it up, it meant "If someone shows kindness to you without any reason, he is either a traitor or a thief." Zhong Ling certainly wouldn't say that to Han Zhou, so she changed it to "No reward without merit."

Han Zhou laughed and said, "It's just a cup of Coke. It's nothing. Just consider it as a return gift for the dinner you treated me and Yixia to last time."

Zhong Ling still shook her head: "That meal was originally my sister's apology gift, there is no need for a return gift."

"Then consider it as a return gift for the plums you gave us."

"That's a small token of my appreciation, and it can be considered as my personal apology. You don't need to return the gift."

Han Zhou was stunned for a moment, then smiled bitterly and said, "There's no need to calculate it so clearly..."

Zhong Ling explained: "My sister said that if you don't want to be harassed by strangers, you should try to make everything clear when you get along with others."

That guy Jong Eun, it’s fine if he just treats his interpersonal relationships as an account, but why did he teach this to his senior sister…

Han Zhou complained in his heart, but it was understandable. It was similar to rejecting all approaches with the word "get lost". It was also a stupid way to avoid most troubles, but it was too blunt.

It’s not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but it will most likely be very tiring, and it will inevitably give people a feeling of being inaccessible. I believe that no one likes to get along with a "stingy" person.

Han Zhou did not hide his inner thoughts and said, "I don't think what Sister Yin said is necessarily right. Besides, we are not strangers anymore. It's not strange for friends to treat each other occasionally."

Zhong Ling blinked, seemed a little hesitant, and asked in surprise: "Are we friends?"

Han Zhou's eyes widened: "Isn't it?"

This question is indeed a bit hurtful.

"No, that's not what I meant."