Chapter 621
You should do it.
The winter wind stirred the thick clouds, and the weather gradually showed signs of clearing up, but the sunlight was still thin. The cool light spilled over the stone steps of the platform, outlining the profile of the girl's face.
Han Zhou pondered for a moment, then exhaled a long puff of white breath, his voice carried on the wind: "I guess it's happiness, or rather, happiness temporarily outweighs unhappiness."
"You guessed wrong."
"Wrong?"
He paused for a moment, then remained silent for a long time.
Mo Yixia glanced at him sideways before looking away. The wind suddenly picked up, blowing a few strands of hair behind her ear, and the shadow of her hat fell, obscuring her expression.
After a long silence, she finally spoke softly, "What's the reason?"
"what?"
"I'm asking you why you're happy right now."
The girl raised her hand to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear, revealing her near-perfect profile once more. The sunlight gradually brightened, falling on the beauty mark at the corner of her eye. "It can't be that it's just because I have a habit of tucking my hair when I'm happy, can it?"
Han Zhou gave a wry smile: "Didn't I guess wrong?"
"Even if you're wrong, you need to have a reason."
"All right……"
He hesitated for a moment, then carefully said, "Actually, there's no particular reason, it's just a gut feeling..."
At this moment, Mo Yixia is in an unpredictable state.
Trying to fathom Mo Yixia's thoughts, who is so unpredictable, is already difficult. She wears a mask and baseball cap all year round, rarely shows her expression, has no fixed verbal tic, and always acts unpredictably. Even her fleeting emotions are as elusive as the wind.
Therefore, he can only rely on his intuition.
"intuition?"
Mo Yixia clicked her tongue. "'If you were really unhappy, you wouldn't have paid attention to me in the first place'—even if it's just a reason of that magnitude, it at least proves that you've thought it through."
Han Zhou was silent for a moment, then cautiously replied, "But even if you're really unhappy... you'll still talk to me, won't you?"
This is not a shameless excuse; that's what he really thought.
If she were easily swayed by her emotions, she wouldn't be Mo Yixia.
Mo Yixia neither admitted nor denied it, but simply said, "Is this your reason for still being with that senior Wang Lengqiu even though you knew I would be angry?"
"Of course not!"
Han Zhou quickly denied it, but when he met the girl's eyes, which seemed to see through people's hearts, he added somewhat guiltily, "Okay, there is a little bit of that reason... but really only a little bit."
Mo Yixia remained noncommittal, looking down at the gloves draped over her knees, and suddenly asked, "Why did you buy gloves? To please me?"
"No," Han Zhou shook his head. "I was just worried you'd be cold."
He wasn't that calculating, even his concern was ulterior motives. Besides, the problems between him and Wang Lengqiu couldn't be solved with just a few small gifts.
A thunderous cheer suddenly erupted on the basketball court. Someone had just made a crucial three-pointer. Perhaps the boys were too excited, because even the girls who didn't know much about basketball jumped up and down with joy.
But Mo Yixia didn't even glance at it. She just lowered her head and rubbed her cold fingers, her fingertips turning red, but she still didn't touch the gloves.
The wind pushed the brim of her hat down another half inch.
After a long while, she seemed to suddenly remember that there was someone beside her, and spoke softly.
"If you're worried about me being cold, why don't you buy me thermal underwear?"
Han Zhou was taken aback, carefully observing the girl's expression, and tentatively asked, "Yi Xia... you're not angry anymore?"
"Remember what I said."
Mo Yixia didn't answer, but continued to say to herself, "Although I hate these gloves, they do make me feel a little bit better."
"Why do you hate it?" Han Zhou asked, puzzled.
He specifically asked several shop assistants to confirm that this was the most popular style and color of the season before buying it as a gift.
Have you eaten fish lately?
"Uh...yes."
"Only the fish body?"
"Eat fish head too..."
"That shouldn't be a problem with intelligence."
Mo Yixia picked up the gloves from her knees, pressed her palm against them to compare the size, and said in a cold tone, "It seems that you've been with me for too long and have almost forgotten that I hate most things in this world."
Han Zhou was stunned.
He has an almost photographic memory, so he naturally wouldn't forget this incident. However, as Yixia said, the two of them always had a pleasant time together, so much so that he gradually overlooked this fact.
In the distance, a deafening roar of cheers erupted once again.
The stadium remained noisy, or rather, it was as tirelessly lively as it is now most of the time.
But between that bustling scene and this desolate place, there seems to be an invisible wall, clearly distinct and unrelated.
This is Mo Yixia's usual state at school.
"I'm sorry, Yixia, I..."
"You think I'm saying all this to hear your apology?"
Mo Yixia interrupted him, turned her head and looked over. Under the brim of her hat, her eyes were so clear and somewhat intimidating.
"Now, answer me one last time: do you feel happy or unhappy right now?"
Han Zhou hesitated for a moment: "Can you give me a little time to think about it?"
"No."
Mo Yixia shook her head. "I want to hear the answer now."
"...Then I'll guess it's fun."
"What's the reason?"
Han Zhou took a deep breath: "Because I remembered that even if I'm a complete jerk, you'll still be happy as long as you're with me."
A sudden gust of cold wind blew from afar, blowing the girl's long hair wildly, including the strands around her ears, but she did not raise her hand to tidy it up, but simply pressed down the brim of her hat lightly.
"Intuition again?" she asked.
Han Zhou gave an awkward smile: "Rather than intuition, it's more accurate to say it's based on my understanding of you, isn't it?"
"Do you understand...?"
Mo Yixia put her gloves back on her knees, rested her chin on her hands, and looked up at the gradually clearing sky.
The clouds receded, revealing a nearly transparent blue.
"I'm sorry, you guessed wrong again."
Han Zhou's expression stiffened, his smile gradually fading. A sense of disappointment flashed through his heart, not because Yi Xia was still angry with him, but because he finally realized that he didn't seem to understand her as well as he thought. But just then, Mo Yi Xia spoke again.
"Han Zhou, you're not happy, are you?"
He was stunned for a moment, wanting to deny it, but facing this "mind-reading expert," even denial would be useless, so he nodded casually and asked curiously, "How did you figure that out?"
"If you were truly happy, you would have shamelessly guessed again the very first time I told you you were wrong."
Mo Yixia sighed and moved closer to him. "Let me guess, you're unhappy because you don't know how to handle your relationship with the 'three boats'?"
Han Zhou opened his mouth, but for a moment he didn't know how to answer. After a while, he finally spoke, his voice tinged with bitterness: "You really can't hide anything from me."
He did not hide anything and told Lin Anyu about his conversation last night, only omitting the part about hemorrhoids.
Mo Yixia listened quietly, her expression calm, as if she had only heard some boring gossip: "Now that you mention it, that flat-chested girl is indeed pitiful. But unfortunately, we are rivals in love, so I don't care whether she ends up crying or laughing."
"However, Han Zhou..."
She paused, then turned to look at him. "Although I really don't want to comfort you about this, at least for now, I don't want to see you waste your energy on this kind of thing."
Han Zhou, who had been thinking about the guzheng, was taken aback by the words: "What do you mean by 'comfort'...?"
Instead of answering, Mo Yixia asked, "Do you remember what I just said?"
"I said, even if you're wrong, you need to have a reason."
Seemingly knowing he couldn't answer, she finished speaking on her own, then looked at him again, "So...do you have a reason for this? Even if it's not a very legitimate reason."
Han Zhou was lost in thought for a long time, then took a deep breath. The cold air filled his lungs, jolting him awake.
“Yixia, I…”
Mo Yixia didn't give him a chance to speak: "You don't need to answer me, and you don't need to tell me your reasons. If you're in a better mood, then stop looking so sullen."
"Honestly, you should be the one trying to please me today."
She sighed softly, picked up her gloves, and stood up. "But it's alright, we still have time tonight. Come with me."
He then walked towards the court.
Han Zhou ignored the second half of the sentence and quickly got up to follow Mo Yixia, walking side by side. He couldn't help but ask, "Where are we going?"
Do you play volleyball?
"will not."
"It's okay, I'll teach you."
"You can play volleyball?" Han Zhou was surprised.
In his mind, Mo Yixia shouldn't be interested in sports.
Is that strange?
Mo Yixia raised her hand to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear and said slowly, "Although I've never fought before, I still know the rules."
Her confident demeanor made one think she was actually a champion in an international volleyball competition, just hiding her identity.
Han Zhou's lips twitched: "What's the difference between this and not knowing how to fight..."
"Are you going to learn or not?" Mo Yixia turned her head and glanced at him.
"Of course I'll learn."
Han Zhou naturally dared not disobey, and obediently followed Mo Yixia's side. After thinking for a moment, he said, "But if I remember correctly, you should hate sports, right?"
Mo Yixia stopped in her tracks.
The sky finally cleared up completely, and the sun was no longer a pale white, but tinged with a faint golden hue, falling on the girl's shoulders and hair.
"How do I have to explain it to you so you'll understand..."
She sighed softly, and then, to the astonishment of many students on the playground, she took off her baseball cap at school for the first time ever.
The moment her fingertips hooked the brim of her hat, a long-awaited gust of cold wind swept by, and her long, jet-black hair, as black as pencil lead, cascaded down, spreading messily over her shoulders, and was tinged with a faint gold by the sunlight.
But she ignored him and, in front of the whole class, stood on tiptoe and, without saying a word, slammed the still-warm baseball cap onto the head of a dazed idiot.
"...Now that you're here, what is there for me to hate?"
Han Zhou was stunned, as if he were a wooden chicken.
On the distant sports field, the students of Class 3, Grade 12 were struck dumb, as if they had witnessed aliens descending upon Earth—
So, the baseball cap wasn't originally on Mo Yixia's head, but can be taken off?
If baseball caps can be taken off, what about face masks?
The two left the isolated and deserted area of the presidential platform and walked into the noisy crowd around the stadium.
The volleyball court was mostly filled with girls, and they all seemed a little surprised and even flustered when they saw the two arrive. After all, Mo Yixia had always been aloof and unapproachable in class, and with the academic boost this semester, she was even more aloof than before. Seeing her suddenly come to the volleyball court, everyone couldn't help but feel nervous.
It wasn't until Mo Yixia asked, "Can we join?" that everyone seemed to suddenly come to their senses. They looked at each other in surprise, and then said repeatedly, "Of course!" with unbelievable enthusiasm.
“We’re beginners, so we might need to practice first,” Mo Yixia said.
"no problem!"
The group of girls were exceptionally enthusiastic, immediately clearing half a space and offering to help with guidance, while their eyes kept glancing at Han Zhou.
Not far away, Zhang Meng, who had just received a tip, scrambled over and saw the baseball cap on Han Zhou's head. She gaped open, looking as if she had seen a ghost.
Of course she knew that Mo Yixia liked this "cousin," but was it really okay to be so blatant about it at school?
But then again... wasn't the baseball cap originally meant to be on Mo Yixia's head?
Although she said, "We need to practice," Mo Yixia herself showed no intention of participating in the practice. Instead, she sat on the bench by the field, looking like a lazy bum who only cared about losing the ball.
"Just stand there."
She pointed to the area in front of the net and said calmly, "You don't need to move. If you can catch it, then catch it; if you can't, then forget it."
Perhaps because he'd heard too many dirty jokes, Han Zhou felt there was something strange about the sentence, but he couldn't bring himself to complain in front of so many classmates, so he stood obediently on the court.
Not far away, several girls who were playing ball stopped and looked on with curiosity.
Mo Yixia completely ignored the stares of others, simply placing her gloves aside, then tossing the ball high into the air and raising her arm—
His posture was perfect, his stance was impressive, and he displayed the demeanor of a master.
The next second, the volleyball drew a slumped low arc, failing to even touch the not-so-high net, and landed softly on the ground, slowly rolling to Han Zhou's feet.
Han Zhou's lips twitched.
The expressions of the girls who were about to applaud also froze on their faces, as if they had been frozen in place.
A subtle, deathly silence fell over the entire room.
Mo Yixia remained expressionless, showing no embarrassment whatsoever. She waved to Han Zhou to throw the ball over, and then served again.
His posture remained perfect, and his presence was still commanding.
But the ball still didn't even get over the net.
Mo Yixia remained silent for a moment, then stood up and dusted off her hands.
"You should do it." (End of Chapter)