Chapter 622
Chapter 622
Han Zhou had his doubts. He wondered if Mo Yixia's invitation to play volleyball was for ulterior motives. After all, Wang Lengqiu's matter was still unresolved. He wasn't naive enough to think that Mo Yixia would forgive him just because he showed some unhappiness today, and that she was only trying to please him.
I genuinely want him to be happy, but that's not necessarily all there is to it.
But gradually, he realized that he seemed to be judging others by his own petty standards.
Aside from her questionable ball skills, Mo Yixia did not show any abnormality.
He didn't say anything strange in front of his classmates, nor did he try to embarrass him. It seemed that bringing him to the court was simply a way to help him relax.
Even though she herself is not good at it.
The sky was half-dark and half-bright, the stadium was divided into two halves by the shadows of the clouds, and the afternoon wind was strong, making the girl's long hair dance wildly.
"Why don't you put your hat back on?"
Looking at the girl standing beside him, Han Zhou couldn't help but say something.
After a short period of practice, the two were invited by a group of female classmates to have an amateur competition.
The two were naturally assigned to the same team.
But Mo Yixia's hair was already long, and now that she was free from the constraints of the baseball cap, coupled with the strong wind, it was inevitably inconvenient for her to move around.
"No," Mo Yixia replied lazily.
"why?"
"Think about it yourself."
Just then, a female classmate hesitated and handed over a hair tie, her gaze falling on Mo Yixia. She said somewhat nervously, "I have extra hair ties here, do you want to use them?"
Upon hearing the words "hair tie," Han Zhou felt a sudden tightness in his chest. He was worried that Mo Yixia would say something hurtful like "I don't like using things that other people have used" without hesitation. So, before Mo Yixia could respond, he spoke up first, "Thank you for your kindness, but Yixia doesn't like using hair ties."
Mo Yixia gave him a deep look, but neither exposed him nor pressed him for answers.
After thinking for a moment, she turned around and said "thank you" to the female classmate.
The tone was neither warm nor cold; it wasn't exactly sincere, but it wasn't perfunctory either.
The female student was taken aback at first, then gracefully took back her hair tie, smiled, and struck a pose: "Get ready, the competition is about to begin."
Someone brought a whistle, and as the whistle blew, the white ball flew over the net, and the rest of the physical education class was spent on this volleyball court.
The ball came and went, the score changed hands, and all that remained on the court was the sharp sound of shoes rubbing against the ground and the panting of breaths.
Han Zhou didn't think playing volleyball with girls was shameful, but he didn't try to suppress them by taking advantage of his physical strength. He was completely immersed in the game, temporarily putting aside his worries, jumping and swinging his arms with the rise and fall of the ball, letting the wind dry his accumulated worries inch by inch.
Midway through the match, Mo Yixia temporarily left the stage, citing the need for a rest, and was replaced by another female classmate.
Although it was an amateur competition, a competition is a competition, and Han Zhou naturally couldn't leave with her, so he stayed on the field.
To make it easier to move around, he had already taken off his coat and draped it over a bench on the side of the field.
Mo Yixia sat on the bench, watched the game for a while with a bored expression, and then reached out and unabashedly took Han Zhou's phone from his coat pocket.
Because he was facing away from the bench, Han Zhou did not notice this.
Since they were at school and in class, Mo Yixia certainly wouldn't openly play on her phone. So she covered Han Zhou's coat with her lap, hid her hands under the hem, turned on the screen, and entered the password.
Don't ask her how she knew Han Zhou's phone password. Anyway, she unlocked the phone so naturally. Her gaze lingered on the Fetion icon for a moment, but she didn't open it immediately. Instead, she opened the browser and glanced at her browsing history.
After a moment's thought, she took screenshots of these browsing records and sent the images to herself using Han Zhou's Fetion messaging service, then deleted the images and chat history.
The moment she clicked into the album, she naturally saw the photos that Han Zhou had taken with Gu Zheng and others when they went hiking last week, but her eyes did not show much emotion. She just glanced at them briefly, then exited the album and opened Fetion.
As the Fetion icon unfolded, the first thing she saw was a newly created group chat. She opened the group chat, but instead of immediately looking through the chat history, she opened the group member list and pulled herself into the group chat.
After doing all this, she slowly browsed through the chat history, then exited Fetion, turned off the phone screen, silenced it, and put it back in her coat pocket.
The boy on the field was focused on jumping, his shadow elongated by the sunlight, completely unaware of what was happening under his clothes.
Little did he know that in the following days, his phone would be ringing off the hook with calls from Ouyang Lianyu and others.
……
The ovens in the pastry shop were humming.
Zhong Ling put down her phone, which went unanswered, and shook her head at her sister, looking worried: "Still no answer... My junior just had surgery, could he be too weak and asleep?"
"It would be good if he were really weak."
Zhong Yin frowned, and even in front of his sister, his tone was somewhat cold. "If he were really weak, he wouldn't have time to play on his phone, let alone pull Yi Xia into the group chat."
Who in the group doesn't know the relationship between Guzheng and Mo Yixia? Han Zhou himself knows it all too well. Didn't this bastard have hemorrhoid surgery? It's like the anesthetic that should have been injected into his butt was injected into his head instead. He even did something as stupid as pulling the two of them into the same group chat.
She was making pastries at the moment and didn't have time to check her phone, so she asked, "Did Guzheng send any messages in the group?"
"No."
Where is Yixia?
"No, it's Friday today, Yixia should still be in class."
Zhong Yin paused in her actions, her full chest heaving, and sneered, "So... that bastard pulled them into the same group chat without Gu Zheng's or Yi Xia's consent?"
For some reason, she felt an inexplicable irritation at this moment, which was swelling up little by little like dough rising. It wasn't just because of Han Zhou's nonsense; there seemed to be other reasons as well.
But she couldn't find the root cause.
Although she also felt that her junior had acted somewhat inconsiderately this time, Zhong Ling still cautiously defended him: "There must be a reason why your junior did this..."
What could be the reason?
"I-I don't know..."
“Forget it,” Zhong Yin took a deep breath, suppressing the inexplicable irritation. “Anyway, this day was bound to come sooner or later. Since that bastard dared to do this, it means he has a solution. Let’s not worry about it.”
She paused for a moment, then continued, "However, to avoid an uncomfortable meal tomorrow, if things really get out of hand in the group chat later, let's try to say a few words in support of that jerk."
Zhong Ling smiled slightly: "Sister, you still care about your junior, don't you?" Zhong Yin put the pastries into the oven and said calmly: "No matter how much of a jerk that guy is, he has helped us a lot. I just don't want to owe him a favor."
Although Zhong Ling was inexperienced, she knew her older sister well and could tell that she was being hypocritical, but she didn't expose her and just smiled faintly.
But gradually, that smile turned faintly bitter.
……
"Xiaoxiao, do you have the contact information for Han Zhou's friend named Lin Anyu? I want to ask him if Han Zhou has taken the wrong medicine."
Outside the classroom, Ouyang Lianyu made several calls to Han Zhou but received no response, and she was extremely anxious.
After this guy pulled Mo Yixia into the group, he started playing dead. If Gu Zheng and Mo Yixia were to confront each other in the group, the consequences would be unimaginable, not to mention that Wang Lengqiu was lurking in the shadows, eyeing him covetously.
No one knows what Wang Lengqiu is thinking, just as no one knows why she was able to win over Han Zhou in a short trip of only a few days. Once she joins the fray, Han Zhou's good days are probably over.
Thinking about this, Ouyang Lianyu suddenly felt a huge headache coming on.
You probably won't find another counselor in the world as "dedicated" as her, who not only worries about students' studies but also has to clean up their emotional messes.
What troubled her even more was that, as a counselor, she seemed to have left her students with a whole mess—
Since returning to her hometown, her mother has been trying to match her up with Han Zhou, urging them to take their fake relationship into real life and become a couple. She even said that she wanted to have a grandson before she died, and if she didn't hurry up, she might not live to see that day.
Just then, Xiao Xiaoxiao's nonchalant voice rang in her ear: "Teacher Ouyang, just leave Han Zhou alone. He probably had the anesthesia injected into his head during the surgery, so it's normal for him to be disoriented. Besides, he'll have to face this situation sooner or later, and there's nothing you can do to help him."
Ouyang Lianyu was taken aback: "That's true, but..."
"Excuse my bluntness, Professor Ouyang."
Xiao Xiaoxiao interrupted her, despite being only the height and build of a middle school student, she acted like an old woman, "This is ultimately a matter between Han Zhou and a few others, what stance do you intend to take in it?"
Ouyang Lianyu was startled, a sudden panic rising in her heart. She glanced around, and finding no one paying attention, she asked in a low voice, "Is it not okay, teacher?"
In the entire class, besides Han Zhou, she had the best relationship with Xiao Xiaoxiao. After all, they had once slept in the same bed. In addition, both of them knew Han Zhou's scumbag nature, so talking about it didn't seem abrupt.
She was completely unaware that she had subconsciously overlooked the option of "not participating".
"Of course not."
Xiao Xiaoxiao shook her head. "If you get involved in their affairs, the first thing you'll face is the 'reckoning' afterwards—no matter who you side with, or whether you simply want to help Han Zhou cover it up, it's all deceiving others. As a teacher who educates and nurtures people, your position is actually limited."
Liquidation...
Ouyang Lianyu was taken aback: "What about friends? Han Zhou and I are good friends..."
"As for a friendship... it's barely acceptable."
Xiao Xiaoxiao pretended to think for a moment, then shook her head again, "But friendship cannot completely cover your teacher-student relationship, and you will still be held accountable in the future."
"You mean, the teacher shouldn't have helped Han Zhou cover up these things?"
Ouyang Lianyu asked, puzzled, "But if that's the case, won't you also be punished?"
While Xiaoxiao didn't do much to help Han Zhou cover up the matter, she did do a fair amount of work. She always suspected that Xiaoxiao must have used some means to win the lottery ticket for the villa.
"Yes, although it's all Han Zhou's fault, everyone involved will be held accountable."
Xiao Xiaoxiao smiled slightly, then raised her head triumphantly, "But I don't care."
Is this something to be proud of...?
"Let them settle the accounts; the teacher doesn't really care."
Ouyang Lianyu was both amused and exasperated. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, she asked curiously, "But Xiaoxiao, why did you let the teacher joke with Han Zhou that day, asking him who Xiaoxiao is?"
"Of course I'm standing up for you. That guy is always trying to annoy you, and you never fight back. I can't stand it anymore."
"That's all?"
That's all.
Xiao Xiaoxiao remained expressionless, then casually asked, "Then... was he frightened at the time?"
"Of course."
Ouyang Lianyu smiled, recalling the scene from that day. After a long while, she said seriously, "You are not allowed to make jokes like that again. You are not allowed to make them, and neither is the teacher."
Xiao Xiaoxiao did not respond, but just smiled and looked up at the sky, which was beginning to clear up again.
The school bell abruptly shattered the noise in the corridor, its lingering sound like a thin thread binding the sunlight.
The shifting sunlight cast their shadows onto the wall, where they were then broken up by the footsteps of the students walking by.
"Let's go back to the classroom, class is about to start."
Seeing the girl who seemed a little dazed, Ouyang Lianyu gently reminded her and followed her gaze to the sky, but did not see anything special.
It was just an ordinary sunny day.
But Xiao Xiaoxiao stood still.
“Teacher Ouyang, what I just said was not that you shouldn’t have helped Han Zhou cover it up.”
She turned around only after almost all the students had entered the classroom, her peach blossom earrings reflecting the sunlight, and a bright smile appeared on her face.
"What I mean is, since we're going to be 'purged' sooner or later anyway, we might as well be 'purged' in a different way."
"What do you mean?" Ouyang Lianyu was stunned.
Xiao Xiaoxiao did not respond, but hurriedly ran towards the classroom.
Just before entering the classroom, she seemed to suddenly remember something, and quickly turned back, trying to stand on tiptoe, and whispered something close to Ouyang Lianyu's ear.
"By the way, Han Zhou likes girls with wire-rimmed glasses." (End of Chapter)