After My Secret Identity Was Revealed, My Crush Said He’s My Biggest Fan - Chapter 2

The piercing sound of the alarm rang annoyingly close to his pillow. Lin Yu frowned as he fumbled for his phone, turned off the alarm, and then turned his head to the side, panting as he tried to regulate his breathing.

The first half of last night’s memories could practically be considered a nightmare. His hands and feet still felt a bit stiff, and lingering fear had not yet faded. The heavy blackout curtains blocked out most of the bright sunlight from the dorm. Several times, he placed his palm over his eyes and then let it drop, seeming somewhat reluctant to face the reality of where he currently was.

This was Qingyun University, located on the southeast coast of China. The local weather forecast predicted a maximum apparent temperature of 38 degrees Celsius today, with very high air humidity. Lin Yu could not get used to this kind of weather. The sweat from his dream stuck to his body, making him feel thoroughly uncomfortable. After struggling for a long time, he finally chose to sit up in bed.

Fly: Ahhhhhh is anyone in the dorm?

Fly: I was moving my luggage and left my key on the desk.

Gengnian: ? You are too capable, bro.

Gengnian: Are you currently at the dorm door?

Fly: Yes, I am standing here dragging a woven plastic bag, and I honestly have no idea what to do.

Gengnian: Ah, I am at the North Canteen right now, might have to wait a bit.

Gengnian: Or is Xuan-ge around? @AlbumStar

After walking into the bathroom to take a simple shower, Lin Yu wiped his hair while browsing through a few messages in the dormitory group chat named “North 17 Building 401.” Later, classmate “AlbumStar” sent a message saying he had matters to attend to and was not on campus, prompting several crying little stick figure stickers expressing despair to immediately pop up in the group.

Seeing that classmate “Fly” was genuinely getting anxious, Lin Yu gently pressed the lock screen button to turn off his phone. He shouldered the cross-body bag he had packed long ago, changed his shoes, and pushed open the door to his small room.

“Dammit, let me tell you, it is exceptionally stuffy here. There is no air conditioning in the hallway, and I am struggling just to breathe.”

When Lin Yu reached the doorway, his tragic roommate locked outside was currently complaining on WeChat to a friend about the weather in Shanghai. When the door opened, the tragic roommate’s eyes lit up visibly. He instinctively muttered a word of thanks before looking at the person standing inside the doorway, and then his expression of stunned admiration became impossible to conceal:

“Thank you! Wow, are you the new roommate? You look so good-looking, and this hairstyle is so cool!”

Back at Mengze No. 1 High School, Lin Yu, who wore a common short haircut, was frequently evaluated by classmates as resembling both the campus belle and the campus hunk. After entering university, he grew out a neutral-toned wolf cut, making his delicate facial features appear even more breathtakingly beautiful.

He possessed a very typical masculine-feminine appearance. Although he came from a southwestern province with strong ultraviolet radiation, his skin was exceptionally fair, and his height of just around 180 centimeters still carried the youthful thinness belonging to a young man. His facial features were so refined they looked like a plaster sculpture meticulously carved by a master artisan, yet a pair of slightly upturned peach-blossom eyes lacked the stereotypical romantic charm, instead vaguely surging with a stubborn, pitch-black flame. Ever since high school, not many people dared to stare directly into his eyes because his gaze sometimes looked fierce enough to send a chill down one’s spine, resembling an unyielding black wolf.

Looking at the sweating roommate outside, Lin Yu nodded:

“Yeah, I arrived yesterday. Thanks, you are very handsome too.”

“Haha, it is great that you opened the door. If I had been locked outside in this weather, I would have really suffered. I am Yin Hongfei from Room A, originally from Liaoyang Fengdu over in the Northeast. What about you?”

“I am Lin Yu from Room B, from Mengze City, Lingyun Province.”

“Wow, Lingyun, I have always wanted to travel there. Then our dorm setup is quite interesting! We have classmates from seven different geographical regions, and my other roommate is also from the Northeast.”

Lin Yu had encountered major trouble some time ago, so he had not paid much attention to where his seven new roommates were from. He exchanged brief pleasantries with Yin Hongfei and then heard the northeastern guy continue behind him:

“Hey, speaking of which, official classes only start tomorrow. Should we go hang out on University Avenue tonight? Since we will be living together for a year, we should get familiar with each other first.”

Yin Hongfei was the head of Dormitory 401, and Lin Yu friendly nodded to accept his invitation. Then, he waved at Yin Hongfei, smiled as he said goodbye, and turned to walk downstairs.

The northern dormitory area of Qingda consisted of row after row of small, old-neighborhood-style white buildings. Each building had seven floors with fourteen large apartments, and each large apartment randomly enclosed three or four two-person small rooms. Lin Yu’s own small-room roommate was staying outside with his parents these days, so he went down. Wait, he had just spoken to his roommate. How strange, when he first stayed in a dorm in high school, he had integrated with everyone in the dorm within just over ten minutes.

Thinking of his high school dorm, a tall and sturdy figure inexplicably surfaced in Lin Yu’s mind. His pace while walking down the stairs paused slightly, and feelings of nausea and terror rose simultaneously in his chest, causing his deep black pupils to constrict involuntarily.

Of course, in the empty hallway, no one would notice Lin Yu’s tiny abnormality. The pretty young man’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, and then he pretended nothing was wrong and continued walking downstairs.

I Love Planting Succulents: How is it?

I Love Planting Succulents: You probably did not run into Yu Linhan, right?

I Love Planting Succulents: Are your departments in the same dormitory area?

It was not until he sat inside the carriage of Metro Line 18 that Lin Yu finally took out his phone again and saw the messages above. His good friend from high school, Yang Yuanran, had just sent him some care. Lin Yu stared at that glaring name on the screen for a long time before finally replying:

31: No, engineering should all be in the South Campus.

31: Qingda is still quite large, hopefully we will not run into each other.

Whether it was because the air conditioning in the subway was turned too high, Lin Yu felt inexplicably cold while typing these words. Certain parts of his body seemed to flush with the pain from his memory. He unconsciously bit his lower lip, as if watching his good friend far away in the Southwest let out a sigh:

I Love Planting Succulents: Sigh, as long as you do not run into him, that is good.

I Love Planting Succulents: Now the two of us are too far apart. If he pulls something like he did in high school again, I probably will not be able to help.

I Love Planting Succulents: During this time, you should probably spend more time with your roommates. I am afraid he will look for trouble with you.

Yang Yuanran had been admitted to a 985 university in another southwestern province through the gaokao, separated by tens of thousands of miles from Lin Yu, who went to the southeastern coast. Lin Yu closed his eyes and silently took a few deep breaths:

31: Okay, I will be careful.

Right after replying to this, the subway station broadcast voice happened to ring out in the carriage. He strode into the major station, maintained a blank expression as he stepped onto the escalator, and walked toward the direction of transferring to Line 10.

Yu Linhan, a former student of Class 1, Grade 12 at Mengze No. 1 High School, was later admitted to Qingyun University’s ace engineering major. Lin Yu had been in the same class and dormitory with this person for three years in high school, successively suffering bullying such as being beaten and kicked, being locked out of the dorm, and being pushed into a school swimming pool under construction. He had originally never known why Yu Linhan kept pestering him, only to receive a confession from Yu Linhan the day after hearing the nightmare news that this person had been admitted to Qingda along with him.

That day, Lin Yu pushed open the door and collapsed into his home’s bathroom, vomiting miserably facing the toilet bowl.

The shadows of being bullied and the sudden reversal left his whole body feeling awful. Physiological tears streamed down his face during the dry heaving, and he could practically feel his body trembling wildly in a stress response. Yu Linhan’s messages, filled with a condescending tone, were still frantically bombing his phone. With extreme difficulty and looking wretched, he grabbed his phone, pressing it several times before finally using hands that would not stop shaking to add Yu Linhan to his blacklist.

Before blocking him, he took a quick glance and found that Yu Linhan had threatened, “I really love you. Even if you do not stay with me, we can continue to be high school alumni with an exceptionally good relationship at Qingda for three years.”

The distressing memories desperately tried to pop up in Lin Yu’s mind. He wanted to use other memories to cover and clear them out, but three years of accumulated trauma was completely incapable of disappearing overnight. Uncomfortable feelings crawled up his chest again. Lin Yu frowned and was just wondering whether he should stop and rest when someone suddenly bumped into him head-on.

“Ah, sorry!”

This was a female voice tinged with crying amid panic. The chased girl was far from as tall as Lin Yu, yet while running in a panicked state, she also bumped him into a stagger. Lin Yu instinctively supported the arm of the girl who was about to fall, and then heard a commotion from the crowd not far away as an angry male figure rushed down the station stairs:

“Little bastard, do not run! Today you must make things clear to Laozi! Who was that guy? Are you dating early behind Laozi’s back?”

The man cursed and swore ugly words as he sprinted, many of which carried insulting, sexual obscenities. After apologizing, the girl looked back at the man once and then continued forcing back her tears as she rushed forward. With sharp eyes, Lin Yu noticed that her leg movements while running were somewhat strange; she was probably injured.

Who knew how much alcohol this man had drunk in broad daylight? Even before rushing close, he hit Lin Yu with the stench of alcohol. His eyes were bloodshot, and his stubbled face wore a ferocious expression like a giant beast crawling out of the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Lin Yu quickly extricated himself from the emotional mire, supported the girl, and pulled her behind him:

“Mister, please calm down!”

That girl had indeed sprained her ankle during her frantic run just now. Unable to withstand the pain in her foot any longer, she slid down against the wall upon hitting it. Seeing her like this, the malice in the man’s heart grew even stronger as he roared and tried to push Lin Yu away:

“Who the hell are you? Are you some kept toy boy this slut found? I am telling you to step aside for Laozi! It is none of your business if Laozi disciplines his own child!”

“Regardless of what relationship you have with her, this is intentional assault. If you do not leave right now, I will call the police directly.”

Lin Yu was taller than the drunk man, but his physique appeared relatively thin due to his age and lack of exercise. The two words “call the police” restored the man’s sanity for a split second, but the superiority brought by alcohol and gender quickly collided that clarity into nothingness. He stared at Lin Yu’s unisex, gorgeous face, and watching the pretty young man lift his phone, he bared his teeth and cursed:

“Fuck off, you gender-confused sissy! The cops cannot control Laozi either. Push me too far and I will beat you up together with her!”

The surrounding crowd gasped in fear. Their frightened emotions seemed to fuel the man’s arrogance, so the moment his voice fell, the man threw a punch at Lin Yu.

Lin Yu was an adult male after all, and the resistance the man faced hitting him was much greater than attacking the girl. But this man bit onto him like a mad dog, and after blocking only a few times, he was pushed by the man to crash into the wall.

After falling and sitting on the ground, Lin Yu instinctively stretched out a hand to protect the girl on the ground, but the man’s flying leather shoe was about to kick him when he was suddenly shoved aside by a tremendous force:

Bang!

This turn of events came too suddenly. Before Lin Yu could fully react, he watched the man fly almost horizontally out of thin air. The man’s miserable scream and the crowd’s gasps sounded simultaneously, and another equally thin yet reliable figure abruptly appeared in everyone’s view.

That was a male youth whose height was roughly estimated to be over 185 centimeters. His posture was exceptionally flexible when he drop-kicked the person away, and healthy, powerful lean muscles could be seen beneath his summer short-sleeved shirt. The youth’s hair was a dark brown that was not entirely black, and his handsome features featuring sword-like brows and star-like eyes grew full of aggression when fierce. Standing between the two right now, he gave them a great sense of security.

“Wow, direct action, gorgeous!”

“My god, this little brother looks kind of handsome, feels like that kind of athletic sunshine college student…”

“Handsome guy hit him well, domestic abusers deserve to be dealt with like this!”

The surrounding crowd’s zest for watching the excitement became exceptionally high at this moment. Lin Yu sat somewhat wretchedly by the wall, looking up at the back of the youth wearing a white T-shirt. Paying no heed to the whispering of the people around him at all, the youth stood in his spot and spoke to the man:

“Listen up: if you pester them again, I will clean you up right now and send you straight to the local police station.”

Abusers generally bullied the soft and feared the hard. The man had just been drop-kicked away by the youth, and lying on the ground now, his ribs still felt painful. Under the youth’s cold gaze, he struggled to crawl up, and seeing the youth still standing in place with his hands in his pockets, he felt a jolt of inner fear, but still forcibly maintained his posture and yelled:

“What is wrong? This is my own family business, what business is it of you little beasts to meddle? Call the police? If you have got the guts, call them and see if the police care once they arrive!”

The white-T youth did not say a word. Seeing him shouting like this, he just lowered his face and walked toward the man with steady strides. His handsome face was extremely gloomy at this moment, and the man felt an intense sense of oppression with just a single upward glance.

Seeing him approach, the drunk man completely stopped pretending. Cursing and swearing, he clutched his ribs, struggled to crawl up, and then ran toward the exit gates.

“A bunch of little beasts, Laozi will kill all of you sooner or later!”

Leaving behind these words, the alcohol-laden man swiped the turnstile and escaped. The white-T youth tilted his head to look at the surrounding crowd of onlookers:

“Nothing much to see, disperse.”

The youth’s actions had been too swift just now, so even though he did not look malicious at this moment, the surrounding people quickly dispersed while whispering in fear. He stood right there until the very last “spectator” left, seeming quite dissatisfied with these cold-hearted, bystander onlookers.

Lin Yu had already roughly adjusted his state by this time; the man had not caused him any substantial harm. The young girl beside him had been crying in fear all along, her sobs vaguely mixed with a few murmurs of “Brother, I am sorry.” He turned her head and smiled indifferently at the girl, then handed her a pack of tissues:

“It is fine, it was what I should do. Wipe up first.”

The girl obediently took the tissue, opened it, and began to clean up the mess on her face. Hearing the white-T youth’s footsteps approach, Lin Yu stood up and turned around:

“Thanks, bro. If you had not come, we really might not have been able to handle it. Let us send her to the police station, this matter…”

The instant he turned around and clearly saw the face of the newcomer, all of Lin Yu’s words got stuck completely in his throat.

Before him stood the boy who had entered his dreams countless times.