After My Secret Identity Was Revealed, My Crush Said He’s My Biggest Fan - Chapter 7

Lin Yu wasn’t the type to carry nighttime emotions over into the following day.

Furthermore, Qingyun University didn’t leave him any time for melancholy. As soon as 1:00 PM struck the next day, all the incoming freshmen in the freshman cohort were crammed into the Third Teaching Building to take the English placement test.

Lin Yu, whose individual subject scores had been at the top of the pack back at Meng Yi, found the test paper more absurd the more he wrote. By the time he walked out of the exam hall, his entire body felt numb.

“What even was that? Why didn’t the listening section have any question stems?”

“What kind of stuff were those vocabulary discrimination questions? Is this supposed to be the same subject as that stuff in high school where you look at it once and immediately know the answer?”

“School of Foreign Languages, I thank you. I really feel like I’m about to become a struggling academic at Qingyun University now.”

The exact moment the exam-ending bell rang, the miserable shrieks of the freshmen erupted inside the teaching building’s hallway. The rise-and-fall wails echoed through the Third Teaching Building. Walking expressionlessly, Lin Yu numbly dragged himself in the direction of his homeroom’s classroom.

“Lin Yu!”

Just as he reached the corner of the hallway, a familiar shout came from behind. Hearing the voice, Lin Yu instinctively turned his head and saw a familiar figure walking toward him.

Inside the teaching building hallway at 3:00 PM, Xia Chenxuan strode forward on his long legs, flashing him a sunny smile. The sunlight shone on his dark brown hair, looking as if points of light were dancing across his strands. He crossed the crowd in two or three steps to reach Lin Yu’s side, along the way performing a motion of lightly tossing a transparent pencil case into the air and catching it again:

“The exam is finally over. How did you feel about it?”

With the experience of getting along with Yang Yuanran previously, Lin Yu instinctively felt that Xia Chenxuan’s subsequent move would be to reach out and drape an arm over his shoulder. Instead, Xia Chenxuan stopped about ten centimeters away from him, maintaining a distance that was neither too close nor too far in the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd of the hallway.

This situation sparked a tiny bit of interest in Lin Yu. He arched an eyebrow and then naturally complained:

“How else could it feel? I’m just hoping to get a B. After the college entrance exam, I sold all the reference materials my old school handed out; I don’t even have a single vocabulary review book left.”

“Me too. Nobody told me English help is something you can sell. But don’t worry, a senior from our school told me the placement test difficulty is modeled after IELTS, so most students probably won’t know it.”

“Let’s hope so. I checked the campus tree hole yesterday, and everyone was pretty anxious about it.”

Freshmen just entering university still mostly had a high school student’s mindset; finding themselves faced with an exam they couldn’t fully master naturally made them panic, and Lin Yu and Xia Chenxuan were certainly no exception. After finishing his sentence, Lin Yu sighed, estimating that he wouldn’t be able to get a very high grade among the A, B, and N placement tiers, and then looked at the crowd ahead:

“Forget it, forget it. Since the test is over, let’s just toss it behind us. Our major’s ice-breaking class meeting is in 3108, right?”

Though phrasing it as a question, Lin Yu and Xia Chenxuan both tacitly walked right up to classroom 3108. The examinees inside that room were still cursing and grumbling as they walked out, while the Preventive Medicine majors waited outside. They ran into Yin Hongfei at the door:

“Xuan Ge, Lin Yu, you guys are here! This test was seriously life-threatening, it’s finally over!”

Seeing Yin Hongfei enthusiastically greeting them, Lin Yu nodded in acknowledgment in his direction. Xia Chenxuan smiled at Yin Hongfei and then cast his gaze toward another boy standing off to the side:

“Mmhmm, both of our exam rooms were on the first floor, so they were pretty close. Who is this classmate? Is he Lin Yu’s suite-mate?”

Xia Chenxuan’s smile always carried a strong sense of approachability, but the boy standing beside Yin Hongfei was extremely shy, stammering and unable to get out a complete sentence even when facing Xia Chenxuan, who radiated like a little sun. Lin Yu and Xia Chenxuan exchanged a puzzled look, and Yin Hongfei hastily tried to smooth things over with a somewhat awkward laugh:

“Ah, right, this is the other Room B classmate, Yan Yi. He stayed with his parents near Finance and Economics University the past couple of days and only came over today for the placement test; we just ran into each other a moment ago.”

Hearing that it was his suite-mate, Lin Yu walked up and greeted him. However, this Yan Yi classmate was truly introverted, merely stating his name simply before dropping his head and falling silent again.

Lin Yu had nothing against introverted people, but seeing this situation, he still knitted his brows slightly.

For the first two years of high school, he had been the type who loved organizing activities, otherwise he wouldn’t have managed to become the Student Union President of Mengze No. 1 Middle School. If he had to share a two-person room with a classmate who hated to talk, the coming year probably wouldn’t be very pleasant.

Fortunately, in the next second, the appearance of their counselor resolved the issue:

“Hey, Yan Yi, you’re out here.”

Their class counselor was a young woman named Wen Yue, visually appearing to be under 25 years old. Formerly a senior scholar participating in Qingda’s Talent Training Program, she was now pursuing her doctorate in Preventive Medicine at the school. Wen Yue, wearing a high ponytail, flashed a bright smile at Yan Yi:

“Your application to check out of the dorm has been approved. Once today’s class meeting is over, your mom and dad will arrive at the North Gate to pick you up. Since you haven’t moved your things into the dorm yet, this timing works out pretty conveniently, right?”

“Checking out of the dorm?”

This statement prompted Xia Chenxuan and Yin Hongfei to simultaneously cast looks of shock at Wen Yue. Realizing then that Yan Yi probably hadn’t given his roommates advance notice of this matter, Wen Yue offered an explanation to the other three:

“Oh, Yan classmate’s family is right here in the Yangtze River Delta region, and due to some reasons he’s checking out of the dorm to commute from home, so Lin classmate will probably be living in a single room for the next year. But don’t worry, you guys can still hang out together after the class meeting.”

With that, Wen Yue waved in their direction, then walked into the classroom carrying her laptop and flash drive.

Upon hearing this news, Lin Yu stood frozen in place for a moment. Then, among the three of them, Yin Hongfei was the first to react, slamming a hand down onto Lin Yu’s shoulder and immediately kicking up a ruckus:

“Crap, a single room! Lin Yu, you are so lucky, having such a big room all to yourself.”

He shouted a bit too loudly, drawing the gazes of several students passing by in the surroundings. The carefree boy from Liaoyang didn’t care in the least; the more he thought about it, the better Lin Yu’s treatment seemed. Seeing Xia Chenxuan standing off to the side just smiling, an urge to mess around suddenly struck him, and he threw an arm around Xia Chenxuan’s shoulder, trying to hook both of them at once:

“Gosh Xuan Ge, you and I still have to squeeze into the same dorm! We’re all Qingda students, why does he get to live so well? I’m so jealous.”

The moment he saw Yin Hongfei’s arm go up, Lin Yu inexplicably felt a bit blocked up in his chest. Then he watched as Yin Hongfei pressed his body straight against him, seemingly putting on the posture of thick-as-thieves buddies.

This situation made Lin Yu frown quite noticeably. Yet whether it was because the other guy was boisterous or because his face naturally looked dark when expressionless, Yin Hongfei didn’t pay any attention to his reaction at all.

Unexpectedly, just before Yin Hongfei leaned against him, Xia Chenxuan gently shifted his footing and dodged out of the way of Yin Hongfei’s touch. Yin Hongfei’s hand thus grasped at empty air, yet the expression on Xia Chenxuan’s face remained utterly seamless.

This situation clearly left Yin Hongfei looking a bit bewildered. Lin Yu was also stunned by his reaction, and four confused gazes simultaneously landed on Xia Chenxuan. The latter simply lifted his thumb and jabbed it toward the brightly sunlit blue sky over the central courtyard:

“Forget it, buddy. Right now the perceived temperature in this place is practically 40 degrees; if we stick together any closer, the two of us are going to bake to death.”

That reasoning made sense. Even now, Lin Yu felt like his light blue t-shirt was sticking stickily against his skin. Then Xia Chenxuan smiled nonchalantly, turning his gaze instead toward Yan Yi, who had nodded at the counselor and lapsed back into silence:

“So envious, being able to often stay with your parents during college is great. Song Geng, you’re here?”

At the tail end of his words, Xia Chenxuan raised his hand and waved toward the direction of the stairwell. Song Geng, the Room C roommate from the Northwest, appeared within their line of sight accompanied by three other friends who had rendezvoused on a higher floor. Song Geng nodded at Xia Chenxuan and then stepped forward to walk over.

By now, students from other surrounding dorms were beginning to file successively into 3108. Seeing them approach, Xia Chenxuan turned back around and asked Lin Yu and Yin Hongfei:

“Everyone’s here now, should we head inside first?”

In theory, his question was addressed to Yin Hongfei the dorm leader, but his eyes were somehow fixed on Lin Yu as he spoke. Meeting his gaze, Lin Yu silently reflected that Xia Chenxuan’s lighter-colored pupils were actually quite nice-looking, before the other three lifted their legs and walked through the classroom door.

That’s good, standing outside any longer really would melt them. Watching Xia Chenxuan turn around with a light smile, Lin Yu followed him toward the air-conditioned sanctuary.

As he squeezed into the classroom alongside his major classmates, Lin Yu couldn’t help replaying the details of his interaction with Xia Chenxuan just moments ago in his mind. For some reason, he always felt that Xia Chenxuan’s expression had looked a bit strange when he dodged away from Yin Hongfei’s arm-hooking gesture earlier.

Never mind, stop thinking about it. Let’s see what the counselor plans to do during the class meeting first. Right before stepping foot into the classroom, he quietly felt inside his clothing pocket for a mask and put it on his face.

The climate inside the air-conditioned room wouldn’t be too hot, and the black mask covering his face would give him a greater sense of security.

“I’ve already written the seating arrangements for each dorm on the blackboard, so please look at those and sit together. Later on, we’re going to have a competition grouped by dormitories, and the winning dorm gets a small prize.”

Wen Yue, standing up on the podium, was currently extremely joyful, greeting the students while cheerfully tweaking the PPT displayed on the large screen. Her high ponytail bounced about with great vitality, making her look less like a teacher and more like an older sister.

With a counselor who looked very approachable, the crowd of university students also relaxed a good deal. The row of people from Room 401 found their designated seats and settled down, with the four guys from Rooms D and C naturally sitting close together, while the quiet Yan Yi sat on Lin Yu’s left.

Once Lin Yu settled into his seat, Xia Chenxuan quietly sat down on his right. As he sat, his arm accidentally brushed against Lin Yu. Whether it was because this guy was athletic and ran hot, Lin Yu immediately felt as though he had made contact with something very, very hot.

Noticing this touch, Xia Chenxuan quickly withdrew his hand:

“Ah, sorry about that, wasn’t paying attention just now.”

As he spoke, Xia Chenxuan once again shifted his arm to a position five to ten centimeters away from Lin Yu. Lin Yu glanced at his arm with its sharply defined muscle contours, his pretty peach-blossom eyes drooping slightly.

Xia Chenxuan really seemed averse to being touched. Wonder why that was.

Amidst his thoughts, Wen Yue up on the platform had already finished adjusting the PPT. The words “Qingyun University 2024 Preventive Medicine Ice-Breaking Class Meeting” appeared before everyone. The young counselor cleared her throat and smiled at the more than eighty new classmates gathered below:

“Classmates, welcome to Qingyun University. Starting today, everyone is family in the same class.”