It was 8 a.m., and Lin Linya slipped into the classroom just in the nick of time. Head lowered guiltily, he was trying to sneak to a back seat without drawing any attention when suddenly, a large hand clamped down on the back of his neck, his Achilles’ heel.
Looking up, he met Chen Chun’s mocking smile.
Chen Chun waggled the breakfast in his other hand. “Got yourself a wild man? Don’t need your daddy anymore? And here I was, your dear old dad, worrying about you skipping breakfast before an 8 a.m. class.”
He grabbed Lin Linya’s wrist and pulled him to the corner spot he’d already saved. As Lin Linya unwrapped his sandwich, Chen Chun had already deftly poked the straw into the soy milk carton for him.
Cheeks puffing out, Lin Linya bit into the cheese and bacon sandwich and mumbled, “Is the soy milk hot?”
Chen Chun looked disgusted. “What are you, a little girl who can’t drink cold stuff in the morning?”
Despite his words, seeing Lin Linya swallow his mouthful, he still brought the soy milk to his lips. “Hot, no sugar. Happy now? Drink up.”
Lin Linya’s words were honey-sweet. “Thanks, Bro.”
Watching Lin Linya obediently eat his breakfast, Chen Chun felt a strange paternal satisfaction, like he was raising a daughter. Although he still looked grumpy, the frustration in his heart had long dissipated.
“Mm…” Lin Linya chewed on the straw, lifting his head to gaze at him expectantly.
Chen Chun coughed and, while Lin Linya wasn’t looking, gave his cheek a sharp pinch. He tried to look fierce, “Don’t think this means you’re off the hook for ignoring my messages last night.”
Lowering his voice, he asked, “What happened last night? Was someone harassing you?”
Just thinking about the previous night’s video call made Lin Linya’s face burn up again. He had pondered it all night and still couldn’t come up with a plausible excuse for Chu Fengyi.
“No…” But Lin Linya didn’t want to tell Chen Chun either.
If he did, Chen Chun would definitely warn him to stay away from Chu Fengyi. But he couldn’t bear to do that. Chu Fengyi was so good, he could carry him in games to climb ranks, give him buffs, and help him kite.
Pushed too far, he just whined, “I’m not a little kid anymore! I know what I’m doing. Just leave me alone! I’m going to pay attention in class now!”
Chen Chun, “…”
Chen Chun was worried sick.
He was only 22. He hadn’t even experienced the joys of dating a girl yet, but he was already prematurely feeling that helplessness of a middle-aged man facing his rebellious daughter.
Lin Linya thought he was so clever, brushing him off, but in reality! This guy! Had all his thoughts written all over his face!
His daughter had grown up and had her own little secrets. He was truly afraid that any day now, some Blonde Guy would pop up, pat him on the shoulder, and say, “Hey, Old Geezer, my Ghost Fire Motorcycle is parked downstairs.”
He could only roughly ruffle Lin Linya’s fluffy head, mentally screaming, You don’t know jack!
The guy never learned his lesson. Had he already forgotten why he moved out of the dorm in the first place? Just thinking about it still pissed Chen Chun off.
He remembered when he first met Lin Linya at the start of the semester. He was stunned, thinking he was a short-haired girl. He’d never seen such a pretty boy in his life.
His face was small, skin so pale, and the upward tilt of his eyes looked like natural eyeliner. When he smiled, he revealed soft, white teeth and full eye smiles. He was tall and thin, like a straight and handsome young poplar tree—you could easily mistake him for a high school freshman.
Half a month of military training didn’t tan him; at worst, he just turned red from the sun. A healthy flush would show through his jade-like skin, like a ripe, juicy peach that would burst with juice if bitten into.
If Lin Linya had been even slightly difficult, Chen Chun wouldn’t have bothered with him. He was a Northerner himself, with a quick temper that easily clashed with others. He couldn’t tolerate fussy, anal people.
But over time, he discovered that Lin Linya, who always claimed to be smart, was just a happy-go-lucky little fool, the type who never took anything to heart.
He was just slightly more high-maintenance than the average guy his age, which somehow felt entirely justified.
“High-maintenance” only meant he liked cleanliness, hated it when people played games with speakers on at night—he found it noisy. Although his roommates secretly called him a Little Princess behind his back, they all indulged him.
Back then, there was a gay guy in their dorm, a top, who set his sights on Lin Linya immediately and harassed him constantly. It got so bad he had to move out. Not long after Lin Linya left, that gay guy moved out too.
Then he started streaming and just stayed living off-campus.
Their bond actually grew stronger because of that incident.
Chen Chun wasn’t the type to meddle.
That night, Lin Linya had just come back from a shower, humming a tune and bobbing his head, when he pulled back his bed curtain and found someone inside. He was terrified out of his wits. Chen Chun couldn’t take it anymore. He dragged that pervert, who had been masturbating in someone else’s bed, down and beat him up.
Then he accompanied Lin Linya to get his ID card and stay at a hotel. At first, Lin Linya kept sobbing in fright. Chen Chun bought him a bowl of oden as a late-night snack, and the tears stopped instantly.
While stuffing his mouth with tenderly stewed radish and fish balls, he cussed out that dead pervert.
Chen Chun watched, fascinated. He thought to himself how even when he was angry and cursing, the guy still looked like a little kitten brandishing its paws, reminding him of that internet saying:
When your appearance is too cute, even when you’re angry, nobody thinks you’re ferocious.
Later, as they got close, and since Chen Chun was a completely Straight Man, Lin Linya trusted him more.
Chen Chun thought back to that first semester when Lin Linya handed him a snack. From that moment on, a sense of responsibility—call it protection—had settled onto his shoulders. It was a rather remarkable twist of fate.
…
After their 8 a.m. class, they had no more lessons. But Lin Linya wanted to study a bit at the library. He begged Chen Chun for ages before he finally agreed to go with him.
Walking across campus behind Chen Chun, Lin Linya had his head down, scrolling on his phone while holding his textbook, when he suddenly looked up sharply and met a stranger’s gaze.
Shyly, he hid behind Chen Chun and tugged at his T-shirt. “Why does it feel like everyone is staring at me?”
Chen Chun had been planning to go back to the dorm for a nap, so being dragged to the library left him somewhat listless. He yawned lazily, “You just noticed? Don’t you know you’ve become our school’s internet celebrity?”
He took out his phone and showed him the video saved on his SoundWave. “See for yourself.”
In the short video, the young man wore a white shirt and black trousers, smiling bashfully as he introduced the school. The camera was so close it was practically touching his face, yet not a single flaw could be seen. He was as exquisite and beautiful as a doll.
“They edited it so quickly! The Seniors are really efficient.”
Lin Linya delightedly hugged his phone and watched. “I’m so good-looking.”
When he saw the like count, his mouth dropped open in shock. “Three hundred thousand likes? Seriously? Did our school buy traffic?”
“Buy my ass. Look at this one.”
Chen Chun swiped up, and the next video was the Little Butler cosplay. Four hundred thousand likes, two hundred thousand saves.
The comments under the first short video were relatively normal.
【Is it too late to transfer to S University now? When we were applying, nobody said there’d be a pretty Senior here T_T.】
【S University Admissions Office is ecstatic, they’ll hit their KPIs this year without even trying.】
【Senior’s voice is so nice. Listening to him introduce S University’s history is like a spa treatment for the ears.】
The comments under the second video were an entirely different world.
【S University is so refined, serving dessert before the main course. I was wondering why the Publicity Department suddenly got normal, turns out they were saving the big guns.】
【I want to be Wife’s dog, lick Wife’s Mary Janes.】
【Clicked on the profile, and sure enough, it’s a guy. You’re the real pervert here, bro.】
【People who don’t understand the butler aesthetic, goodbye forever. You tasteless creatures.】
【(Running frantically towards wife) (Fighting with the other dogs) (Beating up the other dogs) (Running to wife bruised and battered)】
【I’m Yang Bowen from A University’s Chinese Department, and I’m watching this with my real name.】
【Probability this poster is Yang Bowen’s Roommate: 1%. Probability it’s Yang Bowen himself: 10000000%】
“It wasn’t like this when we filmed it. Why is it so weird with the music added?” Lin Linya pouted in dissatisfaction after watching. “And why did you save it too?”
Chen Chun snorted. “Not only did I save it, I downloaded it and sent it to the family group chat. So what? You dared to film it, but you’re scared of people seeing it? S University’s male celebrity?”
Lin Linya didn’t believe him at all.
He used his own SoundWave account to download the video to his phone and forwarded it to a WeChat chat window.
After three minutes, when there was no instant reply, he frowned discontentedly and slowly typed, 【Oops, accidentally sent it to the wrong person. Can’t unsend it now. I didn’t mean to.】
The contact’s note name was 【Resentful Jungler Who’s Really Good at Gaming】.
Chen Chun, seeing him silent for so long, leaned in to peek at what he was doing and was instantly speechless, “…”
Only a complete idiot would believe that crap.
But right after he spoke, the other side actually replied instantly: 【? Who were you originally going to send it to?】
Lin Linya smirked proudly and pretended not to see it.
When he turned his head, Chen Chun’s face was right there. He pushed Chen Chun’s face away impatiently. “You’re so annoying, don’t peek at my chat logs.”
Chen Chun… The son is grown, there’s no keeping him home.
Since it wasn’t the weekend, the library wasn’t very crowded. Lin Linya had saved a seat with a book two days ago, and it hadn’t been taken. Contentedly, he sat in his chosen spot by the window with both sunlight and air conditioning and studied for a long time.
Chen Chun hadn’t planned on studying, but seeing Lin Linya so focused, he managed to absorb some knowledge too.
Around noon, Lin Linya kicked Chen Chun under the table, signaling it was time for the cafeteria. Only then did he remember a certain someone he’d left on read all morning.
He got up, packed his books into his bag, and opened his phone.
Opening WeChat, he saw the question marks and anxious inquiries from the other side, sent intermittently over the past two hours, growing increasingly frantic.
Lin Linya blinked and typed his reply, 【I was originally going to send it to my mom~】
