[President Yan: Don’t leave after school; I’m coming to pick you up.]

After receiving this message, a strong wave of restlessness surged from the bottom of Lin Zhu’s heart.

He considered himself a very patient person; he didn’t need any special preparation to study and could basically enter the zone within a single second.

But at this very moment, Lin Zhu suddenly realized… the chairs at school were actually so uncomfortable to sit in. To the point where he couldn’t sit still for the entire duration, unable to stop himself from frequently checking the time.

The rhythm of the minute hand’s swinging seemed to have been cast with a slow-motion spell, making him exceptionally anxious.

School ended at 5:45 PM.

However, the bell for the last self-study period had just rung. The homeroom teacher was sitting at the podium grading papers while simultaneously supervising the class’s order; there were only extremely subtle rustling sounds below.

Having just survived the minor tribulation that was the midterm exams, no one in the class was in the mood to study right now.

They were either zoning out or stealthily doing their own things, including but not limited to passing notes, playing on their phones, reading extracurricular books, and fixing their hair in front of mirrors.

Originally, Lin Zhu would have been an exception…

But right now, he was unexpectedly unable to study. Everything he looked at seemed like incomprehensible gibberish; he was only most energized when looking at his phone.

After sending that message, Yan Ruoyun hadn’t replied again.

Not knowing whether he was still busy, Lin Zhu didn’t presumptuously send him a message to disturb him. Instead, he opened the social media app again.

The heat of that trending topic was still rising.

The first ones to explode on the internet were the CP fans who shipped the real-person RPS (Real Person Slash). This fan group was not small in number, and they were vigorously spamming comments under the topic.

[Fuck, the house collapsed so suddenly???]

[Actually, it doesn’t count as sudden. I vaguely felt something a while back… My hanging heart is finally dead, they actually really broke off the engagement ahhh!!]

[If you think about it carefully, not getting married after ten years is already very problematic. What kind of godly CP both approaches their thirties without getting married…]

[Are you kidding me, bro? This pairing is very real, and very sweet too!! A while ago, a reporter did an exclusive interview at a charity gala and caught the two of them on camera! Probably a lot of people have seen this video, but let me post the link anyway… I’m still a bit dazed right now.]

[I probably watched it a dozen or twenty times before… I’ve followed the two of them for several years and have grown attached to them, who understands! The way I feel right now is like I’m the one who got dumped!]

[Liked, same here…]

[…]

Lin Zhu flipped through a few pages in the comment section, then returned to the first page and clicked on the video link in the most popular comment.

Before clicking the link, he made sure to put in his Bluetooth earphones. The small white earphones were hidden beneath his blond hair, unable to be seen clearly.

He watched as his phone screen dimmed.

The video that popped out automatically displayed in landscape mode.

Lin Zhu turned his phone sideways.

The video’s shooting range was quite wide, like a piece of behind-the-scenes footage taken from a distance. The center of the frame was the host on stage, but Lin Zhu’s first glance captured Yan Ruoyun’s figure.

Right in the top left corner of the frame.

The man stood in front of a crystal fountain twice the height of a person, holding a glass of wine, his standing posture exceptionally elegant. Two meters in front of him stood another man in a black suit.

Lin Xiujie.

He was currently holding up his phone, changing to different angles to take pictures of Yan Ruoyun, occasionally leaning forward to let the other man take a look.

Yan Ruoyun didn’t seem too satisfied, so he took a few steps back and continued taking photos.

The video’s image quality was exceptionally clear.

Even though these two were standing far away, it still captured their interactions crystal clear, not even missing their expressions.

They look like they have a really good relationship, and are very close too, Lin Zhu thought.

But…

His head was full of the photo Yan Ruoyun had sent him that day, as well as the casually written text that followed it, making it truly impossible to suppress the upward curve of his lips.

Regardless of what the final chapter of the story would be, at least right now, Lin Zhu was incomparably certain of this fact—he and Yan Ruoyun were passionately in love.

He lost his calm, and lost his rationality.

But it was very exhilarating.

–

For the entire duration of the class, Lin Zhu couldn’t calm his heart down to study. Instead, he kept his head lowered, holding his phone the whole time, his fingers continuously swiping on the screen.

This scene was like a shot from a horror movie, scaring Huang Canran quite a bit.

Even though he hadn’t been Lin Zhu’s desk-mate for very long, he had practically experienced the aura Lin Zhu gave off when he studied, as if he recognized no one.

The other party never played on his phone during class; at most, he would reply to his partner’s text messages between classes and then put it away…

Huang Canran had also previously asked him deadly questions along the lines of [If your partner sends you a message during class, are you going to reply or not].

He absolutely didn’t expect…

Lin Zhu just twirled his pen twice and answered without even lifting his head: “He has my class schedule, he wouldn’t look for me during class time.”

Greatly shocked, Huang Canran didn’t know whether to complain or be envious: “With a partner who puts your studies in the first place like this, you’ll be successful no matter what you do.”

Unexpectedly, Lin Zhu twirled his pen twice again, fell silent for a moment, and added: “Not really, he said he doesn’t care how many points I score, and told me not to pressure myself too much…”

Despite this, he was still fine with related topics; as long as it didn’t involve private matters, he was actually very easy to talk to.

His temper was also exceptionally good.

Huang Canran lowered his upper body, using his palm to cover his face, and asked softly:

“Desk-mate, the news, you’re actually paying attention to this??”

As soon as the words fell.

The four-eyed youth blanked for a split second, recalling Lin Zhu’s identity with extreme horror. He immediately shut his mouth tight, his expression rather remorseful.

The blond youth’s background was an open secret.

It was just that, after interacting for this period of time, not only Huang Canran, but the impression the rest of the class had of Lin Zhu had also undergone an earth-shattering change—

His previous image of a playboy was like a fragile layer of film that had been torn to shreds by Lin Zhu himself. Right now, no one in the class would ask him about matters regarding eating, drinking, and having fun anymore.

Because Lin Zhu looked like he was either studying, or on his way to study.

So, the question Huang Canran blurted out didn’t contain a trace of malice; he simply hadn’t reacted in time, astonished that the other party would actually play on his phone during class for this matter.

Lin Zhu, of course, could perceive this point.

He let out a low ‘Mn,’ his gaze remaining fixed on the phone screen the entire time.

The interface displayed a hot thread posted by a netizen, which summarized the trending topic protagonist’s resume in chronological order and also included many photos.

There were daily life photos, media footage, magazine interviews, and screenshots of live broadcasts from recent years…

Lin Zhu’s attention was entirely on Yan Ruoyun. His swiping finger suddenly paused, stopping at a certain supplementary floor.

This reply floor posted a picture of Yan Ruoyun from when he was young.

The person in the photo wasn’t the mature lover Lin Zhu was familiar with, but a youth wearing an academy uniform.

The youth stood beneath the spotlight, his dark hair reflecting a ring of extremely bright light. His eyes were half-closed, his long neck tilted slightly, and a violin rested on his collarbone…

This was sixteen-year-old Yan Ruoyun.

Lin Zhu stared at it motionlessly for a long time, before his thumb long-pressed the image and saved it.

Beside him, Huang Canran, conscious that he had spoken wrongly, was anxiously paying attention to Lin Zhu’s reaction. Seeing him continuously scrolling through information about the Yan family’s Omega, he couldn’t resist tossing out a conversation starter.

“Desk-mate, for you to save photos of another Omega on your phone…”

Considering that Lin Zhu himself was a few months older than him, and his Omega partner was already a working adult, Huang Canran pondered for a moment and specifically chose an affectionate honorific.