The thread about the "school bully's secret crush" quickly overshadowed the previous gossip. The thread's popularity and response count stayed high, and it was pinned to the top of the high school’s forum homepage for a whole week.
In the end, everyone at the school knew that the school bully, Jiang Yan, had a crush on his deskmate, Lin Tiao. The reputation he had carefully cultivated for years was ruined.
The speed and scope of this rumor's spread were surprising. Within days, even the usually indifferent Mr. Yu had caught wind of it.
Mr. Yu didn’t fully believe these rumors, but Lin Tiao’s past interactions had left an impression on him that she might be involved in a puppy love. He chose a moment to discreetly call her into his office.
It was Friday, the last period was usually PE, but with finals coming up next month, all second-year PE classes had been converted into study sessions.
Although it was technically a study session, there was no teacher; discipline was left to the class president and the student council members.
But in Class 18, the class president, Jiang Yan, and the study committee member, Du Wenbo, didn’t care to manage anything at all.
The classroom was warm, and the atmosphere was lively.
Lin Tiao was slouched over her desk, her phone hidden beneath her wide uniform sleeves as she sneakily opened the school's forum. Right there on the homepage was the post:
"School Bully's Secret Crush"
The post had accumulated over 5,000 replies.
Lin Tiao felt like she was in shock.
When she made the post, she hadn’t expected it to cause such a stir. She just wanted to spread it within a small circle, hoping Mr. Yu would notice it.
Who would’ve thought the "school bully's" popularity was so intense? In less than a week, the post had even been automatically tagged as a "premium" post.
Lin Tiao felt this was getting out of hand. Recently, wherever she went, she could hear people around her discussing the post.
The number of girls coming to Class 18 every day had multiplied, and some even took pictures whenever she and Jiang Yan were together.
But these were minor issues.
The main problem was that Lin Tiao noticed Jiang Yan seemed in a bad mood lately; he wasn’t talking to people much.
Though Jiang Yan wasn’t one to chat much before, he’d still banter with her now and then. Recently, though, even that lightheartedness had vanished, and their basic communication was almost nonexistent.
This was miles away from the storyline she had envisioned.
Lin Tiao sighed, closed the forum, put her phone away, and pulled out her physics book to start reviewing.
She hadn’t even finished one page when Xu Huanhuan ran into the classroom, sat down in an empty seat in front, then turned to her with a whisper.
"Lin Tiao," she whispered almost inaudibly.
Lin Tiao looked up. “What’s up?”
Xu leaned in closer and said in a low voice, “On my way back, I ran into Mr. Yu. He told me to tell you to go to his office later—and not to make a big deal out of it.”
"Alright."
Lin Tiao felt a little anxious.
According to the post she'd read a few days ago, Mr. Yu was supposed to come into play, acting as the "bad guy" to push the main characters’ romance forward.
But now the storyline was completely off track, and Lin Tiao wasn’t prepared for what might come.
She hesitated for over ten minutes before reluctantly getting up. She moved quietly but accidentally bumped her chair, making a sharp noise as it scraped the floor.
Everyone turned to look at her.
Jiang Yan looked up too, expression calm. After a few seconds, he acted like a proper deskmate and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Remembering Xu Huanhuan’s advice to stay quiet, Lin Tiao shook her head. “Nothing, I’m just going to get some water.”
She picked up her thermos from her desk.
It was a clean, pink thermos with no designs, a Christmas gift from Jiang Yan. He had a blue one himself.
Lin Tiao walked out holding the thermos.
The water room and Mr. Yu’s office were in opposite directions. Leaning against the wall, Jiang Yan saw her walking the other way from the water room through the window.
After a few seconds, he looked away and returned to his work, tracing a few lines with his black pen on the exam paper.
After a long while, he loosened his grip on the pen, leaned forward, and lightly tapped the chair of the boy sitting in front of him. “Hey.”
The boy turned around.
Jiang Yan gave him a forced smile. “Can you call over your deskmate for me?”
This was Lin Tiao’s second time in Mr. Yu’s office.
She felt a mix of apprehension as she walked down the corridor.
Standing outside the door, she took a deep breath, then knocked.
There was a reply from inside, and Lin Tiao opened the door to step in. The warmth from the heater washed over her as she took her place exactly as before, but this time with a completely different mindset. "Mr. Yu, you wanted to see me?"
Mr. Yu greeted her warmly, as usual, asking her to sit down before taking a sip of tea. Casually, he asked, "How’s your studying going?"
This question caught her off guard. Lin Tiao stared blankly for a few seconds before answering, "It’s going well."
"Good to hear," he replied. "Finals are coming up soon, so keep up the hard work.”
"I will."
Lin Tiao listened patiently as Mr. Yu, with his usual light-hearted manner, rambled on with random questions that were impossible to ignore. Her initial tension gradually eased.
Sensing the right moment, Mr. Yu suddenly switched topics. “Have you seen that recent post on the school forum?”
The question hit her out of nowhere.
It was like he’d gone from being genuinely concerned to stabbing her in the heart in an instant.
Lin Tiao’s mind blanked; she actually felt a faint ache in her chest as she struggled to respond. "Which post are you referring to, sir?"
Lin Tiao quickly realized that playing dumb was the best way to deal with Mr. Yu.
Mr. Yu also knew she was pretending not to understand, but he said nothing. With a smile, he rummaged in his drawer, pulled out his phone, and handed it to her after finding the post, saying, "This one, the one about the ‘secret crush’."
Lin Tiao glanced at it and feigned surprise. “Oh, this one? Yeah, I saw it. Is there a problem with it?”
Mr. Yu felt like this conversation wasn’t going anywhere.
He stopped speaking, and Lin Tiao remained silent, too.
After a pause, Mr. Yu took a sip of his tea, as if gathering courage, then asked, “What do you think about this post?”
Lin Tiao frowned, thinking seriously for a moment. “I do have thoughts.”
“Oh? What are they?”
She straightened up, her posture tense, and replied earnestly, “I think the post is completely nonsense.”
“Think about it, sir. My deskmate—does he seem like someone who’d need to secretly crush on someone? With his attributes, shouldn’t others be competing to have a crush on him?”
Mr. Yu pondered this.
Lin Tiao continued, embellishing her words with abandon. “Besides, I have reason to believe that the poster’s true motive is to prevent Jiang Yan from ranking first in the finals again.”
“Sir, just imagine if you believed this post, wouldn’t it affect your impression of Jiang Yan?” she argued persuasively. “It definitely would, right? And then, trust between teacher and student would be damaged.”
“Feeling wronged, Jiang Yan might skip classes out of anger, miss the exams, and the top rank would go to someone else.”
“Mr. Yu,” Lin Tiao said with a sorrowful look, “you mustn’t fall for others’ schemes.”
Mr. Yu felt that this small matter had somehow escalated to an issue of class honor, making it all seem very serious.
After her rambling, Lin Tiao smoothly made her exit. She felt immensely relieved as she left the office, humming a tune and heading to the water room with her cup, unaware of a figure that had passed by.
Originally, her plan was just to stir up some gossip so that Mr. Yu would call them both to his office, where she’d act aggrieved, and maybe Jiang Yan would say something that could confirm the rumor.
But seeing how Jiang Yan had reacted completely differently than expected, she reconsidered. If Mr. Yu truly believed the rumor and said something, knowing Jiang Yan’s personality, he might actually do something drastic, like skipping classes and missing exams.
That would be too much of a loss.
Back in the classroom, when she saw Jiang Yan sitting there, oblivious, she felt a bit guilty.
After all, she was the one who posted it, and the content was far from reality. His tough-guy image had collapsed unexpectedly.
She could even understand why he’d been in a low mood lately. After being dragged down from his pedestal without warning, anyone would be upset—especially someone like him, who cared about appearances. It had to be hard to bear.
Thinking this, Lin Tiao felt she’d really been quite terrible.
She returned to her seat with her cup, fished a few leftover milk candies from her bag, and offered them to him in a soft voice, “Hey, Jiang Yan.”
He looked up at her, his tone neutral. “What?”
“Have a candy.” She placed one on the corner of his desk.
He took it, unwrapped it, and popped it into his mouth.
Relieved, Lin Tiao’s fingers tapped nervously on the stack of books beside her. She hesitated, then tried to reassure him, “About that post going around… I didn’t take it seriously, and you shouldn’t either.”
“Really?” He bit down on the candy, jaw tense.
She nodded sincerely, meeting his gaze. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to find out who posted it for you.”
If the post hadn’t gained so much traction, she’d planned to come clean with him and sincerely apologize. But now, things had escalated beyond her control.
He turned slightly, meeting her gaze for a few moments before looking away. Picking up his pen, he muttered indifferently, “Suit yourself.”
Jiang Yan felt increasingly irritable, like he was simmering with anger that wouldn’t come out, sparked by that absurd post but also by Lin Tiao’s reaction.
He thought she’d at least come to ask if it was true. Instead, she didn’t ask a single thing and even told him not to worry about it.
He was so done.
When Mr. Yu called her out, Jiang Yan was genuinely concerned. After asking Xu Huanhuan about it, he’d even followed her to the office, ready to take all the blame if Mr. Yu gave her a hard time. At the very least, he didn’t want her to suffer any stress.
But to his utter shock, she’d not only avoided any trouble, but she’d also left Mr. Yu completely baffled. When he overheard what she was saying, he’d almost wanted to burst in and applaud her.
Jiang Yan had known for a while that he had feelings for her. He thought he’d made it obvious, yet she was as clueless as a block of wood, giving him no response.
He really felt like he’d reach enlightenment if he held back any longer.
Jiang Yan’s gloomy mood soon caught the attention of Guan Che.
The two had known each other since childhood. Jiang Yan’s father, Fang Hai, and Guan Che’s father, Mr. Guan, were college roommates and then coworkers at the same school. Their friendship was so strong that when Fang Hai left with Yan’s mother, Mr. Guan had often criticized her.
Years later, after Fang Hai lost contact with Jiang Yan, they reconnected when Jiang Yan returned to Xi Cheng to study.
Guan Che knew Jiang Yan well enough to see that directly asking him wouldn’t work.
So on Saturday night, when Hu Hanghang and some friends came over to hang out, Guan Che booked a large room and dragged a chair over to sit in front of the group. “Something’s up with Jiang Yan, right?”
Hu Hanghang looked baffled. “Nah, nothing’s up. He’s super popular at school now. It’s like he’s a celebrity. People even take photos whenever he shows up.”
“Did he get into a fight with Lin Tiao or something?”
“That’s even less likely. You don’t know? Half the girls in our school ship those two,” Hu Hanghang said, gesturing animatedly. “They crowd around our classroom just to see them together.”
Here’s the translation:
Guan Che thought it would be more effective to ask Jiang Yan directly rather than question a bunch of people, so he went straight to the third floor.
Jiang Yan had been staying up all night for competitions recently, and after finishing his exams, he’d been seizing every opportunity to catch up on sleep, leaving his room a total mess.
It was finally the weekend, and he had time to tidy up. Thankfully, his room was small, so it didn’t take long. After cleaning, he took a shower and lay back on the couch to watch TV.
His phone on the table suddenly lit up.
He reached for it and glanced at the message.
Lin Tiao: Have you made any enemies recently? I need to narrow down the list.
Jiang Yan froze for three seconds before understanding what she was talking about. Feeling inexplicably annoyed, he didn’t bother to reply and tossed his phone onto the table with a loud thud.
Guan Che paused mid-step as he entered, raised an eyebrow, and sat down on the single sofa next to him, casually asking, “What’s up with you?”
“Nothing.”
“Come on, we’ve known each other long enough. I can tell something’s up.” Guan Che wasn’t worried that anything had happened to Jiang Yan at school; he was more concerned that he might have had another conflict with Yu Fengyan. “You wouldn’t have—”
Jiang Yan glanced at him and immediately understood what he was thinking. His tone softened, “No, don’t overthink it.”
“So why have you been moping around?”
As he spoke, Jiang Yan’s phone on the table flashed again. Guan Che glanced at it, then nudged one of Jiang Yan’s feet hanging off the side. “Your little Lin sister is looking for you.”
Jiang Yan didn’t respond.
Then it dawned on Guan Che—it must be about relationship stuff. Leaning back against the sofa, he smirked. “You two have been pretty popular lately. Why the sudden tension?”
What annoyed Jiang Yan most was the attention they’d been getting lately. He gave Guan Che a sidelong look and muttered, “Can’t you be quiet for once?”
“Alright,” Guan Che shrugged indifferently, “I’ll shut up.”
The only sound left in the room was the TV. After a short silence, Guan Che leaned in again, “So, what’s going on between you two?”
Jiang Yan tossed a cushion at him. “None of your business.”
“I’m just concerned.” Guan Che caught the pillow that had hit his face. “But honestly, that secret admirer post reads so convincingly that if I didn’t know your style, I’d believe it.”
Hearing this, Jiang Yan shifted his gaze to Guan Che, who wore a gleeful expression. An audacious idea popped into Jiang Yan’s mind.
Guan Che, unnerved by Jiang Yan’s stare, tossed the pillow back. “What’s with that look? I didn’t post it.”
Saying that only made Jiang Yan more suspicious. “Why do I feel like it was you?”
Guan Che, feeling wronged, snapped back, “Fine! Just wait, I’ll find out who did it for you.”
Without waiting, he darted back to his room, laptop in hand, and sat on the floor. “Watch this, I’ll show you my skills today.”
Normally laid-back, Guan Che almost made Jiang Yan forget he was a computer whiz.
It took Guan Che over an hour to write a tracking program. When he was done, he stretched his sore fingers and said, “Just wait.”
Jiang Yan, indifferent, went downstairs to get some water. By the time he returned, Guan Che had left. Not thinking much of it, Jiang Yan turned off the TV, ready to sleep.
As he was just pulling back the covers, hurried footsteps approached, and Guan Che burst in, grinning without a word.
“You’re insane.”
“You won’t believe who posted it.”
When Guan Che first tracked the address, it seemed oddly familiar, like he’d heard it before but couldn’t place it. So he asked Hu Hanghang and the others.
Hu Hanghang immediately recognized it. “That’s Lin Tiao’s neighborhood.”
Guan Che was stunned.
When Hu Hanghang asked him what was wrong, he just replied, “Nothing, it just hit me.”
Considering it was someone’s personal matter, Guan Che didn’t share too much. After leaving the gathering, he used all kinds of methods and even had friends from Qing University’s computer science department confirm it.
He never expected this.
Jiang Yan was even more surprised, standing frozen for ages.
After a long pause, a chuckle escaped him as he loosened his grip on the blanket and ran a hand through his hair, feeling an indescribable emotion.
It felt like walking down the street only to have someone grab you and announce you’ve won five million dollars.
Standing there, Jiang Yan’s face softened in the dim light. His eyes lowered, and he muttered with a smirk, “Screw that five million.”
Once the truth was out, Jiang Yan forced Guan Che to swear not to reveal a thing before kicking him out of the room.
Guan Che couldn’t believe it, and as he faced the closed door, he cursed, “Jiang Yan, are you even human? I worked so hard, and this is what I get?”
He sounded genuinely aggrieved, like a jilted lover.
Just then, his phone vibrated in his pocket, followed by a mechanical voice announcing, “Alipay: 10,000 yuan received.”
A noise came from inside the room. “Payment.”
“What the hell? Do you think I’m that kind of person?” Guan Che replied indignantly, while quickly transferring the money to his bank account.
Inside, Jiang Yan was still digesting the revelation as he paced his room.
A secret admirer post.
Posted by Lin Tiao.
What did she mean by it?
A thousand thoughts flooded his mind, but they all circled back to one conclusion:
She liked him.
Jiang Yan stopped, suddenly finding it hard to breathe. His gaze swept around the room before he threw himself into bed, burying himself under the blanket.
After a while, he pulled the blanket down, staring at the ceiling and feeling his heart race, then couldn’t help but curse under his breath.
“Damn.”
After cursing, he started laughing.
In the quiet, empty room, the warm light from the lamp mingled with the faint glow outside the window. Lying in bed with the blanket in disarray, Jiang Yan felt as though he was making up for years’ worth of missed smiles, laughing endlessly.
His frustration dissolved in his laughter.
When he finally stopped, he took a few deep breaths to calm down, picked up his phone, and looked at Lin Tiao’s messages from earlier.
Lin Tiao: Have you made any enemies recently? I need to narrow down the list.
Lin Tiao: Are you asleep?
Lin Tiao: You really went to bed early.
Lin Tiao: Goodnight then.
She was just too cute.
Jiang Yan massaged his sore cheeks from laughing so much and replied with two words:
Goodnight.
The next day at noon, Lin Tiao went out for lunch with her parents. After they returned to work, she arranged to see a movie with Meng Xin.
The movie lasted two hours, and by the time it ended, it was just after four in the afternoon. Meng Xin dragged her to an internet cafe.
Despite it being near the end of the semester, the cafe was still crowded.
Jiang Yan and Guan Che had gone out to buy some things. The net cafe employee was the same young guy from before. This time, he didn’t stop them from entering, and even sent Guan Che a message after they went upstairs:
“Bro, the boss’s girl is here.”
Not long after, Jiang Yan and Guan Che returned with their bags. The cold weather had made them decide to have hot pot that evening.
Guan Che’s phone was dead, so he didn’t see the message and didn’t know Lin Tiao was upstairs. The employee also didn’t mention it to Jiang Yan.
The two put the groceries in the kitchen.
Jiang Yan went back to his room while Guan Che took a breath and did the same.
At 7 p.m., Lin Tiao and Meng Xin, feeling hungry, left to find food and ran into Jiang Yan at the stairwell, just waking up and heading downstairs.
They stared for a few seconds before Jiang Yan broke the silence. “When did you get here?”
“This afternoon,” Lin Tiao rubbed her eyes, “around four or five.”
“Have you eaten?” he asked.
“We were just about to.”
Standing by the stairs with his arm resting on the handrail, Jiang Yan said, “Guan Che and I are planning to have hot pot. Want to join us?”
Lin Tiao looked at him and smiled. “Sure.”
The three of them went downstairs, one after another.
Guan Che finally noticed his message after charging his phone. He meant to tell Jiang Yan, but something else came up, and he forgot. When he finally saw them, he greeted them with a grin.
“Good evening.”
Lin Tiao and Meng Xin returned the greeting, “Good evening.”
They all sat down at the table.
Guan Che, holding onto a huge secret, couldn’t resist sneaking glances at Lin Tiao with a meaningful smile.
At first, Lin Tiao didn’t notice. But while picking up some food, she glanced up at him, hesitated, and asked, “Guan Che-ge, why are you looking at me like that?”
“Nothing, nothing.” Guan Che quickly looked away, making a gesture of zipping his lips as he met Jiang Yan’s warning gaze.
The room didn’t stay quiet for more than three seconds.
Jiang Yan suddenly remembered what Lin Tiao had just said. With his fair, slender fingers, he tapped the table lightly. “What did you just call him?”
Lin Tiao, biting into a meatball, looked up at him. “Guan Che-ge.”
Jiang Yan looked at her, unable to feel any real anger. In a calm voice, he simply said, “Eat.”
“Oh.”
After dinner, Guan Che volunteered to clean up.
Meng Xin and the new internet cafe worker got into a heated debate over a game, squeezing together behind the counter, determined to settle who was right.
Lin Tiao, feeling drowsy and full, stood there looking a bit out of it.
Jiang Yan returned after taking out the trash, pulled a box of yogurt from the cupboard, and handed it to her. “Go upstairs and sit for a while.”
Somewhat dazed, Lin Tiao nodded. “Okay.”
The room was much tidier than it had been on previous visits.
Jiang Yan turned on the TV and randomly picked a movie.
The two of them sat side by side on the sofa.
After finishing her yogurt, Lin Tiao no longer felt very sleepy. She watched the TV for a while and then casually asked, “What movie is this?”
“No idea. Just picked one at random.” He leaned over, grabbed the remote on the table, clicked a few buttons, and named a movie that Lin Tiao hadn’t heard of.
Lin Tiao glanced at Jiang Yan. He didn’t seem as tense as before, which eased some of her guilt.
The movie’s plot was a bit dull, but she noticed that Jiang Yan seemed to be watching intently, so she kept quiet and watched along, feeling sleepier by the minute.
In reality, Jiang Yan wasn’t paying much attention; his mind was blank. Suddenly, he felt a weight on his shoulder, snapping him back to reality.
Her head was resting lightly on his shoulder, her soft black hair brushing against his neck, tickling him.
Jiang Yan held his breath for a moment, turning his head slightly. After sitting quietly for a while, he began to shift, intending to make a move, only for her to suddenly wake up, looking at him in confusion.
He let go and asked softly, “You’re awake?”
Lin Tiao took a moment to process and didn’t move for a long time.
Jiang Yan looked at her, unmoving. “Still out of it?”
After a few seconds, she replied, “No,” rubbing her eyes. “Just a bit dazed.”
Although she hadn’t slept long, she felt more alert.
Lin Tiao noticed the movie from earlier was still playing. Unable to bear it, she took the remote and switched to her usual variety show.
The room instantly felt livelier.
After watching for a bit, Lin Tiao took out her phone and sent a message to Fang Yisong, letting him know she was out.
Fang Yisong was probably busy, as he didn’t reply.
She didn’t mind. But as she exited, she noticed the chat window with Jiang Yan and casually asked, “By the way, did you think of an answer to the question I asked you on WeChat yesterday?”
Jiang Yan paused, taking three seconds to remember what she had asked the previous night. Giving her an unreadable look, he replied slowly, “No.”
“That’s going to make it harder to figure out,” Lin Tiao said, feeling nervous under his gaze. She looked away and started fidgeting with the sofa cushion.
“Definitely hard to figure out.” Jiang Yan leaned back, resting an arm on his forehead. Casually, as if by accident, he added, “But I suspect it’s someone close to me.”
Lin Tiao swallowed nervously, her dark eyes fixed on him. “Who do you think it is?”
“It’s just a guess, still not sure.” He sounded a bit helpless as he added, “I have no idea who would be so bold.”
Lin Tiao looked at him, pushing down her nervousness, and agreed, “Right, I think it’s way too bold. If I catch this person, I’ll definitely—”
Before she could finish, Jiang Yan cut her off. “You’ll definitely what?”
Playing along fully, Lin Tiao, filled with righteous indignation, said, “I’ll definitely take them down!”
Jiang Yan stayed silent, looking at her steadily. Only the floor lamp was on in the room, with the curtains half-drawn, revealing bits of the night sky.
Her eyes were slightly wide, the dim light making them seem bright, with her curled lashes fluttering like tiny fans.
Their breathing mingled, carrying a familiar warmth.
Suddenly, Jiang Yan had a very bold thought.
The next second, without warning, Jiang Yan leaned in close, and the distance between them vanished. His handsome features filled her view.
Lowering his head slightly, the lines of his eyes turned sharp, his smile carrying a mischievous edge. “Taking me down sounds a bit harsh, don’t you think?”
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