In his first year of highschool, the app, WeChat, became popular in China. As everyone around Ling Ke started using the WeChat app as a messaging tool, Ling Ke also followed the trend and used his QQ number to apply for a WeChat ID

Since the friend list in his WeChat and QQ account was connected, the system automatically added everyone in his QQ account to his friend list in WeChat, and of course this included Qi Feng.

Since the settings were quite lax in the earlier version of WeChat, Ling Ke once again managed to slip into Qi Feng’s online social circle.

In this one year, Qi Feng had grown even taller. Now, his facial features had fully matured and there was a glint of intelligence in his handsome eyes. His choice of clothes had also became more intricate, complementing well with his chiseled features and strong build.

Qi Feng’s appeal stood out in stark contrast compared to those other sixteen and seventeen years old whose faces were either dotted with pimples or growing out wisps of facial hair. Sometimes, Qi Feng would take some spontaneous photographs of himself and send them out to his social circle. Even those photographs exuded a temperament that was comparable to those good-looking young idols.

Even Ling Ke’s level of good looks had made him one of the most courted after guys in school, hence Ling Ke could not imagine how much more popular Qi Feng would be in his own social circle.

The Wechat app and QQ account were different. In WeChat, as long as both parties are not mutual friends, they would not be able to see the other party’s likes and comments.

Since Qi Feng was from a private school while Ling Ke was from a government school and the distance between their schools was almost half a city, Ling Ke naturally thought that his social circle would never overlap with Qi Feng’s one.

Only when he exchanged WeChat ID with a girl in his school and saw that the girl had liked some of Qi Feng’s posts, did he realized in surprise that the city was actually a pretty small place.

That girl was the most sociable girl in school and was also the head of the performing arts club. She would frequently organised public performances for the club and had tactfully asked for Ling Ke’s contact information upon knowing that Ling Ke was accomplished in the piano.

Initially both of them did not chat much on WeChat. That was until Ling Ke saw that she had liked several of Qi Feng’s posts.

When the club was once again organizing a school performance, a few girls in the same club had jokingly asked for Ling Ke to perform a few songs for them backstage before the actual performance started.

Usually Ling Ke would reject these girls’ requests, since he was a gay and did not want to offend the girls because of his talent.

However, that day, he saw that the club head was also there and recalled that she had liked Qi Feng’s posts. He did not know why but he decided to a.s.sent to the girls’ requests.

He sat in front of the piano and smiled to the girls. “Which piece would you like to listen to?”

Since Ling Ke always had on a cold countenance, that unexpected smile, together with his gentle and alluring tone was enough to melt the girls’ hearts.

Hearing no answers, Ling Ke turned back towards the piano and murmured to himself. “Most of the pieces I learnt are cla.s.sical music which you all might not like to listen to… Let me play some of the more popular pieces.” His hands glided swiftly across the piano keys as he tested the piano before starting to play.

The girls did not know what he was playing. All they saw was a young man dressed in a white s.h.i.+rt, his eyes fully focused on the piano as his fingers gracefully flew across the piano keys and his right foot tapped the pedal rhythmically. Just this picturesque scene was enough to captivate and mesmerize them, not to mention the additional effect of the soothing and beautiful melody that was coming from the piano.

The fluidity, the naturalness of Ling Ke’s actions almost made it seem as if the beautiful music was coming from Ling Ke’s fingertips, rather than the piano.

As the melody ended, the girls squealed excitedly, “One more song! That was awesome! Play for us another song!”

Ling Ke explained, “This is nothing special, just one of the popular pieces by Richard Clayderman. There are also other pieces by him that are quite good such as

> and

>. Though those that you find on the Internet may sound different from mine since the one I was playing just now was my rendition of that piece.”

“Omg, Ling Ke you are so talented!” The girls were in awe.

Ling Ke felt slightly embarra.s.sed by their overt enthusiasm. The difficulty level was actually quite low. Someone with a Grade 5 or 6 certificate would easily be able to play such pieces. Playing such a simple piece did not even require much effort on his part.

Ling Ke sneaked a glimpse at the head of the club and pretended to casually say, “In the past, I have met someone who played better than me before…his name is Qi Feng.”

To be honest, Ling Ke did not really know Qi Feng’s piano abilities. However, he felt that since he was able to play the violin so well, his piano skills would probably be equally superb.

The club head was shocked and immediately replied, “Qi Feng? Qi Feng from De Yin National school?”

Ling Ke was about to reply when another girl interrupted, “You guys actually know about Qi Feng! He is the most popular guy in my former school!”

Some of the other girls were bewildered, “Who is this Qi Feng?”

That girl gave a brief introduction, before another person said, “How do you guys know about Qi Feng? Omg his popularity has even reached here?!”

Ling Ke originally just wanted to test if the club head knew about Qi Feng, but he did not expect that so many people would know about him too.

Some of the people here were from the same elementary school or middle school as Qi Feng were previously his schoolmates; while others were originally from this school but were now studying in De Yin National School for their highschool education and had came back here to perform. Hence, most of them here knew about Qi Feng. Even the club head had to resort to a very way-about method in order to obtain Qi Feng’s contact information.

As each city has only a few schools at most and there was bound to be people who knew someone from another schools, an overlap of different social circles was not surprising. It was just that no one had ever mentioned it. Now that someone had started it, everyone were discussing it.

Such as how Qi Feng’s father was a mysterious businessman; his mother: a famous television host; his family’s house was in the city’s most expensive district. Rumors were that Qi Feng had a brother but no one knew how he looked like.

Besides his rich family background, Qi Feng himself was also very outstanding. He once represented De Yin National School to visit an overseas school that was affliated with De Yin. Every year, he would also attend a famous highschool summer camp and had even won a prize in China’s National Mathematics Compet.i.tion.

Those who were knowledgeable about Qi Feng prattled on about his wonderful background and achievements, making the other girls listen in awe.

This guy, was like the main character in an idol drama!

Of course, with such superb conditions, there was countless number of girls who wanted to date Qi Feng. There were many rumors about Qi Feng, including how he have had many girlfriends since he was in the third year of middle school, and of course, he did not just go out with any girl. All the girls whom he had dated were rumored to be rich and beautiful.

One of the most well-known one cases was a pretty girl from the Ling Hua corporation who had pursued Qi Feng arduously. However, upon losing to a daughter from a well-established architectural company, she decided to study overseas in London to recover from her heartbreak. Another well-known case was with Qi Feng’s childhood friend who was also her neighbor; there were rumors that Qi Feng’s family had promised his son to her when they were young and the girl could hence be considered Qi Feng’s fiancee.

Upon hearing the fanciful term “fiancee” that was rather rarely used, Ling Ke maintained a calm facade but inside a million thoughts were racing through him.

“Wtf?!”, “Are you serious?”, “Rich people sure have it hard!”, “Wow this is like a drama!”, etc. Thoughts around this line filled his mind.

However, all these were just rumors that they had heard from other people’s account. Because even all those who were previously from the same school as Qi Feng were not from the same cla.s.s as him since he was in the top cla.s.s. Hence, whether all these rumors were true, no one could say for sure.

Despite that, everyone were happy to listen to the talk about Qi Feng. It was more hype to hear about someone so outstanding that existed in reality rather than simply in dramas or novels.

The club head suddenly realized something. She asked curiously, “Ling Ke, how did you know about Qi Feng?”

Ling Ke closed the piano cover and said indifferently, “I met him once during a piano examination. It was very long ago and we had never kept in contact since then.”

Although Ling Ke was amazed to hear all these gossip, at the same time he was also very depressed. To think that what he knew about Qi Feng was only equivalent to a small fraction of an iceberg.

Just a few minutes ago, the club head had proudly shown the others that she was friends with this “legendary” Qi Feng on WeChat. The girls, upon seeing Qi Feng’s photographs were all in raptures, and heaping him with compliments that were around the lines of – “So handsome”, “So cool”. There were some girls who were even bolder, directly asking the club head for Qi Feng’s contact information.

Ling Ke listened to all this quietly. He did not know what to feel.

Sometimes, he really envy the girls who did not have to conceal their obsession or intense admiration for Qi Feng. The only time he gets to openly appreciate Qi Feng was late at night when there was no one.

However, this was still not really the reason for his misery. Rather, it was the fact that Qi Feng had a girlfriend and even a fiancee that was more of a blow to Ling Ke.

Ling Ke smiled bitterly. He had never dated anyone before, yet he was already experiencing a heartbreak.

For the next few days, Ling Ke was in a gloomy mood. He decided to get rid of his addiction by moving Qi Feng into his blacklist so that he would not be able to look at his posts.

However, it was not even half a month before his resolve crumbled.

The fact that Qi Feng was straight could never be changed and to be honest, he had never thought about dating him before too.

He was simply a “fan of Qi Feng’s appearance” and since Qi Feng’s appearance was to his likening, why should he care about what that person does in private? It doesn’t matter if Qi Feng changes girlfriend every single day. It does not prevent him from using his photographs to satisfy his physical needs.

Even though doing this seems a bit despicable, but as long as he doesn’t admit it, who would know?

Ling Ke was finally able to let it go.

He immediately removed Qi Feng from his blacklist and waited till late at night before clicking at Ling Ke’s photographs to satisfy his desire that had been unfulfilled for half a month.

Once it was morning again, Ling Ke became his usual cold and restrained self.

In his second year of middle school, Qi Feng posted something: “My mum wants me to study overseas, but once I go overseas I won’t be able to eat w.a.n.g Su’s sweet-and-sour fish and Aunt Li’s steam buns, and I also won’t be able to see Snowy anymore…Sigh, I am so not going overseas to study, I will just go to a prestigious college here. I heard F University is not bad, maybe I will try out their entrance exam. Fighting!”

Below the post was a picture of a big white dog and plates of delicious food.

Because of this post, one year later, Ling Ke entered the media faculty as one of the top three student in the city.

Ling Ke had never thought of pursuing Qi Feng. Yet, as he waited for the results to be released, he felt as though there was an invisible thread pulling him in Qi Feng’s direction.

Extra 1:

Ling Ke hiding under his blankets: As long as I don’t admit it, who would know?

Someone half a city away: Achoo…

Extra 2:

Qi Feng: Brother, how come no one knows how you look like?

Qi Yu: Because every time I go out, I use your name!

Ling Ke: …

T/N: Woahh last chapter I was a bit suspicious when it said that he looked at his photographs late at night under the blankets, and yes now it is confirmed that he does indeed uses the photographs for *coughs* indecent purposes.

And so far I still like Qi Yu more: the mysterious and cool type: definitely my favorite. Lets hope that he is not just a side character.