The School Hunk's Pretend Lover Chapter 2

Ethan Ling widened his eyes, totally unaware of how this line of words appeared.

He was familiar with Schubert's music, so he didn't need to look at the score when he took the exam. He brought the exam book with him just for peace of mind, and he never looked at it again after the exam. Unexpectedly, he ignored a piece of information without realizing it.

Thinking of Ryan Qi whom he met by chance a year ago, Ethan Ling felt warm in his heart, but also a little anxious. He quickly turned on the computer and entered the other party's QQ number in the search box.

The search result is a profile picture of a handsome anime guy, whose nickname is just one word, "Feng".

Ethan Ling added the other party as a friend, and later that day, Ryan Qi passed his friend verification.

He was so happy that he was about to click on the other person's avatar to start chatting, but suddenly he found that the other person's name was red, and there was a penguin icon with yellow hair on its head next to it.

---That is the exclusive color and logo of "members".

In an instant, Ethan Ling's ears were filled with the self-righteous "earnest persuasion" of his parents. He didn't want to pay attention to it, but he was helpless. It was as if there was an invisible force pulling him and Ryan Qi apart, and setting up a wall between them.

Ethan Ling hesitated and double-clicked Feng's avatar, but was attracted by the other party's cool QQ show.

Hat, sunglasses, fashionable clothes, cool background...this outfit must have cost a lot of Q coins.

But this is not important to Ryan Qi, because he is still a red diamond noble and he can wear all the clothes in the mall for free.

...

The sudden sense of gap made Ethan Ling feel a little irritated. His hands stayed on the keyboard for a while, and he was considering how to say the first sentence to Ryan Qi.

---Hello, I am Ethan Ling.

---Still remember me?

---I was the one who took the eighth grade piano exam with you last year...

He thought about several questions but couldn't bring himself to ask them because Ethan Ling was worried that Ryan Qi might have forgotten about him. After all, a year had passed and he was not sure how much of a presence he had in Ryan Qi's heart when he had only met Ryan Qi once in the waiting room of the Conservatory of Music and was covered in sweat and stinking.

If he hadn't sorted out the music scores today, he would have almost forgotten about Ryan Qi.

Besides, even if they hadn't forgotten, what could they talk about later?

To be honest, he was not a very proactive person in socializing. I'm afraid Ethan Ling would never be able to learn Ryan Qi's natural and easy-going personality. So if this matter had to start with him, it would be no easier than climbing to the sky.

While Ethan Ling was struggling, Ryan Qi didn't send a single word to him, which made him even more anxious. Normally, when a stranger adds you as a friend, you should say hello or get to know each other after adding them, right? He passed the verification without knowing anything and didn't ask any questions. Isn't that too casual?

The more Ethan Ling thought about it, the more embarrassed he felt. Suddenly, he no longer had the courage to "recognize" her.

---forget it.

---The other person may not remember even if you tell him/her.

---So be it.

Ethan Ling was on QQ, in invisible mode, and went online for a while. When he went to look at Ryan Qi's profile picture again, the other party was already offline.

He felt a little lost, but also seemed to be liberated and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

After staring at the grayed-out avatar for two seconds, Ethan Ling slowly moved the mouse to the yellow five-pointed star next to the other person's avatar.

In those days, "Space" was still a very popular social display platform.

Almost all kids of Ethan Ling's age run their own personal spaces. Who wouldn't write a diary or post some photos in their space when they have nothing to do? And put on some music that shows off their personality, and this small homepage becomes the facade of their online identity.

The space is also a secret base for netizens to spy on each other's private information. People who are popular here are usually not too badly off or too ugly in real life.

Ethan Ling also had some, but he mostly forwarded articles and photos of class activities posted by some classmates, and rarely posted his own.

Everyone has the desire to spy on others, and Ethan Ling is no exception. But he didn't dare to do this when Ryan Qi was still online, and he didn't even dare to recognize him. He always felt that it was a bit despicable to spy on others in front of them.

Now that Ryan Qi was gone, he decided to just take a look and then leave quietly so that Ryan Qi wouldn't even know he had been there.

With this plan in mind, Ethan Ling clicked on the five-pointed star.

The Internet speed was very slow, and after waiting for more than ten seconds, the page popped up - no access rights were required. Ethan Ling was a little excited.

The homepage has a unique welcome animation for Space. It is a cartoon of a boy looking up at the stars, accompanied by the sound of wind chimes. It is very beautiful.

Ethan Ling found a pair of headphones and put them on. Before he could react, a fast-paced piano music suddenly burst out from the headphones. Ding-dong-dong, as if it was going to smash something, attacking his eardrums and brain with great force.

The page jumped, and the header image showed a Western-style cemetery blending into the night. A fallen angel with wings stood on one of the tombstones, looking extremely aloof.

White feathers are falling from top to bottom, and there are flashing blue decorative borders around them, which appear and disappear in time with the rhythm of the feathers falling...

When you move the mouse down, there is a line of poetry below that can't really be considered poetry---

Hurt you, hurt me, hurt;

They will not know God’s will;

The glacier, the boy cried bitterly;

Love, secrets, arrows;

Angels will eventually fall;

Buried underground forever, never to wake up.

...

These lines of words were also set in luminous fonts, flashing on the black page...

Perhaps it will take many years for Ethan Ling to understand how naive these things are.

But at that time he was unaware of anything and was completely shocked by the scene before him.

Listening to the exploding piano music in his ears, hearing feathers falling on the screen, and reading the incomprehensible poem, Ethan Ling just felt that the owner of this space was... so... so, so, so cool.

Looking more closely, there is also a diamond icon next to the other party's space name "Maple Island", which means he is a noble again!

Ethan Ling didn't believe it, so he went to look at Ryan Qi's personal information page, and then he was blinded by a string of colorful diamonds that were all lit up.

…Fcuk…that’s just insanely cool!

Now the distance between him and Ryan Qi is more than just a wall.

They are also separated by a galaxy as bright as diamonds.

Ethan Ling clicked on the other party's blog and photo album. There were not many updates, but there were quite a few clicks. Almost every blog post had hundreds of reads and dozens of replies. Not to mention the visits to the space message board and photo album. Some netizens had visited there just a few minutes ago.

If it were today, Ryan Qi's space data would be equivalent to the hottest ones, and he would definitely be a "net celebrity".

For someone like Ethan Ling who has not been visited by anyone in the past few hundred years, this is simply a rare existence.

Ethan Ling wiped the sweat off his forehead, and finally understood why the other party accepted his friend request but did not respond. There were probably a lot of strangers who added him as a friend and followed his profile every day. How could Ryan Qi have the time to chat with them one by one?

Internet celebrities are very busy.

Now that he was already there, Ethan Ling simply read through all the content that Ryan Qi had updated in his space from beginning to end.

Most of the blogs are reposts of popular inspirational stories and classic philosophies. Ryan Qi writes very few of them himself, but they are easy to identify as the ones with the highest number of clicks and replies.

There is an article titled "Frustrated", which only has a few lines: "Frustrated, frustrated, frustrated to death... I hope the earth explodes, BOOM! The end of the world! Everything disappears! Goodbye!"

Ethan Ling smiled. There were times when he was so upset that he wanted to destroy the world, but he would never post it online so bluntly.

The string of messages below the article are all words of comfort from netizens.

According to Ethan Ling's understanding, most of the people who leave messages in the space are classmates.

Xueer: "What's up? Let's chat for a while."

Wind Chasing Girl: "When you feel upset, just listen to music."

Yi Ziye: "It will be fine after a good night's sleep. [sticks out tongue]"

Starry Night Angel: "If the world ends, you will disappear too. I don't want you to disappear."

...

Tsk, there are all avatars and nicknames that girls would use, and those with ambiguous tones.

Ling didn't feel envious, he just felt a little emotional, Ryan Qi was indeed a popular guy.

There is also an article titled "Untitled" which is pinned to the top of the blog. It only has one sentence: "An abandoned angel, even if his wings are still white, will become another god of death."

The netizens' comments were all self-contained. Some directly asked what it meant, some asked if Ryan Qi compared himself to the god of death, and there were all kinds of interpretations. Ryan Qi ignored them all.

He only replied to a message from an ID called "Yagami Light".

Because that person sent two words: "Good poem."

Ryan Qi gave him a grinning face in response.

Ethan Ling twitched his lips. Adding a few commas to a sentence is called poetry?

Alas, it’s too advanced, he can’t understand it, so he should just look at some more straightforward photos.

The photo album is much richer than the diary. Ethan Ling looked through the photos one by one and finally knew what the "Deyin International School" looked like.

Ryan Qi sent a lot of photos of their school, including a playground, classrooms, art studios, piano rooms... The conditions were indeed much better than those of the middle school he attended!

The playground of their school is made of rubber, and there is also an independent indoor basketball court and swimming pool. Ryan Qi is good at many sports and likes to take photos of sports, such as fencing, tennis, and golf, which Ethan Ling has never even touched before.

Their classrooms were equipped with lockers, air conditioners, and public bookshelves, and everyone had a brand new desk, which was a world of difference compared to the desks in Ethan Ling's school that were almost worn out.

There was also Ryan Qi's home. Ethan Ling pieced together a few photos. There was a yard, an iron gate, and a glass sun room. It was probably a villa. There were also many photos of a big white dog. It looked very cute. I wonder if it was Ryan Qi's.

Other than that, all the photos are Ryan Qi’s own photos.

The first thing that attracted Ethan Ling's attention was a stage photo, for no other reason than that Ryan Qi was wearing that familiar performance costume. He was sitting on the stage, playing the piano with a focused expression, like a little prince.

A year later, the eyes and eyebrows of that enthusiastic young man came alive again in Ethan Ling's memory.

He was distracted for a moment, then looked down and saw a photo of Ryan Qi wearing a basketball uniform. He was facing the camera, holding the ball in one hand, with one eye open and one closed, as if he was suddenly caught in the act of winking. His ruffian look was displayed to the fullest.

That scene was taken in two shots. In the next shot, Ryan Qi stretched out his other hand, made a V sign to the camera, and smiled handsomely and sweetly.

Ethan Ling's heartbeat suddenly quickened...

Long after closing the webpage, Ethan Ling's mind was still full of Ryan Qi's appearance.

Compared to the brief memory a year ago, Ryan Qi's image now has become much more three-dimensional.

But after learning that the other party was a full diamond noble and was so popular, Ethan Ling couldn't muster up the courage to recognize him.

It's not being cowardly, it's being socially phobic, it's a subtle sense of nobleness in one's bones.

Ethan Ling always felt that no matter what he said, it seemed like he was trying to establish a relationship.

When exiting the other party's space, he did not forget to delete his access records to maintain the "innocence" of both of them.

Ethan Ling didn't expect that this retreat would result in him not communicating with Ryan Qi for five years.

From that day on, Feng's space became the territory he quietly stepped into countless times.

For Ryan Qi, it was just a zombie fan who was still using the system avatar in his friend list.