Love Delusion: Chapter 10

It was early in the morning, and Lin Anran wasn’t very energetic, even though he usually wasn’t an energetic person to begin with.

Before leaving, Shang Hao leaned over and hugged Lin Anran. Then he held his face and said, “I’m leaving. Ranran, say you love me.”

Lin Anran said, “Okay.”

Shang Hao didn’t expect him to agree so quickly. But he quickly gathered his thoughts and stared at him with a quiet and serious look.

Thinking about it carefully, Lin Anran had never once said that he loved him. It didn’t matter to Shang Hao, because he knew that Lin Anran was afraid to show his soft inside, especially when it came to such a private and deep emotion.

In fact, when he said yes, Shang Hao thought he had misheard. This was a moment worth recording.

He waited for almost a minute, and so the two stood quietly at the door for some time.

Shang Hao didn’t want to interrupt, thinking Ranran might need a moment to prepare himself. But when another full minute passed, he finally couldn’t help but silently question him with his eyes: “?”

Lin Anran still had a pure and earnest look in his eyes. “I said it in my heart.”

Shang Hao:..….

Then he said, “…Okay, I love you too.”

He didn’t doubt him. Ranran was a pragmatic person, and he knew that he really must have said it in his heart.

Very good, this was very Lin Anran.

Lin Anran watched Shang Hao’s back enter the elevator before he finally closed the door.

Now that he was alone in their quiet home, Lin Anran leaned back against the door panel and let out a sigh.

It wasn’t that he disliked being alone. It was just that today was different. For every second that passed, he was one step closer to the scheduled meeting with Teacher Zhou tomorrow.

When he saw Teacher Zhou in the past, he hadn’t been so stressed. But the reason he was so stressed now was primarily because he hadn’t figured out how to face the questions that Teacher Zhou would ask him tomorrow.

In order to escape this pressure, Lin Anran began to divert his attention and sat down to draw today’s draft.

This method was somewhat effective and soon Lin Anran became less anxious.

He spread his work in front of him and began sketching, which helped him avoid the pressure of thinking too much.

The sketch had simple lines that gathered into two hands. The larger hand was holding the smaller one. Without color, these holds looked like two white birds nestling together.

This sketch may seem ordinary to other viewers, because only the people in the sketch could recognize it at a glance. It was Haohao and Ranran’s hands.

Lin Anran put down the sketch and glanced at the time.

After soothing his heart, the flow of time seemed to have moved a bit faster. In the blink of an eye, it was already lunch time.

Half of the day was gone, and he could feel his freedom being cut succinctly in half.

There were some unread messages waiting on his phone. Lin Anran read them one by one in chronological order, only to realize that Peng Peng seemed to have sent him countless messages this morning.

Lin Anran clicked on Peng Peng’s messages, and soon question marks and exclamation marks filled the entire screen, astonishing him.

What could be wrong? The deadline hadn’t arrived yet…His first reaction was to reflect on himself, and then continue to draw faster. Finally, he managed to pull out some useful information from the pile of question marks.

Between saying and not saying, Peng Peng’s messages were filled with very strong emotions. Lin Anran sighed and clicked to load a photo that Peng Peng had sent.

The photo he had sent was an image of a financial magazine. The key point was that on the cover of the magazine was the boyfriend he’d shown Peng Peng yesterday.

Lin Anran, who was drowning in Peng Peng’s full screen of question marks, immediately felt guilty.

…He’d been discovered.

Peng Peng Bang Bang: Lin Anran!!!!!! I see that you’re typing!!!!!!

This sudden new message scared Lin Anran into nearly dropping his phone. The moment Peng Peng realized he’d caught Lin Anran online, he began to bombard him with crazy texts.

Peng Peng Bang Bang: Report! back!!!!!!

Peng Peng Bang Bang: If I remembered correctly, this is your boyfriend on the cover of the magazine??????????

Peng Peng Bang Bang: Eh?????? If you don’t speak, I will call you!!! I really will!!!!!!

As Lin Anran watched Peng Peng’s messages continue to arrive, he struggled to organize his words. When he saw Peng Peng’s message about calling, he was so scared that he immediately summoned up enough courage to hurriedly send out the word “Mmn.”

In an instant, he felt even more guilty…

Peng Peng Bang Bang: Impossible! You lied to me!

Seeing this sentence sent by Peng Peng, Lin Anran felt a strong sense of substitution, as if his fig leaf was suddenly lifted off in broad daylight.

This sentence accurately hit his weakest spot, and it hit him quite hard. That’s right. The first reaction that normal people had was that this was impossible…

Lin Anran’s anxiety shot through the roof once more, and the words in the input box were typed and deleted with shaking fingers.

Peng Peng Bang Bang: Wait a minute. I’ll go and shout on the rooftop.

After this sentence arrived, there were no more movements. Ten minutes later, he must have returned after venting on the rooftop, because Peng Peng seemed a lot calmer.

He continued to bombard Lin Anran with messages.

Peng Peng Bang Bang: Which kind of presidential text is this? What are you, Lin Versailles Anran?（1）

Peng Peng Bang Bang: Excuse me, can this little person have the honor of taking a look at this legendary bigshot? Requesting!!

Lin Anran nearly jumped up from his chair. He typed back anxiously and nervously, “No.”

Peng Peng Bang Bang: Oh…Is it a secret? Understood, understood.

After Peng Peng said this, Lin Anran had no strength to deal with it anymore and promptly ended the conversation.

Putting down the phone, he felt that his performance just now was really bad, too bad.

He was already so nervous when talking about it across a screen. What would he do when he faced Teacher Zhou tomorrow?

He weakly buried his face in the pillow, trying to escape reality.

No matter how much Lin Anran didn’t want it to, the sky still darkened little by little as time passed. In the afternoon, his work efficiency was so low that he only drew for a bit and had to stop.

He received another message on his phone. It was the express station downstairs warmly reminding him to pick up his package on time. It should be a new sample book a publisher had sent him.

But Lin Anran was really exhausted today and he couldn’t muster up the strength to go outside. It just so happened that this morning, his family Fan Ran(2) had sent Lin Anran a message saying he’ll pick up the mail on his way home from work today.

….Lin Anran had sent back an agreement. Sure enough, he had already given up struggling and was now calling him Fan Ran.

Lin Anran didn’t eat dinner; he wasn’t hungry, he just felt tired. He dropped onto the sofa and fell asleep without knowing it, his brows still slightly furrowed.

When Shang Hao came home that night, he brought him his package.

“What you bought is quite heavy,” he said.

Lin Anran unpacked the courier package, which was surprisingly large. When the bag opened, he saw that the inside was filled with pillow stuffing and then a piece of cloth.

Lin Anran was stunned for a few seconds after seeing this, and then he stared with wide eyes.

Lin Anran:!

He didn’t expect the thing he bought to arrive so quickly. He just bought it the day before yesterday!

Lin Anran couldn’t wait any longer. First, he unfolded the compressed pillow stuffing, patted it, and then unfolded the pillowcase. He stuffed it just so and now it was…

Done.

One customized full-length Shang Hao pillow.

To be safe, in order not to infringe on Shang Hao’s image rights, as a law-abiding person in society, he drew the picture of Shang Hao himself and then sent it out to the customization store.

Super good-looking, super restored. The thing looked really big and very satisfying. The body-length pillow gave off a particular sense of security, and Lin Anran’s expressionless face slowly flushed with excitement.

He picked up his mobile phone and looked at how other people’s reviews were written. He also wanted to leave a good review for the merchant.

He saw a variety of things in the comments, such as “Sweet wife received, soft and comfortable, very conscientious seller,” and “hugging it to sleep is so comfortable hehehe.”

Lin Anran thought for a while, began to organize his words, and then sent his review after typing for a full minute: “I received it. It is very comfortable. Thank you, seller.”

He couldn’t post a picture, but he gave it a five-star praise.

Once done, Lin Anran raised his head with a satisfied expression and then proceeded to touch and squeeze his custom-made Shang Hao.

And Shang Hao himself was watching the entire interaction between the two with his hands at his side, completely bewildered.

#Whatisthis#

Because Lin Anran’s baffling behavior was so incredibly bewildering, Shang Hao stood in place for a long time, unable to make any other response except to stare blankly.

To be precise, it felt like being given a green hat, except that, in the strictest sense, it couldn’t be considered as a green hat.

“Lin Anran.” A voice suddenly interrupted Lin Anran’s movements.

Lin Anran raised his gaze and saw Shang Hao looking at him with a black face.

“What is this?” He walked over and lifted the corner of the “self” on the sofa, his expression telling Lin Anran that he’d better have a good explanation.

Lin Anran: “Ah…”

A wonderful quiet atmosphere permeated between the two of them.

Lin Anran said, “It will be very comfortable to sleep with this one.”

Shang Hao said, “Don’t you think there’s something wrong with what you just said?”

So who was sleeping next to you every night?

Lin Anran whispered resolutely, “It also has a vibrating message function.”

Shang Hao was momentarily speechless. “….If this is something you want, compared to it, I can also emit heat.”

At this moment, Shang Hao wanted to get angry, but he didn’t know where to send it. With all due respect, was this some strange otaku hobby?

But wasn’t the person himself already here?

“Return,” he said categorically.

Lin Anran was at a loss for words. He opened his mouth and wanted to refute but couldn’t refute. After holding back for a while, he had to call his name, “Shang Hao…”

“No matter what you want to say, it’s all useless.”

Lin Anran learned how to beg for mercy from the TV. The little brother lowered his head exactly like so and said, “Hao ge.” (3)

Shang Hao: …

Finally, Shang Hao threw the long body-length pillow into the guest room and locked the door. As the original, this was his final concession.

Lin Anran thought to himself that if he had known earlier, he wouldn’t have opened it so soon. He didn’t expect that his Fanran would unexpectedly make things difficult. It was because of that pillow that Fanran’s hands were particularly heavy today.

Lin Anran touched the strong bite mark on his neck. Tomorrow, it would definitely leave a trace.

Thinking about tomorrow, his head started to ache again. He could only cover the mark with band-aids. If it doesn’t work, he would mix some paint and paste it on himself.

What he saw was not necessarily what others saw. He couldn’t even show the real picture of the two of them to Peng Peng, afraid that the two-person picture would become a single-person picture. Therefore, he had to be more vigilant with Teacher Zhou.

Author’s Note:
Otaku Ranran: (Hold the paper(4) husband tightly.jpg)

————–
Translation Notes:
(1) Versailles = an internet slang that’s something along the line of showing off in a low-key manner.
(2) Fanran = I had a hard time translating this in a way that wouldn’t be awkward. Fēn means to divide, separate, a fraction, etc., while Ran is basically the end of Lin Anran’s name. So, in calling Shang Hao the name Fan Ran, Lin Anran is basically referring to him as a split part of himself.
(3) Ge = Brother, can also be used to imply intimacy.
(4) Paper = Fake, 2 dimensional

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