Love Delusion: Chapter 13

That night, Shang Hao played a viola that did not belong to him.

Seeing him plucking at the strings like a guitar and actually playing a piece of lovely music in that manner, Lin Anran widened his eyes and knew for the first time that such a thing was possible.

The beef tasted great and the waiter was very good, turning the evening pleasant and relaxing.

Except that this particular waiter especially liked to touch him, everything else was great.
Everyday, aside from when they’re asleep, Shang Hao particularly liked to nuzzle his face against Lin Anran and inhale his scent. This happened at intervals throughout the day, to the point that Lin Anran became accustomed to being inhaled. Now, he could lie down without much hesitation and allow himself to be rubbed and inhaled.

As he nuzzled, Shang Hao became dishonest. He buried his body against Lin Anran and began to feel him up.

His palms were pressed against the side of Lin Anran’s waist. It was so warm and comfortable that his hands inadvertently slipped under the hem of his shirt and both hands began to repeatedly and greedily touch the skin of his waist under his clothes.

“Ticklish.”

Lin Anran laughed, twisting his waist to avoid him.

Shang Hao had just finished taking a shower, and at this moment, his face was buried on Lin Anran’s chest, unmoving.

The understanding and benevolent Lin Anran thought that he must be tired; otherwise, why would he stop moving for so long?

But those two energetic hands were still stroking his waist, the continuous motion ticking him, as if reluctant to pull away.

Not wanting to let him go, his fingers hooked under Lin Anran’s waistband.

As Shang Hao was feeling him up, he suddenly realized that something was happening with his own body. He lifted his head from Lin Anran’s chest and asked him, “What are you doing?”

Just when he was feeling Ranran up, Lin Anran was also touching him. It wasn’t normal touching; it felt more like he was pinching to see whether he was solid or hollow.

Lin Anran heard him and immediately stopped touching him.

“Shang Hao…” Lin Anran hesitated, but still asked thoughtfully, “Do you have a shadow?”

Shang Hao: ??

After hearing this question, he needed to take a deep breath.

Looking at this person, there was a high probability that he was humbly and seriously waiting for his answer.

Shang Hao felt like a loaded gun that couldn’t fire; he couldn’t say anything bad at all. Finally, he could only choke back his aggrievement and bury his face in Lin Anran’s chest once more.

He felt that his habit of not being shy about criticizing others would one day be greatly improved by Ranran. Indeed, if one day he stopped cursing, it would only be because of Lin Anran.

“Otherwise? Do you think I’m a snail girl who lives in your house everyday?” He asked Ranran in a muffled voice.

No, you’re my split-self, Lin Fenran.

Lin Anran only thought this; he didn’t speak it out loud. But his face was smiling, because Shang Hao’s deflated expression was a little amusing.

Most of the time, when he was smiling, his lips would stretch, his expression became a little embarrassed, and his eyes would bend into a crescent.

Shang Hao asked into his chest, “Ranran, when will you go back with me?”

He always felt that this current situation was temporary and wouldn’t last long.

Because of this, he was willing to condescend to live here for now, only for a little while. As long as he could convince Lin Anran to go home with him, all other problems would be solved.

The most important thing was to take Lin Anran back first.

He continued to persuade him, “My home is very big. It has a theatre, a game room, a studio, a gym, a bar…”

Lin Anran:….

“What’s wrong?”

Lin Anran asked, “There’s a bar downstairs from your house?”

Shang Hao replied, “No, it’s a private bar inside my house?”

Lin Anran thought about it and issued a simple and sincere question, “Why would you have a bar in your house?”

Would it be possible to drink that much alcohol? Wouldn’t this be really wasteful?

“This one…” For a period of time, Shang Hao was also stumped by this question. Why did he have a private bar? He asked Lin Anran in a questioning tone, “Because I have a few wineries abroad?”

Lin Anran: “Ahh…”

This sounded reasonable.

He was negligent. From this point of view, it would indeed be a waste not to have a bar at home.

He remembered that someone had once asked the top student how he got a score of 148 on a test, and the top student had said that it was because the test was multiple choice. At this moment, Lin Anran felt like he’d been hit by this similar kind of strike that had no resistance.

By this time, it was already quite late and so they turned off the lights and went to sleep.

Because another warm body was holding him, Lin Anran fell asleep peacefully and slept very well that night. His monster of a bad mood was vanquished, never to be found again.

He didn’t know how Shang Hao did it. Even when he was asleep, he still held him all night.

When Lin Anran got up the next morning, it took a little effort to gently extricate himself from Shang Hao’s arms.

The reason he got up early, earlier than Shang Hao, who had to go to work, was because he had a plan today. He had already arranged everything.

Lin Anran brushed his teeth, washed his face, and rummaged through the items in his closet. He also changed into a full set of clothes.

When Shang Hao woke up later that morning, Lin Anran’s figure was nowhere to be seen on the bed.

He walked out of the room and saw Lin Anran alone in the living room, in the middle of doing something unknown. At first, he couldn’t figure it out.

Lin Anran was really focused and devoted to his movements, as if there wasn’t an extra person in the living room.

“Ranran, what are you doing?”

“Can’t you tell?” Lin Anran turned around and replied, “I’m doing yoga.”

It was said that getting a good night’s sleep, waking up early every day, and maintaining proper exercise could make people feel comfortable and promote physical and mental wellbeing. Therefore, his morning arrangement was to do yoga.

He didn’t know anything about sit-ups and push-ups..

He’d tried yoga before and found this exercise to be particularly suitable for him. It was quiet, peaceful, and didn’t require going out. He also did his homework and bought a yoga mat and yoga clothes.

It wasn’t that Shang Hao didn’t recognize it; it was just that Lin Anran’s serious attempt at yoga was really interesting.

This person not only couldn’t bend his waist, but his legs also couldn’t operate, and so he couldn’t do much movement at all. This was not to say that his movements were nonstandard; it was just that his actions didn’t follow the correct form.

But Lin Anran didn’t seem to realize how unreliable each of his freeze-frame movements were, and so he did his poses very seriously and sternly, fully dedicated to standing still in each foolish posture.

This scene was like a penguin with underdeveloped motor skills forcibly trying to dance.

Shang Hao’s mouth stretched into a wide grin. Not wanting to disturb Ranran, he just leaned over and kissed his face while he was in the middle of doing prayers.

“I really love you so much, Ranran.”

Even though Lin Anran was devoting himself to yoga, he took the time to accept Shang Hao’s love.

Before Shang Hao left, he squeezed the bun that was tied up high behind Lin Anran’s head twice.

Lin Anran’s yoga exercise lasted more than two hours. Therefore, by the time he finished his exercises, Shang Had had already left for work a long time ago.

After a short rest, he rolled up the yoga mat on the ground. Today’s draft hadn’t been drawn yet.

When it came to the effectiveness of exercising, Lin Anran thought it might be a little effective, but he wasn’t entirely too sure.

After all, the reason he woke up early in the morning to do yoga was just so he could adjust his state and no longer be distracted today.

Don’t be distracted, Lin Anran mediated in his heart as he packed up his things. He was a person who could easily become trapped in an emotional quagmire, unable to get out for a long time after he became stuck in it.

His phone alarm interrupted him. It was a reminder he’d scheduled, and its purpose was to remind him that it was time to update his personal homepage.

In the past, Lin Anran would often forget that he had a public account, and so it was common for him to forget to update it. In order not to waste the account, he simply set an alarm clock to remind himself to update it.

However, at this moment, Lin Anran looked at the drawing that he was going to post. He hesitated for a long time, unable to decide if he should really post it.

It was the sketch that he’d drawn last time, in which two hands were intimately nestling together. He’d originally planned to post this picture he’d drawn the day before yesterday, echoing his determination to declare the fact that he had a partner.

Now that he was unsure whether he ought to post it, he became even more entangled.

Lin Anran looked at the sketch and was silent for a long time. Finally, he sent it out. It was only two hands holding each other. There shouldn’t be any problems, right?

After he sent it out, new message notifications followed.

“Ahhhh Rolls finally updated.”

“Very sweet. Knocking on this CP¹!”

“This kind of dog food, I can eat a hundred catty of it.”

“Today is also the day for a beautiful and romantic drawing, content.jpg.”

“Oh my god! I’ve been following my Wifey² for such a long time and finally there’s something interesting. That watch is a special customized model of the Rahaphel20 series. This is the first time I’ve been so close to such an expensive watch.”

Among the comments of eating dog food, only this compelling comment was liked enough to make the front row.

Here were some replies:

“Just finished investigating this watch. Oh man, the joker was actually myself.”
“Just one of Wifey’s pictures is enough to kill me twice!”

“I don’t understand, but is the name of this thing called Expensive?

Soon, another person replied to the previous comment, “This is the same model as a certain star. Just judging from the inner ring, how can you not know that this is called Expensive?”

“This can’t be regarded as a mere luxury brand, it’s more like a collection-level luxury brand.”

The comment area became hot again because of this comment.

Meanwhile, while Lin Anran was drawing, he was also paying attention to the dynamics in the comment area. It was too unbelievable. The situation was spiraling out of control in a chaotic direction.

Before posting the picture, he never expected that the watch would cause such a huge commotion. As he looked at these people’s discussions, Lin Anran panicked and stopped drawing. He held his mobile phone and read the comments one by one.

The focus on the discussion was the expensiveness of the watch and his family status.

Now what should he do…?

Anyway, not many people have seen it yet, so it’ll be okay if he deleted this update, right? Lin Anran stared at the screen tensely, his whole person sitting on pins and needles. And because he felt anxious, he started to bite his lips again.

The cursor moved to the delete button, but he hesitated. Now that these people were discussing so enthusiastically under his post, if he deleted it, would it seem very compelling, causing people to entertain bad guesses?

His news notification continued to ding, accumulating into a digital pile. After refreshing, Lin Anran suddenly found that the person who posted the comment earlier sent a new apology:

“I read it wrong, I apologize to everyone. I just checked, and this one in the picture is not the one held by a certain star.”

Lin Anran immediately let out a breath of relief, unloading all his tensions.

“Wifey’s watch can only be found at auction houses. You have to rely on personal cumulative consumption records before you buy it. This is no longer part of a collection, this is something that should be kept in a safe.”

Lin Anran sat up again when he saw this, completely dumbfounded.

His mood fluctuated up and down, and he wanted to cry without tears.

It was over. This thing was still lying on his bedside table. Just because Shang Hao tossed it there so casually, he didn’t know that this watch was something that ought to go in a safe.

At this moment, he wished he could go back in time, back to beat up yesterday’s Shang Hao.

Wearing a watch was just wearing a watch, and wearing a suit was part and parcel of a business elite. He knew these were expensive, but he didn’t expect that the watch was not only expensive but that it would have such a luxurious backstory.

He didn’t understand the world of the rich. At this time, his mood was almost similar to those in the comment section. Together, they all didn’t understand the world of the rich.

Lin Anran scrambled to look through the comment section again. Fortunately, most of the people were civil, and no one had mentioned a specific name. Lin Anran checked the information, and thought that it should be difficult to find out who the owner was based on the watch alone.

It would be really troublesome if they discovered that it was Shang Hao’s watch and went and bothered the real Shang Hao…the consequences would be disastrous.

He would set this aside for now. Lin Anran thought about it again and again. In order not to arouse any suspicion, he chose to quietly change this post so that only fans could see it.

Once it was late at night, he would sneak in and delete it in secrecy and no one would know.

When he first drew this pair of hands, it was according to memory. Maybe, he saw it in one of the news about Shang Hao.

Lin Anran didn’t know that the things on this man had such a source.

He regretted his carelessness in posting the picture, and so he laid his head on the table, motionless. He insisted on holding the phone in one hand, secretly keeping watch on the comment section.

——

Lin Anran dispiritedly held the pen and lay on his desk to draw, slacking on the job.

The lines on the paper gradually formed a little dummy. Except for a lonely, round-headed little person, there was nothing in the background.

He was drawing yesterday’s Ranran.

The little dummy had no mouth or expression. His two pea-like eyes were open, and only the huge transparent ball of water in his arms was bigger than his round head, so big that his small stick-like hands could barely hold it.

Several round teardrops flowed down from a pair of solid pea-like eyes, and then melted into the big oblate water ball in his arms.

Indeed, he was holding a large ball of tears, completely made up from the tears that fell from the little dummy’s eyes.

The drawing was very simple, completed with just a few strokes. Lin Anran signed and dated it in the lower right corner as usual.

He didn’t draw Shang Hao, and he didn’t draw anything else. He simply let Ranran cry quietly on his own.

Lin Anran looked at the drawing for a while and then set it aside so he could prepare the draft for his morning work.

As a result, the drawing stayed on the side all the way until night time. Because Lin Anran forgot to put it away, Shang Hao, who was off work, saw it.

This person was very domineering, doing whatever he wanted. No matter if Lin Anran was willing or not, he liked to change his drawings randomly.

When Lin Anran came back from the shower, he noticed that the drawing had changed.

The little dummy was still silent and weeping. But that person must have been afraid that the little dummy would be too tired crying while standing, and so he changed the little dummy’s two stick-like legs from vertical to horizontal, letting him sit down while he cried.

But the most important thing was that there was now a huge palm 10 to 20 sizes larger underneath the round-headed little dummy, so that he was sitting directly in the center of that palm.

In order to distinguish that this ordinary-looking palm was from an elite, the capitalist Shang Hao drew it all the way to the wrist and even added something to it.

…It was that watch that Lin Anran was now very familiar with and was capable of matching it to its name and worth, namely a collection piece.

It should be said that Shang Hao’s elite education was quite comprehensive. From Lin Anran’s professional point of view, his strokes had a certain foundation. Although the palm was outlined with only simple lines, it was still quite vivid and in harmony with the drawing style of the little dummy.

The little dummy now had a big palm as a cushion, and he wasn’t alone anymore. He could sit in the giant Haohao’s palm and cry.

In the lower right corner, beside the word “Ranran”, another powerful signature was signed: Haohao.

The date was today.

———
Translation Notes:
(1) Knocking on this CP = shipping this couplehood
(2) Wifey = 太太 (tài tai), means wife, Mrs. etc. But according to my research, it is also an internet slang that fans used to refer to an artist or creator (regardless of male or female) that they’re a fan of.

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