Love Delusion: Chapter 15

When Shang Hao returned home, Lin Anran was searching on the computer “How to apply for a credit card without knowing” and a lot of mixed information came out.

Because there was no proof of purchase, if the head of household needed to return the goods, he would have to call the official customer service line.

Because of this daunting social threshold, Lin Anran had no choice but to quietly suffer from this depressing loss.

Searching the web was fruitless. He thought about it again and changed the direction of his search.

He searched the local list of untrustworthy people who had failed to fulfill a court order, and nervously confronted the names one by one in the long list to see whether there was “Lin Anran” in there.

It didn’t seem to be. But Lin Anran still thought that he might have to give it more time and come back to search again.

He drew another stick figure this afternoon, the Little Dummy series.

The round-headed little dummy was drawn much bigger this time. There was a tortoise shell as tall as him in the little dummy’s hands, which he held as a shield as he stood in front of Shang Hao.

The tortoise is an introverted and powerful animal.

In order to prevent Shang Hao from changing his drawing without authorization, Lin Anran also added him into the drawing. This time, he drew his whole body.

But the Haohao in the drawing was far away from the little dummy. Due to the relationship between scale and distance, this person was only one third as big as the little dummy.

Because Haohao was standing far away, he wasn’t as detailed and only his iconic suit was still clear.

Yes, it wasn’t because the little dummy had grown bigger but that he was far away from Shang Hao.

The story told in this drawing today was that Haohao spent a lot of money, and Ranran didn’t want to see him for the time being. But he was still determined to protect him.

The round-headed figure firmly supported the tortoise shell, blocking in front of Haohao. His pea-like eyes had once again become linear eyes, gaze firm and straight.

Lin Anran’s idea was this: This time, the little dummy was so far away from Haohao, let’s see how Shang Hao could change it now. Now matter how he changed it, there was no way he could touch him.

He put the drawing away and pressed it under his other things.

As a result, when he came out of the shower, the drawing was changed again.

The little dummy was already in a very difficult situation. It was necessary to protect Shang Hao as well as himself. But this unscrupulous person also put a loop of rope around the little dummy’s neck, with the long rope stretched across the paper into the hand of the fuzzy Haohao in the distance.

Lin Anran: …

He couldn’t say that his own idea was bad, but his Fanran was being very annoying.

Now that Lin Anran thought about it, he felt that his family pillow Shang Hao was really good. Not only did it have a vibration message option, but it would also save him a lot of trouble and worry. It certainly wouldn’t change his drawing at random.

Lin Anran put the drawing down. Although he tried his best to ignore it, he still couldn’t break out from the shadow of the big treadmill.

Wondering how much his family’s partner spent, he checked the price of the treadmill this afternoon, and it was priced at 200,000 yuan.

…What family, ah.¹

Lin Anran:QAQ.

The clay figurine still had three points of anger. He was angry.

If Shang Hao was another person, Lin Anran could still swallow his anger, and it would pass after a while. But that person was himself. There was nothing wrong with being angry with oneself.

Yes, teach him. Let him know who the real Lin Anran was.

Shang Hao was standing in front of the bathroom mirror, wiping his hair, when a small shadow silently appeared from behind him in the mirror and marched straight toward him.

Shang Hao turned his head to look at him.

In fact, Lin Anran’s courage began to disintegrate the moment he entered the bathroom, and his heart gradually became terrified. That person was also Lin Anran, but he was obviously taller and stronger than him. Standing in front of him now, Lin Anran became aware of how much shorter he was.

Moreover, the eyes that he swept over were dark and deep, with the self-assurance of someone who’d been in a high position for a long time, making people feel scrutinized without him even saying a single word.

Lin Anran’s courage became even smaller.

But his fist was not pushover. Before entering the bathroom, Lin Anran had already squeezed his hand into a fist. At this moment, he insisted on raising it, and so he punched Shang Hao.

The person who was hit on the arm didn’t even retreat respectfully. He stood as immovable as a mountain, still looking at Lin Anran with his head down.

Lin Anran felt as if the damage from his fist were all returned to him.

The atmosphere gradually began to freeze. Lin Anran’s blood bar of courage was already so little. Now it bottomed out completely, and he began to avoid Shang Hao’s eyes.

Shang Hao was the first to move. Stretching his arm out in front of Lin Anran, he said with interest, “Want another shot?”

To Lin Anran, it sounded like a tall and lofty Fanran was asking him, “If you have the guts, do it again.”

The already very low blood bar of courage was cut in half by this sentence. Lin Anran’s breath was exhausted, but he still used all his courage in the end to make a big move.

Lin Anran: “Humph.”

He turned away from Shang Hao’s sight.

Shang Hao was already holding back a laugh.

He guessed that Lin Anran was upset because he kept changing his illustrations. But he was quite happy that Lin Anran was willing to hit him. This was a good thing. After all, he liked Ranran and was willing to bear his anger.

Although in his eyes, this person just walked in suddenly, then raised a small fist and punched him.

It was so cute that he wanted to press him against the wall and kiss him.

But given that he had just injured Lin Anran’s mouth, today’s Shang Hao had to rein himself in.

——

The next day, Lin Anran was behaving differently than usual. He woke up early as usual and completed his morning routine the same way. But he didn’t take out the yoga mat nor did he do yoga.

“Are you not exercising?” Shang Hao asked.

Lin Anran said, “Tomorrow.”

Shang Hao didn’t know why but he felt that Lin Anran seemed to be a little different doay. He just couldn’t figure out what it was exactly that was different.

“I’m leaving.” Shang Hao, who was about to go to work, stood at the door and said to Lin Anran, who was sitting at the desk, “I love you too. See you later.”

Lin Anran said, “Goodbye.”

Shang Hao was right. The reason Lin Anran didn’t exercise today was because he had something important to do today.

—He was going out.

Leaving the house would normally consume most of his energy for the day. Therefore, Lin Anran had to postpone his daily yoga schedule for one day in order to keep his energy charged for this upcoming activity.

Because he decided to protect Shang Hao and himself, Lin Anran felt liberated. But it also came with greater responsibilities.

And although he was 80% sure that Shang Hao was Lin Fenren, there was still the 20% variable.

On the one hand, he needed to use his tortoise shell to protect Shang Hao more closely in front of other people; on the other hand, he still had to act on his own.

Lin Anran had already done his homework. It was naturally very difficult for ordinary people to have normal contact with the real Shang Hao himself. The Tianneng Group’s building was so tall that every floor seemed to be built with insurmountable class.

The last time this strange-looking person visited Tianneng’s headquarters, he was perfunctorily placed in the reception room. He sat silently all afternoon and finally returned dejected.

There were also unusual ways of contacting Shang Hao, such as in parking lots, at the gates of the company, and other places. Lin Anran didn’t understand much about it, but he didn’t think these methods were very feasible.

With his very limited source of information, he was unable to locate Shang Hao’s recent schedule. In fact, it wasn’t very often that he could find Shang Hao’s itinerary in advance.

Today, Lin Anran decided to go to Tianneng’s building again.

It wasn’t an easy decision for him, but he had a plan.

Similar to the last time he went out, Lin Anran thoroughly prepared with a bucket hat, a face mask, and long-sleeved shirts and pants. He also planned out his time.

Wanting to avoid the peak period of traffic, Lin Anran waited until two and a half hours after Shang Hao left. By this time, he was armed and ready to leave his cave.

He checked his backpack, made sure that he didn’t forget anything important, and checked his equipment.

Finally, he left the house. The destination was the Tianneng Group building where Shang Hao was located.

This nearly an hour’s journey wasn’t without hardship for him. But fortunately, he’d gone there once before and he simply reused the same route.

After stepping into the lobby on the first floor of this magnificent building, people without employee IDs would be blocked by rows of neat and cold-blooded swipe gates on the outer circle, preventing them from going further inside.

Behind the turnstile were ten large elevators lined up in an orderly manner, all of which could be used only after swiping in.

This wasn’t the first time Lin Anran was here. He was now Niuhulu² Anran.

He had a clear goal. After entering through the front door, he lowered his head, avoided looking at the lady at the front desk, and walked southeast with steady steps and determined eyes.

The lady at the front desk looked curiously as this fully equipped man went all the way into the hall to the corporation’s opinion collection box.

Lin Anran took out a letter he’d prepared long ago from his bag, raised his hands, and solemnly delivered it into the box.

His task for today was now completed. Indeed, he’d worked overtime yesterday to produce “A Letter to Mr. Shang Hao.”

He thought that this mailbox should be approximately equal to the mailbox downstairs in his house, and so Shang Hao himself probably wouldn’t ignore the letters in the mailbox.

Of course, he already delivered the same letter to the opinion box on the Internet. In also coming here, he was undertaking a two-pronged approach, hoping that the repeated letters would not disturb Mr. Shang Hao.

Just after he finished delivering the letter, there was a sudden movement from the elevator. A bustling group of people was exiting the elevator, all of them in formal attire with badges.

Lin Anran discovered that even the ladies at the front desk had respectfully stood up to face that direction.

A thought came to him, and so he stood by the opinion box, feeling at a loss. Yet, his gaze remained firm on that group of people.

His own heartbeat pounded in his ears, beating like a drum. He tried to raise his gaze, trying to identify the person surrounded by the crowd of people.

The employees who were waiting for the elevator also nodded their greetings. After exiting the elevator, the group of people dispersed, and the person who was surrounded gradually walked to the front.

—It was a completely strange face.

Not Shang Hao.

Lin Anran exhaled, watching the group of people pass majestically by him and walk out the door.

He didn’t know whether he felt fortunate or regretful. He looked back and glanced at the opinion box hung on the wall.

This was something he came up with, hoping that an ordinary person like him could also contact Shang Hao through formal channels.

He didn’t know if it would work, but he wanted to give it a try anyway. But because he didn’t have anything to say to the real Shang Hao, he racked his brains, flipped through the previous news, and finally found a weak common topic between them.

The school that Shang Hao had donated to before was the middle school that Lin Anran had transferred to. Although more than a month had passed since that incident, Lin Anran still wrote an eloquent one-thousand-word thank-you letter to Chairman Shang Hao about the incident, and put it into their company’s suggestion box.

He hoped to receive a reply from Mr. Shang Hao soon.

Sincerely, salute.

—————
Translation Notes:
(1) What family, ah. — From my research, this phrase seems to be an internet phrase that was originally part of an expression pack that stems from a TV series. It is basically used to complain about poor economic conditions and one’s family not knowing how to be frugal.
(2) Niuhulu — Another internet slang that originated from the main character Zhen Huan in the TV series “The Legend of Zhen Huan,” wherein the main character was originally a simple girl when she entered the Emperor’s harem, was given the last name Niuhulu, and became extremely resourceful and scheming. So, basically, Lin Anran was saying that he now had experience in being resourceful/scheming/plotting.

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