Love Delusion: Chapter 16

Fanran had two most bothersome time periods of the day. One was after he got off work and the other was before he went to work.

During these two time periods, the moment he got home, Lin Anran would be unable to escape. From being caught to giving up struggling, this process only took one second. By that point, the person caught had already become apathetic to it.

Usually, Shang Hao couldn’t wait to swallow him in his stomach. But because Lin Anran’s lip got injured recently, he could only watch and not eat, making him feel suffocated.

Shang Hao held him longer and longer. He held him for such a long time this morning that Lin Anran thought he’d fallen asleep directly on him.

He looked at the time, then at Shang Hao’s head in his arms, and so he reminded him in a low voice, “It’s time.”

“Lin Anran,” Shang Hao’s voice came from below. He remained motionless, and after calling out Lin Anran’s name, he ordered, “You go with me to the company.”

Lin Anran: …

“I’ll have another table set up next to my desk. I have paper and pens,” Shang Hao said.

Really, should he praise him for being so considerate? This person still thought that Lin Anran’s job was to draw childish illustrations on paper and then make money.

He urged Lin Anran, “Ok?”

Lin Anran said, “…No.”

Lin Anran actually wanted to hit him on the head, but he dared not.

Most of the time, he was a person who was resigned and obedient, and he would only say no when he was forced to.

Shang Hao regretfully got up from him. As he did so, a pair of dark eyes stared straight at Lin Anran’s lips. Even though those hungry eyes just looked at it, Lin Anran’s injury already began to ache again.

Suddenly, he leaned down, and with a powerful and yet restrained force, he pressed his lips to the corner of Lin Anran’s mouth and then nipped at his face.

“You went out yesterday?” Shang Hao asked him.

Lin Anran blinked at him, and silently asked him how he knew.

Shang Hao looked pointedly at the clothes drying on the balcony outside. Those two sets of clothes belonged to Lin Anran. One was a normal set of clothes and the other was for going out.

Shang Hao asked him, “Where did you go?”

Lin Anran said nothing.

Shang Hao looked at his face and didn’t force him to answer. He just said, “Are you still going out today?”

Lin Anran shook his head and said that he would not go out.

Shang Hao got up and went to work.

After he left, Lin Anran began to draft today’s drawings.

Good illustrators in this line of work could easily become very popular. Not only did he have to complete Peng Peng’s orders, but he had to complete his own orders. There was no problem in arranging the tasks for the day, but there were a lot of orders still waiting to be completed.

Lin Anran had an unusually quiet personality, and so he especially liked to be alone and could sit by himself all afternoon.

When his shoulders were starting to become sore, he looked at his phone and found that his aunt had sent him a message an hour ago.

To be honest, Lin Anran was actually a little afraid of his aunt caring about him. He knew that, when all was said and done, he wouldn’t be able to reciprocate the same amount of care that she showered on him. He didn’t think he was worth that much kindness, especially since his aunt had her own job and family.

He was a person who was unworldly and unable to recognize other people’s good intentions. Peng Peng was good to him, but he was able to pay back Peng Peng’s friendship by drawing for him.

Lin Anran wasn’t stupid. He knew that no illustrators would paint for free indefinitely. But he still tried his best to follow the rules of interpersonal relationships.

He understood that people see things with a kind of value system. Those who learned computers could be useful because they could repair computers for free; those who learned medicine could be useful because they could be treated for free; and those who knew how to draw could be useful because they could draw for free.

In a relationship of friendship, because he had defects in other aspects, Lin Anran would try to compress himself as much as possible, regardless of how flat he ended up becoming.

Just like how his aunt had been tirelessly caring about his life, making Lin Anran always at a loss, wondering what he could do for her in return.

The unread messages made Lin Anran anxious. After clicking on it, he saw several long unread voice notes, and he subconsciously wanted to bite his lip.

Looking at the voice-to-text conversion was fruitless, and so he honestly began to listen from the first sixty-second points.

However, Lin Anran’s mood became even more anxious after listening.

His aunt said that she wanted to take him to a psychology lecture held by a spiritual master this weekend afternoon. The lecture specifically addressed the psychological anxiety of the
modern urban population, explained how to cultivate and purify the soul, and how to finally achieve the state of harmony between nature and the human body and mind.

His aunt’s tone was quite excited. In order to convince Lin Anran that she really found a treasure, she sent him a link to the lecture.

He clicked it open to reveal an image of a lotus in full bloom in a lotus pond. Above it were some red and gold-rimmed words: “Light clouds, gentle winds, tranquility yields transcendence.”

Lin Huiyan said, “Go, Xiao Ran! This master rarely gives a lecture, and Aunt will also accompany you. These things must be studied frequently. They can purify people’s hearts and upgrade people’s realms. There is no harm in trying!”

Every time this happened, Lin Anran deeply felt that he was too unconscionable. Even though he was just facing a mobile screen, in his heart, Lin Anran fell short of his Aunt’s expectations.

He… didn’t really want to go.

As he held his cell phone, Lin Anran chewed on his lips over this conundrum. No matter how he refused, he would definitely feel guilty.

Because of his narrow social circle, his emoticon inventory was very small, and so he temporarily went in search of rejection emoticons. In the end, he chose the cutest one from among hundreds of choices and carefully sent it to his aunt.

It was a blushing red panda, waving its bear paw back and forth in front of its face: No, thanks. No, thanks.

After Lin Anrad pressed send, he immediately went in search of an expression pack of apology.

See, he was this kind of unworthy person, someone who didn’t care about other people’s kind intentions.

Lin Huiyan refused to give up and persisted in trying to enlighten him. Lin Anran was very busy cutting back and forth across various interfaces, looking for new emoticons. He sent his aunt an embarrassed: “Thank you, Aunt,” “No need, Aunt,” “Thank you, Aunt.”

Lin Huiyan finally lost her temper with him and said, “Humph, ignore you.”

Lin Anran was greatly relieved by this sentence.

Ignoring him was the best choice. Thank you, Aunt, for ignoring him.

After pushing away this lecture that required going outside, Lin Anran slumped in his chair, exhausted.

He couldn’t concentrate on his manuscript, and so he ended up sitting in front of the computer for a long time, unable to draw anything at all.

In such situations, he would take physical measures to refresh himself and forced himself to draw something.

Therefore, the moment Shang Hao entered the house at the end of the day, he saw Lin Anran swearing an unknown thing on his head.

Very cartoonish. Was it a sheep? It had two curled horns and two pink ears. This was the first time he saw Lin Anran wore something like this. It perfectly complemented this person’s harmless temperament, and was therefore especially suitable for him.

This thing was actually a headband Lin Anran originally bought to hold his front hair back while he washes his face.

But he hadn’t bought the right size. After putting it on, the headband was so tight that it felt as if it was trying to squeeze people’s brains out.

Since he’d already bought it, the somewhat disappointed Lin Anran had a great idea and decided to give it a new purpose.

Since then, this headband became his inspiration headband. He would wear it when he couldn’t draw, letting it squeeze his brain into working.

This mind-band was special. Because the quality of the hairband was so superb, it was still very tight even after prolonged use. Lin Anran, who never returned goods, even went back to give the merchant a five-star praise.

Although the purpose of this headband wasn’t clear to Shang Hao, he still suffered a nosebleed.

That night, he followed Lin Anran around, calling him Little Sheep.

Although he still didn’t know what it was, Shang Hao thought that he completely understood the person who invented this thing. The already cute little dummy Ranran had reached new heights of cuteness.

When it was time to go to bed at night, Lin Anran was forced to lie back and count sheep.

Lin Anran didn’t have so much trouble when he lived alone, and no one called him a little sheep while he wore this headband. But now, he even had to count sheep.

But he was an honest man who was willing to do everything Shang Hao asked him to do, even though Shang Hao was really heavy.

Leaving the bedside lamp on, Lin Anran slowly counted sheep in a soft voice, and his warm breath brushed across Shang Hao’s ear, breathing into his heart.

“One sheep, two sheeps, three sheeps…”

Shang Hao was buried on his body. His eyes were closed, quietly sleeping. Now that those intimidating eyes were covered, this person’s deterrent power to Lin Anran was significantly weakened.

When Shang Hao was peaceful like this, looking like any ordinary good-looking person when he wasn’t speaking, Lin Anran didn’t feel so much pressure.

“… Ninety-nine sheeps, one hundred sheeps.”

Lin Anran observed for a while. The person lying on him was breathing smoothly. Even after a long time, he hadn’t responded, as if he’d really fallen asleep.

Taking advantage of his deep sleeping state, Lin Anran silently watched his quiet side face as he laid on his body, and his courage rose wickedly.

He cautiously and prudently leaned forward, his lips moved, and he whispered to the sleeping Shang Hao.

He said, “Stinky pervert.”

He’d held back for too long, too long. During this period of time, he’d been rubbed and stroked everyday. No one knew the hardship of being a tool person¹ like him.

Shang Hao bullied him everyday and he was unable to reject him. But now, wasn’t this person just him? Why did he have to be so greedy for his own body everyday? So stinky and so perverted.

Because he knew that this was his split-self, there was nothing he didn’t dare scold now.

Lin Anran said, “One stinky pervert, two stinky perverts, three stinky perverts, four stinky perverts…”

Shang Hao said, “Ranran, I heard you.”

Lin Anran:…

Lin Anran:…

Wanting to avoid making eye contact, Lin Anran quickly closed his eyes and pretended to sleep. His exposed pair of eyelashes trembled and trembled.

Shang Hao lifted his head up to look at him, and his pair of opened eyes had a sleepy daze to it, as if he couldn’t quite understand the situation at this time.

This confident man felt that he’d just had an auditory hallucination. He heard Ranran scold him.

He felt that it was improbable for Ranran to scold him, but the words just now were still in his ears and he heard them very clearly.

Ranran was definitely counting perverts in his ear. One stinky pervert, two stinky perverts…

Shang Hao still said uncertainly, “Ranran, this is scolding people.”

Lin Anran didn’t answer. He dropped his head directly on the pillow, pretending that he had fainted.

Seeing his reaction, Shang Hao became more and more certain that he’d been scolded. He lifted up Lin Anran’s eyelids and said, “Come on. You say it again, and I’ll listen.”

Within a second, Lin Anran pleaded guilty and immediately turned into the little brother begging in front of the now awake Shang Hao. He called him in a fawning manner, “Hao ge.”

Shang Hao was caught between anger and laughter. “Don’t hold back, ah. I’ll call you Ran ge, okay, Ran ge? You were scolding just now, right? Did it feel pretty good? Say it again.”

Lin Anran kept shrinking into the pillow, kept shrinking, as if trying to shrink himself into a pillow.

As he shrank, Lin Anran continued to say in a fawning voice, “Hao ge.”

Shang Hao asked, “Are you still scolding?”

Lin Anran said, “Not scolding Hao ge.”

What followed was Shang Hao’s encouragement to scold him, while he remained silent.

However, to reward Lin Anran for scolding him, Shang Hao ended up coaxing him to sleep by whispering in his ear.

“One little sheep, two little sheeps, three little sheeps…”

Lin Anran’s hand was held by the other person and kneaded carefully.

That night, Lin Anran slept terribly. He forced his eyes closed, too immersed in the mood of the little sheep. He always felt that Shang Hao above his head would take a bite the moment he fell asleep.

—————
Translation Notes:
(1) Tool Person — Someone who goes out of his way to help others without demanding any kind of payment, be it emotional, physical or economic. Someone used like a tool by others.

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