Love Delusion: Chapter 21

Lin Anran didn’t know that he’d met Shang Hao before; he’d really forgotten.

But when Shang Hao talked about it, that long-forgotten scene unburied itself from the back of his mind.

It must be said that he absolutely had no clue that that person was the Shang Hao who was before him now.

At this moment, he felt a sense of unreality. He re-captured that feeling that had lain dormant in his memory, and he recalled the color of the setting sun on the 19-year-old Shang Hao’s hair. That evening, the wind blew outside, the sound so distant from them.

The figure walking in front of him that day, helping him move the desk, felt too reliable and too safe. As a result, Lin Anran hadn’t truly forgotten; he’d actually remembered every detail.

Preserved in his memory was a young Shang Hao.

Lin Anran was uncertain, and when he spoke, his voice sounded almost exactly like that same voice from seven years ago. “Hao ge…?”

“You finally remember?” Shang Hao said. “I’ve been waiting for you to remember it.”

With his arrogance and self-satisfied nature, he felt that it was impossible for Lin Anran to forget him, and so he’d been deliberately waiting for Lin Anran to remember.

Yet, at that time, Lin Anran was too exhausted trying to cope with social interactions, and so he had no spare energy to suddenly match a face that he’d only seen once.

Shang Hao grabbed Lin Anran’s hand and placed it on one side of his face. “Touch it, isn’t this Hao ge?”

Lin Anran was still in a daze, and he touched Shang Hao’s face as instructed.

“Why do you think I went back to your alma mater to donate? And you still wrote me a thank you letter as an alumnus, I really…” Shang Hao smiled again.

Lin Anran seemed to be in a stunned daze, as if unable to digest everything. He touched Shang Hao’s face again and again.

Shang Hao said, “Kissing me is also okay.”

“Now do you believe me?” he added. “I’m not another Shang Hao. I’m the same Shang Hao you wrote to.”

If the person in front of him wasn’t a split personality…This bold idea suddenly appeared in Lin Anran’s mind, and his breathing quickened. He suddenly remembered the paint that had been left in the corner of his house.

Lin Anran asked, “…Then the painting?”

Shang Hao said, “Tomorrow at the latest, I’ll sort out all the information regarding painting’s ownership and purchase receipt and give them to you.”

Lin Anran became nervous. “No, no, no need.”

But when he thought that the real work of the suspected master was in his house, he felt as if he couldn’t sit still at all. After a moment, he carefully asked, “Can I go and look at it again?”

Shang Hao laughed. “Go ahead. It’s your painting, you can look at it whenever you want.”

Lin Anran hurried to the painting. He picked it up carefully and put it back on the table.

His footsteps seemed to be floating. Right now, his entire body felt as if it was floating.

He felt as if he was sitting on top of an illusory hot air balloon. This unscrupulously oversized balloon was inflated with overwhelmingly strange and complex emotions, and it continued to expand and expand as never before, making him float higher and higher up.

Could it be that this wasn’t a delusion that only existed in his mind?

The price of the real painting was something that he absolutely could not afford, not even on a loan. So if the painting in front of him was real, would this prove that the lover that came along with it was also real?

But if the balloon exploded, this indescribable emotion full of sadness, tension, disbelief, and excitement would drown him in an instant.

Besides Fanran, was there any way to prove that this painting was true?

This could only be blamed on Lin Anran’s narrow social circle. He had only a few choices, and Aunt and Peng Peng couldn’t possibly identify the authenticity of the painting.

But he knew where to find professional people.

If not Baidu, nor someone he knew…Lin Anran took out his phone and took a picture of this sky-high painting.

Lin Anran temporarily made a decision that he’d never made before, a radical and brave decision.

Then he posted the picture that he’d just taken.

The big words “Successfully sent” quickly popped out, making Lin Anran’s fingers tightened on his phone. He’d never known himself to be so impulsive and brave before.

His heartbeat remained high, and soon, he received notifications of new messages.

“First! Wifey has appeared. Grab wifey!”

“Second! Confused and asking, is this a new work?”

“Upstairs is careless…I will be the first to submit an article for my wife @ richpersonstatementbot.”

——

Among the countless messages that flooded in, one quickly moved up to the hot comments.

“If I’m not mistaken, this painting has just been auctioned off at a record-high price today. If the Wifey is not in the collector’s house right now, then the background of this fairy is immeasurable.”

“Could this be a printed copy?”

“No. First, the original painting has a different signature, and the signature of the painting that the Wifey posted looks exactly like that one that comes with the original. Second, this painting is not numbered. And third, this frame is unique, precisely because the painting is auctioned with the frame. All of this indicated that this painting is original and is unlikely to be fake.”

“Looking at the texture, the possibility of this being an imitation is also very low. The details are just right.”

“Teacher, your famous painting is just hanging on the table like this.”

“Does Wifey’s house lack a housekeeper? The kind who went to college?”

——

Countless noisy words flooded his eyes. They were saying that this painting was real. Lin Anran’s own clear heartbeat was mixed in with the noise, pounding like a drum. He held the phone and immediately called Peng Peng.

After ringing for a while, the phone connected, and Peng Peng’s big face immediately filled the entire screen. “Hey—wow, this rare caller, why are you looking for me so late?”

Lin Anran’s throat tightened, and he tried to stabilize his voice as he said, “Peng Peng, did you see what I posted just now?”

“What? I’ll take a look right now.”

The Lin Anran that was on the screen was different from usual. Although his expression seemed normal, Peng Peng still felt inexplicably nervous and uneasy.

It was rare for Lin Anran to call him, and Peng Peng, who had been paralyzed on the sofa, sat up and went searching for Lin Anran’s post.

Lin Anran’s heart was beating really fast. Even if everything he saw just now was his delusion, what about Peng Peng? What Peng Peng saw couldn’t be fake, right?

Peng Peng quickled returned to him and asked Lin Anran in confusion, “Yes, you posted a picture. What’s wrong?”

If he said anything else after that, Lin Anran didn’t hear it.

All he heard were sounds.

The overflowing surge washed over him, and Lin Anran’s breathing became chaotic.

He was engulfed by the overwhelming surge of emotions that had suddenly swept over him, making his heart billowed tumultuously. The previous feeling of being a lone soldier putting up a brave fight, the astringent hardship of it, all turned into a burst of intangible waves, crashing through his body until there was nothing left.

Peng Peng looked at his odd stillness and asked in a strange voice, “What’s up with you? Hello…Fuck, Ran Ran! I just saw a figure behind you! I see him!”

“A figure?”

Just as Peng Peng was trying to figure out who this figure was, Lin Anran’s phone was abruptly turned around by someone else.

A wholly unprepared Peng Peng looked in shock as a comfortably dressed Shang Hao appeared in his mobile phone.

To put it succinctly, if he wasn’t so scared, he would have a heart attack on the spot.

Time seemed to stretch, and Lin Anran felt as if he was watching everything in slow motion. Peng Peng’s round face abruptly shifted from shock to tense, as if he was unable to maintain his facial expressions.

“Hello,” Shang Hao said.

Peng Peng let out a huge gasp and said, “You, you…No, you! Hello! Chief Shang!”

Shang Hao smiled, but he wasn’t very polite when he said, “So you’re Ranran’s friend that always freeload on his illustrations and never pays?”

Lin Anran was stunned stupid. He looked at Peng Peng, who looked like he was going to suffocate on the spot.

Suddenly being asked this by the boss, Peng Peng nearly dropped dead. His round face flushed red, and his voice was as small as a gnat. “Ah, that…”

Shang Hao said, “Don’t be nervous. I was just kidding.”

Peng Peng was dumbfounded, but he didn’t dare to make a splash and echoed repeatedly in a respectful voice, “Yes, yes, what you said.”

Lin Anran didn’t quite understand what the joke was. He hurriedly turned the camera back to himself and said, “You don’t need to care about that.”

Peng Peng seemed to have turned into an emotionless machine who can only say yes on repeat, “Yes, yes, what Chief Shang said.”

Lin Anran: …

Shang Hao walked away with satisfaction.

Lin Anran said, “Peng Peng, pull yourself together.”

Peng Peng said, “Then you help me get an autograph.”

Peng Peng added, “Don’t pretend that you didn’t hear, Lin Anran.”

Lin Anran was speechless. “…Next time.”

As Lin Anran was about to hang up, Peng Peng’s soul was still wandering. But he still managed to express regret that he’d forgotten to take a screenshot of himself and Shang Hao.

Lin Anran: “Ah.”

He shot a quick glance at Shang Hao’s profile and asked Peng Peng in a whisper, “Do you want a picture with his profile?”

If it was Fanran, Fanran had such a thick face that it would be fine. But when Lin Anran thought of Shang Hao’s status, he didn’t dare act rashly, let alone order Shang Hao about.

Peng Peng excitedly exclaimed, “Ok ok ok! Go ahead! Don’t let him escape!”

Lin Anran quietly turned his camera over, so that the image of Lin Anran’s figure in home clothes appeared in the corner of his screen.

Peng Peng cooperated with him and swiftly arranged his hands in the position of scissor hands, put on a smile that showed at least eight teeth, and then took a few screenshots of this group image.

Lin Anran asked nervously, “Is it all right?”

Peng Peng answered, “All right! Love you!”

Lin Anran turned the camera back, and Peng Peng continued to say, “I’ll hoard this picture carefully and won’t let it get passed around.”

Lin Anran said, “Good.”

His entire body had been tensed up until now, making him a little tired, and so he exchanged goodbyes with Peng Peng.

At this time, Lin Anran still didn’t know how powerful Shang Hao was, and that the next day, he would receive a huge sum of money from Peng Peng.

All of the money that Peng Peng had embezzled off of Lin Anran in the past year was enumerated in detail, all submitted in a one-time transaction. This efficiency was particularly amazing.

And it wasn’t based on a discounted price either, but rather on Lin Anran’s current market price. Even after calculating it, Lin Anran still made a profit. This was a huge sum of money. Too conscientious.

At this time, Shan Hao came over from the side. “You’re done with your call?”

Lin Anran suddenly became nervous. “Chief Shang.”

Shang Hao sat next to him. “…Don’t call me that.”

Lin Anran straightened his back. “Okay, Mr. Shang.”

“…” Shang Hao looked at him for a while and teased, “Mr. Lin.”

Lin Anran sat upright and proper. “Mr. Shang.”

Shang Hao:…

Oh no, he and Ranran shouldn’t have to start all over again, right?

Right now, Lin Anran was in daze, feeling as if he was wandering away somewhere in the sky. Many chaotic thoughts floated through his mind, but if pressed, he wouldn’t be able to say what they were. One moment, it was “The real Shang Hao is really handsome, so handsome,” and in the next moment, it was “Auntie, I’ve made a profit, I really have.”

“Do you want to touch me again?” Shang Hao asked. “This time, you can no longer suspect that I’m fake.”

Lin Anran momentarily hesitated before giving in and reaching out his hand. He couldn’t help it. The man in front of him seemed both familiar and unfamiliar, completely novel.

How curiously strange. It turned out that he wasn’t the only person residing in this small world of his. Indeed, another person had come in from outside and taken up space inside the walls of his heart.

This world had someone who loved him.

Truly strange.

As Shang Hao was being touched, he gazed at Lin Anran and asked softly, “Why are your eyes red again?”

He opened up his arm and pulled Lin Anran into his embrace. Tightening his arms around him, he pressed his chin against the top of his hair.

He spoke in a rare gentle tone, a bit like he was helpless, but more like he was coaxing him.

“I’ve already told you that I’ve loved you for so long, and you are only willing to believe it today.”

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