Love Delusion: Chapter 3

After they left the clinic, his aunt drove him back.

Lin Huiyan’s red Volkswagen had been with her for many years and took her to and from work everyday. Lin Anran was already very familiar with it.

Lin Huiyan sat in the driver’s seat, fastened her seat belt, and turned to look at Xiao Ran. Before the car had even started, he was already quietly looking out the window.

This child’s character was too quiet.

Lin Huiyan knew that he was still a little reluctant to come to the counseling center. Every time, after coming out of it, the already quiet Xiao Ran would become even quieter than usual.

Lin Huiyan called him, “Xiao Ran.”

Lin Anran turned back to look at her.

He had almond-shaped eyes with the inner corners somewhat elongated. His eyes had always been round and shiny since he was a child. His long, straight eyelashes drooped slightly, but because they were much too long, his eyelashes ended up obscuring his eyes a little. After having opened for a long time, his eyes looked world-weary and indifferent, without much energy.

“It’s nothing.” Lin Huiyan smiled. “We’re leaving.”

Lin Anran could see that his aunt seemed to be looking for opportunities today to ask him where he went yesterday, but she still hadn’t asked anything up to now.

He didn’t know what to say, but he stopped turning his head to look out the window. Instead, he stared dryly at the front windshield, trying not to rudely point the back of his head to her.

Lin Anran was very good at being a human being. But he didn’t know how to greet or talk to other people. He gave up trying to communicate with people many years ago, so he was often regarded as a freak during his school days.

Lin Huiyan’s car had a new smell, with floral and fruity notes. The smell wasn’t very strong, but the unfamiliar scent was enough to make Lin Anran feel a little motion sickness the longer he sat in the car.

He had to turn his head and look out the window again, staring at the passing trees.

Xiao Ran was not a rebellious child. Lin Huiyan felt that yesterday’s events should be important to him.

She asked casually as she drove, “Xiao Ran, has anything interesting happened recently?”

Lin Anran said, “No…”

“Lately, your cousin has been wanting to go out with you, maybe to watch a movie. I told him that I’ll ask Xiao Ran.”

Lin Anran loosened the seat belt on his shoulder in discomfort, before saying, “Okay.”

Because his aunt had specifically mentioned it, he felt he could not refuse.

Although this was merely a sentence stipulating a possibility of “some time” going out and playing together, it was enough to already make him feel pressured and anxious.

As she drove, his aunt chatted with him from time to time, and asked how he was doing and whether he was still in touch with Peng Peng

Peng Peng was the only friend in Lin Anran’s barren social circle. As a result, Lin Huiyan had always valued and cared for this single seedling.

Lin Anran and Peng Peng had known each other since they were in college and still kept in touch from time to time.

The main reason this was so was because Peng Peng worked in a publishing house, and he would occasionally come to Lin Anran when he needed some illustrations done.

He knew that his aunt took this friendship very seriously. She told him, “When you have time, you should invite your friend out to get together. Also, you can send a message to see if he has been busy lately.”

Lin Anran murmured an acknowledgement.

After this, the atmosphere in the car fell back into silence.

Lin Huiyan drove him to the gates of his community, but he wasn’t released immediately. She asked him to wait so that she could go up with him for a visit.

Lin Anran nodded under Lin Huiyan’s gaze, and she drove the car to the parking lot.

Lin Huiyan knew that Xiao Ran was good everywhere. But no matter how good he was or how kind he was, he was too introverted, and every word was like pulling nails. This made it very difficult for him to get along with people, because people would always inevitably think that he was too cold.

Although he had no friends around him, he was such a good child. He never said anything even when he felt wronged.

The house that Lin Anran lived in was left to him by his mother.

Lin Huiyan followed Lin Anran upstairs. When she entered the door, she saw two pairs of slippers in the hallway, and then she found a pair of cups on the table.

She asked in surprise, “Xiao Ran, your new friend…also lives with you?”

Xiao Ran’s personality was too quiet. One day, he suddenly had a “friend” live with him, how could Lin Huiyan not worry?

Lin Anran said yes, and then saw that the smile on his aunt’s face had become somewhat stiff.

After she sat down on the sofa, Lin Anran went to pour her a glass of water.

He hesitated for a long time, but still worriedly said to Lin Huiyan in a serious tone, “He is not a bad person.”

For a moment, Lin Huiyan was stunned. It wasn’t a question of whether this person was a good person or a bad person. What she couldn’t ask directly was whether this person was a real friend or not.

“Mmn.” Lin Huiyan could only smile. “Auntie believes you.”

Regarding Lin Anran’s new friend, Lin Huiyan only learned about it from Dr. Zhou last week.

It was a great thing for Xiao Ran to have new friends, but his behavior was a little abnormal.

Dr. Zhou said that Lin Anran showed special protection toward this friend, which was a bit irregular, considering Lin Anran’s personality.

Therefore, Dr. Zhou speculated that this friendship was different from before, and that perhaps Xiao Ran was behaving like this because he himself might have been subconsciously aware that this friend was someone he’d completely made up.

Lin Huiyan calmed down and asked, “Is he not at home now?”

“Mmn.” Lin Anran was strangely talkative about his mysterious friend as he explained, “He is very busy.”

But these words were light and unconvincing. After listening, not only did Lin Huiyan not feel relieved, but she became even more worried.

She sighed in her heart and insisted on telling Lin Anran, “During this period, you have to make time to go and have fun with Peng Peng.”

“Okay.”

After sitting for a while, Lin Huiyan decided to leave. But before leaving, she didn’t forget to tell Lin Anran, “Don’t forget to drink the soup that Auntie made for you.”

After thinking about it, she added, “If there’s something, call Auntie. I like talking with you young people the most.”

Lin Anran nodded.

Lin Huiyan wanted to say something, but looking at Xiao Ran’s expressionless face, she decided not to say anything.

As she watched the elevator door close little by little, Lin Huiyan sighed.

Xiao Ran, do you really know that your friend is fake?

——

Shang Hao was very late today. It was already nine o’clock, but he still hadn’t appeared.

After taking a hot shower, Lin Anran went back to his room and fell on the bed.

The news coverage in yesterday’s press conference had already come out. Lin Anran had previously downloaded a software app dedicated to the daily news on his mobile phone. At this moment, he was holding his phone and looking attentively at the large picture on the financial page.

The photo was taken at an upward angle, and there was only one person in the shot.

The background of the photo was the venue that Lin Anran had failed to enter that day. The man was wearing a suit and tie, and he stood on the podium. He looked powerful like this, and coupled with the upward angle, his entire body looked taller and colder.

This was obviously an ultra-realistic, unflattering death shot for a news report, but Shang Hao still looked like he had been intensively photoshopped, which made people wonder whether he added money later for this to be done.

But Lin Anran knew that the Shang Hao he saw every day looked like this, exactly just like this person in the photo.

….It was like he’d walked right out of his photos into real life.

As Lin Anran looked and looked at him, his eyes dimmed

After looking at the photo for a while, he pressed the saved button and added the photo to his collection. Afterward, he clicked into the report again.

It was a very long report, but Lin Anran read it bit by bit, starting from Shang Hao’s picture at the beginning to the text at the very end.

Lin Anran also pulled this press release into his favorites. He was a little sleepy.

Shang Hao hadn’t returned yet, and his body was limp from his hot shower. He leaned back on the bed, leaving only the sound of his breathing in the silent room.

He began to count slowly in his heart.

He thought, when he counted to a hundred, Shang Hao would return.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5…

As Lin Anran counted, his consciousness became blurred.

He accidentally fell asleep.

When he woke up again and opened his eyes, Lin Anran’s head was groggy. He felt that the light in the room seemed to have darkened. He hadn’t turned off the overhead light before going to bed, but now it was turned off and the bedside light was turned on.

What time was it?

Lin Anran heard the sound of the bathroom door opening outside. Knowing that Shang Hao had returned, he didn’t rush to get up. Instead, he closed his eyes sleepily, wanting to have his eyes closed for a while.

The footsteps came out of the bathroom and approached the room. Lin Anran kept his eyes closed and listened as the door opened and Shang Hao entered the room. The footsteps walked straight to the bed.

The man seemed to have a navigation system installed in his body. As soon as he appeared in the room, he would spontaneously and automatically searched for Lin Anran’s person. Because he had just come out of the bathroom, his short hair was still wet, and yet his body was already pressing down on Lin Anran.

When Lin Anran fell asleep, he was lying on the bed horizontally with his calf sticking out of the bed. Shang Hao pressed against his body and the pair of calves hanging off the bed became two pairs.

The mattress under Lin Anran sanked heavily. The other man was very tall, and with his body forcibly covered underneath so that it could not be seen, Lin Anran felt as if he was being crushed by a mountain.

Because Shang Hao had just come out of the bathroom and his hair was still wet, once he knew that Lin Anran was awake, he put his head on Lin Anran’s chest and involuntarily left behind a moist patch on his clothes.

The person above him was very heavy, and Lin Anran underneath was tickled until he couldn’t help but burst out with a laugh.

Shang Hao moved up and buried his face deeply into Lin Anran’s neck, breathing against his skin so that he felt ticklish again.

Lin Anran couldn’t see Shang Hao’s face, and only felt that the tip of the other person’s nose was pressed hard against his neck, tickling him. He shifted restlessly, but Shang Hao’s hands tightened down and firmly clamped Lin Anran’s waist in place.

Lin Anran felt even more ticklish. He couldn’t help laughing, and said to Shang Hao, “We smell the same.”

They obviously used the same bottle of shower gel, yet Shang Hao was obsessed with burying his face into his body. But Shang Hao negated him casually and decisively, “You don’t understand.”

His voice was low-pitched, his tone firm and unyielding, but with hints of arrogance and imperiousness.

After Shang Hao casually denied what he’d just said, he reprimanded Lin Anran painlessly and perfunctorily for not knowing how soft he was.

This person’s character and style was too overbearing, which often reminded Lin Anran of the kind of boss who was good at scolding others as idiots.

“You smell good…” Shang Hao’s attention was momentarily distracted, and the second half of the sentence slowly trailed off.

He was willing to just suffocate on Ranran at this moment.

Lin Anran’s sleepiness was no longer so overwhelming. He looked at Shang Hao with a pair of black and quiet eyes.

He stretched out his hand and slowly touched the soft side of Shang Hao’s face, before moving down to his rough stubble, seriously soaking in the real, tactile sensation of Shang Hao’s skin under his palm.

“Did you go to the doctor today?” Shang Hao asked aloud after Lin Anran had touched him enough.

Lin Anran nodded and said yes.

Shang Hao didn’t speak, but still hugged him tightly.

Lin Anran was surrounded by the warm breath of Shang Hao’s body, and he suddenly became less unhappy.

———-
Xixi: Have you noticed yet that Shang Hao is super sticky when it comes to Ranran? Lol.

When the story is from Lin Anran’s aunt’s POV, she refers to him as “Xiao Ran” (Little Ran), and when it is from Shang Hao’s POV, he often refers to him as “Ranran.”

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