Seeing him stare so intently at the back of the painting, Su Jingyan asked, “What’s wrong?”
Lu Yichen raised his head slightly, put the painting back, and said nothing.
Su Jingyan didn’t press him.
He was very sensitive to Lu Yichen’s moods, so he could tell that when Lu Yichen put the painting back, the air pressure around him had dropped very low.
Even though his expression was little different from usual, Su Jingyan could feel that the other boy was angry.
Lu Yichen narrowed his eyes.
It really was well drawn.
Every inch of my senior has been painted in such detail.
Tsk.
My senior…
His charm is too great…
“Can you give me this painting?” Lu Yichen suddenly asked.
Su Jingyan felt a little embarrassed at the sudden request. It would have been fine if the painting were of something else, or of someone else, but the person in it was himself.
It sounded so shameless to give your sweetheart a watercolor painting of yourself.
Su Jingyan wasn’t reluctant, but, embarrassed, he finally nodded.
Lu Yichen smiled. This smile was different from his usual half-real, half-fake one. It was fleeting, but it reached his eyes. It was a genuine smile.
The smile stunned Su Jingyan. He opened his mouth with a slightly choked expression.
So this is how Yichen looks when he smiles.
For some reason, Su Jingyan’s face burned uncontrollably.
The two sat very close, their thighs almost touching. Su Jingyan held the docile Gulu in his arms, smoothing its fur as he ate.
Su Jingyan averted his eyes like a mimosa. It seemed that whenever Lu Yichen accidentally touched him, he became so nervous that he forgot what he had been about to do.
In the air there seemed to be only the sound of leaves blowing in the wind, the two of them chewing carefully, and Gulu’s occasional meows.
“Senior Jingyan.” It was the first time Lu Yichen had called him by name.
When Su Jingyan heard it, his whole body trembled, and his heart felt an indescribable numbness, as if someone were gently tapping his chest with a small stone.
Su Jingyan raised his head and met Lu Yichen’s eyes.
Lu Yichen’s looks didn’t conform to popular tastes. As long as his face was expressionless, he looked like someone harboring a deep hatred.
The two looked at each other quietly, neither saying a word.
Lu Yichen raised his head slightly and suddenly reached out with both hands to wrap them firmly around Su Jingyan’s nape, as if forcing him to look at him.
Su Jingyan’s heart beat faster and faster, thump, thump, thump, and his face burned uncontrollably again.
He even felt that his heart would jump out of his chest in the next second, and his breathing grew uneven, almost like panting.
When Su Jingyan saw Lu Yichen bring his face closer, he shut his eyes in fright, but he had no intention of avoiding it.
Lu Yichen said nothing, and he didn’t kiss him on the mouth as Su Jingyan had expected.
Su Jingyan felt only something wet press against the tear mole under his right eye.
The touch was so light that Su Jingyan didn’t even have time to experience it fully. The kiss was as fleeting as a butterfly’s.
Su Jingyan’s face was as red as a boiled shrimp. He opened his eyes, looking stunned, and even stammered when he spoke. “I… you…”
Finally, he exhaled. His eyes twinkled with the same light as before, and he asked happily, “Are we a couple?”
Lu Yichen turned his head to look at him. “No.”
Su Jingyan’s expression froze, and his eyes flickered. As if he had been struck by something, his whole expression collapsed.
Lu Yichen went on, saying seriously, “I’m pursuing you.”
Su Jingyan’s mouth fell slightly open, and the sourness that had risen in him was suddenly pushed down by the boy’s words.
Sorrow and joy mingled in his heart. It was an especially uncomfortable feeling.
He took a breath, feeling a little wronged. His eyes were still a little red, and he didn’t know what to say.
“I love you. Are you willing to be with me?”
Su Jingyan’s heart shook.
Lu Yichen hadn’t said “I like you.” He had said, “I love you.”
Loving and liking were two different things. Love was more serious and carried a greater sense of ceremony than liking.
Lu Yichen looked at him without a word, his dark eyes full of an obsession and a perversity he could hardly hide. It seemed that if Su Jingyan said no, he would turn into a ferocious beast on the spot and tear his opponent to pieces.
Su Jingyan’s lips quivered, and he fell silent.
It was the first time Lu Yichen had exposed his pathological possessiveness so openly. Such eyes were very different from what Su Jingyan usually saw, and even unfamiliar.
But strangely, Su Jingyan wasn’t scared. He looked at Lu Yichen as he was now with a sense of familiarity, as if he had known him before.
Finally, under Lu Yichen’s oppressive gaze, Su Jingyan laughed and nodded.
There’s no reason to hesitate. I already like Lu Yichen.
The boy’s expression changed. He narrowed his eyes slightly and then pulled Su Jingyan into a hug.
Before Su Jingyan could react, he was already being held. By the time he recovered a little, he was locked in the other boy’s arms.
But to be honest, the way they were hugging embarrassed him greatly.
Lu Yichen was sitting on the ground. When he pulled, Su Jingyan had fallen straight into his arms and even ended up straddling Lu Yichen’s lap.
Su Jingyan’s face burned even more.
He felt stiff all over and didn’t know what to do.
Lu Yichen locked his hand around Su Jingyan’s neck and breathed in his scent. His grip grew stronger, and he held him even tighter.
Mine! Mine!
He’s mine!
A strange horror flashed in Lu Yichen’s eyes, followed by an even more morbid possessiveness and madness.
No one can take my favorite senior away from me!
Even if my senior wanted to leave…
That won’t work either!
He chuckled.
The two of them didn’t know how long they held each other like that. Su Jingyan was so embarrassed that he was about to faint, and his whole body felt dizzy.
He might really have fallen asleep like that.
(Mr. Reviewer, take a closer look. It’s just a hug here.)
After a long time, the veins on Lu Yichen’s face bulged, as if he were suppressing some emotion. Finally, he slowly let go of his beloved senior.
Lu Yichen stroked his senior’s hair, the corners of his mouth curling up. “Good boy! Senior, you should go to class.”
Hearing Lu Yichen’s hoarse voice, Su Jingyan’s whole body went numb, and his face burned even more.
He slowly got up out of Lu Yichen’s arms, not daring to look at Lu Yichen’s expression the whole time, his whole body as red as a boiled lobster. He picked up the lunch box from the ground and fled in a panic.
Lu Yichen stood still, narrowing his eyes as he watched Su Jingyan flee, and slowly shifted his gaze to the painting on the ground.
Gulu flicked his tail. He was no longer as scared as he had been when he first saw Lu Yichen two days ago. He squatted on the ground, licked his little paw, and slowly smoothed his fur.
Lu Yichen picked up the painting, set it on his palm, and let out a cold laugh.
The frame fell apart in a second, exposing the unprotected drawing paper inside.
It was a painting with both a front and a back. It showed the same person, the same scene, the same expression, and the same actions. The only difference was that on the back, the figure was undressed.
Why is there another one?
Another lunatic just like me.
A lunatic so crazy that he wants to kill my senior and then keep him for himself.
At that thought, Lu Yichen’s eyes flickered. He thought of the girl who had hidden a knife in her pocket the day before, planning to hurt his senior.
He was like a shadow, guarding his senior at his side for so many years. He was so jealous that he wanted to kill everyone close to his senior, so jealous that, like these lunatics, he had even had the crazy idea of killing his senior and then taking him for himself.
But in the end…
He couldn’t bring himself to do it.
These people’s bodies gave off an unpleasant stench, but it was the smell of his own kind.
What a joke.
Leaves rustled as they were crushed underfoot.
Someone else had walked in.
Wen Ziyu looked around the forest as if he couldn’t see Lu Yichen at all and noticed only the limp yellow civet cat on the ground.
Gulu rubbed his face with his paw.
Lu Yichen stood there calmly, looking at the intruder.
Wen Ziyu’s expression was abnormal, and he seemed to be in a trance. Even more frightening, he was holding a fruit knife in his hand like a murderer come seeking blood, and his eyes shone with an unnatural gleam.
Tsk.
He stepped forward step by step, approaching Gulu.
After all, Gulu was a stray cat. Being approached by a stranger, he got up with a little scratch and leaped away, hiding deep in the woods.
Wen Ziyu’s under-eyes were covered with dark circles, he had taken off his glasses, and his footsteps were very unsteady, like a drunkard’s.
He scanned the forest left and right, as if looking for something, his whole body giving off a gloomy air.
“Senior Jingyan, Senior Jingyan…” Wen Ziyu called out, shouting nonstop with a knife in his hand.
He didn’t look like someone who had come to find a person at all. He looked like someone who had come to kill.
Ah.
Lu Yichen narrowed his eyes, stood in place, and watched the ridiculous scene in front of him, curling his lip.
The next second, the picture frame in his hand looked as if it had been splashed with acid. It slowly decayed until nothing was left but dust.
Wen Ziyu was still calling Su Jingyan’s name, cold sweat sliding down his forehead.
The smile splitting his face was very ferocious, and there was no blood in his cheeks.
“Senior Jingyan, where are you… hahaha…” Wen Ziyu kept calling. His eyes were wide open, almost popping out, completely bloodshot. The hand holding the knife clenched even tighter.
Lu Yichen raised his head coldly and gave him a narrow-eyed look.
Really noisy.
In the next second, Wen Ziyu seemed to be struck on the head with a hammer. With a thud, he toppled sideways to the ground. The knife slipped from his hand, and he passed out completely.
Lu Yichen let out a cold sneer.
My senior’s charm was too great. So many people want to kill him and take him.
But…
Lu Yichen wore a half-smile.
Senior…
Is mine!
Author’s note:
In this world, besides the ordinary adoration between boys and girls in our lives, there was the kind of liking that was as pure as faith, like Song Keyin’s, and the kind of liking that was lovesickness, like Lu Yichen’s.
Why did I set up other sick characters? Just because I want you, my dear readers, to understand that if the love is not mutual, then the cute moments I wrote earlier become sexual harassment in the other person’s eyes.
Lovesick stories were once very popular, but I think everyone may have noticed that there were fewer and fewer of them now, because so many people write them that their thinking has become fixed and forced into plots like the one above.
Therefore, it has become a very cute but very exciting subject.
But I don’t like that kind of plot development. I like sweet stories.
The Gongs in my writing were all mentally ill people (the same was true in the later worlds), who become Buddhas with one thought and demons with the next. Su Jingyan was the switch that controls Lu Yichen’s reason in every world.
Su Jingyan heals the Gong, so he won’t doubt the Gong, and he won’t want to leave the Gong. Invisibly and unintentionally, he will always wear down the panic and fear in Lu Yichen’s heart little by little.
Because the root of Lu Yichen’s sickness was the fear of losing him.
Once Lu Yichen understands that Su Jingyan will not leave him, he was an ordinary person.
I can’t reveal more because it involves spoilers for the whole story. Love you guys!