There’s a psycho who has a crush on me

Chapter 41

Gu Zheng felt somewhat hesitant after seeing Luo Changzhou’s question, wondering whether he should tell Luo Changzhou about Yu Pei’s mother.

Before he could figure out what to do, another message from Luo Changzhou arrived: [Is this related to his parents?]

[How did you know?! Did Ah Pei tell you?]

[No, I guessed it myself.]

[You could guess that?] Gu Zheng thought Luo Changzhou was truly a genius.

Luo Changzhou: [Ah Pei has never mentioned his parents to me, only his big brother.]

This kind of abnormality was easy to notice, because no matter who it was, as long as they had a good relationship with their parents, they would definitely mention their parents when talking about family members. However, Yu Pei had never mentioned them, and from his tone, it wasn’t difficult to discover that the only family member who usually took care of his daily life was his big brother.

[Sigh, you’re really smart. This matter is related to his mother, but it’s not convenient for me to tell you.]

After thinking about it, Gu Zheng decided against it.

If Yu Pei didn’t bring up this kind of matter himself, it would be better for him not to mention it. So he told Luo Changzhou: [But this is Ah Pei’s past. Since he hasn’t mentioned it to you voluntarily, I shouldn’t say anything either. Don’t worry, he’s in the art studio now. He probably didn’t take his phone with him, so he can’t see your messages.]

Luo Changzhou didn’t press him and simply replied: [Alright.]

Meanwhile, in the Yu residence, Yu Pei was alone in the art studio.

This art studio was located in a room at the southernmost end of the Yu residence.

One wall was entirely made of floor-to-ceiling windows. And standing in front of these windows, one could see the small garden below the Yu residence.

In the past, he had loved standing in front of these floor-to-ceiling windows, painting the scenery of the Yu residence’s small garden throughout the four seasons and in different weather conditions.

The opposite wall had been converted into cabinets that stored various paintbrushes, paper, and paints that he used for painting. The entire art studio was spacious and bright. The kind of large art studio that every painting enthusiast would long to possess.

Even though he hadn’t been here for a long time, the painting desk and cabinets remained spotlessly clean without a speck of dust. This was the result of the hard work by the Yu residence’s cleaning lady.

Yu Pei approached the painting desk slowly, his fingers stroking across the cold surface. Finally, he stopped in front of the cabinet where the paints were stored.

In the middle section of the cabinet sat an antique wooden box. The surface of the wooden box reflected an oily luster.

He reached out to take down the wooden box, opened it gently, and stared blankly at the paints inside.

This was a Schmincke master-level oil painting wooden set from Germany, paints his mother had given him. It was also the only gift she had ever given him.

He still remembered how happy he had been when he first received this set of paints. He thought the maternal affection he had been longing for had finally appeared. However, who would have known that this gift was actually poison wrapped in honey?

He held the wooden box and stared blankly for a few seconds, then ran to the trash can and threw it in hard.

The wooden box collided with the iron wall of the trash can, producing a dull impact sound. Several tubes of paint and paintbrushes scattered out, lying colorfully at the bottom of the trash can.

Yu Pei stumbled backward in a daze, retreating to sit on the small art studio’s sofa, covering his eyes in silence.

After sitting like this for several minutes, he got up, took out sketch paper and a pencil from the cabinet, and began drawing the most basic still life sketches. Having neglected his painting for so long, he now needed to start with the most fundamental exercises to regain his touch.

He painted for about an hour and a half before stopping. Looking at the still life on the paper, his mood gradually calmed down.

It turned out that picking up the paintbrush again wasn’t very difficult. As long as he could overcome the psychological barrier, it became quite easy. However, he still felt somewhat uncertain, since what he was painting now was only sketches, not oil paintings.

Moreover, his grasp of drawing shadow parts still had some problems.

After thinking about it, he decided to visit Teacher Bai on Sunday to ask for advice about handling shadow parts.

After tidying up the art studio, he left without glancing at the trash can again. When he returned to his room, he picked up his phone and saw the QQ messages Luo Changzhou had sent him.

Yu Pei took a photo of his right hand, which had some pencil graphite on it, and sent it to Luo Changzhou: [Changzhou, I was painting in the art studio just now.]

Shortly after sending this reply, Luo Changzhou’s phone call came. Yu Pei pressed the answer button and heard the gentle voice coming through the phone: “Ah Pei.”

Luo Changzhou called Yu Pei’s name softly.

Yu Pei held the phone between his head and shoulder while washing his hands and talking to Luo Changzhou: “Mm? Changzhou.”

“Tomorrow is the weekend.” Luo Changzhou laughed softly and said to him, “Ah Pei, would you like to come play at my house?”

Hearing Luo Changzhou’s words, Yu Pei was so surprised he nearly dropped his phone. He stammered, “Go… go to your house?”

“That’s right.” Luo Changzhou said, “Come play at my house. I’ll help you with your homework and make honey egg pancakes for you to eat.”

Honey egg pancakes were what Luo Changzhou had given him to eat that time at school. Yu Pei thought they were delicious and had asked the chef at home to make them once, but the chef could never replicate the taste of Luo Changzhou’s version. Hearing this, Yu Pei felt somewhat tempted but still hesitated, asking him, “…Will uncle and auntie be home tomorrow too?”

Luo Changzhou thought for a moment and said, “They might come home for lunch.”

“Then I’ll come to your house after lunch.” Yu Pei said. If he and Luo Changzhou weren’t together, he might not have avoided Luo Changzhou’s parents.

However, after getting together with Luo Changzhou, he always felt somewhat guilty, worried that if he and Luo Changzhou were too intimate, others might notice something.

“It’s fine. You can come to my house for lunch.” Luo Changzhou said, “My parents would like to meet you too.”

Yu Pei was stunned when he heard this: “Meet me?”

However, Luo Changzhou continued dropping bombshells: “Mm, I told them I’m together with you.”

Yu Pei was completely dumbfounded and didn’t know what to say. In his view, there weren’t many parents who could accept that their son was gay. He worried that Luo Changzhou’s parents wouldn’t like him and wouldn’t allow them to continue being together.

Seeing that Yu Pei had stopped talking, Luo Changzhou sighed softly and comforted him: “It’s okay, Ah Pei. I’m naturally gay. Before I met you, my parents already knew I liked boys, so they won’t dislike you.”

Yu Pei made a sound of surprise and asked him, “Really?”

Luo Changzhou said, “Mm.”

However, Yu Pei became even more conflicted. He said, “Changzhou, you said you knew you liked boys before you met me. Does that mean you… have liked other boys before?”

Luo Changzhou: “…”

Yu Pei gripped the phone, his words carrying a hint of sourness that even he hadn’t noticed.

Yu Pei wasn’t naturally gay. Throughout his past dozen years of life, he had liked pretty and gentle girls. Before meeting Luo Changzhou, he had never imagined he would fall for a boy. Yet Luo Changzhou said he had already known he liked boys before meeting him. Didn’t that mean he had previously liked other people?

“Of course I haven’t liked other boys.” Luo Changzhou said helplessly to Yu Pei. He didn’t know how to explain this issue and could only emphasize, “I’ve only ever liked you.”

“Oh…” Yu Pei’s perfunctory response still carried a tone of disbelief.

Luo Changzhou could only continue: “Really, I’m not lying to you. But speaking of Ah Pei—” He paused, “What about that Qi Wenqiang?”

“She…” Yu Pei deflected, “She was just an accident…”

Luo Changzhou raised his eyebrows but stopped teasing him. He said to him, “So will you come play at my house tomorrow?”

“Mm.” Yu Pei nodded and said, “I’ll go tell my big brother in a bit.”

“Okay.” Luo Changzhou asked him, “Do I need to come pick you up tomorrow, or will you have Uncle Zhang drive you over?”

Yu Pei said, “I’ll have Uncle Zhang drive me there. I’ll wait for you at that noodle shop where we ate together before, okay?”

Luo Changzhou replied, “Mm.”

After Yu Pei hung up with Luo Changzhou, he called Yu Qing to tell him that Gu Zheng would be having dinner with new classmates tomorrow, and that he himself wanted to go play at a classmate’s house.

“Going to play at a classmate’s house? Which classmate?” Yu Qing was still at the company handling documents at that time.

He was already surprised to receive a call from Yu Pei, and was even more astonished when he heard that Yu Pei wanted to go play at a classmate’s house.

Throughout Yu Pei’s life, apart from going to Gu Zheng’s house, he had never really visited other classmates’ homes. This was the first time he had actively suggested going out to play.

“Going to Changzhou’s house to play.” Yu Pei said, “His name is Luo Changzhou, and he’s my desk mate. He’s the one who gave me the Jin Jun Mei tea before and helped me with tutoring.”

Yu Qing had a very deep impression of this classmate named “Luo Changzhou”. Ever since Yu Pei started school, this name had appeared frequently.

Almost every time he came home, he could hear Yu Pei mention things about this person.

However, he had never met him, so he said, “Alright, Ah Pei, if you want to go, then go. Have Uncle Zhang drive you. You can also invite him to come play at our house.”

Yu Qing had mentioned inviting Luo Changzhou to their house before. Yu Pei just hadn’t had a chance to tell Luo Changzhou about it yet. He was planning to invite him over for his birthday. He wondered if his big brother would be angry when he found out about his relationship with Luo Changzhou…

“Ah Pei…”

While Yu Pei was still lost in thought, he heard Yu Qing call his name somewhat slowly.

Yu Pei asked him, “What’s wrong, big brother?”

Yu Qing opened his mouth, then swallowed his words back, only saying, “Nothing. Big brother is still busy, so I’ll hang up now. If you need anything, call brother again.”

Yu Pei replied, “Mm-mm.”

Listening to the busy tone that came through the phone after the call was hung up, Yu Qing stared blankly for a while before putting down his phone and opening his text message inbox to look at a message someone had sent him an hour ago.

That text message was very brief and gently worded, just like a mother truly caring for her child—

[Ah Qing, how have you been feeling lately? Have you been sick? Is work busy? Don’t overwork yourself. If you have any problems, you can ask Uncle Gu and the others more. Mom misses you very much. Can you come visit mom when you have time?]