There’s a psycho who has a crush on me

Chapter 42

Editor: Princess

Yu Qing placed his phone down, then pressed his hand against his forehead while closing his eyes in silent contemplation. After several minutes had passed, he picked up his phone again and dialed the number from that text message.

The phone rang twice before someone answered. A gentle female voice traveled through the speaker and reached Yu Qing’s ear, saying, “Hello, Ah Qing, this is Mom.”

Yu Qing leaned his head back against the swivel chair while softly responding, “Mom.”

“You haven’t called Mom in such a long time.”

“Yes.” Yu Qing frowned slightly, though he relaxed his expression quickly. “The company has been quite busy lately with many matters to handle.”

The female voice continued, “Then you have to take better care of your health and avoid getting sick.”

“I will.” Yu Qing said. “My health has always been good, so Mom, you don’t need to worry.”

“How can I not worry? Your father has asthma, and if you—”

“Mom.” Yu Qing interrupted her words. “The one with asthma isn’t me. It’s Ah Pei.”

The other end of the line fell silent for several seconds. Then the female voice suddenly dropped lower and turned cold as she said, “Why are you bringing him up?”

Yu Qing pinched the bridge of his nose and said, “It’s nothing, Mom. I still have matters to handle here, so if you don’t have anything else, I need to hang up.”

“I do have something.” The female voice said again. “I’m not eating well or sleeping well here. Could you let Mom move back home?”

“Mom, you’re sick right now. Let’s focus on getting your illness treated first.” Yu Qing said, suppressing his inner irritation while patiently speaking with her. “Moreover, didn’t I have someone move all your belongings over there? How could you not be sleeping well?”

“I just want to move back home!” The female voice suddenly rose sharply. “Even Yu Pei has already moved back home, and he’s also sick—”

Yu Qing hung up the phone directly before she could finish her sentence.

Then he dialed another number: “Hello, is this Dr. Liao?”

“Yes, Mr. Yu. What can I do for you?”

Yu Qing said, “I’d like to understand my mother’s condition. Are there any signs of improvement?” However after asking this question, Yu Qing probably felt his inquiry was somewhat redundant, so he sighed deeply.

Dr. Liao said on the other end of the phone, “Mr. Yu, I’m very sorry. Your mother’s schizophrenia hasn’t shown significant improvement currently. Even if her condition were to be effectively controlled, considering Ms. Ning’s situation, for her to be discharged… I’m afraid that would be very difficult.”

Yu Qing remained silent for a while before saying, “Of course I’m not asking for her discharge. I just…”

Yu Qing didn’t know what he wanted to say either. Regardless of what Ning Jinglan had done, she was still his mother. Having him permanently keep her in a psychiatric hospital seemed like something he couldn’t bring himself to do heartlessly, yet this arrangement was already the best outcome for everyone involved.

“By the way, Mr. Yu, schizophrenia has significant hereditary characteristics. Given your mother’s and your brother’s situations, if it’s convenient for you, I recommend that you also undergo annual examinations.” Dr. Liao added.

Schizophrenia—the Ning family’s hereditary disease.

Yu Pei had already shown early signs of schizophrenia when he was fifteen years old. Therefore, his later development of Cotard’s syndrome wasn’t entirely without warning signs; it was just that due to lack of care and attention, no one had noticed his condition.

Yu Qing took a deep breath and said to Dr. Liao, “I understand. I’ll make time to come over next month.”

“Is there anything else you need?”

“Nothing else. If there are any problems with my mother, please contact me again, Dr. Liao.”

“Certainly.”

Yu Qing hung up the phone. When he looked at his phone, he saw that his mother had sent several more text messages during his conversation with Dr. Liao.

He didn’t read any of them, marking them all as read. Then he sent his mother a text message: [Mom, focus on your treatment at the hospital. I’ll come visit you next month.]

**

After Yu Pei finished his phone call with Yu Qing, he went downstairs to tell Uncle Zhuang about his plans to visit Luo Changzhou’s house tomorrow.

Then he told Uncle Zhuang that Gu Zheng also wouldn’t be eating at the Yu residence tomorrow, so he didn’t need to prepare lunch and dinner for both of them.

Learning this news, Uncle Zhuang prepared a small box of cherries for Yu Pei, since he remembered that the relative of this classmate Yu Pei had mentioned seemed to enjoy eating cherries very much.

When Gu Zheng woke up the next day, Yu Pei had already packed his schoolbag and cherries and was sitting in Zhang Geng’s car, ready to leave. Gu Zheng quickly called out to him, saying, “Ah Pei, you absolutely must not spend the night at Luo Changzhou’s house!”

Hearing this, Yu Pei’s foot slipped, and he nearly fell down. He said to Gu Zheng, “I’ll be back tonight.”

“I’m also coming back tonight.” Gu Zheng said. “When I return home, I must see you there.”

Yu Pei felt that Gu Zheng’s words sounded remarkably like a young wife waiting alone for her husband to return home. He said with mixed laughter and tears, “I understand.”

Only then did Gu Zheng wave goodbye to him.

While sitting in the car, Yu Pei alternated between looking at the cherries in his arms and gazing at the scenery outside the window. His face maintained a gentle smile throughout. Zhang Geng noticed his good mood and smiled as well, saying to Yu Pei, “Little Young Master, what time should I come pick you up tonight?”

“Uhmm…” Yu Pei thought for a moment and said, “Eight o’clock tonight. I want to finish dinner at Changzhou’s house before leaving.”

“Very well.” Zhang Geng said. He glanced in the direction Yu Pei had indicated and made a surprised sound, saying, “This seems like the road to Maple Sugar Hot Spring Resort.”

Yu Pei asked puzzledly, “Maple Sugar Hot Spring Resort?”

“Yes.” Zhang Geng explained to him. “It recently opened. I heard the scenery there is quite nice, and many people have gotten membership cards there. I got one too.”

Yu Pei suddenly remembered that Luo Changzhou had mentioned that his family had opened a hot spring resort on their mountain. Could it be this Maple Sugar Hot Spring Resort?

While Yu Pei was still puzzling over this, he glanced out the car window and saw Luo Changzhou standing by the roadside, waving at them.

“Changzhou—!” Yu Pei rolled down the car window and, disregarding the danger, stretched his arm out to greet him.

Luo Changzhou frowned slightly when he saw this, although he said nothing. After Zhang Geng stopped the car, he walked over to them and greeted Zhang Geng, “Hello, Uncle Zhang.”

Zhang Geng nodded with a smile. He looked around at the surrounding scenery, mentally noting how to navigate this route.

Yu Pei got out of the car while holding the heavy box of cherries, his eyes sparkling as he gazed at Luo Changzhou.

Luo Changzhou reached out to take the cherries from his arms and said to Zhang Geng, “Uncle Zhang, my house is just ahead, not far from here. Tonight I’ll bring Ah Pei back to this spot, so you can wait for Ah Pei here.”

“Alright, I’ll be going then. Have a good time, you two.”

Zhang Geng watched them leave, but after they had walked only a short distance, he saw Luo Changzhou lightly flick Yu Pei’s forehead with his finger while speaking to him in low tones. Yu Pei looked like someone who had done something wrong as he accepted the scolding.

However, after speaking for just a moment, Luo Changzhou also began to smile. Then he took Yu Pei’s schoolbag and helped carry it for him.

For some reason, Zhang Geng felt that their interaction seemed excessively intimate as he watched them, differing from ordinary friendships between male students.

Zhang Geng pondered this for a while but couldn’t come to any conclusions, so he drove away.

“Are Uncle and Aunt at home?” Yu Pei asked after making a promise to “never stick his head and arms out of car windows again” and seeing that Luo Changzhou wasn’t angry with him anymore.

“They’re at the hot spring resort.” Luo Changzhou said. “What, do you want to meet them? I can take you there.”

“No, no, no!” Yu Pei waved his hands repeatedly. “That’s not necessary.”

“What are you afraid of?” Luo Changzhou smiled and raised his eyebrows, saying, “They won’t eat you.”

Looking at Luo Changzhou’s smile, Yu Pei felt that there was something implied in his words, but he couldn’t decipher it. He said quietly, “Uncle and Aunt are very busy. We shouldn’t disturb them.”

Luo Changzhou added, “It’s fine. They both really want to meet you.”

Then he watched Yu Pei’s eyes widen with an anxious expression, looking pitifully unsure of how to respond.

He couldn’t help but laugh, saying, “I’m just teasing you. Let’s go to my room.”

Only then did Yu Pei breathe a sigh of relief. He accompanied Luo Changzhou to put the cherries in the refrigerator, then followed him slowly upstairs.

Luo Changzhou’s house was located in the pasture halfway down the mountain from Maple Sugar Hot Spring Resort. It was a small Western-style house of approximately two hundred square meters. While the area wasn’t very large, the overall decoration of the small house used very warm color tones. The walls were painted a pale yellow, and the pointed roof was covered with dark brown tiles that resembled wood. From a distance, it looked like a large wooden house.

Luo Changzhou lived on the second floor. His room also had a large balcony, and the balcony was filled with many flowers—all the ones he had previously posted in his QQ space.

Yu Pei looked at the flowers with surprise and asked Luo Changzhou, “Changzhou, did you plant all these flowers?”

“Yes.” Luo Changzhou nodded and said, “Actually, many of them were planted to help my mom. She likes looking at beautiful flowers but always manages to kill them, so she asked me to help her tend them.”

Yu Pei touched a hydrangea’s petals with his finger and sighed, “These flowers are really beautiful.”

He also loved these beautiful plants very much. Previously, he had thought about keeping pets or growing flowers to improve his mood, but both he and his father had asthma and couldn’t be around pets like cats and dogs, so animals were absolutely forbidden in their home. Moreover, due to his classmates’ exclusion and harsh words, he had felt that perhaps growing flowers was a feminine behavior for boys, so he had raised nothing at all. When he encountered flowers he liked, he would only draw them to preserve their memory.

However, after seeing his action, Luo Changzhou pulled him away from the flowers and said, “Hydrangeas have a lot of pollen. Stay away from them, or you’ll feel uncomfortable later.”

Yu Pei was stunned for a moment before realizing that Luo Changzhou was worried about him inhaling pollen and having an asthma attack. He smiled and said, “It’s okay. I brought my medicine.”

“That still won’t do.” Luo Changzhou said decisively, pulling him into the house. He had Yu Pei sit on the carpet, handed him a cushion, and said, “I’ll go downstairs to get you something to eat. Just sit here for a while.”

“Okay.” Yu Pei nodded. His obedient appearance made Luo Changzhou unable to resist bending down to kiss his lips.

Their soft lips touched and separated quickly. So quickly that Yu Pei didn’t even have time to register that it was a kiss. When he finally realized what had happened, a rose-like pale pink slowly crept up his cheeks.

Luo Changzhou smiled as he looked at him and said, “All my books are on the shelf. If you get bored, you can browse through them. I’ll be back soon.”

Yu Pei continued nodding and responded softly, “Okay.”

After Luo Changzhou left, Yu Pei sat for a while before beginning to look around Luo Changzhou’s room.