There’s a psycho who has a crush on me

Chapter 65

“Did Ah Pei encounter someone today?” Luo Changzhou appeared behind Gu Zheng carrying an armload of charcoal, asking the question without any warning.

At that moment, Gu Zheng was soaking in the outdoor hot spring, still holding a glass of the clear fruit wine that Father Luo had prepared. Luo Changzhou’s sudden appearance startled him so much that he choked on the wine in his mouth, coughing twice and nearly sliding to the bottom of the hot spring pool. Gu Zheng turned around and saw Luo Changzhou crouching behind him. After a moment of silence, he sighed and said, “I… I don’t know if I should tell you about this.”

Luo Changzhou had taken advantage of the opportunity when Father Luo asked him to fetch new charcoal to come talk to Gu Zheng. Yu Pei wasn’t by his side, he was helping Father Luo brush sauce on the sliced meat and thread it onto bamboo skewers. If this had been before, Luo Changzhou would never have been willing to let Yu Pei do such work, but he could see that Yu Pei’s spirits weren’t very high today. The seemingly bright smile on his face looked more like a forced performance, and doing some tasks might actually help divert his attention, so Luo Changzhou didn’t stop him.

But last night, Yu Pei had been very excited. He was even so excited that he had trouble sleeping. So Luo Changzhou guessed that he might have encountered someone who would make him feel bad.

“If it’s not convenient to say, then forget it.” Luo Changzhou picked up the new charcoal again, about to leave.

“It’s not that it’s inconvenient.” Gu Zheng called out to stop him. “Ah Pei encountered his mother, but he has a very poor relationship with his mother. I can only tell you this much, after all, if Ah Pei hasn’t mentioned this to you himself, it’s not quite right for me to tell you like this.”

Luo Changzhou nodded and said, “Mm, I understand.”

After lunch at noon, Yu Pei changed his clothes, wearing swim trunks and a short-sleeved shirt as he played in the resort’s courtyard. He had already completed most of the task Father Luo had given him, and only a few chicken wings remained in the basin, not yet threaded onto bamboo skewers.

He was looking down, struggling with the cleaned raw chicken wings in his hands, when suddenly a clean, slender hand reached out in front of him. In the palm was a piece of candy, a kind of sour fruit candy with filling that he used to love most.

However, that kind of sour fruit candy was from abroad. He had gotten to eat it because Gu Zheng used to send it to him before Gu Zheng transferred to South City. Later, when Gu Zheng came and he got together with Luo Changzhou, strangely, from that time on, his craving for candy wasn’t as strong anymore. It was as if Luo Changzhou had replaced all those colorful, various-flavored sweet fruit candies, becoming the never-fading sweetness in his life.

But seeing his favorite candy now still made Yu Pei very happy. He smiled and subconsciously reached out to take that piece of candy, but when his fingers were about to touch the candy wrapper, he suddenly realized his hands weren’t very clean.

But Luo Changzhou quickly peeled off the candy wrapper for him, holding the candy and saying, “Open your mouth, I’ll feed you.”

Yu Pei looked up at Luo Changzhou. His eyes were clean and bright blue, like a transparent sapphire that could be seen through at a glance, yet his gaze was also so deep it could almost see into a person’s heart. Yu Pei watched him while dazedly opening his mouth, and a hard candy that was sour with sweetness was placed into his mouth, quickly spreading the fragrant sweet aroma of fruit sugar on his tongue.

Luo Changzhou smiled, curved his fingers to brush against Yu Pei’s cheek, and asked him, “Does it taste good?”

“Mm, it’s delicious.” Yu Pei used his tongue to move the candy to one side of his mouth cavity, causing his left cheek to bulge out in a small bump. He asked Luo Changzhou, “Changzhou, where did you buy this candy?”

“Don’t you like eating this kind of candy? I remembered, and since my aunt is in Canada, I had her send me some from abroad.” Luo Changzhou moved closer to him, took away several empty bamboo skewers from beside him, quickly threaded the chicken wings in the basin, then pulled Yu Pei’s hand to lead him toward the hot spring swimming pool. “Don’t worry about my dad’s stuff anymore, let’s go play.”

At the pool, the two washed the meat juice off their hands. Sugar Maple Resort was built very well, with a very leisurely pastoral charm. The maple leaves throughout the entire resort were slowly turning deep wine-red in autumn, and just looking at them was enough to intoxicate a person.

The water temperature in the swimming pool was lower than in the hot spring pool, so soaking in it for a long time wouldn’t make one feel dizzy. As soon as Luo Changzhou reached the poolside, he took off his shirt and casually tossed it onto a nearby table, then jumped into the pool from the diving platform and called for Yu Pei to come down and play.

Yu Pei had never been bare-chested in front of Luo Changzhou before. Although they were both men and there was nothing to be shy or modest about, because of their special relationship, removing their shirts in front of each other seemed to carry a somewhat ambiguous atmosphere.

But after hesitating for only two seconds, Yu Pei took off his shirt and followed Luo Changzhou’s example by sliding into the swimming pool, though he walked a distance and entered the pool in the shallow area, since he didn’t really know how to swim.

The water in the shallow area of the pool wasn’t very deep, so when he stood, the water only reached his chest. This was a safe height specifically set for most women and children.

Luo Changzhou quickly swam to his side and asked, “Why did you get in the water here?”

Yu Pei said somewhat embarrassedly, “I… don’t really know how to swim.” For an already-adult man to be splashing around in the shallow area where girls and children played was indeed rather embarrassing to admit.

Hearing his words, Luo Changzhou indeed smiled and asked him, “Then do you want me to get you a swimming ring?”

“No need,” Yu Pei choked up. “I just don’t know how very well, it’s not that I can’t swim at all.”

“Then hold onto my neck and I’ll take you to the deep end to play.” Luo Changzhou smiled as he approached him, reaching out to grab Yu Pei’s arm. Yu Pei’s skin was already fair to begin with, and soaked in water it seemed to gleam with an oily, jade-like luster that was hard not to let one’s imagination run wild when held in hand. Luo Changzhou couldn’t help but put up his other hand too, wrapping around Yu Pei’s waist and pulling him into his embrace. Only after holding him completely did he sigh with satisfaction, his chin resting against the top of Yu Pei’s head as he said, “Don’t worry, you won’t drown.”

When Luo Changzhou held him like this, Yu Pei’s face immediately pressed against the hollow of Luo Changzhou’s shoulder, and their bodies were pressed tightly together, so close they could almost hear each other’s heartbeats.

Without the obstruction of clothes and being so close, Yu Pei had a complete view of Luo Changzhou’s fit physique. Reaching out, he could touch the distinct abdominal muscles on Luo Changzhou’s abdomen, and if he raised his hand, the taut back muscles behind Luo Changzhou felt too good. Yu Pei touched once and couldn’t seem to stop.

This time it was Luo Changzhou who moved away from Yu Pei a bit.

He grabbed Yu Pei’s wandering hands and said helplessly, “Ah Pei… don’t touch like that in the water.”

The two had already swum close to the deep water area by then. Yu Pei couldn’t touch the bottom at all, so when Luo Changzhou moved away from him a bit, he panicked and clung to him again, hugging Luo Changzhou’s neck and refusing to let go, saying to him, “Let’s go back to the shallow area. I can’t touch the ground here.”

“Can you hold your breath?” Luo Changzhou neither agreed nor refused, but suddenly asked Yu Pei this question.

He didn’t know how to swim, but who didn’t know how to hold their breath? Yu Pei answered, “I can.”

The corners of Luo Changzhou’s lips curved as he said, “Take a deep breath and hold it. I’ll take you to play something fun.”

Hearing this, Yu Pei took a deep breath, and then he saw Luo Changzhou suddenly move close to him. Immediately after, there was softness on his lips. His eyes opened wide as he looked at Luo Changzhou’s eyes, and that deep blue became the last scene he saw before entering the water and closing his eyes.

Sound traveled slowly underwater, which was why the ocean floor was so quiet. So when a person sank into water, all sounds seemed to disappear into silence, and vision became blurred due to the water. The only thing left that remained real was the sense of touch.

He held onto Luo Changzhou’s neck, and apart from the soft feeling on his lips, he could no longer perceive anything else. Luo Changzhou carried him swimming in the water, and he didn’t know how much time passed. When Yu Pei felt some suffocating pain in his chest, Luo Changzhou finally brought him up to the surface.

This time Yu Pei could touch the ground. After he could access air again, he began breathing heavily, his heart in his chest cavity pounding against his ribs. But undeniably, this kind of suffocation had a different kind of pleasure.

Yu Pei wiped the water droplets from his face, and Luo Changzhou also raised his hand, combing his forehead bangs back behind his head. Some water droplets slid down along his knuckles and fell back into the pool.

Luo Changzhou kissed the corner of his lips again and asked, “Was it fun?”

Yu Pei smiled and answered him, “It was fun.”

Luo Changzhou’s eyes curved with his smile as he moved closer, his voice gentle as he said, “Happy birthday.”

However, just after Luo Changzhou finished saying this, the next moment he continued, “Actually, I don’t want to say ‘happy birthday’ to you.”

Hearing this, Yu Pei was startled and asked him, “Why?”

“Because saying those words makes it seem like you’ll only be happy on your birthday, but I don’t just hope you’ll be happy on your birthday. I hope you’ll be happy every single day.” Luo Changzhou said, “But when you’re not even happy on your birthday, I feel like I must say those words. Even if it can only make you happy for one second, I’ll be very happy too.”

Yu Pei froze. He stared blankly at Luo Changzhou for a while, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down as if suppressing some complex emotions that were difficult to express. Suddenly he lowered his eyelashes, and those raven-feather-like lashes concealed all the emotions in his eyes. Luo Changzhou looked down at him and could only see the small patch of shadow cast by his eyelashes.

A few seconds later, Yu Pei said, “I think your mother was lying to me.”

Luo Changzhou asked him, “What did my mother lie to you about?”

“She said you don’t like eating sweets, but I think you were raised on sugar.” Yu Pei smiled, his voice somewhat hoarse. “You’re a science student, how can you say so many beautiful sweet words?”

Luo Changzhou touched his hair and lowered his head to kiss his forehead. When he pulled away, he felt warm liquid flowing down Yu Pei’s face.

“I was raised on sugar. Are you unhappy hearing me say sweet words?” Luo Changzhou reached out to pull Yu Pei into his embrace. “Why are you crying?”

“I’m too happy.” Yu Pei wiped the tears from his face and looked up at Luo Changzhou, his eyes wet and red.

There was a layer of hazy moisture in his eyes, like an invisible fence that enclosed all of Luo Changzhou’s comings and goings. Seeing Yu Pei cry, he suddenly felt a bit regretful about saying these things to him. Look, he made him cry, didn’t he?