The slightly aged canvas frame and the delicate and ornate picture on the canvas brought about a strange contrast, his eyes swept over the blank face of the woman in the white dress, the dark-haired youth revealed a thoughtful expression.
Jiu Shu’s slender white fingers gently stroked over the dark gold frame, there was no dust, apparently, the owner of this painting cherished it and wiped it every day.
On the sidelines, You Xin watched her beloved’s movements, so nervous that her fingertips were embedded in her palms, haloing bright red.
Although Jiu Shu’s face was still calm, it was as if ‘she’ could smell a storm coming from underneath that calmness.
Before the storm, the calmer it was, the more horrifying it was.
Perhaps in the next second, Jiu Shu would ask for a breakup, ending this drama-like game of love that had lasted only a few days.
After all, to outsiders, this relationship was illogical from the start and shouldn’t have existed.
Deep fear almost suffocated You Xin, and ‘she’, who was afraid of losing him over this, spoke without thinking, “That’s not Ai Li!”
“……” Jiu Shu looked up at him, his eyes calm, as if he had only just realized the true identity of the woman in the painting, “So it’s Ai Li?”
“!!!”
Discovering that she had said the wrong thing, the expression of You Xin had a momentary lag, ‘her’ racing brain seemed to be overloaded, half a beat late before she opened her mouth with difficulty to explain, “No, it’s not ……”
Jiu Shu was amused by the pale look on You Xin’s face.
He smirked at the pale explanation, not saying slowly until he realized he was on the verge of tears, “I believe you.”
“None of your paintings seem to have faces on them, and they don’t look that much like Ai Li when you look closely, can you tell me who’s in this one?”
Faced with Jiu Shu’s inquiry, You Xin froze, and for the first time, she carefully looked at You Xin’s painting.
Just as Jiu Shu had said, this white-skirted woman with long, seaweed-like hair seemed to resemble another person more than Ai Li.
“…… Mother.”
You Xin replied slowly, ‘she’ had previously abhorred You Xin’s every move and had never scrutinized the paintings.
It wasn’t until now that she realized that the person on the painting didn’t seem to be Ai Li, but more like a combination of her mother and Ai Li.
“She must have been a very good, loving mother to her child.”
Jiu Shu half-curled his eyes and spoke meaningfully.
“…… Yes.” You Xin answered a little hesitantly, not knowing what she had remembered.
Mother was loving to her sister, and to ‘her’ as well. With thoughts like this, You Xin somehow drifted off a bit, as if recalling some flesh and blood image.
【……】
Then, together with the onlooker, You Xin, they fell into silence.
It seemed that even You Xin had realized for the first time that the portrait he had drawn was of his mother, not the one he had always identified as his beloved, Ai Li.
Retracting his finger from the frame, Jiu Shu gazed at the trance-faced subject of discipline not far away, as if he could see the confused soul within through the flesh and blood.
The two personalities of the subject of punishment were split, but from the last meeting, he could tell that they weren’t so cut off as to hate the person loved by the other personality in the original.
On the contrary, Jiu Shu thought there was something strange about the Master personality.
Not enough loathing, not enough passion, vaguely repulsed, yet not repulsed enough to treat him at all like a heterosexual.
Now that he had looked at the painting and combined it with the original, Jiu Shu already had a guess in his mind.
It was probably because the object of punishment was not resistant enough to love.
Jiu Shu guessed with uncertainty.
He knew that in the original story, the subject of punishment treated the main female character, Ai Li, less like love and more like a mechanical imitation of an ordinary person.
At its root, it was nothing more than a desire to be loved like an ordinary person.
The mother in this picture was the only person who had ever loved the object of discipline.
Even the slightest caress given in charity while taking care of his sister could be treasured by the subject of punishment.
Having painted so many portraits, even the care for the original heroine was more like a nostalgia for her mother.
No, a more appropriate explanation would be nostalgia and longing for the fact that one was loved.
After all, those childhood years could really be called the only warmth in the obscure life of the subject of punishment, and no one had ever cared about this weirdo on the fringe of society since then.
For the sake of that subtle to almost invisible beam of light, even the mother’s long years of abuse could be ignored.
Jiu Shu’s fingertips gently rubbed his full lips, his brows lightly furrowed.
Perhaps the object of discipline had no sexual preference, he just wanted someone to love.
As long as someone loved him.
So even if it was him, a person of the same gender, he was able to give the maximum degree of patience, even more bottomless than his sister, You Xin, in the original novel.
In the original, You Xin couldn’t tolerate it in the slightest, and she was so ferocious that she wanted to split the heroine into pieces in minutes.
Compared to that, the current main character’s attitude was a bit too gentle.
Of course, the gap between the two may also be partly due to the fact that You Xin really liked him more, and even affected the attitude of the main character.
After all, the object of discipline in the original story didn’t actually love anyone at all.
The ferocity of the sub-personality could also be reflected to some extent in the fact that he himself resented Ai Li, the woman who projected part of his mother’s shadow.
The extent of that subconscious resentment far exceeded even his perception of himself.
The complexity of this love-hate relationship made Jiu Shu a little breathless, and he could only sigh that this was indeed an object of discipline that ordinary people could not understand.
Worthy of being the original novel’s heavy psychopath.
Jiu Shu analyzed the complex psychology of the disciplinary object for half a day and finally came to a conclusion.
Who cared what the main personality thought, as long as the sub-personality You Xin still maintained its current attitude.
That would be enough.
Retracting his thoughts, he looked towards the still trance-induced You Xin, a faint smile spreading across the narrow tails of his eyes, his voice gentle, “By the way, I actually came here today because I have something I want to talk to you about ……”
“Are you free the day after tomorrow? Let’s go shopping together!”
Jiu Shu said, taking out two movie tickets, “I’ve already booked movie tickets, want to come?”
The day after tomorrow was the day when the female lead and the male lead met in the original story, and Jiu Shu planned to lure the object of punishment away from her and change the plot line in the original story.
Watching a movie was a good, good idea, just to get a feel for what it was like to be in love as well.
Although Jiu Shu had been acting calmly about this relationship with the object of his punishment, he actually cared about it, after all, it was the first time he had ever fallen in love, and it would be a shame not to try out the relationship patterns of the heroes and heroines that he had previously watched from the sidelines.
You Xin’s gaze was fixed on the movie ticket, then immediately her dark eyes lit up and she agreed quickly.
But it was, after all, the day after tomorrow, and it was already a bit dark today, so the two of them sat in the basement facing each other.
You Xin wasn’t bored, she could feel an unparalleled sense of happiness just by looking at Jiu Shu, she was so happy that her ears were red and her eyes were amazingly bright.
Her mood today was like a roller-coaster, going back and forth between heaven and hell, and now that she had finally gained a moment of peace, she was so happy that she couldn’t be happier.
Jiu Shu held his forehead, in the face of this blazing gaze like a golden retriever’s, he was actually a bit powerless to fight for a moment.
His eyes passed over the pictures of himself plastered all over the walls, and landed on the corner where You Xin had piled up miscellaneous things.
Jiu Shu seemed to see something, and reached out and pulled out a deck of cards with intricate and beautiful colors from it.
It was one of the more popular couple’s games in this world, which was actually quite boring, and only suitable for those young couples who blushed just from holding hands during the period of intense love.
“Have you ever played the lie game?” Jiu Shu felt that it was just boring right now, and playing this game was just right.
You Xin had heard of this game, and it seemed to be a favorite of many young couples, using the lies on the cards to verify the truth.
Jiu Shu drew a card and read the words on it..
“I don’t love you.”
“!!!” You Xin’s eyes widened, the hand that was originally resting obediently on her knee tightened violently, and her already pale face was bloodless.
Seeing this, Jiu Shu’s peach blossom eyes were filled with laughter, and he placed the card in his left hand, signifying that it was a lie.
You Xin’s cheeks flushed a conspicuous red all at once, from the roots of the ears all the way to the neck, shy as a young girl in spring.
Perhaps to outsiders, this tall man was a bit weird to make this gesture, but to Jiu Shu it was quite cute.
The image of that pale face that was always indifferent to outsiders being colored red by shyness was inexplicably pleasing.
Thinking this way, Jiu Shu very directly walked to the side of the man sitting on the chair, smiled and kissed his cheek.
【……】As the master character who actively gave up his body, You Xin actually had a sense of the outside world, for example, at this moment, he could feel the still gentle kiss falling on his cheek.
It was light and hot, just as the temperature of that last farewell kiss.
Only this time the kiss no longer belonged to him, but to his sister You Xin.
[……] From the beginning, that person’s kiss didn’t belong to him.
You Xin thought indifferently, but the strange burning sensation in his heart grew heavier as he watched his sister’s intimacy with the young man named Jiu Shu.
He tried to withdraw his senses, but somehow failed to move, still spying on the outside world.
He even began to speculate, with a certain malice, on how long it would take for his sister to be abandoned by Jiu Shu; after all, You Xin’s love couldn’t be any cheaper for the youth who had never lacked for it.
TN:
See ya tomorrow ✌️
Thank you for the chapter!
Hohoho interesting how (main) YX is not as wooden and a bit more malicious/emotional like (sub) YX, innit bruv?