PPS Chapter 21

Chapter 21: He Must Love Me Terribly

Chapter 21: He Must Love Me Terribly

Gu Yusen took Chu Zhaoyi out again the next day.

Chu Zhaoyi didn’t even want to resist, sitting in the passenger seat with a lifeless expression, dozing off.

He’s been going out more often recently than in the past year.

“We’re here, Chu Little Pig.”

They came to Mason’s again. This time, Mason was standing at the door, seemingly taking out the trash, and ran into them.

“Mr. Gu, Mr. Chu,” Mason nodded slightly to greet them, noticing the metallic glint on Chu Zhaoyi’s left ear, realizing he was wearing a hearing aid.

Presumably, this psychological consultation would go more smoothly.

Chu Zhaoyi was led by the hand by Gu Yusen, and slowly raised his head when he heard the unfamiliar voice, discovering the familiar figure.

It was just like he imagined, a very gentle voice.

Gu Yusen took a stack of paintings from his backpack and handed them to Mason.

Mason had seen from the House-Tree-Person drawing that Gu Yusen had taken of Chu Zhaoyi that Chu Zhaoyi could draw.

If the person taking the House-Tree-Person test is an artist, the information he can glean will be much less. An artist pursues aesthetics in a painting, and the subconscious reflected will be even less.

But he could still see some things more or less, so Mason asked Gu Yusen to bring the paintings over again.

He also inquired if he could bring some of Chu Zhaoyi’s previous artworks to take a look at.

Chu Zhaoyi thought that Gu Yusen wanted to admire his paintings, so he eagerly selected ten of the best-looking ones from dozens of paintings and brought them over.

Gu Yusen was a rough guy with no artistic talent. He could only tell that the paintings were beautiful, and after admiring them and praising the boy a few times, he stuffed them into his backpack.

When Chu Zhaoyi saw Gu Yusen take out his paintings and hand them to Mason, he kicked a stone under his feet unhappily.

Mason led the two to sit down in the yard, taking Chu Zhaoyi’s paintings and flipping through them.

At the top was a portrait. It was not difficult to see that the person in the picture was Chu Zhaoyi himself, standing in the sunlight, holding a red rose in his hand.

The most striking thing was the red rose that Chu Zhaoyi held in his hand. This flower wasn’t painted, but a real bouquet of roses that hadn’t completely dried out, only the edges were a little withered, and the petals were slightly fragile.

Combined with the undisguised smile on the boy’s face, it forcibly added a touch of bizarre beauty to the painting.

“I gave him those flowers,” Gu Yusen said, noticing Mason’s gaze lingering on the first painting, unwilling to move his eyes away.

“So you gave them to him, no wonder.”

Mason put this one aside and looked through them one by one. The last one was the House-Tree-Person drawing he had asked him to draw.

A brightly colored house, with pink little flowers decorating the walls, floated quietly on a boundless ocean. The house was surrounded by a forest of black lines that were tooth and claw, occupying half of the space of the painting, giving people a feeling of oppression.

But in the flower garden in the yard, the red roses bloomed brightly and dazzlingly, while the figure in the painting stood inside the house, relaxed and quietly gazing at the flower garden below.

Very beautiful.

It inexplicably gave the admirer a chilling sense of terror. The large trees in the entire painting seemed to have been drawn casually, and even the house and figures may have only been sketched out in a few strokes, but the roses in the garden consumed a lot of the painter’s energy, painted vividly, fresh and dripping.

“It seems Mr. Chu likes red roses very much,” Mason put the paintings on the table, picked up the water glass on the table and took a sip, barely suppressing the fear rising in his heart.

Yes, fear.

A good painting will convey some emotions to the admirer, and each of Chu Zhaoyi’s paintings reveals a bizarre beauty.

Beautiful, but upon closer inspection, everything is strange.

The strangest thing is that, without exception, every painting contains elements of roses.

“Yes, he likes them very much,” Gu Yusen collected Chu Zhaoyi’s paintings and neatly put them back in his backpack. This boy treasures his paintings, and if he doesn’t protect them well, he’ll get angry again.

“Hmm…” Mason put down his water glass, calming his mood.

“Did Mr. Chu learn to paint by himself?”

Chu Zhaoyi had been leaning on Gu Yusen since he sat down, unable to hear a word of what Mason was saying.

Gu Yusen patted the boy’s head to make him sit up straight. “Chu Zhaoyi, what did you promise me?”

“…Okay,” Chu Zhaoyi sat up straight listlessly. Before going out, he had promised Brother Sanmu that he would actively accept treatment today, which meant chatting with this annoying blue-eyed guy.

As long as he cooperated obediently, Brother Sanmu would stay with him.

“He taught himself.”

Mason observed Chu Zhaoyi’s expression and behavior without showing any signs.

“Paintings drawn by people who have received regular education will be more organized. Mr. Chu’s paintings look very casual.”

Chu Zhaoyi liked to paint, so he naturally liked others praising his paintings, and he was somewhat interested in this topic.

Realizing this, Mason kept grabbing onto this topic, eliciting a lot of information from Chu Zhaoyi.

“It seems like people who study art like to keep their hair long.”

“…Hmm,” Chu Zhaoyi frowned subconsciously when he heard this, gripping Gu Yusen’s hand tighter.

“But it seems rare for someone to keep it as long as Mr. Chu.”

Chu Zhaoyi gestured to the length of his hair. It seemed so; it was already down to his butt. It actually hindered his daily life a bit, and he didn’t like to tidy it up. He didn’t have the patience to grab his hair, so he always wore it casually.

Gu Yusen couldn’t stand it and caught him and tied it into a ponytail.

“What’s it to you!”

Very fierce.

Mason noted Chu Zhaoyi’s reaction and changed the subject to talk about something else.

Gu Yusen remained silent throughout the entire process, quietly playing the role of a post.

As Mason expected, with Gu Yusen present, Chu Zhaoyi would be more willing to communicate with others, at least Mason wouldn’t be performing a one-man show.

After more than an hour, Chu Zhaoyi’s spirit visibly deteriorated. Mason knew that talking to outsiders was a very mentally draining thing for people with autism.

“That’s all for today. Mr. Chu did very well today, actively accepting treatment.”

“…Hmph,” Chu Zhaoyi slowly turned his face away and plunged into Gu Yusen’s arms.

The mentality of a child.

Gu Yusen, like a magician, took out a red rose from his backpack, protected in a transparent box, still vibrant.

As usual, Mason took Gu Yusen to the room next door and talked for a few minutes, briefly explaining Chu Zhaoyi’s current situation and the next arrangements, suggesting that follow-up psychological consultations should be held every three days, in any place, any place that could relax Chu Zhaoyi.

Gu Yusen nodded, keeping this in mind.

“Mr. Chu was bullied at school when he was young, so he is afraid of children. Through today’s observation, I think Mr. Chu’s hair is quite strange. Mr. Gu can ask him about it, maybe he will tell you.”

Gu Yusen nodded. He had asked Chu Zhaoyi before if he wanted to cut his hair, and he didn’t think there was anything unusual about his casual appearance, but since the psychologist said so, he would still pay attention to it.

Mason saw Chu Zhaoyi looking expectantly at this side through the transparent window and couldn’t help but find it a little funny.

“Sure enough, for Mr. Chu, you are a very special existence. I’m very curious.”

Gu Yusen also followed his gaze to look over. The moment their eyes met, he discovered that a little bit of starlight had been stained into those emotionless eyes.

Bright and sparkling eyes.

Like a puppy waiting for its owner to come home.

Gu Yusen, who smoked on the balcony for an hour after returning home at night, recalled everything that had happened in the past few days and came to a conclusion.

Chu Zhaoyi had started plotting against him sometime ago.

This boy really loved him terribly.

Gu Yusen touched his chin, drawing this conclusion.