Top Dupe CH 082 Sobriety Is A Crime Part 2

To his surprise, the door opened immediately. Gu Xiaowei was already dressed in his pajamas, his hair dried, looking soft and fluffy.

"What is it?" Gu Xiaowei asked, looking at him.

"You... Why did you put this sketch in my room?"

After saying this, Luo Yu felt inexplicably tense, his emotions stretched taut as he waited for the other’s response.

“A death painter, naturally depicting death.” Gu Xiaowei’s gaze shifted from the sketch to Luo Yu’s face, disturbingly calm.

All of Luo Yu’s guesses and feelings collapsed instantly. He raised the picture frame, “But at this point, Bai Ying wasn’t dead yet!”

Gu Xiaowei’s eyes darkened. “But he still died, in front of me.”

So… was this Bai Ying’s memorial portrait?

Was Luo Yu supposed to hang it on the wall and light incense for it every day?

“If you don’t like it, I can take it back.”

Gu Xiaowei reached out, and just as he was about to touch the frame, Luo Yu pulled it back behind him.

“Once it’s given, it’s mine.”

“That’s true, or else it would’ve ended up in my shredder.”

In that moment, Luo Yu suddenly understood the meaning behind the drawing.

“Lu Pingfeng’s copying of the butterfly specimen was meant only for Wen Yuchi. The Bai Ying you drew—is only for me, isn’t it?”

Gu Xiaowei stared at Luo Yu for two or three seconds before answering, “Yes.”

Luo Yu laughed, and suddenly wrapped his arms around Gu Xiaowei’s neck.

Caught off guard, Gu Xiaowei stumbled forward half a step, his chin falling against Luo Yu’s shoulder.

Luo Yu tightened his grip, not giving Gu Xiaowei the chance to refuse or struggle, and whispered in his ear, “Thank you, I really like it.”

The fluffy bangs fell down, covering Gu Xiaowei’s eyes.

Just as Gu Xiaowei was about to raise his hand to embrace him, Luo Yu let go, smiling as he said, “See you tomorrow.”

He picked up the drawing and walked back to his room.

Gu Xiaowei's hand, halfway raised, slowly dropped, and in a voice only he could hear, he said, "If you actually opened up that drawing… you might not like it so much."

Luo Yu carried the drawing back to his room, taking a deep breath.

If only… this drawing had been given to him purely as Gu Xiaowei, without any influence from Lu Pingfeng's character.

Simply as a gift from Gu Xiaowei to Luo Yu, and not Bai Ying in the eyes of Yan Ye.

But at least… Bai Ying captivated Yan Ye, while Wen Yuchi fascinated Lu Pingfeng.

And he would certainly possess Gu Xiaowei, too.

Luo Yu put the drawing together with the previous sketches in his cabinet. He suddenly felt a thrill of excitement at what Gu Xiaowei’s future drawings of him would be like.

After looking through a few of the documents Sister Cui had sent over, Luo Yu glanced at the time—it was already half-past ten. Time for bed.

With a click, Luo Yu turned off his bedside lamp. As long as nothing was bothering him, he could fall asleep in three minutes.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, but as he lay on his side, one half of his face pressed into the pillow, he vaguely felt his mattress sink slightly, as though someone was gently brushing his hair away from his ear.

“Mm…” Luo Yu opened his eyes and was startled to see someone sitting at the edge of his bed.

He had locked the door tonight! Who was this?

Luo Yu immediately grabbed the other’s wrist, ready to fight back, but the other person quickly covered his mouth.

“Don’t be scared.”

The two cool words, with a raspy undertone that sent a shiver down his spine.

Gu Xiaowei? How had he gotten in?

Luo Yu relaxed, patting the back of Gu Xiaowei’s hand, signaling for him to let go.

But Gu Xiaowei bent down, one hand propped on the pillow beside Luo Yu’s head, his eyes getting closer and closer, like a planet with an overwhelming gravitational pull, threatening to completely engulf him.

A wild anticipation surged in his heart, and Luo Yu was just about to push himself up, trying to get closer to him.

But just as Gu Xiaowei’s hand moved away, a powerful force pressed down on him, and Luo Yu's head fell back onto the pillow.

All his calm self-control was shattered by the overwhelming heat. All the cautious probing was crushed like dry weeds, and even the moonlight outside seemed to warp and fall from the sky. Everything—from blood to spirit—burned as it bloomed.

Gu Xiaowei's strength grew more intense, and even when Luo Yu tried to struggle for a breath, Gu Xiaowei followed him relentlessly.

Suddenly, Luo Yu thought of Bai Ying sinking into the water, being lifted up again and again by Yan Ye just before drowning… Fate couldn’t save Bai Ying, but Yan Ye could.

Luo Yu panicked, grabbing the back of Gu Xiaowei's collar, feeling the obsession and madness beneath Gu Xiaowei’s cold exterior—the same extremity that was in Yan Ye and Lu Pingfeng.

The only difference was, the characters in the script were bound to follow their written paths.

But Gu Xiaowei had no script to bind him.

He would decide the ending he wanted.

Just when Luo Yu was about to lose all his strength to resist, Gu Xiaowei suddenly let him go.

Air rushed into his lungs as Luo Yu’s body arched, and when he opened his eyes, the room was empty, Gu Xiaowei nowhere to be seen.

Luo Yu sat up with difficulty, looking towards the door.

The door was properly locked, Gu Xiaowei had never come in, yet he existed in Luo Yu's mind.

Or perhaps, in his dreams, Luo Yu’s subconscious had invited his intrusion.

A thin layer of sweat formed on his neck, and his heart was still trembling nonstop.

Luo Yu’s throat moved, and he threw off his blanket, feeling both helpless and embarrassed.

"What the hell…"

In the middle of the night, Luo Yu changed his underwear. The pair he tossed aside he didn’t even bother washing, as if it were some guilty evidence. He mercilessly threw it away.

His throat felt like it was burning, and all he wanted was a big glass of ice water.

Luo Yu opened the door, went downstairs, and headed to the kitchen.

He opened the fridge, which contained the bottled mineral water that Xiao Qin had ordered in advance. He grabbed a bottle, twisted off the cap, and eagerly gulped it down.

Only after his body temperature had finally cooled down did Luo Yu realize he had drunk the entire bottle in one go.

He hadn’t turned on any lights so as not to disturb anyone.

By now, he had fully adjusted to the darkness, and when he turned his head to go back, he was startled to see someone sitting on the sofa in the living room.

The person had silently concealed their presence and hadn’t said a word, even though they clearly saw him come downstairs.

The suburban night was still relatively cool, especially in the early morning.

The figure in the darkness lay in wait, as if they could seep into every pore of Luo Yu’s body, into his organs and bones.

“Who’s there?”

Luo Yu squinted his eyes, trying to make out who it was.

It seemed like the other person was holding something, faintly reflecting a cold glint in the dark.

Luo Yu didn’t move forward; instead, he backed up and groped around behind him.

He remembered there was a row of knives in the kitchen, placed there for the convenience of the resort guests to cook or slice fruit.

But when he reached out, he found that the spot where the fruit knife should be was empty.

"Brother Jiang? Or Brother Yan?"

Whoever it was, scaring someone like this in the middle of the night made Luo Yu really want to beat them up.

Luo Yu headed toward the kitchen light switch, but when he pressed it, the light didn’t come on as expected.

But the fridge had just been working. Could someone have cut the power to this circuit?

Luo Yu grew more and more uneasy. Had someone broken into the villa? A paparazzo? A stalker? Or a home invader?

His imagination ran wild in that moment.

He pulled open the fridge door, intending to use the fridge’s light to see who the other person was.

As the dim light gradually illuminated the sofa, Luo Yu saw Gu Xiaowei sitting there with a teasing smile on his lips.

"Your reaction is really amusing."

Gu Xiaowei’s voice rang out, but there was a hint of malice in his usually cool tone.

One hand rested on his knee, while the other held a fruit knife against the table.

Gu Xiaowei always seemed to adopt a different air depending on the lighting.

For example, in bright light, he appeared cold and indifferent, adhering emotionlessly to the rules of the world.

But in a dim setting, his handsome features seemed to sink into sinister desires, blurring the line between good and evil, truth and falsehood.

"What’s so amusing?" Luo Yu’s throat moved as he spoke. Why had Gu Xiaowei been sitting in the living room this whole time?

Hadn’t he gone to bed and closed the door earlier?

"You were scared of me, full of caution. You guessed it was Brother Jiang, guessed it was Brother Yan, but you never guessed it was me."

Luo Yu spread his hands in Gu Xiaowei’s direction. “You should be glad. A dangerous person sitting in the dark, turning off the villa's power and holding a fruit knife—I never would’ve thought it was you. It shows I place you in my safe zone.”

"Because if you knew it was me, even if I stabbed you with this knife, you wouldn’t be afraid." Gu Xiaowei said.

Luo Yu suddenly thought of the scene Gu Xiaowei was about to film: Zhao Sicheng seeing Lu Pingfeng sleepwalking with a fruit knife in the surveillance footage, the tip of the knife dripping red liquid onto the ground.

"Are you rehearsing Lu Pingfeng’s sleepwalking scene?" Luo Yu asked.

"What if I wasn’t rehearsing that scene?" Gu Xiaowei tilted his head and asked.

That smile didn’t belong to Gu Xiaowei. It was as if he had broken free from his usual restraint, revealing his true colors little by little.

Luo Yu slowly closed the fridge, and the room once again fell into darkness.

He walked over to Gu Xiaowei and sat beside him, speaking in a calm voice, "Go ahead, tell me. What problem are you having with Lu Pingfeng’s sleepwalking scene?"

"What do you think he's dreaming about?" Gu Xiaowei lowered his head, looking at the small knife in his hand. "In reality, he uses a paintbrush to record death, but in his dreams, he can create death without limits. It’s like how he’ll always remember his mother dying beside him, making him cling to that moment. Perhaps in his daily fantasies, he’s killed everything he cares about countless times. His agent, Uncle He who looks after him, and that female student trapped in his painting... So, in his dreams, he uses a knife as his brush, carving out the images in his mind.”

Luo Yu furrowed his brow. He realized that in his previous life, Gu Xiaowei had probably thought this way alone in the dark, sinking deeper and deeper until he couldn’t escape from his role.

"Gu Xiaowei, what do you think is the most similar thing between you and Lu Pingfeng? I mean... if in a dream, you wanted to destroy something, what would it be?"

Luo Yu’s fingertips lightly touched the back of Gu Xiaowei’s knife.

He didn’t deliberately try to take the knife from him because he feared it would make Gu Xiaowei guarded and resistant.

In Gu Xiaowei’s mind, this knife was his path into Lu Pingfeng’s dream state.

Gu Xiaowei stayed silent for a long time, not answering him.

Luo Yu chuckled softly, easing the tension in the room.

"Can’t come up with an answer, right? Because you wouldn’t bother using a knife. You’d never need something like that to defeat or conquer anyone. Using it would be a sign of weakness and lack of ability. Gu Xiaowei, your very existence carries an unapproachable superiority. Your strength lies in mentally overpowering your opponents, filling them with the despair that they can never win against you. That’s who you are, and that’s who Lu Pingfeng is too."