Chapter 43 No male daughter-in-law!

Early in the morning, Jiang Ranxu received a 3,000 yuan transfer from Meng Weishen, with the note "rent." There was no preface or postscript.

Jiang Ranxu suspected something was wrong with the other person's brain. He didn't have time to fix it for the moment, only to return the transfer because he was busy showing Meng Lirong the Polaroid photos, accompanied by an emotional explanation:

"This is the marriage certificate taken in the church. We exchanged rings. The rings have been blessed by a priest. According to doctrine, our divorce would go against God's will."

"This is a travel photo taken in Tianjin. Our cruise ship just passed the Tianjin Eye. Legend has it that couples who ride this Ferris wheel will break up, but don't get too excited. I deliberately didn't buy a ticket."

"This is a photo taken at my house. We decorated a new yard for our dog..."

"Enough, I say enough. I never doubted the authenticity of your relationship." Meng Lirong pressed hard on her temples. The headache didn't look like she was acting. Her palms perfectly shielded her vision, eliminating the need to look at the Polaroid photos on the table. "The problem is, your relationship is illicit. Do you even have basic moral values?"

Even if the other party doesn't like to look at it, Jiang Ranxu still leisurely adjusts the position of each photo, ensuring that the corners of the photos are aligned to form a neatly shaped wall.

He was quite satisfied with the results of his efforts. "How can it be illegal? We had a matchmaker, held the wedding in a church, and even obtained a marriage certificate. Every step of the process was completed properly. We are legally married."

Meng Lirong sneered, "You can't have children. A marriage without love won't last. This is my experience. The love in youth is fake. Children are real."

Jiang Ranxu was very polite: "Excuse me, but I really want to ask you, you and your ex-husband had children, so why didn't your marriage last?"

The other party was indeed choked by him.

The woman drank half a bottle of mineral water provided by the hotel, presumably to replenish her fluids and stifle her tears. Sure enough, she pulled her sleeves over her eyes and choked up.

"Do you know how difficult it was for me to raise Meng Weishen alone? Do you know how sad I was when he became gay? You simply cannot understand the difficulties of being a single mother. You only care about having fun."

Here they go again. Jiang Ranxu was prepared and started to sob along with the other party:

"Do you know how much I love Meng Weishen? I would die for him, do you know? I don't want to live if you break us up. You don't understand what love is at all. You only care about your own face because your son is a homosexual and you are embarrassed."

When acting, one fears encountering someone with better acting skills; when occupying the moral high ground, one fears encountering someone with a higher moral standing. Meng Lirong sobbed dryly a few times, then stopped crying.

She wiped away her nonexistent tears with a tissue and put on a serious front-office demeanor, "How old are you, young man? You're saying you're going to die for someone. Aren't you ashamed?"

Jiang Ranxu certainly wasn't afraid of losing face: "I don't care. If Meng Weishen divorces me, I'll hang myself in front of your Meng family's door. Even if I become a ghost, I'll haunt him."

"You're crazy..."

Meng Lirong was defeated again. She grabbed the shoulder strap of her tote bag and angrily left the hotel lobby.

Jiang Ranxu slowly placed the photos that filled the table one by one, storing them in chronological order. He zipped up his backpack and strode after Meng Lirong.

It was all because the ride-hailing service was so slow to arrive that Meng Lirong couldn't escape. The other party looked at him as if he had seen a ghost: "What are you going to do now?"

"Like I said, I have to make sure you have a good time. What are your plans for today?"

Meng Lirong's original purpose for coming to the capital was to attend Beijing No. 4 Middle School for an exchange program, assigned by her employer, and to catch up with fellow graduates who had come to Beijing through the college entrance exams. As for her son suddenly coming out as gay and her ex-husband returning to China with his family, those were all just unforeseen circumstances.

Today, Meng Lirong was having a reunion with her most admired students. Before the ride-hailing car had even come to a complete stop, she had already yanked at the backseat door. But Jiang Ranxu wasn't so easy to get away from. As soon as she yanked the door open a crack, Jiang Ranxu had already grabbed the door handle, leaned over to get into the back seat, and gave her an innocent smile.

The teachers and students chose Ditan Park as the meeting place. Among the numerous imperial gardens left behind in the imperial capital, Ditan Park stood out as particularly simple, with only a few silent old trees, a stretch of sea-colored wall, and a soul in a wheelchair.

Chinese teacher Meng Lirong chose Ditan Park, probably because of that soul.

Several university-looking girls were already waiting at the park entrance. Perhaps they'd arranged it in advance, but they were all dressed in the same uniform, light-colored sun-protective jackets and white skirts. They were like small, enthusiastic wildflowers clustered together in the grass. I couldn't name them, but the atmosphere was vibrant.

They saw the unfamiliar face following Meng Lirong from afar and were all a little confused: "Teacher Meng, who is this?"

Meng Lirong's face turned pale: "Don't worry about him, let's have our own fun."

Obviously, the other party thought that he wanted to take this opportunity to declare his sovereignty and verbally call himself the three good daughters-in-law of the old Meng family.

Jiang Ranxu knew full well that announcing his relationship to a stranger with whom he had no connection would only make him an exhibitionist. He had no intention of being an exhibitionist; he had more important plans for this trip.

He tugged at the strap of his backpack and greeted the girls: "Hello, I'm Teacher Meng's son."

The girls suddenly realized: "Oh, you are Meng Weishen, right?" The name came to mind very easily, and it seemed that they had heard Meng Lirong mention it many times.

Under Meng Lirong's horrified gaze, Jiang Ranxu nodded calmly: "Yes. How come you all know my name? My mom is saying bad things about me everywhere?"

"What bad words? They're just bragging," the girl said with a grin. "Teacher Meng said you were too rebellious. You had to choose your own supplementary materials and wouldn't let her interfere. You didn't like studying and often skipped cram school. I don't know how you got into Tsinghua University. We're all tired of hearing that during our three years of high school."

The girl next to him interrupted, "But you never find a girlfriend, Teacher Meng always nags about it. Hey, you're so pretty, why don't you find a girlfriend? Your girlfriend isn't a paper girl, is she?"

The girls burst into laughter.

Meng Lirong's sunscreen wasn't thick enough that morning, and half of her cheek was burning red, and no amount of cream could hide it. "Stop talking, he's not..."

"Indeed, she loves to lie to you. Raising a child is not as simple as my mother said. She must have sacrificed something for me." Jiang Ranxu said, "Actually, I'm very happy to see you. She has her own career and her own social circle, which is great. I hope she won't focus too much on me."

Meng Lirong rushed into the woods: "Let's go!"

The girls ran after him, the stone pendants on their backpacks jingling against each other.

They had a lot to talk about. About the essay collection they published together in high school, about the hellish finals week in college, about the dating game where they couldn't get the cards they wanted, about the sports anime they were currently following. They talked about the disabled writer who once wandered around the Ditan Park, about their writer friends who hired disabled people as goalkeepers.

Jiang Ranxu followed behind them and heard some fragments here and there.

There is a literary club in the middle school where Meng Lirong attends. Meng Lirong has been serving as the club's instructor for many years, and these students were once the core members of the literary club.

As they were talking, Meng Lirong talked about Meng Weishen again. She complained that Meng Weishen's head was full of arithmetic formulas and he had no talent for writing. The mother and son could not find any common topics at all.

She'd been so crowded on Subway Line 4 the past few days that she'd lost a shoe. She felt Beijing wasn't as beautiful as she'd imagined, and that life in a big city might be tough.

Sometimes she also wished Meng Weishen wasn't so outstanding. It would be great if he could return to her high school after graduating from a normal university and work there. She was always too lazy to cook by herself. More pairs of chopsticks would provide a wider variety of dishes to choose from.

A group of people passed through the lush woods and arrived at the sea in Ditan Park - actually it was a gray-white wall. Under sufficient sunlight, the wall would appear as deep blue as the sea, and the texture of the stone bricks would also transform into water waves.

The girls sat on the bench in front of the wall and asked Jiang Ranxu to help take pictures.

Meng Lirong tried to evade the situation, saying she wasn't young anymore and wouldn't look good in photos. However, she couldn't prevail against the overly filial daughter-in-law and was forced onto the bench.

She said no, but as soon as the camera was pointed at her, she straightened up from her waist to her toes.

Jiang Ranxu sent the photos to Meng Lirong, and the girls all praised her beauty and elegance. Meng Lirong was very proud of herself, and she was so satisfied that she couldn't help but smile.

While the girls were shopping for creative refrigerator magnets, Meng Lirong quietly said to Jiang Ranxu, "Thank you."

"You're welcome. This is what I should do."

"You're much more sensible than Meng Weishen." Meng Lirong pursed her lips, then spread them out, as if letting go of some obsession. "He's so stupid, he must have caused you trouble. Anyway, thank you for tolerating him."

Jiang Ranxu was stunned for once. He said, "Don't think so. My mom also thinks I'm the biggest troublemaker in the world."

"Why?"

"Because I always want to force her to divorce and find a job."

Meng Lirong laughed and said, "If my children could fully support me in getting a divorce and still stand by me after the divorce, I would be very happy."

On the way back, Jiang Ranxu sent Meng Lirong's photo to Meng Weishen.

[R Jiang] Teacher Meng likes to show you off in front of her students.

Meng Weishen didn't say a word in response, but transferred another 3,000 yuan to him with the note "Thank you".

Jiang Ranxu returned the transfer again. He asked sharply: What’s wrong with you? What happened?

But Meng Weishen was determined to give him the money and transferred another 3,000 yuan.

[Wesley Meng] Thank you. Please take the money. I've been troubling you so much lately, covering for me in front of my mom.

[Wesley Meng] I have to trouble you with one more thing today.

[Wesley Meng] Can I come see you? I really want to see you. Right now.

[R Jiang] Send me your location and I’ll find you.