Chapter 18 Can You Accept Men?
The temperature was showing signs of warming, but the outpatient clinic's heating was still running high, giving the illusion that winter was over. A dry, hot feeling seeped through the cracks in my spine, sticky and itchy.
Meng Weishen took off his coat first, leaving only a single layer of clothing. He then groped towards the dental chair, stretching his back against it.
But Jiang Ranxu remained silent, staring at him intently, his pupils as still as the deep ocean, yet the deep ocean also signified high pressure and the unknown. From the moment he entered the clinic, Jiang Ranxu had been watching him.
Meng Weishen felt a little uncomfortable. He moved his shoulders slightly and suddenly realized that there was no disposable film on the dental chair and he shouldn't have lay down.
Just as he was about to turn over, Jiang Ranxu had already invaded his field of vision, and his palm gently pressed against his right cheek, sending a slight chill seeping into his skin.
Relying on the muscle memory formed from his medical experience, Meng Weishen suddenly turned into a specimen full of pins, and was completely frozen.
"The biggest problem is that a fake marriage might not fool your mother. You said she's very perceptive and experienced in judging people." Unsure of what they were going to check today, Jiang Ranxu hesitated to ask him to open his mouth. Instead, he began to stroke his jaw with his fingertips and chat with him as usual. "What would you do if she asked to see your marriage certificate?"
The clinic was so hot that Meng Weishen felt a thin layer of sweat seeping through his hair, and the right half of his cheek seemed to be on fire. "I will find a way to forge the documents."
"You see, once you tell the first lie, you'll have to tell countless lies to cover it up."
"You mean, you want me not to take this risk?"
Jiang Ranxu leaned forward slightly, as if about to fall in front of him: "No. What I mean is that you should wrap the lie more perfectly. Go get a real marriage certificate."
Meng Weishen was stunned. His remaining rationality was alerting the police, "...Is this really appropriate? Everyone says that you should be cautious when getting married and make good preparations."
"A carefully considered marriage isn't necessarily happier than one that's just struck up on the spur of the moment. But you do need to be cautious, at least to clarify one issue first."
Jiang Ranxu finally left his sight and began to unwrap the plastic gloves placed beside the table. The clattering sound of the bags being unpacked was like accelerant, and the flames burned from the right side of his face to his chest, his heart crackling in the flames. Meng Weishen grew increasingly nervous, even more so than when he first had his wisdom teeth extracted.
"Open your mouth."
As soon as Jiang Ranxu finished speaking, his thumb and index finger had already reached between his lips and teeth, pressing against his tooth sockets, prying open his jaw. Meng Weishen could no longer speak complete sentences, only mumbling: "What are you going to check today?"
"Gay men have very open sexual attitudes, you've already seen that." Jiang Ranxu answered irrelevantly, "Since you want to provoke a gay man, you need to think clearly about whether you can accept men. Otherwise, if you overdo it, it will be too late for you to regret it."
The smell of plastic was particularly pronounced, a dry, bitter taste mingled with a hint of disinfectant acid. It first invaded his throat, then his nose. With rapid breaths, Meng Weishen rolled his tongue with difficulty, "I'm not trying to provoke anyone..."
"You bit me."
Jiang Ranxu interrupted him leisurely, his finger still resting on his tooth socket.
Meng Weishen's brain froze for a moment. It wasn't until the watch on his wrist vibrated, alerting him to an elevated heart rate, that he finally regained some consciousness. He quickly leaped from the chair and freed himself from Jiang Ranxu's grasp.
Jiang Ranxu didn't pursue her relentlessly. He took off half of the glove from his fingers and snorted coldly, "You can't stand this, and you still want to find a male wife?"
For some reason, Meng Weishen felt the need to explain himself: "No, I don't want to offend anyone. I just need to find a same-sex partner to act with me, and I will pay them."
"Just because you don't want to provoke others doesn't mean others don't want to provoke you."
"What's the meaning?"
"Hasn't anyone ever liked you for some unknown reason?"
If he asked "what do you mean" again, he would appear to be too stupid. Meng Weishen chose to keep quiet and listen to the other party continue:
"So, you should find someone you know to act with you. If you both understand each other, there won't be any unexpected situations. Wouldn't that solve all the problems?"
Although I didn't understand the cause and effect, this suggestion does make sense.
Even implementing it was difficult. His social circle was too small. Aside from the company's hordes of idiots, there were only his junior high, high school, and college classmates, whom he barely interacted with. He couldn't tell who among them had particularly outstanding acting talent, or who was deliberately playing the role of a professor or leader's bootlicker.
The dial continued to vibrate, causing his wrist to begin to numb. Meng Weishen wanted to turn off the tachycardia reminder, but when he opened the watch, he found a new WeChat message notification.
A new three-person group chat appeared on the APP interface, and the name was changed to Blind Date Group No. 250 (Meng Jiang).
[Asher Zhou] Halo, can you two add each other's contact information? If you're shy, you can chat in the group first. If you need any help, you can also tell me in the group~
Meng Weishen clicked on the avatar of the remaining group member, and Jiang Ranxu's ID was clearly displayed.
Life is indeed full of coincidences. In fact, the entire history of mankind is full of coincidences, and many key turning points are caused by coincidences.
But humans are inert creatures, always tending to trust established rules and questioning coincidences that deviate from them. Therefore, people call coincidences "triggers" rather than the true causes of events.
Meng Weishen didn't know where to start, so he hesitated and said, "Doctor Jiang, you are...?"
Jiang Ranxu seemed to have anticipated his confusion and remained calm. "I can accept men, but meeting you on a blind date was truly a coincidence. Before this, I had no idea you would be the one making those outrageous demands."
It's bad. Meng Weishen's first reaction was to reflect on the discriminatory remarks he'd made against gay men, which seemed to be quite a few. He was so embarrassed that he was scratching his three-bedroom apartment with his toes when Jiang Ranxu spoke again leisurely, "Aren't you going to reply to Asher's message?"
[Wesley Meng] Thank you, Teacher A. I have already added this person’s contact information. He used to be my dentist.
[Asher Zhou] Did you know each other before? That's great, it means you two are destined to meet. Meeting and knowing each other is destiny (love heart)
[Asher Zhou] And your names sound really good together. They built the Great Wall together thousands of years ago. (Cheers) (Love)
Meng Weishen caught a glimpse of Jiang Ranxu rapidly tapping away on his phone, but he didn't see him posting any messages to the group chat. Instead, Asher quickly withdrew two messages and sent a new one.
[Asher Zhou] The Lantern Festival is coming soon, and Valentine's Day is right after that, both perfect for a date. You two can meet up and chat first. I recommend going to the Lantern Festival near the Summer Palace; it's beautiful.
Meng Weishen felt something was wrong.
He was obviously hiring a fake wife, so was there a need for a fake date before a fake marriage?
The two were less than half a meter apart, but Jiang Ranxu didn't discuss the time with him. Taking advantage of Meng Wei's confusion, Jiang Ranxu directly confirmed the time in the group chat:
[R Jiang] Valentine’s Day, I guess. It’s a Friday, so I don’t have to work the next day, so I have more free time in the evening.
——
The Lantern Festival and Valentine's Day both fall on working days, so only geniuses who love office romances can take advantage.
Given the nature of Meng Weishen's work, he could be assigned work at any time, even on statutory holidays. Not to mention weekdays, which were essentially like signing a 24-hour indenture with the company.
In order to ensure that nothing goes wrong on the day of the date, Meng Weishen informed his colleagues in advance and asked them to help deal with any temporary work arrangements.
However, plans cannot always keep up with changes, and on that day he received a notice of a dinner for the whole group.
This was the first official dinner since Lin Zhesi took over, and the boss personally invited them. It was a far more important event than any other work assignment. Especially since the layoff list hadn't even appeared yet, the more vague something was, the more alarming it was. Even the team's well-known henpecked husband called his wife and tremblingly swore he'd canceled the evening because it was a work dinner, not because he was having an affair with his mistress.
Meng Weishen was also forced to break the appointment and anxiously asked Jiang Ranxu if they could meet at another time. Jiang Ranxu was as patient as ever and replied:
[R Jiang] It's okay. You don't have to go to work tomorrow, so it's not too late. Send me the restaurant's location and I'll pick you up after you finish.
The dinner was held at a kaiseki restaurant near our office. The waiter first brought a gutted deep-sea fish, roughly the size of a medium-sized dog, and a plate of fillets sliced from the frozen belly. The subsequent fish, shrimp, and wagyu beef were equally fresh, showcasing vibrant red textures and milky white lines.
But Jiang Ranxu was waiting for him, so Meng Weishen ate his meal rather impatiently, chewing the meat twice and swallowing it without paying attention to whether it was cooked or not. He was more concerned with the time on his watch than savoring the fine bran.
When things get rushed, mistakes are easy to make. When it came time to toast the leader, Meng Weishen used AI to hastily generate a toast, completely oblivious to the confusion between his words and those of his earlier colleagues. As soon as he finished, Lin Zhesi, half-smiled, asked if they had used the same AI, creating an awkward situation.
It was Ke Mi who came to the rescue, redirecting the conversation to whether the company had plans to develop AI. The mention of AI gave the table of programmers an opportunity to air their opinions, and naturally, no one cared about Meng Weishen's mistake anymore.
Lin Zhesi didn't enjoy the ten-proof sake enough. After dinner, he wanted to organize everyone to go singing.
Meng Weishen pretended to go to the bathroom, hoping to take the opportunity to escape. As soon as he slipped to the emergency exit of the hotel, he was caught by Ke Mi.
Ke Mi saw through his plan at a glance: "Wei Shen, you don't want to do this anymore, right? Brother Zeus is obviously not satisfied with your performance, and you still want to slip away early?"
"Who cares? He can't fire me just because I don't participate in team building."
Meng Weishen looked at his watch again.
Ke Mi pestered him relentlessly, hesitating, "Boss Kuang told me that someone in the group likes to get physical when they're drunk."
It's true, there's a guy in the group who has a terrible drinking habit. And, even when drunk, he can still identify the identity and gender of the person he's sexually harassing.
For example, he never dared to touch Kuang Jia. If there were no other women on the field, he would only touch the youngest boy. If there were other women on the field, even if a colleague brought his wife to a dinner party, he would touch her, almost causing a brawl.
From this perspective, Ke Mi is indeed dangerous. She is a woman and of low status.
Meng Wei thought deeply and said, "You don't have to go either. Let's go together."
"No, my last offer fell through, so I'm betting my money on this internship. I'm afraid Zeus will block my chances of staying on... Forget it, just go on your own, and I'll think of a solution."
Out of a sense of responsibility as a mentor, Meng Weishen decided to stay. He pondered it carefully, and finally came up with an idea: "How about this? Once we get to the KTV, you toast Zeus with all your might, then pretend to pass out from drinking too much. I'll use the excuse of taking you home. Then we can both leave."
Ke Mi was always quick-witted; as long as he pointed out a direction, he'd execute it. Upon arriving at the KTV, he took the seat closest to Lin Zhesi and, with his alcohol, poured out repetitive phrases like "I'll never forget my leader's kindness."
Seeing that Ke Mi was almost drunk and started to cry about the pressure of finding a job and her ex-boyfriend cheating, Meng Weishen appeared in time:
"Manager Lin, Mia seems to be drunk. I'll take her home first. Have fun, everyone."
Lin Zhesi was actually quite young, perhaps around the same age as Jiang Ranxu. Meng Weishen vaguely understood that both of them were far superior to him in rank, so he couldn't possibly figure them out. He could only rely on his biological instinct to seek benefits and avoid harm. He should stay away from Lin Zhesi, but he could stay closer to Jiang Ranxu.
Lin Zhesi had just rejected his subordinate's invitation to sing in a chorus. He pushed the microphone away and peeled a ripe peanut from the snack tray, shaking off even the red skin. He popped the peanut into his mouth, his cheek puffing out exaggeratedly. Then he slowly said, "For those of us who are married, forget it. But Wesley, you're unmarried. Why are you in such a hurry to go back?"
Meng Weishen broke out in a cold sweat. He wasn't very good at lying. "No, I'm sending Mia back. I'm not in a hurry to go back."
"You were already anxious at the dinner table. You're not going to say you didn't have any?"
"...I'm sorry, I do have an appointment tonight. But Mia is also drunk, so please let her go back first."
Of course, Ke Mi wasn't really drunk. Seeing him confess so quickly, she secretly glared at him and then tried to smooth things over: "Wesley has the potential to be a henpecked husband. He's already so afraid of his wife before they even get married! Manager Lin, please be understanding. Don't let him not be able to see her on Valentine's Day, and his wife will run away."
The colleagues around burst into laughter.
"He's henpecked, that's good." Lin Zhesi pretended to have suddenly realized something, but the smile only lingered at the corners of his mouth, with no sign of it spreading to his eyes. "I thought he felt I had replaced Manager Kuang, so he had a problem with me. I actually understood that, which is why I approved his annual leave. I didn't expect him to be so loyal."
"Manager Lin, I don't have that idea."
Lin Zhesi also laughed: "So I misunderstood you? Sorry. But you don't usually come to me on your own initiative, and I don't understand your thoughts, let alone assign you any work."
Meng Weishen felt a dry, astringent sensation on the inside of his mouth, as countless mucosal cells dehydrated and died every second. He unconsciously pressed against the grooves inside his canine teeth until his tongue felt sore and swollen, making it increasingly difficult to speak fully. This gave him a completely illogical thought: he needed to get orthodontic treatment; his deformed canines were affecting his speech.
He didn't know what force drove him to act, but he picked up an unopened bottle of whiskey on the table and inserted the corkscrew into the cork. There was a loud bang, and half of his arm and eardrums were buzzing and numb.
Meng Weishen raised the bottle towards Lin Zhesi: "Manager Lin, you really misunderstood. I don't mean to disrespect you. How about this, I'll toast you a glass, and you don't have to bother with me."
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