Chapter 29 Mother Loves the World
Guan Ping was indeed half Manchu, and her ancestors might have included several ministers and concubines. In her youth, she worked as a cashier at a state-owned department store, and some lechers even joked that she would have been a favorite concubine in ancient times: her face was round and smooth, like a silver plate, and a touch of color would have made her beautiful and elegant. She loved to laugh, and her laughter was crisp, like pearls pouring down a silver plate.
Beauty without other blessings becomes a curse. Faced with countless crazy suitors, Guan Ping failed to choose the emperor, but instead chose Jiang Shao, the most ordinary man in the world.
In those prosperous times, the ground was covered with gold for the brave, and Jiang Shao also made some money by trading futures. Perhaps he had promised her eternal love, or hoped for a better life. Unfortunately, both of them lacked the acumen to manage wealth and the ability to seize opportunities, and all their hopes were dashed in the new century.
Shortly after her marriage, Guan Ping encountered a wave of layoffs. She wanted to rest at home for a while, but ended up resting for decades.
Jiang Ranxu wasn't sure when she converted to the church, but it was certainly before he was born. Loneliness and depression are fertile soil for religious faith. One day, Guan Ping's heart was touched, and the next few decades of her life were spent in Mass, prayer, and volunteer work. The church was her only connection to the outside world.
God loves the world, and His believers also love the world. As she grew older, my mother gradually changed from being a "beauty" in the eyes of the neighbors to a "good person."
Her husband's business failed, and he always vented his anger outside at home. She insisted on not getting a divorce and carried the burden of the family alone.
The old lady next door broke three ribs while taking a bath, and her children ignored her. She was willing to take care of the old lady's daily life and even persuaded her to convert to the church.
Jiang Ranxu was admitted to medical school, and it was she who scraped together money from various sources to support him in completing his doctorate studies.
Yes, Guan Ping should be a good person. Everyone praises her as a good person and a good mother.
Who is that madwoman whispering in front of me? Is it the good mother Guan Ping?
The whistling of a pigeon whistle pierced the glass window, resonating with childhood memories. Jiang Ranxu felt a splitting headache. He suspected that his memory was distorted, or perhaps he had been away from home for too long. Guan Ping was no longer Guan Ping, she had completely transformed into a follower of God.
Guan Ping pulled out various ritual implements from a church cloth bag with a white dove logo: incense candles, a cross, a soft-cover Bible, a bottle of holy water, and a length of nylon rope.
She brushed away the dusty clutter on the coffee table and set up a simple altar. The only thing she couldn't use was the nylon rope. She looked at her husband, as if asking for help, or giving an order.
On the contrary, Jiang Shao was a speculator without any faith. He often mocked his wife for believing that the gods she believed in could not bless her with wealth and were worse than the rural land god. At this moment, he spread his hands and acted like a victim:
"Guan Ping, don't hurt me. If you want to kidnap someone, do it yourself. I won't do it. This kid was very manic when he was a teenager. He always fought back. I'm afraid he will beat me up anyway."
All the fragmented memories of his childhood flooded into Jiang Ranxu's mind, but the culprit seemed particularly innocent in front of him, as if he was the one who should apologize.
Jiang Ranxu felt incredibly nauseous, just one spasm away from throwing up. He had to divert his attention from his upper abdomen and simply started searching for documents at the entrance. What else could be hidden in a twenty-square-meter room?
Although no one was willing to cooperate, the ceremony began hastily.
The mother lowered her compassionate eyes, opened the Bible, and recited a strange language - it must be a piece of broken Latin that she learned in church.
My father put his legs up on the sofa and turned on the TV, tuning it to a boring football game. An unknown team, an unimportant match. But the volume was turned up so high that it almost drowned out my mother's prayers.
Whether it was the noise or the clutter, the level of chaos was far beyond Jiang Ranxu's tolerance. He was extremely irritated, and his movements were like a broken jar, dragging drawers, piling up CDs, throwing away instant noodle boxes, and practically turning the floor upside down.
Jiang Shao had no concept of housework, and Guan Ping was constantly busy with various church activities. Jiang Ranxu couldn't imagine how long ago the mess in the house had been created. He even found his peeling high school textbooks, their edges covered in holes that looked like rodents had gnawed on them. The only thing he didn't see was the household registration book he was looking for.
His father enjoyed his embarrassment and said leisurely, "Hey, it looks useless. Guan Ping, why don't you try the Chinese way? Get some glutinous rice flour and chicken blood, and call a few shamans over to perform. Haha, it would be so lively."
The sound of the Bible recitation continued. Perhaps the narrator also knew that he was useless and just wanted to prove his existence.
The devil laughed and said, "If I had known you would give birth to a devil, I should have sent him away when he was still young. Didn't your sister's family really want to buy a child? Now look, we can't do anything about him."
Jiang Ranxu could almost imagine the mold and dust that had accumulated in the house for decades attacking his skin, taking root in his flesh. He felt dizzy and almost uncontrollably stumbled to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, silently shrugged his shoulder blades, and vomited several mouthfuls of boiling, acidic water.
Vomiting certainly couldn't drive away the filth. Dirty thoughts still lingered in his mind, and he simply wanted to pull out every vein and every organ and throw them under clean water to wash them clean.
At that moment, his phone buzzed and vibrated. The flashing green light on the screen indicated that he had a new call from Meng Weishen.
Jiang Ranxu's heart trembled, and all his morbid thoughts came to a halt. He cleared his throat with a cough, tightened the water flow, and then answered the phone.
"Jiang Ranxu." Since when did Meng Weishen rarely call him doctor anymore?
"You've been to the marriage registration hall, right? Is there anything special?"
Jiang Ranxu had locked the glass door, but he was still worried that the other party would hear the strange noises in the house, so he half-covered the microphone.
"It's not particularly special. But there are so many weird gay men here, and one wants to interview me about my coming out experience. It's really awkward... Can you come over quickly?"
Jiang Ranxu lied calmly: "A patient just came in unexpectedly. His braces fell off, and I need to take care of it. Sorry, please wait a moment."
——
Jiang Ranxu stepped onto the rusty iron steps and walked towards the second floor amid the heart-wrenching creaking sounds.
As a child, he slept on a sofa bed on the first floor, while his parents slept in the second-floor bedroom. He had been boarding since elementary school and rarely returned home. While the second floor was part of his "home," it felt completely foreign to him.
The bungalow had an arched roof, and the artificial partitions were limited in height and area. Even the dust floating in the beams of light became an invisible constraint. He had to stoop down, bypassing the mattress with three layers of bedding and the pile of clothes, shoes and socks, and began to search the miscellaneous items in the bedside table layer by layer.
No, still not found.
Jiang Ranxu threw down the last layer of drawers heavily, and a feeling of despair surrounded his heart.
I’ve already searched both floors, where else can I put it?
What if his mother had thrown it away beforehand? Or hidden it somewhere else? How would he find it?
The whispered prayers once again poured into his eardrums, very close to him - his mother appeared behind him at some point, her thin body hidden in the dust like a ghost.
As soon as he turned around, the other party splashed a stream of cold liquid at him.
The remaining water droplets seemed to be alive, sliding from the forehead to the neck, and then quickly drilling into the collar, covering the whole body with an extremely uncomfortable chill.
His mother handed him the remaining half bottle of liquid. This was the "holy water" she had just poured on him. His eyes were fixed in a solemn expression, unblinking.
"Drink this. The holy water will drive out the evil spirits in you."
"I'll find you a counselor and a housekeeper tomorrow."
Jiang Ranxu wiped the dampness from his face hastily, but the chill still lingered. He decided to conduct another thorough search, unwilling to engage in further entanglement with the other party.
But his mother seemed to be a ghost behind him, holding the glass bottle in her hand, and staying less than half a meter away from him no matter where he went.
The sound of prayers entangled his eardrums, and the repeated Latin phrases had the magic power to drain the blood and almost strangle him.
With his headache getting worse, Jiang Ranxu was forced to stop searching. He slumped down on the sofa and snatched the glass bottle from the other person's hand.
"I can drink, but you have to give me your ID after you finish."
The mother said firmly, "Once the devil is gone, you won't want to marry a man anymore."
"Give up! This is just table salt soaked in water. It won't do anything. I'll prove it to you now."
Jiang Ranxu unscrewed the cork and drank the remaining half bottle of clear liquid in one gulp. As he expected, it tasted like light salt water.
His mother gently stroked his damp hair, her expression as loving as that of a Madonna: "The devil is about to begin to struggle. You must be in immense pain, poor child."
Pain? There was nothing to be miserable about. Aside from a sharp, tingling sensation in his stomach, his body remained unchanged. It felt more like numbness than pain.
Jiang Ranxu didn't know how to respond to the other party's concern, so he could only sit there stiffly, trying to sort out his confused thoughts and recall whether there were any points he had missed.
He caught a glimpse of his father, who seemed to be smiling. It was obvious that he and his mother were each other's laughing stock.
Perhaps the anger he exuded was too strong, Jiang Shao finally restrained his mouth and turned to talk to him:
"Jiang Ranxu, see? Stop trying to persuade your mother to divorce. She only listens to God now, not you."
Salt water was churning in his stomach, and he would vomit it out if he looked at his father any longer, so he looked away.
Inspiration also struck me at this moment.
Jiang Ranxu recalled a memory from elementary school. Back then, Jiang Shao had grown attached to a woman who dealt in fake fur and asked for a divorce from Guan Ping. Guan Ping adamantly disagreed, but without shedding a tear, she hid her marriage certificate.
He was doing his homework on the first floor when he saw his mother hiding the marriage certificate...
Jiang Ranxu immediately stood up, walked quickly to the bathroom, and lifted the ceramic cover on the toilet tank.
The smell of dirt hit him in the face. He suppressed his nausea, rolled up his sleeves, and submerged his arms in the water. Sure enough, he felt a rustling plastic bag at the bottom.
The red document wrapped inside is the resident household registration book.
He carefully removed the outer plastic bag. Fortunately, the paper document hadn't been completely soaked; only the edges were soaked, leaving them soft and sticky. He needed to fabricate a lie to fool the easily fooled Meng Weishen.
Jiang Ranxu walked past his dazed mother and sneering father, unlocked the door, and rushed to the marriage registration office.
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