Chapter 37 Jiang's Performance Rules
In everything, we must talk about principles first and then talk about practical operations.
That night, Jiang Ranxu first taught Meng Weishen a set of performance rules:
First, people give themselves their own identities when they go out to the world. Arrange the cause and effect of the script in advance to avoid conflicts.
Second, if mistakes lead to inconsistencies in the script, you must remain absolutely calm and make the audience suspect that they have remembered it wrong.
Third, strike a good balance between mystery and distance. No matter how rich the script is, only half of it is performed, and the remaining half is left to the audience's imagination.
Meng Weishen felt that any of the above was too difficult to learn.
Jiang Ranxu, a male lecturer who is well versed in human nature, said that it didn't matter, he could directly enter the practical part and understand the principles through practice.
Meng Weishen still didn't understand: "Practical operation? How to operate?"
Jiang Ranxu instructed him, "First, make up our love story, from the time we met to the time we got married. Remember, this is a love story. You have to explain why and how you fell in love with me. The more detailed the story, the better, so you can fool your mother."
"Is it just a simple story?"
"Making up a story is just the first step." Jiang Ranxu said lightly, "After you finish making it, come to my bedroom and I will teach you what to do next."
To complete the first task assigned by Jiang Ranxu, Meng Weishen carefully took out his computer and created several blank Word documents, hoping to conceive a sincere and touching love story.
...As a result, he sat at the table and racked his brains for nearly an hour, writing and deleting countless times, but he could only come up with the beginning of the blind date.
Meng Weishen accepted his fate: he had no talent for storytelling and was no different from an illiterate person, and he could not write a touching love story at all.
Most importantly, all the married people around him are negative examples. His parents divorced early after being caught having an affair during pregnancy; his grandparents have threatened divorce countless times but were dissuaded by their children; his boss, Kuang Jia, is preparing to file for divorce over the house.
His own marriage was even more ridiculous. It was a fake show in itself, and the countdown to divorce had been set from the wedding day.
No one can invent a story beyond his own knowledge. He who does not know what a loving marriage is cannot write such a story.
Forget it, let's find inspiration elsewhere. Meng Weishen closed the still-blank Word document and opened the sinister Steam platform on his desktop. He scrolled through the AAA blockbusters he'd bought but had no time for, finally choosing to load Cyberpunk 2077. The platform recorded that he'd spent twenty or thirty hours on the game, saving him the cost of learning it from scratch.
He controlled the character, connecting his nervous system with Panam's. The game's graphics were exquisitely rendered. The woman leaned against his passenger seat, her figure shrouded in a neon green glow, save for her neck, which was a sinister crimson. A voice came from the headset:
"Our nervous systems are already intertwined. Do you want to... try it?"
Meng Weishen clicked: Let Panam touch you. "Okay, let's try it."
No, something is wrong.
An inexplicable electric current tingled through his back, triggering a biological instinct to avoid harm. Meng Weishen turned around abruptly and was startled to find that the bedroom door had been opened at some point, revealing another person inside.
Jiang Ranxu changed into black pajamas. Standing at the door of his bedroom, he didn't know how long he had been there. "I knocked on the door beforehand."
"I'm sorry. I was wearing headphones and didn't hear you." Meng Weishen quickly took off his headphones and slammed the escape key on his keyboard, preferring to abandon a large section of the archive. "It's late. Do you want to talk to me?"
"You haven't come to see me for a long time. I thought you might be in trouble, so I came to ask if you need help. I also made you a drink."
Jiang Ranxu's reason was flawless. With a natural look on his face, he walked into the bedroom and handed Meng Weishen a glass of sparkling drink with a lemon slice floating in it.
Meng Weishen accepted the sparkling water and thanked him. Jiang Ranxu, however, seemed distracted, his gaze drifting around his room, as if searching for something else. Meng Weishen, as if facing a major exam for which he hadn't prepared well, tensed up again. He guessed that the other party was most likely looking for Doctor Yaya to verify whether he was lying.
Fortunately, he placed the stuffed animal in a prominent position at the head of the bed and successfully passed the inspection.
But this is only the first round of inspections.
Jiang Ranxu sat down at the end of his bed and said gently, "It seems you have already made up a story."
The buttons on the other person's pajamas were also unbuttoned too low. Meng Weishen looked up and saw that she was wearing nothing underneath, a thin layer of black silk clinging to the texture of her clothes. His heart was pounding, and he stammered, "I-I've got the beginning. I'm a little out of ideas for the rest, so I came to the game to look for inspiration."
"inspiration?"
"Just... looking for inspiration in the dating plot." Meng Weishen seemed to be getting worse and worse, and hurriedly explained, "I haven't played 2077 for a long time. I only wanted to capture Panam because I chose a male V, but there were only male characters left besides her, so I had to choose her. It's not because I particularly like her..."
"It's okay, you don't have to explain to me. We just agreed to get married, we're not real husband and wife. I have no right to control you."
Jiang Ranxu interrupted him lightly.
Even more terrifying.
A layer of cold sweat broke out on the back of Meng Weishen's neck, and his tongue froze. Jiang Ranxu took advantage of the situation and pulled him in front of him, and spoke again:
"How are you finding inspiration? You can think of me as your mother. Tell me, how did you fall in love with me?"
Meng Weishen's breathing and speech stopped at the same time. His mind was as blank as a Word document. He had no choice but to hold on to his death and uttered a few incoherent words:
"I'll tell my mom that you were the dentist who pulled my wisdom teeth. I felt you were very professional and patient during the dental consultation, and I really liked you. Later, we happened to meet at a blind date, and we both felt that our conditions were suitable, so we got married quickly. After marriage, you took good care of me, and we got along very happily. I love being with you. That's it, there's no special reason, I just suddenly fell in love with men."
Jiang Ranxu listened to him until the end before leisurely commenting, "Your story is inconsistent. When did you fall in love with me? Before or after marriage?"
"Is it contradictory?" Meng Weishen finally realized his mistake. "Then let's change it to before marriage."
Jiang Ranxu said, "Wait, who asked you to change it? I told you that it doesn't matter if the story is inconsistent. The key is to stay calm."
"...Oh yeah, I completely forgot about the three rules."
"Let's do it again."
"In August 2022, I had just graduated and you were still working at my previous company, a public hospital. My right wisdom tooth had been inflamed, and I was too embarrassed to ask Manager Kuang for leave. One day, my face was so swollen that I hurriedly made an appointment and ended up at the pediatric clinic by mistake. You happened to be on duty that day, and you wore a mask the whole time, but I remember you had beautiful eyes..."
Jiang Ranxu interrupted, "Third, recall it yourself."
Yes, the story is too detailed. Without leaving any blank space, it would seem false and prone to mistakes.
Meng Weishen had talked too much and his mouth felt dry, as if he had a whole bunch of tissues in his mouth. He paused for a moment and went to get the sparkling water on the table.
"Making up a story is too difficult. I need to prepare more carefully." Meng Weishen drank the entire glass of sparkling water. The sour and sweet taste of lemon lingered on the back of his tongue for a long time. "Can we skip it today and move on to the next step of practical training?"
"I'm already teaching you the second step."
"What?"
"I'm teaching you to get used to physical contact with men. You only date female characters in your games. How can that be okay?"
We can't bring this up again. Meng Weishen explained with his cheeks tense: "No, I'm just looking for inspiration. Really."
Jiang Ranxu chuckled softly, "It doesn't matter. From what I can see so far, your second step is better than the first."
Meng Weishen then remembered that Jiang Ranxu had been fiddling with the buttons on his sleeves, seemingly playfully, but invisibly restricting his movements. He was almost touching the other person's upper body.
Jiang Ranxu moved his lips: "Come here, hug me."
A bewitching spell was born.
There must have been many poisonous insects lurking in that glass of sparkling water. As soon as Meng Weishen swallowed them, the spell took effect on him. His tongue felt sore, and pressing it against the inside of his canine teeth was ineffective. Although he was clearly secreting saliva, he still felt thirsty.
After he rolled his throat several times to suppress the sourness on the tip of his tongue, he had inadvertently hooked his arm around Jiang Ranxu's neck.
The skin on his neck was also thin, and the artery beneath his neck was right next to his ear. He counted every heartbeat distinctly, until their heartbeats intersected and he could no longer tell whose chest the sound came from.
Jiang Ranxu still felt it was not enough, so he held his waist tightly. This time, their whole bodies were pressed against each other, with only the thin material of his pajamas between them.
Jiang Ranxu's voice came over, sounding a little muffled: "Relax, you're as hard as a piece of wood. Don't you know how to hug me?"
Meng Weishen wanted to relax, but the more he thought about it, the more wrong he felt. This time, he didn't even know where to put his hands.
Put it on the other person's pajamas? But the black silk felt too slippery and cold, and he remembered the black king snake scales he had touched at the pet show.
And he was holding a huge snake in human form.
Meng Weishen's heart trembled, and he shrank back. He dodged Jiang Ranxu's restraints and made up an excuse for himself:
"That's all for today. I need to go check on Qin Shi Huang. It's the first time he's alone at night, so he probably won't be used to it. It would be terrible if his barking disturbed everyone."
Jiang Ranxu also knew when to stop and stopped pestering him for the time being. But his eyes were still fixed on his figure. "Go. Go to bed early and continue practicing tomorrow."
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