Chapter 49 Prove that you like me
When Meng Weishen's uncle arrived, Jiang Ranxu was pretending to quarrel with Meng Weishen.
Jiang Ranxu is naturally suited to playing snarky characters: "Meng Weishen, your relatives are so poor that they have to hide even the money for the tombstone. Where's the 280,000 yuan betrothal gift you promised before marriage, and the down payment for the new house? I think it's all bullshit. A poor guy still wants to marry a Beijing girl, dream on."
Meng Weishen scratched his head and looked at his uncle for help: "Uncle, you are going to kill me. You have killed my wife. My mother said that if you don't get married and have children, you will be beaten by the nurses in the hospital when you get old..."
With outsiders present, the uncle was embarrassed and finally paid for the cost of re-carving the stele out of his own pocket. He also repeatedly warned Meng Weishen not to tell his aunt about this.
In order to speed up the process, they skipped lunch and watched the merchant use a yellowed computer to generate the engraving draft.
They'd downloaded a 360 antivirus package, and the software was more ruthless than a real virus. The computer would prompt them to clean up every three steps, and pop-up ads every five. It was incredibly slow. They waited impatiently until the vendor created a simulated engraving effect.
The tombstone was to be erected on the combined grave of my grandparents. Their names were centered at the top. Grandpa's birth and death dates were already set, while Grandma's only date of birth was filled in. Below, the names of the individuals erecting the tombstone were inscribed: one row for each of their four children, and another for their grandchildren (including Meng Weishen's one-year-old cousin). A large family and numerous descendants—this was the ultimate aspiration of the older generation.
Meng Weishen pointed at his children's names and said, "There's still room in this row. We can add someone. Uncle, what's your fourth sister's name? Is she your older sister or younger sister?"
My uncle just took out his lighter, and the unlit lighter paused on the cigarette butt: "How did you know?"
"Anyway, I just know it."
"No, I need to discuss this with your mom, your aunt, and the others." The other party, rarely adopting the attitude of an elder, "...Actually, we've already discussed this before. We younger ones don't have any objections, but it's mainly because your mom is quite adamant. She's the eldest sister, and if she doesn't want to, we'll just listen to her."
"Why?"
"She might feel ashamed."
"What's so shameful about this?" Meng Weishen didn't understand.
"Your grandmother gave birth to too many daughters, and she used to have a bad reputation in the village. And when Fourth Sister left, your mother was right there... Let's not talk about this anymore, let's go back and have lunch. Your mother saved some spare ribs for us."
——
When they returned home, Meng Lirong stopped asking Meng Weishen to work and gave him the right to use the three-wheeled motorcycle, asking him to take Jiang Ranxu to visit various places in the village.
The farther they got from the old house, the quieter the village became. As they pushed their three-wheeled motorcycles, they encountered only elderly people with unsteady steps and timid-eyed left-behind children. Presumably, most of the village's young and middle-aged labor force had migrated to the cities, leaving the village shriveled like a dried-up fruit pit.
A simple life also meant monotony. They walked for miles, even as they nearly left the village, the monotonous cornfields still closely following them. A vibrant green stretched from their feet to the horizon, and beyond their sight, perhaps there was only the cornfield.
Meng Weishen tasted the feeling of being imprisoned by green, and felt a bit panicked from the bottom of his heart.
He often felt this kind of panic in middle school and high school. He imagined himself failing the college entrance exam, attending the nearby teachers' college, and teaching at the same high school as his mother, trapped for life within a ten-kilometer radius of home, his life seemingly ending. It was this panic that drove him to flee his hometown.
Meng Lirong told him to take Jiang Ranxu for a good walk, as they couldn't just stare at the cornfield all the time.
Meng Weishen consulted a navigation app, and a satellite map revealed a pond near the village. They fired up their scooters and followed the navigation, their vision shimmering with a pool of pale brown water, finally breaking the monotony of the cornfield.
The two watched the old men fishing by the pond.
The old man brought his own small stool and waited quietly among the water plants, waiting for the fish to bite. Bored, he asked leisurely, "I haven't seen you before, young man. Where are you from?"
Meng Weishen introduced himself to the old man: "I am the grandson of Zhao Tiemei and Meng Zhiduan."
The old man scratched the few remaining white hairs on his head. "Meng Zhiduan? The one who left last year?"
"Yes, we came back to visit his grave."
"Your grandfather and I went to elementary school together. He was a promising man. He went to the city to make a living after graduating from high school. I heard he even became a train driver, right? I don't have that kind of courage. I'll just be farming for the rest of my life."
Meng Weishen said honestly, "You're all the same. Although Grandpa has traveled all over China, his biggest wish after retirement is to return to the countryside."
"Well, only people in the city think the village is good. Actually, there's nothing good about it." The old man chuckled a few times and poked Jiang Ranxu with his chin. "What about that guy? Is your brother still your friend from the city?"
"I..." Meng Wei thought deeply. He and the old man would never meet again, so he thought there was no need to lie. "We're already married."
The old man was so frightened that he almost dropped his fishing rod into the water. "Good boy... City people are just different. Don't tell me, you're just like your grandfather. You're so brave and dare to try things that others don't dare to do."
Meng Weishen wanted to laugh. If his grandfather were still alive, he would be furious to hear this. The old man had always thought that he was introverted, lonely, clumsy, and would never amount to anything. How could they be so similar?
At around four or five in the afternoon, the old man received a call on his old touch-tone phone. His daughter asked him to go back for dinner.
The two of them temporarily watched over the old man's fishing spot. Meng Weishen stared at the still water, seeing no sign of fish approaching. He tilted his head to look at Jiang Ranxu beside him, a little embarrassed: "I said I wanted to bring you home to feel the warmth of family, but I ended up causing you trouble. My family has a lot of weird relatives."
"It doesn't matter. Relatives are like this, some good, some bad. I'm already very touched that you're willing to take me home."
Jiang Ranxu was always so tolerant of him. Meng Weishen became more and more embarrassed. He could no longer stick to the other person's face and cast his gaze to the distance of the pond.
It was nearly dinnertime in the countryside, and many of the pond's fishing spots were empty. The waters were deep, and a gentle breeze blew across them, leaving only subtle ripples.
Suddenly, ripples spread across the water. A few boys in school uniforms came running in the distance. Excited by the end of their make-up classes, they hadn't even taken off their baggy red uniforms when they pushed each other into the water, laughing and joking about competing to see how long they could hold their breath.
The two carps caught by the old man became agitated, crowding in the shallow water of the small iron bucket and slapping their tails at each other.
Meng Weishen's heartbeat was equally restless. He murmured, as if talking to himself, "I don't know why, but I've been thinking about you a lot lately. When we're not together, I really want to see you, and when we're together, I wonder when we can meet again."
Jiang Ranxu didn't reply, but Meng Weishen knew he had heard. He continued:
"Actually, I used to miss you too, especially when I was working late. I'd want to go to your hospital to see you. The feeling was the same: a little anxious, but also very happy. But not to the same degree. I miss you even more now."
Jiang Ranxu listened to him patiently and smiled: "This is normal. What's there to not know the reason?"
"Then help me analyze the reasons."
"It only proves that you're in love with me. You're not straight at all. You should recognize your sexual orientation as soon as possible."
Meng Weishen was also startled, and like an old man, he almost knocked the fishing rod into the water, "Really?"
Jiang Ranxu took his wrist and told him to hold the fishing rod tightly, "Don't move, the fish is hooked."
Indeed, the float that had been resting on the water surface was bobbing anxiously, and the fishing rod began to shake with it. The two of them tightened the fishing rod and lifted it up -
Amidst the splashing sound, a strange red color emerged from the water.
The fishing rod unexpectedly caught a red school uniform jacket, with dense seaweed tangled around it. It looked like a water ghost that had been cut in half with only the upper body left.
They were both startled. The fishing rod trembled and the fish slipped back into the water.
A few meters away, boys were still competing in breath-holding. The less adept swimmers had already conceded defeat and swam back to shore, watching the remaining two or three strong swimmers compete for the championship.
Meng Weishen shouted at them: "Hey, who's school uniform fell into the water?"
No one responded. The boys stared at the water, intently waiting for the winner to be announced.
Two more boys gave up and swam back to shore in disappointment. The champion was now undisputed, and the last remaining boy jumped out of the water with joy and reunited with his friends.
The boys put on their school bags and carried their wet school uniform jackets, preparing to leave the pond and go home for dinner.
Meng Weishen shouted again: "You don't want school uniforms anymore!"
Finally, an attentive boy realized something was wrong and pointed at his companions who had come ashore one by one, probably counting the number of people.
No, it seems like there's one person missing.
The boys all shook their heads in bewilderment, then grew nervous and ran back to shore, calling out their companions' names. Some had already hurriedly removed their school uniforms, put on their swimming trunks, and swam back into the water, but still found nothing.
There was no emergency equipment near the pond, only a wooden sign that read "Dangerous Water, Do Not Enter." Meng Weishen vaguely realized that something was wrong, but Jiang Ranxu stopped him from entering the water and called the police first.
The sun gradually sank into the water, but more and more people gathered around the pond. Police, emergency personnel, fishermen, and villagers who came to watch the fun chattered as they formed a human-shaped wall.
The fully armed marine police dove into the water and, after searching for a while, finally found a foreign object in the shape of a human head in the muddy pit at the bottom. Mud and water plants tightly entangled the object, and several marine police officers worked together to finally pull out the entire, stiff humanoid body.
The water police dragged the body back to shore, and medical staff immediately performed first aid. But it was too late; the young body was no longer breathing.
The bad news quickly spread to several nearby villages. Every year from May to October, similar bad news would spread several times, and more and more villagers would rush to the scene, mostly women and the elderly, their faces pale, and no one knew which family would be affected by the bad news.
Meng Lirong and her mother, Zhao Tiemei, also rushed over. Meng Lirong desperately pushed through the crowd to see the drowned boy's face, but turned around and found Meng Weishen still sitting on the shore, helping the old man watch over the fishing spot, his trouser legs not even wet.
The young woman squeezed behind her also saw the boy's face, let out a miserable cry as if her throat was cut, and fainted.
For some reason, Meng Lirong also frowned and started crying.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
