Chapter 5: Dog Emperor
Around 6:30 pm, Jiang Ranxu finally caught Meng Weishen flying out of the elevator. He had calculated the distance between the stairs and the elevator, so he could now calmly walk down the stairs and create the illusion of a chance encounter.
"You smell like coffee." Jiang Ranxu moved a little closer, sniffed the other's shoulder, and then withdrew at the right time.
Meng Weishen began to pull up the zipper of his jacket again, covering his T-shirt tightly. He gave him an awkward fake smile: "No, don't be ridiculous. I really spilled coffee on myself, and now I'm afraid of the white wine in your hand."
"Dinner? It's my treat. Just a thank you for the coffee."
Jiang Ranxu shook the plastic cup in his hand at the other party, but unfortunately the ice had melted and no clinking sound could be heard. As planned, he naturally invited the other party to dinner.
We meet three times a day, and there is intercourse. This frequency and rhythm are perfect, and it would be best if we could maintain it in the future.
"No. My manager is sick. I need to find her car and ask a designated driver to take her home." However, Meng Weishen not only refused, but also seemed to have a flash of inspiration, realizing that something was wrong. "Your little class is over? When? Are you waiting for me?"
Jiang Ranxu calmly explained, "It just ended a while ago. A parent who also works at your company invited me to visit the headquarters building, and I happened to run into you."
Meng Weishen nodded hesitantly.
Taking advantage of this break, Jiang Ranxu searched his mind for memories of the other party's manager and changed the subject, "Your manager is Kuang Jia, right? The one who quit smoking with you before? What happened to her?"
"It's her period. She's in so much pain she can't even get up. She must have asked for leave to go home. And she wants to keep an eye on me during the meeting."
"She's married, and she's quitting smoking to try to get pregnant. Am I right?"
"Yes. Why do you ask?"
Jiang Ranxu thought for a moment and suggested seriously: "Don't send her home, call a taxi to take her to the hospital."
It's easy to imagine that Meng Weishen was a complete layman when it came to matters of marriage and childbirth. He simply rubbed the back of his neck in a daze, "...Is it that serious?"
Jiang Ranxu repeated, "Have her make an appointment with the obstetrics and gynecology department. She needs to confirm whether it is a threatened miscarriage."
Meng Weishen looked him straight in the eye, confirming that he wasn't joking. Then he took off running, dodging back to the elevator and squeezing into the wave of people heading upstairs.
Jiang Ranxu continued to wait where he was, with nothing to do but count the stranger's heads. The topic of quitting smoking he had just discussed with Meng Weishen had made him a little addicted, but he had already established himself in front of Meng Weishen as a non-smoker, non-drinker, and non-card-player, so he held back for the time being to avoid the smell of cigarettes.
Fortunately, Meng Weishen didn't keep Jiang Ranxu waiting too long; it seemed it wasn't his turn to take the patient to the hospital. According to Meng Weishen, they couldn't contact Kuang Jia's husband, and since Meng Weishen had to work overtime that night to align requirements with the product team, he had no choice but to have the intern accompany her to the hospital.
Meng Weishen's heart was in suspense, and he had no appetite for dinner. Jiang Ranxu was very flexible and temporarily changed his plan to go to a nearby mall to buy some clothes to replace the dirty T-shirt on his partner.
In Jiang Ranxu's imagination, shopping should be a great opportunity to get closer, and at least gain an hour of alone time.
However, Meng Weishen was incredibly efficient. He went straight to Zegna, picked up a basic white T-shirt from the hanger, checked the size only, skipped the try-on process, and sent the white T-shirt to the checkout counter.
What's the difference between this 4,000 yuan piece and the 150 yuan piece at Uniqlo next door? Before Jiang Ranxu could even react with shock, Meng Weishen had already asked the clerk to wrap up the T-shirt.
Jiang Ranxu stopped him and said as gently as possible, "Why don't you go shopping in other stores? Zegna's design concept is great, but spending thousands of yuan on just a white T-shirt seems a bit low value for money."
Meng Weishen seemed puzzled. "This one has a very good value for money. Did you see the white one next to it? It costs 7,000 yuan. I can't tell the difference between the two."
Jiang Ranxu was speechless: "...That's indeed quite good."
"There are more expensive ones in the store, like trousers and jackets. That would be the same outfit as our technical director's, so I definitely won't buy it." Meng Weishen pointed to the shelf where suits were hung. "But maybe it would suit you. Want to try it on? I can wait for you."
Jiang Ranxu didn't really want to wear the same clothes as the other party's leader who was in his forties. "No thanks."
Seeing that Meng Weishen was about to go back to work overtime, Jiang Ranxu's mind raced and he invited:
"There's a trendy goods store nearby. I saw a few days ago that they had new blind boxes, and there's a style called Beagle Emperor. Do you want to go take a look?"
Early last year, Jiang Ranxu's alma mater posted a list of retired lab dogs looking for adoption. All of them were Beagles. He'd simply forwarded the post to his friends, but to his surprise, Meng Weishen not only read the post carefully but actually adopted one of them.
Because the dog becomes enraged and loses all sense of purpose at the mere smell of dog feces, he was named Qin Shi Huang (Shi Huang). However, Jiang Ranxu heard that Meng Weishen had paid a high price to hire a dog trainer, and that Qin Shi Huang had now retired and been reincarnated as a dog. Given that Meng Weishen saw everyone as a good dog, Jiang Ranxu was skeptical of this training.
No ninja could resist the charm of a beagle. As a veteran Messi among ninjas, Meng Weishen's eyes lit up: "What kind?"
Jiang Ranxu actually hates shopping malls, or rather, he hates any place with a large crowd of people. In his eyes, a crowd is equivalent to a bacterial culture dish.
But to get that little bit of solitude, he reluctantly accompanied her. He waited only three or four meters outside the store, unable to get any closer, or else he might relapse into his old habit of washing his hands until blood appeared.
Meng Weishen clearly showed a tendency towards revenge consumption, and took out a whole box of blind boxes at once. The two of them sat outside the store and started unpacking them.
Of course, before Meng Weishen paid the bill, Jiang Ranxu had already sprayed all the seats with alcohol.
Meng Weishen had already opened two boxes: one containing a weeping carrot and the other a vicious Siamese cat, but no dog emperor. He began tearing the boxes with increasing urgency.
They still hadn't seen the Dog Emperor until the last two boxes were left. Meng Weishen muttered, "It's not a hidden model," and handed him one of the boxes, asking him to help open it.
The blind box wasn't sterilized. Jiang Ranxu hesitated for a moment, then reached out and tore open the seal.
They finally succeeded in gaining an audience with the respected Beagle Emperor.
"This dog looks like my Qin Shi Huang. I want to take it back to show it." Meng Weishen finally showed the only sincere smile of the night. He put a crown on the dog emperor and then carefully put the plastic toy back into the box.
Jiang Ranxu had long intended to demonstrate his virtuous character. Seeing that the other party was in a good mood, he used the art of persuasion at the right time:
"Meng Weishen, you seem to have no idea of the money you spend."
"I've also tried to save money, but financial planning is too complicated for me." Meng Weishen was also a little distressed about this. "It doesn't matter. As long as I don't have a mortgage and don't have children, my salary will always be enough for my expenses."
"You don't seem like someone with strong material desires. As long as you consciously donate less to charity, you can save money."
Meng Weishen looked at him with a confused look, which made Jiang Ranxu feel uneasy. Sure enough, he had misunderstood him again. "Don't worry, Doctor Jiang, my year-end bonus will be paid soon. Even if it's not much, it will be enough to cover three or four months' salary. I will have enough money by then, and I will definitely be able to afford the invisible braces."
"...I mean, you can actually plan for the future. If you need money in the future, you won't be in a rush."
"Future? Does that mean there will be new costs after buying invisible braces? Tooth extraction or retainer?"
...Jiang Ranxu felt a genuine sense of powerlessness.
No matter what he said, Meng Weishen assumed he was trying to sell a dental project, forming a solid logical loop. Besides, Meng Weishen's condition wasn't terminal, so Jiang Ranxu couldn't understand why he was so eager to spend so much money on him.
The return trip didn't leave much of an impression on Jiang Ranxu. He was in a trance the entire way, and he followed Meng Weishen into the ride-hailing car, even forgetting to spray the back seat with disinfectant beforehand.
Meng Weishen suddenly looked up from his phone screen: "Thank you, Doctor Jiang."
Jiang Ranxu really didn't want to pay any attention to him. But seeing Meng Weishen's particularly sincere look, he had to perfunctorily say, "What's wrong?"
"My manager did have a threatened miscarriage and is now in the hospital. She asked me to arrange my work for the next week or two." Meng Weishen said, "I think I need to thank you properly. I'll come to you when I'm done."
Jiang Ranxu suspected he had contracted some brain virus at the mall and subconsciously pretended to be wrong. "Actually, I didn't do anything. It's just my job, so I'm a little more perceptive than the average person. Your time is also valuable, so there's no need to thank me specifically. Come and see me when you have time to discuss orthodontic treatment options."
——
Kuang Jia was hospitalized, and Ke Mi was back at school for exams. The R&D team was left with only a handful of people, and the workstations had become particularly smelly. Meng Weishen turned on the small air purifier, but the smell of oily hair from the desk in front of him still lingered on his nose.
The workstation area was not only smelly, but also constantly noisy. Meng Weishen's mind was a little dull, and his fingers hesitated on the keyboard. He decided to stand up and look around.
It turned out that several male colleagues in the group were gathered next to the guy sitting in front of him, making a chattering sound like mice gnawing on a plastic bag.
"Do you know what's going on with Manager Kuang? He hasn't come to work for over a week."
"I don't know. What's going on?"
"The last time I went to the director's office, I heard she had a miscarriage."
There was a burst of "Wow" from the crowd, some cheering, some contemptuous, some surprised, all kinds of expressions.
The guy at the front table shushed several times, signaling for silence, then deliberately lowered his voice: "Don't get excited, just listen to me. I also heard a rumor, not true, but I heard that she was anxious to get pregnant because she was worried about layoffs at the company. The law does not allow female employees to be fired during pregnancy."
"Wow. Is this fair? Being a woman doesn't require much work, but it means you get a lot of privileges."
"Is this the first time you've heard of this? The female employees in our company's group chat discuss it every day. As soon as the group issues a layoff notice, they immediately try to find ways to get pregnant. They ask if it's infuriating."
The guy at the front desk seemed quite pleased with the group's excitement he had stirred up. He deliberately dragged his feet, keeping everyone on edge. "Wait, there's one last piece of news: the company is transferring a new R&D manager to replace Manager Kuang. There may be major changes to our team's structure, so everyone proceed with caution."
Meng Weishen suddenly interrupted: "Excuse me, how many days have you not showered? The stench makes me unable to open my eyes."
The guy at the table in front of him didn't feel ashamed at all. Instead, he leaned his arms on the fence in front of his table and said to him seriously, "Weishen, you are Manager Kuang's direct subordinate. You must be most careful."
"Be careful about what?"
The other person saluted him with his backhand: "Be careful, the new leader is going to do a big purge."
Meng Weishen sneered: "Dude, you really need a good cleanse. How about I transfer two hundred yuan to you and buy a high-end bath package at the bath center? Consider it my treat."
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