Chapter 81 Need someone to accompany you
On the day Jiang Ranxu sent his father to the incinerator, the sky fell with hard snowflakes, closer to ice chips. They hit his face, causing a slight sting. He reached out to touch the snowflakes stuck to his face, but only a trace of cold water remained on his fingertips, like the mark of a slug crawling over him.
Jiang Shao had many enemies during his lifetime, his drinking buddies were all half-hearted, and even his brothers and sisters severed ties with him due to debt disputes. There was no need for a memorial service; his death was confirmed the same day and he was cremated that same day.
As dusk fell, Jiang Ranxu waited in line for his father's cremation. That was the way it was in the capital: There were lines everywhere, even after death and cremation. He was alone, while the funeral hall next door was packed with people who loved the hustle and bustle, with shaman dances, KTV shows, and beautiful women performing. The suona scratched his eardrums, and he preferred to wait outside.
Jiang Ranxu leaned against the funeral home's awning and lit a cigarette. Dense snowflakes drifted across the night sky, like a television channel with poor signal. For a while, he lost contact with the outside world, until Meng Weishen's face emerged from the darkness.
Jiang Ranxu stared at the other person's face for a long time, his mind a little dazed, and he forgot to put out the cigarette.
He hadn't expected Meng Weishen to come over. Or rather, the fact that they were still together seemed like a dream to him.
It was the evening rush hour, and Meng Weishen had probably walked from Babaoshan subway station, his hat brim covered in snowflakes. The other man hurried to take a seat beside him, shaking his head to shake off the half-melted snow, but he was still shivering from the cold.
The scratch on Meng Weishen's right hand hadn't fully healed yet. He awkwardly reached over with his left hand, snatched the cigarette from his lips, and bit it between his teeth. The firelight illuminated the tip of his nose, which was frozen and bleeding.
Jiang Ranxu said, "Give me your hand."
After Meng Weishen was injured, Jiang Ranxu was even more frantic than the other party, demanding to check his injury every two or three hours. Even if Meng Weishen was in the company, he had to send him photos.
Meng Weishen had long been accustomed to his nervousness, and handed him his right hand, palm facing up, for him to examine.
The wound has been sutured and scab has formed, with new pink flesh ready to surround the blood scab, and there is no sign of bleeding.
"How do you feel now?"
"It's nothing, just itchy."
Jiang Ranxu was still not satisfied: "If you had stayed home and recuperated, you would have recovered two days ago."
"We need to rush to deliver the product before the holiday, so I can't take any more leave." Meng Weishen defended himself. "Besides, my work won't affect my recovery. I can type code with one hand."
Typing code with one hand... It sounds both pathetic and funny. Jiang Ranxu didn't laugh: "Just catch up on the progress. No need to come to me. There's nothing we need you for here."
"You need me to accompany you." Meng Weishen poked him.
"No, who told you the news?"
Meng Weishen paused for a moment, probably thinking about how to address her appropriately, "...Aunt Guan. Why didn't she come today?"
Jiang Ranxu had anticipated this answer. He slowly shifted his gaze to the endless expanse of snow. "The church is preparing for a New Year's event. She didn't have time to attend the funeral, so she gave me some money and asked me to do it for her."
Meng Weishen didn't say anything for a long time, just slowly inhaled and exhaled smoke.
Jiang Ranxu deliberately provoked the other party: "Do you think she and Jiang Shao have a good relationship? She is not committing suicide for Jiang Shao, she is just afraid of losing her livelihood."
"I don't know. Although your mother has talked to me about some things in the past, the relationship between husband and wife is really the most complicated relationship I have ever seen. I don't understand it at all."
Jiang Ranxu still felt deeply resistant to his parents' utterly failed marriage. "Do you have any special fetish that makes you like hanging out with mentally ill people?"
"I still have something to gain." Meng Weishen hurriedly took credit for it. "I have convinced your mother. I will help her find a deep cleaning company to clean up all the waste and stains in the house."
Jiang Ranxu hadn't anticipated this. He retracted his gaze and pressed, "How did you do it? I've tried to persuade her countless times, but to no avail."
Firelight danced in Meng Weishen's pupils. "She later remembered that suicide also violated the Ten Commandments. She felt that I was a messenger sent by God to save her, and she was willing to obey my will."
"Great, you can sell her health supplements now."
"I said I have nothing to do with God. I was just the marriage partner your son tricked into marrying. Anyway, she finally agreed to the cleanup."
"Why are you wasting your time talking to her? She caused you to need three stitches on your right hand." Jiang Ranxu was still upset about this. "What were you thinking at the time?"
"I didn't think anything at the time." Meng Weishen smiled, generously revealing his long crooked fangs. "I don't regret it now. You just had a fight. If she really did that in front of you... you might feel guilty for the rest of your life. I don't want you to feel guilty."
Jiang Ranxu stared at him blankly. No matter how much time had passed, he was still fascinated by that special tooth. Stopping Meng Weishen from getting orthodontics was the best decision he had ever made in his life.
Jiang Ranxu was rarely honest and said, "If you get hurt because of this, I'll feel guilty too."
Meng Weishen poked his ribs again: "Feeling guilty towards me? Isn't that great? You'll have to hesitate for a long time if you want to divorce me next time."
Jiang Ranxu was bewildered, constantly suspecting he'd been tricked, but Meng Weishen didn't seem to be setting him up intentionally. Perhaps he was to blame for everything, his paranoia, his overthinking, his overly complex interpretations of simple matters.
Cremating the body was much simpler than he'd imagined. When their number was called in the funeral hall, Jiang Ranxu saw his frozen, shrunken father for the last time. If it weren't for the black hole on the corpse's chin, carved by cancerous cells, he would have almost failed to recognize him as his greatest enemy.
Anyway, everyone is pretty much the same after they die - Jiang Ranxu had realized this truth from his cadaver teacher a long time ago.
The corpse, pillowed with the ashes of countless survivors, was pushed into the furnace, cooked over a high flame for an hour, and finally emerged successfully. The moment the furnace door was opened, a wave of heat surged in, evaporating any remaining snow on the bystanders.
The flesh and blood of the corpse crumbled to the ground, leaving only a pool of human bones, no longer recognizable as it had been in life. The ashes weren't the powdery form commonly imagined; small pieces of bone burned into a macaroni-like consistency, while larger pieces barely retained their original shape.
Jiang Ranxu still didn't want to touch the other person, so the funeral home staff did it for him, using a hammer to break up the bones. After the box was filled with ashes, there was still some left, and the ashes that didn't fit were discarded.
He probably wouldn't have the leisure to visit his father's grave in the rest of his life. Jiang Ranxu was too lazy to choose a cemetery, so the other party's urn was temporarily stored in the funeral home, waiting for burial at sea.
Meng Weishen left the crematorium with him. The funeral hall next door was as lively as ever. A DJ, who had been invited from nowhere, sang "You are the wind, I am the sand" in front of the coffin. Who dares to linger with the frozen corpse to the end of the world?
Amid the clamor, Meng Weishen recalled, "Two years ago, I stayed at the funeral home to watch over my grandfather's body. My mom and her family also invited a bunch of performers, and the noise was so loud I couldn't sleep."
"Just feeling sleepy? Nothing else?"
"To be honest, it's a very relaxing feeling," Meng Weishen said. "No matter how much he disliked me or hated me, it's all in the past. But my mother was very sad, so I had to pretend to be sad too."
Relaxed? Jiang Ranxu tried to understand the word. He nodded slightly: "Yes. I feel relaxed now too."
Meng Weishen wouldn't force him to pretend to be sad. He took his sleeve with his uninjured hand and went home with him.
All the troubles were over for the time being and he could relax.
——
The two of them didn't return home until late at night. The snow on their trouser legs had melted into patches of water stains, and they were so frozen from the knees down that they were almost numb.
Meng Weishen was anxious to catch up with the project progress and didn't even bother to keep warm. As soon as he got home, he went straight into the study, fiddled with the computer, and joined an online meeting.
Jiang Ranxu used the semi-finished ingredients package to cook a pot of Tom Yum Goong soup, throwing all the ingredients he could find into the soup, and emptying half of the refrigerator. While the soup was still hot, Jiang Ranxu scooped out a bowl and went to the study to find Meng Weishen.
He finally had the chance to see how the other person typed on the keyboard with one hand. The scene was truly pitiful and funny.
Meng Weishen hadn't changed out of the pure black coat he'd worn at the funeral home. Jiang Ranxu pulled Meng Weishen away from the screen and began removing his clothes piece by piece: coat, sweater, T-shirt, until he was completely naked, and then put him back in dry pajamas.
Fortunately, the camera was not turned on in the meeting room. Meng Weishen was surrounded by several cute 2D girl avatars, and the voices of the speakers were all senior programmers over 30 years old.
The Klee avatar was still discussing how to fix the bug. Meng Weishen had clearly hit the mute button, and when Jiang Ranxu removed the belt for him, Meng Weishen didn't dare to say a word.
Because Meng Weishen was silent for too long, Keli paused: "Wesley, do you have any comments?"
Meng Weishen snatched the pajamas from Jiang Ranxu and put them on himself, temporarily escaping his clutches. "No, go on."
Jiang Ranxu was still restless. He scooped a spoonful of hot yellow soup and brought the spoon to the other person's lips.
Meng Weishen had no choice but to mute himself again, "I can drink it myself, just leave it here."
"Your hand isn't fully healed yet, so I have to feed you." Jiang Ranxu said confidently, "Besides, I've been feeding you a lot lately. What's there to be shy about?"
They were already very familiar with each other, and Meng Weishen also knew how to deal with him. The other party hooked his neck and gave him a cool kiss.
"Go play with the cats on the first floor first. I'll come find you when I'm done."
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