Chapter 75: Puppy, what time is the curfew at your house?
There were only two hours left until midnight, and Meng Weishen still hadn't returned. This late return streak had lasted for three days.
Just two or three months earlier, Jiang Ranxu should have acted like a good wife, understanding how hard Meng Weishen worked, preparing a midnight snack and boiling water for him. As for where Meng Weishen had been and who he had met, he shouldn't have pressed him, but should have used his resentment to guide Meng Weishen into confessing.
Unfortunately, their dream marriage had collapsed. They were rebuilding their relationship on the ruins. More precisely, for every bit Meng Weishen built, Jiang Ranxu toppled it.
Now Jiang Ranxu desperately reveals the dark side of his nature, sometimes even going too far and being somewhat distorted. Although Meng Weishen uses his expertise in forbearance and is infinitely tolerant of him, he knows that there will always be a day when he can no longer tolerate it.
A little after ten o'clock in the evening, a faint ding-dong sound was heard outside the door, indicating that the elevator had arrived.
Jiang Ranxu had already been lingering in the entrance hall. As Meng Weishen unlocked the door, he bumped into him.
Presumably, his face looked very grim. Meng Weishen was startled, as if he had seen a ghost, and almost shrank back out the door.
Jiang Ranxu turned into an activated trap, immediately grabbed Meng Weishen's sleeve, dragged him into the house, and slammed the door shut.
"It's already ten o'clock." Jiang Ranxu said softly.
"There was a traffic jam on the way home."
Meng Weishen was punished by standing close to the door. Jiang Ranxu approached, his head slightly lowered, and the tip of his hair on his forehead brushed the tip of Meng Weishen's nose. Meng Weishen wrinkled his nose, but with nowhere to retreat, he could only stiffen his neck and turn his head away.
If Meng Weishen were at work, he'd probably smell like coffee and central air conditioning. But today, something strange was happening. There was a complex medicinal smell around Meng Weishen's collar, a mix of Western medicine and Chinese medicine, iodine mixed with bruises and injury ointment—a smell Jiang Ranxu had only smelled in hospital pharmacies.
Jiang Ranxu calculated, "Your company closes at six o'clock, and your journey home takes an hour. Even if there's a traffic jam, you should be home before eight o'clock."
He found that Meng Weishen was not good at lying. Once he lied, his eyes would wander around: "I worked overtime today, and I might have to work overtime before the New Year. You don't have to wait for me specially."
"I asked the front desk clerk at your company, and she said you took a day off and didn't go to work today."
"Impossible. You can find the location of the equipment. I am always in the company." Meng Weishen argued in a low voice, his voice faint.
Jiang Ranxu snorted coldly, grabbed Meng Weishen's arm, and lifted his sleeve. As expected, his wrist was completely empty, with only a few pale purple veins running through his palm and forearm. He looked healthy and full of energy.
Meng Weishen quickly made amends: "That's right, I forgot my watch at the company."
"You deliberately took it off and left it at the company before you left, just to prevent me from finding out your location."
Jiang Ranxu had long known that the other party would use traffic jams and overtime as excuses. He had prepared in advance to slander the other party, regardless of whether they were good or bad.
Meng Weishen hung his head, using his furry head to resist him: "From now on, I will call you mom. I am so old and I still have to abide by the curfew."
"Meng Weishen, where have you been these days?"
"Nowhere."
Obviously, Meng Weishen had been forced into a desperate situation and was completely at a loss for words, so he had no choice but to adopt the attitude of preferring death to submission.
Jiang Ranxu was determined to pry Meng Weishen open, and he put him on the spot. "It was you who asked me to report my location at all times, and it was you who concealed my whereabouts from me. What do you want? If you don't want to live with me anymore, just say so. The dog is yours, and you can take anything valuable in the house."
Meng Weishen raised his frightened eyes: "No, the situation these days is rather special. I will come back earlier in the future and won't keep you waiting."
Yes, that's the way to be well-behaved. Jiang Ranxu touched Meng Weishen's cheek and picked up an eyelash that fell near his cheekbone with his fingertips: "You're not going to secretly go on a date with a lawyer, are you?"
"No!" Meng Weishen shuddered, and another eyelash fell, and he took the initiative to raise it to his hand.
Jiang Ranxu gathered two eyelashes and aligned them end to end between his fingertips. He didn't know if making a wish on this thing would work.
"You're really bad at lying," Jiang Ranxu said. "I've already told you that we haven't officially divorced yet. You still have an obligation of loyalty to me."
Meng Weishen selectively skipped the question of "with whom?" "I really didn't go on a date! Actually, I went to the community nursing home these days to show my love for the elderly. Um... it was a charity event organized by our Tsinghua Alumni Association. I thought it was a good opportunity to build some connections, so I went."
Jiang Ranxu judged from the strange medicinal smell on Meng Weishen that the place he described was probably real. In old age, people are inevitably plagued by illness and rely on bottles and jars to prolong their lives.
But Meng Weishen's excuse was truly absurd. If the other party wasn't a clever and resourceful person, he would have already accepted Zhuge Liang as his godfather and Lin Zhesi as his sworn brother.
To verify the authenticity of the location, Jiang Ranxu asked for specific details: "What kind of charity did you go to the nursing home to show your love?"
Meng Weishen obediently told him: "Cut my hair."
"You can also cut hair."
"I just learned it."
Jiang Ranxu was about to ask "Who taught you that?" when Meng Weishen's eyes lit up, as if he had thought of a way to coax him.
Meng Weishen took the initiative to put his arms around his neck and brushed away the hair in front of his forehead: "Jiang Ranxu, your hair is too long now, let me help you cut it."
Jiang Ranxu said suspiciously, "I don't want it. You will definitely make it look ugly."
"It won't look ugly. My aunt taught me how to cut it, and I've already learned it."
Meng Weishen didn't know how to lie, but he knew other ways to manipulate Jiang Ranxu. For example, he would use moist eyes, kiss him, nibble on him, rub against him, and cling to him. Jiang Ranxu could only forgive Meng Weishen temporarily, otherwise Meng Weishen would cling to him and not let go.
Since Meng Weishen was so eager to help, Jiang Ranxu took advantage of the situation and said, "If you want to cut my hair, you have to wash it first."
"As long as you ask me for help, it's no big deal... I'll either ask you to do something or give you something else."
Meng Weishen seemed to have figured out the pattern, but it was too late to regret. Jiang Ranxu had already grasped his wrist and took the first step: helping him unbutton his shirt.
Hot water slowly filled the tub, a white mist rising, blurring Meng Weishen's lips and eyes. Meng Weishen had been standing, his T-shirt half soaked and clinging to his waist. Jiang Ranxu peeled the thin fabric from his skin. Meng Weishen then slumped down against the tub wall. Jiang Ranxu leaned in to kiss him. Meng Weishen lost his balance and quickly hugged his neck, and together they fell into the still-warm water.
Dog-washing expert Meng Weishen is also adept at washing people's hair and even offers massages on the side. But when it comes to cutting hair, Meng Weishen fumbles around, clearly only scratching the surface.
To be on the safe side, Meng Weishen first cut off a section of Jiang Ranxu's hair at the back of his neck. Half of the hair fell into the water, and the other half was tucked into Meng Weishen's palm.
Meng Weishen opened his palm to inspect his work for Jiang Ranxu. Jiang Ranxu glanced at the uneven tuft of hair and felt something was wrong. He hurried to the mirror to take a closer look. Sure enough, he found that there was only a mess of burrs on the back of his neck, as if it had been gnawed by a dog, and it was prickly to the touch.
Now I have to go to the barber shop to redo it! Jiang Ranxu resolutely refused to allow Meng Weishen to touch the front of his hair: "Do you think you have learned how to cut hair? Even if the grading is very easy, you will definitely fail the exam!"
Meng Weishen tried to get away with it by kissing him again: "Sorry, uncles only need to shave their heads, which is much easier."
Jiang Ranxu asked Meng Weishen to help dry his hair before he could forgive him. When Meng Weishen wrapped his hair with a bath towel, Jiang Ranxu casually asked, "Who is your hairdresser? He can't even teach me clearly."
"There's an auntie who often goes to the nursing home to help cut hair. She taught me."
"Auntie? Your schoolmate should be busy traveling around the world at that age, and he still has the leisure to help cut my hair."
"She's religious." Meng Weishen spoke faster than he could think. He hurriedly tried to make amends, "What I meant was that she's a Buddhist. She's seen through the worldly conflicts of interest and only wants to save all living beings. Yeah, that's probably the reason."
Jiang Ranxu's mind suddenly became dull.
Lawyers…background checks…community charity events…aunties…religious believers…concealment…
All the fragments of information connected together in his mind, and he got a horrifying answer.
Jiang Ranxu suddenly stood up, snatched the towel, and forced Meng Weishen to listen to him attentively: "Meng Weishen, who did you go to see, and what did you know?"
Meng Weishen was stunned and said, "What can I know?"
"Do you have so much free time to hang around me all day? What do you want?"
Meng Weishen panicked: "I just want to get to know you better."
"You understand me." Jiang Ranxu laughed lightly. "Want to continue to understand how disgusting I am? Aren't you disgusted enough now?"
"I don't……"
The knocks on the door were like thunder, interrupting their conversation. Jiang Ranxu listened carefully and found that it was actually the door of the neighbor next door.
A man outside the door yelled, "Is that your dog on the first floor? It's a spotted dog, so noisy late at night, barking non-stop!"
The neighbor was also furious: "You are noisier than a dog at night! Find out what's going on before you knock on the door. I don't have a dog at home."
"Don't deny it! I asked floor by floor, and the one on the fourth floor said they saw a man with a dog taking the elevator and pressed the seventh floor."
"We're not the only household on the seventh floor. Why don't you ask the neighbors? Why are you mad at my family?"
Meng Weishen broke free from his embrace, quickly put on a sweatshirt and jeans, opened the door, and took the initiative to meet the enemy:
"Yes, it's my dog. I'll be downstairs in a moment to check on the situation."
A couple outside the door turned around and poked Meng Weishen: "So it's your dog, do you still want to sleep?"
"I'm sorry, I haven't walked the dog enough lately. He can't get rid of his energy, so he keeps barking."
Meng Weishen's gracious admission of guilt only emboldened the people outside. The woman scolded the dog for scaring her children on the street, while the man threatened to have the property management clean up the neighborhood of cats and dogs sooner or later.
Jiang Ranxu was very annoyed and was about to close the door and send them away. Meng Weishen interrupted him first, saying, "I see. You're just asking for compensation, right? Then call the police. I'll pay whatever they say. No one should waste words before the police arrive."
Qin Shi Huang had certainly disturbed the public before him, so Meng Weishen was quite experienced in handling neighborhood disputes. When the police were mentioned, the couple fell silent in embarrassment. Seizing the opportunity, Meng Weishen shook them off and headed downstairs.
Jiang Ranxu followed immediately.
As soon as the elevator door opened, he heard Meng Weishen calling Qin Shi Huang's name loudly. Startled, he quickened his pace. He pushed open the half-closed door and saw Meng Weishen pacing around the room, opening cabinets in the bedroom, rummaging through the flower beds in the yard, and even lifting up the living room's playmat to take a look.
Meng Weishen said briefly, "Qin Shi Huang is missing."
Jiang Ranxu tried in vain to comfort the other party: "Look carefully again, it might be hidden in some corner."
"I've searched the entire first floor, where else could it be hiding?"
As soon as Meng Weishen finished speaking, his eyes turned and flew to the outside of the yard.
I saw that the iron gate facing the outside of the yard had opened a crack, and the cold wind hit the iron railings again and again, making a teeth-grinding squeak.
Meng Weishen pushed open the iron gate and ran into the residential complex's artificial green belt. The thick darkness of the severe winter night easily swallowed up his figure.
"Meng Weishen, you're just wearing a sweatshirt..."
Jiang Ranxu was unable to stop Meng Weishen. He forced himself to calm down and went upstairs to help Meng Weishen get his coat.
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