Chapter 73: Knocked Out by a Straight Ball
Jiang Ranxu also had some impression of the passage mentioned by Li Yingxuan.
Asher prepared two "50 Questions About Lovers" answer sheets for them to fill out separately, and the filming was also done separately.
To create a compelling show, in addition to standard questions like birthdays, anniversaries, and shoe sizes, the answer sheet also includes a number of tricky questions, such as the name of the other person's best friend in middle school, the game they've played the longest in their Steam library, and whether they want ice in their coffee or milk tea.
But Jiang Ran filled out the entire preface. Asher, off-camera, scolded him for cheating. If having a mind map stored on your phone that took three years to create and constantly updated counts as cheating, then so be it.
Asher answered for him, "What can time tell us? Some people marry and never care about their partner's life or death, while others become soul mates after knowing each other for just one month. This only proves that Jiang Ranxu is meticulous and caring. The marriage partner I recommend is absolutely excellent."
Li Yingxuan was completely immune to the matchmaker's nonsense. "Really? Let me offer another hypothesis. Jiang Ranxu, you did a very detailed background check on Wesley and found that he has a good income and is not defensive. Marrying him would earn you a lot of money just by dividing his assets. But you didn't expect him to change jobs, did you?"
"How boring." Jiang Ranxu almost laughed. "Li Lu, is money the only thing worth deceiving you? Can't I defraud you of something else?"
"Tell me about it."
Jiang Ranxu snatched the glass of water from Asher. Meng Weishen's scorching gaze sprayed on his face, and he felt like he might melt at any moment.
Reveal everything. Reveal his unbearable true self beneath his disguise, reveal his greed, anger, infatuation, arrogance, suspicion, vanity, paranoia, and reveal his... not-so-glorious love.
He had already destroyed their relationship, and Meng Weishen would eventually give up on him. Things were already as bad as they could be, and there was no way they could get any worse.
The intoxicating smell of alcohol filled his mouth and nose. Jiang Ranxu said, holding the alcohol in his mouth:
"The truth is, I violated medical ethics and fell in love with my patient. Even if he's straight, I couldn't bear to see him go on a blind date with a woman, get married, and have children. He had to be with me. So I asked Old A to help me put on a show and introduce me to Meng Weishen under the guise of a blind date. That's it, what's so complicated about it? After all your guesses, didn't you expect this possibility?"
Li Yingxuan folded his arms tightly, judging him with a silent gaze. "Love?" His pronunciation was awkward, the word piercing his lips like a stone. "How old are you? Is this all you're working for?"
Jiang Ranxu stopped looking at Meng Weishen and said disparagingly, "What else could it be? His consumption level used to be much more exaggerated than his income level. His ugly clothes look ordinary, but they actually cost thousands of yuan each. His dog eats New Zealand imported food, which costs over three hundred yuan per pound. He was also not vague about paying you, the lawyer. Do you think he would have a few cents left for me to cheat?"
"Just because of love?"
"Just because of love."
Li Yingxuan also looked like he wanted a drink. Certain he couldn't get anything good out of him, he gritted his teeth and scolded the person involved: "Meng Weishen, are you blind? Can't you see that there are men with double screens?"
Meng Weishen shook his head blankly.
Li Yingxuan turned to Asher again, but all he could say turned into a low sigh: "Forget it. You always like to play tricks on me."
"...I'm not kidding you." Asher looked away. "I'm just following the basic professional ethics of a matchmaking agency: keeping client confidential. And I've advised Jiang Ranxu not to mess with straight men. He'll definitely get into trouble if he messes with them, but he's very persistent."
"It's a complete waste of time to get involved with you. I can't take this job. I have nothing more to say."
The lawyer picked up his coat and left early, declaring the first divorce mediation meeting a complete failure.
Asher rubbed his eyelids vigorously and then stood up. "It's okay, I'll go out and take a look. You guys continue."
——
Jiang Ranxu believed that Meng Weishen had his moments of truth. The electronic watch he'd been given had indeed restricted his movements, and Jiang Ranxu didn't dare venture near Shichahai again, lest Meng Weishen locate the source of his nightmares through location tracking.
After leaving the bar, Jiang Ranxu chose to go home. Back to the home he and Meng Weishen used to live in.
By evening, Jiang Ranxu was searching his phone for the location of the device associated with his account. Sure enough, the electronic watch on Meng Weishen's wrist was moving closer to him.
Jiang Ranxu was prepared. He dug out his long-hidden stash of whiskey. 700ml, 40% alcohol, a bottle that would surely make him drunk.
Even during his years of extreme alcohol addiction, he wouldn't be so foolish as to get himself drunk. But he wanted to prove to Meng Weishen that he was awful and not worth his time. So he drank.
He was convinced he was an asshole. He was playing Russian roulette with Meng Weishen, pulling the trigger again and again, testing which shot would shatter Meng Weishen's filter for him, and how long the "love" he spoke of would last.
The bullet in the barrel will be loaded sooner or later...When the gun goes off, he might be even more devastated than Meng Weishen.
But he continued to shoot.
He had never seen a happy marriage, nor could he manage a healthy relationship himself; he simply didn't have the ability. Now, he had only one thought: if a relationship had soured, it would be better to end it in time rather than repeat his parents' mistakes, resenting each other and torturing each other to death.
Meng Weishen was faster than he had imagined. The other party didn't knock on the door to ask for his opinion beforehand, but directly entered the password to unlock it.
There was only a bottom of wine sloshing around in the bottle, and the surfaces of the last five or six ice cubes were just beginning to melt. The movie turned to a farewell scene on the eve of the final battle.
The other person grabbed the glass bottle before him and drank the rest of the drink for him. He didn't mix it with ice, so he choked and coughed repeatedly.
Jiang Ranxu still had some willpower left. In a trance, Meng Weishen hugged his shoulders. The familiar scent of the other person penetrated the alcohol and reached his nose.
"Don't drink. Alcohol is bad for you."
A clumsy piece of advice.
"You've drunk the rest." Jiang Ranxu hung the bottle upside down, and the last drop of wine flowed down the wall of the glass bottle onto the back of Meng Weishen's hand. "Where is there anything left to drink? Give it to me."
The other party was a little at a loss: "Jiang Ranxu, what's wrong with you?"
"I'm fine, I've always been like this."
He pulled the trigger again.
Meng Weishen was hit by the bullet, slowly retracted his arm, stood up and left him.
Jiang Ranxu closed his eyes again, and the surroundings fell into desperate darkness.
The constant rustling of clothes being packed and the rumble of suitcases being moved disturbed his sleep. Once awake, Jiang Ranxu began to have wild thoughts. He guessed that Meng Weishen was here today to pack the remaining luggage and prepare to officially move out.
Jiang Ranxu murmured in the chaos, as if talking in a dream: "Meng Weishen, are you moving?"
"Yes, move back home."
"What's the meaning?"
"Literally, moved back here from Chaoyang."
"Why?"
"I have to keep an eye on you and not give you a chance to escape again."
Jiang Ranxu finally lifted his eyelids. The alcohol had already destroyed his retinas. He rubbed his eyes vigorously before his vision gradually came into focus.
Bee Meng Weishen was back online. He was packing boxes of luggage into the house, stuffing all the personal belongings he had vacated a few months ago back into their original places.
Jiang Ranxu tried to make his tone sound firm: "No. How can we still live together after breaking up?"
"Why not?" Meng Weishen seemed to have already made up an excuse and took over his house with confidence. "Besides, the rent near my company is too expensive. I can't afford it, so I have no choice but to live with you. According to the market price of a second bedroom in the community, I will pay you 2,300 yuan a month."
"I didn't say I agreed to let you continue living here."
"If you don't agree, why don't you change the door lock combination?"
Whenever he treated Meng Weishen as a fool, he would lose miserably... Jiang Ranxu was completely speechless.
Meng Weishen continued: "Besides, you were the one who proposed breaking up unilaterally, and I didn't agree."
"Meng Weishen, you must have had too much to drink. You already know I'm a jerk. Our marriage was deliberately arranged by me. There's no fate between us at all. Just like... just like your former boss, Zhuge, cheated on his first love."
"You overestimate yourself. If you want to stand with my former boss, you're still a long way off." Meng Weishen snorted coldly, "You can trick me into marrying you, and you can trick me into falling in love with you? You don't have that ability."
Jiang Ranxu pulled the trigger for the last time: "Don't understand feelings as equal exchange. I love you, you don't need to love me."
But Meng Weishen dodged it easily.
Meng Weishen was too lazy to waste time arguing with him, and instead stabbed him: "Jiang Ranxu, the lady who came last time, she is your mother, right?"
"I don't know who you're talking about."
"Li Lu said that you must be hiding from someone by asking me to move out."
"Don't listen to the lawyer. All he thinks about is money."
"I was actually wondering, you want to break up with me and ask me to move out. Are you afraid that I'll run into your mother again?" Meng Weishen continued to ask, "You don't want me to know about your family affairs, so you'd rather break up with me?"
Meng Weishen's eyes were burning, and Jiang Ranxu's heart was hanging upside down, and he felt the feeling of melting again.
Jiang Ranxu instinctively resented any mention of his parents, the alcohol causing his stomach to churn. He abruptly stood up and went to the bathroom to vomit.
The pungent smell of alcohol filled the narrow space of several square meters. Meng Weishen still followed him stubbornly, soothing his back until he emptied his stomach and the vomiting had almost stopped.
The horrible thought of vomit still echoed in his mind, and he was unwilling to pollute any corner of the bedroom. Meng Weishen had no choice but to carry him back to the living room and settle him on the sofa.
His stomach ached with emptiness, and Jiang Ranxu doubled over, curling up into a ball. The movie's ending theme song was already playing, and his ears were buzzing. He felt like a fish with a hook piercing its body, waiting for death in despair.
How did they end up like this? In the past, the mere thought of Meng Weishen catching him vomiting drunk would have probably made him want to jump off the building.
Meng Weishen ordered a takeaway from the supermarket and occupied his kitchen without permission, making a lot of noise as if he was doing renovations.
The movie looped to the middle of the film. Jiang Ranxu already knew the ending and didn't want to watch it carefully. At this time, Meng Weishen brought him a bowl of hot hangover soup and forced him to drink it.
The soup base is almost transparent, with bean sprouts and kelp floating in the soup, and a plump, long object mixed in it, which is... a sea cucumber.
Jiang Ranxu almost laughed. He left the sea cucumber aside and only drank the vegetarian soup.
Meng Weishen's cooking skills had remained stagnant, barely above the point where he wouldn't starve or poison himself. The hangover soup had too little salt, making it bland and flavorless, but at least it was warm enough to fill his stomach with a warming, satisfying sensation.
Meng Weishen leaned into his arms. Seeing that he didn't struggle, he hugged his waist with confidence and covered his stomach with his warm chest. The feeling of satisfaction became more and more full. The pain in his stomach had nowhere to stay, so it had to escape.
The boy, as always, was superstitious about the local specialties and insisted on nudging him with his shoulder: "Eat it! Sea cucumbers are good for your health. You won't get sick if you eat them."
Sea cucumbers can't cure heart disease. Jiang Ranxu brought up the past again: "In fact, love can also be deceived."
"You're at it again, even when you're drunk and can't sit still. Forget it if you don't want to eat."
Meng Weishen snatched his bowl and chopsticks and bit off the sea cucumber's head for him.
On the contrary, after Jiang Ranxu finished drinking, his mind was clear. He was not drunk at all: "As long as I understand you well enough and play the role of your ideal lover, you will naturally like me."
"You really think you're so capable. Even I don't know what I like, but you know it."
"Of course I know. I know everything about you."
His attitude was too arrogant, and he clearly treated the other party as a fool. Meng Weishen finally got angry and got up from his arms:
"If you insist, I think you've got the cause and effect wrong. Before I met you, I never thought about dating anyone. It's because of you that I now have an ideal partner."
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