DBTHDCAR Chapter 17

Time flew by. After returning from Sheshan, the year was almost over.

This was Ning Xiaobei’s first Spring Festival since returning to the old house. Celebrating back in the day had been lively. Just the sound of firecrackers all night and fireworks scattering everywhere was enough to bring back memories.

After all, in the real world, Shanghai’s city center had banned fireworks and firecrackers for many years. To set off firecrackers during New Year now, you had to drive all the way to designated spots outside the Outer Ring Road.

Xiaobei wasn’t the type to do these things for fun. So hearing the firecrackers go off on New Year’s Eve really startled him.

The alley was busy with visitors for days, and the Ning household welcomed several groups of relatives. Ning Jianguo, though an only child, still had relatives in Shanghai through Grandma Ning, plus younger family members traveling from Suzhou to pay respects to the ancestors. For a while, the old house was lively and full of festive energy.

Today was the fourth day of the Lunar New Year. Usually on this day, Ning Jianguo’s former apprentices and their students would visit to pay their respects. But this year was different, his apprentice Xiao Sun was getting married, so the father and son would head to a grand hotel on Nanjing Road for the wedding banquet in the evening.

New year, new atmosphere. Feeling the long-missed festive air, even usually stern Grandma Ning couldn’t stop smiling these days.

Even more special, this year, besides giving Xiaobei a generous red envelope, she brought out a piece of brown English wool from her reserves. She hurried the Hong bang¹Hong Bang Tailor (红帮裁缝 / Red Gang Tailor) – A prestigious tradition of Shanghai custom tailors originating from Ningbo. They specialized in high-quality Western-style clothing, including suits and formal wear, and were known for their skill, precision, and connection to Shanghai’s early modern fashion culture. Their work was sought after by wealthy families and reflects a blend of Ningbo craftsmanship with Shanghai sophistication. tailor from the alley to make a three-piece suit just in time for the New Year.

Not only that, she followed old Shanghai young gentleman customs, preparing a bow tie and shell cufflinks so that on the wedding day, Ning Jianguo’s apprentices could see just how dapper their master’s son was.

The family counted the time and left around four in the afternoon, taking the bus to Nanjing Road. Even during the holiday, the bus was packed, full of people in red and green, carrying gifts and packages for visiting relatives.

As for taxis, the business was insane; without calling ahead, you couldn’t get one. At this time, they didn’t dare trouble Driver Guo; he was already working hard making his fares.

“Dad, I feel like I can’t breathe.”

Ning Xiaobei was squeezed in the middle of the crowd. He stretched his neck and pointed at the red bow tie around his collar.

To be honest, even in the real world, Ning Xiaobei had only bought his first suit after graduating from university and job hunting. He had never worn one as a kid.

Now, his small frame was tightly wrapped in a neat and proper British three-piece suit. With the bus packed full of people, the air inside felt stiflingly hot, and he felt like he was about to get heatstroke.

“Xiaobei, up you go!”

Unlike his son, who looked like he had stepped straight out of old Shanghai, Ning Jianguo wore a jacket with dark blue work pants. With one big motion, he lifted Ning Xiaobei onto his shoulders.

The sudden movement drew complaints from the surrounding passengers. One person even looked ready to start cursing, but someone nearby cut him off with a quick, “It’s the New Year,” and he swallowed his words.

“Not bad, not bad; handsome father, good-looking son too. The bus is so crowded anyway, what’s wrong with getting to look at a handsome guy?”

A cheerful woman helped smooth things over with a grin.

At last, they reached their stop, and Ning Jianguo carried his son off the bus.

Ning Xiaobei had just let out a long breath when he spotted two people approaching from not far away.

Zhao Jingwen and Fan Xia, who had come from the opposite direction, were naturally also here for Xiao Sun’s wedding banquet.

“Quick, wish Uncle Ning and Xiaobei a Happy New Year!”

Seeing them, Zhao Jingwen was overjoyed. He pulled out a big red envelope from his pocket and handed it to Ning Xiaobei.

Ning Xiaobei accepted it generously and returned the New Year’s greeting.

Compared to Xiaobei’s easy manner, Fan Xia was much more awkward.

Ever since that day at the foot of Sheshan when he blurted out, “Please stop bothering me,” the two hadn’t seen each other for over ten days.

Even before leaving the house today, Fan Xia had been sprawled on the sofa, refusing to go out. Even now, he still didn’t know how to face Ning Xiaobei.

“Fan Xia, hi. Wishing you progress in the new year.”

Ning Xiaobei waved to him first.

“Mm…”

Fan Xia lowered his head and said nothing.

“Fan Xia, what’s wrong with you? It’s the New Year. You’re supposed to grow a year older, but you’re acting more childish instead! You don’t even greet your uncle, and Xiaobei says hello but you ignore him. I think you’re just asking for a beating. Once the New Year period is over, just wait and see how I deal with you.”

If it weren’t for the custom of not hitting children during the first lunar month, Zhao Jingwen would’ve already laid hands on him before leaving the house.

“Alright, alright. Xiao Xia is still just a kid, why are you being so harsh?”

Ning Jianguo quickly stepped in, pulled Fan Xia over, and stuffed a red envelope into his hands. “Xiao Xia, study hard in the new semester.”

Fan Xia held the red envelope with both hands, his head drooping even lower.

The two adults and two kids walked to the entrance of the restaurant.

In the cold wind, the bride stood outside to greet guests, showing the spirit of not fearing the cold nor the freezing weather. She wore a wedding dress as thin as cicada wings, holding a bouquet of bright red roses.

Her husband, Ning Jianguo’s apprentice Xiao Sun, stood beside her in a blue suit, also shivering from the cold. From afar, when he saw them approaching, he waved excitedly again and again.

“Master, Manager Zhao, this is my wife, Fang Yuanyuan. She’s from Hangzhou. Pretty, right?”

“Hangzhou is famous for beautiful women. Shame you lucked out and got one, what a waste on you,”

Zhao Jingwen joked with a grin, making the bride cover her mouth and laugh.

Before the New Year, Uncle Zhao had been promoted to deputy manager of the business department. But people dropped the deputy, and now everyone respectfully called him Manager Zhao.

Today, Manager Zhao wore an American pilot-style jacket in the same color tone as Ning Jianguo’s, paired with tight jeans and Doc Martens boots. His hair was styled with strong gel and even sprayed with mousse, making him strikingly handsome, enough to turn heads. He didn’t look like Fei Xiang today; he looked more like the classic French actor Alain Delon; the incredibly handsome guy who played Zorro.

When the bride saw four handsome men arrive, she smiled so widely she couldn’t close her mouth. She pulled over the photographer and snapped more than a dozen photos with them. In the end, she even complained that her husband was short, with short legs and small eyes, too much of an eyesore, so she simply pushed him aside and took photos with the handsome men by herself.

Xiao Sun took it all in good humor. Only after his wife had her fill of photos did he walk back over and gently fix her messy hair.

“My master and the others are handsome, right?”

“Handsome? Extremely! How is it that you’re all wearing suits, but that little boy looks like a British prince, while you look like some town entrepreneur?”

The bride pouted, then took Xiao Sun’s arm and smiled sweetly. “When we have a son in the future, I’m going to get him a suit like that too, dress him up just like a little prince.”

Xiao Sun wrapped an arm around her waist and grinned slyly. “We’ll get started on that tonight.”

Xiao Sun’s family was large, and the bride’s side was no less so. It was said they had chartered two buses from Hangzhou, bringing over fifty relatives and friends to celebrate. Ning Jianguo led his son around before finally finding their table among more than thirty banquet tables.

Their table was filled with Xiao Sun’s close friends from the factory, and more than half were Ning Jianguo’s apprentices and their juniors. Though Engineer Ning wasn’t that old, his skill and good temper made the younger workers eager to learn from him.

When everyone saw Ning Xiaobei, they couldn’t stop praising him. They all said Ning Jianguo was truly blessed. His son was good-looking and excellent in his studies, destined to enjoy a carefree life in the future.

Hearing those words, a huge wave of guilt surged into Ning Xiaobei’s heart like the tide. The smile that had been hanging on his lips vanished, and he drooped his head listlessly, looking just as downcast as Fan Xia beside him, almost like the two were a matching pair.

“Oh my, the adults are drinking. Kids, go out and play for a bit. Don’t stay cooped up in here.”

Seeing the two handsome boys both wearing miserable expressions, one of his dad’s apprentices’ juniors pointed toward the outside of the banquet hall. There, the hotel had arranged for a clown, who was making funny noises while twisting balloons for the children. A group of kids surrounded him, laughing and playing noisily.

“That’s right, Xiaobei. Your uncles will all be smoking. You shouldn’t be breathing that in. Go out and play with Fan Xia.”

Ning Jianguo picked a few dishes into Ning Xiaobei’s bowl, urging him to finish eating and head out. Soon, it wouldn’t just be smoking and drinking. Based on his many experiences at coworkers’ weddings, this bunch of guys loved to stir things up. Once the bride came around to offer cigarettes and drinks, if they started running their mouths like trains, who knew what kind of inappropriate things they’d say.

Ning Xiaobei didn’t want to stay in this noisy place either. He took a few quick bites, and once he was sure he was full, he instinctively reached out to pull Fan Xia along with him.

But the seat beside him was empty, Fan Xia had already finished eating and left without even saying a word to him.

“You brat, how long are you going to stay mad?”

Naturally, Ning Xiaobei wasn’t about to compete with a bunch of little kids for balloons, so he simply walked out of the banquet building and headed to the small garden behind it.

In the freezing cold, no one was strolling through the garden. A few European-style street lamps stood there, casting a lonely pale yellow glow.

Ning Xiaobei took a few breaths of the chilly fresh air, wavering between freezing to death and noisy as hell, and in the end decided he’d better go back inside.

Just as he turned around, he saw a small figure standing behind him.

Because the person was backlit, Ning Xiaobei didn’t recognize them at first. Thinking it was Fan Xia who had finally come around and couldn’t resist coming to find him, he smiled and walked over, warmly grabbing the other’s arm.

Only when they stepped into the light did Ning Xiaobei realize, awkwardly, that —

It wasn’t Fan Xia.

It was a child he didn’t recognize.

“Who are you?”

The child looked about the same age as him and didn’t seem wary at all, taking the initiative to speak to Ning Xiaobei.

“Uh… I’m the son of the groom’s master…”

“Oh.”

The child nodded with a knowing look far beyond his years.

“I’m the son of the bride’s older sister. I came here from Hangzhou by bus.”

As he spoke, the bride’s nephew widened his fairly big eyes and looked Ning Xiaobei up and down. In the end, he couldn’t resist reaching out to touch the dark red bow tie around Ning Xiaobei’s neck.

“Your clothes look so nice. Do kids in Shanghai all dress like you?”

“Not really…”

Ning Xiaobei answered honestly, “This was specially made for the New Year. People don’t dress like this usually.”

“That’s so nice.”

After touching the bow tie, the child was about to reach for Ning Xiaobei’s shiny shell cufflinks when a dark figure rushed over and smacked the back of his hand.

“Take your dirty hands off him! Do you know who my boss is? Is he someone you can just touch however you like?”

Fan Xia, who had popped out from nowhere, looked like a puffed-up kitten ready to scratch, shouting at the unfamiliar child.

“My hands aren’t dirty at all. I washed them before eating, and wiped them with a hot towel after.”

The child spoke as he pointed at Fan Xia with a look of disgust. “I think you’re the dirty one. Your hands are dark, and you’re dark too. How many days has it been since you last took a bath?”

“I—I’ll beat you to death!”

Fan Xia exploded with rage, fists swinging, ready to hit the other kid.

“Fan Xia, calm down! He’s the bride’s sister’s son!”

Xiaobei hurriedly wrapped his arms around Fan Xia’s waist.

“I don’t care who he is!” Fan Xia shouted.

“Blackie, blackie, did you just dig coal or something? Or did you grow up drinking soy sauce? How are you so dark?”

The little boy wasn’t backing down either. He was hiding behind Xiaobei and keeping up a full-on verbal assault on Fan Xia.

All the commotion finally drew the adults over.

“Hang Hang, why are you running around like this? Your mom’s been worried sick!”

A woman in a red outfit strode over in heels, grabbed her son, and only relaxed when she saw he was okay.

“I told you, don’t play with strangers! How do you know they washed their hands? What if you catch some virus and fall sick? How would you keep up with school?”

Xiaobei frowned at that.

“Mom, I want a little suit like his, and a bow tie too!”

The boy, called Hang Hang, pointed at Xiaobei.

Hang Hang’s mom looked at Xiaobei and nodded. “It is very nice, like a little master. Okay, when you get first place on your next test, I’ll have someone in Shanghai make you the exact same one.”

The boy cheered at the promise, waving at Xiaobei.

“Bye-bye!” he said, then added, “I’m Zhuo Yuhang. If you ever go to Hangzhou, come find me to play.”

“Play what? You don’t even know him…”

Hang Hang’s mom groaned, shaking her head as she pulled him back toward the banquet hall.

‘Boss?’

Hearing the boy’s name, Xiaobei froze in surprise.

When he was a kid, he had actually met his boss?

The boss had been a neat freak from childhood, and he liked to be sharp-tongued with people.

Xiaobei froze on the spot as if someone had hit a pressure point on him, only gradually recovering once the mother and son walked away.

“Boss!”

At that moment, Fan Xia suddenly stepped forward, opened his arms, and firmly grabbed Xiaobei by the shoulders.

“Don’t take any other little brothers, and don’t play with other kids. You can be my boss forever, please don’t be mad at me anymore.”

Tears, the size of yellow beans, wobbled in Fan Xia’s eyes. He pouted and couldn’t help but wail loudly.

Xiaobei was completely baffled. He had only spoken a few words to a stranger kid, how did that suddenly mean he was taking on little brothers?

Elementary school kids are really hard to read…

“Boss, I can’t be without you! When you’re not around, I feel suffocated. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, even martial arts novels aren’t fun to read. Let’s be friends again. Waaah waaah…”

Fan Xia cried as if his heart was being torn apart. Xiaobei, holding him in his arms, first smiled faintly, then, noticing something, stood on his tiptoes and his face changed suddenly.

Fan Xia, what kind of growth powder did you eat?

Before the holiday, we were the same height. How is it that in just over ten days, you grew taller than me?

………………

Author’s Note:

Time to let the boss show his face~ he’s the tool for these two to reconcile.

The boss is a good tool, probably useful again later.

For example, to make Big Fan Xia a little jealous, hahaha.

The “Hong Bang tailor” refers to a Ningbo tailor who specialized in suits and qipaos. Not many Shanghai locals know this term anymore.

====================

• 1
  Hong Bang Tailor (红帮裁缝 / Red Gang Tailor) – A prestigious tradition of Shanghai custom tailors originating from Ningbo. They specialized in high-quality Western-style clothing, including suits and formal wear, and were known for their skill, precision, and connection to Shanghai’s early modern fashion culture. Their work was sought after by wealthy families and reflects a blend of Ningbo craftsmanship with Shanghai sophistication.