DBTHDCAR Chapter 38

A sudden, severe cold brought Ning Xiaobei back to the real world.

The day before the Double Ninth Festival¹Double Ninth Festival (重阳节): A traditional Chinese festival on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, often associated with visiting the elderly, climbing heights, and enjoying chrysanthemum, Ning Xiaobei got a call from Fan Xia, asking if he wanted to visit Uncle Zhao at the nursing home the next day. Ning Xiaobei was silent for a moment before saying he had things to do and couldn’t make it.

Fan Xia then asked when he would be free, saying the weather had finally cooled down and the osmanthus in Guilin Park were in bloom. “Do you want to go for a walk? You’ve always loved osmanthus since you were a kid,” he added.

Ning Xiaobei replied that he still had some matters to handle at home and couldn’t go out anytime soon.

“Boss… did I make you angry?”

On the other end of the line, Fan Xia’s voice carried a hint of anxiety. “I’m a rough guy. If I upset you, just tell me straight.”

“Fan Xia.”

Ning Xiaobei spoke into the phone.

“I’m not your boss, you don’t have to call me that.”

They were both long past high school, edging toward their forties, and hearing himself addressed like this made Ning Xiaobei feel a little embarrassed.

For a long while, there was no reply from Fan Xia. Just as he thought the other person might have hung up, he heard a quiet, mechanical, almost emotionless, “I understand.”

On any ordinary day, given his keen sensitivity, Ning Xiaobei would have immediately wondered whether Fan Xia had a deeper feeling hidden behind that tone. But he had recently suffered a major upheaval in the dream world, and for some reason, he didn’t notice anything unusual in Fan Xia’s voice.

Holding the phone, Ning Xiaobei sat quietly for a while, then looked up at his father’s portrait on the bookshelf.

The photo showed his father in a suit, a half-length portrait. Though already aged, his thick eyebrows and clear eyes were the same, and his faint smile remained unchanged.

This photo had been taken from a group shot they had deliberately had made at Wang Kai Photo Studio on Nanjing Road for his father’s 50th birthday in 2010. Ning Xiaobei had kept it as a memorial photo.

Ning Jianguo had rarely worn a suit in his life, mostly work clothes or jackets, dressing like a worker all his life. This gray wool suit had been bought specially for his birthday at Hongxiang Fashion Company, and the elder treasured it.

Later, when Ning Jianguo passed away, he was dressed in this very suit as he was taken to the crematorium. By then, he had lost a lot of weight compared to his fiftieth birthday, and the suit hung loosely on him. Seeing that, Ning Xiaobei’s guilt and self-reproach only grew stronger.

He had thought that being an adopted son was already the most devastating thing in his life. Nothing could be worse. Until, in the dream world, on that stifling, humid rainy day, he had overheard the secret between his father and Uncle Zhao.

So that’s it.

This was the reason Ning Jianguo and Zhao Jingwen had never married a woman in their entire lives.

They hadn’t just been lifelong good buddies. They were, in fact, lovers.

“Ah…”

Ning Xiaobei walked to the bookshelf and pressed his hand against the glass of a black-and-white photo.

Every wrinkle, every strand of graying hair was so familiar to him; yet the more he looked, the stranger it seemed.

“If only I had realized sooner… Dad, you and Uncle Zhao wouldn’t have had to hide your feelings so painfully…”

Emerging from the dream world, his shock gradually shifted into a deep, gnawing guilt.

He had thought going there would change everything, change his father’s life, which had been unlucky because of him. Every effort he had made was meant to make Ning Jianguo happy, content.

But he hadn’t realized that he was actually the one who had been cared for all along.

In the real world, his father and Uncle Zhao had spent a lifetime comforting him, hiding their feelings to shield him from the truth.

In the dream world, because he had asked for a new mom, Ning Jianguo had actually gone to ask Aunt Wang for help, deliberately taking him out on a trip just to fulfill that wish.

“Dad… why were you always so good to me… when I’m not even your biological son?”

No matter where he was, his father had always gone out of his way to appease him, to care for him. That realization filled him with shame he could hardly bear.

Soon after returning to the real world, he immediately contacted Chang Leyun via WeChat.

That’s when he learned it had all been a misunderstanding.

Aunt Wang had later married Uncle Zhao Dahui, who lived on the fourth floor of the former Workers’ New Village, not Zhao Jingwen downstairs.

As for this Uncle Zhao on the fourth floor, Ning Xiaobei racked his brain and finally dredged up from the deepest recesses of his memory a man of medium build, plain-looking, wearing black-rimmed glasses, clad in a dull gray work suit; the typical image of a local rural cadre.

This man was reportedly a staff member at the district cultural center, a native of Nanhui. Not only was he skilled in calligraphy with a brush, he could also play the flute and a fine pipa.

Ning Xiaobei couldn’t make sense of it. How could someone, as the locals would say in Shanghai, a fossil too old to soften²old-fashioned, rigid, or outdated, match up with the worldly, stylish Aunt Wang Yihong, who ran a foreign trade business and spoke two foreign languages fluently?

Even a garlic-flavored cappuccino would probably be more harmonious than this, right?

After all, it had all been his own misunderstanding from the start. Just like Ning Jianguo had said: neither he nor Zhao Jingwen were interested, and Aunt Wang already had someone she liked.

It had been a few days since Ning Xiaobei returned to the real world, yet he still couldn’t summon the courage to go back there. He certainly didn’t have the face to face either Zhao Jingwen or Fan Xia in the real world.

After sitting for a while, Ning Xiaobei grabbed his car keys and decided to go somewhere.

It was Wednesday. The afternoon sun was warm, and in the green areas of the neighborhood, a number of elderly people were walking their grandchildren.

Raising children in this city was too costly, so generally it was the grandparents who helped care for the third generation. Everywhere he looked, old and young mingled — an air of weariness yet tinged with hints of vitality.

Following the route from memory, Ning Xiaobei arrived at the Workers’ New Village slab-style apartments along the north bank of the Suzhou Creek, the place he had theoretically never visited in the real world.

This old building, constructed in the early 1990s, was now over thirty years old. Compared to the version in the dream world, the slab-style apartments had fallen into considerable disrepair. The gray walls were mottled, and the air-conditioning units added later stuck out like glaring patches on the walls; here and there, like uneven band-aids.

The small courtyard below had now been converted into a shared parking lot for several nearby buildings. As in every residential neighborhood in Shanghai, the buildings might be shabby, but the cars below ran the full gamut; from BYD and Wuling to BMW, Audi, and Chevrolet. Nothing was missing.

After all, these buildings were run-down, but this was genuinely prime real estate in the city center, right along the Suzhou Creek; a bona fide river-view apartment. Driving from here to the Bund took no more than fifteen minutes, and the subway station was not far below. Life was convenient, so the price per square meter started at 100,000 yuan.

Ning Xiaobei stood at the bottom of the building, observing for a while. He noticed that the 316 room where he had stayed in the dream world and Uncle Zhao’s 216 room both had their doors tightly shut. He had no idea who lived there now. As usual, the corridor was cluttered with a messy pile of things, impossible to tell which belonged to whom.

Both ground-floor entrances of the slab-style apartment now had security doors. Ning Xiaobei didn’t have a key that would let him enter freely, so reluctantly, he had to turn and leave.

“Boss…”

He was about to start the car and leave when a familiar luxury vehicle pulled up beside him.

A little girl jumped down from the car with a backpack showing the name of a well-known private elementary school. Following her, a sharply dressed man in a suit got out of the driver’s seat. Wasn’t that his boss, Zhuo Yuhang?

“Az… no, Xiaobei?”

Zhuo Yuhang hadn’t expected to see Ning Xiaobei here and froze for a moment.

“Daddy, who’s that?”

Ning Xiaobei lowered his eyes and saw that the little girl, about eight or nine years old, looked smart and lively. That proud little expression, wasn’t it exactly like the childhood version of Xiao Hanghang he had seen in the back garden of the hotel in the dream world?

“He’s Daddy’s colleague, call him uncle’”

Zhuo Yuhang ruffled his daughter’s little head with a gentle smile. “This is my daughter, Zhuo Ya. She’s in the second grade of elementary school.”

The little girl was even more charming than her father as a child. She respectfully greeted them, then wisely ran off on her own to the nearby outdoor gym area in the complex to play, not interrupting the adults’ conversation.

“Boss, what are you doing here?”

Doesn’t he live in a big suburban villa?

“Oh, my father-in-law lives in the building behind that one. Today is campus parent–child day, so only half a day of classes. I attended the activities and then brought my daughter over to her grandmother’s place.”

Zhuo Yuhang pointed to the building further back.

“But how come you’re here?”

“I used to live here,” Ning Xiaobei said, pointing upstairs. “That room on the third floor. I suddenly thought of my dad at home, so I came back to take a look.”

“Sorry…”

Mentioning Ning Xiaobei’s father, Zhuo Yuhang looked guilty. “Earlier in the office, I really went too far. I’ve been reflecting on it these past few days… It was my fault, and a ridiculous one at that. Actually, I thought about finding another chance to talk to you in person, but I was afraid of bothering you, so for all these days, I didn’t even dare make a call.”

“No…”

Seeing his usually proud boss bow deeply to him, Ning Xiaobei felt a little at a loss. “Actually, I was wrong too…”

“Daddy, are you done yet? I’m hungry, I’m going upstairs to eat the meal Grandpa made.”

Zhuo Ya had been playing for a while and couldn’t help running over, rubbing her stomach.

“Then you go up by yourself, Yaya. Say hi to Grandpa and Grandma for Daddy.”

Ning Xiaobei had assumed Zhuo Yuhang would leave with his daughter. Unexpectedly, he only turned back to take a gift box from the car, handed it to his daughter, and then let her go upstairs alone.

“This…”

“Oh, I guess my father- and mother-in-law aren’t really eager to see me either.”

Seeing the puzzled look on Ning Xiaobei’s face, Zhuo Yuhang smiled awkwardly. “My wife and I are currently in a cooling-off period, living apart. The formal paperwork should be done by the end of the month.”

“Divorce?”

Ning Xiaobei realized he seemed to have just overheard a major piece of gossip.

“Yes. But you know, the company is about to go public. If the media or competitors found out…”

“I get it, I get it.”

Ning Xiaobei quickly raised his hands. “Please, I’m still technically a partner in your company, okay? I’m not going around tearing down my own walls.”

Zhuo Yuhang relaxed into a smile, light and easy, the kind Ning Xiaobei hadn’t seen in years.

They moved a short distance to a business building and found a café to continue talking.

Even though they had worked together for years, counting overtime, their time together each day probably exceeded what most people spent with family or spouses. Ning Xiaobei realized today just how wrong his understanding of Zhuo Yuhang had been.

“So… you’re not some son-in-law married into a Shanghai tycoon family… But everyone in the company says… well, okay.”

Ning Xiaobei set down his coffee cup, unable to stop laughing. He covered his mouth with the back of his hand, stifling his laughter for over ten seconds. He finally picked up the cup again, but thinking about it, it was still too funny, so he put it down once more.

“And all that stuff about your father-in-law’s investment and your wife planning for a second child… all fake? Boss, you just let everyone make up stories about you?”

“If you’re not allowing me to call you Azi anymore, you should stop calling me Boss’ Just call me Yuhang.”

Zhuo Yuhang lowered his head and shook it lightly. “I can’t control what people say. But it’s kind of nice, at least they believe I have a father-in-law who stomps around and makes the entire Shanghai financial scene tremble. If the company ever hits a crisis, shareholders won’t pull out so easily, right? At least I’ve got my father-in-law as backing.”

Watching Zhuo Yuhang speak so seriously while joking so wildly, Ning Xiaobei realized for the first time that his boss had a real talent for comedy.

“So… how did you and Madam Zun end up…”

Ning Xiaobei tried not to make his tone sound too gossipy.

The boss had just said he was currently in the thirty-day cooling-off period, which meant they must have filed for divorce last month.

Wasn’t that right during the busiest stretch of overtime work?

My own father also suddenly collapsed around that time…

Thinking of this, Ning Xiaobei frowned.

“Yes, it was during those few days… That’s why I said, I owe you an apology.”

Zhuo Yuhang clasped his hands together. Behind his gold-rimmed glasses, his narrow eyes were full of sorrow and guilt.

“The truth is, because of work, my wife and I had been arguing for a long time. Embarrassingly, today is the first time I’ve ever attended a parent-child activity at my daughter’s school. Before this, even in kindergarten or at training classes, I never even picked her up or dropped her off… So it’s normal that my wife would want a divorce, right?”

Because of long hours at work, the marriage deteriorated. Not wanting to go home, the boss threw himself even more into overtime, which eventually broke down the family completely. On top of that, he dragged the entire staff along, piling extra work on them too, ultimately causing misfortune for both families…

“That day, after we had that huge argument in the office, I thought a lot…”

Zhuo Yuhang lifted his head, the corners of his eyes tinged slightly red. “Xiaobei, even if you had wanted to kill me then, I wouldn’t have had a word to say… It was all my fault. My selfishness hurt both others and myself. Of course, life itself is something far more irreparable.”

“The situation…”

Ning Xiaobei’s throat felt dry. He wanted to say that he was also trying to make things right. But with these so-called parallel worlds and such, it was all too fantastical for ordinary people, so he could only give a bitter smile.

“So… are you still trying to make amends with Madam Zun?”

“Yes, otherwise, how could I possibly be here at this hour? And today is a workday. In a few days, the first wave of Double Eleven promotions is about to start.”

Zhuo Yuhang gave a wry smile.

After talking for a while, they finally untangled the knots in each other’s hearts.

Zhuo Yuhang said Ning Xiaobei didn’t need to worry about any three-month leave. If it weren’t for the current pandemic, he could even take a trip abroad to clear his mind.

Anyway, the company doors would always be open for him. As long as the company survives, Zhuo Yuhang would keep waiting. Ning Xiaobei’s office would remain reserved for him as well.

At this point, with everything laid out so plainly, no matter how much resentment Ning Xiaobei still held inside, he let it go.

“Well then, I wish you success in winning Madam Zun back. Before the cooling-off period ends, may your relationship return to the honeymoon phase!”

After leaving the café, the two stood on the street. Ning Xiaobei took the initiative to open his arms and said with a smile to Zhuo Yuhang, “We’re still partners.”

“Thanks for the good wishes. I’ll do my best too… partner.”

Zhuo Yuhang opened his arms and stepped forward.

Just as the two were about to embrace, someone suddenly rushed over from across the street and smacked Zhuo Yuhang’s outstretched arm aside.

“Who the hell are you? You think you can just hug him whenever you want?”

Ning Xiaobei stared in shock at Fan Xia, who had appeared out of nowhere, looking furious, still dressed in his police uniform.

“And who are you supposed to be? Just because you’re a cop, you get to be this rude? Careful, I’ll file a complaint against you!”

Zhuo Yuhang pushed up his glasses, adjusted his sleeves and collar, and shot back without backing down.

How did Fan Xia end up here?

Ning Xiaobei was completely baffled.

Wait… why does this scene feel so familiar?

………………

Author’s Note:

Fan Xia: Damn! Isn’t this that kid from back then who said I looked like a coal miner?!

Zhuo Yuhang: This dark-skinned guy looks strangely familiar… feels like I’ve seen him somewhere before?

Ning Xiaobei: Parallel worlds don’t have to be this parallel…

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• 1
  Double Ninth Festival (重阳节): A traditional Chinese festival on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, often associated with visiting the elderly, climbing heights, and enjoying chrysanthemum
• 2
  old-fashioned, rigid, or outdated,