DBTHDCAR Chapter 47

On Friday evening, as Ding Zheyang got home from school and took out his keys to open the door, two shadowy figures suddenly sprang out from behind him, blocking him on both sides.

Startled, his hand shook, and with a clatter, his keys fell to the ground.

“What do you want?”

Clutching his schoolbag tightly with both hands, Ding Zheyang turned around, and in the dim hallway, he saw black and white impermanence ghosts grinning at him with twisted smiles. He let out a shrill scream.

“Yangyang, what’s wrong?”

An auntie from the neighboring unit happened to be heading out to throw away the trash. Seeing three people standing at the Ding family’s door, she asked curiously.

“Hello, Auntie.”

Fan Xia quickly turned around and flashed her a big grin. “We’re all Ding Zheyang’s classmates. We came over to hang out today.”

“Hello, Auntie.”

Ning Xiaobei followed with a polite bow, then pulled Ding Zheyang’s thin shoulders closer to his side. “We came to our good friend Yangyang’s place to do homework together.”

Compared to Fan Xia, Ning Xiaobei, with his fair and clean-cut appearance, looked more like a well-behaved good kid. Seeing that they were all wearing the same No. 1 High School uniforms, the woman didn’t suspect anything. She nodded and went downstairs with her trash bag.

Ding Zheyang hadn’t even recovered when Fan Xia bent down, picked up the keys that had fallen to the floor, unlocked the door, and pushed it open.

“Hey! Who said you could come in? And who exactly is good friends with you?!”

Seeing these two barging into his home like they owned the place, Ding Zheyang couldn’t help shouting.

“Wow, the ‘Prime Area’ really is upper-tier! You can see the Oriental Pearl Tower right from your window!”

Before the lights inside the room could even be switched on, Fan Xia exclaimed in awe as soon as he stepped in.

Facing them was a glass window capturing a full slice of the dazzling neon skyline. This window faced diagonally toward the Huangpu River; the glowing spheres atop the Oriental Pearl Tower blinked red, bathing the entire room in light.

At this time, the Lujiazui area of Pudong hadn’t yet gained its later world-famous kitchen set nickname—the “Syringe” Jin Mao Tower was still under construction, and the “Bottle Opener” and “Whisk,” referring to the Shanghai World Financial Center and the Shanghai Tower, were not even a shadow on the horizon. Yet over a dozen skyscrapers had already risen, their glass facades sparkling and lighting up the night sky.

From the other side, the Bund’s colonial-era buildings stretched along the riverbank, reflecting a grand golden glow, a stunning view in its own right.

“Wow! When National Day comes in a few days, can I come over to watch the fireworks from here? You can see everything so clearly from this angle!”

Fan Xia pressed both hands on the windowsill, turning excitedly to say it.

“What’s wrong with you guys?”

Ding Zheyang hit the switch by the entrance, turning on the lights in the living room. Then he strode to the window, roughly pushed Fan Xia aside, and pulled the curtains closed on both sides, blocking out all the outside light.

“Who said you could come to watch National Day fireworks here? How can you just barge in and make decisions for yourselves like this?”

By the end, he was practically yelling at the top of his lungs.

Luckily, this pre-liberation apartment was made of thick reinforced concrete, far better at soundproofing than the thin floors of the Workers’ New Village blocks. Otherwise, the neighbors might have come banging on the door.

“Exactly who’s making decisions for themselves?”

Ning Xiaobei spoke, stretching out his arm and pulling a gleaming pair of pliers from his backpack, holding them up in front of Ding Zheyang.

The boy’s face went pale in an instant, almost whiter than the fluorescent lights overhead.

“You’re a student, carrying something like this to school, sneaking around the bike shed during class. What exactly are you trying to do?”

“Who told their mom that ‘I’m good friends with Ning Xiaobei’?”

Ning Xiaobei set the pliers down on the nearby coffee table, stepped forward, and looked down at Ding Zheyang, who was now trembling slightly with fear. A faint smile curved on his lips.

“Come on, tell me, good friend.”

………………

At nine o’clock that night, Chen Lili, reeking of alcohol, staggered down the corridor of her apartment. The walls were covered with dark green floral wallpaper popular in the 1940s, and the floor was laid with fine mosaic tiles.

“Hiccup… ”

She braced one hand against the doorframe and fanned her face with the other, as if that could magically erase the lingering smell of booze.

Fumbling with her keys, her bleary eyes barely managed to line up the keyhole. Before she could even turn the knob, the front door swung open from the inside. Two short figures stood in the entryway, right across from her.

“Hello, Ding Zheyang’s mom.”

“Hello, Auntie.”

The two boys, backpacks on their shoulders, greeted Chen Lili. She was so startled that she almost hiccupped again and quickly covered her mouth with her hand.

“You… oh, Xiaobei, I’ve met you before. And the dark one must be Xiao Xia, right?”

Chen Lili pointed at Fan Xia, a little excited.

Fan Xia’s mouth twitched— “the dark one”? How exactly had Ding Zheyang been describing him at home?

“So Xiaobei and Xiao Xia are here to play at my house?”

Chen Lili’s face lit up. She grabbed their hands. “Why are you leaving already? Have you eaten? Auntie can make you some food.”

“Mom, don’t you see what time it is? We’ve already eaten.”

Ding Zheyang glared at his mother, who reeked of alcohol, and turned his head in disdain.

“Yes… it’s really late,” Chen Lili said, pressing a hand to her cheek, feeling a little embarrassed.

“Are you going home now? Let me see you out.”

From the time he was little until now, this was the first time Chen Lili had seen her son bring classmates home to hang out. She couldn’t help feeling a little excited.

“Auntie, Yangyang just wants to see us off, right, good friend?”

Ning Xiaobei said as he turned, tugging Ding Zheyang by the shoulder, forcing him to squat and change his shoes.

Ding Zheyang, completely blocked and speechless, had no choice but to open the door and step into the hallway.

“Oh, next time you come, you must tell Auntie in advance. I’ll take leave from work and cook for you at home. Whatever you like, just tell Yangyang. Do you like Japanese food? I can also make Western dishes.”

Chen Lili looked at the two boys with reluctant fondness.

“Sure! Next time we’ll definitely let you know in advance. Now we’d better go.”

“Goodbye, Auntie.”

The three of them walked through the hallway and descended the carved staircase, floor by floor. Earlier, when they had come up after dinner, they had used the oldest type of elevator. Even Ning Xiaobei had only seen ones like that in movies reflecting old Shanghai.

The elevator doors were black crossed metal gates. Inside sat a disheveled woman, who, upon seeing Ding Zheyang, wordlessly pressed the button for the third floor, then rose to close the gates, producing a loud clatter, clatter sound.

Now that the woman who operated the elevator had gone off duty and the elevator doors were locked, everyone had no choice but to obediently take the stairs.

“Hey, when you came home just now, why didn’t you take the elevator up?”

Fan Xia suddenly asked.

If Ding Zheyang had taken the elevator instead of the stairs, their presence might have been exposed much earlier.

“That woman…”

Holding onto the crabapple-colored wooden handrail at the staircase corner, Ding Zheyang turned to look at them and whispered, “I feel like she’s a ghost…”

He paused, then pointed at the dim yellow magnolia-shaped lamp on the ceiling. “The hallways, the stairwell, even the trash room… they all feel haunted.”

It was like the ghosts of the old society, lying dormant for a hundred years. The men wore suits with ties, the women wore qipaos with curled hair. But their clothes and skin were decayed and rotting, just like the peeling paint in the corners of the walls.

They appeared in empty corners, always following behind you. You’d turn around and see only a rotten wooden panel on the wall—they’d shrink back there. Then when you looked back, they’d emerge again.

“Stop it!”

A sudden gust of cold wind made Fan Xia break out in goosebumps.

“There are so many people living here, where would ghosts even come from? You watch too many horror movies!”

Just last week, Fan Xia and Ning Xiaobei had stayed up all night at home, terrified after watching the most popular Japanese horror film in his dad’s shop, 《Ringu.》They’d left the lights on all night. He had almost forgotten about it, until Ding Zheyang’s creepy tone brought it all back.

“There are a lot of people living here… but I’m all alone…”

Ding Zheyang lowered his head and whispered.

The three of them reached the ground floor. Being in the city center, the streets were still bustling at this hour, which made it feel much safer. Fan Xia and Ning Xiaobei first went to the bike shed behind the building to grab their bikes, then were ready to head home.

“Um… you guys can come…”

Just as they were about to pedal away, Ding Zheyang called out behind them. But the street outside was so noisy; the sizzling from roadside stalls, tourists talking, and vendors shouting, that his faint words were nearly drowned out.

“What did you say?”

Seeing that they hadn’t reacted and were about to leave, Ding Zheyang hung his head in disappointment. Then Ning Xiaobei hopped off his bike, tilted his head, and smiled at him.

“I said… I said you guys can come to my house…”

Ding Zheyang pushed up his thick glasses, the neon lights from the shops across the street reflecting off them. “Come to my place to watch the National Day fireworks.”

“Sure! It’s a deal then.”

Ding Zheyang looked up in delight and nodded hard.

“Bye-bye, see you Monday.”

Fan Xia got on his bike and waved at him.

Only after the two of them disappeared completely did Ding Zheyang turn around and head toward the century-old apartment where he lived. The moment his foot stepped on the wooden stairs, the floor let out a miserable creak.

He clenched his fists, hunched his back, and hurried upstairs.

“Wow, that ghost story that guy just told scared me to death.”

The bicycle rolled past Suzhou Creek. The bright, bustling lights gradually faded away. The closer they got to Workers’ New Village, the fewer cars and people there were, and the two of them couldn’t help but pedal faster.

Although Shanghai was pushing hard for economic opening —“A new look each year, A big transformation in three years”—compared to the traditional commercial streets of Jing’an and Huangpu, or the prime location where Jiande Lane was, these newly built residential compounds were still somewhat remote. It wasn’t until the large-scale municipal construction at the end of 2000, when huge numbers of public housing units were built, that they gradually became lively and prosperous.

“That wasn’t a ghost story. Living alone in such a big house like him… that is kind of scary.”

Ning Xiaobei shook his head. He hadn’t expected Ding Zheyang to be living like this.

In the past, when his parents were working overseas, he would stay at one house for three days, then another for three days, drifting around, but at least his three daily meals were guaranteed. Now that his parents had come back, he couldn’t even get a hot meal anymore.

The couple spent the whole year hosting tour groups. The three of them might not see each other more than a few times a month. Usually, before he even woke up in the morning, his parents had already driven their bus to wait outside a hotel to pick up guests. By the time he was asleep at night, they still hadn’t come home.

His mother had it a bit easier. She only needed to deliver the tour group to the hotel. But his father had to take those ill-intentioned Japanese men to bars and clubs around Hengshan Road or the Gubei area, helping those lecherous bastards have some fun, and wouldn’t be able to get away until well past midnight.

“Boss, I suddenly feel like I’m way too lucky right now.”

Looking up at the moon, Fan Xia let out a long sigh and said, “That kid Ding Zheyang…he’s got both parents, but honestly, he’s worse off than someone like me who doesn’t… Well, not completely without, I guess. Anyway, living with my uncle and occasionally getting pocket money from my parents, I’ve got it way better than him. And your dad, he treats you so well, right?”

“Mm.”

Ning Xiaobei nodded. He suddenly remembered what the adult Ding Zheyang, locked up in the detention center in the real world, had once said to him—

“Ning Xiaobei, you’ve been beating me at everything since we were kids, always one step ahead of me. Why do you think I hate you? That’s right. I did trick your dad on purpose. Who told you to have such an easy life?”

“I’m jealous of you…so jealous I’m going crazy. I’ve been dying to see you fail, to see you make a fool of yourself.”

He had always found it strange. What was there about a single-parent family like his that Ding Zheyang could envy? Not only did Ding hate him, he even dragged his father into it. So this was the root of it all.

Just now, when he and Fan Xia had barged into Ding Zheyang’s house and he pulled out that pair of pliers from his bag, the guy had actually gotten so scared he almost dropped to his knees.

When he and Fan Xia stepped forward to help him up, they realized his arms were covered in bruises— not from his parents, but from being beaten by Geng Enhua.

Turns out that guy didn’t just bully Chang Leyun alone. Among the boys, the one he bullied the most was Ding Zheyang.

Before, when Yan Bingru was still around, he didn’t dare act too openly out of respect for her. But ever since she was replaced by Sui Jun, who didn’t accept gifts and treated all students equally, that guy had only grown more and more unrestrained, becoming even worse than before.

Although Ding Zheyang’s parents didn’t really care about him, they still gave him plenty of pocket money every month. But even that couldn’t withstand Geng Enhua constantly extorting him every few days. In the past, handing over a few yuan a day was enough. But ever since Yan Bingru left, that guy’s appetite had only grown bigger, now he demanded ten or twenty yuan every day, and before the weekend, the amount would even double.

Ding Zheyang couldn’t keep asking his parents for more money all the time. He’d been squeezed so badly he didn’t even have money left to buy dinner, so he had no choice but to live on instant noodles. If Ning Xiaobei and the others hadn’t just treated him to a rice dish at the small restaurant downstairs, he would’ve been eating instant noodles again tonight.

“If I don’t give him money, he beats me.”

Ding Zheyang rolled up his sleeves, revealing his stick-thin arms, then lifted his school uniform to show them his bruised and purplish stomach. “I really couldn’t take it anymore… so, that day, I used pliers to cut the spokes on his bicycle. I didn’t want him dead, really. I just thought that if he got hurt, he’d stay home and rest for a couple of days and stop coming to school to ask me for money.”

As he spoke, tears streamed down his face.

Who would’ve thought that Geng Enhua was so physically tough? Even after such a bad fall, he only knocked out one tooth. After resting for just one day, he came back to school.

Maybe to vent his anger, the moment he got back, he beat Ding Zheyang up again without a word, then took all of his pocket money for the week—calling it, of all things, a nutrition fee.

The more Ding Zheyang thought about it, the angrier he became. He couldn’t hold it in, so during free time in PE class, he tried to pull the same trick again and mess with his bicycle, but Ning Xiaobei caught him.

“Please… don’t tell my parents, and don’t tell the teacher either. I don’t want them to know. I’m begging you…”

As he spoke, he cried uncontrollably, sobbing so hard his whole body shook like a drenched chick in the rain.

“Last time, when I wrote that report letter to expose Teacher Yan, my dad scolded me badly. He said he’d wasted so much money on me, and my grades still dropped. If they find out about this, my dad will really scold me to death and beat me… please, I’m begging you…”

Fan Xia had always been the one who got along with him the least, but hearing this, he was so angry he threw a couple of punches into the air.

“Then what are we supposed to do? Just let him keep bullying you? Ahhh, this is infuriating!”

This dark-skinned boy had a natural sense of chivalry. He couldn’t stand seeing others suffer, even if it was someone like Ding Zheyang, whom he used to dislike.

Ning Xiaobei shot him a sideways glance, thinking to himself: If I hadn’t pulled you back in time, wouldn’t you have turned into another Geng Enhua? In the real world, you bullied me plenty too.

But Fan Xia was right, this matter had to be dealt with. Otherwise, who knew what kind of extreme things Ding Zheyang might end up doing?

After all, he was someone who had eaten prison food in the future… With that kind of inferiority complex and weak personality, mixed with a streak of extremism, if it wasn’t corrected early, something serious would happen sooner or later.

“Hey, boss, did you even hear what I said?”

Fan Xia called out to Ning Xiaobei several times. Seeing him lost in thought, he couldn’t help but reach out and give him a shove.

“Hm? What is it?”

Ning Xiaobei looked up with a smile. Reflected in his delicate eyes were the countless lights of the homes not far away. That warm, everyday glow made Fan Xia stare blankly for a moment.

“I… I mean…”

Fan Xia blinked, and for some reason, lowered his head a little guiltily, muttering, “You’re not allowed to bring him home for dinner…”

“Huh?”

Ning Xiaobei froze.

“I mean, yeah, he’s pitiful, really miserable. But you’re not allowed to take him back to your house for meals, and you’re not allowed to take him in as a lackey either, got it?”

The only one who should get to eat at the Ning family’s place was him. Now that Chang Leyun from next door occasionally joined them, that was already more than enough. The Ning family’s living room was only so big, it couldn’t just turn into a cafeteria.

As for taking in a lackey, having Lin Ziying was already enough. Someone like Ding Zheyang couldn’t fight, so he couldn’t be a red pole¹红棍 (red pole): A term from traditional Chinese triad/gang hierarchy, referring to an enforcer or fighter—the muscle of the group, and he wasn’t exactly the sharpest either, so he couldn’t be a white paper fan²白纸扇 (white paper fan): Another triad term, referring to the strategist or advisor— the brains of the group.. Taking him in would be useless.

“Why are you laughing? I’m being serious!”

Seeing Ning Xiaobei suddenly start laughing for no reason, Fan Xia couldn’t help but raise his voice.

“Mm, mm, I know, I know.”

Ning Xiaobei nodded as he laughed.

So even this Black Cat Detective could get jealous over a classmate. Teenagers really do have all kinds of colorful symptoms.

Thinking that, he leaned forward and ruffled the hair sticking up on Fan Xia’s head. “Alright, I get it. I won’t bring anyone else home for meals anymore. You’re special… Little Darkie.”

“What?”

Fan Xia had been sulking, feeling like Ning Xiaobei was just brushing him off. But the moment he heard that, his ears practically perked up.

“What did you just say?”

“I said I won’t bring him home for meals.”

As Ning Xiaobei spoke, he stepped onto the pedal and shot off like an arrow released from the bow.

“I meant the sentence after that! What was the one after that?!”

Even the darkness of the night and his naturally dark skin couldn’t hide the blush spreading all the way to the back of Fan Xia’s neck. He pedaled hard, hurriedly chasing after him.

“What am I?”

“You’re Little Darkie!”

“Not that one! The one before that!”

Their laughter scattered across the empty street.

………………

Author’s Note:

Firmly oppose all forms of school bullying!

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• 1
  红棍 (red pole): A term from traditional Chinese triad/gang hierarchy, referring to an enforcer or fighter—the muscle of the group
• 2
  白纸扇 (white paper fan): Another triad term, referring to the strategist or advisor— the brains of the group.