DBTHDCAR Chapter 48

Although the Double Ninth Festival had already passed several days ago, Ning Xiaobei still accompanied Fan Xia to the nursing home.

He had already adjusted his state of mind in the dream world and felt ready to face Uncle Zhao Jingwen.

But when he thought about how, in the dream world, Uncle Zhao and his dad had become a couple, and now that his dad was gone, Uncle Zhao must be even more heartbroken than before.

“What’s wrong? Didn’t sleep well?”

Fan Xia fastened his seatbelt and looked at Ning Xiaobei’s slightly pale face, asking with concern.

“Ah… let’s go buy some things first. It doesn’t feel right to visit an elder empty-handed.”

“Hey, it’s fine. You know my uncle, he doesn’t care about all those formalities at all. Just knowing you’re coming already makes him very happy. He even called me late last night, kept reminding me, ‘Drive over early to pick up Xiaobei in the morning… but not too early, let Xiaobei sleep a bit more.’ So tell me, coming at this time, doesn’t that make it just right?”

After not seeing him for just one night, Fan Xia seemed to be in an especially good mood, even cracking jokes.

Today, he wasn’t wearing his police uniform. Instead, he had on a dark casual suit, with a lighter-colored shirt underneath. He had deliberately left a few buttons undone, giving him a relaxed, carefree look.

His hair had clearly been styled with pomade, every strand standing up neatly, he looked like a flamboyant peacock showing off its feathers.

One hand rested on the steering wheel as he glanced sideways at Ning Xiaobei, who sat quietly beside him. The corners of his lips lifted without him even realizing it.

“Fan Xia…”

Ning Xiaobei pointed toward the shopping center ahead. “Later, let’s go pick out a piece of clothing for your uncle, alright? We can treat it as making up for the Double Ninth Festival gift.”

“Sure, sure. Of course, of course.”

Fan Xia nodded repeatedly, trying his best to hold back the smile that was practically spilling onto his face.

“I’ll get you a wool sweater too. What month is it already, and you’re still dressed so lightly? Are police salaries really that low?”

Ning Xiaobei glanced at his bare neck as he spoke.

“I—”

Fan Xia was just about to say that at this temperature, there was no need for a wool sweater at all, and besides, with his well-built physique that everyone admired, wouldn’t it be a shame not to show it off?

But when he heard Ning Xiaobei say he’d buy him clothes too, his eyes curved into happy slits, and he obediently shut his mouth.

Come to think of it, even Fan Xia himself didn’t understand why he was so compliant toward Ning Xiaobei. At the police station, he was something of a mid-level boss, carrying real authority in front of his subordinates. No matter how fierce or vicious a criminal was, once they fell into his hands, they would obediently confess everything.

But the moment he was in front of Ning Xiaobei, his hot-tempered, tough personality would soften for no reason; he’d give in, lose his edge. Subconsciously, he just wanted to go along with him, stay close to him. Even he himself couldn’t figure it out, what kind of problem was this?

The last time he came to the nursing home alone, he told his uncle, Zhao Jingwen, about this situation. Zhao Jingwen stood there with his mouth slightly open for a long while, unable to say a word.

“Uncle, come on, say something.”

Fan Xia urged anxiously.

“I… I don’t know what to say. Think it through yourself. He’s your brother, not mine.”

Zhao Jingwen waved his hand, a trace of awkwardness showing on his wrinkled face.

“Oh come on, you and Uncle Ning have been brothers your whole lives. Help me figure it out.”

“No way to help. Go back.”

Zhao Jingwen simply gave him the order to leave.

“Next time you come, bring Xiaobei with you.”

Although Jianguo was gone, seeing Xiaobei made it feel as if he could return to those happy days of the past.

“What if Xiaobei doesn’t come?”

“Then don’t come either. Go, go, go…you’re annoying to look at…”

After driving his nephew out of the nursing home’s reception room, Zhao Jingwen looked out the window at the small golden osmanthus flowers scattered among layers of green leaves and let out a long sigh.

“Brothers? Being this kind of brother… isn’t easy.”

He and Jianguo had hidden their relationship from these two children for a lifetime.

If only he had gathered the courage earlier to tell them the truth about his relationship with Jianguo, if only he could have brought Jianguo to his side and taken care of him, then how could he have let him pass away all alone like that?

At the very least… at the moment of his death, he could have been there by his side.

Thinking of this, Zhao Jingwen couldn’t help but raise the back of his age-spotted hand to wipe away the tears at the corners of his eyes.

“This path… is not an easy one to walk… sigh…”

……………… 

After coming out of the nursing home from visiting Zhao Jingwen, Fan Xia slung an arm around Ning Xiaobei’s shoulders and excitedly started planning what to do next.

“How about we grab dinner tonight? Or maybe go watch a movie? What’s playing these days… 《The First Incense Burner¹《第一炉香》 (Di Yi Lu Xiang / The First Incense Burner): A 2021/2020 film and a movie adaptation of the Eileen Chang novella》?

“Better not. I’ve already made plans.”

“With who?”

Fan Xia asked, instantly on guard.

“Chang Leyun. We agreed to have dinner together.”

As Ning Xiaobei spoke, he took out his phone, getting ready to call a ride.

“Wait, since when have you been in contact with her? How come I didn’t know?”

Ning Xiaobei turned around and couldn’t help laughing when he saw Fan Xia’s expression, like he was facing a powerful enemy. “Not long ago, I ran into her when I went back to our old school… Wait, don’t tell me you haven’t been in touch with her all this time?”

“Well, her mom used to do business with my uncle, didn’t she? I heard from him that she’s now a music teacher at No. 1 High School… Hey, forget about me, why did you suddenly think of having dinner with her?”

Some things, Fan Xia simply couldn’t bring himself to say.

A few years back, his uncle and Aunt Wang had tried to play matchmaker, randomly pairing people up and even wanting to set the two of them together. They figured the two had studied together, were about the same age, and had once been neighbors, if they could really get married, that would be perfect.

At the time, he didn’t think much of it and actually tried dating this so-called childhood sweethearts for a while… Looking back now, those three months were simply unbearable to recall.

After graduating from middle school, Aunt Wang’s family moved out of the old shared apartment building, and gradually, they lost contact with Chang Leyun. After so many years apart, the two of them had nothing to say to each other, yet they still had to force smiles for the sake of their parents’ expectations.

Although Fan Xia was no longer the dark-skinned kid he used to be and had become a police officer, he still kept his carefree, rough-around-the-edges personality, even carrying a bit of that stereotypical straight guy mindset. Meanwhile, Chang Leyun, who had graduated from a music conservatory, was full of refined, artsy charm — the complete opposite of him: a seasoned literary young woman, sensitive and delicate in her thoughts.

These two, one would spend his days off boxing, lifting weights at the gym, or just lazing around at home watching sports with a beer; the other devoted all her free time to concerts, exhibitions, and all kinds of social events. In today’s popular slang, she had a serious case of social butterfly syndrome.

Their temperaments and personalities never really aligned. Gradually, their dates went from twice a week, to once a week, and eventually dwindled to not seeing each other for a whole month, each busy with their own lives.

So before even three months had passed, the couple who carried the weight of their parents’ expectations had already gone their separate ways.

If they had been total strangers, breaking up would’ve been simple, just part ways and maybe block each other.

Shanghai’s streets are wide, and taking Metro Line 11 from Kunshan’s Huaqiao Town to Chuansha Disneyland could easily take two and a half hours. Avoiding someone like that would be ridiculously easy.

But because of their parents’ wishes, they couldn’t completely settle things cleanly.

Whenever a holiday rolled around, both sets of elders would inevitably bring up this chapter of the past after meeting, beating the dead horse over how if they had succeeded, they might even have had a second child by now. It was, frankly, maddening. So although they still had each other’s contact info, the two barely communicated and, if anything, began to develop mutual irritation.

So when Chang Leyun, seated by a floor-to-ceiling painted glass window in a private dining room at Sinan Mansion, saw the two of them appear together, she nearly crushed her champagne glass filled with sparkling Paris water in her grip.

“What… what are you doing here?”

Her green contact-lensed eyes widened, blazing with fury.

Chang Leyun had gone to great lengths to see Ning Xiaobei today. She knew he had chosen this old Shanghai private restaurant famous for its ambiance and autumn garden scenery. Despite the cold, she had deliberately worn a heavy silk cheongsam in silver-gray, paired with a matching subtly patterned wool shawl. She had spent the whole morning styling her hair. To be so meticulously dressed, and then have Fan Xia, that hooligan, show up and see her like this!

“What? Do you own this restaurant or something, Sun Erniang²A reference to a famous character from《Water Margin》, known as a tough innkeeper and skilled fighter having a fierce temper and vicious look ?”

Fan Xia slid his chair back and sat down, his tone sharp.

“Hey, aren’t you cold? It’s this time of year, and you’re still dressed like that. Are teachers at No. 1 High School really paid that little?”

He gestured to the checked turtleneck wool sweater he had just put on, not long after Ning Xiaobei had picked it out for him. Then, he modified the teasing words Ning Xiaobei had said to him earlier and passed them along to Chang Leyun:

“I’m wearing thick silk stockings. Not cold at all.”

Chang Leyun set down her glass, biting her silver teeth as she replied.

“I don’t understand anything about women.”

“Mutual.”

“I don’t want to understand either.”

“Me too.”

“Same here.”

Ning Xiaobei stayed quiet, watching the back-and-forth between them.

Just then, a waiter quietly approached and politely explained to Fan Xia that his car had been parked incorrectly and needed to be moved to another spot in the parking lot. Fan Xia had no choice but to get up.

“I’m warning you,” he said before leaving, pointing at Chang Leyun. “Don’t say anything nonsense.”

“Hmph!”

She snorted in response.

“What’s going on?”

Spreading out his napkin, Ning Xiaobei couldn’t help his curiosity and pointed toward where Fan Xia had gone.

“Don’t ask,” Chang Leyun shook her head, opening the menu. “Ex-boyfriend.”

“Huh?”

Ning Xiaobei’s jaw could have swallowed an entire ostrich egg.

“It was all our parents meddling,” Chang Leyun hurriedly explained. “Don’t read anything into it. There was never any chance between him and me.”

She didn’t want this long-unseen former classmate to get the wrong idea.

“It was purely out of obligation, so we had to go out for a while. But we quickly saw through each other, so we split cleanly and decisively.”

Ning Xiaobei raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment.

“Chang Leyun, what bad things are you saying about me?”

Before much conversation had passed, Fan Xia came rushing back, tense as he looked at the two of them.

“Just saying you two dated.”

Ning Xiaobei grinned wickedly.

“Chang Leyun, didn’t we agree never to bring this up again?”

Fan Xia was both frustrated and anxious.

“Oh, Xiaobei isn’t an outsider, it’s fine,” Chang Leyun rolled her eyes at him. “I’ve already explained to him. We despise each other. It wasn’t like I dumped you, alright?”

She added this helpful clarification thinking he might be embarrassed because of his male pride.

Outsiders don’t care, but the key is how Xiaobei would take it. If he really misunderstood what happened between us… then I… then I…

Even during the late-autumn frost season, sweat broke out on Fan Xia’s forehead because of anxiousness.

Luckily, all of them were seasoned enough not to do anything embarrassing in this upscale restaurant in such a high-end area. After a few toasts and glasses clinking, they started chatting about childhood memories.

As they talked, some blind spots Ning Xiaobei hadn’t noticed before gradually surfaced.

“Fan Xia, does Uncle Zhao only have that one apartment?”

Hearing from Chang Leyun that her family had moved to Pudong and bought two apartments near the former World Expo site, Ning Xiaobei suddenly asked.

“What?”

“The one you live in now.”

“Yeah… why?”

Fan Xia looked at him puzzled.

“That’s not right.”

Ning Xiaobei lightly bit his lip. “I remember Uncle Zhao ran a clothing store on Xiangyang Road. He made a lot of money.”

“That was a long time ago… Xiangyang Road’s gone, been torn down for years. Just like the seafood market on Tongchuan Road and the flower-and-bird market on Jiangyin Road, they’re all gone.”

Fan Xia smiled, unconcerned.

“Back in the 1980s and 90s, many of these markets disappeared. But the South Bund Fabric Market my mom rents for work is still around, she’s still working there. Foreign trade orders have been really busy lately.”

Chang Leyun’s face lit up with pride whenever she talked about her mom.

“So he made all that money? Didn’t invest in real estate at all? Didn’t buy another apartment to improve his living conditions?”

Even without considering the dream world, in the real world timeline, the Ning family had moved twice, finally settling in a fairly decent apartment.

Uncle Zhao had already been a successful businessman making money hand over fist back in the ’90s. How could he have lived his whole life in such a rundown apartment, never investing in property during the boom years?

“Xiaobei, you forgot?”

Fan Xia and Chang Leyun exchanged a glance, both puzzled.

“Forgot what?”

“Don’t you remember why the Xiangyang Road market was shut down?”

“Wasn’t it for municipal redevelopment? That area is prime real estate near Huaihai Road… Ah, I remember now.”

A once-familiar but now distant English term popped into Ning Xiaobei’s mind:

— 【WTO, World Trade Organization】

A few days ago, he had seen an article on a public account noting that this year marked the 20th anniversary of China joining the WTO.

Suddenly, memories flooded back. Around 2006, the Xiangyang Road market, once the trend hub for a generation of Shanghai residents, had gained international attention for the rampant sale of counterfeit luxury goods, becoming a target for criticism of China’s lax intellectual property enforcement.

After repeated attempts to crack down on illegal vendors failed, the Shanghai Administration for Industry and Commerce simply tore the entire market down.

At the same time, a large number of shops selling pirated CDs were shut down, and Fan Xia’s father had almost been caught up in it.

But as Fan Xia had mentioned before, his father’s keen eye had already expanded the shop around 2000, converted it into an internet café, and continued corrupting young people in a different way, narrowly escaping disaster.

In the dream world, Ning Xiaobei remembered Uncle Zhao traveling to Guangzhou during summer vacation to work with clothing companies, gradually sending back samples. From the perspective of modern-day Ning Xiaobei, these clothes didn’t look special and even seemed a little tacky. In retrospect, they were all knockoffs of internationally popular designer brands at the time.

Uncle Zhao was really daring!

“Uncle Zhao… he didn’t get into legal trouble, did he?”

Ning Xiaobei asked anxiously.

“Yeah… all the money he made before got wiped out. He bought a house, even mortgaged his shop. In the end, it was all for nothing…”

Fan Xia sighed.

“After that, my uncle tried doing business elsewhere, but the profits were only mediocre. Shanghai’s housing prices change every day. To buy another house, he’d have to look in places like Jinshan or Fengxian. But all his friends and family live in the city, how could he move to the outskirts? So he stayed in the old house…”

Fan Xia shook his head helplessly, then looked at Ning Xiaobei with a puzzled expression. “Why didn’t Uncle Ning ever tell you about this?”

“I remember back then, Uncle Ning and my mom each pitched in some money to help Uncle Zhao through that rough patch,” Chang Leyun added.

Ning Xiaobei lowered his head, feeling a bit guilty.

That period coincided with the end of his first job. He had just moved to a well-connected Fortune 500 manufacturing company and was sent to Germany for about six months of training. There were no smartphones back then; if his dad wanted to reach him, it had to be via expensive international calls.

Long-distance calls were costly, and with the time difference between Europe and Shanghai, his dad probably didn’t want him to worry, so he never mentioned what was going on…

His dad had protected him too well.  Ning Xiaobei had thought that after his graduation he was the one holding up the family, but in truth, it had always been Ning Jianguo shielding him and keeping the storms at bay.

After they finished eating, the three of them chatted a little longer. Once they were done, Ning Xiaobei noticed that Chang Leyun hadn’t called a car and suggested Fan Xia drive her home.

“Why? She can just call a ride.”

Standing outside the restaurant, Fan Xia frowned and put his hands on his hips. “Chang Leyun, is your phone broken?”

“Fan Xia, please, show a little chivalry,” she said. “It’s perfectly natural for a guy to see a girl home, even if you’re just ordinary friends. And it’s night now, after all.”

Ning Xiaobei could only half-laugh, half-cry as he watched the two people who had just been chatting so nicely start throwing side-eyes at each other again.

“Shanghai’s security is excellent, and it’s not even seven yet. She can get home on her own.”

“Thank you, I won’t trouble you. I’ve got plans for the second half with my girlfriends at that newly opened bar nearby. It’s just a short walk.”

Chang Leyun held her clutch proudly, lifted her chin, then quickly switched to a softer, sweeter expression, waved at Ning Xiaobei, and turned to leave.

“See? This woman’s dangerous. I’ll tell you secretly, don’t be fooled by how delicate she looks. When she graduated high school, she even learned karate. She got her black belt in college. Now? One against ten, no problem.”

Back when they were dating, Chang Leyun had given him more than a few hard knocks. At the slightest disagreement, “smack”— a slap, “whish”—a kick, leaving him grimacing, teeth bared, and unable to fight back.

He’d go home and tell his uncle, who couldn’t believe that gentle little Lele could be so tough. He had no way to argue his case, taking all the punishment at her hands.

Fan Xia said this while unconsciously draping his arm over Ning Xiaobei’s shoulder.

“Stop exaggerating, are you treating her like Ip Man? ‘One against ten’…”

Ning Xiaobei could only shake his head with a mix of laughter and exasperation.

“Xiaobei, let’s go see a movie. Or we could hit a bar too…”

Ning Xiaobei, full of worry about pending troubles, let him drag him along.

While Ding Zheyang’s issue hadn’t been resolved, another big problem arose involving Uncle Zhao.

Knowing his dad and their relationship, Ning Xiaobei understood that if something happened to Uncle Zhao, his father wouldn’t just do what Chang Leyun had said; simply hand over a sum of money.

It was likely that back then, most of the family’s savings had already been drained…

Sitting at the bar, Ning Xiaobei took the glass the bartender handed him. He mechanically drank while listening to Fan Xia’s rambling, feeling heavy with worry, as if yet another ton of responsibility had landed squarely on his shoulders.

“Xiaobei…”

Unknowingly, he’d already drunk more than he realized. Ning Xiaobei slumped on the bar, his head nodding slightly, eyes blurred and misty with tears.

“Xiaobei, stop drinking. Let’s go home…”

Fan Xia held him by the shoulders, gently lifting him with tenderness in every movement.

Heel to heel, they staggered toward the exit. One hand on Ning Xiaobei, the other holding his phone, Fan Xia directed the nearby designated driver who had arrived.

“Yes, walk north after you get off the subway. We’re already at the bar entrance. The car is parked in the back alley…”

Just as they were about to step out of the bar, two men came in, brushing past them.

Fan Xia hung up the phone, suddenly sensing something was off.

“The two guys up front.”

He turned, guiding Ning Xiaobei to a nearby booth, then pulled out his police badge.

“I’m a police officer. Please show me your ID.”

……………… 

Author’s Note:

What to do… I’m stuck writing.

Ah, I feel like Xiaobei and Xiaoxia’s romance is about to start. Of course, kids shouldn’t date yet; so naturally, it has to happen in adult bodies.

And now I’m stuck again, crying~~~

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• 1
  《第一炉香》 (Di Yi Lu Xiang / The First Incense Burner): A 2021/2020 film and a movie adaptation of the Eileen Chang novella
• 2
  A reference to a famous character from《Water Margin》, known as a tough innkeeper and skilled fighter having a fierce temper and vicious look