The knocking grew more urgent. Ning Jianguo quickly jumped out of bed, grabbing his shirt and trousers from the chair. Ning Xiaobei was about to follow, but Ning Jianguo turned swiftly, pulling the blanket off the bed and tucking it snugly around his son. Only after making sure he was fully wrapped did he allow him to leave the bedroom.
When the door opened, Ning Xiaobei frowned and raised his hand to shield his face— after all, who wouldn’t react that way if three flashlights were suddenly pointed at them in the middle of the night?
“Meow…”
Azi, startled, let out a sharp yelp and ducked under the sofa.
“Are you Ning Jianguo?”
The visitor swung the flashlight over Ning Jianguo and Ning Xiaobei. Ning Jianguo frowned and nodded, then reached to switch on the entryway light.
Only then did Ning Xiaobei notice there were three visitors: two men and one woman. The men wore brown raincoats, water dripping continuously from their hats, soaking the doormat at the door.
The woman wore a bright red coat, clearly made from quality material, but it had been thoroughly drenched— wool or rabbit fur, it didn’t matter anymore; the fabric was ruined.
She kept her head down as she stepped forward from behind them. Her red leather shoes squelched as they hit the puddles— squelch-squish, squelch-squish—making her look both awkward and comical.
“We’re from the neighborhood patrol. Do you know this girl?”
Before they could finish speaking, the two from the Zhao household downstairs must have heard the commotion and hurried upstairs. Seeing the neighbors’ windows gradually light up on either side, Ning Jianguo quickly told them to come inside first and speak.
“Oh my, isn’t this Xiao Mei?”
As always, Zhao Jingwen’s eyes were sharp. He had thrown a leather jacket over his thin pajamas and tilted his head, staring at the girl in front of him— water dripping from her hair, dark bruised-looking rings around her eyes (whether from makeup or the cold, he couldn’t tell)—and exclaimed in surprise.
Ning Xiaobei saw Fan Xia had come up in just slippers and a tank top. He quickly pulled him under his blanket to cover him. The two boys pressed their heads together and looked closer. Sure enough, the drenched girl in red really was Xiao Mei.
“Brother Jianguo, Xiaobei… Brother Zhao…”
Xiao Mei lifted her head, her face full of grievance as she looked at them.
Tears mixed with rainwater streaked across her face. The purple-blue marks were her eye shadow, washed unevenly away by the rain.
“What happened, Jianguo?”
A cough came from Ning Xiaobei’s room. Grandma Ning asked from inside.
“Grandma, it’s nothing. Go back to sleep. Don’t come out, it’s cold outside.”
Ning Jianguo turned to signal them to lower their voices so they wouldn’t disturb the elder.
But Grandma Ning’s stubbornness was formidable. Soon, she stepped out of the bedroom.
“In the middle of the night…what’s going on here?”
She looked at the group standing in the living room like candles and exclaimed in surprise.
“Grandma…”
Seeing her appear, Xiao Mei couldn’t hold back a mournful cry; her previously quiet tears suddenly poured out.
“Oh, Xiao Mei, why are you like this? Weren’t you supposed to be married by now?”
Grandma Ning took two steps forward and reached for Xiao Mei’s hands.
“Grandma, I’m soaked through. Don’t touch me, you’ll catch a cold.”
Xiao Mei kept stepping back, leaving a long streak of water across the tiles.
“Come on, go inside with Grandma. Jianguo, you take care of things outside.”
Without another word, Grandma Ning pulled Xiao Mei into the bathroom.
“Um… comrades, why don’t you come in and talk for a bit? Have some tea.”
While speaking, Zhao Jingwen had gone downstairs for a moment, but now he was back, pulling a pack of Red Double Happiness cigarettes from his pocket and handing it to the two neighborhood patrol members.
He didn’t smoke himself, but for business and social occasions, his family always kept a stock on hand.
The two men took the cigarettes, lit them, and waved to Ning Jianguo.
“We’re soaked through, so we won’t come in. Is the girl inside your family?”
“She’s a caretaker for my grandma. She went back to her hometown to get married for the New Year. Why would she be back in Shanghai in the middle of the night?”
Ning Jianguo looked just as bewildered.
Fan Xia slung an arm around Ning Xiaobei’s shoulders and whispered, “Well, isn’t she supposed to be married? Look at what she’s wearing and the makeup on her face… Wow, could it be that Xiao Mei ran away from her wedding?”
“Shh… don’t say that.”
Ning Xiaobei shook his head and pulled him closer. Fan Xia felt like a little hot water bottle, warm all over and pressing against him was even more comforting than hugging a hot compress.
“We found her outside the train station. She had no money and no ID. At first, we thought we’d take her to the police station to check her records. If she had nowhere to stay in Shanghai, we’d have had to send her to the shelter.”
“Ah, that place isn’t easy to go to…”
Ning Jianguo shook his head repeatedly. “Comrades, she has work and a place to live in Shanghai, she’s not some vagrant.”
Once someone ends up in a shelter, getting them out isn’t easy at all.
“Yeah, we saw the girl was pitiful, so we followed her directions and brought her to Jiande Lane in the old city. But nobody was home there either, it was pitch black. The girl called for someone outside for a long time, crying until she nearly fell to her knees. We asked her if there was anywhere else she could go in Shanghai. After thinking for a while, she finally remembered this place…”
“But she doesn’t seem very familiar with this area. She mistook two houses in a row just now. If she mistakes your place too, we really can’t keep escorting her. Look at the rain outside…it’s been pouring all night. We’ve basically been running around in the rain with her the whole time.”
The neighborhood patrol wasn’t formal police, so they didn’t have patrol cars. They rode their bikes through every street and alley. To get Xiao Mei here, these two had essentially been pushing their bikes through the rain all this time — truly exhausting work.
All the houses in the Workers’ New Village looked exactly the same, and on a rainy day, it was almost impossible to tell them apart. No wonder she kept getting lost.
“You’ve really gone through a lot, comrades. Please accept this.”
Zhao Jingwen said as he shoved two unopened packs of Soft Zhonghua cigarettes into the raincoat pockets of the two patrol members. They didn’t refuse. After double-checking Xiao Mei’s information, they took out a notebook, had Ning Jianguo sign it, and then headed back downstairs.
“I’m frozen. Quick, turn on the oil heater.”
Zhao Jingwen closed the door, rubbed his hands, and sat down on the sofa. It was midwinter and with pouring rain, the cold was right down to the bones.
“Fan Xia, why are you up here? Go back to bed. Don’t bother Xiaobei. His health isn’t great, and he can’t handle the cold.”
He turned his head and saw his nephew and Ning Xiaobei huddled together under a blanket on the sofa. They were like conjoined twins, pressed against each other, and he frowned in disapproval.
“I’m not going, I want to stay with the boss,” Fan Xia said, pulling Xiaobei closer.
Zhao Jingwen glared at him sharply. If this kid caught a cold, he thought, he’d give him a serious scolding at home.
He wanted him to understand why the flowers are so red, why the sky is so blue1Make someone understand the reality of the world. His uncle isn’t someone to mess with, and Xiao Heipi’s Uncle is definitely not to be trifled with either.
After a while, Xiao Mei, having washed up and dried her hair, staggered out of the bathroom. There were no young girls’ clothes in the house, so she had no choice but to wear Xiaobei’s pajamas. Ning Xiaobei was now about 1.65 meters tall, roughly the same height as her.
“Quick, put on some clothes and come warm up.”
Grandma Ning grabbed her hand and helped her sit on the stool by the heater.
Ning Jianguo decided that first thing tomorrow morning he would go upstairs to borrow a set of winter clothes from Wang Yihong for her, and then return to Jiande Lane to fetch her original clothes.
“Xiao Mei, what exactly happened to you? You didn’t really run away from your wedding, did you?”
Fan Xia couldn’t hold back, blurted out the question that everyone in the room was thinking.
“Grandma, Brother Jianguo, Brother Zhao, you have to help me!”
Suddenly, Xiao Mei collapsed to her knees and began kowtowing to Grandma Ning and the others, making Ning Xiaobei and Fan Xia nearly jump off the sofa.
“My brother and his wife sold me…they sold me!”
Xiao Mei wailed, telling her story.
………………
The next morning, Ning Jianguo went to Jiande Lane early. Fortunately, he arrived in time; a single minute later, things could have gotten out of control.
Before Ning Xiaobei, Zhao Jingwen, and Fan Xia had even reached the entrance of the alley, they saw a dense crowd standing inside, with people at the edges holding breakfast pancakes, fried dough sticks, and hot soy milk, tiptoeing to peek inside.
“What’s going on? Make way!”
Ning Jianguo was guessing, maybe some wedding convoy had come too early, when he saw Miss Wu, her hair disheveled, pushing through the crowd. She grabbed his arm and dragged him inside.
“Brother Ning, come quickly! Someone is demolishing your house!”
Zhao Jingwen, about to stop her, froze at her words. Alarmed, he pushed through the crowd toward the Ning family.
“Stop! What are you doing?”
Ning Jianguo squeezed to the front of the crowd. He looked up and saw two men furiously kicking at the main door of his house. A middle-aged woman, dressed in drab gray with half-disheveled hair, was lifting a potted clivia2君子兰 (junzi lan): Noble orchid or Clivia. Symbolically in Chinese culture, it represents nobility, perseverance, and elegance. from the windowsill, ready to smash the glass.
“What are you doing? Put it down! All of it, put it down!”
Zhao Jingwen, worried that Ning Jianguo might get into trouble alone, stepped beside him. He unzipped his leather jacket, revealing his broad chest muscles, rolled up his sleeves, and shouted loudly, “Do you know where you are? How dare you act wild here?”
Fan Xia wasn’t usually one for this kind of commotion, but he still tried to rush forward. Ning Xiaobei grabbed him and held him back tightly.
The middle-aged woman, seeing two strong young men, each more solid than the other, suddenly lost half her brazen confidence.
But she had already struck a dramatic pose, holding the flowerpot above her head. If she simply put it down now, it would seem humiliating. So instead, she turned and prepared to throw it to the ground.
At that moment, Ning Xiaobei, hidden in the crowd, shouted, “Xiao Xia, isn’t that Grandma’s champion clivia? How much is that pot worth?”
“Ah? First place in the Shanghai Orchid Competition, at least ten thousand yuan”
Fan Xia joined in, cheering from the side.
In reality, this plant was something Ning Jianguo had bought for a few yuan at the flower-and-bird market a few years ago. Grandma Ning had disliked it and left it outside the window. Normally, she’d only remember to water it occasionally, but it survived stubbornly all this time.
The woman could never have guessed that this pot, which looked like a bunch of green shoots, was worth so much money. Shocked, she immediately placed the pot back on the windowsill, even wiping the dirt off the edge with her fingers.
“You’re listening to this little brat spouting nonsense!”
A man with a crew cut and square face pulled the woman aside, puffed out his chest, and stepped up to stand in front of Ning Jianguo and Zhao Jingwen.
“Which one of you is the man of this house?”
“I am. And who are you, daring to smash my door?”
Ning Jianguo raised his chin and frowned.
“Oh, so it’s you, kid,”
The man sneered, showing yellow teeth, grabbed Ning Jianguo’s collar, and demanded, “Hand over my sister!”
“What?”
For a moment, Ning Jianguo didn’t understand.
“Don’t play dumb! It’s you, punk. You seduced my sister! You made her break off her marriage, reject her fiancé, ignore her brother and sister-in-law, and come all the way to Shanghai to corrupt her!”
The man glared with furious, murderous eyes and shouted.
“Ah, so this guy is Xiao Mei’s older brother, and that woman must be his wife,”
Fan Xia whispered to Ning Xiaobei.
“And who’s that other man?”
Fan Xia pointed at the man confronting Zhao Jingwen, standing on tiptoe with his neck stiff, dressed in a blue khaki suit that hadn’t been in fashion for who knows how many years. He had deliberately exposed the label on the sleeve cuff of his suit; a sight that Fan Xia found absurdly comical.
“Who else could it be? Brand-new suit, shoes look new too. Of course, he’s Xiao Mei’s man.”
Ning Xiaobei had been eyeing the man from head to toe and felt increasingly uneasy.
“Hey, why isn’t this guy’s eyeball moving in one eye?”
Fan Xia, lacking Ning Xiaobei’s sharp observation, pointed with wide eyes and said, “This guy has one eye! His left eye is fake.”
“Oh, no wonder… I kept feeling something was off just now. It’s a prosthetic eyeball.”
“Kids have sharp eyes. They notice everything. Not like me, I didn’t even realize it after all that time,”
Fan Xia’s shout caused a ruckus; neighbors around started jeering and commenting.
“You little brat! What did you just say?”
The One-Eyed man, furious and embarrassed, lunged at Fan Xia, but Zhao Jingwen grabbed his arm. “What are you doing? You want to hit a child?”
“What if I hit him?”
The One-Eyed man’s real eye bulged almost out of his face, while the other, obviously a fake eyeball, hung limply. The terrifying sight caused neighbors to murmur, and a few timid kids ran straight home, too scared to watch any longer.
“You’ve got some nerve, taking it out on a child! Come on, swing at me then,”
Zhao Jingwen said, patting his solid chest, unzipping his jacket and tossing it behind him.
Fan Xia caught the jacket, throwing his arms up in excitement, shouting wildly, “Uncle is so handsome! More handsome than Stallone, more handsome than Schwarzenegger!”
These two, uncle and nephew, had recently gotten obsessed with American action muscle movies like 《First Blood》, 《Rambo》, and 《True Lies》
Fan Xia didn’t just watch alone; he borrowed the DVDs for Ning Xiaobei and his father, Ning Jianguo, who also got hooked. Lately, Ning Jianguo had even started swinging dumbbells. Ning Xiaobei is worried; it’s fine if Dad turned out gay, but if he became a muscle man… that would completely mess up the family dynamics.
“Heh, I see how it is,”
One-Eyed squinted and ground his teeth, “That slut Xiao Mei! Not only did she corrupt the son of this house, she got involved with you too! I bet she didn’t come to Shanghai to work as a housekeeper. She came to be a prostitute! The Ning family’s old lady is nothing but a shameless madam! This whole alley? It’s a giant brothel!”
“What did you just say?”
“Nonsense!”
Everyone in the alley, especially the neighborhood women, knew Xiao Mei. She had taken care of Grandma Ning for years, always honest, hardworking, polite, and helpful with neighbors’ chores. How could this man call her a prostitute and call Jiande Lane a brothel?
“Get out! You dog, making trouble at someone’s doorstep!”
“I bet that couple isn’t good people at all. They even married off such a fine sister to a blind cripple. Their conscience must have been eaten by dogs,”
“Exactly! Xiao Mei told me she sent nearly all her monthly salary back home to her brother and sister-in-law to build a house and buy appliances. She’s been in Shanghai for years and never bought herself nice clothes. That couple is nothing but a pair of vampires!”
A young woman from the same alley, who worked as a housekeeper for another household, pointed at Xiao Mei’s brother and shouted.
“Pah! What selling nonsense. We got engaged first and met each other before marrying. They took 30,000 yuan as a bride price, and on the wedding day, the bride ran away. The whole village laughed at me; I’m the one who was deceived!”
One-Eyed tried to defend himself.
“Nonsense! Sister Xiao Mei isn’t blind. Why would she go for you? I bet you two tried to trick her, and she saw right through it. Am I right, everyone?”
Fan Xia, wearing his uncle’s black lapel jacket, jumped onto the concrete ping-pong table and shouted.
“Yes!”
“That’s right!”
The neighbors cheered.
“I don’t care about anything else! My sister’s missing, and I just want her back! Give me my sister!”
Xiao Mei’s older brother pushed Ning Jianguo hard.
“You dare touch him?”
Ning Jianguo was a full head taller than the man and didn’t budge an inch.
But Zhao Jingwen couldn’t stand it. His eyes flashed fire as he stormed forward, grabbed Xiao Mei’s brother like a chick, slammed him to the ground, then twisted his arm behind his back and pressed down hard. The man cried out, half-kneeling on the ground.
“Do you think you’re still in your village? You come to my turf and act wild? Didn’t you even check who I, Zhao Jingwen, am?”
Using half his strength, Zhao Jingwen twisted the brother’s arm further. The man screamed, “It’s broken! My arm’s going to break!”
“Ahhh! I’ll fight you!”
One-Eyed saw Ning Jianguo’s refined appearance and assumed he was easy to bully. He grabbed a broom from the neighbor’s doorstep and swung it at Ning Jianguo’s head.
Fan Xia nervously puckered his lips, but before he could react, Ning Jianguo executed some unknown move. One-Eyed’s hands trembled violently as if electrified; the broom fell to the ground, and he went sprawling flat on the pavement.
“Hahaha, what a freak. He actually fought Ning Jianguo!”
“Hey, you don’t know…our Ning Jianguo used to be a reconnaissance soldier and even earned a third-class merit award. Hahaha…”
The neighbors laughed uproariously.
“Boss, turns out the real reclusive master is your dad!”
Fan Xia was completely stunned.
Uncle Ning was incredible. That move he just used had to be a martial arts grappling technique straight out of a kung fu manual. Truly, a real expert doesn’t show off, and one who shows off isn’t a real expert— the novels were right!
Ning Xiaobei proudly lifted his nose and said with mock seriousness, “It’s nothing, it’s nothing. My dad just catches the occasional thief or pervert now and then.”
Seeing the two men already subdued, Xiao Mei’s sister-in-law looked around, realizing she was outnumbered and powerless. She cursed herself for being stingy with the train ticket and not bringing more people.
Her eyes darted, and she suddenly flopped to the ground, rolling dramatically at the Ning family doorstep.
“Aiya, help! Someone’s being beaten to death! Shanghai people are beating people! City folks are beating us country folk! Help, help!”
The Ning house had been empty for days, with fallen leaves and dust piled up at the door. Her flop made her already gray clothes even dirtier. Her hair, which had been simply tied up, came loose; leaves and coal dust from the ground stuck to it. She looked utterly ridiculous and miserable.
“Aiyo, oh my goodness. Old man, hurry and put away the coal stove. If she rolls onto it and tries to blackmail us, what will we do?”
Aunt Yang’s house was right next door to Ning Xiaobei’s. When the woman arrived, they had been making dumplings for the Lunar New Year.
By now, almost every household in Jiande Lane used liquefied gas burners; the coal stoves only came out during the Lunar New Year to make egg dumplings or spring rolls. People said the gas flames were too fierce and the delicate dumpling skins would break. The coal stove’s fire, by contrast, was just right.
“I think they just want to extort money. Can’t get anything from the Ning family, so they’re picking on the neighbors instead,” someone muttered.
“Exactly! Xiao Mei is getting married, and Grandma Ning even paid out of her own pocket for her dowry. A good host like that—don’t talk about the old society, even today it’s rare to see someone like her!”
The more the woman threw a tantrum, the more the neighbors looked on with disdain.
Xiao Mei’s sister-in-law had this trick down cold from her village. In rural disputes, it’s all about who’s thicker-skinned, whose men are stronger, whose fists hit harder. But in Jiande Lane, both tactics failed completely. Her strength faded, and she sheepishly sat up, picking leaves off her hair.
“The police! The police are here!”
“Grandma Ning brought Xiao Mei back!”
Siren after siren sounded at the alley entrance. People turned and automatically cleared a path.
Grandma Ning strode in, one hand on her cane, the other holding Xiao Mei’s arm. Two police officers followed behind her, matching her pace step for step.
The winter morning light glinted off her perfectly smoothed silver hair, reflecting a dazzling shine. Today she wore a blue-gray, auspicious-patterned cotton jacket, paired with matching trousers—custom-made by Ning Jianguo especially for the New Year. The outfit was grand and composed, radiating authority.
Her back was straight, and the cane in her hand was no ordinary walking stick; it looked more like the dragon-headed cane carried by Madam She of Tianbo Mansion3She is the matriarch of the Yang Family Warriors during the Northern Song Dynasty, known for her loyalty, military prowess, and leading her family to defend the country in old Shanghai operas.
She walked with measured steps, the officers following closely behind, more like bodyguards than escorts.
Ning Jianguo released One-Eyed and stepped forward to support Grandma Ning.
Fan Xia squinted, watching the old lady rest her hand on her son’s arm. He turned to the three troublemakers on the ground and gave a slight, knowing smile.
“I heard someone tried to smash the Ning family’s front door?”
………………
Author’s Note:
Bow down to Grandma Ning
====================
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