DBTHDCAR Chapter 58

“Fan Xia, Fan Xia, wake up…”

In the pitch-dark night, Fan Xia slept soundly, probably dreaming something pleasant, his lips twitching. He vaguely felt someone pushing him.

He instinctively reached to turn on the bedside lamp, but remembered that the dorm had lights out at 10 p.m., and except for the corridor and the bathroom, all the electricity was cut off.

Fortunately, the curtains in their dorm weren’t very thick. By the sliver of moonlight sneaking in, he finally made out the figure standing below.

“Ding Zheyang, what are you doing awake in the middle of the night?”

He muttered, hugging his pillow and turning over, planning to return to the pleasant dream he’d just been having.

In that dream, military training had ended, and he and Xiaobei had returned to Workers’ New Village. Uncle Ning had prepared a full table of delicious dishes to reward them. There was his favorite, Squirrel-shaped Mandarin Fish¹Squirrel-shaped Mandarin Fish (松鼠桂鱼): A famous Jiangsu cuisine dish where the fish is deep-fried in a way that its flesh curls outward like a squirrel’s tail, often served with a sweet-sour sauce, plus scallion oil chicken, which Xiaobei liked, and homemade fries from Uncle Ning, crispy and fragrant, a hundred times better than McDonald’s.

While they ate, Chang Leyun danced nearby, performing the same peacock dance she had practiced during their break from training. Her white skirt fanned out like a peacock’s tail, a bit reminiscent of Yang Liping.

After the meal, their uncle told them to sit still and relax; he would wash all the dishes himself. They only needed to eat the fruit and then watch TV.

But before the fruit even arrived, this troublemaker had already stirred everything up.

“Fan Xia, don’t sleep! Look over there—”

Ding Zheyang panicked, but he didn’t dare wake the deeply sleeping Ning Xiaobei. He could only push Fan Xia harder.

“Huh? Where’d this guy go?”

Fan Xia, annoyed beyond measure, turned over to look across the room. The bunk opposite him was empty.

“Gone to the bathroom?”

He raised an eyebrow, curious.

They were talking about Jiang Nan, their roommate.

The affiliated high school really treated its students well. The newly built dorms were four-person rooms, much more spacious than the six-person rooms Ning Xiaobei had when he started college. The school provided each student with a wardrobe and a desk. The four desks were pushed together in the center of the room.

On registration day, the three of them had arrived from the old town by afternoon. They were pretty lucky this time: not only were the three graduates from the same middle school assigned to the same class, but their dorm rooms were together too. Fan Xia was so happy he almost jumped up.

When they opened the door, they saw that the window-side lower bunk was already occupied by a fairly ordinary-looking boy taking a nap.

Since the dorm hadn’t been properly cleaned after the last batch of students left, there was quite a mess. Dust floated everywhere, and trash had been left behind. It was a wonder the boy could sleep at all.

With one bed taken, the remaining three bunks were theirs.

Fan Xia immediately chose the upper bunk above Ning Xiaobei, then tipped his chin at Ding Zheyang, signaling him to take the opposite side.

Once the beds were assigned, the three started making their beds, folding blankets, and cleaning.

Fan Xia was completely clueless about this kind of work. Even after crawling into the bedsheet, he still couldn’t straighten out all four corners. Ning Xiaobei couldn’t stand it any longer. He tossed Fan Xia a broom to sweep the floor and personally finished setting up all three of their beds.

Meanwhile, they climbed up and down, fetched water, wiped the floor. Naturally, the student in Ding Zheyang’s lower bunk couldn’t nap.

First, he jumped down and threw a tantrum, then stormed out of the dorm without even introducing himself. Fan Xia nearly wanted to punch him on the very first day of registration.

The next morning, during the first class meeting, they learned this strange classmate’s name was Jiang Nan.

“Jiang Nan didn’t go to the bathroom. I checked, he’s not there,” Ding Zheyang whispered.

He glanced down at Ning Xiaobei to make sure he hadn’t been woken.

Since that day leaving the temple, Ning Xiaobei hadn’t been feeling well. He claimed it was a cold, but the symptoms didn’t quite match.

Two days ago was the first day of military training. Before the coach could even start teaching them to march in step, Ning Xiaobei suddenly fainted. Today, he had only trained for half a day and spent the rest of the time resting in the shade.

If it weren’t for his pale face and the cold sweat all over his body, the instructor might have suspected he was faking illness to skip training.

Even the homeroom teacher, Teacher Gu, was shocked. On registration day, he had heard from Ning Jianguo that his son wasn’t in good health and had asthma, but he didn’t expect him to be this weak. High school coursework was much heavier than middle school. Although Ning Xiaobei’s grades were good, his health might not be able to keep up.

Over the next two days, Ning Xiaobei did manage to complete the training, but he went to bed very early every night, clearly exhausted. Naturally, the two of them didn’t dare disturb him.

Ding Zheyang tiptoed up and whispered into Fan Xia’s ear, “He did the same thing yesterday. He left around midnight and didn’t come back until six in the morning.”

Because of his past experiences, Ding Zheyang was more sensitive than most. Even when sleeping, he stayed alert and would wake up at the slightest sound.

Fan Xia frowned at this.

“How long has he been gone?”

“About five minutes, I guess.”

“I’ll go check…”

Fan Xia felt something was off too. Carefully, he climbed down from the upper bunk, got dressed, and quietly slipped out.

About half an hour later, Fan Xia returned and pushed open the dorm door. Ding Zheyang, who had nearly fallen asleep, jolted upright.

“So, how is it?”

“Shh, be quiet.”

Fan Xia took off his clothes and climbed back into the upper bunk, looking thrilled.

“The dorm supervisor downstairs is totally useless. He fell asleep with the TV on. The main door of the dorm building can be opened easily.”

“Where’s Jiang Nan?”

“He went east after leaving the school. Near X University, it’s really lively. There are restaurants, billiard halls, bars, even internet cafes.”

Fan Xia felt like he had hit the jackpot. He’d just discovered a whole new world.

Because the east side of the school had no gates, all the new students had no idea that the supposedly quiet, monastery-like campus had this bustling scene just outside. They actually thought they were completely cut off from the world.

“Jiang Nan went to the internet café. Probably for an all-night gaming session,” Fan Xia said dismissively.

About a year ago, Fan Xia’s father, Fan Jian, had closed his DVD rental shop. Somehow he heard that internet cafés could make money, so he expanded the old rental store threefold, bought over fifty of the newest model computers at the time, and hired a tech-savvy young man as the manager. He opened a booming internet café called 【Xia Ke Xing²侠客行 (Xia Ke Xing): Ode to Gallantry or Way of Chivalrous Hero】

Internet cafés were the trendiest thing at the time. You have to remember, home computers weren’t common yet. Even if a family owned a computer, not everyone could afford to install ADSL³Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is a type of broadband technology that provides high-speed internet access over existing copper telephone lines.

For most people, getting online meant using a dial-up connection. That screeching, static-y sound alone could drive you crazy, and the speed… well, it was barely tolerable. Other than chatting in chat rooms, checking the news, sending emails, or playing [Minesweeper], there wasn’t much else you could do.

Fan Jian had invested heavily in his internet café, making full use of the advantages of his old DVD rental shop. Each computer was loaded not only with tons of movies and TV shows but also all the popular games of the time: 《Counter-Strike》, 《Legend of Mir》, 《Chinese Paladin: The Legend of Sword and Fairy》.

Fan Jian was a tough businessman, ten yuan per hour, but even at that price, customers came in droves. He was so busy collecting money every day that he could barely keep up. Fan Xia had been pulled in several times to work as a temporary computer manager. Manager was mostly a fancy title, but it really meant turning computers on for customers and registering their ID cards.

Fan Xia had originally loved playing games, but sitting there brought him no peace. Sometimes he had to stand to collect money, sometimes make instant noodles for customers. After doing this over and over, even the most fun games became boring.

On top of that, the café was smoky and greasy; the air was filled with cigarette smoke and the smell of braised beef noodles. Every time he left, he had to shower and change before he could go hang out with Ning Xiaobei. It was tedious, messy, and frankly, very boring.

As for Ning Xiaobei, after visiting Fan Jian’s internet café once and seeing the monitors that looked like hunchbacks and the old-fashioned roller mice, he felt as if he had stepped straight back into the Stone Age.

Ning Jianguo had even asked him if he wanted a computer at home, but Ning Xiaobei flatly refused.

‘Give me a break. I can just open my eyes and play games on my phone. Who needs a PC?’, he thought. Besides, these things were ridiculously expensive in this era — an Intel Pentium 4 processor would cost five or six thousand yuan—that’s five thousand yuan in the year 2000!

Playing games was meant to be a group activity. Ning Xiaobei didn’t play, so Fan Xia found it even less interesting.

He really couldn’t understand how anyone could sneak out at midnight just to go to an internet café to play games, acting like a thief. It made him nervous just watching it.

The next morning, when Fan Xia got up, he saw Jiang Nan already dressed in camouflage for military training and scuttling off to the neighboring dormitory.

This guy was strange. He didn’t get along well with the people in his own dorm but got on perfectly with students from two neighboring rooms. After only two days, he was already calling them brother and acting as if they’d known each other forever. Whether eating or showering, he stuck with the neighbors. Fan Xia couldn’t figure out what he had done to offend their own dorm.

“Huh…”

In the school cafeteria, Ning Xiaobei listened to Fan Xia and Ding Zheyang describe the situation and felt that something was off.

Life at the affiliated high school was completely unfamiliar to him. Unlike back at their old school, many teachers and students here were strangers, he couldn’t use past encounters in the real world to get a sense of things.

“Jiang Nan…”

He should have never met this person before; otherwise, such a unique name would have stuck in his mind.

Ning Xiaobei rubbed his head. The dull, lingering ache from the parallel world still hadn’t gone away.

He had a premonition: In the real world, Fan Xia’s prolonged unconsciousness might hinge on a solution in this world.

Could this Jiang Nan be the variable?

After breakfast, the three returned to the dorm to freshen up. Just as they opened the door, they saw Jiang Nan with his back to them, rummaging through Ding Zheyang’s bed.

Hearing the door, he whipped around and gave them a slightly embarrassed smile.

“Oh, you’re back… I just noticed Ding Zheyang’s sheet was messed up, so I straightened it for him.”

Fan Xia didn’t believe a word of it and was about to confront him, but Ding Zheyang beat him to it.

“Thanks a lot, Jiang Nan.”

Ding Zheyang gave a faint smile.

Before the first half of summer vacation, he had flown to Japan for laser eye surgery, finally ditching those thick black-framed glasses that looked like beer bottle bottoms, revealing his true face.

Just like their former classmate Zhuang Li, who wrote Class 1 Handsome Boys Ranking List said, Ding Zheyang had a delicate, refined look. But Fan Xia would never admit he was better-looking.

In Fan Xia’s words, this kid, maybe from eating too much Japanese instant noodles, had a bit of a Japanese look: his eyes tilted slightly, carrying a hint of sly mischief, giving off a slightly unsettling vibe.

Sure enough, Ding Zheyang’s forced smile and emotionless eyes made Jiang Nan uncomfortable. The muscles in his face tensed unnaturally as he acknowledged the thanks, then grabbed the cap on the table and quickly strode out of the dorm.

“Quick, check if anything’s missing!” Ning Xiaobei hurriedly said.

The three of them searched their beds and cupboards, and once they confirmed nothing was gone, they finally exhaled.

At that moment, a whistle blew from downstairs, the instructor was calling everyone to assemble.

“Move it! The class that gathers last has to run laps! And the last student will perform a show for everyone! Hurry, hurry, hurry!”

The instructor blew the whistle and clapped, herding the kids onto the playground like a bunch of chickens. Fan Xia sprinted, screaming as he mixed into the crowd. Looking back, he realized Ning Xiaobei was nowhere in sight.

“Right face!”

The instructor shouted.

“Where’s my boss?”

“No idea. Didn’t he come down with you?”

Ding Zheyang shook his head, turned his head to the right, and moved forward with quick little steps.

The students quickly lined up into neat squares, but their row clearly had a missing corner. From the instructor’s platform, it was glaringly obvious.

The instructor frowned, hands on his hips, preparing to see who was slacking off so badly. This one was about to get a lesson.

“Ah, where did my boss go? I’m freaking out!”

Fan Xia tiptoed, peeking back toward the dorm.

About three minutes later, almost under the gaze of the entire grade, Ning Xiaobei appeared like a superstar in the spotlight.

He walked at a steady, unhurried pace, a faint, weak smile on his lips, and went straight up to the scowling instructor to report in.

“Reporting, Instructor. I suddenly felt unwell when I went out just now, so I had to sit for a while before coming down. Sorry for holding up everyone’s assembly.”

Ning Xiaobei stood perfectly straight, speaking with sincerity. His pale skin and nearly colorless lips made his words highly convincing.

The instructor, who had just wanted to give him a lesson, could only nod helplessly and let him join the formation.

This boy had left a strong impression. On the first day of military training he had fainted, practically the male version of Lin Daiyu, causing the instructor to get scolded by his superiors.

These kids were students, not real soldiers. They couldn’t be treated like new recruits. And being only children from Shanghai, they were truly precious, the family’s little emperors or little princesses. Any serious mishap could have been disastrous.

Just as Ning Xiaobei was about to step into the lineup, someone in the crowd shouted, “Weren’t we supposed to perform a show?”

At once, the students erupted—clapping, shouting, hooting. The instructor had to blow the whistle several times to restore order.

“This student… what do you think we should do?”

The instructor shrugged, clearly not wanting to deal with it.

“Then I’ll sing a song for everyone,” Ning Xiaobei said. He wasn’t the shy type of teenager; he strode confidently to the front of the field, stepped onto the stage, picked up the microphone, and smiled. “I’ll sing 《Hotel California》 for you all.”

Holding the mic in his left hand, he snapped his fingers with the right and began to sing slowly, a cappella.

≈≈≈ On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair…≈≈≈

His voice was rich and expressive, a boyish rasp unique to a young male in his adolescence, carrying a delicate yet mournful beauty.

The boys below, who had been hooting and teasing, gradually quieted down, tapping along with the rhythm.

Fan Xia, just like when he first met Ning Xiaobei, craned his neck across the crowd, staring at him in awe.

Watching Xiaobei reach the chorus with his eyes closed, subtle movements of his eyebrows betraying faint emotion, it felt less like singing and more like sighing.

The summer sunlight bathed the boy’s almost translucent face and the fingers gripping the microphone, shining as if on a piece of white jade.

When the song ended, Ning Xiaobei blinked, murmured a soft “Thank you,” and jumped down from the stage.

Instantly, thunderous applause erupted, whistles piercing the air.

“Who is he? That boy…who is he?”

“He’s Ning Xiaobei from Class 4, the weakling who fainted the day before yesterday.”

“What do you mean weakling? He’s clearly a stylish pretty boy!”

It was obvious that Ning Xiaobei’s performance had already won the admiration of a crowd of girls. It looked like his high school life was about to become far more exciting.

“Why the daze?”

Ning Xiaobei bumped Fan Xia lightly on the shoulder as he rejoined the formation.

“Wasn’t I cool just now?”

He had expected Fan Xia to jump on him, or at least raise both hands and shout, “My boss is the coolest!”

But instead, Fan Xia merely nodded once and turned his head away.

If Ning Xiaobei had looked a little to the side, he would have noticed a suspicious flush rising on his tanned cheeks.

Unfortunately, even the person didn’t realize it, he just thought the sun was especially strong today, making his whole body feel hot.

The rest of the training was painfully boring: standing at attention, marching in step, and breaking down the movements of the high step. The heat was brutal; the entire field felt like a giant iron plate, radiating heat from the sun, the ground even seeming to warp under it.

Finally, break time came, and the students rushed into the shade of the trees, where the homeroom teacher had prepared watermelon slices and mung bean ice pops with a hint of salt.

Fan Xia peeled back the wrapper of an ice pop and handed it to Ning Xiaobei, but before he could say anything, a crowd of girls surged forward, practically pushing the little dark skin aside.

“Ning Xiaobei, your singing was amazing!”

“Ning Xiaobei, what other English songs can you sing? Can you write the lyrics down for me later?”

“Ning Xiaobei, how do you never get tanned? Look at me, I’ve only been in the sun for two days, and oh my god, I look like I’ve been working in the fields!”

“Hey, hey…”

Fan Xia tried a few times to squeeze back through the crowd with his ice pop, but it was hopeless.

The girls’ battle prowess was terrifying.

Ding Zheyang leaned against a tree, biting his ice pop, smiling at the scene.

He had been wearing that constant grin lately, as if he were trying to make up for all the smiles he hadn’t had over the past few years.

Fan Xia crouched on the ground, taking off his cap to fan himself helplessly.

Suddenly, a ruckus broke out in the neighboring class. He turned to see a few boys surrounding their homeroom teacher, pointing over toward them.

Fan Xia held the ice pop stick in his mouth and furrowed his brows, standing up.

Soon, not only the neighboring class, but several other homeroom teachers appeared on the field, forming small groups with the instructors in charge of each class. They whispered among themselves, faces serious, occasionally glancing in the direction of Fan Xia’s class.

Ding Zheyang and Chang Leyun also sensed something serious was happening. They stepped closer to Fan Xia, alert.

Having both experienced bullying at school before, they were naturally hypersensitive. Fan Xia wordlessly opened his arms, shielding them behind him.

“Class 4’s Ning Xiaobei, step out of line.”

To their surprise, the teachers weren’t targeting them at all.

The instructor in charge of their class motioned toward Ning Xiaobei. “Your teacher wants to ask you something.”

………………

Author’s Note:

Once this matter is resolved, Fan Xia can wake up.

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• 1
  Squirrel-shaped Mandarin Fish (松鼠桂鱼): A famous Jiangsu cuisine dish where the fish is deep-fried in a way that its flesh curls outward like a squirrel’s tail, often served with a sweet-sour sauce
• 2
  侠客行 (Xia Ke Xing): Ode to Gallantry or Way of Chivalrous Hero
• 3
  Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is a type of broadband technology that provides high-speed internet access over existing copper telephone lines