【I’m leaving. Don’t look for me. —Fan Xia】
Ning Xiaobei took the small note Ning Jianguo handed him. Looking at the familiar handwriting, he turned in confusion toward Zhao Jingwen, who was so angry he was stomping his feet.
“What does this mean? Fan Xia ran away from home?”
“That little bastard has gone crazy! It’s almost New Year, and he’s pulling this stunt on me!”
Today was the first day of winter break. Early in the morning, Zhao Jingwen saw Fan Xia’s bedroom door tightly shut and assumed he was sleeping in, so he didn’t wake him.
After buying breakfast from the market, he checked the time; almost nine o’clock. Worried Fan Xia might get hungry if he kept sleeping, he pushed the door open to wake him up.
But when he went in, the blanket was neatly folded, and there wasn’t a single person in the room.
Looking again at the desk, there was a note pressed under a metal pencil case. It turned out to be the kid’s declaration of running away from home.
“You little brat! If you end up floating as a corpse in the river, you’d better not let me catch you; otherwise I’ll skin you alive!”
Zhao Jingwen clenched his fists tightly, eyes wide as he cursed.
“What’s the point of just yelling? Did you check his parents’ place? Could he have gone back to find them?”
Hearing that Fan Xia was missing, Ning Jianguo was anxious too. But compared to the younger Zhao Jingwen, his years of experience as a father made him much more level-headed.
“My sister’s house has long been rented out. He can’t go back there. I just called that useless father of his. That damn Fan Jian said he was singing karaoke all night yesterday and hasn’t seen his son. Even the girl at the video store he hangs around at said she hasn’t seen Fan Xia either.”
The more Zhao Jingwen spoke, the more frustrated he became, stomping his feet repeatedly.
“Damn it, damn it. My sister only has this one son. If anything happens to Xiao Xia, how am I supposed to answer to her?”
“Did you report it? Should we go to the police station first?”
Ning Xiaobei asked.
“Doesn’t TV say that if someone has been missing for less than 24 hours, you can’t report it?”
Zhao Jingwen scratched his head, looking completely lost.
“But Xiao Xia is a minor, it’s not the same as an adult.”
Ning Xiaobei said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
“Uncle, hurry and report it first. After that, we can think about where Xiao Xia might have gone. I don’t think he could’ve gone far. Did he bring any money?”
“He did, and that’s exactly the problem.”
Zhao Jingwen slapped his thigh. “I checked. He took several sets of clothes, and he also took over a thousand yuan in cash.”
“Wait, how does Xiaoxia have that much money?”
Ning Xiaobei was shocked.
Over a thousand yuan? At a time when the average salary in Shanghai was only a bit over five hundred!
“He did well on his final exams this time. His dad got happy and just tossed him a wad of cash, telling him to keep it up. That bastard Fan Jian… only when he randomly remembers does he bother with his son. Back when Xiao Xia’s grades were bad, he used to beat him with a stick, hang him from the beam and whip him with a thick rod.”
As Zhao Jingwen spoke, he couldn’t stop shaking his head.
Ning Xiaobei glanced up at Ning Jianguo, and the father and son exchanged a look that said more than words could.
“Xiaobei, treat Xiao Xia better from now on. He’s a pitiful child too.”
“…Mm.”
The three of them went together to the police station near Zhao Jingwen’s home to file a report.
Only then did Ning Xiaobei realize that Uncle Zhao’s family lived in a Workers’ New Village north of Suzhou Creek. The rows of connected dorm-style buildings there were all welfare housing provided by the textile and shoe factories.
“So that means… we could be neighbors in the future?”
Ning Xiaobei said happily.
“Yeah. If we’re lucky, we might even end up in the same building. There are still two empty rooms in our building waiting to be assigned.”
As he said this, Zhao Jingwen glanced at Ning Jianguo beside him and slightly curled his lips into a smile.
After leaving the police station, Zhao Jingwen brought the father and son back to his place.
The Zhao family lived on the second floor. After climbing the stairs, the three of them walked down a long corridor. On both sides, it was full of life; balconies were packed with all kinds of plants and flowers, grown by the residents.
Colorful clothes were hung out like rows of international flags. Someone as tall as Uncle Zhao had to lower his head while walking, or he’d bump into other people’s laundry.
Above the balconies, people were drying salted fish, dried chicken gizzards, and daylily buds. Children’s bicycles, elderly people’s wheelchairs, and freshly washed white sneakers left out to air-dry were all piled along the corridor.
The people here, like those in the alleyways, didn’t really like closing their doors. A gentle Yue opera tune floated out from somewhere, intertwining with the sound of Suzhou storytelling coming from another household’s radio, forming a uniquely Jiangnan kind of soundscape.
“Our place is just like this, messy. If you move here in the future, you’d better be careful.”
Zhao Jingwen stopped at his door, unlocking it as he spoke in a low voice to Ning Jianguo.
“Either someone says you’re taking up space in front of their door, or they’ll accuse you of stealing the turtle shells they hung out to dry. Especially those aunties, none of them are easy to deal with… tsk tsk.”
Hearing this, Ning Xiaobei covered his mouth and laughed.
After entering, Ning Xiaobei took one glance and judged that the apartment was at most about fifty square meters, about the same size as the public housing the Ning family got after relocation.
The work unit probably considered that Zhao Jingwen was a grown man who would one day marry and start a family, so they gave him a two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment.
“This is where Xiao Xia stays.”
Zhao Jingwen pushed open the small north-facing bedroom door and pointed inside. “Take a look yourselves.”
As he spoke, he went to the bathroom, wrung out a towel, and wiped his face. Then he sat down on the sofa in the living room and let out a long sigh.
Ning Jianguo bent down and said a few words to Xiaobei, then went into the Zhao family’s kitchen, opened the fridge, took out some eggs and tomatoes, and started boiling noodles.
He could tell, this guy had been busy all morning and definitely hadn’t eaten yet. Who knew how long they’d be searching later, so Ning Jianguo decided to cook Zhao Jingwen a bowl of noodles first to fill his stomach.
With his hands behind his back, Ning Xiaobei walked around Fan Xia’s small room of about ten square meters, touching things here and there, opening the cabinet to peek inside. Suddenly, he felt a bit like Conan1Conan Edogawa is the alias of Shinichi Kudo in the 1996 anime series, Detective Conan.
Except his actual age was much older than Shinichi Kudo2Shinichi Kudo is a 16 to 17-year-old high school detective in Detective Conan.
“Dad, Uncle Zhao, I think I know where Fan Xia went.”
Ning Xiaobei walked out to the living room. Zhao Jingwen had just finished his noodles and was burping when he heard this. He got so excited his bowl almost slipped from his hands.
“Xiaobei, don’t talk nonsense. You’re just a kid, not a police officer, how would you know?”
Ning Jianguo patted Zhao Jingwen on the shoulder, signaling him to calm down.
“It’s true. Come take a look.”
Ning Xiaobei pulled Ning Jianguo back into the room and pointed at a poster on the wall. It was the Huang Rihua3Huang Rihua or Felix Wong = Actual Actor version of 《The Legend of the Condor Heroes》, with Guo Jing4Fictional Character standing before a blazing red sun, drawing his bow to shoot an eagle.
Then he turned and pointed at the stack of wuxia novels piled beside the desk, 《Seven Swords Descend from Mount Heaven5Seven Swords Descend from Mount Heaven (七劍下天山) is a classic wuxia novel by Liang Yusheng, published in 1956–1957》, 《The Wanderer Chronicles6 The Wanderer Chronicles (萍蹤俠影錄) is also a wuxia novel by Liang Yusheng, published in 1959–1960》, along with a bunch of knockoff martial arts novels riding on the popularity of Gu Long and Jin Yong, with fake author names like “New Gu Long” and “Great Jin Yong.”
He said with certainty, “Fan Xia mentioned it before, he’s not obsessed with Ekin Cheng anymore. Now he wants to ‘face a bloody road with cold eyes, loneliness as his fate, and strive to be higher than the heavens’ (Note ①).”
As he spoke, Ning Xiaobei picked up a notebook and flipped it open for Ning Jianguo and Zhao Jingwen to see.
Inside, it was densely covered with all kinds of stickers: the suave Adam Cheng as Chu Liuxiang7Chu Liuxiang is the fictional protagonist of the wuxia novel series Chu Liuxiang Series by Gu Long, the righteous He Jiajin8He Jiajin or Kenny Ho as Zhan Zhao9Zhan Zhao is a fictional character in the Chinese wuxia classic 《The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants》, as well as Huang Rihua and Barbara Yung as Jing’er and Rong’er10characters in《The Legend of the Condor Heroes》, along with characters from all sorts of martial arts films.
The men were handsome, the women heroic…the entire notebook was filled to the brim, all of it are Fan Xia’s “young boy’s thoughts.”
Not only were there stickers, but also Fan Xia’s copied notes of various martial arts moves and theme song lyrics from wuxia dramas and films.
“The way of heaven is to take from what is in excess to make up for what is deficient… what is this?”
Zhao Jingwen flipped through casually and came across that line.
“It’s… from the 《Nine Yin Manual11A fictional martial arts manual in the Condor trilogy novels of Jin Yong .》”
Ning Xiaobei scratched his head awkwardly.
“《Nine Yin Manual》? Then why doesn’t he just copy the 《Sunflower Manual12Sunflower Manual is a fictional martial arts manual in the wuxia novel, 《The Smiling, Proud Wanderer》, of Jin Yong 》? Might as well go ‘snip13dark humor; this manual is an extremely powerful martial arts techniques but you must castrate yourself first‘, and be done with it once and for all!”
Zhao Jingwen rolled his eyes in anger. “If he could put even half of this effort into studying, I’d be burning incense to the Zhao ancestors in gratitude.”
Hearing this, Ning Xiaobei felt even more guilty.
What should he do… he was the one who dragged Fan Xia into this wuxia novel obsession in the first place.
It was also him who told Fan Xia that the 《Nine Yin Manual》in Jin Yong’s novels was actually adapted from lines in Laozi’s 《Dao De Jing14The Tao Te Ching or Dào Dé Jīng is an ancient Chinese classic text, becoming a foundational work of Taoism.》, and suggested he take a look.
But his intention was for Fan Xia to study a bit of classical Chinese, so that when he got to middle school and encountered ancient texts, he wouldn’t be intimidated; not for him to seriously study some “peerless martial arts”!
If reading this stuff could really let someone master martial arts, then Jin Yong himself would be the leader of the martial world…no need to write novels at all.
“Fan Xia’s grades are already quite good now. Reading some wuxia novels isn’t a big deal. It hasn’t affected his studies.”
Ning Xiaobei said this matter-of-factly.
Zhao Jingwen shook his head. No one knew his own nephew better than he did.
“But what does all this prove?”
After going in circles, Zhao Jingwen still didn’t understand what Ning Xiaobei was getting at.
“This proves that Fan Xia must have gone up the mountains to train under a master! He’s gone to learn ‘peerless martial arts.’”
Otherwise, why would he take so many clothes? It’s not like he was going traveling!
………………
Author’s Note:
Note ①: From the theme song of 《Reincarnated》. “In this world, is this mountain the highest? Hey! Ha!”
That silly kid has gone “up the mountains to train.” Next chapter, we’ll go drag him back.
====================
『dapotaturs note』
Drama Theme Song15https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WGK09dSOYw
- 独自在山坡，高处未算高
→ Alone on the hillside, yet this height is not the peak - 命运在冷笑，暗示前无路
→ Fate sneers coldly, hinting there is no road ahead - 冷眼对血路，寂寞是命途
→ I face the bloody path with cold eyes; loneliness is my fate - 明月映山岗，倍觉孤高
→ The bright moon over the ridge makes me feel even more alone and proud - 让我攀险峰，再与天比高
→ Let me climb the perilous peaks, and rise to rival the heavens - 问世间，是否此山最高？嘿哈！
→ I ask the world, is this mountain the highest? Hey! Ha!
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