DBTHDCAR Chapter 18

On Ning Jianguo’s seventh day memorial, Fan Xia took time off to come to the community where Ning Xiaobei lived. Together, they went to the designated burning spot at the neighborhood committee and carefully burned the gold and silver foil offerings, along with wreaths and other items.

Since Grandma Ning had passed away, the Ning family relatives rarely visited anymore. On someone else’s seventh-day memorial, there would usually be a handful of friends and family to support the ceremony. If it weren’t for Officer Fan, Ning Xiaobei would have had to face all this endless sorrow completely alone.

“Thank you so much for today,” Ning Xiaobei said, tossing the white mourning sash from his waist into the fire. The orange flames cast a warm glow across his pale profile.

“Why thank me? We’ve always been good classmates, good friends, haven’t we?”

Fan Xia carefully folded the foil into ingot shapes before placing them in a red paper bag inscribed with Ning Jianguo’s name and birth details, then threw them into the fire.

“Doing this… it won’t break any rules, right?” Ning Xiaobei asked worriedly.

“Police are human too. We have friends and family, we experience life and death. How is this breaking any rules?”

Fan Xia said with a wry smile.

Ning Xiaobei couldn’t help but smile at that, and the heavy air of grief lifted just a little.

“Oh, and thank you for coming with me to the nursing home a few days ago to see my uncle. He was really happy to see you,” Fan Xia added.

Fan Xia lowered his head, folding the paper as he replied.

Ning Xiaobei nodded with relief.

Having been used to seeing the tall, strong, and handsome Uncle Zhao in that world, Ning Xiaobei was momentarily unable to accept the sight of him here in reality; shrunken in a wheelchair, hair white, frail, and sickly.

According to the caregivers at the nursing home, ever since returning from an old friend’s funeral, Uncle Zhao had fallen gravely ill and had even come close to death.

Before this, Uncle Zhao had been healthy and sharp-minded for his age, often helping the other old men on the floor with their phones, making videos, or shopping online.

After this serious illness, however, he had completely lost his vigor. Sleepless nights and weak legs left him unwilling to move, and it took a long time before he recognized Ning Xiaobei and Fan Xia.

Seeing Uncle Zhao like this made Ning Xiaobei think of his own gravely ill father, and a wave of sorrow washed over him.

“Xiao Xia, Xiaobei… good, good…”

Zhao Jingwen sat in the wheelchair, one hand holding Ning Xiaobei’s, the other holding Fan Xia’s. The two children, one pale and one dark, mirrored each other just like in their childhood.

The old man looked at them, as if seeing those long-gone days again. A small smile appeared on his lips, and his mood seemed lighter.

“Let’s go visit Uncle every month from now on. My dad and him were such good brothers… Now that my dad is gone, I want to spend more time with Uncle.”

Once all the ingots were folded, Ning Xiaobei picked up a stick of incense and carefully sealed the red paper bundles.

“If you don’t mind the trouble, I really couldn’t ask for more. You have no idea how happy my uncle was that day. When I got home, he talked on the phone for over an hour. If the nursing home lights hadn’t gone out, he could’ve kept going.”

Fan Xia stood up and helped Ning Xiaobei put the red envelopes into the fire. A gust of wind sent the flames rising high, carrying away their longing for the departed.

Ning Xiaobei and Fan Xia clasped their hands together, silently praying for a moment, then lowered them and exchanged smiles.

“Don’t laugh at me for saying this.”

After burning everything, they walked toward the building where Ning Xiaobei lived. Fan Xia walked ahead, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head.

“I feel… a little scared of you.”

“Scared of me?”

Ning Xiaobei couldn’t help but laugh and pointed at himself. “I’m just a regular civilian, alright? You’re a police officer, why would you be scared of me?”

“Well… you were my boss when we were kids. You always looked after me. Even though we haven’t seen each other for so many years, I still get nervous around you. Maybe it’s because I got used to being bullied by you.”

Fan Xia laughed heartily.

“I bullied you? Let’s get this straight, you were the one who bullied me!”

Ning Xiaobei protested.

“Nonsense. The first day I transferred schools, you took me in as your little brother. You’ve forgotten that, haven’t you?”

Fan Xia said.

“First day… you really know how to make things up…”

Ning Xiaobei suddenly stopped in his tracks.

So… the change really happened. This time it wasn’t just objects that had been altered. Fan Xia’s memories had changed too, hadn’t they?

He felt a surge of excitement, and suddenly his throat tightened, making it hard to breathe.

“Boss, boss, your medicine!”

Seeing this, Fan Xia hurried over, pulled an inhaler from Ning Xiaobei’s pocket, held it to his mouth, and pressed down firmly.

As Ning Xiaobei’s color gradually returned to normal, Fan Xia let out a sigh of relief.

Back in the apartment, Ning Xiaobei was still too excited to sit still and immediately headed to the kitchen.

Following Shanghai custom, on the seventh day after someone’s passing, you prepare food for the deceased to send them off. Ning Xiaobei made a full table of dishes that Ning Jianguo had loved in life.

After offering them, the dishes had to be reheated before the living could eat them. Ning Xiaobei busied himself reheating each dish, then opened a bottle of red wine and invited Fan Xia to eat with him.

“Wow, boss, I didn’t know you had these skills, amazing! You’re practically the pride of Shanghai men.”

Fan Xia’s face lit up in delight. He took a piece of pine nut-perch fish, popped it into his mouth, and gave Ning Xiaobei a thumbs-up. “Your girlfriend is really lucky. With you around, she doesn’t even have to touch the kitchen.”

“I… don’t have a girlfriend.”

Ning Xiaobei’s face turned embarrassed.

For some reason, he suddenly remembered the little Hang Hang from the dream world, his boss.

Spoiled since childhood, and even more uncontrollable as he grew up. This world was bad enough having him boss me around back then; Ning Xiaobei definitely didn’t want to meet him again in that other world.

“Oh, I don’t have a girlfriend either. We’re really brothers in misfortune, huh?”

Fan Xia laughed casually, unbothered.

Not wanting to dwell on the girlfriend topic, Ning Xiaobei switched the conversation to work. Honestly, he never would have guessed that Fan Xia had become a police officer. In his mind, this kid had always been an unreliable slacker. Could someone like him really be trusted to protect the people?

“Ah, it was just a stroke of luck,” Fan Xia said. “After graduating from the three-year program, my uncle found a way for me to work as a temporary officer at the precinct for a while. Later, I caught a few thieves, earned some credit, and only then was I made official… When I was young, I didn’t know any better and went a bit off track, but luckily I got back on the right path.”

Fan Xia looked a bit embarrassed as he lifted his glass and took a sip.

“By the way, do you remember our class’s Forever Second Place student, Ding Zheyang?”

“Yeah, I remember him. He and I were in the same high school, just different classes. We haven’t kept in touch much these past few years. What happened to him?”

Ning Xiaobei asked curiously while peeling some scallion-roasted prawns.

“He got involved in fraud. Got caught. Didn’t expect that, right?”

“Ah? How could that be? I remember that after studying abroad, he went into banking soon after returning. A real golden child.”

Ning Xiaobei was genuinely shocked. In his impression, Ding Zheyang had just been a bookish nerd who took studying a bit too seriously. Once they moved up a grade, the worst he did was suck up to teachers or give small gifts. He never seemed the type to commit a crime.

“He had long been fired, but he kept telling people he was still a bank employee. Then he used connections with old colleagues and classmates to scam them, promising to help with investments and wealth management. Over the years… he must’ve cheated people out of tens of millions.”

Fan Xia said with a sigh.

“How long was his sentence?”

“Not sentenced yet. If he could return the money, it might be lighter. If not… well, Ning Xiaobei, you didn’t let him scam you, right?”

Fan Xia looked at him warily.

“Of course not. My money’s all in mutual funds. It’s been tanking lately. I don’t even know when I’ll break even. There’s no way I had money for him to take.”

Ning Xiaobei said with a self-deprecating smile.

In this life, he either worked for a living in the property market or in funds, really couldn’t catch a break.

“You weren’t scammed, but what about your dad? I’m telling you, that Ding Zheyang is cunning. You don’t know, he worked off the alumni directory, scamming one by one. Back when we were in college, mobile phones were just starting to become common. Lots of people still left their home landlines in the alumni book. In families with older folks, the landline was kept, and he would call their house, trick the family, and every single time, he got them.”

Fan Xia said, pointing at the Ning family’s landline, “Your home phone number isn’t still the old one, is it?”

“Actually… it was transferred after we moved,” Ning Xiaobei nodded, feeling a scratchy lump in his throat.

The old house only got a fixed line around 1998 or so. Before that, everyone used the public phones in the alley. Whenever someone called looking for someone, the lady at the phone booth would shout through a big megaphone across the neighborhood. Honestly, even the tiniest thing would be known all over the world.

Installing a phone back then was a big deal; new line, equipment, and all fees cost over two thousand yuan, which was a serious expense at the time. His father never had the heart to cancel the line and kept it all these years.

Even after two moves, Ning Xiaobei had the number transferred each time. If anyone wanted to reach him through that number, forget university classmates, elementary school friends could still find him.

“But when I sorted through my father’s things, I saw his bank passbook. His monthly pension was mostly saved up. It shouldn’t have been easy for Ding Zheyang to target him, right?”

“How many accounts your dad had, whether he did any investments… you can’t judge that just from the passbook at home,” Fan Xia said, feeling a vague sense of doom himself. He put down his chopsticks, wiped his hands, and said seriously, “Here’s what we’ll do: bring your ID, your household registration, and your dad’s death certificate. I’ll take you to the bank this afternoon to check for any accounts you don’t know about. If something’s wrong… we’ll also go to the station.”

Hearing this, Ning Xiaobei suddenly couldn’t even eat.

……………… 

After leaving the bank’s credit department, Ning Xiaobei was stunned.

Three million. He had no idea his dad had three million in savings. When did the old man stash so much money without telling him? He hadn’t even given him money for groceries himself.

No…more precisely, he used to have three million in savings.

Because, just as Fan Xia had guessed, that huge sum was scammed away by Ding Zheyang,someone who had been his classmate from elementary school through high school.

And Ning Xiaobei had been kept completely in the dark, not a clue.

Back home, he looked at his father’s portrait, clutching his chest tightly.

Ding Zheyang… Ding Zheyang, I never wronged you, so why would you hurt my dad like this?

……………… 

Author’s Note:

Our neighborhood… wow, it’s something else. Two people got scammed in just one month. When I saw the banners they hung up, I realized that even in this crappy little community, there are so many rich folks, and the losses were in the hundreds of thousands or even millions.

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