It was just about dinner time, and the early September heat was still intense. Many families had their doors open as they ate. Hearing the commotion, they all came out, craning their necks to see what was happening below.
“Fan Xia, it looks like they’re moving into the second floor,” Ning Xiaobei said, pointing down.
Come to think of it, the northernmost room along the second-floor corridor had indeed been empty for a while. Its previous owner had gone abroad, and no one expected a new family to move in right now.
In Shanghai, people usually move on a clear morning, making sure everything’s done before noon for good luck. If it rained on the scheduled day, the only consolation was to mutter, “At least there’s money and influence (and water).”
But no one moves after dark, doesn’t that bring bad luck?
Unlike Ning Jianguo and the others, who got friends to help, the new neighbors had hired a moving company. The workers tied up the furniture with ropes, slung it on their backs, and carried it up the stairs to the second floor.
“Jingwen, go down and take a look.”
“Right, my window faces the corridor. We don’t want it getting bumped by someone’s furniture,” Zhao Jingwen replied.
So the four of them went downstairs together, closing the window before the movers passed by, and even brought in Fan Xia’s running shoes that were hanging from the corridor ceiling.
“Wow, look at her, she’s really pretty,” Fan Xia said eagerly, leaning on the windowsill, pointing at a figure trailing the workers.
Ning Xiaobei turned to see a flash of red outside the corridor window, reflecting the dim hallway light; a woman in a red dress, hair curled into long waves, moving swiftly.
Why did she look familiar?
When the movers carried furniture past the glass window, Ning Xiaobei pushed the door open and leaned halfway out.
The tall, slim woman walked behind the workers in fine heels, tap tap tap, holding a white silk handkerchief in her hand, fanning herself occasionally and dabbing at the sweat glistening on her cheek.
From Ning Xiaobei’s angle, her face wasn’t visible yet, but he’d bet ten bucks she was attractive, just look at the dazed expressions on the young and middle-aged men across the corridor.
“Wow, boss, let’s go see her,” Fan Xia said, his young eyes lighting up at the sight of a beauty.
Despite being young, he loved pretty girls. Recently, he’d confessed to Ning Xiaobei how obsessed he was with Li Ruotong1Carman Lee’s version of Xiaolongnü2Xiaolongnü or Little Dragon Maiden is female protagonist of the wuxia novel 《The Return of the Condor Heroes》 by Jin Yong . A few days ago, when he saw Yin Zhiping character disrespect his idol3In the drama, Yin Zhiping develops an obsessive infatuation with Xiaolongnü and commits the crime of violating her while she is immobilized state., he nearly smashed the TV in rage, yelling so loudly that his uncle had to give him a scolding.
This wasn’t the first time Fan Xia had this problem. According to Uncle Zhao, back when he had just started elementary school, he watched 《Investiture of the Gods.》 When it got to the final episode, where Su Daji was executed by the executioner, the little rascal cried all night. The next day, he didn’t even have the energy to go to school.
“But Su Daji was a bad person,” Ning Xiaobei said in shock. He had assumed that with Fan Xia’s hatred of evil, he would naturally side with Jiang Ziya’s camp.
“I know! But Su Daji was really pretty!”
Fan Xia said with complete confidence.
From then on, Ning Xiaobei understood that this kid was a little pervert at heart, and firmly concluded that if given the chance, this guy would not hesitate to become the new King Zhou.4In 《Investiture of the Gods》, Su Daji: A beautiful but malevolent concubine of King Zhou of Shang. Her soul was absorbed and her body taken over by a Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit. She manipulates the king, encourages cruelty, and indulges in sadistic pleasures, leading the Shang dynasty into corruption and tyranny. She is the archetype of the femme fatale. Jiang Ziya: The wise and righteous strategist serving the Zhou. He opposes the Shang dynasty’s corruption and works to overthrow it, using both military strategy and divine guidance.
How someone like him ended up in the police team afterward? Truly baffling.
It wasn’t just Fan Xia who was interested in the pretty lady; Ning Jianguo came out of Zhao Jingwen’s room as well, taking his son along to see what the fuss was about.
When the group arrived at Room 220 at the end of the corridor, they saw the workers had stopped moving. A crowd was gathered at the doorway… arguing.
It turned out the apartment had been empty for years, and being in the corner, neighbors had gradually turned the area in front of the door into a dumping spot for old stuff: broken tricycles, coal stoves left unused for ages, even door panels and bed boards leaned against the gate.
The movers reached the door and realized they couldn’t get in, so they set down the furniture to take a break.
The new neighbors weren’t angry at the mess outside their door. They went knocking door to door, hoping others would claim their own items. but suddenly a quarrel broke out.
“Aunt Zhang, are you blind? Which eye of yours sees that this iron rack is mine?”
Aunt Tian crossed her arms and sneered.
“If it’s not yours, then whose is it? That rack used to be in your kitchen. One of its legs broke, and that’s why it got thrown here. We’ve all been neighbors a long time, who doesn’t know whose stuff is whose?”
Aunt Zhang, her hair pinned full of plastic rollers, glared and snapped.
Her eyes were a deep bluish green, not from being hit, but the aftereffects of using cheap eyeliner dye years ago. Not just her eyes, even her eyebrows looked bluish; in the dim light of night, she looked like a ghost out for a stroll.
“Oh, come on, what you’re saying makes no sense. You’ve got the most stuff piled here, every time I pass by, I see your husband sneaking old things from your house and dumping them at someone else’s door. Look at these, flower pots, broken medicine jars, and stew pots. I get it, your household’s big and your space is small, but that’s just common courtesy, don’t you think?”
“Who’s the one without common sense, huh?”
The two middle-aged ladies squared off, poking each other’s noses and hurling insults, as if today they were going to settle all the petty grievances accumulated over the years.
Aunt Zhang’s husband couldn’t stand it anymore. Wearing plastic slippers, he walked over to move the iron rack. But before his fingers even touched it, Aunt Zhang raised her arm and slapped the top of his bald head.
“Are you insane? I already said it’s not our stuff, why are you touching it?”
“Oh, what’s with all this ‘your house, my house’? The new neighbors are moving today, just think of it as helping them out. It’s blocking the way, do you want them to not move their furniture?”
Old Zhang held his reddened head in one hand and grumbled.
“Oh, I see what’s going on. You’ve seen the new neighbor, she’s pretty, and you’re so distracted you’re skipping meals and ignoring the kids’ homework just to fawn over her, huh? Do you think I’m dead or something?”
Hearing that, the other nosy neighbors started gathering around, pointing at Old Zhang and the new neighbor.
“Old Zhang is usually the quiet type, never speaks up. Could it be he’s really acting this way just because the new girl’s good-looking? Out here playing a lovesick suitor?”
“Pfft, that rack is definitely theirs. A couple of years ago, I saw the two of them toss it right onto someone else’s doorstep. I even asked Aunt Zhang why they didn’t just throw it away. She said if they took it to a recycling station, they could still make a few bucks, so tossing it was too wasteful. But all these years, I haven’t seen her actually take it to a recycling station.”
“But how’s it that the woman’s moving all alone? Where’s her man? All this arguing going on, and he’s just sitting in the car downstairs acting like some kind of old master? Not even coming up to say a word?”
The female neighbor hadn’t expected their quarrel to somehow drag her into the mess, and in such a lowly, shameless way. No matter how well-bred she was, her face darkened.
“Really… it’s Aunt Wang…”
Ning Xiaobei pushed through the crowd, lifted his head, and carefully took in the woman in red from head to toe. It was indeed Aunt Wang Yihong, the same neighbor who had lived next to their family for a few years in the real world.
He hadn’t known that Aunt Wang had been a neighbor of Uncle Zhao’s. Looks like they’d run into each other ahead of time again, another twist in the old path of fate.
Ning Xiaobei’s eyes flickered slightly.
“You don’t need to lift a finger. I’ll let them handle it.”
Wang Yihong waved her hand and went to speak with the workers who were sitting on the ground, smoking and resting.
“Boss, that’s not right. Before we started, we only agreed to move your furniture from your old place to the new one. We never said anything about cleaning up in front of your door, let alone moving all this stuff down. That’s a whole different matter.”
The middle-aged man leading them, with a dark, sun-baked face, blew a careless smoke ring toward Wang Yihong and held up two fingers. “Two hundred yuan.”
“What? I only paid eight hundred for this whole load.”
Wang Yihong muttered.
“Take it or leave it. Just so you know, my words are fair warning. Once I finish this cigarette, if your doorstep’s still full, me and my guys are outta here.”
From the way they’d seen her house, it was clear: All her things were clearly feminine, with no trace of a man’s daily life. This woman definitely didn’t have a husband.
On the way over in the truck, he had tried a few times to flirt with Wang Yihong and even make a move on her, only to be scared off by her sharp gaze. Now that a real opportunity had come, of course he wanted to take advantage a little.
“Cough… cough…”
Xiaobei covered his mouth and coughed. A gust of night wind had just blown the smoke over to him.
“Let us help you move.”
Just as Wang Yihong looked at a loss, Ning Jianguo stepped forward, pulling Xiaobei behind him.
“Yeah, excuse us for the trouble”
Zhao Jingwen rolled up his sleeves and, together with Ning Jianguo, started moving the dusty metal racks from the doorway bit by bit toward the stairwell.
“Boss, there’s a lot of dust here, step back a little,”
Seeing this, Fan Xia didn’t want to be left out. He ran forward, grabbed a worn basket in one hand and a broom with bare bristles in the other, and followed the two adults downstairs.
“Cough… Husband, come help with these flowerpots. Are you dead or what? I’ve been standing here feeding the mosquitoes while you do nothing!”
Aunt Tian blushed bright red as she saw even little Fan Xia pitching in and turned to yell at her husband.
Soon, the pile of trash at the door had been completely cleared. The workers had no choice but to start moving the furniture into the apartment.
The lead man had originally thought of causing trouble, maybe breaking some furniture for fun.
But who knew that these two meddlesome men had followed them inside, eyes fixed tightly on every move? With no way to misbehave, the man reluctantly placed the furniture carefully and left, still grumbling as he took his payment.
“How’s that all the money? You didn’t even try to rip off this single woman moving her place?”
The man got back into the truck, sat in the passenger seat, and pulled a bill from the 800 yuan stack to hand to the driver. The driver accepted it and looked at the thin pile of notes in the man’s hand.
By their usual practice, when moving a single woman’s house or an elderly person without kids, they’d make sure to double or triple the work once they got there. Anything less, and they felt like they were cheating themselves.
Don’t want to pay? Fine, brothers, just dump the stuff and let her move it herself!
“Flirty woman… just got off the truck and already teasing, got two young guys stuck staring at us. Bad luck!”
The foreman waved his hand hard. “Let’s go, let’s go. Today we’ve really lost out.”
Zhao Jingwen liked working out; his home was full of dumbbells and resistance bands. Back in the day, he had even trained with a master in the park throwing stone locks, and the muscles under his shirt were definitely solid.
As for Ning Jianguo, though he had earned the engineer qualification and was respectfully called “Engineer Ning,” in the workshop he still led apprentices in metalwork, dealing daily with hammers and tools. His upper body was especially strong.
With these two standing in the apartment, both tall and imposing, the moving men didn’t dare offend them and slunk away.
“Thank you, really, thank you so much.”
Once the workers were gone, Wang Yihong pressed her hands together and kept thanking Ning Jianguo and Zhao Jingwen. Zhao Jingwen waved his hand and said, “We’re neighbors, no need for thanks.”
“Auntie, I helped move stuff too. Why didn’t you thank me?”
Even at such a young age, the little pervert rascal Fan Xia had already mastered the fine art of flirting, pointing to his face, dirtied by the move and thus even darker than usual.
“Thank you, little one. Ah… my place is still a mess, I can’t even offer you a drink.”
Wang Yihong said, embarrassed.
“No worries, I live next door. We can just go home for water.”
Fan Xia said, pointing first to his uncle, then to Ning Jianguo.
“I live on the second floor, Xiaobei and his dad live on the third. Auntie, can I come over to play at your place sometime?”
“Fan Xia!”
Ning Xiaobei was nearly scared out of his wits by his friend’s brazen familiarity, grabbing his arm and dragging him outside.
“Time to go home and eat!”
What was this kid’s face made of, 304 stainless steel or something?
That night, before going to bed, Ning Xiaobei walked to Ning Jianguo’s room. He found his dad lying on the bed, flipping through the latest issue of World Military magazine. Xiaobei knocked on the door and asked quietly:
“Dad… do you think the new neighbor, Auntie Wang, is pretty?”
He asked tentatively.
“Pretty? Ah… this German cruiser looks amazing…”
Ning Jianguo was staring at the color illustration in the magazine, completely ignoring what his son had said.
Ning Xiaobei’s eyes rolled, and he nodded to himself in secret.
………………
Author’s Note:
She’s here! The beautiful neighbor has finally arrived~
Don’t worry, she’s not a lightbulb5third wheel; she’s more like a helpful light guiding the way. haha.
From the last chapter, we’ve entered middle school, then high school, and eventually college… Will it be too long? I’m thinking this story will unfold slowly, like a gentle stream. Childhood friends, small everyday moments, just little glimpses of life.
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