DBTHDCAR Chapter 32

Grandma Ning was in trouble.

A few nights ago, she had been sitting on the sofa with Xiao Mei, holding a heated water bag, watching TV while waiting for Azi to return.

All of Azi’s kittens had been sent to neighbors’ homes. Normally, an ordinary mother cat would eventually forget about her kittens. But Azi was different. Every night, she would go to each house to check on her kittens, licking the heads of the half-grown cats before returning home satisfied.

Grandma Ning always left a window open for Azi. Once the cat returned and ate the food Xiao Mei had prepared, only then would she sleep peacefully.

That night was particularly cold. Grandma Ning had dozed off on the sofa and woke to find the TV had turned off and white snow was drifting on the screen. Looking at the clock, it was already midnight, and Azi still hadn’t returned.

She grew worried, went downstairs, and saw Xiao Mei asleep at the back of the hall on the first floor. It was too cold to wake anyone, so she put on her coat and went out to look for Azi herself.

She had barely taken two steps when she stepped on a patch of ice at the doorway, slipped, and rolled all the way to the Song family’s gate three houses down.

Grandma Ning lay on the ground, taking a long moment to gather herself. When she tried to get up, she realized her right leg was piercingly painful and completely immobile.

Grandma Ning opened her mouth and let out a “Hrmph! Hrmph!” noises, finally alerting the granddaughter-in-law of Old Man Song inside the house. The granddaughter-in-law pushed the door open, startled, and quickly sent someone to the public phone booth to call Ning Jianguo.

Ning Jianguo hurried to the hospital, where the doctor showed him the X-rays. Grandma Ning had a comminuted fracture in her right leg and would need surgery.

A fracture in an elderly person is a serious matter. Even decades ago, and even today, many older people can die from complications after a broken bone.

Fortunately, the surgery went smoothly, and Grandma Ning, who had always been relatively healthy, recovered steadily. After two weeks in the hospital, she was finally cleared for discharge.

The question now was how to settle her back home.

Grandma Ning insisted on returning to the old family house in Jiande, but Ning Jianguo is worried. How could he feel at ease leaving her there alone? He still wanted her in Workers’ New Village where he could care for her.

After much debate, Ning Jianguo finally relented. He took a half-month leave from work and moved back to the old house to take care of Grandma. At night, he would sleep in the small attic where Ning Xiaobei stayed; if Grandma was in pain or needed water in the middle of the night, she only had to call.

Ning Jianguo insisted that Ning Xiaobei shouldn’t be left alone at home. He suggested that Xiaobei move downstairs to stay with Fan Xia, where Zhao Jingwen could help look after him.

Fan Xia was so happy he could have spun around on the spot.

A few days earlier, Chang Weiqiang had indeed taken advantage of the last few school days before the holiday to harass Chang Leyun.

The two boys, protecting Leyun, had a physical clash with Chang Weiqiang on the way home. Ning Xiaobei wasn’t as skilled as Fan Xia and got his bicycle knocked over, falling to the ground and scraping a large patch of skin on his arm.

Fortunately, Xiaobei had been drinking milk like crazy for years to catch up to Fan Xia’s height, and kids are naturally resilient. He didn’t get seriously hurt; otherwise, the Ning family would have had two fracture patients at once.

So no matter how much Ning Xiaobei insisted he could take care of himself and watch over Room 316 alone, Ning Jianguo firmly sent him downstairs to the Zhao family.

Yesterday, taking advantage of the sunny weather, Fan Xia and his uncle had carried out a fresh quilt, airing it in the hallway. They had replaced the sheets and pillowcases with new ones, all set for Ning Xiaobei’s grand arrival today.

“Boss, you sleep inside, I’ll sleep outside. If any bad guys come, I’ll protect you,” Fan Xia said, sitting on the bed and pointing at the new quilt by the wall, his eyes squinting with a grin.

“Protect me from what? Are you expecting someone to break into your house in the middle of the night to grab me?” Ning Xiaobei asked, placing his small backpack with his personal clothes on the chair back.

“Besides, Chang Leyun’s dad has already been taken away. Where would any bad guys come from?”

Indeed, because Chang Weiqiang had beaten up a middle school student that day, some concerned bystanders had called the police. The officers arrived and immediately took him away.

Now things were better. Dad Chang probably didn’t have to worry about being chased for debts over the New Year, since he’d be stuck in the detention center dealing with his own problems: assaulting people, harassing his ex-wife, and gambling habits. He wouldn’t be out in at least five or ten days.

It was the annual “Spring Festival Crackdown” period, and to ensure citizens’ safety during the holiday, all the city police were working hard to maintain order. Chang Weiqiang had basically delivered himself to the station, giving them easy stats.

“Anyway… anyway, my uncle said I should protect you,” Fan Xia said, scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment.

Last time, when Ning Xiaobei got slightly hurt, he himself hadn’t done a thing. After going home, Zhao Jingwen had grabbed him by the ear and scolded him for ages, calling him a useless brat. “You grew up so big, but in the end, you couldn’t even protect your best friend.”

Fan Xia took it to heart. Since the winter break began, he’d been training every day with his uncle.

Each morning he ran a lap along the roads of the Workers’ New Village, then did leg stretches, flexibility exercises, and dumbbell swings. His uncle said that when he got a bit older, he’d take him to a gym to see the world, where everyone, male or female, was like a model. Any one of them could have arms thicker than his thighs, with muscles harder than stone, which made Fan Xia long for it, apparently, masters of the world weren’t on mountains; they were in gyms.

“By the way, did Azi turn up later? Did it run off? I heard cats in heat tend to wander,” Fan Xia asked.

Whenever he went to the old Ning house in Jiande, he’d play with Azi for a while. He had sticky fingers and liked to pull Azi’s tail, only to be furiously scratched in return. This happened again and again, but he loved it; it had become their routine.

“Azi wouldn’t just run off. Something must’ve happened… but it’s lucky and smart; it’ll definitely come home,” Ning Xiaobei said with certainty.

He’d been visiting the Jiande house almost every day lately, partly to check on his bedridden grandmother, partly to look for Azi.

Ning Xiaobei wandered around Jiande with a pack of Zhoushan dried fish he bought from a grocery store, circling countless times. A bunch of neighborhood cats, both pets and strays, followed him once they smelled the food, but there was still no sign of Azi.

“Xiaobei, I think my uncle is right. On New Year’s Day, we should go together to the Jade Buddha Temple to burn incense, get rid of this year’s bad luck,” Fan Xia said, deliberately lowering his voice.

“My uncle said his business hasn’t been going well lately. This year both our families have had too much bad luck. Since it’s the end of the year and we’re hitting all these unlucky things, we need to go to the temple, light incense, and turn our fortune around.”

“You’re a middle schooler. How can you be so superstitious? Hurry up and get your 《Winter Vacation Life》 Workbook out so I can check it!”

Ning Xiaobei laughed and cried at the same time.

“Check my homework? But the winter break just started a few days ago, I haven’t even put ink to paper yet.”

Fan Xia’s eyes went wide.

“Homework over break? Isn’t that supposed to be finished in the first three days of vacation? You mean to start after the New Year?”

Ning Xiaobei stood up as he spoke and went straight for Fan Xia’s backpack.

“Come on, today you have to finish at least a third of it. Pick up your pen.”

“Ning Xiaobei, you should just go back upstairs! I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to face you 24 hours a day!”

“It’s too late to regret now. Anyway, I’m sleeping here tonight. If you don’t finish your homework, don’t even think about getting in bed.”

“Ah! Let me die!”

Fan Xia flopped onto the bed, burying his head in the blanket with a plop.

The two boys were wrestling and horsing around in the room when a loud bang came from outside.

Ning Xiaobei jumped, and Fan Xia leapt off the bed, rushing into the living room to see Zhao Jingwen standing by the table, all tension and fury. Seeing the kids, he let out a tired sigh and righted the chair lying on the floor.

“Uncle, why did you get off work so early today?”

Fan Xia tilted his head curiously.

“Uncle Zhao, did something happen?”

Despite knowing Zhao Jingwen for so long, Ning Xiaobei had never seen him look like this before, and he couldn’t help but worry.

“You’re thoughtful as always, Xiaobei…”

Zhao Jingwen gave Fan Xia a look that clearly said he was hopeless, then reached over to ruffle Ning Xiaobei’s hair.

“There was a little trouble at the factory. The manager asked me to tell your dad to come in tonight. There’s an employee meeting, so we’ll be home late.”

As he spoke, Zhao Jingwen pulled a hundred-yuan bill from his coat pocket and handed it to Ning Xiaobei.

“Take this to buy KFC. Don’t go to those little roadside eateries. They’re dirty, and you might get an upset stomach. Your dad won’t be home to cook tonight.”

Employee meeting?

Ning Xiaobei took the money, heart skipping a beat.

Could it be… about layoffs?

………………

“What do you mean buy out years of service? How do you buy out years of service? No way, absolutely not.”

Listening to her son’s explanation, Grandma Ning lay in bed, shaking her head again and again.

“But Mom, the factory leaders said that after issuing the last paycheck for this year, they might not be able to pay next year’s salary.”

The morning after the employee meeting, Ning Jianguo sat on the edge of the bed, talking to his mother about what had happened last night.

Ning Xiaobei hadn’t slept a wink all night. Early in the morning, he came to Jiande Lane, lying next to Grandma Ning, listening quietly to the adults talk.

“If they can’t pay you, then don’t go to work. Anyway, aren’t you drawing designs for that foreign shoe factory now? You’re making more than at the factory anyway, right?”

Even lying in bed, Grandma Ning knew exactly what was going on in the household, big or small.

Ning Jianguo glanced at Ning Xiaobei, then nudged him to go downstairs to check on the pot of pig’s trotters with soybeans cooking on the stove, meant to supplement Grandma’s calcium.

“What are you doing? Xiaobei can just stay here. Xiao Mei is watching the stove in the kitchen.”

Grandma Ning grabbed her grandson’s arm and patted the back of his hand. “Our Xiaobei isn’t an ordinary kid. He understands what you’re talking about. Maybe he can even give you some advice.”

“A middle schooler can’t know anything… okay, okay, he can stay. I’ll go downstairs and bring up two bowls of red date soup for you. That should work, right?”

Ning Jianguo stood up, both laughing and sighing, and went downstairs to get the food.

“Good Grandma, why did you betray me like that?”

Ning Xiaobei pressed his lips to her ear and whispered.

In recent years, job-hopping and going into business had become common. State-owned enterprise workers doing part-time was no longer a big deal.

But Ning Jianguo’s old-fashioned mindset worried that if anyone at the factory found out, it would look bad for him as a master leading someone in speculative trading. So besides Xiao Sun, no one knew.

Now Xiao Sun had already resigned and jumped to that foreign company. He had been hoping to lure Ning Jianguo over, so the master and apprentice could make money together. But Ning Jianguo refused, preferring just to work part-time.

Even so, the helping fee for working one or two days a month was already equal to a month’s salary at the factory.

Not to mention that Xiao Sun had since gained a lot of influence at the foreign company, becoming a small boss himself.

Ning Jianguo hadn’t dared tell his mother about this, only Zhao Jingwen and Ning Xiaobei knew, and Ning Xiaobei had let Grandma in on it.

Honestly, Ning Jianguo was glad he’d listened to Xiaobei and not taken the full-time job at the foreign company. Otherwise, if he had gone to a new company and his mother broke her leg, what would he have done?

Foreign company bosses weren’t like the HR ladies or workshop staff at his old factory. They weren’t easy to reason with. When his old factory heard his mother was sick, they approved leave immediately. And in the workshop, only the apprentices he had trained for over ten years could handle his work without complaint.

Could that have happened at the new company? Not a chance.

“What are you doing? Your dad’s soft-hearted and easy to sway. He needs us to keep an eye on him. If anything happens at the new place, you still have to tell Grandma.”

Grandma Ning, who was usually cold toward her grandson in the real world, was now firmly on Xiaobei’s side.

“Anyway, no matter what, I’d rather you stay on unpaid leave. At least your position is still within the garment and textile system. That buyout of tenurity thing? No matter how much they offer, don’t do it. If you buy out, then you’re just another person out in society — a drifter without a stable place, no security, no benefits. Absolutely not!”

Sipping sweet red date and longan soup, Grandma Ning made the final decision, settling the matter once and for all.

Ning Xiaobei held his bowl, watching Ning Jianguo, exhausted and sighing, and few words came to his mind: year-end troubles.

………………

Author’s Note:

Fan Xia: Uncle, Uncle, can I sleep with Xiaobei tomorrow?

Zhao Jingwen: Hmm…

Fan Xia: Uncle, Uncle, will Xiaobei like my little blanket and pillow?

Zhao Jingwen: Probably…

The next day:

Fan Xia: Uncle, Uncle, Xiaobei smells so good!

Zhao Jingwen: Selling kids. Buying unwanted old kids, bratty kids, black-hearted kids. Three cents per jin, buy one jin, get half a jin free.

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