Ning Xiaobei opened his eyes, feeling his left temple throbbing, as if a muscle was cramping.
“Drank too much…”
Even though the past couple of years had improved his tolerance thanks to entertaining clients, last night at seafood market, seeing Ma Jiaqi again after so long, he really had drunk too fast. Now he felt awful all over.
Just now in the dream world, it was the same. He had been sitting at the table, eating while watching the Spring Festival Gala on CCTV1China Central Television, and got lost in thought listening to Na Ying and Faye Wong perform 《Meeting in 1998.》
He hadn’t expected that rascal Fan Xia would take advantage of his distraction to secretly pour some of his dad’s fruit wine into his Coke. He hadn’t noticed, lifted the glass, and downed it, then collapsed onto the table.
“Fan Xia, just you wait… I’m going to deal with you when I get back.”
Ning Xiaobei glanced at the digital clock on the bedside table. It was already nine o’clock the next morning.
After washing up and changing clothes, Ning Xiaobei sat in the living room, dazed. This time, the trip to the dream world had lasted a long time, jumping straight from 1997 into 1998.
“From 1996 to 1998… two whole years. Just like snapping your fingers.”
After sighing, Ning Xiaobei felt a hollow pang of hunger and got up to look for something to eat in the kitchen.
He hadn’t really eaten anything before passing out drunk last night, and by now his stomach had been playing over a 10-hour game of “Empty City Strategy2 Empty City Strategy (空城计, kōngchéng jì) – Historical idiom from the Three Kingdoms era describing a clever ruse of feigning emptiness to ward off enemies”. No wonder it was aching.
Just then, the doorbell rang. Ning Xiaobei couldn’t think of anyone who would come by so early, so he stood there for a moment before going to answer it.
“You’re finally awake. If you slept any longer, I’d start wondering whether you were drunk or just knocked out.”
Speak of the devil, there was Fan Xia at the door, dressed in a police uniform, holding two bulging grocery bags—one in each hand.
“Ta-da!”
He waved the bags in front of Ning Xiaobei. “Your Black Cat Delivery has arrived.”
Ning Xiaobei couldn’t help but laugh.
“You delivered this to me yesterday?”
“Where else would it come from?”
Ning Xiaobei opened the container of plain rice porridge and watched as Fan Xia unboxed each takeout container in turn.
“Sticky rice, fried dough sticks, rice pancakes, flatbread, soup dumplings, potstickers, pan-fried buns… can the two of us even finish all this?”
He looked at the breakfast spread that covered the entire table, not knowing where to start.
“Don’t worry. If you can’t finish it, just leave it all to me. I’m your food crusher.”
Fan Xia placed a peeled boiled egg into Ning Xiaobei’s porridge bowl.
“Eat the egg.”
Looking at the steaming breakfast, Ning Xiaobei glanced at Ning Jianguo’s portrait on the bookshelf. After the first seven days following his passing, the spiritual tablet had been removed, and Ning Xiaobei had placed this photo in the most prominent spot on the shelf.
“Ever since Dad passed away, I haven’t had a proper meal in so long, let alone breakfast.”
He took a sip of porridge, feeling the long-missed warmth on this late-autumn morning.
“That won’t do. Uncle Ning always said you have to eat properly, not just muddle through’ your meals.”
Fan Xia added a piece of pickled cucumber to the porridge. “Eat more, or Uncle Ning will still be worried about you in heaven.”
“Fan Xia… how come I never realized you were so gentle and thoughtful?”
Ning Xiaobei couldn’t help asking. “You were such a troublemaker as a kid, you could poke a hole through the sky! Do you still remember that time when you pulled the valve core off the teacher’s bike?”
“How ancient history! Why are you digging that up now?”
Fan Xia lowered his head, embarrassed, and urged, “Hurry up and eat. After breakfast, I still have to go to the bureau. To get you breakfast, I went to the office first to sign in, then came back and ran all the way through the two nearby markets.”
“That really is a lot of work…”
Ning Xiaobei was about to thank him, when he suddenly noticed something odd.
“Fan Xia, did you get promoted?”
He pointed at the epaulettes on Fan Xia’s shoulders. “Just a few days and you’ve moved up a rank? Why didn’t you say anything when we were drinking yesterday? That’s great news!”
“Boss, are you still drunk? A promotion in just a few days? Dream on.”
Fan Xia rubbed his shoulder epaulettes, half laughing, half exasperated. “I’ve been wearing these shoulder marks for two or three years. You should find me a big case to solve so I can actually get promoted for real.”
“No, I mean… the last time I saw you, you were clearly a Second-Level Inspector… wait…”
Ning Xiaobei put down his chopsticks, braced one hand on the table, and leaned forward until their faces were almost touching. He could see each of Fan Xia’s eyelashes clearly.
“What’s your educational background?”
“Huh?”
Fan Xia looked completely blank.
“I mean, which school did you graduate from?”
This was important!
“Boss, I know I was never as good at studying as you. You even got into Z University in finance, after all.”
Looking at Ning Xiaobei’s handsome, close-up face, taking in his brown eyes and unusually long, curled eyelashes for a man, Fan Xia unconsciously swallow hard.
“But I’m not that bad either. I graduated from H University of Political Science and Law, majoring in criminal investigation. At least I got my bachelor’s degree.”
He widened his eyes as Ning Xiaobei leaned even closer, so close that he could feel the heat of Ning Xiaobei’s breath rising from the tip of his straight, slightly upturned nose.
“B-boss… let’s talk this through, my back…”
Ning Xiaobei kept leaning forward, and Fan Xia could only step back. If Ning Xiaobei pressed any further, his back really wouldn’t hold.
Before Fan Xia could finish, Ning Xiaobei sat back, his face serious.
“Phew…”
Fan Xia touched his pounding heart and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Luckily, the sun and rain over the years from work had darkened his skin a bit more than when he was a kid. Otherwise, Ning Xiaobei would have noticed just how red his dark-skinned face had gotten at such close range.
“H University of Political Science and Law, bachelor’s… wait, that’s not right.”
Ning Xiaobei’s hand holding the chopsticks trembled slightly.
He clearly remembered that last time Fan Xia said he had graduated from three schools, then worked as a temporary auxiliary police officer. Because he performed well and earned merits, he was officially promoted.
Of course, it must be because in the dream world, Fan Xia got into No. 1 High School, and everything in his life after that changed completely.
He had avoided a huge detour; the trajectory of his life was entirely different.
“Boss, are you okay?”
Fan Xia saw him silent for a long moment, trembling slightly, and placed a hand on his shoulder worriedly.
“I’m fine… I’m just dizzy from hunger. I’ll be fine after breakfast.”
Ning Xiaobei lowered his head to sip the porridge, trying to hide how stirred he really was.
“Boss, you really okay? Should I call in for half a day off and take you to the hospital? After you passed out yesterday, I felt something was off… maybe we should do a full check.”
“Fan Xia.”
“What?”
“Eat your breakfast, then go to work properly. I don’t need you right now, but the country does.”
Ning Xiaobei shoveled down a couple more bites, then turned and headed to his bedroom to get dressed.
“Once I finish, I’m off. I’ll leave soon too.”
“Boss, you eat and go? That’s not proper manners at all.”
Fan Xia grumbled, but he immediately switched to rapid table cleanup mode. The food on the table disappeared one by one at a speed clearly visible to the naked eye.
“Where are you going, boss? Want me to take you?”
Finally finishing breakfast before Ning Xiaobei headed out, Fan Xia rubbed his mouth and asked.
“Sure.”
Ning Xiaobei nodded without ceremony. “I want to visit my old school. You can take me.”
He had a feeling that the early arrival of Wang Yihong’s family was connected to something that happened in the real world. Just like he had seen Fan Xia at the original site in Jiande Lane.
He needed to go back to No. 1 High School and see for himself. Maybe he could find some clues there.
………………
Standing at the gates of No. 1 High School, looking at the tall buildings inside the walls, Ning Xiaobei once again felt how much time had passed, he almost didn’t recognize his old school.
Since graduating, Ning Xiaobei had only returned once during his first year of university, alone, to see the teachers in charge of the senior-year Chinese, Math, English, and Physics classes. After that, he never came back.
Back then, the teaching buildings still had white exterior walls. Now, they were a deep brown.
Looking through the railings, he noticed the old teacher bicycle shed had been converted into an electric scooter shed with charging stations. Not many vehicles were parked there, but the old small playground had been turned into a parking lot, densely packed with forty or fifty cars of various brands, their bodies reflecting the sunlight.
This was probably related to the government requirement a few years ago for schools to clear out all tertiary businesses and rented properties. The row of snack shops and print shops by the school gate had been demolished and replaced with several outdoor basketball courts. Even the street-front building that had been rented out as a tutoring center had been reclaimed by the school.
From outside, he could vaguely see gym equipment behind the first-floor glass windows, likely for students in the sports program.
“Hey, sir, you’ve been circling here for a while. What exactly are you doing? Listen, this is a school restricted area. If you have nothing to do here, it’s best to leave quickly.”
Just as Ning Xiaobei was about to keep observing, a security officer with his hands on his hips approached from behind, flanked by two burly men, shouting at him.
Ning Xiaobei turned around and saw the three men tense and serious. Two of them were even holding anti-riot forks. He realized they must have misunderstood the situation.
These past two years, school violence incidents had been frequent, and every school had strengthened its security to protect students. No wonder, his earlier movements looked a bit sneaky, the guards probably thought he was some troublemaker.
“No, I’m just here to take a look. I graduated from this school, and it’s been a long time since I last visited.”
Ning Xiaobei quickly raised both hands to show he meant no harm.
“Visiting your old school? You’re not a parent, are you?”
The security guard captain sized him up from head to toe. Ning Xiaobei looked neat and clean, his features refined, not the type of person who would cause trouble. The guard relaxed slightly.
“No, no, I don’t have any kids yet.”
Ning Xiaobei hurriedly chatted in Shanghainese: “Uncle, how come you’re a security guard now? What happened to the old gatekeeper?”
“Oh, what you’re talking about is from way back. The old man retired seven or eight years ago and went home to take care of his grandson.”
Hearing this, the security captain finally confirmed Ning Xiaobei wasn’t some shady character. He smiled and nodded.
“You must have graduated at least fifteen, sixteen years ago, right?”
“I graduated from the high school department in 2003, almost twenty years ago now,” Ning Xiaobei said with a sigh.
“Uncle, I’d like to go inside and take a look at the school. Is that okay?”
“Little brother, it’s not that I’m being unreasonable. You know, with the current strict security measures and pandemic precautions, outsiders can’t just enter. If you want to go in, a teacher inside will have to escort you. Tell me, are you still in touch with any of the teachers?”
Ning Xiaobei followed the security team into the guardroom on the west side of the school gate. The captain was polite and even made him a cup of tea.
“You were in the class of 2003, the ‘Golden Class 1.’ Impressive, impressive. You must be doing well now.”
In the real world, Ning Xiaobei wasn’t really a social person. He didn’t keep in touch much with his classmates or teachers from middle and high school. He’d only ever attended one class reunion, and that was because he happened to be passing by the restaurant, and some old classmates who had stepped out for a smoke spotted him and practically dragged him inside.
He remembered that shortly after graduating from university, he had briefly dabbled in Renren and Kaixin3Early 2000s Chinese social networking sites, adding a few middle school classmates as friends. But as both networks declined, he eventually lost contact with everyone.
“Oh dear, sir, the teachers you mentioned… they’re either retired by now or have been transferred to other schools. None of them are still at No. 1 High School.”
The security captain was eager to help. He took out a contact list and started checking each of the names Ning Xiaobei gave. Unfortunately, all the teachers Ning Xiaobei could remember had already left.
“Then… what about Teacher Wang Xiuyun, the one in charge of the library? Is she still here?”
Ning Xiaobei racked his memory, finally recalling her name from the depths of his mind. When he graduated, she was only in her thirties, so she probably hadn’t retired yet.
And teachers in the library usually didn’t switch schools on a whim.
Back in those days, every Tuesday afternoon, No. 1 High School held interest classes, letting students choose subjects they liked. Ning Xiaobei didn’t have any particular hobby; he just loved reading.
So every Tuesday afternoon, he would bury himself in the library and stay there until the end of school.
In the noisy campus, only the library remained quiet. Ning Xiaobei loved being there, diving into the vast ocean of books that stretched endlessly around him.
Most of the time, the reading room had only him and Teacher Wang, each holding a book, sitting far apart across the long corridor and the long table.
Sometimes, when Teacher Wang saw him getting tired of reading alone, she would invite him to her office for some small snacks, and he would help her move books. In the second year of middle school, he even became a library assistant, sneaking in whenever he had time to help out.
So, Teacher Wang should still remember him, the quiet and unassuming student.
“Teacher Wang is still here!”
The security guard uncle finally stopped shaking his head, and Ning Xiaobei’s eyes lit up.
“But she has to attend a district meeting this afternoon, so she’s already gone… Hmm, why don’t you come back tomorrow? Just come to the guard room, and I’ll take you in.”
The kind-hearted uncle patted his chest reassuringly.
“Then… thank you very much.”
Ning Xiaobei smiled gratefully.
Just then, a silver SUV pulled up at the school gate and lightly honked twice.
The security uncle got up from his seat and leaned out the window.
“Oh, it’s Teacher Chang! Coming so late, does she only have classes this afternoon?”
The long-haired woman in the driver’s seat took off her sunglasses and nodded at the uncle, not noticing Ning Xiaobei sitting in the corner.
The uncle pressed the remote to lift the barrier, and the car slowly slid into the school entrance.
“Teacher Chang, wait a moment. You have a package here; I’ll bring it to you.”
“Then I’ll go ahead. Thanks so much for your help today, Uncle.”
Ning Xiaobei didn’t want to disturb the security uncle any longer, so he walked out of the guard room.
Just as the woman rolled down her window and took the package from the uncle, Ning Xiaobei passed by her car and instinctively turned to glance at her.
“You…”
Ning Xiaobei froze, looking at the familiar yet strangely distant face.
“Thanks, Uncle, for the trouble.”
The woman placed the package on the passenger seat, and when she looked up, her eyes met Ning Xiaobei’s across the air.
“You… you are…”
The woman covered her red lips in disbelief, her eyes wide.
“Chang Leyun…”
“Ning Xiaobei! Old classmate!”
Chang Leyun froze for a moment, then couldn’t help clapping her hands together, a bright smile spreading across her face.
“Our music and art classes… have always been the least respected. Look at this, our office is just a tiny little space like a block of tofu. Sit anywhere you like; I’ll pour you some tea.”
Thanks to Chang Leyun, Ning Xiaobei, who had lingered outside the campus for a long while, finally stepped back into the school he hadn’t seen in years. He followed her through the corridors, took the elevator, and arrived at a small office at the far north end of the teacher building.
It was one of the few offices shared by the music and art teachers, only about ten square meters in total.
Over all these years, with more than a thousand students in the middle and high school divisions, the school only had two music teachers and two art teachers.
If the middle school music teacher got sick, the high school one had to cover. If both got sick at the same time… well, lucky for the students, it would probably just be a math class.
Ning Xiaobei took the hot tea Chang Leyun handed him, feeling a little awkward as he looked around.
The walls were hung with finished and unfinished artwork: sketches, Chinese paintings. On the desk, various music scores and study materials were piled together. In the corner sat a bunch of plaster statues, with a triangle bell and a brass beater lying beside them. He wasn’t sure if they were intentionally set up as still-life models or just tossed there randomly.
In short, small, cluttered, and messy; like a storage room. It clashed sharply with Chang Leyun’s stylish, modern appearance.
“I don’t usually come here. I’m generally in the music room. The art teacher stays in the art room, it’s much bigger than this,” Chang Leyun said, slightly embarrassed.
“You’re a music teacher here? That actually suits you perfectly,” Ning Xiaobei said, glancing at her with genuine admiration. “You’ve played the violin so well since you were little. When I lived upstairs from your place, I could hear the music from your apartment every weekend. My dad used to say: look at Aunt Wang’s daughter, she’s full of artistic talent. Listen enough times, and even you feel like you’re becoming elegant.”
Quite different from some low-quality neighbors who only blasted deafening disco music.
“Ah, I’m just making a living. I really should have gone to an orchestra long ago,” Chang Leyun said, bashfully tucking her hair behind her ear.
“Ning Xiaobei, how did you think of coming to No. 1 High School? I’ve been working here three or five years, and I’ve never seen any of our old classmates.”
Indeed, girls really do change as they grow up. The little princess he remembered had become a mature woman before his eyes. Ning Xiaobei thought that if he hadn’t run into her at the school gate but somewhere on the street instead, they might have just passed each other by without recognizing one another.
From Chang Leyun’s words, Ning Xiaobei learned that she and her mother had moved once more after she graduated from high school. During that move, she had lost her yearbook, and gradually, she had lost contact with her former classmates.
“You’re looking more and more like your mother. By the way, how is Aunt Wang?”
Ning Xiaobei asked cautiously.
“She? She’s great.”
Chang Leyun pointed to herself. “Can you believe it? My family actually became a two-child family. My mom, over forty, had a baby late in life. She gave me a little brother. He’s sixteen now, a full-grown boy. Isn’t that amazing?”
“What?”
Ning Xiaobei’s breath caught.
“Your mom remarried?”
“Yes, it happened when I was a freshman in college. My mom kept it so well secret. Before, she didn’t want it to affect my college entrance exam, so she covered it up tightly. When I first found out, my expression was exactly like yours right now.”
Chang Leyun shrugged half-jokingly.
“So Aunt Wang really did remarry… but who’s the groom?”
Ning Xiaobei asked, his nerves on edge.
“It’s Uncle Zhao, the one who used to live in our building. You know him too.”
Chang Leyun said.
“What?”
Not only did Ning Xiaobei feel like his heart was about to jump out of his throat, but his eyes also seemed ready to pop from their sockets.
So all the wild maneuvers he pulled in the dream world to matchmake his dad and Aunt Wang… in the end, it had just benefited Uncle Zhao?
And Uncle Zhao even ended up with a son?
Ning Xiaobei wanted to ask more, but the sound of the class bell interrupted them. Chang Leyun quickly stood up, saying she’d been chatting so much with him that she’d completely forgotten she had the first class of the afternoon.
With no other choice, he left the school.
Standing outside the school gate, Ning Xiaobei turned and looked at the playground, full of lively young students, and the words Chang Leyun had just said kept echoing in his mind, “You know Uncle Zhao too,” “Like an old clam giving birth to a pearl… a little brother”…
Even though the autumn wind was biting cold, Ning Xiaobei suddenly felt a cold sweat run down his back.
No! While everything in the dream hadn’t happened yet, he had to go back and fix it immediately!
………………
Author’s Note:
Ning Xiaobei: Why is this happening?!!!
Haha, the answer will be revealed in the next chapter~~
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