Late autumn into early winter, the Affiliated High School, lined with French plane trees and ginkgoes, had turned into a golden world. The red synthetic track on the playground was covered with fallen ginkgo leaves, each shaped like a tiny, adorable fan, carpeting the ground.
Bathed in the morning sunlight, a group of boys and girls ran laps around the track. Sweat slid down their youthful faces, dripping onto the leaves and reflecting the glow of the rising sun.
At the very front of the pack, naturally, was Fan Xia.
He wore the newly issued autumn-winter sports uniform, which made his limbs look especially long and lean, standing in stark contrast to the classmates behind him who wore the same uniform like sackcloth.
As he ran, he shouted toward the sky: “Gu Kaige, I hate you!”
Before his words had even fallen, the students following him started shouting in unison.
For a moment, the entire playground was filled with unrelenting hatred.
The culprit, Gu Kaige, the homeroom teacher of Class 4, was standing in the grade leader’s office at that very moment, pointing at this energetic group on the playground as he proudly reported their achievements.
“Waiting until senior year to start building their bodies would be too late. Their PE classes often get taken away, too. I think if, before morning reading and after evening study, we let them run 10 or 20 laps on the track every day, that would be fine.”
Teacher Gu bent slightly as he continued, “After two months of this, the kids’ fitness has improved a lot. Before, almost every few days someone would ask for sick leave because of a cold. They all live in the dorms, so once one gets sick, it spreads to the whole room. Now that’s completely gone. Even Ning Xiaobei, who fainted on the first day of school, has now completely cured his asthma.”
“Is that the one who ranked first in the entrance exam?”
“Yes!”
“Then let’s start by promoting this to the first-year students, and eventually to the whole school!”
The grade leader waved his hand, and from that day, the number of people who hated Gu Kaige instantly multiplied by the thousands.
Fortunately, this was before the era of Hengshui-style teaching, or else even Ning Xiaobei would have suspected that Teacher Gu had come from a parallel world and had secretly stolen teaching methods from Hengshui High School1 Hengshui High School of Hebei is renowned for its intense, regimented exam factory approach that consistently produces top scores in the Gaokao or National College Entrance Examination.
“Good thing we got used to running under Shan Yubing back then. Who doesn’t run 5,000 meters in morning exercise? Are you crazy?”
Finally done with all the laps, Fan Xia unzipped his uniform completely and leaned on his knees, panting heavily.
“You weren’t saying this when you were watching us from the sidelines without taking off the splint,” Ning Xiaobei said, placing a hand on his shoulder and humming. “You even said5,000 meters was too little, you insisted on ten thousand meters at least, or it wouldn’t count as proper training.”
“I was wrong, I was wrong. I didn’t feel the weight when watching people carry it,” Fan Xia quickly begged for mercy, but still couldn’t avoid getting a playful kick from Ning Xiaobei.
Since morning reading hadn’t started yet, the two decided to stroll around the track. Fan Xia even picked up a few ginkgo leaves, saying he wanted to use them as bookmarks.
Most of the time, Fan Xia was carefree, but sometimes he could get sentimental.
“Hey, look over there…”
He grabbed Ning Xiaobei’s arm and winked at him.
Passing by the school store, they happened to see two boys from their class trailing after Tan Ruirui, carrying water and towels for her.
The towels were pink with Hello Kitty embroidery; it was clearly prepared just for her, showing their total simp behavior.
Yet Tan Ruirui, like a proud little princess, held her chin high and ignored them completely. When she saw Ning Xiaobei and Fan Xia, she let out a soft hmph, threw a casual glance, and strutted away with her nose in the air.
“Wow… so all that pitiful act before was fake? Her personality is actually that awful?”
Fan Xia clicked his tongue in disbelief.
By comparison, Chang Leyun was at least ten thousand times cuter.
“Ning Xiaobei, are you Ning Xiaobei from Class 4, Year 1?”
Just as they were returning to the dorm to grab their backpacks, the old man working as the dorm caretaker called out to Ning Xiaobei from downstairs.
“This was sent by your parent. I’m supposed to give it to you.”
The old man was listening to Dan Tianfang’s storytelling on a small radio, pointing at a red-and-blue woven bag by the guardhouse door.
“Parent? My dad came by?”
Ning Xiaobei asked in surprise.
“No… it’s a woman… well, see for yourself. Anyway, I delivered it.”
The old man’s tone was a bit sharp; he was apparently related to some school official. Otherwise, with his habit of dozing off while watching TV every night, and letting students like Jiang Nan come and go freely, he’d have been fired long ago.
“A woman? Your grandma?”
Ning Xiaobei rolled his eyes in disbelief.
Come on, Grandma Ning can’t even breathe outside the Inner Ring, how could she possibly make it to this remote place?
The two of them lugged the heavy woven bag upstairs. When they opened it, they found it surprisingly full.
“Dried sweet potatoes, malt sugar, and a bottle of honey?”
Fan Xia pulled each plastic bag out, growing more and more unimpressed.
“What the heck… is this a rural produce fair? So old-fashioned.”
He laughed, “Who would actually give this as a gift?”
Ning Xiaobei was puzzled too. Who would send him stuff like this, to the school no less, and a woman at that?
He looked down at the plain, humble bags of goods, and for some reason, a wave of unease rose in his chest.
………………
“Was it sent by Grandma’s relatives from Suzhou? And why send it to my school… oh, just happened to be on the way, huh?”
After lunch, Ning Xiaobei went to the guardhouse to queue up and make a call home.
Hearing Ning Jianguo’s explanation over the phone, he finally felt a little relieved.
“I got it. Then please give my regards to the Suzhou relatives. Bye, Dad, I’m going to class now.”
Ning Xiaobei hung up and returned to the dorm.
Opening the dorm door, he saw Fan Xia leading the people from the next room in a game of 80 Points2Players split into two teams and pick a trump suit for the round. Each player must follow suit if they can; otherwise, they can play a trump or any card. The highest card of the lead suit or the highest trump if any are played wins the trick. Cards 5, 10, and King carry points, and teams collect points from tricks they win. The first team to reach 80 points wins the round, and the winning team’s trump rank may increase for the next round, letting them “level up.”. Some are playing cards, while some are watching, forming two circles around the table.
Ding Zheyang sat alone on the bed, stuffing earphones in and listening to English. Seeing Ning Xiaobei return, he showed a resigned expression.
“Xiaobei, how’s it going?”
Fan Xia turned, pointing at the dried sweet potatoes on the table used as chips. His luck today wasn’t great; he had already lost more than twenty sticks.
“You guys can help yourselves. These were sent by my Suzhou relatives. Alright, enough playing, class will start soon.”
“Hurry, pay our respects, thanks to Big Brother Xiaobei for the gift!”
Fan Xia teased loudly.
The boys burst into laughter, each grabbing a handful of sweet potatoes and candy before running off.
Ever since Jiang Nan was expelled, the grudges with the neighboring dorm had naturally dissolved. Now they often hung out and played together.
Ning Xiaobei walked over to Ding Zheyang and asked if he wanted some honey water. Ding Zheyang nodded.
“I want some too! Me too!”
Fan Xia shouted while putting on his shoes and grabbing his backpack.
“Daxing’anling honey…”
Ning Xiaobei struggled a long time to unscrew the tin lid on the jar of honey. Looking at the green label stuck to the glass, he felt a bit puzzled.
“Suzhou relatives… sending me honey from the Northeast?”
But these days, people often attach prestige to gifts; perhaps honey from the Northeast is just more famous, easier to sell than honey from other places.
Ning Xiaobei didn’t think much of it and went to class after finishing the honey water.
Elsewhere, in a private room at a small restaurant not far from Jiande Lane, Ning Jianguo pushed three bundled stacks of cash across the table toward the woman sitting opposite.
“You came in such a hurry, and I wasn’t prepared. This is all I could gather today… if there’s more, you’ll have to wait a bit,” Ning Jianguo said, clearly uneasy.
“Jianguo, that’s not what I mean. I… I just came to see the child, really.”
The woman sitting opposite looked haggard, her ponytail partly undone. She wore a gray spring-autumn coat with a wide collar, an old-fashioned style from the 1980s, and her complexion was waxy yellow. Ning Jianguo noticed even her fingernails had a yellow tint, suggesting poor health or possibly liver issues.
As someone working in the cafeteria, Ning Jianguo was instinctively wary, leaning slightly back.
To the already flustered woman, this came across as cold, even a little haughty.
“Xiaobei’s grown so much… I, as his mother, never even dreamed… he looks like a true Shanghai child. Really… so good…”
She spoke anxiously, licking her dry, cracked lips.
It wasn’t just her lips; her cheeks were dry and cracked too, streaked with red that could have been from sun or heat, like clownish rouge.
Though she was around Wang Yihong’s age, at first glance she seemed older. Years of hard labor in the fields had broken down the beauty she had once possessed as a young girl, the village beauty nicknamed “Little Apple”, leaving her now a fully middle-aged farm woman.
“Xiaobei has grown up in Shanghai; his household registration is in Shanghai too. He’s truly a Shanghai child.”
Ning Jianguo lowered his head, frowning slightly.
“I… I thought I told you on the phone not to come looking for him. And you agreed. So why did you go to the school this morning to deliver something? What if you’d run into Xiaobei? I wouldn’t have been able to explain anything to him.”
When Ning Jianguo first got Xiaobei’s call from school, he nearly panicked, thinking the two had already met. Hearing that the woman had only dropped off a gift and not actually seen Xiaobei, he claimed it was from relatives back in Suzhou.
“I… I couldn’t help it. After all, I’m his mother.”
The woman lowered her head, big tears dropping onto the cheap pink tablecloth of the small restaurant.
“I’m sorry…”
If she hadn’t been driven to desperation, she would never have come to Shanghai to plead with Ning Jianguo.
Back then, everyone had agreed: from that day on, they would pretend not to know each other and cut all ties. When Jianguo took Xiaobei away, he had already done her a huge favor. Now, for the sake of that burdensome family, she had to come here and beg him again — it was… utterly humiliating.
Her sorrowful posture, the slightly long eyebrows and sharp chin, looked so much like Xiaobei that Ning Jianguo instinctively turned his head away.
Yes, she was Xiaobei’s mother. Mother and son is a natural bond no one could deny.
“Have you bought the train ticket? When do you plan to leave?”
Zhao Jingwen, who had been sitting silently nearby, finally spoke.
“I bought a hard-seat ticket for noon tomorrow. I’ll wait at the station in the morning.”
The woman didn’t know his exact relationship with Ning Jianguo; she assumed he was just a relative helping him with advice.
“Traveling all the way from Shanghai to Heilongjiang? No, that won’t do. I’ll buy you a soft sleeper instead. Soft sleepers have doors, and as a lone woman traveling, safety is the most important thing.”
“No, that’s unnecessary. With so much… money with me, I won’t be able to sleep anyway.”
Her voice caught slightly on the word money.
Just moments ago, she had insisted she wasn’t here for money, yet she had already tucked the 30,000 yuan into her black bag.
Even she found herself laughably hypocritical, ridiculous in her pretense.
“That’s not acceptable either. You need to travel comfortably. It’s a full two days and two nights.”
Zhao Jingwen opened the compartment door and went to buy the ticket.
Not long after he left, a waiter brought in the dishes.
The small restaurant’s waiter looked at the man and woman with a puzzled expression, seemingly baffled as to why these two were sitting together for a meal.
Her expression was painfully obvious, making the woman even more embarrassed, unsure where to put her hands. She clutched the black bag tightly, hunched over, a few strands of gray hair falling onto her shoulder, making her look even more pitiable and sorrowful.
“Eat. Didn’t you say you still need to buy medicine for your father-in-law? Hurry up and eat, we might have to run to several pharmacies today. Albumin injections are in short supply in Shanghai too; one store won’t have enough.”
The woman nodded frantically, shoveling rice into her mouth along with the dishes.
Her father-in-law was now in the late stages of liver cancer, relying entirely on imported albumin injections to keep him alive. In her small northern town, hundreds of kilometers from Harbin, these injections were extremely hard to get and expensive. This was why she had come to Shanghai, seeking Ning Jianguo’s help.
Nearby, Zhao Jingwen went to a train-ticket agency, helped the woman cancel her original ticket, and bought her a soft sleeper instead.
After finishing, he leaned one hand on the iron railing by the street, squinting at the construction site across the road.
Yellowish bulldozers and excavators worked busily.
Xiangde Lane, Baode Lane… row after row of Shikumen houses, once home to countless families and stories, were stripped of their walls and beams by the rumbling machines, eventually collapsing with thunderous crashes.
Once the last stubborn homeowner had moved out, it was only a matter of time before the bulldozers reached Jiande Lane.
If the woman had come a few days later, or if the Old Master Song had held out a little less stubbornly, she might never have found Jianguo and Xiaobei in her lifetime.
But fate works in strange ways, those who are meant to come will come.
Zhao Jingwen pulled out his phone, calculated the time, it should be just after class, and called Fan Xia.
After the last incident, whether he liked it or not, Fan Xia had been forced to carry his phone.
“Uncle… class is about to start in a few minutes. Why are you calling me? We can talk about anything tomorrow at home.”
The line was noisy; the restless chatter of teenagers came through clearly across the signal.
“I’m calling to tell you this. Tomorrow, your Uncle Ning and I have a friend going on a last-minute business trip. We’re taking them to the train station, so we won’t be home until the afternoon.”
“Eh, really? That’s great! Then I’ll have lunch with Xiaobei and the others! The four of us are going to 【Little Fat Sheep Hotpot.】”
Fan Xia immediately perked up. At this age, kids hated being told what to do, and even a few extra hours of freedom without parents was a celebration.
“Boss, I’m telling you…”
Zhao Jingwen wanted to give a few more instructions, but Fan Xia couldn’t wait; he hung up and ran to Xiaobei to share the good news.
“You little rascal… so carefree.”
Zhao Jingwen listened to Fan Xia’s excited voice fading on the line, shaking his head helplessly.
He had always assumed Xiaobei, like Fan Xia, had only grown up in a divorced family. He had no idea how complicated Xiaobei’s origins really were.
He hoped that one day Xiaobei could have a good marriage, one that might help heal the wound that would forever remain.
Now he knew everything about Ning Jianguo and his family, including how he had adopted Ning Xiaobei all those years ago.
………………
Author’s Note:
Mom has arrived.
This is the first visit; there will probably be a second.
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