DBTHDCAR Chapter 87

“Xiao Bei, I think this entry’s a little off.”

Xiao Mei glanced at the ledger spread across the table, hesitated, then couldn’t help pointing it out.

Today was the monthly inventory and bookkeeping day at Grandma’s convenience store. Grandma’s eyesight wasn’t great, staring at numbers too long would make her eyes water, so this task always fell to Xiao Mei and Ning Xiaobei.

Ning Xiaobei was good at math, and their stock was small; normally, an hour for inventory and an hour for the bookkeeping would be enough. But already, they’d spent the entire morning, and the numbers still weren’t adding up. Xiao Mei was starting to get anxious. She had to open the beauty salon in the afternoon.

“What’s off?”

Ning Xiaobei held his pen, bent over the ledger, and stared at it for a long while before blinking in sudden realization.

“Ah, I entered this expense twice, no wonder it’s unbalanced.”

He gave an embarrassed laugh, grabbed some correction fluid, and started erasing the duplicate number. Somehow, while erasing, he ended up wiping out the correct number on the line above as well.

“Oh no, Xiaobei, let me do it, let me do it.”

Xiao Mei couldn’t bear it anymore and snatched the ledger away.

“You’re not feeling well, go take care of the front. Grandma still needs a while to finish her mahjong game. You can watch the shop at the entrance.”

Ning Xiaobei scratched his head awkwardly and opened the small door to the shop.

Leaning on the counter, his phone buzzed with a new message.

No guessing needed, it had to be Fan Xia.

— ⟦ Last night my uncle almost beat me to death, and my leg’s still swollen. He wouldn’t even let me scream… I think I’ve got internal injuries. T-T 555 ⟧

Ning Xiaobei chuckled softly.

While Ning Xiaobei hadn’t even replied yet, another message came through:

— ⟦ What are you up to? Busy at the shop? Want me to come help? ⟧

He was about to type back when a customer arrived, forcing him to set the phone aside.

“Uncle Zhou, what do you need today?”

This gentleman was a regular at the convenience store. Even though Xiaobei rarely helped out, it seemed like every time he came by, he ran into him.

“It’s Xiaobei’s turn watching the shop, huh? Just need a lighter.”

Uncle Zhou was about the same age as Ning Jianguo, maybe a year or two younger. He had a long face, high nose bridge, slightly sunken eyes, and spoke Shanghai dialect with a hint of Cantonese accent. Years in an office had made his complexion paler than most men his age, and he probably had been fairly refined-looking in his youth.

That summer, he wore a gray polyester shirt tucked neatly into navy trousers. Even in the heat, his hair was perfectly styled into a classic 3:7 side part, apparently able to resist an eight-level typhoon.

Ning Xiaobei once wondered if he was a school discipline teacher, but Grandma had said Uncle Zhou was actually a senior engineer at a large state-owned enterprise, earning over ten thousand a month. His wife had passed away after a serious illness a few years back, and he now lived alone, a troubled bachelor.

This neighborhood, and the surrounding two blocks, had no secrets from Grandma Ning. If Xiaobei ever wanted to listen, he could hear gossip from morning to night without repetition; more engaging than the Shanghai TV show 《Lao Niang Jiu¹Lao Niang Jiu: A classic Shanghainese-dialect sitcom that humorously portrays the everyday lives, trivial disputes, and close-knit neighborhood relationships within a typical Shanghai community》.

“One yuan.”

Ning Xiaobei took a plastic lighter from the drawer and set it on the counter.

After a moment, he noticed Uncle Zhou wasn’t reaching for money and kept glancing backward.

Ning Xiaobei assumed he wanted to see the cigarette packs displayed on the back wall, so he stepped aside graciously.

“What brand do you usually smoke? We’re out of Da Qian Men today; the shipment comes tomorrow. Other brands are all here.”

“No, no, I don’t smoke.”

Uncle Zhou waved his hand. When he saw Ning Xiaobei’s surprised expression, he realized his mistake, dropped a one-yuan coin, grabbed the lighter, and hurried away as if Xiaobei might chase him.

“Why buy a lighter if you don’t smoke?”

Ning Xiaobei was still puzzled when Grandma Ning, leaning on her cane and looking back every few steps, approached—they both watched Uncle Zhou’s retreating figure as if he were fleeing in panic.

“Good morning, Grandma! Got lucky today?”

“Not bad, I made fifty yuan.”

Today Grandma wasn’t playing Mahjong at the doorway; she’d gone next door to Old Lady Liu’s place.

A few days ago, Old Lady  Liu had twisted her ankle doing housework and couldn’t get downstairs. The Mahjong itch was unbearable, so she called the local ladies to come play in her room. After they finished lunch and took a nap to recharge, they’d tackle the afternoon session.

Ning Xiaobei lifted the small counter flap and reached out to help Grandma sit. She frowned at the stuffy indoor air and insisted on sitting by the door until lunch.

Outside the store stood a camphor tree planted the year the relocated apartments were finished; by now its trunk was about the width of a bowl.

Under the tree was an octagonal table, surrounded by pots of flowers and greenery, some moved from Jiande Lane and some bought in the past couple of years, including the clivia that Xiao Mei’s sister-in-law had nearly smashed once.

In recent years, Grandma had gotten trendy and started growing succulents.

Whether it was Grandma’s technique or just the street’s soil, their succulents didn’t stay small. Tiny potted cuties that could fit in your palm grew into massive cacti bigger than a person’s face, agaves that could double as weapons if plucked, all exuding the owner’s commanding presence.

“That Xiao Zhou came by again, huh?”

Grandma sat, took the cassia seed tea from her grandson, and squinted.

Her eyelashes were so long they almost touched her lower lids. People say beauty fades with age, but it didn’t apply to Lady Jian Qingxia. Her eyes still sparkled brighter than a young girl wearing colored contacts; stunning even at her age.

Since opening the store, older men often loitered outside, but Grandma never even glanced at them. From her youth, Lady Jian Qingxia smiled only at men under thirty-five outside of work hours.

She’d say: Seeing a young man feels refreshing. Old men? All I sense is staleness. Men over a certain age love to act like fathers to women, even if they’ve barely finished primary school—they think it’s their right to guide female college students.

“He just bought a lighter and left.”

“Hmph.”

Grandma Ning snorted coldly. “He’s not here to buy a lighter. He came to see Xiao Mei. The drunkard’s intention isn’t in the wine. He saw I wasn’t in the shop today, so he came over to flirt. Didn’t expect to run into you and get his nose rubbed in it.”

If Grandma had been sitting in the shop earlier, she would’ve glared him off the premises.

“He… Xiao Mei… Grandma,” Ning Xiaobei pointed toward the room where Xiao Mei was busy with the accounts, his mouth gaping.

“That shameless toad trying to eat swan meat, doesn’t he even look at himself? Hmph.”

Grandma crossed her hands over her cane and tilted her chin at her grandson. “Don’t you dare tell Xiao Mei he came by.”

“But… isn’t this a good thing?”

Ning Xiaobei sat down beside her.

“Mr. Zhou is quite handsome. You can tell he’s a gentleman.”

Grandma had sent Xiao Mei off to do chores precisely so she could meet more people and get a sense of the world; to find a good match. Now the perfect opportunity shows up, and yet Grandma seems displeased.

Besides, if Xiao Mei married him, she wouldn’t even be leaving the neighborhood; the families could still visit each other freely. It couldn’t be more ideal.

“Tsk, what does a kid know? Our Xiao Mei is still a pure young lady. He last marriage didn’t have a proper license. It doesn’t count.”

Grandma Ning waved her hand.

“That Old Zhou… he’s well up there in age. He could be Xiao Mei’s father. And he’s on his second marriage, unlucky for wives. Not suitable, not suitable at all…”

Ning Xiaobei couldn’t help but laugh and cry at the same time. Mr. Zhou was about the same age as his dad, and Xiao Mei was technically his dad’s god-sister—practically a peer. Yet in Grandma’s mouth, the man suddenly became a potential father for Xiao Mei…

“Your Aunt Mei now has her beauty salon, she’s fashionable, she’s gorgeous. The clients who come in are all ladies from wealthy families. Even if she’s not aiming for bosses or managers, there are plenty of ordinary young men she could meet, right?”

Xiao Mei and Alan’s salon, called 【Meilan Beauty Center】, was at the corner of the nearby commercial street, and business was booming.

The first customers were Wang Yihong’s girlfriends, plus friends of Xiao Su—who had graduated from the night school of the textile academy and now ran the branch of 【Guoyun Qipao Shop】 on Huaihai Road. That branch had more traffic than the one on Changle Road, and many foreign customers came in. Xiao Su could now handle it all herself.

Xiao Mei wasn’t just a little pretty. She had become the living advertisement for the qipao shop. Outside of work, when she wasn’t wearing her salon uniform, she always wore qipaos, and wherever she stood, she became a walking spectacle. Many women, watching her, would unconsciously follow her into the salon and become clients.

Grandma Ning’s cousin from Suzhou had visited a few days ago and, seeing Xiao Mei, couldn’t stop clucking in admiration. She said Xiao Mei had been thoroughly polished into elegance by her cousin. The first time she came to Shanghai and saw her cousin behind the Shimai Department Store counter on Nanjing Road, she already carried that air, that poise.

So how could Grandma possibly allow Xiao Mei, whom she treated like a daughter, to marry an old widower?

“No way. People will gossip. They’ll say Xiao Mei is just desperate for a Shanghai household registration.”

Currently, Shanghai’s residency policy allowed ordinary people to get a local registration after marrying a Shanghai resident for ten years. Many old bachelors who couldn’t afford a Shanghai girl married solely for this reason; there were plenty of such wives in their neighborhood.

Some genuinely settled down, but many divorced as soon as the registration was secured. Grandma Ning didn’t want anyone poking fun at Xiao Mei or spreading rumors.

“Even if she’s going to marry, it should be someone her own age. Mr. Zhou’s daughter is about the same age as you, Xiaobei. How could that be? Old bulls chasing young grass, a second-marriage man should look for another second-marriage match. I won’t allow it.”

Her voice grew harder to control as she spoke.

Xiao Mei, hearing this from the inner room, asked her godmother what was wrong. Ning Xiaobei quickly said nothing. Grandma had just miscalculated while counting cards, that’s why she seemed upset.

That afternoon, when Ning Xiaobei rode his bike home, he deliberately swung by the beauty salon. Diagonally across from it was Shanghai’s hottest coffee shop right now, 【Starbucks.】

By now, there was a popular saying: “If I’m not at Starbucks, I’m on my way to Starbucks.” In Shanghai, if you’d never been to Starbucks, you practically had to be stripped of your household registration on the spot.

After the Häagen-Dazs store under the Shanghai Lun Hotel on Nanjing Road, this Starbucks had now become the hottest hangout for young, trendy couples.

Ning Xiaobei parked his bike behind a tall French plane tree. Through the thick branches, he clearly saw Xiao Mei and Mr. Zhou sitting together.

Under the 【Starbucks】 green mermaid sign, each held a paper cup. Xiao Mei’s heels dangled beneath the bar, one hand resting on her smooth forehead, eyes full of admiration as Mr. Zhou talked nonstop.

Sitting next to her, Mr. Zhou’s brows were low, a slight smile on his lips. His whole demeanor seemed to glow, a complete contrast to the timid, flustered man who had bought a lighter that morning.

See? Love works like this.

No matter how much others plot or plan step by step, when it wants to happen, it happens. No reasoning. Once it starts, it bursts forth like the Three Gorges Dam flooding, unstoppable, overwhelming, pouring out in torrents.

Here it was Xiao Mei. And yet… he couldn’t help thinking of himself.

Even though he had planned everything, even staged all sorts of elaborate schemes to get Fan Xia a girlfriend, it hadn’t mattered a bit. What was meant to happen… happened anyway.

Ning Xiaobei rested his head against the tree and asked himself honestly.

In the real world, in the few encounters, he might have… maybe… felt a tiny flutter for Officer Fan, the “Black Cat Detective.”

If in this world, Fan Xia had liked him all along, as he said… could it mean Officer Fan had… liked him too?

“Here!”

A light pat on his back made Ning Xiaobei spin around.

Fan Xia appeared, bathed in the sunset glow and the summer’s late breeze, riding a bike the same color as Ning Xiaobei’s—purple with a touch of orange—stylish, bold, and completely unmissable.

“Your dad said we should eat out before going home today. It’s a reunion for his old colleagues from the shoe factory. After dinner they’re going to karaoke, so I don’t expect them back before eleven or twelve.”

He paused, a teasing smile tugging at his lips. “Mind if I come hang out in your room later?”

“You just said you almost got beaten to death. You seem pretty agile.”

Ning Xiaobei glanced at his legs. Fan Xia let out a little laugh.

“Hey, Boss, did I just see Xiao Mei?”

They’d barely gone a few steps on the bike when Fan Xia squinted, catching a fleeting figure that looked familiar.

“You must be mistaken.”

Ning Xiaobei pressed hard on the pedal, and the bicycle shot forward with a whoosh.

“No way! Who else would be wearing a qipao for no reason besides Xiao Mei? Wait, there’s a guy next to her.”

“I said you saw wrong…”

Leaving a blazing sunset behind him, the young man pedaled forward on his bicycle, which seemed to turn into a wheel of fire and wind.

No one mentioned the incident at the bar again.

………………

Author’s Note:

Xiao Mei finally met the one she loves.

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  Lao Niang Jiu: A classic Shanghainese-dialect sitcom that humorously portrays the everyday lives, trivial disputes, and close-knit neighborhood relationships within a typical Shanghai community