DBTHDCAR Chapter 92

“Boss, so Yuy­ao isn’t Yuhang? Yuy­ao belongs to Ningbo, and Yuhang belongs to Hangzhou?”

Sitting on the train from Shanghai to Yuy­ao, Fan Xia munched on a piece of sachima while asking the question that had been puzzling him since that morning.

Hearing the stifled laughter of the other passengers around them, Ning Xiaobei sighed and patted Fan Xia on the head. “Son, I can’t help but wonder… did someone actually pay for your college acceptance letter?”

“Oh man, one day when you’re really a cop, and your boss tells you to go arrest someone in Zhangjiagang, you won’t accidentally go to Zhangjiakou… and Zhangjiakou is bad enough, but what if you end up in Zhangjiajie instead?”

Ning Xiaobei couldn’t help worrying about the long-term stability of the nation’s future.

“They don’t test this in geography class anyway,” Fan Xia said, folding away the map and resting his head on Ning Xiaobei’s shoulder.

“Boss, that Boss Wen really isn’t being fair. He only gave us an address, not even a phone number. I just don’t believe it. Are they seriously still relying on letters to contact each other? What year is this?”

The train was filled with students taking advantage of the winter break; some reading quietly, others huddled in small groups laughing and chatting. Fan Xia’s antics drew no special attention.

“He’s Teacher Peng’s senior, not Teacher Gu’s. What do you expect? How else would they contact each other?”

Getting this address out of Vendy had taken Ning Xiaobei a lot of effort. That sly old fox had danced around him, testing him back and forth for quite a while before finally letting the information slip.

They had gotten up early today to catch the train. Zhao Jingwen had originally offered to drive them to the South Station, but Ning Xiaobei refused. They were grown-ups now; they couldn’t keep bothering Dad and Uncle. His father was right: he should really go get a driver’s license.

But once he got a license, his father would surely start planning to buy him a new car. Ning Jianguo was fine driving his own fish-delivery van, but for his son, he’d want the best. And that would be another huge expense. Ever since starting college, he hadn’t earned a cent himself—just letting his father spend money like this wasn’t going to work…

As he kept thinking, Ning Xiaobei couldn’t fight off the heavy drowsiness any longer and drifted into sleep. His head leaned against Fan Xia’s, the two of them nodding off little by little like pecking chickens…

“Xiaobei, wake up. Get up and have breakfast.”

His eyelids felt like they were fighting each other, and his limbs were heavy as lead. Ning Xiaobei blinked in a daze, unable to make sense of what was happening.

Wasn’t he on the train?

Then why was he staring at the ceiling of his own apartment again? Even the recessed spotlights tucked into the corners were ones he had carefully picked out…

“…Ah… I’m back again?”

It had been a while since he’d returned to the real world. It took him a few seconds to realize that he had once again arrived at the other side of this parallel existence.

“Oh come on, it’s so cold, how can you not wear socks? Hurry up, put them on.”

Fan Xia walked in wearing an apron tied around his waist. Seeing that Ning Xiaobei had even kicked off the blanket, he immediately started nagging.

“You had a fever for a whole day and night. You finally just woke up properly. Don’t start acting all out of it again. I’m telling you, if your fever comes back, I won’t argue this time. I’ll send you straight to the hospital—throat swab, COVID test, fever clinic, the whole package.”

As he spoke, Fan Xia opened the wardrobe, took out a pair of socks and some loungewear, and placed them by the bed.

Seeing Ning Xiaobei standing there in a daze, Fan Xia simply dropped to one knee, picked up a sock, and with one hand grabbed Xiaobei’s right foot, placing it on his own knee before pulling the sock over it.

Perhaps because he had just recovered from being sick, Ning Xiaobei’s foot was ice-cold; yet so pale it looked like a piece of chilled jade.

Even though he was an old man now, doing this felt different from when they were younger, almost a little perverse, but Fan Xia still couldn’t help leaning down and placing a light kiss on the top of his foot.

“Fan Xia!”

Startled, Ning Xiaobei jerked and pulled his foot back.

“Oh come on, we’re practically an old married couple, what are you getting shy for?”

Ignoring his resistance, Fan Xia finished putting on both socks, draped a set of loungewear over him, and then pushed him toward the bathroom.

“Hurry up. We have to pick up Uncle and my Uncle this afternoon. I’ve been busy all morning. And seriously, you drink, fine, but you turned the living room into a flood zone. Beer cans all over the floor. When Uncle Ning gets back and sees it, just wait and see what he says to you.”

Standing by the sink, Ning Xiaobei was still in a daze, wondering how Fan Xia could come and go freely in his apartment. He didn’t remember ever giving him a key. Then Fan Xia’s words hit him, leaving him completely stunned.

What was he talking about?

“Uncle Ning”… wasn’t that his dad? What did he mean? What was going on? Who were they going to pick up?

“Fan Xia!”

Ning Xiaobei yanked open the bathroom door and shouted at Fan Xia, who was tidying the bed.

“Hey, hey…no need to shout when you’re this close. You’re going to blow out my eardrums, boss.”

Fan Xia sat up, covering his ears, casually wiping the drool from the corner of his mouth.

That shout had been loud enough; not only waking him up, but half the train carriage as well.

Most of the passengers had boarded early trains. With the carriage gently rocking along, aside from a few energetic kids, most had gradually dozed off. And now, Ning Xiaobei had completely shattered their peaceful sleep.

Meeting the reproachful looks from the two passengers sitting across from him, Ning Xiaobei nodded apologetically; only then realizing he was back on the train again.

So what exactly was that dream just now?

Was that a dream within a dream inside this so-called dream world, or had he briefly returned to the real world, only to be pulled back again by some unseen force?

Ning Xiaobei clenched his fists, replaying what Fan Xia had said in that other world.

He said they were going to pick up Dad and Uncle Zhao. But hadn’t Uncle Zhao already been brought back from the nursing home to the Workers’ New Village? Where else would they be picking him up from? And more importantly—Dad!

Damn it!

Unable to hold back, Ning Xiaobei smacked his thigh hard, frustration surging through him.

He had been so close; so close to finding out whether his dad had really come back. So why did he have to wake up right then?

“Alright, have some coffee. Just made it.”

Fan Xia walked over from the other end of the carriage, holding a Thermos flask. Thinking Ning Xiaobei was just groggy and cranky from lack of sleep, he hurriedly took out a packet of instant Nescafé from his bag, went to the hot water station, and brought it back for him.

There had been a crowd at the hot water dispenser, and the train was shaking. The web between his thumb and index finger on his right hand had been scalded, raising a blister. He tugged his sleeve down slightly to cover it, not wanting Xiaobei to notice and worry.

“I asked the train attendant. The next stop is Shangyu, and after that, it’s Yuyao.”

Since it was a short-distance train, the passengers around them were quickly replaced, and Ning Xiaobei finally felt a little less awkward than before.

Holding the Thermos, he tried using the same method he had relied on in the past—focusing intensely on his longing for his father in the real world—to cross back again. But just like in the past few months, no matter how hard he tried, it was useless.

That brief flash just now had been like a fleeting bloom of an epiphyllum.

“Why…?”

Ning Xiaobei still couldn’t make sense of it.

They arrived at Yuyao Station, and the two of them got off the train.

Ning Xiaobei had told his dad and Uncle Zhao that they were going to visit a teacher’s hometown for over a week. The two of them brought along a rolling suitcase with a change of clothes, each also carrying a travel backpack.

Following the address given by Boss Wen, after getting off the train, they first needed to head to the long-distance bus station to go to Siming Mountain, then transfer again to a place called Dalan Town. Once they got there, they would figure out how to reach the village where Teacher Gu lived.

In a place without smartphones, traveling independently meant either relying on locals to guide you, or clutching a map and figuring things out on your own.

Fortunately, the road is right under your nose. After leaving the train station, they turned down shady unlicensed taxis and the aunties found at nearly every station across the country who tried to drum up business for cheap inns. Ning Xiaobei and Fan Xia transferred from one ride to another, bumping along the way, and finally, around dinnertime in the late afternoon, arrived at a dirt road said to be less than three kilometers from Teacher Gu’s home.

“I won’t be going your way from here. Just keep heading forward.”

They jumped down from a tractor piled high with straw and repeatedly waved and bowed in thanks to the kind uncle who had given them a lift for such a long stretch. Without him, they might have been stuck at the foot of the mountain for who knew how long.

The uncle didn’t speak Mandarin, only the local Yuyao dialect. Fortunately, while Shanghainese is also a Wu dialect, it carries some Ningbo inflection, so between guessing and piecing things together, they managed to communicate well enough.

“Boss, are you cold? Want some water?”

They hadn’t really felt it when they first got off the train, but the deeper they went into the mountains, the more the cold became unbearable. They had dressed according to the city’s temperature, just regular fleece-lined jackets, but in the mountains, even Fan Xia, with his strong constitution, was starting to struggle.

He opened the rolling suitcase, took out two down jackets, and helped Ning Xiaobei put his on first.

Luckily, they had brought short down jackets, since the next three kilometers would all be mountain paths…

Ning Xiaobei looked out at the endless overlapping ridgelines ahead. Under the dim glow of the setting sun, everything appeared hazy, tinged with moisture. The mountains weren’t particularly high, yet they were wrapped in mist, and faintly carried a fresh tea fragrance; when they had come up from the foot of the mountain earlier, they seemed to have passed a vast tea plantation.

Did Yuyao even produce any famous tea? Ning Xiaobei thought about it for a while but couldn’t come up with anything.

The tea at home had always been handled entirely by Uncle Zhao. Because of the clothing business, he frequently dealt with silk and textile factories in Huzhou, Hangzhou, and Suzhou, so their household was never short of premium tea.

Especially every year before Qingming Festival¹Qingming Festival (清明节): A traditional Chinese festival in early April, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day; it coincides with the peak season for fresh spring tea harvesting, Uncle Zhao would even be invited to Meijiawu in Hangzhou to inspect and taste the new tea harvest on-site. Dad had gone along a few times, but he never had. He only knew that whenever he opened the cupboard at home, it was always stocked with top-grade tea—West Lake Longjing, Suzhou Biluochun, Huangshan Maofeng, Lu’an Guapian… teas he only got to drink after starting work in the real world, yet now he had already tasted them all.

Fan Xia, on the other hand, had no appreciation for tea at all. He only drank cola and coffee, at most milk tea; basically anything dark and unhealthy, that’s what he liked. Growing up, even getting him to drink plain water required Ning Xiaobei to coax, trick, and occasionally force him into it.

“Hey, that uncle didn’t trick us, did he? We’ve been walking forever, how come we still haven’t reached three kilometers?”

Fan Xia dragged the suitcase uphill, panting more with every step. This wasn’t a paved road, but a dirt and gravel path. If they weren’t careful, they could easily trip. There were no streetlights either, and the further they walked, the more uneasy they felt.

More importantly, why was there no one on this road?

That uncle had said the village ahead was a big one, lively and bustling. But after walking for so long, they hadn’t seen a single person, nor any lights. Stuck in the middle of nowhere, could it be they had been given the wrong directions?

If they still couldn’t find the village soon, it would be completely dark. Both Fan Xia and Ning Xiaobei were starting to panic.

“How about we call 110? Get the police to take us back to the town. We can also ask where Brother Kai’s place actually is. Maybe they can even contact him and have him come pick us up?”

Fan Xia took out his phone.

If I can’t go to the mountain, then let the mountain come to me.

“If there’s really no other way, then…”

Just as Ning Xiaobei was about to say that, even though it would be embarrassing, they might have no choice but to do that; he suddenly heard a dog barking in the distance.

It came from ahead of them, long and drawn-out, echoing faintly.

At first he thought he had misheard. He held his breath and listened carefully, and sure enough, a few more barks followed. More than one dog, by the sound of it.

“Where there are dogs, there are people… Right! Bush! Bush!”

Ning Xiaobei cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted toward the front.

He remembered Boss Wen mentioning that when Teacher Gu returned home, he had taken the dog with him.

“Awooo…”

As if responding to Ning Xiaobei, an excited bark came from the dense woods, followed by a string of sharp woof woof sounds.

“It has to be Bush, it’s Bush! Come here, come here!”

Fan Xia started shouting along as well.

With how loudly he was yelling, it was like he tore through the surrounding mist. Dogs within a radius of several kilometers seemed to be triggered by him; one bark after another, like a full-blown chorus.

And among that canine chorus, Fan Xia still managed to pick out Bush’s voice.

Afterward, he insisted that Bush, having come from cosmopolitan Shanghai, had a certain foreign flair and aristocratic edge in his bark compared to rural mutts; making him stand out distinctly. Ning Xiaobei thought that was complete nonsense.

Not long after, three to five minutes at most, a large black-and-tan dog, tall enough to reach an adult when standing upright, came charging down the mountain path, practically launching itself into Fan Xia’s arms.

Two black plum blossom-shaped paw prints immediately stamped themselves onto Fan Xia’s white down jacket—President Bush’s official signature and seal.

But Fan Xia didn’t mind in the slightest. Holding onto Bush’s front paws, man and dog spun around in place like they were dancing a waltz. Bush stuck out his big tongue and enthusiastically licked his chin, clearly remembering this dark-skinned guy who had once fed him broccoli.

“Oh hey, it really is you two!”

With a flashlight in hand and dressed in an old green padded jacket, Gu Kaige walked down the path at an unhurried pace. When he saw Ning Xiaobei and Fan Xia, he broke into a bright smile.

“If you keep shouting like that, every dog in the village is going to follow Bush and come running down.”

……………… 

Author’s Note:

So he crossed over… but not completely, haha~

That’s right! Dad is alive!

But Ning Xiaobei is stuck in this world and can’t go back. Why is that…? Well, keep reading.

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  Qingming Festival (清明节): A traditional Chinese festival in early April, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day; it coincides with the peak season for fresh spring tea harvesting