DBTHDCAR Chapter 98

The next morning, whether Ning Xiaobei wanted to or not, Fan Xia dragged him out of the house.

“Just go enjoy yourselves. We’ll take care of things at home, no need to worry.”

Ning Jianguo was busy in the kitchen early. At noon, he planned to bring some food to see Grandma Ning. She must have been furious yesterday; today he wanted to properly comfort her.

And for Xiaomei, this time she’d been caught up in the mess, he really didn’t know how to apologize properly to her and Mr. Zhou.

“But Dad…”

“Stop hesitating. Let’s go. Yangyang is still waiting for us downstairs.”

Fan Xia, wearing a blue Shenhua football club coat, grabbed Ning Xiaobei, who was bundled in a light lemon-yellow down jacket, and dashed straight downstairs.

When they reached the first-floor hallway, they spotted someone in a red coat crouched on the ground with her back to them, hands gripping the doorframe, sneakily peeking outside.

Recognizing her as Chang Leyun, Fan Xia’s face lit up mischievously. He crept up behind her without a sound and gave her shoulder a heavy pat.

“Hey!”

“Wha—!”

Chang Leyun jumped like a startled cat, spinning around to see Fan Xia, this idiot·face, standing there. Without a word, she launched into a flurry of punches and kicks.

“You scared me to death, Fan Xia! Are you out of your mind? People really can die of fright!”

She probably had eaten too many Sichuan chilies; now, her attacks were fiercer than ever. Even through her thick coat, Fan Xia felt the sting in his arms.

He cast a pleading look at Ning Xiaobei, but Xiaobei had his hands buried in his pockets, face turned away, rising and lowering on his tiptoes as if he hadn’t seen a thing.

What kind of boss is that? Your follower is getting beaten, and you don’t even defend me?

Fan Xia felt wronged.

“You’re the one with the problem! Why are you crouching here so early in the morning? Are you trying to be a thief?”

Since he couldn’t hit back while being beaten, Fan Xia could only squat down, hands hugging his head.

“Shh, easy now,”

Chang Leyun held up a finger and tugged at the hem of Ning Xiaobei’s jacket, signaling him to crouch too.

So now there were three little ducks in the hallway, which happened to be in red, yellow, and green, just like the three scarves Wang Yihong had knitted for them when they were kids.

“Help me check if that’s Ding Zheyang outside, okay? Don’t stand up, peek secretly…aren’t you going to be a cop someday? Covert surveillance, you know?”

Fan Xia sighed and waddled forward in his duck-step. He hadn’t moved two steps when his phone buzzed with a message. Opening it, he saw Ding Zheyang saying he was already downstairs and to hurry down.

“See for yourself, don’t say I lied,”

Fan Xia said, holding the phone screen out toward Chang Leyun, clearly exasperated.

“Can you check again…is there a girl with him?”

Chang Leyun lifted her chin, eyebrows raised with a bit of excitement.

“No way…he’s here today to be Xiaobei’s companion, why would he bring a girl?”

Fan Xia half-crouched and stuck his head out the door, squinting through a thicket of wintergreen shrubs. Faintly, he could make out two figures.

A boy and a girl were talking. The boy was definitely Ding Zheyang, but the girl?

Their eyes widened, still hard to see clearly.

Fan Xia crouched back, thrilled, and nudged Ning Xiaobei with a grin.

“Boss, there really is a girl there!”

“Alright, now I can relax,”

Chang Leyun said, trying to stand up, only to find her legs numb from squatting so long. She shuffled back two steps, grabbed the stair railing, and shakily got to her feet.

“Go on outside already. You leave, then I can leave too. Otherwise, it’s way too awkward if we bump into them.”

Hearing this, Ning Xiaobei realized she was dressed up in her coat, wearing makeup, and her violin case was resting on the first-floor utility box, she was clearly ready to go out.

This is why it’s even more awkward when childhood sweethearts break up. Unlike normal couples, who can just block each other’s number or move away, former playmates in the same city have a hundred ways to run into each other.

“Eh, what’s there to be afraid of? Sooner or later we’ll meet anyway…stop hitting me, sis.”

Fan Xia jumped back a step, genuinely scared of this little demon. From his perspective, Ding Zheyang breaking up with Lele should have called for firecrackers in celebration, it was like escaping the devil’s grasp.

They both acted casual as they stepped outside, boldly greeting Ding Zheyang.

“Hey, why’d you bring a beauty along and not tell us, bro?”

After a few polite exchanges, Fan Xia pretended to be surprised at the girl in pink. She wore a pink rabbit-fur coat, matching pink hat, and flashed two little tiger teeth when she smiled. He bumped shoulders with Ning Xiaobei.

“Boss, Yangyang’s being unfair. His secret-keeping skills are too good.”

Ding Zheyang lowered his head, tucking his chin into his scarf, a shy smile peeking out.

“Introduce yourselves.”

In just a few minutes, Ning Xiaobei noticed something: Ding Zheyang had clearly found spring in the dead of winter. From the moment they appeared, the two had kept their arms entwined, never letting go.

“Ah, you haven’t forgotten me, have you?”

Before Ding Zheyang could speak, the little beauty blinked her big, round eyes and pointed to her lips, glossy and glistening with lip gloss. “It’s me! Me! Look properly!”

“Who…ah?”

Fan Xia stepped back two paces and took her in from head to toe. He had no recollection of ever knowing such a petite, Japanese-style beauty.

Right, now on the internet, pretty girls are called meimei, handsome boys are called shuai guo. He told the boss about this discovery, only for Ning Xiaobei to tease him for being old-fashioned. Tch, who’s really old-fashioned, huh?

“Fan Xia, you really haven’t changed at all, still so dark-skinned. Class monitor, you’re even more handsome.”

The girl blinked at the two of them, lifted her chin, and spun around so they could get a proper look.

Anyone calling Ning Xiaobei class monitor had to be a former classmate. Ning Xiaobei and Fan Xia exchanged glances, trying to figure it out.

Not high school, too soon to change that much, even with cosmetic help. Not middle school, changes wouldn’t be so drastic. That left…elementary school.

“Holy— Wang Qingyu! It’s you, Wang Qingyu!”

Finally, Fan Xia remembered. His finger trembled as he pointed at the little beauty, disbelief written all over his face. “Joey Wong, Brigitte Lin, Maggie Cheung…you’re that Wang Qingyu from the Four Primary School! My elementary school classmate!”

This was the same Wang Qingyu who had been a die-hard fan from childhood, often running to his dad’s old rental DVD shop to borrow discs, buy posters, and then drag a bunch of girls to the boutique next door for celebrity stickers and bookmarks.

Incredible. They say, ‘Girls change completely by eighteen’. He had never believed it, Chang Leyun didn’t change much as she grew, just learned to dress better. But Wang Qingyu here…she had completely transformed.

Once he said it aloud, Ning Xiaobei recognized her too, letting out a long, astonished sigh.

“I remember you as a little chubby girl! Whoa…”

Fan Xia hadn’t finished when Ning Xiaobei kicked him in the back of the leg, making him yelp and crouch down.

Fan Xia wanted to cry but had no tears, he really seemed cursed today. He’d barely stepped fifty meters from home this morning and had already taken two beatings.

“Oh, it’s nothing. I had a lot of stress in third year of high school, developed nervous gastritis, and lost over 40 pounds at once. Now I’m fine.”

Wang Qingyu had always been a straightforward, bold girl. She ignored Fan Xia’s muttering and offered an explanation herself.

“I never expected that losing weight would make me actually look okay. I guess it’s a blessing in disguise.”

She patted her cheeks. She still had a small rabbit tooth like Maggie Cheung, and when she smiled, her eyes crinkled in a way that was utterly charming, definitely had a bit of Joey Wong’s charisma.

Their parents really chose her name well.

“Some people lose 40 pounds from stress…while others gain 100. Same umbrella, different handles; same people, different fates.”

Saying that inevitably brought to mind Lin Ziying, who had now become quite overweight. Young Master Lin might be incredibly wealthy, but he couldn’t shake off the extra weight on him. As a result, he wasn’t popular with girls and was deeply troubled.

“So when did you two get together?”

“Not long after coming back this winter break… I was just at home every day, browsing online. I saw Xiaoyu’s blog posts on her profile and thought she wrote really well, so I started chatting with her… and then… we kept in touch.”

After saying that, Ding Zheyang lowered his head shyly.

“Oh wow— Xiaoyu!”

Ning Xiaobei and Fan Xia teased in unison.

Wang Qingyu burst into laughter, then took Ding Zheyang’s hand and announced loudly, “Old classmates, let me introduce you. This is my boyfriend, Yangyang.”

“Oh wow— Yangyang!”

“Hahaha…”

The four of them laughed and joked together under a cloudless, bright blue winter sky. Yellow plane tree leaves, big enough to cover a face, fluttered down one after another. Step on them by accident, and they crunched underfoot.

From the roadside came the warm scent of roasted sweet potatoes and sugar-fried chestnuts, bringing back memories of childhood. Even Ning Xiaobei, for a moment, set aside the heavy doubts weighing on his heart and joined in the laughter.

They picked up their relatives at the hotel. When the two little girls saw such a cute pink bunny-like big sister coming along to play with them, they were overjoyed.

Fan Xia hailed two taxis, and they set off for Lujiazui in Pudong.

Standing on the 263-meter observation deck of the Oriental Pearl Tower, not only the two little girls but also Ning Xiaobei and Fan Xia, who were visiting for the first time, were beyond excited. They pressed against the glass windows, looking out over Puxi, trying to spot the Workers’ New Village, then turned to Pudong, wondering where Grandma’s home might be.

Funny enough, locals in Shanghai rarely visit the Oriental Pearl Tower, unless it’s for school field trips in elementary or middle school, or when accompanying out-of-town relatives to Lujiazui. Today, they were benefiting from their Suzhou relatives’ visit.

“Tell me honestly, was it really Ding Zheyang who reached out to you first? Chang Leyun had nothing to do with it?”

While everyone else was absorbed in the breathtaking high-altitude view, Ning Xiaobei pulled Wang Qingyu aside into a corner and winked at her.

“Ah, Ning Xiaobei, are you trying to use the handsome man tactic on me?”

Wang Qingyu exaggeratedly placed a hand over her chest, tilting her head with a smile. “What should I do? I’ve always fallen for that since I was little.”

“Yeah. We added each other a long time ago, but never actually talked. It was Lele who asked me if I wanted to get in touch with Ding Zheyang. I had just gone through a breakup around that time too, the guy found out I used to be chubby and said I’d deceived him… Ridiculous, right? What did I deceive him about? I used to be fat, and in the future I’ll grow old and ugly too. I’m a living person, not a carved statue that never changes for a thousand years. Don’t you agree?”

Ning Xiaobei couldn’t help but smile. What a lovely girl. If he didn’t like men, he might’ve been drawn to her too.

Wang Qingyu admitted it openly and confidently, “I know the two of them dated before, but they’ve broken up now, haven’t they? Yangyang doesn’t mind that I used to be fat, and I know he used to be a bit gloomy. But now we’ve both become better versions of ourselves. I like him, and he probably likes me too, so we’re giving it a try.”

Looking at the radiant girl before him, Ning Xiaobei felt he had truly underestimated her in the past. Not only did she go all out when chasing idols, she also poured her whole heart into loving and living—a bright, pink little sun.

If an eighteen- or nineteen-year-old girl could be this open and free, then what was there left for a man who had lived two lifetimes to cling to or hesitate over?

Ning Xiaobei lowered his head and smiled faintly.

Yes. It was time for everything to come to an end.

………………

Author’s Note:

Let Yangyang enjoy a bit of sweet romance first.

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