As soon as Bai Baowei returned, he heard that Hu Aihua had come by to deliver pastries.
“Refusing her was the right move. We don’t need their handouts.”
Bai Lan nodded, but she was a little curious. “Brother, does Factory Director Fang know about the Zhu family?”
Bai Baowei shook his head. “We only talk about work and daily life. Unless the Zhu family does something out of line, I don’t plan to get involved with them.”
Bai Lan thought about it and agreed. It wasn’t as if she or her brother would have any real dealings with Fang Baoguo and his wife anyway.
Just as the siblings were chatting, Liu Meiling and Xu Jiannan returned from outside. Lately, the two of them hadn’t been pushing themselves as hard—they came back early every day. During the daytime, Liu Meiling also didn’t start working on the braised meat as early as before.
Bai Lan knew this was the result of their previous conversation. Liu Meiling was trying to relax and stop working so relentlessly.
Seeing Bai Lan and her brother chatting, Liu Meiling walked over with a smile. Bai Lan figured Liu Meiling must have something to tell them.
Sure enough, the next moment she heard: “Hu Aihua’s husband—his surname is Zhu, right?”
Bai Lan exchanged a glance with her brother and nodded.
“Today at the black market, I saw that Zhu guy wandering around with a few other people. Looked like they were collecting things.”
Now that was interesting.
“Collecting what?”
Liu Meiling lowered her voice. “Old broken pottery jars and such. Those things aren’t worth much right now—you can pick them up for next to nothing.”
The valuable things that could be accumulated in these times, aside from hard-to-buy real estate, were antiques, calligraphy, paintings, gold, silver, and jewelry.
Hearing that Zhu Cheng was collecting such things at the black market, and knowing he was a salesclerk at the secondhand goods market, Bai Lan wasn’t particularly surprised.
“Anyway, the people with him didn’t seem like easy types to deal with. So, Comrade Bai, you should be careful.”
Liu Meiling had also learned about how Zhu Cheng had once stepped forward, trying to mediate between Bai Ping, Bai Baowei, and the Bai family. So, when she saw Zhu Cheng at the black market, her first thought was of Bai Lan.
Bai Baowei didn’t have much to do with Liu Meiling, but upon receiving her kind reminder, he immediately expressed his thanks.
Just then, someone else walked over. This time, it was Hu Aimin. They had just been talking about Hu Aihua’s husband, and now Hu Aimin came right up to them. The topic immediately came to an end.
Hu Aimin, still smiling, slung an arm around Bai Baowei’s shoulder as if they were close buddies. “Brother Baowei, what are you guys talking about?”
Bai Baowei immediately shook him off, looking rather exasperated. “Comrade Hu, we’re not that familiar with each other, are we?”
Such a direct tone clearly caught Hu Aimin off guard. He hadn’t often seen someone disregard neighborly courtesy so bluntly.
Bai Lan laughed at the sight. She thought her brother was a bit straightforward, putting his likes and dislikes right out in the open.
Liu Meiling also found it amusing.
The sound of their laughter made Hu Aimin’s face darken. Without another word, he turned and headed home.
He had come abruptly and left even more abruptly.
Bai Lan said, “Brother, what does he really want with you?”
Bai Baowei shook his head. “I don’t know. This whole family is strange.”
Thinking about Hu Aihua’s recent move and Hu Aimin’s odd behavior just now, Bai Lan considered for a moment and said, “Well, Brother, just be careful these next few days. I have a feeling those siblings are up to something.”
——
That was what she thought, but in the days that followed, Hu Aihua didn’t reappear in the courtyard. Hu Aimin also went to work and came home as usual, as if nothing had happened.
Bai Lan didn’t have the energy to keep an eye on them all day. Because she had discovered that since becoming pregnant, she really did tire easily.
For instance, she used to stand for an hour or two making steamed buns without feeling tired. But after finding out she was pregnant, she seemed to have instantly become more delicate. Standing for less than an hour now left her exhausted.
So today, she asked the head chef at the cafeteria for permission to leave early and go home to rest.
Just as she reached the entrance of the alley, coincidentally, she ran into Datou returning from his delivery run.
After a week on the road, Datou had completely calmed down. When he saw Bai Lan, he smiled, showing a mouthful of white teeth.
“You made pretty good time on this trip, didn’t you?”
Datou chuckled. “I made a trip down south.”
“Did you get a lot of dried seafood?”
“No, this time I brought back some really good cotton fabric. They say it’s very breathable.”
Never mind that they had a textile factory nearby—there were differences in craftsmanship between the north and the south. Most fabrics from the south were breathable. As soon as Bai Lan heard about breathable fabric, she was tempted.
The main thing was that summer had arrived, and there were still two more hot months to go. In an era when even electric fans were hard to come by, being pregnant was bound to be miserable.
Datou seemed to read her thoughts and smiled. “Brother Bei asked me to buy it.”
Hearing that Xu Jianbei had arranged it, Bai Lan felt a wave of sweetness in her heart. She couldn’t help but ask a few more details about Datou’s trip.
The two chatted as they walked and soon arrived at the courtyard entrance.
It was a workday, around ten in the morning, so there weren’t many people in the alley. They had barely run into anyone on their way back.
Datou was in a good mood. The trip had helped him come to terms with things. His father’s body was his own—he could do whatever he wanted with it. Datou couldn’t force him anymore.
Bai Lan could see what Datou was thinking and didn’t bring up the subject. She was about to part ways with him at the front courtyard.
But just then, the sound of something shattering came from the Ning household.
Datou, alarmed, rushed toward home. Bai Lan hesitated, then followed.
Because she was pregnant, she walked more slowly. Datou, running ahead, was about to burst through the door.
Just as Bai Lan thought he would charge inside, Datou’s footsteps came to a halt at the entrance. He stood there frozen.
By then, the sound of shattering had stopped. Instead, a hoarse, cursing voice rang out.
Bai Lan frowned and thought about going over to see what was happening. But immediately, she saw Datou turn around and walk back toward her.
If she ignored his darkened complexion, his clenched fists, and the way his teeth were grinding audibly, Bai Lan might have thought Datou wanted to come over and say something to her.
“Did something happen?”
Datou seemed to snap back to reality at the sound of her familiar voice. Then, the whites of his eyes became shot through with red veins, making him look quite terrifying.
Seeing Datou like this, Bai Lan felt a chill run down her spine.
“Did something happen? Should I call for help?”
Datou shook his head stiffly, the bones in his neck making a cracking sound as he moved.
In short, Bai Lan found Datou quite frightening in that moment.
Fortunately, Datou seemed to finally get himself under control.
“Bai Lan, you should go home first. I… I have something to do and need to go out.” With that, not waiting for Bai Lan’s reply, Datou turned and ran off, disappearing in an instant.
His unusual behavior made Bai Lan sense that something was off. She looked toward the now-quiet Ning household and felt a chill creep up her spine.
By evening, Ning’s mother had returned from work, but Datou still hadn’t shown up. Since no one had seen Datou return earlier, everyone assumed he was still out on his delivery run.
Bai Lan pulled Xu Jianbei inside and told him everything that had happened during the day.
“I still don’t understand what happened.”
Xu Jianbei thought about it but couldn’t figure out what it could be. Lately, aside from Datou’s father refusing to see a doctor, nothing else had happened in the Ning household. It couldn’t be because Datou didn’t want to go on blind dates, could it?
The couple talked it over, both worried about what had happened.
While they were fretting, Datou was actually hiding out at the recycling station on the main street.
That morning, after running out of the house, Datou hadn’t known where to go. He wandered aimlessly and eventually ended up there. As it happened, Qin Yan was on duty that day.
Qin Yan tried to ask him what was wrong, but Datou wouldn’t say. He just kept his head down and paced, ignoring her.
Datou was acting so strangely that Qin Yan forgot all about her earlier awkwardness with him. She grabbed him and stuffed him into the duty room to stay put.
When her shift ended and Datou still refused to talk, she simply spoke to the person on the next shift and arranged for Datou to stay there overnight.
She herself went home and brought back some food for him.
Now, Qin Yan was home, also agonizing over what had happened. She wanted to go ask Bai Lan for advice, to see if something had gone wrong somewhere.
As for Datou, he had been holed up in the recycling station’s duty room, his mind racing all day. He still couldn’t make sense of it. He was completely at a loss. He didn’t know if the world had gone crazy.
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