Several other aunts immediately rushed over to help Datou pull Ning’s mother away. No one paid any attention to Ning Geda, who had just taken two heavy blows.
The factory director began speaking with Ning’s mother, his main message being that killing someone would cost her her life, which wasn’t worth it. No matter how great her grievances, the factory would help resolve them.
Watching this, Bai Lan felt a sense of relief.
At the very least, the factory’s stance was firm—they were determined to deal with Ning Geda, not brush it off by calling it a medical miracle.
——
“Speak. Why did you fake being paralyzed?”
After calming Ning’s mother down, the factory director didn’t give Ning Geda any face at all. He began questioning him right there in the alley.
Ning Geda had just been slammed in the back and then in the head. He was still dizzy. Hearing the factory director’s words, he began playing dead.
With years of experience faking paralysis, Ning Geda was an expert at playing dumb.
Seeing his sorry act, the factory director couldn’t be bothered to waste words on him. He called Qin Yan’s father, Uncle Qin, over and made preparations to send Ning Geda directly to the public security bureau.
Faking paralysis wasn’t illegal. But faking paralysis to defraud the factory of monthly subsidies—that was a serious crime.
As soon as he heard “public security bureau,” Ning Geda began shouting, “No! Don’t send me to the public security bureau! I’ll talk, I’ll talk! Factory Director, I didn’t mean to, I didn’t mean to! I only recovered a few days ago. I never lied before.”
At these words, not even a passing dog would have believed him.
Sure enough, Hu the Widow immediately jumped in. “Ning Geda, stop pretending! Just the other day, your son was trying to persuade you to see a doctor. You said no, that seeing a doctor was useless. Now it seems you were right—it was useless. Your paralysis was all fake, so of course no doctor could do anything!”
Bai Lan couldn’t help but nod in agreement. She felt that in all these years, this was the only thing Hu the Widow had ever said that she fully agreed with.
Many people immediately remembered Datou’s recent efforts. He had urged Ning Geda to see a doctor every single day, only to be rejected time and time again. Back then, everyone had praised Ning Geda for being a conscientious father, not wanting to put his son through trouble and expense for a lost cause.
The more they had praised him then, the harder they were slapping their own faces now.
Many people spat at him. If the factory director weren’t present, they would have added a few kicks as well.
Seeing that no one believed him, Ning Geda simply sat up from the ground. Holding his spinning head, he continued shouting, “It’s true! I only recovered recently! I haven’t had a chance to tell my family yet.”
Still, no one believed him.
Ning’s mother shouted even louder, “If you don’t confess honestly, even if the factory doesn’t pursue this, I will go to the public security bureau myself and report you!”
Her tone was resolute, clearly showing she had made up her mind.
The factory director also had no patience to argue with Ning Geda. The matter was already clear. He didn’t need Ning Geda to prove he could walk—Geda had already done so in front of everyone. He might as well just send him to the public security bureau.
With that thought, the factory director waved his hand at Uncle Qin, signaling him to take the man straight there.
This finally scared Ning Geda speechless—he even wet himself.
Many people on the scene cursed him for being a coward. Brave enough to fake paralysis, but now too chicken to admit it.
“I won’t go to the public security bureau! I won’t, I won’t! I’ll talk, I’ll talk!”
At that, Uncle Qin let go. “Confess honestly. No more tricks.”
Ning Geda scratched his head in frustration. “I really was paralyzed at first.”
That part was true. Right after the accident, many doctors had examined him. They had gone not only to hospitals in the northern city but also to hospitals in surrounding cities. Ning’s mother had carried him there herself—she knew it all too well.
That was precisely why she felt such hatred upon learning that Ning Geda could walk. It didn’t matter when he had actually recovered. The fact that he had kept up the act of being paralyzed made him a liar. A liar who had made her and her son work like beasts of burden.
Ning’s mother could accept being treated like a beast of burden herself. But she could not accept her son being treated the same way. Her son was nearly twenty years old and still didn’t have a partner—wasn’t that all because of this damned piece of trash?
With that thought, she lunged at Ning Geda again, ready to hit him.
But this time, Datou stopped her.
Bai Lan was starting to feel tense. What on earth had been going through Ning Geda’s mind? Being paralyzed was a tragedy. Being able to recover—wasn’t that a good thing? Why had he kept up the act?
Everyone present shared this question. None of them could understand what Ning Geda had been thinking.
This time, Ning Geda had learned his lesson. He didn’t dare play any more tricks. He immediately said, “I…”
But then he hesitated, afraid to tell the truth. He was terrified that if he did, people really would beat him to death. But after seeing the looks in the eyes of those around him, he knew there was no talking his way out of this.
Ning Geda took a deep breath. “I recovered fifteen years ago.”
As soon as he said this, Ning’s mother suddenly burst into loud sobs.
Fifteen years ago, she had been just over twenty years old. Datou had been less than five. Her youth, her son’s childhood—both had been destroyed by this damned piece of trash. All those years, she and her son had worked so hard to take care of such a worthless man.
This answer didn’t just break Ning’s mother. Everyone present, regardless of whether they had previous conflicts with the Ning family, felt a deep sense of sorrow at this moment.
The women immediately began cursing. The men took off their shoes and hurled them at Ning Geda’s head.
The factory director didn’t stop them. After letting everyone vent, he asked Ning Geda the reason for faking paralysis.
“Reason?”
Ning Geda looked at the factory director with a strange expression. “Lying down, I get food and drink. The factory sends me my basic wage every month. Isn’t that good?”
The factory director was an ambitious man. Hearing this reasoning for the first time, he simply couldn’t understand it.
A few layabouts in the crowd, however, could somewhat grasp Ning Geda’s thinking. Lying in bed without having to do anything, waited on by his wife and son, and still getting paid every month—it actually sounded like a pretty good deal.
Hearing this answer, Bai Lan didn’t know what to say.
To just loaf around and wait for death, faking paralysis for so many years—Bai Lan found it very hard to understand. She wasn’t a workaholic, but she would never sink to such a level of degeneracy.
Ning Geda could no longer be considered a normal person. He was nothing but a piece of trash in human skin.
The factory director nodded to Uncle Qin, signaling him to take the man away. Whatever else came of this would depend on whether the public security bureau could uncover anything new.
Seeing himself being grabbed, Ning Geda finally realized, belatedly, that he was being sent to the authorities.
With his arms held by two people, he could only shuffle his legs and hop along the ground. His movements were no different from those of a normal person. Bai Lan almost wanted to call it a medical miracle again.
Recovering the ability to walk five years after the accident meant that for those five years, Ning Geda had been very well cared for. His spinal injury had healed under that care. Sometimes, human potential is hard to predict. Cases of such recovery weren’t unheard of.
The factory director had gone to the public security bureau with the group, but none of the onlookers left. They all turned to look at Ning’s mother and son, curious about what they would do next.
Datou, however, didn’t want to deal with the crowd. He just wanted to find a quiet place with his mother to rest, to reflect on all the suffering they had endured over the years, and then figure out how to make Ning Geda pay.
A few people wanted to offer words of consolation, saying, “But he’s still your biological father.” But before they could open their mouths, others shut them down.
In any case, this dramatic episode of catching Ning Geda had temporarily come to an end. It remained to be seen what progress the public security bureau would make.
——
Just then, cheers rang out from inside the courtyard—the fire had been extinguished. The crowd no longer had time to discuss Ning Geda’s faked paralysis. They surged into the courtyard to see what had happened.
Being pregnant, Bai Lan naturally wasn’t going to jostle with the crowd.
She and Xu Jianbei walked at the back, watching Datou and his mother enter their home, before heading to the back courtyard.
The smoke and dust in the air had already dissipated quite a bit. The fire had started in the passage behind the western wing. Thanks to the timely response, the house hadn’t burned down. But looking from the courtyard, the rooftops of Aunt Wan’s house and Bai Baowei’s place were both blackened with soot.
Someone climbed onto the roof and said the passage was also charred black.
Because they had doused the area with water, it was hard to tell what had caused the fire. Some said it might have been dry leaves in the passage catching fire; others thought it might have been a stray spark from someone’s stove.
No one was a professional, and there was no dedicated fire department in those days, so people could only speculate.
As one of the victims, Aunt Wan was already loudly complaining about her bad luck, demanding someone take responsibility. Shouting, she rushed into her house to inspect the damage. Because of the firefighting efforts, her home had also been doused with quite a bit of water.
As for Bai Baowei’s place, he had left early for work. When the fire broke out, people had poured water into his room, breaking the lock on the door in the process. Now, his room was also soaking wet.
Bai Lan asked Xu Jianbei to go inside and check if anything needed to be tidied up. He could handle the general cleaning, but the specifics would have to wait for her brother to return and see for himself.
Xu Jianbei came out after about ten minutes.
Bai Lan saw his furrowed brow and immediately asked, “What’s wrong?”
Xu Jianbei shook his head. “Things are a bit messy, but it might have been caused by people fighting the fire.”
In the chaos of putting out the fire, no one would have paid attention to such things. Theft was rare in those days, mainly because the consequences of getting caught were severe. Besides, her brother didn’t have anything particularly valuable.
Still, if the place was in disarray, they needed to figure out what had happened.
“Go to the street office and call the factory. Get my brother to come back.”
Xu Jianbei had been thinking the same thing. With the house in disarray, who knew if something had been stolen?
The couple agreed, and Xu Jianbei headed out. Meanwhile, the courtyard grew increasingly lively.
People were discussing both the cause of the fire and how timely the fire had been.
“Really, it’s not nice to say, but if it weren’t for that fire, we never would have known that Ning Geda was faking paralysis.”
“Exactly. Live long enough and you see everything. We’ve heard of people playing dumb, but never someone faking paralysis. What’s the point? For a measly subsidy of just over ten yuan a month in basic wages, he faked paralysis for nearly twenty years. Ning Geda’s name suits him—he really is a blockhead.”
In those days, the mainstream mindset was one of hard work and striving. Almost no one could understand Ning Geda.
And as for the “lying flat” mentality that would appear in later generations, no one actually “lay flat” the way Ning Geda did.
So, this one bizarre individual had truly been an eye-opener for everyone.
It was just a pity about Datou and his mother. Everyone sympathized with the mother and son.
Bai Lan felt that since Ning’s mother had been angry enough to kill today, she definitely wouldn’t let Ning Geda off so easily.
Bai Lan was familiar with Datou’s family situation. If it weren’t for Datou working as a temporary driver at the transport company these past few months, he would basically have no savings at all.
Now that Ning Geda had been caught, he would certainly have to repay all the subsidies the factory had given him over the years. But that money had long been spent on Ning Geda himself over all those years.
So, Bai Lan was actually quite worried. Would this debt ultimately fall on the mother and son? If so, then they would be truly unlucky.
Just then, Xu Jianbei returned from making the phone call. Bai Lan immediately voiced her concerns.
“Factory Director is a pretty responsible person. He probably won’t handle it that way.”
What to do about all the subsidies Ning Geda had received over the years was indeed a problem. But making Datou and his mother bear that burden would be going too far.
“I made the call. Brother said he’d take leave and come back right away.”
As he spoke, Xu Jianbei helped Bai Lan into a chair and sat her down. Looking around the back courtyard, aside from the western wing, no other houses had been damaged. If their home had actually burned down today, Xu Jianbei and Bai Lan could still live in the screw factory housing. But the rest of the family would have had a real headache.
As for how the fire had started, Xu Jianbei was the most eager to find out.
Over yonder, Aunt Wan was still shouting about how her house had been blackened by the smoke. Hu the Widow, her old rival, was gloating with laughter.
Hearing this, Aunt Wan became so angry that she immediately lunged at Hu the Widow and scratched her twice, looking ready to teach her a lesson.
To strike without a word—even Hu the Widow, seasoned veteran that she was, was momentarily stunned. Then she snapped out of it and fought back like a madwoman.
This turn of events was something Bai Lan hadn’t expected. The corner of her mouth twitched. She thought it was a bit funny how the two women had been so united in mocking Ning Geda back in the alley, and now they were fighting again.
The commotion caused by the two aunties was so loud that many people started watching the new spectacle.
Just then, the door of the Hu household opened. Bai Lan saw Hu Aimin walk out and was momentarily taken aback.
“He doesn’t have to work today?”
Hu Aimin was an electrician at the textile mill. Electricians, unlike workshop workers, didn’t work in shifts. They had fixed working hours.
Xu Jianbei also found Hu Aimin’s presence a bit odd. But thinking about how lazy the man was, he just shook his head. “Probably trying to get out of work again.”
Hu Aimin was indeed very lazy. He had gotten his electrician position by leveraging his father’s death and Hu the Widow’s unreasonable behavior, but after several years on the job, he hadn’t improved at all. Clearly, he was a lazy person.
This guy could probably understand Ning Geda’s reasoning for faking paralysis.
Just then, Bai Lan suddenly said, “Wait a minute—there were so many people in the alley earlier, but I didn’t see Hu Aimin.”
Because she was pregnant, Bai Lan and Xu Jianbei had been standing against the wall in the alley. So they had a clear impression of who was standing in front of them. Hu Aimin was definitely not there. And among the people fighting the fire, Hu Aimin was nowhere to be seen either.
The man was thin and short and couldn’t have lifted water to put out a fire up high anyway.
“He wasn’t hiding in the house the whole time the fire was happening, was he?”
How reckless would someone have to be to stay inside when thick smoke was spreading? Even Ning Geda, guarding such a huge secret, had been forced out by the threat of smoke and exposed himself.
The couple immediately became wary of Hu Aimin. They even began to suspect that Hu Aimin might have something to do with the fire.
But what would he gain from it?
Just then, Bai Baowei rushed back in a hurry.
“How did a fire suddenly break out?” Bai Baowei’s home had been fine when he left for work.
Bai Lan and Xu Jianbei set aside their suspicions for the moment and said directly, “Brother, go inside first and see if anything needs repair. Check if anything is missing or damaged.”
Bai Baowei immediately nodded. He did have some precious belongings, though others probably wouldn’t think they were worth much. Without saying more, he hurried inside.
The fight between Hu the Widow and Aunt Wan also came to a temporary halt with Bai Baowei’s arrival. Aunt Wan shoved Hu the Widow hard to the side and nimbly jumped up from the ground.
Standing outside the house, she shouted toward the small side room in the western wing, “Young Bai, check if your place is blackened with smoke! Damn it, we’re both in the western wing, so why is only Hu’s house untouched? Mine is all blackened!”
Bai Lan looked at Xu Jianbei. Xu Jianbei shook his head, indicating that Bai Baowei’s house didn’t show many signs of smoke damage.
Now that was strange!
Neither of them was foolish. They immediately thought of a possibility. But that guess raised new questions.
Again, what would anyone stand to gain from this?
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