When he bought the phone, Ding Ding also bought a case that could hang around the neck, and, in a rare occurrence, got up early to make Bai Congming breakfast.
"Call me if anything comes up. You can call even if nothing does. Video call me at lunch so I can see what you're eating..."
Bai Congming looked very happy. The smile never left his face.
"Brother Ding, sleep!"
"Fine, fine, I'll sleep." It was getting late, so Ding Ding pushed him out. "I'll sleep once you leave."
He said he would sleep, but once he lay back down, he wasn't sleepy at all.
After tossing and turning out of boredom for a while, Ding Ding thought about going out to buy some groceries. He had just sat up when he heard a commotion at the door.
Ding Shu had money to burn. She had bought everything from a refrigerator to a dish sterilizer and a washing machine, and came along with the delivery workers early that morning to bring them to Ding Ding.
"Did you even stop to think whether my place could fit all this?" Ding Ding frowned. "Really here to relieve poverty?"
"What? Should I get you a bigger place too?"
"I wouldn't say no." Ding Ding grinned cheekily. "I want a little villa by Peacock Lake."
Property prices around Peacock Lake were about as high as they got here. Ding Shu rolled her eyes and told him he was dreaming.
With the appliances brought inside, the place looked somewhat presentable, at least shedding its initial impression of utter destitution.
Ding Shu didn't act like a guest at all. She went inside, poured herself a glass of water, then settled into Ding Ding's usual spot to play on her phone.
"Aren't you leaving?" Ding Ding tried to shoo her away. "Trying to mooch another meal?"
Ding Shu clicked her tongue. "Is that any way to talk to your older sister?"
"You're right, that wasn't quite right." Ding Ding curled his lip and rephrased it. "Aren't you fucking off yet?"
"..."
Ding Shu couldn't be bothered to argue with him. "Someone's bringing you clothes in a bit. I want to see whether they fit."
They had always loved playing games like this when they were little.
Ding Ding had four older sisters. The others showered him with love and care; only Ding Shu didn't treat him like a human being at all.
Whenever she bought a pretty little dress, she put it on Ding Ding first, then stole their eldest sister's makeup to do him up.
That embarrassing history of being laughed at had cast a shadow over his childhood. Ding Ding refused no matter what.
"How could they not fit? If they're too big, I'll use them as rags. If they're too small, I'll give them to Little Bai. Simple."
Ding Shu gave him a sidelong look and kicked the stool beside her. "Stop blocking my sunlight."
"..."
When Ding Ding's phone rang, the siblings were sitting on opposite sides, neither saying a word.
He answered, and a huge smiling face filled the screen. Bai Congming's voice came through, full of energy.
"Brother Ding!"
That single call seemed to brighten even the gloomy sky.
Ding Ding let out a soft breath and smiled. "On your break?"
"Mm." Bai Congming turned the phone around, pointing the front-facing camera at today's lunch. "Look. Food."
The four-compartment tray held both meat and vegetables. The dishes looked pretty good.
"All right, now let me see you."
Bai Congming turned the phone back around, showing Ding Ding himself and the field of flowers behind him.
Ding Shu looked indifferent, but her ears were pricked up as she listened to Bai Congming tell Ding Ding what he had done at the flower nursery that day.
The atmosphere between the two was so good that even an onlooker couldn't help feeling envious.
Only after hanging up did Ding Ding finally look properly at Ding Shu beside him.
"Something going on, or something you need to say? Get on with it. Stop dragging it out."
"..."
They had grown up together, after all. Even after years apart, any unusual behavior still wouldn't go unnoticed.
Ding Shu stared at him for a while, then put down her phone and sat up straighter.
"There is something I need to tell you."
Ding Ding gave a hum of acknowledgment.
"Dad went for a checkup a while ago. They found liver cancer. They said he doesn't have much time left."
Ding Ding froze. "...He's going to die?"
"..."
It was so blunt that Ding Shu couldn't resist slapping him.
"Could you put it a little more nicely?"
"How am I supposed to make that sound nice?"
"..."
Years of weathering the business world had forged Ding Ding into steel. For instance, the more unsettled he was inside, the less he showed on the surface.
Back then, his father had driven Ding Ding out with a thick stick, and had personally declared that he no longer had a son like him.
Even so, hearing the news still made Ding Ding's chest tighten.
Ding Ding's original name hadn't been Ding Ding. It had been Ding Yaozu, with the childhood nickname Ding Jiabao.
He had four older sisters: Pan Di, Nian Di, Lai Di, and Zhaodi.
Their names alone made it easy to imagine how Ding Ding had been treated at home.
Apart from Ding Zhaodi, everyone indulged his every wish. He could have whatever he wanted, even though the family wasn't particularly well-off.
Despite growing up in such an environment, Ding Ding hadn't become spoiled or arrogant. Instead, he had grown up healthy and tall.
His days had gone smoothly for over a decade, until the day he came of age, when his father brought home a girl and said she was to be Ding Ding's child bride.
Even now, Ding Ding remembered every word his father had said then.
"Have a son while you're still young, and your life will be settled."
"I've even picked out my grandson's name. Ding Xianzong!"
"Once your son is born, my task will be complete."
-Who knew who had assigned him that task.
In his father's eyes, carrying on the family line mattered more than anything. That belief had also influenced Ding Ding's mother and sisters.
They were good to him not because he was well-behaved and sensible, but because he was a son.
As that thought flashed through his mind, Ding Ding suddenly understood everything.
His eldest sister wiping away tears over her admission letter, his second sister marrying the butcher who sold meat in town at an early age, his third sister able only to crouch in a fishing boat to read...
They had sacrificed their own lives to support the family's only son.
Endless guilt swept over him, shattering all his youthful pride.
"I can't have a son," Ding Ding had told his father calmly that day. "I like men. I'm gay."
"...Say that again?"
What followed was several months of chaos. His mother wept every day; his father insisted he was sick and wanted to have people tie him up and take him to the hospital; his sisters hit and scolded him, leaving him without a single peaceful day.
At last, his father could take no more and drove him out with a stick. Ding Ding began a life on his own.
He changed his name to Ding Ding.
The character for his surname was too light, as light as the good fortune he had been born with; adding the character for a heavy bronze cauldron made it just right, weighing down his unforgivable sins.
From then on, his name was no longer his family's hopes for him, but a sentence he had passed on himself.
At first, Ding Ding's mother still called to try to persuade him, but as time passed, the calls stopped.
Later, Ding Ding learned that a year after he left home, the family had welcomed another younger brother.
His name was Ding Xianzong.
At that point, Ding Ding truly became someone his family had abandoned.
Fourth Older Sister Ding Zhaodi was an exception.
This Fourth Older Sister was two years older than him. Because their parents worried he would be bullied at school on his own, they had made her start school two years late.
Who would have thought that he wouldn't suffer any bullying from his classmates, yet would get the full measure of his sister's punches, kicks, and verbal abuse?
A year after their youngest brother was born, Fourth Older Sister had been forced to drop out of school. They wanted to marry her off and use the bride price to pave the way for him.
Looking at her now, it was clear that she had made a brave decision back then.
Before you continue