Have him go on a blind date

One could not refuse a gift from an elder; naturally, one could not turn down an elder's invitation either.

Ding Ding took a clean bowl and chopsticks from the sterilizing cabinet, returned with a heaping bowl of rice, and pushed the dishes on the table closer to Auntie Zhou.

"It's a simple meal. I hope you don't mind."

Four dishes and a soup, with both meat and eggs, could hardly count as a simple meal for two.

Auntie Zhou looked around the room filled with furniture and appliances, deeply moved beneath her seemingly calm gaze.

Little Bai had had a hard time over the years, and it hurt her to see it, but there was very little she could do to help.

Now that he had someone beside him and his life was beginning to have some flavor, it really was hard to justify her butting in.

But...

"Little Bai," Auntie Zhou said, picking up her bowl, "could you go to my house and steal Little Moon for me?"

Little Moon was Auntie Zhou's pet rabbit, a hardy little thing that had lived for seven or eight years.

Back when Bai Fang was still alive, she would occasionally bring Bai Congming over to visit in her spare time. While the two adults talked, Little Bai would go play with the rabbit.

After Bai Fang died, Auntie Zhou's husband feared that the fool would be a bad influence on their son, who could only score thirty on his math tests, so he stopped Auntie Zhou from bringing him home.

The rabbit had more of a conscience than people did. Whenever Bai Congming passed by or came near, the rabbit would get lively, even gnawing the cage open to wriggle out and rub against his trouser legs.

It was dark outside, and Ding Ding did not want him going out. He also knew that Auntie Zhou wanted to talk, but after a moment's thought, he stopped him anyway.

"Let me buy some carrots to keep at home first, and we can bring the rabbit over next time. Otherwise, we'll look like we don't know how to treat a guest."

Auntie Zhou opened her mouth, then hesitated.

"After we finish eating, could you brew some rose tea for Auntie and me, Little Bai?"

"Okay!"

Bai Congming agreed. After a couple of bites, he seemed to suddenly remember something and got up to take a large bag out of his backpack.

"Make this!"

"What is that?"

There were only so many things Bai Congming carried out with him every day: his water bottle and blanket, with the occasional snack Ding Ding tucked in for him.

The blanket was changed every three days; otherwise, Ding Ding did not touch his backpack. He was genuinely baffled by the bag Bai Congming had now produced.

"Isn't that sour plum drink?" Sun Xiangxiang had given her a packet too when she came that day. "Then Little Bai can make some for us after dinner."

"Where did the sour plum drink come from?" Ding Ding asked casually.

Bai Congming answered, "Sunflower Sister."

"She's a customer at the nursery."

Afraid Ding Ding would not know, Auntie Zhou added an explanation. "She's very good to Little Bai."

Ding Ding nodded without giving it much thought.

Of course it was good to have another person treating Bai Congming well. Apart from that comic book, Ding Ding had a very favorable impression of her.

Three people ate, two of them distracted.

After dinner, Bai Congming took the sour plum drink outside. Ding Ding had fitted a rack over the little stove, so Bai Congming was not as afraid of it anymore.

Since they had to simmer medicine every day and Ding Ding disliked starting fires, he always left some charcoal inside to keep it warm. The next time they needed it, they only had to add some fuel.

Bai Congming did very well, careful and focused, as though he were preparing not a simple sour plum drink but an entire imperial banquet.

Inside.

Ding Ding collected the dirty dishes and put them in the sink. In no hurry to wash them, he merely wiped the table and washed some fruit, then came out to sit with Auntie Zhou.

They chatted about this and that, and the atmosphere was not tense. After a while, Auntie Zhou finally broached the real subject.

"What do you do for work, Ding?"

Ding Ding had no intention of hiding anything. "I used to run a small company, but something happened, so... I haven't decided what to do next yet."

"Business is good," Auntie Zhou said with a smile. "You earn more, and life is easier."

Ding Ding agreed, then heard Auntie Zhou ask another question.

"Then, about you and Little Bai... what are your thoughts?"

Through the window, Ding Ding could see Bai Congming outside.

Having made his way through all kinds of dangers, Ding Ding had mostly met people who cared only about profit, not human feelings. He had worn his mask for so long that he simply could not bring himself to pledge his devotion to his partner's elder like some green young fool.

So Ding Ding asked, "What would you like to say, Auntie?"

His tone was still relaxed, yet it somehow made Auntie Zhou nervous.

"Well," Auntie Zhou smiled again, her smile incongruous and exaggerated, "a man and another man... who knows how long it can last?"

Ding Ding's face stiffened. So she's going to break us up.

"But of course I support what Little Bai wants. If he wants this, I certainly won't stand in his way. It's just..."

"Just what?" Ding Ding asked.

"It's just that Little Bai has been alone all these years. I'm afraid he hasn't had a chance to see how good other people... other women can be, and after meeting you, he just... do you understand what I'm saying?"

"..."

Ding Ding understood.

Perfectly.

During his years at school, under Ding Shu's influence, Ding Ding had read a few books too.

There was one line that could not have summed up Auntie Zhou's worries better.

Never having known longing, one had barely learned it before falling lovesick.

What if Ding Ding had appeared at precisely the moment Bai Congming needed someone to appear, and that bewildered man had plunged headfirst into it? The cause had come first, and only then the result.

Ding Ding ate a grape very slowly. Its skin was sour, with a few sweet strands of flesh clinging to it.

Once he had sucked away all the sweetness, the skin turned astringent again, hard to swallow.

"Then what are you suggesting, Auntie?"

Auntie Zhou breathed a sigh of relief. "Someone at our nursery has a niece... I met her today, and she seemed like a sweet girl. I thought... Little Bai could go meet her."

"A blind date?" Ding Ding almost laughed in anger. "You want my partner to go on a blind date?"

"It's not a blind date!" Auntie Zhou earnestly tried to persuade him. "He'd just meet her, get to know her. What if he really is only with you because you're good to him... and someone else treats him even better in the future? Then he..."

Auntie Zhou did not finish, but Ding Ding understood her completely.

Yet he did not think that was how it was.

Bai Congming had already taken a blow from a club for him back when Ding Ding had not even been treating him well.

"Besides..."

Seeing that he said nothing, Auntie Zhou decided to spell it out.

"Besides, you can't even get a marriage certificate. If... I'm saying if, one day you get fed up, you get tired, you want to go back to a normal life, and you leave him to marry and have children, what is Little Bai supposed to do then?"

"...When that happens, we won't even have anywhere to turn and cry!"

From an elder's perspective, Auntie Zhou was not actually wrong.

But as the person being questioned by that elder, Ding Ding found it absurd.

To stop watering a flower just as it began to grow, out of fear that it would wither sooner or later, was deeply unfair.

"Don't worry, either. It's only a meal together. You can come along too..."

Before she could finish, Bai Congming jogged in from the courtyard.

"Brother Ding! Brother Ding! Hot! You go!"

Ding Ding wiped every expression from his face and smiled at Bai Congming.

"All right. I'll go take the pot off."

The sour plum drink had brewed very strong. It did not actually taste good hot, but Ding Ding still poured Auntie Zhou a cup to try.

"Let me think about it," Ding Ding said.

"..."