Bai Congming

Biodata

Background / History

Childhood and adoption

Before Bai Fang took him in, Bai Congming lived on the streets, where he learned to defend himself with whatever objects he could find. Bai Fang brought him to Hongfang Street, registered a new identity for him at the police station, and named him Bai Congming. She had previously lost both her husband and her son, Xiaofeng 3 167 169 170.

Bai Fang raised him with help from her friend Zhou Nianci, later known to him as Auntie Zhou. Because leaving him alone was difficult, she obtained Granny Sun’s permission to bring him to the Flower Nursery. His early fascination with flowers developed into the gardening work he continued as an adult 15 167.

Education

School initially frightened Bai Congming because he believed being left there meant his mother no longer wanted him. He gradually attended classes, but academic learning remained difficult. Recognizing banknotes alone took a month of practice, including drawing different denominations to distinguish them 169.

His middle-school teacher, Teacher Li, tried individual tutoring and activities such as drawing, music, and dancing. Gardening proved a more lasting strength: a sapling Bai Congming planted survived for years after the other students’ trees had withered. He graduated from middle school at sixteen, but refused the proposed move to vocational school because he did not want to leave his mother or Hongfang Street 170.

Bai Fang’s illness and death

When Bai Fang collapsed after coughing up blood, Bai Congming sought Zhou Nianci’s help and carried his mother to the hospital. He initially refused food and sleep while waiting beside her, believing the doctors only needed to “fix” her 170.

During her illness, Bai Fang prepared him to live independently. She taught him to use a phone, shop for ingredients, and cook rice safely. She also sold the household appliances she feared would endanger him, leaving a rice cooker. Although her lessons were detailed, he struggled to retain them and eventually returned from the market with potatoes and sausages rather than the full selection she had taught him 38 171 172.

Before her death, Bai Fang instructed him to save money, find a wife, and treat that person well. Bai Congming followed those instructions after losing her, continuing to work and save while associating his mother’s resting place with the bougainvillea 1.

Appearance

• Youthful features: Fair skin, soft hair, and exceptionally clear eyes; his appearance initially makes Ding Ding question whether he is an adult 1.
• Thin build: Despite his slight frame, he can carry Ding Ding on his back 29.
• Floral scent: His daily work at the nursery leaves him smelling strongly of flowers 1.
• Cleanliness: He keeps himself and his home clean and habitually washes his hands before handling food or caring for someone 19 20 30.

Personality

Bai Congming expresses affection directly and through practical care. He saves money for Ding Ding, brings him flowers, tends his injuries, and worries about whether he has eaten. His wish to keep Ding Ding beside him gradually develops into a desire to make him happy, even when that means spending all his available savings on a brief fireworks display 20 36 39 40.

He is frugal and deeply opposed to waste, particularly wasted food. Expensive gifts can upset rather than please him: when Ding Ding buys a costly decorative rock, Bai Congming worries about the expense and offers his own savings instead. He values being treated well more than having a large house or expensive possessions 78 140 174.

His understanding of rules is often literal. Being told to “take a break” frightens him because he associates it with a former employee’s dismissal; drinking someone else’s water when desperately thirsty makes him fear arrest. He can be painfully self-critical, but he also knows he is capable and dislikes having ordinary tasks taken away from him 14 27 36 81.

Past deception and bereavement make him wary of strangers and afraid of separation. Ding Ding’s consistent companionship helps him become more sociable and secure. Nevertheless, he remains sensitive to rejection and worries that Ding Ding’s family might separate them, partly because he interprets events through stories from romance comics 30 48 61 66 142 143.

Abilities & Skills

Horticulture

Bai Congming is a patient gardener whose strengths lie in careful, familiar work 15 36 161.

• Prunes flowers to the nursery’s demanding standards, identifying inconspicuous gray spots on a peony 36.
• Handles delicate pest-treatment work well when Auntie Zhou prepares the pesticide solution 15.
• Packs flowers, weeds, waters plants, and helps transport nursery orders 14 53.
• Selects discarded flowers to bring home rather than letting all of them become compost 36.
• Successfully grows a school sapling that survives long after his classmates’ trees 170.

Housekeeping and caregiving

He can maintain a clean home and perform practical care with considerable confidence 20 66.

• Cleans Ding Ding’s unconscious body and replaces dirty bedding without removing him from the bed 20.
• Seeks help from Auntie Zhou and a doctor when Ding Ding does not wake 20.
• Helps Ding Ding attend an X-ray examination and carries him home when necessary 23 29.
• Follows learned hygiene and privacy rules, including washing his hands before care and dressing Ding Ding before bringing visitors inside 20.

Cooking and handicrafts

His abilities are strongest with practiced instructions rather than improvisation.

• Rice-cooker meals: Learns ingredient preparation and rice-cooker safety from Bai Fang; potato rice becomes his familiar meal 20 171 172.
• Microwave use: Learns to reheat prepared food after prolonged instruction from Ding Ding 66.
• Handicrafts: Learns small crafts from Xie Xiao Hua and fuse-bead work from Fang Yun, making a keychain for Ding Ding and planning gifts for friends 45 115.
• Limits: His improvised buns made with dried tofu, potato chips, and preserved plums fail badly. Ding Ding eats them to spare his feelings and subsequently requires treatment for mild food poisoning 174.

Sensory observation

• Hearing: Notices a visitor at the courtyard gate before Ding Ding reacts 41.
• Smell: Associates a bitter smell in flowers with their approaching death and recalls similar unpleasant changes during his mother’s illness 81.
• Awareness of mortality: His statements about death are not simply confusion; he explicitly understands that everyone must die and challenges Ding Ding’s reassurance on that basis 80 81.

Learned independence

• Memorizes his name, age, and full address, often reciting them together when introducing himself 1 61.
• Uses his mother’s rule of asking approachable aunties or grandmothers for directions when lost 20 88.
• Finds his way home after being robbed by repeatedly asking strangers for directions, despite fear of the dark and painful feet 19 20.
• Learns phone calls, video calls, and basic precautions around strangers through repeated guidance 36 61 110 171.

Equipment / Personal Items

• Little Piggy Bank — Holds the wages he saves toward building a household. He repeatedly uses or offers his savings for Ding Ding’s care and happiness 19 21 40 45.
• Mobile phone — Ding Ding gives him a phone that initially, in Bai Congming’s understanding, should contain only Ding Ding’s contact. Sun Xiangxiang teaches him that it can also hold friends’ numbers 36.
• Yellow blanket — A gift from Ding Ding for his nursery lunch breaks; Bai Congming initially considers it too pretty to use 30.
• Cloth pouch — An object associated with his mother; he shows her the view above the clouds through it on his first flight 88.
• Comics — Supplied and sometimes narrated page by page by Sun Xiangxiang. They teach him about dating but also shape his fears about opposition from Ding Ding’s family 46 142 143.

Relationships

• Ding Ding — Romantic partner and eventual wedding partner. Bai Congming calls him “wife” and “Brother Ding,” promising to care for him; Ding Ding reciprocates with companionship, practical support, and encouragement toward independence 1 38 61 159.
• Bai Fang — Adoptive mother. She gives him a home, teaches his daily routines, and prepares him for life after her death. He continues to miss her, dreams of her, and burns offerings with Ding Ding 167 171 99 115.
• Zhou Nianci / Auntie Zhou — Bai Fang’s longtime friend and one of his most dependable caregivers. She watches him grow up, supervises his nursery work, and helps him through illness, fear, and deception 15 20 74.
• Granny Sun — Nursery elder who permits Bai Fang to bring him to work and shows concern for his welfare, sometimes beneath brusque remarks 3 14 15.
• Sun Xiangxiang — Close friend whom he calls “Sunflower Sister.” She offers courtship advice, shares treats and comics, and helps him learn to use his phone socially 14 15 36 46.
• Ding Shu — Ding Ding’s sister. Bai Congming is initially afraid of her, but she apologizes for an earlier confrontation, helps him obtain fireworks, and later shields him during a family meeting 40 70 142.
• Fang Yun — Companion at Ding Ding’s company who teaches him fuse-bead crafts and joins him in leisure activities 104 115 126.
• Xie Xiao Hua — Teaches him crafts he hopes to sell. His helping her and bringing her home for dinner prompt a discussion with Ding Ding about jealousy 43 45.
• Gouzai — The stray kitten he feeds and adopts with Ding Ding. He remains attentive during her veterinary care and later helps care for her kittens, whom he considers family 56 80 176.
• Teacher Li — Middle-school teacher who first attempts academic tutoring, then seeks practical strengths and recommends vocational education 170.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Alternate “Just Right” storyline

The IF extras present a separate meeting scenario rather than a continuation of the main-story courtship 160 161.

• Bai Congming works at a water-delivery station. Ding Ding intervenes when Li Hao scolds him over a payment misunderstanding and gives him pastries 160.
• He begins waiting outside Ding Ding’s workplace after his deliveries, eventually asking whether Ding Ding will be his wife 161.
• He calls Bai Fang’s old number, unaware that it has been reassigned. The young woman who now owns it gradually agrees to speak with him as “Mom” 160.
• As the relationship develops, Bai Congming brings domestic warmth to Ding Ding’s home and helps bridge the distance between Ding Ding and Ding Shu 163 166.

Notable Quotes

“I'll definitely treat you well!” 1

“Little Bai doesn't want a big house. Wants Brother Ding to be good to him!” 78

“The kittens are family. Our whole family has to stay together!” 176

Trivia

• Bai Fang deliberately chooses Congming, meaning “smart,” as his name in contrast to the intellectual disability she openly acknowledges 167.
• He describes people through flowers: Zheng Xixi is a camellia, Sun Xiangxiang a sunflower, and Ding Ding a cactus that hurts a little but is soft 99.
• He remembers the appearance of the worn banknotes in his savings, allowing him to recognize which money is his 87.
• After Ding Shu describes them as a family of eight, he requests eight tangyuan, linking the number to his newly expanded understanding of family 176.