Bai Fang

Biodata

Background / History

Losing Xiao Feng and Taking in Bai Congming

Bai Fang’s biological son, Xiao Feng, died of nasopharyngeal cancer several months before she brought Bai Congming home. Family troubles had exhausted her resources, and she had sold her previous house. She later described raising Bai Congming as a mutual rescue: “He saved me, and I’m saving him.” The narration confirms that finding him by the river had kept her alive at a point when she otherwise would not have survived 167 171.

The boy she rescued was approximately five or six, nonverbal, malnourished, and injured. Hospital examinations found congenital patent ductus arteriosus and a mild intellectual disability caused by intracranial injury. Bai Fang initially tried to leave him at the hospital with her remaining money, but returned almost immediately and took responsibility for him. Despite having almost no money or relatives to turn to, she raised the funds for his successful heart operation 167.

Building a Home

After the operation, Bai Fang sought help from her longtime friend Zhou Nianci. She rented an unused courtyard belonging to Aunt Sun, registered the boy’s new identity at the police station, and named him Bai Congming, choosing a name meaning “smart.” Aunt Sun allowed her to bring him to work at the Flower Nursery, just as she had previously brought Xiao Feng 167.

Bai Congming gradually gained weight and began smiling under her care. Bai Fang rejected others’ assumption that he was mute, explaining that his vocal cords were healthy and that he needed time to learn. She filled their courtyard with flowers and arranged a hammock beside them when she noticed how much he enjoyed looking at the blooms 167.

His first spoken appeal to her came after he fell from the hammock while trying to protect her from a bug. Hearing him call “Mommy” and say that he hurt moved Bai Fang to tears. She celebrated by taking him and Zhou Nianci out for a meal 168.

Work and Schooling

To supplement her nursery income, Bai Fang sold trinkets outside an elementary school, taking Bai Congming with her. When he wandered to a nearby sausage stall, her fear of losing another child erupted into anger and tears. After calming down, she explained that he needed to tell her before going anywhere; she subsequently kept his stool beside hers and linked them with a strip of cloth 168.

Bai Fang taught him to recognize money by having him draw banknotes, a process that took about a month. She also enrolled him in school and helped him understand permission, gifts, and returning kindness. When a teacher suggested repeating first grade because of his poor results, she refused: he had finally become comfortable with his classmates, and she valued his happiness over his marks 169.

Jealous vendors later surrounded Bai Fang’s stall and accused her of having an affair and cheating someone out of money. The confrontation became a fight after a woman made an insinuation about Bai Congming. He defended his mother with an iron support frame and seriously injured a man’s eye. Following police statements, the dispute was resolved and Bai Fang received compensation, though damaging rumors continued to circulate 169 170.

Afterward, Bai Fang checked whether her son was being bullied and firmly prohibited weapons in fights. When his poor entrance-exam results prompted a suggestion of vocational school, she considered it but accepted his refusal to leave Hongfang Street. She promised that she could continue protecting him as an adult 170.

Cancer and Preparing Her Son for Independence

Bai Fang developed coughing, fever, bloody phlegm, nosebleeds, and ringing in her ears. Recognizing symptoms associated with Xiao Feng’s illness, she feared investigating them. After she coughed up blood and collapsed, Bai Congming fetched Zhou Nianci and carried her to the hospital 170.

Doctors diagnosed late-stage cancer and initially estimated that treatment might give her only three or four months. Bai Fang considered preserving the money for Bai Congming rather than spending it in hospital, but agreed to treatment because he needed her. Nearly half a year later, her condition had improved enough for her to return home 171.

Knowing that her remaining time was limited, she began replacing her earlier protectiveness with practical instruction:

• Household safety: Sold nearly all their electrical appliances, retaining a new rice cooker so Bai Congming could prepare meals 171.
• Cooking: Taught him to identify ingredients, make one-pot rice, and avoid hot surfaces and steam 171.
• Daily responsibilities: Gradually handed over shopping, cooking, laundry, and cleaning until he could manage the household 172.
• Personal boundaries: Told him to refuse unwanted demands and escape anyone who tried to force him 171.
• Written reminders: Required him to copy rules against climbing, playing with fire, touching hot objects, and sleeping outside 172.

Bai Fang told him that she would someday live in the bougainvillea and watch him grow. She also took him to Xiao Feng’s grave and purchased a burial plot beside the family graves. As her condition worsened, she returned to hospital, partly to spare Bai Congming and Zhou Nianci the difficulty of arranging everything after a death at home 171 172.

Final Days

During her last hospitalization, Bai Fang continued correcting Bai Congming’s cooking and praising his efforts despite chemotherapy-related hair loss and loss of appetite. She urged him to find a partner so that he would not be lonely, specifying that the person should be good-hearted generally—not merely kind to him 172.

On the snowy twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, she called Zhou Nianci to visit. The two shared pigeon soup and memories while Bai Congming went out to buy her flowers, returning with wintersweet when he could not find chrysanthemums. Bai Fang regretted that she had not lived long enough to see him grow up. She died after listening to him recite her lessons, leaving Zhou Nianci a letter with funeral instructions and a request to help him when necessary 173.

Appearance

Bai Fang is remembered as a radiant, gentle-looking woman before her illness left her pale, haggard, and extremely thin 57.

• Wore a plain-colored dress and camel coat on the cemetery visit when she purchased her burial plot 172.
• Lost hair in handfuls during chemotherapy 172.

Personality

Bai Fang was compassionate but blunt, often hiding tenderness behind complaints, teasing, or scolding. She returned for an abandoned child despite recognizing the financial burden, insisted on paying rent rather than accepting a free home, and declined a proposed police-station collection for her family 96 167 169.

Her parenting combined patient adaptation with harmful moments of frustration. She devised drawing exercises and repeated practical lessons to meet Bai Congming’s needs, but also repeatedly called him a fool, threatened to withdraw affection to make him speak, and sometimes punished him by making him kneel. Zhou Nianci disliked her use of the label, and the association between kneeling and punishment later disrupted Ding Ding’s proposal 63 72 168 169.

Although willing to confront people who attacked her family, Bai Fang concealed much of her own suffering. During her final illness, she hid her pain from visitors, cried privately at night, and tried to appear cheerful for her son 169 172.

Relationships

• Bai Congming — Adopted son. Their bond gave Bai Fang a reason to continue living after Xiao Feng’s death. She raised him through childhood and spent her final months preparing him to survive without her 167 171 172.
• Xiao Feng — Biological son who died of nasopharyngeal cancer. Bai Fang told Bai Congming that she loved both sons equally and later chose a burial plot beside the family graves 167 172.
• Zhou Nianci / Auntie Zhou — Friend since childhood. Provided money, practical help, hospital support, and companionship; became the person Bai Fang trusted to assist Bai Congming after her death 167 171 173.
• Aunt Sun / Granny Sun — Employer, friend, and landlady. Allowed Bai Fang to bring her children to work, supplied clothing for Bai Congming, and charged only token rent after Bai Fang insisted on paying 96 167.
• Ding Ding — Bai Congming’s eventual husband. In Bai Congming’s dream, Bai Fang acknowledged that he had found someone good and asked him to convey her thanks 99 159.

Legacy and Later Appearances

• Everyday guidance: Bai Congming continues following her rules after her death. When lost at night, he quietly asks approachable women for directions and repeats his home address until he reaches Hongfang Street 20.
• Bougainvillea: Her promise to watch him from the flowers became Bai Congming’s explanation for where she had gone. When moving away, he and Ding Ding decided to leave the old bougainvillea behind and plant new ones 57 98 171.
• Grave visits: Zhou Nianci takes Bai Congming to the cemetery on Bai Fang’s death anniversary and asks Ding Ding to maintain the tradition in the future 57 58.
• Savings: Zhou Nianci safeguards Bai Fang’s bankbook, handing it to Ding Ding only after he writes and fingerprints a lifelong pledge to care for Bai Congming. Ding Ding promises to protect the money she left 96.
• Dream appearance: After Bai Congming moves into his new home, he dreams of meeting Bai Fang beneath a Silk Tree. She makes him record two requests: more spirit money from Zhou Nianci and a message thanking Ding Ding. Ding Ding comforts him on waking and promises to burn the offerings 99.
• Parallel-universe appearance: Ding Ding briefly enters a world where Bai Fang is alive and treats both men as family. He accepts her care and buys her a red dress before returning to his own world; her survival there does not change her death in the main timeline 177.

Notable Quotes

“I’m not after anything. He saved me, and I’m saving him.” 167

“His grades don’t matter. As long as he’s happy.” 169

“You need to find someone who’s a good person to begin with. Just being good to Little Bai alone isn’t enough, understand?” 172