Your Distance

Being together with the same person for many years can cause your social skills to degrade. For example, right then, Ting Shuang didn’t know what to say to this Mr. Cycle at all.

Zhu Wenjia still urged at the side, “Hurry up and send him a message.”

Ting Shuang thought for a long while and sent one word: Hello.

Zhu Wenjia, “…”

“Brother, your operationality is far too low.” Zhu Wenjia snatched the phone over and clicked on Cycle’s homepage. “You need to find things to chat about from the other party’s basic information and statuses… Hey, why is there nothing on his homepage? “

Ting Shuang said, “Maybe he doesn’t spend so much time on the internet.”

Zhu Wenjia returned to the chat interface with Cycle, and was shocked upon seeing it. The other party also returned the same dry word: Hello.

“…As expected of a Perfect Match.“ Zhu Wenjia threw the phone to Ting Shuang and walked away silently. “The two of you can talk.”

Ting Shuang didn’t know what to talk about. He typed something, then deleted it, and typed again after deleting. Even after ten minutes he had not sent another message. He glanced at the time on the top of his phone, realising that he had lessons tomorrow morning, thus sending out a sentence: I apologise, I have to go to sleep, I have class tomorrow.

After a few minutes, Cycle replied with a word: Mm.

Ting Shuang got ready to sleep, but for Zhu Wenjia, the night life had just begun. Zhu Wenjia pulled out a pink button-up shirt from Ting Shuang’s closet and under it, wore only a t-shirt and shorts that didn’t reach his knees. Then he asked Ting Shuang for the bicycle key and rode to the city center alone to find a nightclub where he could get high.

As soon as Zhu Wenjia went out, the doorbell rang again. Ting Shuang thought that Zhu Wenjia had forgotten something, so he immediately pressed the button to unlock the door of the building. Then he opened his own door, shouting towards the door while walking to the bedroom, “Will you bring your own keys? There’s one in the bowl by the door. Take it when you leave, and open the door yourself when you come back. Don’t keep ringing the doorbell and disturbing me. And close the door properly when you leave, you hear me?”

“… Ting Shuang.” It was a familiar voice that sounded outside the door.

Ting Shuang’s paused before closing the bedroom door, and walked out to the sight of Liang Zhengxuan standing at the entrance.

Ting Shuang put a hand on his forehead and said, “Is there something you forgot to take?”

Liang Zhengxuan said, “How have you been doing?”

Ting Shuang said, “Fine.”

Liang Zhengxuan said, “Have you been eating well?”

Ting Shuang said, “Mm.”

Liang Zhengxuan said, “You smoked again?”

Ting Shuang said, “Mm.”

Liang Zhengxuan said, “Stop smoking.”

Ting Shuang said, “I’ll see.”

Liang Zhengxuan wanted to come in, but Ting Shuang said, “What did you forget? I’ll get it for you.”

So Liang Zhengxuan could only stand where he was.

“I have class tomorrow, I really have to sleep.” Ting Shuang said, about to close the door.

Liang Zhengxuan blocked the door with his hand, stepped forward and hugged Ting Shuang tightly, saying, “Can we not break up? All these years… I really wouldn’t be able to take it.”

To couples that had been together for a long time, physical contact is really scary. Familiar skin, familiar warmth, familiar scent, everything seemed to be saying: nothing happened, you and I now are the same as you and I in the past.

At that moment, Ting Shuang almost felt as if Liang Zhengxuan had just gone out for a tour, or maybe went back to China, and then came back. His body did not remember Liang Zhengxuan’s mistake, and nor was it willing to accept the command to breakup from his brain. His body only remembered that Liang Zhengxuan was someone he was closest with and trusted the most. His body was screaming madly: I miss this person. I miss this embrace.

“Liang Zhengxuan.” Ting Shuang broke free. “Don’t be like this. The situation’s been ugly enough, let’s end this quietly.”

Liang Zhengxuan said, “Are you afraid of others finding it unpleasant? I’m not afraid. In front of you, are there any ugly postures I haven’t made? How do you want me to apologise?”

Ting Shuang said, “I know I have a bad personality. Let’s just leave it at that, I really don’t want to talk about this.”

Liang Zhengxuan wanted to say something else, but Ting Shuang spoke first, “I’m ready to start the next chapter of my life.”

Liang Zhengxuan didn’t believe him. He stared at Ting Shuang for a while and then scanned the room, saying, “I know it’s your brother living in your house right now. Don’t try fooling me.”

“I’m not referring to him.”

“Then who?”

Ting Shuang did not know who. He just wanted to quickly chase Liang Zheng away.

Liang Zhengxuan knew Ting Shuang. He knew that Ting Shuang could not have gotten into a relationship with someone else in such a short period of time. He also believed that as long as he spent enough time by Ting Shuang’s side, he would be able to mend the rift between them currently. So tonight, he had to stay.

He did know Ting Shuang, but he did not know him enough. Ting Shuang had a bad temper, and would pick on the smallest things as well as act ignorant. When it comes to small things he’d expect Liang Zhengxuan to get it down to the smallest details, but when it comes to the technical, big problems, he would not argue about what was right or wrong, nor would he want an apology, or for the other party to take responsibility for it. He would only want them to leave.

He also realised Liang Zhengxuan’s intentions. If he did nothing, then Liang Zhengxuan would not leave. So he picked up his phone and sent a voice message to Cycle in front of Liang Zhengxuan: “Dear, good night.”

Liang Zhengxuan said impatiently, “Ting Shuang, who are you acting for?”

Ting Shuang stared at the mobile phone and prayed: Big Brother(1) hurry up and reply me, and I will thank you immediately once Liang Zhengxuan leaves.

“I’m not acting for anyone. I did meet someone new,” Ting Shuang said.

Liang Zhengxuan said, “Isn’t it just someone you’ve only met for two days? I don’t mind. Let’s start again.”

Ting Shuang didn’t speak, typing a message to Cycle: Have you slept? Please do me a favour and reply me with a voice message. My ex-boyfriend refuses to leave my house.

Cycle finally replied, with three words: call the police.

Ting Shuang quickly replied: Calling the police would disturb the neighbours, and it’ll waste time. I have class tomorrow. Our professional class is really difficult. I have to go.

Cycle replied after a while: A voice message saying what?

Relief filled Ting Shuang’s heart, and he continued typing: Say ‘good night to you too, dear.’ Be mushy. Or you can improvise a bit.

Cycle didn’t send any voice message for a long time, and Liang Zheng shouted, “Ting Shuang.“

Ting Shuang looked up and said, “I’m chatting with him.”

Liang Zhengxuan said, “You chat, I’ll wait.”

Two minutes later, Cycle sent a voice message, and Ting Shuang played it.

Cycle was probably very close to the microphone when he was telling, and the room was silent, so his voice was low and deep. Two words, words that scraped gently on his heart.

“Good night.”

Liang Zhengxuan’s face turned ugly.

Ting Shuang pretended not to see anything and sent a voice message back to Cycle: “Oh yeah, you left your tie at my house last night.”

Soon after, Cycle replied a voice message. Ting Shuang didn’t dare to open it, worried that Cycle would expose his lies, and mess up his plans.

Liang Zhengxuan stared at Ting Shuang and said, “Where is the tie?”

Ting Shuang said, “It was dirty so I sent it for dry cleaning today.”

The colour of Liang Zhengxuan’s face was getting worse and worse, but he still said, “I don’t believe you.”

Ting Shuang typed a message to Cycle: What did you say in the voice message? You didn’t expose me, did you?

Cycle replied: Click to listen.

Somehow Ting Shuang thought these three words were extremely reliable, so he opened the voice message. Cycle’s voice rang out: ”I’ll go over to your house in another two days to take it back.“

Ting Shuang said to Liang Zhengxuan, “See, I didn’t lie to you.”

Liang Zhengxuan looked at Ting Shuang for a long time before he said, “After all these years, and you can actually bear to do this.”

For a while, Ting Shuang didn’t know how to reply. After all these years, you can actually bear to do this? The more he thought about it, the more he felt like laughing. After all these years, who was the first one who could bear it?

“I’m closing the door.” Ting Shuang didn’t want to argue with him anymore. “If I see any of your things, I’ll mail them to you, so you don’t have to come here.”

When Liang Zhengxuan left, Ting Shuang lay down on the bed. Only then did the tiredness that had been accumulating for a long time hit him. He sent a message to Cycle telling him that his ex-boyfriend had left, and thanked him for tonight.

Cycle didn’t reply again.

Throughout the night, Ting Shuang kept waking up. He couldn’t sleep properly, and at six o’clock in the morning, Zhu Wenjia, who had no key, rang the doorbell again, waking him up.

He scolded Zhu Wenjia as he opened the door.

Zhu Wenjia tossed a paper bag on the table and said, “To think I bought you breakfast. I wouldn’t have bought it for you if I knew that you’d be like this, you heartless creature.”

“Me, heartless? Then quickly pack your bags and leave, don’t stay in my doghouse(2).” Ting Shuang couldn’t fall back asleep, so he got up to wash himself up. Up until he finished washing up, Zhu Wenjia didn’t say anything back to him. He found it weird, and when he got out of the bathroom, Zhu Wenjia was lying on the sofa, one leg hooked over the back of the sofa, he was snoring, sleeping all so comfortably.

Ting Shuang threw his blanket over Zhu Wenjia, then brought his laptop to the dinner table where he ate the breakfast Zhu Wenjia bought while checking his email.

Except for the mass email sent by the school, there was only one unread email in his mailbox. The sender was BAI, Changyi.

Seeing the name, Ting Shuang opened the mail, heart in his throat.

It was over.

Everything was over from the first line.

The killer professor of the killer course told him to retake the death course, and not only would he have to retake it next semester, he had to retake it next year, because this course only starts in the summer.

Retake it, next year.

Just because he didn’t go to the first lesson.

Ting Shuang did not have the appetite for breakfast anymore. He sent messages to several classmates asking how to deal with this kind of thing. The opinions of the classmates were basically that the authority of German professors was so great that even the school couldn’t override it. There was no other way than to ask the professor.

Ting Shuang scolded the professor in his heart while replying to the email, asking the professor to give him a second chance. He promised that he would carefully study the content of the first lesson through his classmate’s notes, and book his Sprechstunde[1] to consult him if there were any parts he did not understand.

The next day, he peeked at his email whenever he had nothing to do during class. The day passed, and he finished smoking a whole pack of cigarettes, but there was still no reply.

His spirit had already been exhausted after a whole day of classes, and the sight of Zhu Wenjia playing games with external speakers only added to his annoyance.

“Zhu Wenjia, can you wear your headphones?” Ting Shuang asked.

Zhu Wenjia’s eyes and hands did not leave the screen or his keyboard as he said, “My headphones ran out of battery.”

“Don’t you know how to charge it?” Ting Shuang finished speaking, then entered the bedroom and closed the door, blocking out the noise.

He was especially upset.

Ting Shuang played with his phone for a while, and somehow opened Distance. His chat records had only one person, Cycle.

He clicked on Cycle’s homepage, but it was still blank, and he had not posted any status updates. Returning to the chat records and the short chat history, he clicked on the four voice messages to listen to them.

Frost: “Dear, good night.”

Cycle: “Good night.”

Frost: “Oh yeah, you left your tie at my house last night.”

Cycle: “I’ll go over to your house in another two days to take it back.”

Cycle’s voice was really nice. Ting Shuang listened to his “I’ll go over to your house in another two days to take it back” a few times, while imagining his appearance. He couldn’t imagine it. Cycle’s voice made him feel reliable, believable, and was extremely persuasive. It was a voice that should belong to someone who would never lose his composure. At the thought of such a person acting along with him last night, Ting Shuang felt like laughing.

Thinking about that, he suddenly wanted to talk to Cycle.

Ting Shuang pondered for a moment, typing a message: Are you done with work already?

Cycle did not reply.

Ting Shuang continued typing: I had an entire day of class today. Do you have time to talk at night?

He sent the message over, and after a while, Cycle still had not replied. So he put his phone aside and went out to call Zhu Wenjia for dinner.

When he looked at his phone again at ten o’clock at night, there was already a message from Cycle on the screen.

Cycle: I had an entire day of meetings.

Cycle: Just reached home.

Ting Shuang tapped on the notification and was just about to reply to Cycle when he suddenly realised that the Cycle’s current distance away had changed from 287km to 4.8km.

4.8 kilometres?

Ting Shuang rubbed the phone screen first, then rubbed his eyes.

The ‘current distance away’ shown on the screen was still 4.8 kilometers.

What happened?

A bug in the program?

Ting Shuang sent a message to Cycle asking: How did the distance between us become 4.8 kilometres?

After a while, Cycle replied: I was away for meetings the past two days.

Ting Shuang: ?

Away for meetings?

So Mr. C, who was originally 287 kilometres away, became someone who could drive over in 10 minutes?

Frost: Then couldn’t you actually come over to take your tie?

As soon as Ting Shuang sent that message, he regretted it, but he couldn’t take it back. He looked at Cycle’s profile picture in the chat interface, a little nervous.

Ten minutes later, a new reply finally appeared on the screen.

Cycle: That’s if I really did leave my tie at your house.