Your Distance

Bai Changyi finished the book before Ting Shuang woke up, and found it ordinary.

Mm, during his free time, he should write an even better book himself.

— These were the inner thoughts of Bai Laoban, who had written a decent amount of course materials.

Ting Shuang slept into the evening, and when he woke up, he realised Bai Changyi was already reading another book. Eyes groggy, he turned over and sprawled across Bai Changyi’s body, kissing him as he said, “Ngh… You finished reading the previous book?”

“Mm,” Bai Changyi returned the kiss.

“What was the book about?” Ting Shuang asked.

Bai Changyi’s inner thoughts were not serious at all: It was about how middle-aged men could handle a kid like you.

But the words that left his mouth were extremely serious, “It was about how the democratic system, on a global scale, can develop and enter into decadence.”

“Oh…” Ting Shuang said, “You read books so quickly… I read especially slowly…”

Bai Changyi said, “Speed doesn’t matter when reading.”

“I feel like my German and English are both bad… I’m fine with reading things in the field of my own profession, but when I want to read something else, it’s especially difficult…” Ting Shuang sighed dejectedly. “I’m so useless… Bai Laoban, how do I catch up to you?”

In Bai Changyi’s ears, this sounded a lot like whining.

It was pretty much the same as him going “Bai Laoban, I want a hug” after being done until he lost all his strength.

“Difficult? What did you read?” Bai Changyi asked.

Ting Shuang recalled the memory, “I remember buying a copy of ‘Nietzsche’s Complete Works’ while it was on discount in a bookstore… It was a gigantic thick book… I tried reading ‘Der Wille zur Macht’, how do you translate it into Chinese? ‘The Will to Power’? Anyways, it was super difficult to read, I pretty much didn’t understand it at all…”

Bai Changyi said, “Half the German population wouldn’t understand Nietzsche’s, not to mention you.”

“Is that so?” Ting Shuang asked, “Then what should I read?”

“Come on,” Bai Changyi pat Ting Shuang’s waist, asking him to get up. “We have time today, let’s go to the bookshop and help you pick out two books.”

Ting Shuang lay on Bai Changyi’s body, unmoving, “But today’s Sunday.”

God didn’t work on Sunday, so most shops weren’t open.

Bai Changyi said, “The bookshop at the train station’s open.”

“Then I’ll get ready immediately,” Ting Shuang, who realised they could go out for a date today, excitedly jumped off Bai Changyi, and looked for clothes to change into in his luggage bag.

“How about this one?” He was only wearing a pair of tight black underwear. His left hand held up a pink dress shirt while his right hand held up a loose blue hoodie, and Ting Shuang shook them around in front of Bai Changyi. “Or this one?”

Looking at the hip bones peeking out from Ting Shuang’s underwear, Bai Changyi’s voice was deep, “Do you or do you not want to go out today?”

Ting Shuang hurriedly pulled the hoodie over his head, and quickly put on a pair of casual shorts that didn’t reach his knees. “I’m done.”

The two of them went downstairs. They didn’t drive there, but walked to the station instead.

Before the sun set, Ting Shuang walked ahead on the streets, looking left and right, and occasionally looking back. He rarely wore shorts. Today being one of the rare times he wore them, his long legs looked even sexier under the sunlight.

Young. Vivid. Fresh.

Bai Changyi walked behind him, gaze constantly landing on Ting Shuang, and occasionally throwing out reminders, lest the kid, who never paid attention to the road he was walking on, knocked into something.

After walking some distance, when they could no longer see the hotel, Ting Shuang turned back and reached out a hand towards Bai Changyi, “Bai Laoban.”

The two of them held hands just like that, listening to the chimes of the bells from the church with red brick walls–

Six in the evening.

Right at that moment, summer officially started.

Even though it was Sunday, the train station was as crowded as usual.

Coffee shops, flower shops, bookstores, pharmacies, souvenir shops… People moved to and fro.

The two of them entered the bookstore, and Bai Changyi picked out two fictional novels, a scientific book on the moon that came with illustrations, and a popular scientific reading on German geography that also had illustrations.

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“Hey Bai Laoban, look–” Ting Shuang realised that there was a stack of big maps of Europe next to the shelves that had that geographical book. Beside the map, there were also a lot of small flags.

He picked up a small flag and poked it into where Hanover was located, “We’re here.”

If, like how they’d come to Hanover this time, they went to other cities in the future, it’d be great if they could put a small flag wherever they visited…

If they went to other cities in the future…

In the future…

Ting Shuang suddenly realised that he was already thinking about the future.

He wanted to travel to every corner of the world with the person beside him.

“Let’s buy one of these maps?” Ting Shuang suggested. “Next time, just by looking at the map we’d be able to think of… Where we’d have gone together.”

“Mm,” Bai Changyi found a world map beside the map of Europe, and grabbed one of them, letting Ting Shuang hug it. “This one.”

Thus, Bai Changyi carried four books while Ting Shuang hugged a huge map and a box of small flags, settling the bill and exiting the bookstore.

“What do you want to eat for dinner,” Bai Changyi asked.

“Um…” Ting Shuang was thinking, when the sunglasses on the display windows of a spectacles shop suddenly caught his attention. “Let’s look at some eyeglasses?”

The summer sun was blinding, so they did need to buy a pair of sunglasses.

Furthermore, if he could buy one belonging to a couple set with Bai Laoban, it would be even better…

After entering the shop, Ting Shuang immediately caught sight of a pair of sunglasses with a golden frame and light blue lenses.

This model looked elegant but was truly full of coquetry, and could be called the Bai Changyi of sunglasses.

On the inside, Ting Shuang got restless, “Bai Laoban, try this one.”

He was sure to look very attractive with it on.

Bai Changyi glanced at the pair of sunglasses, “There’s no degree, I can’t wear it.”

Ting Shuang said, “What’s your degree?”

Seeing as Bai Changyi didn’t reply, Ting Shuang said again, “It’s fine if there’s no degree, just try it on to see if there’s any effect. I want to see.”

So Bai Changyi took off his glasses and placed them on the glass display to the side, putting on the pair of sunglasses in its place.

Ting Shuang took the chance to pick up Bai Changyi’s glasses, put them on and look through them. He felt like everything in sight was blurry. “Gosh. Bai Laoban, you wear presbyopic glasses?”