Your Distance

Presbyopic glasses?

Bai Laoban was in the prime of his youth, how could he be presbyopic?

He was just slightly farsighted.

Slightly.

“Ting,” Using the tone he used in class when emphasising key concepts, Bai Changyi corrected Ting Shuang, “This is called — Hyperopia, glasses.”

Ting Shuang looked at Bai Changyi’s face and felt like he was going to get a beating when they returned. He swiftly corrected himself, “Oh oh oh… Hyperopia glasses, hyperopia glasses. Then… Please lower your head, Bai Laoban, I’ll help you put on your pres– oh wait, your hyperopia glasses.”

He couldn’t help but test the limits, repeatedly risking getting beaten.

It was exciting.

“But Bai Laoban, I’m so close to you now, can you see my face clearly?” Ting Shuang’s mouth couldn’t stop itself from creating trouble, “Should I step back a little? For example… Thousands of miles away?”

Eyes closed, he was dancing along the edge of getting beaten.

It was exciting.

Bai Changyi put on his glasses and glanced over Ting Shuang. The expression in his eyes played it down, but the meaning was still very clear; Go ahead and fool around, you’ll know what it means for an adult to be responsible for his words and actions after we return to the hotel.

Ting Shuang, who continued acting recklessly, was still picking out sunglasses happily. He realised that the previous pair of sunglasses also had a pair of clip-on ones of the same series. It also had a golden rim and light blue lenses, and could be clipped onto Bai Changyi’s glasses.

This could be considered as a matching set for couples… Right?

“Try this.” Ting Shuang passed the clip-on sunglasses to Bai Changyi, and put on the previous pair of sunglasses.

The two of them stood side by side in front of the mirror–

A young boy in a hoodie and shorts, and a mature man wearing a dress shirt, trousers and tie, both wearing sunglasses of the same series.

Something wasn’t right.

It didn’t look quite like he had expected…

“Bai Laoban…” Ting Shuang was lost in thought. After a while, he interrogated, “Why does this series of sunglasses look like a matching set for parent and child…”

Hmm… it probably wasn’t the sunglasses’ problem.

Professor Bai didn’t plan to look into what exactly was the problem.

He just bought it.

At 7 o’clock the next morning, Bai Changyi asked Ting Shuang to get up. They needed to have breakfast with all the exhibitors before heading to the exhibition site together.

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The night before, the student Ting Shuang paid a heavy price for uttering the phrases ‘presbyopic glasses’ and ‘matching set for parent and child’. He currently had his eyes closed, frowning as he, with much difficulty, let out a weak voice, “Mm… I want to sleep… Can’t get up…”

It was actually fine even if he didn’t go.

If the child wanted to sleep, then he’d let him sleep a little longer.

Bai Changyi kissed Ting Shuang’s forehead and said in a low voice, “Mm, then I’m leaving.”

Go, go, Ting Shuang thought sleepily. The old beast should leave quickly, since he didn’t act like a human the entire day…

But…

What was the old professor going to do?

Mm… He probably had a live report to do during the day…

There probably wouldn’t be anything much to see at his live report, except for the well-dressed old professor standing under the spotlight in the exhibition hall, speaking into the microphone, using his excellent academic standards, low and elegant voice, as well as every little gesture to slightly turn all living beings upside down, and mess the world up. What was there to see…

Hmph, whoever wants to watch it can go…

Anyways, he, Ting Shuang…

“Bai Laoban, bring me—”

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Ting Shuang jumped off from the bed.

Old professor, don’t just care about living beings and the world, while you’re doing that, turn me upside down and mess me up too!

“Ngh–” Ting Shuang froze as he got off the bed.

It hurts.

He shouldn’t have gotten off the bed in such an exaggerated manner…

At Ting Shuang’s words, Bai Changyi, who was about to walk out the door, tipped his lips up. He glanced at his watch, “I’ll give you 10 minutes.” After that, he sat on the sofa and read the newspaper while waiting.

“I’ll be right back.” Ting Shuang rushed into the bathroom and took a shower. He only noticed his body while showering…

For a gentleman, it was not too late to take revenge after ten years; for a professor, revenge was to be taken the night itself.(1)

Fine.

Anyway, once he wore his formal clothes, others shouldn’t be able to see anything.

He didn’t have much time. After showering, he wrapped the bath towels around himself. Realising that he might not make it, he shouted as he squeezed out the toothpaste, “Bai Laoban, come in and help me blow my hair. I can’t do it in ten minutes–“

So while Ting Shuang shaved and brushed his teeth, Bai Changyi stood behind him blowing his hair.

The child even complained about how he didn’t blow it well enough. Even with his face covered with shaving cream, he was still pointing out every flaw in the mirror, expressing a mountain of opinions, “You can’t mess up the front. You must set the shape, then blow the two ends such that it looks natural. Use a comb for the back, and there’s still…”

It was torturing.

Bai Changyi said, “Mm, I see.”

(…)

The group had breakfast and went to the exhibition center by car.

After arriving at their exhibition hall, representatives of the German company approached Bai Changyi to discuss some matters, and Ting Shuang walked around the exhibition hall alone, waiting for the live report at ten o’clock.

This week’s exhibitions were all about robots, and the theme of the exhibition hall was industrial robots. Most of the participating exhibitors were manufacturing companies, as well as some engineering colleges and research institutions. In the center of the exhibition hall was a space that radiated science and technology, where the joint booth of LRM, China’s RoboRun and Germany’s HAAS was located.

The booth was divided into three areas. Area A was a fully automated factory, showing off technological inventions created using the Internet of Things technology. From receiving orders, to checking inventory, purchasing materials and automatic arrangement, then to cooperation between various smart manufacturing units, and finally to product delivery, it was all unmanned. In the process, industrial robots played an irreplaceable role. For example, the transportation of materials was automatically completed by RoboRun‘s T-series transportation robots, and the final assembly of products was automatically completed by RoboRun‘s A-series assembly robots.

Area B of the booth was a display of the various series of industrial robots, and one could clearly see how each robot worked quickly and efficiently.

Area C was an open communication area for reports, discussions, and gatherings.

Ting Shuang was standing in front of a parallel manipulator robot in Area B, looking at how it accurately sorted mixed pills of three different colors into three different bottles at an extremely high speed.

“What have you gathered from it?” Zhu Ao’s voice sounded behind him.

“The parallel mechanism is much faster than the plane joint mechanism.” Although they just fell out yesterday, Ting Shuang was focused on the matter itself. “The recognition speed of the visual system is also very high. I remember going to the company to look at it when I was a freshman. It was very different from what it is now.”

Zhu Ao said, “It’s been five years, there should be a bit of improvement.”

This sentence seemed to refer to more than just the robot.

But some things just can’t be changed.

“Dad…” Ting Shuang didn’t like to beat around the bush, so he asked Zhu Ao directly, “I want to ask, why can’t I be with a man? Why? There must be a reason behind why I can’t.”

Zhu Ao was about to speak when Bai Changyi’s voice sounded from behind them, “Mr. Zhu.”

Zhu Ao turned around, awkwardness flashing across his face.

He didn’t know just how much Professor Bai had heard just now.

If he knew that Ting Shuang was homosexual, Zhu Ao wasn’t sure if a silly boy like Ting Shuang could survive in school.

“There are still some things HAAS wants to talk to Roborun about,” Bai Changyi’s expression seemed nothing out of the ordinary, “I happened to pass by, so I came over to pass on the message.”

“Okay, I’ll go over now.” Zhu Ao nodded at Bai Changyi, then instructed Ting Shuang, “You just look at the exhibitions earnestly, don’t run about.”

After speaking, he walked towards the HAAS side with Bai Changyi.

Bai Changyi said, “Just now–“

“Just now, the child was just talking nonsense. Professor Bai, don’t worry about him,” Zhu Ao smiled and waved his hand in the air.

Bai Changyi chuckled after hearing the words, “I was going to say, just now HAAS said that the SF&M project is progressing well.”

That smile obviously meant that he had heard what Ting Shuang said, but didn’t mention it.

He also didn’t really seem to mind.

Zhu Ao was silent for a while, before he sighed, “Professor Bai, it’s not easy being a father. I’ll treat you as a brother, so I won’t shy away from these things. Say, if it was your son, what would you do?”