Your Distance

“University… I haven’t thought about it. Let me think.”

Ting Shuang leaned his back against the fence, propped his elbows on the fence platform and raised his head, looking at the sky with slightly narrowed eyes.

The sunlight coated his young face, throat, and arms honey golden, and the refreshing wind that blew across the roof ran through his short hair, making the front of his loose shirt stick to his chest.

University…

For Ting Shuang, going to college was all too natural, so natural that there hadn’t been the need to think about what exactly it was.

Now that he thought about it, he felt a little stunned. Why didn’t anyone ask him this question before he started university?

Ting Shuang thought for a while before saying, “Bai Laoban, if you ask me what I think of it at this stage, my thoughts are pretty… realistic. I’ve heard people say that university is a place where independence is cultivated and a place for free spirits… But afterwards, I thought that this statement is actually quite sour(1). I’m not saying that it’s not good, it does sound nice as a slogan, but it’s just… Unrealistic. Look, there are so many universities, and so many university students. But how many of them have independent thinking, and a free spirit? Everyone’s still worrying about life once they get out. Postgraduate studies, going abroad, finding a job, all these are practical things that many people think about, and they’re all too anxious…”

Ting Shuang glanced at Bai Changyi, a little uncertain, “Bai Laoban, maybe it’s because I’ve been working for the past few years. I feel like some of the statements that seem to be right, are just mere ink on paper… Mm… If I’ve said anything wrong, tell me.”

“We’re chatting, there is no right or wrong.” Bai Changyi smiled, “Go on.”

That’s right, this was a question without a correct answer.

Bai Laoban just liked asking questions that had no correct answers.

“Then I’ll just say whatever,” Previously, Ting Shuang always felt a little nervous after being questioned, but now his state of mind suddenly relaxed, “If I said that my going to university and pursuing a master’s degree is because I just want to learn, and not because I want the degree, that’d be a lie… These two things are not contradictory, right. The reality is that many jobs require academic qualifications. When my dad’s company recruits employees for R&D, they don’t recruit those with qualifications below a master’s degree. There is also professional stuff that you’d learn so you’d have the ability to solve professional problems. I don’t want to join a company in the future and have everyone think of me as a paratrooper who doesn’t know anything… I want to solve practical problems. I remember a professor of our undergraduate courses mentioned a particularly awkward situation: While university students can’t find jobs, companies can’t recruit workers. Because university students who come out of these universities are out of touch with the needs of companies… Speaking of this, look, most jobs, they hire you to work, so they don’t need any independent mindsets or free spirits…”

Bai Changyi waited for Ting Shuang to finish before speaking, “I don’t think it’s the responsibility of universities to produce labor that meets the needs of enterprises. That’s a task for vocational schools. The vocational education system is not perfect enough, so the responsibility of teaching students vocational skills was pushed to the universities.”

Ting Shuang thought about it for a long time, but couldn’t understand, “So… Bao Laoban, do you think that I’ve made the wrong choice, going to university? But the reality is that all university students need a job. They learn stuff in university and meet like-minded people, as well as grasp various opportunities offered by the universities…”

“I’ve said that there’s no right or wrong. I don’t want to tell you an answer, or a reason. We have different perspectives, and the things we see are different. How to spend your time in this stage of life is a question that you yourself need to be thinking about.” Bai Changyi turned his head and looked in another direction, his spectacle chain gleaming in the sunlight as he moved, “Look.”

Ting Shuang followed Bai Changyi’s gaze. Not far away were the school’s library, teaching blocks, laboratories, and field.

The library that had a Baroque appearance was built hundreds of years ago and has since been renovated many times; The teaching block, laboratories, and various department buildings were all newly built, as their appearances before World War II could not be recovered; On the field, many students basked in the sun, either lying down and reading, or sitting in groups, holding coffee cups and chatting.

“Ting, what do you see?” The sound of Bai Changyi’s low voice paused by Ting Shuang’s ear for a while, before dispersing in the wind.

What did he see…

“I see… our school’s… various facilities.” Ting Shuang’s gaze fell on a corner of the library’s top floor, where a marble sculpture of the goddess of wisdom Minerva stood. “… I know I should cherish these resources, and learn as much as possible.”

“Because you know that you’ll only stay here for two or three years.” Bai Changyi looked down at the roads in the school. Pedestrians and vehicles continuously passed by, “So you want to take something away from here. But in fact, university, as a place… is more romantic than you think.”

Romantic……

Ting Shuang couldn’t help but turn his head to look at Bai Changyi’s expression.

Bai Laoban was already of such an age, yet this word still escaped his lips.

He’d only taken a glance at him, but Ting Shuang surprisingly saw a rare and unusual trace of tenderness in Bai Changyi’s eyes.

They were obviously standing on the same roof, and looking at the same scenery…

Ting Shuang stared at Bai Changyi’s side profile and asked, “Then… what do you see?”

Bai Changyi didn’t answer Ting Shuang’s question, only said, “You asked me before if I cared about the students’ dissatisfaction. You know that at the end of the school term, professors will face the students’ evaluation, just like you have to face the professors’ exams.”

“Yes, I just thought of bringing it up… I also evaluated several professors last semester.” Ting Shuang said, “This does affect you, right? Will there be… assessments, or something?”

Bai Changyi said, “Professors with too many negative evaluations may not be able to continue teaching if the school chooses not to renew their employment.”

Ting Shuang suddenly became a little worried, “Then you—”

The corners of Bai Changyi’s lips twitched up slightly, and he used the humorous tone that he took on whenever making jokes in class, “But I am a tenured professor.”

Tenured professor?

So tenured professors can do whatever they want?

The moment he heard that, Ting Shuang wanted to help everyone exorcise such evil. Damn it, tenured professors really seemed to be free to do whatever they wanted…

But the next moment, Bai Changyi put away his joking tone. Something deep and hard carved into the space between his eyebrows, and he seemed to have aged in a blink of an eye, “Being a tenured professor means that I will forever be standing here, looking at this place. “

Forever standing here…

Forever looking at this place…

For some unknown reason, Ting Shuang calmed down a little after hearing this sentence.

“You asked me what I see, so I’ll tell you what I see.” Bai Changyi looked at the medical school’s laboratory that was further away, “Ting, do you believe, that just as we were talking, a new type of nanorobot had been created in that building, thereafter turning a certain human disease into a thing of the past?”

Bai Changyi’s voice sounded too reliable that Ting Shuang was stunned, staring at that block of laboratories in a daze, “… What nanorobot?”

Bai Changyi chuckled, and Ting Shuang reacted all of a sudden, hackles raising, “Were you teasing me?”

“No.” Bai Changyi smiled, and pointed at the group of students who were basking in the field. “Do you believe that on such a normal afternoon, a genius in this group of children, while bathing in the sun and drinking cold coffee, suddenly had a flash of inspiration, that could bring the entire human knowledge threshold up a level?”

Ting Shuang wanted to say that he didn’t believe it. He wanted to say you’re fucking teasing me again, but in that moment, he couldn’t say it.

“… I believe it.” Ting Shuang felt incredulous, “I really believe it. I don’t know why I’d believe it.”

“Because you know that things like this are constantly happening.” Bai Changyi glanced down at the floor of the roof, “This building under your feet, right at this moment, is changing many people’s ways of life.”

Ting Shuang also lowered his head, looking at the LRM department under his feet.

He seemed to understand a little.

Bai Changyi said that they were seeing different things from different perspectives.

Indeed.

He stood at a perspective where he could see himself, and only himself.

His first reaction when he heard the question “What do you think university is?” was just “What do you think university means to you?”. To him, university was a period of time, a stage, and a place that he would eventually leave.

As Bai Changyi said, he knew that he would only stay here for a few years, so he was anxious to take something away, and was anxious for these few years to change him just a little, to carve him into someone he wanted to be.

But university…

Actually held different meanings.

Students coming and going like flowing water, and professors that stood still as iron. To someone who would forever stand here, university held another kind of existence.

Wind continued to blow past the roof, just like it had been blowing for many years.

Shielding against the wind, Ting Shuang lit a cigarette, trying to see what Bai Changyi saw amongst the smoke. After a long while, he asked, “Bai Laoban, then what do you think university is?”

Bai Changyi took the cigarette that had half run out from Ting Shuang’s hand and sucked in a breath, his lips tipping up, “A place that pioneers mankind.”

Maybe it was because the wind on the roof was too strong, but goosebumps suddenly appeared on Ting Shuang’s arm, and his back felt numb.

A place that pioneers mankind…

“Ting, the reason why I ask all of you only the most difficult of questions, is because I never underestimate you.” Bai Changyi turned his head to look at Ting Shuang, “Sooner or later, there’ll come a day when some of you will walk ahead of me, even if only one.”