Your Distance

Ting Shuang gave Zhu Wenjia’s head a hard slap, “Why did you address him that way?”

Zhu Wenjia rubbed his eyes and took a good look at Bai Changyi, “Oh, so this uncle isn’t my sister-in-law. Then where’s my sister-in-law?”

This time Ting Shuang really didn’t dare look at Bai Changyi’s expression. He brought Zhu Wenjia aside and lowered his voice, “That is your sister-in-law, but you can’t call him sister-in-law, you can call him… you can call him Bai Ge.”

Zhu Wenjia wanted to express his personal opinion, but Ting Shuang warned, “I’ll give you pocket money for next month. How much you get depends on your performance.”

Zhu Wenjia said, “Ge, why are you like our dad, always talking about money. Where did the affection between us go?”

Ting Shuang said, “Fine, then I won’t give you money for next month, I’ll give you affection, okay?”

“In that case, you’d better give me money.” Zhu Wenjia was held at gunpoint, and went to give Bai Changyi a proper greeting, “Sister-in– Bai Ge, sorry for just now. I was just a little dizzy from the plane ride.”

Bai Changyi was not upset, and said that they should eat first.

While Bai Changyi was parking the car after they reached the restaurant, Zhu Wenjia said to Ting Shuang, “Hey Ge, what does my sister-in-law do? He seems pretty high up on the social ladder.”

Ting Shuang said, “He’s a university professor.”

“My god,” Zhu Wenjia said, “You’re really living a life of academics.”

Ting Shuang said, “Behave yourself in front of him, don’t fool around. The things you’ve played and the things you haven’t; he has already done them all.”

Zhu Wenjia agreed readily, but in the end it was not the case at all.

At the dinner table, despite only just getting acquainted with Bai Changyi, he began inquiring about whether there were any interesting places here. Bai Changyi recommended several museums, and Zhu Wenjia waved his hand, “Not those kinds of places, I’m talking about the kind of adult—”

“Zhu Wenjia.” Ting Shuang interrupted, “From now on, I will only reimburse your normal expenses, such as going to restaurants, supermarkets, museums, bookstores, swimming pools, gyms, etc. If you want to sign up for a class to learn something new, I’ll pay for that too. As for anything else, don’t even think about it.”

Zhu Wenjia turned to Bai Changyi, “Bai Ge, look at my brother, he’s abusing me, you have to punish him.”

Bai Changyi wanted to laugh, but held back, “I can’t, my card’s with him.”

It turned out that his sister-in-law was not the one in charge.

Zhu Wenjia could only temporarily admit defeat.

When they arrived home at night, Ting Shuang exited the bedroom he’d cleaned up for Zhu Wenjia.

“I’ll tell you some things you have to take note of.” Ting Shuang said, “Don’t act as casually as you did at my house in the past.”

Zhu Wenjia slumped on the bed, playing with his mobile phone, “I am now a little cabbage, relying on others to live. Neither my brother nor my sister-in-law cares for me.”

“If your brother and sister-in-law truly didn’t care, you’d be thrown into the kitchen and made to wash the dishes.” Ting Shuang grabbed on to Zhu Wenjia, “Listen to me carefully. Your bathroom is next to your bedroom, these two places are yours. No one will enter. Do as you like. You can go anywhere else except for our bedroom, but you have to wear your clothes. Don’t saunter around in improper clothing in front of your sister-in-law. You can use my things however you like, but don’t touch your sister-in-law’s things. And also, you’re not allowed to make noise when your sister-in-law has something on. Oh, and yes, no animals including but not limited to humans are allowed in the house, and you’re not allowed to feed the dog random things. Try not to stay up late, no one will cook anything for you if you wake up late. When it’s time to sleep, the internet at home will be cut off so don’t think about playing games in the middle of the night.”

“Why do you have so many rules in your house?” Zhu Wenjia asked, “Living in your house is like living in a monk’s temple.”

“I didn’t beg for you to live here.” Ting Shuang looked around the bedroom, making sure nothing was missing, “I have exams these few days, so I can’t accompany you. Take care of yourself.”

Over the next few days, Zhu Wenjia did indeed take care of himself, but it wasn’t that he wanted to. It was mainly because he had no money. Even if he wanted to game at home, his brother wouldn’t let him spend any money on them.

And then he realised that the rules his brother had set really weren’t all talk. One morning, he hadn’t fully woken up yet, so he didn’t pay attention to himself. He’d walked to the kitchen to pour himself a coffee in his underwear, and happened to run into Bai Changyi as he was about to leave.

Bai Changyi acted as usual, nodding at him and leaving. But after Bai Changyi left, Ting Shuang immediately deducted half of his pocket money.

Zhu Wenjia immediately woke up completely, protesting, “Isn’t that too much?”

Ting Shuang had just taken two consecutive days of exams and was very irritable, “It’s not too much. You tried to entice your sister-in-law. Count yourself lucky for not getting a beating from me. Go back to your bedroom and put some clothes on before coming out again.”

A few weeks after being treated this way, Zhu Wenjia surprisingly adapted to it, and gradually began to live a proper (what he previously thought was inhumane) life, sleeping and waking up early. His daily visits to nightclubs and the red light district became ones to museums and tennis courts. Because he was really out of money and even had his internet cut off at night, he didn’t even feel like playing games anymore. Later, he even flipped open the English science and technology, or astronomy magazines Bai Changyi had subscribed to for Ting Shuang from time to time. At least he didn’t need to spend money on these magazines, and it didn’t require use of the Internet.

It was already the autumn break. After finishing his exams, Ting Shuang kept organising and summarising his body of knowledge at home. The body of knowledge behind a profession was huge and complex, and it was impossible to complete it in one or two days. What’s more, he not only had to organize his professional body of knowledge, but also the whole branch of knowledge he had as an individual.

He wanted to understand and examine himself.

Recently, this was something he wanted to understand.

He wanted to move outwards, into the depths of the world, as well as inwards, into the depths of himself, so that he’d know where he was standing and where he was going.

In addition, he was also doing dynamic analyses and drawing designs at the same time – Bai Changyi promised to accompany him in building a set of three-dimensional vertical maneuvering equipment during the holidays, so that he could fly around, killing whatever he wanted.

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Zhu Wenjia coveted the designs Ting Shuang had done.

“Ge, when would I be able to make such a thing?”

Ting Shuang was simulating the wind resistance for when he would fly around using the vertical maneuvering on the computer. He didn’t even lift his head when he heard Zhu Wenjia, “Why don’t you apply for an engineering major? For example, aircraft design or something.”

Zhu Wenjia fell into deep thought.

After he finished high school in the UK, he had decided to take a gap year and go to university later. But, the gap turned out to be endless. He hadn’t applied for university even after playing for more than two years.

He used to think that Ting Shuang’s life was especially dire, poor and miserable, and spent all day in class. But now he was a bit envious. Mainly because his finances were controlled, and he realised that he couldn’t remain this incapable.

“Ge, do you think learning this is interesting?” Zhu Wenjia approached Ting Shuang and looked at the data chart on the computer screen. After looking at it for a long time, he still didn’t understand it. “Is learning it difficult?”

“It’s not particularly interesting.” Ting Shuang realised that there was a huge error in the calculated wind resistance, and the simplified model had to be redone. “But since I’ve started it, I want to finish it.”

“You still want to finish learning it even though it’s not particularly interesting?” Zhu Wenjia didn’t understand. He always did what he wanted, and never did anything he didn’t want to.

“Hmm… I’ve been thinking about this recently too.” Ting Shuang rubbed his temples, deciding to put the model aside, and continue after resting for a while, “If you asked me whether it’s difficult, then I think it is difficult. If you asked me whether it’s interesting, then I don’t think it’s interesting. But I wonder, is it because it’s difficult, that I don’t find it interesting and dislike it? After all, people like doing simple things. There isn’t an absolute answer to whether something is simple. If you become good at it, then it can feel simple. I just don’t want to confuse ‘difficulty’ and ‘dislike’, so I want to keep doing it and learning it. If I still don’t like it, then I really don’t like it. It wouldn’t be a problem with my willpower.”

Zhu Wenjia heard this, but didn’t know what to say. After a long time, he spoke up, “Ge, your mind is too convoluted. You weren’t like this before; this is probably because of my sister-in-law.”

Thinking of Bai Changyi, a hint of a smile shone in Ting Shuang’s eyes, “Mm, it’s because of him.”

Bai Changyi could always make him uncertain, prevent him from sticking with a certain point of view, prevent him from retaining the narrow mindset that he was always right, allowing him to think from different perspectives and consider different possibilities.

After talking to Ting Shuang, Zhu Wenjia had been wondering about applying to a few universities to try to learn something new, but he was still undecided about what major he wanted to study.

It was rare for Ting Shuang to see Zhu Wenjia, a young man who had lost his way, looking like he wanted to walk the right path, so he asked Bai Changyi what he should do.

Bai Changyi said, “There’s a day of open house at the end of August, you can let him visit the different departments.”

Thus Ting Shuang accompanied Zhu Wenjia in visiting the school on the campus’ open house. Originally, he didn’t have much hope for Zhu Wenjia, but he did not expect Zhu Wenjia to actually have a few majors he was interested in studying.

After reaching home in the afternoon, Zhu Wenjia took a look at the time. It happened to be ten o’clock in the evening in China. His parents shouldn’t be asleep yet, so he started a video call and planned to tell them the good news of his decision to go to university. He wanted them to support him spiritually and (mainly) financially, and sincerely hoped that his dad would restore his financial freedom after experiencing his joy.

As soon as the call connected, Zhu Ao’s first sentence was, “Zhu Wenjia why is your entire head white? Dye it back tomorrow.”

In front of Zhu Ao, Zhu Wenjia and Ting Shuang did not have the same temper. If Ting Shuang heard this, he’d immediately reply with a “I dyed it with my own money, what does it have to do with you?”

But Zhu Wenjia could not say that. His white hair was dyed with Zhu Ao’s money, and he also hoped for Zhu Ao to continue giving him money so he could dye his hair red, green, and rainbow.

“Dad, I want to dye it back too, but didn’t you freeze my card? I don’t have the money to dye it back. I have the will but not the ability.” As Zhu Wenjia spoke, he looked around and picked up one of Ting Shuang’s hats, hoping that Zhu Ao wouldn’t be so upset if he couldn’t see it, “Is my mother there? I made a big decision, and want to tell the two of you about it.”

Zhu Ao’s expression changed.

A big decision?

Did this stinky boy want to get together with a man too?

“You tell me what’s the matter first.” Zhu Ao said, “Don’t make your mother angry.”

“How could I make her angry?” Zhu Wenjia said, “I’ll just say it then, I want to go to university.”

“What?” Zhu Ao was overjoyed, and even questioned Zhu Wenjia because he didn’t believe that this was something he would say, “You? Want to go to university?”

“Is it Lil’ Jia?” Weng Yunyi’s face appeared behind Zhu Ao’s, “What did Lil’ Jia say?”

Zhu Wenjia said with a serious expression, “Mum, I said I want to apply to several universities.”

Unlike Zhu Ao, Weng Yunyi never once thought that her son was useless. She thought that Zhu Wenjia was a boy who had never experienced any hardship since he was a child, and would become sensible at an older age. When he was young he just loved to play, but now that they stopped giving him the money to play around, he suddenly opened his eyes and wanted to learn something new. It was all too normal.

So she was not as surprised as Zhu Ao, but rather happy, “That’s good, which university do you want to go to? Mum will ask someone to help you apply for it.”

“Let him apply by himself.” Zhu Ao said, “Didn’t Ting Shuang also apply for it himself in the past?”

“Ting Shuang was applying for a master’s degree at the time. How old is Lil’ Jia? Lil’ Jia is now applying for an undergraduate course.” Weng Yunyi convinced Zhu Ao, “Lil’ Jia is finally trying to study, why are you obstructing him? We’ve worked so hard, isn’t it all to create a good environment for him?”

Zhu Ao said, “Is this an obstruction set up by me? This is one set by the environment. If he can’t overcome this, then how can he study well?”

“I’ll do this for Lil’ Jia, it’s nothing to do with you.” Seeing as she couldn’t persuade Zhu Ao for a good while, Weng Yunyi gave up and talked about something else, “Lil’ Jia, where are you now? Are you still in Holland??”

“Oh, no, I didn’t have money after that, did I? I couldn’t pay the rent, so I came to Germany and looked for my brother.” Zhu Wenjia switched the camera around to show Ting Shuang, “My brother is here too, he accompanied me to visit their school today. Their school is super cool. There’s this laboratory with—”

“Who is that?” Zhu Ao frowned.

Zhu Wenjia lifted his gaze and saw that the door not far behind Ting Shuang was opening. Bai Changyi was walking in.