Your Distance

Ting Shuang had discovered something new.

He couldn’t get it up using “Dad”, but he was fine with “Daddy”.

Near the end of August, the “We must pass Robotik” group and the Robotik subforum on the school’s academic forums began becoming more active, because there was only one month left before Prof Bai’s Robotik mass killer oral exam.

Someone in the group asked Ting Shuang if he wanted to revise together, but Ting Shuang replied with extreme grief: I’m not taking the exam.

Several people persuaded him: Don’t give up, if you wait until next year it might be harder.

Then they sent the meme of the professor looking down on all sentient beings as if they were already dead.

In his heart, Ting Shuang roared: You think I don’t know that next year will be harder? The suggestion to reduce the difficulty of the exams this year was brought up by me. I’m Robotik’s  Lei Feng(1);I sacrificed myself, fulfilled everyone’s wishes, and did these good deeds all without leaving a name.

Song Xin, who knew the inside story, said: It’s not that he doesn’t want to take the exam, but that the professor isn’t letting him take it.

Then he sympathetically sent the meme captioned ‘it’s become chilly, it’s time to cross out the name of this student.’

Ting Shuang, who was nestled in a chair in the corner of the study, raised his head bitterly, looked at Bai Changyi who was working, to pick at his inadequacies, “What are you doing? Why aren’t you cooking? We still have to pack our luggage after dinner.”

They were leaving to take a holiday by the beach the next morning. It would be a week-long holiday, and they did need some time to pack up, but it was only three o’clock in the afternoon.

“I’m scheduling the exam timings, I’ll do it soon.” Bai Changyi said, “What do you want to eat?”

Ting Shuang ran over to see that a whole week near the end of September was marked as Robotik exam days. Bai Changyi gave each student 30 minutes, and throughout the week he had to test students from morning to evening.

Before seeing the exam schedule, Ting Shuang didn’t think anything of it. But now that he saw the familiar names of his classmates on the exam schedule, with him being the only one left out, he suddenly envied those that were eligible for those 30 minutes of torture by Prof. Bai.

To hell with principles.

He wanted to take the exam.

“I want to take the exam too…” Ting Shuang dragged out the words.

Bai Changyi: “Mm.”

Ting Shuang sat on Bai Changyi’s lap, “I want to take the exam too…”

Bai Changyi: “Mm, I know.”

Ting Shuang hugged Bai Changyi’s neck, and continued pleading in a particularly provocative tone, “Daddy, I want to take the exam too…”

The mouse was in Bai Changyi’s hands.

As soon as Ting Shuang saw it, he rubbed himself on Bai Changyi’s thigh twice, persisting with his efforts, “Daddy…”

In the next second, Bai Changyi brought up a picture taken during a meeting, and zoomed into Zhu Ao’s face, “Your father is here.”

Ting Shuang: “…”

“Bai Changyi, you won’t have a sex life this month.” After throwing down these cruel words, Ting Shuang immediately did the calculations. Fortunately, there were just two days left this month, for he couldn’t hold it in for more than that too.

So he left the study calmly and started packing his luggage.

Packing seemed to be hard work on the surface, but there were actually many things he could do in secret.

For example, packing only those tight red swimming trunks, such that Bai Changyi wouldn’t have anything else to wear.

He’d come up with such plans, but when they really got to the beach, Ting Shuang suddenly realized that the main thing about swimming trunks was the figure of the person wearing them.

If your figure wasn’t good, then no style or color could save you. But if it was…

Red tight swimming trunks were simply a plus.

How should he put it? The tight fabric made the already impressive parts more impressive, and the bright red made the already eye-catching parts more eye-catching.

Anyways, as could be seen so far, Bai Changyi, who was basking in the sun on a lounger chair after having swum in his red tight swimming trunks, had already been approached by three people.

Ting Shuang had originally been happily building sandcastles a distance away. However, seeing how Bai Changyi was catching everyone’s attention, he couldn’t just let it be.

Something had to be done to manage the situation.

He left his sandcastles and rushed to rent a beach buggy. Feeling extremely cool, he drove over and parked in front of Bai Changyi’s lounger chair, then blew his horn twice, making other people on the beach look over at them.

“Hey, that handsome guy over there, will you come with me?” Ting Shuang shouted at Bai Changyi, coolly taking off his sunglasses.

Bai Changyi raised his eyes, “Where to?”

“Nowhere in particular.” Ting Shuang said arrogantly, “You’re handsome, so I’m taking you for a drive.”

This was an attention-catching way of picking someone up. If Bai Changyi refused to get in the car now, it’d be too shameful for Ting Shuang. He started to leave, “Are you coming or not? If not, I’m finding someone else.”

“Don’t you dare.” Bai Changyi got up.

Ting Shuang chuckled, “Then hurry up.”

As soon as Bai Changyi got in the car, Ting Shuang declared his sovereignty over Bai Changyi by hugging and kissing him. After the kiss, he couldn’t tell which way was North. After looking at the map for a long time, he realised that they had no destination in mind, so he could drive in whatever direction he wanted.

The sea breeze blew across as the car drove along the coastline.

A few meters away, the tide rose and retreated in waves, constantly eroding the footprints and tire-tracks on the beach, leaving behind countless shells and broken corals of different colors.

“Hey, help me set up the selfie stick.” Ting Shuang took out his phone from his pocket and passed it to Bai Changyi, “Set it up in front and take some pictures of us.”

The buggy didn’t have a windshield, so the selfie stick stuck out from the front, the phone’s front camera just capturing both of them in the frame.

Ting Shuang ran a hand through his wind-blown hair, looked at the camera, and imitated the tone of a reporter, “Hello, 2029’s Bai Changyi and Ting Shuang. This is Ting Shuang from 2019.”

After speaking, he winked at Bai Changyi: It’s your turn.

Bai Changyi felt like laughing, so he turned his head to the side, looking at the sea.

Ting Shuang urged him, “Cough.”

Bai Changyi had no choice but to cooperate, “… This is 2019’s Bai Changyi.”

Ting Shuang continued in his broadcasting voice, “It’s afternoon here in Western Europe… I don’t know what time it is exactly. We’re in– Uh, on some beach in Northern Holland that has a Dutch name that I don’t know how to pronounce. I’m currently wearing a white T-shirt and blue beach shorts.”

Ting Shuang winked at Bai Changyi again: It’s your turn.

Bai Changyi: “…”

Ting Shuang: “Cough.”

Bai Changyi: “… I am wearing swimming trunks.”

Talking to the camera, Ting Shuang affectionately added on to Bai Changyi’s sentence, “He is wearing bright red swimming trunks, and attracted many men and women who are inferior to me.”

Bai Changyi couldn’t help but laugh.

Ting Shuang also laughed for a while before he started talking about the main topic, “This is my main purpose of making this video: I want to tell the Bai Changyi in 2029, that I—”

The phone screen went black.

Zhu Wenjia’s name appeared on the screen.

“Fuck.” Ting Shuang cursed and hung up on Zhu Wenjia.

They had just reached a critical moment, but it was cut off just like that.

“Let’s record it again.” Ting Shuang glanced through his photo album. The previous video was still there. They just had to re-record another one and edit the two videos together.

Just as he was about to start recording, Zhu Wenjia called again.

Bai Changyi said, “Answer it first.”

Ting Shuang answered the phone, his tone a little impatient, “Zhu Wenjia, did you max your card out by going to the red light district again, or by renting a castle?”

For a long time, there was no sound from the other end of the call.

“Are you not saying anything?” Ting Shuang said, “If you don’t speak up, I’m hanging up.”

Zhu Wenjia still did not speak up, and only breathing could be heard from the other end.

Ting Shuang felt a little bad. He didn’t really hang up, but repeated, “Zhu Wenjia, say something.”

After a long time, Zhu Wenjia called out, “… Ge.”

“Mm.” Ting Shuang said, “I’m listening.”

Zhu Wenjia didn’t say anything again.

“Did you cause trouble again?” Ting Shuang softened his tone, “It’s okay, you can tell me, don’t be afraid.”

“… No.” Zhu Wenjia said, “It’s… Dad. Last weekend, he went out for dinner and drank some alcohol… I don’t know what happened but he suddenly had a brain hemorrhage… I don’t know when he’ll wake up. The doctor said that he might… Might……”

As if there was something stuck in Ting Shuang’s ears, he suddenly felt like he couldn’t hear anything. He shook his head, jumped out of the car and walked two steps away from it, then sat down on the sand soaked with sea water.

“Oh, where are you? England?” he said mechanically, “Quickly book a ticket back, I’ll book the earliest ticket back too.”

“… I’m in the hospital.” Zhu Wenjia said.

“You’re in the hospital?” Ting Shuang felt like his head had gone a little numb, “Have you returned to China?”

After asking that, he gradually realized that the incident had happened last weekend…

It was Wednesday today.

“Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Ting Shuang said, “Why did you only tell me after returning home?”

Zhu Wenjia: “I—”

Before Zhu Wenjia finished speaking, Ting Shuang hung up.

“I want to go back.” He stood up. Like a headless housefly, he looked around in a semicircle before realising that Bai Changyi was standing behind him.

“The ticket’s been booked, the flight’s at 10pm tonight.” Bai Changyi said.