Your Distance

Later, during a video call, Ting Shuang asked Bai Changyi, “Have you ever talked badly about someone else behind their back?”

Bai Changyi thought for a moment, “Like, calling the professor a stupid-ass behind his back?”

Ting Shuang: “…”

Ting Shuang: “Pretend I didn’t ask.”

After a while, he still couldn’t help but say, “What I meant was— though I know you won’t— If you want to complain about me, you can’t complain to others, you can only complain in front of me.”

He said so while observing Bai Changyi’s expression, “You don’t actually have complaints, do you? I’m so nice!”

“I know.” Bai Changyi said, “So I have no choice but to think of you often. You can take this as a complaint.”

Ting Shuang’s mouth curved up, “Mm… Then I have a complaint too.”

Bai Changyi also smiled, “Just say it.”

It was really difficult to complain about Bai Changyi. Ting Shuang thought for a long time, and finally thought of one. He said in a particularly seductive voice, “The pen you left me. Is. Too. Thin.”

The next day, while cleaning the bathroom, the auntie who cleaned the house found a very expensive pen beside the bathtub, still wet. She quickly wiped it and brought it to the nanny. The nanny then gave it to Zhu Ao, saying that it had been found in the bathroom next to Ting Shuang’s bedroom.

At dinner, Zhu Ao passed the pen to Ting Shuang, “Yours?”

Ting Shuang took a second to remember where he threw the pen the night before, and then replied without flushing or his heartbeat increasing, “Oh yes, I was thinking about some algorithms while I was in the bathtub last night. I was scared that I’d forget if I didn’t note it down.”

Zhu Ao nodded and turned to lecture Zhu Wenjia, “Learn from your brother.”

Since the trial, Zhu Wenjia had fallen into a state of self-loathing, and Ting Shuang hadn’t bothered to interfere. You had to rely on yourself for things like this. Zhu Wenjia could download an app to find someone for Ting Shuang, but Ting Shuang couldn’t download an app to find a mother for Zhu Wenjia.

He didn’t even want to know the verdict of Weng Yunyi’s case.

The day the sentence was announced, the lawyer had called him, but before they could tell him the verdict, Ting Shuang asked, “Say, would I be happy or unhappy after hearing it?”

The lawyer thought for a while, “It’s hard to say.”

Ting Shuang smiled and said, “I’d think so too. No matter the verdict, being in my position, being happy or unhappy would both be inappropriate.”

The lawyer paused, “Then, do you still want to hear the verdict?”

“No,” Ting Shuang said as if he was joking, “Redundant information takes up memory space.”

He did feel like these things were slowly becoming less relevant to him.

Like a person rising gradually from the depths of the sea, he just needed to wait for the last layer of water over his skin to crack and fall into the sea as droplets, then he could calmly go back under the sun.

Every day, he’d routinely woke up early to eat breakfast with Zhu Ao, before going to work, trying his best at the job that he, even now, still didn’t like. When he returned home in the evening, he’d once again accompany Zhu Ao for a meal and a walk.

Sometimes, he’d go to the playground at his alma mater’s to run, then eat wontons at the store outside the school after his run.

This scene probably happened on a Saturday, more than a month after he’d eaten wonton there with Bai Changyi, when Ting Shuang visited the wonton store again by himself.

It just happened to be lunchtime, and the store was crowded. In front of Ting Shuang was a boy in school uniform. As soon as the shop owner saw him, he greeted him affectionately, “You’re in your senior year, here to make up for classes, right?”

“Yes, only those in their senior year would still be here on Saturdays.” The boy smiled as he nodded, then urged, “Boss, hurry up, I still want to play football after I finish eating.”

“Don’t worry, the bowl right here’s yours.” The shop owner gave the boy two more wontons. “Your senior year must be tiring. Eat more.”

When it was Ting Shuang’s turn, the owner of the shop gave him a quick evaluation, and greeted him less familiarly, instead being a little more polite, “Sir, what would you like to eat?”

Sir?

Ting Shuang was slightly stunned, but only for a moment.

Everything a person did would probably leave its trace on the body, and from that day on, it was unlikely anyone would mistake him for a high school student again.

He glanced at the boy in front of him and smiled, “The same as him.”

The small shop was full of people, and he didn’t care much, just sat at a table with other high school students. He listened to them talk about their monthly exam results, discuss any changes made to the college entrance examinations, and complain about the endless homework.

“Life’s too difficult.” A student jokingly imitated the lines from a movie,(1) “Is it only like this in our third year of high school, or is life always like this?”

“Of course only your third year of high school would be like this.” Ting Shuang said while eating.

The shop owner also encouraged them saying, “Yes, everything will be over after the exam.”

Ting Shuang smiled and added, “Because life will only become more difficult in the future.”

After he said that, he was chased away by the store owner who cared about the candidates, and directed to an empty table outside the store, on the roadside. He ate the rest of his wontons alone in the bleak autumn breeze.

During lunch breaks, he also often ran to the roof of the Roborun headquarters building by himself.

It was very similar to the LRM Institute’s roof. Just like it, there were no other people, and you could also see the distant scenery.

On it, he’d eaten lunch, taken afternoon naps, taken care of a cactus that was not afraid of the cold, thought about some meaningful and meaningless questions, and occasionally leaned against the fence giving Bai Changyi wake-up calls, looking up at the wide sky, saying Professor I have something I’m not sure about, teach me about it.

Bai Changyi had glanced at the clock and said Ting, it’s only half past five, and Germany has started to use the winter time, our time difference has changed from six hours to seven hours.

Ting Shuang had said, Professor, my Professor.

Bai Changyi had had no choice but to indulge him, asking okay, what aren’t you sure about?

Ting Shuang also liked lying under the cypress tree in the yard.

In the sky above, its view blocked by the cypress tree, the many stars shifted, as if every time he got up after lying down, old stars fell and new ones rose.

Around him, fallen leaves piled up higher and higher, before drying up, getting trampled to pieces, and being cleared away. The plants in the yard all looked different, with the exception of the cypress tree.

It was already winter.

The Orion rose high up in the sky, and in the southeast, Sirius shone like a guiding light for those finding their way back at night.

Zhu Ao was recovering well, and most of the time, he no longer had to use a wheelchair. With the guidance of professionals and much practice, he slowly, and with much difficulty, got used to walking with his crutches. Just as he slowly, and with much difficulty, got used to his daughter-in-law who had amazing teacher virtues.

In December, Zhu Ao returned to Roborun headquarters, accompanied by Ting Shuang.

In the afternoon of the same day, Ting Shuang submitted a request to end his internship.

That evening, for the first time, Zhu Ao brought Ting Shuang with him and stood on the roof of the Roborun building.