Your Distance - Chapter 57

 

56 – I’ll Update With A Little Bit First, Before People Scold Me

 

His life and death all depended on the professor’s mouth.

 

After Ting Shuang finished putting back his things and returned to the dining area, Bai Changyi was already discussing the latest news with Su Ping and Bai Zhongyan. Ting Shuang sat next to Bai Changyi, and secretly held Bai Changyi’s hand under the table.

 

“Eat first,” Bai Changyi said.

 

“Oh,” Ting Shuang released his hand and started eating the cake.

 

The few of them ate desserts, drank coffee, talked about current affairs and about Ting Shuang’s life studying abroad.

 

As soon as Su Ping heard that Ting Shuang was studying abroad alone, and was also supporting himself, her heart filled with maternal love. After all, Bai Changyi rarely gave her opportunities to feel so pained like this after he turned 13 or 14 years old. She immediately chose a restaurant, called to book seats, and planned to take Ting Shuang (along with her husband and son) for a meal at noon.

 

After hanging up she asked again, “Changyi, it’s the end of July now, have you bought Ting Ting any autumn clothes?”

 

It was so pitiful, the great Professor Bai originally thought that he was a good partner, but as soon as his mother came, she had transformed him from an excellent boyfriend to a failed boyfriend.

 

“No,” Bai Changyi admitted.

 

“Then in the afternoon, I’ll bring Ting Ting to buy clothes,” Su Ping said to Ting Shuang, “Does Ting Ting have time? Changyi said that you have exams coming up soon. Are you busy revising?”

 

“It’s going fine…” How could Ting Shuang refuse, “It’s his birthday today, I didn’t intend to do any revision.”

 

Su Ping nodded before she thought of something, and asked: “Hey, Ting Ting, I forgot to ask, what major do you take?”

 

It was coming.

 

The waves calmed, then came again, it was a life like a roller coaster.

 

“Mm…” Ting Shuang held up his fork, cake near his mouth, “I’m studying… That…” He hinted very vaguely, “Mm… Auntie, have you seen ‘Ji Qi Ren Zong Dong Yuan’? The English name is ‘WALL-E’.”

 

“I’ve seen it.” Su Ping nodded, and understood, “Ting Ting’s majoring in film and animation?”

 

“Cough, cough…” Ting Shuang covered his mouth, “… Cough, what’s the matter with today’s cake? Unexpectedly, I keep choking on it.”

 

Bai Changyi couldn’t stand it any longer, and handed the napkin to Ting Shuang, “He is a robotics major. He’s taking my class this semester.”

 

Ting Shuang lowered his head and continued eating the cake, not daring to look at Su Ping and Bai Zhongyan, “… Mm, after conversing online for a while, I realised that he was my professor.”

 

Both Su Ping and Bai Zhongyan’s expressions turned slightly more serious.

 

Bai Changyi took a sip of his coffee and waited for his parents to digest the news.

 

Bai Zhongyan thought for a while and said to Bai Changyi, “You always know what you’re doing, so I won’t say much.”

 

In dealing with such things, he always had the kind of tolerance and respect that belonged to intellectuals. Intellectuals had always been a little out of touch from social reality. They did not believe in existing ethics and norms easily, nor did they judge others.

 

What’s more, he’d seen a psychiatrist for half a year after Bai Changyi had come out and gotten divorced, and read a lot of books about sexual minorities.

 

The old man remained calm in the face of (suspected) imprisonment, (suspected) S/M, (suspected) father and son play, and (a mountain of evidence that suggested, and what he had seen through but did not say anything about) rabbit costume play. Now, a teacher-student relationship issue was just like a small splash after a tsunami. It didn’t pose any threat.

 

Ting Shuang, who was silently eating the cake, secretly let out half a sigh of relief.

 

The other half of that sigh lay with Su Ping.

 

Su Ping didn’t have any other thoughts. In her opinion, whether or not this issue could be accepted depended on whether anyone had gotten hurt from it. The romantic relationship between teachers and students naturally had some power imbalance. Bai Changyi was already older and at a higher position than him, and now that he was even his professor, it was all too easy to bully the kid.

 

“Ting Ting.”

 

Ting Shuang looked up guiltily and looked at Su Ping, “Mm?”

 

Su Ping asked, “Does Changyi threaten you by not letting you pass the exams?”

 

Of course he does!

 

He also recorded an alarm ringtone saying I didn’t pass the exam!

 

Ting Shuang glanced at Bai Changyi.

 

Should this question be answered truthfully, or answered truthfully…

 

Bai Changyi realised Ting Shuang’s intentions, a hint of warning appearing in his eyes behind the lenses.

 

“Auntie…” Ting Shuang put down his fork, moved closer to Su Ping, and said aggrievedly, “When this semester started, a little upset happened between us… And he made me take the exam again next year… Can you tell him not to let me retake the exam…”

 

This accusation was simply filled with words that had a deeper meaning. If you wanted to accuse him of telling a lie, there wasn’t a trace of fiction in his words.

 

Little bastard.

 

Bai Changyi didn’t know whether to be angry or to laugh.

 

As Su Ping looked at Ting Shuang’s pitiful appearance, her heart was about to melt. She immediately criticized Bai Changyi, “How could you let Ting Ting take the exam next year? It’s not easy for him to study abroad alone. Let him pass the exam this semester, hear that?”

 

In Ting Shuang’s eyes was a hint of unconcealable delight, and he naughtily kicked Bai Changyi under the table. He knew that it was impossible for Bai Changyi to change his principles because of this, but he liked to see Bai Changyi helpless.

 

Bau Changyi glanced at Ting Shuang, and said impatiently to Su Ping, “I will ‘discuss’ this matter with him later.”

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

The chapter name is… probably the author’s doing HAHA. Thank you Beverly and Tinsunny for the kofis!

 

And this is a day late, but Merry Christmas~

 

 

 

 

 

57 – I Updated Last Night Too, Don’t Miss Out On That

 

 

Your birth year(1) is filled with misfortune, this saying was true.

 

On his thirty-sixth birthday, the great Professor Bai learned what it meant to be middle-aged. You had both older and younger people to take care of, and life was difficult.

 

Ting Shuang was a confident little boy, and from home in the morning to when they ate lunch outside in the afternoon, he never stopped complaining. “He always frightened me by acting like a professor” here, and “he said if I can’t pass my exams in early August, he won’t take me out to play during the autumn vacation, and will leave me alone at home” there.

 

Bai Changyi had lived for 36 years, and had never received more criticism and education than he had today.

 

In the afternoon, the great Professor Bai thought that going shopping with his parents and the little kid Ting Shuang, only involved driving a car and carrying bags, so there would be no disasters, but little did he expect—

 

“Ting Ting, it’s both your and Changyi’s birth year this year. Didn’t you want to go to the beach during autumn vacation? Each of you should buy a pair of big red swimming trunks.” Su Ping touched the fabric of the swimming trunks on the male model, thinking that it didn’t feel bad.

 

“I have swimming trunks.” Bai Changyi looked away.

 

Ting Shuang was also unwilling to wear red swimming trunks, so he followed Bai Laoban’s example and shied away, “Me too—”

 

“He doesn’t,” Bai Changyi said.

 

Shit.

 

Ting Shuang was angry. He didn’t want to wear red swimming trunks alone.

 

His mind churned, and he said to Su Ping particularly obediently, “Auntie… I want to wear matching swimming trunks with Changyi.”

 

Bai Changyi: “…”

 

Five minutes later, Bai Changyi held an additional shopping bag with two tight red swimming trunks of different sizes inside it.

 

After shopping all afternoon, Ting Shuang received a pair of red swimming trunks and new clothes that he could wear for at least three autumns, while Bai Changyi only received a pair of red swimming trunks.

 

In the evening, Su Ping and Bai Zhongyan were going back to Berlin. Before leaving, Su Ping wanted to speak to Ting Shuang alone.

 

The two of them walked up beside a fountain sculpture. Not far away, there was a roadside performer playing the guitar and singing a German folk song “The Final Night”.

 

The water gurgled. Strings were plucked softly. The song resounded strongly.

 

The lyrics went: “You are my treasure, you will always be my treasure…”

 

“Ting Ting.” Su Ping sat on the stone benches arranged in a circle around the fountain, the sun illuminating the wrinkles in the corners of her eyes, the few strands of white hair that had just grown on her head, and the sincerity in her eyes.

 

“Mm,” Ting Shuang sat beside her.

 

“In the past two or three years, today is the day I’ve been the happiest.” Su Ping said with a smile, “Changyi really is lucky to have met you.”

 

“No, no…” Ting Shuang shook his head again and again, feeling as if he was not worthy of such a big compliment, “I am really lucky to have met him… I mean it, I’m not just being polite.”

 

“I’m not just being polite too.” Su Ping glanced at Bai Changyi, who was waiting under a tree in the distance. “He’s my son, I know all of his good and bad points. I’ve always been worried about how he has no care and passions in life.”

 

No passions in life?

 

Ting Shuang didn’t quite understand, “Auntie, I don’t think he has no passions in life… I think he knows very well how to live. He can cook all kinds of food, and learns new dishes almost every week. Sometimes when we take Vico out for walks, he’ll bring out a drone to take pictures. The pictures are very beautiful. We also bought seeds together, and planted new cranberries and blueberries in the yard. The ones he planted grew better than the ones I planted… …”

 

Su Ping smiled as she listened to Ting Shuang’s words, and the more she listened, the brighter she smiled, “He was not like this before. You’re right, he’s always taken care of people, but that’s because his expectation of himself is to be a gentleman. If you’d seen how he was like before, you’d know the difference. Changyi… is too smart. He’d determined the focus of his life early on, and then treats the rest of it as if it was food and sleep — not something he’s interested in, but something he has no choice but to do. Like today, he would do things like shopping with others, but he has never been so happy.”

 

Ting Shuang suddenly remembered the empty and tidy feeling in the house when he’d first visited Bai Changyi.

 

After they started cohabitating, the things in the house only started to increase. Ting Shuang sometimes felt like he had messed up the house, but now that he thought about it, it was just more activity taking place in the house.

 

“Ting Ting, many people think that Changyi’s doing well. They admire him, want to be him, or hope that their children will be him,” Su Ping’s eyes darkened a bit. “The truth is, if you admire him, like him, and respect him, then you’ll want him to succeed, but if you love him, then you’ll want him to be happy. I don’t know if he has told you some of his ideals… Maybe not, he is past the age where people talk about their ideals. He regards universities too romantically and too ideally. Maybe in this life, most universities in the world will not become what he wants them to become. Or, in more pessimistic terms, this world will not become what he wants it to become. At his age, he has already achieved a lot, but he seems to have a goal that is too far out of reach. I wonder, if he fails to reach that goal, will he regret it many years later? Would he be unhappy?”

 

“He told me about that…” Ting Shuang looked at Bai Changyi in the distance. Bai Changyi took a sip of the cold drink Ting Shuang had been drinking previously. It seemed like it was too sweet, for he frowned and stopped drinking altogether. “I can understand him. The people who walk ahead are different from the rest. Some may say that they are unrealistic. But… the realistic people make up the existing world, and the unrealistic people create the new world. There are always those few people. If everyone can understand them, then they wouldn’t be the ones who are walking ahead.”

 

“He actually told you about that.” Su Ping was a little surprised, but after a while, she felt that it made sense for Bai Changyi talk to Ting Shuang about it.

 

“He didn’t take the initiative in saying those things… I just happened to ask him about them.” Ting Shuang laughed, “I’m quite stupid. If I don’t ask, I won’t know what he’s thinking. If I don’t know, I’ll keep asking, and he’s still quite… patient. He’s willing to answer me all the time. I’ve thought about this for a long time, so let me talk about my opinion… it may be wrong. It’s just that, I think that the thing about ideals is that they are never too ideal, too unrealistic, or too inconsistent with things that have taken place in history. The people who set the trend do not follow the trend. They are the trend itself. People who are being lead would wait for the arrival of the trend, then follow it. Auntie… Although he is older than me by more than ten years, sometimes, I think he’s only just started living his youth. Many people… turn old early.”

 

Su Ping thought for a while and said, “It’s not that I don’t understand him, or that I disrespect him. I just don’t want his career to take over his life. A career requires results, but people only have countless moments. I wish to see him happy every minute and every second.”

 

“I also wish to see him happy every minute and every second.” Ting Shuang smiled, a little shy, “I will make him happy every minute and every second.”

 

Under the setting sun, the fountain water flowed, and the roadside performer was still playing and singing: “Eternal life, infinite happiness and joy, please have it all. I pray for it thousands of times.”

 

Ting Shuang stood up from the stone bench, smiled back at Su Ping, and ran to Bai Changyi.

 

“Happy birthday!”

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Translator notes:

 

(1) Your birth year: This refers to the year of your Chinese zodiac. For those that don’t know, there are 12 Chinese zodiacs, and everyone born in the same lunar year will have the same Chinese zodiac. So the year you turn 12, 24, 36 etc will be the year of your own zodiac

 

The title again is the author’s doing, whoops,,,, It was while Your Distance was being updated on ChangPei

 

Happy new year everyone! I hope 2021 will be a better year for all of us >.<

 

~Dee