Your Distance

2-287 Kilometers!

On Monday at 9.45am in the morning, Bai Changyi finished Robotik’s first class on time and flew to Leipzig for an academic exchange.

After having dinner with his academic colleagues, he waited for Meng Yurong in the hotel garden.

“Hey.” Meng Yurong walked over from behind him, turning around and sitting opposite him, “Long time no see.“

Bai Changyi raised a hand to signal the waiter and ordered two cups of Cuba Libre.

Meng Yurong interrupted him, getting the waiter to change a cup of Cuba Libre into black tea.

Bai Changyi thus did not want Cuba Libre as well, changing it to a low-caffeine coffee.

When the waiter left, Bai Changyi said, “Your tastes have changed.”

Meng Yurong said, “I’m pregnant, it’s not suitable for me to drink alcoholic beverages.”

Bai Changyi glanced at Meng Yurong’s pointed stilettos through rimless thin metal glasses, but did not speak.

Meng Yurong said, “Changyi, your tastes have also changed.”

Bai Changyi said, “I’ve never liked beer or sugary drinks.”

Meng Yurong was stunned for a moment, but she very quickly laughed understandably, saying, “It’s your style. You can drink something you don’t like for a lifetime.”

“Liking it isn’t that important.”

“I know, responsibility is the most important, right. You’re still so stubborn.” Meng Yurong subconsciously touched the new wedding ring on her ring finger, the position once belonging to another ring. If she hadn’t found out that the pictures printed in the erotic magazines Bai Changyi had bought were those of men, maybe he could still have been her perfect husband now.

“Do you have a boyfriend yet?“ Meng Yurong asked.

Bai Changyi furrowed his eyebrows slightly, seeming like he was not used to with the word. When the waiter brought coffee and black tea over, he took the cup and took a sip of coffee before saying, “No.”

“You know,“ Meng Yurong picked up the small milk jug on the tray and let the fresh milk slosh in the black tea. “His appearance can’t compare to yours, he isn’t as smart as you are, or even as considerate as you are, and doesn’t take as much responsibility towards his family. But, only with him do I feel like everything’s in the right place. It’s weird, you’re great in every way possible, but I always feel like there’s a little something missing, something that isn’t right. “

Bai Changyi tipped up a corner of his lips, but just for a while before he quickly put it down again, “As long as you feel it’s right.”

Meng Yurong said, “What about you?”

Bai Changyi said, “What about me?”

Meng Yurong said, “What do you plan to do in the future?”

Bai Changyi said, “I’m not in a rush.”

Meng Yurong said, “If you’d found out that you liked men more before the marriage, will you still have married me?”

Bai Changyi didn’t speak. It was a polite silence.

Meng Yurong didn’t speak anymore, just raised the teacup and took a sip of black tea. Milk and tea stained her lips, but she didn’t realize it.

Bai Changyi took a handkerchief out of his coat pocket and handed it to her.

Meng Yurong took the handkerchief, and upon seeing the white “Bai” embroidered on the dark blue handkerchief, tears suddenly dropped from her eyes. Bai Changyi was just such a person: he arrives early for dates, always has a handkerchief on himself, maintains an appropriate level of silence, but you know that he is paying attention to you at the same time. As she thought so, tears fell down like beads, and then became a stream of water, quickly trickling down her face.