Your Distance

62 - This Is My Sister-In-Law, Right?

Just like that, they drove all the way to the north.

Along with the twenty-four year old Ting Shuang, they rushed back in time towards the twenty-four year old Bai Changyi.

When they passed by a deserted river bank, they leaned against the car while they shared a bretzel, drinking from the same bottle of water and talking about what civilisations must have grown because of the river in front of them, and which sea the river water would flow to. When they passed by the uninhabited mountains, they did not exercise restraint, but comfortably made love in the mountains under the starry sky, whispering together afterwards about how they’d wait until a clear night in winter to take pictures of the star trails.

Then they finally arrived in Lübeck.

Ting Shuang had slept for less than three hours, before Bai Changyi woke him up, and they set off on a boat.

They were on a small fishing boat. There were seven or eight other tourists on board, all wanting to see the sea on a boat early in the morning, watching the sunrise and the fishing process.

The sky hadn’t brightened yet, and the sea was a patch of black.

The rolling waves split to make way for the ship. The howling wind brushed past their ears.

They were truly braving the wind and the waves.

“Are you cold?” Ting Shuang asked.

Bai Changyi said, “If you’re cold, we can go into the cabin.”

Ting Shuang said, “If you’re cold, come into my arms.”

Bai Changyi laughed, “I’m not cold.”

Ting Shuang hugged Bai Changyi, “I think you’re cold.”

The sky slowly brightened up.

A white dot. A golden circle with rough edges. Two orange horizons.

Suddenly, very close to the fishing boat, a small mound rose up from the surface of the sea. With a loud sound, a spout of water sprayed up high from the top of it, creating a curtain of mist. The golden morning light shone from the horizon through the curtain of water, creating a rainbow.

In the blink of an eye, the mound dipped down, and a huge tail rose up from the waters.

It was a whale.

“… This is the first time I’ve seen one at sea–“

Ting Shuang’s voice stopped abruptly.

It turned out that there was not just one mound, but dozens of them.

It was a group of whales.

They surfaced one after another, spraying spouts of water, one rainbow after another descending upon the sea.

All around them, people were exclaiming in delight, but Ting Shuang was speechless.

Rainbows appeared and disappeared over and over again. Huge tails rose up, and then dipped under again.

The whales swam away, and calm returned to the sea, as if nothing had happened.

Ting Shuang looked around. Everyone was like him, still immersed in the magnificent scene that had occurred just now. No one even thought of taking pictures.

At this moment, he suddenly understood the words of Bai Changyi’s mother — not from the perspective of others, but an understanding that truly came from the depths of his heart — a ‘moment’.

The scene at sea just now was one of the countless moments they had.

Ting Shuang looked at Bai Changyi and said, “So many whales… Have you seen that before? Did you see it a long time ago?”