The next day, Ting Shuang received a gift from Su Ping from Berlin.
He picked out a few cans of special coffee beans last time, plus the blueberries he and Bai Changyi planted together, and sent them to Su Ping together with their photo. This time, Su Ping sent back two bottles of blackcurrant, a box of Biscuits she baked herself, two jars of jam she made, a photo album and several old books with notes attached.
The notes in the book were left by the teenage Bai Changyi.
That cloth-covered album contained Bai Changyi's photos from childhood to adulthood. Ting Shuang read page by page, his eyes fell on a photo of Bai Changyi playing tennis, and he didn't turn the page for a long time.
Underneath that photo is the date: June 21, 2003.
Bai Changyi is almost twenty years old.
"I'm going..." Zhu Wenjia, who was passing by, was also attracted by the photo at a glance, standing behind Ting Shuang and sighed, "My sister-in-law was so handsome when she was young."
"He is also young now." Ting Shuang turned the page, "now he is more handsome."
"Okay, I'll shut up. Sister-in-law will always be young." Zhu Wenjia remembered something and said, "Oh brother, Dad's financial sanctions on me are over. I'm going to go to school in the next month, and there are quite a few schools I want to see. , I won't fly to you every time I read it, it's flying around, trouble."
"Okay, you can figure it out yourself." Ting Shuang looked at the reverse page of the tennis photo. She didn't know which desert, 20-year-old Bai Changyi was sitting on the roof of a jeep with his friends, behind him A giant sun sank into the endless yellow sand.
Zhu Wenjia booked a plane ticket and flew away that day, leaving 10,000 euros in cash in the bedroom.
When Ting Shuang found out, she called and asked Zhu Wenjia what was going on, and Zhu Wenjia said carelessly, "Brother, I didn't use you and your sister-in-law's house as a hotel, that's for you. You can earn 20 euros for an hour of working part-time job, which is too miserable. Now, I can't bear to eat yours and use yours these few days."
Ting Shuang laughed when she heard it: "Come on, Yu Xin couldn't bear it and didn't see you eat less."
"That's right, I gained two pounds while staying with you." Zhu Wenjia said with a smile, "I'll hang up first if I have nothing to do. I'm about to board the plane, so ask my sister-in-law for me."
"Well, pay attention." Ting Shuang hung up the phone, and his eyes fell back to the desktop, where there were photo albums that he had not finished reading, and other large and small things sent by Su Ping.
Bai Changyi's elders treated him so well, but in turn...
Ting Shuang lay down on the grass in the yard, looked at the sky for a while, and sent a message to Zhu Ao: Dad, let's talk some more time, just the two of us alone.
Take it slowly, he thought, not just one step at a time.
After waiting for a while, Zhu Ao replied: Think about what I said yesterday, don't refute it in a hurry, think about it for ten days and a half, and then talk to me.
Ting Shuang held the phone, stared at the screen, typed out a few words for a long time, and then deleted it.
When Bai Changyi came home, he happened to see this scene. Ting Shuang's hand was unsteady, and the phone hit the bridge of his nose, causing him to inhale cold air in pain.
"Are you still laughing?" Ting Shuang saw Bai Changyi, jumped up and hung it on the person.
Bai Changyi just let Ting Shuang hang in there, and when he lowered his head to open the door, he accidentally caught a glimpse of the words on the screen of Ting Shuang's mobile phone: "What do you want to say?"
"...No." Ting Shuang said, "I can't tell my dad, let alone dying of loneliness, maybe I will die young and die tomorrow. I am his son, if I say so, he must be his son. Can't be mad."
"Ting" Bai Changyi put Ting Shuang down, "Let's go out."
Ting Shuang hugged Bai Changyi's neck and asked, "Where are you going?"
"Central Cemetery." Bai Changyi said, "I wanted to take you there yesterday, but it closed at eight o'clock in the evening, and it was too late yesterday."
"Cemetery?" Ting Shuang asked, "Why go to the cemetery? Whose death?"
"No." Bai Changyi said, "Just go for a walk."
Ting Shuang: "Then, why go for a walk in the cemetery..."
"Go and see death." Bai Changyi said, "go and talk about aging, talk about death."
Ting Shuang was startled.
"I should have taken you there long ago." Bai Changyi gently combed Ting Shuang's forehead with his fingers, "Aging and death are everywhere like roses. I don't want you to be afraid of them, and I don't want you to be afraid of them when you meet They are overwhelmed."
After driving outside the central cemetery, Ting Shuang discovered that the cemetery was not far behind the church in the old city. He actually passed by here often, but he never noticed it. The marble wall of the cemetery is only waist-length, and there is a circle of tall green bushes inside the wall. Standing outside the wall, through the bushes, you can vaguely see the tombstones and the flowers in front of them.
"It's beautifully built here, like... a garden." Entering the cemetery, the surroundings were quiet, and Ting Shuang unconsciously lowered her voice.
It was the first time he had seen so many tombstones.
Rectangular, cross-shaped, oval... Flowers are planted in front of the tombstones, and some have statues of bibles or angels. In the distance, someone was watering the flowers in front of the tombstone, while others were sitting on a bench looking at the tombstone in a trance.
There is no terrifying atmosphere in the whole cemetery, it just makes people feel calm.
Ting Shuang stopped to read the words on the tombstone. From 1911 to 1951, a man named Gunter had been buried here for 68 years.
It was a long time ago, and the epitaph was written in Gothic script, making it difficult to read. Ting Shuang watched for a long time before trying to translate the sentence: "He has forty years... steep... extraordinary time."
"Profound." Bai Changyi chose a concise translation, "He has forty years of prosperous years."
"He has forty years of prosperous years." Ting Shuang slowly recited it several times, and was suddenly touched by this sentence, and by the word "own" in this sentence.
He didn't know whether this man named Gunter had imagined his life after the age of fifty when he was young, and whether he had also imagined how he should spend the rest of his life.
But in fact, people have never really had any future, and people don't have the so-called rest of their lives. The rest of their lives is just a vision, just an imagination. What people really have are the years that have passed and the present moment.
Ting Shuang stood quietly in front of the tombstone, her heart suddenly widened.
The breeze is blowing, and the autumn is clear.
"Go ahead?" Ting Shuang asked.
"Yeah." Bai Changyi responded, and the two walked forward side by side.
After walking a few steps, Bai Changyi said: "If I die tomorrow, my epitaph can also be written like this-" "'He has thirty-six years of prosperous years, and a young lover named Ting Shuang.' "His tone was so natural and ordinary, Ting Shuang couldn't feel a shadow.
"It's not scary, right?" Bai Changyi smiled and said humorously, "If I'm lucky, my epitaph may also be: 'He has a hundred years of prosperous years, and an old man named Ting Shuang.'" Ting Shuang Shuang also smiled: "Then I will also be a handsome 88-year-old old man, smoking, driving a convertible, and hugging you and kissing you when waiting for traffic lights. Whoever dares to give me the middle finger, I will stick it back. Anyway, at that time, don't care about any young people, they are all my grandsons."