In the middle of the night, Ting Shuang woke up in the bedroom on the second floor, went downstairs barefoot, and followed the light source to find Bai Changyi. He vaguely remembered that Bai Changyi asked him to eat in the afternoon, but he couldn't get up, so Bai Changyi carried him upstairs to sleep.
He walked to the door of the study, and without disturbing him, he quietly watched Bai Changyi work until Bai Changyi looked up and saw him.
"Wake up." Bai Changyi put down his work, got up and saw that Ting Shuang was not wearing shoes, picked him up and walked to the kitchen.
Ting Shuang was placed on the cooking table, drinking a bowl of simmering seafood soup to warm his stomach, and by the way, waited for Bai Changyi to warm him up.
The snow had stopped, and a thick layer of white had accumulated outside the window. Vico's footprints could be seen on the snow lit by the kitchen lights.
Ting Shuang thinks of their first date, and countless times after that, as it is now. But winter feels very different. Winter makes people feel warmer.
After drinking the soup, Ting Shuang ate the clams in the soup one by one, picked out the meat, and threw the shells into the trash can.
"There are still more than three months before the next semester starts." He was eating and talking about the things he had considered for a few months, intermittently, without a sentence, casually, "During this time, I plan to be like you used to... Driving yourself to see different places, talking to different people... I've told you this idea before. I feel like I should have had that experience."
Otherwise, he doesn't know where his building should be built.
He was in no rush to have that building in some known, definite place, nor was he in a rush to start building that building at a certain age. He just wanted to get off the track, walk around, stop to take a breath, and pick up two bricks.
He set off after spending Christmas and New Year with Bai Changyi.
He rented a regular jeep, filled it with gas, brought winter to summer clothes, and went to the barbershop to get a haircut that was a little longer than his bald head, which he said was convenient.
"Is it a bit like a juvenile delinquent?" Ting Shuang looked in the mirror and touched her stubble.
Bai Changyi took him by the waist, bowed his head and kissed him: "Tell me which prison you're in."
Ting Shuang kissed back and joked, "Why, are you going to jail?"
Bai Changyi chuckled and said, "I will be the warden."
Ting Shuang bit Bai Changyi's chin and said, "You just want to lock me up?"
Bai Changyi sighed in his heart, it would be good if he could lock it up.
Child, you have to let him go wild.
Before going out, vico threw himself on Ting Shuang, who was carrying the suitcase, and kept rubbing. Ting Shuang touched his son's head and said, "Good son, Dad does look a bit like going out of the house... but in fact It’s just been less than three months since you’ve been out, you should take a good look at your home at home, and protect your beautiful uncle from fire, theft, and theft.”
After speaking, Ting Shuang put her luggage in the trunk and got into the car.
Bai Changyi stood outside the car, Ting Shuang opened the car window, and kissed Bai Changyi across the car window in the first snow of the new year.
The snow was heavy, and by the time the kiss was over, a lot of snow had fallen on Bai Changyi's head.
"I can imagine your white hair." Ting Shuang brushed off the snow and said.
Bai Changyi said, "Don't scare me by saying such things when you are parting."
Ting Shuang laughed, and after laughing, she said seriously, "I'll be back soon."
Bai Changyi nodded, with a gentle smile in his eyes: "Well."
Ting Shuang continued: "I will write you letters or postcards every time I go."
Bai Changyi: "Well."
Ting Shuang: "I will call you often."
Bai Changyi: "Okay."
Ting Shuang: "I will always miss you."
Bai Changyi: "Well."
Ting Shuang started the car: "I'm going to go."
Bai Changyi said: "Pay attention to safety."
Ting Shuang looked at the front of the road for a few seconds, suddenly pushed the door and got out of the car, hugged Bai Changyi tightly, and said, "...Thank you."
Bai Changyi licked the thorns on Ting Shuang's hand twice, and said, "Thank you for what? Thank you, I'm willing to let you go out for three months without seeing you for a few days?"
"Well... it's not exactly this." Ting Shuang didn't know what to say.
Bai Changyi smiled and said, "I understand, let's go."
Ting Shuang nodded, kissed Bai Changyi, and got into the car.
Bai Changyi stood there, watching the ruts on the snow gradually elongate.
When the courtyard door was not closed, vico ran out, rubbed against Bai Changyi's leg, and called twice in the direction the car drove away.
Bai Changyi touched vico's head and said, "Go in, empty-nest child." Come with me, an empty-nest old man.
On January 7th, Bai Changyi went back to school to go to work. A few days after going to work, he received the first letter from Ting Shuang. The stamps and postmarks were still German.
In the evening, Bai Changyi sat by the fireplace, opened the envelope with a paper cutter, took out the letter and read it. Vico also came over and touched the page with his nose. The fire was bright and dark, and the words on the paper were swaying and swaying - Dear Boss Bai, I am at the foot of the Alps.
I live on a farm down the mountain, where I can see the snowy top of Mont Blanc in the distance.
It's night, I'm writing to you by the fire, I chop the wood myself, I have one at my feet - don't show this to vico, lest he think I have an illegitimate child outside - at my feet There is a shepherd dog who just turned one year old.
Yesterday, I familiarized myself with the environment of the farm. Today, I ran sheep with people for a day. When I was resting, I was lying on the grass. A big tit flew over and stepped on my face. I fought with it and finally lost. .
It feels amazing to be out of the city.
In a crowded place, I feel like a component that has to work with the surroundings, but when I go to a place where there are not many people, I feel more like a person.
During the day, I looked at the sheep and thought about the difference between people and them.
Didn't figure it out.
The sheep have a strange smell.
The stars in the mountains are bright and many, just like what we saw in the mountains when we drove out.
There is also a sketch on the back of the court letter with a pen, which outlines the vast and continuous snow-capped mountains with a few strokes.
Bai Changyi read the letter three or four times before putting it in the envelope.
About half a month later, he received another box of smoked sausages, with a note attached to the box, in Ting Shuang's handwriting, saying that it was the sausages he learned to make on the farm and let Bai Changyi eat them.
Throughout January, Bai Changyi received ten letters. Ting Shuang almost kept the frequency of writing a letter every two days, telling Bai Changyi some trivial matters.
He went to milk, and it took him a long time to find out that it was a ram, and he was not milking a place where milk could come out... Then he washed his hands for half an hour.
He went to climb a mountain, encountered a blizzard, and was trapped on the mountain overnight with his companions. They were surrounded by a boulder, and they spoke in spirit and waited for hope.
Early in the morning, when the snowstorm stopped, they saw a mighty herd of deer passing by the other side of the boulder, the herd of deer like mountains, the antlers like the branches of the giant trees on the top of the mountain. Everyone held their breath and merged with the still snow-capped mountains.
After receiving the letter about the blizzard, although Bai Changyi knew that Ting Shuang had already descended the mountain safely, he still made a phone call and gave him a lesson.
When he answered the call, Tingshuang was crossing the Alps from Austria to Italy. The snow-capped mountains on both sides of the road were towering, and the clouds were on the mountainside. He listened to the training honestly, opened the car window, and let Bai Changyi listen to the wind whistling outside the window with him.
"Bai Changyi, did you drive through the Alps like this before?" he asked loudly in the wind.
"Yes." Bai Changyi said helplessly, "Ting, but I didn't think at that time that someone would worry about my safety."
Ting Shuang said quickly, "I will never do anything dangerous."
Bai Changyi said: "Think about me before doing it."
Ting Shuang closed the window, slowed down, and made a low "um".
First letter of February, postmarked from Florence.
Bai Changyi got the letter from the mailbox when he went out in the morning, and only opened it when he went to the office to look at it—baby, I studied latte art in a coffee master class, and at night I played guitar in the cafe and chatted with people.
Where I live is upstairs from this cafe. I lived next door to an art history student who took me to see the reliefs on the door of St John's Baptistery, comparing the works of isano and ghiberti.
She paints herself and wanted to hire me to do her a mannequin for a day, but I said no.
I don't think I'm as good as you are.
I went to a lot of art galleries and museums, but I don't remember much of the artworks. What I remember is an old lady covered in paint on the stone floor in the streets of Florence, drawing waves. A section of Ticelli's The Birth of Venus.
I passed by there in the morning, she was painting, and in the evening I went for a run by the river and passed there, she was still painting, as if she was almost finished.
When I came back from running, there were only water traces after washing on the ground, and the crowd dispersed. In the future, no one may know that Venus was born in this place where everyone can step on it.
That night I sang "Driving to the North" in the cafe, and although no one understood what I was singing, I changed the words "time is not equal" to "time is equal".
I want to go to Rome this weekend.
As expected, the next postcard was sent from Rome.
Ting Shuang knew that Bai Changyi had seen all these things he had seen, but he still wanted to tell Bai Changyi again.
End of March, Greece.
After a month, Ting Shuang already knew about the fish market here. In his letter in March, he drew various fish and mussels.
He also spent two weeks in the Aegean Sea watching turtles.
His hair had grown back to its pre-departure length, and his skin was honey-colored by the sea breeze and the sun.
The day he was about to return to Germany, a whale stranded on the nearby coast. He delayed his trip to see the whale. His plan was to drive for two days, get home on Sunday, and then on Monday the next day, he happened to go to the first robotik class of this semester with Bai Changyi.
But in order to see the whale, he might face the exact same problem as a year ago—