Your Distance

63 - The Fat is in The Fire

“Why do you have so many rules in your house?” Zhu Wenjia asked, “Living in your house is like living in a monk’s temple.”

“I didn’t beg for you to live here.” Ting Shuang looked around the bedroom, making sure nothing was missing, “I have exams these few days, so I can’t accompany you. Take care of yourself.”

Over the next few days, Zhu Wenjia did indeed take care of himself, but it wasn’t that he wanted to. It was mainly because he had no money. Even if he wanted to game at home, his brother wouldn’t let him spend any money on them.

And then he realised that the rules his brother had set really weren’t all talk. One morning, he hadn’t fully woken up yet, so he didn’t pay attention to himself. He’d walked to the kitchen to pour himself a coffee in his underwear, and happened to run into Bai Changyi as he was about to leave.

Bai Changyi acted as usual, nodding at him and leaving. But after Bai Changyi left, Ting Shuang immediately deducted half of his pocket money.

Zhu Wenjia immediately woke up completely, protesting, “Isn’t that too much?”

Ting Shuang had just taken two consecutive days of exams and was very irritable, “It’s not too much. You tried to entice your sister-in-law. Count yourself lucky for not getting a beating from me. Go back to your bedroom and put some clothes on before coming out again.”

A few weeks after being treated this way, Zhu Wenjia surprisingly adapted to it, and gradually began to live a proper (what he previously thought was inhumane) life, sleeping and waking up early. His daily visits to nightclubs and the red light district became ones to museums and tennis courts. Because he was really out of money and even had his internet cut off at night, he didn’t even feel like playing games anymore. Later, he even flipped open the English science and technology, or astronomy magazines Bai Changyi had subscribed to for Ting Shuang from time to time. At least he didn’t need to spend money on these magazines, and it didn’t require use of the Internet.

It was already the autumn break. After finishing his exams, Ting Shuang kept organising and summarising his body of knowledge at home. The body of knowledge behind a profession was huge and complex, and it was impossible to complete it in one or two days. What’s more, he not only had to organize his professional body of knowledge, but also the whole branch of knowledge he had as an individual.

He wanted to understand and examine himself.

Recently, this was something he wanted to understand.

He wanted to move outwards, into the depths of the world, as well as inwards, into the depths of himself, so that he’d know where he was standing and where he was going.

In addition, he was also doing dynamic analyses and drawing designs at the same time – Bai Changyi promised to accompany him in building a set of three-dimensional vertical maneuvering equipment during the holidays, so that he could fly around, killing whatever he wanted.

Zhu Wenjia coveted the designs Ting Shuang had done.

“Ge, when would I be able to make such a thing?”

Ting Shuang was simulating the wind resistance for when he would fly around using the vertical maneuvering on the computer. He didn’t even lift his head when he heard Zhu Wenjia, “Why don’t you apply for an engineering major? For example, aircraft design or something.”

Zhu Wenjia fell into deep thought.

After he finished high school in the UK, he had decided to take a gap year and go to university later. But, the gap turned out to be endless. He hadn’t applied for university even after playing for more than two years.