Ting Shuang was sweating profusely as he kicked the ball, and his shoes, legs, and pants were all dirty. He wasn’t conscious of anything else. Only happiness and victory. He just wanted to rush towards the audience on the bleachers after sharing a group hug with his teammates — just like the other boys playing football.
The other boys ran towards their girlfriends. They wiped their sweat, drank water, and bragged to their girlfriends about how good they were just now.
Ting Shuang also wiped his sweat and drank water, happily breaking down their tactics in front of Bai Changyi.
Bai Changyi smiled and listened for a long time before saying, “They’re leaving, and waiting for you.”
Ting Shuang turned around and saw the other boys and their girlfriends standing under the bleachers.
He smiled and waved, saying goodbye to them loudly.
After bidding farewell, he turned back, kissed Bai Changyi and asked, “How does it feel to watch your boyfriend play football amongst a group of high school girls?”
Bai Changyi was happy to fuel Ting Shuang’s vanity, “They’re all jealous of me. My boyfriend’s more handsome.”
Ting Shuang pretended to be distressed, “Those guys playing football were also jealous of me. It’s too annoying.”
The two looked at each other, laughed, and then shared a long kiss on the empty bleachers.
The wind blew across the grass, blowing past their hair and clothes.
“Are you cold?” Bai Changyi said, “You’re all sweaty. I brought you a long sleeve shirt in the car. Go and change.”
Ting Shuang nodded and changed his clothes before driving off.
The street lights were bright, but the sky was not completely dark yet. Layered clouds were in the distance, colours of gold, rose-pink, purple-grey, and dark blue, extending from the horizon to the zenith.
‘Love Is Reason’ started playing on the car stereo.
“What are we going to do next?” Ting Shuang moved to the rhythm of the record, very comfortable.
“Like what you said, sail the seas and ride with the winds and waves, so as to fight the sharks.” When Bai Changyi said this, his tone sounded as if he was like saying, ‘find a restaurant to eat at, then go home and sleep.’
After the craziness from before, Ting Shuang didn’t feel particularly surprised when he heard that, “Okay, where do I go?”
“All the way north.” Bai Changyi pointed to a highway, “To Lübeck.”
Ting Shuang glanced at the map, “God, are we going to cross half of Germany all the way to the Baltic Sea? How long will it take?”
Bai Changyi said, “We can reach before two in the morning. The car rental shop has a chain. We’ll return the car in Lübeck tomorrow morning and return by plane. Your son is still waiting at home.”
“You’re familiar with this?” Ting Shuang was curious, “Have you done this kind of thing before?”
“More than ten years ago.” Bai Changyi said, “Go to the gas station first.”
Ting Shuang parked the car at the gas station, bought water and a lot of food from the 24-hour convenience store, and waited for Bai Changyi to fill up the gas tank while eating.
“Were you particularly cool more than ten years ago?” Ting Shuang sat on the hood of the car and imagined, “Just, a map, a car, a beautiful girlfriend, and a piece of the European continent. The world is yours, and all boys envied you. That kind of thing.”
Bai Changyi smiled, “Actually, every place I went, I was working half the time.”
Ting Shuang became interested, “Hey, what kind of work have you done?”
“Protecting the turtles, talking to the elderly, helping people repair the house and paint the walls, and being a model for art students…” Bai Changyi finished filling up the gas tank, “Done, ready to go.”
“Being a model?” Ting Shuang got into the car and asked with great interest, “One that didn’t wear clothes?”
“Drive.” Bai Changyi looked forward, expressionless.
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“Oh oh… I’ll drive, I’ll drive.” Ting Shuang peeked at Bai Changyi, the corners of his mouth uncontrollably tipping up.
The colours in the southwest were scattered by the evening wind.
The car headed north, crossing mountains and rivers, passing cities and fields, driving into the silent starry sky.
Scattered small towns lay on both sides of the road, their lights dotting the hills and plains. The golden weather vane on the top of the church slowly spun in the moonlight.
Bai Changyi turned down the volume of the car stereo.
As the drumbeats around them became softer, the singing in the distance gradually became louder.
“Someone’s singing over there?” Ting Shuang glanced in the direction of the music, but couldn’t see what exactly was going on. He just felt like the town over there had brighter lights than the other towns they’d passed through. The lights shone in the dark, and there was a boisterous crowd.
“Do you want to take a look?” Bai Changyi turned off the stereo, and the music in the distance became clearer. There were human voices, guitars, keyboards, trumpets, and drums.
“Of course,” Ting Shuang slowed down, paying attention to the road signs and looking for a road that he could turn into to enter the town. “Maybe if we’re lucky, they’d actually let me play the guitar and sing.”
Bai Changyi smiled and continued with the second half of the sentence, “You’d have tens of thousands of people in the audience go crazy.”
“No.” With the steering wheel, Ting Shuang turned into a small two-lane road. “I changed my mind. I just want you to go crazy for me.”
Following the music, they found a beer garden built on a hill.
In the garden, giant trees covered and blanketed them as if they were the fog or clouds. Countless stars and lights mixed together, connecting from one tree trunk to another. People sat around wooden tables under the trees, holding one-litre painted glass mugs of beer, eating barbecue, drinking, and chatting. A stage was set up in the corner of the garden, and a band was currently playing ‘Great Freedom’ on it.
Ting Shuang went to buy two bottles of ice soda, and found an empty table to sit down at.
“It seems like someone’s requesting a song.” Ting Shuang stretched his head and looked over there for a while, “I want to request one too, but I’m not sure if they’ll know it.”
“Didn’t you want to play and sing yourself?” Bai Changyi said, “Just borrow a guitar.”
“Mm… I can play and sing myself… But…” Ting Shuang suddenly realised a realistic problem, “I can only play one song… Now, I won’t say which one it is…”
Bai Changyi smiled, “Mm, I know which one it is.”
Cheers and laughter continued from around them, but their table was quiet after Bai Changyi’s words.
Ting Shuang looked at Bai Changyi under the golden lights.
He didn’t have gray hair nor wrinkles, but they were still different.
A difference of twelve years didn’t only concern appearances.
What he was currently going through was something Bai Changyi had already experienced. Bai Changyi’s golden thirty-six years of age was the top of a mountain he didn’t know how to reach. His ordinary twenty-four years of age was the youth that Bai Changyi could never return to.
Twenty-four and thirty-six were, of course, both golden ages.
But…
What about when he’s forty-eight years old?
He’d thought about forever, thought about a hundred years, but now, he surprisingly didn’t dare to think about the forty-eight years of age that he’d surely hit.
Twelve years.
Their time didn’t flow the same.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Bai Changyi asked.
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Ting Shuang was silent for a few seconds, “No reason, I just want to look at you like this.”
After he finished speaking, he gulped down the soda, making his internal organs feel the slightest bit of pain.
“Are you still going to sing?” Bai Changyi’s eyes were filled with indulgence, “You can just sing the only song you know.”
They couldn’t stay here for too long, otherwise they’d reach Lübeck too late.
Ting Shuang looked into Bai Changyi’s eyes for a long time, “You’ll drive later, okay?”
Bai Changyi smiled, “Of course.”
“Wait for me.” Ting Shuang ran and bought a large glass of beer. Heads-up, he drank it all up.
The surrounding voices suddenly faded away.
The surrounding scenery also became blurry.
Ting Shuang put down the glass mug, and ran onto the stage with the buzz from the alcohol, and asked the players if he could borrow a guitar and the microphone.
“I want to sing a song,” His cheeks were slightly flushed, and his eyes were moist due to the heat in his chest. “I can only do this one song.”
The players stepped off of the stage and the spotlight came down.
Ting Shuang sat alone in the middle of the stage holding the guitar, looking towards Bai Changyi in the audience from a distance, as if there were only the two of them left in the world.
He didn’t play the guitar very well, only plucking a few simple chords with his fingers.
He didn’t have much literary talent, his lips were tight, and it was only a few mediocre words that couldn’t even be called lyrics.
“The summer of 2019
I drove to the north
Across the mountains and rivers
Towards the sea
Towards your thirty-six years
Ah…
Time doesn’t flow the same
Time doesn’t flow the same
The summer of 2019
You drove to the north
Drove past dusk
Drove towards sunrise
Towards my twenty-four years
Ah…
Time doesn’t flow the same
Time doesn’t flow the same”
Two lines of tears flowed from Ting Shuang’s eyes and along his jaw, falling onto the guitar.
His tears shone brighter than the spotlight.
Bai Changyi stood up and stared at Ting Shuang, somewhat startled.
Ting Shuang casually wiped his face and changed chords.
“The summer of 2019
I haven’t seen your twenty-four years
The summer of 2019
I didn’t dare think about thirty-six years
I only dared to drive to the north
Not for the mountains and rivers
Not for the sea
Not for dusk
Not for sunrise
For your twenty-four years
I drove to the north
To see your twenty-four years
I drove to the north”