#21: You Take in the World, I Take in You

1

As the “May Day” holiday approached, while packing for the trip, I stuffed my laptop into my backpack. Lin Zhiyi said, “Why are you bringing the computer again?”

I said, “So I can write whenever I feel like it!”

He said, “You bring it on every trip, but I never see you write much.”

“You wouldn’t understand. Don’t you see that after every trip, I write related articles? I let the laptop absorb some inspiration, and then I have writing ideas when I come back!” I solemnly made up nonsense.

“...Is there such an operation?” After he said this, he suddenly realized and said, “No wonder when you write novels, you always kiss me—it’s to absorb inspiration, right?”

“...”

2

On a weekend outing, Lin Zhiyi brought along his “new favorite”—a new DSLR camera he bought during “Singles’ Day,” claiming he would take many beautiful pictures of me.

Unexpectedly, the temperature in the suburbs was lower than in the city, and it took immense courage to pose without my down jacket. Lin Zhiyi had forgotten his gloves but was undeterred by the cold, holding the camera and squatting on the ground trying to capture the effect of long legs. Sometimes he even climbed trees, saying he wanted to capture the moment when I looked up and smiled enchantingly.

I told him, “Although you’re not a professional photographer, you have a professional photographer’s dedication.”

He proudly said, “Don’t rush to praise me. Wait until we get home to see the photos before praising me.”

When we got home, Lin Zhiyi excitedly opened the computer and called out, “Dà Níng, come and select your photos!”

I eagerly walked over to look at his work.

However—

This one has closed eyes, delete; this one has a crooked mouth, delete; this one makes me look fat, delete… In the end, only three photos that I liked remained. Lin Zhiyi said with slight disappointment, “Driving for an hour, carrying that big thing, braving the cold to take pictures, and after all that hard work, I only earned 240 yuan.”

I burst out laughing afterward. If calculated at eighty yuan per photo, weren’t the three I selected worth exactly 240 yuan?

Last time our family of three went to take ancient-style family portraits, the photographer’s skill was so high that I couldn’t bear to delete many during the selection process. In the end, I had to buy them back at eighty yuan per negative.

At the time, Lin Zhiyi quietly told me, “In the future, I’ll have another way to make money—eighty yuan for each photo you choose.”

Unexpectedly, inspired by this business idea, he actually tried to earn money from his wife this time.

I transferred 300 yuan to him via WeChat and said generously, “Keep the change, the rest is a tip.”

He said, “That won’t do! I’m not used to owing others, I must repay it.”

I said, “Then quickly repay me.”

Instead, he quickly kissed my cheek and said, “Repayment done!”

“...”

Is this repaying a debt with a kiss?

3

I once said that how Lin Zhiyi takes my photos represents how much he loves me.

One time, I found that the photos he took of me were truly speechless—the angle wasn’t chosen well, the colors weren’t adjusted properly, and even the expressions looked unnatural.

I confronted him: “Honey, you must not love me anymore. Look at these photos you took this time—they’re not good at all! Didn’t you say before that if you take a picture of me from the left, I look like Zhao Yazhi, from the right like Liu Tao, from below like Zhang Tian’ai, and from above like Li Bingbing? How did you turn me into a ‘four不像’ this time?”

Lin Zhiyi smiled and apologized: “My fault! My fault! This time I took a frontal shot.”

“...”

4

Before the company’s annual trip, Lin Zhiyi sighed and said, “Another long-distance relationship is about to start.”

I said, “Then wait for the joy of reunion after a short separation.”

“Every time you come back from a trip, you say, ‘I’m so tired, so sleepy, and so dizzy.’ It’s not a short separation making us ‘newlyweds,’ but newly ‘confused.’”

I laughed and said, “Anyway, it’s almost August, and we can travel together.”

“That’s different. I hope I’m with you on every trip. How can you manage without my care as a life novice?”

Speaking of being a life novice, I indeed often encounter small issues when traveling alone for work. I said, “Just think of my travels as accumulating material.”

“Without me, what material can you accumulate? Is anyone more fun than me?”

“...” This self-confidence is unmatched.

I had to change the subject: “Recently, I read Mr. Gu Sui’s book. He said, ‘To write something, you need to keep a certain distance from the people, events, or things you write about to write well.’

The domestic trip organized by the company this time keeps just the right distance from you. I can write you better.”

“This is the perfect distance.” He pulled me close, leaving only a fist’s distance between us.

“...”

5

A while ago, I accidentally sprained my ankle. As the saying goes, “An injury to the bones and tendons takes a hundred days to heal.” Even after three months, the sprained area still occasionally hurt. Lin Zhiyi insisted I go to the hospital to see a foot and ankle specialist. The doctor advised me to rest well and use special insoles for conservative treatment, and if it didn’t improve, I’d need a minor surgery.

This didn’t scare me, and I still embarked on a trip to Northern Europe.

During the journey, Lin Zhiyi noticed that I walked briskly and wondered, “How can you walk so much without complaining of pain? At home, you often say it hurts even when you don’t walk much.”

I said, “Seeing foreign elderly ladies traveling with walking sticks, what’s a sprained ankle compared to that?”

In Northern Europe, I found that women remain elegant and free even as they age. Some sit in cafes chatting with their girlfriends, some travel the world with walking sticks, never stopping… Their confident smiles, even on wrinkled faces, are very vivid and beautiful.

Women can actually age gracefully. Youth is never just about age—it’s about mindset.

Seeing an elderly woman in a wheelchair being pushed by her husband, I would call Lin Zhiyi to look.

He said, “I seem to see our future. I’ll push you to see the world.”

I said, “Pfft, pfft, pfft! Quickly spit it out! I’m going to exercise well at home. In the future, I’ll still travel side by side with you to see the world.”

Back in Beijing, I learned that a friend was hospitalized for over twenty days after being hit recently and couldn’t resist getting up with crutches to travel to Daocheng Yading.

We two “disabled” people exchanged travel experiences, full of laughter.

Then, I sighed, “A good mood can make you forget physical pain. I didn’t feel any foot pain during the trip. Indeed, the body is just a vessel—it’s meant to be used.”

“Mm, let me use it,” Lin Zhiyi said seriously.

“...”

6

One National Day holiday, we traveled to Istanbul, experiencing Turkey’s exotic charm and breathing in the air of a foreign land. I gained a deeper understanding of what Haruki Murakami wrote in his travelogue.

He said the most special thing about Turkey is its air. “What you take away from a trip isn’t memories, which fade, nor postcards, which lose color, but the air—you breathe it in, and it becomes yours.”

I shared my travel insights with Lin Zhiyi, and he said, “Do you know there’s another sentence to that quote?”

“Huh? Another sentence? I didn’t know. What is it?” I asked curiously.

“Loving you is like loving the air because you’re everywhere.” He said.

Mm, saying cheesy lines in Turkey—no problem!

7

The book I wrote, Seeing Mountains as Mountains, Seeing Water as Water, Seeing You as the Whole World , is about mine and Lin Zhiyi’s travel stories. Worried that my memory might not capture everything comprehensively and in detail, every time I wrote about a place, I would pull Lin Zhiyi along to review the places we had been.

After finishing the part about Turkey and moving on to write about England, I asked him, “When we were in England, which place left a deeper impression on you?”

He thought for a moment and said, “Actually, wherever I’ve been with you, every place feels about the same—similar impressions.”

I pressed further: “You like photography, right? Think about it—what kind of scene do you like best?”

He earnestly said, “As long as you’re in the frame, I like all the pictures I take.”

Not what I meant. I continued pressing: “Think carefully again. Which place left a deeper impression on you? Whether it’s the people you met there or the stories that happened. Like in San Mao’s book, the #‘Soul Capturing’ tells the story of Saharawi people who hadn’t seen cameras before. When San Mao took their pictures, they thought she was capturing their souls, which was quite interesting.”

Lin Zhiyi stared at me and said, “You’re capturing my soul right now.”

“...”

It’s my fault—I shouldn’t have discussed such a serious topic while changing clothes in front of you.

8

We were enjoying the scenery in a park in London. Swans floated leisurely on the crystal-clear lake, and the “London Eye” could be faintly seen in the distance.

Xinbao and I faced the lake. I gazed at the distant scenery, while she watched the swans on the lake and the fish swimming underwater.

Lin Zhiyi captured this moment and held up the camera, asking me, “How is it? Not bad, right?”

I glanced at it and said, “This one seems to make me look fat.”

Xinbao said, “This one makes my hair look messy.”

Lin Zhiyi said, “Then I’ll retake it for you.”

Later, when he showed us the photos again, he said seriously, “This one definitely doesn’t make you look fat.”

I noticed there were foreign tourists next to us in the photo and asked, “...Why include others in the frame?”

“With a reference object, you’ll look slimmer.”

“...”

9

At the end of September, the company organized a team-building trip, and my colleagues and I went to Saihanba and Ulan Butong Grassland. (I had been to these places twice with Lin Zhiyi before, and this experience was written about in Seeing Mountains as Mountains, Seeing Water as Water, Seeing You as the Whole World .)

The autumn scenery of Qixing Lake and the grasslands was still beautiful. Above the blue sky, clouds drifted by; under the sunset, the grass and trees turned golden. Whether it was due to the rushed itinerary or unfamiliar beds, I slept poorly at the hotel that night.

When I came back and told Lin Zhiyi, “Maybe the standard room bed was too small—I didn’t sleep well these two days.”

Lin Zhiyi said, “It’s not that the bed was too small—it’s missing a person.”

“...”

Though reluctant to admit it, having him by my side during trips does make me sleep soundly.