I'll wait for you amidst the romance of nature.

After a bit of playful fighting, the money I'd snatched from Yang Sisi's handbag was still in my hand. She stood a short distance away, hands on her hips, watching me. Exhausted, she snapped, "Michael, you bastard... I really didn't have any money. You took it all! Do you want me to starve?!... There was even money in there from helping my friend sell clothes. How dare you take it?"

"What I learned from you, once I take it, it's mine..."

"There's plenty of money in the bank, why don't you just rob it... Only a beast like you would bully a penniless young girl like me!"

I ignored her. She continued angrily, "Go ahead and rob Ye Zhi, she's rich... Do you dare to rob her? You chickened out for ages when you saw her, you only bully honest people like me!"

"Did being an honest person offend your whole family? You just keep trying to categorize yourself as an honest person!"

Yang Sisi couldn't handle me. She sat down on the steps beside her and stopped talking about robbing me. This sudden change made me quite uncomfortable. I tentatively took two steps towards her and asked, "This is the money you used to save your life in Dali... You really don't want it?"

"No, I'll just consider it money for feeding the dog."

I smiled, then put the loose change back next to her and said, "I was just kidding... You can take the money back, but be careful with it. Think about how hard we worked today to sell a few pieces of clothing!"

Yang Sisi looked at me incredulously, as if afraid I would change my mind, and quickly grabbed the money into her hand, saying to me, "At least you still have some conscience."

I took a drag of my cigarette, then looked at her, wanting to say something but suddenly choked up. While choking, I couldn't think of a legitimate reason to lure her to the restaurant. Just then, Yang Sisi suddenly patted my arm, a hint of inexplicable joy in her eyes, and said, "Let's go sell clothes again tomorrow, okay? I'll share some with you, so you don't work for free, what do you say?"

"It's not good. I think it's pretty boring to just drift through life like this."

"Isn't the whole point of coming to Dali just to coast through life?"

I was speechless, then took another deep drag of my cigarette to mask my unease. In the brief silence, my phone rang again. This time it wasn't Lao Huang, but Tie Nan, the first friend I'd made since arriving in Dali.

I thought he was inviting me back to drink and kill time, but instead he said to me quite seriously, "Michael, buddy, I have a job for you, want to take it?"

I was a little suspicious. This guy knew practically nothing about me, so how would he know what kind of work I was capable of doing? With this question in mind, I asked, "What kind of work?"

Tie Nan explained, "A car convoy just approached Instructor Ma, wanting him to take some promotional photos... basically, wedding photos. Many tourists come to Dali specifically to take wedding photos, and they rent their cars to these couples. They've expanded this year, so they wanted some material for promotion... They didn't have any other requirements, just that Instructor Ma find two models with good looks and气质 (qi zhi - a combination of temperament, bearing, and style) to take a set of wedding photos for them... I thought, this shouldn't be given to outsiders. I think the girl you were with today is perfect. If you agree, I'll give you each 300 yuan. It's just a morning's work, much better than you selling clothes!"

"You mean, I'm filming with Yang Sisi?"

Tie Nan replied confidently, "Yes... but don't get me wrong, I'm not praising your image. This promotional photo mainly emphasizes the role of the bride; you're just a supporting character, and you won't get any close-ups."

"Hey Ri, what's wrong with giving me a few close-ups?! I'm such a handsome guy!"

Tie Nan laughed heartily and said, "Then it's settled. We'll start work promptly at seven o'clock tomorrow morning."

I then raised my own doubts, asking, "Isn't Coach Ma a singer in bars? Is it reliable to have him do photography?"

"Everyone who's been around in Dali has a few special skills! Don't worry, his stinky feet can't hide his talent. He's a guy with real skills."

……

After ending the call with Tie Nan, I turned my attention to Yang Sisi, and under her wary gaze, I said, "A friend of mine got a job, three hundred yuan a morning, lunch included."

Yang Sisi replied with disbelief, "Is it really that good? Three hundred yuan for a morning, plus lunch!"

"Yes, it's actually very simple, just take some promotional photos for the car fleet here..." I hesitated before continuing.

Yang Sisi pressed on impatiently, "Stop beating around the bush, what kind of promotional photo is it?"

"It's those... those beautiful photos taken for young couples who are about to get married."

Yang Sisi understood instantly. She pointed to herself, then to me, and asked, "So you mean, this promotional photo was taken by the two of us?"

Fearing she might refuse and my plans would fall through, I quickly said, "Tie Nan said that in Dali, there are many models who make a living by taking wedding photos... They all have a lot of professional ethics and are able to distinguish between art and reality."

Yang Sisi glanced at me and replied, "If I agree, wouldn't that be selling my body for money?... I don't know why, but when I do something with someone like you, I just can't think of it as artistic. Look at yourself from head to toe, what part of you is related to art?"

I took out my phone and examined myself on the screen, then replied very sincerely, "I don't have much of an artistic sense... So, would you be willing to sacrifice your looks for money?"

"Since you're so self-aware, I'll take the job. But I have to tell you beforehand, you'd better not leave your groping hands lying around. I'm still a pure and innocent woman, and I can't let a beast like you defile me."

"Understood, I know what I'm doing. I promise I won't put my hands where I shouldn't..."

After a brief silence, Yang Sisi suddenly asked me, "Where are we eating tomorrow? Not boxed lunches, are we?"

Old Huang hasn't given me any news yet, so how would I know where I'd be assigned? I replied casually, "Making money and staying alive is the most important thing; food is a minor matter. I'll just listen to their arrangements. But I heard the convoy is well-funded, so the meals shouldn't be too bad."

Yang Sisi smiled contentedly, then closed her eyes, opened her arms, and said with deep feeling, "Here, there are different things to do every day, and I meet different people. It might seem like I'm doing nothing productive, but I won't starve! This feeling of living in one city and seeing the whole world is really great!"

I flicked my cigarette ash, not daring to look at her, even less willing to face her as she was about to open her eyes, because I knew what would happen tomorrow, but she didn't.

I'm imagining: what will she become when I, as an accomplice, shatter her dreams and good mood tomorrow? And after she's forced to leave Dali, will I feel a pang of sorrow, like a rabbit mourning the death of a fox?

After sitting for a while, Yang Sisi suggested going back because she needed to get up early the next day and be well-rested for work. I don't know how she managed in Shanghai, but at that moment I truly saw in her a seriousness towards life that girls her age wouldn't normally have. Perhaps it was the unique environment of Dali that had inspired her. But the more I saw this, the heavier my guilt became.

……

Back at the "Fengrenyuan" youth hostel, Coach Ma was sitting in the courtyard wiping his camera with a towel, while Tie Nan was lying on a deck chair staring blankly at the sky. The ashtray next to him was overflowing with cigarette butts, which seemed to be crying out that a decadent man had killed them in a particularly undignified way.

I moved a chair and sat down next to Tie Nan, then said, "If these cigarettes could fight, they'd definitely slap you. Look, not a single one of them survived from this whole pack. Are you trying to wipe out your entire family?"

Tie Nan took a puff of his cigarette with relish and replied nonchalantly, "We're just hurting each other, enjoying the pleasure of being tortured... When I smoke them, they kill my offspring, which number in the hundreds of millions."

I was stunned for a moment before I realized what was going on. This guy was really outrageous. Feeling ashamed of myself, all I could say was "Smoking is bad for your health," almost forgetting that I was also a long-time smoker.

Tie Nan opened another pack of cigarettes, took one out and handed it to me. After I lit it, I said to him, "I thought about opening the inn again today, and I actually think now is a pretty good time. Precisely because the policy is unclear, many inn owners are eager to sell, so the transfer price will definitely be lower than the original market price. If I choose to take over now, it's like buying at the bottom. If the policy is relaxed and the inns gradually resume business, won't I make a profit?"

Tie Nan sat up from the recliner, stared at me with an extremely sharp gaze for a moment, and then said, "What if the policies become stricter? What if, after this crackdown, the government starts controlling the number of inns? What will you do then?"

"There's no way this can be done without taking some risks. I came to Dali to open a guesthouse."

"Dude, I still advise you to be careful... If you really feel you have to do it, you can consider finding a company in the old town to take over. Definitely avoid anything near Erhai Lake."

I responded with a sound of agreement, then took a deep drag on my cigarette. At the same time, a sense of unease began to rise within me. It seemed that as long as money was involved, living in any city wouldn't be particularly easy.

At this moment, I actually envied Yang Sisi's mindset in coming to Dali. It seemed that her attitude allowed her to easily integrate into the most interesting aspects of life in Dali. However, thinking about it more deeply, she has the right to be. Even if she indulges in a decadent lifestyle in Dali for two or three years, she will still be a wealthy young lady when she returns to Shanghai.

And me? I can't escape the constraints of fate. I came to Dali just to live a better life than before. So even with this purpose in mind, I still can't completely abandon the word "struggle" from my life.

Perhaps I can never truly become a pure Dali person; the genes from my time living in Shanghai still remain in my bones!