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

Night fell, and I sat shirtless on the flat rock. Yang Sisi looked down at me, the atmosphere undeniably tense. After a moment, she finally spoke, saying, "You have no idea how spectacular the splash you made just now was!"

"Would you believe me if I said I wanted to kill you right now?"

"Xin, your murderous gaze has made me afraid to look you in the eye..."

"Then hurry up and buy me some food to bribe me, I'm afraid I won't be able to control my emotions."

"I have no money, so don't even think about food... If you really want to argue with a woman like me, then just throw me into Erhai Lake too."

I wrung out the water from my clothes, put them on, and stood up from the rocks. I glared at Yang Sisi...

She suddenly became considerate. She took out a men's garment from the pile of clothes she was selling and handed it to me, saying, "It's quite cold in Dali at night, you should wear this."

"Wearing your clothes makes me feel incredibly undignified. I'm not the kind of person who can be easily appeased with a stick and a sweet treat... My heart is incredibly cold!"

Yang Sisi sniffed and replied with a wronged expression, "How can you blame me?... I spent the whole day selling clothes in the ancient city, and not only did I not sell a single item, but I also got chased by the city management officers and fell hard... I was in excruciating pain and felt incredibly humiliated. Who knew I would run into you, and you would kick me when I was down... You say it's normal for me to lose control of my emotions!"

I sniffed and said, "That's quite a tragic story... Don't you live with Ye Zhi? Doesn't she keep an eye on you at all in your daily life?"

"Don't even mention it, she's such a weirdo... Before, she gave me a handbag worth over ten thousand yuan without batting an eye. But this morning, when I asked to borrow a few hundred yuan for an emergency, she refused... She wanted me to play by the rules and even wanted me to move out of her place... Haha, you said you were ruthless, but I think you're not even a tenth as ruthless as her. You're just a smart aleck, but she's really heartless enough to push me to the brink!"

Yang Sisi's accusations gave me a deeper understanding of Ye Zhi. She seems to be a very principled person, although her coldness can be off-putting. I still replied to Yang Sisi: "You've driven yourself to this dead end… If you feel you can't survive in Dali, go back to Shanghai… There's a bunch of people there eagerly waiting for you to return."

"I would never do something so shameful. If all else fails, I'll just work as a waiter at a bar."

I teased, "Why don't you become a bar hostess? That pays way more than being a waiter!"

"I won't do anything to harm others... I want to live with dignity in Dali, otherwise I might as well go back to Shanghai and eke out a living."

I smiled but didn't say anything.

She patted my arm with the back of her hand and said, "I haven't eaten much all day, so could you cook me a little something extra?"

What would you like to eat?

"The more lavish the better, ideally with both meat and wine!"

"Okay, but I can't just eat for free..."

Yang Sisi looked at me suspiciously and asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"Eating my food comes with interest... so you can eat as much as you want later, and you'll have to pay me back double every penny next week."

Yang Sisi laughed in exasperation: "This is really something. I've never heard of paying interest on a meal before... Should I stand next to you and breathe some air, and then give you an IOU?"

"You, such a passive person, dare to act tough with me?"

"I'm not being unreasonable, you're the one bullying me... You make me feel like I'm living under someone else's roof."

"Heh, you chose this path yourself. Didn't you consider the consequences before you made that choice?"

Yang Sisi replied with a particularly self-righteous tone, "How could I not have considered it..." She paused slightly, her momentum waning, and her voice softened a bit, "That day, we went to the ancient city together to sell clothes, and the results were pretty good, weren't they? I thought I could make a living in Dali with this business... But who would have thought that before the peak season was even completely over, business would suddenly go downhill!"

"This is a business that depends on luck; are you really planning to use it as a means to support your family?"

Yang Sisi looked at me with a confused expression, and after a long while said, "Let's just take it one step at a time... Anyway, I won't leave Dali."

I shook my head, unsure whether to admire her persistence or pity her plight...

She then said to me, "Are you still going to treat me to dinner?... If you're not, I'm going back to sleep."

I sighed inwardly, then took out my phone from my pocket, intending to transfer 100 yuan to her via WeChat, only to find that the phone was unusable due to water damage. So, I took out 100 yuan in cash from my pocket and handed it to her, saying, "Spend it wisely, there won't be a next time."

"oh."

"Then I'm leaving..."

"Um."

I glanced at her again, then turned to leave. Still a little worried, I turned back to her and said, "Go back and buy some disinfectant to clean your wound. It's best not to shower tonight, or the wound might get infected."

"Then give me another hundred yuan."

I was amused by her and asked, "Don't you feel humiliated by cheating me out of money?"

"I cheated with my own skills, why should I feel humiliated?... Besides, I'm in this situation half because of you, don't you bear any responsibility for me?"

"I must have owed you something in my past life!"

As I spoke, I reluctantly took out a hundred yuan from my pocket and handed it to her. She took it from me with satisfaction, then turned around and carried the woven bag that looked very unlucky toward the nearest noodle shop.

I just watched, feeling both amused and exasperated... but suddenly a sense of satisfaction welled up inside me. This satisfaction was strange, and I couldn't explain its origin.

……

After leaving "Ma Jiu Yi", I rushed to Long Kan Wharf. When I arrived, Tie Nan and the others had already started cleaning. I avoided their gaze, went to my room to change into a clean set of clothes, and then switched the SIM card to my spare phone. Only then did I quietly take a mop and leave the room.

After working for more than two hours, everyone finally had a break. They lit cigarettes and, during the rest period, chatted about whether the inn could reopen in November.

I asked Bailu, "Has the government refined the standards for the first batch of guesthouses to reopen? I feel the current standards are still quite vague. After all, there are quite a few guesthouses with complete licenses and permits. Without a comprehensive standard, many people will definitely be dissatisfied."

Bai Lu replied, "You were absolutely right. Today, the bureau, together with the environmental protection bureau, held another meeting specifically to discuss this matter. The mayor, who is in charge of urban planning, also attended the meeting. His attitude was very clear: the resumption of operations for the first batch of inns must be handled with extreme caution, and any irregularities such as using connections or backdoors must be resolutely prevented. If discovered, not only will the officials who accepted bribes be severely punished, but the inns that attempted to take shortcuts will also have their business licenses revoked."

I nodded, and after a moment of silence, I said, "The situation is very dire! Although we can barely be considered a high-end seaside inn, compared to those seaside inns with investments of tens of millions, we really have no chance at all!"

"Don't be too pessimistic. Let's fill out this application form first. Recently, an expert group may be set up to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the inns applying to resume operations... Don't underestimate this application form. In reality, less than a hundred inns will actually receive one, and this news is currently being kept under wraps. Many inn owners don't know about it, so our chances of winning have increased significantly."

I took the application form from Bailu's hand and immediately felt a sense of weight. I dare say that without Bailu as a partner, we would definitely have been among the last innkeepers to find out the news, let alone get an application form.