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

I didn't want to smoke anymore, so I tapped my fingers rhythmically on the table to make myself seem busy... After a very long silence, I finally spoke to her, "Don't you really want to give yourself a chance to start a new life?"

"I want to, I really want to... but I'm even more afraid of the consequences of my lies being exposed..." She paused briefly, then continued, "I never understood Leilei before, but now I do... She's truly a pitiful woman; fate didn't give her a choice... while I, on the other hand, have willingly fallen into depravity. So, if even Leilei didn't dare pursue true love, where would I get the courage to even try?!"

I replied, a little annoyed, "So, are you planning to live like this for the rest of your life?"

Peach was filled with confusion. After a long while, she said, "Maybe I'll marry someone I don't love... that way I won't feel so sorry for him. But if I'm with Tie Nan, my guilt will be especially heavy because I feel like I haven't given him my best self. This guilt is really deadly, and it might even prevent me from experiencing the sweetness of love."

"You're carrying too much of a mental burden!"

"What else can I do? I regret it too, but I don't have another chance... Michael, please take me to the airport tomorrow. I have to leave early."

"We've only been playing for two days!"

"I don't care that much. I should go back to Shanghai... If Tie Nan asks you about me after I leave, please don't tell him where I am."

Peach's determination filled me with a sense of powerlessness. I felt sorry for her, but there was not much I could do. In the end, I could only say to her, "Fine, I respect your choice... but I also want to advise you, even if you don't accept Tie Nan as a person, don't stay in this industry. This is really not a good place."

"Um."

After a moment of silence, she asked me again, "What about you? Will you find a girlfriend in Dali in the future?"

Lu Jia's image immediately flashed into my mind again. I hadn't forgotten her, nor had I forgotten why she left me. So, after a moment of disappointment, I whispered, "No rush... this isn't urgent."

……

Back in my room, I grabbed a bottle of "Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon" beer from the fridge, lay on the bed, and started scrolling through my WeChat Moments while drinking it. About ten minutes earlier, Yang Sisi had posted an update asking for help on WeChat Moments, inquiring about ways to improve Dali's tourism image.

I don't know what kind of advice her friends gave her, but I could really see her passion for the guesthouse, and I was a little touched.

This time, I took the initiative to text her: "What do you want to eat for lunch tomorrow?"

"Hot pot, authentic Chongqing hot pot, the best Chongqing hot pot ever!"

"Does Dali have authentic Chongqing hot pot?"

"There's one in Xiaguan, run by people from Chongqing. I heard the ingredients are all air-freighted here from Chongqing."

"Okay, I'll take you to eat there tomorrow."

Why are you suddenly so concerned about me?

"It's to maintain morale. Otherwise, how can we keep you working for the inn?"

"I wish you could say something serious sometime... You must be worried about me working too hard lately!"

Why do you always try to make others feel sorry for you?

Yang Sisi replied confidently, "Because I lacked love since I was a child."

"The love of others can never be as real as self-love. You have to learn to be an independent person and deal with the world independently, because no one can focus their attention on you every moment."

"See? I told you you're cold-blooded. Only a cold-blooded person would say something like that."

I don't like people calling me cold-blooded, so I didn't reply to Yang Sisi's messages anymore. After she sent me a poop emoji on WeChat, she didn't talk to me again.

I continued scrolling down, and then I couldn't believe my eyes, because Ye Zhi, who never posts on WeChat Moments, actually posted one... Upon closer inspection, I realized that this post wasn't about her life, but rather an in-depth article analyzing global economic trends.

Out of curiosity, I commented below, "Did you write this yourself?"

"This was forwarded from a friend."

"It's quite insightful and profound, but I don't understand it."

Ye Zhi remained indifferent as always; she didn't reply. Because I understand her, I could accept it. I simply looked out the window for a moment after closing my WeChat Moments...

The moon is exceptionally round tonight, illuminating the surface of Erhai Lake. While this makes the lake appear less mysterious, it also adds a touch of solitary beauty.

So I thought to myself, she doesn't seem to be asleep yet either. Is it because the night by Erhai Lake is too lonely?

Whatever her reason for staying up late, I was really sleepy, so I drank the "Romance in the Night" in the jar in one gulp, then pulled up the covers and fell into a deep sleep.

……

When I woke up in the morning, Taozi had already packed her luggage. She told me that she had bought a plane ticket to fly from Dali to Shanghai at 8:30. She was in such a hurry that the two of them didn't even have time to eat before driving to the airport.

I helped her get her boarding pass and check her luggage, and then we stood together at the security checkpoint...

With a hint of helplessness, I asked her, "Will you come to Dali again in the future?"

"Whether I come or not is not important at all. What's important is that you live well here... Leilei has never asked anything of you in her life. Her only hope is that you come to Dali and live a good life. For this, she has given you everything she could!"

I lowered my head slightly and replied, "What you said makes me quite sad, and I hope you don't stay in this industry anymore."

Peach reached out and hugged me, then cried, cried very sadly...

I patted her on the back and asked, "What's wrong? What's wrong?"

"Michael, I'm so sad... so incredibly sad!"

"Is it because she can't bear to part with this man she's finally started to like?"

"Not entirely... I felt sorry for Leilei, and then I thought of myself... You know what?...

Peach swallowed, but suddenly couldn't continue...

My heart tightened again, but fear couldn't overcome my thirst for knowledge, so I said to her, "I know you want to talk to me about Wang Lei... Go ahead and tell me. I have the right and the obligation to know everything about her. I'm not only her only fellow townsman in Shanghai, but also her family."

Peach pulled away from my embrace, her makeup ruined. She choked back tears as she told me, "You know what? The day before Leilei's accident, she borrowed 15 yuan from me… I remember it so clearly; she said it to me with a smile. She said she'd decided to never be a princess again, that she wanted to be your woman and come to Dali with you; she also said that Lu Jia had wasted such a good man like you, so she no longer wanted to hesitate in the face of this opportunity… Originally, she wanted to stay in Shanghai for another year, to earn enough money before going to Dali to find you, but she couldn't wait. She felt that after all these years of hardship, only the thought of going with you brought her happiness, so she didn't want to wait even a day longer…"

At this point, Peach was already sobbing uncontrollably: "Michael... wasn't Leilei pitiful?... She had no idea that you never intended to leave Shanghai. You were just fooling around. All you ever cared about was buying even a one-bedroom apartment in Shanghai... But she risked her life for you. She said she was already filthy, so she couldn't possibly go out with clients while thinking of you. That's why she resisted so desperately, trying her best to leave you with the last bit of happiness. Actually, she could have avoided this accident! She clearly could have... She was so pitiful. Her greatest happiness while she was alive was just fantasizing about going with you... Haha, her happiness was merely a fantasy... And you only truly decided to leave Shanghai after she died!... You said she risked her life, and all she got was this... How could I dare to touch the murderous knife of love?... People like us don't deserve love anymore!"

I just stood there, stunned, and then, amidst all sorts of stares, I felt completely numb... Peach didn't give me a chance to speak; she walked towards the security checkpoint with a look of utter despair, and soon disappeared from my sight...

Amidst the comings and goings of people, I gradually came to my senses, but then I was overwhelmed with immense pain... My pain at this moment stems from that regret of being just a hair's breadth away.

Peach isn't entirely right...

I regret it. If God gave me another chance, I would have brought Wang Lei to Dali that day, and to hell with worldly views, to hell with being immoral, to hell with a one-bedroom apartment…