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

In the movie's finale, Yang Sisi and I looked at each other. I tried to snatch the bottle of skincare product from her hand again, but she hugged it even tighter than before and yelled at me, "What are you doing? You want back something you gave away?!"

"Give it to me. You've never used something this cheap before, I'm afraid you'll waste it!"

"I'm so poor right now, how much more waste can I possibly do... Stop messing around, you're disturbing the people behind you who are watching the movie, that's not good."

"Stop talking nonsense and give it back."

"I was wrong, I was wrong, okay...?"

"What did you do wrong?"

"I should have acted especially surprised and delighted... I shouldn't have made sarcastic remarks to you knowing you have a sensitive heart."

"It's too late, give it back to me quickly, I'll take it to Bailu."

Yang Sisi looked at me with some displeasure, and after a while replied, "What kind of hero would give it to Bai Lu? ... If you have the ability, give it to Ye Zhi, and I'll give it back to you... I'm afraid she'll look down on it even more. She's very rich. Don't you see the skincare products she uses? Many of them cost tens of thousands of yuan."

I immediately deflated, then shifted my gaze to Yang Sisi and said, "Is there any point in talking about this?"

"Coward!"

While looking down on me, Yang Sisi stuffed the skincare product into her purse, and then told the audience behind her who had been dissatisfied with us for a long time that I had something wrong with my brain and that they should not take it to heart.

……

This free movie left me feeling emotionally drained, so much so that I was still a little depressed when I got back to the guesthouse. I had no desire to sleep, so I sat alone by Erhai Lake, taking a drag of a cigarette and a sip of beer, as usual.

Erhai Lake is different from the Bund. The skyscrapers on the Bund compress your pain into a single point, then pierce your most vulnerable spot like a bullet. Erhai Lake, on the other hand, without towering buildings or bustling crowds, gives you a sense of openness. It's like a giant pot that can hold all your sorrows, and the wind is like the flame at the bottom of the pot, quickly boiling your sorrows and turning them into steam that disappears into the horizon...

In a daze, I received a call from Lao Huang. After I answered, he went straight to the point and asked, "What's your decision about bringing me back to Shanghai to be a product manager?"

"Didn't I make this very clear to you last time? Why are you bringing it up again?"

"This position won't stay vacant forever; the higher-ups are already looking for someone... I can't keep it vacant for you indefinitely despite the pressure, so I'm calling today to confirm with you one last time... I don't want you to have any regrets later, feeling like I didn't fight for you."

"There's no need for regrets. You don't need to worry about me. Everything is going smoothly."

Old Huang chuckled, then asked in a low voice, "What's going on with Sisi posting about what you've been doing on her WeChat Moments every few days lately?"

A sense of foreboding washed over me, and I replied, "No way, why would she keep messaging me for no reason?"

"Then I'll have to ask you."

I was speechless, but I felt this was something that needed to be explained... And in my silence, Old Huang sighed again and said, "Michael, after thinking it over, I still think it's not right for you to stay in Dali... I've already spoken to your father on the phone and told him about your current situation. You should prepare yourself mentally..."

My heart skipped a beat, followed by a feeling of suffocation. I snapped, "Are you senile?... If I really had some kind of shady relationship with Yang Sisi, would I let her post those things on social media? I'd be trying to hide it from you all, would I do something so stupid?... We're just friends. She's all alone in Dali, all alone, so I'm taking care of her. What's wrong with that?"

"I'm not going to say anything more. Even if I shot myself in the foot, you still haven't put my mind at ease."

Enraged, I started spewing nonsense: "Fuck your mother... How could you be such a bastard!"

Old Huang hung up the phone, and I was trembling with anger. I felt like my world was collapsing at that moment... I shouldn't have messed with Yang Sisi. From the moment we met, she was destined to make my life miserable.

Before I could recover from the shock, my dad called again. I couldn't bear it and felt completely overwhelmed... At that moment, the only thing that could help me vent and calm down was the cold water of Erhai Lake.

I ripped off my coat and plunged into Erhai Lake. In the suffocating feeling of being constantly suppressed, I heard the phone left on the shore ringing incessantly. I also saw a version of myself built entirely of lies, and Lu Jia's face, which she had abandoned for the sake of life. I was tormented beyond measure, so I dived even deeper...

After the bone-chilling cold, a warm illusion finally came over me. I seemed to hear a gentle call, and Wang Lei was nestled intimately behind this gentleness... I had a feeling of being on the verge of death. For a moment, I even wished to die like this and live in another world, as a hero, a millionaire, or a great person who could control his own destiny.

"Michael, face it like a man... You are not a slave to life, you are a seed growing in the sun, you will become a big tree."

I know this is a hallucination caused by suffocation, but I still want to hear her continue... because after experiencing death, she can only exist in my mental world in this way, giving me the courage to fight against this world and life.

I miss her so much...

But I really couldn't hold on any longer. The will to survive forced me to surface. I grabbed a corner of the reef with my hands, breathing heavily. My eyes, blurred by the water, ignored everything and only saw a vulnerable and helpless version of myself.

I know how much my parents hope that Lu Jia and I can get married, and I know how much effort they've put into it. That's why I'm so afraid of disappointing them. Only those who have truly experienced it can understand this feeling. I want to be a dutiful son because I know how difficult it was for my parents to raise me.

Both my parents and I were deeply saddened by Lu Jia's departure. All I could do was try my best to hide it, but now I can't hide it anymore!

……

I finally dried my face, and then I felt a chill run down my spine again. I saw a pair of eyes staring at me from the shore, and it was almost midnight.

I rubbed my eyes open again and realized that the person squatting on the ground with the guitar on his back, looking at me, was Coach Ma. He took a drag of his cigarette and asked me expressionlessly, "Your buddy has this kind of quirk?"

"Holy crap...where did you come from? You scared me to death!"

"Just got off work, passing by."

I climbed out of Erhai Lake, a gust of wind blew by, and I shivered again, but I felt a little better. Then I picked up my phone, which I had left on the shore, and looked at it. There were six missed calls, all from my dad. There was also a message: "Call back as soon as you see this message."

I sniffed, then put on my clothes and sat down next to Coach Ma. I asked him for a cigarette and lit it with trembling hands.

Coach Ma told me to wait, then went back to the inn's storeroom, brought out some firewood, poured kerosene on it, lit it, and said to me, "These things are for Tie Nan's bonfire party, you can use them first."

I moved closer to the fire, and a wave of heat washed over me, dispelling the chill and bringing me back from the agonizing hell to earth. I said to Coach Ma, "Dude, I'm in big trouble."

Tell me about it.

I took a deep drag of my cigarette and replied, "I told you before, I had a girlfriend in Shanghai. She felt there was no future with me, so she went abroad. But I didn't dare tell my parents about it; they always thought I was doing well in Shanghai. But today, that bastard of a former boss told them everything about how my girlfriend dumped me and how I came to Dali."

"That's enough to make your head hurt... but why did your former boss do that? Even if you no longer work for the company, shouldn't there be some respect for the past?"