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

Faced with Coach Ma's question, I was completely flustered, and it took me a long time to reply: "This matter starts with Yang Sisi... well, it's a bit complicated."

Coach Ma poked the fire with a stick, making it burn even brighter, which reflected on his weathered face. He flicked off some ash from his cigarette and said to me, "Take your time, I'm not in a hurry."

"When I came to Dali, I originally planned to take the train..."

I briefly recounted everything that had happened since I left Shanghai until now to Coach Ma. After listening, he rested his chin on his hand, pondered for a moment, and then smiled shruggedly, saying, "Even without Sisi by your side, you would have faced this day sooner or later... You can't hide this forever."

"I know... but right now is the critical moment when the inn can resume business. With this sudden turn of events, I really don't have the confidence to continue staying in Dali. My parents are very stubborn and conservative people. In their minds, only staying in a big city like Shanghai and doing a decent job is considered a proper career."

"Then why did you come to Dali in the first place?"

"This story goes back to another woman... When I was in Shanghai, I had a fellow villager who was friends with Taozi. She also worked as a hostess at a club. One day, she met up with a group of guesthouse owners from Dali and told them about the culture and lifestyle there. She really wanted to go back... Then, she persuaded me to open a guesthouse there and gave me 19 yuan... At first, I just wanted to appease her, but a few days later, tragedy struck... Because she refused to go out with clients, she got into a fight with them. In the chaos, she was hit on the head, and just like that, she was gone...!"

At this point, I choked up a little, because I remembered the scene of her inviting me to the bar to chat that day. When she talked about Dali, she was like a blooming flower.

I wiped my face hard and said, "I never thought that life and death were separated by a thin line. After this incident, I had an epiphany... I didn't want to live like a grandson in Shanghai, but my soul was dead... I didn't want to be a slave to the house, nor did I want to be a machine for procreation. I wanted to change my lifestyle, so I took the 19 yuan she gave me, along with all my savings from over the years, and came to Dali."

Coach Ma looked at me, this time abandoning his bystander attitude, then clenched his fist and pounded his chest, saying to me, "That hurts..."

My heart is shattered!

I lit another cigarette, smoking it as I faced the surging Erhai Lake, feeling lost and bewildered... I seem to be bad at handling interpersonal relationships, which is why I chose such a low-level method of maintaining the status quo with lies, and now, karma is coming...

Coach Ma then asked me, "That girl who played the princess, she must love you quite a bit, right?"

"It's love... but I don't like her job."

"No normal person could accept that... But have you ever thought about it? Even if you marry a respectable woman in the future, what if she had several ex-boyfriends before you? Not only were she sexually assaulted by them, but she also developed genuine feelings... But princesses, at most, were sexually assaulted; they didn't invest any feelings, they just wanted money. So tell me, which one would you choose that would be a bigger loss?"

I stared blankly at Coach Ma... I was shocked by his crude and violent remarks, but thinking about it carefully, it really made sense.

Coach Ma patted my shoulder and said, "These days, what woman is truly clean before marriage? As men, we only ask that a woman be devoted to us after marriage, regardless of what she did before. Besides, you've definitely slept with other women before marriage, so what right do you have to expect a clean girl to spend her life with you? Anyway, I think men and women should be equal, at least in terms of gender relations."

"Stop talking, that's even more fucking hurtful!"

Coach Ma chuckled, then lit a cigarette. After taking a drag, he squinted at Xiaguan, the most bustling area across the sea… He continued, “See that? All the most luxurious hotels in Dali are concentrated on the other side of the sea… Tell me, how many condoms are wasted in those hotels every night? And how many of those people sleeping together aren’t planning on spending their lives together?… People these days, so restless… so vulgar!”

I looked at Coach Ma and replied, "Now that you mention it, you're reliable and have integrity."

"What do you mean?"

"From what I've observed, you're a man who hasn't had sex in a long time. If you weren't so celibate, you wouldn't be able to resist either."

Coach Ma took a while to realize that I was mocking him for not having a sex life. He immediately flicked the cigarette butt at me and then cursed me as a "son of a bitch."

……

After joking around, I sighed and then said to Coach Ma, "Things have come to this point, and there's no escaping it now! Can you try to see from an outsider's perspective whether there's any way to resolve this?"

"It's not difficult."

Seeing Coach Ma's confident demeanor immediately ignited a spark of hope within me. I quickly handed him another cigarette and lit it for him. I don't know why, but I had a lot of faith in this guy. Although he spoke rudely, he certainly had a unique perspective on things.

Coach Ma sat beside the flickering flame, exuding an air of otherworldly wisdom. After flicking away his cigarette ash, he said to me, "Let's make a hypothetical scenario: if you gave your mother a gold ring as a gift for a holiday, and one day, that gold ring was accidentally lost... do you think your mother would be worried?"

"Of course they're in a hurry! A gold ring costs at least several thousand!"

Coach Ma nodded and said, "Then your mother started looking everywhere, and while she was looking, she unexpectedly found a diamond ring worth tens of thousands. Do you think she would still be thinking about the lost gold ring?"

"Isn't the person who lost their diamond ring even more anxious?"

"Damn, aren't you just being stubborn... I'm trying to make you understand the meaning behind this."

I pondered for a moment, then tentatively asked, "You mean: my ex-girlfriend is that lost gold ring?"

"Right, why don't you just find your parents a diamond ring? ...Tell me, with a diamond ring, who the hell would still want that old piece of gold?"

I thought about it for a long time and replied, "I understand what you mean, but where am I supposed to find such a diamond ring and explain it to my parents?"

"I'm just giving you a suggestion; the rest is up to you."

I nodded and said nothing more, but I admired Coach Ma's rather drastic philosophy of life! Sometimes, being ruthless in dealing with your own contradictions can really bring unexpected rewards.

I silently lit a cigarette, and then I thought of both Ye Zhi and Yang Sisi. I immediately ruled out Yang Sisi, because she was the one who caused this whole thing. If I were to create any more unnecessary misunderstandings with her, Lao Huang would probably want to kill me.

Ye Zhi is a particularly suitable candidate, but even if it's just acting, she has to be willing. Besides, how can I convince my parents that I found such an ethereal woman as my girlfriend so soon after Lu Jia left? I have a mirror in my heart, and I know exactly what kind of person I am, so I know better than anyone whether Ye Zhi and I are a good match.

Just as I was weighing my options, my phone, which was next to the cigarette pack, rang again. Unsurprisingly, it was my dad calling again. I hesitated because I hadn't decided whether to tell the lie or not. If I did, how could I make it sound convincing without any flaws?

At this moment, I have no other thoughts. I just want to stay in Dali peacefully and run the guesthouse as a business. I also hope to get my parents' understanding and support for my choice, instead of forcing me to go back to Shanghai...

Just as I was hesitating, Coach Ma patted my shoulder, signaling that he would go back to the inn first... So, by the flickering fire, I was left alone, caught in a dilemma.