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

In a small clinic next to the hotel, I was getting an IV drip when Yang Sisi sat next to me, idly flipping through a romance novel she carried with her...

I said to her, "If you really have nothing to do, could you go to the newsstand across the street and buy me a few packs of cigarettes?"

Yang Sisi glanced at me and replied, "I think you should save your own life first before thinking about smoking."

I clutched my chest, my face contorted in pain, and said, "If I don't smoke, I'll die right now!"

Yang Sisi put down her novel, looked around, and replied, "But this isn't a place to smoke. There are so many patients here; can you bear to subject them to further poisoning?"

"I'm going to the bathroom to smoke."

Yang Sisi looked at me incredulously, then gave me a thumbs up and said, "You're willing to risk your life and your reputation just to smoke, I admire you!"

I glanced at Yang Sisi, then slumped weakly onto the recliner.

"I can't stand you! Fine, I'll go buy it for you... What kind of cigarettes do you want?"

……

Under the shade of a tree outside the clinic, I lit a bottle of Zhongnanhai cigarette that Yang Sisi had just bought. Yang Sisi sat beside me, one hand supporting her chin, the other holding my IV drip bottle. Before she had even finished half a cigarette, she began to complain, "You're so old, yet you had to overestimate yourself and try to be a hero. Fine, you did it, but why should I be the one suffering here with you? And what's even more hateful is that you, you little bastard, actually abandoned your teammates in Wuhan—such a heinous thing! I should really put some baby formula in your IV drip so you'd be unable to take care of yourself for the rest of your life."

"Can it be any more poisonous?"

Yang Sisi thought for a moment, then asked in return, "Is there a medicine that can prevent someone from having sex for the rest of their life?"

I choked on the smoke I inhaled, and then, in the sunlight filtering through the gaps, I saw a face that was anything but a joke. I really admired her ability to choose words and phrases, but I couldn't quite grasp her unique sense of humor.

Yang Sisi kindly patted my back to help me catch my breath. Once I had calmed down, she leaned close to my ear and whispered, "I'll tell you a secret."

"You've already put something in the saline solution?"

"No, no, I wouldn't really do something so pointless. After all, I'm a person who knows what's good for me."

"Then you tell me."

With a mischievous smile, Yang Sisi replied, "Actually, that really pretty woman from last night gave me her phone number... She's also going to Dali. She told you to call her when you get there, as she wants to treat you to dinner and express her gratitude."

"Is that so?"

"Want it or not? Taking it would be like starting a modern romance drama... She's going to Dali too!"

"I don't want it."

"Are you sure you're not just pretending to be serious?"

I was stunned for a long time, then turned to look at Yang Sisi, pointed to my chest, and replied, "Actually, I also have a secret hidden in my heart."

"What does this have to do with me?"

"certainly."

"I don't believe it. We've only known each other for less than three days."

"But our story is more like the opening scene of a modern romance drama. Would you like to hear it?"

Yang Sisi looked at me with a skeptical expression, and after a long while replied, "Don't scare me. I'm still a child. I want to go back to my mother's to drink milk. I don't want to get involved in your world!"

With a serious expression, I said, "Actually, I'm an undercover agent that Lao Huang planted next to you... Don't you find it a coincidence at all? It just so happens that you're going to Dali, so I resigned from the company and went to Dali with you."

"Uh...maybe so!...Just tell me, what exactly are you planning to do by infiltrating my circle?"

"Be your man."

Yang Sisi's expression suddenly dawned on her: "No wonder you dumped me in Wuhan! Because after we actually met, you knew you weren't good enough for me, so you backed down!"

No, it's you who are not good enough for me.

"Let's put aside the question of who's unworthy of whom. Tell me, what good would it do Uncle Huang if I became your woman?"

"Think about it yourself."

"Tch, can you stop joking like that? He would never let you do that, he's such a calculating person."

"Then why are you making jokes like this with me again? You're such a grown man, don't you understand the principle of 'Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you'?"

In our several verbal sparring sessions, Yang Sisi was defeated for the first time. She didn't say anything more, but I saw a kind of shrewdness in her silence. She wasn't as carefree as she seemed. She actually knew what kind of person Huang Heping was.

……

After a bumpy journey, we finally arrived in Kunming four days after leaving Shanghai. Only here did we truly feel like we were in Yunnan. During this time, Lao Huang contacted me several times, reminding me to keep track of Yang Sisi's whereabouts in Dali. He would be coming here with Yang Sisi's parents in about a week.

He also asked me if Yang Sisi's attitude towards going to Dali had changed.

I had no answer, so I just told him that Yang Sisi had spent all the six thousand yuan he had transferred to her in the past four days, and without further assistance, she probably wouldn't stay in Dali for long. Therefore, his decision to bring Yang Sisi's parents to Dali a week later was a good time.

After passing Kunming, Yang Sisi handed the steering wheel back to me. While I was driving, she didn't want to miss a single beautiful scene along the way, constantly recording fleeting flowers, grasses, and ever-changing clouds with her phone. My mood also subtly changed as we got closer to Dali.

If you only look at the scenery that is completely unpolluted by industry, this is indeed a place worth visiting. But is its living atmosphere really like what Wang Lei once told me? I am not afraid of being disappointed, but I am afraid that the dream that Wang Lei worked so hard to create is really just a dream.

Yang Sisi, who was next to me, finally put down her phone, stretched, and looked at the car navigation system, saying to me, "We're 50 kilometers away from Dali. Tell me how you feel right now."

"Do I really need to say so much to someone I'll never see again?"

Yang Sisi replied with a smile, "I could hear the resentment in your words. You don't mean you don't want to break up and are planning to continue living with me in Dali, seeing each other all the time, do you?"

"I really dislike your imagination; let's break up as soon as possible."

"Fine, let's break up then. You think I care about you that much?"

I glanced at her but didn't say anything more. My bad mood wasn't caused by her; it was just that as we approached Dali, I remembered all the sadness I felt in Shanghai, and I couldn't very well lay all those feelings on my shoulders in front of Yang Sisi, this optimist, and make her understand my helpless pain.

I understand very well that I am destined to bear these things alone.

……

As the road gradually came together with signs pointing to Dali Old Town, the unique architecture of the Bai ethnic group in Yunnan and the colorful clouds nestled among the mountains painted a distinctive picture of Dali's charm. I tried to relax and finally parked the car at a temporary stop. Then, I took out Wang Lei's tablet from my bag and recorded a short video. At that moment, I hoped she could see the shimmering Erhai Lake under the sunlight, just as I had, and I hoped she could feel my emotions.

Yang Sisi came to my side again, looking at the tablet in my hand with disdain, and said, "Oh my, you're a grown man using a pink tablet, that's so weird!"

"From a friend."

I lit a cigarette. The wind around Erhai Lake was strong and cool, but as I closed my eyes to savor it, I thought of Lu Jia, who had abandoned herself to pursue a better life.

I have no way to repay her for the youth she dedicated to me over the years, so I can only live well in Dali to prove that her choice was right, because we have both lived better lives than before after our breakup.

Yang Sisi, true to her gossipy nature, pressed on, "So that's your ex-girlfriend's?"

"From the same hometown."

Perhaps sensing my lack of enthusiasm, she didn't press the matter further. But after a short while, she narrowed her eyes, then smiled and said to me, "You really don't want the contact information that woman left me?"

"I said it was just a small thing, nothing more."

"You'll regret it!"

"No regrets... Let's go, we've reached Dengchuan ahead, we'll get off the highway there."

……

It was peak tourist season in Dali, so I didn't let Yang Sisi drive into the already congested ancient city. I got out of the car on National Highway 214. Behind me was a large "GG" sign that read: "We must protect Erhai Lake."

This gave me an invisible sense of confidence, because I believe that under this guiding spirit, Dali will only become more and more beautiful and better.

Yang Sisi and I parted ways here. After I took all the luggage out of the trunk, she opened the car window and called my name for the first time: "Hey, Michael, want to have a farewell dinner? It's on me."

"I'm not eating it, I'm afraid you've bribed the boss to put something in my food."

I thought she would scold me or make fun of me, but instead she smiled at me and replied, "If you don't want to eat, that's fine. But I hope that when we bump into each other in Dali someday, you won't look like you're half-dead... I think you should try to be happy in Dali, otherwise what's the point of coming all this way here?... It's the same in Shanghai, it's all suffering anyway!"

I looked at her, wanting to say thank you, but she closed the car window the next moment and soon disappeared from my sight with the flow of traffic.

I watched silently, and then, in this unfamiliar place, yet filled with people and cars everywhere, I felt a sense of loneliness that felt like starting all over again…

After a while, the streetlights came on, and in the distance, thousands of lights shone, but none of them touched my heart, because in this completely unfamiliar city, I was just a wanderer.