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

After leaving the hospital with Ye Zhi, we walked side by side on the bustling street. Although we had been in Dali for a while, we were not very familiar with Xiaguan because we rarely visited this area before.

I asked Ye Zhi, "Are you familiar with this area?"

"Not familiar with them."

"Then how do we find a place to eat?"

Ye Zhi looked around and then replied, "Let's just pick any shop on the street."

"Since this is the first time I'm formally inviting you to a meal, let's not be too casual. Let me ask Bailu."

As I spoke, I took my phone out of my pocket, only to find that they were already chatting wildly in the guesthouse's WeChat group. The gist of it was that they were marveling at how well the guesthouse was doing; despite it being only its first day of opening, it was already fully booked, and Yang Sisi had started turning down bookings since 5 PM. Everyone was wishing they had 20 rooms. However, the bar's business was pretty much as I had predicted; we only made a few orders from our own guests, amounting to only a few hundred yuan.

I asked in the group chat, "Do you guys know any restaurants in Xiaguan that serve decent food?"

"Are you inviting us to dinner?"

"I'll treat you all another day, my friends."

"How come we didn't know you had friends in Dali besides us?"

"As for Ye Zhi, didn't you see that he drove Ye Zhi's car back to the inn today? He's definitely going to use the car loan as an excuse to invite her to dinner again. To put it bluntly, he's trying to arrange a date."

They kept talking back and forth, which gave me a bit of a headache. I simply put my phone back in my pocket, out of sight, out of mind. I said to Ye Zhi, "Those guys are all bad friends, none of them can talk to me properly. Let's not bother looking for them. Or, let's start counting from the right and count to the tenth restaurant. That's where we'll eat."

"This seems quite interesting."

"However, let's agree beforehand that once the rules are set, they must be followed. You can't cheat just because you don't like the food."

"I'm afraid you'll regret spending the money later... I think you're pretty stingy."

I glanced at Ye Zhi, feeling a little embarrassed. The reason for the embarrassment was that she had hit the nail on the head. If I weren't stingy, would I have argued with her for so long over a few hundred yuan worth of fireworks?

I straightened my back instinctively before replying to Ye Zhi, "Don't worry, I'm a very contract-conscious person. Even if we choose a fancy hotel that serves shark fin and sea cucumber, I'll still pay the bill."

"You said it yourself."

……

I walked along the long street with Ye Zhi. There were hardware stores, appliance stores, and barbershops on the street, but very few restaurants. So even when we were almost at the end of the street, we still hadn't counted ten.

So we walked to another street, but it was a completely different scene. It was an extremely bustling commercial street, seemingly housing the most upscale restaurants in the entire city. Just standing at a distance, we were already too intimidated by the dazzling neon lights to look directly at it.

Ye Zhi turned and smiled at me, seemingly to remind me to be on my own. But it also revealed a cute side of her, so I didn't feel so bad about those restaurants that looked like they were built with gold and diamonds.

I really wish we could sit in a hotel with music and a fountain on a night like this, have a nice meal, chat about everyday things, and then wash away all our fatigue.

But when a gust of wind blew by, I thought of another woman. We had been together for three years, and I had also struggled with the city of Shanghai for three years. But in all that time, I don’t think I’ve ever had such a good mindset as I am now, taking her to a high-end restaurant and having a nice meal.

I always have endless overtime work, and when I finally have a free moment, all I want to do is bury my head in sleep, and then I repeatedly neglect her in a dusty corner...

She has every reason to be disappointed in me.

I couldn't help but wonder: if I had the ability to foresee the future and told her that I would come to Dali in a few months and have a very profitable inn, and that I would learn to enjoy life, meet more people, and have plenty of time to go on dates... would she come with me?

I turned my head and looked at Ye Zhi beside me... Her appearance and the image of Lu Jia in my mind gradually overlapped and then separated at the edge of the light... Ye Zhi beside me was undoubtedly more beautiful and had more temperament, but she was a dream, not like real life... So she stood beside me in a dreamlike way, but I thought of Lu Jia more realistically.

My feelings are a bit complicated... for no reason!

Perhaps it was just a sudden gust of wind that made me think of someone, and sometimes people are just that simple... They might think of someone unexpectedly, and then forget about them just as easily.

……

After walking another hundred meters, we stopped in front of a large hotel called "Erhai Moon," which was the tenth restaurant we were going to visit. I was ready to go in and eat, but Ye Zhi's eyes were drawn to a rice noodle stall across the street.

She raised her arm, making a measuring gesture, then turned to look at the "Erhai Moon" Hotel behind her and asked me, "Which one is the tenth, the rice noodle stall across the street or this hotel?"

"The ones across the street don't count, do they?"

"The street across the street is also on this street."

"You're saying this because you already have the answer in your heart."

As I spoke, I glanced at the rice noodle stall again. The stall owner was an old man, and he had no customers, so he huddled behind the stove. Although Dali is spring-like all year round, the early winter nights are still quite cold. Compared to the "Erhai Moon" behind me, what I saw was the hardship of a person from the lower class. I felt that he really needed us to eat a couple of bowls of rice noodles at his stall.

As I was thinking this, Ye Zhi had already pulled my arm and walked across the street. The "Erhai Moon" that was just a moment ago was quickly left behind by us.

……

Ye Zhi and I sat facing each other at a low table. The very small stool made me uncomfortable, as did the tall Ye Zhi. She didn't even have a place to put her handbag; she could only place it between her legs.

Are you cold?

"kind of."

Without saying a word, I took off my coat and handed it to her.

Aren't you cold?

"I'm not cold. You're still not fully recovered from your illness, so hurry up and put these on."

Ye Zhi put on my coat, then rubbed her hands together. Fortunately, it wasn't long before the old man brought two steaming bowls of rice noodles to us. The old man wasn't a talkative person either, so amidst the rising steam, there were three equally silent people, two sitting and one standing... Fallen leaves were occasionally blown down by the wind, landing on the table and at our feet...

Ye Zhi finally spoke, asking me, "Did Uncle say anything after he got home?"

"Let me treat you well and not argue with you."

Ye Zhi glanced at me, then smiled and replied, "I don't believe him."

Why?

"Because he seems to lack confidence in you."

I returned her a smile and said, "See through it, but don't say it out loud."

"Can I ask you a question?"

I looked at Ye Zhi with some surprise, paused for a moment, and then replied, "Go ahead and ask."

If your ex-girlfriend came back to you, would you get back together?

A feeling I couldn't quite describe welled up inside me, and it took me a long time before I said, "We're the kind of couple who, after breaking up, can neither be friends nor get back together."

Why?

"Because I harbor hatred... She hates me, and I hate her too."

What do you hate about her?

I only know that I hate her, but if you force me to explain why I hate her, I can't say. So it's a very difficult question for me to answer. So, I jokingly replied, "Did the headaches and fevers change your genes? You don't seem like someone with so many problems."

"Then I won't ask."

After Ye Zhi finished speaking, she lowered her head and continued eating her rice noodles.

But after she threw out a few questions, I became curious, so I moved closer to her and asked, "Have you ever been in a relationship? The kind that's really heartbreaking?"