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

As I smoked, my eyes never left my phone. The way she spoke to me made me feel like there was some kind of connection between us, because whenever we were both down on our luck, we'd always find this not-so-fresh number in our phone contacts, chat for a bit, and sometimes we'd just start yelling at each other…

Her straightforwardness made me feel that there was nothing I couldn't say to a stranger, so I replied, "I don't believe you're in a bar in Lijiang. You must be out of your mind again, just messing with me!"

"You wait and see."

A little while later, she sent me a multimedia message. Sure enough, it was a view bar in Lijiang. The photo she sent was the night view of the entire Lijiang Old Town, which I felt was even more beautiful than the Old Town of Dali.

I replied, "I believe you."

Are you going to tell me about your bad luck or not?

I stubbed out my cigarette and replied, "Actually, it's not such a bad thing. It mainly depends on your mindset. If you have a good mindset, it can actually be a good thing."

"Don't tell me good things... I don't find it interesting."

"But I'm not in a good state of mind right now, so I don't think it's a good thing."

"You're such a slowpoke!..."

I lit another cigarette, stared blankly at the moonlit area of ​​Erhai Lake for a moment before replying, "Before coming to Dali, I had pretty high hopes, so with a few buddies and I, I started this guesthouse with very simple ideas... Before, I didn't believe in the saying 'the bigger the tree, the more the wind blows,' but I really got ripped off a couple of days ago. We were tricked by a local thug. I was detained by the police station for several days, and I almost dragged the guesthouse down with me. If it weren't for another friend helping out... that thug would have taken over the guesthouse at a low price."

"That sounds pretty thrilling!"

"Well, later the friend who saved me told me that another friend of his was also interested in the seaside inn and was willing to offer us a transfer price of 200 million..."

"You've just escaped one trap only to fall into another... Hahaha! Your friend isn't any better; he's eyeing your inn too."

"It's not exactly a scam, considering the transfer price was 200 million, while the previous thug only asked for 50."

"Oh, if it's 200 million turnovers, how much will you get?"

"Around 60. Subtracting the 19 my friend gave me, I'll still have about 40 left."

"Not bad, that's impressive. Traveling around Dali like this is equivalent to earning seven or eight years' salary for others. No wonder you said it's not a bad thing."

"If it were you, would you stay at the inn or take the opportunity to leave?"

"If it were me, I would definitely choose to transfer and then go back to Shanghai."

Her answer surprised me, so I asked, "After transferring, there are other options, so why go back to Shanghai?"

"You're a man, you get back up where you fell... right?... Besides, I think you still have feelings for your ex-girlfriend, why don't you go back to Shanghai, do something meaningful, and wait for her?"

I was bewildered for a while before replying, "There's no possibility between us."

"What, do you have a new love interest?"

"no."

"So you have no feelings for her?"

"It's been three years, how could this relationship just disappear like that... Don't laugh at me, buddy, but even now, thinking back to the night we broke up, she came to me and we had a 'breakup sex' session, and I still feel a mix of emotions!"

"Have you no shame? Saying that to a woman like that!"

"Isn't the point of texting each other to have an honest and truthful conversation?"

"Then why don't you want to go back to Shanghai?"

"It's really impossible between us. I actually think she has no feelings for me anymore... She's a very shrewd woman. Going abroad to study was a better choice for her. She won't stay single forever... I bet she already has a new boyfriend."

"You know her that well?"

"After all, we've been together for so long."

"Heh... You're saying that because you don't understand her, you don't understand women at all... I think her decision to leave you isn't necessarily because she doesn't love you anymore, but because she can't see any hope in you."

"so what?"

"So the 400,000 you've earned now is a kind of hope for her... You didn't cheat on her emotionally or wrong her, so what is unforgivable? What else can a woman want from a man? Isn't it just to give her a stable life where she doesn't lack material things? She doesn't necessarily have to be rich and powerful."

"Forget it, I haven't even decided whether to transfer the inn or not. Talking about Shanghai now feels like it's too far away."

"What's wrong? Are you reluctant to give up this profitable inn? Are you afraid you'll never have another opportunity like this?"

"No, it's just that I feel I've let down the woman who asked me to open a guesthouse in Dali."

I thought she would say something more to me, but then she inexplicably stopped replying to my messages. I didn't think much of it, because sometimes I felt the conversations were boring, and that's what I did to her too.

……

I don't know how others got through that night, but I was in a lot of pain and couldn't sleep well. So when I woke up the next day, I was completely out of it.

Of the group, only Taozi got up. After we had breakfast together, she asked me to accompany her for a walk along Erhai Lake. I could tell she had something on her mind.

Sure enough, when we reached the shore of Erhai Lake, she said to me, "Michael, I talked to Tie Nan about the guesthouse transfer last night... We agreed to the transfer."

I looked at her in surprise and replied, "Is this your idea, or Tie Nan's?"

"It was my idea, and then I convinced Tetsuo."

After pausing for a moment, she said to me again, "To be honest, I actually quite like Dali... But while running the guesthouse, I'm also very worried. After all, guesthouses and bars are businesses, and it's inevitable that some of my former customers will run into me one day... I really don't want Tie Nan to know what I did in Shanghai. That's an insurmountable obstacle between us."

"This is a low-probability event."

"It's a low probability event that Tie Nan and I could be together, but it still happened, didn't it? ... I've thought about it carefully. If that day really comes, I can't bear the consequences. So I want to leave Dali with Tie Nan and find another city to live in, and do some business that I don't have to show my face in public."

"When you say that, I feel quite sad."

Peach glanced back at the inn, then her eyes reddened, and she remained silent for a long time.

We sat down on a rock by the sea, and I finally spoke to her, asking, "You just left like that? Did you think about the others?"

"But I'm really scared!"

After saying that, Peach lit a cigarette for herself, then looked at me and said, "Actually, I can tell... this time, you're also thinking about selling it, after all, the price is quite tempting."

"But I'm not resigned to this... I still carry Wang Lei's last wish on my shoulders, and I don't want to leave Dali."

Peach hugged her knees, gazing into the distance, and murmured, "Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake, the wind, flowers, snow, and moon—it sounds as beautiful as a dream!"

With a hint of regret, I said to her, "I really didn't expect that you would be the first to waver."

"My inner struggle is no less than yours. Don't forget, I'm also Leilei's best friend."

I lit a cigarette and after a long while said to her, "I've taken your advice to heart. Let's go back to the inn and see what the others think. After all, in the end, the minority should obey the majority."

"Um."

Just as I was about to get up, Peach stopped me again and asked, "Michael, if the inn really closes down this time, what are you planning to do afterward?"

"I haven't dared to think too far ahead... The best outcome would be nothing more than going back to my small mountain town, buying a house, and waiting to get married and have children... That's the kind of life I can imagine that's the least stressful... But I feel like we're letting Coach Ma down the most by selling the inn. He doesn't have any shares in the inn, so he won't get much money, but he's the one who put in the most effort. Now that the inn is gone, he can only go back to the old town and continue being a traveling singer!"

Peach sighed, and after a long while replied, "Tie Nan is a righteous man. I'll have him give Coach Ma some of his share."

"Believe it or not, if Tie Nan really did that, Coach Ma would throw money in his face. You don't understand this guy's personality at all."

"Don't say anymore... my mind is made up!"