After ending my call with Dai Qiang, I took two bottles of "Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon" beer from the liquor cabinet and went back to my previous seat to drink. A moment later, Taozi brought me a plate of braised peanuts and then sat down opposite me.

I handed her one of the bottles of beer, gesturing for her to have a drink with me, but she shook her head and said, "I'm on my period right now, I don't want to drink."

"Then drink some plain water. You have to sit with me for a while anyway."

Peach looked at me and asked with a smile, "Have you encountered another problem that you can't solve?"

"It's not a difficult problem, just a bit perplexing."

Peach rested her chin on her hand, waiting for me to continue...

"Although my relationship with Lu Jia is over, I still can't figure out whether her personality and pursuits can represent most women?"

"She's quite realistic...and most women are quite realistic these days, so she can represent most women."

I nodded.

"Is this what's troubling you?"

"No... my biggest confusion is that I don't understand myself at this stage... I seem to be a little hesitant to do anything."

"Including how you treat relationships, right?"

“You’ve hit the nail on the head… Actually, I’m quite envious of you and Tie Nan.”

Peach smiled with a complicated expression, then asked, "What do you envy about us?"

I thought for a moment before replying, "If you want me to be specific, I really can't say... Maybe I just envy the feeling you two have together... You don't ask him to buy a house, and he knows how to love you, so from our perspective as outsiders, you two have truly achieved mutual respect."

The smile on Taozi's face froze. After a moment, she said, "Michael, you're wrong... I also really want Tienan to be able to buy a big house in Dali, preferably a villa, with trees in the yard, a fountain and a rockery, and ten cars parked outside without feeling crowded... But is that realistic?"

"It's definitely not realistic... This is not something Tetsuo is capable of doing."

"No, it has nothing to do with his ability. The problem is me... I feel that I am not qualified to ask too much of him because I used to be a woman who worked in nightclubs. In that respect, I have already wronged him a lot, so I cannot ask him for anything, and I even need to give more... But there is a premise to this. The premise is that I love him, and only then will I be willing to give."

"I don't quite understand."

Peach patiently explained to me, "What I mean is, it's normal for a woman like Lu Jia to have expectations of you... Actually, women are really good at weighing things. If a man wants to maintain a relationship with a woman, he must not let her mindset become unbalanced... For example, if a beautiful woman marries a man with an ordinary appearance, then that man is likely using money to balance the woman's mindset; or, a woman who no longer cares about money might care about how much happiness the man can bring her in daily life. After all, there are some things or feelings in this world that money cannot measure... But ultimately, happiness is also a way to balance a woman's mindset. If one day you can no longer make her happy, she may not continue to love you."

"Does the second type of woman you mentioned really exist in this world?"

"Yes, there is one right next to you."

I first searched my memory, and then Yang Sisi's image suddenly appeared in my mind...

I was a little speechless, while Peach looked at me and smiled, as if she was intentionally giving me a hint.

Sure enough, she said to me again, "Sisi likes you a lot. Everyone in our inn can tell. You don't need to pretend to be crazy with us."

After a moment of silence, I asked her, "Do you think Yang Sisi's happiness comes from our daily playful bickering? ...And that her liking for me is also based on this kind of happiness?"

Peach shrugged and said, "Sometimes love is just that simple."

I smiled and said, "Yes, this kind of love is quite simple; if one day, this happiness is no longer there between us, we can also easily choose to break up."

Peach was stunned...

After a long pause, she nodded and said, "I can understand your thoughts... What you want now is a more mature kind of love."

"That's right..."

...

After finishing two bottles of beer at the bar, I returned to my place. I knew this wasn't a night I'd fall asleep easily, so I chose a piece of light music called "Beloved" and played it on repeat...

I don't know when it started, but I've come to like this kind of music without lyrics. It seems to give me more space to think about things, and the mood it creates can also calm my mind and make me think about someone.

I don't feel lonely, but I do feel isolated. That's the realization music has given me, allowing me to fully understand just how far apart loneliness and isolation really are.

In my loneliness, I couldn't help but ask myself: Of all the women who have appeared in my life, who is my true love?

With this question in mind, I took a few more bottles of beer from the cabinet. Loneliness is the perfect accompaniment to beer, and when they meet intimately within me, I should find the answer…

After finishing a few bottles of beer, I became increasingly depressed... I didn't get any reliable answers, because thinking of Lu Jia made my heart ache; thinking of Wang Lei filled me with regret; the only constant was loneliness... It was like the stars hanging outside the skylight, accompanying me from night to dawn. While making me feel desolate, it also ignited the desires in my heart. So, in my half-drunk, half-awake state, I felt the pain of unfulfilled desires... Gradually, I fell into a vicious cycle of wanting to drink even more.

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