After the misunderstanding was cleared up, Nicole was no longer as hostile to me as before. She put her guitar down on the table and sat down opposite me. I smiled at her, and she lit a cigarette for herself.

Her long, slender fingers were a natural talent for playing the guitar, and they also made her look more sophisticated than other women when she smoked.

This reminded me of Wang Lei, who also smoked, and I couldn't help but light one myself. Besides the cigarette, my table was also covered with bottles of liquor. In the shifting lamplight, there was a sense of decadence, a touch of debauchery...

I said to Nicole, "The way you smoke reminds me of one of my female friends."

"Hehe... In bars, I've met many tourists who said I looked like their ex-girlfriends... Do you think that's just a coincidence, or is it something more sinister?"

"It's half coincidence, and half ulterior motives."

So, do you belong to the former or the latter?

I took a deep drag of my cigarette, then squinted and replied, "It really does look like it...!"

"You know quite a lot of women. What's her name?"

"Dream……"

Nicole flicked away her cigarette ash and laughed, "Dream? Seriously, after living in Dali for so long, you're the most eccentric man I've ever met."

I smiled back at her and said, "Really? But she really gave me a dream, otherwise I wouldn't be here fighting to the death with Dali now."

"Is she your ex-girlfriend?"

I shook my head: "We have no official status... but she may be the most sincere woman in the world to me..." I pursed my lips and continued, "She was there for me throughout my four years in Shanghai. She may have always been waiting for a formal title, but my world only consisted of work, housing, maintaining a livelihood, and these trivial things..."

"If it's a dream, then it's a sad dream."

Why a sad dream?

Nicole retorted sharply, "Anything associated with waiting sounds a bit tragic, let alone waiting for four years without even a title... Is she not good enough for you?"

I remained silent, but that didn't mean I was admitting it. I was just thinking about things in my mind, what if the plot could be changed, and between me and Wang Lei, who was actually saving whom?

...

After a moment of silence, the phone that had been sitting next to the wine glass vibrated again...

This was Ye Zhi's second WeChat message since the previous chat ended: "Where are you?"

I didn't understand, and instinctively replied, "Dali."

"I mean, your exact location right now."

My mood changed. After standing there stunned for a moment, I looked around again...

Nicole noticed something was off about me and asked, "Why do you suddenly look so distracted?"

I pointed my phone screen at Nicole and replied, "The person who messaged me was Ye Zhi. I don't quite understand why she suddenly asked me this."

Nicole glanced at it and said with a smile, "As an outsider, I can tell you... she's very likely in Dali right now."

Nicole's assumption shocked me: "No way... you've been seriously injured before, you shouldn't be fully recovered yet!"

"Let me ask you something, did you go to Shanghai to look for her later?"

"I went... but I couldn't get in..."

“I won’t ask you why you couldn’t meet her… but don’t you think my guess makes logical sense?… You went to Shanghai specifically to see her, but you didn’t get to see her… If she’s disappointed about this, wouldn’t it be perfectly reasonable for her to come to Dali to find you?”

I still found it unbelievable, but Nicole encouraged me further, saying, "If you don't believe me, just send her the location of this bar... anyway, we'll have results in a little while."

I accepted Nicole's suggestion, sent my current location to Ye Zhi via WeChat, then held my breath and drank a glass of wine, before falling into a state of inexplicable waiting.

...

A light rain began to fall, the raindrops like threads stretching long under the streetlights... Before long, the alley, which had hardly any tourists to begin with, seemed to have been baptized, with only the damp bluestone pavement clearly visible, while the bars looked even more desolate due to their quietness... Anyway, I have no idea how the bars in this area have managed to stay afloat until now.

Nicole told me that all four bars in this alley are actually owned by the same person, a rich second-generation from Shanxi who doesn't care about making money but just wants to have fun.

Nicole handed me another bottle of beer that was already opened. I took it absentmindedly from her hand, and the next second I turned my gaze to the alley where I could sense even the slightest rustling of wind.

Will she really come?

Looking out at the surreal world outside the window, I couldn't help but ask myself this question.

Nicole seemed to see right through me, and she said to me again, "Actually, what matters is not whether she comes or not, but how you feel when you know she's coming."

I looked at Nicole, pulled out another cigarette, lit it, and replied, "Although I'm a little skeptical, I'm genuinely happy... I don't know why, but every time I chat with her for a few minutes, I feel at ease..."

As soon as I finished speaking, Nicole pointed behind me and said, "Look, isn't that her looking at her phone?"

I looked back, and Ye Zhi also seemed to be looking back at the same time, as if she was searching. Our gazes were away from each other, but her glance back seemed to light a lamp in my heart, making the whole alley more secluded and allowing me to see the footprints she left on the damp road.

Ye Zhi looked down at her phone again, and when she looked up again, our eyes finally met. I waved to her, and she smiled at me...

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