Listening to the melodious sound of the accordion, I sat cross-legged on the steps. Behind me was the rusty iron gate of the "sheet factory," and opposite me was a white curtain reflecting my slender figure. One was a static scene full of the passage of time, and the other was a graceful movement. Caught in the middle, I felt as if I were in the gap between two time periods... a particularly wonderful feeling.

I pulled a cigarette out of the pack, lit it, closed my eyes, and savored the feeling...

I quite enjoyed it, and I didn't even want to see the woman's true face anymore. I imagined her as Ye Zhi. She hadn't left me; we just interacted in a different way, like a spiritual exchange that transcended the limitations of time and space, going deeper and getting closer to the soul.

I nodded and smiled. If I could repeat what I was experiencing every night, my sleep wouldn't be so bad.

Yes, I like her music, and I like the reverie her silhouette evokes in me... Even if there's an element of self-deception in that reverie, it doesn't matter. As long as it's not as painful as before, I don't mind adding a few more 'psychedelic' details to my life.

Then I'll just treat this small space between the iron gate and the window as my safe haven... As long as I'm in Dali, I'll definitely come here often.

...

The woman played two pieces, then stopped, and as before, she wiped her hands with a towel...

This time she turned around, as if throwing something into the trash can, but because of the curtain, I still couldn't see her face. However, I wasn't as bothered as before, because at this moment, I really looked at her with a different mindset. All I needed was her piano music and her back view that resembled Ye Zhi's... As for her face, whether beautiful or ugly, it was a disappointment to me... because I understood very well that she was not Ye Zhi, but only resembled her in some way.

...

Back at his lodgings, Chen Jin was anything but idle. As soon as he opened the door, he heard a woman's moans. To me, who the woman he was pinning down was was unimportant; what mattered was that I had to quickly adapt to his rotten lifestyle, otherwise, I really couldn't be his neighbor under the same roof.

Having probably heard the noise I was making, the two people in the room finally quieted down a bit; at least the woman's voice wasn't as unrestrained as before. There's a reason Chen Jin is popular with women: he's incredibly persistent. So much so that even after I sat in the living room watching an episode of anime, the bed was still creaking.

I hope he can hurry up, because I have something important to talk to him about, otherwise I would have gone to my room long ago.

...

I started to feel a little dazed, and then I fell asleep on the sofa and had a dream. The dream was chaotic and psychedelic... I entered an unknown world, a world that felt incredibly unreal, like an oil painting. Every scene and object had jagged outlines, and the surfaces of all the infilling elements were covered with vibrant paint. This world could be stirred; as soon as it was stirred, everything around me would disappear, replaced by even more vibrant objects. These objects had no concrete shape and would change when touched...

Therefore, when Ye Zhi appeared in this dream wearing a very simple white dress, she attracted a lot of attention. She was like snow on an iceberg, crystal clear and pure.

I felt as if I had suddenly transformed into an insect that was particularly fond of light, and I lunged at her... but like a drop of water falling into this oil painting-like world, my body became flat, and then merged with this 'psychedelic' world...

I don't want to disappear in front of Ye Zhi. I want her to feel my presence... I can't believe that in this dreamlike world, the most unreal thing is myself, while Ye Zhi is tangible. She stands in this ever-changing world, her expression vaguely melancholy, and the wind blows her skirt fluttering. I am right beneath her skirt, without a body, only consciousness...

I felt fear, and then I woke up!

...

I was breathing heavily, and after calming down a bit, I rushed to the bathroom and washed my face with cold water. When I came out of the bathroom, Chen Jin also came out of his room, and Tina was the one who came out with him.

Tina either didn't treat me like an outsider, or she was just really open-minded, so when she was facing me, she was also disheveled; she wasn't even wearing a bra.

I felt awkward as I stared into Tina's eyes, but she smiled at me and said in broken Chinese, "Michael, you need to clean this place... I don't like dirty places."

"Yes, it's impossible for a place to be too clean if Chen Jin is around."

Tina, being a foreign girl, naturally didn't understand the profoundness of the Chinese language. She asked me, "Has he always been an unhygienic person?... His room is a complete mess, like a pigsty!"

Chen Jin picked up where I left off and said to Tina, "Tina, Tina, you can't say that... This kid is cunning; he's making a personal attack on me!"

"Isn't what he said true?"

Chen Jin was a little embarrassed. I laughed... Of course, what I said was true. It's true that his room was dirty and that his lifestyle was unclean... But unfortunately, Tina only cared about the former, not the latter. Chen Jin picks up girls at his bar every day. She couldn't possibly not know that, but she was still able to sleep in Chen Jin's bed today, which proves that she really doesn't care about Chen Jin's lifestyle.

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