After I sat down, Yu Tou poured me a full glass of beer and said, "Brother Mi, I don't want to hear your explanation. Consider this a penalty. We'll chat after you finish it."

I smiled ingratiatingly and said, "Let's use a smaller cup. I really can't drink from such a big cup... I drank too much last night."

"No way, I drove from Jimo to Dali for three whole days, and I felt like I was half dead... You actually stood me up, you have to drink this wine, otherwise I won't be happy."

"Then I'll drink it in two sips, is that alright?"

"No, drink it all in one go."

I couldn't resist any longer, so I gritted my teeth, picked up the beer mug, closed my eyes, and gulped it down. I almost spat it out, but I swallowed it back down. It was really disgusting.

Finally, I finished the beer, slammed the glass down on the table, and let out a burp.

I felt terrible, but the fish head was happy and immediately poured me another full cup, completely unconcerned, as if he were the guest himself.

I couldn't drink like this anymore, so I lit a cigarette and tried to calm myself down for a while.

I smoked as I watched the noisy street, but I felt incredibly lonely... I don't know why, even though I could see so many roads leading to every corner of the ancient city, I always felt a suffocating sense of having nowhere to go, and then I grew tired of my current situation.

...

In a daze, Yu Tou patted my shoulder heavily, then whispered in my ear, "Brother Mi, did you take what I told you to heart?"

"What is it?"

Fish Head clicked his tongue: "You really think I traveled all the way from Jimo to Dali just to deliver a car to you... Could you help me contact Yang Sisi? I really, really want to meet her... We need to meet her first so I can find out if she has any feelings for me... right?"

I stared at the fish head for a long while before replying, "Let's drink to our hearts' content today. Nothing is more important than that..."

Fish Head interrupted me and pleaded, "Big Brother, can't I just call you Big Brother?... I really came here for this, I've never been this serious in my life."

"I understand how you feel, but I really can't speak for you... Put yourself in my shoes, isn't this kind of thing quite offensive?"

"What's there to be disgusted about?... Who doesn't like the feeling of being liked by others?... If you've taken a liking to someone right now, let me make the connection, I'd be more than happy to!"

From Yu Tou's words, I sensed his intense desire, and I finally spoke to him, saying, "I definitely can't just give you her contact information directly... I'll ask her. If she's willing, you two can take things further; if she's not, there's nothing I can do..."

I stopped halfway through my sentence and then turned to Chen Jin and said, "Call Sisi and just get the gist of it."

Chen Jin pointed to his own nose and asked, utterly bewildered, "Why did I have to hit you? ...You were the one making excuses!"