Yang Sisi took several bottles of wine from her father's wine cabinet and placed them on the dining table. We sat facing each other, and I said to her, "With so much wine, who will drink it later, you or me?"

"You drink it."

"I don't want to drink. I have to catch a plane back to Dali soon."

"I'm letting you take a plane, not flying it, what are you afraid of... Here, let me pour you a drink, one to tomorrow, one to the past."

As Yang Sisi spoke, she poured me a full glass.

Despite trying to restrain myself, I was in a bad mood and couldn't resist the temptation. Besides, the wine was indeed good, so I picked up the glass and drank it all in one gulp.

Yang Sisi poured me another full glass and said, "Keep drinking, one cup to the rising sun, one cup to the moonlight."

I smiled and said to her, "You really know how to apply what you've learned. This is the first time I've heard of someone using song lyrics to trick someone into drinking!"

"Come on, if you think these lyrics are too common, I'll recite Yue Fei's 'Man Jiang Hong' for you, so you can be full of passion and drink from the bottle..."

"No, please don't... Tonight, I just want to be a glutton, not a drunkard."

As I spoke, I picked up my chopsticks and took a piece of my favorite braised pork ribs. I gestured for Yang Sisi to eat something too, but she didn't move. She just rested her chin on her hand and watched me. At first glance, it seemed like she was admiring my eating, but upon closer inspection, it seemed like she was secretly pondering something...

I felt quite guilty, so to make myself appear innocent, I picked up my glass and took another sip. The wine was quite strong, meant to be savored slowly; taking such a big gulp was a bit harsh on my throat. But Yang Sisi seemed pleased to see me drink like that, and she smiled at me… This made me even more guilty!

I initiated a conversation by asking her, "Is this house newly bought?"

"No, I moved into this house when I first started college... However, I renovated it last year, and I bought all the interior decorations and furnishings."

"No wonder it looks so new!"

Yang Sisi responded and then poured me a full glass of a different wine. She told me that this red wine was brought back from France by her father through a friend, and that it had been aged for over ten years and tasted exceptionally good.

I said to her with a pained expression, "Don't spill it! One bite costs several hundred yuan, it's too expensive!"

"It's okay, I don't mind, and neither does my dad. You can drink as much as you want."

I was a bit speechless, but I still forced a conversation and said, "I always thought that drinking was a culture, and that if you wanted to broaden your horizons, you had to go to high-end parties... I never expected that what would truly broaden my horizons would be at this table where it's just the two of us."

"That's right. At parties, everyone's talking at once, so who's willing to bring out their really good wine? But it's different at our house. You can have any kind of wine you want."

"You're really generous to me!"

"Of course I'm willing to drink, drink up!"

Urged by Yang Sisi, I picked up my glass and drank another glass... I seemed to have gotten into it; I started thinking about my worries, and then I wanted to drink more and more. Or maybe it was because the house was too enclosed and private, which stimulated my desire to drink... In fact, besides drinking, Yang Sisi and I couldn't find anything more interesting to do to kill time when it was just the two of us. If we just had a dry chat, it would actually be quite uncomfortable.

...

After finishing a bottle of red wine, I was already a little tipsy, but I was still able to control myself. I checked the time and said to Yang Sisi, "It's quite far from here to the airport, I should probably go..."

"You haven't eaten much, you're not allowed to leave."

"Let's not make a fuss... Missing the flight would be a huge problem!"

"You can't get a taxi here, I'll have to take you to the airport."

"It's not that weird... When I was waiting for you outside, I saw several taxis come here to drop off passengers."

"Then you'll have to try your luck. I can take you to the insurance company."

As Yang Sisi spoke, she pulled me back. I knew perfectly well that all those roundabout words she spoke were simply because she didn't want me to leave. She wanted to chat with me, afraid that she would never have such an opportunity again to be alone with me.

I longed to stay a little longer, but I knew there were too many things I shouldn't do. Even now, I'm still unsure what I, with my meager resources, can offer her, yet she has given me so many irresistible moments of感动 (gǎndòng, a feeling of being deeply moved).

My reason tells me that our current relationship is actually very dangerous.

...

Yang Sisi pulled me back to my seat and said, "Isn't your flight at 12:30? ... It's only a little past 9 o'clock now, so stay with me for another half hour. You should also eat something; it's easy to get hungry on a plane... really!"

We're not lovers, yet we made our feelings about parting more complicated than lovers do.

Yang Sisi kept pouring me drinks and serving me food, making it seem like she was determined to make sure I had a full meal.

But in those ten minutes, my physical condition changed drastically. I started to feel dazed and wanted to talk, which are signs of being drunk. I hadn't actually drunk much, but Yang Sisi had mixed my drinks. This makes it easy to fall into a drunken state without realizing it, and this state can come on suddenly, leaving no time to react.

I reclined in my chair, staring at the old-fashioned clock behind Yang Sisi for a long time. As the seconds ticked away, I felt myself opening up. I lit a cigarette, no longer caring that the ash would dirty the living room floor, and forgot that I was a guest.

I exhaled the smoke heavily, and then, with great emotion, said to Yang Sisi, "Time flies so fast, three years have passed in the blink of an eye... I still remember the first time I saw you at the train station... You called me uncle... Haha!"

What were you thinking at the time?

"To be honest, I'm not in the mood to argue with you... but I'm quite envious of you because you're beautiful, young, and have plenty of time and money to squander... Before I met you, I had never met a girl like you... My female friends all seem to have a tough life!"

"Are you jealous of me because of them?"

"No, it's just that I feel fate is very unfair... Why do some people live such a painful life, while others can play around with life without any restraint?"

“You’re wrong… Fate is fair… My life has changed since I met you… Everything seems to have happened on the way to Dali… Just a few days after we met, we ran into Ye Zhi on the highway… Your life has changed too… We all seem to be living in a vicious cycle, it’s so painful!”

After thinking for a moment, she added, "I'm happy sometimes too."

I looked at her...

Her face was particularly blurry in the flickering light.

"Michael, did you ever like me?...Even just for a moment...Did you?"