Sitting on the side of the road amidst the passing traffic, only cigarettes can save me from my loneliness and my confusion about this city.
After two cigarettes, a scooter without license plates stopped in front of me. A man with dreadlocks, wearing shorts and slippers, lit a cigarette and looked down at me, asking, "Did you contact me to book a bed at the Fengrenyuan Youth Hostel?"
I quickly stood up and asked, "Yes, it's me."
"I'm the hostel owner, just call me Tie Nan."
"Tetsuo?"
He then smiled and explained, "In Dali, not many people use their real names. People who come here want to forget some things, and names are the cheapest thing to forget, so everyone does it."
Iron Man's words stung me, so much so that I remained silent for a moment before replying, "Hello, just call me Michael."
Tie Nan patted my shoulder and laughed, "Don't bring the formalities from the big city to Dali. We're all pretty casual; we don't use 'hello' or 'thank you' here."
...
Tie Nan drove me through several unlit alleys until we finally arrived at his inn. The inn was pitch black and had no sign of business.
As Tie Nan opened the iron gate, he said to me, "Recently, they've been cleaning up Erhai Lake, and all the guesthouses and hotels nearby have been shut down for rectification. Our water and electricity have been cut off, so you're the last guest my guesthouse will take."
"Without water and electricity, can we still make a living?"
"It's alright. I ran a water pipe and an electric wire from the neighbor's house, so I can make a living. But it's best not to turn on the lights after 8 o'clock, in case someone checks."
I smiled and replied, "No wonder your beds are so cheap!"
"That's right, 15 yuan a day, that's unprecedented in the history of guesthouses in Dali. Only I could do something so shameful."
Tie Nan turned on a light that barely provided any illumination, led me into the room, and then asked me, "Are you a smoker?"
I didn't quite understand what he meant by asking that, so I replied conservatively, "Sometimes a little."
"If you're going to smoke, then you can share a room with me."
"No problem. By the way, I see there are quite a few beds in this room. Besides the two of us, are there other people here?"
"There's another guy who sings at the bar, Coach Ma. He's been living in this room for six months. But you'll have to put up with him, his feet smell awful!"
Tie Nan helped me put my luggage in the locker and said to me, "I'm also using the Wi-Fi from next door. If the signal is bad, climb up to the upper bunk; you'll get two bars there."
Although I didn't really care, I still replied jokingly, "If you don't mentally prepare yourself for staying here, you really can't stand it!"
"It's cheap."
"Yeah, that means I can buy a few more packs of cigarettes."
...
After settling me in, Tie Nan left. He and a few buddies were drinking on Renmin Road. He ran to pick me up halfway there because he had to go back and finish his drinks.
He left, and the entire hostel seemed to be without a place to breathe. I guess this guy didn't dare to really go against the policy, and only took in two long-term guests, me and Coach Ma. I don't know how long Coach Ma will stay here, but I paid two months' rent upfront.
I don't mind the hassle of having to rely on others for water, electricity, and internet here; in fact, I quite like it because it gives me a lot of quiet space to think, just like when I was a child, when everything was underdeveloped, but I rarely experienced unhappiness or loneliness.
However, Coach Ma's shoes were so smelly that I couldn't rest in my room at all, let alone eat anything.
After sealing Coach Ma's shoes in a plastic bag, I finally had an appetite and ate a bowl of instant noodles. Then I lay on the bed, gazing at the twinkling stars outside the skylight, but felt terribly empty inside. It wasn't until I lit a cigarette that I felt a little bit alive again.
I habitually picked up my phone, but apart from an official message saying "Welcome to Dali," no one else had inquired about me. I wanted to say something to someone, and then I found the last message I had sent to Wang Lei in my chat history.
She asked me: Have you decided when to go to Dali? I replied: I'm still thinking about it...
Right now, I'm in a small inn in Dali, but she's gone forever.
I really miss her. I want to have a few more drinks with her in some little bar, and listen to her complain in Sichuan dialect about those disrespectful customers. But she's like a flower that has withered; even if she sprouts again, it will only bloom on a distant shore that I will never see.
In the dim light, I spent all my time speculating. What if Wang Lei hadn't died? What if I had opened a profitable guesthouse in Dali as she wished, and after a few years, brought her over to run the guesthouse as our home? Wouldn't that have been a wonderful thing?
Let's assume it will hurt more and more, because we'll regret it. I should have agreed to Wang Lei's request and persuaded her to come along; maybe that tragedy wouldn't have happened.
I thought of Lu Jia again, wondering where she was. I didn't have any particular emotions, just a little sad because I still missed her.
...
Finally, someone contacted me, but it was someone I wanted to avoid. To be honest, after learning Lao Huang's true motives, I felt quite repulsed by him.
The reason she didn't leave halfway was perhaps because she really needed me. Thousands of kilometers is not something a woman can easily handle. Like the woman I met on the road who drove a G-Wagon and got a flat tire, she could only passively wait for rescue in bad weather. Having a man with her makes all the difference.
When I got through to Lao Huang on the phone, he asked with concern, "Have you and Sisi arrived in Dali yet?"
"We've arrived. We arrived this afternoon."
Did you keep up with her?
"No, after we arrived in Dali, we went our separate ways."
This chapter is not finished yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
