I followed Yang Sisi to her room. She wasn't packing her luggage; instead, she was sitting on the edge of the bed crying. Perhaps because of her age, she was the woman I knew who most liked to use crying to vent her emotions.
I just stood there leaning against the wall next to her bed, without saying a word.
After wiping away her tears with the back of her hand, she lost her usual arrogance and simply asked me, choking back tears, "What are you doing here? I don't need anyone to comfort me."
"I'm here to help you pack, not to comfort you."
Yang Sisi was trembling with anger. She then dragged her suitcase out of the locker, threw it at my feet, and said, "Pack it up, pack it up properly... I want to take everything I can."
I bent down and laid her suitcase flat, then threw all her toiletries that were on the bedside table into the suitcase. Then, I took her clothes out of the closet. Since one suitcase wasn't enough, I went to the storage room and found a woven bag that was originally used to store disposable slippers, and put all her remaining clothes and personal items into it.
Throughout the entire process, Yang Sisi neither participated nor stopped it, but when I looked back at her, her lips were already bluish-purple, which was clearly caused by a huge emotional fluctuation.
I felt bad too, but I still looked at the suitcase and woven bag at her feet and said to her, "Your things are all packed. Get some rest. I'll take you to the airport tomorrow morning."
"good."
I avoided her gaze, then took out 3,000 yuan in cash from my wallet and placed it on her bedside table. I then said to her, "This is your salary. Send your ID number to my WeChat later, and I'll buy you a plane ticket back to Shanghai."
Yang Sisi only counted 2,000 yuan, then threw the extra 1,000 yuan on the ground and coldly replied to me, "I want what's mine, and I don't want a single penny of what's not mine."
Do you still want me to buy your plane ticket?
"Yes, this is what you owe me... because you're the one who most wants me to go back to Shanghai, and you owe me a plane ticket."
I nodded, picked up the 1,000 yuan from the ground, and turned to leave Yang Sisi's room.
...
Back at the small bar, everyone asked me with concern, "How is Sisi?"
I lit a cigarette and replied, "She's fine. She's already agreed to go back to Shanghai tomorrow. Once she sends me her ID number, I'll book her a plane ticket."
Everyone fell silent.
I then said to Taozi, "These next few days you'll have to work a little harder and take over her front desk duties as well. Tomorrow morning I'll call Sun Jiwei and ask him to come over to discuss the transfer..."
Peach nodded.
When are you planning to go to Chongqing?
Peach paused for a moment before looking at me and replying, "We'll leave once the inn has finished handing things over with Sun Jiwei."
"I'll handle the handover; you can leave once you've received the money."
After I finished speaking, I pressed my temples hard with my hands, but my mind kept replaying every subtle expression on Yang Sisi's face. Then I would think of the journey we took together from Shanghai to Dali, and how I had personally sent her back to Shanghai... But I couldn't understand how all of this had happened, and that caused me pain.
Tie Nan also pulled a cigarette from his pack and lit it. He wanted to say something to me, but ultimately chose to remain silent. I know that this choice was difficult for each of us present, but sometimes we have to make choices in order to look to the future. After all, we don't live for the past, and this inn became a part of our past from the moment we decided to transfer ownership.
...
Back in the farmhouse I later rented, I lay in bed again, gazing at the stars hanging in the sky through the skylight. I didn't fall asleep as quickly as usual because I was troubled by some indescribable emotion.
Late at night, I received another message from the woman who had been using Lu Jia's number. She asked me, "Have you decided to transfer ownership of your inn?"
"Yes, people's hearts are scattered. Forcing it to continue might not be a good thing."
"Ultimately, it's because the price offered by the other party met your expectations... This is equivalent to making hundreds of thousands for nothing, so neither of you lost out!"
"Maybe."
What's your opinion on this?
I sat up in bed amidst the barking of dogs, stared blankly at the persimmon tree in the yard for a long time before replying to the message: "They are all people I can treat as friends, I don't want to comment."
"Oh...so what are your plans for the future?"
"I might stay in Dali, or I might go back to my hometown... It's about 50/50."
"You just don't want to go back to Shanghai?"
"Why go back to that place? All I see are painful memories of the past."
She didn't reply, and I wondered if she was still in Lijiang, so I sent her another message asking, "Are you still in Lijiang?"
"No, I've already arrived in Shangri-La. I'm leaving for Daocheng Yading tomorrow, and then I'll return to Shanghai."
"You must have had a great time, right?"
"At first, it was quite exciting, but later, seeing all the couples showing off their love along the way made me feel quite lonely... Traveling alone is truly a bittersweet experience."
"The novelty and loneliness aren't important; what matters is that you can emerge from the shadows of the past—that's the purpose of traveling."
"Then we've achieved our goal... By the way, could you send me a picture of yourself?"
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