Rain dripped from the eaves, shattering at my feet, soaking not only my shoes and trouser legs, but also my phone screen... I wiped the screen, stopped squatting, and looked northeast as I stood up.
My gaze cannot travel more than 2,000 kilometers, but I know that in that direction lies Yang Sisi and the city where she lives.
Will she really come from so far away?
Even if you come, after the long journey, will you still be able to maintain this impulsive feeling?
So I chose to remain calm and asked her in a message, "Didn't you say you were going abroad with your dad soon? Now that you're in Dali, are you canceling the trip?"
"I'm not going anywhere else, I just want to go to Dali."
I leaned against the wall, lit a cigarette in the dim light, and then stared blankly at the pattering rain...
A little while later, the dog started whimpering again at my feet, probably because it hadn't eaten enough.
So I tossed it the half-eaten chicken leg I had in my hand. When it quieted down, the world seemed to stand still. I could almost hear my own breathing, sometimes even, sometimes rapid.
After a long time, I finally picked up my phone and took a picture of the world outside the eaves where it was raining. Then I sent the photo to Yang Sisi and told her: It's raining in Dali too, maybe even more so than in Shanghai.
She asked me, "Don't you want me to go?"
"Come if you want... I just want to tell you that some things, once you see them, may not be as wonderful as you imagined."
Are you even a thing?
“I’m not talking about myself, I’m talking about Dali; you said you wanted to come to Dali and didn’t like Shanghai when it’s raining, but the rain in Dali is even heavier than in Shanghai… You can’t see it, but I can tell you.”
"The rain in Dali is sweet, the rain in Shanghai is salty... Just like when a person cries, when they are sad, their tears are salty, and when they are happy, they are sweet."
A little while later, she sent another message: "If you understand, I'll go; if you don't understand, or if you understand but pretend not to, then forget it."
Looking at this message, I inexplicably thought of Yang Sisi's smiling and crying face, and a warm feeling welled up in my heart. This warmth is my motivation, so I replied, "I understand."
"Alright, I can still book a flight to Dali at 3:15 AM. Just wait for me."
"Okay, I'll pick you up from the airport."
Yang Sisi replied with a bunch of smiley faces, and then I couldn't help but picture her haphazardly packing her luggage in my mind.
I checked the time; it was 12:30 a.m. We would need about 6 hours to meet. If the rain stopped by then, we could see the sunrise on our way back to the old town.
...
As the rain subsided, I left the stray dog that had become attached to me and returned alone to the small courtyard I shared with Nicole. Nicole was still awake; she was sitting in the study calculating the bar's accounts.
Without looking up, she pressed the calculator buttons and asked me, "Why did it take you so long to get back?"
"It just started raining heavily, so I took shelter outside for a while."
"Then why didn't you call me? I would have come pick you up."
"It's so late, I don't know if you're asleep or not."
Nicole finally looked up at me and then laughed, "How many bar owners can go to bed early! ...Don't just stand at the door, come in and I'll talk to you about something."
"Let's talk about it tomorrow, I want to sleep."
"Look how scared you are, I don't want to talk to you about relationship stuff..."
After a brief pause, Nicole continued, "You've entrusted the bar to me for so long, it's time to give you a share of the profits."
"If there's money to be made, then I'm willing to wait a while before going to sleep."
"You look terrible!"
Amid Nicole's scolding, I laughed as I walked into the study.
...
I sat down in the chair opposite Nicole. After she busied herself for a while, she finally breathed a sigh of relief and said to me, "Business at the bar has been good lately. We made a net profit of 14,000 yuan this week, which is an average of 2,000 yuan a day."
I gave Nicole a thumbs up and replied, "It's really not easy. Even when Bai Lu was running Women's Flower, she didn't earn this much!"
"It's different. I'm a singer myself, and I'm better at creating the atmosphere in bars. Bai Lu usually has a lot of social interactions, so it's inevitable that she gets distracted. But she's already very good. She laid a really good foundation for me, otherwise I wouldn't have achieved what I have today!"
I nodded. For a bar that isn't very big, making a net profit of two thousand a day is actually quite an achievement.
Nicole then said to me, "When I had dinner with Ye Zhi before, I settled her bill and gave her a total of 209,000 yuan... You have 164,000 yuan, Cao Xue has a little over 80,000 yuan, and I took 230,000 yuan myself... That's all the revenue our bar has made in one year and nine months!"
I did the math in my head and replied, "That's over 600,000 yuan in almost two years... That's pretty good for a bar of this size."
Nicole nodded and smiled.
I added, "But for you personally, it's still a bit too little... We all have other things to do, but you've devoted all your energy to this bar. Actually, given your abilities, even if you just sing in bars and perform at a few venues, you could earn two or three hundred thousand over this long period of time!"
"It's different. That's working for someone else, but this is my own business. And the bar's business will only get better and better. As long as I persevere, I won't earn less in the future!"
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