Life: A Black and White Film (一生一世，黑白影画)

Chapter 1.3 - They Meet Again in Nepal (3)

"Mm-hmm. I know you like that type."

Wen Han pulled her shawl tighter around herself. She could not just sit here and continue pretending anymore that nothing had happened, waiting for that unique cup of coffee that that man had described. She needed to find an excuse to leave behind the still-enthusiastic Agnesa and go back upstairs alone.

It seemed the sky was quite overcast tonight. There was not really any starlight.

Wen Han followed the staircase and walked up to the third floor. A faint breeze drifted in through a window. She discovered a card beneath her room door. A corner of the card poked out from underneath the door, as if it had been purposely placed this way. She picked it up. Sure enough, some simple words had been scrawled on the card—a handwritten love poem. At this moment, Wang Wenhao was strolling around outside with their other travel companion, Roman, and this card must have been placed here by him before he left, while she was not paying attention.

Stepping into her entirely darkened room, she pulled open a drawer and set the card inside. The cards from the previous twenty-four days had also been dealt with in this same way, placed in a drawer of an unfamiliar inn to wait for someone else to take it away. After prudently locking the door and all the windows, she went to take a shower.

Stretching her hand forward, she tested the water temperature. It was okay. It was not cool, though just barely.

She flipped her hair forward and massaged her scalp.

What Wen Han did not know was that, after that man whom she feared left the inn, he had merely pulled out a U.S. greenback from somewhere on him and handed it to the other, relatively-older bellboy, who was watching the door. "Go buy two cups of coffee for those two ladies inside." It was not necessary for him to tell the boy from which shop to buy the coffee. This Indian bellboy was already familiar with his habits, and very cheerfully, he took on the role this time of errand boy.

This regular guest at the inn liked to use U.S. greenbacks.

As long as he took them, his boss lady naturally would help him change the American dollars into rubles, and then he would earn a nice bit of profit from his errand boy fees. Such a generous inn guest. As the bellboy squatted outside the door of the coffee shop, he was even praying that this guest would stay for a longer time at the inn.<>Copyright of Fanatical, hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. If you are not reading this from hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com, the translation has been taken without consent of the translator.

The lifestyle of the Nepali people was very laidback.

Most shops opened for customers at noon and then closed by six o'clock in the evening.

The lights were now dim as he walked on the streets at this time of night. Somewhere in the distance, there was the clear sound of a dog barking. He strolled along the street, leaving the Thamel district where foreign tourists usually resided and continuing ahead.

When he passed by an old, small temple, he at last halted his steps.

In the darkness, a lonesome figure with a hunched back stood on the dirt road behind the temple. Cheng Muyun stepped over toward him. The hunchbacked old man immediately pressed his palms together in greeting and beckoned to Cheng Muyun to follow him. The two treaded down this path that was laden with small puddles and mud, passing between two walls, and after taking many twists and turns, stepped into a small underground casino.

Due to a lack of renovation funds, the entire space emanated a feel of derelict, raucousness, and extravagance that was intermixed with the noise of money being exchanged, and smoke pervaded and hovered in this place.