87. The boundless horizon is my love.

Because of this minor accident, Bai Haonan ended up lingering for another five or six days in a nearby county town before setting out again. He saved the dog, one even the pet hospital had decided was beyond saving, and in doing so he spent nearly every last bit of the few thousand yuan he had left.

That was when he first learned how outrageous pet hospital fees could be. The antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and skin medicines cost more than the drugs for a professional team!

Of course, Bai Haonan did not come out empty-handed either. He also slept with one of the pet hospital nurses. He absolutely was not doing it to save on medical bills; it was simply habit. The moment the little girl in the nurse's uniform started showing him a little warmth, he fell back on old instincts, feeling a wave of nostalgia for the nurses at the First Affiliated Hospital. He threw out a few medical jokes he had once overheard as opening lines, and that night he no longer had to curl up in the back seat of the car.

Those few days also made Bai Haonan realize for the first time just what sort of attraction a broad-shouldered, masculine man with a half-dead mixed-breed cocker spaniel could have for women. Just by sitting in the little children's cart with the lame dog near the pet hospital, basking in the sun in the middle of the street garden, women came over every few minutes to chat and bend down to look at the dog. Some even crouched there and cried at the sight of the bandaged little creature. Watching the scenery visible in the open collar of their blouses, Bai Haonan thought that if he started flirting then and there, his success rate would definitely be even higher than it had been back in the hospital.

The reason he set off in such a hurry before Ada's broken leg had even fully healed was that the nurse had already begun reminding him to go home on time when the rice was cooked!

Bai Haonan could not for the life of him understand why, once a relationship grew even slightly close, people had to start moving straight toward possession. A little physical contact, a bit of hormone-fueled pleasure, none of it violating morality or the law in any real way, so what was wrong with that?

So he could only leave quickly.

Ada had been named by the girl called Xingxing, because she said that when she was in nursing school, her favorite thing was acting out Stephen Chow's lines and skits, and the good friend who always partnered her was called Ada. In that rented little room, she had performed her best bits for Bai Haonan more than once, sometimes even naked. Those were happy days. Why did people have to force things into fixed relationships and make everything lose its flavor?

As he drove, Bai Haonan kept talking to Ada about all this.

Since Ada came along, Bai Haonan felt as though he had changed a little too. At the very least, when he was sitting alone by the roadside or in the car, having a pair of dark, round eyes staring at him meant he could treat the creature as someone to confide in.

Cocker spaniels were hunting dogs, but Xingxing said that Ada, who was three or four years old, was definitely a mixed breed. In small county-level cities, purebred dogs were rare, and these cheap mixed breeds were also the easiest to abandon, because they were not worth cherishing. Yet Ada still retained the characteristic cocker spaniel bloodline. Its long, rectangular ears, if left unwatched, could nearly drag on the ground, and could practically be tied in a knot behind its head. So during treatment they were now tied back into a bow at the back of its skull for easier application of medicine. Both hind legs had probably been broken by some naughty child with a rock or something; the force had not been great, and one side was dislocated. They were now in splints, and though it might walk again in the future, it would probably be a little lame. Everything else, nourished by good food, good care, and good medicine, had started to recover its vitality. At least now it could lie there all the time, staring without blinking as Bai Haonan talked, and every so often it would even nod with great seriousness as if it understood.

That made the rest of Bai Haonan's journey no longer lonely at all. He had even lost interest in pulling off the highway for a break and picking up women along the way. He simply dozed at service areas on the expressway, mainly so he could change Ada's medicine. Remarkably, the dog had already learned to hold it in and not relieve itself in the car, and would only do its business once Bai Haonan carried it into the grass by the service area.

Its self-control was much better than that of its human-shaped walking cannon of an owner.

Before the man and the dog reached the provincial capital of Guixi, the two girls had already gone back to Rongdu.

Chen Sufen had actually begun to regret it as soon as she reached the long-distance bus station; she wanted to turn around and go look for that man again, but Yisha held her back.

The sixteen-year-old girl from another ethnic group was even clearer-headed than the college student. "And then what? You keep watching him fool around, chasing other women, hurting you over and over again, until he smashes your little bit of female pride to pieces?"

The tall college girl was already crouched at the bus station entrance, eyes brimming with tears, drawing many furtive glances.

The shorter girl had no choice but to crouch down too. "Men are always childish. Granny and Mother kept telling me that from the time I could understand words. Their minds are always on new women. It's just that some men dare to say it and do it, some are just secretly filthy, and some don't even know what they're thinking themselves. Our walking marriages let us see men for exactly what they are, but they still aren't satisfied. You can't satisfy him. He's the king of scumbags, the latest model."

The third-year student from Rongdu Sports College snapped her head up and looked at the sixteen-year-old beside her, once again confirming that the pale-faced girl had an expression even more mature than her own, a look that had seen through everything between men and women. "Then... then why are you still with him..."

Yisha's lips curved; that counted as a smile. "What he said wasn't wrong. I just needed a place to land. I had never once left the county or the city, and I'm not ugly, am I? I know how dangerous it would be for me to go alone into a big city. I can always keep a knife on me and protect myself, but if I really hurt someone, then I'd have to go back, and then it would have been far too costly for me to have run away in the first place. The safest thing is to find a suitable man, have him bring me out here, and once I get my footing, whether I still have that man or not won't matter anymore. The women in our family have never relied on men. Right now you can take me with you, and the effect is the same. At the very least, it's better than drifting around with him. If you think about it even a little, the choice is obvious, isn't it?"

Sixteen years old!

Chen Sufen thought back to when she herself had been sixteen, still balancing a mosquito net over her head and carrying knitting needles as she leaped onto Bai Haonan's bed to perform The Legend of the New White Snake, only to get slapped hard on the backside by that bastard.

And this girl, whose mother she said had died of drug use and AIDS, was actually thinking about all this!

No wonder she had casually said several times before that she did not understand.

The key point was that she was only sixteen. At that age, how many girls would still be wrapped in maidenly longing, meeting love with such wild abandon that they would gladly burn themselves to ash? But her?

What kind of brutal reality would it take to forge such a clear-minded weighing of pros and cons, and then such an uncompromising choice, just like the way she had once without hesitation brought out that pot of mountain chicken and then driven away all the other girls with a song?

By comparison, Chen Sufen felt like an idiot. "Y-you really are just using him?"

Yisha still smiled, even broadening the curve of her lips a little more than before. "I said it already. All men are childish. He has already been good enough to me. These past few days have been the easiest and happiest of my life. But if I thought it would always be like this, that would be very stupid. Let's just say that this is the reward for completing this step. What comes next is my own effort."

Chen Sufen had almost forgotten all the feelings she had just been drowning in. "No, what I mean is, between you and him, is it really just using each other, and then that's the end of it?"

At last Yisha smiled the way she had when facing Bai Haonan, sweet and alluring. "My man will only obediently come home once I become strong enough. Right now he still hasn't grown up. Let him play if he wants. Anyway, once we pass this place..."

Chen Sufen had thought she would proudly spit on that man, but instead Yisha playfully fished out that expensive phone and waved it. "Then I'll wait for him in the next village. I'll wait until he comes begging me. If a woman always rushes to take men seriously, the result is usually terrible. On the other hand, if you just love the hell out of whoever, the result is generally pretty good. Don't believe me? Try it."

The college girl was stunned. "What the hell have I been studying? Why do I feel like I'm several levels below you?"

Yisha pulled her to her feet. "The things handed down through generations from Granny and Mother are not just about how to please a man in bed. These principles are always useful. Come on, take me to Rongdu and let's see what I can do there. I'm looking forward to it."

After muttering to herself a few times about loving the hell out of whoever, Chen Sufen suddenly felt the future was full of possibilities.

Bai Haonan had no mother, and hers had hardly been of any use either.

Especially when compared with this girl's mother.