The man looked at the chat history on his phone screen and did not reply again.
Setting the phone aside on the sofa, he quietly finished his cigarette and began to fantasize about what the child he and Little Ghost would have would look like.
Would the child look more like him, or like Little Ghost?
A gentle, doting smile appeared on the corner of his lips.
He leaned back, resting his head against the sofa and gazing up at the night sky.
He thought of the starry sky he had seen over the vast grasslands and a hint of disappointment appeared in his eyes—indeed, it was quite different.
The star-filled expanse of the grasslands and the sparsely starred sky before him seemed like they were not part of the same sky.
After finishing his cigarette, he returned to the bedroom to take a look at the woman sound asleep in the bed, then went to the bathroom to rinse his mouth several times with mint-flavored mouthwash.