Even in June, Xunchuan remained stiflingly hot at night. A moth died silently on the window track.
The chirping of insects outside grew louder, mixing with the hum of the air conditioner’s outdoor unit in a noisy chorus.
Huang Ling flipped through the profile of the incoming client, carefully studying the reviews left by the previous guest upon checkout. The coffee at her side had long gone lukewarm. She took two sips of the ice-diluted liquid, pounded her aching lower back, and rubbed her calves, which had grown sore and swollen from sitting too long.
It was almost eleven. A cold moon hung high beyond the venetian blinds.
Huang Ling picked up the calendar covered in to-dos from her desk, ran a hand through her hair, and closed the files, ready to head to the guest room to sleep.
She was on duty tonight. Though a twenty-four-hour shift meant she had to stay in the hotel, as long as no emergencies arose, she could rest at night.
Just as she turned off the office air conditioner, the landline on her desk rang.
“Hello.”
“Vice Manager Huang, something’s wrong. Guest 2608 tried to kill herself in her room.”
The moment the front desk finished speaking, all of Huang Ling’s drowsiness and fatigue vanished. She even thought she might be hearing things. But another voice in her head told her to stay calm: “I’m on my way. Call the police first.”
After hanging up, Huang Ling grabbed the first-aid kit from the office and sprinted to the guest room.
The door to room 2608 was open, with a security guard standing at the entrance, not going in. Huang Ling took a deep breath, steeled herself, and stepped inside.
A woman in a sexy slip dress lay on the sofa. The fabric was minimal, covering little beyond the essentials. She was barely past thirty, with a lovely face, but at this moment her eyes were vacant, staring at her own arm as if she felt no pain at all.
The housekeeper who had discovered her first was pressing a towel against the wound on the woman’s arm. The bright red blood soaking through the white towel was enough to make anyone’s scalp crawl. The woman’s consciousness was still clear, and she spoke in a gentle, polite tone, apologizing to the housekeeper and Huang Ling as they arrived.
“I’m so sorry, I’ve put you all to so much trouble.”
Huang Ling had some basic first-aid training. She opened the kit and began to stop the bleeding.
“Please don’t say that. Your safety is what matters most right now.” She kept working without pause, gesturing for the housekeeper to fetch a bathrobe and drape it over the woman.
The police arrived quickly. One officer went to question the guest, while another took statements from Huang Ling and the housekeeper who had found her.
Their part wrapped up quickly, but questioning the injured woman proved more difficult.
The woman flatly refused to contact her family. When the police pressed her with further questions, she stopped answering altogether. Only when the officers were about to use her registration information to look up her family through the public security system did she relent, offering a compromise.
She gave them a number.
The officer called, explained the situation at the hotel, and after hanging up, told the woman: “He said he’s on his way.”
As hotel staff, Huang Ling couldn’t leave yet. She relayed the incident to the general manager via her phone while the two officers waited at the door, the room door half-open. Most of her attention stayed on the woman resting on the sofa. The front desk brought fruit and warm water, and after setting them on the coffee table, the receptionist crept up behind Huang Ling.
“Ling-jie, how is it?”
Huang Ling gave her a glare that carried no real menace. “Stop asking.”
The girl wasn’t intimidated.
Huang Ling had been transferred in two months ago.
According to front desk gossip, the group’s young heir had met her at a hotel during his trip to England and poached her.
Young, pretty, capable, no airs, easy to talk to.
The receptionist leaned in and whispered the gossip she’d heard: “This Miss Song has been staying at our hotel for half a month now. Her husband is in his sixties, and she’s got a handsome lover on the side. Word is she wants to divorce the old man at home for that lover. The housekeeping staff say she wears sexy lingerie every day and looks like—”
“Enough.” Huang Ling cut her off. “I heard you have your daily front-desk inspection tomorrow. This time, points will be deducted.”
The receptionist turned and scurried off immediately.
Huang Ling leaned against the doorframe, lifting her gaze to the woman on the sofa in the distance. Footsteps sounded in her ears, and she assumed the medical team had arrived.
She turned around.
It was the most ordinary of movements, yet the person who met her eyes when she looked back made her heart skip a beat.
In just three years, all traces of boyishness had been stripped away from him.
He had changed greatly. The youthful greenness of his student days was gone, and his already striking bone structure and features now carried a man’s maturity.
He wore a white shirt with a few buttons loosened at the collar, sleeves rolled to the elbows, revealing forearms with pleasing muscle definition.
Their eyes met. She saw his gaze darken abruptly, and then, as if he hadn’t seen her at all, he walked past her to the police officers.
He produced his credentials. “I’m Miss Song’s attorney, Liang Wenpei.”
“Lawyer? What about her family?” The police officer took the ID, glanced at it, and handed it back to the man in front of him.
“She’s an orphan, parents unknown. No children. She and her husband are currently in the process of negotiating a divorce.” Liang Wenpei put the ID away. “May I go in and see my client?”
“Yes, you may. Given her condition, it would be best if she went to the hospital. Even though she’s unwilling, strictly speaking, she’s already at risk of self-harm or suicide, so we can send her to the hospital against her will if necessary.”
“Mm, I’m aware of that.” He nodded, then walked into the guest room.
Before long, the front desk led the medical staff in.
No one knew what he said to Song Mingyue, but the woman who had refused to go to the hospital was carried onto a stretcher bed, and he went along with her.
From start to finish, they didn’t exchange a single word.
As a hotel staff member, Huang Ling escorted the group to the hotel entrance. Watching the ambulance drive away, she hadn’t yet withdrawn her gaze when the front desk clerk appeared beside her.
“Who was that man? Could he be the lover that Sister Sun and the others mentioned Miss Song has? He’s so handsome.”
Huang Ling finally turned her gaze back at the sound of the voice. “If any guests on the same floor complain about being disturbed, send them a fruit platter and drinks, and give them a complimentary gift when they check out.”
The front desk clerk nodded in acknowledgment.
After making the arrangements, Huang Ling returned to the duty room, feeling dizzy and lightheaded. Though nothing else happened that night, she didn’t rest well in the latter half of it.
The next day, when Luo Shuang came on shift, Huang Ling washed up, put on her makeup, and met her at the restaurant. Seeing the dark circles under Huang Ling’s eyes, Luo Shuang assumed she’d stayed up late analyzing client data.
Huang Ling couldn’t be bothered to explain. She took a sip of the coffee the hotel restaurant served—it was rather mediocre.
Sun Qi, the front desk manager, squeezed in with her tray at the table next to Huang Ling and Luo Shuang. In stark contrast to Huang Ling’s wilted state, Sun Qi was buzzing with excitement.
“Little Huang, did that woman in 2608 try to kill herself last night?”
“Huh?” Before Huang Ling could respond, Luo Shuang’s eyes went wide as she looked at Huang Ling. “Really? Is that true?”
Sun Qi turned to Huang Ling. “According to our front desk staff on duty, that Miss Song’s lover showed up too? Tall and big, handsome, driving a Porsche.”
“Seems like it.” Huang Ling replied casually, taking a bite of a purple sweet potato bun. Her tongue stung—she hadn’t slept well last night, and sure enough, her head was still foggy. She’d even bitten her tongue while eating. After chewing a couple of times, she picked up her coffee again. “Next time, we can mention the restaurant’s food to the food and beverage manager.”
Seeing that Huang Ling was about as forthcoming as a stone, Sun Qi lost interest in gossiping. But at Huang Ling’s latter remark, she opened up again.
“Cooking isn’t easy, you know. Wasn’t it my birthday last month? My son, he’s only ten, insisted on making me a birthday meal. I even took photos.” Sun Qi said, already pulling out her phone to scroll through the pictures to show them.
Her birthday had only passed twenty-seven days ago, and Luo Shuang had already heard Sun Qi tell the story of her son cooking for her forty-nine times.
She raised a hand to shield the side of her face and rolled her eyes, then ate a couple of bites with Huang Ling before making an excuse that the housekeeping department still had matters to attend to, and slipped away.
Luo Shuang was still shaking her head in the elevator. “Having a son is like giving birth to the Jade Emperor himself. ‘A birthday meal made by her son’—the roast duck was from Quanjude, the marinated food was bought on Jiangning Road, the pork knuckle was from the hotel’s last staff distribution. Her son cooked up a few bowls of air.”
Huang Ling: “Liang Wenpei.”
“Huh?” Luo Shuang froze at the name that suddenly came out of Huang Ling’s mouth.
Huang Ling repeated herself. “The lawyer who came for Miss Song yesterday was Liang Wenpei.”
Luo Shuang drew in a sharp breath.
Luo Shuang and Huang Ling had been college roommates. Huang Ling had come to know Liang Wenpei through Luo Shuang. During the National Day holiday in freshman year, Luo Shuang had fallen in love at first sight with Wen Hanchi, Liang Wenpei’s roommate, at the high-speed rail station. The two schools were just one street apart, and through repeated encounters, the four of them got to know each other. After three years of dating, Huang Ling went abroad while he pursued a combined bachelor’s and master’s degree. Their relationship came to an end on its third anniversary.
After that, Huang Ling stayed abroad for four years and only returned to China this year.
Luo Shuang: “Spill.”
The elevator doors opened. Huang Ling nodded a greeting to a passing colleague, then lowered her voice. “That’s it. We didn’t even exchange a word. He left with the ambulance.”
“Tsk tsk tsk. Didn’t you two say when you broke up that even if you couldn’t be lovers, you could still be good friends?” Luo Shuang teased.
“Did we say that?” Huang Ling played dumb, opening the office door and changing the subject. “Call the others in for a meeting.”
“Yes, Vice Manager Huang.” Luo Shuang performed a curtsy like a maidservant in a period drama, flicking an imaginary handkerchief.
Huang Ling went into the office, brewed some tea, and sat by the sofa waiting for Luo Shuang to gather everyone for the meeting.
She went through the preferences of the clients checking in next week, then pulled up the photos taken after the last checkout and instructed the assigned room attendants to restore the rooms to match the layout at checkout.
Once the meeting ended, Huang Ling and Luo Shuang headed to the linen room for inspection.
Only after finishing all that did Huang Ling get off work.
She and Luo Shuang shared an apartment. When she opened the door, what greeted Huang Ling was Luo Shuang’s little dog, “Dashun,” a West Highland White Terrier.
Huang Ling ruffled the dog’s head, then carried it to her bedroom to catch up on sleep.
The dog had been adopted when Luo Shuang was dating her ex-boyfriend, and after the two broke up, the dog went to Luo Shuang.
When she woke up again, Luo Shuang was already off work.
The sky outside had darkened, and neither of them felt like cooking. Luo Shuang rode her little electric scooter, carrying Huang Ling to get some cold noodles.
Back in college, they used to love the cold noodle shop next to their school. Now a branch had opened nearby, and it only took a few minutes to get there by scooter.
The shop was fairly crowded.
Huang Ling went to grab a seat while Luo Shuang placed the order.
Even though she’d slept all afternoon, Huang Ling still felt a bit dizzy and groggy.
She propped her chin on her hand and yawned twice, tears welling up in her eyes from the reflex. The world looked blurry, her gaze drifting vaguely into the distance. She sensed someone sidestep through the gap between tables and sit down across from her.
As he sat, he stirred a breeze—the scent of black cedar.
Huang Ling withdrew her gaze and refocused her eyes, finally getting a clear look at the person across from her.
His sharp facial features rivaled those of celebrities who needed to look good on camera. Unlike when she’d seen him at the hotel last time, he was wearing a sports t-shirt, as if he’d just come off the basketball court, as if he’d reverted to the clean, bright look of their college days, when they were in their late teens and early twenties.
His legs were long, and the moment he sat down, Huang Ling felt his legs stretch over to her side. She kicked his foot without ceremony: “Sorry, this seat’s taken.”
He didn’t get up. Relying on his long arms and legs, he simply pulled the adjacent two-person table over, joining it into a four-person table.
Liang Wenpei sat on the chair across from her, his eyes fixed on Huang Ling: “When did you get back?”
Huang Ling felt his gaze and looked back without backing down: “Qingming.”
Two months.
Liang Wenpei suddenly let out a short laugh, as if amused in spite of himself: “That’s quite a long time you’ve been back.”
A smile hung on his face, but the words came out through gritted teeth, as if forced out from between them.
Huang Ling sensed the atmosphere around him suddenly sink, and thought of the rumors at the hotel: “None of your business.”
Liang Wenpei’s smile grew even brighter, but shadows gathered in his eyes: “Didn’t you say we could still be good friends after breaking up? So I’m just checking in on a good friend—is that not allowed?”