The phone call was obviously from Miss Meng.
After hanging up, Lu Yunli was clearly in a much better mood.
Huang Ling got out of the car at the entrance of the residential complex and, as usual, bought a serving of grilled cold noodles with double toppings before heading home.
The next day at work, Huang Ling saw the text message Lu Yunli had sent in the middle of the night.
He had to make an unexpected trip to Australia.
Huang Ling cursed a few times under her breath—this man really knew how to pick his timing to run away.
After washing up, Huang Ling added water and dog food to Da Shun's bowls, reached out to pat the dog's head, and crouched down beside him, resting her chin on her knees. "Da Shun, you have to bless me with a smooth day today."
Huang Ling nearly arrived late at the hotel. She had just settled into her seat when Zhao Bing came in for the morning meeting.
The man who had left last night looking all smiles now appeared sickly and listless. He covered his mouth and coughed twice.
"Is Manager Zhao sick?"
Zhao Bing coughed again, his voice slightly hoarse as he spoke. "I was on the night shift last night, and the air conditioning was set a bit too low. It's nothing serious. The tour guide I contacted earlier said the rooms would be available by ten at the latest. Everyone, bear with it for now—once the summer peak season is over, I'll arrange time off for everyone. I have a slight fever, so I've requested some leave to get an IV drip. I'll come back as soon as it's done. You can call me about anything. Today's inspection of cleaned rooms will be handled by Manager Huang. Everyone must cooperate with Manager Huang's work. Manager Huang, order some milk tea and cake for everyone this afternoon—put it on my tab."
Huang Ling felt her eyelid twitch. Zhao Bing's illness really couldn't have come at a more convenient time.
That bastard Lu Yunli had also run off, leaving her to face this mess alone. She mentally cursed both of their family trees from top to bottom, and still hadn't vented enough.
After the morning meeting dispersed, Huang Ling reviewed the room status and handover log. When she saw the time was about right, she had just logged into the system when the floor attendants' call came through her earpiece.
"Manager Huang, it's already past the expected checkout time, but the guests on the thirteenth floor are still in their rooms and haven't left. I can't enter to clean. Please advise."
Huang Ling remembered that the guests on the thirteenth floor had said they would leave by ten at the latest. "Received. I'll contact the front desk and the tour guide right away. Don't knock or disturb the guests on the thirteenth floor for now—stand by and wait for further instructions."
Huang Ling called the front desk on the internal line to find out what was going on. The person who answered sounded somewhat familiar—it seemed to be the same front desk attendant who had gotten into that dispute with Xi Fei that escalated to management. She kept Huang Ling waiting for five minutes before reporting the situation.
"Manager Huang, Manager Sun said she just asked the tour guide. The tour guide said they've cancelled this afternoon's itinerary on short notice, so they won't check out and leave until around twelve."
"Twelve?" Huang Ling's head throbbed just hearing that. "If they don't check out until twelve, how are we in housekeeping supposed to clean the rooms?"
A light, carefree laugh tinged with a hint of schadenfreude came through the phone. "I'm just a front desk clerk—how would I know how your housekeeping department cleans rooms?"
She was deliberately being spiteful at a time like this.
Huang Ling knew there was no point in arguing further. She hung up and rearranged the plan: "The attendants on the thirteenth floor should go clean other floors for now. After all other floors are done, everyone will wait for the thirteenth floor rooms to be vacated and then go clean them together. Let me know when any room is cleaned—I'll go inspect it."
With that, she also arranged for several room butlers to help with cleaning once the twelve o'clock checkout was done.
Luo Shuang felt anxious just listening to all of this on Huang Ling's behalf.
A room on the tenth floor had already been cleaned, so Huang Ling asked Luo Shuang to accompany her for the inspection.
"What should we do? How about we don't use Manager Zhao's standards when we inspect this time?"
"No way. Today we have to follow Zhao Bing's standards. We couldn't finish all those rooms in an hour anyway. Since we're going to get complaints regardless, we might as well drag Zhao Bing down with us." Huang Ling clenched her back teeth, her chest burning with frustration, but she took a deep breath and forced herself to stay calm.
The pass rate for the cleaned rooms was not high.
Now the front desk was the one panicking and rushing them for rooms. Huang Ling remained composed, inspecting each room item by item according to Zhao Bing's deduction standards.
By the time Lu Mingzhi arrived at the hotel, the lobby was packed with a sea of people.
Lu Mingzhi turned his head toward his assistant. "What's going on?"
The assistant immediately went to find out and quickly reported the full situation to Lu Mingzhi.
When Huang Ling was called back to the housekeeping office, she was still locked in a battle with the room attendants over room cleanliness.
By the time she got there, even Zhao Bing had been called back.
Sitting in Zhao Bing's seat was a man who bore a five-part resemblance to Lu Yunli, with streaks of grey at his temples. Though Lu Yunli had benefited from a generation of genetic refinement in the looks department, time had added a depth and richness to Lu Mingzhi like aged wine.
Zhao Bing saw Huang Ling walk in and immediately put on a stern face. "Xiao Huang, what is the meaning of this?"
This was the first time Huang Ling had heard Zhao Bing address her in such a manner, and for a moment she was caught off guard. But she quickly reported truthfully: "Originally, I negotiated with the tour guide, and they said they would leave by ten at the latest, but in the end, they kept delaying until twelve before they left. I had arranged for everyone to clean the other floors first, and then after the guests on the thirteenth floor left, we would clean the thirteenth floor all at once. But there was only an hour's time, and after checking according to the standards you previously set, it took some extra time before we could hand over the rooms."
"What standards?" Lu Mingzhi asked.
Huang Ling opened her tablet and handed it over: "After Manager Zhao returned from his transfer, he felt that our housekeeping department's cleaning wasn't meticulous enough, so he formulated this deduction standards sheet. During this period, we've all been cleaning according to these standards."
Zhao Bing let out a long sigh, then shook his head with some disappointment: "Xiao Huang, you were headhunted by Young Master Lu from the UK. I know he has always thought highly of you. At my age, I don't have many years left in this position, and I genuinely wanted to nurture you. You're still young—how can you not know how to adapt? The reason nothing went wrong before is that there weren't large-scale simultaneous check-outs. Now with such a large-scale concentrated check-out, do you think these standards can still be maintained? I created these standards mainly to train them with high demands on a regular basis. Once they develop the habit, wouldn't the standards naturally rise? And Xiao Huang, we received the reservation information last week. After the morning meeting, I called you to my office and told you today would be a severe test. Did I say those words or not? If you say I didn't, I can call Lu Ming in here—he heard everything."
Huang Ling knew Zhao Bing was difficult to deal with, but clearly she was still too young and had never imagined he would be this shameless.
"I did ask you whether we could lower the standards." As she finished speaking, Huang Ling caught a flash of excitement that passed over Zhao Bing's face.
But that excitement was quickly hidden away by Zhao Bing: "Xiao Huang, as a leader, how could I explicitly say something like 'you can lower the standards'? Ah, it's my fault too. Chairman, I bear some responsibility for today's situation. Like Young Master Lu, I think very highly of our deputy manager—I just may have chosen the wrong timing and approach for her. Please give her another chance, Chairman. She really is outstanding and excellent."
Huang Ling remained standing in place, her fingernails digging deep into her palms. It was just like in elementary school when her deskmate insisted on talking to her, and even though she had stayed completely quiet the whole time, the teacher punished her by making her stand at the back of the classroom along with him.
If she had privately relaxed the standards for inspection and gotten complaints, Zhao Bing would have caught her by the tail anyway. So she simply followed Zhao Bing's requirements to the letter—she just hadn't expected Zhao Bing to be so skilled at sophistry.
"I don't care about what happened before. I'm only asking how you're handling it now?" Lu Mingzhi looked at the old and young pair before him. He wasn't interested in their words; he only wanted a result.
Huang Ling took a deep breath: "All the guest rooms have been cleaned. When I came over, the front desk was already processing check-ins one by one. I've already had someone communicate with the tour group leader—their reassurance is more effective than ours."
Upon hearing this, Lu Mingzhi tossed the tablet onto the table. To him, who was right and who was wrong didn't matter; he only cared about the outcome. Did they take him for a fool? This kind of internal infighting existed everywhere in the group. He was the boss, not a judge—he only cared about who could handle the situation and resolve the crisis.
But he still left a warning: "I don't want this kind of thing to happen again."
When Huang Ling left the office, she still hadn't fully recovered. She was still too inexperienced in front of that old fox Zhao Bing.
Exhausted in both body and mind, she collapsed into her chair at her workstation. Noticing the glances cast in her direction, Huang Ling didn't want to acknowledge them. But her complete lack of emotion only made Luo Shuang more worried.
Luo Shuang was afraid that asking directly while colleagues were watching would embarrass Huang Ling even more, so she could only bombard her with concerned messages on WeChat.
Over a dozen rapid-fire messages were sent, and it took Huang Ling a while before she faintly replied with two words: "I'm fine."
Work doesn't pause because of one person's emotions. Huang Ling was just as busy in the afternoon—so busy she didn't even have time to process her failed experience.
It wasn't until just before the end of her shift that the phone in her pocket rang.
Seeing the caller ID read "Mom," all of Huang Ling's negative emotions surged out at once. She quickly walked into the linen room, closed the door behind her, and leaned her back against it, taking a deep breath before answering the call.
"Hey, sweetie, are you busy?"
"Not really."
But just from hearing those two words over the phone, Huang Yue immediately sensed something was wrong.
"Why do you sound unhappy?"
Along with Huang Yue's concerned words came the sting in Huang Ling's nose. The next second, tears fell like pearls from a broken string. Her legs lost the strength to hold her up, and she slowly slid down against the door, crouching: "I'm so furious."
She choked up as she recounted what had happened to Huang Yue. She hadn't felt quite so wronged before, but the moment her mother showed concern, she couldn't hold back her emotions.
On the other end of the line, Huang Yue listened patiently to Huang Ling's tearful account. Huang Ling had always been an independent child since she was young—even when she underperformed on the college entrance exam, she had accepted reality in a remarkably short time and then rearranged the path she wanted to take in life. Hearing her cry like this, Huang Yue couldn't remember the last time it had happened.
No matter how independent and strong she was, to Huang Yue she was still just a twenty-six-year-old child.
"You handled it very well. It was excellent of you to think of arranging for the team leader to negotiate," Huang Yue comforted her. "As long as they didn't fire you, nothing else matters."
After crying to her mother, Huang Ling had already recovered quite a bit. She hooked her fingers onto the shelf beside her and hummed twice in acknowledgment.
"Mom, what did you want to see me about?"
Huang Yue had a key overseas client who, after finishing business talks in Hangzhou, had three extra days to spend touring Xunchuan. Although Huang Yue wouldn't be accompanying them, she still wanted to play host and solidify the partnership.
"No need for freebies or special treatment—just treat them like regular check-in guests."
After hanging up, Huang Yue sent the client's information to Huang Ling. Huang Ling's makeup was already smudged from crying, and she didn't want to deal with the front desk staff, so she had to trouble Luo Shuang to run the errand for her.
Once you get busy, bad luck tends to follow.
The printer ran out of ink halfway through printing the documents. When Liang Wenpei tried to replace the toner cartridge, he accidentally got covered in toner powder, and his limited-edition t-shirt was declared a total loss.
After washing his hands and returning to his desk, Song Mingyue's call came in.
Heaven wasn't giving him even a second of rest.
"Hello, is this Attorney Liang?"
Liang Wenpei hummed in acknowledgment, too exhausted to bother with pleasantries. "What's the matter?"
Song Mingyue: "I have a performance on Saturday, but Old Tang might come over, and he wants to send flowers. What should I do? Also, some mutual friends of ours are planning to come—will that affect the second-instance verdict?"
Hearing her speak with such crisis awareness, Liang Wenpei suddenly felt the relief of a proud father. This was far more endearing than the plaintiff who, during her divorce proceedings, declared "I love you" right in front of the judge.
With a client like this, even repeating the same warnings didn't feel so irritating.
Liang Wenpei instructed: "It will have an impact. You must refuse—keep your distance throughout. Especially in front of your mutual friends, or else he might later use those friends as witnesses."
Song Mingyue kept humming in acknowledgment to show she understood: "I also had a friend relay a message via text telling him not to come and not to send flowers. How about I send you the chat log so you can check if the wording is okay?"
After the call ended, Song Mingyue sent over the chat log with her friend. Liang Wenpei reviewed it, found no issues, and typed "ok" to reply.
But just before he pressed send, Song Mingyue sent another message.
【Song Mingyue】: I know what happened before must have caused you a lot of trouble. If you're willing to forgive me, and if you're free on Saturday, you're welcome to come watch our performance.
And so, that "OK" seemed to confirm that he would be attending the performance.
Liang Wenpei was typing to clarify when, not far away, his senior colleague let out a despairing cry to the heavens.
Everyone in the office instinctively looked over, only to see the senior colleague clutching his hair, his expression as he held the phone suggesting the person on the other end was recounting some wild piece of Cao Cao trivia.
"…You're saying your uncle stole the courthouse's computer yesterday when he went to testify as a character witness?"
For a moment, everyone unanimously paused their work. The senior female colleague, being closest, walked over and pressed the speakerphone button for him.
By the time the commotion was over, Liang Wenpei had already missed the perfect window to decline.
Forget it—he'd just send a bouquet of flowers on Saturday.
After organizing the case files in his hands, Liang Wenpei finally left work.
Pei Wenliang had been sprawled on the sofa, but the moment he heard the door open, he scrambled up: "Big news—transfer me three hundred yuan for emergencies, and I'll tell you."
"Your big brother here sold his curiosity on the organ black market since childhood," Liang Wenpei said as he walked into the kitchen to pour himself some water.
Liang Wenpei wasn't flustered at all: "It has something to do with Sister Huang Ling."
The person opening the fridge paused mid-motion: "What happened to her?"
Pei Wenliang blinked and teased: "I thought you didn't have any curiosity?"
"Never mind whether I have curiosity or not—either way, you're not getting any spending money anytime soon." Liang Wenpei shrugged, even haggling: "Two hundred."
"It's three hundred."
"One-fifty."
Pei Wenliang didn't dare bargain further, afraid that if he delayed even a second, he'd end up paying out of his own pocket instead: "Sister got herself into trouble today."
She worked in the administrative department, and since they were in different buildings, she'd only heard about it secondhand. She relayed everything she'd heard to Liang Wenpei in full detail.
Huang Ling had thought she was excellent at managing her emotions, but when she woke up the next morning, she found herself exceptionally averse to going to work.
Friday was agonizing for her. She was distracted the entire day.
Originally, she hadn't planned to watch Song Mingyue's performance, but now she felt she needed a distraction.
On Saturday, before heading out, she took a shower, curled her hair, and put on makeup.
She picked out the new light blue plaid dress with the asymmetrical straps she'd bought—it wasn't long, ending about a dozen centimeters above her knees, showing off her slender, straight legs.
Xunchuan Grand Theater wasn't very close to where she lived, so Huang Ling first took a taxi to the flower shop to pick up the bouquet she'd ordered in advance.
After getting the flowers, she headed to the theater, arriving just a few minutes before the show started.
The seats were about eighty percent full. Song Mingyue had arranged a great spot for Huang Ling. Just as she found her seat, the lights around her dimmed. The seat next to Huang Ling was empty, so she placed the flowers on it.
The performance began with a deep crimson curtain. This was Huang Ling's first time watching this kind of stage play. When Song Mingyue appeared, she was wearing a white gauze dress with slightly curled black hair. During a male-female duet, Song Mingyue's radiant, spirited expression was something Huang Ling had never seen on her face before.
The more she watched, the more absorbed she became. The male actors in the play even had two outfits where they went shirtless, and Huang Ling completely forgot all her worries.
She didn't notice at all that at the entrance, someone was watching her through the crowd.
Back in college, Huang Ling had also dressed up, but her style leaned casual and comfortable—mostly hoodies and jeans, with dresses worn only occasionally.
Today, to match the color of her dress, she'd even applied eyeshadow with a hint of blue. Such an unusual color, yet somehow it looked beautiful on her.
Her smile grew brighter and brighter with the movements of the male dancers on stage, showing no trace of the sadness her sister had mentioned about her getting into trouble. There was only the helplessness of someone who knew deeply that they lived in a society governed by law, where harassing others would result in a prison sentence.
Liang Wenpei had just arrived. He'd originally planned to drop off flowers and leave, but then he spotted Huang Ling.
He gritted his teeth and let out a light laugh. She was really something—her eyes hadn't blinked even once for over a minute.