Luo Shuang cursed until she was tired, then took a brief nap on the sofa in Huang Ling's office.
But after being woken up by a barrage of calls from the Front Office and Engineering Department, she gave up on the idea of a lunch break altogether.
Luo Shuang woke up with a dry mouth and, with practiced ease, grabbed an orange from Huang Ling's desk: "What's going on?"
"Next Monday, a company is booking an entire floor, and six of the rooms need extra beds." Huang Ling was jotting notes in her notebook. "Engineering reported that the bathtub from last night's repair request has been re-glazed."
Listening to these work matters, Luo Shuang was already feeling the fatigue set in: "Being a manager really isn't easy."
"Can't help it—ease and comfort are reserved for the dead and the rich second generation." Huang Ling teased.
Luo Shuang hadn't fully recovered from her nap. She flopped back onto the sofa, her unfocused eyes staring blankly at the ceiling as she let her mind go empty.
Huang Ling was writing down the key points for tomorrow's meeting when she suddenly heard Luo Shuang's question, as if a lightbulb had gone off.
"You think if Manager Zhao comes back, things will get easier for you?"
Zhao Bing?
Huang Ling's writing hand paused. She curled her lips in a self-deprecating smile, thinking to herself that she'd probably be even busier then—not only dealing with work but also playing mind games with people.
The afternoon wasn't particularly busy, but there were too many trivial matters.
After dinner, Huang Ling told Luo Shuang not to wait for her and to head home first. The dehumidifier boxes and anti-mold agents she'd ordered last week had arrived. After signing for the delivery, she went upstairs to check on the progress of the room repairs.
As soon as she walked in, Huang Ling caught a faint smell of cigarette smoke. She turned her head and, sure enough, there was a cigarette butt floating in the toilet. She had no idea how he'd managed to avoid triggering the smoke alarm.
Lin Hui, the repairman in charge, followed Huang Ling's gaze and saw the cigarette butt he'd tossed in and forgotten to flush. He let out an awkward chuckle: "I rarely smoke—I was mainly waiting for you. You took too long. The glaze has been reapplied now, and we'll start firing it shortly."
He was quick to shift the blame. Huang Ling didn't make a scene on the spot, only reminding him: "Don't do that again next time."
After leaving, she headed downstairs. There was already a linen cart in the elevator. The housekeeper shuffled further in to make room for Huang Ling.
"Manager Huang, you're still here?"
Out of social courtesy, the housekeeper had dropped the "Deputy" from her title—promoting her, in a way.
Huang Ling nodded: "The bathtub in the room upstairs is broken, so I went to check on it. The rainy season is about to start in a few days. Auntie, please pay extra attention when you're cleaning."
"Got it."
Soon, the housekeeper's floor arrived.
Huang Ling stepped aside and held the elevator door open with her hand to let the housekeeper out. The linen cart's wheels were having trouble getting over the gap between the elevator and the carpet, so Huang Ling stepped out and gave it a tug from outside to help pull it free.
"Is this linen cart always this hard to push?"
The housekeeper shook her head: "Only on the twentieth and twenty-sixth floors. Thank you, Manager Huang."
"No problem."
After the elevator doors closed, Huang Ling crouched down and pressed on the seam between the carpet and the elevator, already formulating a solution in her mind.
The elevator was still on the twenty-sixth floor. Huang Ling pressed the down button. As the doors slid open, a guest room door not far away also opened.
She had already started stepping into the elevator, but her body had been trained by work into instinctive reactions. She turned around, ready to greet the guest, and looked up—only to see something she shouldn't have.
Liang Wenpei walked out of room 2608 with a dark expression, followed by Song Mingyue in a sexy nightgown.
Huang Ling froze for a moment, but quickly lowered her gaze and gave a slight bow.
See no evil.
Her mind raced like a high-speed machine, searching through everything she'd learned for the best way to handle this situation. She tried to calm herself down, to keep the guest from feeling embarrassed at a moment like this, but once she composed herself, she realized her heart was pounding faster and her chest felt tight.
She didn't know if it was from the tension.
"Lawyer Liang!"
The man whose name was called walked past Huang Ling in a hurry, stepped into the elevator, carrying a faint scent of black cedar.
"Getting in or not?"
The man in the elevator had a terrifying look on his face. Huang Ling was standing right at the elevator entrance, blocking the doors from closing.
She needed to go downstairs anyway. After a moment's thought, she stepped back two paces and entered the elevator.
The elevator descended, the only sound being the whisper of the steel cables on their tracks.
The two of them stood at opposite corners of the elevator. Liang Wenpei leaned against the elevator car, his gaze lowered at the figure not far ahead. She wore her hair in a low bun, pearl earrings dangling from her earlobes, dressed in the hotel's dark gray uniform. His eyes traced the cut of the suit, gliding down past the straight calves beneath the pencil skirt to a pair of black high heels.
Liang Wenpei swallowed. It was a while before he spoke: "Still not off work?"
Hearing his voice, Huang Ling glanced back at him before turning to face the doors again: "You're pretty busy too."
Busy with lawyer work during the day, and still "clocking in" at night.
But she only dared to think that. She blinked, pretending she was just making polite small talk.
Liang Wenpei frowned, feeling that her words were off, but he couldn't quite pinpoint what was wrong. "When do you get off work?"
"Soon." Huang Ling went back to her office to grab her bag and leave.
As she spoke, the elevator arrived at Huang Ling's office floor. She stepped out, and before she had taken two steps, she felt someone following behind her.
Huang Ling turned around to look at Liang Wenpei. "What are you doing?"
Liang Wenpei lied through his teeth. "I'm lost."
Only a ghost would believe that.
Huang Ling stopped in her tracks. Liang Wenpei was 185 centimeters tall, while Huang Ling was barely over 160. Even in high heels now, she had to look up at him. "Should I call your parents to come pick you up? Or you can go back the way you came and find Miss Song. But if you're staying overnight, remember to register at the front desk."
Hearing the latter half of Huang Ling's words, Liang Wenpei's expression turned extremely sour. "Did you eat too much black pudding and go stupid?"
The moment he said it, Huang Ling felt like she was back in college when he was explaining advanced math to her before finals.
Before Huang Ling could react, he turned and walked back into the elevator, his tone cold, sounding both angry and brooking no refusal. "Waiting for you in the parking lot."
After all, it was a top-tier hotel, and the parking lot remained brightly lit after nightfall, unlike those of other hotels.
The black Porsche was somewhat eye-catching—the sleek lines of a top-tier sports car didn't quite match the steady, reliable professional image of a lawyer.
Huang Ling opened the car door and got in. Her foot bumped into a box, and looking down, she saw it was a delivery box full of eggs.
"These eggs look pretty good." Huang Ling bent down and tucked the box further inside to keep from kicking it.
"Yeah, they seem to be from free-range chickens in the countryside." Liang Wenpei started the car.
Huang Ling glanced at Liang Wenpei with slight surprise. "You know your food."
Liang Wenpei said, "An elderly couple couldn't afford the legal fees, so they gave me some eggs."
Having dated him for several years before, Huang Ling knew his character well. Back in school, he had thrived in his circle because he was generous and loyal.
He was a decent person.
But then again, that didn't mean he could wreck someone else's marriage.
Could it be that Miss Song's husband wasn't good enough?
Liang Wenpei caught a glimpse of Huang Ling lost in thought from the corner of his eye. A bad feeling crept over him—he always felt she was starting to think about all sorts of nonsense. His tone was warning. "You'd better be thinking of words of praise for me."
Huang Ling felt a momentary pang of guilt, but immediately shot back with bravado. "What? Want me to send you a banner?"
—Though a mistress, she's beautiful and kind-hearted.
"Really going for friendship that lasts forever?" Liang Wenpei let out a light laugh.
"Forget it." Huang Ling waved her hand. If she actually sent one, Liang Wenpei would definitely sue her.
Liang Wenpei didn't say anything more.
Luo Shuang and Huang Ling's place wasn't far from the hotel, and the roads weren't too congested at this hour. The car that could go from zero to a hundred in 2.5 seconds was currently traveling at a speed that barely edged out an electric scooter.
But as long as it was moving forward, she would eventually reach her destination.
The moon mingled with the streetlights. The residential complex was brightly lit, with people cooling off in small clusters, waving palm-leaf fans. Huang Ling unbuckled her seatbelt, ready to get out. The moment she moved, Liang Wenpei spoke.
"Do you plan to keep living with Luo Shuang forever? What if Luo Shuang and Wen Hanchi get back together—what will you do then?"
"Do you think they'll get back together?" Huang Ling countered.
Liang Wenpei tossed the question back at her. "They won't?"
He stared at her, his gaze serious, as if the question wasn't about Wen Hanchi and Luo Shuang at all.
Huang Ling had never asked Luo Shuang. His stare made her feel a tingling unease, and she shook her head. "I don't know."
A broken mirror mended is just repeating the same mistake.
Huang Ling thought about it but didn't say the words out loud. When she spoke again, she simply said, "Goodbye."
Watching her walk into the building entrance, Liang Wenpei sat quietly in the car. Moths and midges fluttered in the headlights until the sudden ring of his phone inside the car pulled him from his focused state.
Glancing at the caller ID, Liang Wenpei couldn't be bothered to answer.
After driving out of the complex, he didn't go straight home either. Instead, he took the ramp onto the elevated highway and drove all the way to the law firm.
The lights were on at the firm, and from inside came the occasional bark of a dog.
Wen Hanchi was eating a five-yuan bowl of instant noodles, while Dashun was eating dog food that cost two hundred yuan a catty.
Hearing footsteps, Wen Hanchi looked up and was somewhat surprised to see Liang Wenpei. "Why are you back?"
Then Wen Hanchi remembered who Liang Wenpei had said he was going to see before leaving work, and he smiled with ill intent. "Face so dark—what? Did Song Mingyue trick you over again and try to force herself on you?"
There was no shortage of troublesome things.
Liang Wenpei casually tossed his car keys onto the desk and collapsed into a chair, looking utterly exhausted. He lowered his gaze to the dog on the floor. "Doesn't the professor scold you?"
Wen Hanchi took a sip of the noodle soup. "I asked Chu Ying. She said it's fine."
Liang Wenpei and Wen Hanchi had shared the same professor during their graduate studies, and they'd always come to the professor's law firm during grad school to work as free labor.
The professor's surname was Chu, and he had a daughter named Chu Ying.
A daughter born late in life, doted on endlessly.
Just as they were talking about Chu Ying, she walked in from outside carrying a dog bowl. She had gone to the water dispenser in her father's office and poured a bowl of mineral water.
The person carefully holding the bowl spotted Liang Wenpei in the office, her eyes lighting up. She pulled out a smile and greeted, "Hello, Senior Brother."
"Thanks, thanks." Wen Hanchi took the dog bowl and placed it in front of Dashun.
"Senior Brother Liang, why are you back?"
Wen Hanchi teased him, "To see Song Mingyue—of course he'd come crawling back as fast as he could."
Song Mingyue's reputation had long since spread throughout the legal circle. No man who took on her case had escaped her clutches—she'd offer money and a night in bed, and when rejected, she'd suggest they could start with something casual first. Everyone had slogged through the bar exam; who would dare gamble with their license?
Liang Wenpei only found out after he'd already boarded the pirate ship.
He was just about to unilaterally terminate his attorney-client relationship with her when he ran into her attempting suicide at a hotel.
As luck would have it, it was the very hotel where Huang Ling worked.
After seeing her, he dropped the idea of ending his engagement with Song Mingyue. At least… it gave him a reason to go see her.
Chu Ying looked serious, with a hint of indignation: "Senior Brother Liang, next time you go, I'm coming with you."