During the plum rain season in Xunchuan, the air humidity shot straight up to ninety-five percent.
Every night, the blanket felt damp with moisture, and on the weather app, rain icons filled the entire ten-day forecast.
Xunchuan was a small southern town. The rainy season would normally be a deterrent for travel, but the poetic misty rain of the south had attracted a large crowd of tourists.
Combined with an entire floor booked out by one company, the hotel's occupancy rate had climbed to ninety percent.
Every department in the hotel was run off their feet.
By the time she saw Liang Wenpei again, the plum rain season in Xunchuan had already ended.
Huang Ling was still craving that cold noodle dish. After finishing her night shift, she went to get some the next day after work.
She hadn't slept well the night before—perhaps it was because of that milk tea.
The barricades on the street still hadn't been taken down. They'd been building the subway before she went abroad, and word was they'd dug up an ancient tomb that was still under archaeological excavation.
Huang Ling got off the bus, looking alert on the outside but feeling tired on the inside.
She yawned as she walked toward the cold noodle shop. Though she was off work, her phone kept buzzing with a mountain of things demanding her attention.
"Manager Huang, the front desk accidentally sold a room that's already occupied."
"Manager Huang, the door stopper in room 3121's bathroom is broken, and Engineering says it's not their department."
Huang Ling felt her head spinning. She ordered her food, sat down, and kept replying to work messages without pause.
"Is Manager Sun at work today? Have Manager Sun take the guests to the lobby first and offer them some fruit and drinks. The shift lead today is Luo Shuang—have Luo Shuang check the actual status of that room immediately. If it's a dirty room that hasn't been cleaned yet, send housekeeping and the room attendant to clean it together. Have Luo Shuang keep an eye on it the whole time to avoid a second mistake."
"Hello, is this Engineer Lin? A door stopper is a hardware fitting. If it's broken, that's an installation structure issue—how is that not within Engineering's scope? Fine, I'll call General Manager Lu and let him settle this."
She hadn't rested well the night before. She was exhausted, her whole body aching, but somehow she couldn't feel sleepy.
Huang Ling closed her eyes and pressed her fingers against her sore temples. She heard the sound of a chair being dragged, and then the scent of black cedarwood drifted into her nose.
She opened her eyes, and Liang Wenpei caught her gaze unexpectedly.
"What are you doing here?"
"Eating, obviously. What, did you think I came here to watch a movie?" Liang Wenpei said, noticing the bloodshot veins in her eyes. "Pretty busy, huh? Still handling work while you eat."
He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and athletic pants—clearly not dressed for work.
Huang Ling: "Not everyone's as carefree as you. You're not working today?"
"Must be nice being a manager—regular workers don't even get weekends off anymore." Liang Wenpei's mouth twitched, but when the counter called out a number, he got up and fetched Huang Ling's food for her.
Working at the hotel meant one day on, two days off. Huang Ling occasionally had to work overtime or cover shifts, so she'd long since lost any concept of weekends.
He sat across from her, watching her expressionlessly bite into a burger with vacant eyes. After a mouthful of cold noodles, she chewed mechanically, her mind completely blank.
"What's wrong?" Liang Wenpei remembered seeing her smile happily when he'd visited her hotel last time. "Did you screw up big at work?"
She hadn't slept well the night before, and her energy was limited. For Huang Ling, barely maintaining human form was already a stretch—even shifting her gaze felt exhausting. But despite looking like she'd achieved total enlightenment, she remained stubborn: "Sorry to disappoint, but after all these years on the job, my work record is flawless."
Liang Wenpei reminded her: "Oh? I wonder who, during her winter break junior year, working at the Lyujing Hotel, gave a guest a replacement room card—only for that 'guest' to not be a guest at all, but someone there to catch their spouse cheating. And I wonder who got scolded by the manager and called me crying, saying she didn't want to do it anymore, that it was thankless work, and that she wanted to rent a shared bike and run over both the cheating bastard and the manager."
Huang Ling glared at him.
She wasn't actually someone who couldn't handle hardship. That time, aside from work, some other things had happened too, and it all piled up before she finally broke down crying.
But she was stubborn to the end: "It was a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny mistake at work, but it was a huge, huge, huge, huge step toward helping someone see the truth about their marriage."
Liang Wenpei nodded, but the look on his face was dripping with sarcasm: "Then you really did have the makings of a manager from the very start."
Huang Ling didn't want to argue with him about her embarrassing past.
Seeing him reminded her of Song Mingyue, and also of the secret Song Mingyue had asked her to keep. She asked about Song Mingyue's divorce case: "By the way, can Ms. Song get her divorce?"
Liang Wenpei remembered being mistaken for Song Mingyue's lover last time. Now that she was bringing Song Mingyue up again, he grew more cautious: "Why are you suddenly so interested in her?"
"Ms. Song is still staying at our hotel, so you see—I'm a very dedicated hotel employee." Huang Ling said it without even realizing how quickly her sleep-deprived brain had managed to tie the answer back to their earlier conversation.
"Hmph." Liang Wenpei let out a light snort. He seemed to have turned back into the same prickly Liang Wenpei she'd run into at the cold noodle shop last time.
The last time they met, Huang Ling had inexplicably borne the brunt of his inexplicable anger. This time, she wasn't going to indulge him. "What exactly is wrong with you? Getting angry at the drop of a hat. If being around me makes you feel so bad, then just avoid me."
After she spoke, the man across from her rose and fell with deep breaths, as if struggling to control his emotions.
But the next second, Liang Wenpei's emotions were like a roller coaster that had lost its brakes.
"Last time we met, you were worried about Song Mingyue's health. This time we meet, you're worried about her case. I'd like you to worry about me too—we haven't seen each other in three years. Why haven't you asked how I've been all this time? Do I have to book a room at your hotel just to get a single word of concern from you?" Liang Wenpei poured out his grievances in a long stream, but as soon as he finished, he realized this was admitting defeat after a breakup. He immediately tried to awkwardly cover it up. "You're the one who said we're good friends. I just feel like you don't treat me like a friend. It's not like I want to get back together."
Even he didn't believe his own words. Guiltily, he didn't dare look at Huang Ling, but when he heard no response for a long time, he finally stole a cautious glance at her.
Huang Ling frowned, silent for a long moment before speaking. "You passed the bar exam and drive a Porsche. Do I even need to ask if you're doing well? Anyone can see you're living the good life."
Seeing that she seemed completely oblivious to the real meaning behind his words, Liang Wenpei closed his eyes in resignation. After a long sigh, he lifted his chin slightly. "Let's keep eating."
His phone buzzed twice in his pocket. After replying to the message, he finally addressed the question Huang Ling had asked earlier.
"Song Mingyue's husband won't agree to the divorce. In cases where one party refuses, the first trial usually won't grant the divorce. If the second trial still doesn't grant it, then it's up to Song Mingyue. If she's determined to divorce, it's best to separate for a full year first, then file for divorce again."
"That's so complicated." Huang Ling knew divorce was difficult, but she hadn't expected it to be this tedious.
"Just earning a pitiful fee." Liang Wenpei sighed.
Before they had gotten together, Huang Ling had heard that his family was wealthy. His father had been an ordinary high school teacher, but his mother had started her own business, opening the city's best postpartum care center with dozens of branches across the country.
Huang Ling couldn't stand rich people playing the victim. She gave a fake smile. "Oh, you poor thing. If you ever can't make it in the legal world, I'll definitely give you a few free cardboard boxes so you can live comfortably under a bridge. After all, we're good friends."
Liang Wenpei didn't get angry.
Seeing that Huang Ling had finished eating, he stood up as well. "Want me to walk you out?"
The weather didn't look great—it could rain at any moment. Huang Ling hadn't slept well last night and was exhausted. And as the saying goes, why pass up a free ride?
At the basketball court, Wen Hanchi, who had just returned from buying drinks, looked around and handed over the shopping bag full of water.
"Where's Old Liang?"
The other man chugged half a bottle of water before answering. "Said he was going to eat before he left."
"How many stomachs does he have? He just ate before we came out." Wen Hanchi was puzzled.
The next day, Huang Ling had a day shift.
When she arrived at the hotel in the morning, she didn't look too well-rested. Straightening her uniform as she passed the front desk, she spotted Sun Qi and gave her a nod, calling her "Manager Sun." But Sun Qi let out a light snort, rolled her eyes, and didn't respond.
Such blatant hostility made Huang Ling want to snap back, but with customers around, she had no choice but to swallow it.
Back in housekeeping, Huang Ling asked about what had happened at the hotel the day before.
Xiao Li from housekeeping finally told her: "Yesterday, the front desk mistakenly sold an occupied room. You asked Manager Sun to go escort the guest out of the room, and the guest ended up cursing her out."
So that's why she got the eye roll.
"They should've checked the actual room status instead of just looking at the system. Whatever, let her be." Huang Ling said as she opened the office door.
Xiao Li suddenly remembered something and opened her mouth to warn her, but Huang Ling had already seen the person occupying her office, fast asleep.
The man in his suit looked rather uncomfortable squeezed onto the 1.6-meter sofa.
Most of his calves hung off the edge, the hotel blanket half on the floor, half pinned beneath him.
His arm was pressed over his eyes, leaving only the lower half of his face visible. She'd heard that his grandmother had been a Miss Hong Kong, and his father was a womanizer who chose wives by looks—by the time looks passed down to his generation, he'd surpassed them all.
"Mr. Lu arrived at the hotel around four in the morning." Xiao Li reported in a low voice.
Huang Ling nodded. "Got it."
Xiao Li took the hint and left. Huang Ling was about to close the door, but thought better of it and left it open to avoid any gossip.
Ignoring the man sleeping on the sofa, Huang Ling went about her usual morning routine. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the man slowly sit up from the sofa, his expensive tailored suit covered in wrinkles.
He walked over to Huang Ling's desk with complete familiarity, picked up the phone on her desk with his slender, well-defined fingers, and said: "Send some toiletries up to the housekeeping manager's office."
Huang Ling raised her eyes to glance at him, then continued focusing on the day's priorities.
Seeing that Huang Ling wasn't acknowledging him, Lu Yunli pulled out the chair across from her and sat down, half-sprawling over the table: "My whole body hurts, I'm exhausted."
"There's a guest room you could've slept in, but you chose the sofa." Huang Ling said irritably. "Serves you right."
Lu Yunli continued: "I sat on a plane for eleven hours flying back to Xunchuan from Melbourne."
"You're complaining about fatigue in a first-class seat?" Huang Ling shot him a look and said sarcastically, "Oh yes, oh yes, so hard for you."
The man across from her received a face full of attitude, but smiled contentedly: "What about you? You seem to be in a bad mood this morning."
"Working a job where you cater to people all day—I'd have to be crazy to be smiling." Huang Ling shut down her computer, preparing to head to the pre-shift meeting soon.
Lu Yunli chuckled: "What did Sun Qi do to piss you off?"
So he'd been pretending to sleep earlier.
Huang Ling opened her mouth to report the staff error from yesterday as it happened, but the words died on her lips. She changed tack and asked instead: "If I tell you, does that count as tattling?"
Lu Yunli shook his head, then the corner of his mouth curled up: "Given the rumors circulating about us in the hotel, people probably wouldn't call it tattling—they'd call it pillow talk."
Huang Ling curled her lip: "Forget it then, I'll handle it myself. Don't come blaming me later when you can't win over Miss Meng."
Lu Yunli's smile faltered, the amusement in his eyes dimming considerably. It took him a moment before he spoke seriously: "Zhao Bing will be back soon. You do your job well—once Zhao Bing falls and the general manager retires, that position is yours. Then it's regional director, then group executive. The road ahead is too bright, my good comrade-in-arms."
"The general manager is your uncle, the regional director is in his prime, and every group executive is one of your father's relatives. You think the road ahead is bright, but if you went to the hospital you'd find it's keratitis with dilated pupils." Huang Ling said through gritted teeth. "My good comrade-in-arms."
As she spoke, the toiletries he'd ordered arrived. Lu Yunli stood up and handed his suit jacket to the delivery person, asking them to take it for dry cleaning and pressing.
Lu Yunli tore open his toiletries as he headed toward the bathroom: "Well, you still have me, don't you?"