Huang Ling met Lu Yunli in her second year in England.
Her coursework was nearly finished by then, and she had already received an internship offer from a hotel.
Lu Yunli happened to be staying at that very hotel.
The head waiter told her that a Chinese man had just checked into the penthouse—he was in a bad mood and had been losing his temper lately, so she should be careful around him.
At that time, Lu Yunli had just gone through a breakup—or more precisely, he had lost a close brother.
The girl he liked had gotten together with his closest friend, and on top of that, his parents were in the middle of divorce negotiations. Lu Yunli had gotten dead drunk at the hotel and cursed out several staff members.
Huang Ling spoke to Lu Yunli for the first time three days after he checked in. He said he wanted to see the aurora.
As a top luxury hotel—the kind that, if a guest came back empty-handed from fishing, would arrange for divers to swim down and hook fish onto his line just to keep him happy—they naturally had to accommodate Lu Yunli's request.
It was May at the time, and no cities near the Arctic Circle had auroras.
After thinking it over, Huang Ling suggested hiring a top-tier light and shadow team to simulate an aurora in his room.
The plan was approved, but the guest who watched the aurora that morning said in the afternoon that the floor number of his floor didn't match his energy field, and he wanted to stay on a floor with his lucky number.
Huang Ling had just heard that morning that a colleague had prepared a drink called "Butterfly Milk" for a guest, and she figured that no matter how eccentric Lu Yunli was, he couldn't be that much worse.
"May I ask what your lucky number is?"
"98."
Their hotel only had six floors.
Lu Yunli, wearing a bathrobe, leaned against the doorframe. "Is that not possible?"
"Of course it's possible." Huang Ling gave a faint smile and, half an hour later, had custom-made door plates and replaced the number plates for the entire floor.
That evening, Lu Yunli had another request.
He said his pet was depressed.
Huang Ling had long since memorized all the information of every checked-in guest, and she didn't recall Lu Yunli bringing a pet this time.
He then pointed to a mosquito trapped under a glass cup.
"Could you find a pet psychologist for it?"
Huang Ling closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She felt she could post a thread on a domestic social media app titled "I've Started Collecting Entries for the Eccentric Guest Encyclopedia—Come Try It Yourself."
But she still laughed out loud. At that moment, Huang Ling didn't know whether she was laughing because she was too exasperated to be angry, or because her professional composure had reached a level of mastery beyond comprehension.
Huang Ling smiled perfectly. "Please wait a moment."
The next day, Huang Ling skipped straight through her internship and became the private butler for his suite.
Lu Yunli stayed at the hotel for two months before leaving.
By the time he left, it was already early July.
Over those two months, his eccentric requests remained plentiful. For instance, he thought the sound of the faucet running was unpleasant, so Huang Ling had someone adjust the water flow rate.
He said he wanted to sit in the elevator, so Huang Ling had a sofa placed inside it.
He said he didn't like waking up to find it was already noon, so Huang Ling adjusted the clocks in his room to match his biological rhythm.
His mood at the hotel improved steadily, but Huang Ling grew increasingly haggard from dealing with him. Finally, on the day he left, Huang Ling's eyes welled up with tears.
He gave Huang Ling a gift—a diamond pendant necklace—as compensation for her mental suffering.
"Can you just give me cash instead?"
"No." He helped her put it on, and seeing the tears in her eyes, he reached out and hugged her, patting her back gently. "So reluctant to see me go."
Huang Ling sniffled. "Fine, no cash then. But you're finally leaving—great, I'm free."
Lu Yunli laughed in exasperation. He said he could tell Huang Ling was talented, and since his family's business included hotels, once he inherited his billions, he'd come back to poach her.
Ignoring his empty promises, Huang Ling couldn't wait to open the door of the concierge car arranged to take him to the airport and push him inside. "Hurry up and go."
After that, he came back to stay at the hotel every year, and each time he specifically requested Huang Ling as his private butler.
He brought her gifts and let her slack off and rest in his suite.
The two gradually grew close like friends. He would take her to see the London Derby during her shifts and to the Cantonese restaurant he claimed was better than many places back in Guangdong.
Until the girl he liked broke up with her boyfriend and moved to Australia. He said this was his last visit, and he asked Huang Ling if she wanted to return to China to develop her career.
He had shed the playful, tormenting demeanor he'd always had on previous visits.
"You handled all my ridiculous requests—you're an exceptionally talented hospitality professional. Come work at my family's hotel. Don't worry about salary, benefits, or promotion opportunities—they'll definitely be better than here." Lu Yunli spoke seriously. "All you have to do is work. I'll always have your back."
By then, Huang Ling had been in England for four years.
She, too, had begun to think about going home.
The hotel group under Lu Yunli's family operated a multi-brand matrix.
Jingyu Hotel was the hotel that nearly got taken by his mother in the divorce settlement back then. His father refused to let it go, even going so far as to bury the hotel in debt. By the time the divorce proceedings wrapped up, the hotel was on its last legs. When Lu Yunli took over, Jingyu had been running at a loss for years.
It took him over two years to turn the losses into profits, transforming Jingyu into the group's flagship luxury hotel rooted in Xunchuan.
But once she joined, she realized that most of the hotel's HR supervisors were people installed by his new stepmother. His father, blinded by lust, treated those step-siblings with no blood relation better than his own son.
But having already boarded a pirate ship, Huang Ling couldn't swim, so she had no choice but to stay and continue being his good comrade-in-arms.
After the pre-shift briefing, Huang Ling went to inspect the rooms. Using yesterday's incident as a lesson, she reminded her subordinates to be careful not to make mistakes themselves, so that no matter what problems arose, they'd have nothing to fear.
As she spoke, she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. HR had posted a penalty notice in the hotel's main group chat, fining the front desk staff for yesterday's mistaken sale of an occupied room. Sun Qi, as their direct supervisor, was also included in the penalty.
Lu Yunli didn't stick around the hotel long. By the time Huang Ling finished her room inspections, he was already gone.
At noon, Huang Ling and Luo Shuang queued up for lunch.
Huang Ling was telling Luo Shuang about how other hotels had recently been hit with surprise inspections by the Health Commission, reminding her to stay alert during her shifts, when her shoulder was bumped from behind, spilling some of the soup in her hand. Huang Ling caught a glimpse of Sun Qi, who had just bumped her and was about to walk past, and casually dumped the rest of the soup all over her.
Sun Qi shrieked: "Huang Ling!"
Huang Ling quickly set down her tray, grabbed a few tissues, and made to wipe Sun Qi's clothes: "Oh dear, you bumped into me so suddenly that I lost my grip. Are you alright, Manager Sun?"
Luo Shuang had seen everything. Seeing Huang Ling open fire, she naturally followed suit as a good friend: "This rainy season weather really makes the floors slippery. Everyone should watch their step. Manager Sun almost took Manager Huang down with her just now—luckily it was just a bump."
Sun Qi watched the two of them playing off each other, her face flushed red with anger. She snatched the tissues from Huang Ling's hand and stormed off without even eating.
Luo Shuang watched her leave, then swiped the chicken drumstick from Sun Qi's tray. She twisted her hips, bumping Huang Ling's hip like a high-five: "What's her problem now?"
"So you had my back without even knowing what happened." Huang Ling pouted. "Love you."
Luo Shuang tilted her head, presenting her left cheek to Huang Ling: "Right here too."
They sat down in a corner spot, and Huang Ling shared Sun Qi's drumstick with Luo Shuang: "It's about yesterday's mistaken sale of the occupied room. Didn't she get docked pay over that too?"
"That's not your fault."
"If I could understand how she thinks, that soup would already be in my stomach." Huang Ling shrugged. "This drumstick is really good."
Just then, Huang Ling's phone rang.
Seeing the caller ID read "Mom," Huang Ling answered it right in front of Luo Shuang.
"Hi, Mom."
"Hi, sweetie."
It wasn't even six in the morning Munich time, and Huang Yue's voice on the other end still sounded a bit tired.
"I was woken up this morning by a message from your aunt. She said your grandfather fell and fractured a bone—he's been hospitalized. I still have a busy week ahead of me here. Do you have time to go to the municipal hospital and check on your grandfather?"
Hearing Huang Yue mention her aunt, Huang Ling's lashes lowered slightly. Thinking of what had happened when she returned to Xunchuan in her senior year of high school, her fingers unconsciously tightened around her phone case as she murmured a quiet reply: "Okay, Mom."
Huang Yue: "I'll transfer you ten thousand yuan in a bit. Ask your aunt how much the surgery costs, and I'll split it with her."
"It's fine, I have money."
Huang Yue: "How could we use your money for your grandfather's medical bills? Are you tired from work lately?"
"It's okay—not as tiring as it was abroad." Huang Ling had always been the type to only share the good news and never the bad, a stubbornness that was just like Huang Yue.
Only after Huang Ling hung up did Luo Shuang speak: "What happened?"
Huang Ling relayed the contents of the phone call. Luo Shuang, unaware of the full story, said: "Then I'll cover your shift tomorrow. Go see your grandfather—old people can't afford falls."
Huang Ling took a bite of her rice, looking low-spirited in a way that seemed like worry, but only she knew how much she dreaded going to see those people.
The day she went to the hospital was the first clear day after the plum rain season ended. Huang Ling got up early, threw both her and Luo Shuang's clothes into the washing machine, and carried their two air-conditioning quilts out to the balcony to air.
After getting a ton of things done in the morning, it was only ten o'clock. She dreaded going to the hospital, but since it was her mother's request, Huang Ling reluctantly went downstairs and hailed a cab to the municipal hospital.
Orthopedics was on the sixth floor. She hadn't contacted her aunt in advance and was about to look for the ward herself when her aunt happened to walk out of the hot water room carrying a thermos.
She was only forty-four—ten years younger than Huang Yue, and just fifteen years older than Huang Ling.
"Lingling?" Huang Yuchan called out uncertainly to the person before her.
The last time Huang Yuchan had seen Huang Ling, she'd been only twenty-two. Four or five years had passed, and Huang Ling had grown into an even more elegant and graceful young woman.
Huang Ling turned at the sound of her name, looking at the face that bore some resemblance to her own mother's. She managed a faint smile. "Aunt."
Huang Yuchan nodded eagerly in response. "It's been so long since I've seen you. You've grown more and more beautiful."
With that, she led Huang Ling to her grandfather's hospital room.
The room was a three-bed ward, and her grandfather occupied the bed nearest the door. He looked considerably older than when she'd last seen him a few years ago. With the cast from his fall, he looked even worse off. Beside the bed, her step-grandmother was wiping down her grandfather's body, casting envious glances at the nurse tending to the patient in the next bed. When she saw Huang Yuchan arrive, she pounded her aching lower back and lamented about her old age.
Anyone could read between those lines.
"I just went to ask—a nurse will be coming tomorrow," Huang Yuchan said, gesturing to the chair beside her for Huang Ling to sit. "Dad, look who's come to see you."
Huang Ling called out "Grandpa," and the man in the bed finally seemed to register her presence. But then he let out a dismissive snort. "Where's your mother? Her old man fell and had surgery in the hospital, and she can't even be bothered to come see me."
"Sister is abroad," Huang Yuchan explained.
"She's making her big money now—earning foreign currency—and not a cent of it comes back to honor her old man. Raising the two of you was a waste. Girls just don't measure up." Her grandfather's words grew uglier by the second.
Huang Yuchan had always been soft-spoken by nature. She tried to interrupt him a few times without success, then turned to look at Huang Ling with a worried expression, silently urging her not to take it to heart.
Huang Ling hadn't wanted to stay long anyway. At her grandfather's words, she stood up. "Aunt, I'll head out first."
He'd never favored his two daughters, and since both daughters had gone on to have daughters of their own, he'd never had a kind word for them either. Seeing his granddaughter leave after barely sitting down, he only felt confirmed that granddaughters were no match for grandsons.
Huang Yuchan hurried after Huang Ling, and Huang Ling took the opportunity to slip her the money without her grandfather or step-grandmother noticing. "This is ten thousand from my mom. If you need more, just tell her."
"No need, no need—your grandfather's rural insurance covers a lot too." Huang Yuchan still wanted Huang Ling to stay a bit longer. "It's almost noon. Your uncle went to buy your grandfather's lunch. Once he's back with it, let's go grab something to eat outside before you leave."
"No need." Huang Ling made up an excuse. "The hotel I work at provides staff meals."
Seeing that her mind was made up, Huang Yuchan didn't push further.
Huang Yuchan said, "Since you're back working in Xunchuan now, don't hesitate to come to your aunt and uncle if you need anything. Your mother and I are blood sisters—to me, you're no different from my own daughter."
Huang Ling could only muster a strained smile at that, then turned and stepped into the elevator.
It wasn't until the elevator reached the first floor and she walked out of the inpatient building that the summer breeze hit her face—warm air carrying the fresh scent of greenery—and the nausea she'd been suppressing in that hospital room finally began to subside.
She took a few deep breaths to compose herself, then started to walk away when something cold pressed against her arm, startling her into stepping aside.
She turned around. It was Liang Wenpei, holding an ice cream bar.
"What are you doing here?" Huang Ling took the ice cream from his hand.
"I'm sick." Liang Wenpei lied through his teeth.
Huang Ling clicked her tongue, unwrapping the lychee-flavored ice cream. She hadn't expected him to remember it was her favorite.
She'd spotted the manila folder in his hand the moment she saw him—he was probably here to pick up documents—but she played along anyway, pretending to fall for his lie. "So you finally came to get treatment for your decision paralysis?"
"Doesn't sound like there's much sympathy in that voice." Liang Wenpei glanced at her. "Give me back my ice cream."
"I'm practically drowning in sympathy. Sounds like your eyes and ears are broken too—you should book two more appointments." Huang Ling bit off a piece of the ice cream, the cold spreading across her lips and teeth, cutting through the summer heat.
Liang Wenpei wasn't bothered. "What about you?"
"Came to see my grandfather. He broke a bone."
Hearing that, Liang Wenpei's playful expression faded. "Is he okay?"
"Bad weeds never die. He'll live." The words were hardly filial.
Huang Ling's grandfather had always favored sons over daughters. After her grandmother gave birth to Huang Yue, it was another ten years before she had Huang Yuchan.
Then, in her fifties, she'd tried for a third child—and lost both herself and the baby.
Within a few years of her grandmother's passing, her grandfather had married a widow who had a son and a daughter of her own. Her grandfather treated his stepson like a treasure, and no matter how useless that stepson proved to be, he still considered him better than his two biological daughters.
Seeing the negative emotion on Huang Ling's face, Liang Wenpei asked with concern, "You alright?"
"I've worked in hotels for years—I've seen worse storms than this." Huang Ling let out a long breath, seemingly completely unaffected by what had just happened in that hospital room.
"Working this afternoon?" Seeing that she seemed genuinely fine, Liang Wenpei asked.
"No."
"Come on, let's grab a bite together?"