Bai Li followed them through the front door of Hongyun Inn and up the stairs.
The cheap air freshener hit them the moment they stepped inside.
The lighting was dim. A flimsy counter served as the front desk, its surface coated in a thin layer of dust.
Calling this place a hotel would be generous — it was more like someone had carved their own courtyard into a cluster of tiny rooms and run the whole operation without a license.
Chen Tingting and the other two didn't seem bothered. They were probably used to this kind of life. If anything, having money in their pockets right now gave them a rare sense of confidence.
That morning, Bai Li had given each of them fifty yuan. They'd bought a few steamed pork buns and a bowl of soy milk — less than ten yuan total between the three of them.
Combined, the three of them now had a full one hundred and forty yuan.
One hundred and forty yuan. At twenty-five a night, that was almost a full week's worth of lodging!
Chen Tingting did the math in her head, strutting up to the front desk with her chin held high, ready to slap the counter and call for the landlady.
"Hey! You've got customers!"
A grunt came from inside, followed by the sound of shuffling footsteps behind the counter.
A middle-aged woman in a wrinkled nightgown shuffled out, her greasy hair piled on top of her head, yawning as she went.
The nightgown clung tightly to her body, tracing the rolls of fat around her waist.
The landlady lifted her heavy eyelids with a sleepy squint — and the moment she recognized Chen Tingting and the other two, the flicker of welcome on her face curdled into undisguised contempt.
"Well, well. Thought it might be someone worth seeing. It's just you three broke losers."
"What's the matter — couldn't hack it out there? Crawled back already?"
She looked the three of them up and down, eyeing their skimpy outfits, and sneered:
"Can't even afford a decent set of clothes. Get lost!"
Bai Li stood to the side, a slight frown crossing his face.
Clearly, there was some history between these girls and the landlady.
Being talked down to like this in front of their newly sworn-in big brother — Chen Tingting's temper flared instantly.
"Watch your mouth! We've got money, and you're turning away paying customers?"
The landlady's gaze finally drifted to Bai Li standing in the back.
Her eyes swept over his expensive-looking trench coat and handsome face, and her disdain only deepened.
"Oh, so you've reeled in a sugar daddy." She curled her lip, drawing out her words: "Not bad looking, kid. Good conditions too. Shame about the taste."
Then she turned her eyes back to Chen Tingting and let out a cold laugh:
"You've got the nerve to say you have money? You still owe me money!"
"When you three skipped out a few months back, you left four days of room fees unpaid. Or did you forget?!"
At that, Chen Tingting's bravado deflated by half.
She'd only just remembered — they had left in a hurry back then, and yes, they really had skipped out on the bill.
One hundred yuan. Back then, that had been a small fortune to them.
But she couldn't lose face. She stiffened her neck and said, puffed up with indignation:
"Fine, I'll pay you back right now!"
She reached into her pocket for her phone to pay — and froze.
Four days at twenty-five a night... that's one hundred yuan...
If she paid it back now, the three of them would be left with barely forty yuan.
Forget a week — they couldn't even cover two nights.
The thought made her chest ache.
The landlady had been running this place for over a decade. She'd seen every type of person there was.
She saw right through the girls' predicament, and the mockery on her face grew even more pronounced.
"What? Can't manage it?"
She crossed her arms and leaned against the counter, speaking at a leisurely pace:
"Sorry, I don't do hourly rates here. If you can't afford it, get lost!"
Every word the landlady said was a blow to the three girls' pride.
Chen Tingting's face flushed crimson. She wanted to fire back, but not a single word came out.
Because what the landlady said was the truth.
They really didn't have the money.
Li Jiaxin's expression was equally awful. She kept her head down, hiding her face from view — but the fists clenched at her sides betrayed the fury burning inside her.
And Lin Xiaoshuang looked utterly lost, her small hand clutching the hem of Bai Li's coat, her body trembling slightly.
The confidence they'd built up just moments ago from having a hundred-odd yuan — shattered by humiliation in an instant.
There was no staying here.
Chen Tingting bit down on her lip and made up her mind.
They'd rather sit in an internet café all night than spend another second in this place.
At an internet café, you could sit in an empty seat for free.
If you were lucky, you might run into some wild girls and wild guys you knew, bum a few cigarettes, maybe even score a cup of instant noodles.
She tugged at Bai Li's sleeve, her voice barely above a whisper — none of the swagger from before.
"Big Bro... let's go. To the internet café."
The internet café.
Those three words left Bai Li with a feeling he couldn't quite name.
He'd skipped class to pull all-nighters at internet cafés when he was in school — but that was for fun.
It had never occurred to him that someone might end up at an internet café simply because they had nowhere else to go.
Sleeping on a couch reeking of cigarettes and instant noodles, surrounded by the constant clatter of keyboards and mice — just imagining it was enough to make him feel uneasy.
It gave him a much deeper appreciation for just how tough these wild girls really were.
"Big Bro, let's go." Chen Tingting's voice had lost all its energy. She just wanted to get out of this place that had stripped her of every last shred of dignity.
But Bai Li didn't move. He did a quick mental calculation — he still had eight hundred and fifty yuan left in his daily budget.
The wild girls were in a crisis right now. This was a perfect chance to show off and win some goodwill. Might as well spend it here.
Bai Li stepped forward and looked calmly at the landlady behind the counter.
"Twenty-five a night, right?"
His voice was quiet, but it stopped both Chen Tingting — who had been about to turn away — and the landlady — who had been about to launch another jab — dead in their tracks.
The landlady blinked, then held up two stubby fingers and tapped them on the greasy counter with a dismissive air:
"That's right. Twenty-five a night. Money first, key second. Not a cent less!"
Bai Li nodded, then asked: "How much for a month?"
"Huh?"
That question caught everyone in the room completely off guard.