Listening to these two names, Xu Miyu thought that perhaps names really could influence a person's character.
Duan Aoxiang sounded somewhat unrestrained and unconventional; while Ji Feng seemed perfectly suited to be the name of a domineering CEO in an idol drama.
Afraid that Ke Wenxue's words might fall flat and cause embarrassment, she quickly asked a question she wasn't actually curious about.
"Why are they two people others try to avoid?"
Ke Wenxue immediately perked up and began chattering away: "Because they're both extremely difficult to please! Just looking at Ji Feng's appearance, he's truly handsome—on an unparalleled level. He's 185 cm tall with an impeccable figure, and whether you look at his features separately or together, there's only one word: gorgeous! Not to mention anything else, just his eyes alone are absolutely incredible, you know!"
Xu Miyu's "fear of disappointing others" habit kicked in again, and she quickly played along: "Ah... how are they incredible?"
Before Ke Wenxue could answer, Yin Xiang cut in as the quick responder: "His eyes are just the right size to make your heart race when you look at them. He has a charming inner eye corner—the kind many male and female celebrities can only achieve after cosmetic surgery. The outer corners tilt up slightly, creating a perfect combination of cold and sexy! When he looks directly at you with those eyes, they can steal your soul. You feel like he's looking down on everything in the world, yet he's still incredibly sexy. And if he glances at you sideways—wow, it's absolutely mesmerizing, truly captivating with both aloofness and allure!"
Xu Miyu was somewhat stunned. She had never heard someone use so many words to describe a man's appearance and thought Yin Xiang should consider writing romance novels.
Ke Wenxue affirmed Yin Xiang's description but also offered some criticism: "Don't just talk about the good aspects. Yes, Ji Feng is handsome—with a strong nose bridge, full forehead, thin and incredibly sexy lips, and absolutely stunning eyes—but he's so difficult to deal with!"
She turned to Xu Miyu and emphasized: "He's really hard to handle. His taste is unusually picky. He'll only eat meals prepared by Head Chef Chen; no one else is acceptable. I heard from my friends in the F&B department that he stays here long-term because he's so picky that only Chef Chen's cooking satisfies him."
Xu Miyu said softly: "If it's just being picky about food, that's not too bad, right?"
Ke Wenxue waved her hand dismissively: "How could that be his only flaw? Besides being picky about food, he seems to have some major cleanliness obsession—no one can touch him, as if you'd dirty him by making contact. Not only can't you touch him, but you can't touch any of his things either. Even when you're cleaning his room, you can't touch anything. How are you supposed to clean then? If you can't clean properly, he'll just stare at you coldly with those eyes, as if you're neglecting your duties. Those eyes of his—as beautiful and captivating as they are—are truly toxic!"
Yin Xiang eagerly chimed in: "Exactly! When he looks at you with that scrutinizing gaze, even if you haven't done anything wrong, just having his slightly upturned eyes sweep across your face can make you feel utterly ashamed, like you want to die right then and there."Ke Wenxue quickly chimed in to add: "It's like he can see right through all your little thoughts and tricks with those eyes of his, then coldly watches from the sidelines as you perform, until he stares you down to the point where you can't keep up the act anymore, and you end up feeling utterly ashamed and humiliated by your own petty schemes!"
So, so terrifying, Xu Miyu thought.
A man like that is truly frightening. No one can hide anything from him.
"Sister Xu, tell me, even if he's as handsome as a god, who would willingly go near such a difficult man just to invite displeasure?" Ke Wenxue posed the soul-searching question.
Xu Miyu thought that even if he weren't difficult, she wouldn't want to go near someone like that either. People like him and people like them were from two different worlds—they lived ordinary lives down below, while he looked down on ordinary people from on high.
"As for the other one, Duan Aoxiang," Ke Wenxue's gossip was thorough from start to finish; she never forgot to cover all bases, "he's even harder to deal with—a real tough guy with a waist fetish. He especially likes girls with slim waists. He's always pestering the female staff to drink with him, and if they refuse, he finds all sorts of excuses to complain, saying the service isn't up to par. He's just downright despicable. And him? He only flirts with the female staff for fun, without any real sincerity. There's no way he'd ever take a waitress he fancies away to keep her as a mistress in a golden house like General Wu did before."
Catching her breath, Ke Wenxue summed it up for Xu Miyu: "So, Sister Xu, you see, these two men might seem like top-tier catches, but one is untouchable, and the other is insincere and just messing around. No matter how handsome or rich they are, what does it matter? They offer no hope, so who would want to go serve such difficult men? It's much more comfortable to just chat and slack off on our own floor."
After Ke Wenxue finished gossiping about the VIPs on the top floor, the three of them just stared at each other blankly.
Then Yin Xiang immediately said, "My stomach hurts; I need to go use the restroom!" With that, she ran off.
Ke Wenxue, annoyed that the sly Yin Xiang had seized the opportunity first, grew anxious and quickly followed up: "There might really be something wrong with dinner tonight; my stomach and intestines are starting to rumble too... Sister Xu, I also need to go use the restroom. Sorry about this!"
She finished speaking, feigned clutching her stomach, and briskly ran off as well.
Xu Miyu listened to the sound of their shoes clattering against the floor until it faded away at the restroom door.
She shook her head.
They really didn't have to go to such lengths. They could have just said, "Sister Xu, you go; I don't want to."
In the end, it was Xu Miyu who went to the office of Zhang Cailu, the floor supervisor. Unlike the others, she didn't have such a strong aversion to serving the two difficult and "hopeless" VIP guests on the top floor.
For her now, any job was just a means to make a living, and she was merely a living dead, striving to scrape by.
After checking in with Zhang Cailu, Xu Miyu waited by the elevator for the top-floor suite butler to come down and escort her up.
Besides her, there were two other attendants from different floors in the elevator.
Once everyone was gathered, as the elevator continued upward, the top-floor suite butler quickly asked Xu Miyu and the other two: "During your onboarding training, you should have been told about the service standards for the top-floor VIP guests, right?"
Xu Miyu and the other two nodded in unison."Just follow the training procedures." Seeing Xu Miyu's silence, the housekeeper assumed she was nervous about going to the top floor and added, "There's no need to be nervous. Whatever you see or hear up there, don't act surprised or give the impression you've never experienced such luxury before." She spoke rapidly while instructing Xu Miyu, "Just serve them as you would any other VIP guest. Really, there's no need to be nervous. Actually, you won't need to interact directly with the people upstairs—your main task is to help me maintain cleanliness as needed. I'll handle all guest-facing services."
When the elevator doors reopened, Xu Miyu felt as though she had stepped into another world.
It was an extravagant, decadent world that assaulted the senses—a realm of material desire built upon wealth, where so-called elite individuals gathered to indulge.
Directly facing the elevator stood an opulent suite with double doors wide open. Looking through the entrance, the grandeur seemed to manifest as a physical force pressing down on Xu Miyu.
The living room beyond the doorway was a vast semicircular space, its curved wall entirely made of floor-to-ceiling windows. Outside surged the glittering nightscape of the city, while inside brimmed with isolated sensory extravagance. The domed ceiling loomed imposingly overhead, its spotlights casting decadent glows that tinted the boisterous chatter with an ambiguous atmosphere.
The living room teemed with people, all dressed in brilliant attire, swaying glasses of red wine, champagne, or whiskey.
A cocktail party was in full swing, with most guests showing varying degrees of flushed cheeks. Their expansive gestures and loud conversations suggested considerable alcohol consumption, leaving little sobriety in the room. The air thickly carried their unrestrained drunken energy alongside the clean environment now compromised by intoxicated guests. Both the carpeted and marble floors lay in disarray.
The space was truly luxurious, clamorous, and chaotic.
The suite manager, who had entered the foyer with Xu Miyu and two others, immediately assigned tasks—as if she had predetermined roles during the elevator ride based on their profiles. The youngest would remain in the main party area, while the slightly older staff would tidy the various suite rooms: "You three—you, start organizing the bedrooms first; some guests will stay over after drinking. You, assist in the main hall—refill drinks, hand towels, or clean up as needed. And you," the manager's gaze shifted to Xu Miyu, the oldest of the three, assigned to the frontier role, "thoroughly sanitize every bathroom."
No sooner had she finished assigning tasks than her walkie-talkie buzzed. She promptly answered with repeated apologies and assurances: "The staff has arrived, we'll clean up immediately, right away!" Then she urged Xu Miyu to get moving quickly and prioritize cleaning the main living room's bathroom—a guest was complaining.
When Xu Miyu received her assignment, she thought she caught the other two casting fleeting yet sympathetic glances her way.
She had no time to process this, nor did she care to expend energy understanding it. She couldn't muster strong emotions about anything. Almost numbly, she walked toward the most frequently used bathroom in the grand living room.On the way, she passed by a set of leather sofas. In front of one sofa, a pair of legs were lazily crossed. The trousers of the suit pants were sharply creased, and the black leather shoes below the cuffs had a distinctive style, resembling a private custom design.
Xu Miyu’s gaze merely brushed past these shoes without lifting her eyes to see their owner.
She entered the bathroom with her cleaning tools.
The bathroom was also a suite-style layout. Besides the toilet area and the shower area, there was a separate partitioned-off section for washing and makeup.
As soon as she stepped into the bathroom, Xu Miyu immediately understood why the other two had given her sympathetic glances.
The toilet in the bathroom had been vomited on messily by drunkards—hardly the state a five-star hotel toilet should be in. Whether it was the visual impact or the olfactory assault, both were unbearable.
Xu Miyu looked at the soiled toilet, held her breath, put on rubber gloves, and steeled herself to step forward.
Ji Feng sat on the sofa, coldly observing the extravagance and clamor filling the room.
Duan Aoxiang had said he wanted to introduce a Thai businessman to discuss business with him and had even specially reserved the suite next door for the occasion.
He had come as agreed, only to find that he wasn’t the only guest being entertained in the suite.
He had initially intended to leave immediately but was relentlessly persuaded to stay by Duan Aoxiang, who dangled an enticing offer: “Old Ji! Do me a favor, Old Ji—just chat with me for a bit, alright? The Thai guy I set you up with has already landed and is on his way here. He’ll be here any minute! Since the Thai guy likes parties, I arranged this little welcome for him. I know you don’t like the whole ‘pretty girls drinking and keeping you company’ routine, so look—more than half of the people I invited tonight are guys. Don’t you think this party is pretty tame?”
Ji Feng glanced at his watch and said only one thing: “Half an hour.”
Duan Aoxiang accurately grasped his meaning: He would stay for only half an hour. If the other party didn’t arrive within that time, he would leave immediately.
Duan Aoxiang quickly replied, “No problem, no problem!” After saying this, he ushered Ji Feng to a sofa in a relatively secluded corner, knowing Ji Feng disliked socializing with irrelevant people.
Then he went into the nearest bathroom himself. Seeing the vomit-covered toilet, he lost the urge to relieve himself. Snatching up the phone, he yelled at the suite butler, “Where are you? My bathroom’s practically a cesspool—clean it up, now!” After his outburst, he moved to the adjacent washing and makeup area. After shooing away a couple who were kissing with a mix of laughter and curses, he began calling the people en route, urging them to arrive within half an hour.
While he was making calls in the makeup area, Xue Rui was outside sighing to Ji Feng about the woman who had just passed by them with her head lowered.
“Boss, did you see that woman who just walked by?” Xue Rui, seated in a chair slightly behind Ji Feng’s sofa, leaned forward to speak to him.
The noise in the room was so loud that he had to raise his voice more than usual.
“It seems she really fell for that scammer’s tricks, thinking she was investing when her money was actually being thrown away. I just didn’t expect her to lose so badly that she’s ended up working here as a attendant.”
He left a pause for Ji Feng, but Ji Feng paid him no attention.
So he continued on his own."What a sigh of relief. To think she was once a guest enjoying services at this hotel, and now, with the turn of fortune's wheel, she's become a waitress serving the guests here. I don't know why, but perhaps because the contrast in her circumstances is so stark, I can't help feeling a bit sorry for her."
As usual, during such moments of rambling, Ji Feng wouldn't respond to him. After Xue Rui finished his chatter, Ji Feng would coldly warn him that if he kept being so gossipy, he'd replace him as his assistant.
Xue Rui was already prepared for the warning. But this time, Ji Feng actually responded to his rambling, though his tone was laced with disdain.
"Does she need your sympathy? Anyone who can work as a waitress on this floor has some skills and tactics. You'd better worry about yourself—whether your boss will replace you for being too gossipy."
Xue Rui shrank his shoulders. Though he'd heard this threat countless times, hearing it again still sent a chill down his spine.
He thought it must be because Ji Feng was just too much of a cold-faced demon king.
"You're right," Xue Rui said, shaking off the fear of being threatened with unemployment. "Take that female attendant who barged in earlier to tidy up your room, for example. When she saw she couldn't make any headway with you, she immediately switched to General Wu and managed to open up a path there. I heard she resigned last week and was taken back by General Wu to keep a mistress in a golden house."
Hearing this, Ji Feng turned slightly and cast a cold glance at Xue Rui.
He suddenly raised one corner of his mouth in a faint smile. "You certainly keep yourself well-informed about useless matters."
That mocking, sarcastic smile sent a shiver through Xue Rui, and he didn't dare utter another word.
The next moment, amid the clamor, they seemed to hear a woman's scream coming from the restroom.
And at that moment, in the restroom, it seemed there was only that woman.
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