The Epoch of Miyu

Xu Miyu pushed the linen cart to the door of the business room.

The door was wide open, the interior in disarray with trash scattered everywhere, but no one was in sight.

The walkie-talkie crackled with the front desk staff’s voice, instructing housekeeping to check the room as the guest was waiting to confirm everything was in order before checking out.

Xu Miyu immediately began inspecting the room.

After repeated checks, she discovered that one of the bathrobes was missing from the room.

She quickly consulted the room preparation record from before the guest’s stay, confirming that there had originally been two bathrobes in the room. The record bore the signature of the floor supervisor, Zhang Cailu.

She relayed this information to the front desk via the walkie-talkie.

Shortly after, someone stormed into the room—a middle-aged man around forty years old, with a mole on his chin, dressed in a suit and carrying himself with an air of authority. The rolling suitcase he dragged behind him was a high-end Rimowa.

The man was visibly angry. As soon as he entered the room, he pointed at Xu Miyu and demanded, “What do you mean by this? What’s this about a missing bathrobe?” He gestured furiously toward a used bathrobe draped over the bathtub in the bathroom and confronted Xu Miyu, “Isn’t the bathrobe right here? Spreading nonsense like this is delaying my checkout—do you have any idea how much time you’re wasting?”

Xu Miyu was momentarily stunned by the sudden outburst of accusations. Steadying herself and her emotions, she patiently explained, “Sir, the situation is this: we provide two bathrobes in every room…”

Her words were immediately cut off by the agitated man. “Impossible!” he nearly shouted. “I’ve been staying here alone the whole time, and I only ever saw one bathrobe! If you say every room is supposed to have two, then you must have shortchanged me—that’s your mistake, not mine! I haven’t even complained about your sloppy work, and now you’re holding up my checkout? This is outrageous!”

In his fury, the man flung his suitcase aside. It was so overstuffed that it lost balance, wobbling like an unsteady, overweight person before collapsing onto the carpet.

Xu Miyu continued in a humble, placating tone, “Sir, we confirmed before your stay that there were indeed two bathrobes in the room. We didn’t make a mistake…”

Her gaze shifted slightly, and she suddenly noticed a piece of white fabric caught in the seam at the bottom of the man’s suitcase. Because it was tucked underneath, no one had noticed it earlier—not even the man himself.

The fabric was identical to the custom-made bathrobes used by the hotel.

Xu Miyu was almost certain that the other bathrobe had been stuffed into the man’s suitcase. Whether it was accidental or intentional, she couldn’t tell.

Pointing to the corner of white fabric peeking out from the man’s suitcase, she tentatively suggested, “Sir, could it be that you accidentally packed the bathrobe with your clothes while tidying up?”

She thought that, regardless of whether it was an accident or intentional, he could take the out she was offering. All he had to do was see that corner of fabric, slap his forehead, and say something like, “Oh, you’re right! I must’ve packed it by mistake—no wonder my suitcase was so bulging and hard to close today.”But the other party kicked away the proffered ladder, showing no appreciation: "What do you mean? Oh, you're saying this cloth is your hotel's bathrobe? Are you some kind of X-ray vision superhero? This is my own towel, okay!"

Just then, Zhang Cailu entered the room—she had been notified by the front desk.

Seeing her come in, Xu Miyu felt like she'd spotted a savior and called out, "Supervisor."

The middle-aged man glanced at Zhang Cailu and, upon hearing she was the supervisor, immediately became even more agitated: "You're her supervisor, right? Perfect timing—if you hadn't shown up, I would've gone straight to your manager! What's going on with your hotel? And what's her problem? What, suspecting me of stealing a bathrobe? Check your records—see how many times I stay at your hotel each year, whether I'm a regular guest, how much I spend here annually. Would I bother stealing one bathrobe? What a joke! Let me tell you, I'm going to sue this woman for defaming my character!"

Zhang Cailu quickly tried to calm the guest, signaling with her eyes for Xu Miyu to leave first.

Xu Miyu obediently headed out, but before leaving, she pointed at the corner of the bathrobe peeking out from the suitcase. Zhang Cailu gave a quick nod to show she'd seen it, then urgently signaled again for Xu Miyu to leave quickly and not further provoke the middle-aged man.

As Xu Miyu walked out of the room, the middle-aged man continued to angrily accuse her from behind, vowing through gritted teeth to sue her and get her fired from the hotel.

Xu Miyu waited outside the room for quite a while until the man's furious roars finally subsided. She wondered what method Zhang Cailu had used to calm him down and how she had handled the bathrobe situation.

After a little more waiting, the middle-aged man emerged, dragging his suitcase. As he passed Xu Miyu, he glared at her viciously and threatened, "Who do you think you are? A lowly service worker daring to slander me! Don't let me see you again—if I do, I'll curse you out every single time!"

After venting his anger, he dragged his suitcase away, muttering curses. Xu Miyu stood in place, faintly seeing the corner of the bathrobe still visible beneath the suitcase, reluctantly scraping against the ground as the suitcase moved.

Zhang Cailu came out. Xu Miyu asked her in confusion, "Supervisor, did you see the bathrobe sticking out from under his suitcase? Look, it's right there! The bathrobe is in his case..."

Zhang Cailu cut her off: "Sister Xu." She addressed Xu Miyu, "Even if the bathrobe really is in his suitcase, if he doesn't want to open it, we don't have the right to order him to."

Xu Miyu was taken aback and said, "Then we could call the police..."

Zhang Cailu raised her eyebrows at her in disbelief: "Are you sure you want to call the police over something this trivial? He's a regular guest at our hotel, and his spending is consistently high each time. Even if he has some... unusual little habits, do you really think the hotel would encourage you to call the police over such a minor matter? Compared to one bathrobe, losing a valuable customer is far more serious."

Xu Miyu immediately inspected the room.

"So in a situation like the one I encountered today, what exactly should I have done?" Xu Miyu asked, deeply perplexed."The customer denies taking the bathrobe, so you have to convince yourself he really didn't, even if you know it's right there in his suitcase. In the service industry, we ultimately have only one principle: unconditional trust in customers, unconditional prioritization of customers," Zhang Cailu told Xu Miyu.

Xu Miyu absorbed this brainwashing.

Zhang Cailu sighed while looking at her: "Sister Xu, this customer insists on giving you a 'service unsatisfactory' rating. If I don't record it here, he'll escalate it to higher management. It's better to just record it with me—if it goes upstairs, your probation period might be in jeopardy. So," she announced her decision while also comforting Xu Miyu, "I have no choice but to record this service unsatisfactory rating for now. But don't get too upset. After all, our hotel's policy requires three service unsatisfactory ratings to fail probation, and this is only your first. It's fine. Just be more careful in the future, and if you encounter problems you're unsure how to handle, ask me promptly. Don't recklessly confront guests like you did today."

Xu Miyu thanked Zhang Cailu for her comfort while reluctantly accepting this bewildering service unsatisfactory rating.

She felt utterly bewildered.

She somewhat couldn't understand—she was just doing her job dutifully, so how did it end up being her fault? Is this what society is like? Is this the workplace? Is this the real world beyond home?

Such a complicated world.

She realized her past life had been too simple. She felt that this society she had to step into had a future waiting to devour her like a perilous abyss.

And just like that, she inexplicably received an unsatisfactory rating.

Xu Miyu thought she must be more careful in the future; otherwise, if she accumulated three negative ratings and failed probation, she would lose this job that barely put food on the table.

News of Xu Miyu receiving a negative rating soon reached her three dormitory colleagues.

The three reacted differently.

Luo Qingping remained as detached as ever, acting as if others' negative ratings had nothing to do with her.

Yin Xiang didn't seem surprised and offered lukewarm comfort: "It's just one negative rating—they're easy to get. Don't take it too seriously."

In contrast, Ke Wenxue's comfort appeared much more enthusiastic. After consoling her, she asked Xu Miyu how she had gotten the negative rating. Xu Miyu briefly explained, and after hearing it, Ke Wenxue clicked her tongue and asked, "Was this person around forty years old with a mole on his chin?"

Xu Miyu nodded.

Ke Wenxue tsk-tsked and said, "He really is a regular guest, and he spends generously too. By all appearances, he's quite wealthy. It's just that every time he stays, he always likes to take something. If you call it stealing, he gets offended, so we just say it's a peculiar little quirk."

Xu Miyu sighed inwardly, thinking it would have been better if one of the other three had cleaned that room. Apparently, they knew about this regular guest and had experience dealing with his special quirks.

By the next day, the story of Xu Miyu receiving a service unsatisfactory rating from the mole-chinned man had spread completely.

Xu Miyu resignedly told herself that she must be more careful when chatting with Ke Wenxue in the future and avoid unknowingly having her words extracted.After arriving for work that day, Xu Miyu received her task sheet, which listed the room numbers she was responsible for and bore the signature of her supervisor, Zhang Cailu.

In the morning, she diligently serviced each room assigned on the sheet. During this time, a young, beautiful, and fashionably dressed female guest requested housekeeping, asking for her room to be cleaned immediately.

Upon receiving the call, Xu Miyu promptly pushed her work cart over.

When she entered the room, the female guest was sitting on the sofa, wearing headphones and listening to music while painting her toenails.

As Xu Miyu stepped inside, the guest removed her headphones and instructed, "Go about your work, don’t mind me, and try not to call out to me." With that, she put her headphones back on and continued carefully crafting elegance and beauty on her toenails.

Xu Miyu worked silently and diligently.

After tidying the room, she tried to say goodbye to the guest. The guest, however, was still wearing her headphones, head bowed, intently painting flowers on her big toenail. Remembering the earlier instruction, Xu Miyu refrained from disturbing her further, quietly exited the room, and gently closed the door.

By the afternoon, Xu Miyu had just finished cleaning another room and hadn’t even caught her breath when Zhang Cailu summoned her over the walkie-talkie to the female guest’s room.

Zhang Cailu’s tone was heavy, her voice grave. Xu Miyu felt a pang of unease. Though she didn’t know why she was being called, she had a premonition that it wasn’t for anything joyful.

When she reached the guest’s room, the door was wide open, and Zhang Cailu’s apologetic voice drifted out: "Ma’am, please don’t worry, I’ve already called the housekeeper who serviced your room this morning…"

"How can I not worry?" the guest snapped, cutting off Zhang Cailu’s humble apology. "I have a flight to catch! Because your housekeeper has sticky fingers, not only have I lost my ring, but I might also miss my flight. And you’re telling me not to worry? How unreasonable!"

At that moment, the guest glanced toward the door and spotted Xu Miyu. She immediately raised her hand, pointing sharply at Xu Miyu’s face, and like a moving volcano, she advanced toward Xu Miyu, guided by that accusatory finger.

The finger stopped just ten centimeters from Xu Miyu’s nose.

The guest’s shrill voice seemed to emanate from the tip of that finger: "Tell me, did you steal my ring while cleaning my room this morning?"

Xu Miyu froze for a moment, then quickly shook her head. "No, I didn’t take it, and I didn’t see any ring while cleaning your room."

The guest’s finger edged five centimeters closer to Xu Miyu’s nose. "You’re lying! Not only did you steal, but you won’t admit it. You shameless old woman!"

The fingertip jabbed forward again, quivering with agitation.

Xu Miyu stood there in a daze. The guest didn’t look like a teenager or someone in her early twenties—she appeared to be around twenty-eight or twenty-nine. And yet, in the eyes of such a young woman, Xu Miyu was already an "old woman." Misfortune and weariness truly had a way of magnifying one’s age.

The guest’s accusation was so forceful that Xu Miyu felt inexplicably unsettled, almost tempted to pat down every pocket on her clothes to check if she had, in fact, absentmindedly pocketed the ring.Before the furious finger could jab right at Xu Miyu's nose, Zhang Cailu quickly pulled her aside.

"Madam, please calm down and don't be angry. Give us some time to resolve this matter for you as quickly as possible, alright?" Zhang Cailu spoke gently, attempting to mediate the female customer's rage.

However, the customer wasn't having any of it. Her voice was as sharp as a knife scraping against glass, sending chills down one's spine: "I don't have time for you! A mere supervisor like you can't handle this—call your manager! If you don't fire this thief today, I won't let your hotel get away with this!!"