Xu Miyu rushed out of the guest services department and headed straight to the female guest's room. According to the guest herself, she had canceled her flight ticket and would not be checking out for the time being. She would wait in her room for the hotel to provide a satisfactory resolution.
When the guest saw Xu Miyu knock and enter, she smirked condescendingly. "Why are you alone? Where’s your supervisor?"
Xu Miyu explained in an almost obsequiously polite tone, "Sorry to disturb you, ma'am. My supervisor asked me to confirm the brand and price of your diamond ring with you."
The guest rolled her eyes and repeated the name of the luxury brand.
Xu Miyu was quite familiar with this brand because the diamond ring she wore at her own wedding was from the same brand—a valuable piece costing over thirty thousand yuan.
Back then, Nie Yucheng had told her that since he had decided to marry her, he would give her only the best. So when buying the rings, he bought himself one for a few thousand yuan but didn’t even blink before spending over thirty thousand on hers.
Steadying herself, Xu Miyu asked even more humbly, "Earlier, you mentioned that your diamond ring was one of the models from this brand priced around fifty thousand yuan, correct?"
The guest raised her eyebrows high and snorted. "Yes, I said it was fifty thousand. You can either compensate me for the ring, apologize, and resign from the hotel, or I’ll involve the media and escalate this until the hotel fires you. If you resign on your own, it won’t affect your chances of finding work at other hotels. But if you’re fired, you’ll have a hard time making a living in this industry. Think carefully about what you want to do!"
Xu Miyu replied with almost cowardly humility, "Please don’t be impulsive. Give me a little more time—I will buy the ring and compensate you!"
Upon hearing this, the guest perked up, straightening her back and parting her lips slightly. But almost immediately, she slumped back into the sofa and said nothing.
Xu Miyu lowered her head and wrote something on the blank sheet she had brought with her. After finishing, she handed it to the guest and pleaded, "Could you please check if what’s written here is correct? If so, would you sign your name to confirm it?"
The guest grew wary at the mention of signing. She glanced down at the words on the paper, which merely recorded the brand of the diamond ring and noted that it was the model worth fifty thousand yuan.
Then she looked at this timid, middle-aged-looking employee, whose thin face was full of submissiveness.
Figuring that these words couldn’t possibly cause any trouble, she took the pen and signed her name on the paper.
Xu Miyu took the signed paper, thanked her profusely, and left the room.
Xu Miyu left the hotel for a short while. When she returned, she went to find Zhang Cailu and Supervisor Jian, informing them that she had just bought a ring to compensate the guest.
Zhang Cailu looked surprised, while Supervisor Jian breathed a sigh of relief.
They headed to the guest’s room together.
On the way, they passed a housekeeping staff member pushing a linen cart.
After walking past, Xu Miyu could feel the employee staring intently at their backs.
When they entered the guest’s room, the guest was waiting for them with her arms crossed.
She had put on heavy smoky eye makeup and changed into a shoulder-baring top and a miniskirt, looking as if she were about to go clubbing.
Xu Miyu almost didn’t recognize her.Seeing that everyone had arrived, the female customer lifted her chin, her heavy makeup accentuating a roguish expression as she chewed gum and drawled impatiently, "So all three of you are here. Have you figured out how to give me a satisfactory answer?"
Xu Miyu quickly stepped forward, patting down her pockets as she approached.
Standing before the female customer, she held a diamond ring sealed in a transparent plastic bag in one hand and a certificate in the other.
Xu Miyu first extended the ring toward the customer, explaining, "Since I couldn’t find the ring you lost, I bought you a new one."
The customer scoffed, "Couldn’t find it, or are you too embarrassed to return it?" Her eyes kept darting to the ring in Xu Miyu’s palm.
Xu Miyu continued calmly, "I was worried there might be too many styles in the fifty-thousand range and I’d pick the wrong one. But luckily, the salesperson told me there’s only one design at that price point, so there’s no mistake."
The customer glanced up at Xu Miyu and let out a vague, "Oh?"
Xu Miyu noted her reaction and went on, "The velvet box the ring came in was too bulky to carry easily. Since you only lost the ring and still have the box, I didn’t take it."
She then handed the certificate to the customer. "This is the gemological certificate, proving the ring is genuine."
The customer quickly took both the ring and the certificate. She seemed uncertain while examining the ring but relaxed after verifying the certificate.
As she inspected them, Xu Miyu glanced back at Zhang Cailu and Jian Gang.
Zhang Cailu looked as if she wanted to say something but held back, while Jian Gang’s face was full of hope that the matter would soon be resolved.
After confirming the certificate, the customer gave a soft "Hmm."
Zhang Cailu spoke up, "Ma’am, you’ve confirmed the diamond ring is genuine, right?"
The customer looked at her, paused for two seconds, then nodded. "Yes, it’s real, no mistake."
She averted her gaze from Zhang Cailu and turned back to Xu Miyu, asking, "Where’s the receipt?"
Xu Miyu responded with a puzzled, "Huh?"
"What do you mean, 'huh'?" the customer snapped impatiently. "The sales receipt. Without it, how am I supposed to resell it if I want to?"
Xu Miyu immediately began searching her pockets, asking as she did, "Just to confirm again, the ring you lost is identical to this one, right? I didn’t buy the wrong style?"
The customer, chewing her gum, said "Yes" and urged Xu Miyu to hurry up, mentioning she had plans for the evening.
When Xu Miyu pulled her hand out of her pocket, there was no receipt in her palm.
Instead, she held the paper the customer had signed earlier.
She looked steadily at the customer and said calmly but deliberately, "But ma’am, it’s not actually a real diamond ring. It’s a twenty-yuan imitation, and it’s modeled after the thirty-thousand-yuan style, not the fifty-thousand-yuan one."
As soon as she finished speaking, she saw shock spread across the customer’s face, her smoky eye makeup twisting into a near-snarling expression.
"What did you say?" Her voice was equally fierce. "Don’t lie to me—this certificate clearly says it’s real!"Xu Miyu quietly clenched her fists to bolster her courage. She told herself, don’t panic, don’t be afraid to confront others—you are the one with reason and evidence on your side.
Steadying herself, she spoke clearly and deliberately: "I said, the certificate for the ring is indeed genuine, but this ring itself is not. It’s just a trinket I casually bought from a street stall for twenty yuan."
The female customer looked both shocked and suspicious. "Explain everything to me clearly! What do you mean, the certificate is real but the diamond ring is fake? Don’t play mysterious games with me, or I’ll turn this hotel upside down!"
Xu Miyu thought, since the female customer wanted to know the whole story, fine—she would tell her.
An hour earlier, Xu Miyu had recalled the female customer’s words and seized on a key point.
The female customer had said that the ring she lost was the most beautiful one in the luxury brand’s fifty-thousand-yuan price range.
Xu Miyu immediately checked the brand’s official website and discovered that, in that price range, there was only one model of diamond ring. There was no such thing as "the most beautiful among many options."
So it occurred to her that the female customer might not actually be familiar with this luxury brand’s diamond rings. Perhaps she didn’t even know what the "lost diamond ring" looked like—she might simply be aiming for the fifty-thousand-yuan compensation.
With this in mind, Xu Miyu first went to see the female customer and had her sign a confirmation statement.
After leaving the customer’s room, Xu Miyu rushed out of the hotel. She scanned a shared bike and pedaled furiously toward an overpass one street away.
She used to stroll there often and knew that several street vendors set up stalls on that overpass, including one that specialized in cheap imitation accessories.
The entire ride to the overpass, Xu Miyu prayed that luck would be on her side—that the city inspectors hadn’t shown up and the street vendors were all open for business.
Whether her prayers were answered or not, when she arrived at the overpass, all the little stalls were bustling with activity, creating a vibrant scene of human hustle and bustle.
Even more fortunately, she quickly found a "diamond"-studded ring at the accessory stall that closely resembled the one she had worn at her own wedding. Looking at the bright, large "diamond," she thought that if it were real, it would definitely be worth tens of thousands.
After some haggling with the vendor, Xu Miyu bought it for twenty yuan. As she scanned the code to pay, she felt a twinge of regret—she should have tried bargaining down to fifteen.
With the "diamond" ring in hand, she didn’t return to the hotel immediately. Instead, she made a detour to the staff dormitory.
In her past life, she had developed a habit of keeping instruction manuals, certificates, receipts, and similar documents, neatly organized in an accordion file.
She remembered that when she divorced Nie Yucheng, she had returned the diamond ring to him but not its certificate—it simply hadn’t crossed her mind at the time.
Now, recalling this, she dug out the accordion file and, sure enough, the diamond ring’s appraisal certificate was still there.
Whether by sheer luck or divine intervention, the small-print date above the barcode on the certificate had worn away and become blurry, and the photo of the diamond ring in the certificate looked strikingly similar to the street-stall ring.
So, armed with the appraisal certificate and the "diamond" ring—worth twenty yuan but arguably purchasable for fifteen—Xu Miyu returned to the hotel.
On her way back, she calmly ate a piece of chocolate to soothe her nerves and keep her spirits up."So actually, to match the genuine certificate, the street stall knockoff ring I selected corresponds to the authentic thirty-thousand-yuan diamond ring, not the fifty-thousand-yuan version."
After Xu Miyu explained about the real appraisal certificate and the fake diamond ring, the female customer's smoky eye makeup seemed to come alive on her face, transforming into a ferocious mask. The gum she had been chewing was swallowed harshly in her fury.
In the menacing brown eyeshadow of the female customer, Xu Miyu began to counter-question: "So, ma'am, do you not even know what the ring you lost actually looks like? Or did you never have such a ring to begin with, which is why you couldn't tell it was just a cheap street stall imitation?"
Panic from being exposed flickered in the female customer's eyes, but she stubbornly maintained her bravado: "Are you setting me up?" She looked past Xu Miyu toward Zhang Cailu and Jian Gang behind her. "She's talking nonsense and setting me up!"
In that moment, Xu Miyu felt the female customer wasn't so terrifying after all. She was just like a misbehaving child who, after being caught, panics and looks everywhere for support.
It was almost laughable that she'd turned to Zhang Cailu and Jian Gang for backing. Even if those two prioritized the hotel's interests over advocating for their staff, they certainly wouldn't side with the instigator of this incident.
By now, Xu Miyu felt no tension at all about confronting someone.
She redirected the female customer's attention and told her: "I'm not talking nonsense. All the evidence points to you being the one lying and setting traps. From the very beginning, you said the ring was lost and demanded either I compensate you for it or you'd involve the media to blow this up. But you deliberately avoided mentioning calling the police. When I suggested reporting to the police, you became nervous, and when my supervisor said we couldn't involve the police, you secretly sighed in relief."
Xu Miyu thought to herself that this person probably didn't realize how skilled she'd been since childhood at reading people's expressions, so not a single subtle change in her demeanor had escaped notice.
Xu Miyu quickly recalled scenes from dramas she'd watched, imagining how the female lead would carry herself when exposing the truth and confronting villains in similar situations.
Then she smiled faintly and unfolded the paper in her hand: "Since you don't dare involve the police, fine, I'll do it myself. Let the police investigate whether you fabricated the existence of a fifty-thousand-yuan diamond ring to falsely accuse me of stealing it and demand compensation. We'll let the authorities determine whether this constitutes fraud or extortion."
Xu Miyu clearly saw how, after she finished speaking, cold sweat broke out on the other woman's forehead and face, smearing her once-bold smoky makeup.
After Xu Miyu laid out the whole story and insisted on reporting to the police,
The female customer lost her nerve and tried to flee with her suitcase.
Xu Miyu blocked her path, firmly maintaining her stance about involving the police.
She'd rarely stood her ground in life - once when she told Lu Zhenzhen that as long as she refused to back down, the other woman would remain permanently nailed to the pillar of shame as the other woman.
And now was the second time.
These were rare and precious moments, and she needed to seize them firmly for herself.However, Zhang Cailu and Jian Gang both stepped forward to mediate the situation. They advised her to let it go, saying that involving the police would only cause trouble. Regardless of who was right or wrong, it would reflect poorly on the hotel. If rival hotels found out and seized the opportunity to spread rumors, the consequences would far outweigh any benefits. Moreover, if things escalated to that point, even if the police cleared Xu Miyu’s name and restored her reputation, it was almost certain that the hotel would not offer her a permanent position after her probation period—she would simply be sent home.
After all, the hotel would not want to employ someone who could stir up a storm over the slightest issue.
In the end, Xu Miyu gave in. Her compromise was filled with helplessness and sorrow.
It turned out that she was the only one who regarded her own reputation as something significant. Compared to the hotel’s public image and profitability, the reputation and justice of a lowly housekeeper like her were utterly insignificant.
At Zhang Cailu’s suggestion, the female customer offered Xu Miyu a perfunctory apology.
Xu Miyu thought about how Zhang Cailu had consistently spoken up for her and tried to help her prove her innocence. Being in the position of a supervisor wasn’t easy, either. So, she steeled herself and, stepping onto the apology platform Zhang Cailu had laid out for her, let the matter drop.
Jian Gang left immediately afterward, rushing off to attend a social engagement.
Only Xu Miyu and Zhang Cailu remained.
Xu Miyu’s stiffly straightened back finally relaxed. The earlier defiance had completely dissipated, leaving her feeling drained and exhausted.
She turned to Zhang Cailu, hoping to draw some strength from her.
Zhang Cailu patted her shoulder, offering comfort and encouragement: “Sister Xu, you’ve been wronged today. If it were up to me personally, I’d definitely support you in calling the police. But we have no choice—we depend on this hotel for our livelihood.”
Then, with a hint of apology, she added, “I know you’re exhausted today, and I should let you go back to the dormitory to rest early. But we’re seriously short-staffed. There’s a group of guests checking out later, so I’ll need you to hold your post until the very end before you can clock out. However, you can come in a bit later tomorrow morning. I’ll cover your shift for you—sleep in and get some proper rest!”
Xu Miyu couldn’t help but grasp Zhang Cailu’s hand and say, “Thank you.”
Having encountered two difficult guests in two consecutive days, Xu Miyu felt utterly drained. The first had left her a negative review for unsatisfactory service, while the second had nearly cost her her job—if she hadn’t been able to prove her innocence.
Already mentally exhausted, Xu Miyu proceeded to clean over a dozen rooms in a row. Her physical strength was nearly depleted as well.
To make matters worse, with the group checkout, there were too many people and too much luggage, and the bellhops were temporarily understaffed. Xu Miyu was pulled in to help as a temporary bellhop, assisting guests as they left the hotel.
After seeing off guest after guest, Xu Miyu thought she could finally go upstairs, change out of her uniform, and head home.
But just as one tour group left, another arrived. The bellhops were still short-handed, so Xu Miyu was once again tasked with helping escort the newly arrived guests to their rooms with their luggage.
One of the guests who had just checked in told Xu Miyu, “Please come up with me now.”
So she followed behind the guest, pushing their luggage and dragging her leaden feet, each step heavier than the last, as she made her way toward the elevator area.
She was utterly exhausted—both mentally and physically—to the point of numbness.She stood in the elevator area, waiting somewhat absentmindedly.
The elevator arrived. When the doors opened, there were more people than she had expected, streaming out one after another. Xu Miyu, afraid of blocking the guests' way, quickly stepped back to make room.
Exhausted and off her game, she focused on moving forward without checking behind her. As she retreated, she accidentally bumped into someone behind her.
Realizing she was near the VIP elevator and had collided with a VIP guest descending from the top floor, Xu Miyu snapped out of her daze. She immediately steadied herself, turned around, and bowed her head in a swift apology, silently praying that the VIP guest wasn't Ji Feng—the one who always looked at her with disgust.
When she looked up, her prayer went unanswered.
The person she had bumped into was indeed Ji Feng.
She felt a wave of frustration. Why did she always manage to cross paths with him?
Unsurprisingly, his face showed clear annoyance and displeasure at being disturbed, and he spat out an impatient rebuke: "Can't you ever watch where you're going, Xu Miyu?"
Xu Miyu lowered her eyes and apologized again.
Another elevator arrived, and she hurriedly pushed her luggage inside, following the other guests as if fleeing.
Ji Feng watched as the elevator doors closed, taking that detestable woman away.
Now, irritation and vexation rose in his heart.
How had he ended up remembering her name?
At that thought, he turned around, narrowed his eyes, and glared coldly at Xue Rui behind him, his gaze sharp as a blade.
It was all his fault—who told him to say her full name in front of him?
Xue Rui, intimidated by the glare, looked fearful and uneasy.
"B-Boss, the car is already waiting outside the hotel..." he urged cautiously.
Ji Feng shot him another piercing look before turning away and continuing forward.
Xue Rui quickly followed.
Once in the car, Ji Feng immediately took off his shoes, which had been scuffed on the toe, and changed into the slippers prepared in advance.
That woman looked thin, but she had quite the foot strength—she had nearly flattened the tip of his shoe. If she had stepped directly on his foot, he might have ended up with a broken toe.
Frowning irritably, he instructed Xue Rui in the passenger seat, "We're not going to the meeting first. Head to the mall to buy me a new pair of shoes."
Xue Rui promptly told the driver to turn the car around.
After a while, he slowly turned around, trying to sneak a glance at Ji Feng's expression to see if it had improved.
He knew what had been bothering Ji Feng earlier—he had blurted out Xu Miyu's name, the one name Ji Feng never wanted to remember but had somehow memorized—and Ji Feng was blaming him for it.
As he shifted his gaze gradually, he could see Ji Feng's shoulders. They were perfectly still, suggesting calm. Moving a bit further, he saw his neck. The Adam's apple was motionless, indicating no emotional turmoil. Reassured, he shifted his gaze a little more to directly observe Ji Feng's eyes.
The moment he met Ji Feng's gaze, Xue Rui shivered involuntarily.
Ji Feng's face showed no emotion, but his eyes were filled with mockery and anger as they fixed on him.
Xue Rui instinctively started to turn his head away.
"Turn back," Ji Feng commanded coldly.
Xue Rui obediently turned his head back toward the rear, twisting his body halfway, his face full of deference as he asked, "Mr. Ji, do you have any instructions?"Ji Feng paused for two seconds, then narrowed his eyes and asked impatiently: "Is this hotel too small? Why do I keep running into her? Explain this to me."
"..." Xue Rui felt his job responsibilities were becoming increasingly complex and diverse—now even the probability of human encounters fell under his jurisdiction.
"It's... not exactly 'keep running into,' is it?" Xue Rui racked his brains, answering with a strong will to survive. "Look, you go up and down these floors quite frequently every day—morning runs, going to the company, meeting clients, conferences, inspecting performance, business dinners... Counting it up, you make at least ten to twenty trips daily. Running into Xu Miyu during one of them doesn't seem particularly unlikely..."
Before his words had fully faded, Ji Feng furrowed his brows and narrowed his eyes, lowering and roughening his voice as he demanded, "Didn't I say not to use her full name?"
"..." Xue Rui desperately wanted to retort: Even if I don't say her full name, haven't you already memorized it anyway...
He clenched his jaw, afraid he might actually lose control and talk back to his boss.
He heard Ji Feng let out a derisive "Hah."
"What's the big deal about going up and down a dozen or twenty times a day? I don't want to run into her even once!"
Xue Rui could tell his boss was genuinely irritated, so he quickly and tactfully assured him: "Understood, President Ji. Don't worry, next time before you use the elevator, I'll scout the route for you first. I'll make absolutely sure you won't encounter Xu... won't encounter that woman on your way!"
Ji Feng shot Xue Rui another glance for a couple of seconds before finally letting him off.
When the car reached the vicinity of the mall, Xue Rui got out to buy dress shoes. Ji Feng, somewhat agitated, picked up his tablet, opened the app called "Breeze Manor" on the screen, and started harvesting land and planting crops.
As his fingers tapped the screen, the pressure he applied unconsciously became heavier than usual.
After planting the crops, he tossed the tablet aside. His gaze drifted downward and slid over the shoes with their crushed toes.
Immediately, a wave of disgust began to surge up inside him. He forced himself to suppress this feeling and told himself that the woman was too insignificant, not worth wasting any emotion on.
Xue Rui returned with a pair of brand-new shoes, opened the car door, and handed them to him to try on.
The shoes fit perfectly, and the leather was soft yet resilient, not stiff at all.
But he still felt disgusted. He was disgusted at running into that woman for no reason, disgusted at having his shoes dirtied by her, and utterly disgusted at having remembered her name for no reason.
In the afternoon, she had been accused by a guest of stealing belongings. Judging by her earlier demeanor—distracted, dejected, and lifeless—she probably couldn't clear her name. So after tonight, she would likely be fired.
That was just fine.
At least he wouldn't have the misfortune of running into her again.
After settling the latest group of arriving guests, Xu Miyu was finally off work.
By the time she rushed to the cafeteria, the vegetables and meat had already been served out, and the rice was almost cold. Summoning her energy, Xu Miyu scooped a bowl of cold rice, poured a ladle of vegetable broth over it, and carried it to her seat to make do.
She was utterly exhausted—both mentally and physically. It didn't matter what the food tasted like; even if it was as bland as wax, she had to chew it down quickly to fill her stomach and regain some strength.
This kind of life was something she had never experienced before. It was a bit tough, but she didn't have the energy to lament too much. Pushed forward step by step by life, living in a state of exhausted numbness, the bitterness seemed to fade from notice.
Xu Miyu ate the cold rice mixed with broth bite by bite, numbly thinking that nothing could possibly make her feel more worn out and burdened than she did now.
Until her phone dinged with a notification. She picked it up to look.
In that moment, she knew her earlier thought had been wrong.
It was a message from Xu Mibao.
Reading the content of the message, a mouthful of cold rice stuck in Xu Miyu's throat.
She put down her chopsticks, unable to eat any more.
In the message, Xu Mibao was cursing her for not sending the money he expected. He ranted that if his lifelong happiness was ruined because of her, he would make sure she didn't have it easy either.His cursing was vicious and filthy. Xu Miyu thought, if he had even a shred of upbringing, if he felt even a trace of familial affection for her, he wouldn’t have hurled such filthy insults at her.
She picked up her phone, cleared her meal tray, and stood up to leave.
Just as she stepped out of the hotel through the staff entrance, her phone rang again. This time, it wasn’t the chime of a text message but the persistent ringing of an incoming call.
Xu Miyu sighed as she looked at the caller ID. It was Jiao Xiumei.
The sky was half-lit, half-dark—the sun had already set, but the moon had yet to rise. Xu Miyu stood under the shade of a street-side tree, the cool evening breeze cutting through her thin blouse.
Her heart felt as murky and cold as the sky.
She answered the call, and Jiao Xiumei’s voice wailed through the phone: "Third Daughter, are you even my child anymore? Do you have any conscience at all? It’s been so many days, and you haven’t even called to ask how I’m doing. Do you no longer care about your mother?"
Standing in the cool night breeze, Xu Miyu thought to herself, in all these days, had anyone bothered to ask her how she was doing lately?
She wanted to get rid of Jiao Xiumei quickly, so she asked, "Well then, Ms. Jiao, how have you been lately?"
Jiao Xiumei immediately replied, "Ms. Jiao has truly lived up to her name lately—burned to a crisp, overwhelmed with worries! Third Daughter, let me tell you, your brother has a girlfriend now. If everything goes smoothly, they could get married soon!"
Xu Miyu wondered, what exactly did "everything goes smoothly" mean?
She didn’t have to ask—Jiao Xiumei eagerly filled her in: "You see, your brother already has a house, and with the three of you sisters helping him pay off the mortgage, he’s not really burdened by debt. The girl’s family is quite satisfied with that. The only thing missing now is the bride price—they’re asking for 200,000 yuan."
Hearing that amount, Xu Miyu’s already numb heart gave another painful jolt.
She told Jiao Xiumei, "Then let Xu Mibao go out and earn the bride price money himself. He shouldn’t just stay idle at home all day."
Jiao Xiumei immediately snapped back, "If you can find your brother a job that pays 200,000, I’ll send him to work tomorrow! But there’s no suitable job right now. Do you think he wants to stay home and do nothing?"
Irritated, Xu Miyu said, "Then let our eldest sister arrange for him to work as a server at the hotel too. Even if he can’t earn 200,000, at least he’ll have some income instead of constantly leeching off the three of us sisters."
Jiao Xiumei was not pleased: "Having your brother work as a servant like you? Absolutely not! He’s the only son of our Xu family, raised with care and affection. He can’t suffer like that. But if he could get a job at your hotel where he just delivers meals, dresses nicely, and doesn’t work too hard—that would be acceptable."
Xu Miyu laughed coldly. Jiao Xiumei’s double standards struck her as absurd.
And Jiao Xiumei continued her ridiculous spiel: "Third Daughter, to buy your brother that house, everyone in the family has been squeezed dry." Here, she paused for effect, then emphasized her next words, "Except for you!"
A sense of crisis surged in Xu Miyu: "What do you mean, except for me? I’m the one who’s been squeezed the most!"Jiao Xiumei immediately retorted: "No! You're not!" After a pause, she explained, "Third daughter, you're different. Your two older sisters, your father, and I—we have no connections, we can't even borrow money if we try. But Third Daughter, you have the connections to borrow money! If you're just willing to ask Nie Yucheng to lend you two hundred thousand, he'd definitely give it to you without even expecting repayment! Before your divorce, I, Ms. Jiao, saw it clearly—Nie Yucheng still has feelings for you."
Listening to her mother's words, Xu Miyu felt her chest tighten and her legs go weak.
She walked to the roadside under a parasol tree, leaned against the trunk, closed her eyes, and said to the person on the phone, "Mom, that's impossible. Put that idea out of your mind."
Her refusal provoked Jiao Xiumei's furious outburst. Her voice suddenly raised an octave through the phone: "What? You want me to put that idea out of my mind? Why don't you just tell me to drop dead? Let me tell you, Little Surplus, as a child, you can't be like this—you're heartless and ungrateful! I'm laying it out for you today: your brother's two hundred thousand wedding money must be solved by you! I'm giving you one week. If you don't care about your brother's life or death, it means you have no regard for me as your mother. When that time comes, I'll smash my head right in front of you, so every time you close your eyes, you'll see how miserably I died!"
After delivering her threat, Jiao Xiumei hung up.
Xu Miyu felt the world spinning. She leaned against the tree trunk for a long time before regaining her strength.
Walking back to the dormitory with increasingly unsteady steps, she thought bitterly that Jiao Xiumei really overestimated her. Hadn't her eldest sister Xu Mizi told her that Nie Yucheng already had a new lover in his arms?
As for this two hundred thousand, she feared she couldn't get it even by selling her body or kidneys. Maybe she should just smash her head in front of Jiao Xiumei first.
Perhaps because she had reached the limits of physical and mental exhaustion, Xu Miyu slept surprisingly well that night.
When she woke up, it was already past nine. She quickly washed up, ate something, and hurried to the hotel.
After changing clothes, Xu Miyu planned to go to the housekeeping department to find Zhang Cailu. But as she approached the housekeeping department, she saw Yin Xiang.
Yin Xiang was leaning against the corridor wall, half-bent over and panting. When she saw Xu Miyu, it was like seeing a savior.
"Sister Xu, I got a stitch in my side while spreading bedsheets earlier, and now my stomach hurts terribly. There's an old man in the business suite requesting room cleaning, but I really can't straighten up right now. Could you go for me?"
Xu Miyu watched as Yin Xiang spoke while hissing through her teeth. This time, her stomach pain didn't seem fake.
So she said, "Okay, I'll go for you, but I need to check with the supervisor first. I wasn't here this morning—she's probably cleaning the rooms assigned to me."
As they were talking, someone emerged from a guest room not far away and pushed a linen cart toward them against the light.
As the person approached, Xu Miyu recognized her—it was Zhang Cailu.
Before Xu Miyu could go to meet her, Zhang Cailu had already reached them.
"Elder Sister Xu, didn't I tell you to rest properly in the dormitory this morning? Why didn't you rest a bit longer before coming?" Zhang Cailu parked the linen cart and walked over to Xu Miyu.
Then, without waiting for Xu Miyu to respond, she glanced to the side and saw Yin Xiang bent over against the wall. With a surprised tone, she said, "Xiao Xiang, I remember that business suite requested cleaning service ten minutes ago. Why haven't you gone yet?"Yin Xiang grimaced and replied to her: "I've got a stitch, my stomach hurts, Sister Xu said she'd go for me!"
Zhang Cailu immediately said: "Sister Xu was exhausted yesterday, let her rest a bit more, don't keep ordering her around."
Xu Miyu felt warmed by these words.
Yin Xiang defended herself: "I'm not ordering her around! Sister Xu really offered to help me herself!"
Zhang Cailu shook her head at her with a smile: "You, I know you too well. Seriously Xiao Xiang, although Sister Xu is older than you, she's new here. You should take better care of newcomers!"
Yin Xiang bent over clutching her stomach and looked up at Zhang Cailu. She usually fawned over Zhang Cailu the most because she was her supervisor.
Whenever she looked at any supervisor or wealthy customer, her eyes always held an ingratiating, even somewhat flattering expression.
But right now her eyes held a hint of defiance and even mockery.
Xu Miyu felt somewhat surprised.
Then she heard Yin Xiang laugh and say to Zhang Cailu: "Boss, listening to you, I can hardly tell whether you're being sincere or sarcastic!"
Zhang Cailu patted her shoulder: "Speak properly, why so passive-aggressive." Then she turned to ask Xu Miyu, "So Sister Xu, are you sure you can go clean the room instead of Yin Xiang? Don't overexert yourself."
Xu Miyu quickly said: "It's fine, I'm not tired. I'll go clean that business room right away."
As she took the linen cart, she made sure to thank Zhang Cailu: "Thank you, supervisor, for doing several rooms for me this morning."
Zhang Cailu waved her hand and told her with a smile not to mention it.
Xu Miyu couldn't help but feel warmed again.
Xu Miyu pushed the cart to the business room originally assigned to Yin Xiang.
She knocked gently and announced herself as housekeeping.
The next second, the door was yanked open from inside. A red-faced old man with white hair stood angrily in the doorway, booming: "I asked for room service ten minutes ago! Why did it take you so long to come?!"
Xu Miyu quickly apologized, "Mr. Cui, I'm truly sorry."
She apologized for a full three minutes before Old Man Cui calmed down slightly and stepped aside to let her enter the room.
While Xu Miyu cleaned, Old Man Cui stood watch like a foreman, his eyes beaming like thousand-watt bulbs onto Xu Miyu's hands and body, scrutinizing her every move.
If anything was even slightly out of place, his red face would turn even redder, and he'd roar: "Wrong! You're not doing it right! Do it over! Or I'll give you an unsatisfactory service review!"
Xu Miyu knew she couldn't afford another unsatisfactory review - one more and she'd likely be packing her bags.
She had to rearrange everything, to the point where she nearly went to borrow a ruler to measure.
She thought this old gentleman wasn't just difficult - he was someone whose OCD had persisted into old age.
Xu Miyu worked with extreme care, afraid of displeasing Old Man Cui. But when she hung his bathrobe, he suddenly exploded.
He yelled that the bathrobe was wrong - the two sides of the front weren't symmetrical, the left was definitely longer than the right.
Xu Miyu couldn't see any difference in length no matter how she looked.
Adhering to the principle of customer first and avoiding bad reviews, Xu Miyu thought she'd just get the old man a different bathrobe.
But the old man refused - he insisted on proving that this particular bathrobe had uneven sides.Xu Miyu was gaining a deeper understanding of what it meant to deal with a difficult person.
But seeing the old man's red-faced, insistent anger, she had no choice but to go to the housekeeping department and fetch a ruler. She meticulously measured the bathrobe.
Sure enough, there was a slight discrepancy—about two millimeters.
This was clearly within the acceptable margin of error.
But the obsessive old man refused to let it slide, not even a little.
Seeing the two-millimeter difference, the old man seemed satisfied and even cracked a smile on his flushed face: "See? I told you the bathrobe isn't the same length on both sides. It's uncomfortable for me to wear!"
After proving his point, he finally agreed to let Xu Miyu replace the bathrobe with a new one.
However, she had to measure the new bathrobe just as meticulously, and only when the measurements showed no discrepancy would the old man accept it.
Xu Miyu nearly exhausted herself measuring bathrobes.
Later, she wised up a bit. While measuring, she would either loosen or tighten the ruler slightly, and the few millimeters of error finally disappeared.
The bathrobe ordeal was finally over.
Xu Miyu thought she had passed the test, but reality proved her too optimistic.
As soon as the bathrobe torment ended, a new torment with the bedsheet began.
The old man insisted that the newly laid bedsheet had wrinkles.
Xu Miyu took a look and immediately felt speechless.
The "wrinkle" the old man was referring to was actually the crease left from folding the bedsheet—a clear sign that the sheet was clean and new. How could that be considered a wrinkle?
But Old Man Cui refused to accept Xu Miyu's explanation or listen to her reasoning that "the creases will disappear on their own after a while." He demanded that she iron the "wrinkles" flat immediately, right then and there.
Xu Miyu was at her wit's end. Old Man Cui had worn down all her patience.
She could only do her best to meet the guest's demands.
So she had no choice but to remove the bedsheet, carefully iron it on the ironing board, and then put it back on the bed.
While making the bed, she followed the standard procedure of shaking out the sheet. Because she did it so gracefully, the old man demanded, "Hey, don't lay it down yet! Shake it out a couple more times for me to see! Do it properly, or I'll mark your service as unsatisfactory!"
"..."
Xu Miyu had never encountered a customer with such a request. She doubted any other staff had either.
She had no choice but to shake out the sheet a few more times, her arms nearly flying off with the motion.
As her arms grew too tired to lift, Xu Miyu couldn't help but wonder: Was Yin Xiang really suffering from a stomachache? Did she know how difficult Old Man Cui was and use the "stomachache" as an excuse to pass this troublesome guest to her?
Just as she was thinking this, Old Man Cui's loud voice rang in her ears again: "Oh, and since you're already ironing, go ahead and iron my towels and bath towels too. I only feel comfortable using them when they're perfectly smooth. Don't even try to argue that it's unnecessary because they'll just get wrinkled again. If you give me any lip, I'll give you a bad service rating. I know how many bad ratings it takes for someone like you to get fired!"
"..." Xu Miyu was both speechless and a little angry.
Rules, in the hands of difficult people, became weapons to hurt others.
But she had no way to fight against the rules. She could only yield, reluctantly picking up the iron again to press the towels and bath towels.Old Man Cui had Xu Miyu running around for over an hour doing this and that. In the end, she even ironed his shoe insoles and polished his leather shoes until they gleamed, serving him so thoroughly it was almost like she was about to feed him by hand.
The old man, thoroughly pleased with being waited on, broke into a broad smile on his ruddy face and said, "Hmm, you've got quite a good temper. I know the other service staff—even though they smile at me—are cursing me in their hearts for being a nuisance. I’m well aware of that. But you, I can see clearly, you aren’t cursing me in your heart. That’s good."
Xu Miyu thought to herself that she was just too mentally exhausted to bother cursing.
After finally finishing serving Old Man Cui, Xu Miyu felt it was truly dreadful. Tending to this one occupied room was more exhausting than cleaning ten dirty rooms.
But exhaustion wasn’t the worst part. The most terrifying thing was that as she was about to leave, she heard Old Man Cui say to her, "Hey, let me take a look at your name tag. Oh, your name is... Xu Miyu, right? Well, I’m very satisfied with you. From now on, whenever I stay here, I’ll specifically request you to clean my room!"
"..." Xu Miyu had always longed for recognition. But today, this kind of recognition made her legs go weak with fear.
Xue Rui had been shuttling between the top floor and the executive level these past few days, relaying messages between Ji Feng and the potential partner.
Ji Feng disliked the potential partner’s habit of agreeing readily at first and then gradually adding more demands. So he simply stopped dealing with them directly, sending Xue Rui instead to negotiate with his chattering. Nine times out of ten, Xue Rui’s incessant talking would wear down the other party’s patience until they stopped making additional demands.
That morning, Xue Rui went to the executive lounge on the executive level to deliver documents to the potential partner on Ji Feng’s behalf.
When he passed by the executive lounge, he noticed a room with its door open. Inside, a white-haired, ruddy-faced old man was bullying a frail-looking service staff member, ordering her to do one thing after another.
He recalled Li Kunlun’s gossip earlier: there was a regular guest in the executive business section, an old man with white hair and a ruddy complexion, who was extremely difficult to deal with. Every service staff member he had bullied ended up bursting into tears—he was practically a service staff killer.
Glancing into the room, he felt a pang of sympathy for that slender, beleaguered figure.
Over an hour later, after he had finished his business in the executive lounge on Ji Feng’s behalf and was heading back, he passed by the same room again. To his surprise, he saw that the service staff member wasn’t crying at all. Instead, the white-haired, ruddy-faced old man was actually praising her, saying that from now on, he would specifically request her for room cleaning.
Xue Rui looked at the service staff member’s slender back and thought, It seems she has some skills.
When that slender figure turned around, Xue Rui was immediately taken aback.
It was actually that Xu Miyu.
He watched as Xu Miyu pushed her linen cart toward another room to clean.
He couldn’t help but think, So she actually didn’t get fired yesterday.
She actually survived that theft crisis.
So, she really does have some skills.
Watching Xu Miyu’s retreating figure as she disappeared into another room, Xue Rui couldn’t help but wonder what expression the boss would have when he found out she hadn’t been fired.
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