Before Xu Miyu arrived at the lobby, both Shi Huanhuan and Lu Xiaoyan felt somewhat uneasy.
They knew that although Xu Miyu had her own ideas, her overall personality tended to be soft. Her decisions always prioritized the guests' interests, focusing on tolerance and customer satisfaction, placing their needs above all else.
For instance, when that difficult old man had been so troublesome and unreasonable before, she had consistently sided with him. Therefore, if these slightly arrogant and somewhat overbearing man and woman insisted on checking in or demanded an apology, they weren't sure whether Xu Miyu would make them apologize just to settle the matter peacefully.
After all, even though their attitude toward her had been gradually changing recently, it hadn't truly become warm and intimate yet.
They waited anxiously for Xu Miyu to handle the situation, uncertain of what the outcome would be.
When Xu Miyu arrived at the front lobby, she quickly assessed the situation and then smiled politely at the male and female customers.
Seeing her display such a friendly and amiable demeanor, Shi Huanhuan and Lu Xiaoyan felt their hearts ease, thinking she would compromise with these peculiar guests.
But the moment Xu Miyu spoke, their spirits lifted.
"Sir, I'm sorry, but our hotel is a non-smoking establishment. Please extinguish your cigarette. Ma'am, I apologize that you've had a negative experience, but our front desk staff is correct. Considering the stay experience of the majority of our other guests, our hotel indeed does not allow pets, especially ones that might cause fear among other customers."
"Stop calling it a pet! I've already said, Xiaoqing isn't a pet—it's my family, my family!" the smoky-eyed woman snapped impatiently at Xu Miyu.
Xu Miyu ignored her for the moment, maintaining a smile but persistently looking at the eyeliner-wearing man, signaling him to put out his cigarette.
The eyeliner man provocatively took a deep drag and blew the smoke directly into Xu Miyu's face.
Shi Huanhuan and Lu Xiaoyan, watching from the side, visibly paled. They both felt the eyeliner man was deliberately trying to humiliate and provoke Xu Miyu.
But Xu Miyu kept her smile, her expression unchanged and unprovoked.
The smoky-eyed woman continued slapping the marble counter of the front desk, making loud noises as she said, "Hurry up and get us a room! I'm exhausted!"
Xu Miyu looked at the eyeliner man, then at the smoky-eyed woman. She repeated, gently but firmly, that smoking indoors was not allowed and that pets—even those considered family—could not be brought into the hotel. However, the eyeliner man and smoky-eyed woman remained indifferent, casually urging Xu Miyu to stop talking nonsense and quickly check them in, or else they would complain to the consumer association.
Xu Miyu smiled, picked up the walkie-talkie, and directly called security.
Shi Huanhuan and Lu Xiaoyan exchanged glances. They hadn't expected Xu Miyu to be so resolute even when facing customers who acted like they were gods.When the couple heard Xu Miyu call for security, they immediately erupted. The man with eyeliner threw the half-smoked cigarette to the ground and pointed at Xu Miyu, shouting, "Who do you think you are? You want to call security to kick us out? What kind of attitude is that? Get your manager here! Get your boss here too! Damn my temper—if I don’t teach you, you, and you a lesson today, I’m not Chinese!" He jabbed his finger at Xu Miyu and the two behind her, Shi Huanhuan and Lu Xiaoyan, yelling, "Hurry up and get your manager here!"
Soon, the lobby manager arrived as well.
Xu Miyu found the scene absurdly amusing, as if this troublesome couple had started a game of summoning people. After calling her and the manager over one after another, they stubbornly insisted on summoning the boss too, demanding an explanation.
The manager tentatively contacted Xue Rui, the assistant to the boss, and received a blunt reply: "Are they dreaming, or are you out of your mind, bothering the boss with such trivial nonsense?"
After hanging up, Ji Feng asked Xue Rui what had happened.
Xue Rui explained, "There are two troublemakers in the lobby—one smoking, the other carrying a snake—demanding to check in. The front desk staff told them they couldn’t stay with such a pet, and they blew up. They started summoning people, first Mi Yu, then the lobby manager, and now they’re delusional enough to want the boss to come down too. They’re asking why they can’t stay and threatening to report us to the consumer association."
Ji Feng raised an eyebrow. "What did you say?"
Xue Rui paused. "You heard me just now—I told the lobby manager he must be out of his mind to bother you with this nonsense."
Ji Feng nodded. "Good answer." After a moment, he added, "Let’s go down and take a look."
"???" Xue Rui was baffled.
"Boss, aren’t you giving these troublemakers too much face?" He was reluctant to let Ji Feng be summoned by those two monsters and demons.
"Who said I’m giving them face?" Ji Feng was already heading toward the door. Without looking back, he said as he walked, "I’m too bored. Let’s go down and watch the show to unwind."
After accompanying Ji Feng downstairs, Xue Rui followed him to the open café on the first floor of the lobby, taking advantage of everyone’s attention being focused on the front desk.
Ji Feng chose a booth with a good vantage point, ordered a coffee, and lazily sipped it while observing the commotion at the front desk.
The two guests—a man with eyeliner and a woman with makeup reminiscent of Mei Chaofeng—were relentlessly harassing the lobby manager. They demanded three concessions before they would back down: allow them to check in with Xiao Qing, whom they claimed was family, not a pet; stop interfering with their smoking, which they insisted was their right; and penalize the two junior staff and one senior staff member behind the manager who had been disrespectful and unsatisfactory to them by deducting their bonuses. Otherwise, they vowed to make trouble for the three employees and the hotel.
Xue Rui glanced at Ji Feng, who was watching with disdain, his eyes and brows dripping with sarcasm. When he looked at someone with that expression, it felt as though he could bury them six feet under.
Xue Rui couldn’t help but mutter, "How can such uncivilized creatures still exist in a civilized society? Boss, should I go over and back up Mi Yu?"He was itching to get up, but Ji Feng's sharp glare pinned him back into his seat.
"Are you close with her? Or are you just too full and bored? With the lobby manager overseeing things, if she can't even handle this minor issue properly, she doesn't deserve to be a supervisor."
Xue Rui obediently settled back down, not daring to offer any more unsolicited opinions.
At the front desk, after hearing the demands of the man and woman, Xu Miyu stepped forward once again.
Standing in front of Shi Huanhuan and Lu Xiaoyan, she spoke gently but firmly: "I am their supervisor. They are simply following my instructions and acting according to the hotel's regulations. If you have any dissatisfaction, please direct it at me. If you insist on filing a complaint, you can put it on my record. I will accept it."
Shi Huanhuan and Lu Xiaoyan immediately exchanged glances, feeling touched by her words.
The lobby manager picked up where Xu Miyu left off: "Well, I am her supervisor, and she is following my instructions to enforce the hotel's regulations. If you insist on filing a complaint, then as the manager, I should be the one to take responsibility. However, if you insist on smoking in the hotel and bringing your pets to stay, I'm very sorry, but we cannot accommodate you."
Hearing how united they were in standing against them, the couple grew furious and began making an even bigger scene.
The security guards stepped forward, ready to escort the pair out, but before they could even lay a hand on them, the man and woman started screaming. The woman yelled, "Husband, they're harassing me!" while the man shouted, "How dare you harass my wife!" The guards froze in alarm, not daring to touch them.
The lobby manager had no choice but to try and handle the situation as politely as possible.
Meanwhile, Xu Miyu quietly retreated behind the front desk. She walked over to a computer, bent down, and quickly began searching for something.
Shi Huanhuan leaned in and whispered, "Supervisor, the security guards are afraid to touch the woman, but they can handle the man. Should I call a couple of cleaning ladies to help and just escort them out?"
Lu Xiaoyan nodded vigorously beside her.
Still scrolling with the mouse, Xu Miyu replied, "I originally wanted to have security politely ask them to leave, but now it seems that if security or the cleaning staff lay a hand on them, they'll just drop to the ground and try to extort us. Even though we're in the right and aren't afraid to involve the police, if this drags on or the police show up, it will affect other guests' experience. We need to find another way to resolve this quickly."
Just as Shi Huanhuan was about to ask Xu Miyu what she had in mind, the situation with the manager took a turn for the worse.
The smoky-eyed woman waved the green snake coiled around her arm threateningly at the manager. As he dodged, he accidentally pushed her arm, and she immediately took the opportunity to drop to the ground, screaming, "Help! The hotel manager is hitting me!" The man with the heavy eyeliner rushed over, shoved the manager, and raised his fist to strike. Security guards rushed forward to block him, but he, too, dropped to the ground, joining the woman in shouting, "They're hitting us! Call the police! The hotel staff are assaulting us!"
Shi Huanhuan and Lu Xiaoyan stared, mouths agape, at the scene unfolding before them.
Then they turned to Xu Miyu and exclaimed, "Supervisor, you predicted their behavior perfectly!"Xu Miyu couldn't help but smile bitterly to herself. Her ability to accurately predict such shameless behavior stemmed from Jiao Xiumei staging an identical scene here not long ago. Could this even be called foresight? It was merely the residue of her own humiliating past experiences.
After confirming what she needed on the computer, Xu Miyu immediately straightened up and smiled at Shi Huanhuan and Lu Xiaoyan, who had been waiting nearby to see what she intended to do.
From that smile, Shi Huanhuan and Lu Xiaoyan seemed to glimpse a ray of hope.
The printer whirred to life, spitting out several printed pages. Xu Miyu retrieved the papers, walked out from behind the front desk, and approached the couple sprawled on the floor putting on an exaggerated show of distress. The pair were loudly declaring that unless the manager compensated them ten thousand yuan for medical expenses, they would immediately call the police and accuse him of pushing and assaulting them.
From his booth in the café, Ji Feng narrowed his eyes.
The scene felt intensely familiar.
The last person lying on the ground here, refusing to get up while making a scene, had been Xu Miyu's mother. Back then, Xu Miyu had been utterly helpless in the face of such a spectacle.
He watched intently, curious to see whether Xu Miyu would react differently this time.
Xu Miyu approached the couple but didn’t plead with them to get up and discuss things calmly. Nor did she summon security to unceremoniously toss them out.
Instead, she gracefully crouched down, leaned forward, and carefully examined the small green snake coiled around the smoky-eyed woman’s arm.
The woman grew uneasy under her gaze and snapped, "What are you staring at? Don’t scare it, okay!"
Xu Miyu turned to her with a smile. "Ma’am, do you know what breed your companion here is?" she asked, posing an unrelated question.
The woman retorted irritably, "Why does that matter?"
Xu Miyu replied pleasantly, "Well, ma’am, the moment you walked in, I thought your companion looked rather unusual. You might have been keeping it as an ordinary snake, but I’ve just verified—look closely at its body, it has yellow patterns. This indicates that the companion on your arm is a nationally protected Class II animal."
The woman stared blankly.
Xue Rui was also taken aback. "Wow, it’s a rare species!"
But he heard Ji Feng snort derisively. Glancing over, he saw Ji Feng curling his lip in a faint, mocking smile.
Puzzled, Xue Rui was about to ask when Xu Miyu spoke again, so he turned his attention back to her.
"Ma’am, are you sure you want to call the police? You see, there was a news report about someone who stole bird nests and sold the birds—unfortunately, those birds turned out to be nationally protected animals. That person was convicted of illegal hunting and purchasing of precious, endangered wildlife and sentenced to ten years in prison. If the police see your companion here..." She paused, thoughtfully leaving the sentence unfinished, then asked considerately, "Ma’am, do you still insist on calling the police?"
The smoky-eyed woman and the man with eyeliner exchanged glances. The man, half-doubting and half-convinced, blustered, "Stop trying to scare us!"
Xu Miyu handed them the papers she had printed earlier.
"Here’s the news article I mentioned about the bird nest incident and the sentencing. And on the last page, you’ll find a comparison between your companion and the nationally protected Class II animal."
The two quickly flipped through the pages, their expressions shifting noticeably.Xu Miyu seized the opportunity to stand up and addressed the manager as if seeking guidance: "Manager, if we discover that a hotel guest is carrying a national second-class protected animal, are we obligated to report it to the police and provide them with the details?"
The manager immediately understood her implication and played along: "Of course, that is the responsibility and duty of every law-abiding citizen!"
Xu Miyu signaled Shi Huanhuan and Lu Xiaoyan with her eyes.
The two caught on quickly—one said, "Then let’s call the police right now to report it!" while the other pretended to pick up the phone and dial 110.
The man and woman immediately scrambled up from the floor, shouting, "We’re not even guests at your hotel! Mind your own business!"
With that, the two turned and fled the hotel, stumbling out in a panic.
The hotel lobby instantly became clean and tranquil again.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Xu Miyu’s legs weakened, and she staggered slightly. Earlier, she had forced herself to appear calm while staring at the green snake, acting as if she weren’t afraid. But in reality, she had been so terrified that her back was drenched in cold sweat.
Steadying herself, she exchanged smiles with the lobby manager, Shi Huanhuan, Lu Xiaoyan, the security guards, and the receptionists.
A sense of harmony silently dissolved into those shared smiles.
This farce of a scene had, in fact, fused them into a united collective.
From the booth, Xue Rui couldn’t help but marvel: "Last time, when Mi Yu faced her mother’s tantrum here, she was completely at a loss and let herself be trampled on. But now, she can resolve problems with ease and grace, as if she’s a completely different person. Her progress is truly remarkable."
After a pause, he added, "Not only that, but I also feel that through this incident, she seems to have fully integrated into her new department and new team."
He turned to look at Ji Feng: "Although Mi Yu’s way of 'leveling up and fighting monsters' in her new department is pretty much the same as before—winning over those who doubted her—I can’t help but feel happy for her, as if she’s achieved something new again!"
Ji Feng raised an eyebrow and looked back at Xue Rui, asking, "Do you really think it’s the same?"
Xue Rui was taken aback: "Huh?"
"Do you think," Ji Feng asked him calmly, "that Xu Miyu’s method of 'leveling up and fighting monsters' in the Front Office Department is the same as in the Housekeeping Department?"
"Isn’t... isn’t it the same?"
Ji Feng lifted one corner of his mouth in a faint smile. "A divorced housewife, parachuted into two different departments in a short time and continuously promoted—it’s obvious she’d face resistance and skepticism wherever she goes. So yes, the challenges Xu Miyu faced in the Front Office and Housekeeping Departments were indeed similar. But..."
Ji Feng paused here, his gaze shifting past Xue Rui to Xu Miyu near the front desk, before continuing, "Her method of 'leveling up and fighting monsters'—how she wins over those who doubt her—is actually different. And this difference precisely bears witness to her..."
Ji Feng suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
Xue Rui felt unbearably anxious, as if his heart and liver were itching. If bowing would help, he’d gladly kowtow to Ji Feng right then, begging him to finish his sentence instead of leaving him hanging like this.
He pleaded with Ji Feng, "Boss, please go on! What does it precisely bear witness to?"Ji Feng shifted the topic: "The first time Xu Miyu gained respect in the Housekeeping Department, it was through tactics—she first exposed others' mistakes before showing them leniency. But this second time, now in the Front Office Department, she's earning respect through her solid capabilities. Relying on tactics before was somewhat opportunistic and contingent; but now she can win people over with ability—what does that indicate?"
Xue Rui let out a long "Oh" upon hearing this.
It indicated that she had genuinely grown!
Following this conclusion, Xue Rui deduced what Ji Feng had left unsaid earlier—the difference in Xu Miyu's two approaches to overcoming challenges precisely reflected her growth.
In Ji Feng's eyes, Xu Miyu had grown. Yet he was too proud to say it outright, as if worried she might become arrogant if she knew he held such an opinion of her.
Xue Rui couldn't help but stifle a laugh. His boss seemed to have an endlessly convoluted and stubborn mindset.
He too shifted the topic, lavishing exaggerated and direct praise on Xu Miyu: "Boss, how is Mi Yu so amazing~ now? She even knew that snake was a nationally protected second-class animal!"
Ji Feng let out a derisive snort.
Xue Rui asked in confusion, "What's wrong, boss? Did I say something incorrect?"
Ji Feng still wore a faint, mocking smile, glanced at Xue Rui, and deigned to respond with a question: "Do you really think that was a nationally protected second-class animal? It was just an ordinary, worthless snake."
"Ah??" Xue Rui was completely baffled.
...What on earth was all this about?!
After the lobby returned to its usual harmony, those who had just witnessed the commotion gathered around Xu Miyu. They had many questions for her.
"Supervisor, aren't you afraid of snakes? How could you stare at it so intently?" a receptionist asked Xu Miyu.
"I am afraid, of course I am. But I couldn't show it, or I wouldn't have been able to intimidate them," Xu Miyu replied with a laugh.
"Supervisor Xu, how do you know so much? You could tell at a glance that it was a nationally protected second-class animal," a security guard couldn't help asking.
Xu Miyu smiled and said, "That was just an ordinary little green snake, not any protected animal."
Everyone was startled.
"Ah? Then what about that printed document you gave them 'proving' it was a nationally protected second-class animal?"
Xu Miyu explained with a laugh, "I found a picture of their type of green snake, then located an image of a nationally protected second-class snake, cropped and replaced the green snake's image, and printed it out after switching them."
Then she forced herself to overcome her fear, crouched in front of the two men, carefully observed their "family member," and put on an act to scare them off.
"If the snake they brought had really been a nationally protected second-class animal, I wouldn't have let them leave so easily. I would have called the police, because as the manager said earlier, that's our duty and responsibility as citizens," Xu Miyu continued with a smile.
After digesting the whole story, Lu Xiaoyan couldn't hold back from speaking first: "Wow, in such a short time, you came up with a complete plan—finding news articles, cropping images, switching pictures, printing, and then bluffing them. Supervisor Xu, I misjudged you. You're really something! No wonder Ke Wenxue said you have many ways to deal with difficult people. Now I believe her!"At her urging, others chimed in with good-natured teasing, voices rising in a chorus of "We're convinced, we're convinced!"
From the booth, Xue Rui slowly turned his head to look at Ji Feng.
He hadn't expected Ji Feng to have already seen through every one of Xu Miyu's actions from the start.
He thought Xu Miyu was already surprisingly clever, but Ji Feng—he had practically evolved into a terrifyingly shrewd creature.
In the lobby, Xu Miyu listened to those voices saying "We're convinced," feeling both happy and a little embarrassed.
Just then, the lobby manager spoke up.
He asked Xu Miyu, "I always thought you were someone with a soft personality, who would try to compromise with customers whenever issues arose. I never expected you to have such a firm side like you just showed."
Xu Miyu looked at the manager and said, "No matter how soft my personality is, I still have my own bottom line and principles to stand by."
She smiled and said, "I feel that although we're in the service industry, it doesn't mean we have to serve anyone unconditionally without principles. It's indeed crucial for five-star hotels to provide customers with value-for-money experiences, but we can't unconditionally cater to all kinds of unreasonable guests."
She pondered how to express her thoughts more precisely.
"I think the original intention of our service isn't to satisfy everyone, but to satisfy every deserving person. But those two people earlier simply weren't deserving."
Her words drew considerable agreement:
"That's right!"
"Exactly! We're just service industry workers, but we're really not slaves!"
"Agreed! Who even said customers are gods in the service industry? Why should that be? Good customers can play god if they must, but why should bad customers get to?"
Xue Rui couldn't help chiming in from the booth: "Boss, look - Mi Yu's kindness is starting to show its edge. She's no longer unconditionally catering to everyone, she's really grooown up!" He deliberately drew out the word "grown."
After speaking, he felt his cheek grow warm and turned to look.
Sure enough, Ji Feng was glaring at him.
"W-what's wrong, boss?" He felt inexplicably guilty under the stare, his tongue tripping over the words.
Ji Feng glared at Xue Rui and suddenly asked, "Praising her like that - do you have feelings for her?"
Xue Rui was terrified and immediately waved his hands emphatically: "No, no, it's just appreciation! I have an ironclad rule - absolutely no dating older women. Because I lack confidence in myself - if she's older than me, she might age faster, and I'm afraid I'd change my heart later."
Ji Feng narrowed his eyes at him as if looking at a scumbag.
"What does feelings have to do with age? That's all nonsense," he said disdainfully.
From across the lobby, they heard Xu Miyu seizing the moment to speak candidly with others: "Actually, all these scenarios today happened once before - to me. When my mother came to the hotel to make trouble before, you all probably saw it."
She smiled: "If it had been me back then facing today's situation, I probably would have unconditionally compromised with the guests. Because I was really weak and had a people-pleasing personality back then."
Here she sighed for her past self.
Then she continued with a gentle smile: "But afterward, someone told me that if I couldn't stand up for myself, I deserved to be trampled underfoot by others forever. So now, I'm working hard to change."
Xue Rui suddenly heard a slight noise beside him. He turned and guessed that Ji Feng had been slightly unsteady while holding his coffee cup, causing the porcelain cup to scrape against the saucer with a clear sound.
He briefly wondered that even Ji Feng could have shaky hands sometimes, then turned his attention back to Xu Miyu.
"Making everyone think I'm weak-willed, that I'd prioritize maintaining customer relations by compromising with guests, even potentially sacrificing our own team's feelings - these were my shortcomings before that made you worry," Xu Miyu looked at Shi Huanhuan and then Lu Xiaoyan. "But don't worry, there won't be such misunderstandings anymore, because before being someone who serves customers, I'm first and foremost your partner standing on the same front line as you."Ji Feng set down his coffee cup and said to Xue Rui, "Let's go, upstairs."
Xue Rui was still fired up by Xu Miyu's words and didn't want to leave, wanting to watch the front office department's harmonious reunion unfold.
But Ji Feng stood up and left immediately.
Xue Rui had no choice but to follow.
He asked Ji Feng unwillingly, "Boss, don't you want to see what happens next?"
Ji Feng stepped into the elevator, turned around facing outward, and stood confidently.
Xue Rui hurried in after him.
Before the elevator doors closed completely, Ji Feng looked through the narrowing gap at the figure in the lobby.
From today onward, she would completely integrate into her new department, uniting with its members as one cohesive force.
"What else is there to see?" he said indifferently.
There were no more uncertainties left to worry about.
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