In the afternoon, Xue Rui went downstairs on behalf of Ji Feng to collect documents sent from the company to the lobby.
After collecting the documents, he was in no hurry to go upstairs. He went to the cafe to buy a coffee, then walked to the front desk while drinking it.
One of the front desk servers on duty today was someone he recognized, named Lu Xiao Yan. She had a delicate appearance, but spoke without reservation. He also knew that Lu Xiao Yan, along with room service attendant Li Kun Lan, and another housekeeping server, were usually friends who gossiped together. When he occasionally couldn’t find Li Kun Lan, he would also go to Lu Xiao Yan to pump hotel gossip from her.
Since he was naturally chatty himself, and made an effort to use conversational skills, after a few times, Li Kun Lan and Lu Xiao Yan no longer treated him guardedly like VIP personnel from the top floor, instead they would excitedly share all kinds of gossip with him.
He needed to grasp all kinds of matters within the hotel, big and small, good and bad, inside and out, the glamorous side and the private underside, then report it all for Ji Feng to listen to.
Holding the coffee cup, he went to Lu Xiao Yan and first asked her several irrelevant questions about staying at the hotel, and brought up some negligible accommodation requests.
Then he casually asked: “Was there anything interesting going on in the hotel’s housekeeping department yesterday?”
Lu Xiao Yan’s expression instantly changed from a service smile to lively and vibrant.
Then she said to her coworker beside her: “The VIP from the top floor wants to ask me something, I’ll take him to the seating area to discuss in detail. It’s not busy at the front desk right now, you keep an eye out here.”
Then she brought Xue Rui to the lounge seating, and started pretentiously chitchatting idly.
Lu Xiao Yan told Xue Rui excitedly that she did indeed know what had happened in housekeeping yesterday, he had asked the right person.
She quickly summarized the incident yesterday where a female guest bullied a server, accusing her of stealing a diamond ring, then vividly reenacted how the server retaliated and utterly crushed that guest, exposing that the guest had ill intentions and deliberately framed her.
Xue Rui felt he had almost entered the scene as he listened.
But he also couldn’t help asking Lu Xiao Yan doubtfully, how did she know so much in such detail, as if she had witnessed it herself?
Lu Xiao Yan told him: “Of course I wasn’t there in person, but someone really was. At the time, there just happened to be a server from the admin floor passing by that room, she hid and eavesdropped. Then she told my good friend Ke Wen Xue from housekeeping, and once Wen Xue found out, of course I knew too.”
Xue Rui thought, naturally. Once she knew, and you knew, Li Kun Lan would know too, which was equivalent to the whole hotel knowing.
He mulled in amusement, then Lu Xiao Yan’s voice rose again: “That Sister Xu from the admin floor is really something, usually unremarkable, weak and sickly, looking completely harmless, who could have thought she would be so capable at the critical moment!”
Xue Rui thought to himself, indeed. This Xiao Mi Yu really was a bit unexpected.
After finishing the idle chatter, Xue Rui went upstairs. Returning to the suite, he went straight to the study and handed the documents to Ji Feng.
Ji Feng raised his head from the desk, and glanced at Xue Rui neither coldly nor warmly, then spoke to him lightly but with a hint of accusation: “I told you to fetch some documents, something that could be done in two minutes, yet you took a full twenty minutes. What, did you go to a paper mill to manufacture the documents for me?”
Xue Rui most feared when Ji Feng looked at him without anger, but every word still dripped with sarcasm.
He hurriedly explained: “Boss, wasn’t I taking the chance while fetching documents to gather some internal hotel information for you?”
Ji Feng arched his brows, and mused, “So you really worked hard for me then, tell me, what information did you gather just now for me?”
He bit out the “for me” heavily, pushing his sarcasm to a frightening peak.
Xue Rui swallowed, took a deep breath, and tentatively offered a cliffhanger: “Boss, we were blind, regarding that housekeeping server Xiao Mi…that woman, she actually wasn’t fired yesterday. Not only was she not fired, she even slapped the face of that female guest accusing her of stealing a diamond ring, in the end that woman escaped ashamed!”
He saw the corners of Ji Feng’s eyebrows twitch ever so slightly.
That was a micro-expression of surprise.
Xue Rui caught it, and dared to open his mouth a bit more, speaking extremely quickly to describe how Xiao Mi Yu had retaliated against the woman who had falsely accused her the previous afternoon.
After finishing the narration, he saw Ji Feng lean back in his chair, brows raised again faintly.
“She’s actually not as cowardly as she looks.”
As soon as Xue Rui heard Ji Feng actually comment, he was instantly invigorated: “Exactly! She’s not just not a coward, she seems rather capable, they said on the admin floor there’s a regular old guest who’s especially difficult to deal with, more than even our top floor, every server who went to serve him ended up bawling. But this Xiao…this lady, she didn’t just not cry, in the end that old man even praised her. People can’t judge by appearances, right Boss?”
His voice had just fallen when he saw Ji Feng leaning back in the leather chair, staring coldly at him.
The excitement he had just felt instantly evaporated into cold sweat on his body.
He heard Ji Feng’s voice, cold and carrying a hint of interrogation: “What do you mean, more difficult than the top floor? Who are you referring to with ‘top floor’, me?”
Xue Rui shuddered instantly, and hurriedly covered his tracks: “I meant President Duan and the others…”
Ji Feng let him off this time, but immediately launched a new round of cold interrogation: “Also, didn’t I tell you, to not mention that woman in front of me in future? Xue Rui, if you don’t want that gossipy mouth anymore, sew it shut. If you don’t want this job anymore you can quit right now.”
“…You did say not to mention her, but every time I spoke about her, you didn’t stop me, you still heard me out completely…”
Xue Rui had never felt more wronged than in this moment.
Thankfully, that difficult white-haired, red-faced old man finally checked out that afternoon. Xiao Mi Yu heaved a huge sigh of relief.
The next morning the housekeeping supervisor came to give everyone their daily meeting. At the meeting, the supervisor made a point to commend the room attendant who had served Mr. Cui yesterday.
“This Mr. Cui is a regular guest at our hotel. To be honest, he usually has quite high service standards, and every previous stay he would leave dissatisfied reviews on the surveys. This was also giving me and your supervisors quite the headache. We tried to strengthen your training, hoping it could get the areas he was dissatisfied with up to satisfaction.”
Ke Wen Xue was sitting next to Xiao Mi Yu. Hearing this, she muttered under her breath:
“That’s called quite high standards? That’s standards high as the heavens!”
“He doesn’t just give individual bad reviews, every time it’s like he has to torment every server at the hotel, and give them all bad reviews!”
“Want to satisfy that old guy? Don’t joke around, that old chap intentionally looks for fault, how could he ever be satisfied?”
Xiao Mi Yu thought, Ke Wen Xue had said quite a bit, if she didn’t respond at all, wouldn’t it make the other party feel awkward?
So she lowered her voice to respond: “That old gentleman probably just felt a bit lonely.”
The lonelier someone was, the more they showed off, hoping to gain some attention this way.
She had been like this herself before too, unfortunately Jiao Xiu Mei didn’t buy into it. Whenever she tried to act out for attention, she’d get beaten black and blue.
Ke Wen Xue waved a hand, indicating disagreement.
“How could he be lonely? He’s too good at tormenting people, how could he feel lonely.”
Up front, the supervisor’s words took a turn at this time, as she said: “However, when Mr. Cui was leaving yesterday, he specifically found the manager to commend the housekeeping server who cleaned his room. He said the server who cleaned his room was very meticulous and patient, accommodating to the elderly and understood etiquette. This was the first time he had commended our room attendants! Our manager was very happy to finally break through his bad reviews, so the manager decided to reward this server with a bonus!”
Hearing this, Ke Wen Xue turned to Xiao Mi Yu and asked: “Sister Xu, it was you who cleaned that old man’s room yesterday right? Wow, you actually got him to give a good review, awesome!”
“You’re getting a reward!”
The supervisor’s voice drowned hers out.
The supervisor was loudly commending: “I checked yesterday’s work order, Mr. Cui’s room was assigned to Yin Xiang, correct?”
Everyone turned their gazes to Yin Xiang.
Xiao Mi Yu also looked at Yin Xiang.
“Yes.”
Yin Xiang didn’t return Xiao Mi Yu’s gaze, she nodded at the supervisor.
Xiao Mi Yu turned her head back, and didn’t say anything.
She felt that calling out now it was her who had cleaned the room, not Yin Xiang, would make Yin Xiang extremely embarrassed.
She really didn’t know how to embarrass others, just like how she didn’t know how to refuse requests from others. These two things would make her feel very unsettled.
She’d rather take a loss herself, it made her feel more at ease.
Beside her, Ke Wen Xue whispered to her: “Huh? Sister Xu, wasn’t it you who cleaned that room? Do I have the wrong information?”
Up front, the supervisor announced to Yin Xiang: “Yin Xiang, well done! Keep up the good work, after finishing your rooms today go to accounting to claim your bonus!”
“Alright, dismissed.”
The supervisor rushed off as soon as she finished commending.
Ke Wen Xue darted to Yin Xiang’s side and nudged her with her elbow, teasing: “Ooh, got money now? Not bad! That dress you had your eye on this weekend, now you can buy it without waiting for payday!”
Yin Xiang nudged her back, smiling and jesting with her.
As they left, Yin Xiang swiftly glanced back at Xiao Mi Yu.
Xiao Mi Yu happened to catch this glance.
Making eye contact with her, Yin Xiang was like she’d been scalded, hastily averting her gaze and leaving the housekeeping office.
Xiao Mi Yu thought, Yin Xiang didn’t actually need to be this way.
She wouldn’t fight her for that bonus that could become Yin Xiang’s pretty dress, she didn’t care about commendations and accolades at all, and had no desire for performance bonuses or promotions.
She only hoped now to become a numb zombie, devoid of joy, anger, sorrow or happiness, without desires or demands, as long as she could eat and survive, that was enough.
After work that day, Yin Xiang went with Ke Wen Xue to buy a dress.
After nine o’clock at night, they returned to the dorm. Xiao Mi Yu was already lying in bed early.
She was afraid that if she saw Yin Xiang, the other would avoid eye contact again out of embarrassment. She didn’t want others to feel awkward, so she took the initiative to hide away early.
But the next morning she still inevitably saw Yin Xiang’s face.
As soon as she pulled open the bed curtains, the first thing she saw was Yin Xiang’s brand new dress hanging at her bedside.
Then she met Yin Xiang’s gaze.
She immediately drew a breath in her mind.
Yin Xiang didn’t avoid her eyes this time. She smiled at Xiao Mi Yu and wished her morning.
“Morning Sister Xu!”
Xiao Mi Yu quickly smiled back morning.
She heaved a sigh of relief in her heart.
At least no one felt awkward anymore.
At the hotel, after changing into uniform, everyone went to supervisor Zhang Cai Lu to get their work orders.
While Zhang Cai Lu was assigning rooms, the main supervisor walked in.
She strode in hurriedly, face rather grave.
As soon as she entered, she started searching with her eyes. Spotting Yin Xiang, she pointed at her and said: “Yin Xiang come here for a moment, I need to ask you something.”
Yin Xiang hurried over.
It was the peak busy time for everyone getting to work, people coming and going in the hallway. So they didn’t go outside, only moved to the inner corner of the room.
Although the supervisor had lowered her voice as much as possible, the walls still clearly bounced her voice into everyone else’s ears in the room.
“Yin Xiang, Mr. Cui who checked out yesterday called and said he lost a watch, that he looked everywhere but couldn’t find it. He confirmed that aside from the room attendant, he hadn’t come into contact with anyone else, so he concluded that the server who cleaned his room must have stolen the watch.”
Her tone and manner were very serious, demanding Yin Xiang provide an explanation immediately.
Yin Xiang instantly became flustered.
“Supervisor, it wasn’t me! I didn’t take the guest’s watch, really! I actually didn’t clean that room yesterday!”
The supervisor’s brows shot up: “Wasn’t you? Didn’t you go claim a bonus yesterday? If it wasn’t your achievement, how could you shamelessly claim the bonus?”
Yin Xiang was instantly at a complete embarrassed loss for words. She hastily turned to look at Xiao Mi Yu, eyes full of plea for help.
Xiao Mi Yu thought of the dress hanging in front of the opposite bed this morning. She instinctively avoided that pleading gaze, and closed her ears too, wanting to pretend she didn’t see or hear anything happening.
Yin Xiang hurriedly came over to grab her arm and pulled her in front of the supervisor, then hurriedly said: “Sister Xu, I’m begging you, say something on my behalf, just tell the supervisor that I indeed didn’t clean that room yesterday, okay?” Then she turned back to the supervisor and said, “Supervisor, I know falsely claiming credit was wrong of me, but I really didn’t clean that guest’s room, I truly didn’t take his watch! Oh yes, if you don’t believe me you can check the surveillance footage! Check it and you’ll know I’m telling the truth!” By this point, Yin Xiang was already crying from anxiety.
Hearing this, Xiao Mi Yu sighed inwardly.
Indeed, checking the surveillance footage would make everything clear, and confirm that she was the one who cleaned that room.
So she spoke up, telling the supervisor: “Supervisor, it indeed has nothing to do with Yin Xiang, Mr. Cui’s room yesterday, I was the one who cleaned it.”
As soon as she spoke, she saw Yin Xiang whip her head to look at her.
Yin Xiang’s eyes were wide open, filled with surprise and gratitude that Xiao Mi Yu had actually spoken up for her.
The supervisor exclaimed, asking puzzledly: “What play are you two putting on here? If the room was cleaned by Xiao Mi Yu, when I announced the commendation yesterday how come one wrongly took credit, and the other didn’t say a peep?”
Yin Xiang hung her head low, not wanting anyone to see the shame on her face.
After finishing assigning rooms, supervisor Zhang Cai Lu stood up and walked over to the main supervisor, placating: “Supervisor, calm down, they’re just little sisters with a close relationship, covering for each other. So what should we do about this matter now?”
The main supervisor turned her gaze onto Xiao Mi Yu’s face: “Since you said Mr. Cui’s room was cleaned by you, fine, now I’ll tell you Mr. Cui’s decision.” She paused, then solemnly said, “Mr. Cui said that the watch had accompanied him for a long time, for a server to secretly take it like this, he is very dissatisfied, but in view of you serving him very well, he generously decided not to pursue the matter of the missing watch, but requires revoking your commendation, and to give you a dissatisfied service review on your evaluation form.”
When Xiao Mi Yu heard the three words “not satisfied”, her heart lurched.
Added to this, she already had two dissatisfied reviews during her probation.
Just one more, and she would be fired.
Thinking of this, she felt she needed to properly explain this matter, although Mr. Cui had already “magnanimously” said he wouldn’t pursue it.
But she had just opened her mouth when the main supervisor cut her off: “I still have a ton of things to handle, if you have anything to say, tell your supervisor first.” Having said that, she rushed off hurriedly.
Xiao Mi Yu turned to look at Zhang Cai Lu.
Zhang Cai Lu told Yin Xiang: “You got your work order, hurry and start on your rooms.” She raised her voice to tell the others in the room: “Those of you who got your room assignments, hurry up and get cleaning, standing around idle, think you got assigned too few rooms? Should I ask the other levels if they need help, and send you lot over?”
Everyone else in the room hurriedly left, leaving only Kewenxue and Luo Qingping still standing motionless. Kewenxue wanted to hear some gossip. Luo Qingping simply didn’t want to obey Zhang Cailu’s orders. Seeing the two of them standing there stubbornly like nail houses, Zhang Cailu’s voice became a bit harsher: “What is this, are you two the supervisors or am I the supervisor? You don’t think I have any authority here, is that it?” Seeing that she really intended to throw her weight around, Kewenxue hurriedly said, “I have no intention of being the supervisor! Who wants to be the supervisor, Zhang supervisor you can go directly at whoever you want.”
After saying this, she hurried away. Luo Qingping snorted; it was unclear whether she was snorting at Kewenxue for speaking the blunt truth or at Zhang Cailu for abusing her official authority. After snorting, she also left.
Zhang Cailu turned to look at Yin Xiang, her voice softening, “Xiaoxiang, you go work too.” Yin Xiang hesitated, glancing at Xumi Yu with a look that said she wanted to speak but couldn’t. In the end though, she left without saying anything. With no one else around, Zhang Cailu asked Xumi Yu, “Sister Yu, is there anything you want to say to me? No one else is here now, go ahead and speak!”
Xumi Yu first thanked Zhang Cailu for dismissing everyone from the room to save her face. Then she pleaded with Zhang Cailu, “Supervisor, I haven’t even seen what Mr. Cui’s watch looks like, let alone taken it. So could you please give me Mr. Cui’s contact information? I’d like to communicate with him directly. Maybe there’s been some misunderstanding.”
Zhang Cailu’s face showed difficulty: “I can’t do that. Our hotel policy is not to divulge guests’ private information.” Xumi Yu was at a momentary loss, pondering what to do next. Zhang Cailu looked at her and sighed, speaking to her in a grave tone, “Sister Yu, if you trust me, just let this matter go. Look, just a few days ago there was someone accusing you of stealing a diamond ring, even though you were proven innocent in the end. But then yesterday, right after that, someone accused you of stealing a watch. If you don’t make a fuss, it will just be a service dissatisfaction demerit on your record. But if you make a big deal out of it, everyone will know that right after someone said you stole a ring, immediately someone else said you stole a watch. They’ll say, how come no one else has problems, it just so happens to be you who encounters these things repeatedly? They’ll definitely think, flies don’t land on seamless eggs, so you must have your own issues for people to say these things about you. They might even suspect you weren’t actually innocent in that diamond ring incident a couple days ago.”
As Xumi Yu listened to Zhang Cailu’s words, she fell deep into contemplation. Zhang Cailu was right. How could it be that she kept encountering these things repeatedly? Zhang Cailu almost had her suspecting herself, wondering if she really did take guests’ belongings during her daydream wanderings and just didn’t remember.
Zhang Cailu observed Xumi Yu’s expression, and said finally, “It’s alright Sister Yu. The trial period will be over soon. Just work hard, and you won’t get any more ‘unsatisfactory’ ratings, then you’ll successfully convert to being a formal employee. Keep your spirits up, don’t be discouraged. I’ll help you handle any difficult situations!” Xumi Yu hurriedly thanked Zhang Cailu. So much had happened these past couple days, she was exhausted mentally and physically. She no longer had the energy to deal with Old Man Cui like she did with that female guest. She figured for now it would be best to just listen to Zhang Cailu – take this unsatisfactory rating, and be even more careful and work harder in the future.
With depressed spirits, Xumi Yu spent the whole morning cleaning dirty rooms. The past few days felt to her like an unending nightmare, one she couldn’t wake up from but could only passively endure, wave after wave. It was as if Heaven thought she’d had too carefree a life as a housewife these past few years, and now was the time to let her experience the afflictions of society. Unable to find any other relief, Xumi Yu could only attribute everything that had happened these past few days to her own terrible luck. People always said those unlucky in romance would be lucky in other areas. But she was unlucky in romance, unlucky financially, and now unlucky at work too. Everything was going badly. If this wasn’t rotten luck, then what was?
At noon, she went to the cafeteria to eat. Just as she was finishing her meal, a shadow fell across her tray. Someone had come to stand next to her. She turned her head and glanced up to see it was Yin Xiang. Yin Xiang’s eyes were full of remorse and inner turmoil. Xumi Yu set down her chopsticks and asked her, “What’s the matter, Xiaoxiang?”
Yin Xiang lowered her eyes and pursed her lips, then lifted her eyes again, as if having made some decision, and said to Xumi Yu, “Sister Mi, come out with me for a bit, I have some things I want to tell you.”
Xumi Yu got up and followed behind Yin Xiang. Yin Xiang led her quite a distance away from the hotel staff corridors, to a shaded area in the back. Xumi Yu saw many cigarette butts on the ground and realized this was probably where many staffers would sneak out for a smoke break.
Once they stopped, Yin Xiang immediately started apologizing to Xumi Yu. “Sister Mi, I’m sorry! I was blinded by desire, I really wanted to buy that skirt, so I wrongly took credit for your accomplishment. But then today when something came up, I distanced myself again and pushed everything onto you…” As she spoke, her eyes grew red.
Xumi Yu looked at Yin Xiang and thought, this girl was just a bit greedy, but at heart she was still a good person, one who would feel remorseful and apologetic for the inappropriate things she did. Xumi Yu smiled and comforted Yin Xiang, “Xiaoxiang, forget about it. Don’t feel bad anymore. I’ll just take it as a run of bad luck, once the streak ends everything will be fine again.”
Seeing Xumi Yu’s smile, Yin Xiang looked a bit stunned, and her eyes welled up completely. “Sister Mi, why are you like this? Why are you such a pushover? You being like this, how can I continue taking advantage of you!” Xumi Yu laughed and patted her shoulder, like a gentle older sister soothing a distressed younger sister.
Yin Xiang bit her lip and sniffed back her tears. Steeling her heart, she then said to Xumi Yu, “Sister Mi, I can’t take it anymore. I have to tell you the truth. You’re not unlucky, someone is targeting you, trying to get you kicked out of the hotel before your trial period is up!”
Xumi Yu was stunned to hear this.
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