Ji Feng felt inexplicably restless in his room and wanted to find an open area to get some fresh air.
As he pondered this, he thought of the large terrace on the second floor of the hotel.
It was spacious all around, with lively areas but also quiet corners, an excellent place to take in some air.
He rose from the sofa.
Xue Rui had no idea where this sudden impulse to leave was taking his boss, so he hurried to follow behind.
Not until they went down to the second floor and arrived at the outdoor terrace did Xue Rui have the chance to feel surprised.
“Boss, you’re actually willing to come and sit here?” Although there was a cafe, small bar, even a reading nook and tea room here, with sunny skies overhead and gentle breezes, it did feel rather nice.
But this place for Ji Feng–
“Isn’t this a bit too down to earth for you, Boss?”
A man as fastidious as Ji Feng, it was hard to imagine he would enjoy such an ordinary, mundane spot.
Ji Feng ignored Xue Rui’s blathering.
He headed to the tea room corner of the terrace, dragged over a chair, and ordered a pot of Bi Luo Chun tea from the server.
Xue Rui watched with eyes wide, stunned dumb.
Hadn’t the aloof boss just been drinking this same tea upstairs? And had barely taken a few sips too? Not to mention the upstairs tea quality bested this pot’s by at least a hundred times over.
So to rush downstairs in a frenzy, all for the sake of drinking more of the same tea but in inferior quality?
Xue Rui felt more baffled by Ji Feng than ever.
Ji Feng sipped the somewhat gritty Bi Luo Chun. As the wind blew and the sunlight shone warmly down, that inexplicable irritation gradually dissipated.
He slowly refastened the buttons of his shirt collar and straightened his tie.
The fresh air and bright sun cleared his mind and cooled his temper.
Upon careful reflection, Ji Feng realized his disgust for Xu MiYu wasn’t entirely unjustified.
Although she didn’t cling stubbornly to a cheating husband by refusing divorce, she did use her money to support another useless man – her brother.
Enabling siblings, equally unsympathetic. Even without clinging to a rotten marriage, willing entrapment in the quicksand of deep rooted patriarchal family dynamics for blood sucking relatives bespoke similar lack of self-respect and esteem.
Having worked through this logic, Ji Feng strangely felt less annoyed.
Thus, when he sipped the tea again, its cheapness became pronounced. And the breeze that had been refreshing now seemed too drying. Despite the fresh air, the glaring sun overhead shone too brightly, making him uncomfortable.
He promptly stood to leave.
What nonsense to come downstairs and drink this swill, not even a tenth the quality of his room’s brew, half tea, half dirt.
Xue Rui trailed behind Ji Feng, completely baffled. What impulsive coming, ordering, and leaving after barely a few sips?
He hurried to catch up, asking blankly, “Boss, where are we going now?”
“Back upstairs,” came the curt reply.
“……” Xue Rui stacked confusion onto bewilderment.
Deciphering the rich boss’s state of mind seemed impossible.
Riding the elevator up with Ji Feng, Xue Rui couldn’t resist asking his boss’s opinion after listening to Xu MiYu’s whole story.
“Boss, don’t you think Xu MiYu is rather admirable?”
Ji Feng let out an icy, derisive snort. “What’s admirable? Even without clinging to a cheating husband, isn’t she still perfectly willing to mire herself in ingrained patriarchal family dynamics and get exploited by her parents and brother? It’s all the same lack of self-respect.”
Xue Rui froze, entirely astonished.
Now that he’d clarified Xu MiYu wasn’t clinging to a marriage, Ji Feng could still find other reasons for disdain?
When in “perfectionist” mode, his boss’s endless criticism and fault finding knew no bounds.
As Xue Rui stood there stupefied, Ji Feng’s frosty voice sounded again.
“Also, you just spent all morning blathering nonstop about this woman to me. Are you getting bolder? Didn’t I say I don’t want to hear anything about her?”
“……” Hey! You didn’t tell me to stop at the time! You listened start to finish before saying you weren’t interested! How’s that different from finishing a meal then refusing payment?! That’s outright freeloading!
Xue Rui truly couldn’t describe his emotions right now.
Lately, Xu MiYu finally felt life’s clouds parting to shine renewed fortune on her, because she was gradually overcoming all the work problems and obstacles that had plagued her.
Those television dramas she used to watch at home, deemed by her ex-husband as boring trivial wastes of time, unexpectedly became valuable wells of wisdom one day.
Unexpectedly, she really could derive lessons and insight from them. Just like in the movie A Murder Mistake – relying on knowledge gained from numerous police and detective thrillers watched, even the protagonist manages to evade a police dragnet.
Likewise, having watched numerous dramas, she could absorb bits and pieces here and there, coalescing them in her mind. Oftentimes insignificant when watched, when needing to brainstorm ideas later, these digested concepts would bubble up from the depths of her consciousness to shape surprisingly clever solutions that helped her attain her goals.
Through this method, she bore cruel hardships in obscurity, even as others dismissed her an idiot. Yet this enabled her to fully grasp the operational dynamics of the entire housekeeping department and each person’s faults. Then confronting them face to face, directly exposing each person’s mistakes right in front of them. Finally embracing and pardoning them, not only did she refrain from punishing them, she established an intimate rapport.
In this manner, she astonishingly managed to win over the entire floor.
This was the first taste in her life of the tremendous sense of achievement and capability derived from self-reliance.
Strictly speaking however, this sense of accomplishment still contained one tiny smudge. Of all the service staff on their floor, there was still one person who refused to submit to her – Luo QingPing.
But Xu MiYu believed Rome wasn’t built in a day. Slowly but surely, she would prevail. Perhaps life wouldn’t spite her too severely. One day, she might still reap unanimous popularity and allegiance.
Having recently been promoted to supervisor for good performance, Xu MiYu’s dormitory room had also been switched to a private unit.
Early Saturday morning, having just woken up without decided plans for her day off, Xu MiYu received a call from eldest sister Xu MiZi.
Xu MiZi informed her, “Little Sis Three, come over this afternoon. That braised beef you made last time, my husband and I didn’t eat our fill. Take advantage of your day off today and come make us some more. I’ve already prepared the meat, and restocked the seasonings you used last time.”
Exhausted from a week’s work, Xu MiYu looked forward to properly resting and relaxing on her scarce day off.
She responded, “Eldest Sis, I was hoping to take it easy today. Since you’ve already got all the ingredients, why don’t I just teach you how to make it yourself?”
Xu MiZi instantly reacted unhappily. “You didn’t fuss about needing rest when making braised dishes for your colleagues. Yet for your own big sister’s request, you hem and haw and make excuses? And you know perfectly well what my cooking skills are like! Same meat and ingredients, I still can’t match yours.”
Then her tone shifted from censure to extortionate praise, although still overbearingly condescending, “Little Sis Three, of everyone in our family, only you could cook from childhood. You only have this one advantage, so hurry up and display your skills for Eldest Sis!”
Xu MiYu sighed. She only had herself to blame for previously borrowing her sister’s kitchen.
Reluctantly, she crawled out of bed to wash up and wolfed down a quick breakfast before catching the bus to her sister’s.
The bus route meandered, so by the time Xu MiYu arrived, Xu MiZi had already grown somewhat impatient. “Little Sis Three, making your big sister ask for favors is this much hassle for you? You could have hurried over faster. Dally any longer and there won’t be enough time today.”
Xu MiYu defended herself, “I didn’t waste a minute. Buses run slow, it’s not like I could snatch the wheel from the driver!” She tossed back, “What time sensitive thing do you have anyway?”
Her sister mumbled indistinctly without elaborating.
Xu MiZi’s husband looked Xu MiYu up and down, clicking his tongue twice. “Little Sis Three, why do I feel you seem changed? All gloomy and listless earlier but suddenly fair and glowing, looking even more youthful and pretty than before. What, got a new boyfriend already?”
Xu MiZi glared at him. “Is it appropriate for an in-law brother-in-law to ask such things?” After admonishing her husband, Xu MiZi scrutinized Xu MiYu as well. “But he’s right, you do seem more spirited now. Just like that pampered glory before your divorce. Little Sis Three, did something good happen for you recently?”
Xu MiYu smiled lightly. “No particularly good tidings or new boyfriend. I simply figured out how I should be conducting myself at work and in life nowadays.”
With clear goals, people naturally exuded motivation and vim.
She faced her sister and brother-in-law’s skeptical looks squarely as she entered the kitchen to start braising beef.
At first sight of the beef her sister had prepared, Xu MiYu got a tremendous shock.
The entire kitchen counter was occupied by practically half a cow’s worth of meat.
“Why so much? Can you two really finish all this?”
Xu MiZi hastened to declare, “My husband and I both love eating. We definitely can!”
Faced with this small mountain of beef, Xu MiYu toiled until afternoon before finally completing the braises.
Transferring the cooked meat into a large serving platter, she instructed Xu MiZi, “Let it cool and dry for a bit. Once that’s done, package it in portions according to what I portioned out for you into bags, then freeze it all. It’ll last a good long while that way.”
Xu MiZi swiftly assented.
Catching scent of the meat aromas, her husband couldn’t resist reaching for a piece to sample.
Noticing right away, Xu MiZi smacked his hand aside. “Can you be any more gluttonous?”
Her husband shot back defiantly, “What’s the harm in one piece? It’s not interfering with anything!”
Xu MiZi fixed him with a glare. “You think you’re intruding on my matters alone? You’re intruding on our business, got it? Zip that loose tongue of yours.” Her severe look promptly sent him scurrying.
Xu MiYu couldn’t help asking, “What are you two whispering about over there?”
Xu MiZi shot back vaguely, “Oh nothing. I just can’t stand your glutton of a brother-in-law, reincarnation of a starved ghost in his past life!”
She didn’t ask Xu MiYu to stay for dinner either, simply telling her, “My husband and I still have matters to deal with, so I won’t keep you for dinner.
“
Xu MiYu grumbled under her breath, “All I had this morning was a few bites. Skipped lunch so I could fill up tonight. Yet you can’t even accommodate this much before exploiting my labor?”
Xu MiZi exhaled sharply. “Oh look who’s suddenly regained her fighting spirit, meeting my single line with a whole paragraph of retorts. Hurry and scram. I’ll owe you a meal, alright?”
Xu MiYu shook her head, resigned to the hollow pit of her stomach as her sister promptly used then discarded her.
Scheduled to work nights, she headed straight for the hotel to conserve energy rather than returning to her dorm.
By the time she disembarked, it was nearly five o’clock. Xu MiYu’s stomach clamored loudly as if housing an entire furious parliament of starving birds.
The bus stop sat directly across the street from the hotel. This entire stretch hosted copious roadside food stalls.
Seeking the relatively most affordable, Xu MiYu made for a noodle shop intending to inexpensively fill her stomach before crossing to the hotel for her shift.
Yet who could have foreseen this small eatery inexplicably packed at this hour? Even all outdoor seats filled save one right by the roadside.
With no other recourse, Xu MiYu settled down and ordered a bowl of steaming broth noodles.
In just two to three minutes, scalding steamy noodles appeared before her.
Cracking disposable chopsticks and separating them with sharp cracks, she plunged them into the noodles, tossing vigorously to evenly integrate them with the soup before lowering her head to urgently ingest large mouthfuls.
While flavors were quite nondescript compared to her own cooking, consuming ravenously in her hunger, she resembled the shop’s human advertisement, attracting wandering gazes increasingly enticed by the aromas into craving a taste.
That Saturday afternoon, Ji Feng got unceasingly nagged by his mother Jun XueLan insisting he return home for dinner.
He hadn’t wanted to go back. He thought about casually drinking tea at the hotel to unwind a little, checking in on the recreation department’s latest developments. Rumor was the large swimming pool underneath their second floor terrace frequently hosted flamboyant booze soaked pool parties. He was curious just how hedonistic and reckless things had become. Whether matters had escalated beyond propriety.
Yet his mother had practically tearfully implored him over the phone to join her for a meal and keep her company.
Ultimately powerless to harden his heart, Ji Feng assented. With the driver on weekend holiday, Xue Rui chauffeured him personally back.
Only upon arrival did Ji Feng comprehend he was merely a chess piece for his mother to manipulate his father home.
She had told his father, since their son is returning for dinner today, why don’t you come back too? A rare chance for our family of three to dine together and catch up.
Recalling the unhappy conclusion last time they gathered for a family banquet, Ji ShengMing hadn’t wished to come. But he also felt their previous conversation had been left unresolved with unclear responses from Ji Feng, and he really should ask in person – was his chaos in the Thailand markets related to Ji Feng’s interference? Those territories he had struggled years to consolidate were gradually crumbling.
Right after they sat down to eat, this was Ji ShengMing’s first question.
And Ji Feng straightforwardly admitted, “Correct, it’s my doing. Wasn’t that the appropriate outcome for him?”
Ji ShengMing slammed the table. “Didn’t I tell you to back off already?! Why must you take such unrelenting extreme measures to destroy him utterly?! Carrying on like this against Xiao Zi of the Duan family – where am I supposed to put my face when I meet Elder Duan in the future?!”
The corners of Ji Feng’s lips quirked up tauntingly. “You want me to care about your face? When you keep a mistress outside, do you care about your wife and son’s faces?”
Berated by his son face to face, Ji ShengMing burned with humiliated fury. Whipping around, he erupted at Jun XueLan instead, “Look at this exceptional son you’ve raised! So what if I have a home outside? At least that woman taught her daughter well enough to dote on me!”
His words instantly detonated Jun XueLan’s barely sustained composure. Her previous strained elegant poise shattered as she reopened histrionic hostilities – overturning the dining table, cursing her husband, demanding his absence forevermore, tearfully questioning her wrongdoings…
Yet ultimately, gritting her teeth, she once again insisted on never agreeing to divorce, still clinging to flimsy hopeless fantasies that one day Ji ShengMing would tire of his mistress and return to his true home.
Equally ireful, Ji Feng also stormed off. Slumping into the car with simmering rage churning through his heart and mind, he silently asked himself yet again – clearly recognizing what outcome awaited, why persist in joining them for yet another excruciating meal?
Morosely starting the car, Xue Rui easily sensed Ji Feng’s dejected anger from countless prior exposures.
Carefully, he asked, “Boss, where to now?”
Before Ji Feng could personally reply, his stomach spoke for him first.
A long low gurgle of hunger pangs.
Glimpsing his boss’s darkened visage in the rear view mirror, Xue Rui hastily reassured, “Boss, I didn’t hear anything just now, truly! You would never emit any ungraceful noises!”
Only causing Ji Feng’s complexion to sink darker as he icily commanded, “Shut up! Back to the hotel!”
Throughout the ride, Xue Rui sweated bullets. His boss’s sporadic stomach growls utterly unmistakable.
Awkward dilemma of hearing things one must pretend oblivious to.
Yet this charade of deafness also went overboard.
Finally Xue Rui could only circumvent indirectly, “Boss, what would you like to eat tonight? Just say the word when we arrive and I’ll have the kitchens whip it up for you immediately.”
Ji Feng coolly asked, “Is Chef Chen off today?”
Xue Rui nodded.
Ji Feng responded apathetically, “With him gone, can those remaining cooks prepare anything edible?” He shook his head. “Nevermind. Nothing for me, I have no appetite.”
Yet his stomach promptly growled in protest against his words.
Xue Rui: ……
You claim no appetite, but your stomach sings quite an impassioned ballad of hunger…
Fearing his boss would injure his health depriving his stomach, Xue Rui suggested multiple cuisines throughout the ride – across Chinese regions and Western fare, cold or piping hot dishes – only to have finicky Ji Feng flawlessly reject them all.
“Ji, how about shrimp with bean curd for now?”
“Too bland.”
“Or an auspicious crab platter?”
“Too much effort.”
“Some Cordyceps mushroom soup then for fortification?”
“Do I look lacking in heat and energy right now?”
“….then maybe cold tossed king oyster mushrooms to cool internal fire?”
“Whose hands will be tearing those? Are they clean?”
……
Enroute, Xue Rui almost flipped through his entire culinary catalog to no avail, unable to pinpoint any dish to please his master’s palate.
As the hotel neared, he still hadn’t solved tonight’s meal dilemma.
At the final intersection right across from their destination, the traffic light turned red.
Xue Rui braked, watching the light countdown while silently fretting his boss might starve himself to death tonight from pickiness, leading to his unemployment.
Just then, he noticed Ji Feng had lowered his rear passenger window.
Glancing through the rear view mirror, he saw Ji Feng gazing outside at the crosswalk.
Xue Rui also quickly lowered his window and looked over.
Only a flutter of his eyes before he focused on the familiar looking woman eating noodles right outside the small shop across the way – none other than Xu MiYu herself.
And the way she packed those noodles in, they seemed divinely ambrosial, making observers yearn to order up a bowlful to sample as well.
Ji Feng’s voice dripped disdain from the backseat, “Has that woman never eaten her fill? Shoveling it in like a starved ghost, practically inhaling that bowl up her face.”
Right on the heels of his mocking, abrupt honking sounded from behind. Xue Rui swiftly swiveled back to check the light already switched green.
Hastily stepping on the accelerator, he crossed the intersection.
Ji Feng unexpectedly called out, “Drive slower!”
“……”
Xue Rui lightly tapped the brakes to decrease their speed.
“Don’t go to the hotel yet. Make a u-turn and pull over there on the side.” Ji Feng directed from the back while Xue Rui wordlessly obeyed.
Once parked, he turned with puzzlement to ask, “Boss, any other orders?”
Ji Feng inclined his jaw towards the noodle shop where Xu MiYu still sat, eating. “That bowl looks rather appetizing. Go buy me one to sample.”
Momentarily thrown, Xue Rui promptly exited the car.
Finally, his lordship deigned to show interest in some sustenance. Best not question whether it was inspired by a neighbor’s delicious meal provoking his own salivary glands.
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