A few days after that dinner party, a livestream evaluation video of several famous 5-star hotels suddenly went viral on a streaming platform.
The video creators were a few young people. Adopting a documentary format, they showcased their experiences staying at many well-known 5-star hotels across different cities, conducting undercover investigations on the sanitation conditions at these hotels.
What shocked and surprised the audience was that beneath the glossy veneers of those hotels that boasted supreme refinement and comfort, nearly all concealed a variety of unhygienic blind spots.
For example, service staff using guests’ dirty towels or even bath towels, wiped drinking glasses, toothbrush tumblers, and wine glasses directly. Some went so far as to first wipe toilet bowls before using the same towels to wipe cups…
After guest checkout, as long as sheets didn’t seem too filthy, hotels would simply tuck them neat again for the next guests without changing to fresh linens…
Kettles and cups used by prior guests, no sterilization or cleaning, just wiped dry and replaced…
All kinds of jawdropping practices left viewers appalled.
The video host condemned these hotels in righteous indignation – charging such astronomical rates yet providing such filthy, deceptive service, clearly showing no respect for consumers. Did operators still retain any ethical conscience?
Just when public fury peaked at this passionate lambasting, the host suddenly switched tones –
“Yet the hospitality industry isn’t entirely hopeless. We discovered one semi 5-star hotel that passed our covert assessments. This semi-star establishment kindled our hopes that the industry still had salvation, a lone ray of light.”
The host used this turnaround to pique viewer curiosity, glueing their attention in anticipation of announcing the beacon of hope.
“Among over twenty 5-star hotels we tested: upon checking in, we deliberately mussed up the bedding before checking out after only half an hour. We placed identifying markers on the sheets, duvet covers, bathtub, toilet, toothbrush glasses, cups and so on. The next day, different testers checked into the same rooms to see if our markers remained. If present, it meant items weren’t replaced or sanitized, just smoothed down again.”
“The results? Other than two exceptions, all the hotels failed! None had changed bedding or sterilized the bathroom items. Despite only staying thirty minutes, that’s sufficient to utilize everything in the room once. But the staff must have felt too brief to necessitate resetting everything. This is outright deception and disrespect towards later guests!”
The host successfully reignited collective outrage. Comments flooded in vowing future patronage exclusively towards those two hotels actually bothering with hygiene. They clamored for immediate reveal of the hotels’ names.
Right when curiosity peaked, the host finally unveiled the mystery: “As for those two exceptional hotels, coincidentally both are in Star City. One being the Swire Hotel, the other the Star Epoch Hotel. Although the Star Epoch didn’t fully redo all their sanitation either, just changing out bedsheets and duvet covers. They didn’t thoroughly disinfect the bathrooms. So we designated them a semi-pass.”
“Now the Swire Hotel was actually a surprise to us. We didn’t have high hopes for this hotel previously, feeling it displayed management turmoil and declining standards the past two years. Unexpectedly, they completely excelled in this undercover test! Our revisiting testers scrupulously scrutinized every corner. Indeed nowhere presented hygiene oversights. Not only fresh sheets and duvet covers, but full bathroom sanitizing, even scrubbing the bath mats an extra round. We were sincerely impressed in the end – genuinely flawless. Oh right, we swear we hold no affiliations with Swire Hotel whatsoever. This isn’t stealth marketing either. Swire housekeepers are truly formidable!”
After the broadcast ended, Swire Hotel and Star Epoch Hotel immediately topped trending searches.
Eyeing the trending charts on his tablet, Ji Feng’s mouth quirked slightly in mocking scorn.
He hadn’t anticipated Swire Hotel miraculously making it through this covert investigation.
Even his own Star Epoch Hotel barely passed at half marks.
Swire actually surpassing Star Epoch? Utterly inconceivable. The acquisition team at Star Epoch Group headquarters currently busy with Swire purchase proceedings – how dumbfounded and speechless might project members familiar with Swire’s actual circumstances feel seeing Swire top Star Epoch on the trending lists?
Xue Rui blathered excitedly by his side: “Boss! I just recalled, the two test rooms were ones Xu MiYu had cleaned! She had arranged for her subordinates but no one would listen and all mocked her silliness and obstinacy. Finally, she rolled up her supervisor sleeves and personally redid those two rooms thoroughly inside and out herself. Remember this, Boss? Damn, all thanks to her this time, Swire managed to trump our Star Epoch!”
Ji Feng grimaced impatiently, shooting an irritated glare towards Xue Rui. “Shut up.”
As if he could forget.
He just hadn’t expected Xu MiYu’s bullheaded insistence on cleanliness to unexpectedly steer Swire Hotel safely past this investigation hurdle, even seizing a lead over Star Epoch Hotel.
Simply unbelievable deviations.
Yet her actions did earn merit for Swire Hotel this time.
Thoughts in turmoil, Ji Feng suddenly surged up from his sofa towards the doors.
Xue Rui hastily tailed him, utterly baffled. “Boss, where are we headed? Call up a car for you?”
Ji Feng languidly declined, “No need.”
Already inside the elevator, he instructed Xue Rui, “Access card, second floor.”
Thus Xue Rui understood Ji Feng simply fancied wind and tea at the hotel terrace again.
The weather transformed swiftly.
No sooner had Ji Feng settled by the outdoor tea room before the pot of ordered Bi Luo Chun arrived than the previously clear skies clouded over abruptly. The sun ducked behind obscuring ash gray swaths, stifled as if on the verge of raging tears.
Noticing the sudden climate change, people on the terrace gradually dispersed one by one.
Xue Rui glanced up at the gloomy firmament, leaden with suppressed rain. A far cry from the view outside their top floor windows earlier. He turned to ask Ji Feng, “Boss, it’s going to pour. Looks to be heavy too. Want to head back in?”
Ji Feng swirled his tea while relishing the fresh cool breezes gusting over. Though his gaze seemed to vaguely follow some shifting object, eyes tracking certain unseen movements.
Narrowing those eyes slightly, he murmured lightly, “What for? There’s an awning overhead, you won’t get drenched. Nice enough out here blowing wind watching the rain. Why leave?”
Xue Rui swallowed back his retorts.
He truly wondered when his boss had cultivated poetic temperaments for wind and rain. If memory served, Ji Feng used to abhor rainy days the most, grumbling about oppressive dreariness and humid discomforts often plaguing his nights with insomnia.
So men’s mercurial natures indeed defied reasoning, fluctuating tempestuously as the weather.
The wind steadily strengthened from mild flutters to full blast gales while increasingly fat droplets began plunging earthward.
The last few souls on the terrace sprinted for indoor shelter.
Xue Rui detected Ji Feng’s attention fixated outwards, though maintaining an impassive facade. Xue Rui traced his eye line to find the target.
He spotted two feminine figures not far away. One walked ahead while the other chased behind, chattering urgently. Through the hazy curtain of wind and rain, he couldn’t distinguish their facial features clearly. But the forward silhouette seemed familiar somehow.
Willowy build with a certain inexplicable aura of delicate fragility that evoked nearly ruthless cravings to ravage and dominate – Xue Rui felt his boss Ji Feng probably unconsciously perceived the owner of that alluring shape thus.
Drawing nearer through the stormy mist, Xue Rui finally confirmed the woman as none other than Xu MiYu herself.
While the older woman tailing her must be the shrill elevator squatter from before, Xu MiYu’s mother.
Ever since her bank card holding 200,000 yuan got snatched by Jiao XiuMei, Xu MiYu ceased answering Jiao XiuMei’s calls.
She had expected Jiao XiuMei would seek her out eventually to settle scores so wasn’t surprised this stormy afternoon when notified an visitor urgently demanded her presence in the lobby.
Riding the elevator down, the instant she glimpsed Jiao XiuMei, Xu MiYu mirthlessly mocked herself inwardly.
Indeed. As anticipated.
Nothing auspicious ever came looking for her.
The second their eyes locked, Jiao XiuMei charged forwards bellowing at top volume without the slightest care that the entire lobby might overhear and shoot them strange stares after.
“Hmph! Xu MiYu, so you still recognize your mother! What’s with ignoring all my calls, huh?! Oh ho, prim little suit you got on there. A promotion? Gone too big for your old ma now that you’ve risen the ranks? You’ve got some nerve severing ties just because you got a tiny leg up!”
Xu MiYu cringed at her mother’s strident clamoring, nearly dying from embarrassment on the spot.
She needed to quickly whisk Jiao XiuMei off somewhere more discreet fast.
Her first thought was outside. But two tour buses had just pulled up unloading entire groups that scattered around the entrance. With so many new guests checking in, the area would remain congested for a while.
So Xu MiYu rapidly pondered an alternative indoor option.
Yet Jiao XiuMei refused to pipe down. “Hey! I’m talking to you, Xu MiYu! Gone mute on me? Let me ask you then. What’s the deal ignoring my calls, huh? They poisonous or something? Gonna drop dead soon as you answer? I’ve really spoiled you rotten, now you actually dare disregard your own ma’s calls! Not afraid of distressing me into jumping off a building right in front of you?”
Tormented by her mother’s deafening reprimands, Xu MiYu wished she could jump off one herself, if only to plunge into the swimming pool for blissful drowning respite.
When Jiao XiuMei bellowed like this while claiming lowered volume restraint, Xu MiYu truly shuddered imagining genuine eruption decibels.
Unable to ponder more carefully, she automatically towed Jiao XiuMei upstairs towards the second floor terrace.
They had barely ascended before the sunny terrace skies churned overcast.
Xu MiYu mirthlessly mused perhaps even Heaven knew Jiao XiuMei bode nothing promising on this venture and kindly provided suitable stormy ambiance.
At least the mass terrace exodus for indoor shelter due to the worsening weather reduced potential rubberneckers towards Jiao XiuMei’s booming diatribes.
Xu MiYu sought some obscure terrace nook for continued castigation.
Naturally Jiao XiuMei opposed such convenience, dogging Xu MiYu’s heels while bellowing nonstop.
“Xu MiYu, stand still right there and listen up! Clear up what the deal is with that card! Balance was accurate when I first checked the ATM after you handed it over – entire 200,000 yuan intact. Soon as I got home, I passed it directly to your brother’s in-laws as bride price that same day. When they also checked, amount unchanged. But soon as your brother finished his wedding ritual, his in-laws tried withdrawing again only to get informed ‘incorrect password’! So hurry and explain yourself clearly! Don’t be smearing our family’s name like some marriage scammers! Right now your sister-in-law’s even moved back in with her parents. Refusing to return until the bride price gets explained!”
Pausing for breath, Jiao XiuMei inhaled deeply to fuel further tirade. “I just want a clear explanation about that card from you! But how come every call gets instantly rejected?! Leaving me no choice but to ask face to face, huh?! Xu MiYu I’ll say you got some nerve pulling this with your own ma! Clueless that stunt’s really making things hard for your brother now!”
Wearily irked listening to the endless harping on money, Xu MiYu crisply intercepted, “What do you mean the card I gave you? You snatched that card from me! What do you mean I’m causing hardship for Xu MiBao? Clearly he lacks capability, yet insists on the extravagance of a wife!”
Riled up, her volume had climbed a bit, eliciting curious peeks from guests headed inside seeking terrace shelter.
Mortified by the attention, Xu MiYu urgently sought somewhere even more removed, farther from hotel and terrace access.
Jiao XiuMei trailed doggedly behind, barrage of accusations and censure an inescapable wall hemming Xu MiYu tightly in.
“Hey! Xu MiYu! Where you rushing to? I’m talking to you! Keep ignoring me, don’t blame me for really letting loose!”
Xu MiYu truly wished she could fling herself off this second floor terrace, not caring whether she crashed lethally or just luckily into the pool for maximum irreversible results.
Jiao XiuMei’s hollering could already be heard hotel-wide she was sure. Yet she called this restraint?!
Xu MiYu cursed the stormy gales somewhat despite herself. If not for their aural interference, even interior guests might’ve overheard terrace matters clearly.
Jiao XiuMei always obtained countless methods for immense public mortification.
Ferocious wind acceleration accompanied increasingly heavy raindrops, initially sporadic before surging into sheer streaming torrents, obscuring daylight completely into dark misty haze. Gazing out through the watery vista, the tea room neighboring the book shop could barely be glimpsed – just the vague outline of a large parasol.
With such extreme squall conditions, surely no one would still be leisurely sipping tea out there.
Xu MiYu conceded reluctantly to no longer insisting they retreat to that shaded terrace corner.
Even loud arguments got dampened audibly by the wind and rain. Jiao XiuMei automatically jacked her vocal projection higher. “Xu MiYu! Come back here! I’m talking to you! Dropping volume for now but keep playing deaf, don’t blame me for really unleashing full force!”
Truly at her wits end, Xu MiYu stepped straight into the storm herself, letting the pouring rain soak into her skin unobstructed, seeking some mental clarity from its rushing caress.
She turned with hollow laughter towards Jiao XiuMei. “Actually, you’re the real fraud here. Snatching that bank card from me through deception!” She shouted over the storm, “To be perfectly honest, those 200,000 yuan aren’t even mine to begin with so stop coveting what’s not yours!”
Jiao XiuMei yelled back, “What nonsense spewing! Get back under shelter sensibly! Catching rainwater with your brainless head?! What’s all this about staying away from that 200,000 then? Don’t tell me you’re really alright watching your brother’s in-laws make life hell for him?!”
Xu MiYu smiled bleakly amidst the relentless downpour, defiantly hollering back, “Don’t even dream about it this time! I absolutely won’t reveal the password to you!”
Jiao XiuMei instantly lunged forward, as if her last vestiges of tolerance thoroughly shattered, slapping Xu MiYu in a deranged frenzy. “Xu MiYu, I’ll say this – quit bawling and shouting theatrically at me. Think I’ve been too soft on you, is that it? Sweet talk doesn’t work eh, insisting on learning things the hard way?”
One hand stretched out trying to jab Xu MiYu’s forehead. “dunno and don’t care where you got the money from! Since that card’s in my hands now, what’s inside belongs to me! Hand over the accurate withdrawal password pronto!”
She practically knocked Xu MiYu’s skull askew.
But Xu MiYu just gazed stonily back, staunchly facing the barrage. “Really, stop dreaming already. That password you’re never getting from me!”
Jiao XiuMei instantly warped her features with deranged malice, threatening wildly, “Xu MiYu, seems neither of us are fated for smooth sailing lives. So be it! I’ll just drag you along – we can plunge off this terrace right now, both out of future misery! Unless you vomit up access to that private cashstash immediately!”
Shrieking dementedly amidst the storm, Jiao XiuMei then advanced upon Xu MiYu, palm risen for a strike.
Xu MiYu placidly shut her eyes, fully expecting this woman who birthed her to forever obliterate those last fraying remnants of maternal warmth from her battered heart.
But the slap never descended.
Blinking open in surprise, she was stunned to discover Ji Feng somehow materializing under the eaves, firmly clasping Jiao XiuMei’s wrist in intervention.
Thunderstruck by his presence, Xu MiYu numbly studied his face beneath the pouring cascade.
He too glanced her way, revulsion etched deeply across his features, brows furrowed with sheer distaste and impatience.
Still wearing that visage, he tersely bit out, “Are you an idiot? Even if she’s your mother, just letting her hit you without evading?”
Hearing him speak jolted Xu MiYu even more rigid.
Shaking Jiao XiuMei off, Ji Feng reached out and snagged Xu MiYu’s soggy wrist, tugging her back under shelter from the rain.
Then he casually stationed himself in front of her, unobtrusively manuevering Xu MiYu behind himself.
Rubbing her wrist, Jiao XiuMei griped loudly, “Shameless lout! Where’d you learn to bully the elderly like this?! Reckon I’ll report your misbehavior! We were discussing private family matters before you barged in sticking that unwanted nose. Shove off before I make you eat dirt!”
Unfazed, Ji Feng stayed rooted.
Incensed further, Jiao XiuMei’s volume climbed. “What’s your deal, huh?! Who do you think you are?!”
Ji Feng peered down at Jiao XiuMei imposingly, voice frigid. “I’m a guest staying at this hotel. Funny coincidence, I lost a bank card with 200,000 yuan balance recently. Still searching for it. But discovered today your daughter must have stolen it when tidying my room and then gave it to you. Am I right? That would make you both partner thieves. No one’s escaping today, I’m dialing the police straight away to press charges.”
Whipping his phone out simultaneously, he threatened Jiao XiuMei, “Legally speaking, 200,000 yuan is no paltry sum. I guarantee a prison stint for both of you frauds as penalty.”
Hearing Ji Feng caused alarm bells inside Jiao XiuMei while her bluster deflated somewhat.
But she still stubbornly craned out her neck. “Hilarious bluff! Who exactly you trying to cow here?! Too serendipitous, right when my daughter and I were chatting privately, you popped up from nowhere wielding tall tales about missing cash! I’d bet good money you’re the real scammer around here!”
Ji Feng just snorted derisively, too lazy to waste time debating an obstinate nitwit. He directly recited a series of bank card numbers instead – ones he had just verified briefly with Xue Rui.
His smooth recital instantly stunned Jiao XiuMei speechless.
It was precisely the card number from the one she had pilfered off Xu MiYu! She had gone and memorized it entirely these days while constantly checking the balance.
Glancing over Ji Feng’s ruthless expression, she shuddered at the belated realization. No wonder Xu MiYu had repeatedly warned her not to touch the money, insisting it didn’t belong to her. So the card had been stolen from this guest during housekeeping duties!
With this apprehension, Jiao XiuMei hastened to absolve herself to Ji Feng. “Hey, don’t go dragging me into this business! Theft’s strictly my daughter alone! I’m innocent as a babe! Go find her for accounts – I got my own pressing matters to handle at home! This is goodbye!”
Not even sparing another peek at Xu MiYu, she instantly fled despite the blustering gale.
Xu MiYu watched her mother’s retreating figure, only ashes left inside.
Ji Feng also swiveled to face her, sneering derisively, “What a mother you have. Fine bleeding you dry routinely but quick to foist everything onto you soon as trouble looms then beats a hasty retreat?”
Xu MiYu echoed woodenly. Was this creature even a mother at all?
One mere 200,000 yuan and she would heartlessly hound her daughter relentlessly towards destruction without blinking. Yet also swift to completely disavow all ties or obligations soon as the slightest whiff of consequences manifested.
Xu MiYu shuffled one step out into the rain before halting to pivot slowly back around towards Ji Feng. The streams from the weeping skies disguised her own overflowing tears.
Raising her head levelly towards him, realization struck that he must have heard their entire exchange loud and clear.
Mortified beneath his scrutiny, desolation clawed inside.
And indeed, she read nothing beyond disdain and derision inside Ji Feng’s eyes.
His expression lanced agonizingly.
When she spoke, it was in a wretched quavering warble barely suppressed. “Why must you always stare at me like that? Am I truly so revolting?”
His familiar scornful tones responded. “Isn’t willingly demeaning yourself into such pathetic lack of self-respect inevitably repellent?”
The contempt in his voice provoked Xu MiYu into retaliation.
Hollering loudly to be heard above the storm she cried, “Oh? And you’re so immune to being repulsive yourself?! Constantly peering down that arrogant nose, nothing but distaste and mockery in your eyes. Viewing us average people like insignificant specks of dust! But what do you actually know?! Do you understand how the common masses live?! Or what we ‘dust specks’ actually endure day after day merely to survive?! I bet your worst headaches stem from nothing more than occasional bad moods! Whereas us pitiful average citizens face the monumental headache of figuring out how to live decently at all! If you can’t even empathize, then don’t be so quick to judge and look down on us!”
Her bellowed accusations stunned Ji Feng in place.
He had always believed himself a principled man, not the most genial perhaps but certainly no one’s idea of repulsive. This marked the first occasion of glimpsing himself in that light. He froze up, rendered entirely speechless for a time.
Was he really so condescending? Truly that scornful and derisive? Lacking human empathy?
Forcibly suppressing the series of staggering questions bombarding his psyche, Ji Feng managed to address Xu MiYu frigidly at last. “This kind of attack from you now will only emphasize your own awkwardness and pitifulness more.”
Xu MiYu stiffened.
He labeled her pitiful? Was he commiserating her?
“Yet the pitiful remain hateful all the same with no grounds for sympathy.”
Fresh stabs of pain.
“How am I hateful now?” She choked out shakily through the rain, refusing to back down.
Ji Feng flicked an upward glance over her, shoving down the budding tendrils of compassion sternly before bellowing harshly, “That your family dares treat you thus is precisely your own lax indulgences spoiling them rotten! Lacking any backbone, just meekly obeying and yielding at every turn, breeding this parasitical bloodsucking dependency! You don’t find that perfectly detestable?!”
Shellshocked inertness from Xu MiYu.
Then shrouded safely by the weeping sky’s music, she unleashed irrepressible ragged sobs at long last.
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