On the evening of Dayin’s opening ceremony, the staff had already cleaned everything inside and out. The firecracker debris along the roadside out front was cleared away early the next morning.
Hu Pan stood on the road with her hands on her hips. “Should we have left a little bit of a trace? It looks too clean.”
“No need. If we leave it, people can tell at a glance that we’re brand new, and they might doubt how professional our service is,” Sanbing said, also standing with his hands on his hips.
“Makes sense,” Hu Pan said, glancing over at Chen Jian, who was squatting by the road opposite them. “Manager, why don’t you go back and sleep some more?”
“No thanks.” Chen Jian lowered his head and sneezed.
“Catching a cold on the first official day of business,” Sanbing said. “You sure pick your timing.”
“It’s because he worked so hard for so many days—as soon as he relaxed, he fell sick,” Hu Pan said.
“It’s not even cold out; how’d you catch a cold?” Sanbing said. “How long were you patrolling outside last night?”
He’d only patrolled one lap.
And laid on the chair for half an hour.
“…Quite a long time.” Chen Jian pulled out a mask and put it on. “I’ll eat by myself later so I don’t pass it to you guys.”
“Just don’t pass it to the boss, and you’re good,” Hu Pan said.
Passing it to the boss wouldn’t matter anyway—he didn’t do any work.
“Are you a plant mister? Passing it to everyone just by walking past?” Shan Yu asked over the phone.
“Mister or not, I still have to breathe,” Chen Jian said. “They all told me to stay away from you.”
“As long as you don’t kneel next to me checking if I’m dead, you won’t be breathing right in my face,” Shan Yu said.
Chen Jian let out a sigh.
“If you don’t have anything to do today, just sleep more,” Shan Yu said. “They say sleeping a lot helps you recover fast. Get well quickly—can’t run the place without a manager.”
Fourteen thousand isn’t given away for free, after all.
“Mm,” Chen Jian responded.
Truth be told, there really wasn’t much to do today. The three couples from the grand opening wouldn’t arrive until around noon tomorrow. Chen Jian went back to his dorm room and lay down.
Catching this cold was indeed pretty awkward.
He wasn’t sure if Shan Yu had seen him when opening the window last night. Maybe he hadn’t at first—a normal person opening a window wouldn’t immediately stare down into the courtyard, but after his frantic sprint, it was hard to say.
Given Shan Yu’s reaction time…
What was he even running for?
He was in a position where he couldn’t sneak a look anyway, nor could he eavesdrop. Though lying there late at night as the manager was a bit weird, running off made him look even weirder.
Chen Jian sighed. Better off just sleeping in the dorm.
A cold was pretty wearing. Being someone who rarely felt sleepy during the day, he fell asleep just minutes after lying on the bed.
Of course, it could also be due to lack of oxygen from a stuffed nose.
He didn’t sleep soundly, though. His phone buzzed twice beside his head, and he woke up. Seeing the caller ID was “Dad,” he glanced at the time—he had actually slept for two hours.
“Dad?” He answered the call.
“It’s me,” his father’s voice came through, raspy as usual. “Have you eaten?”
“I ate,” Chen Jian said.
“Oh. Where are you working these days?” his dad asked.
“That guesthouse I worked at before. It got a new boss,” Chen Jian said. “So I came back to work here.”
“That’s good,” his dad said, falling silent right after.
Chen Jian originally didn’t want to talk more about work, but remembering Tang Rui’s words, plus really not knowing what else to say, he added another line: “I’m the manager here now.”
“Manager?” his dad asked. “In charge of things?”
“Yeah, in charge,” Chen Jian said.
“Well, that’s great,” his dad chuckled softly. “That’s good, that’s good.”
“How have you been doing lately?” Chen Jian asked.
“Been delivering food for two months now,” his dad said. “Now that I know the roads, it’s alright.”
“Don’t push yourself too hard,” Chen Jian said.
“I’m fine; it’s not that tiring,” his dad said, pausing. “I’ll deposit some money into the card in a bit. See if you can pool it together to pay off a bit to Lao Yu.”
“Did you keep enough for your living expenses?” Chen Jian asked.
“I kept enough,” his dad said.
“Mm,” Chen Jian acknowledged.
Both sides fell silent. After a moment, his dad asked, “Do you have a cold?”
“Yeah, nothing serious. Almost over it,” Chen Jian said.
His dad fell silent again for a moment. “I’ll hang up then.”
Chen Jian held the phone, lying on the bed and staring at the ceiling.
A short while later, a text notification chimed. It showed a deposit of 6,300 yuan into his bank card.
Chen Jian rested his head on his arm and sighed softly. If he gathered his savings, he could probably piece together 10,000. He was less than 20,000 away from clearing his debt to Uncle Yu—paying it off sooner meant one less debt collector.
There came two knocks at his dorm room door.
“Come in,” Chen Jian called out.
When the door opened, only an arm reached in, throwing something that looked like a paper box straight toward his head.
“What the—” Chen Jian instinctively swatted at it, slapping the object onto the floor.
“Pick it up yourself,” Shan Yu’s voice came from outside the door. “I was originally going to toss it onto your body.”
Chen Jian saw clearly that it was a box of cold medicine.
Give a warning before throwing things; would it break your good leg?!
“Mm,” Chen Jian felt somewhat helpless as he got out of bed and picked up the medicine.
Could Hu Pan exercise a bit of initiative and assign some work to the boss? He was bored out of his mind!
“Hu Pan asked me to bring it to you,” Shan Yu said. “The manager’s popular support among the masses isn’t bad.”
…Panpan, thank you so much.
“Zhao-jie is cooking sick-bay food for you,” Shan Yu said.
Chen Jian said, “I’ll go downstairs to eat.”
“Alright.” Shan Yu closed the door.
Chen Jian opened the medicine box and popped out the pills into his hand, only to realize there was no water in the room.
Just as he stood up intending to fetch a cup from the water dispenser outside, the door suddenly opened again. A bottle of water flew in through the crack of the door and landed heavily on his bed.
“Ah!” Chen Jian was startled, his nose clearing instantly.
Shan Yu said from outside the door, “Sorry, forgot.”
After taking the cold medicine, bolstered by the psychological effect and the boss’s two jump scares, Chen Jian felt himself starting to turn the corner.
He put on a jacket, grabbed his walkie-talkie, and slowly walked downstairs.
His phone chimed again with a text message from his dad.
[Old Chen In A Mountain]: Work hard. Why does the boss want you to be the manager? You only have a high school diploma; keep your wits about you.
Chen Jian sighed and quickly texted back.
[Chen Yu Luo Yan]: Got it.
Zhao-jie had made him carrot and corn porridge, boiled a bowl of fish soup, and paired it with two big tomatoes.
Chen Jian ate with relish. Eating it brought back memories of the meals his mom made when she was sick during his childhood.
“How are you feeling?” Hu Pan asked.
“Pretty good,” Chen Jian said. “My colds usually clear up in two or three days.”
“That group of college students has confirmed their time and headcount,” Hu Pan said. “We’ll need to pick them up in the old town then. I mentioned we only have one seven-seater car, so some will come by minibus and some can ride in our car.”
“Let Chen Erhu do the pickup,” Chen Jian said. “Confirm in advance how they want to arrange their meals, what their tastes are like, and prepare what we need beforehand. Otherwise, it’ll be chaos when they arrive.”
“Mm,” Hu Pan nodded, then smiled. “Hey, back then I would’ve thought all these chores were such a hassle, but now I just find it pretty interesting.”
“Being busy is good. If we stay idle forever, we’ll end up unemployed,” Sanbing said.
Busy as it was, it wasn’t that busy. After these few couples from the grand opening left, there were basically no guests on weekdays. Chen Jian wasn’t busy with work every day either, often just standing on the upper balcony watching the guests coming and going, observing the situation at the other guesthouses around them.
They were about the same as them, mostly guests coming for the weekend. This weekend, Dayin had sold one more room than the ones inside.
In a few days, when Liu Wu and his crew arrived, it would give the guesthouses inside plenty to be envious of.
“Manager Chen,” Shan Yu’s voice came through the walkie-talkie. “Where are you?”
“Fourth-floor balcony,” Chen Jian said.
“Put the surveillance work on hold for a moment and come on a business trip with me,” Shan Yu said.
Chen Jian was stunned. “Business trip?”
“Taking a trip to the city,” Shan Yu said.
We usually call that ‘going into town.’
Chen Jian went to the office. Shan Yu was already sitting in his wheelchair, his crutch tucked into the side pocket.
“Buying things?” Chen Jian asked.
“Picking up a parcel,” Shan Yu said. “We probably won’t be back until evening. Ask them if they need anything bought, make a list, and we’ll bring it back for them.”
“Picking up a parcel and buying stuff won’t take a whole day, right?” Chen Jian quickly estimated the time.
“I’m letting off steam while I’m at it,” Shan Yu said.
“Mm,” Chen Jian glanced at him. “Then I’ll go downstairs and ask them first.”
The staff didn’t need many things. Zhao-jie asked him to bring back some snacks—the supermarket in the old town had a limited variety, missing everything her daughter wanted to eat. Hu Pan’s list was all young girl stuff: lipstick, foundation, eyeshadow, shampoo. But she wrote it out in extreme detail, tapping away on Chen Jian’s phone to list the floor of the mall, which shop, and every single shade code in the notes app.
“This way you guys should be able to understand it,” Hu Pan said.
Sanbing and the others didn’t need anything. After all, as loafers, spending an idle day taking a minibus into the city to wander around was something they used to do often.
“Ready?” Shan Yu came out of the elevator.
“Ready.” Chen Jian put his phone away.
After stowing the wheelchair in the trunk, Chen Jian sat in… the passenger seat. At this moment, Chen Jian felt a slight sense of helplessness regarding Shan Yu being a crippled boss.
Going out with his assistant-slash-manager driving the car, yet the boss still had to drive himself.
“Go learn to drive,” Shan Yu said, starting the car. “Right after the college student hassle group leaves in a few days, you go.”
“Mm,” Chen Jian acknowledged. “Is it hard?”
“Why don’t you ask Chen Erhu?” Shan Yu said.
Chen Jian smiled and didn’t speak.
“I won’t turn on navigation,” Shan Yu said. “You know the way, right?”
“I know it.” Chen Jian nodded.
“Did you go to high school in the city before?” Shan Yu asked.
“Yeah.” Chen Jian looked out the window. “I had to travel this road twice every week.”
“Was Sanbing your classmate?” Shan Yu rolled down the window, letting a cool breeze blow in.
“Next-door school,” Chen Jian said. “We didn’t cross paths usually, just ran into each other on the shuttle bus home sometimes.”
Driving from the small town to the city took about three hours. After reaching the old town, you take a loop around the ring expressways. However, Chen Jian used to take the county roads; only when running into Tang Rui heading into the city, who gave him a lift back, would he take the highway.
Shan Yu turned on some music to listen to and stopped talking. Chen Jian watched the scenery constantly flitting past the window, and before long, he fell asleep.
It wasn’t until Shan Yu suddenly honked the horn a few times that he jolted awake.
Seeing the road ahead completely devoid of people and cars, he was a little confused. “What’s wrong?”
“Feeling unbalanced. I’m driving while you sleep,” Shan Yu said.
“Can’t take even a little loss, can you?” Chen Jian smiled and sat up straight.
“Is your dad working in the city right now?” Shan Yu asked.
“Mm,” Chen Jian nodded. “Delivering food.”
“Once we pick up the parcel and buy their stuff later,” Shan Yu glanced at him, “I’ll go play at an arcade for a bit. You can go see your dad.”
Chen Jian froze. “What?”
His counterquestion made Shan Yu freeze as well. “See your dad. Haven’t seen him in quite a while, right?”
Chen Jian was silent for a moment, feeling somewhat awkward. “It’s… not really necessary to see him.”
“Father-son discord?” Shan Yu asked, his fingers gently tapping on the steering wheel.
“Not really,” Chen Jian said. “It’s just that… I’ve never visited him. He probably hasn’t thought about having me visit him either.”
“So it is father-son discord,” Shan Yu said.
Chen Jian chuckled. “Really, no. We just have nothing to say to each other. It’s awkward.”
“Have you two not lived together much?” Shan Yu asked.
“I guess so,” Chen Jian thought back. “After my mom passed away, he was always running around outside. We didn’t even see each other twice a year.”
It was quite a long while before Shan Yu spoke up. “Or maybe he feels like he burdened you and is too embarrassed to see you.”
Chen Jian turned his head to look at him, remaining silent.
After the car merged onto the highway and the windows were rolled up, the steady motion of the car paired with the monotonous scenery on both sides became the best hypnotic.
One second Chen Jian was reminding himself that the boss was driving—a crippled boss, at that—and not to fall asleep again. The next second, he was dreaming.
He slept soundly, better than lying in bed.
It wasn’t until Shan Yu slapped him across the face that he snapped his eyes open.
“Did you just slap me?” Chen Jian looked at the road sign approaching ahead. “You missed the exit.”
“Keep sleeping,” Shan Yu said. “It’s a ring road anyway. Worst case, we just take another lap.”
“…We can just take the next exit down.” Chen Jian stared at the road, pointing ahead. “It’s about an extra ten kilometers.”
“Do you have trouble sleeping at night?” Shan Yu said. “I should have Chen the Immortal prescribe a few doses of medicine for you too.”
“It’s Chen the Masseuse,” Chen Jian corrected.
“Chen the Immortal sounds less likely to get raided in a surprise inspection than Chen the Masseuse,” Shan Yu said.
Chen Jian froze, then burst out laughing. “Everyone in the village calls him that; I’m used to it. Was his medicine useful when you took it before?”
“Fewer dreams,” Shan Yu said. “It’s somewhat effective after all. Let’s go there again another day.”
“Okay,” Chen Jian nodded.
Although they drove an extra ten kilometers, even if they had gotten off at the previous exit, any traffic jam in the city would easily make up for that bit of time anyway.
Chen Jian was quite familiar with the place to pick up the parcel; he took a winding, twisting alley shortcut and drove right there.
“If the parcel was sent via postal service, they could deliver it right to the town,” Chen Jian said.
“It must really pain you to see your boss coming out to blow off steam, huh? Even though there’s not a single guest today, he actually abandoned this empty shop.” Shan Yu parked the car.
Fine, then collect all your future parcels when you go out to blow off steam.
Chen Jian didn’t speak.
Shan Yu handed him his ID card. “You go get it. I’ll stretch my legs.”
Chen Jian paused before taking his ID card, feeling a bit hesitant. Looking at it directly seemed a bit rude, but not looking at it at all felt very fake.
“Take a look, just in case I grabbed Qian Yu’s,” Shan Yu said. “Besides, I kept ugly photocopies of all your ID cards anyway.”
Chen Jian sighed. As he walked toward the pickup station, he lowered his head and casually glanced at Shan Yu’s ID card.
The name was real.
The age was also real.
The photo matched too.
The address wasn’t in this city—it was in the neighboring city.
Looking at the date, this ID card was newly issued after Shan Yu came out.
The parcel to be collected was a sizable wooden crate, sealed very securely. There was no telling what was inside.
Chen Jian carried the crate out and loaded it into the trunk.
“That high school you walked past just now,” Shan Yu leaned against the car door, “did you go to school there?”
“Mm,” Chen Jian responded. “How’d you guess?”
“You kept staring at it,” Shan Yu said.
Chen Jian gave a small smile. “Haven’t been back since graduation, but it looks like nothing’s changed.”
“What changes could a school have?” Shan Yu said. “It’s the people that change.”
Chen Jian let out a soft sigh and closed the trunk door. “Where to now?”
“Have lunch in the mall, then buy their stuff,” Shan Yu said. “After buying the stuff, go play arcade games.”
“The arcades are all full of kids,” Chen Jian said.
“How great. Easy to swipe machines from kids,” Shan Yu said, turning around to get into the car.
All along the way, Chen Jian’s mind was in a bit of turmoil. Over the years, spending less time together and more time apart from his dad had become a habit. Most of the time, he defaulted to considering himself alone. Whether facing debt collectors or his own various affairs, he never thought to contact his dad.
Shan Yu sometimes spoke very directly, always managing to hit straight at certain points you thought you had never considered, but in reality were perhaps just trying to avoid.
This guy was like alcohol poured onto an open wound.
Chen Jian sighed, looked out the window, and pointed out the way for Shan Yu: “Turn left at the traffic light, then drive ahead and make a U-turn, and we’ll be there.”
“Mm,” Shan Yu acknowledged.
Chen Jian lowered his head to glance at the time. Right now, he didn’t know if his dad was eating or delivering food orders.
In a bit, when they were eating in the mall, would they bump into him?
The mall wasn’t crowded on non-weekdays. Chen Jian had originally thought Shan Yu specifically brought his crutches along to walk, but it turned out he wanted to sit in the wheelchair.
“I thought you brought crutches to walk around.” Chen Jian walked beside the wheelchair.
“This is used for poking kids out of the way in the arcade,” Shan Yu said.
“Damn.” Chen Jian couldn’t hold back and burst into laughter.
“No strict rules today,” Shan Yu said. “I just made an excuse to come out and play, and brought you along to relax a bit while I’m at it. Be happier—at least today you don’t have to think about anything. In a few days when Liu Wu and his group arrive, you’ll have plenty to be annoyed about.”
“Mm,” Chen Jian nodded. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome, it’s fine,” Shan Yu said. “As I should.”
Chen Jian walked a few steps alongside the wheelchair, looking behind it. “Didn’t you say before…”
“You can stand on it,” Shan Yu came to a stop. “Want to get on?”
Chen Jian hesitated for a moment, then stepped onto the footplate at the back.
When the wheelchair started moving again, a mini train inside the mall drove up from behind them, cruising parallel to them. Several kids on the train were all staring at them.
“Hi,” Shan Yu looked back at the kids.
“Don’t go crazy.” Chen Jian immediately grew vigilant.
“Tch.” Shan Yu pushed forward on the controller in his hand, and the wheelchair suddenly accelerated, quickly leaving the mini train far behind.
