Chen Jian’s mind was still a mess. He regretted sleeping the whole way back, not having thought of a normal reason for the red, swollen handprint on Shan Yu’s face beforehand.
Something like getting hit by a security guard for ramming a claw machine with his wheelchair at the arcade.
“He…” Sanbing’s eyes, brimming with gossip and curiosity, made Chen Jian uncomfortable. He felt like at any second, Sanbing would guess that he was the one who had delivered that slap.
Just as he was about to go with the absurd “wheelchair vs. claw machine” excuse, Hu Pan poked her head in from the warehouse door, saving him.
“Hey, did you guys go play claw machines?”
And even rammed a claw machine.
“Yes,” Chen Jian quickly replied, walking out of the warehouse and taking a deep breath to clear his head.
“You only got one small bag? Is it for Xiao Dou’er?” Hu Pan asked.
“Mm, and… two bags of snacks,” Chen Jian said, opening the bag he’d brought from the car. “Cotton candy and this bag of popcorn.”
This pathetic haul made Hu Pan and Sanbing burst out laughing at the same time.
“Oh my god, I could grab more with my feet,” Hu Pan cried out between laughs. “What kind of skills do you two have!”
“Boss Shan is on one leg, after all,” Lao Wu said.
“Sanbing, haven’t I told you that your group’s IQ is a full hundred minus twenty,” Hu Pan laughed even harder, almost choking.
Sanbing sighed.
Chen Jian breathed a sigh of relief and handed Hu Pan her gift box. “The thing you wanted.”
“Was the money I sent you enough? Do I need to add more?” Hu Pan took the gift box and exclaimed in surprise, “Wow, it’s so pretty!”
“The money was just right,” Chen Jian said. “The gift box… Boss Shan had it wrapped.”
“Boss Shan knows me so well,” Hu Pan said, unwrapping the box while taking photos with her phone. “So happy!”
Chen Jian also gave Sister Zhao her bag of snacks. “Sister Zhao, see if these are right.”
“Yes, yes, thank you,” Sister Zhao nodded without looking, digging out the receipt to find the price. “Let me see how much, I’ll pay you in a bit.”
“It’s not much, no rush,” Chen Jian said.
“Damn,” Sanbing and Lao Wu said, sitting to the side. “If we’d known, we would’ve asked you to bring something back too. It feels like you came back from a trip and are handing out souvenirs, and we’re the only ones with nothing.”
Chen Jian rummaged through the bag, pulled out the beef pot he’d packed at lunch, and placed it on the table in front of them. “Here, your afternoon tea.”
After sorting out everything he’d brought back, Chen Jian prepared to go upstairs to his dorm for some peace and quiet.
But Hu Pan called out to him, “Manager Chen.”
“Hm?” Chen Jian responded.
“Come here,” Hu Pan ran to the front desk and leaned over the computer. “I took a few calls today from guests asking questions. See if what I said was okay. I wrote it all down.”
“Okay.” Chen Jian walked over.
“This one was asking if they can bring pets. We’re pet-friendly, but they asked about size limits,” Hu Pan turned the computer screen, which showed a neat document. “I was thinking no more than fifty jin, but some places don’t accept large dogs, so we need to confirm. And this one was asking about room types… this one was asking if we can help buy rafting tickets…”
Chen Jian listened as he read the document. “It’s mostly fine. I’ll confirm some of the details with… Boss Shan.”
“Okay,” Hu Pan nodded, then sighed in relief. “Now that you’re back, I feel so much more at ease. Sanbing and the others are all unreliable. This place really can’t run without you.”
It really can’t run without the boss—he’s the one paying for everything.
“…Is that so.” Chen Jian glanced at her.
“Yeah,” Hu Pan looked back, seeming a little confused. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Chen Jian smiled.
Hu Pan was a very sensitive girl. As Chen Jian turned to leave, she tugged on his sleeve and asked in a low voice, “Hey, did Boss Shan say something to you?”
“No, I…” Chen Jian was startled and quickly waved his hands.
“I just feel like he’s been off ever since he got back. He seems angry,” Hu Pan said, still in a whisper.
An abruptly ended business trip, a silent boss, a manager who was probably not in a normal state…
It was no surprise that Hu Pan sensed something was wrong.
“Boss Shan is a really good person. It’s not easy to find a boss like him at work,” Hu Pan said. “If he really did say something to you, don’t take it to heart. Bosses all have a bit of a temper… Besides, if he’s really in the wrong, tell me, and I’ll go argue with him for you. I have experience arguing with bosses.”
Chen Jian looked at her. Although her guess was a million miles off, his heart warmed at her words. After a long moment, he said, “Thanks.”
—
Shan Yu took a shower as soon as he got back to his room and threw his changed clothes into the trash. He felt like he’d been cursed today, so frustrated that he could only take it out on his clothes.
After changing, he sat on the bed and lifted his pant leg to take a closer look. His left calf felt a bit uncomfortable, possibly from driving for so long.
Visually, it looked normal. It was probably just swollen from blood congestion.
He took out the first-aid kit and laid out the items for disinfection. Normally, his assistant-slash-manager would help him with this at night, but not today.
Probably not tomorrow either.
…He’d have to do it himself. It wasn’t that complicated. It probably wouldn’t be convenient to have Chen Jian help again until the brace came off.
But it was hard to say. He could imagine how conflicted Chen Jian must be over the fourteen thousand yuan he’d already received and definitely used to pay off his debts.
Shan Yu sighed.
What a mess.
His phone rang. With a cotton swab in one hand, Shan Yu fumbled around on the bed with the other, finally digging his phone out from between the pillows. It was Yue Lang.
“Hello?” he answered.
“Did you sign for the package?” Yue Lang asked.
“Yeah, I got it,” Shan Yu said.
“I put the invoice and the tracker inside. Did you see them?” Yue Lang asked.
“Yeah, I saw them,” Shan Yu said, stretching to disinfect his leg and the brace with the cotton swab.
The position was a real test of flexibility. After two swipes, he tossed the swab, leaned back against the pillows, and decided to do it in the office later. Propping his leg up on the desk would probably be easier.
“The hell you saw them,” Yue Lang said. “You probably haven’t even opened it.”
“I’ll open it later,” Shan Yu said. “No rush.”
“Are you okay?” Yue Lang suddenly asked.
“Who are you cursing at?” Shan Yu lifted his leg into the air to relieve the swelling.
“Who I’m cursing at isn’t important. The fact that you’re not cursing at me is what’s wrong,” Yue Lang said. “Did something happen?”
“If you were this perceptive with your wife, you wouldn’t get yelled at by her every other day,” Shan Yu said.
“She hasn’t yelled at me in a long time,” Yue Lang said.
“She’s moved on to hitting you,” Shan Yu said.
Yue Lang laughed. “Tell me when you feel like talking. I was just calling to ask if you got the package. Remember to open it and check.”
“Mm,” Shan Yu grunted in agreement.
—
Sister Zhao made dinner. When Chen Jian came downstairs to eat, he didn’t see Shan Yu. Just as he was thinking about whether to ask, the walkie-talkie crackled: “Manager Chen, after you guys finish eating, bring some food to my office.”
“Okay,” Chen Jian picked up the walkie-talkie.
“Is he not coming down to eat?” Sister Zhao asked. “Is he not feeling well? Is his head hurting again?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he’s tired,” Chen Jian said.
“Driving for several hours is tiring,” Chen Erhu, who was on duty tonight and had come over to save on a meal, said. “Chen Jian, it’s not good that you can’t drive. When the boss goes out, he doesn’t like taking us grunts; he wants to take the manager, and you can’t even drive…”
“I’ll go learn in a bit,” Chen Jian said as he sat down.
As soon as he said it, he felt a bit uncertain. Would he even need to learn? The matter of paying for driving school was…
“I’ll introduce you to an instructor. I failed with another instructor before, but when I switched to him, I realized how different they can be,” Chen Erhu said.
“Okay,” Chen Jian nodded. “Thanks, Boss Chen.”
“Cut it out,” Chen Erhu said. “Don’t be as phony as Shan Yu. ‘Boss Chen’ this, ‘Boss Chen’ that…”
“Hey, Chen Erhu, I’m starting to see your problem,” Hu Pan shot him a glare. “Is it wrong for people to respect you now? You just can’t stand to see the boss being nice to someone, can you?”
“I didn’t say he was bad, I was saying…” Chen Erhu rapped his knuckles on the table.
“Hey,” Chen Jian quickly tapped the table too, interrupting them. “Let’s eat. After this weekend, it’s Golden Week. Besides the university students, we’ve booked a lot of other rooms. Boss Chen, you need to get your people trained up these next two days so things don’t get chaotic when we get busy.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve left it to Sanbing,” Chen Erhu said.
“I wrote up a training plan,” Sanbing said. “I’ll organize it later and show you.”
“Okay.” Chen Jian nodded. Sanbing’s words surprised him. He’d been hanging around Chen Erhu for so long that Chen Jian often forgot he had also attended… the tenth grade.
—
After dinner, Chen Jian brought a tray with Shan Yu’s food to the office.
Shan Yu was sitting behind his desk, facing the computer. “Just put it here.”
Chen Jian placed the tray on the desk. As he was about to leave, Shan Yu called out to him, “Unpack that box later. Find a conspicuous spot in the restaurant or somewhere for the thing inside. Just give me the invoice. There should also be a tracker; stick it in a hidden spot. You do this yourself.”
“…Okay.” Chen Jian nodded.
“If anyone asks, just say it’s something the boss spent a lot of money on to show off,” Shan Yu said. “If no one asks, have Sanbing and the others spread the word.”
Chen Jian didn’t say anything. After a moment, he asked, “Is this… a trap for someone?”
“I don’t know yet,” Shan Yu smiled. “I’ll tell you when it works.”
—
Inside the blind box was an abstract but rather nice-looking, unusually shaped bottle. Hu Pan and Sanbing argued for a long time over whether the bottle was shaped like a small animal or a contorted human body, but couldn’t reach a conclusion.
As the sole pioneer at the inn, Hu Pan took on the task of finding a place for the bottle. She finally chose the coffee shop. The coffee shop’s window faced the courtyard railing, and the shelf in front of the window already held various display cups and pots that blended well with the garden view outside. The bottle fit perfectly there.
“Is that bottle really that expensive?” Chen Erhu asked. “I saw the invoice said it was over ten thousand?”
“Yeah.” Chen Jian nodded.
“Boss Shan is rich,” Sanbing said. “Panpan said his wheelchair is also tens of thousands.”
“Bullshit,” Chen Erhu retorted out of habit.
“It’s true. It’s electric, and it’s made of carbon fiber, so it’s very light. You’ve lifted it before, wasn’t it light?” Hu Pan tossed her hair. “Don’t look so uncultured.”
“I swear,” Chen Erhu glared at her, “if you weren’t my colleague, I’d…”
“If I weren’t your colleague, I wouldn’t even be here,” Hu Pan tossed her hair again, turned, and walked away, humming a tune.
Chen Jian laughed. “Boss Chen, don’t always argue with her. She’s formidable.”
Chen Erhu clicked his tongue. “Sanbing, let’s go. Show me that training plan of yours. I’ll look it over before you submit it.”
“Okay.” Sanbing nodded and went with him to the restaurant.
Everyone was busy now. Chen Jian found some thick foam double-sided tape and stuck it on the small, round tracker from the box. He took the bottle down again and looked at it. The only place to stick it was inside.
The mouth of the bottle was just wide enough for his fingers to pinch the tracker and slip it in. He stuck the tracker to the concave part of the bottle’s neck.
Shan Yu hadn’t said what this thing was for, but it definitely wasn’t just a decoration. He guessed it had something to do with Chen Dahu. After all, unlike Chen Erhu, that man wasn’t the type to let things go after being slighted once.
Besides, he wouldn’t classify being knocked out by Shan Yu as being slighted; he would only see it as Shan Yu making him lose face, something he would have to get back sooner or later.
—
There weren’t many guests at the inn today. It was a makeup work week, so few people came for the weekend. By evening, everyone was mostly free.
Chen Jian did a round of the inn. Around the usual time, he went upstairs. Shan Yu’s leg still needed to be disinfected.
Although it was still a bit awkward, it was a job he was paid for.
But today, Shan Yu wasn’t in his room on the third floor. Chen Jian hesitated for a moment, then turned and went up to the fourth floor.
The light was on in the office. He knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Shan Yu’s voice came from inside.
When he pushed the door open, he smelled the familiar scent of iodophor that he usually smelled when changing the dressings.
“Did you disinfect it yourself?” Chen Jian asked.
“Yeah,” Shan Yu glanced at him. “It’s been pretty busy these last two days, so I just did it myself.”
“Well… it doesn’t take that much time,” Chen Jian said.
“Then you can continue tomorrow,” Shan Yu said. “Also, we’re paying salaries before the holiday. Get the attendance records sorted out.”
“Okay,” Chen Jian replied. “I unpacked that bottle just now. It’s intact. I stuck the tracker inside the bottle, so it’s not visible normally.”
“Where did you put the bottle?” Shan Yu asked.
“On the shelf in the coffee shop that faces the courtyard,” Chen Jian said.
Shan Yu smiled. “Good.”
—
Coming out of the office, Chen Jian felt an indescribable discomfort.
Before, although there was a lot of work and the many small tasks were tiring, his heart had been light. He felt no pressure when facing his boss, but now it felt like everything had changed.
He was very tired.
Even that simple, brief conversation just now had exhausted him.
And as the holiday approached, busier and more tiring days were about to begin.
Guests started arriving the day before the holiday. Although there weren’t many and Hu Pan could handle it, Chen Jian stayed at the front desk to help, constantly worried that something would go wrong.
When it was time to disinfect Shan Yu’s leg that evening, he went to 307 with a notebook in hand.
“What’s all this?” Shan Yu was leaning against the headboard, looking at the contents of the notebook.
“Some issues I ran into,” Chen Jian said, opening the first-aid kit. “I wanted to confirm with you if this is okay.”
Shan Yu didn’t speak, silently reading the notebook.
“And the paper tucked inside is Boss Chen’s training plan,” Chen Jian said. “When there are more people, they’ll definitely have more than two people here, so…”
Shan Yu still didn’t speak, pulling the paper out from the notebook.
There weren’t many words on the notebook and the paper combined, but he looked at them for a long time, so long that Chen Jian began to suspect he had fallen asleep. He couldn’t help but ask, “Is there something…”
“Chen Jian,” Shan Yu frowned and looked up at him. “Since the time when it was just the two of us at this inn, have you ever asked me so many times if something is okay? If this is okay, if that is okay.”
Chen Jian paused for two seconds. “No.”
“During the opening preparations, with all those messy tasks,” Shan Yu closed the notebook, “from major renovations of the house and garden down to the tissues in the rooms, did you ask me about anything?”
Chen Jian said nothing.
“If you have a problem with me, you can say it directly,” Shan Yu said. “Don’t bottle it up. I’ve said it before: curse if you need to curse, argue if you need to argue.”
“I just,” Chen Jian hesitated for two seconds, “there will be a lot of guests for the holiday, and we’ve never hosted so many people at once before. And we’ll be relying on the reputation from this wave of guests. I don’t want anything to go wrong. I’ve never done this kind of… management work before…”
Shan Yu looked at him and tossed the notebook back to his side. “Do you think you’ll make a mistake with these things? Are you questioning yourself, or are you questioning me?”
Of course I’m questioning myself.
How could I possibly be questioning you?
Chen Jian said nothing.
“Chen Jian,” Shan Yu didn’t bother with the disinfection anymore. He swung his leg off the bed and walked over to him. “I did say I came here to experience the life of an idiot. I did not say that I am an idiot here to experience life.”
What the hell?
Chen Jian was confused and couldn’t help but furrow his brow.
“I didn’t think I could make this inn work at first. I just came to take a look, to find a quiet place to stay,” Shan Yu said. “I told you that, didn’t I? I also said that now I’m giving these people a hand, and it would be best if they could give me a hand in return. We’re all relying on each other, aren’t we?”
Chen Jian remained silent.
“I made you the manager, first and foremost, because I saw you have the ability to handle it, not because I want something from you. I have feelings for you, yes, but that has no necessary connection to my appointing you as manager,” Shan Yu said, speaking unusually quickly. “If I really was just trying to… get something going with you, why would I go to all this trouble? It would be much simpler to just tell you I’ll pay off your debt if you sleep with me, wouldn’t it?”
What the hell?
Chen Jian looked at him, stunned.
“These are all things you can decide on your own and won’t get wrong. You don’t need to come to me for confirmation,” Shan Yu looked at him, his speech slowing. “It’s fine if you can’t forgive what happened that day. But you cannot question my judgment as a boss.”
It’s good that they had this talk.