Chapter Ninety-Five: Not the Least Reaction

Inside the Evergreen Inn.

Xu Fei pushed open the door.

What came into view was a hall the size of three rooms. Directly opposite the entrance stood a reception counter.

“A guest has arrived.”

A woman in her late twenties rose from behind the counter, her shoulder-length hair set in waves, her brows carefully drawn, her face made up, and her lips painted a bright, bloodred color.

At her greeting, a young girl stepped out from a private room on the left. She wore an apron and looked to be seventeen or eighteen, with two long braids and a very delicate face.

Yet on the left side of her forehead was a dark mole. Perhaps she found it unbecoming, for she deliberately hid it beneath her bangs.

Such a pity, Xu Fei thought.

The little waitress smiled as she came up to them. “Are you two gentlemen here for a room?”

“Yes. Do you have any rooms available?”

“We do. Would you like a standard room or a deluxe room?”

Zhang Mingyang glanced at Xu Fei. “A deluxe room?”

“Little sister, what’s a deluxe room?”

At that question, the waitress reached into her apron pocket and took out a wrinkled photo.

“This is our deluxe room. It has a television and a private bath.”

“Oh, that really does sound pretty deluxe.”

Zhang Mingyang smiled as he took the photo from her hand.

He pointed at it.

Xu Fei nodded.

“How much is it?”

At that moment, the woman behind the counter, seeing that they were asking about the deluxe room, came over with a smile.

“Oh my, you two have excellent taste. Our deluxe room is the best in all of Nanjing. To put it plainly, once you stay in it, you’ll feel it was worth every penny for the rest of your life.”

When Zhang Mingyang saw the woman come up to them, he sniffed the strong scent of face cream in the air and said with a smile, “Landlady, you smell wonderful.”

Ordinarily, a female innkeeper would only laugh off a joke like that, but this woman’s expression instantly turned cold.

“Whether I smell wonderful or not, do I need you to tell me?”

This was the first time Zhang Mingyang had encountered an innkeeper like her. By rights, anyone in business was supposed to greet customers with a smile.

“Why are you talking like that?”

When he asked, the woman was even more aggressive than he was.

“And how should I be talking? I’d like to ask you how you were talking just now.”

“Hey, I—”

Zhang Mingyang was about to flare up.

But Xu Fei caught him by the arm.

“Third Brother, it’s only natural that the landlady smells nice.”

Xu Fei stepped in with a smile to smooth things over.

Then he went up to the woman and said, “Landlady, how much is the deluxe room?”

“Ten yuan a night.”

“What! That’s way too expensive,” Zhang Mingyang said with a frown.

“Too expensive? There are cheaper ones. If you don’t want to stay, you can leave.”

“You!”

Xu Fei was afraid Zhang Mingyang would say more and truly offend her. After all, the burly man had made it very clear.

This Evergreen Inn belonged to the deputy director of the television factory.

If they offended her, they might really have no way of buying a set later.

“Landlady, here’s fifty. We’ll stay for five days first.”

Xu Fei handed the money to the woman.

“Old Four, you...”

Zhang Mingyang looked at Xu Fei, only to see him blink at him.

With no other choice, Zhang Mingyang thought of the television they still had to buy and forced down his anger.

Even so, he still shot the landlady a glare.

“What are you glaring at?”

The landlady retorted at once, clearly unwilling to back down.

Watching the woman take the money and return behind the counter, Zhang Mingyang lowered his voice and muttered, “With my temper, I’d have lost it already if it weren’t for the television. Otherwise...”

The landlady still heard him.

“So you’re here to buy a television?”

Xu Fei saw that she was willing to talk, so he walked up to the counter with a smile and said, “Yes, landlady, we really are here to buy a television. But this is our first time, and we don’t know how things work at the factory. Since you run a shop right across from it, could you point us in the right direction?”

“You’ve asked the right person. Sister Meng is—”

Seeing Xu Fei ask, the little waitress smiled and started forward to speak, but halfway through her sentence, the landlady inside the counter shot her a glare, and the girl was so frightened she stopped dead in her tracks.

“Buying a television, are you?”

The landlady’s expression immediately turned disdainful. Especially when she looked at Zhang Mingyang, her eyes were full of contempt.

“Yes, yes. Landlady, I heard televisions are in short supply right now. Is that true?”

“That’s true enough.”

The landlady glanced at Xu Fei and said, “Where are you from? Register first.”

Register?

Xu Fei immediately remembered what the burly man had said.

“I’m from the East Sea. My name is Xu Fei.”

The landlady wrote Xu Fei’s information into a ledger.

“Xiaolan, take them to room 203.”

As she spoke, the landlady took out a key and handed it to the little waitress.

“Got it.”

The waitress took the key and said to Xu Fei and the others, “Follow me.”

Xu Fei had wanted to say a few more words to the landlady.

But she had already lowered her head and picked up a magazine to read.

Xu Fei considered it. Now that they were checked in, there was no rush to ask about buying the television. They could go to the room first and talk later.

“See you, landlady.”

Xu Fei said to the woman behind the counter.

“Mmm.”

The landlady gave a hum without even lifting her head.

Following the little waitress down the left-hand corridor, Zhang Mingyang glanced back in contempt.

“Look at that attitude.”

“Third Brother, the important thing is our business,” Xu Fei said with a smile, shaking his head.

“Best not to offend her.”

By then, the waitress had led them to the end of the corridor.

“That brother is right. If you’re here to buy a television, you really can’t afford to offend Aunt Meng.”

As she spoke, she inserted the key into the lock.

The door opened.

“Please. If you need anything, just go to the front desk.”

Xu Fei nodded to the girl.

The two of them stepped inside.

This so-called deluxe room was really only a divided-off room. The bedroom was tiny; outside was a small sitting area, and the bathroom was on the left side of the entrance.

The moment they entered, a bathroom odor filled the whole room.

“What is that smell?”

Zhang Mingyang glanced into the bathroom. It was dirtier than even a public toilet.

“Damn it!”

He walked up to the toilet.

There was still urine that hadn’t been flushed away.

Zhang Mingyang pressed the flush handle.

He had wanted to wash it away, but after he pressed it, the toilet gave no response at all.

“Broken?”

He turned around and looked at the little waitress, who was still standing at the door.

“Yes, I’m sorry. It is broken.”

Zhang Mingyang was so angry that he turned to Xu Fei.

“Old Four, this money was wasted for nothing!”

“There’s a toilet outside. You can use that instead if you want. Oh, and the television works fine. It’s even a color TV.”

Hearing the waitress, Zhang Mingyang could only swallow his anger, shut the bathroom door, and go into the sitting area, which was only big enough for two people to stand side by side.

When Xu Fei and Zhang Mingyang tried to turn around at the same time, even that felt awkward.

“So small?”

Seeing Zhang Mingyang complain, Xu Fei smiled and switched on the television.

“Third Brother, at least it’s a color TV.”

The two of them didn’t even have a television at home yet.

The screen lit up.

“I say, isn’t this black and white?”

Zhang Mingyang pointed at the so-called color television and asked angrily.