Checking Into a Hotel with Professor Zhong

Eight in the morning.

Capital City. The taxi drove into the urban district.

After getting out at a random department store, Dong Xuebin and Zhong Lizhen went inside to buy clothes. Dong Xuebin bought a reasonably priced jacket. After all, the suit he had been wearing was stolen from someone else; for one thing, he was not used to wearing it, and for another, it was dirty. But when Dong Xuebin found Zhong Lizhen and saw what she was putting on, he was speechless for quite a while. It was actually a new white lab coat. Fortunately, this department store had been around for years; otherwise, few other places would even sell that kind of workwear, let alone have anyone buy it.

"You want this one?"

"Yes, this one."

"Uh, isn't it a little stiff and old-fashioned?"

"It's fine. I'm used to wearing it. Let's pay."

Zhong Lizhen did not have a single cent on her, so naturally Dong Xuebin had to pay. He pulled out his wallet, counted the money, and paid. It was rather expensive—eighty-five yuan.

By the time Dong Xuebin turned back around, Zhong Lizhen had already tied on the white coat. She looked less like a scientist and more like a proper doctor.

"Shall we go?" Dong Xuebin asked.

Zhong Lizhen somehow produced a notebook, nodded, and wrote a few lines in it. "Lab coat, eighty. I'll pay you back later." After a pause, she put away the receipt, then asked Dong Xuebin for the receipt for his clothes and wrote again. "Your jacket was three hundred ninety-nine. Since I was the reason you threw away your previous clothes, that counts as my expense too. The earlier taxi fare is also mine, one hundred fifty-six. The total is..."

Dong Xuebin hurriedly said, "Oh, come on, you