The sign of Anju Hotel shone white in the silent night. An old-fashioned Jetta drove slowly from afar and stopped at the entrance.
Cheng Yun had just opened the car door for Heroine Yin when she eagerly bolted out and squatted down by the roadside.
"Thanks, buddy," Cheng Yun greeted the driver, closed the door, walked over to Heroine Yin, gently patted her on the back, and asked awkwardly, "How do you feel?"
"..." Heroine Yin turned back to look at him, her complexion looking extremely bad. "Do you people have to sit in boxes like this everyday?"
"Pretty much."
"Then you people are too pitiful..."
"In fact, most of us don't get carsick, at least not from just riding in a sedan for a few minutes." Cheng Yun continued to pat her back. "Maybe your ear vestibule is too sensitive, or maybe you're just not used to it yet. Anyway, you'll get better after riding a few more times... probably."
Heroine Yin gave him a deep look that seemed to say, Are you serious?, shook her head, and walked toward the hotel.
Cheng Yun hurriedly followed.
Cheng Yan was sitting alone inside the front desk, flipping through a book covered in dense, headache-inducing English. The stereo played the soft piano tune "Falling Raindrops," and this scene was so tranquil like a painting that one couldn't bear to break it.
Then Heroine Yin, walking in a crooked manner while holding her forehead, pushed open the glass door and intruded into this scene.
Cheng Yan looked up at the two of them and said flatly, "Back?"
Heroine Yin covered her mouth and nodded.
Cheng Yan looked at Cheng Yun again and said, "How was it?"
"What how was it?"
"How was showing off?"
Cheng Yan's tone was very flat, but Cheng Yun always felt he heard a mocking undertone.
"How can you call that showing off! You and I both live in this society, isn't maintaining the stability and unity of our living environment our obligation too? I was just helping out in passing." Cheng Yun rolled his eyes helplessly. "Besides, I wasn't the one showing off, it was Yin Dan. She actually chased down the suspect single-handedly and took him down bare-handed!"
When saying this, Cheng Yun had some grievance. He had already instructed Heroine Yin not to expose her martial arts level, but she still pulled off a stunt that could make most Earthlings' jaws drop.
When he questioned her in the car earlier, she actually threw out: Who knew you Earthlings were so weak!
Cheng Yan looked at Heroine Yin with some surprise, then quickly withdrew her gaze, indicating she had no interest in Heroine Yin's affairs. She continued to despise Cheng Yun, saying, "Didn't you just see others step forward, feel too embarrassed to cower, and want to show off too! Ridiculous, you're a grown-up yet you act like a middle schooler! Aren't you afraid of danger?"
"..." Cheng Yun was speechless. He shook his head, sat beside the front desk, changed the music to his favorite soothing tunes, and turned on the computer to watch a show.
Seeing that he ignored her, Cheng Yan remained expressionless, picked up her book, and walked upstairs. "I'm going to sleep."
"Okay."
Heroine Yin poured a cup of water, gulped it down, let out a long sigh on the sofa, and also got up to walk upstairs. "I'm so dizzy, I'm going upstairs to sleep too, Station Master."
"Okay."
For a moment, only Cheng Yun was left at the front desk.
At ten o'clock the next morning, Cheng Yun sat on the front desk sofa, gnawing on two cold steamed buns, with a laptop placed in front of him. A Word document was open on the screen, but it was completely empty.
He was planning to write a soft-sell article discussing "how important a good night's sleep and a good resting place are to a person" and post it to his currently empty official WeChat account. However, after sitting for so long, he had no clue at all and couldn't squeeze out a single word.
"Sigh." He finished the buns and let out a sigh.
"What's wrong, Boss Cheng?" Little Yu Dian stood inside the counter, looking at him with confusion. "Why are you sighing all the time?"
"Didn't I apply for a WeChat account and an official account before? But now nothing has been posted on the WeChat account, and the official account is still empty. I want to write something and post it first." Cheng Yun collapsed onto the sofa, tilting his head back. "Yet ever since I entered college, I haven't written any long essays. My graduation thesis was even written with the help of a friend, so I'm completely clueless."
"Um." Yu Dian fell silent.
Then Cheng Yun sat on the sofa at his wit's end, while Yu Dian sat inside the front desk, quietly watching him.
"I'd better squeeze my brain a bit more!" Cheng Yun slammed the screen of his laptop shut. "I remember my high school Chinese score was quite high, and my high school essays even won awards."
"Um..." Yu Dian hesitated before saying with some uncertainty, "If you really can't write it, Boss, I... I can try to help you."
"Huh?" Cheng Yun was stunned for a moment.
"I—I just said that, you can just take it as a joke," Yu Dian hurriedly waved her hand with a blushing face.
Heaven knows how much courage and self-confidence it took for her to say that initiative to help. If she didn't feel that Cheng Yun was truly a very easy-going boss who had treated her very well these past few days, she would never have been able to muster up the courage to step forward.
Can you help? Cheng Yun was dazed.
"I... I..." Yu Dian spoke with some stuttering, seeming to hesitate whether she should accept or refuse, but in the end, she closed her eyes and nodded fiercely. "Yeah!... If you really have no other way."
"How is your writing style?"
"Pretty... pretty good," Yu Dian said softly. This was probably the point she was most confident about in her life, though it still hadn't won her any achievements.
"Great!" Cheng Yun hurried into the front desk. Seeing Yu Dian flurriedly closing her own laptop, he didn't mind and said, "Then I'll tell you what needs to be written and how it should be written. Um, I'll list a few points that need to be covered, and you just need to write them down. As payment, I'll treat you to a big meal in a few days! Of course, a cash bonus is fine too!"
"No, no need." Yu Dian waved her hand with a blushing face. "It's just a small effort."
"Alright then, let's go with the big meal."
Just as they were talking, Cheng Yan's curious voice suddenly came from the stairwell. "Are you two cultivating a relationship?"
Cheng Yun was stunned. "Huh?"
Yu Dian's face blushed even more like a cherry.
Cheng Yan's hair was a bit damp, and she was wiping it with a towel; she must have just taken a bath. As she walked down, she asked flatly, "What big meal?"
Cheng Yun thought for a moment and said, "Whatever, do you have any recommendations?"
"You guys are eating a big meal and asking me for recommendations?"
"Come with us!"
"Oh." Cheng Yan nodded. Although her expression didn't change, her demeanor softened a lot. "Let me think about it."
Suddenly, she paused again, looking at Cheng Yun and Yu Dian. "By the way, shouldn't today be your shift rotation, the day Cheng Yun works the day shift?"
"Oh!" Cheng Yun froze.
"It doesn't matter," Yu Dian said softly. "I woke up early today and saw that it hadn't opened yet and Boss Cheng hadn't come down either. I guessed he might have forgotten, so I took the liberty."
"Thanks to you, I really did forget!" Cheng Yun looked ashamed. "I slept too late last night."
"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. Anyway, I don't have anything to do, and sitting here is pretty good, much better than staying in the room all the time," Yu Dian said with her head lowered. Besides, the wifi signal here was good, and waking up early meant there was breakfast to eat.
"Then we'll switch shifts tomorrow," Cheng Yun said. "Anyway, I have to take Yin Dan to the police station to make a statement today."
"What? A statement?" Yu Dian was startled.
"You didn't know yet! A big event happened near the hotel last night. Your Boss Cheng and Sister Yin Dan both became heroes who bravely intervened for a just cause." Cheng Yan's tone was somewhat disdainful, and then she briefly recounted what happened last night to Yu Dian, prompting the little girl Yu Dian to look in amazement, almost clapping and shouting with full admiration that it was so awesome.
After eating lunch, Cheng Yun took Heroine Yin to the police station to make a statement, but he didn't dare let Heroine Yin take a car.
A young female police officer took their statements. During the process, Cheng Yun also saw Zhou Jiaxing, Old Chen, and Captain Liang of the Criminal Investigation Squadron, but they all seemed quite busy, merely greeting him before hurriedly coming and going.
Halfway through the statement, Liang Bo walked into the office in a rage, poured a large cup of cold water, and gulped it down. His eye sockets were very dark, and his eyes had quite a few bloodshot veins, making him look like he had not only stayed up all night but also just taken some anger. He cursed directly inside the office, "The bastard, ungrateful, they're already at the police station and still here arguing with Laozi! You fucking think just because you're wearing a layer of coal-skin you're hot shit?"
"The visa is already expired, just a fucking illegal alien. In my old temper, I'd drag him to the outskirts and beat him to death and nobody would even know!"
"Not shedding tears until they see the coffin!"
He shouted loudly like an old ruffian, but nobody in the entire office dared to provoke him. Except for Heroine Yin frowning, the rest of the people even acted as if they were used to it.
Before long, Zhou Jiaxing came out from inside and said, "That guy is still making a fuss, what should we do?"
"What else can we do? No matter how much he makes a fuss, the outcome is the same! Does he think that after committing rape, murder, and drug trafficking, he can still survive on this patch of land in China? Does he think he really is God in China? Or are we handling things all fucking idiots?" Liang Bo hammered the table. "If all else fails, find a chance to drag him out and beat him! Beat him to death! Anyway, as long as he's not beaten to death, nobody will speak up for him! Nobody upstairs will care about this matter either!"
"This..." Zhou Jiaxing showed a troubled expression.
Liang Bo also realized he was a bit impulsive, and his tone softened slightly. "What is he still making a fuss about inside?"
"He said he wants to hire a defense attorney, and he also said that a female plainclothes police officer used violence against him and broke his ribs, but we didn't send him to the hospital, so he's been making a fuss there demanding to go to the hospital!" Zhou Jiaxing paused. "He also said he had several thousand yuan in cash on him at the time, and as a result, we police embezzled the money, saying he's going to sue us."
"What the hell?" Liang Bo opened his eyes wide.
Hearing this, Heroine Yin beside Cheng Yun shrank her head and muttered, "Talking nonsense, there were clearly only a little over eight hundred!"
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