Dormitory Room Online

Near ten o'clock, the rain was already falling heavily.

Cheng Yun sat at the front desk, little Yu Dian was there too, and Heroine Yin sat on the sofa resting, waiting to work.

The old mage leaned on his cane and walked slowly down the stairs, precise to the minute.

Cheng Yun looked up at him, then glanced at the torrential rain outside, and asked, "Are you still going out in such heavy rain, Mage?"

The old mage nodded and said, "I'm going out for ten days this time, and I'll be back at ten in the morning on the seventeenth."

Cheng Yun nodded as well. "Have a safe trip."

Heroine Yin also waved her hand and shouted, "Safe trip, Mage."

Yet little Yu Dian, who did not know the old mage's identity, looked outside with a face full of worry and said, "But the rain is really too heavy now, and the wind is strong too. Umbrellas are no use at all."

"It doesn't matter." The old mage stopped with a smile, gazing out at the wind and rain and the pedestrians scrambling away in panic amidst them, and said, "Just because it's raining in one place doesn't mean it's raining in another. There is always a place that lets you escape the wind and rain."

Then he muttered a stiff, obscure sentence. Little Yu Dian listened with a blank expression, but Cheng Yun actually understood.

Cheng Yun felt that it was a proverb from a magical world—

Only by braving the wind and rain can one stride forth generously.

Then the old mage nodded to Cheng Yun, stepped out of the shop door, and walked into the rain.

At the same time, he kept muttering under his breath. This time, there seemed to be a change in rhythm too, sounding quite pleasant: "When I resolve to go, no hardships can make me cower."

Cheng Yun was stunned, feeling a bit bewildered.

So... was this actually a song? Were both of these lines lyrics? Could the old mage even sing?

This did not fit the persona of a sage at all!

On the contrary, Yu Dian reacted faster. She picked up an umbrella from the side and ran out after him, catching up to the old mage at the doorway: "Since you insist on going out, you should take an umbrella. This umbrella is provided free of charge by the hotel for guests to use. Just return it to us when you come back."

The old mage stopped under the eaves, lowered his head to look at little Yu Dian, who was holding out an umbrella to him with both hands, suddenly smiled, and took the umbrella. "Then thank you, little girl. Good luck."

The girl blushed and nodded. "You're welcome."

"Then I'll see you in ten days." The old mage opened the umbrella and walked outward.

Little Yu Dian stood on the spot and watched his retreating figure. Even though it was the height of summer, the country had undergone a temperature drop over the past two days, and she had added a shirt on top of her regular clothes. Yet the old mage was still wearing short sleeves and shorts, which made his already tall and thin frame appear somewhat frail.

Yu Dian suddenly felt a twinge of unaccountable sorrow in her heart, actually finding this old grandfather somewhat pitiful—

Ever since Anju Hotel opened, he had been staying here for half a month already. Over this half month, he had hardly left the hotel, nor had any relatives come to visit him. As for his three daily meals, sometimes he relied on food delivery, and sometimes the kind boss would deliberately cook a little extra food and send it over to him—a fact she had already discovered two or three times.

At such an advanced age, with hair already white, regardless of whether he had money or how he was getting by, he was lonely after all.

She returned to the front desk. Cheng Yan had also walked down from upstairs and taken the seat where Yu Dian had been sitting, so Yu Dian could only sit on the sofa with Heroine Yin.

"Boss, do you know that old grandfather?" she asked softly.

"Hm? I suppose you could say that."

Yu Dian was silent for a moment, and just as she prepared to speak again, Cheng Yan preempted her: "How did you get to know him? Why has he been staying at our place all this time? Is he here on a trip?"

"Because he's the hotel's first guest, and he's staying here long-term." Cheng Yun paused for a moment. "He's a very knowledgeable scholar, here to inspect some things in Chengdu. He might stay in Chengdu for a while, and he'll be staying with us during this time."

"Is that so?" Cheng Yan frowned slightly.

As for Yu Dian, she set her mind at ease—she was an orphan herself and had experienced that kind of hardship, so she did not wish for any weak person in the world to be left alone and destitute.

The heavy rain outside continued, striking the ground and kicking up a layer of mist. A hazy vapor seemed to linger over the city streets, and there were far fewer pedestrians and vehicles on the roads. The howling wind poured in through the front doors, blowing the magazine placed on the front desk counter so that its pages kept flipping. A fountain pen could barely hold down the promotional flyers, and things only improved after Heroine Yin went to close the glass doors.

Deliveries had been slightly delayed over the past two days because of the rainstorm, but whenever the rain let up a bit, the delivery workers dutifully continued making their rounds. At the same time, hotel business had dropped off quite a bit over these few days, leaving Cheng Yun with free time to work on renovations.

On the second day after the old mage left, the four hostel rooms were completely renovated. However, because the newly purchased bed frames, facilities, and bedding all had a bit of an odor to varying degrees, Cheng Yun was in no rush to put them up for sale or have Heroine Yin and Yu Dian move in. Instead, he opened all the windows wide and hung the bedding across the bunk beds, taking advantage of the strong winds over the past few days to air them out thoroughly and get rid of the smell.

On the third day after the old mage's departure, the rain stopped.

It was precisely on this clear afternoon that Cheng Yun officially hung the price tags for the four hostel dorm beds at the hotel front desk and synchronized them onto the online platforms.

Two rooms each for men and women: one room with four beds and one with eight.

When Cheng Yun asked Heroine Yin and little Yu Dian where they wanted to stay, both of them unanimously chose the women's eight-bed dorm as their future staff dormitory.

Yu Dian felt too embarrassed to choose the four-bed room, and she also consciously wanted to lighten the burden on the boss. As for Heroine Yin, she felt she was merely a handyman doing odd jobs, and the boss letting her sleep in a woodshed would have already been generous enough; since there was such a comfortable room to live in, she naturally had to choose the cheap one!

"Go tidy up your things and head upstairs to pick your beds," Cheng Yun said, taking the lead as he walked upstairs. "Yu Dian, you can move all your luggage up. Conveniently, the eight-bed room has a small locker, otherwise it won't be very convenient for you."

"Oh." Yu Dian nodded.

Heroine Yin also followed Cheng Yun upstairs.

When the two of them had tidied up their belongings, pushed open the door to the dorm room, and walked in, they both inevitably let out a soft exclamation.

"Whoa!"

"So pretty!" Yu Dian said softly.

"Mhm, mhm." Heroine Yin could only nod along.

They had come to help when these rooms were being renovated earlier, but back then the dorm room was still very simple, featuring only the most basic furniture. Later on, although Cheng Yun and Cheng Yan had asked for their opinions, they had not personally participated in the decoration at all. Now, taking a look, they discovered that this room was actually so gorgeous!

It was completely inferior to none of those internet-famous hostels!

Yu Dian felt that although there were no large beds and spacious area inside this room, it was decorated to be extremely pretty and cozy. In terms of aesthetic appeal, it completely surpassed the other large bed rooms, and even exceeded the themed rooms.

She had never seen youth hostels with this kind of exquisite decoration before, and seeing one for the first time undoubtedly greatly broadened her horizons!

As for Heroine Yin, she had long since used practical actions to demonstrate her fondness for this pretty room—she dropped her clothes and toiletries, walked into the room, first raised her head to look one by one at the landscape photos and modern paintings hanging on the wall, then curiously eyed the small vase placed on the shelf, touched the plastic flower bouquets inside, yet turned a blind eye to the neatly arranged books.

After looking around for a long time, she pushed open the French doors, ran out to the balcony, and plopped down onto the hanging chair with a grin. The hanging chair rocked back and forth, and she shook her small calves back and forth.

By this time, Yu Dian had already made her bed and asked her, "Sister Yin Dan, which bed are you sleeping in? Let me help you make yours first."

"I'll do it myself!" Heroine Yin instantly jumped down from the hanging chair, paced a circle around the room, and stared fixedly at the upper bunk of the bed close to the French doors. "I'm sleeping right there!"

"Alright." Yu Dian nodded, and walked toward her carrying the bed sheet, duvet cover, and pillowcase.

Clearly, Yu Dian ended up making her bed for her after all.

Returning to the front desk, Cheng Yun caught sight of the lobby feature wall at first glance and suddenly felt it looked a bit monotonous once again, which gave him a headache.

Having just finished renovating the hostel dorm beds, it was like completing a deeply satisfying piece of work, so Cheng Yun naturally couldn't wait to display it and achieve good sales performance with it. Yet if he didn't post and hang its pictures on the wall, incoming guests would have no idea at all that Anju Hotel had such a room.

After a brief moment of thought, Cheng Yun decided to head home after finishing his physical training that evening, bring his camera over, take a few photos of each room type to paste on the wall behind the front desk, and label them with prices.

At the same time, the dorm beds on the online platforms also needed a set of high-end, stylish artistic photos.

Thinking thus, he grinned and looked toward Yu Dian at the side.

"Um, Sister Yu Dian."

"Ah?" Yu Dian was flustered, thoroughly startled by this form of address. She stared blankly at him and timidly said in a low voice, "Boss Cheng, if you have something to say, just say it."

"Then I won't be polite!" Cheng Yun rubbed his hands together and said, "Isn't it true that the hotel just launched the hostel dorm beds, but they haven't been publicized yet? I feel we should send out a message on both WeChat and our official account to publicize them to guests, so..."

"No problem." Although Yu Dian's presence was weak, she agreed quite readily. "Tell me how it should be written. If it's not long, I can finish writing it before tonight."

"No rush, no rush. Take your time writing it," Cheng Yun waved his hand and said. "I still have to go back and fetch my camera to take pictures."

"Oh."

Presently, most of the hotel's orders came from major online platforms, so the policy implemented by the hotel was: whenever a guest placed an order, the person on duty at the time would use the hotel's official WeChat account to add them as a friend using their mobile number. If the verification passed, a friendly reminder would be sent to the guest, thereby directly using WeChat to provide more convenient services to them.

Meanwhile, following the hotel's official account granted a coupon ranging from ten to thirty yuan, varying by room type.

Therefore, the hotel's official WeChat already had quite a few friends added, and the official account also had a fair number of followers.

Cheng Yun also planned to make a promotional sign—the simple kind, just a piece of color-printed plastic paper less than half a square meter in size attached to a support stand, to be placed right at the entrance.

His Photoshop skills were decent, but he knew someone whose graphic design skills were even better—

Cheng Yan.

This girl would definitely give him an eye roll, and then wholeheartedly make the promotional sign for him.

Thinking of this, Cheng Yun couldn't help but crack a smile.

This smile left Yu Dian, standing nearby, feeling somewhat baffled.