The inn was fairly quiet that afternoon.
Only a handful of guests were checking in at the front desk.
The kitchen staff also had plenty of time to prepare the rice and assorted ingredients for dinner.
Lin Xiaomeng and the older women chatted and laughed as they worked, getting along wonderfully.
"This one, this one, this one, and this one..."
Lin Zhe took the opportunity to pick out all the eggs with +3 attributes from the trays. He found sixteen in total, exactly half a tray.
The eggs with +3 attributes were the best in quality and flavor, but there were so few of them that Lin Zhe had never had the heart to eat any.
He added some eggs with +2 attributes to fill the rest of the tray.
He planned to visit his parents at the hospital that afternoon and pay a little more toward their medical bills.
Ring, ring, ring~
Just as Lin Zhe finished selecting the eggs, the phone in his pocket rang.
He took it out and looked. The caller ID read "My Dear Son."
"Hey, fatty, I'm almost ready. Are you at the inn?"
"All right, all right, stop rushing me. I'm coming out now."
After a brief exchange, Lin Zhe hung up and picked up the tray of eggs, ready to leave.
"Wait, Zhe! Didn't you forget the egg fried rice for your parents?"
Seeing that Lin Zhe had forgotten the egg fried rice, Lin Xiaomeng hurriedly took the insulated bag containing it out of the warming box beside her and handed it to him.
"Honestly, my memory! I really did forget. Thanks, Xiaomeng. Dan's rushing me, so I have to go."
Lin Zhe took the insulated bag from Lin Xiaomeng and hurried off.
"Take it easy on the road, Zhe~"
"Take care, boss."
"Bye, boss."
Seeing Lin Zhe about to leave, Lin Xiaomeng and the older women all got up to see him to the door.
"Carry on, everyone~"
Lin Zhe waved back at them and walked briskly toward the front courtyard.
When he reached the courtyard, Lin Zhe saw a Toyota Prado parked outside the inn.
Dan Teng, who had changed into sportswear, was leaning against the car door in a slightly rakish pose, chatting and laughing with two girls.
Lin Zhe knew both girls. They were Li Li and Huanhuan, whose check-in he had handled a few days earlier.
Unlike Lin Xiaomeng, Li Li and Huanhuan weren't stunning beauties who took your breath away at first sight.
Still, both had pretty features and fair skin, the sort of girls whose looks grew on you.
Dan Teng's gaze lingered mostly on the comparatively petite Huanhuan. Her build was exactly his type.
"There he is! Lin, you finally made it. Any later and we'd have left you behind."
"Wait, you're seriously taking those to visit Uncle Lin and Aunt Han?"
Seeing Lin Zhe carrying a tray of eggs to visit his parents, Dan Teng was momentarily speechless.
"These aren't ordinary eggs," Lin Zhe teased with a smile. "Drive carefully. If you break them, even selling your car won't cover the damages."
"What kind of eggs are that precious? Dinosaur eggs?"
"Perfectly respectable hen's eggs."
"You make it sound like everyone else's eggs are disreputable."
Li Li and Du Huan giggled at their banter.
After a few more jokes, Dan Teng explained, "Oh, right, Lin. These two lovely ladies want to go shopping and catch a movie in the city, so they're hitching a ride with us."
"Hello, boss. Let me introduce myself properly. I'm Li Li, with both 'Li's written like the word for dawn. It's nice to meet you, and I'm so glad we stayed at your inn. This has been an unforgettable trip."
"I'm Du Huan. You can call me Huanhuan, like Li Li does. It's nice to meet you both."
Li Li and Huanhuan were both cheerful and outgoing. They introduced themselves openly, without a trace of shyness.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Lin Zhe. Lin is written with two trees, and Zhe with two characters for good fortune. Welcome to the Mount Sanqing scenic area. It's an honor to host two lovely ladies like you."
Lin Zhe introduced himself just as openly, reaching out to shake each girl's hand.
They were all young, and making friends wasn't as calculating as it was among middle-aged people. As long as their personalities clicked, a few words could make them friends.
After a little more small talk, Dan Teng gallantly opened the car door for Huanhuan and Li Li, inviting them into the back seat, while Lin Zhe took the front passenger seat.
The Mount Sanqing scenic area was neither particularly close to nor particularly far from downtown Rao City. It was just over eighty kilometers away, roughly an hour's drive.
Along the way, they chatted about everything under the sun, drifting onto new topics before they had even finished the old ones.
During their conversation, Lin Zhe learned that Li Li and Huanhuan were both contracted full-time writers for the women's fiction section of the Qidian Chinese Network, and both had sold screen adaptation rights to their work.
Although neither was a platinum-tier writer or a top author, they had made names for themselves on the site. They each earned around forty to fifty thousand yuan a month, firmly placing them among the high earners.
Their profession placed few restrictions on where they worked. With a laptop and a favorite keyboard in their bags, they could go wherever they pleased, free of constraints.
They could spend their days having fun however they liked, then set aside three or four hours at night to finish their updates.
"I really envy your lives as full-time writers. You make money while traveling through all the country's beautiful scenery, and you can take off on a trip whenever you feel like it."
"Unlike us, stuck tending our little patch at the inn every day, working hard for what we earn."
Honestly, Lin Zhe really did envy Li Li and Huanhuan's lifestyle a little.
Once he had made some money, he wanted to travel too, broaden his horizons, and see different scenery.
"Hehe, we envy you too!" Huanhuan said with a smile.
"The scenery there is so lovely, and you get to breathe fresh air every day.
"You also get to meet guests from all over the country. That sounds so interesting!"
"Exactly. I used to daydream about opening an inn in some beautiful scenic area if I ever made a fortune, just to experience being an innkeeper."
As Li Li spoke, she cast an almost imperceptible glance at Lin Zhe in the front passenger seat.
To be honest, he had made a very good impression on her the moment she first saw him.
Lin Zhe had inherited his mother Han Li's features, with a softly contoured, oval face.
His large eyes, high nose bridge, and thin lips gave him a roguish charm.
That sort of charm easily appealed to girls-and older women, too.
At 182 centimeters tall, with a somewhat lean build, Lin Zhe was more handsome and wholesome-looking than those heavily made-up young heartthrobs on television.
"Haha, I've noticed something funny. Everyone seems to think other people's jobs are better than their own."
"When I worked at my family's company, I thought being a Taoist priest sounded fun," Dan Teng said with a laugh as he drove.
"So I came to Mount Sanqing to become one. But once I actually was a Taoist priest, it felt pretty ordinary. It wasn't as fun as I'd imagined."
"Once people get used to their work and their workplace, the novelty wears off, and they lose interest," Lin Zhe said with a smile.
"When they see someone else's work or lifestyle, it seems fresh and interesting, so they start thinking that person has a better job.
"If you actually take up that job, everything will seem new and interesting at first.
"But once you get used to it, you'll be right back where you started, thinking other jobs seem fresher and more interesting."
"Yeah, I guess that's true..."
"That makes sense. When you think about it, that really is how it works."
Everyone nodded in agreement at Lin Zhe's explanation.
At around four in the afternoon, the Toyota Prado left the expressway and entered downtown Rao City.
After chatting the whole way, they had grown closer and could now truly call one another friends.
When Li Li and Huanhuan heard that Lin Zhe was going to visit his parents in the hospital, they postponed their shopping and movie plans, deciding to pay them a visit first.
Before you continue