Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  Tu Liang had minimized the volume of his voice. Besides Bai Muchuan, no one else could hear him.

  Everyone was fatigued after the day’s journey.

  The warm lights in the inn have driven away the coldness and humidity from the rainy night. They relaxed on the sofa with their eyes glued onto their phone. Nobody noticed Tu Liang’s facial expression.

  Bai Muchuan took a look at him and knocked on the menu. “Get a plate of chilled beef tendons.”


  Tu Liang looked up at him. “Will the beef tendon be too hard to chew?”


  Bai Muchuan had a half-smile on his face. “We’re all young people and we have strong teeth. What’s there we can’t eat?”


  Tu Liang showed an understanding smiled and ticked on the box using a pencil on the ordering slip. “Okay. Anything else?”


  An expressionless Bai Muchuan replied, “You can decide or you can ask the rest of them.”


  Throughout the journey, Tu Liang was the one arranging food and lodging.

  Everybody gave the same response when he asked—they would follow his recommendations.

  Thus, Tu Liang ordered a few more nice dishes within their budget, to reward everyone in view of the long journey.

  A female employee took the ordering slip and gave him the room cards.

  Tu Liang thanked her and went out of the door. When he saw that the rain had gotten smaller, he got Salimu, Ding Yifan, and Tang Yuanchu to get the luggage from their vehicle.

  The luggages were pulled and placed side by side neatly at the main lobby. Tu Liang got everybody to collect their own luggage before handing out the room cards to everyone.

  There was no lift in the inn, only stairs. Xiang Wan was lucky that she had Bai Muchuan to help her. Otherwise, she would be having a hard time carrying her luggage up the stairs.

  The group of people chatted happily while on their way up the stairs.

  Xiang Wan felt a little embarrassed as she was empty handed, carrying only a backpack. “Do you need my help?”


  Bai Muchuan swept a glance at her. “As long as you can walk properly, I’m fine.”


  Xiang Wan: “.……”


  Was she being treated like a preschooler?

  Bai Muchuan suddenly looked at her. “What’s inside your luggage? It’s so heavy!”


  He couldn’t understand why a small woman like her would need so much stuff. But how should Xiang Wan explain to this man here that a woman needed to use a lot of skincare products, facial masks, and the like?

  Hence, Xiang Wan gave him a mysterious look. “All my precious darlings are inside the suitcase.”


  Bai Muchuan: “.……”


  “What about me?” When they finally got to level five, Bai Muchuan put down the luggage and asked in a serious tone.

  “You? Let me think.” Xiang Wan’s hand was on her chin. She was a little out of breath as she climbed five floors. “You’re my darling precious!”


  Sometimes, men behaved like children.

  A simple sentence was enough to make him smile that even his eyes were curved.

  “That’s better!”


  Bai Muchuan gave Xiang Wan a pat on her head. In no time, both of them heard Tang Yuanchu’s complaints and groans about eating dog food. Bai Muchuan laughed and instructed them, “Make sure you got your own luggage. Don’t take the wrong one or you might end up in a fight.”


  “Hahaha! How is that even possible?”


  “Why is it not possible? One might even enter the wrong room!”


  “Just look, your room is 503, why did you run over to 505?”


  As Tang Yuanchu and Salimu were similar in age, they hit it off well and their relationship got closer along the way.

  The two of them started to banter with each other with just these few words from Bai Muchuan.

  Bai Muchuan looked at them and walked past with the luggage with a smile on his face.

  “Everyone gather at the dining area ten minutes later!”


  Bai Muchuan and Xiang Wan’s room were beside each other, located at the farthest end of the fifth floor.

  In fact, Xiang Wan was curious over such an arrangement.

  The inn had initially arranged their rooms to be on the third floor and fourth floor respectively. However, Tu Liang insisted to have all of them stay on the fifth floor, citing the reason that it was easier to look after each other when they were on the same floor.

  Xiang Wan could understand the reason for staying on the same level.

  But she was not able to understand why it had to be the fifth floor.

  After entering the room, Xiang Wan asked Bai Muchuan for the reason.

  “Well, that’s because it’s the highest floor.”


  “.……”


  Xiang Wan winced at his reply. This was not the reason she wanted to hear.

  “But there’s no elevator here. It’s so inconvenient to move the luggage.”


  Bai Muchuan smiled and opened the window. “The fifth floor has a better view.”


  The fifth floor was the highest floor in the inn. It was true that it offered a good view of the scenery.

  Xiang Wan saw the rainy night view of the town and far away woods which was pitch dark outside the window and raised an eyebrow when she walked over to him.

  “Do you think we might be in danger? This inn feels a little weird to me.”


  Bai Muchuan looked at her deeply, a little impressed by her sensitivity.

  However, he did not answer her but asked another question instead, “What do you think of it then?”


  Xiang Wan furrowed her eyebrows as she deliberated over the question. “If it isn’t for the landslide, we wouldn’t have come to Jiang Zhong—that means hardly any visitors would come here at all. On the contrary, this inn is so magnificent and different from the other buildings in the town. For such an inn to be located at Jiang Zhong, it must be making a loss.”


  Bai Muchuan nodded his head, indicating Xiang Wan to continue.

  Xiang Wan stayed quiet for a moment. “But we can clearly see that the facilities of the inn are neat and orderly. The place is clean both inside and outside. There are a decent number of service staff, too. It totally didn’t look like a business that was not doing well at all. This is proof that the inn has a steady stream of customers.”


  “Look!” She pointed at the street.

  Just as she was talking, another car drove into the inn’s carpark.

  In addition to their vehicle, there were six vehicles in the carpark altogether.

  Bai Muchuan took a sidelong glance at her, wearing a smile. “Well said. Is there anything else?”


  Xiang Wan gave it a thought before she continued, “The lady boss is very warm toward us, but it’s obvious that she’s the same as the residents here—there’s wariness in her eyes. If you relate it to the history of Nanmu, it’s not hard to guess.”


  She sounded very logical in her analysis.

  But Bai Muchuan laughed after hearing all these.

  “You feel that this hotel might be run by gangsters?”


  “Not necessarily so,” said Xiang Wan, “even if the lady boss is making a decent living, it will be hard not to not have some link to the gangsters at such a place.”


  “Based on what you’ve said, should we still eat our dinner tonight?”


  His teasing tone sounded relaxed.

  Xiang Wan swept him a glance and let out a chuckle. “Of course! We’ve already paid for it.”
……

  About five to six minutes later, the two of them went down.

  If they wanted to go to the dining area, they had to pass by the main hall.

  There were people checking in at the counter. Xiang Wan took a short glimpse and was startled for an instant.

  These people who had just entered the inn were none other than Captain Zhang and his subordinates from Xi City.

  “We’ve got company!” Xiang Wan smiled.

  “Yeah!” Bai Muchuan wore a smile and nodded at Captain Zhang, who was a distance away from them. “I love company!”


  “There’s a landslide. We’ve no choice!”


  When it was nearing the meeting time, everyone arrived at the dining area.

  They were brought to a private dining room and their dining table had a turntable on it.

  Cutlery were placed nicely on the table with two appetizers served. A female employee poured tea for them while asking everyone with a smile.

  “Miss and misters, any other drinks or liquor for you?”


  Ever since they touched down in Xi City, Xiang Wan had not seen the group drinking.

  Little did she expect that all these fellows responded enthusiastically to having liquor.

  “Yes, yes, yes! Boss, let’s have some liquor.”


  “It’s a rainy night and we can’t continue on our journey. Since the weather is so cold, why not drink some liquor to keep ourselves warm. In this way, we can have a good night’s sleep, too.”


  Bai Muchuan laughed, shook his head, then looked at Tu Liang. “Let’s leave this to our butler then.”


  Tu Liang looked back at him before turning to the female employee. “What kind of liquor do you have here?”


  She took out the beverage menu and handed to him. “Sir, please have a look.”


  Tu Liang tilted his head. “You have all the liquor listed here?”


  Female employee: “Yes, we do.”


  Tu Liang suddenly looked directly at the girl and laughed. “The liquor you have here is quite complete. But, with so many types of liquor, aren’t you worried that you can’t sell most of them? From what I see, I don’t think you get a lot of customers usually. How many customers do you serve every day?”


  The young employee was dazed for a while, caught by the sudden question that came out of the blue. “Well…… I’m new here. I don’t know, either.”


  “Oh I see.” Tu Liang nodded his head in understanding. “No wonder!”


  After placing the order for some liquor, Tu Liang also ordered a soft drink for Xiang Wan.

  The female employee worked fast. In no time, she came back with two bottles of liquor.

  At this moment, the dishes that they ordered were served onto the table one after another.

  Although the steaming hot dishes couldn’t hold a candle to what was served in those posh hotels in big cities, they still looked appetizing.

  Tang Yuanchu rolled up his sleeves when the dishes were served and helped to pour liquor for the team. “Boss, everyone, let’s drink to our hearts content tonight!”


  Hearing that, Quan Shaoteng taunted him, “You’re still so young and you already want to drink to your heart’s content?”


  “Tch!” Tang Yuanchu looked at him. “Want to have a match, Captain Quan?”


  Quan Shaoteng raised an eyebrow. “What kind of match?”


  Tang Yuanchu revealed a sly smile and looked toward his pants. “Let’s see who have more……”


  “!”


  The whole group roared in laughter.

  Xiang Wan bit her lip, trying to hold her laughter.

  Well, she felt that this joke was not appropriate for girls to join in and laugh.

  However, the seemingly choked expression of Quan Shaoteng was just so hilarious that she couldn’t hold back and burst out laughing as well.

  In the midst of laughter, everybody stood up and clinked their glasses with each other.

  “Come, come, come! If you’re a man, hold your glasses and bottoms up!”


  “Drink! To our hearts content—”
……

  At that moment, the rain started to get heavier.

  In the private dining room, with the aid of wine, everyone was feeling high.

  Xiang Wan looked on with worry. The faces of all these guys were all red from liquor; she could already feel her headache.

  She was the only person who did not drink liquor.

  Looking at how these people dunked the drinks down their throats, she had her heart in her mouth……

  She had thought that they would just drink some. She didn’t expect each and everyone of them to really drink so much. What if something bad were to happen later?

  Although Xiang Wan was busy looking at how many drinks they were having, she had her ears on alert as she listened for any strange noises.

  She felt that she had to look after everyone since she was the only one who was still sober.

  It was lucky that nothing strange happened throughout the meal.

  When the group got out from their dining room, there were two employees standing right outside the door who thanked them for their patronage. When they saw that they were drunk, they also reminded them to be careful while using the stairs. However, these guys were obviously intoxicated as they couldn’t even walk steadily.

  Xiang Wan held onto Bai Muchuan with mixed feelings.

  When they were climbing the stairs, they ran into Captain Zhang again.

  When he saw a drunken Bai Muchuan, he frowned.

  “Captain Bai, how much did you drink?”


  Bai Muchuan chuckled and put up a finger, waving it about. “Not much…… Just o-one bottle!”


  Captain Zhang: “.…… Go back and rest early.”


  Captain Zhang then nodded his head and led his two subordinates down the stairs to the dining area.

  Bai Muchuan did not bother with Captain Zhang. He simply held Xiang Wan, sniffed her hair, and smiled like a bad boy.

  “I don’t want to go back to my room” He laughed devilishly, “Go, I want to sleep in your room!”


  Xiang Wan: “.…… Drunkard!”


  “Do you like it?”


  “Of course not! Do you think I like to torture myself?”


  “Shush!” Bai Muchuan showed a sly smile. “Softer, we’ll be very quiet…… no one will know.”


  “.……”


  Xiang Wan felt worry.