Seventh Year Of Separation chapter 16
Three Hundred Fifty for One Night
Gu Jiahe entered the hotel lobby and suddenly realized that the conversation just now was a bit strange. But he didn’t dwell on it much; he was too tired and just wanted to go to bed.
However, when he returned to his room, he heard the roar of an engine outside the window. The sound penetrated the glass, making his ears feel swollen.
He pulled back the curtains and looked down, seeing Li Zhao’s car speeding towards the main road, its headlights creating a sharp beam, piercing through the darkness like a knife.
Gu Jiahe frowned. It was just a car; why did it have to be so noisy? Working overtime really put people in a bad mood.
He closed the curtains and sat on the edge of the bed, taking off his T-shirt. As he raised his arm, he felt a slight pain on the inside. Walking to the entrance, he looked into the mirror and found a thin scratch on his arm.
Gu Jiahe thought for a moment; it was probably from cleaning the bathroom and accidentally scraping against the tiles.
Fortunately, it was almost healed, and he didn’t feel like going downstairs to buy iodine.
After hastily washing up in the bathroom, he decided to make do with the bed.
The bed in this hotel was particularly soft, with even the sheets made of high-thread-count cotton, but Gu Jiahe found it a bit uncomfortable.
Due to years of desk work, his back muscles were strained, and a mattress without support would leave him feeling tired. He slept fitfully that night, with poor sleep quality.
After waking up for the third time in the middle of the night, he took out a blister pack of white pills from his bag and swallowed one with warm water. Half an hour later, he drifted back to sleep in a daze.
His sleep quality had been poor for the past few years, and he had seen a doctor at the hospital early on who prescribed him sleeping pills.
He had taken them a few times, and they had been somewhat effective, but with his busy work schedule, he had forgotten to ask the doctor for more.
Now, all he had left was this blister pack of pills, so he had to ration them and only use them when absolutely necessary.
The next morning, he woke up before 7 a.m. and reached for his phone under the pillow. He realized that Wu Mou had sent him a message late last night.
He squinted, forcing himself to read the message.
“The new factory in Lingang needs a visit. Get ready tomorrow and come the day after tomorrow. Bring some clothes, you’ll be staying for over a week.”
With just two sentences, Wu Mou had once again disrupted Gu Jiahe’s peaceful week.
He had planned to move back to his rental house the day after tomorrow after the plumber came to fix the pipes. But now, he had to go on a business trip again, which meant the pipe repair would have to be postponed indefinitely.
“Got it,” Gu Jiahe sighed and replied.
The faint light of dawn outside the window, with few cars and pedestrians on the road, indicated that the city’s CBD would not come to life until after 8 a.m.
Gu Jiahe got up, washed up, and leaned on the sink, looking at his reflection. Qi Lirun had not been wrong; he did indeed have a face that looked like he was perpetually on the verge of tears, a life of suffering.
Gu Jiahe pulled the corners of his mouth down, slung his bag over his shoulder, and went downstairs to buy breakfast.
Fortunately, there was a breakfast shop next to the hotel, although it looked a bit run-down. He went in and found a seat by the wall.
He ordered a basket of steamed dumplings and a glass of soy milk. Five minutes later, the dumplings and soy milk arrived.
Gu Jiahe opened the disposable chopsticks, picked up a steamed dumpling, cooled it down, and put it in his mouth.
If his current state of mind could be displayed as real-time bullet comments, then two big characters should appear above his head: “Terribly unappetizing.”
The city was a culinary desert, a fact he had realized many years ago. He shouldn’t have had high hopes for the snack shops located here.
On this not-so-good morning, Gu Jiahe went to the office.
But today, although he was early, he found that Li Zhao had not yet arrived. Usually, Li Zhao arrived before him.
Was there unusually heavy traffic during rush hour today?
Gu Jiahe couldn’t be bothered to think too much about it. He went to the water dispenser to get hot water with his cup.
After filling up a cup of water, He Xiao hurriedly ran over with her bag, glanced at her watch, and said, “Fortunately, I’m not late. Morning, Manager Gu.”
Gu Jiahe looked up and greeted her. The clock on the wall had already passed 9 o’clock.
Li Zhao pushed open the door and entered the office, walking to his desk.
Gu Jiahe was bent over, organizing his drawer. He Xiao put down her bag, glanced at him with concern, and asked, “Manager Gu, how did you get injured on your arm?”
Gu Jiahe, with his head muddled, didn’t hear clearly and straightened up, saying, “Huh?”
“What scorched it? It’s such a long mark,” He Xiao said as she began to rummage through the drawer. “I have some scar removal cream here; do you want to use it?”
“No, it’s okay,” Gu Jiahe said, turning his arm to look at it and waving her off.
At the same time, Li Zhao pulled out a chair, and the wheels of the office chair, somewhat stiff, squeaked against the floor tiles, making a sharp noise.
Gu Jiahe glanced at him. What’s wrong with this guy? He was okay yesterday, but today, he has a face as if someone owes him money.
Just as he was about to ask, he thought better of it and kept his mouth shut. Li Zhao’s mood had nothing to do with him, so there was no need to seek out trouble.
Wu Mou was still on a business trip to Lingang today, and Gu Jiahe had no tasks at hand. He sat at his desk, flipping through the morning news on his computer.
The weather forecast popped up from the lower right corner.
Gu Jiahe glanced at the text on it: “Affected by the subtropical high-pressure system, Lingang will continue to experience high temperatures for three days, with daytime highs reaching 37 degrees Celsius.” Gu Jiahe frowned.
It wasn’t even July yet, and it was already so hot. This year was likely to be another unbearable summer. Gu Jiahe thought about the broken air conditioner in his rental house; it worked sporadically. Last year, he had called a repairman to refill the Freon, but it stopped cooling properly again after less than two months. The landlord didn’t care, and he wanted to buy a new one, but considering the expense, he hesitated.
He closed the weather forecast window. As he looked up, he saw He Xiao walking over with a document and handing it to Li Zhao.
She stood between their desks and asked, “Lawyer Li, are we going on visits tomorrow?”
Li Zhao picked up the document and glanced at it. “Yes, the auditing team will accompany us.”
Upon hearing this, Gu Jiahe turned his head and casually asked, “Visiting who?”
Li Zhao didn’t answer him. Instead, He Xiao smiled and replied, “We’re visiting the company’s clients and suppliers to confirm the authenticity and compliance of the transactions.”
Gu Jiahe nodded.
Every year, there were many companies that fabricated transactions for their IPOs. Once discovered during the audit, it would be a disaster.
Last year, two companies had exaggerated their revenue in their prospectuses but had actually inflated their figures. They failed to disclose the true situation to the public as required. After being listed, they were caught, ordered to rectify, and one of them was even forced to delist, causing a huge mess.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission had been particularly strict in the past two years. Therefore, law firms were even more cautious in their checks in this area, mostly requiring field visits to the issuers’ clients for on-site confirmation.
The new factory was located in Lingang because most of the company’s clients were there. This made it easier to integrate production and sales, saving on logistics costs.
The accounting firm’s audit had just finished, and the two of them walked over to Li Zhao’s row of seats and asked him, “Lawyer Li, how many cars are we taking tomorrow?”
Li Zhao held up a finger, “Just mine.”
The auditor nodded, “That’s fine, you have a car, and I’ll drive one, which is just enough. We don’t need to rent a car. We need to check the project site in Lingang anyway. Manager Wu is also there; we can catch up with him.”
Gu Jiahe heard the names Lingang and Manager Wu, and raised his head to ask the auditor, “Are you also going to Lingang tomorrow?”
The auditor turned to answer him, “Yes.”
“I’m going tomorrow too. Manager Wu asked me to meet him there,” Gu Jiahe said.
The auditor was quite enthusiastic, “That’s great, you can also ride with us.”
“Thank you,” Gu Jiahe smiled. It saved him from taking the train and then finding a taxi.
“Oh, don’t mention it. The hotel arrangements are all made by your administration. You’re the boss, the client,” the auditor, a cheerful girl, patted Gu Jiahe’s shoulder and then walked away with the documents.
During this whole process, Li Zhao sat next to him without saying a word. Gu Jiahe glanced at him with his peripheral vision; he was indeed a strange person.
After lunch, the company’s administration privately messaged Gu Jiahe on the corporate chat app, asking if he had any preferences for the hotel room type. They were arranging the rooms for tomorrow’s business trip.
Gu Jiahe didn’t say much. What could he ask for? As long as the room was habitable and within the reimbursement limit.
He replied to the other side, “You handle it, as long as it’s within the travel budget.”
Before leaving work, the auditor came over to Gu Jiahe to confirm the time for tomorrow’s departure by car and then said to Li Zhao, “Lawyer Li, we’re leaving at 8:30 tomorrow morning. Meet downstairs in the company building.”
Li Zhao nodded and said okay before packing up his laptop and leaving on his own.
This business trip was longer than Gu Jiahe had expected, so he decided to go back to his rental house and grab a few more sets of clothes. He packed everything in a small suitcase.
The next morning, he arrived at the company building with his luggage, and He Xiao and two other auditors were already there.
As the day grew hotter, Gu Jiahe’s forehead began to sweat after standing at the company entrance for a few minutes. Both cars arrived almost simultaneously at the gate.
He Xiao greeted Li Zhao and went straight to sit in the back seat of his car.
Gu Jiahe, carrying his suitcase, looked at Li Zhao’s car, hesitating whether to get in directly.
At this moment, Li Zhao rolled down the window and said to the two auditors behind, “You two can ride in my car.”
The two auditors were a bit puzzled.
Li Zhao added, “My car is spacious. Having two more people won’t be a problem.”
After considering it, the two auditors agreed. The other car was a small Polo, and the backseat was a bit cramped. They estimated that they would be tired sitting there for two hours.
“That’s kind of you, Lawyer Li,” the auditors put their luggage in the trunk and got into Li Zhao’s car.
The female auditor in the Polo rolled down the window, “Manager Gu, let’s go, just the two of us in one car.”
Gu Jiahe sat in the front passenger seat of the Polo. They encountered rush hour traffic, and their car was stuck at the intersection without moving.
Taking advantage of the lull, the female auditor struck up a conversation with him, “Li Zhao is quite warm-hearted. He usually looks serious when working, but I didn’t expect him to take care of his colleagues.”
Gu Jiahe awkwardly nodded, “Yes.”
Even a blind person could see that Li Zhao was acting unusually today. Who knew what had happened to him last night; his mood was unpredictable.
Lingang was to the east of North City, a port city on the Bohai Sea.
The hotel arranged by the company’s administration was near the new factory in Lingang, and it was of high standard, a newly opened five-star hotel. After getting off the car, Gu Jiahe stood in the lobby of the hotel and suddenly felt that this business trip was not in vain.
Even though his house’s water pipes had burst and hadn’t been fixed, leaving a mess behind, staying in this hotel without having to pay for it, and working two more days was not a bad deal.
After the auditor parked the cars, she collected everyone’s IDs and went to the front desk first.
Gu Jiahe helped carry her suitcase and followed along.
Li Zhao’s group had also arrived, and they were all waiting to check in.
The hotel receptionist glanced at the screen, then took their ID cards and asked, “Three standard rooms, how would you like to arrange the accommodations? I need to register each person individually.”
“Wait, standard rooms? Double rooms?” Gu Jiahe furrowed his brow. There were six people in total, including four women. The room allocation suddenly became clear.
“Yeah, didn’t the administration inform you yesterday? It’s peak season, so we can only book standard rooms. Upgrading further would exceed the budget, and you’d have to pay out of pocket,” explained one of the audit colleagues to him.
“If we want single rooms, how much extra do we need to pay?” Gu Jiahe thought for a moment and asked the front desk.
The front desk attendant pointed out the retail prices for the different rooms to Gu Jiahe. “Sir, we only have scenic view king rooms available for single occupancy. It’ll be an additional four hundred per night. With your company’s discounted rate, after the discount, it’s just an extra three hundred and fifty.”
Just an extra three hundred and fifty?! Gu Jiahe shouted internally: What do you mean “just three hundred and fifty”?!
He quickly did the mental math; three hundred and fifty per night meant nearly two thousand five hundred for a week! If he spent that money, it would be more painful than killing him.
The four women had already taken their room keys and were ready to take the elevator.
“Sir?” Seeing Gu Jiahe hadn’t spoken, the front desk attendant, holding their ID cards, asked him again, “Do you need an upgrade as well?”
Thinking that Li Zhao hadn’t said anything yet, Gu Jiahe turned to him and asked, “What about you? Do you want to upgrade?”
Li Zhao, holding the suitcase, with a neutral expression on his face, answered with three words, “I don’t mind.”
Gu Jiahe let out a deep sigh, then looked up at the front desk and said, “Never mind, we won’t need the upgrade.”