05 The Weirdness of Staying in a Youth Hostel

The green fluorescent hands of the old-fashioned clock pointed to twelve o'clock.

Zhang Chenling was falling into a deep sleep when she was awakened by a sudden cry of "Surprise!" and cheers that came one after another.

He sat up with a somersault and looked around. There was nothing in the room except a ray of moonlight leaking in through the gap in the curtains.

But she could hear a lot of noise, as if a bunch of people were having a birthday party in her room.

I reached out to open the curtains and stretched my neck to look outside. It turned out that the sound came from the opposite side, less than ten meters away - the same Shanghai old alley-style B&B as the one in "My Fair Princess".

There is more than one similar homestay in this narrow and cramped alley filled with the smell of stale mold.

The identical old lattice steel windows were half covered by scarlet curtains. Through the other half, several figures could be vaguely seen laughing and toasting to celebrate.

It’s great to be young.

There is plenty of time to waste, to enjoy, to make mistakes, and to start over.

A faint sour taste rose at the root of her tongue, and she once again recalled the bitter and sweet taste of hops.

So, just like last night at midnight, she quietly got out of bed, slipped into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator door, and took out the only remaining brown wine bottle from behind several bottles of sweet water and yogurt on the top shelf.

The label on the bottle was already wet with water droplets, but the crooked silver characters on it were still eye-catching:

Xiaosheng bb sea salt lychee craft beer

"bite!"

A bottle of the same type of wine was stretched out from the side, trembling, and collided with the bottle in her hand, making a crisp collision sound.

Well?

She raised her eyes slightly, her gaze landing on the slender hand holding the bottle. After a few seconds, her gaze moved upwards, following the sleeves of the white shirt...

Uh, a man.

She looks okay.

He wasn't a man of strong facial features, his features were delicate, and the most striking feature of his face was his high nose bridge, which was supported by rimless glasses. Tiny raindrops fell on the lenses, and his eyes were blurred by the rain and mist, giving him a slightly melancholic aura. His lips were thin, with a faint smile at the corners.

He has short, messy hair, and a lot of it, but the white hair on his temples reveals his age. He should be in his thirties.

Under the white shirt were knee-length navy blue shorts, revealing two strong calves.

As long as a man is clean and not fat, he will look good with a little grooming.

She curled her lips, turned her face away and continued drinking.

——The night two days ago.

After hanging up Jiang Xiaomei's resignation call, Zhang Chenling appeared calm on the surface, but was extremely upset inside.

Although it was late at night, although it was drizzling outside, and although there was still food in the refrigerator, she still wanted to go out for a walk, enjoy the breeze, and have a drink.

So I just put on a dress and went out in flip-flops.

She went straight to "Xiaoshengbb", a craft beer pub on Changle Road. Since moving nearby, she has become a regular there.

The cheapest craft beer in the store - Sea Salt Lychee at 9.9 yuan a bottle - is her favorite.

As usual, I bought two bottles, took them to a nearby coffee shop and sat on a bench outdoors, crossed my legs, and drank in the drizzle.

Jiang Xiaomei left as soon as she said she would. If it really didn't work out, she would have to take over with Xiao Ma! She figured that it wasn't impossible for two people to wash the dishes, but it would be more time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the customer experience would also be affected...

She quickly finished the first bottle of wine, and her head felt dizzy. She was not able to hold her liquor that night, so she planned to have a few more sips before going home.

At this time, the strange man who looked pretty good appeared.

Her polite smile was meant to be a refusal, but it was taken as tacit approval and encouragement. Soon the man extended the bottle again, this time saying, "Cheers!"

You can hear that the voice is trembling a little.

It seems that he is not an experienced driver. She smiled and took a sip of wine.

Seeing that she was busy drinking, he became impatient, afraid that she would leave after finishing her drink. He said hurriedly with a hoarse throat: "Actually, I noticed you when you bought the wine just now. I wanted to say, um..."

He pursed his lips casually, "I like you very much!"

After saying that, he chuckled twice.

Hearing this, Zhang Chenling also laughed, but unlike the man's silly laugh, her laugh was filled with endless sarcasm.

After a while, she put away her smile, raised her eyebrows, and asked him, "How old are you?"

"Huh?" The man was stunned by the question.

The answer was unimportant. Without waiting for his response, she said calmly, "You know what? The words 'I like you' mean nothing to me."

Do you like it or not, who asked? Who cares?

Zhang Chenling is nearly 40 years old and has lived half of her life. She has been in love, married and divorced. Except for not having a child, she has experienced all the joys and sorrows of love. How can such a woman be easily shaken by a light "I like you"?

What's more, she was at the bottom of her life. She had just dealt with a pile of feces and was now facing the dilemma of her startup team falling apart. Talking about love with her now was like playing the lute to a cow. She had no interest in these childish tricks of love! Not at all!

He smiled bitterly and took another sip of wine.

Looking up at the sky, I saw countless tiny raindrops falling from the endless void, landing on my skirt, my smooth calves, the cold beer bottle in my hand, and my face burned by alcohol...

It also fell into the man's eyes.

In those twinkling eyes, she seemed to see the shadow of desire.

No!

She carefully distinguished that it was not desire!

That's herself.

Perhaps... she is desire itself.

At this moment, only an indulgence without any reason, emotion or responsibility can make her happy.

Just like the drizzle in the night sky right now.

…She licked her lips subconsciously and gave the man a meaningful look.

The man was stunned for a moment, not understanding the meaning of the flowing eyes. He just felt embarrassed. After calming down for a few seconds, he asked in a trembling voice: "Well, what is meaningful to you?"

The Adam's apple jumping up and down due to nervousness conveys a simple signal of courtship.

But he never thought that the hunter of love could also be the prey of desire.

She raised her lips and smiled, "I have a suggestion, do you want to hear it?"

"What kind of weirdos are living in youth hostels?!"

A familiar voice sounded like thunder behind her, startling Zhang Chenling so much that she almost dropped the bottle of wine in her hand.

Turning around, he saw Ni Yue standing behind him. She was very thin and flat, and her white nightgown made her look like a natural clothes hanger.

But the chest is too flat.

Zhang Chenling twitched the corners of her mouth. She was still in shock and her smile was a little unnatural.

Ni Yue didn't notice her expression, his eyes fell directly on the bottle of wine in her hand, "Hey, cousin, were you drinking this wine in the kitchen last night? What kind of wine is so delicious? Open a bottle for me to try!"

"Sorry, I finished the last bottle!" Zhang Chenling said as she threw the empty bottle in her hand into the trash can, then turned around and continued to look out the window.

"Were you woken up by them too?" She asked Ni Yue while staring at the young people celebrating their birthdays across the street.

"I didn't sleep either. I've been suffering from insomnia lately. It's become a habit!" Ni Yue also moved to the window.

"Oh!" Zhang Chenling responded, and after a while she remembered to correct her, "By the way, this is not a youth hostel, it's a B&B!"

"Isn't that a youth hostel?" Ni Yue poked the window glass lightly with his fingertips.

Looking in the direction of her finger, Zhang Chenling realized that she had misunderstood. It turned out that she was pointing to a place farther away than what was in front of her.

A few streets away, an old red brick building was hidden in the night. The dim streetlights illuminated a few three-dimensional black characters on the exterior wall:

Scream Hostel

Zhang Chenling blushed immediately.

I didn't even realize that the youth hostel I visited two days ago was right within my sight.

Ni Yue didn't notice anything unusual about her cousin. She leaned against the windowpane and chuckled, "It's the middle of the night, and many rooms don't have their curtains drawn. Even from such a distance, I can see people walking around naked. It's like they're performing performance art. Isn't that bizarre enough..."

Zhang Chenling squinted her eyes and focused with difficulty, trying to distinguish the one she knew from the swaying figures.

But she forgot that the man's room had no windows at all.

That night, the man brought her home, if it could be called a "home" -

The cramped room was only a few square meters. There was no wardrobe, only a bed with a desk underneath. Two suitcases, one black and one dark blue, were hung side by side on the bed rails, each with a white shirt underneath. Two suitcases and several pairs of shoes lay on the floor, with a pair of dumbbells next to them.

The items are arranged neatly, but they take up most of the space, leaving no place to step.

What makes people feel even more stuffy is that the room is surrounded by walls and has no windows.

——A single room at the Scream Hostel.

Her throat was dry.

It's just a fleeting romance, so there's no need to discriminate against the poor and favor the rich, but this small room is really suffocating.

The man saw what she was thinking. His face turned red and white, and he was extremely embarrassed. "I'm sorry, it's a bit crowded here, but I'm very clean. I ask them to change my sheets and pillowcases every day. If you don't like it, we can also go to the hotel across the street and get a room."

I was in high spirits when I switched from guerrilla warfare to cannons and nothing happened.

She licked her lips and said, "It's okay. As long as there's a bed."

Then ask, "Have you showered?"

"I just washed it before going out."

"Me too."

...She had just climbed onto the bed and her butt wasn't even warm when she received a series of life-threatening calls from Ni Yue. After hesitating for two seconds, she answered the phone. The person on the other end of the phone was crying and howling, asking to come to Shanghai.

He hurriedly said "OK, OK" and ended the call with some coaxing and deception.

The next second, she was pinned down by the naked man crawling towards her.

…

Staring at the red building not far away and recalling the madness of the night two days ago, Zhang Chenling smiled secretly until her thoughts were interrupted by a roar from the aunt downstairs.

"Who are you? You're not sleeping in the middle of the night. If you keep making noise, we'll call the police!"

The two sisters looked at each other and laughed out loud.

He left the kitchen with his arms folded.

"Giving Aunt Xu a bath today must have exhausted you. There are no orders tomorrow morning, so you can sleep in!"

"Why bother? Watering people is much easier than helping my dad water the flowers!"

"Ha, I was afraid you'd back out! Then try scrubbing yourself in the bath next time!"

"Hey, I'm not very good at scrubbing... Ouch! Why are you hitting me on the head?"

Life is not about joking around, life is about overcoming every difficulty.

The urgent problem of staff shortage has been temporarily alleviated, and the more urgent task facing Zhang Chenling now is to acquire customers.

In the early days of the business, there were too few orders, averaging only one order per day.

Acquiring customers on the Internet platform is like looking for a needle in a haystack, which is much more difficult than you imagine.

The push notifications on Xiaohongshu are a mystery. Sometimes the advertisements she painstakingly edited don't even get a single like, while some bloggers can get hundreds or even thousands of likes with just a big-character poster of whining, which often leaves her speechless.

Similarly, the traffic on Douyin and Kuaishou is not very stable, sometimes good and sometimes bad.

She and Xiao Ma Ge also printed a lot of promotional leaflets and distributed them to some barber shops, pharmacies, small restaurants, community canteens and other life service places.

There were some inquiries from customers in barber shops and pharmacies, but before many orders were placed, the bosses called Zhang Chenling to ask for kickbacks.

Most small restaurants and community cafeterias are willing to help with free promotional efforts, but the flyers left on the cash register quickly become stained, and few people are willing to pick them up. Furthermore, the elderly who eat at community cafeterias are generally self-sufficient and live frugally. Even if their spouse is bedridden, many are reluctant to spend money on bathing assistance, and simply wipe themselves with a hot towel.

This brings us to a tricky and sensitive issue: pricing.

Zhang Chenling set the price of a single service at 399 yuan. She believes this is a very fair price and there is room for upward adjustment after the business matures.

After all, in Shanghai, giving a pet dog a bath costs 500 yuan!

However, many people are discouraged after learning the price.

It seems that increasing customer stickiness and acquiring customers are equally important, so that every customer who has enjoyed the service will willingly become a repeat customer, and within their affordability, the purchase frequency can be increased as much as possible, so that there will be a steady stream of orders.

Zhang Chenling's thought reached its peak when the white van stopped outside a huge villa in the western suburbs that looked like a manor.

The three people of Shangshanruoshui were sitting in the van, all dumbfounded.

Zhang Chenling: "This client should be an ultra-high net worth individual..."

Brother Xiao Ma: "When we were doing housework before, we never met such rich people."

Ni Yue: "How much is considered ultra-high net worth?"

Xiao Ma Ge: "The net worth is at least nine figures, I said net worth! But for those who can live in a house like this, ten figures is probably conservative."

Ni Yue snapped his fingers and said, "So a rich man like him should have a nanny and a home caregiver, right? And he also wants someone to come and help him bathe?"

Zhang Chenling: "His eldest son said that he originally had a nanny, but she was scolded away a few days ago. He said that the old man had lived alone for many years and had a strange temper. He had scolded several nannies and had not hired a new one yet. He was clamoring to take a bath, so he had to ask us to help."

Ni Yue: "So he lives alone in such a big house?"

Zhang Chenling: "I guess so. Both of his sons are in the United States, but he refused to go with them. He insisted on dying alone in Shanghai. He had a housekeeper, but he couldn't bathe."

Ni Yue: "Oh my God... Cousin, why don't you take care of this old man? Then I can win with you!"

Zhang Chenling: "...In our line of work, falling in love with a customer is a taboo!"

Xiao Ma Ge: "Our Sister Ling deserves better, someone with healthy male function!"

Zhang Chenling: "You, you, you, you are making fun of me too!..."

Three people were sitting in the van chatting with each other when the big black iron gate of the villa suddenly opened slowly.