They were so close, so close that their breaths almost mingled.
At six o'clock in the morning, Mu Chen got up on time.
He didn't know whether he had been dreaming all night or whether he was replaying scenes from the depths of his memory in a half-dreaming, half-awake state.
Although so many years have passed, the people and events in my memory remain vivid.
Jiang Hailang would sometimes speak to him earnestly, urging him to stop waiting for Ruiyan. But he didn't feel he was deliberately waiting for her, because he had tried to accept other girls, but none of them were suitable.
After a quick wash, Mu Chen changed into sportswear and went for a run outside the hotel.
He often goes to the hotel gym, but he prefers to go for a morning run outdoors. He enjoys the people, the scenery, and some fresh air.
The Platinum Hotel is located near the lakeside avenue, where many people jog or do other sports every day.
After running a long lap around the lake, Mu Chen did his usual stretching in the small park by the lake. As he turned his head casually, he saw a familiar figure in the distance.
Judging from Song Yunxi's attire, she probably wasn't there for a morning workout. She was wearing a neat white floral chiffon blouse and a light blue knee-length A-line skirt, and thankfully, she wasn't wearing the high heels that made everyone hold their breath yesterday, but rather a pair of white flat sneakers. Although they didn't seem to match her skirt at all, at least she could walk more steadily.
Song Yunxi walked over to the group of elderly people practicing swordsmanship and watched with great interest as they slowly practiced Tai Chi swordsmanship to the music. Occasionally, she would imitate the movements of the elderly people, gently making a few gestures with her index and middle fingers together.
When the group of elderly people finished practicing their swordsmanship and sat down to rest on the stone platform, Song Yunxi smiled and went up to one of them and asked, "Grandpa, can I borrow your sword for a moment?"
The old man generously handed over the sword, and casually asked, "Does the young lady also know swordsmanship?"
"Yeah, it's been a long time since I practiced. I used to play around with it all the time," Song Yunxi said, casually twirling her sword a few times.
The old man smiled and pointed at Song Yunxi, then turned to his old friends and said, "Oh, this is an expert."
Mu Chen watched from afar as Song Yunxi chatted and laughed with a group of elderly people, who enthusiastically taught her a few poses. And she seemed to be learning quite diligently.
When Song Yunxi saw Mu Chen, she smiled and waved to him with her free hand.
It was as if he, her workplace boss whom she had only met a few times, was no longer her boss, but had become the neighbor she was used to seeing every day.
As Mu Chen approached, Song Yunxi handed him the sword in her hand, and smiled and raised an eyebrow at him, her invitation self-evident.
Mu Chen glanced at her without speaking, but eventually took the sword and practiced a few strokes as she wished. Song Yunxi sat on the stone platform and joined the other elders in applauding him.
The old man pointed at Mu Chen and said to Song Yunxi, "This young man is much more capable than the young girl."
Song Yunxi nodded emphatically, then gave Mu Chen a thumbs-up, her face beaming with a bright smile.
"Can you do that?" As Mu Chen respectfully handed the sword back to the old man, Song Yunxi pointed to the group of young people playing shuttlecock next to him and asked him.
Mu Chen shook his head. "No."
"I will." After saying that, she naturally reached out and grabbed Mu Chen's sleeve, leading him towards the group of people playing shuttlecock.
Mu Chen glanced down at the sleeve she was tugging at, then at her smiling profile. She, meanwhile, was waving her other hand at the people playing shuttlecock.
The group was also very friendly. When they saw that they wanted to join, someone moved two steps to the side to make room for them.
As the shuttlecock flew towards them, Song Yunxi watched intently, searching for the perfect opportunity to kick it. Because she was wearing a short skirt, it wasn't convenient to lift her leg high, so she could only gently bounce the shuttlecock with her toes just as it was about to land. Then, Mu Chen also swiftly raised his foot, kicking the shuttlecock high into the air and passing it to his partner on the other side.
Despite the lack of rehearsal, their teamwork was remarkably smooth. Song Yunxi turned and winked at Mu Chen, revealing eight teeth in a smile.
Mu Chen laughed too. What happened to him saying he couldn't play shuttlecock? I didn't expect him to have a talent for it.
They played all morning. When the shuttlecock kicking group dispersed, everyone enthusiastically urged Mu Chen and Song Yunxi to come and play together again the next morning. Song Yunxi readily agreed.
*
The two walked side by side along the lakeside avenue toward the Platinum Hotel.
The sustained exercise had left Mu Chen's face beaded with sweat. He turned to look at Song Yunxi, whose forehead was also covered in fine beads of sweat. From his angle, the sunlight shone on her forehead, making the sweat beads appear to shimmer with light.
Song Yunxi felt Mu Chen's gaze and turned to meet his eyes. Then, the two smiled at each other.
As soon as they entered the hotel, they ran into Jiang Hailang, who looked at the two of them, who were still sweating, with a smile on his face.
Song Yunxi smiled and said goodbye to Mu Chen and Jiang Hailang, saying she needed to go to the restroom to tidy up before starting work. Mu Chen was about to take the elevator upstairs when Jiang Hailang stopped him, saying they needed to chat in the lobby bar.
Before I could finish my coffee, I suddenly heard a commotion coming from the direction of the front desk. Looking in the direction of the sound, I saw a man talking loudly to the front desk staff.
The noise continued for two or three minutes without stopping.
Mu Chen beckoned to the waiter and asked in a cold voice, "What's going on?"
"It seems that the guests over there are speaking in a way that no one can understand, and we are trying to find a way to communicate," the waiter replied nervously, afraid of displeasing the boss.
Mu Chen, who wanted to ask a few more questions, followed Jiang Hailang's gaze after hearing him exclaim "Oh ho!" and saw Song Yunxi walking quickly towards the crowd.
She had changed into high heels, but her walk was no longer slow and elegant; instead, her steps were hurried, making it seem as if she might fall at any moment.
As soon as Song Yunxi arrived at the front desk, the man was waving and saying something. He turned around, and a stone-like object in his hand smashed into Song Yunxi's head.
"Ah!" she exclaimed, immediately covering her forehead with her hand.
Because of the sudden change in her footing, she lost her balance and took a step back, almost falling, when an arm reached out from behind her and caught her in time.
Mu Chen asked her, "Are you alright?"
"It's nothing." Song Yunxi shook her head, then turned around and said something to the man.
The man was stunned when he saw the object in his hand hit a girl on the head. After hearing Song Yunxi's words, he nodded and stood quietly to the side.
Song Yunxi asked the anxious-looking girl at the front desk, "What happened?"
"We couldn't understand what this guest was saying, and even translation software couldn't recognize it."
It turns out that after arguing for so long, they didn't even understand what the other person was arguing about.
However, Song Yunxi didn't mind and instead smiled and comforted the girl at the front desk, "It's alright, leave it to me."
Song Yunxi invited the guests to sit in a quiet corner of the lobby bar, asked about their preferences, and then asked the waiter to bring them a cup of Americano.
Mu Chen followed Song Yunxi and the guests to sit on the sofa, while the lobby manager stood by, ready to help at any time.
Song Yunxi introduced his name and identity to the guest. Because Mu Chen heard the 'MU' in her pronunciation, the guest looked at him. He smiled and nodded in greeting.
Afterwards, Song Yunxi communicated with the guest for more than ten minutes, using a combination of language and gestures, before she finally understood that the guest had bought a pair of stone carving souvenirs that he really liked when he went out for sightseeing yesterday, but when he was packing his belongings to check out this morning, he found that only one of them remained.
The guest felt he must have left the car he had chartered on his way back yesterday, so he went to the front desk for help. Since the hotel concierge had helped him call the car yesterday, and the hotel had a partnership with the taxi company, they should be able to find it.
However, his English was poor; he only knew a few simple everyday phrases, and the hotel staff couldn't understand him.
The guest became increasingly anxious as he spoke, and while recounting what had happened, he pointed outside, trying to tell the receptionist that he had gotten out of the taxi at the hotel entrance. However, he didn't notice that he was holding a stone sculpture in his hand, nor did he notice that Song Yunxi was coming up behind him, and then accidentally hit her on the head.
Song Yunxi smiled and reassured the guest, telling him not to worry. She then explained the guest's situation to the lobby manager standing nearby and asked him to arrange for staff to help search.
After the guest calmed down, he chatted happily with Song Yunxi and even took out some small cards with Chinese sentences and some kind of language translation from his pocket.
Song Yunxi smiled and praised the other person.
Mu Chen sat silently to the side, but he was quite satisfied with the current situation. At least the thing he had worried about—that the guest might act rashly and hurt Song Yunxi again—would not happen.
However, according to Mu Chen's observation, although Song Yunxi was sitting there chatting and laughing with the guests, she might not have been very proficient in the language the guests were speaking.
Because when she spoke to the other person, she always spoke one word at a time, occasionally adding gestures and Chinese/English words to help the other person understand. But she maintained that serious yet confident smile and chatted happily with the other person.
Mu Chen suddenly smiled slightly.
The lobby manager immediately contacted the security department to retrieve the hotel's main entrance surveillance footage, located the car the guest had been in, and then contacted the taxi company.
The result came quickly: the driver of the car found a stone sculpture under the back seat of his vehicle yesterday when he left work and immediately handed it over to the company's lost and found department. However, the department only opened today and hasn't had time to search for the owner yet.
Afterwards, Song Yunxi invited the guest to return to his room to rest, saying that staff would come later to retrieve his stone sculpture and deliver it to his room. The guest smiled and hugged Song Yunxi, then turned and warmly shook hands with Mu Chen.
After seeing the guests off, Mu Chen turned to look at the large, red, swollen bump on Song Yunxi's forehead.
Before he could even speak, Song Yunxi said, "It's alright, it doesn't hurt at all."
"Come with me." After saying that, Mu Chen turned and walked towards the elevator.
Sitting not far away with his legs crossed, Jiang Hailang watched the whole thing unfold before standing up, straightening his suit, and muttering to himself, "The show's over, time to get to work."
Mu Chen took Song Yunxi back to his office and had her sit on the sofa while he took an ice pack from the refrigerator.
An ice pack was handed over, but no one took it.
Song Yunxi moved her body forward from the sofa and reached out to lift the bangs from her forehead.
Mu Chen sighed softly, then sat down on the sofa next to Song Yunxi, reached out and pressed the ice pack wrapped in a thin towel onto her forehead.
There were only the two of them in the room, and they were so close that it felt like their breaths were intertwined. They were so close that Mu Chen could smell the faint rose scent on her even more clearly than when he was in the car that took her home the night before.
Song Yunxi lowered her eyes to look at the hem of her skirt, as if even her thoughts were hidden beneath her fine eyelashes. Her lips were still red, but today's red was different from yesterday's, as if a touch of tomato color had been added.
Looking at her face so close to his, Mu Chen suddenly felt an urge to get closer to her and explore her full, luscious red lips.
The next second, when Song Yunxi looked up and their eyes met, he held her forehead and slowly moved closer to her.
Song Yunxi's phone rang, and their actions stopped awkwardly at a distance of no more than ten centimeters.
Mu Chen coughed lightly, withdrew his hand from her forehead, and moved away from her, sitting down on the sofa behind him.
Song Yunxi picked up her phone from her lap, smiled as she looked at the name on the screen, and answered. "Mr. Tantai?"
After hearing what the other person said, she smiled and agreed, "Okay, I'll go to your room now."
After hanging up the phone, Song Yunxi stood up from the sofa. "Thank you, Mr. Mu. I'll take my leave now."
"Wait. I'll go with you."
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