Chapter 57: The Tribulation of a Troublesome Romance

At first, one rose a day.

A few days later, three roses daily, delivered in the morning, afternoon, and evening.

After some more days, a large bouquet every day!

Shui Miao was willing to invest generously, unafraid that such a romantic offensive wouldn’t win over Liu Hongmei.

In fact, Liu Hongmei didn’t even need to be pursued—she was already eager herself. However, Shui Miao wanted her to fall deeply in love, which required some thought and effort.

Gifting roses was merely the first step—to awaken the dormant emotions in Liu Hongmei’s aging heart.

Greater offensives were yet to come, and Shui Miao had his plans.

However, this wasn’t quite the time yet to fully focus on Liu Hongmei. Shui Miao intended to show up for work one last time.

Previously, he had planned to work a few more days, collect his salary, and then leave.

Now, with 100,000 yuan on his back, he no longer cared about money or his salary. Still, he really wanted to visit the workplace again—perhaps because he had worked there for years, and emotional attachments had formed, making it hard to let go so suddenly.

After paying at the flower shop, Shui Miao took a ride to the hotel’s vicinity. It wasn’t yet nine o’clock, and many employees hadn’t arrived for work.

But it didn’t matter—Shui Miao was close with everyone in the hotel, and he wasn’t worried about having nowhere to go.

“Oh, here comes Xiao Shui!”

Xiao Liu, the tall, thin security guard at the entrance, dressed sharply in a suit and holding a walkie-talkie, greeted Shui Miao enthusiastically.

“Brother Liu, long time no see! Let me treat you to dinner after work, how about that?” Seeing an old friend, Shui Miao felt especially happy and spontaneously decided to treat everyone to a meal—a farewell gesture. With so much money now, he no longer cared about that small salary. He had more important things to do and no time to wait tables anymore.

“Seriously? You went back home and struck it rich?”

Xiao Liu knew Shui Miao was frugal. Suddenly being invited to dinner naturally made him skeptical.

“I’ll go talk to the manager. You’ll know at lunchtime,” Shui Miao replied, chatting briefly with Xiao Liu before heading straight into the lobby.

At the front desk, two pretty girls, Xiao Chen and Xiao Li, were tidying up. Seeing Shui Miao, Xiao Chen immediately smiled warmly: “Xiao Shui, you’re finally here! Did you bring us any little gifts?”

“Me too, me too! I want a gift too!” Xiao Li quickly chimed in.

“Gifts, huh?” Shui Miao scratched his head. “Let me guess what you like… Xiao Chen must like chocolates, and Xiao Li must like egg tarts, right?”

“No, no, no! We want something from your heart, not just stuff like this,” Xiao Chen waved her hand. Her smile was charming, enhanced by her cute, baby-like voice.

Xiao Li was also pretty, fair-skinned and with an amazing figure. “Yeah, Xiao Chen is right. We want something from your heart, but exactly what that is—you need to figure that out yourself.”

“Did Chen Bing say something?” Shui Miao rubbed his chin. “Oh… I get it now. You want me to treat you all to a big meal, right?”

“Haha, this time you guessed right! We heard you won more than 100,000 yuan gambling back home. You can’t not treat us now!”

“Exactly! 100,000 yuan! That’s five or six years’ worth of our salary without eating or spending a penny!”

Xiao Chen and Xiao Li gazed at Shui Miao with longing eyes, as if seeing a prince on a white horse.

“I’m going to find the manager now. I’ll cover lunch today,” Shui Miao grinned and headed for the elevator. “Oh, and by the way, it’s not just 100,000. To be precise, it’s actually three or four hundred thousand.”

“What?!”

“Three or four hundred thousand…?”

Xiao Chen and Xiao Li were stunned. The poor guy they’d known had suddenly transformed into a rich, handsome prince. The contrast was just too great!

The office was on the sixth floor. When Shui Miao stepped off the elevator, he immediately saw Xiao Tang, a beautiful waitress from the housekeeping department.

“Hi, Sister Tang! Long time no see!”

“Xiao Shui, Xiao Shui! Chen Bing said you’ve struck it rich. You won so much money—why come back to this low-paying job?” Xiao Tang whispered softly as she spoke.

This floor housed the offices and two private rest rooms for the chairman. She dared not speak loudly.

“Yeah, I did win a bit. I came back mainly to treat everyone to a meal, to thank everyone for taking care of me these past two years. And, of course, to ask Sister Tang for your phone number. We’ve been friends for years. Even if we won’t be working together anymore, we should still keep in touch.”

Shui Miao spoke politely and got along well with everyone—except the manager, he’d rarely had a conflict with anyone.

“Great, great! Let’s exchange numbers…”

When Xiao Tang saw Shui Miao pull out a high-end smartphone, she couldn’t help but envy him. “Wow, you really are rich now! This phone is super expensive!”

“Hehe, not really,” Shui Miao smiled.

After exchanging numbers with Xiao Tang, Shui Miao arrived at the manager’s office. The door was open. Manager Huang Fei was busy filling out forms inside.

Seeing Shui Miao, Huang Fei casually said, “You’re here,” and continued working.

“Manager, I want to treat all the hotel staff to a meal. Help me calculate how much it would cost,” Shui Miao pulled up a chair and sat directly opposite Huang Fei.

Huang Fei frowned slightly at Shui Miao’s lack of decorum. He looked up and asked suspiciously, “You’re treating everyone to a meal? What do you mean by that?”

At this moment, the hotel chairman, Lin Qing’er, holding a stack of documents, happened to pass by. Hearing voices from the office, she paused outside, pretending to read her papers while eavesdropping.

“I said it clearly enough, didn’t I? Can’t you understand?” Shui Miao had never feared this arrogant Huang Fei, and certainly didn’t now. “Okay, let me explain more clearly. Before I leave the hotel, I want to treat all the employees to a meal to express my gratitude for their care over the past two years. This request shouldn’t be unreasonable, should it?”

“Hmph…”

Huang Fei smirked slightly, looking at Shui Miao with disdain. “Do you even know how many employees there are in the hotel? Treating everyone to a meal is no small expense.”

“I’ve worked here for two years. Of course I know how many people there are—from the management team down to housekeeping, entertainment, restaurant staff, security, and even maintenance workers, there are 107 employees. Adding you and Chairman Lin makes 109. You two are the big shots with plenty of money, so I didn’t even include you in my calculations. Manager Huang, you’re a grown man. Surely you wouldn’t deliberately make things difficult for me over such a small request, right?” Shui Miao could sense Huang Fei’s disdain and felt annoyed, his tone growing sharper.

“Come on, would I do that?” Huang Fei coldly snorted, frowning slightly. “Alright then! You can treat everyone, but first tell me how much you plan to spend.”

Shui Miao waved his hand. “It can’t be calculated based on your prices. It has to be based on mine. For example, you sell Australian lobsters at 500 yuan per serving, but the actual purchase price is only 120 yuan per jin. A lobster is about 1.5 jin, so around 180 yuan. Adding processing costs, it shouldn’t exceed 200 yuan. I’ll even add 50 yuan for the hotel’s service fee, so 250 yuan per serving. That way, the hotel doesn’t lose money, just earns a bit less, while improving employee relations…”

“No way! It has to be calculated based on the hotel’s prices. That’s the rule set by upper management. I can’t change it!” Huang Fei picked up his pen again and continued filling out forms. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll see you out.”

Huang Fei actually issued a dismissal!

Seeing how unreasonable Huang Fei was being, Shui Miao knew arguing would be pointless. He sighed, stood up, and prepared to find another way. But as he looked at Huang Fei, he noticed something odd about his complexion. A sudden idea struck him—he quietly activated his qigong, opened his yin-yang eye, and looked at Huang Fei. He saw a dark aura hovering above Huang Fei’s head, and a faint red glow of ill-fated romance between his eyebrows.

“Hey, Manager Huang, you’ve been caught up in some bad romantic luck lately, haven’t you?” Shui Miao licked his lips, stopped channeling his energy, and smiled at Huang Fei. “Manager, I don’t mean any harm. This time, I learned some real skills from my grandpa—like feng shui, helping people ward off misfortune. Just now, I noticed your hall of fame is darkened, and there’s a red glow of ill-fated romance between your eyebrows. It looks like this bad romance is about to come to a head in the next couple of days…”

“What?! Are you cursing me?!”

Huang Fei “whooshed” to his feet, almost ready to hit Shui Miao, but fearing he might lose, he paused and quickly grabbed the phone. “Xiao Li, call security up here. There’s a troublemaker here.”

With a loud “bang,” Huang Fei slammed down the phone.

Seeing Huang Fei glaring at him furiously, Shui Miao felt a bit flustered. How could someone be so hot-headed?

“No… I’m not cursing you. What I said is true!” Shui Miao got anxious. “Manager Huang, why are you so upset? I’m really being wronged here. Forget about the meal—since I’m leaving anyway, why would I bother cursing you? I’ve worked here for two years. Everyone knows what kind of person I am, except for you and Chairman Lin.”

“Get out! Get out of here!”

Huang Fei was already in a bad mood, and Shui Miao’s words only made him angrier.

“Hey, who’s so angry? Did someone swallow some gunpowder? An employee wanting to treat everyone to a meal to improve the atmosphere—what’s wrong with that?” Suddenly, the beautiful Chairman Lin stepped forward. She briskly entered the room, coldly eyeing Huang Fei. She slammed the stack of documents onto his desk. “Manager Huang, how exactly are you managing the catering department? Last month, you added a 200,000 yuan deficit to the catering expenses. If I hadn’t kept a careful eye and had Head He prepare a second set of books, I’d have been fooled! What exactly are you thinking? If you don’t explain this clearly, I’ll have no choice but to call the police.”

“Huh, that doesn’t seem right! According to what I saw, his problem was caused by bad romantic luck leading to a violent disaster. Why is it related to the hotel’s finances?”

Standing aside, Shui Miao scratched his chin and muttered to himself in confusion.

“Ringing!”

Just then, Huang Fei’s phone rang. The caller was none other than the married woman he’d been secretly seeing…