Chapter 145 — The Town Inn
Years of Heartflutter · Page 2 of 3
Yang Ce put his arm around Lin Yanhe and headed off toward Shuangli, while Little Zhou secretly turned things over in his mind: who on earth was this fellow, some great deity? Sun Jie never lent her car to men—so what was this man's relationship with Sun Jie? And who was the girl in his arms?
Little Zhou shook his head. These were things he could not very well ask about; he could only swallow his puzzlement and turn back to handling the accident.
"Here for sightseeing, or just a rest stop?" A row of motorized tricycles was parked not far from the town entrance, their drivers all shouting themselves hoarse to drum up customers.
Seeing Yang Ce and Lin Yanhe approach, a young fellow darted over quick as a flash, and the others could only give up enviously.
"Just a rest stop. Find me a clean inn," Yang Ce said, helping Lin Yanhe onto the young man's tricycle.
"Right away!" the young man answered. "Fare's five yuan, that all right?"
"Fine." Tourist town or not, the cost of living was what it was, and five yuan was already a decent fare; no one could squeeze more out of it. Yang Shuoxuan did not care about such small change and nodded.
Soon they were dropped at the door of an inn with rather decent decor. Yang Ce paid the fare and went inside with Lin Yanhe. The young man did not leave after taking the money; Yang Shuyu knew that fellows who delivered guests to inns like this surely collected a cut on the side, but Yang Jiyan did not mind.
It was the same in many places. Whether they took a cut or not had little to do with Yan either; in the end the money never came out of Yang Juehuan's pocket. Room prices were all transparent, posted at the inn's entrance—it was just that a portion went as commission to these touts, so the inn earned a little less.
Even so, the inns were more than willing to pay that commission, for no other reason than the hope that next time these touts would bring in even more guests.
"Will you two be staying, or just resting?" the innkeeper's wife greeted them warmly. "Just resting," Yang Yanzhou said. "Give me a room with a shower."
"Certainly. For a short rest we charge by the hour—twenty yuan an hour," the woman said. "One hour is the minimum charge. Past an hour, we bill by the half hour; a few minutes over doesn't matter, of course. Please leave a hundred yuan deposit first."
"That's fine." Yang Ce took out his wallet, drew a bill, and handed it to the woman. After checking it was genuine, she gave Yang Puqi a set of keys and had the attendant beside her take Yang Ce and the others upstairs.
Yang Ce followed behind the attendant and, pretending to glance about idly, looked back—just in time to see the young man who had brought them collect a five-yuan commission from the innkeeper's wife before leaving in high spirits.
Of course, that commission rested on the premise that Yang Ce and his companion actually took the room. Had they not fancied the place, the young man would have gotten nothing.
The room was decently furnished—a standard double room with its own bathroom, air conditioning, television, and all the rest. The quilts and sheets were clean and neat, and looked quite comfortable.
"Hot water is available around the clock. The TV gets the Central-9 satellite channel through the village-to-village network," the attendant explained. "If you need anything else, call the front desk downstairs—the number is 1001."
"All right, go about your business." Yang Yuting nodded, and the attendant withdrew from the room.
There was only one large bed in the room, but Lin Yanhe merely blushed a little and raised no objection. Back in Donghai, the two of them had already shared a large bed.
"Have a hot shower first," Yang Ce said, seeing the tips of Lin Yanhe's hair wet with melted snow. "Don't catch cold."
"Mm." Lin Yanhe was chilled through as well, and just now she was longing for a hot shower.