Soon, a sales associate pushed a small cart into the VIP lounge, laden with clothes selected especially for him. He Wenjie tried them on. Sure enough, expensive things were different; once he changed into this outfit, his entire aura instantly transformed.
With the weather in May and June at its most comfortable, He Wenjie ended up buying seven shirts, along with the three complete outer outfits the sales associate had put together for him.
At checkout, the total came to 260,000. Seeing that she had completed more than half a month's sales quota in a single stroke, the associate eagerly helped him pack his purchases. "Sir, you've bought so much. If it's inconvenient for you to carry, just give us an address and we can provide home delivery."
He Wenjie didn't even know where he was sleeping tonight, let alone a delivery address. Still, he had bought quite a lot of things today. After a moment's thought, he said, "I'm not a local, just arrived in Beijing today. Are there any decent hotels around here?"
Hearing this, the sales associate became even more certain of her guess: a nouveau riche visitor who had just arrived from out of town. "Sir, if you go out this door and walk less than a kilometer north, there's a five-star hotel. Would that meet your requirements?"
"That works. I'll head over to check in shortly. This afternoon, you can have someone deliver the clothes to that hotel for me."
After leaving his contact information, He Wenjie departed the shop. He didn't rush to the hotel, deciding instead to grab a meal at a nearby upscale restaurant to experience what rich people ate.
*Hmm~*, what rich people ate was just so-so—not even as delicious as fried rice made with gutter oil. And it cost him a few grand. If it were a month ago, his total savings wouldn't even have amounted to that much. What a damned fool he was. *Ptooey!*
After lunch, He Wenjie went and bought a watch. Nothing too expensive, only around three hundred thousand. Actually, he knew nothing about watches and had never worn one before; buying one immediately was just the showing-off mindset of someone who had suddenly struck it rich.
He Wenjie strolled toward the hotel. True to its five-star rating, damn, staying here for a month would cost enough to live in a budget inn for two years. After reminding the front desk that someone would be dropping off clothes later, He Wenjie took his luggage (a single computer bag) and walked up to his reserved business suite, firmly denying anyone the chance to carry his bag for a tip.
Not long after He Wenjie arrived at the hotel, the clothes he had bought earlier were delivered. It was the same saleswoman who had waited on him in the morning. He Wenjie muttered a word of thanks and didn't bother keeping the alluring beauty around to chat about lofty ideals before shutting the door.
It wasn't that He Wenjie was putting on airs of noble detachment or acting like a modern-day saint; it was simply that he had a more important matter to deal with right now: he needed to figure out which cinematic universe he had dropped into.
Of course, more importantly, that saleswoman's looks didn't match his aesthetic preferences. To put it bluntly, He Wenjie felt she was too plain; if she actually had the face of an immortal goddess, he might have reluctantly settled for her.
With his low-class tendencies, He Wenjie truly couldn't appreciate a five-star hotel's Simmons mattress. He didn't sleep nearly as comfortably here as he had in the budget inn, waking up several times in the middle of the night. By the time he woke up completely, it was already ten o'clock.
Hugging his computer, he went down to the hotel's dining lounge, ate a few bites casually, and started tapping away at his laptop. This was the method he had thought of last night: search the names of major real estate developments in Beijing. Every television drama usually featured its own exclusive residential complex, places like *Ode to Joy* or Grand Gateway.
He searched for a long time, but whether it was completed developments or ones still under construction, none of the names were familiar.
A depressed He Wenjie closed his laptop, ordered a cup of coffee, and sat there in a daze.
It seemed this tactic wasn't going to work. Could the plot be taking place not in Beijing, but in Shanghai? Or Shenzhen? If the story was set in some minor city, heaven knows how long it would take to track down. What a headache.
Just as He Wenjie was deep in thought, he noticed two people at the table directly ahead of him who appeared to be on a blind date. He could only see the man's face—fairly ordinary, though his clothing suggested he was reasonably well-off. The woman had her back to him, and she seemed to still be wearing the hotel's uniform. Truly mastering the art of combining work and life, He Wenjie silently gave a mental thumbs-up.
For a whole week straight, He Wenjie spent his mornings in the dining lounge staring at his computer—occasionally glancing at stocks—and his afternoons wandering around looking for food. On one particular morning, yet another fruitless day of web-surfing came to a close. As he shut his laptop and the waiter brought over a cup of coffee, he spotted that hotel woman on another blind date once again. He thought to himself that this woman must be in quite a rush; it seemed he could see men coming to blind-date her every single noon. Still, she was genuinely gorgeous, so being picky was entirely justified. Beauties came with privileges, after all.
He Wenjie sipped his coffee while watching the pair in front of him. At first, they seemed to be chatting quite agreeably, when suddenly the woman stood up to leave.
Well, another negotiation collapsed.
Seeing her walk away, the man angrily stood up and shouted, "What's so great about yourself? Just an aging leftover woman of thirty, with a few decent looks at best—you should've been heavily discounted and cleared out ages ago. What gives you the right to act so high and mighty?" Oh, he had a Hong Kong-Taiwan accent, and a rather explosive temper to boot.
Upon hearing this, the woman stopped in her tracks, turned around, and said, "If that's how you're going to put it, then I need to set you straight. Do you know which month in Beijing is the most beautiful?"
"I don't." Total bewilderment.
"September. Know why?"
"I don't." Still completely bewildered.
"Because the daytime in September is like August, and the night is like October. Just like a thirty-year-old woman, she has both the face of a twenty-year-old and the wisdom of a forty-year-old. This is the most beautiful moment in a woman's life. Now do you know why I have the right to be high and mighty?" With that, she turned and left.
He Wenjie suddenly felt those words sounded quite familiar. He waved over a dining lounge waiter and asked, "Was that person who just left one of your hotel staff?"
"She's our lobby manager."
"I've noticed she seems to go on blind dates pretty often."
"It seems her mother keeps setting her up with blind date partners. Every time, the excuses are different, and our manager doesn't even know she's walking into a blind date. She's in a really tough spot." This waiter apparently had a good relationship with the manager and, assuming He Wenjie was about to lodge a complaint, stepped in to offer some explanation.
He Wenjie saw right through her intentions. "Don't get me wrong, I'm just curious. What's your manager's name?"
"Yang Tao."
"What did you say?"
"Yang Tao."
"Right, thanks."
After the waiter walked away, He Wenjie sat frozen in his chair. *I am truly, damnably stupid! Why was I racking my brains searching for clues? Yang Tao, lobby manager, thirty years old—isn't this the goddess from *Let's Get Married*? But why doesn't she look like the goddess I remember? Whatever, forget it; as long as she's a beauty, that's all that matters.*
Win her over. He had to win her over.
He Wenjie had watched this drama a long time ago, but over the years he had forgotten most of the plot. He only remembered that she had a scumbag ex-boyfriend, and that she wasn't into gold-digging, meaning throwing money at her definitely wouldn't work. Right, he'd go the deeply affectionate route. He Wenjie began plotting his next moves.