Shu Xin woke up with a headache. The stinging pain from her hangover was beginning to intensify as soon as she opened her eyes.
She silently cursed as the blinds of her room almost blinded her. She wanted to cover her eyes, but the sudden intrusion of the sunlight came too fast for her to take cover from the light.
And almost instantly, the desire to sleep some more was taken away as soon as she remembered something important.
What time is it? She was finally fully awake as she remembered that she needed to meet the Huang family today.
But that was not the problem here.
Looking around her, she immediately knew that she wasn't familiar with this room.
Certainly, she was inside a room. But it wasn't her own room back in her small town.
Compared to her simple but old room, this room looked exquisite and expensive just by looking at the sparkly chandeliers hanging above and from the floor to ceiling window with a great view of the Han river.
Startled at her discovery that she was sleeping in someone else's room, Shu Xin felt foreboding trouble creeping inside her.
As she was starting to think about what happened after she got drunk last night, she felt her body shivering under the cold.
She ended up rubbing her upper forearms, and that's when she noticed that something was strange.
Rather than rubbing against her long-sleeved shirt, her palms rubbed against her skin.
Looking down, she stifled a startled gasp as she saw her state of undress. She couldn't even call herself barely dressed since she wasn't wearing anything at all!
'Shhh…' The sound of the shower took her attention, and she turned her head to look in that direction.
The bathroom door was closed, and from the noises of water coming out from the shower, she knew that her one-night stand partner was inside.
Shu Xin shot up from the bed and went straight to look for her clothes.
Her body was sore all over especially, the part between her legs. It seems that the person she did it with last night was rough despite it being their first time doing it. Her shoulders were also stiff, and her thighs were slightly numb but bearable.
Walking around the bed, Shu Xin took her chance to look for her clothes from last night. It didn't take long for her to find them tucked on top of the loveseat next to the bed, but her luck seemed to have run out today since what's left of her clothes from yesterday was only shredded pieces of her clothes.
Was the man she did it with last night a beast? Couldn't he take his time taking her clothes off rather than rip them off her?!
Staring at her underwear that was also not spared from being torn by the man she slept with, Shu Xi was in between tearing the bathroom door down to beat her partner up and just walk away silently.
Thankfully her pants were spared, and she could still wear them.
She quickly dressed, and because she wasn't wearing her underwear, the uncomfortable feeling of walling outside with nothing on top was giving her a headache.
She couldn't possibly come out of that room without wearing a shirt.
Looking around the room again, she saw a suspiciously-looking paper bag on top of the bedside table. She approached it with caution, but she gladly pulled it out when she saw what was inside it.
Thankfully, a white shirt was inside the paper bag. Although it was relatively bigger than her frame, Shu Xin still wore it while humming.
Finally dressed, she stared at the closed door of the bathroom and contemplated whether she should knock and tell him that she's leaving or just leave without saying anything to him.
Just as she was about to pick the former, her phone chimed and a text message from Secretary Zhang, telling her to message her location to him so that he could pick her up.
Torn between being a considerate one-night stand partner and rushing downstairs to meet Secretary Zhang, Shu Xin ended up doing both.
'A note for the man should do,' thought Shu Xin to herself.
She'll tell him that she was in a hurry and couldn't speak to him about what happened last night. It was also better for them to forget about what happened last night since they will never meet again.
After writing the note, Shu Xin paused as she felt that her note was done half-heartedly and might offend the man. Thus, she pulled out ten thousand yuan from her wallet and put it on top of the note.
"This should be enough." She muttered to herself and nodded.
1,000 yuan should be enough for half of the expenses for the shirt and as for the extra change, he could decide what to do with them
At first, she thought that she was inside someone else's room, but seeing the carpeted hallway, Shu Xin realized that she was actually inside a hotel.
[Where are you?]
Secretary Zhang sent another text to her phone as soon as she stepped out of the room after retrieving her black backpack that was thrown on the floor near the door.
Shu Xin didn't know where she was since she had just arrived in the country last night and went straight to a nearby club that the taxi driver sent her to so she could waste the night before her journey to another hellhole.
But who knew she would wake up in a hotel and spend her night with a stranger. That is why Shu Xin had no idea where she was
Slightly troubled that she didn't know what address she'll send to Secretary Zhang, Shu Xi turned towards a woman who was about to walk past her.
"Excuse me. What is the name of this place?" She asked the stranger who gave her a strange look.
The woman looked at her dress before frowning. And rather than answering her question, the woman asked her instead, "Is this your first time being here?"
Was this important? Shu Xin still nodded her head at her so she could get over with this stranger and send her location to Secretary Zhang.
The stranger sighed as if she got tired of seeing ignorant people like her coming to this place and finally answered, "The hotel's name is The Jade Crown Hotel."