"Mr Woodsworth," Alex said as he recognized him. He had seen this man before at Ken Stokes's banquet. He didn't expect this hotel to be operated by his own family.
"I don't dare to accept that salutation—you can just call me Old Sam," Sam Woodsworth said feeling flattered.
Alex was a very easy-going person, but, in the end, still addressed Sam formally as Mr Woodsworth.
"Mr Ambrose, why are you here?" Sam asked while bowing.
"Oh, I'm going to hang out with my classmates. I don't want to go back to the university tonight, so I'll stay here with you," Alex said smiling.
"So that's the case," Sam nodded. He then turned to the receptionist and asked, "Is this young man's room ready?"
"It's ready," The front desk girl said with a slightly trembling voice. She didn't expect that the young man in front of her, who was wearing an unbearable set of clothes, could make Manager Woodsworth so polite. All the staff, including her, were indifferent to Alex.
"This young man has the big bed on the third floor next to the stairwell," she said.
"What—that room is the worst room in the entire hotel!" Sam said angrily, "This hotel belongs to Mr Ambrose. It's an honour for Mr Ambrose to come here, but you've given him the worst room!"
"Mr Woodsworth don't blame them. My friend got a room for me," Alex said as he looked at Sam's angry expression and was quite worried that the staff would be implicated. After all, it wasn't their fault.
"Oh, sir—your friend is too ungrateful," Sam said indignantly, "How about this—I'll give you the most respected room in the hotel."
"No need, I'll just stay in that room tonight. Don't worry—I understand your feelings," Alex said as he patted Sam's shoulder.
"Only if it's no trouble for you, sir," Sam said.
Since Alex had already said so, Sam did not dare disobey him.
"All right, you can go busy yourselves. I'll head up now," Alex said and walked toward his room.
The waiters' eyes were filled with respect toward Alex. They all brought out their brightest smiling faces for him, which made Alex feel uncomfortable for a while. They then smiled lightly and continued with their work.
The moment Alex laid down in his room, someone pushed in a dining cart filled with expensive red wine and snacks. Then the cleaning staff appeared, wanting to clean his room inside and out. Then a gorgeous model dropped by who wanted to chat with Alex, but Alex refused.
That Sam, Alex thought while smiling bitterly and sighed after everything quieted down.
Damn it, Alex looked at his watch. It had been more than an hour since he got to the hotel.
Alex was hesitating whether he should tell Rose the truth, but it was too late now. If Zane was planning to sleep with Rose tonight, the two of them would already be smooching.
Sigh, forget it. Rose might not believe it even if I told her about it. She might even mock me for being shameless and trying to take advantage of her, he thought.
Thinking about Rose's attitude toward him, Alex lost his feeling of regret.
He lay on the bed and closed his eyes. He was about to fall asleep when there was a noise outside in the hallway. First, it sounded like a door being slammed, and then there was the sound of hurried footsteps.
"Get lost!" In the hallway, Rose's entire body was wrapped in a white sheet. Her snow-white shoulders and her two slender legs were exposed, and she wasn't wearing any shoes. She glared furiously at Zane, who chased after her.
"Rose, quickly come back inside—look at how you're dressed. Don't let other men see you!" Zane was dressed about the same amount as Rose. He only had on a pair of red underwear, and the fat around his round waistline slightly trembled.
"Humph—Zane, you're a big liar—your family didn't help us!" Rose looked at Zane with a cold smile.
"What? Rose, you have it wrong. If it wasn't my family's help, who else could it be? Tell me, am I right?" Zane smiled awkwardly. He was already feeling guilty.
"Why are you still pretending?" Rose shook the phone in her hand. "It was my father who called me just now. My father went to visit your father tonight and asked him about this matter. Your father said so himself that he wasn't the one who had helped! You've been lying to me all this time!"
As soon as those two had entered their hotel room, Zane had started to play tricks on Rose. He had used lots of flowery words to coax her into bed.
Rose finally caved in. After all, it was just a matter of time. After taking a shower, she lay on the bed. Zane had already stripped naked and climbed in. But, just at that moment, Rose's father called, so Rose got up and picked up the phone and got some news she wasn't expecting.
Looking at Zane, who was lustfully staring at her, Rose felt extremely disgusted, so she ran out of the room in a fluster!
"Your father… went to see my dad?" Zane was dumbfounded, but he felt particularly uncomfortable. He and Rose were only one step away from magic, but then his father was in trouble. Wasn't this just teasing him?
"Rose, listen to me—even though—" Zane only wanted to calm her down and get her back into the bed. He walked up to Rose and grabbed her arm.
"Don't touch me! You're disgusting!" When Rose looked at Zane, she only saw his ugliness. When she looked at him, she felt nauseous and repulsed at the thought of having physical contact with him.
Rose threw Zane's hand away so strongly that she accidentally hit the eagle statue beside her. With a crash, the eagle statue shattered to pieces on the ground.
Rose didn't seem to care about the damage. She was still quarrelling with Zane, who was standing in front of her.
"Who broke this statue?" A middle-aged man with a tall stature walked over and looked at the broken pieces on the floor with an angry and sorrowful expression.
"Manager Woodsworth," said the hotel staff that had already gathered, lowering their heads in respect.
"I did this!" Rose was currently fuming, so she admitted right away that she broke the statue.
"All right, thank you for being an honest young lady. Since you've admitted it, please compensate our hotel," Sam said with a sad expression.
"I'll decide if I compensate you. Look at it—isn't it just a statue? Seriously?" Rose retorted during her anger.
"You are right, Miss, it's a statue," Sam sneered, "But please pay now. This statue was created in 1986 by a prominent Russian sculptor. It was sold at the Christie's Auction House the year before last for over a million dollars."
"What!" Rose thought she misheard and looked at Sam in disbelief.
Sam didn't bother to explain anything further to Rose. He asked someone to find the auction documents to show her.
When she saw the documents, she was at a loss for words.
Over a million! That's as much as a year of my family's income! she thought.
"I was careless!" Rose's heart was flustered, her entire body went weak, and her hands, which were holding the documents, were shaking uncontrollably.
"Didn't you say it was just a statue?" Sam sneered, "Don't think that I'll let you get away with it. You must compensate me. Hurry up and call home if you need."
Rose's heart skipped a beat again. The documents slipped out of her hands and her legs shook even more.
If her father knew about this, he would beat her to death. Rose felt especially scared when she thought of her father's ferocious face.
"Rose, what's wrong?" Suzan and Joe heard the commotion and ran to Rose's side.
Rose told them what had happened, and, by then, her tears had already started to fall. She sobbed, "What should I do? If my father knows, he will beat me to death."
"Sir, please don't make me pay, okay? I can work for you, and I'll pay you back. Do you need a nanny at home? I can work for you—although I don't know how—I can learn," Rose cried as she looked at Sam with tears in her eyes.
To hide this blunder from her parents, Rose was willing to do anything.
"Little girl—don't think of any other impractical methods. You should call your parents as soon as possible," Sam said, thinking like a businessperson. Even though he felt that Rose was a bit pitiful, he still had to collect the money back.
Rose felt complete despair, and her self-reproach, remorse, worry, and fear mixed in her heart.
"Mr Woodsworth," Alex quietly said as he leisurely walked over. He had heard most of what happened.
"Sir—" Sam was about to call out to Alex, but he was stopped by Alex's gaze.
"Mr Woodsworth, I think this statue fell at a good time," Alex looked at Sam and said with a faint smile.
The moment Alex said this, the surrounding people were all surprised.
Someone smashed a statue worth over a million dollars. And you think that was good? Wasn't that person asking for a beating? they thought to themselves.
"You think so? May I have your opinion?" Sam said respectfully. His heart was filled with suspicion. What exactly did Mr Ambrose mean?
"Let me ask you—does this hotel host many Americans or Europeans?" Alex asked.
"Of course, they are our main guests," Sam said after thinking for a while.
"So, the patrons are American and European, yet the hotel spent a lot of money to buy a Russian sculpture and have it on display by the guest rooms. Do you know, right now, that our country and its allies are at odds with Russia? If the people knew that you had this expensive sculpture in your hotel, they might boycott the hotel. If this was on the news, your hotel's losses would be more than a million! That's why I said this situation happened at a good time," Alex reasoned with him.
When the others heard Alex's brilliant idea, they could not help but laugh. This kind of story wouldn't even fool a three-year-old kid, but he wanted to try and trick Manager Woodsworth.
When Rose saw Alex standing up for her, she was a little touched. She smiled wryly inside. She was grateful for his help, but it sounded so silly. He was just a fool who didn't understand what was going on.
"Oh—this young man is right. I wasn't thinking," Sam spoke with a respectful smile towards him, contrary to what everyone else expected. They thought that Alex would be made into a joke.