Chapter 9 Clean My Room

Stark's words resounded in her mind repeatedly long after she had left his room.

Unable to fall asleep, Jean sat up irritably. The only comfort she could find was telling herself that it was going to be okay.

'It'll be all right as long as you treat Stark as an ordinary hotel guest.'

Even after that, she tossed and turned restlessly for a long while. When the clock struck midnight, she was still wide awake.

Finally, she got exasperated from trying to sleep. Rapidly, she whipped out two white pills from the bottle on her bedside table and gulped them down.

Around one hour later, she was able to finally fall asleep, but her phone rang within minutes and woke her up.

Jean answered it furiously.

"Hey! What's up?"

"I'm sorry to bother you at such a late hour. Can you please come to Room 103? It's the presidential suite Mr. Lu is in and he said he wants to see you right now."

As someone who had trouble falling asleep in the first place, Jean despised being awakened.

"Tell him I am off duty now. If he wants to see me, I'll meet him tomorrow!" Jean declared in an unfriendly tone.

"I know but something is wrong in the suite. Mr. Lu said if we didn't deal with the problem, he would lodge a complaint against us. So..."

Sensing the embarrassment in Lina's voice, Jean frowned. She had no choice but to compromise. "Alright, I'll be there as soon as I can."

It took her fifteen minutes to wake up properly and change her clothes. She then went up to the presidential suite.

Inside, she saw Stark sitting on the sofa with his long legs crossed. In front of him stood Lina and two other employees. They seemed ill at ease and their heads were lowered, as if they had been severely reprimanded recently.

Jean took a deep breath and walked over with a fake but professional smile on her face.

"Mr. Lu, how can I improve your experience here? How come you are unable to rest so late at night?"

Stark looked up at her with no emotion in his eyes. He could clearly sense the subtext Jean's sentence had.

She was implying that he was finding faults for no reason.

Stark put down the documents in his hands and pointed towards the bedroom.

"There is a single hair about fifteen centimeters long on the bed. Use a tissue to wipe the bathtub and you'll be able to find dust on it. Further, the glass of the French windows is dirty. Even the potted plants are brown with dust.

Is this what the presidential suite of the five-star Wonder Hotel feels like?" he asked with a mocking smile and continued, "Any average hotel in A City is better than what you are offering here."

"That's absolutely impossible, sir. Our hotel..."

However, at that moment, Lina pulled on Jean's clothes from behind and whispered in her ear, "Manager, the previous guests checked out this morning and housekeeping department didn't have enough time to clean it properly. That's why the room is untidy. I..."

Jean frowned and cursed inwardly.

"Mr. Lu, I'm really sorry that our mistakes made you feel dissatisfied. We will immediately deal with this problem. May we arrange another, more comfortable presidential suite for you?"

Stark merely sneered in response, "Is this what service in your hotel is like?"

Jean thought for a moment and offered once more, "We apologize further, Mr. Lu. We shall bear all expenses of your stay."

"Do you think I'm short of money?"

Stark was being unreasonably stubborn, and Jean wanted to yell at him. 'What the hell do you want? Just get out if you don't want to live here.'

Unfortunately, that was not an option and she was forced to smile again.

"What would you like us to do, Mr. Lu?"

Stark raised his wrist to check the time. "It will take me about an hour and a half to finish going over these documents. I need to rest at three o'clock. Clean the room before that."

Jean felt relieved after hearing that. "Okay. I'll ask the housekeeping department to come up at once..."

However, respite was still nowhere near her grasp. Stark interrupted her mid-sentence.

"Wait, did I ask you to call housekeeping?"

The smile on Jean's face froze. "What do you mean, Mr. Lu?"

"I don't like being disturbed. I want only you to clean my room. As the lobby manager, I believe it won't be too difficult for you. Am I right?"

Jean didn't say anything, but Lina couldn't help coming to her rescue in a soft voice. "Our manager just arrived from A City this afternoon. She hasn't rested since getting off the plane, and this room requires two people to clean..."

"That is not my concern!" Stark interrupted. "It's your hotel and you should take responsibility!"

An awkward silence fell as Stark finished his words.

He seemed in no hurry though. He lowered his eyes, slowly flipped through the documents in his hands, and remarked, "If you don't want to clean this room, I won't force you. I won't even lodge a complaint but someday, on a whim, I will post an article in some magazine or website about your hotel. Manager Jian, what do you think of that idea?"

Jean wasn't stupid and could clearly see the threat behind Stark's tone.

Just as Lina was about to walk up and start cleaning on her own, Jean reached out her hand and stopped her.

Instead, she stepped forward.

"Alright, Mr. Lu. I will do my best to clean the room and make sure you are satisfied."

Stark nodded slightly. He seemed quite happy with this turn of events.

"In that case, start working now."

Jean pulled Lina and the others out of the room. The latter wanted to say something but was hesitant. Jean sensed that and smiled, "It's okay. Just get me everything I need. I'll take care of this."

A few minutes later, Lina brought her the cleaning tools and she went back inside.

"I'll clean this room first and try my best to be quiet and not disturb you."

"Okay," Stark replied softly. When Jean had entered the room, he had put down the documents and was looking at her with a complicated expression dancing in his eyes.

Jean changed the bedding, wiped the bedside table and windows with a duster, cleaned the bathroom thoroughly, and then vacuumed the carpet.

The suite was so large that after completing these tasks, she was too tired to stand up straight anymore.

She turned his eyes towards Stark who was perusing his documents wholeheartedly in the other room. Cursing inwardly, she walked over.

"Mr. Lu, I've cleaned the bedroom. You can now go there so I don't disturb you while I clean this room."

She didn't want to stay in the same room as him.

Unfortunately, he saw through her intentions at once and replied with a tired tone,

"No, thanks. I'm almost done. I'm going to take a shower now. You may leave after cleaning."

Jean nodded, "As you wish. I will try to leave at the earliest."

Once he had gone into the bathroom, Jean began wiping the sofa and the table with the duster.

She was feeling so sleepy that her eyelids felt like lead. The ground was swaying in her eyes, and the duster seemed incredibly heavy.

Jean knew this was the sleeping pills at work.

She gritted her teeth and tried to control herself. But pretty soon, she was unable to hold on and fell asleep right there on the sofa.

After his shower, Stark stepped outside and saw Jean lying motionless on the sofa. He frowned and walked closer.