Chu Yi wasn't sure if he was a sensitive person or not. Growing up, he always needed to be invisible while observing others' words and expressions, but he also had to constantly ignore the unavoidable hurts, big and small.

So he was sometimes sensitive, sometimes obtuse.

But when it came to Yan Hang, he should be very sensitive.

Yan Hang took a call with no one speaking and no number displayed, and then seemed a bit distracted.

"I'll call a car downstairs," after finishing breakfast, Yan Hang took out his phone to call a car, "and send you straight back to school."

"I'll take public transport, just drop me off there," Chu Yi paused, "no, no need to call a car."

"It's fine." Yan Hang's reply was simple.

Chu Yi didn't say anything more. When the car arrived, he went downstairs with Yan Hang.

The car sent Yan Hang to the hotel first. As Yan Hang got out of the car, he leaned on the car window and smiled at him, "Send me a message when you get there."

"Mm." Chu Yi nodded.

After watching the car drive away, Yan Hang took out his phone and called Cui Yi, "Any news about my dad?"

"No news, what's wrong?" Cui Yi asked immediately.

"Maybe I'm overthinking it," Yan Hang said, "I got a call this morning with no one speaking and no caller ID."

"It shouldn't be likely, be careful these two days," Cui Yi said, "I'll have someone inquire more."

"Mm," Yan Hang smiled, "Am I being too nervous?"

"No one can stay calm in this kind of situation," Cui Yi said, "It's a normal reaction."

After chatting a bit more with Cui Yi, Yan Hang entered the hotel.

Arranging work every morning was quite annoying, especially seeing Ma Li standing there lazily with an unhappy face made him feel particularly irritated. His mood wasn't great early in the morning to begin with, and now he just wanted to go over and teach the guy a lesson.

Environmental changes really test a person. He was like a Ninja Turtle now. A year ago, with Ma Li being like this, there would have been times he would have taken action already.

Wandering the world required being unrestrained and carefree, but now he had become a fixed stall owner, full of worries.

After arranging the work and dispersing, Zhang Chen walked over and said softly, "Is a new team leader coming?"

"Not sure," Yan Hang really admired Zhang Chen. She hadn't worked much longer than him but was always able to get insider news. "They haven't told me yet."

"If it's true," Zhang Chen said, "you have to let me stay in your team. I'm afraid I won't be able to adapt if I'm switched to another team."

Yan Hang smiled, "Mm."

He had heard about this before Chen Jinling went on vacation, but there was no definite news. After the new director arrived, there had been quite a few adjustments. The restaurant business had clearly improved a lot and some new waiters had been recruited, so increasing teams was normal.

Yan Hang really hoped several team leaders would come at once, directly letting him go back to being a waiter...or go to the kitchen.

Not long after, Manager Tang called, telling him to come to his office for a short meeting in twenty minutes.

Yan Hang looked at the time and stood by the corridor window at the back of the restaurant for a while, adjusting his mood. The start of the day hadn't been good. He didn't want to bring emotions to the meeting, even if it was a short one, even if he didn't care about the team leader position.

His phone beeped. Chu Yi sent a message.

- I'm at school, no plans today, going to walk around and visit the teaching building

- Are the new shoes comfortable?

- Comfortable, I can do a couple sweeping kicks after ten steps no problem

Yan Hang smiled at his phone for a long time, instantly feeling more relaxed. He stretched and turned to walk towards the restaurant.

After a few steps, he saw Ma Li walking out the back door of the restaurant with a lit cigarette in his mouth. When Ma Li saw him, he had no reaction, just took the cigarette from his mouth to his hand.

He had no intention of greeting Ma Li as he approached.

Yan Hang also didn't speak. As he brushed past him, he grabbed Ma Li's hand holding the cigarette and pinched his wrist.

Ma Li jumped to the side, frowning and gasping. The cigarette fell from his hand to the ground.

Yan Hang extinguished the cigarette butt with his foot and looked at him, "No smoking during work hours, no smoking in the corridor."

Ma Li didn't make a sound, fiercely wanting to shake off his hand, but he held on tightly.

"This is the second time," Yan Hang said, "The rules are meant to be followed, not accommodated, understand?"

"Let go!" Ma Li glared at him.

Yan Hang didn't move. Feeling Ma Li gathering strength, ready to use all his might to shake off his hand at that instant, he let go.

Ma Li's hand swung freely without obstruction, hitting the wall behind him.

His face immediately twisted in pain.

Yan Hang didn't pay him any more attention and entered the restaurant. He told a few waiters that he was going to a meeting, then went out the door towards Manager Tang's office.

When he passed the elevator, the doors opened. Yan Hang paused and saw the director come out. He greeted him, "Good morning, Director."

"Ah, Xiao Yan," the director smiled, "Going to a meeting?"

"Yes." Yan Hang replied.

"Is work pressure high recently?" the director asked.

"It's okay, being a waiter has its pressures too." Yan Hang said.

He had a good impression of the director. Ever since the director had come to the restaurant incognito to give him a hard time when he first arrived, and Yan Hang had withstood it all, the director always smiled at him when he saw him and had praised him several times.

But his good impression of the director wasn't entirely because of the praise. The director had no airs and was quite approachable. Manager Tang looked more like a director than him.

"You've been doing a very good job recently," the director suddenly switched to English, "but I do hear some complaints."

Yan Hang paused, almost not reacting in time, while quickly adapting and taking back his assessment of the director being a good person in his heart.

Tsk.

His work performance was good, but there were still people complaining about him.

The hotel's employee complaints were all anonymous. If Ma Li went and complained about him eight or ten times, it could create quite an imposing effect.

"Although I don't think you are the one to blame for most of them, I'm still expecting a better performance from you," the director smiled.

"I will see what I can do and give it my best shot," Yan Hang felt a bit displeased in his heart, but still gave a standard answer in English as expected.

The director nodded, "Talk to me if you've got any problems."

"Everything is under control so far. Thank you very much," Yan Hang said.

"Go to the meeting," the director switched modes again, "do a good job."

"Okay," Yan Hang responded.

Manager Tang's short meeting was indeed quite short, ending in less than ten minutes.

Consistent with Zhang Chen's intelligence, a new supervisor had arrived. It was a sister named Wang Qinqin, with a gentle name but a style very similar to Chen Jinling, poached by Manager Tang from another restaurant.

Yan Hang didn't have any particular thoughts, the only feeling was that work would be much more relaxed in the future, with more break time...

"Let Little Yan arrange the grouping of the waiters," Manager Tang said, "he is more familiar with these people."

"I will have the list ready before I get off work today," Yan Hang said.

"Okay," Wang Qinqin said, "thank you for your hard work Xiao Yan, I look forward to working with you in the future."

"I am currently the acting supervisor, I need to learn a lot from you, if there is anything I do wrong please be sure to point it out to me," Yan Hang smiled.

After leaving Manager Tang's office, he rubbed the fake smile off his face and breathed a sigh of relief.

Returning to the restaurant, Yan Hang stood beside the bar and started thinking about the grouping. He hadn't figured out the other waiters yet, but he definitely wanted to assign Ma Li to Wang Qinqin's group.

Finally no longer having to see this person was the happiest thing today.

"Yan Hang," Zhang Chen walked over, "a customer just called wanting to contact us about a group meal, directly asking for Xiao Yan. I said we are not currently accepting group meals, but he said he wanted to speak directly with you and asked me to give him your number. I didn't give it to him, told him to call back when you returned... This is his number."

"Mm," Yan Hang took the note and looked at the number on it, "I'll call him back."

Mr. Long.

He knew most of the regular customers, so it wasn't strange for them to ask for him by name, but he couldn't remember having any connection with a customer surnamed Long.

Yan Hang picked up the phone at the bar and dialed the number.

The system prompted that this number was not in service.

Yan Hang was stunned for a moment, then redialed, still not in service.

"Zhang Chen," Yan Hang turned his head, "did you write down the number correctly?"

"I wrote it down correctly, I even double checked it with him," Zhang Chen said, "is it not going through?"

"Mm," Yan Hang put down the receiver, "it's fine, let's wait for him to call back."

He didn't receive any more calls from Mr. Long all day.

Actually, if this happened normally, he wouldn't think much of it at all. It was possible the customer's number was wrong or the customer changed his mind last minute.

But happening today, he really couldn't help thinking about it quite a bit.

Although he felt he was being overly nervous, he couldn't quite control it. He turned and went to the restroom, needing to wash his face to stabilize his emotions a bit.

"Keep calling, what's the use of one or two," someone was speaking softly in the restroom, "just do it like before."

Yan Hang stood at the door, able to tell with one ear that this was Ma Li's voice.

This seemingly irrelevant sentence suddenly made Yan Hang suspicious of this person.

After this sentence Ma Li didn't say anything else. He hung up the phone and walked out from the stall at the very end.

Seeing Yan Hang, the expression on his face was calm, the same as usual, not even glancing at Yan Hang as he walked straight towards the door.

"Wash your hands," Yan Hang said.

Ma Li stopped and glanced at him, turned and walked to the sink to wash his hands, then walked out expressionlessly past him.

Yan Hang watched his retreating figure, his heart's disgust for him reaching a peak.

That call to order a group meal may have had nothing to do with him, but with the call this morning it was hard not to be suspicious of him.

Actually, Yan Hang hoped even more that this matter was done by Ma Li. That way, he could not only breathe a sigh of relief, but also have an outlet for all his anger and displeasure.

And the three silent calls he received on his cell phone that afternoon made Yan Hang, who was originally a bit uncertain, almost able to confirm that this matter was done by Ma Li.

Only someone of Ma Li's level would choose such a low-class method.

Yan Hang had to admit, although this method didn't have much destructive power against him, it really did affect his work.

Because as it neared dinner time, the frequency of the calls began to increase. Unlike those one-ring harassment calls, this call came about once a minute, each time persisting until automatically hanging up. And because it didn't display a number, there was no way to block it.

Of course, even if it displayed a number, changing it once a minute wasn't difficult either.

"Brother Hang," a waiter walked over, "there's a customer looking for you over there."

"Mm," Yan Hang responded, putting his phone on silent and back in his pocket. As he walked, he glanced in the direction the waiter pointed.

Somewhat surprisingly, he saw... a junior high classmate.

"Good evening Brother Hang," Zhou Chunyang smiled at him.

"Meeting friends?" Yan Hang smiled.

"No, just by myself," Zhou Chunyang said.

"Quite good at enjoying yourself," Yan Hang said, "what would you like to eat?"

"Cod with shrimp," Zhou Chunyang said without looking at the menu, "potato and chicken patty."

"Okay," Yan Hang nodded, "any drinks?"

"Just lemon juice, I'm on a diet," Zhou Chunyang said.

Yan Hang glanced over his body, "With that physique, dieting is going to anger the fat people to death."

Zhou Chunyang laughed. As Yan Hang put in his order and was about to turn and leave, he added, "Brother Hang, you really don't use WeChat?"

"Hm?" Yan Hang looked at him.

"Did Chu Yi send you the photo using MMS on the first day?" Zhou Chunyang asked.

"No, that's not it," Yan Hang didn't expect him to say that, "but that's my private number, I don't have an official WeChat account."

"...Oh," Zhou Chunyang was stunned for a moment, "sorry about that."

Yan Hang smiled and turned to walk away.

Today was a strange day with all kinds of weird things happening one after another. Yan Hang returned to the bar and opened the calendar on his computer.

It was quite ordinary, even the words on the almanac were dull and unremarkable.

The phone in his pocket vibrated again.

Yan Hang felt irritated, having the urge to take out his phone and smash it on Ma Li's face.

He could change his number. He hadn't been using this number for long, and it was mainly for contacting the hotel and guests, so changing it wouldn't have much impact.

But it was too easy for Ma Li to find out his new number.

Most importantly, he had no evidence to prove that Ma Li did this, so he couldn't use any legitimate means to teach Ma Li a lesson.

He leaned on the bar, looking down at the floor.

He was quite tolerant, after all, he had no complaints about his current job.

But this morning, he was indeed flustered by that phone call. The fear and the suddenly surging memories that he was unwilling to think about almost completely shattered the peace he had maintained for some time.

Even now knowing that Ma Li was behind this, he couldn't immediately calm his emotions, nor could he immediately suppress those painful memories that came to his mind.

Yan Hang felt his mind was in a daze the whole evening. When Zhou Chunyang came to say goodbye after dinner, he almost couldn't squeeze out a smile.

"Brother Hang, no need to give me a discount today," Zhou Chunyang said, "I'm using my dad's card, no need to save money for him."

"How about I give you a 110% charge then." Yan Hang said.

Zhou Chunyang laughed, "No problem."

"You got takeout too?" Yan Hang looked at his order.

"Yeah," Zhou Chunyang nodded, "a pack of wolves in the dorm, bringing some back to satisfy their cravings."

Although feeling the kid was a bit strange, Yan Hang still had a pretty good overall impression of him.

-Why didn't you come with Zhou Chunyang today?

-Go where? Where did he go?

-He had dinner at our restaurant tonight.

Looking at this message Yan Hang sent on his phone, Chu Yi felt like his eyes were about to bleed.

He hadn't seen Zhou Chunyang all afternoon and thought he had gone home. He never imagined that Zhou Chunyang would suddenly go to Yan Hang's restaurant!

-He was alone?

-Yeah, but I don't know if he didn't want you guys to know. If you didn't say anything, then don't ask.

-Okay.

Zhou Chunyang went alone! To have dinner!

And he ate at the cafeteria in the afternoon, which tasted terrible and was ridiculously expensive, making him ache.

But it never occurred to him to go find Yan Hang. He had nothing to do all afternoon, yet it didn't cross his mind to go hang out with Yan Hang!

...Of course it didn't, Yan Hang was at work, what hanging out.

Zhou Chunyang had money. If he went to the restaurant and sat down, he could order dishes, the reason was very sufficient.

While he had to get Yan Hang to give him red packets even to buy a pair of shoes.

Truly poor & truly stingy.

Chu Yi sighed, his mind exploding with wild thoughts for a moment, then suddenly calming down, feeling a bit depressed.

The dorm door was pushed open. Chu Yi didn't look up, just heard Hu Biao shout, "Chunyang, where did you... bring food from!"

"Pizza, and some desserts," Zhou Chunyang put down a large bag on the table, "and meat pies, I took a taxi back, still hot. Anyone want some?"

The guys in the dorm immediately gathered around.

Chu Yi, lying on the upper bunk, saw at a glance the logo of Yan Hang's restaurant on the bag.

"Where did you buy it?" Zhang Qiang asked.

"That Western restaurant we went to last time," Zhou Chunyang said, "the same one where the supervisor is a friend of Chu Yi's."

"Damn," Li Ziqiang was a bit dissatisfied, "you went there without calling us?"

"Unexpected," Zhou Chunyang pushed his glasses, "my dad was working out upstairs and insisted on dragging me along. I couldn't stand it anymore so I went to the restaurant."

Going to work out still wearing fake glasses, how narcissistic can you be!

The guys started grabbing food out of the bag like they were fighting over it.

Zhou Chunyang dived in, snatched out a box, then pulled on the railing of Chu Yi's upper bunk, stood on the lower bunk, and handed the box to him.

"Cod with shrimp," Zhou Chunyang said softly, "last time I saw you quite liked eating cod."

Chu Yi was stunned for a moment, looking at him without saying a word.

"There's more in the bag," Zhou Chunyang smiled, "I just saw you probably wouldn't be able to grab any."

Chu Yi felt he really had no temper.

Before Zhou Chunyang came back, he was very angry, although not knowing what the heck he was angry about. Anyway, just thinking about Zhou Chunyang going to Yan Hang's restaurant for dinner alone, while he only ate at the crappy cafeteria, made him very angry.

But now his anger suddenly dissipated.

Just because Zhou Chunyang was afraid he wouldn't be able to grab food, he specially got a box for him.

For other people's goodwill, as long as he could feel it was sincere, even if there was only a little bit of kindness, he could immediately turn into a piece of soft dough.

"Thanks." Chu Yi said.

"...So polite." Zhou Chunyang smiled and jumped down.

When it was almost time to get off work, Yan Hang gave the list of waiter groupings to Wang Qinqin. She took the list and came to the restaurant, informing the waiters in her group to leave a little later and get to know each other.

But this "a little later" was quite late. When Yan Hang arranged for people to do the cleaning and was ready to leave after finishing today's work, she was still talking to the waiters.

"Why does she seem even fiercer than Sister Chen," Zhang Chen whispered to Yan Hang as they walked out together, "thank heavens you didn't put me in her group."

"If you make another mistake this month, I'll let you go over there." Yan Hang said.

"I'll die before making a mistake, don't worry." Zhang Chen smiled and ran into the women's locker room.

Yan Hang changed his clothes. Before leaving, he passed by the restaurant and saw that Wang Qinqin's talk was still going on, the waiters looking numb.

He quickly went downstairs.

Usually he doesn't take the employee passageway. He doesn't have a car, so each time he directly exits through the lobby to take the bus or strolls a few stops back.

Today he left through the lobby as usual, then went around to the intersection by the hotel employee parking lot.

Ma Li usually rides a shared bike, but he always hides the bike in the parking lot.

Sure enough, today was the same as always. He slowly rode out on his bike and turned onto the small road between the hotel and the adjacent mall.

Yan Hang put on a mask and silently followed after him.

Just as Ma Li was about to turn, Yan Hang kicked him in the waist, knocking him off the bike.

Before Ma Li could get up, Yan Hang went over and stomped on his face.

It took Ma Li over ten seconds before he cried out, but when Yan Hang put a knife to his throat, he immediately went silent again.

Behind the mall was a long row of trash cans. Yan Hang grabbed Ma Li by the clothes and dragged him over.

"Yan Hang!" Ma Li said through gritted teeth. "I know it's you!"

Yan Hang didn't make a sound and kicked him in the stomach again.

He hoped Ma Li wouldn't recognize him, but even if Ma Li did recognize him, he didn't care.

He would beat this guy until he didn't dare say anything.

Ma Li was thrown between two trash cans. For the next five minutes, Ma Li had no chance to stand up and could only keep holding his head.

Yan Hang hadn't beaten someone like this in a long time. The last time was when he beat up that classmate in the first year of middle school, and he hadn't dared to hit too hard then.

Now facing Ma Li, he didn't hold back much, only making sure not to break any bones.

Every punch and kick was solid and forceful.

Finally, Ma Li cried out while holding his head, "Brother Hang, I was wrong... I was really wrong, please spare me..."

Yan Hang pulled him out again and kicked him a couple more times on the ground before stopping.

Ma Li lay on the ground, holding his head and not moving.

Yan Hang shook out his hands, turned silently and walked off in the other direction.

Returning to the main street, hearing the honking of cars, the chatter of pedestrians beside him, and the music coming from the shops, he slowly regained a sense of reality, and the anger in his own body finally subsided somewhat.

Walking to the bus stop, he leaned against the billboard and sent Chu Yi a message.

- Are you going to class tomorrow?

- Yeah, but I don't really want to go to class.

- Then go beg for food.

- Can you keep an eye out for any part-time jobs for me? I want to work.

- Okay.

Yan Hang smiled, pondering what kind of job would be suitable for Chu Yi - one that didn't require much talking and wouldn't take up class time...

Lost in thought, a strange sense of unease made him glance to the right.

He felt like he sensed some kind of gaze.

On the sidewalk to the right, people were coming and going - getting off work, out shopping - nothing seemed particularly unusual.

He rubbed his face.

What exactly was going on?