As Liu Chen spoke, he took out his ID card and handed it to the young lady at the front desk.
"I had a room booked under my name before."
After receiving Liu Chen's ID card with both hands, the young lady entered the name into the computer at the front desk to check the reservation.
"Ms. Liu Chen, we have a reservation for you for our Ritz-Carlton's 'View of the Oriental Pearl' suite. As Ms. Liu is staying with us at the Ritz-Carlton for the first time, we have upgraded you to a Presidential Suite for two nights. We hope you have a pleasant stay at the Ritz-Carlton."
Presidential Suite?
Liu Chen's first reaction upon hearing this was:
"I didn't use the lucky charm today?"
The second reaction was to turn and exchange glances with Mi Zhuzhu and Sang Ling. The excitement in their eyes was palpable.
Presidential Suite!
A Presidential Suite!
The most expensive room type in a hotel, as rumored!
Liu Chen blinked and looked at the young lady at the front desk:
"Thank you, I'm sure it will be very pleasant."
After completing the ID registration, Liu Chen, dragging his small suitcase, walked with Mi Zhuzhu and Sang Ling towards the elevator entrance, all smiling.
However, their joy was difficult to conceal. Mi Zhuzhu and Sang Ling were still young, and their faces clearly showed excited, hopeful smiles.
This smile fell into Xia Lian's eyes, and she couldn't help but feel disdain. Her family was from Shanghai and had some assets, living in a villa in the suburbs. During holiday travels, they usually stayed in chain five-star hotels.
Of course, even among five-star hotels, there were price tiers. For instance, the Ritz-Carlton, provided for free during the Weibo Night event, was a place she had never stayed.
But she wouldn't be as excited as these country bumpkins for staying in a five-star hotel. Most likely, the bracelets on their wrists and the earrings on their ears were also fake.
While thinking this, the elevator arrived on their floor and opened. Xia Lian, with her head held slightly high, calmly walked in and casually swiped her room card on the elevator sensor. The button for the 45th floor lit up.
Glancing sideways and seeing the other three hadn't moved, Xia Lian secretly felt smug.
'Three country bumpkins, you need to swipe a card to press the buttons in a five-star hotel elevator. They probably don't even know. Well, now that they've seen me do it, they should figure it out?'
As she thought this, Xia Lian smiled and looked at the girl on the left side of the elevator wearing a black coat, her skin smooth and delicate like a baby's.
Then, she watched in disbelief as the girl took a card from a card sleeve and gently placed it on the elevator sensor.
"Ding."
The button for the 50th floor lit up.
Xia Lian blinked. She had asked when checking in earlier. The executive lounge of this Ritz-Carlton was on the 49th floor. The two floors below and the floor above were all suites.
Because suite guests could enjoy the hotel's 24-hour executive lounge service, which meant 24-hour buffet meals and some drinks.
So, these three were staying in a suite?
Perhaps it was because the three of them had switched rooms?
As she mused, the elevator doors opened. Xia Lian stepped out and opened QQ. She posted in the small group chat for Shanghai bloggers:
"Just met the currently very popular Zhuzhu and Liu Chen in the elevator. There was another blogger I didn't quite recognize. It seems they are staying in a suite?"
"Ah? I guess it's their first time in Shanghai, and they're shy?"
"I know, I know! A blogger behind them heard at the front desk that they were upgraded to a Presidential Suite. Everyone wants to visit, after all, it's eighty thousand yuan a night."
Xia Lian held her phone, watching the QQ chat group's topic gradually shift to when they could visit Liu Chen's Presidential Suite. She couldn't help but mutter:
"They probably upgraded them because they're country folk visiting Shanghai for the first time."
With that, she spoke with a hint of resentment, exhaling as she started looking for the right angle to take photos of the hotel room.
——
On the 50th floor of the hotel, Liu Chen and the other two, dragging their small suitcases, walked on the thick carpet. The wheels made no sound as they passed.
"5010." Liu Chen held the card sleeve up, tilting his head slightly to look at the door at the end of the corridor, where a brass number plate read "5010."
He placed the room card on the door handle.
"Beep beep."
The sound of the lock cylinder automatically turning from inside the room was heard. Liu Chen simultaneously pushed down on the handle and pushed the door inward.
The door, wide enough for three people abreast, slowly opened. Unlike the pitch-black rooms one usually opened in hotels, as the door opened, the lights of Shanghai and the Oriental Pearl Tower from outside the window cast a dim glow into the living room.
He inserted one of the room cards into the card slot by the door, and all the lights in the room turned on.
"Wow!!"
"Wow..."
Mi Zhuzhu and Sang Ling gasped, looking at the entrance hall, which alone was nearly ten square meters, with glass display cabinets on either side, and an oil painting hanging on the wall opposite.
The three walked past the glass display cabinets and turned left, where they first found a bar. Beyond that was a rectangular dining table for ten people, with a circular mirrored ceiling above it. Further inside, a living room of almost fifty to sixty square meters was surrounded by a curved fuchsia sofa.
One side of the living room featured a curved floor-to-ceiling window, from which the entire Shanghai nightscape unfolded like a painting.
Liu Chen even saw the balcony of his own apartment in Tomson Riviera across the river...
The three glanced at the kitchen and then, by tacit agreement, began searching the room.
A study, standard and luxurious, yet felt like a regular five-star hotel. Next, they opened the master bedroom.
A super-large bed, two meters wide, was revealed. Walking further into the bedroom, they found the door to the walk-in closet. It followed the same color scheme as the living room, with dark brown and mirrors, and a large area of light-colored carpet.
Although they were pleasantly surprised by the walk-in closet, its size was similar to the one in Beijing, so the three of them weren't particularly impressed.
Until...
Liu Chen walked into the en-suite bathroom of the master bedroom. The entire floor was covered in patterned marble. To the right of the entrance was a sauna room, to the right of that were the shower and toilet. At the very back was a super-large, round jacuzzi.
Liu Chen estimated that the diameter of the jacuzzi's base was longer than his own height.
Mi Zhuzhu was the first to step into the bathtub and pull open the red curtain beside it.
"Swish~"
The entire night view of Shanghai was revealed outside the window.
Even Sang Ling, usually quite composed, couldn't help but shake her head and sigh,
"It's truly enjoyable to be rich."
Mi Zhuzhu quickly waved her hands,
"What are you waiting for? Sang Ling, let's take pictures quickly! If I had to pay for this room myself, I definitely wouldn't. Since we got a free upgrade, we can take pictures and share with our Weibo fans about what a luxury hotel Presidential Suite looks like.
I guess the hotel upgraded our room because they want us to do some free promotion."
Hearing this, Sang Ling nodded in agreement.
"That makes sense, Zhuzhu. Shall we take pictures near the entrance first?"
Zhuzhu casually waved her hand,
"We're in the bathroom now, so let's take pictures of the bathroom first. This Presidential Suite's bathroom is more opulent than my living room."
Mi Zhuzhu's remark amused Sang Ling, who had been feeling a bit reserved despite the luxurious hotel. After laughing, she couldn't help but agree,
"Indeed, this bathroom is almost as big as my whole house."
Seeing the two chatting, Liu Chen thought he'd go hang his clothes from the suitcase in the walk-in closet.
As he turned to leave, Mi Zhuzhu spotted him.
"Chenchen! Where are you going! Quickly, quickly! The three sisters haven't taken a group photo yet!"
Under Mi Zhuzhu's "threat," Liu Chen had no choice but to cooperate with Zhuzhu, taking pictures all over the Ritz-Carlton Presidential Suite with Meimeichang, calling it:
Advertising!
After finally finishing the photos, Mi Zhuzhu, holding the camera, waved her hand in satisfaction. Liu Chen let out a sigh of relief and slumped onto the living room sofa, taking out his laptop to transfer the photos of Meimeichang to Qiu Lin.
After finishing the transfer, he noticed the time in the lower right corner of the laptop.
It was almost ten o'clock in the evening.
So, he quickly added a message behind the photos:
"No rush, edit them when you have time. I'll post them on Weibo for promotion once they're done."
As soon as the message was sent, Qiu Lin replied:
"Okay."
Looking at the two words on the screen, Liu Chen fell into thought. Why... did he always feel... that Qiu Lin had a bit of a split personality?
"Chenchen, what are you looking at? So serious?"
Mi Zhuzhu, also holding her laptop, sat next to Liu Chen and looked at his serious face, casting a curious glance at the computer screen.
"You know, Qiu Lin, he's so quiet in real life, but when he chats online, he always feels so, so..."
Liu Chen searched for a long time but couldn't find a suitable adjective to describe his feeling.
Mi Zhuzhu, however, glanced at the screen and said,
"Like a little sister."
Liu Chen nodded vigorously:
"Exactly! That's the feeling!"
"No wonder," Mi Zhuzhu said after this, then returned to the sofa with her laptop, shaking her head. "No wonder this senior is reluctant to add people on QQ easily. He's afraid of revealing his true self?"
Liu Chen nodded.
"He's quite a peculiar person."
As soon as he finished speaking, the QQ message dialog box automatically popped up with his conversation with Qiu Lin.
Immediately, five photos of Meimeichang advertisements, edited with PS, flooded in. Liu Chen glanced at the time he sent his photos on the laptop, which was only five to six minutes ago?
Liu Chen turned his head to look at Zhuzhu, who was still complaining,
"I was wrong. Qiu Lin isn't just a peculiar person; he's clearly the pillar of our company, a treasure boy!"