"Sparkle, Sparkle, what's wrong with you? Did you drink Himeko's coffee again just because you were messing around?"
Luocha, carrying his specially prepared medical kit, was diligently checking Sparkle's various vitals.
"Luocha~ Doctor~"
Sparkle's voice was very weak, but still carried that signature exaggerated tone.
"You say it, I'm listening."
"It's all Su Chen's fault! If he hadn't left a cup of coffee on the table, I wouldn't have drunk it! I, Sparkle, cannot rest in peace!"
"Alright, stop fooling around!" After finishing the check, Luocha put away his medical kit. "You didn't actually drink any coffee by mistake, right? Sigh… this kind of behavior is really unacceptable. And I'm a doctor—what if a real patient shows up?"
Sparkle wiped the white foam from the corner of her mouth. "Doctor Luocha, how did you know I was faking it?"
"I use traditional Chinese medicine methods." Luocha pointed at Sparkle's wrist. "I already took your pulse while you weren't paying attention."
With that, Luocha stood up, preparing to leave and return to his hospital.
But at that moment—
Elysia slowly walked in through the door. "Hello there, Doctor Luocha~♪"
"Elysia?" Luocha's eyes fixed seriously on the figure at the door, then he turned to look at Sparkle.
Seeing that Sparkle didn't dare meet his gaze, he instantly understood everything. "I see. So your target was me all along? Which one of you has a grudge against me?"
Elysia closed the door and openly sat down on the sofa. "Doctor Luocha, is it possible… that we could actually have a cooperative relationship?♪"
"Cooperate? What makes you think I'd cooperate with you?" Luocha's eyes remained calm and unruffled. "Actually, I just want to ask one question—are you really Elysia?"
"I am~♪" Elysia widened her eyes. "I've always been Elysia. In the past, now, and in the future~♪"
Seeing Elysia's agitated reaction, Luocha couldn't help but laugh. "You lost your composure so quickly? Looks like your methods aren't all that impressive after all! Fake Elysia!"
In an instant, the entire room fell into dead silence.
Elysia slowly stood up. She raised her hand and snapped her fingers—once, twice, three times…
But to her surprise, Luocha showed no reaction whatsoever.
"Your techniques are still quite immature. I can't even imagine how Sparkle fell into your hands." Luocha suddenly snapped his own fingers. "Did you think you were the only one in Hoyoverse who knows how to play with psychology?"
The next moment, Luocha went on the counterattack. Imitating her exactly, he began snapping his fingers repeatedly.
Elysia shook her head. For a moment, she actually felt dizzy and disoriented.
Fortunately, at that instant—
Sparkle suddenly shouted, "Whoa, Kallen, how did you get here?"
"Hm?" Hearing that name, Luocha's whole body jolted as if struck by lightning. "Where? Where? Where is she?"
"Take the chance, Elys~!"
Elysia instantly snapped back to clarity. She quickly approached Luocha and issued a series of suggestive commands. Luocha's body involuntarily staggered backward a few steps.
"You… you people actually…"
At that moment, Luocha only felt his eyelids growing heavier and heavier… until they slowly closed.
…
Not long after.
Luocha opened his eyes and saw Sparkle and Elysia smiling at him.
"Do you two enjoy smiling that much?"
Sparkle clicked her tongue. "I don't know about you, Mr. Luocha—what exactly is your identity? Doctor… or bishop?"
"So what if I am? So what if I'm not?" Luocha walked alone to the window and gazed at the scenery below. "One more thing—from now on, I hope you address me by my real name: Otto Apocalypse."
Sparkle raised an eyebrow at Elysia. "See? I told you so!"
"Excellent~♪" Elysia turned to Luocha. "Right now, I want to take down Kevin and the others one by one. Do you have any good strategies?"
"Not yet for the moment, but I can do you one favor. You should know Welt Yang. If he gets involved, your plan to find Kevin is definitely going to fall apart. How about I go hold Welt and his group back for you—what do you say?"
"Deal~♪"
——
"Slow down…"
Su Chen watched as Kiana devoured the food on the table like a vacuum cleaner in a storm.
Of course, not a single word of Su Chen's reminder reached her ears. Her hands were already moving at afterimage speed.
Su Chen gave an indulgent smile. "Is your 2000 credit really enough for all this?"
He stopped worrying about Kiana and turned to Acheron. "Aren't you going to eat a bit more? I'm worried you'll get hungry later tonight."
"No need. Honestly, I'm not that interested in food to begin with. But seeing Kiana enjoy her meal so much makes me happy." With that, Acheron picked up the teacup in front of her and took a small sip.
"Server." Su Chen snapped his fingers toward a waiter.
A pure and cute twin-tailed girl immediately came over.
She gave a slight bow. "Hello, sir. Is there something I can help you with?"
"I'd like to pay the bill."
"Certainly, sir. Please wait a moment." The server was about to leave when Su Chen suddenly called her back.
"One moment—may I ask your name?"
The server paused for a second, then broke into a sunny smile. "My name is Hyacine. I'm a lobby attendant here at the hotel."
Su Chen nodded slightly. "Sorry for the sudden rudeness. Thank you for telling me your name. Your service attitude has left me very satisfied, so I wanted to know who was responsible for such a wonderful experience."
Hyacine's smile grew even brighter. "Thank you for your kind words. I hope you'll visit the Golden Grand Hotel again next time."
Still, she couldn't help stealing glances at Su Chen from time to time—because he didn't just look familiar; he looked exactly like someone with white hair working in the back kitchen.
At that moment, Kiana stared at Su Chen, blinked, mouth stuffed with three drumsticks. "#&@#￥!#@…"
"Sigh… Kiana, try not to talk while eating. You'll choke."
Kiana nodded, then chewed at an incomprehensible speed before swallowing at lightspeed.
The next moment, she thumped her chest with her fist, gulped down a big mouthful of water, and finally came back to life.
"Ah… almost choked to death. By the way, Boss, you sound really weird today. That's not how you usually talk."
"That tone is only for you guys." Su Chen scanned the lobby. "I'm not that familiar with these people yet. First impressions matter."
"Ohhh, I get it." Kiana grabbed another drumstick and stuffed it in her mouth, voice muffled and slurred. "Same routine as when you scammed—no, 'financed'—the Sweet Dreams Hotel, right?"
"What scam? I told you—it's called financing! Financing! When both sides are willing, how can you call it a scam?"
"But Sparkle and Sampo told me you straight-up scammed your way in. So now you're targeting the Golden Grand Hotel?"
Su Chen made a shushing gesture. "Shh… Actually, I feel like there's something off about this hotel."
Acheron showed a flicker of interest. "What feels off?"
"Let's wait and see how much the total bill comes to first."
…
Not long after.
Hyacine returned with the bill. "Hello sir, your total consumption is 1314. Will that be cash or card?"
"Card, thank you." Su Chen pulled a black-and-gold card from his pocket. "No password set."
Hyacine took the card and couldn't help but examine it closely. Black interwoven with gold—it exuded understated luxury.
She recognized this black-gold card. It came with an absurd number of privileges and allowed risk-free purchases of virtually anything.
And this kind of card was only issued to people specially selected by the bank—no other way to obtain one.
She let out a soft breath and returned to the front desk.
Su Chen watched Hyacine's retreating figure and said, "Kiana ate this much. Even in a normal restaurant, it shouldn't cost only this little. There's definitely something wrong here."
"What's wrong?" Acheron actually seemed interested in the reason and asked.
"How should I put it… As a businessman, profit is the goal. We're not running a charity. If the Golden Grand Hotel is a newly opened place doing promotions, that'd be understandable.
But for a hotel with such a long history to be running at a loss right now… I really can't figure out why they'd do that. So—what kind of secret is hidden inside?"
——
Meanwhile.
Hotel upper floors, President's Office.
Aglaea glanced at the bill in her hand, then looked up slightly at the girl in front of her. "Cifera, I checked the recent accounts. Costs are still being controlled as well as ever."
"Of course! Do you know how much effort I've put in just to keep this hotel running smoothly?" Cipher raised her head proudly.
"But… doing it this way isn't sustainable in the long run. After all… 'borrowing' isn't exactly a great path forward."
"So what? As long as we win the upcoming competition, the hotel will definitely get through this crisis!"
Aglaea picked up the wine glass on the table and swirled it gently. "I hope the ones in the kitchen can pull it off."
Just then, Aglaea's phone rang.
She gracefully lifted it to her ear. "Hello?"
After hearing the voice on the other end, Aglaea visibly paused. "Really? He has a black-gold card?"
A few seconds later, Aglaea nodded. "Alright. I'll handle it personally. Wait for me."
After hanging up, she turned to Cipher. "Cifera, let's go. We're heading to the lobby."
——————
Su Chen scratched his head while looking at the black-gold card in his hand. "Uh… Miss Hyacine, I don't quite understand. What do you mean the card has insufficient balance?"
Hyacine gave an awkward smile. "I'm sorry, sir, but that's the situation. Though it's a bit hard to believe a black-gold card could run out of funds."
Kiana snatched the card from Su Chen's hand and examined it closely. "I thought it looked familiar earlier. I swear I've seen it somewhere before."
She frowned in thought for a moment. "Oh! I remember now—Sparkle has one exactly like this. She even showed it to me on purpose that day."
Heh… Su Chen's mouth twitched. In an instant, he understood everything. So Sparkle swapped my card.
She actually came for me. Looks like Thursday's team-building is definitely going to include her public humiliation clip.
He instinctively patted his pockets, then slapped all over his body. "Huh? Where's my phone? Wait—where the hell is my phone?"
After fumbling for a few minutes, he gave an embarrassed smile. "Kiana, I think I lost my phone. Can you pay instead?"
"Leave it to me!" Kiana pulled out the card the buffet boss had given her. "There's still tons of money on this!"
Hyacine took it, glanced at it, and shook her head. "I'm sorry, miss, but this card isn't active yet. It's a pre-sale card—it won't be usable for another two days."
"Huh?"
Seeing even Kiana couldn't help, Su Chen's gaze fell on Acheron.
Acheron spread her hands. "I didn't bring my phone either. Otherwise I wouldn't have ended up here."
For a moment, the atmosphere became painfully awkward.
Fortunately, at that moment—
"It's fine. Put this meal on my tab."
Aglaea arrived with Cipher in tow.
She carefully sized up the three of them, then gave a knowing smile. "I didn't expect such distinguished guests to grace us today. I really should have welcomed you properly."
At that moment, an almost imperceptible smile curved Su Chen's lips. "No, I should be the one apologizing. Thank you so much."
"It's nothing." Aglaea extended her right hand. "I'm Aglaea, the person in charge of the Golden Grand Hotel."
Su Chen politely responded in kind. "Nice to meet you. My name is Su Chen."
——————
Golden Grand Hotel, back kitchen.
Phainon looked at Mydei beside him. "…Did you put too much pomegranate juice in?"
Mydei snorted coldly. "Back-kitchen Deliverer, you're minding too much."
"But…" Castorice said softly, "this is the dish we're submitting for the competition."
"Don't worry. I understand heat control better than I understand my own dad's temper."
Phainon raised an eyebrow. "Oh? You've got that kind of skill? Then what's your dad's temper like?"
"Highly flammable and explosive!"