Walking out of the hotel door, Ye Anhao instinctively turned back to glance at the hotel behind her. The hotel was situated at the foot of South Mountain, towering into the clouds. It was the landmark building of E City, and the only seven-star hotel in E City. When the hotel was completed, she had seen it on TV. What impressed her deeply, besides the unique design of the hotel, was its price; just one night would cost her several months of hard work.
She never expected that one day she would stay here for a night, and such an unbearable night at that.
On her way ho, Ye Anhao stared intently at the old phone in her hand. There were several missed calls on it, all from her grandmother, and two from Manman.
She didn’t return ho last night, surely her grandmother must be extrely worried. Ye Anhao tried hard to think about how to explain to her grandmother once she got ho, but her mind was a tangled ss, impossible to sort out. Just then, her phone suddenly vibrated.
She glanced at the caller ID, hesitated for a mont, and then answered the call, "Hello, Manman?"
"Haohao, where did you go last night? Your grandmother has been looking for you and even called ."
Ye Anhao’s heart tightened, and she said softly, "You... What did you tell my grandmother?"
"What else could I say? I told her you were with . Isn’t that what I always say when you secretly work the night shift at the convenience store?"
Upon hearing this, the string tightly wound around Ye Anhao’s heart finally relaxed a bit. She sincerely said, "Thank you, Manman."
If Gu Manman hadn’t lied for her, who knows how worried her grandmother would have been. Her grandmother’s health was not good and couldn’t stand such worries.
"So, where did you go last night?" You neither ca ho nor to my place.
At the ntion of last night, Ye Anhao’s fingers gripped the phone tighter.
She was silent for a while and then said softly, "It was a classmate’s birthday last night. After dinner, we played for a while, and since it got late, I stayed at my classmate’s house."
"Oh, I see. But you should have told your grandmother beforehand. You didn’t even pick up when she called."
"I forgot to tell her, and my phone ran out of battery. I only charged it this morning," Ye Anhao continued to lie, confirming the saying that one lie requires many lies to cover it up.
But at least this hurdle was over.
When she got ho, her grandmother wasn’t there. She must be out buying groceries. Ye Anhao let out a long sigh of relief; she was really afraid that her grandmother would question her in detail.
Walking through the living room, she headed straight for the bathroom. She lived in a dormitory for retired workers, built around the eighties or nineties, which was sowhat old and dilapidated.
Unlike newly built apartnts, the worker dormitories were very simple, barely qualifying as a single room with basic anities. The bathroom and shower were not separated, not even by a glass partition. Due to the outdated facilities in the dormitory, the hot water supply was also problematic. Sotis, during a shower, the hot water would turn cold, just like now.
It was already late autumn, and showering with cold water was quite uncomfortable. However, Ye Anhao seed completely oblivious, allowing the icy cold water to wash over her body.
Her gaze fell on the bruises on her chest, and her mind flashed back to scenes of extre ambiguity, all of which made her feel deeply humiliated.
She grabbed a loofah and scrubbed her chest frantically, trying to erase those ambiguous marks, but no matter how hard she scrubbed, it was to no avail.
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