Dimensional Store: Welcome to the Apocalypse Apartment - chapter 79

Chapter 79

Gu Huaiwei’s body stiffened slightly. She turned her head and saw He Xueyi, dressed in a White Robe, standing at her side, a faint smile lingering at the corner of his lips.

“What are you thinking about? You seem so lost in thought.” His tone was gentle.

The deliberate sense of intimacy made Gu Huaiwei uncomfortable.

No one shows such kindness for no reason; it’s either flattery or deceit.

She put a little distance between herself and He Xueyi, then pointed at the last stop on the railway and said, “I was wondering, what kind of place is the Silver Snow Expanse? Just how big is this world?”

Noticing Gu Huaiwei’s immediate wariness, He Xueyi was a bit surprised.

With this carefully crafted appearance, he should have been quite popular among humans.

Yet Gu Huaiwei was not fooled.

After only a moment’s hesitation, He Xueyi returned to his lofty, otherworldly demeanor.

“Silver Snow Expanse-just from the name, you can imagine it’s a world of silvery white.” He Xueyi liked snowy days. He liked the way pure white could cover this filthy world, returning everything to its original state.

Then, he would stain it red again.

“Does Miss Gu like this world?”

“Hm?” Gu Huaiwei didn’t understand why he would ask that.

This world was desolate and dilapidated, full of wind, sand, and dust, yet it also possessed a mysterious allure that stirred the imagination-like a veiled desert princess dancing, making one yearn to glimpse the face beneath the veil.

Exotic and enchanting, Gu Huaiwei liked it, but she didn’t want to linger too long.

He Xueyi said, “To be honest, I’ve worked in other Operators’ shops before. Some Operators choose to stay in a particular world forever, never leaving.”

He Xueyi gazed at Gu Huaiwei with those golden, glass-like eyes, full of warmth. Gu Huaiwei could clearly see her own reflection in them.

In that moment, Gu Huaiwei felt that his golden, glassy eyes were like a cage, trapping everything they saw within a web of golden, illusory light.

He seemed very sincere, not even avoiding sensitive topics like ‘planes.’

Gu Huaiwei asked, a little puzzled, “Is that really possible?”

“Of course. The longer you stay in a world, the deeper your ties to it become. When an Operator chooses to stay for good, it means our work as Assistants comes to an end.”

At this, he suddenly seemed to realize something. He raised his hand to cover his mouth, his eyes showing a hint of apology and concern: “That’s actually pretty important. As your Assistant, Lin She hasn’t mentioned this to you, has he?”

“No,” Gu Huaiwei shook her head. “Most of my conversations with him are about work. He rarely brings up things like this.”

Lin She was a tech nerd, not good at social interaction.

Most of the time, he was a bit of a loner.

The guests at the Oasis Hotel were also quite wary of him.

Because of his eerie aura, he was better suited for debt collection or demanding compensation, rather than being the face of the hotel or handling customer relations.

“Ah, it’s fine. If he doesn’t tell you, I can slowly explain everything to you.” His fingertips brushed Gu Huaiwei’s arm unintentionally, then quickly withdrew. His voice was gentle, yet carried an undeniable aggressiveness.

With just a light touch, Gu Huaiwei felt a faint electric sting on the skin of her arm.

She frowned slightly.

This man was no easy character either.

Gu Huaiwei instantly realized that He Xueyi might be the same type as Lin She-no, He Xueyi, with his more perfect disguise, might be even harder to deal with.

Qian Xia liked He Xueyi the most.

He Xueyi was especially kind to children. He often produced some Green Fruit from his pocket to give to Qian Xia.

Those fruits were sweet and sour. He Xueyi had offered them to Gu Huaiwei as well, but since she had never seen such fruit before, she didn’t dare eat them.

There was an abandoned Church in the Steel Ring.
He Xueyi, like Lin She, would also go out alone.

Before leaving, he would tell Gu Huaiwei where he was going and when he would return.

The place He Xueyi visited most often was the church.

Whenever he went to the abandoned church, he would wear a loose white robe, hang a golden cross on his chest, and hold a scripture in his hands.

Occasionally, he would do charity there, distributing some jade-green fruits of unknown origin to the dying, and would tell them that death was not an end, but a beginning.

Meanwhile, Gu Huaiwei would print the Oasis Hotel logo on bread and have him take it along to distribute, adding a bit of charity and helping to promote the hotel’s reputation.

With the opening of the High-Speed Rail line, the number of customers from the Middle District increased, and the occupancy rate of the themed rooms rose.

Gu Huaiwei then launched a family room discount event on the Oasis Hotel App.

The event offered: if two adults brought one child to book a family room and stayed for more than seven days, they would receive a souvenir gift from Oasis Hotel.

The souvenir gift included: a Ferris-wheel ceramic cup, a small snake plush or a white-crane doll, dried roses, compressed biscuits, and a small bottle of fresh water.

As the saying goes, where there is policy, there is countermeasure.

Gu Huaiwei’s original intention was simply to boost the occupancy rate of family rooms.

But because the souvenir gift boxes she prepared were so exquisite, the family rooms unexpectedly became popular in the Middle District.

Discussions about the Oasis Hotel family rooms skyrocketed on the forums.

The popularity was explosive.

There were even scalpers on the Black Market speculating on the price of the souvenir gifts.

The social ecology of the Middle District was very different from that of the Lower District.

The Middle District housed the largest sweatshop in the Underground City, with strict rules, resistance to outsiders, and harsh punishments for crime within the district.

Ordinary people lived under high pressure and needed to relax.

Long hours of work drained the time and energy of the average person in the Middle District. Out of economic pressure and pragmatic hedonism, most people there saw having children as a burden.

They were willing to take the subway to Oasis Hotel for pleasure, but reluctant to have children.

Oasis Hotel became their haven for relaxation.

For the sake of the family room souvenir gift, they developed an extra business: renting children.

Gu Huaiwei had already seen a little girl with different birthmarks painted on her face, calling seven or eight pairs of adults her ‘mom’ and ‘dad.’

She had a sweet tongue and was skilled at her trade.

Most importantly, she had a steady attitude.

Every time Gu Huaiwei helped the girl register, the position of her birthmark would change.

Sometimes it was at the corner of her eye, sometimes on her left cheek, sometimes on her neck…

It was clear she was working hard to avoid being recognized by Gu Huaiwei.

However, although Gu Huaiwei wore glasses, she was not blind.

When the little girl came so often, Gu Huaiwei remembered her completely.

Gu Huaiwei cupped her face with one hand and did not expose their little game.

She liked people who were quick-witted, adaptable, and good at finding loopholes in the system.

Such people had spirit.

Some people like to make things as difficult as possible for others within their scope of authority.

Gu Huaiwei was the complete opposite.

As long as it did not harm the interests of the hotel, Gu Huaiwei would not stop people from playing clever tricks.

If it could boost the hotel’s business and did not violate hard rules, Gu Huaiwei would simply turn a blind eye.

Annie and Cain’s business was even better than during the Steel Ring Trade Festival.

After all, some customers not only had no children, but not even a partner. If they wanted to rent, they needed the full set.

Ever since Cain realized that Gu Huaiwei was not interested in him, he began to let himself go, often asking Gu Huaiwei to buy lubricant, ointment for sore buttocks, and special toys (adult toys) for him.

After buying so much, Gu Huaiwei was about to become a major customer of the adult toy shop in the Real World.