Twenty years later, at the newly completed high-speed rail station in Xiangzhou City, a middle-aged couple and a teenage boy walked out of the station.

The white boy was tall and thin, with a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. Wearing a hooded light gray thick sweatshirt and a pair of white high-top sneakers on his feet, he looks very sunny and handsome. He pushed a blue-gray suitcase, held a waistcoat of the same color as his sweatshirt, and strode forward.

The man wears a short black leather jacket with an open chest, revealing a black turtleneck underneath. He was a burly man, and his round face with black-rimmed glasses showed signs of fortune. He and the woman walked briskly behind the boy.

Women look younger than men. The body is thin but not single, the face is plump but not fat, with long hair and a shawl, and a pair of round and large eyes under slender and dense black eyebrows. A camel-colored woolen coat was open and a long belt floated behind him.

The woman told the man to take the boy's suitcase and ask him to put on his vest so that he wouldn't catch a cold. The boy seemed to hear it, and said loudly with a side face, I'm hot!

They came to the taxi stand, where the driver got out of the car and opened the trunk and asked where to go while helping with luggage.

The boy couldn't answer, so he turned back and called for his father.

The man said, let's go to the Perfume Star River.

The driver said that the Perfume Star River Hotel was closed.

The man showed a surprised expression, when did the door close?

Just a few months ago. The driver replied.

The woman followed from behind and said, let's go to Wanyu Hotel.

The Wanyu Hotel is also closed. The driver, who was about to get into the car, glanced at the woman who made the voice when he said this, and suddenly looked surprised: You are Yang Yujia?

Yang Yujia looked at the familiar person in front of him, and couldn't name it.

The driver said, I'm Xiao Wu!

Yang Yujia then remembered, said Xiao Wu, how do you ...... She wanted to say how you got like this, but she didn't.

The little Wu in front of him is darker and thinner than the little Wu in his impression. Xiao Wu touched the beard on his face, smiled embarrassedly and said, old.

The man standing next to Yang Yujia also came to greet Xiao Wu, Xiao Wu looked at him and wanted to recognize each other but didn't dare to recognize him: Are you Manager Liu?

The man patted Xiao Wu's arm: Who do you think I am? After speaking, he glanced at Yang Yujia's side, and laughed.

At this time, another person's name appeared in the minds of the three people at the same time - Gao Yang.

You're blessed! Xiao Wu said embarrassedly. He really couldn't connect the man covered in flesh in front of him with the thin Liu Wenjun in the past.

Liu Wenjun pulled the boy over and asked him to call him uncle. Xiao Wu looked at the young man in front of him, who was half a head taller than himself, and said that he had grown so tall!

Yang Yujia saw his trance-like appearance and knew that he recognized the wrong person. said that this is the second child, and the eldest has joined the work after graduating from college.

Xiao Wu suddenly praised the handsome guy and said that he was as handsome as your father was back then.

Looking at Liu Wenjun's face full of smug joy, Yang Yujia threw away a disdainful expression for his stinky beauty.

Out of politeness, Liu Wenjun also asked about Xiao Wu's family situation. Xiao Wu said that he also has two children. The eldest is a girl and is in college; The youngest is a boy and is in kindergarten. Zhang Hui works as the general manager of a private hotel.

Zhang Hui - Liu Wenjun feels that this name is a little familiar. Yang Yujia said, it was Xiao Zhang, the foreman of the original housekeeping department, you know. Only then did Liu Wenjun remember the girl with two pigtails back then. I felt that I said that I was the general manager!

Xiao Wu said that this is thanks to Perfume Star River. Perfume Galaxy Hotel is like a big school, cultivating a group of people. Now many restaurants and hotels in Xiangzhou, large and small, are in charge of Perfume Star Hotel. In the past, ordinary employees could also be managers in charge.

Everyone got into the car, and Xiao Wu, who started the car, asked, do you want me to recommend a hotel to you?

Liu Wenjun, who was sitting in the passenger seat, glanced back at Yang Yujia and said, "Why don't we go to Mr. Li?" By the way, borrow Mr. Li's car and pick up your mother.

Yang Yujia said that there was no greeting in advance, so it was okay to disturb suddenly?

Liu Wenjun said, I can't contact it now.

Is it to Mr. Li's house? Xiao Wu said, I don't know where Mr. Li lives.

It's not home, Liu Wenjun said, it's a new place, I'll tell you how to get there.

The taxi left the square in front of the station and onto a wide asphalt avenue. The boulevard is eight lanes in both directions, plus isolated flower beds, sidewalks and green belts. Tall Chinese street lamps line the flower beds in the middle. It gives the impression of neatness, cleanliness and style.

Liu Wenjun sighed that Xiangzhou is getting more and more beautiful.

The last time I went back to Xiangzhou was a few years ago, when Yang Yujia's father passed away. A few days spent staying at the Perfume Star River.

Speaking of the closure of the Perfume Star River Hotel, Liu Wenjun was a little strange. Ask if it's because of the epidemic.

Xiao Wu said that the epidemic is one of the reasons. It was precisely during the most tense period of the epidemic that the door had not yet been closed. At that time, the city arranged the medical teams from other provinces to support Xiangzhou, as well as the accommodation of local medical personnel, in two hotels, Perfume Galaxy and Wanyu.

Regarding the situation of Perfume Star River Hotel in the past few years, Liu Wenjun still has a general understanding. Less than a year after Li Fei left, Song Bo and Huang Kanghua also left one after another. Song Bo went to a hotel management group in another country, and Huang Kanghua went to a joint venture in Shenzhen.

Subsequently, Perfume Galaxy Hotel ushered in a wave of resignations, and many backbones left. Huang Yuntian thinks that hotel management is nothing more than that, and takes the opportunity to install a large number of people he can trust. It caused management chaos and a decline in performance, which eventually led to the departure.

Hong Xiaobo took over as general manager of Wanyu Hotel Management Group, and Wang Xiaoxia and another colleague took over as general managers of the two hotels. But the two hotels are already in a state of limbo.

What dealt a fatal blow to the business was the unprecedented iron-fisted anti-corruption after the X18X, and the introduction of X regulations curbed public consumption. All the high-end hotels in the country were in mourning for a while, and the two hotels of Wanyu and Perfume Galaxy, which are positioned as high-end consumption, were not spared. Both fell to the brink of loss.

Wang's Group invested in the renovation of the Perfume Galaxy Hotel, but it failed to reverse this dilemma. In the end, the hotel lobby was reduced, and all the frontage was changed to a rental storefront, with an annual rental income of nearly 2 million yuan. Thought that this would make up for the loss. Unexpectedly, the hotel lost its appearance, which led to a further decline in business.

During the crisis, the owner's wife stepped forward and took the management rights of the two hotels in person. She herself was not at the scene, but she had to report to her for instructions on all major and minor matters; All expenses, big and small, are approved by her. The people below complained, daring to be angry but not daring to speak.

Xiao Wu told Liu Wenjun that after the epidemic eased, the two hotels were closed shortly after the medical workers evacuated and never opened again. All employees are dismissed according to the compensation standards stipulated by the state. Recently, it was reported that Wang's Group transferred the Perfume Galaxy Hotel to a private owner at twice the purchase price that year. A group of private bosses in Xiangzhou City made a fortune making epidemic prevention supplies during the epidemic.

While speaking, Liu Wenjun saw a signboard standing on the side of the road in front of him: The First People's Hospital of Xiangzhou City.

The People's Hospital moved here? He asked.

It's been a few years since I moved in. Mr. Xiao said the government sold the land at the old hospital to a real estate developer to build a new hospital there. Now the new hospital is not only large in area, but also has a good environment and a very reasonable layout.

The People's Hospital was almost sold to the Wang Group that year. Liu Wenjun sighed.

yes, almost. Xiao Wu said: I heard from a cousin of mine who works in a hospital that a people's hospital in other places was also sold to private individuals for tens of millions of yuan when it was privatized, but later the policy changed, and it took several hundred million yuan to take back the hospital.

If Wang's succeeds back then, he may also earn hundreds of millions. That's more profitable than selling perfume Star River Hotel. Liu Wenjun said with a smile.

That's why the richer you are, the richer you are. Xiao Wu also laughed and said, like us, driving a taxi, running for more than ten hours a day, only getting five or six thousand yuan a month.

Can you only make so much money driving a taxi? Liu Wenjun was a little unconvinced. He asked Xiao Wu why he drove the taxi. Xiao Wu said, you want to live.

In the year of Xiao Wu's accident, Song Bo had not resigned. One night, there was another fight in Di Bar, and Xiao Wu led people to the scene to stop it, and was accidentally injured by a gangster with a knife. Xiao Wu's life hung by a thread, and the People's Hospital did not dare to admit him, so he sent a car to Wuhan Union Hospital overnight for rescue.

That night, Song Bo and Gao Yang stayed in the hospital until dawn. After living in the hospital in Wuhan for more than a month, Xiao Wu finally picked up a life. But from then on, the body can no longer bear weight. After resting at home for a few months, Wang's Group offered to give him a lump sum compensation and cut off his working relationship.

When Song Bo spoke to him, he said that he originally didn't agree to deal with it like this, but he couldn't. Hopefully he understands.

Xiao Wu said, don't embarrass you, they say what to do. In this way, Xiao Wu left the Perfume Star River Hotel. With the disability compensation from the hotel, I scraped together a little money and bought this taxi with someone. Two people work in shifts, and people don't stop.

Actually, you shouldn't have promised them. Yang Yujia in the back seat interjected.

Xiao Wu said, that's fine. Although you can't make a lot of money by driving a taxi, you are also a boss. Take care of yourself and be free.

In Xiao Wu's self-deprecating laughter, Liu Wenjun could hear the sadness. Liu Wenjun and Yang Yujia both wanted to go to the Perfume Star River Hotel, but Xiao Wu said that there was nothing to see, the door was closed, and he still turned the car over.

The construction is under construction in front of the Perfume Star River, half of the road is dug up, and half of the road is one-way. Xiao Wu told Liu Wenjun that the sewer was being repaired here. In the past, all urban sewage, including the Perfume Star River Hotel, was discharged directly into the Phoenix River, making the Phoenix River a river of stinky water. In the future, rain and sewage will be separated, and sewage will be discharged to the sewage treatment plant in a centralized manner.

That's what I'm doing now, Liu Wenjun said with a smile, sewage treatment.

Oh - Xiao Wu glanced at Liu Wenjun excitedly: Be your own boss?

Sort of. Liu Wenjun said.

There is the sound of WeChat "Didi", Liu Wenjun took out his mobile phone, is it mine? Sure enough, I saw that there was new news coming in from the group of Perfume Galaxy managers. It was a video sent by Huang Kanghua, which was about a female county party committee in Hubei Province XX firing at the ten kinds of factions in Field X.

Xie Han was the first to comment: Even if she is not a verbal XX faction, she may be the second Chen Xjia. Huang Kanghua and Xie Han are both activists in the group.

As soon as Xie Han's voice fell, someone sent another article: People's Daily voiced: China's X field "X elimination" will endanger XX safety! All of a sudden, the group became lively.

Liu Wenjun generally doesn't speak out in the group, just to see. See what others are saying. Sometimes I also give a thumbs up after my opinion. At this time, his original intention was to give the female county party committee XX a thumbs up, and he didn't want the comments behind him to be sent out like a machine gun, so he actually liked the back of Wang Han's news.

Wang Han said, I see that you all eat the maid's meal, the young lady's heart.

The taxi drove out of the city and turned at the traffic light at the intersection of the Dianpai River Bridge, and there was a sign at the intersection of XX Scenic Area for 15 kilometers. The straight road along the river is paved with asphalt, and the newly painted markings are clear and refreshing. The metasequoia on the riverside has lost its leaves, and only the willows at the water's edge are still green. On the other side of the river, a newly built village house, facing the water and facing the sun, is very meteorological.

Liu Wenjun looked at the location map on WeChat on his mobile phone and said that it was almost there. After crossing the bridge, there is a front.

Liu Wenjun had been here the last time he went home, and it turned out to be an abandoned grain station. Li Fei bought it and opened a farmhouse restaurant, and when business was booming, there was a long queue of vehicles to eat. Later, a large number of peers followed up, forming a situation where there were more monks and less porridge.

A few years ago, it was developed into a scenic area, and Li Fei demolished the farmhouse and rebuilt a homestay.

There is a Chinese-style gatehouse in the southeast corner of the B&B, and a log plaque has three big characters on it. Xiao Wu parked the car in front of the door and opened the back cover box to help with the luggage. Liu Wenjun has to pay the fare, Xiao Wu doesn't want to live or die. The two pulled and pulled, seeing Xiao Wu's resolute attitude, Yang Yujia secretly put one hundred yuan in the pocket behind the backrest.

The gatehouse is not very tall, and the two sides of the gate are covered with all kinds of seasonal grass and flowers. In this season of slaughter, it seems very out of place. Xiao Wu said that he hadn't been here yet, and he wanted to go in and have a look together.

Approaching the gate, the two log checkered glass doors were closed, which was not a combination of Chinese and Western, and at a glance it was Li Fei's handiwork. Liu Wenjun was about to call the door, and the boy was quick and pressed the white switch next to the door.

The glass doors slid open in both directions, and a warm breeze blew in. Facing him was a white wall, and a bunch of large and small, high and low, shaped like mushrooms, and a landscape stone were huddled together. The various colors of grass and flowers at the foot of the green plants are matched with the white sand, outlining a graceful curve. There is a three-cornered plum tree more than two meters high in the corner of the wall behind the Jingshi, and the red flowers and green leaves stretch forward like a welcoming pine, imprinting a pair of Qian shadows on the white wall.

Two guests were taking pictures, and when they saw someone coming in, they hurriedly got out of the way. Turning left after entering the door, there is a passage of flowers clustering, and Liu Wenjun only noticed at this time that the original world of flowers and trees is a sunny greenhouse. The greenhouse is surrounded by walls on three sides, and only the west side is full of glass. Outside the glass is a piece of water, the sun is shining brightly, and there are residual lotus dots in between.

Walking along the passageway, you will find the eaves of the entrance to the building, separated by a glass automatic door. A boy walked out of the counter across the door with a smile on his face.

Welcome! Mr. Liu. Welcome!

The boy helped with the luggage and wanted to take the guest to the room. Liu Wenjun, who had already walked forward, said that he was not busy, so let's visit first. Liu Wenjun admired the layout of this small shop with the professional habits of hoteliers.

Inside, there is a bright patio surrounded by a circle of eaves. Around the corner is a small landscape: a blooming triangular plum grows out of a brick-red clay pot, and a bunch of flowers and plants cluster around it.

In the middle of the patio is a square lotus pond, all of which are replaced by flower ponds. There is a curved bridge built on the lotus pond, and the two sides of the curved bridge are staggered to form four clamp seats. The green lotus around the booth is dotted, and the fragrance is overflowing. There are guests drinking tea at the booth.

There are also lotus leaves in this season, and Xiao Wu is surprised again and again. Liu Wenjun said, you didn't see a glass shed on this roof. The boy said that you can still see lotus leaves at this time, in addition to temperature and light, the key is pruning.

Xiao Wu said that the house is full of flowers and plants, and at least a special florist must be hired to take care of it.

Specialized florists? The boy said that our boss is a professional flower worker. Not only is the house full of flowers and plants, but also a greenhouse for raising flowers outdoors is taken care of by the boss alone.

Oh - I didn't think Mr. Li still had this craft! Liu Wenjun said with a smile. I also asked, do you provide meals for guests here? He was worried about eating.

The boy told him that the store only serves breakfast, and does not provide meal service without reservation.

Is it a local chef? Liu Wenjun asked.

There was no chef, the hostess made it herself.

Do it yourself, can the proprietress do it?

Why not? Pork ribs and lotus root soup, small crucian carp and shredded radish, and stir-fried shredded beef are all the specialties of the proprietress . Even if it's a small dish, it's different.

Why didn't you see the boss? Yang Yujia said.

Didn't you want to come, the proprietress drove to the street to buy ingredients.

Yang Yujia whispered and laughed at Liu Wenjun and said, My mother can't even ride a bicycle.

The boy said that in order to ensure that the patio is full of sunlight, the entire building is only made of one floor. On the north and south sides are guest rooms, with a total of 18 rooms. To the east is the kitchen, and to the west there is a small multi-purpose hall.

Liu Wenjun saw that there was a row of buffet tables outside the kitchen, and there were four groups of booths on the side of the aisle in front of the dining table near the lotus pond. With the addition of four booths in the middle of the lotus pond, there are a total of eight booths and 32 seats. That's enough.

Liu Wenjun asked the boy to open a standard room, which has all the equipment and facilities, and it is not inferior to the rooms of a four-star hotel. The difference is that when you walk out from the guest room, there is a small courtyard outside, also with a glass roof. The greenery and flowers are pleasing to the eye.

The boy sat down on a wicker chair in the middle of the small courtyard, raised his hands as if he was reading, patted the armrests on both sides, and said happily that I like this place, and I will stay in this room tonight!

Your room is on the south side. The boy said with a smile. In the course of the conversation, Liu Wenjun learned that the boy's surname was Zhang, a local, who graduated from a non-hotel college and worked in a chain hotel for two months to complete his career. He is currently in charge of Perfume House. Looking at the sunny and handsome boy in front of him, Liu Wenjun thought of himself more than 20 years ago.

When asked about business, Xiao Zhang said that business was okay. Perfume House is now an Internet celebrity residence, and many guests come here. When you call, the rooms are fully booked. Mr. Li asked me to clean up one of the suites they usually live in.

Liu Wenjun opened his mouth wide at Yang Yujia and made an unexpected appearance.

Mr. Li, where do they live? Yang Yujia asked.

Mr. Li, they went home to live. Xiao Zhang said that usually this suite is booked by guests, and Mr. Li will also go home to live.

Why didn't you see Mr. Li? Xiao Wu asked.

Mr. Li went swimming and came back in a while. Liu Wenjun said.

He goes swimming at this time every day. Xiao Zhang said.

Where to swim? When he heard that he could swim, the boy was excited. I heard that it was on the Han River again, and I hurriedly spit out a big tongue: Isn't it cold?

After Xiao Wu said goodbye, a guest looked for Xiao Zhang, Xiao Zhang pointed to a QR code on the wall and said, Mr. Liu, you swipe it, and the key code of the room will be sent to your mobile phone. You rest in your room first, and the boss will be back in a moment.

Liu Wenjun entered their room. This is a three-bedroom apartment, one master and two bedrooms at a time. The living room, dining room, kitchen, laundry and other home functions are complete. The room faces the water in the south, and there is a corridor eaves at the door, which is also a small courtyard, and there is a small pavilion in the corner of the walled courtyard, which can be walked through from the rain corridor on the side of the walled courtyard.

Liu Wenjun hugged his son's shoulder and asked, how is it, do you like it or not?

Like! The son said that he liked it so much.

Yang Yujia sighed, this place is really comfortable, how good it would be for us to have such a small shop in the future.

Seeing Yang Yujia's envious look, Liu Wenjun suddenly remembered a text that Li Fei sent him on WeChat: B&B is a business and a life; A life of freedom and ease.