Chapter 585 - 379: Tokyo Trip (8)
The stinging on his cheek at that moment... what was the difference between that and the burning love from before? ’At least Jiang Ning is always by my side.’
That alone was enough to make him content.
"President Jiang, we are ready for takeoff. Shall we depart now?"
After he boarded the private jet and settled in, a woman with her hair in a bun standing beside him leaned in and asked.
"Let’s go. Take off."
Chen Yuan said, exhaling slowly.
...
The farther she got from home, the emptier Jiang Yao felt inside, but it was too late to turn back. She hadn’t noticed the time passing on the flight, but when she opened the window shade to look down, a bustling metropolis appeared in the night below. She knew then that she was finally approaching her destination.
Traveling alone wasn’t as fun as she’d imagined.
Jiang Yao just felt bored.
She didn’t have the heart for anything. She spent most of the time simply staring into space, her mind wandering to all sorts of odd things. She couldn’t believe she was already in Edo Prefecture.
’If Wan were here with me, I probably wouldn’t be so lonely...’
Jiang Yao couldn’t help but think.
After getting off the plane, she decided against walking to the subway. Tokyo is a major international city with incredibly expensive taxi fares, even more outrageous than in Mingzhu City. Most people, tourists included, choose not to take them. But for convenience’s sake, Jiang Yao hailed a cab to her hotel right after leaving the airport. She didn’t mind that it was more expensive; at least it was easy.
She was silent for the whole ride.
But, for his own convenience, the damn driver had dropped her off at the wrong place...
The Tokyo night was still brilliantly lit. Towering vertical signs were stacked like building blocks, and skyscrapers loomed over both sides of the street, their glass curtain walls reflecting the neon glow.
The city’s layout was clearly different from Lanjing’s. Even the pedestrians walked with a different rhythm. Everyone on the street moved with hurried steps, as if rushing to their destinations.
People wove through the splendid lights and shadows, yet their faces held a cold indifference to the world. Or perhaps the metropolis’s symphony was not being played for them.
At first, Jiang Yao looked around with great curiosity, taking everything in. The signs were dazzling, almost blinding; the pedestrians’ fashion was completely different from back in Lanjing; anime and manga elements were everywhere; and the roads crisscrossed in a complex web. Everything felt new and strange.
She stood alone on the street, timidly pushing her suitcase toward the location on her phone’s map. The area was clearly a hub for foreign tourists, with a dazzling array of hotels everywhere.
Jiang Yao didn’t have much travel experience.
She didn’t realize that following the map could so easily lead her to the wrong hotel.
"Hello. I am a tourist in Tokyo. I have a reservation for room 1223. Please help me check."
At the hotel’s front desk.
The phone’s mechanical translation voice rang out.
The receptionist kept nodding and bowing slightly as she stared at the phone screen, then replied with a stream of Japanese.
Then, seeing that Jiang Yao didn’t seem to understand, the young, short-haired receptionist repeated herself in broken Chinese.
"Guest... please wait. I... investigate now."
"Okay."
"Thank you very much." The young receptionist bowed for some reason, then began working on a nearby computer.
After a moment, she looked up at Jiang Yao, a hint of confusion in her eyes.
"Oh! If there’s a problem, please speak into the microphone so it can translate." Jiang Yao held out her phone.
"Miss, we cannot find your reservation. Room 1223 is already occupied. Have you perhaps made a mistake?"
"A mistake? That’s impossible. Let me pull up the reservation details for you."
Jiang Yao froze for a second, then her brow furrowed.
She hurriedly searched through her phone. A few seconds later, she found a screenshot of her hotel booking and showed it to the receptionist.
To her surprise, the receptionist couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.
She pointed outside.
"You didn’t book our hotel. Please exit and turn left. There’s a staircase behind the building. The hotel you’re looking for is up those stairs."
"Oh, I see," Jiang Yao said, finally understanding. "I’m so sorry to have bothered you."
She pressed her hands together apologetically, her cheeks burning, and fled out the door with her suitcase in tow.
’Seriously... I should’ve just told that driver to drop me off right at the entrance...’
Jiang Yao grumbled to herself.
She followed the receptionist’s directions, walking in a complete circle until her head was spinning, before she finally located the upward staircase.
As she dragged her suitcase around, a group of shady-looking young men stared fixedly at her. She hated their gazes and felt deeply uncomfortable.
At that moment, Jiang Yao thought.
’If only someone were here with me...’ She felt a pang of loneliness and her heart ached.
"Hello, excuse me. Is this the Edo Royal Garden Hotel?"
Jiang Yao wore a brown windbreaker, a leather miniskirt, and sneakers. Even though her face wasn’t visible, she exuded an elegant aura. Her fair skin and tall, slender figure made her an eye-catching presence in any crowd.
"Hello, guest. Yes, it is," the translator app’s rhythmic voice conveyed.
Even with years of anime-watching experience, Jiang Yao could only understand a few common, unimportant words. Before she came, she’d discussed it with Wan. That twenty-seven-year-old, obnoxious, below-average-IQ loli had claimed that she’d be able to understand the language just fine once she arrived. Clearly, that was impossible.
Still, she had finally found the hotel.
’Alright!’ Jiang Yao cheered internally, giving herself a silent pep talk.
’No one was with me, and my sister wasn’t here to look after me, but I still made it, didn’t I? It doesn’t matter if the journey was a bit bumpy; at least the outcome is good.’
’This is some pretty obvious progress.’
"Then, could you please look up my reservation for room 1223? I’ve already booked it. Thank you so much!" she said, standing expectantly at the front desk.
"Of course, guest."
It was peak tourist season. Countless people had flocked here just to see the endless pink cherry blossoms of April and May, hoping to experience spring in a dreamlike sea of flowers and linger beneath the cherry trees.
Just a moment later.
The front desk staff looked up.
"Sorry, I am very sorry! Guest, you are past the designated check-in time. The room was just booked by another guest..."
"What? Can you say that a little slower?"
The translation had been incomplete. Jiang Yao held her phone out, looking completely dazed.
The receptionist could only repeat herself.
"Our hotel’s policy requires check-in by 10 PM at the latest. It is now past that time, so the room was booked by another guest..."
"What? Do you have any other rooms?"
At her words, the receptionist shook her head awkwardly.
Hotels were fully booked for the tourist season; you had to reserve a room a week in advance. Jiang Yao knew the answer before she even asked. Back home, she’d had to browse several different hotels before she finally managed to snag this one room.
Jiang Yao looked at the young receptionist in despair.
’The tickets were hard to book, the hotel was hard to book... I did my best to schedule everything perfectly. In the end, this is all that driver’s fault.’
"Well... okay, I understand."
Feeling utterly defeated, she picked up her suitcase and walked out of the hotel, acting as if she hadn’t heard the receptionist behind her offering a refund. Then, she lugged her suitcase all the way back down the stairs.
’What a crappy hotel. It doesn’t even have an elevator.’
As she mustered all her strength to get down the stairs, Jiang Yao complained irritably to herself.
If her sister had been there, she definitely would have thrown a fit and fussed at Jiang Ning. But she was all alone, so she could only suppress her temper, look to the street, and try to hail a cab.
...
"Nine o’clock, location locked! I’ve found Madam Jiang."
"Move it. Report the Madam’s whereabouts."
"Shinjuku District, First Joyful Road, within the H2-7 District, on the third manhole cover from the left. The Madam appears to be hailing a taxi."
"Arrange a car immediately. Take her to the hotel where Lord Jiang is staying."
"Hey, notify Lord Jiang before you make a decision! Don’t go making plans on your own, you idiot!"
「On a street corner.」
A group of furtive-looking men in suits held walkie-talkies, their eyes fixed on Jiang Yao’s location.