The landlord has multiple personalities and wants everyone to pay him.

There were some empty spaces in the hotel lobby, and your voice would echo.

Ye Shu looked at the apologetic hotel manager in front of her, then at Tang Xiaotao beside her, and sighed.

"I'm so sorry, sir, there's a small problem with the room Ms. Tang booked."

The manager, dressed in a suit, bowed slightly, his attitude sincere.

"The shower system in the bathroom is malfunctioning and is undergoing emergency repairs, so it's definitely not possible to check in tonight."

"Oh? Then just give us another room, okay?"

Ye Shu frowned in confusion. How could it be so unlucky? It broke as soon as it arrived.

The manager's smile became even more apologetic:

"It's very unfortunate, sir. All other rooms of the same type, including even higher-class rooms, are fully booked for tonight."

He paused, then produced a solution he had already prepared:

"Please rest assured, Ms. Tang, our hotel will fully refund your deposit and also provide an additional 20% of the order amount as a penalty for breach of contract. We sincerely apologize again for any inconvenience caused. Is this arrangement acceptable to you?"

Ye Shu was still hesitant, feeling that this matter was a bit troublesome.

Tang Xiaotao, standing nearby, brightened up and quickly agreed:

"Okay! Let's do it this way! Where do we get a refund?"

The hotel manager seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, and his smile became even more genuine.

"Ms. Tang, this way please. I'll have the receptionist process your request as soon as possible."

Tang Xiaotao waved to Ye Shu and Xiao Nuan, then followed the manager toward the front desk. She seemed quite satisfied with the extra 20% penalty she was given.

Watching her joyful figure disappear into the distance, Ye Shu turned away helplessly and muttered to Xiao Nuan, who stood quietly beside him:

"What bad luck! Of all the times, hers had to be broken down, and of all times, it was completely full..."

Xiao Nuan didn't answer, but just looked up at him.

When Ye Shu was looked at like that, for some reason, he suddenly remembered how much he liked the academic report in the taxi earlier, and his ears started to burn again. He looked away uncomfortably.

Not long after, Tang Xiaotao returned with her phone, a bright smile on her face, and waved the screen:

"It's all set! Bro, the money's been refunded, and the penalty for breach of contract is in my account. Let's go, are there any other hotels around here? Let's find another one."

Ye Shu scratched his head, somewhat vaguely:

"It seems... there might be? I haven't really noticed. Let's go out and look for it."

However, things seem determined to go against them.

The first one had a friendly smile on the front desk:

"Sorry, we're fully booked."

The second shop was undergoing partial renovations in its lobby; the sound of the electric drills was so loud it was giving me a headache. The receptionist informed me:

"Our guest rooms are currently undergoing upgrades and we are temporarily not accepting guests."

The third place was relatively small and unfurnished. There were rooms available, but when they heard that the guests wanted to book a room, and considering that the two women and one man standing side by side had been walking for quite some time and their overall demeanor seemed somewhat disheveled, the receptionist's expression became somewhat subtle. In the end, she politely declined their request, citing a "system malfunction."

The fourth place was a bit further away, and when we arrived, we were told that the last room had just been booked.

Ye Shu stood outside the fourth hotel, looking at the darkening sky and the lit streetlights, his brows furrowed in a frown:

"That's strange. It's not peak tourist season, and there's no big event going on. Where did all these people come from? How come everyone's here at such a coincidence?"

He turned his head, looked at Xiao Nuan who had remained aloof, and whispered to her:

"How about... we let Xiaotao go home? It's not a good idea for her to keep dragging her suitcase around like this."

Xiao Nuan nodded to Ye Shu:

"Can."

Ye Shu took a deep breath, turned to Tang Xiaotao who was studying the map on her phone, and said:

"See? This is fate. After all that trouble, in the end you still have to come with me, and I still have to sleep on the sofa."

"you can......"

"No, thank you."

Xiao Nuan was interrupted by Ye Shu before she could finish speaking.

Upon hearing this, Tang Xiaotao put away her phone, jumped to Xiaonuan's side, hugged her tightly, snuggled close to her affectionately, and smiled up at Ye Shu:

"That's good. We can use the money we save to buy some cosmetics or something. Besides, I happen to have some other questions I want to ask Sister Xiaonuan."

Xiao Nuan swayed slightly at Tang Xiaotao's sudden hug, but her face showed no particular expression. She neither pushed her away nor responded. She simply let Tang Xiaotao hug her, her gaze calmly looking ahead, as if she had just gained a harmless accessory.

Ye Shu looked at his younger sister, who still had a "I got a great deal" smile on her face, and An An smiled bitterly to herself.

I wonder if your sweetheart sister will still be online tomorrow. When you see your other sisters, will you still be able to smile?

A thousand words were condensed into a sigh as I picked up the suitcase handle again:

"Let's go home."

When she got home and opened the door, Tang Xiaotao's already round eyes widened even more.

"Wow!!!"

Her eyes scanned everything in the living room.

"Brother! I didn't know you...you live so well?! These floor-to-ceiling windows! This huge living room! This decor! Wow! You really know how to enjoy life!"

Ye Shu followed him in, casually closing the door behind him. Hearing his sister's fuss, he deliberately adopted the composed demeanor of an older brother and said:

"Alright, alright, stop acting like a country bumpkin visiting the Grand View Garden. Look at you, so unsophisticated."

Even so, his face flushed. Because when he first arrived here, he wasn't much better off than her.

After everyone changed their shoes, Ye Shu pointed to her bedroom:

"That's my room, you can sleep there tonight, I'll change your blanket later."

"Okay! Thanks, bro!"

Tang Xiaotao grabbed her huge suitcase and shoved it toward Ye Shu's room.

"I'll go put my luggage away and unpack first!"

boom.

She closed the door behind her, and the living room fell silent, with only the warm yellow light from the entryway and the faint background sounds of the city outside the window.

Ye Shu looked at the tightly closed door and whispered to Xiao Nuan, who was standing quietly beside him:

"This child... has so much energy..."

Xiao Nuan did not respond.

Just as Ye Shu was about to say something more, he suddenly felt a figure move beside him.

The next second, a pair of arms wrapped around his waist. Then, a soft body leaned in, carrying a faint, clean, and somewhat special scent that belonged to Xiao Nuan, gently resting in his arms, her cheek nestled against his shoulder.

Ye Shu froze, as if someone had acupunctured her.

Both hands instinctively rose up, hovering in mid-air, unsure whether to put them down or put them back down.

"W-what's wrong? Xiao Nuan? What, what's going on?"

Xiao Nuan didn't answer; she simply maintained the embrace, her cheek against his shoulder, her breathing soft and gentle.

Ye Shu could feel the slight rise and fall of her chest, and the body temperature of another person emanating from her clothes.

After a few seconds, or perhaps a little longer, Xiao Nuan took a deep breath and then slowly released her arms.

She took a small step back, looked up, and gazed at Ye Shu, who was still cosplaying as the big tree.

Her expression was calm, her eyes were clear, but her cheeks seemed to have a slight blush.

"I am conducting observations and verifications."

"Observe, observe what?"

Ye Shu hadn't fully recovered from the electric shock-like experience just now, and her mind was still a little dazed.

"Embrace behavior."

Xiao Nuannuan's gaze fell on Ye Shu's flushed face, and she explained, word by word:

"I've noticed that Tang Xiaotao really enjoys physical contact with you, especially hugs. Furthermore, her emotional arousal level significantly increases both during and for a period after she hugs you. I need to determine whether this specific behavior is generally applicable to increasing positive mood indices, and what its mechanism and threshold are."

Ye Shu didn't quite understand, but it seemed like she was being used as a guinea pig, as if she was being used to test whether hugging her could make people happy.

Although he felt a mix of disappointment and amusement, he still asked with a hint of anticipation:

"So... what was the result? Was it... useful? Holding me, did it make you... feel a little different?"

Xiao Nuan did not answer immediately.

She tilted her head slightly, and Ye Shu noticed that she was blinking more frequently, a habit she had when she was thinking. Ye Shu didn't disturb her.

After a few seconds, Xiao Nuan looked up at Ye Shu again, but the answer she gave disappointed Ye Shu.

"have no idea."

"have no idea?"

Ye Shu was somewhat surprised, as Xiao Nuannuan almost never said "I don't know". She would either ramble on and on, or list a whole bunch of things that she couldn't understand. This vague answer was rather unusual.

"Why? How could you not know? Is it... that you didn't feel anything? Or is the data not being measured?"

The living room fell silent again, with only the sound of Tang Xiaotao packing her things coming from her room.

About half a minute later, Xiao Nuan's cheeks seemed even redder than before, the pink hue becoming more pronounced. She deliberately avoided Ye Shu's gaze, her eyes drifting to the wall beside her. Although her voice remained steady, her speaking speed seemed to have increased slightly:

"The data sample is insufficient, the experimental conditions are not rigorous enough, and there are multiple confounding variables. The results of this single, brief contact are not of experimental significance and cannot be used as a valid reference."

After finishing the lab report in one breath, Xiao Nuan turned around without waiting for Ye Shu's reaction, and walked towards her own room with a slightly faster pace than usual.

"Oh, Xiao Nuan..."

Ye Shu called out subconsciously.

Xiao Nuan paused for a moment, but didn't turn around. She simply reached out, quickly turned the doorknob, slipped into the room, and then gently closed the door with a "click."

Ye Shu was left standing alone in the center of the living room, staring at the tightly closed door, completely bewildered.

Insufficient data? Inadequate conditions? Confounding variables?

Does it mean Xiao Tao is still at home? Or does it mean he was just too nervous?

The experimental results... were they effective or ineffective?

Ye Shu raised her hand and unconsciously pressed it against her left chest. There, her heart was still pounding like a tractor.

For him, the experimental results seemed quite clear.

The hug, especially the one from Xiao Nuan, had a remarkable effect.

That's absolutely remarkable.