There was no one else in the pools at the moment, and the public bath was more spacious. After discussing it for a while, Gu Xiaoshuang and her roommate decided on the public pool, then asked what was included in the deluxe package.
“A straw mat for the steam bath, a hot spring egg, and a volcanic mud mask. The volcanic mud is limited to one serving per person, per visit. Eggs are three yuan each if you want extra.”
“The volcanic mud is limited too?”
“Yes. It can only be used here on-site.”
Gu Xiaoshuang was unimpressed. She figured the restriction was probably just a marketing gimmick to create a sense of scarcity.
She looked over the description on the poster and tugged on Li Qian’s hand.
“The volcanic mud is just slathering a lump of mud on your face. Doesn’t sound like much fun. And what’s the straw mat for…? Oh, you lie on it while you steam. It’s basically there to keep you off the floor. If we want to try the geothermal steam bath, we’ll need the mat.”
“We came all this way. We have to try the steaming, right?” Li Qian’s mind was already racing. “Then we can buy one package and one regular ticket. We’re both skinny enough to fit on one straw mat, or one of us can soak while the other steams, then we switch. The volcanic mud and eggs are just extras. We’ll give them a try.”
The geothermal steam bath was an unexpected bonus, but the other two extras held little appeal. Volcanic mud had been touted to the skies in skincare commercials years ago—it was practically an outdated product by now.
As for eggs, who in this day and age hadn’t eaten them since childhood? When they were little, their parents had practically chased them around with eggs, and they still hadn’t wanted to take more than a couple of bites. Young people weren’t exactly clamoring for them now.
Gu Xiaoshuang thought it was a great idea too, and happily placed the group-buying order.
“Perfect. There’s no one here, so we can have an entire hot spring pool to ourselves. We’ve saved the money we would’ve spent upgrading to a private room, and it comes to only seventy-five yuan per person—with volcanic mud and a giant egg included.”
When it came to enjoying the greatest number of services for the least amount of money, college students were true experts. Whether it was fighting over the 18-for-18 inflation-busting coupons or figuring out how to buy three pairs of thermal underwear on Pinduoduo for 9.90 yuan, they were born warriors.
Xiang Yu smiled and scanned their codes for them, then pulled two drawstring bags out from beneath the desk and handed them over.
Inside were bath towels, slippers, a wristband, and a small booklet.
The towels and slippers came in separate blue packages. Gu Xiaoshuang let out a little exclamation and nudged her roommate with her elbow.
“They look pretty clean.”
Li Qian opened the booklet and read aloud in a deliberately flat voice: “All hot spring bath supplies at Tianbai Snow Mountain Hama Valley Glacier Park are sterilized after every use. A sterilization process meeting medical-device standards is employed…”
She squeezed the blue package containing the slippers and towel. The bag was sturdy and completely airtight, which gave her a small start.
“This really is a sterilization bag?”
There was also a small black strip of paper inside—the ethylene oxide indicator strip used in sterile packages sealed according to operating-room standards.
Xiang Yu had originally thought that having a sterilization cabinet would be more than enough. He hadn’t expected the system’s renovations to include a sterilization room with a license from a medical institution’s sterile supply department. Even Liu Bo, whose family ran a five-star hotel, had exclaimed that it was an extravagance on a grand scale when he saw it.
Gu Xiaoshuang was fascinated as well. She opened the bag with unusual care, pulling out each item one by one as if she were unwrapping a present.
“You can take the drawstring bag home. It’s waterproof, so you won’t have to stuff your dripping-wet swimsuit into your own bag.” Li Qian flipped through the information booklet again and summed it up. “They guarantee everything is completely hygienic. If you don’t want to use these, you can return the bag. The front desk also provides disposable compressed towels and slippers.”
“No, no. The disposable ones are as thin as paper. These towels are thicker and look much more comfortable. What do you think, Qianqian?”
“Definitely.” Li Qian squeezed the towel too and agreed that being wrapped in something thicker would be more comfortable.
She had actually brought her own towel in her bag, but since the facility had provided clean ones, there was no need to take it out.
“There’s also this natural-source, overflow-style private hot spring design. The water comes directly from the volcanic geothermal source, naturally overflowing as fresh water flows through. Each private room is supplied directly by its own geothermal spring, with partial water replacement every hour and a complete change every day.”
As Li Qian read on, her expression shifted repeatedly. She said skeptically, “Really? And they only charge fifty yuan? They must be exaggerating.”
The water replacement schedule was lavish to the point of extravagance. Anyone with even a little common sense would have trouble believing that a small private hot spring pool charging only a few dozen yuan could actually manage it.
Gu Xiaoshuang didn’t think that deeply about it. She briskly tore open the sterile package and changed into the slippers.
“Come on, come on. We’ll know whether it’s a donkey or a horse once we go in and see for ourselves.”
“At least the slippers are pretty good. They feel like stepping on poop.”
The entrance to the hot springs did not lead directly into the main hall. Instead, there was a short but elegant transitional corridor.
Wooden latticework and lightly hanging gauze curtains half-enclosed both sides of the passage. When the breeze passed through, one could glimpse the shadowy green bamboo standing against the walls outside. Bamboo shadows fell across the curtains in sparse, graceful patterns, swaying and dancing in the wind.
The corridor was semi-enclosed. The crisp fragrance of bamboo mingled with the clean scent of linen and lingered in the air, shutting out the noise of the outside world behind the screen of light, curtains, and bamboo shadows.
The winding corridor, with its secluded beauty, made Gu Xiaoshuang feel like Granny Liu entering the Grand View Garden. She almost wished she could pluck out her own eyes and record the entire scene inside her head.
“Qian, this feels like a time tunnel.”
An environment that changed with every step and skillfully whetted the appetite was enough to make anyone cast aside all the mundane troubles of life before even stepping into the hot spring.
“Good design is always captivating.” Li Qian was thoroughly impressed. “The owner must have hired a real expert.”
Miss Xiaotian, who was leading them from the front, gave a quiet snort when she heard this, then failed to hold back a laugh.
That morning, on the very first day of business, TEM-8 Xiaoshan and N2 Xiaotian—the bathhouse’s dynamic duo—had arrived early to wait in the hot spring pools. Since the guests this time were women, Xiaotian was the one showing them the way.
For some reason, she had suffered the rare misfortune of insomnia on the night before her first day of work.
Liu Bo had privately said that the construction cost of this hot spring resort was astronomical, and that Xiang Yu had most likely staked his entire fortune on it. Everything depended on whether this venture succeeded.
Although that might simply have been the kind of motivational speech a messenger eunuch delivered to whip the oxen and horses into shape, working in a place full of people her own age felt less like working for capitalists and more like everyone getting together to organize a club activity. The determination to sink or swim together had genuinely begun to take root in her.
She was a little worried that the boss might suddenly drop dead and wanted to do more to help. Yet because the organization was so loosely structured, she also had the strange feeling that she had joined a hundred-billion-yuan project but could never take it entirely seriously—perhaps because what she had really joined was a hundred-billion-yuan subsidy program…
She wore a simple yet quaint indigo-dyed linen outfit. Business had opened in such a hurry that Xiang Yu hadn’t even had time to order uniforms for the staff. When Xiaotian heard that this wasn’t a Japanese-style hot spring, she had excitedly offered to wear her own hanfu to show her support.
Xiang Yu greatly approved of this spirit of paying one’s own way to come to work. He had looked through the ornate Ming-style outfits and high-collared qipaos she sent him, one by one, but in the end said he was worried she would overheat. He chose the simplest linen top-and-trousers outfit instead and reminded her to wear flat shoes.
Even guests would probably feel more relaxed in clothing that was comfortable and returned to a natural simplicity.
The bamboo corridor was not long, and they soon reached the public bath.
The two young women let out a spontaneous “Wow.”
The hot spring pool followed the same overall design as the exterior: high ceilings and wooden beams. A single amber-colored glass lamp hung from above, its gentle light passing through the rising mist and casting rippling patterns across the walls.
The large pool in the middle had been carved out of the natural rock. Its edges bore the marks of erosion from the hot spring water, and its walls were made of dark, rough volcanic rock.
The water was milky white, and the steam rising from it was thicker than that of an ordinary hot spring. The distinctive scent of sulfur hung in the air, and the water had a glossy sheen rather than a clear appearance.
Perhaps to keep the room from feeling cramped, a small waterfall had been built into the rock wall. Water trickled down a series of natural stone ledges, making a warm, mellow gurgling sound, its rhythm gentle and soothing.
Li Qian, who had braced herself for the place to be a dungeon and considered anything better a success, murmured, “This is way too fancy...”
Gu Xiaoshuang stared, mouth agape. She reached out to touch a monstera by the pool. “There are plants, too. Hey, they’re better cared for than the ones my mom fusses over every day.”
The carefully chosen heat-tolerant plants unfurled their broad leaves, each one lush and green. In the warm, humid air, they drank in the moisture, lazily sending up new stems and leaves.
It made you want to turn into a comfortable, contented potted plant and put down roots right there.
After changing, the two of them padded barefoot across the rounded river stones lining the pool. The blue-gray pebbles were porous and faintly grainy beneath their feet, like a natural foot massage.
“This is actually pretty comfortable.” Gu Xiaoshuang’s defenses had completely crumbled. “With a place like this, even if the pool were a hundred degrees, I’d still praise the owner for boiling the water properly.”
Xiaotian smiled with a hint of pride and kindly pointed out, “There are chilled towel rolls in the rattan cabinet to the left of the pool. The pile of river stones on the right hides a drinking-water dispenser and a call button. The hot spring gets very hot, so please choose according to your health. If you feel unwell, call for help right away.”
“Thank you, thank you.” Li Qian felt that fifty yuan for a public pool this nice was a real bargain, and thanked her twice.
Then she took a deep, blissful breath, looking almost intoxicated.
“It smells so good. What is that scent?”
“Sulfur, mugwort, and pine needles,” Xiaotian said with a cheerful smile. She brought the two of them a roll of woven mats and spread them over the heated pine needles beside the pool.
“This is our signature geothermal steam treatment. When you’re tired of soaking, you can lie down here for a while. The pine needles are fresh, picked by the villagers this morning. The mats keep them from prickling you.”
“You may notice some little bumps on the pool and in the corners. That’s mirabilite, which is unique to sulfur hot springs. It’s clean, don’t worry. I’ll bring you some hot-spring eggs and volcanic mud in a bit. Enjoy your soak for now, and just call if you need anything.”
Not wanting the young women to feel awkward about getting into the water, Xiaotian soon left, careful not to intrude.
