Hao Beng Hotel

The **Hao Beng Hotel** is a newly-constructed hotel located at the north of Lao Yukging.

## History

Before the hotel was built, its site consisted of several Thralondian ruins, most likely of a barracks, a fortress, and several nobles' mansions and slave quarters.

For almost twenty years they occasionally raided and harassed nighttime travellers to and out of Lao Yukging, until they were expelled by the Order of Zeuk Kiu. Sometimes they were visited by Raunonto and his friends, who played pranks to scare them.

With the bandits expelled, a hotel was built over the site of the ruins. Liaocheng was assigned to record a tour of the hotel, and he fought against a terrorist sent to bomb the hotel and kill everyone inside.

## Features

WIP

“This is Dai Tang of the town’s trusty messenger, the Yukging Magpie, and we are the first guests to book a room at the Hao Beng Hotel. Couldn’t you imagine how big and stately its lobby is, like a palace? It has a decent amount of amenities to service you and keep you comfortable: restaurants, a spa, a water park, sixteen floors filled with luxurious rooms at afforable prices, a *Stolaryn* bookstore, and even a mini-cinema and a pet hotel!”

“Firstly, we will describe the restaurants and sample a few dishes from each.” The two boys walked to a bar along the south side of the water park and resumed. “The first of these is Hin-Kao-Ko, the Orange Roasting Fire. It’s a Siangwaanian restaurant that serves a variety of dishes, from *dim sam*, to pork on steamed eggs and our variety of fried rice: we’ll start with a light dish.” The reporter turned towards the barkeep, a neat gentleman in a suit who had a thing for wiping glasses, and asked, “Sir, I’d like a small *chaa-siew-bao* dumpling and a glass of warm *hong-chaa* tea, please.”

“Same thing for me, but make my drink cold with ice, please,” Liaocheng ordered.

“Very well!” The barkeep quickly prepared their drinks, and as the two boys were having another conversation they received their pork dumplings. “For each of you, your meals will be 1.20 *yüen-yā*.”

After each youth paid for his breakfast, the two moved on towards an adjacent restaurant. It was a green-floored venue with a lot of faux foilage where its radios blared the melody of Vozonid drums and flutes. Its name was Bandazil Arasen, meaning “Always Zomjonōr’s Birthday” in Josolchir. Like its surroundings, it was decorated with blue and white streamers and box lanterns, and two stuffed gryphons held scimitars as they watched over its entrances.

Dai Tang wished the waiter a happy Zomjonōr’s birthday, and ordered a minced pork rice cake with apple juice, before paying 3.20 *yüen-yā*. Liaocheng ordered a small piece of flatbread smeared with gravy, accompanied with a glass of water: his meal costed only a single *yüen*.”

“Would it be too much, Dai Tang?” Liaocheng asked as he patted his stomach. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve already taken breakfast before I entered the hotel, so *three* breakfasts are enough. If we keep having another meal, we might as well skip lunch. I don’t feel like running now.”

As much as Dai Tang wanted to try a meal from the third restaurant, he had to concede to his friend’s suggestions. “Alright,” he answered. “Let’s explore the other parts of the hotel.”

The duo visited the *Stolaryn* bookstore, browsing its Yuletide colours and its latest best-sellers. The bookstore’s staff permitted them to film within their store, hoping that their video might attract their fans. An usher guided them into the different sections of the hotel, filled with rooms that ranged from simple dens in warm colours to specimens of Ardeschen palace life. The hotel building’s corners were reserved for pet owners, complete with litter boxes and bins where the pets’ wastes will be sold and reprocessed as fertiliser. Then, the usher led them to its water park, a maze of carbolin dragons and phoenixes swirling all over a concentric network of pools and their clutches of palm trees.

“It seems the park’s architects have a sense of humour, don’t they?” the awestruck Dai Tang asked the usher. “They must be really, really bored.”

“Maybe,” the usher shrugged.

The usher led them through the lobby into the pet hotel: it was a spacious room painted in pale pastel, with four large blocks at its midst. On the tips of their curved roofs stood several dancing celestial figures carved from gold.

“Each of these blocks is a little palace for a different kind of pet,” the usher explained. “Red for dogs, yellow for cats, green for foxes, and blue for *araukosso* gryphons. Our pet hotel also happens to be our venue for an upcoming contest that will be held tomorrow.”

As the three left the pet hotel for the cinema, they heard a sudden blast behind them. In a quick glimpse he spotted someone running towards the back door: ignoring Dai Tang’s objections, he snapped several pictures of the supposed culprit as he pursued him. The stranger tried to shoot him, but Liaocheng quickly dodged his shot, and when the stranger fired again he threw a flask towards the stranger’s head. The bottle hit the stranger so hard that he tripped and dropped his gun, and as Liaocheng approached him he reached for his pistol, only to be stopped when Dai Tang smashed his weapon to pieces. The stranger grabbed a knife and slashed Liaocheng’s cheek, but before he was able to attack Dai Tang the latter punched him, snatched his knife, and tossed it away.

The infuriated stranger tried to beat up Dai Tang, but the latter blocked his blows and punched him back, knocking him unconscious. Dai Tang and Liaocheng took away his belongings, seeking to find out who was he working with. They uncovered a few notes from his bag and a tracking chip. From there, they learned that he worked for the Highwaymen: after harassing travellers who went between Lao Yükging and the north, the notorious criminal gang set their sights upon the hotel to destroy it, as it was built over the site of their former den.

As Liaocheng was studying the intruder’s notes, a hotel staff worker gave him a band of ice-cold cloth for his wound. After he had finished, he gave the papers and the tracking chip to the police, who were summoned after the explosion was reported.

For the rest of the evening, the pet hotel was cordoned off until its repairs were to be completed by the next day. The duo spent their evening making seven more videos about the other parts of the hotel, before presenting a splendid view of the night-lit lands around them at the astronomers’ patio at the highest floor of the hotel.