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The hotel reception did indeed have his appointment.
It's getting late.
Unlike the shabby exterior, the hotel's interior features magenta wallpaper printed with various geometric shapes, and abstract paintings hanging on it.
The light bulbs were bright and large, emitting various light colors. Several of them hung from the top of the stairs to the bottom, with a banner in the middle that read "Happy Holidays".
Gu Xinglan stood in front of a certain picture.
This is the simplest of the dozen or so paintings... a few isosceles triangles surrounding a campfire, and another triangle on top of the campfire.
And this simplest painting, hanging below the "Happy Holidays" banner, is hard not to attract the attention of passersby.
"Burning Man Festival," came the explanation in my ear.
Burning...Human Day?
Gu Xinglan blinked and looked behind her.
Clifton, who was standing behind him holding a glass of ice water, smiled and asked, "Are you interested?"
If we're talking about whether it exists or not, then it's definitely the former.
Experiencing the local customs and culture in a foreign country—isn't that the purpose of travel? But he didn't come here specifically for tourism.
Gu Xinglan sighed regretfully.
If he can attend the festival with Li Hetai a week later, then the trip will not have been in vain.
"On this day last century, a few people burned a giant wooden figure and a wooden dog on Baker Beach in San Francisco. Crazy, right?"
Clifton was a great storyteller; his voice was neither too loud nor too soft, and he immediately captured what the audience wanted to know.
He nodded at the opportune moment.
“Their way of expressing themselves is radical and crazy enough. Everyone is partying. On this day, everyone gathered in front of the bonfire is searching for themselves.” As he finished speaking, Kriffin’s eyes narrowed into slits as he handed over the ice water in his hand.
"However, this is Lexington, there are no deserts or beaches, only horses and grass. I guess the hotel owner came from Black Rock City to do business. This is probably the only hotel celebrating Burning Man."
Gu Xinglan declined the iced water, turning her gaze to the window opposite.
This is the fifth floor, offering a clear view of the outside scenery.
A giant horse head is painted on the fluorescent sign, and it looks incredibly lifelike.
"You're here to watch the equestrian competition, right?"
"It's for equestrianism, but we're here to participate in a competition." Gu Xinglan opened the window and pointed to the horse's head. "Do you know where we can train?"
Li Hetai has not trained for at least two days.
There is still one week until the official competition.
“If you want to participate, that will be a bit difficult.” Criffin blinked his green eyes, looked the person in front of him up and down, and then smiled slightly: “Your body muscles are not strong enough, and your hands don’t have calluses yet, which shows that you don’t train often. If you go up, people will only pay attention to your face, not your horse riding skills.”
The man nodded as he spoke and took a sip of water, instantly reducing the glass to almost half its original size.
"I'm not participating," Gu Xinglan said with a laugh.
“There are training areas everywhere here. You’ll have to see if any stable owner will let you in. I guess not.”
"Why?" Gu Xinglan raised an eyebrow.
He carried a lot of cash and cards with him; anything that could be solved with money wasn't a problem.
"For the past two weeks, there have been continuous protests and marches in the streets, and it was people with faces like yours shouting."
"procession?"
Why is there still a protest?
Whether it was his bad luck or Li Hetai's bad luck, in any case, trying to do something always triggered some troublesome situation.
Clifton lowered his head and said softly, "Let me make it clear beforehand, I am not racist."
This is a rather heavy topic. Gu Xinglan pointed to the room, "Shall we discuss this in detail?"
“I couldn’t ask for more,” Kriffin said in a strange-sounding Chinese voice.
Those marches were actually caused by a recent series of robberies and missing persons cases. The majority of the foreigners, of East Asian descent, were the first to bear the brunt of the locals' anger, which led to the marches by East Asians that lasted for more than a week.
"Actually, if we're talking about missing persons, it's more likely that it's outsiders who have disappeared without a trace."
Clifton walked to the window and gently pulled back the curtain.
"Look, the people standing below."
There's a small bar downstairs in the hotel; the lights are dim.
He noticed it as soon as he arrived: all the people standing at the bar entrance were thick-necked, red-faced, and haggard.
"The place where outsiders are most likely to get lost."
Clifton pointed to the fluorescent signs in the alley and said, "Don't drink the alcohol they offer you, and definitely don't smoke anything." He then lowered the curtain and patted Gu Xinglan on the shoulder.
"As for the issue of discrimination, the Lord told me that you will never be treated differently by the locals."
Gu Xinglan paused for half a second, then subconsciously asked, "Why?"
“Because humans are visual creatures,” Criffin added with a laugh. “I spotted you right outside the airport and heard you calling my name.”
Gu Xinglan: "..."
He was referring to the name of the hotel.
The next second, Clifton continued, "When I heard you call it the hotel, I was heartbroken..." As he spoke, he tentatively stretched out his right foot.
The brown leather shoes gleamed slightly under the light, subtly shimmering and seemingly swallowing up the distance between them.
Klifen half-closed his eyes and whispered, "But this is a different kind of romance. We're in the same hotel. Don't you Easterners value fate the most?"
The topic veered off course from the frenzied protests to something quite strange.
He stepped back to a safe distance and only addressed the most important point: "You just mentioned the issue of whether those horse farm owners are willing or not, what exactly are the details?"
"The horse farm owners are locals, and they are all passionate horse enthusiasts."
Locals tend to discriminate against outsiders.
"The noise from those marches was loud and clear, but unfortunately it only made the locals more disgusted." The room was bright, illuminating Clifton's pitying expression clearly.
Gu Xinglan couldn't hold back any longer.
He wanted to ask if he could resolve the issue directly with money.
Since it involved money, he hesitated for a long time, but ultimately didn't say anything.
Seeing that beautiful face suddenly dim, Clifton's mood also soured.
"Never mind, I'll ask around for you. I'm an outsider too, except I look similar to them."
Clifton's bone structure was just right, especially his rare green eyes, a pure turquoise that was bright from any angle, and his blond hair.
Gu Xinglan looked at that face and felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
"Thank you. May I ask where you came from?"
"Ha, right here in San Francisco, San Francisco."
No wonder I came to this hotel celebrating Burning Man.
But it really was fate; it just happened to be convenient for him.
As a newcomer to the country, he knew nothing, but with the help of this knowledgeable foreigner, he achieved twice the result with half the effort.
“Sunrise will be in a few hours,” Kriffin said, tapping his watch.
The watch is simple and elegant, and the time displayed on the dial is still more than an hour away from six o'clock in the morning.
Gu Xinglan's phone hadn't been adjusted to the time zone yet, and it still showed a little after 5 p.m.
"How about it? Would you like to go see the sunrise with me? Perfect, I know a restaurant that would suit your taste perfectly."
The expectation in Kriffin's eyes was obvious, and as soon as he finished speaking, a coughing sound came from the inner room.
It is Li Hetai.
"I'm sorry, I have a younger brother to take care of." Gu Xinglan looked at the man apologetically.