Victor Kong stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the executive suite on the 38th floor of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Shanghai, his fingertips still stained with the fine lint left behind when he just checked the bedding. He didn't look at the winding golden belt of the Huangpu River outside the window. Instead, he crouched down and put his face close to the edge of the mattress. The light of his mobile phone's flashlight shone on the stitches connecting the springs and the fabric. This was a habit he had developed during his eight years in the industry. No matter how high-end a hotel, he couldn't hide the "conscience" in the stitches.
"Manager Kong, we just got a call from the linen supplier, saying that 30% of these 60-count Egyptian cotton pillowcases have exceeded the standard due to moisture during shipping." Assistant Lin Xiaotang's voice came from the door, holding a tablet computer in her hand, her brows furrowed into the Chinese character "Sichuan". She had followed Victor Kong for two years, but she still wasn't used to the extremes of this "sleep trial purchasing manager" - while others tried to sleep on their backs while lying down, Victor Kong "dissected" the hotel with a vernier caliper, hygrometer and decibel meter.
