Chapter 85: Is he gay?!

Jean-Luc did not answer immediately.

He turned around, looking at the lake, and remained silent for a long time. The wind from the lake blew over, making his suit jacket flutter slightly.

"Mr. Mu, do you know why I didn't go to Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, or Aman after leaving LVMH?" he asked.

Mu Xin did not answer; this question did not require him to answer.

"Because in those places, I would just be an employee. They have dozens of hotels globally, and every one's standards are set by headquarters. I would just be an executor."

"If I do well, it's because the headquarters' strategy is correct; if I don't, it's because my execution is flawed."

"But it's different here with you." He turned around. "You have nothing here."

"No standards, no processes, no systems. Everything must start from scratch. This is a blank canvas, and I can paint according to my own ideas."

"Aren't you afraid of painting the wrong picture?" Mu Xin asked.

"If I paint it wrong, I'll just start over." Jean-Luc let out a laugh. "Your money is endless anyway."

Mu Xin looked at him and couldn't help but laugh. "Are you comforting me or mocking me?"

"Neither." Jean-Luc put away his smile, his expression becoming serious. "I am saying that I need a place that allows me to make mistakes."

"Big companies don't allow for mistakes, which is why all the chain hotels you see are the same—because only by being identical can they avoid errors."

"But true luxury actually grows out of mistakes, like Aman, for example."

He paused, as if organizing his thoughts.

"In its first year of operation, Cheval Blanc Paris was criticized countless times by guests on social media."

"We changed it, but people still criticized it the second year, so we changed it again."

"By the third year, finally, no one was complaining, and we started thinking about how to get guests to praise us voluntarily."

"This process doesn't rely on SOP manuals or instructions from headquarters; it relies on people."

"It relies on a group of people who truly love this industry, thinking every day about how to make guests more comfortable."

"Can your hotel give me this space?"

Mu Xin looked at him and was silent for a few seconds. "Yes, but I have one condition."

"I don't want you to replicate Cheval Blanc in my hotel. I want you to create something new, something that belongs to this place."

Jean-Luc's eyes lit up.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "You don't want me to utilize the brand resources of Cheval Blanc? You don't want me to replicate their service system?"

"No." Mu Xin shook his head. "The logo of Cheval Blanc does not belong here."

"This isn't Paris, the Maldives, or Courchevel. This is Ohio, a lake next to a cornfield in the American Midwest."

"I want a hotel that can converse with this land, not a replica parachuted in from Paris."

"Of course, I'm not saying you can't utilize your connections."

Jean-Luc looked at him and was silent for a long time. "Mr. Mu, you are the least like a client of any client I've ever met."

"Why?" Mu Xin was a bit curious about his assessment.

"Because you don't micromanage how I do things," Jean-Luc said. "You only care about the results, which is too luxurious in the hotel industry."

Mu Xin didn't respond. He looked at the lake; the wind blowing from the lake carried the scent of mixed soil and moisture.

"Mr. Mu, there is one more question." Jean-Luc's voice became somewhat unnatural.

Mu Xin turned his head and looked at him.

Jean-Luc's expression remained unchanged, but his eyes had changed.

It was not that professional, calm, observant gaze, but a cautious, tentative one, carrying a hint of uncertainty.

"What is your view on the LGBT community?"

Mu Xin was stunned.

He hadn't expected this question; in his mind, LGBT was something very distant from him.

He grew up in China, and in that environment, these things were never within the scope of his daily discussions.

It wasn't about opposition or support; it simply hadn't entered his consciousness at all.

But now, a French man was suddenly asking him this question on a lakeside construction site.

Mu Xin's brain was spinning rapidly. He wasn't thinking about how to answer; he was thinking about why this question was being asked.

Why would a hotel operations expert ask this question during an interview? What does this have to do with the hotel?

Unless... unless he was.

"Damn... what the hell is this?! I can't hire this guy!" Mu Xin cursed inwardly.

Mu Xin was silent for a few seconds.

A voice inside him was saying "disgusting"—that was what he had been indoctrinated with since childhood, an instinctive, irrational reaction carved into his bones.

But another voice was asking, "What right do you have to feel disgusted? Did they eat your rice? Spend your money? Affect your ability to reproduce?"

Everyone has their own Achilles' heel.

John's Achilles' heel was Lily, Richard's was his son, and Tobias's was the dignity he had been stripped of.

And Jean-Luc's Achilles' heel might just be this issue.

Someone who had worked at Cheval Blanc for seventeen years, in that glittering world of LVMH, how cautious must he have been to hide his true self?

How much gossip did he have to endure to reach his current position? How much courage did he need to summon to ask this question in front of a Chinese international student in his early twenties?

Mu Xin took a deep breath.

"Jean-Luc." Mu Xin made his voice as calm as possible. "My hotel does not look at the sexual orientation of guests, nor does it investigate the private lives of employees."

"As long as you don't affect work and don't disturb guests, who you sleep with in bed is none of my business."

Jean-Luc was stunned, then he suddenly laughed.

"Mr. Mu," he shook his head, "you misunderstood."

Mu Xin was taken aback. "Misunderstood what?"

"I am not." Jean-Luc pulled his hands out of his pockets and spread them. "I am not the kind of person you think I am."

Mu Xin looked at him, his mind racing.

He admitted that when Jean-Luc asked that question, a thought did cross his mind: Is this person testing me? Is he asking because he is one, and therefore cares about this?

He had even started calculating in his mind how to answer without offending anyone, how to state his position without embarrassing the other party while still holding his own ground.

But now Jean-Luc said, no.

Mu Xin subconsciously let out a sigh of relief—not a heavy sigh of relief, but a subtle, small release that he hadn't even fully realized himself.

"Then why did you ask this?" Mu Xin's tone was a bit more relaxed than before.

Jean-Luc pulled the pack of cigarettes from his pocket and took one out. He took a puff and exhaled slowly.

"Mr. Mu, I have worked in the hotel industry for over twenty years." His voice returned to that professional, steady tone. "I have seen too many businesses ruined because of LGBT issues."

"What do you mean?" At this moment, Mu Xin was a bit confused.