The ceiling light was inexplicably dim, and the colors around the room had a slightly blurred quality, as if everything were unreal.
Lidi was somewhat bewildered; he didn’t know how he had gotten here.
But there was nothing strange about it, as if he was meant to be here.
He was sitting in a chair, a large iron chair that was very uncomfortable.
After some time, a hurried footsteps sounded outside the door, followed by a woman entering.
She had red hair and reddish-brown fur; she was a red fox beastman, and her face showed obvious fatigue and an unspeakable anger.
“Mom…” The woman heard Lidi call her and swallowed the words she was about to sprout.
After taking a few deep breaths, her expression relaxed, and she said calmly, “Did you started it?” Lidi stammered, seemingly hesitant to answer.
The woman wasn’t in a hurry; she simply knelt down to meet Lidi’s gaze and spoke gently.
“Just tell Mommy yes or no.” Lidi didn’t speak, but looking into his mother’s eyes seemed to give him a little confidence, and he shook his head in response.
Seeing Lidi’s reaction, the woman’s lips curled slightly, barely suppressing a laugh.
“Okay, then Mommy will go in with you in a bit.
You just need to keep your head down and let Mommy handle it.” Then the woman took Lidi’s small hand and they walked together through the large wooden door, the sign above it reading “Principal’s Office.” The moment the door opened, a burst of white light filled the room, and then… Ring ring ring—!
Beep beep beep—!
Beep beep—!
Ring ring ring—!
A burst of noisy cell phone ringing woke Lidi from his dream.
He stared wearily at the ceiling, completely ignoring the incessantly ringing phone beside his ear.
The phone rang; that meant it was already 7 o’clock.
He hadn’t fallen asleep until 3 a.m.
yesterday while tidying his room.
He calculated that he had only slept for four hours, and had a dream that wasn’t particularly good or bad.
He thought he had forgotten what his mother’s face looked like, but in the dream, she was still so clear and beautiful.
But with so many places to dream of her, why did it have to choose that place, that damned place…
Thirty seconds later, the phone alarm finally stopped ringing, and Lidi reluctantly got up to go to work.
“Only four hours of sleep, hopefully I won’t doze off later…” …
He arrived at the office in the blink of an eye, and Lidi, as expected, dozing off again.
Luckily, he didn’t fall asleep during the meeting, but at his desk.
Each seat in the office was separated by partitions, and Lidi’s seat was in a corner of the office.
Plus, he was propped up with his hands on the keyboard, looking like he was diligently working.
A closer look reveals that Lidi is nodding his head with his eyes closed, completely unaware of the impending danger.
The big boss Wency is walking towards Lidi, clearly intending to speak with him.
If Wency were to find Lidi dozing off again, he would undoubtedly be scolded.
While he might not lose his job, he would certainly feel embarrassed.
Just a few steps away, an unexpected event “saved” him.
“Whoosh—thump!” A sudden, loud thud shattered the tranquility of the office.
An elephant beastman was coughing, rubbing his long trunk—it was Old Lee, who sat behind Lidi.
Everyone in the office turned to look.
Old Lee’s enormous trunk jerked, forcing his colleagues sitting nearby to take three steps back, keeping their distance.
Lidi, sitting in front of him, was the first to be sprayed.
It can only be said that Old Lee’s massive size meant that even with partitions, the spray’s range was still not completely concealed.
“Excuse me!
I’m going to clean up for a bit.” With lightning speed, unlike his enormous size, Old Lee darted from his desk like a rabbit towards the restroom.
Lidi remained frozen in fear, eyes and mouth shut, though he was actually awake.
However, if he opened his eyes now, an unknown liquid would seep into his five orifices (don’t ask why not seven, because his ears were already covered), which was worse than death.
Seeing this, Wency was also frightened and stood at a distance, telling Lidi, “Lidi, you should go wash up in the restroom…” Lidi could only remain stiff, slowly walking towards the restroom based on his memory of its location.
His expression remained unchanged the entire time…
Then, as if in a chain reaction, the entire office erupted in coughing.
“Cough cough cough, did Old Lee pass it to me?” “This contagiousness is too…
cough cough cough!” Within seconds, the entire office was filled with the coughing of beastmans; something was clearly wrong.
Wency quickly ran back to her office to isolate herself, wondering where she could buy facemasks nearby.
Meanwhile, in the restroom, Lidi was diligently rinsing his fur with water, scrubbing it like he was washing his hair.
Beside him, Old Lee was using water to clean his nose repeatedly, inhaling and exhaling through the faucet.
Looking at Lidi, who was covered in snot, Old Lee said apologetically, “Oh, I’m sorry, Lidi, I didn’t mean to spray you with snot.” “It’s alright, a little cleaning will do.
But how about you, did you have a cold?” “No, it’s just a cough.
We elephants sneeze and cough through our noses.” “Ahh, that’s really hard to tell.” Old Lee then wiped his nose and left the restroom, while Lidi continued diligently cleaning his fur.
He also caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror.
His fur was dull, split, and messy, completely different from the childhood version of himself in his dream.
He had grown up to become the person he hated.
After finally finishing washing up, just as Lidi opened the bathroom door to leave, a large face was confronted by him.
“Cough!” Hot steam mixed with droplets smeared his face.
“Excuse me,” the person said, walking into the bathroom without turning back.
Lidi had no choice but to go back to the sink to wash his face again.
After drying himself up, Lidi stepped out of the bathroom to see the situation outside.
All his colleagues in the office were coughing, and several who were more seriously ill were already heading to the bathroom.
“Is Old Lee’s cough that contagious?
Or…” Recalling the contents of the USB drive he had seen earlier, it was probably the Sudadi Flu.
This made his heart sink.
Now that he is exposed here, he is probably infected too.
“Could I be that unlucky?
I just got out of the hospital two days ago, and now I have to go back?” Faced with this terrifying flu, Lidi’s first thought wasn’t his own safety, but how to claim his hospital bill from the company.
But one thing at a time, now Lidi faced a difficult question: should he warn them?
If he told his other colleagues, what reason could he give?
And would they even believe him?
In the end, he might even expose himself to the authorities and get arrested, which would be suicide.
Fortunately, he didn’t need to worry about that anymore, because Wency, being astute, immediately announced that everyone will be having a day off today and that each person must go to the hospital for a medical check-up.