Chapter 6

No wonder the customer misunderstood. At this moment, Wang Ze looked pale and his eyes looks like lifeless and he still had a tendency to bite people, resembling a zombie in both appearance and behavior.

“No, no, he just has a strange illness,” the manager answered, although she is unsure to the situation, she tried to defuse the situation.

As he spoke, she waved to the security guards, signaling them to take Wang Ze away.

“Don’t come over!” Wang Ze looked very nervous and kept backing away.

At this moment, a waiter passed by carrying a tray of drinks and glasses of water.

Wang Ze saw it and started shouting incoherently again.

The customer was nearly going crazy, “How can you hire someone like him as an employee?! He just bit me, am I going to be infected?!”

Zhao Zechen saw this and pondered, 

“Afraid of water?, afraid of light?, is he infected with rabies virus?”

The manager and the customer looked over in shock.

Zhao Zechen explained Wang Ze being bitten by a stray cat, and added, “He stubbornly insisted that he didn’t need to get vaccinated after being bitten by a cat. I suspect he never went.”

The customer felt slightly relieved, at least it wasn’t a real zombie.

But then, a feeling of unease crept in, “He’s a carrier of the rabies virus. So, if I was bitten by him, is it equivalent to being bitten by a wild dog, do I need to get vaccinated too…?”

The manager couldn’t confront the customer with words, but he could redirect his anger. He glared at Zhao Zechen and blamed him, “How come you didn’t tell me about such a big incident?”

Zhao Zechen was dumbfounded after hearing this. He instinctively explained, “Even the procurement department knew. They asked Wang Ze to get vaccinated, and Wang Ze agreed to it in front of me. How would I know he dind’t take the advice guy?”

If it weren’t for him being scratched by the cat as well, concerned about his own safety, and specifically learning about the symptoms of rabies, he wouldn’t have recognized what was going on with Wang Ze now. 

The procurement department knew too? Great,

The list of people to blame just got longer.

The manager glanced at Tong Jia, his tone heavy, “We’ll settle this matter later.”

Tong Jia couldn’t be bothered to deal with him.

She watched as Wang Ze struggled desperately, restrained by the security guards but still trying to bite them, forcing them to let go. But her mind was on something else — her intuition was right, Wang Ze was indeed very dangerous.

Not far away, because of Wang Ze’s frenzy of biting and scratching, the security guards were hesitant, several of them surrounded him but couldn’t restrain him.

At a critical moment, Yun Xin found a pair of leather gloves and put them on, then unexpectedly pounced. With one hand pressing down on Wang Ze’s back and the other on his head, she directly pushed him to the ground.

“Quick, quick, tie him up with a rope! Cover his mouth too!” the manager ordered.

Wang Ze still struggled, but Yun Xin was like a small mountain pressing down on him. With her hand pressing on his forehead, he couldn’t turn his head.

Out of the corner of his eye, the manager noticed the customer’s lips moving. Acting swiftly, he preemptively shouted, “Is the ambulance here? Where’s the doctor? Someone here needs urgent medical attention!” and they run to the nearest hospital.

FASTFORWARD

After all the commotion, the chaos finally subsided. When the ambulance arrived, the manager personally escorted the customer to the hospital. On the other side, the injured security guard accompanied Wang Ze to receive treatment.

Zhao Zechen was still shaken, “Two thousand yuan for a vaccine is indeed a bit expensive. But two thousand yuan to save a life, it’s not expensive at all!”

Wang Ze was diagnosed with rabies shortly after being taken to the hospital. The customer and the security guards were given  rabies vaccine.

The manager was busy dealing to the chaos happened, saying all the right things and finally manage to temporarily appease the customer.

Back at the hotel, he summoned Tong Jia and Zhao Zechen to hold them accountable.

Zhao Zechen retorted, “He agreed verbally, but in reality, he didn’t go to the hospital in time to get the shot. Can we really be blamed for that? Are we supposed to drag him to the hospital and personally watch as they inject him with immune globulin and rabies vaccine?”

The manager’s eyes narrowed, “If you couldn’t accompany him to the hospital, then what about afterwards? You noticed something was wrong with him, but didn’t report it to me immediately? Did you have to wait until he caused trouble before speaking up?”

Zhao Zechen felt helpless. Since being scratched by the cat, their relationship had soured, and he didn’t like dealing with Wang Ze, making it difficult for him to notice anything wrong in the first place.

When they later encountered each other, and Wang Ze mentioned having a headache and slight fever, he simply believed him without much thought.

“Should’ve kept your mouth shut! If only you hadn’t said anything, they wouldn’t be able to blame you!” Now, not only was he in trouble himself, but he had also dragged the procurement officer down with him.

Zhao Zechen tried to convince  the manager but the manager didn’t want to listen to his reason just wanted to find someone to blame.

 The manager looked sternly at Tong Jia and asked, 

‘Given the situation, what do you plan to do?’ Tong Jia glanced at Zhao Zechen, only to see him extremely anxious, his bright eyes revealing a clear foolishness. 

Another glance at the manager, who had no expression on his face, his heart probably already blackened. 

Tong Jia looked up at the ceiling and said in an emotionless tone, ‘After the incident, I immediately investigated the surveillance footage. I found out that this Wang Ze usually lives in the staff dormitory and has no family locally. So, after getting sick, he neither took leave nor went home; he just stayed in the hotel.’

“On the day of the incident, he was working in the lobby. When he saw sunlight streaming through the windows, he didn’t say anything to anyone and just went over to quietly draw the curtains. Later, when a guest tried to open them, he had a public argument with the guest and wouldn’t budge.”

“Manager, could it be that your usual guidance isn’t quite right? The staff really seem to be treating the company like their home.”

Manager: “???”

He stared at Tong Jia in shock, as if to ask, how did you come to such a miraculous conclusion? 

New employees were always trained by him. If this accusation stuck, he would inevitably bear some responsibility.

Tong Jia smiled slightly.

Her eyes seemed to say: Come on, let’s see who can push the blame better. If worst comes to worst, we’ll all go down together!

Tong Jia continued, “Manager, I don’t think Wang Ze is a good person. I told him to get vaccinated, and he agreed to my face but didn’t follow through behind my back. No matter how much effort we put into someone like that, they won’t learn. If the boss asks, let’s just be honest about it.”

The manager stared at Tong Jia for a long moment before finally saying, “I think that’s a good idea.”

Zhao Zechen thought he was surely going to have his wages docked. But after a brief exchange between the manager and the purchasing agent, the issue was resolved smoothly.

He looked at Tong Jia, his eyes filled with a mixture of shock and admiration.

Tong Jia thought to herself, This is just the beginning. If you stay in the workplace long enough and aren’t the type to meekly accept losses, you’ll also learn many strange and clever negotiation skills.

Wang Ze was admitted to the hospital, but within a couple of days, he passed away. It wasn’t due to anyone deliberately seeking revenge; rabies is a highly acute infectious disease with a 100% mortality rate once symptoms appear. The entire process from the onset of symptoms to death can take as little as a week.

Reportedly, in his final moments, Wang Ze experienced extreme thirst but was terrified of water. He couldn’t stand the windows being open because he was afraid of the wind. The curtains had to stay drawn because he feared the light. In the end, he was reduced to a state that was neither fully human nor fully monstrous.

Many people privately commented that living like that was meaningless; death was a release. Since Wang Ze’s family couldn’t be contacted, the company took care of his funeral arrangements. When they later checked his account, they found several tens of thousands of yuan in savings.

People familiar with Wang Ze said that he didn’t have many hobbies except for occasionally smoking. He usually stayed at the company, ate at the company, and had no other expenses. Zhao Zechen was baffled when he learned this, wondering why Wang Ze, who wasn’t short on money, was so resistant to getting vaccinated.

The moment Wang Ze passed away, a transparent panel automatically popped up in front of Yun Xin.

**[Congratulations, player! You have survived in the scenario “Wild Cat Injury Incident” (ID: 113179).]**

**[Because you prevented further danger and avoided additional human injuries, your evaluation is “C”. Reward attribute points: Agility +0.1, Stamina +0.2.]**

Even though Wang Ze had died, the matter was far from over. The customer was still in the hospital, and calming his anger and expressing the hotel’s apology was the top priority. The manager was overwhelmed, running to the hospital daily to offer comfort. To make matters worse, the boss had gone on a business trip and wouldn’t be back for a while, leaving the manager fully responsible for placating the customer.

In private, Tong Jia confided in Yun Xin, “You know, our boss never goes on business trips. He just saw a mess he didn’t want to clean up, so he went on a vacation and dumped everything on the manager.”

“Profits go to the boss, troubles to the manager. Everyone would praise the boss for being shrewd,” Tong Jia remarked cynically.

Yun Xin was quite surprised. “The boss is really at ease leaving everything to the manager.”

Tong Jia scoffed. “Do you think this is the first time the manager has been left to clean up a mess?”

In other words, the boss had pulled this stunt so many times that the manager had become quite experienced in dealing with it.

Yun Xin was speechless. “Even a dog would shake its head at this.”

Thanks to her extraordinary strength, Yun Xin was quite popular in the kitchen. As the head chef put it, “With that kind of strength, not using it to flip pans is a real waste.” Unfortunately, Yun Xin had no intention of learning to cook. She just occasionally helped with chopping vegetables or lend a hand with various tasks.

Over time, she became quite familiar with the apprentices in the kitchen. Whenever there were any tasty treats, they would sneak her a portion. One leisurely day, the apprentices were gathered together, chatting away. Yun Xin, as the honorary kitchen helper, sat nearby, listening to their banter while enjoying her special snack: corn cakes.

Corn cakes were a specialty snack at the hotel, known for their fragrant, sweet, and soft texture, with a hint of sweetness that was especially delightful when freshly baked. Sometimes, when the head chef craved them, he would personally make a batch, keeping some for himself and giving some to Yun Xin. However, today the apprentices were practicing, and after tasting a small piece, they gave the rest to her.

“Seriously, isn’t our boss too stingy? It’s bad enough that he pays us little, but he’s always finding ways to dock our wages. Does he need the money for his miserly disease treatment or something?” one person complained angrily.

“I heard that not only the hotel but even this entire building belongs to the boss. How can someone so rich be so stingy? I just don’t get it,” another added.

“Xiaolin from the cleaning department is a good friend of mine. She mentioned that while cleaning, she noticed cracks appearing on the building’s pillars and walls… With the boss being so stingy, I’m really worried he might be using shoddy materials,” someone shared with concern.

“No way…” everyone was shocked upon hearing this.

“Now that you mention it, I remember something too,” another person hesitated before speaking. “Someone told me that the mirror on the dressing table in the second-floor guest room broke, and there are cracks in the beams in the lobby. It all happened just in the last couple of days.”

Before chatting, they had made sure the kitchen door was locked. However, they couldn’t guarantee that no one present would let something slip. So, instead of mentioning names, they sometimes used “someone” to refer to people, as everyone understood from their numerous casual chats.

As soon as this was mentioned, others started to get excited, their voices unintentionally getting louder. “Is it true? Are you sure it’s not someone intentionally causing damage?”

“It sounds so terrifying! It’s enough to make someone want to resign and run away overnight.”

“If only the boss were more reliable, I wouldn’t be this anxious right now.”

“Should we inform the boss and ask him to fix it?”

Several people looked at each other, contemplating. “Who’s going to do it? Speaking up might just get us a scolding from the boss.”

“And there’s a possibility of being treated unfairly.”

“How about we just pretend we don’t know? If the situation gets worse, someone else might bring it up.”

After some discussion, they unanimously agreed that this was the best course of action.