1 Ch. 1 : 24 Hours Before the Outbreak

" Shi Xiao! Upstairs need previous 3 months report about the sales performance!! "

" Yes, sir! I am on it! "

A guy with sweet dimple and tiger tooth flashed a grin to his colleague, and immediately focused back on a pile of discarded materials in documents library.

He quickly gathered the necessary materials, before loading them with several other materials and with a huff, he pushed the trolley to the elevator and quickly punched the floor destination.

Today is also a busy day!

When he entered the financial accounting department, he was stunned in place as an angry roar coming from a bald uncle.

Several people in front of him were either trembling or bawling.

He saw a man ducking his head behind a desk, and after a second of thinking, he also ducked to the nearby spot.

" Hey! What's going on? " He whispered.

" I don't know! That is our Department's manager, he suddenly come in and called a few names and scold them senseless! "

A nearby staff heard them and scooted closer, and whispered, " I heard the upper management just called Manager Gui up to executive room, then when he goes down, his whole face is super black! Maybe he got scolded upstairs? "

" No way ba! I heard Manager Gui is the CEO's uncle or something, maybe something else happened? "

" Hey, our CEO is 40-years old uncle, look at Manager Gui's face, they should be cousin! "

As they gossiped, the bald uncle stormed off again, this time, the whole department quieted down, before someone took a lead to help the crying mess staffs that have been scolded so badly, then some of them hurriedly gather up the papers on the floor.

He waited for awhile and raised his head to look over, then dragged the trolley to the nearby help center and took a small paper note, looking for the order, then after he found it, he tear the bottom part and quickly put thw sticky note on the respective orders. After checking twice to prevent mistake, he then goes back to his department.

He is hired to the company as an office assistant, his job description is to help sort files and take orders from a department to get something they need, like files from administrative, library, or even coffee from cafeteria, but thankfully, their financial departments is well known for high intensity work, they didn't have any time to spare to bully an insignificant office assistant.

He then opened the app and checked that the files are received and there's no current orders, sighing in relief before deciding to get a juice from cafeteria.

Their cafeteria is on third floor, there's a lot of options, from beverages to snacks. They used all you can eat point system which later deducted from what kind of menus you choose. Usually, the Chinese food are cheapest as it cooked from early morning and only placed on reheating container until lunch time, then the chef busied themselves with other kind of food like Japanese and Korean menus, which is slightly more expensive but still become favorite. But Shi Xiao, who is saving for a better apartment room, he could only wrong himself with cheapest Chinese food. It's not that bad, but some colleague thought he was kind of pitiful but still unconsciously kind of shunned him. It's still okay though, no one bullied him and the payment is really good, as expected of big company.

The rent he aimed for is around 2800 yuan a month, excluding electric and water bills. He managed to talk to the owner to put in on hold, as long as he could pay an advance payment for a year, he can get discount 30% off for 3 months. He know he won't get scammed, because the owner is a well known traditional doctor in the area. He often come to his clinic and he is just kind old doctor who aren't greedy and cunning.

It's been 3 months and he already signed a contract for a year in the company, as long he work hard and restraint himself from buying unnecessary things, he can rent his dream apartment in 4 more months!

Happily daydreaming, he didn't notice that a guy have been coughing badly on one of the table. Many eyes curiously watched over as the guy didn't stop coughing, even seems more and more badly, like he want to cough his lungs out.

A nearby colleague come close and want to check on him, but the guy suddenly slumped and fall over, unconscious as he slipped down the chair to the floor.

Unconsciously, Shi Xiao suddenly feel a hair-raising chill, like a silent premonition.

He then heard some of nearby people began to cough, whether out of discomfort or subconscious reaction, he silently slipped away from the queue and went back to his department via stairs.

There's a lot of people who watched the commotion as they stayed in the cafeteria, but there's some people who also feel discomfort and slipped away too.

Unsurprisingly, he meet someone in the stairs. A fairly good looking guy with expensive looking shirt and silk tie and judging from the frown on his face, he might be some rich executive, so he immediately imitated the person's action of covering his nose and mouth with his tie, before bowing and went upstairs.

" Wait. " A muffled sound stopped him in his track, " You are an office assistant? Which department? "

" I am assisting Financial Department, sir. Is there anything I could help? "

" Yeah, bring me to the your office, is there any mask? "

" I think we do have several boxes. Please, this way. " After all, the office assistant also sometime went down through dusty document from last year to obtain files needed, so there's always some boxes lying around. There's also several boxes of wet wipes and they consciously bring a spare outfit so they didn't get scolded if they encounter some inspection.

The small resting room surprisingly didn't have many people, he dig on his phone and luckily, there's no awaiting order, so he quickly went through the cabinet and found several surgical mask. He then passed a whole box to the guy.

He said a small 'thanks' and grab a nearby wet wipes, then wiped his hands, watch, then his fingers, using 2 different tissues each hands.

' What a meticulous guy. ' Xiao Shi thought, but he also imitate the guy, and even wiped his phone.

They both wear the mask and suddenly an awkward silence reared it's head.

" What time is it? "

" It's... "

" Wait, no, I forgot I have my watch. " The good looking guy stiffly said and looked at his watch, and unconsciously saying out loud, " It's three past thirty. Why there's a lot of people in cafeteria at this time.... "

" Well, many people queue on beverage station, we also often get an order to cafeteria around this time for refreshment. " Then suddenly, a loud rumbling voice come from someone's stomach.

" ... " Both of them awkwardly looking at each other. One with pity and one with stiff embarrassment.

" Sir, do you want to have a cup noodle? "

" I never eaten this kind of instant noodle before. What is this thing on my noodle? "

" It's dried vegetable, sometimes there's also some dried meat. " He skilfully tear open his flavor packet and poured it on the dried noodle. The rich guy (Shi Xiao just found out that the watch is AleXXX brand, which is very expensive for a normal white collar worker) imitated him.

" There's also dried jerky, boiled egg and instant rice. "

" Damn, are you office assistants are all hoarding hamster? Isn't this against rule?? " The rich guy laughed, but Shi Xiao didn't feel offended.

" Not really, other departments also hide chips and what not, plus, we often use energy to run there and here, so we ate a lot. We can also save more money this way. "

" Okay, okay, actually, I also seen the secretary department bring tea bags, coffee powder and snacks to work, but this is the first time I see someone bring instant rice. " Ah, he looks like a secretary indeed.

" Ah, the water is ready. " Shi Xiao the public hot water dispenser, and he took some to poach two eggs he washed clean. Just keep them 5 minutes, you can have a runny boiled egg. For rice, he already cooked a handful in the microwave.

" Eat noodle first. " He grabbed a chopstick and slurped joyfully. The rich guy also opened his mask and finally could eat this instant noodle that smells really amazing.

Both of them busy themselves with noodle, when the microwave rang, Shi Xiao voluntary get up and took the warm rice on the plate with a handkerchief, then cracked the eggs on the table and let the content slide down to the rich guy's cup of noodle.

" You..., you don't eat the egg? " The rich guy is stunned. He clearly thought that both of eggs and rice going to be split up between them.

" I have eaten lunch. Plus I don't have an appetite. " He explained.

" Thank you. " He awkwardly thanked Shi Xiao.

" It's ok. You can just pay me later. "

" Sure. How much? "

" Just 30 yuan. " The noodle is bought for a discount, and he can get 12 packs of instant cup noodles for 52 yuan, the eggs and instant rice, you can just count 10 yuan. But he can see this guy actually clueless about this kind of stuffs, so he poked some more for service fee :)

" ...I don't have coins... "

" You can pay me from wechat? "

" Oh, I do have some money on it. " He then asked his number, added friend, then sent a red packet filled with 500 yuan. Shi Xiao eyes bulged. What kind of kind rich guy is this!

" It's okay, just take it as a bonus. " The rich guy patted the younger guy's shoulder. He feels like he is doing good things, especially to pitiful looking staff in his brother's company.

" What time you guys clock off? "

" Well, today is Friday, if there's no urgent meeting, we can clock off at 5.30. Ah, but for other department, they usually clock off at 5. "

" Why would you guys stay for 30 minutes? "

" Well, I don't know, sometime we just check the files or something...? "

" Okay. Hey, buy some of this beef flavour, next time I am idle, I am going to come here and eat with you. Should I bring some sausage too? I also watch you guys use cheese all over the noodle, let's try them sometime. " Shi Xiao watched the guy enthusiastically talk about instant noodle. Although it's kinda weird, but it's not annoying at all, especially that the partner is an attractive guy.

Unconsciously, the time passed, there's no even an order for a material in whole afternoon. When they noticed someone coming, the rich guy immediately startled away and bid him goodbye before going up with elevator.

Today...is kind of weird day.