"Don't get a fever."
"Please don't get a fever."
Lu Li stood next to the window of his rented studio, silently praying in his heart.
He shook his wet hair and looked outside at the torrential night rain pounding against the glass, unable to resist cursing, "Damn weather forecast, it's never accurate."
This morning, the weather forecast showed no rain.
Who knew that after finishing his part-time job and taking the bus home, he'd encounter a downpour.
Because there were several hundred meters between the bus stop and his rented house, he had to run through the rain and ended up soaked to the bone.
Lu Li lowered his head, lit up the phone screen placed on the computer desk beside him, and saw it was already 7:12 PM.
"Almost time."
He pulled out the mercury thermometer from his armpit and held it up to the light.
Lu Li squinted his eyes to observe carefully, only to see it read 36.8°.
Normal body temperature.
He breathed a sigh of relief, "Thankfully, no fever."
Getting a cold and fever is a common occurrence for ordinary people.
However, for him, catching a cold and fever could be a life-threatening matter.
Lu Li had experienced two particularly severe high fevers in his lifetime, and the memories still filled him with fear.
The first time was when he was five years old.
It's said that his fever went up to around 40 degrees, and he was nearly beyond saving at the time.
This incident was quite some time ago, and Lu Li doesn't remember it well, only hearing his parents mention it occasionally.
As for the second time, it happened a couple of years ago and was even more serious.
He truly felt as if he had seen his grandmother who had passed away years ago.
Even though Lu Li managed to survive until the fever subsided with a strong will to live, the aftereffects remained... well, it was thanks to the antipyretics.
Because of this, he's particularly afraid of getting a fever.
Lu Li put the thermometer back into its plastic tube and placed it in the drawer.
He thought it was still a bit risky, "Better take a hot shower to warm up."
With that in mind, he took out clean pajamas from the wardrobe, ready to shower.
He opened the door.
Lu Li saw the bathroom door on the opposite side locked, with the lights on inside, clearly indicating someone was there.
He didn't need to guess who it was; it was definitely the woman across the hall who often went out with heavy makeup at night.
The house Lu Li rented had three families living in it.
Besides him, next door was a young couple working at a factory.
Typically, this couple wouldn't get home until around eight o'clock.
So with the bathroom lights on, it wouldn't be anyone else.
It could only be the third tenant in the shared house.
That is, the woman across the hall who seemed a bit like a hostess.
His family conditions were quite average.
He spent the last half of last year playing around after graduating from school.
It wasn't until the first half of this year that he found a job.
Overall, he had only worked for a little over a month.
Therefore, Lu Li didn't have much money.
There was no way he could afford to rent a whole place by himself.
He had to opt for relatively cheap shared accommodations.
Thinking about the issue of renting made Lu Li feel a bit stressed.
"Rent's due tomorrow — 800 bucks, and I only have 970 left in my account. How am I supposed to survive the week until payday with just 170 left?"
He kind of regretted renewing his Youku membership for 25 yuan yesterday.
With someone in the bathroom, Lu Li couldn't just walk in.
He retreated to the edge of the bed and sat down.
Mindlessly scrolling through TikTok.
This was one of his daily pleasures and entertainment.
One video.
Three videos.
Before long, Lu Li had mindlessly scrolled through TikTok for ten to fifteen minutes.
For some reason, that woman across the hall hadn't come out of the bathroom yet.
Even though it was early summer, the nights were quite chilly.
And with today's rain, the temperature was especially low.
After waiting for fifteen or twenty minutes, Lu Li started shivering a bit from the cold.
At this moment, he came across an intriguing TikTok video.
In the video, a young man with a middle-part haircut introduced an enticing topic:
"Those friends who frequently think about evolution might know that there are certain regions in the human genome that are crucial to the characteristics and evolutionary history of humans."
Hearing this topic, Lu Li couldn't help but feel a shiver through his whole body, his face taking on a look of seriousness.
Frequent thinkers about evolution might know?
What an unusual opening!
Having never evolved himself, Lu Li was naturally interested in this kind of "folk science popularization."
He blinked and looked carefully at the screen.
At this moment, the host posed another thought-provoking question, "As we know, certain regions in the human genome are believed to be crucial to human genetic traits and evolutionary history. These regions are known as gene locks, as they can control and regulate the expression and function of human genes. So, what would happen if all the gene locks were unlocked?"
Yeah.
If all the gene locks were unlocked, what would happen?
Lu Li watched with great interest, curious to hear what nonsense the host would say.
Suddenly, there was a soft "click" from the direction of the bathroom.
He quickly peeked through the door crack.
Only to see two slender legs stepping into plastic slippers and "thump thump" into the bedroom across the hall.
Lu Li immediately double-tapped to like the video, then grabbed the clean pajamas from the bed and dashed into the bathroom.
Hmm, he was still planning to listen to more of the host's ramblings about evolution after his shower.
...
The bathroom was filled with steam.
A scent of Lux lavender shower gel filled the air.
To be honest, it smells quite nice.
Lu Li took off his glasses and went straight in for a hot shower.
The warm flow washed over him from head to toe.
His body, which had been chilled, felt much better at this moment.
He probably washed for about ten minutes.
Lu Li felt significantly warmer all over, then turned off the shower head valve and dried his body with a towel.
He stepped outside.
He put his glasses back on, intending to find his toothbrush cup.
The bathroom was so steamy.
His glasses fogged up completely.
Helplessly, he had to take off his glasses and muttered, "If I had known I would become so nearsighted, I wouldn't have played games as a kid."
Lu Li squinted to distinguish which toothbrush cup was his.
The downside of severe myopia is that even nearby things appear very blurry.
Lu Li was even pondering whether he should get laser treatment once his finances stabilize.
"Found it."
He picked up the toothbrush cup in the middle.
Ran the water.
Squeezed the toothpaste.
Started brushing his teeth.
Lu Li stared at his chubby figure in the bathroom mirror while brushing his teeth.
He joked to himself, "Nearsighted people have to squint to find a toothbrush cup, yet they can see the fatty in the mirror clearly."
No money.
A bit overweight.
No wonder he couldn't find a girlfriend.
Lu Li couldn't help but sigh.
Actually, he wasn't always this heavy.
He only gained weight after being seriously ill a couple of years ago.
It wasn't just the weight; Lu Li always felt physically "weak."
Though he ate a lot every day, little came out.
If he hadn't been to the hospital and confirmed everything was okay, he would have really worried about what was wrong with him.
"That time I caught a cold and fever, almost cost me my life."
Precisely because of that, Lu Li was particularly afraid of getting wet and catching a cold or fever.
He wasn't sure if he would survive like two years ago if he had another fever.
...
After washing up, he returned to his room.
He took out the hairdryer and dried his hair.
Lu Li initially planned to lie in bed and check Douyin.
Who would have thought a message from his supervisor suddenly popped up in the WeChat work group, "@everyone."
Lu Li valued his job very much and quickly switched to WeChat to see what the supervisor had to say.
In the WeChat group, the supervisor wrote: "The May Day holiday is almost over, the new manager will take over tomorrow, everyone should avoid taking leave unless necessary, and arrive early to clean up, reply once you have read this message."
"Read."
"Don't worry, boss."
Colleagues flooded the chat with their replies.
Lu Li followed up with his response: "Read."
He had already heard about the new manager's takeover when he interviewed and joined a month ago.
Apparently, the company had performed well, catching the attention of the trillion US Dollar market-cap Liu Group, one of the Fortune Global 500 companies.
After multiple rounds of negotiations, the parties reached a merger agreement.
Liu Group invested 3.3 billion RMB to acquire 53% of the shares and obtained management rights.
Hence, Liu Group is sending over a new management team.
The new manager was said to be a direct descendant of the Liu Clan.
As the saying goes, new officials burn three fires as soon as they take office.
The new manager might take bold initiatives to restructure the company.
Such as cutting some unnecessary departments.
Persuading some underperforming employees to leave, etc.
Lu Li had just secured this decent-paying job and didn't want to collide with the new manager during the company's leadership change.
He had his reasons to value his job so highly.
First, love for the job.
Second, a sense of mission, to live up to his duties.
Third, he was too poor.
Fourth...the first and second reasons didn't matter at all!
Alright, there was no reason Lu Li valued his job other than being poor.
There were only nine hundred and seventy yuan left in his bank account.
Rent of eight hundred yuan was due the next day.
Next was a week's worth of living expenses until payday.
He couldn't help but lament, "If I had money, would I be willing to be just a corporate slave?"
"Forget it. I'll get up early tomorrow, better not browse Douyin to avoid sleeping too late and not being able to get up."
Then, he put his phone down to charge.
He didn't even watch the scientific video he was interested in.
Turned off the light.
Lu Li tucked himself in, ready to sleep.
"Achoo!"
Another sneeze escaped him.
He had a bad feeling, "Am I going to catch a cold and fever again?"