Chapter 6 Dead Rat
The new leader hadn't shown up yet, and rumors within the R&D team were growing increasingly outrageous. Because of several rumored layoffs, the new leader was becoming a Zhang Xianzhong-like figure, ready to chop off heads as his first act.
It wasn't until the Human Resources Department announced that Kuang Jia was leaving that layoffs finally turned from a fleeting rumor into a heavy guillotine, the blade of which could fall on anyone's neck at any time.
The internal competition within the group was almost exposed, and the atmosphere plummeted to a freezing point. The previous camaraderie of shared leadership faded completely, and everyone was busy burying their heads in their keyboards, striving for the final wave of sales before the New Year.
This is the short-sighted common sense of the test-takers at prestigious schools: if they have to cut, they must cut the worst-performing students; if their scores are higher than others, they will be safe. After all, all their achievements in life were achieved through high scores.
Being in a competitive environment where it's a life-and-death struggle, Meng Weishen became lazy and didn't want to stay at his workstation any longer.
But if he wasn't at work, he had nowhere else to go. It just so happened that Jiang Ranxu wasn't seeing patients anymore, so he'd been turned away for days, leaving him to waste time in the stinking work area.
He knew that it was because of Kuang Jia's departure that he lost his direction and could only drift forward like a hollow piece of driftwood, pushed by the water around him.
Moreover, he always felt that the smell in his work area was getting worse and worse, so bad that he could not concentrate on his work at all.
It was a stench that could evoke panic, sour, and dull. He searched his memory for a similar smell, only to find it on an extremely hot summer vacation when the power suddenly went out in the old house. He had just finished training in the provincial capital a week later. The moment his mother opened the door, the stench was so overwhelming that it nearly knocked them to the ground. He fought back the nausea and began to investigate, finally following a trail of pale pink blood to five pounds of rotting, maggot-infested beef in the refrigerator.
During lunch break, the roast duck takeaway from the guy at the table in front of me acted like an odor volatile, causing the stench in the work area to have a layered effect.
Meng Weishen felt dizzy and finally exploded in silence. He reached out and grabbed the guy sitting in front of him, wanting to lock him in the shower room for a makeover. The guy in front of him repeatedly protested that he had just taken a shower yesterday and rubbed his armpits smooth.
Meng Weishen calmed down and decided to learn from past experience and carefully investigate the source of the odor. He first checked Zhang San's shoe box, then Li Si's snack cabinet, and finally Wang Wu's trash can... He finally used the process of elimination to come up with the answer:
There was something wrong with the ventilation system above their heads.
On the day the property management came for emergency repairs, the new leader Lin Zhesi heard about the person before he saw him. He joined the group chat with a Greek sculpture head in the first second and threw out several generous red envelopes in the next second.
[Zeus Lin] Hello everyone, good morning! I'm Zeus Lin, and I'll be taking on the role of R&D Manager. Because I haven't yet completed the handover from my previous position, I'll be staying in Shenzhen for a while and won't be back in our beautiful capital until after the Lunar New Year. I look forward to working with you all!
As the maintenance workers moved, dust from the ceiling continuously fell onto their workstations, and coughs and sneezes echoed around them. Meng Weishen was busy cleaning his desk with wet wipes. Before he could even grab his first red envelope, he received a series of private messages from his new boss.
[Zeus Lin] Wesley, the points mall module that you are currently following up on will be handed over to someone else starting this week, so you don’t need to do it anymore.
[Zeus Lin] As for your subsequent division of labor, we will communicate in person when I return to the company after the New Year.
[Zeus Lin] By the way, I see you didn't take a single day of annual leave last year. How did your previous boss arrange it? Young people should learn to balance work and rest. You should take annual leave after handing over the project.
Meng Weishen pressed the tip of his tongue against the groove of his canine teeth, repeatedly studying the private message from his new leader, Brother Zeus, until the root of his tongue began to feel sore.
He truly didn't understand the other party's intentions. Was he trying to win him over? To isolate him in disguise? Or was he simply trying to optimize the division of labor across the team as a new official?
Of course, a holiday is a good thing. If he can really apply for ten days of annual leave, plus the company's ten-day Spring Festival holiday, he can buy a plane ticket back home this Friday and rest until next year.
Meng Weishen had just replied "OK, got it" to Zeus when a charcoal-colored shadow suddenly fell into his peripheral vision. Before he could identify the shape of the shadow, the unlucky guy at the table in front of him had already jumped up as if he had been electrocuted, and his scream made his scalp tingle:
"Rat! Dead rat!"
To be precise, the falling shadow was actually a mummified rat, shattered on the polished floor and emitting a familiar stench. Judging from its degree of decay, it may have been sleeping in the vent duct for a whole winter.
While management was urgently dispatching cleaning tools, the work area was already in turmoil, and no one could concentrate on their work. The guy at the front desk, who was closest to the dead rat, had already rushed to the bathroom to retch, leaving the aroma of roast duck to continue to cling to the stench.
Meng Weishen was relatively calm. He quickly recalled that when he was investigating the source of the smell, he found several bottles of disinfectant in Kuang Jia's office that she had not taken away. They would come in handy now.
Meng Weishen fetched disinfectant by himself. Under the horrified gaze of his colleagues, he unscrewed the bottle cap, directed the liquid at the mummified rat corpse, and poured it all over it.
As if by some strange coincidence, he heard Kuang Jia's voice at this moment: "It's just a trivial matter, why are you arguing? Get back to work!"
Although Kuang Jia lost her job, her prestige remained. Everyone had to admit that she was born with leadership qualities. When she appeared, the crowd was like a dead rat doused in disinfectant, and they became quiet along with the stench.
Meng Weishen was caught red-handed using his boss's personal belongings. Before he could react, Kuang Jia looked at him intently, "Wesley, come to my office. I have something to tell you."
——
During the days when he was not seeing patients, Jiang Ranxu knew that Meng Weishen had come to see him several times, but he deliberately avoided meeting him.
It’s not that he doesn’t want to, but his condition has been really bad recently, so he can’t.
The root of all evil occurred at the free clinic at the primary school last week.
His mentor, a retired man in his sixties (who calls himself a miracle doctor), also has a knack for marketing. Of course, free clinics aren't just about charity; they're also a beautifully packaged marketing ploy.
The location of the free clinic was unusual. His mentor somehow managed to connect him with a bilingual international primary school in Haidian District.
The doctors settled into the student activity center, which resembled a small castle. Once they were equipped with their equipment, the life teacher brought in a group of chicks in black uniforms, and the air was filled with the scent of fluffy chicks.
The life teacher clapped her hands, and the cubs immediately formed a long, untidy line, like mushrooms growing after rain. They were quiet for less than half a minute before they started talking again, until the life teacher clapped her hands again to stop them.
Jiang Ranxu first performed a basic examination on the cubs, recording the conditions of tooth decay, malocclusion and deformity one by one, and issued admission certificates to those with more serious problems; Sister Ni and two other assistants were responsible for preparing fluoride coating materials, distributing dental brackets and paper cups filled with fluoride foam, and then watching the cubs spit out bubbles like crabs.
Jiang Ranxu has developed a relatively fixed process for coaxing young patients, which is applicable to every cub:
"Come on, open your mouth and keep saying 'ah'."
"It will be a little cold. If you feel uncomfortable, you can raise your hand."
"Very good, you did a great job, just hold on a little longer, it will be over soon."
"Go get some foam from Auntie later and give your teeth a bath. Remember not to swallow it. You'll do great."
The morning went smoothly. The pups at this elementary school were generally well behaved, and they didn't encounter any rolling around or squeaking.
There were still three classes left to apply fluoride in the afternoon. During lunch break, a few of us stayed at the activity center to rest and recuperate, and even had a standard meal of three dishes and one soup in the elementary school cafeteria.
Jiang Ranxu sampled a few Kung Pao shrimp balls and thought they were just as good as those at a decent restaurant. If Sister Ni hadn't urged him to tidy up his free clinic records that morning, this would have been a very comfortable lunch.
Jiang Ranxu sent the free medical consultation record to Sister Ni, and the subsequent work of impressing the parents was handed over to the outpatient front desk.
The cubs had gone back to the dormitory for a nap, and the activity center maintained a drowsy silence. The sound of hot water flowing through the radiator became clearer.
Jiang Ranxu was about to take a short break when he heard the sound of an automatic door opening and closing. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a short, stocky man in his sixties approaching, with a hunched back and a ragged cotton-padded jacket that looked out of place in an international elementary school. It was impossible to tell who he was.
"Are you a doctor?" The man raised his cloudy eyes and spoke with a heavy accent, making it extremely difficult to understand.
Jiang Ranxu nodded.
“Is it free?”
Jiang Ranxu nodded.
“I’m free too?”
Jiang Ranxu hesitated for a moment and nodded: "Okay, please open your mouth as much as you can."
Admittedly, the teeth were ugly and reeked of decay. The front teeth and canines were crooked and protruding, jagged and dotted with spots of decay like flint. The inner molars were even more severely decayed, and one or two were so corroded that only black roots remained. The moment an instrument touched the adjacent tooth socket, the man let out a muffled sound of pain.
"I don't want the inspection. I just want the foam, the free one. All the students in my daughter's class can get it for free." The man whimpered.
With teeth this rotten, applying fluoride is pointless. Jiang Ranxu put away the mouth mirror. "I've finished dispensing the foam. I'll start dispensing the medicine around one o'clock. Please wait over there for a while."
Jiang Ranxu bought cephalexin and losolo tablets on the food delivery app, which could at least provide some emergency treatment for the other party's rotten teeth.
However, the life teacher arrived before the takeaway, and only had time to send him a guilty look from a distance, and then grabbed the man who was waiting for the medicine:
"Dad! I told you not to come to me during class. Come back with me now!"
"Is it your father?" Jiang Ranxu suggested. "He has a serious tooth decay, and the dental pulp may have been rotten. You should get treatment as soon as possible. But I don't do root canals often. You can go to a convenient hospital to make an appointment. You don't have to wait in line at Peking University Stomatology. Any hospital with a dental department will do."
The life teacher nodded repeatedly, anxiously trying to drag the man away. However, the man stood up slowly, mumbling something as he left, but it was hard to hear clearly.
"Wow. Father and daughter? They don't look alike at all. His daughter looks quite elegant." Sister Ni joked casually. After the little farce was over, several people continued to prepare the equipment for the free clinic in the afternoon.
When Jiang Ranxu took off his gloves, he felt a sharp pain and realized that there was a cut on the back of his hand, and dark red blood was flowing out.
Dentistry involves handling the most sharp instruments, and occupational exposure is common. He remained calm, managing his flushing time reasonably well. He then took cotton balls and iodine to give the wound a simple disinfection.
At that moment, the automatic door opened, and the life teacher returned alone. She stood next to them, as if in punishment, with the backs of her hands folded in front of her, then pressed against the sides of her trouser seams.
Jiang Ranxu said, "That's perfect. You can take the medicine back and give it to your father for emergency use."
Then the other party hesitated to extend his hand and said, "Doctor, why don't you go to the hospital quickly? I will pay for the examination."
"What's wrong?"
The other person lowered his head, not daring to meet his eyes. "My dad, he worked in a not very clean environment in his early years. I mean, he is a carrier of the hepatitis B virus."
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