Chapter 268 A New Little Guest
Her head seemed to have not yet recovered from the pain of the hangover. The first thing Akai Muzi did when she arrived at school was to find a seat to sit down, lean back, support her forehead with her right hand, and face the sky.

She squinted her eyes, hoping it would make her feel better.

Actually, if I think about it carefully, I haven’t drunk like this for a long time, right?

The last time I drank like this was when I ran into trouble in the United States.

At that time, I faced the reality and recognized my own strength.

I am by no means a genius, just an ordinary person. My hard work for several years is not as good as others' efforts for one month.

"Hey! Muzi."

Usami Tamaki, who had just arrived at the office, leaned her head over and spoke to her, holding a tablet in her hand.

"What?" Akai Muzi responded lazily.

"You studied in the United States before, right?"

"Ah."

"I remember you mentioned this school was called something?"

"Ithaca"

"Yes, Ithaca! That's the name!"

"Why are you suddenly talking about this?" Muzi asked.

"Hey, let me show you a video."

Usami Tamaki quickly handed over the tablet, and Akai Muzi took it and quickly saw the words [Award-winning Ithaca Conservatory of Music and New York Philharmonic Orchestra at the Berlin Music Exhibition] on the video title.

Akai Muzi: “.”

"Muzi, do you know anyone inside?"

".Lillian Fox, Javier Rodriguez, Olivia Mason."

"You really know me!"

"We've practiced together many times."

It's just that I've never been an official member.
Akai Muzi opened her mouth but ultimately didn't say this.

Seeing these faces again after more than a year, Akai Muzi unconsciously glanced at them.

Soon, her eyes fixed on the smiling face of one of the young girls.

Ella.

He looks quite young and his actual age is also quite young.

I am only nineteen years old this year.

Where she is now
Akai Muzi wanted to laugh at herself again.

Has he become the principal of the orchestra's woodwind section?
Akai Muzi looked at the title carefully again and saw the words [Won the Berlin Music Award] behind the orchestra.

She became even more silent.

"Why did you want to show me this video?"

"I just happened to see it. I was just curious if you recognized the people in it. You said before that you studied abroad in Ithaca. By the way, Muzi, why do you have dark circles under your eyes? Didn't you get enough rest?"

".No, nothing."

Usami Tamaki quickly returned to her workstation to prepare for the morning meeting, and Akai Muko also began to do the same thing.

She was just writing, but she always felt distracted, as if she was not interested in the work.
Not as interested as before.

Everything seems meaningless.

I always feel like something is blocking my heart and I feel depressed.

Akai Muzi knew that something was wrong and she should find a place to relax by herself.

But we have to do nothing.

Today is Monday, and as the class teacher, she must be responsible for this job.

As Akai Muzi wrote, her brows furrowed deeper and deeper, until she felt her stomach churning. Then her headache became more and more severe, and her stomach ached so much that she wanted to dry heave.

She held her stomach and hurriedly stood up, said hello to Usami who was busy working, then walked out of the office to find the nearest toilet, but she was staggering halfway and felt very uncomfortable.

"Akai-sensei?"

Fortunately, the school doctor who had just arrived at work found Akai Muzi and discovered that she was in a bad condition. The school doctor immediately stepped forward to support her, took her to the school clinic for examination, and immediately gave her some painkillers.

"You're hungover, right? Come here."

"Thank you." Akagi Muzi took the cup of warm water and the pills.

"How much did Akai-sensei drink yesterday?"

Akai Muzi drank the water very slowly, her face showing fatigue. "Well, I accidentally drank a little more. I didn't remember that today is Monday."

"Then you should be more careful. What you just vomited was all water. You have diarrhea now and you are almost dehydrated."

Akai Muzi nodded slightly, but her eyes were a little dazed.

Her brows were still slightly furrowed, and sweat was faintly seeping out of her forehead.

She stayed in the school infirmary for a while, and as the painkillers took effect, her condition improved slightly.

"Why don't you ask for leave from school today? How can you attend class in this state?"

".It's okay, I feel much better now."

"The painkillers are just taking effect. Although you will definitely feel much better after taking some stomach medicine, if you don't catch up on some sleep, you will definitely still feel a little dizzy."

"fine."

"Teacher Akai, please stop being so stubborn. Can you really still attend the class?"

"It's okay."

Akai Muzi sat in the school infirmary for a while before leaving.

The dizzy feeling just now has disappeared. It is now time for the morning meeting. Akai came to the office and began to pack the things to take to the classroom.

"Muzi! Muzi!"

As I walked out of the door, someone suddenly came from the right side of the corridor. It was Usami Tamaki.

"Muzi, I just looked for you for a long time. You left your phone in the office and didn't bring it with you."

"What's wrong?" Akai Muzi saw that she was flustered.

"Just now the Dean of Academic Affairs said that Mr. Fujii caught a cold over the weekend and went to the hospital. He is taking a day off today. The Dean of Academic Affairs asked you to cover Mr. Fujii's class today. Of course, your salary will be calculated as double overtime pay!"

"Ashu has caught a cold again?"

"Yes, yes," Usami Tamaki crossed her arms and nodded to herself, "I didn't quite believe it when I heard it. Why does Mr. Fujii always catch a cold? But the academic affairs office said that Mr. Fujii sent me an appointment form for his hospital appointment. Now I have to believe that Mr. Fujii has caught a cold again."

"."

"But it's normal. The weather is getting colder in October. It's easy to catch a cold when the seasons change. I caught a cold a little on the weekend. Oh, oh, oh, I won't say so much nonsense. Muzi, can you please let me do it?"

"What's wrong with substitute teaching?"

Akai Muzi agreed without hesitation, "Besides, can you teach Chinese?"

"Just ask Mr. Fujii to send me a lesson plan and I'll read it. It's not that difficult!"

"You can't even understand the lesson plan he wrote."

"Strange, can you understand that Muzi?"

"Okay, I'll go to class first then."

"OK~~"

Akai Muzi separated from her colleagues and started walking towards the classroom. On the way, she received a call. It was Fujii Itsuki who asked her to help cover the get out of class and to express his apologies.

Fujii Itsuki's voice on the phone was very muffled and his nose was sniffing. He really had a cold.

[Sorry to trouble you again.]
Akai Muzi held the phone and said with a smile: "It's not like I haven't helped you before, why are you saying this again."

After a pause of one second, she asked again: "Are you alone in the hospital?"

[yes. ]
"They didn't accompany you?"

[They thought, I let them go to school, it's just a cold, it's a small matter, but I'm troubling you again, Muzi.]
"Look, Shu, you're saying this again."

[Um. ]
After exchanging a few words, Akai Muzi asked Fujii Itsuki to pay more attention to his health and then hung up the phone.

She has to take over Fujii Itsuki's class today. He is in charge of three classes, and plus her own class, so today's work is extremely heavy.

After the morning meeting, it was time for classes. After the first class, it was followed by the second class, and then the third, fourth, and fifth classes in the morning.
By noon, Akai Muzi felt a little tired, but she didn't complain and continued to attend classes as planned. During the lunch break, she spent her lunch break looking at the lesson plans she had written and the lesson plans written by Fujii Itsuki.

When I feel tired, I make some instant coffee, massage my eyebrows, and then continue working.

When I moved the mouse, my hand accidentally touched the cup and the coffee spilled onto the table.

Akai Muzi quickly took some tissues to wipe it, but found that there were no more tissues left. She ran to the next office and found a rag to wipe the table.

After finishing everything and sitting back at her workstation, Akai Muzi found that she had actually forgotten where she had written the notes on Fujii Itsuki's lesson plan.

She frowned and slid the mouse wheel. The page was full of densely packed words. For a moment she couldn't find her original place at all. It gave her a headache.

Akai Muzi held her forehead with some pain, closed her eyes and rested for a short while.

When she closed her eyes, the words her mother had said to her in the morning inexplicably began to flash through her mind.

Is it worth it?
Is it worth it?
Muzi, do you think it's worth it?
Perhaps, in the eyes of others, this is definitely not worth it.
You won't get anything, so why take it so seriously? Even if you're just a substitute teacher, you can just muddle through. Why do you have to be so responsible?

Akai Muzi didn't know how to tell her mother how she felt.

Everything that happened after I met him in the past seemed like a dream.

Every day is full of happiness and hope.

I wake up every day with a sense of positive excitement.

Every time she came to school, she would look out the window to see if the other person had come to school.

At that time, whenever I saw him from afar walking in from the school gate with his schoolbag on his back, I couldn't help but smile secretly. The smile made my heart sweet and happy. Then I took advantage of the few moments after class to go to him and ask him some questions under the pretext of the club and chat with him.
"Hmm? So every time you come to ask me questions, you just want to chat with me secretly?"

"Well, I can't find anyone else to chat with."

"You didn't like me then, did you?"

"What else~"

'What if we break up one day?'

"You're thinking about breaking up right after you started dating! You'll get beaten up by girls if you say that!"

"Sorry, I just wanted to ask out of curiosity."

"Look at your smile and your curiosity, you just want to be beaten! Get beaten!"

"Hey, don't hit me. Don't you know how strong you are from doing housework since you were a child? It hurts so much."

'I'll beat you! I'll beat you!'

'Why don't you fight?'

"I'm tired of fighting, but I can answer you now. I will definitely not break up with you!"

"Is this true?"

'It must be true! You have such good grades, you will definitely go to Tokyo or Kyoto in the future. Don't worry! I will definitely follow you!'

"Well, let me put it this way. I'll wait for you to catch up with me, Akai."

'Now call me Muzi!'

"Ah~~Yes, Muzi."

Akai Muzi, who had been holding her head, opened her eyes again, and what came into her sight was the densely packed lesson plan that looked very difficult to her.

Looking at these words written by Fujii Itsuki, these methods, these overly concise summaries, Akai Muzi couldn't help but lower her head and murmured:
".In the end, I never caught up with you."

Akai Muzi calmed down, put away her memories, and continued working patiently.

The class started at 1:30 in the afternoon. Akai Muzi came to Class A and told Fujii Itsuki's students about his leave.

"Teacher Fujii has caught a cold again."

"It seems that Mr. Fujii likes catching colds very much."

The students in the class were talking about this and many of them joked that Fujii Itsuki was lazy and that was why he often asked for leave because he had a cold.

In the whole class, apart from Jiuhuayue and the other three, only Hiiragi Rinka lowered her head, blushed, and was so nervous that she was sweating.

Akai Muzi noticed that something was wrong with Hiiragi Rinka and called her to her office after class.

"Physical discomfort?"

".No, no."

Akagi Muzi reached out and touched her forehead, frowned and said, "Why do you have a fever too?"

Hiiragi Rinka knew she couldn't hide it anymore, so she nervously explained, "Well, it was because it was Saturday and the wind blew a little at night."

"Didn't go to bed in time?"

"No, no." Hiiragi Rinka shook her head.

"Did you stay up late playing games? Or did you read comics?"

"It's not because of this. My parents are on a business trip these days. I accidentally lost my keys."

When Hiiragi Rinka said the three words "lost", her face inexplicably turned redder and her voice became more shy.

Akai Muzi noticed this, but because she didn't know the cause and effect, she didn't care much.

"So you haven't been sleeping in the corridor these past two days?"

"I stayed outside my house all night on the first day, and on the second day I went out and found a capsule hotel to stay in. Then in the afternoon of the second day I found that I had a slight cold."

".So you can't go home these few days?"

"Ah."

"How long will it take for your parents to come back?"

"About half a month left."

Akai Muzi frowned, "Is the money given by our parents enough?"

"Everything is at home. The bank card is also at home."

"."

"Did you buy medicine?"

Hiiragi Rinka still shook her head.

I don’t even have money to buy medicine.

Akai Muzi thought about it seriously, "Then Rinka, how about you come and stay at my house for a few days?"

"Ah?!" Hiiragi Rinka suddenly looked up and put her hands on the chest of her sailor uniform, "Won't this be troublesome to the teacher?"

"Look at you. You've spent almost all the pocket money you brought with you in the past two days. Now you have nothing left. You can't even afford medicine, and you're still talking about this. Your parents won't be back for another half a month. How are you going to hold on? It's settled. You're going to stay at your teacher's house for the next few days."

Akai Muzi smiled at her, "Or do you not trust the teacher? Do you think the teacher will do something bad to you at night?"

"This, this definitely doesn't exist!"

"Actually, the teacher likes cute girls."

Hiiragi Rinka just looked at her: "."

I forgot that Rinka is not a joker.

Akai Muzi cleared her throat, "Well, that's it, stay in the classroom after the club activities in the afternoon and go back with me."

"good"

(End of this chapter)