“Sang Sang, remember what I’m about to tell you. When you get home, it’s best to do a thorough disinfection. Wash your hands frequently for everything, including eating, drinking, defecating, and urinating. Food and drinking water must be thoroughly cooked before consuming…”
The call connected, and Qin Sang had just started telling Xu Lin about the mutant mugwort when she was caught off guard by his words. She paused for a moment, then quickly caught on: “Has there been some kind of public health emergency?”
Frequent handwashing, making sure food is fully cooked – aren’t those the kinds of recommendations that come with public health events?
In the current state of the world, with temperatures so high and water so scarce, how many families could truly manage both?
Xu Lin didn’t explain too much. “We’re still looking into the specific details. But this incident is likely to be just as bad as the insect tide, if not worse.”
Qin Sang said, “Okay, I understand. By the way, hurry up and send someone to secure the mutant mugwort. I think this patch of mutant mugwort might be able to solve the problem you mentioned.”
As everyone knew, mugwort has been great for disinfection and insect repellent since ancient times. It could be used topically or internally, with numerous benefits. And it was incredibly resilient. It was practically the holy grail of plants.
Xu Lin’s tone lightened slightly. “I’ve already sent people over. After you hand it over to them, hurry back home. The authorities should issue an emergency notice soon.”
Hearing the urgency, Qin Sang’s expression grew even more serious. She ended the call, and Second Aunt immediately asked, “Has something happened?”
Qin Sang didn’t keep her in suspense. “It seems there’s been some kind of public health emergency. The authorities will issue a notice later. They want us to hand things over to the officials and then go straight home.”
Hearing it was that kind of issue, Second Aunt immediately recalled the virus from a few years ago. That virus had nearly brought the entire world to a standstill.
“Okay, okay, okay. Once they get here, we’ll go right back.”
Second Aunt grew anxious because of Qin Sang’s words. Fortunately, the official personnel arrived quickly.
The people who came were a team stationed nearby. Their leader was actually an acquaintance of Qin Sang’s.
“Captain Lin Feng!”
Lin Feng clearly hadn’t expected to run into Qin Sang here either. He nodded and, following his instructions, confirmed the situation regarding the mutant mugwort with Qin Sang.
“Alright, that’s everything. We’ll head back now.”
Lin Feng nodded, then suddenly frowned. “Stay home as much as possible for the next few days. Don’t accept food from outsiders.”
Qin Sang immediately understood the implication of this warning. She nodded slightly, didn’t dawdle, and pulled Second Aunt along, leading the cat and dog corps as they ran straight back to the village.
——
“Oh dear, are there even hospitals anymore?”
“The community hospital should still be taking people in!”
“Hurry up and take them there. Bring plenty of food. Who knows how much food it’ll cost to get this person into the hospital.”
“Right, we paid into medical insurance for so many years, and now it’s all for nothing.”
From a distance, Qin Sang could hear a cacophony of arguing voices. At first, they were talking about which hospital to take someone to. By the end, they were cursing the damned heavens for making all their social insurance and medical insurance payments worthless.
Qin Sang didn’t pay much attention at first. It had been nearly two months since the apocalypse began; it was perfectly normal for people to get sick.
Getting medical care was extremely difficult now. Most hospitals had been merged due to resource constraints. Their community hospital claimed to offer consultations, but only for simple colds and fevers – pretty much like the old clinics. Anything requiring more skill was all routed to the city hospital, which had of course been downsized.
Because they had heard about all the reforms to the hospital system, the villagers had been treating their own colds, fevers, and stomach aches at home, using the basic medicines each household had stocked up on.
“I’m not going to the hospital, not going. Isn’t it just a stomach ache? I’ll take some painkillers and be fine.” The person who had just been writhing on the ground in pain immediately forced themselves to speak upon hearing they might go to the hospital.
Seeing her pitiful state, writhing in pain on top of bug carcasses and then pushing herself up from the pile, many people urged her to go to the hospital anyway.
“Second Aunt, what’s wrong with Eighth Aunt?”
Qin Sang had just run back and, after watching Eighth Aunt perform a dance with the bug pile, calmly asked Second Aunt for details.
Second Aunt was busy counting the cat and dog corps, afraid of losing another one on the way back. Hearing Qin Sang’s question, she said directly, “Nothing’s wrong with her. Eighth Aunt may be forty, but she’s as healthy as can be!”
Qin Sang said, “But she’s writhing in pain right now.”
“Huh…” Second Aunt, who had been busy counting, rushed like the wind towards Eighth Aunt. After all, they were neighbors both in the village and in the basement.
Seeing this, Qin Sang had no choice but to follow.
——
“What’s wrong with Eighth Aunt?”
Second Aunt’s voice was loud. The villagers chattered away, telling her about Eighth Aunt’s condition.
After listening for a moment, Qin Sang heard footsteps behind her.
She lifted her foot and stomped on a few large spiders trying to climb onto her shoes. Then she turned to look at the person behind her. “Qu Meijing, is something wrong?”
Qu Meijing nodded, her eyes filled with fear.
Qin Sang thought: … Has something really happened?
Unaware of Qin Sang’s internal monologue, seeing that Qin Sang looked ready to listen, Qu Meijing rattled off, “I don’t think Eighth Aunt has a simple stomach ache.”
Qin Sang asked, “Can you tell?”
Stomach pain was a symptom of many illnesses. Qin Sang didn’t know how Qu Meijing could be so sure.
However, Qu Meijing shook her head.
Qin Sang said, “Just spit it out. Don’t beat around the bush.”
For a reborn woman, why was she getting so hesitant and full of misgivings?
Qin Sang was at a loss for words.
Qu Meijing, lowering her voice, said, “I think Eighth Aunt has something inside her belly. Neither of you had come back at noon. She was eating outside her tent by herself. I saw something moving in her stomach! It pushed her belly skin up from the inside.”
The way she put it, Qin Sang almost thought she was describing a pregnancy. After all, with an active baby whose limbs have developed well, you really can see the shape of hands and feet pushing against the mother’s belly.
However, Eighth Aunt was forty. And her stomach had always been sunken, looking like she hadn’t had enough to eat.
Qu Meijing shook her head vigorously.
Qin Sang didn’t speak. She focused her attention on Eighth Aunt.
Qu Meijing didn’t seem like she would tell such a lie. There might really be something wrong with Eighth Aunt.
Just as Qin Sang was thinking this, Second Aunt’s cat and dog corps suddenly started barking and howling wildly at Eighth Aunt.
Startled, Second Aunt ran over to soothe the cats and dogs.
The village chief shouted, “Hurry up! Get a stretcher. A Fa, go arrange for a stretcher. The rest of you, help carry Little Ba’s wife onto the stretcher.”
The few aunts and sisters-in-law who were called stepped forward.
But Qin Sang’s mental energy saw something that made her blood run cold.
There was no time to explain. Qin Sang yelled, “Run! Everyone, run!”
The muscle memory built up over many days made the onlookers instinctively obey the command. A few who had never killed bugs before, seeing everyone else run, followed along due to herd mentality.
Everyone reacted quickly. But some things appeared even faster.
In the open space in front of the village office door, only Eighth Aunt was left lying on the ground. Around her were various bug carcasses. About five or six meters further back, many people were still in a state of shock.
Eighth Aunt’s husband, Eighth Uncle, wanted to curse at Qin Sang for yelling randomly. But Qin Sang’s attention wasn’t on him at all.
Because the second before she yelled “Run,” she had sensed something inside Eighth Aunt’s belly struggling and writhing frantically. Moreover, this thing was emitting a faint energy.
The energy was weak, but it confirmed that there was a mutant insect inside Eighth Aunt’s belly.
As soon as she reached this conclusion, Qin Sang didn’t have time to think about anything else. She just remembered to yell for everyone to run. Otherwise, if a mutant insect attacked at close range, ordinary people would really die.
“Pfft, pfft… pfft, pfft…”
Eighth Uncle never got to voice his accusation. He would never have the chance to speak again.
Because after two “pfft” sounds, over a dozen pairs of eyes saw Eighth Aunt’s belly move. It moved as if it were dancing a disco.
Accompanied by Eighth Aunt’s screams, an insect as thick as an egg burst out, tearing through Eighth Aunt’s abdomen.
The insect shot up into the air, looking about a meter long. But its momentum made it seem like it was three meters and eighty centimeters tall.
Most importantly, this thing was white and slimy. After bursting out, it immediately swept across all the bug carcasses on the ground, devouring them. Then it stretched to a length of 2.8 meters.
Well, not 3.8 meters. But still, this was bad!
Amazingly, Eighth Aunt was still faintly alive even after her belly had been ripped open.
Qin Sang gritted her teeth, pulled out her Roaring Dragon Bow, and shot an arrow at the giant white insect that was still noisily devouring bug corpses.
Several other people acted simultaneously with Qin Sang. They used firearms, but unfortunately, they had no effect on the thing. Cold weapons slid right off when they struck.
But there was no need to try again; the thing was already dead from her arrow. However, the special properties of this creature’s surface were truly baffling.
“Why are you all just standing there? Hurry up and take her to the community hospital to see if she can still be saved!”
Qin Sang snapped everyone out of it.
They forgot their fear of the giant insect for the moment. They loaded Eighth Aunt onto a stretcher and rushed her to the community hospital.
The village chief didn’t follow. Instead, he looked with complex eyes at the giant insect Qin Sang had pinned to the ground.
Some of the more experienced elders recognized the insect’s species at a glance.
“It’s a roundworm!”
The village chief nodded and looked at Qin Sang, his voice somewhat hoarse. “Sang Sang, this thing…”
Qin Sang nodded, shattering the village chief’s last shred of hope. “It’s already mutated.”
The village chief’s face turned ashen.
Because this meant there were likely other people in the village who had roundworms inside them.
Before the apocalypse, a couple of deworming pills would usually take care of roundworms. But now, insects were becoming demons.
Oh my god, a roundworm demon!
The older folks didn’t understand “mutated” or not. They were convinced this roundworm had become a demon. And its growth rate was so fast.
——
Roundworms are a huge threat in communal living situations.
Eighth Aunt’s stomach pain seemed like a signal.
While she was being taken to the hospital, a second and a third person in the village quickly developed stomach pain.
Even Qu Meijing felt her stomach hurt and asked the village chief to help arrange for people to take them to the hospital.
And this feeling of stomach pain seemed contagious. Within an hour, people from several nearby villages knew about Eighth Aunt’s situation. Then, hundreds of people felt their stomachs hurt and wanted to go to the community hospital for a check-up.
Qin Sang didn’t have many thoughts about this. After leaving the village office, she ran straight home and told her parents about the mutant roundworms.
Then the family of three thoroughly disinfected the entire building, focusing on their basement living quarters.
When Xu Lin returned home, he was greeted by a house filled with the smell of alcohol.
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