Chapter 397: The Panic Spread
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The personnel from the county’s inspection and quarantine department came the next day. They conducted a free blood test for the villagers, including w.a.n.g Yao and w.a.n.g Mingbao. The number of people suffering from diarrhea and vomiting in the village was increasing.
w.a.n.g Mingbao also had the condition, but w.a.n.g Yao discovered it in time. He let w.a.n.g Mingbao consume some medicine and used his neixi as a treatment. His condition was quickly under control.
Then, the entire mountain village was quarantined.
“Are you sure it’s an epidemic?”
“There’s a possibility!”
“What’s the reason?”
“We found a tomb of the Tang Dynasty and discovered an unknown biotoxin in it.”
The main chiefs of Jiaxian and Bingzhou immediately held a special meeting after receiving the news. After all, this was an epidemic. If it broke out, the consequences would be disastrous.
“This is a trouble!” Looking at the police on duty outside, w.a.n.g Yao sighed.
“I don’t think it’s a problem.” w.a.n.g Mingbao sipped some wine.
“Is your stomach unwell again? What did I tell you?” w.a.n.g Yao said.
“Ah. Sorry,” w.a.n.g Mingbao responded with a smile.
Now, he only wanted to win the beauty’s heart. As for his business back home, his friends and relatives would help him take care of it.
…
“This is really creating trouble for you,” Gong Aiguo, as well as the party secretary.
“It’s okay,” w.a.n.g Yao said.
However, through this matter, w.a.n.g Yao was coincidentally about to complete the task of spreading his reputation thousands of miles away.
It seems like there’s nothing wrong with me staying for a few more days.
He received a call from Tong Wei that afternoon.
“Why did you suddenly go to Qinzhou?” she asked.
“I came over to see some special patients,” w.a.n.g Yao replied.
“Who are the patients?” she asked.
“They’re children,” he said.
“Children?”
w.a.n.g Yao told Tong Wei about the reason he came and the things that happened. After hearing that the water was poisonous, Tong Wei was worried.
“You have to be careful over there,” she said.
“It’s okay. The water here can’t be drunk anymore. We now have water delivered by a special water truck every day. It’s just inconvenient to take a bath,” w.a.n.g Yao replied.
Ever since the village was quarantined, water trucks had been delivering tap water every day. The water was only enough for normal drinking water. It was insufficient for bathing. In fact, with w.a.n.g Yao’s current situation, his body would not have any odor even if he did not bathe for a year. Most of his channels and collaterals all over his body were un.o.bstructed, and he could communicate with the heaven and earth. In fact, he was already considered to be a master of qigong.
The small mountain village was quarantined, but something unexpected happened in the county town of Jiaxian. Starting at the hospital, the terrible illness of vomiting and diarrhea was spreading.
It was only a case at first. After two days, the number of patients received at the hospital increased in multiples. This made the local health care department regard the situation as critical. They did not hide anything and reported everything to their higher-ups tier by tier. It was reported to the city and province.
A special meeting was held in the province for this purpose. They decided to arrange for an expert group to come to Jiaxian to guide and help solve the problem as quickly as possible. With the experience and lesson last time, they were serious about this matter.
Life continued in the village. Cla.s.ses were not suspended in school, but the children who came from the mountain villages nearby to attend school were left behind.
Originally, they were to be monitored with the village where they came from. After the inspection, they discovered that there were no biotoxins in their bodies, so the children were left behind alone.
w.a.n.g Yao felt that this matter was a bit strange. If the thing coming out of the ancient tomb was a contagious biological virus, then why did the children who came to school here not get infected? Moreover, the teachers and headmaster who were with them were also not infected. Why did only the people who had drunk the water from the well and the toxins themselves get sick?
The experts from the province and city were also perplexed about this problem.
“This is weird. It’s really weird! Why isn’t it contagious?”
They had also discovered this problem in the course of treatment. The people who were being treated in the hospital were distinctively divided into two groups. One was people whose infections were particularly severe. Even a slight contact might cause infection. The other one was people whose infections were not serious or non-contagious. These people were the ones from the mountain village. There was only an exception case among them. It was highly probable that this exception case caused the incident. It was a coincidence that sounded like a story and a novel.
“The virus present in their bodies is different.”
“Different?”
“Yes. It’s a very subtle difference, but this subtle difference determines their contagious characteristics.”
In Jiaxian, they were worried about this inexplicable illness.
…
In the mountain village, w.a.n.g Yao went to the blocked well.
“What do you want to do?” w.a.n.g Mingbao asked.
“I’m going inside to have a look,” w.a.n.g Yao said.
“What?”
Then, w.a.n.g Yao removed all the things that blocked the wellhead.
“I’m going down,” he said.
“Wait. You aren’t tied to a rope,” w.a.n.g Mingbao said.
w.a.n.g Yao had already jumped into the well before w.a.n.g Mingbao had finished talking. With a whoosh, the water splashed.
“Huh? He’ll catch a cold in such a cold weather,” w.a.n.g Mingbao said.
w.a.n.g Yao did not have a single drop of water on his body. There was an invisible layer of Qi around his body, as if he was wrapped in an armor. Although he was in the water, it was like he was on land. This was like the trick of avoiding water used by the monks who had entered the rivers and lakes in the story of Xian Xia.
He found water plants at the bottom of the well. They were being soaked all day long in a place where heavy metals and biotoxins existed, but they were actually extremely luxuriant. The water plants might have undergone some changes. They must have had substances that could resist them. It was like how flies and mice did not fall ill although they wandered around some dirty places all day.
w.a.n.g Yao plucked a handful of it and leaped. He was like a bird das.h.i.+ng toward the sky. He bolted out of the well and landed on the ground.
w.a.n.g Mingbao was stunned.
“Why aren’t your clothes wet?” he asked
“I’ve told you before,” w.a.n.g Yao said.
“There’s Qi around your body as if you’re wearing an armor?” w.a.n.g Mingbao said.
“Yes,” w.a.n.g Yao said.
“You must teach me this.” w.a.n.g Mingbao had made up his mind. He would learn it well from his buddy after going back. He would not have to use an umbrella or wear a poncho on rainy days. If one could be fine when buried in the soil and submerged in the water, then could one be bulletproof and resistant to water and fire? He thought it sounded awesome. In fact, he had thought a bit too much.
“Wait a second. What are you holding in your hands?” he asked while pointing at the handful of water plants.
“Water plants. You don’t know this?” w.a.n.g Yao said.
“Of course I do. You went down just because of this?” w.a.n.g Mingbao said.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“The well water is poisonous. After the earthquake, it’s even more poisonous, but these water plants are fine. This means that they’re not afraid of the toxins,” w.a.n.g Yao said.
“Do you mean that they may be the antidote?” Wing Mingbao asked.
“Yes. There’s a possibility. We’ll know once I try when we get back,” w.a.n.g Yao replied.
Regarding the purification of the water plants, w.a.n.g Yao could only use the methods of processing Chinese medicine as a reference. But, these water plants might indeed have the composition to fight the virus. They might also have a huge amount of virus acc.u.mulation in them. Both possibilities were present.
…
“Hey, what’s wrong with our sheep?”
Something even more terrible happened in the village. Some of the animals also had reactions. They collapsed onto the ground and foamed at their mouths. This situation could only make people feel more panic.
“What exactly is going on?” a villager asked.
“Do you think that they plan to let us stay and die here by cordoning off this place?” another villager asked.
In the small mountain village, the villagers feared danger at every sound. The relevant department should have provided an explanation, but, unfortunately, they did not. Only the police were guarding. Then, there were armed police.
Some villagers went over to ask, but they were being chased away from afar. The police were afraid of being infected. Their actions made the villagers feel even more panic.
“They don’t send doctors over, and they don’t allow us to go out too. If we’re sick, what are we going to do?” a villager asked.
“This won’t do. We can’t stay like this. Why don’t we escape at night?” another villager suggested.
It was more difficult to blockade the entire mountain village, which was surrounded by mountains. The villagers could not escape unless troops were sent to completely surround the mountain village and gather everyone in the same place. They had not done that.
However, the police and armed police who came to execute their tasks were prepared. They placed temporary cameras around the village.
The night sky enveloped the entire mountain village. That day, three sheep and five chickens in the village collapsed. They were now lingering on their last breaths of life. It was not known if they could survive.