942 Heart-eating Curse
“Jing?” Miao Qingshan read the name for a bit.
“Have you never been there?” Miao Tianchuan asked.
“Never.” Miao Qingshan smiled and shook his head.
“Do you want to go there?” Miao Tianchuan asked.
“Of course, I do,” Miao Qingshan replied.
He had spent most of his time in the village and rarely went beyond its borders. The furthest place he had been to was a small city several hundreds of miles outside of the village. Such a place utterly paled in comparison to the vastness of Jing.
“How about we go and have a look?” Miao Tianchuan asked.
“Right now?” Miao Qingshan was rather baffled.
“Yep, right now.” Miao Tianchuan took off his hat and straightened his thinning hair.
“But we’re both wanted, remember? How will we get there?”
“He-he, when there’s a will, there’s a way.”
“What about the thing with the village and Miao Xihe?”
“We’ll leave it be for the moment,” Miao Tianchuan said. “There’s no use staying around here at the moment anyway. Besides, the village will be unusually guarded at such a time, giving us no chance to do anything.”
He wanted revenge so badly that he dreamt about it in his sleep. However, that was not to say that he had lost his mind. He was still able to keep himself under control and let his reasoning win over his emotions.
“Get ready,” Miao Tianchuan said. “We’ll leave first thing tomorrow for Jing. We’ll meet up with Chengtang along the way.”
“Very well.” Miao Qingshan nodded.
He did not want to stay there any longer, but he knew that he was unable to return to the village. He did not hate Miao Xihe as intensely as Miao Tianchuan, who wanted to tear the older man inside out. He’d probably eat the older man’s innards if he was able to. Given how he was unable to return to the village, he saw no other option but to leave and head elsewhere, hoping things would turn out for the better.
Meanwhile, Miao Chengtang arrived in Jing within two days. He breathed a sigh of relief after getting there. He finally felt safe.
Guo Zhenghe did not lie to them. He had contacted an expert in a renowned Jing hospital, who conducted a full checkup for Miao Chengtang as soon as he arrived. The initial blood test results startled the doctor a great deal. It was the first time he had seen someone with that kind of illness. The patient had many toxins in his body. Furthermore, the toxins were ones that he had never encountered.
The doctor did some experiments using blood samples from the patient. After only a minute, a little bit had easily killed several lab rats. That spoke volumes of just how potent the toxins in Miao Chengtang’s body were. Yet, he was able to stay in a state that was just a tad bit worse than being fully healthy and wasn’t in any life-threatening danger. While it was possible for someone healthy-looking to harbor toxins, the fact that Miao Chengtang looked so healthy while having something so lethal in him baffled the doctor.
How could this be possible?
The doctor quickly arranged for the patient’s blood to be further tested using a comprehensive a.n.a.lysis. He found something that should not be in a normal person’s blood in that patient’s blood, which remained unknown to the doctor. The doctor asked his colleagues about it. They also had not encountered such a case before. It was a special case worthy of further study.
The unusually serious att.i.tude that the doctor took on that day frightened Miao Chengtang.
“Doctor, what’s wrong with me?”
Truth to be told, he did not feel much of anything wrong with his body, but he still felt a lot weaker after being scared by the doctor. That was often how psychological effects worked.
“Umm, we found several types of unknown compounds in your blood, which we’re now a.n.a.lyzing,” the doctor said. “You’re not in any life-threatening danger right now. You can rest a.s.sured about that much.”
“Well then, I’m indeed at ease,” Miao Chengtang breathed a sigh of relief.
“Other than that, we’re prepared to do a more thorough check on your body and will determine the corresponding treatment after looking at the results of the checkup. The tests will not be over for the time being, so you’ll need to be admitted to the hospital. Would you have any problem with that?”
“Not at all. I’ll just get admitted. Thank you.”
Miao Chengtang proceeded with the necessary procedures and went through with the tests. It took two days to get all the tests done. Afterward, the problem was found.
That doctor was utterly dumbfounded by the report.
“What’s happening?”
After the comprehensive body checkup, they found two small tumors in the patient’s heart. The most pressing problem was that they had never seen such types of tumors before.
What is causing this?
He was unable to tell, so he called his colleagues and went on to do a special report with Miao Chengtang.
“This is the first time we have seen such tumors,” the doctor said. “How about a biopsy?”
That was the most common and effective method.
That doctor thought about it for a bit and communicated with Miao Chengtang regarding the situation.
“What? Tumors?” Miao Chengtang felt as if his head was being bashed after hearing that. The information rendered his mind blank.
While he had rarely been out of the village, that was not to say that he knew nothing about the outside world, especially when it came to medical knowledge. News regarding that particular field was more widespread than others. As such, he knew what that word meant. He thought of yet another more terrifying possibility.
“We’re planning to take samples of the tumors for biopsy to determine the actual situation with them.”
“No, no, no way!” Miao Chengtang immediately rejected the proposal before the doctor was able to finish.
“What’s happening?” That doctor saw that Miao Chengtang’s expression suddenly became grim. Sweat was seen on his brow.
“Umm, let me explain,” the doctor said. “Not all tumors are malign, which is widespread misinformation. Actually, a good number of cases with tumors turn out to be benign and never become anything else. Those tumors don’t cause any damage to the patients’ bodies after they are taken out. No side effects were left behind after their recovery either. I need to let you know that much.”
“No, no, no, that’s not what I meant,” Miao Chengtang said. “What I meant was that those tumors cannot be touched under any circ.u.mstances.”
“Well, we will proceed with other tests first,” the doctor said. “Take your time to think about it.”
Due to the patient not having any next-of-kin around, the doctor was unable to proceed with the procedures through the patient’s family members. He had no choice but to put the matter aside for the moment.
“It’s definitely him. This couldn’t be anything else!” Miao Chengtang muttered to himself in his ward after the doctor left. His face was ashen as his fear-filled eyes stared forward.
“d.a.m.n you, Miao Xihe!”
Ring! Ring! His phone rang.
“Yeah, Tianchuan. Are you guys are on the way now? Great. Miao Xihe bugged me. That d.a.m.ned b.a.s.t.a.r.d should have had his heart eaten by bugs!”
“What?” Miao Tianchuan sounded utterly frightened on the other side of the phone.
“Are you sure about that?”
“I’ve just had tests done,” Miao Chengtang said. “They found tumors in my head and heart. Those are not tumors. It’s the Heart-eating Curse. It can’t be anything else!”
“Don’t jump to conclusions just yet. We’ll be there soon enough.”
Miao Tianchuan looked outside the window and did not speak for quite some time after hanging up.
“What happened?”
“Chengtang might have been cursed.”
“Wait, a curse? What kind of curse?” Miao Qingshan was startled hearing the news. While their village harbored bugs for performing curses, they had only heard of such curses and never seen them. None of them would have had expected such a curse to be put on one of their own.
“Is he sure about it?”
“From the way he talked, absolutely. I’ve only heard of these types of curses and never seen any at work. What about you?”
“I’ve never seen it before either. This curse is very ferocious. The previous chief banned all use and research of it when he was still alive, practically sealing it up.”
“Sealing it?” Miao Tianchuan smirked hearing that.
“We’ll talk more when we see him.”
“If it really turns out to be the Heart-eating Curse, what should we do about it?” Miao Qingshan asked. “Anyone other than Miao Xihe capable of dealing with the curse would be old men in the village. I’m afraid there is no one else with such abilities.”
Miao Tianchuan remained silent. He knew what Miao Qingshan was talking about.
“There should be one other person capable of taking it out.”
“Are you talking about Wu San?”
“Yeah, him,” Miao Tianchuan said. “He was a student of the previous chief. When it comes to medical knowledge alone, he might be on par with Miao Xihe.”
“I heard that he has a really weird temperament and might not be willing to help. He might not be willing to help others, but he would definitely help if you were the one asking.” Miao Tianchuan continued, “He’s kind of obliged to help one way or another. You are the grandson of the previous chief!”
“If that’s the case, we should have gone to see Wu San in the first place. Why come to Jing?”
“We’re coming to hide and to clear our minds a bit,” Miao Tianchuan replied. “No one expected things would have turned out like this.”
Miao Xihe had a lot of ways to deal with others. Worse still, he was highly proficient in everything he did, catching others off-guard time and again.
They arrived in Jing that night. They directly went to see Miao Chengtang, who was utterly shaken and restless.
“Tianchuan, Qingshan. You guys are finally here!”
He had no one in the city to rely on after encountering something so terrifying. One could have imagined how frightened he had been. He was somewhat put at ease seeing the two of them.
“Are you sure it’s the Heart-eating Curse?”
“It’s probably it. I’ve seen people who were cursed with that curse. I saw it when their heart was being taken out, and it was those locations that were being eaten first.”
The Heart-eating Curse was one that when fully activated, the bugs planted would hatch and begin to eat the heart. The bugs continued to lay eggs that flowed from the heart to the entire body, eating out all the internal organs, as well as flesh and bone. The cursed one would die while being subjected to intense pain. It was one of the worst curse poisons there was.
“Let’s get out of Jing and return to southern Yunnan.”
“Go back?”
“Yeah. We’ll look for Wu San,” Miao Tianchuan said. “Both of us talked about it on our way here. Anyone from the village capable of taking out the curse won’t help. The only one capable of dealing with this now would be Wu San.”
“Don’t forget that he and Miao Xihe are brothers in training,” Miao Chengtang said.
“Sure, but the previous chief did a lot for him. With Qingshan with us, he’ll definitely do us a favor,” Miao Tianchuan said.
“How the h.e.l.l did I forget about that?” Miao Chengtang clapped his head after hearing that. Hope was in his mind again, dispelling most of the lingering fear.