Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“It’s $10,000 for a bowl of decoction and several pieces of gauze?” Li Zucai was shocked by the price.
His gratitude for Wang Yao suddenly disappeared. Instead, he had a different thought about Wang Yao.
Too greedy! Why haven’t I seen it before?
“Expensive? I don’t think so. A bowl of decoction and your life, which one is more expensive? You can think about,” Wang Yao said.
“Look, Yao, we are from the same village, can you charge less?” Li Zucai asked.
“Sorry, I can’t,” Wang Yao said.
“Look, I didn’t bring a lot of money with me. I only have $300. Can I pay you the rest in the future?” Li Zucai asked. No one would have $10,000 in cash with him.
Wang Yao didn’t say anything. He looked at Li Zucai for a moment. This didn’t surprise him.
“Fine.” He nodded after keeping silent for a long while.
Li Zucai was angry when he left the clinic. He was still angry when he arrived home.
“What’s wrong with you?” his wife asked.
“Don’t mention it! I came across a greedy doctor. I really didn’t expect him to be so greedy!” He briefly told his wife about the fee charged by Wang Yao.
“Why is it so expensive?” his wife asked.
“He didn’t charge me anything last time I went to see him for headache. He gave me a free massage,” Li Zucai’s father said. “Maybe the decoction he gave you is truly expensive.”
“What decoction could be possibly worth over $10,000?” Li Zucai was not convinced.
“Never mind. Let’s not talk about it anymore. By the way, the doctors from the town came to do a health check on everyone here again,” Li Zucai’s father said.
Wang Yao went to the village committee after he finished working in the clinic. The doctors there took his blood and measured his body temperature. He then went back to his clinic.
Meanwhile, the staff from a research center in town found something in the soil sample from the hill on the west end of the village.
“Chief Liu, we found a horrible virus in the soil sample you brought here,” a staff member said.
“What is it? Let me have a look,” said Chief Liu, a man in his 50s. “You are right!”
He was shocked by the result. The virus could be originated from that hill.
“Notify the Haiqu Health Department. Ask them to clean the virus in those areas. They need to do it immediately,” Chief Liu said.
His assistant made a call to the Haiqu Health Department, which took immediate action. Personnel with adequate equipment quickly arrived in the village by car.
“What’s going on?” A villager asked after seeing the car.
“They took chemicals with them,” another villager said.
The people wearing protective clothes carried chemicals to the hill on the west side of the village.
“They are heading to the hill on the west,” a villager said.
“What’s on that hill?” another villager asked.
They were all wondering what was going on.
“Try not to make the villagers gather,” a person from the Department of Epidemic Prevention said. They were still not sure if anyone else in the village had gotten the virus or how the virus transmitted among people.
“OK, I’ll do my best, but it is not gonna be easy,” Wang Jianli said.
The villagers were all anxious after groups of doctors came to the village. Everyone was asking Wang Jianli what was going on.
“Try not to cause panic among the villagers. After they have killed the virus on the hill, they’ll start to kill the virus here,” the Department of Epidemic Prevention person said.
“OK,” Wang Jianli said.
He didn’t make an announcement through a broadcast. He visited households one by one to notify them what was going on and asked the villagers to inform their relatives.
On the hill, the staff members from the Department of Epidemic Prevention in town started to clean the virus using high-density chemicals. They covered the pit with a large amount of lime powder. Finally, they surrounded the area with yellow warning lines.
“Is there more than one area?” a staff member asked as they bumped into Wang Jianli and Wang Yao when they were ready to leave.
“Yes,” Wang Jianli said.
“Take us to the other places,” the staff member said.
Wang Yao and Wang Jianli took them to another pit and a piece of level ground. Both were covered with black soil. People from the Department of Epidemic Prevention did the same thing in those two areas. After they had run out of the chemicals, more chemicals were transferred from town. When they saw the black stone sticking out of the soil, they didn’t know what to do.
“What the hell is this?” an officer asked.
“Just get rid of it,” another officer said.
Although it was difficult, they tried their best to clean the virus on the stone and in the surrounding soil. They eventually turned the black stone into white using lime powder.
They didn’t finish working until afternoon. They took a break before starting to clean the virus in the village, which was even harder. They carried chemicals and sprayed them in every single lane and street in the village. This caused some panic in the village.
“What exactly is going on?” an elderly villager asked.
“There must be some contagious disease in the village. I guess we won’t be allowed to leave the village,” a female villager said.
As everyone had expected, the policemen came to the village.
“What are they doing here?” a middle-aged villager asked.
“To keep things in order,” a young villager said.
“Seriously? I think our village is very safe and in order,” the middle-aged villager said.
“Maybe they don’t want us to leave,” the young villager said.
“Probably,” the middle-aged villager said.
Everyone in the village was talking about the situation. They didn’t know what would happen next. Panic was spreading throughout this small village.
Wang Yao bought another rabbit in the afternoon and put it in the stone cage. One hour later, he took the rabbit out and put it in a different stone cage, which contained stone instead of soil.
Woof! Woof! Woof! San Xian kept barking.
“What are you trying to tell me, San Xian? Are you asking me where I got this rabbit from? Of course I bought it,” Wang Yao said with a smile, regardless if San Xian could understand him. It was easy to get a rabbit in a village like his.
Wang Yao sat next to the cage and watched the rabbit in the cage, just as he did the day before.
One hour passed. The rabbit was still quiet. Two hours passed. The rabbit was still quiet.
It’s fine?
Soon it was sunset. The sunset glow was as red as blood.
Three hours had passed and the rabbit was still quiet. It seemed to be hungry.
“Come here, I’ve got food for you,” Wang Yao said.
Wang Yao gave the rabbit a carrot. The rabbit loved it.
Is it because the rabbit hasn’t stayed in the cage long enough or is there simply not enough virus?
“Never mind, you eat first,” Wang Yao said.
After the rabbit finished eating the carrot, Wang Yao put it back into the cage with the soil. After two hours, he took the rabbit out again and put it into a different cage. He continued to observe the rabbit.
It started to get dark. The rabbit in the stone cage was still quiet.
“Are you hungry, San Xian?” Wang Yao asked.
Woof!
“Go ahead and grab some food,” Wang Yao said.
It was completely dark outside three hours later. Wang Yao was still sitting next to the stone cage observing the rabbit, which was still quiet.
“You are still fine,” Wang Yao said. “Now, it’s my turn to have dinner.”
He went inside the cottage to cook himself some noodles and stir-fried eggs. He cut himself a big plate of beef. He share the food with San Xian.
“Here you are,” Wang Yao said.
It was very quiet outside. Wang Yao could hear the sound of wind blowing dry grass.
A lot of people in the village didn’t go to sleep until late.
“What exactly happened here?” Wang Jianli couldn’t fall into sleep as he tossed about on his bed.
A lot of things had happened in the village lately. Groups of doctors came to the village from the town, city, and province. Even the policemen and local government officers came to the village. The doctors did a health check on every single villager. They almost blocked the village. He had never come across such kind of things in his life.
“Stop worrying. You should sleep,” his wife said.
“Don’t worry about me,” Wang Jianli said.
The night passed with no issues.
A villager wanted to get out of the village the next morning.
“I just need to go out for a short while, why should I register?” The villager was not happy.
“Go home if you don’t want to put your name down,” a policeman coldly said.
“No, I have to go,” the man said.
The village was almost in a state of siege.
“Sis, it looks serious,” Chen Zhou said as he was eating an apple. He looked through the window at the north side of the village.
“Given the circumstance, they should be cautious,” Chen Ying said.
“Can Dr. Wang cure those who got infected?” Chen Zhou asked.
“I think so. That guy who got bitten by that crazy man is fine now,” Chen Ying said.
Wang Yao was still watching the rabbit on Nanshan Hill. Nothing happened to the rabbit overnight.
“It’s fine. Touching the soil won’t make it sick,” Wang Yao said. “There must be a different way of transmission.”
He left the rabbit aside and documented his experiment.
A person went directly to Wang Yao’s clinic after he had arrived in the village.
“No one is here?” Pan Jun noticed the door was locked. “Where has he gone?”
