Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Bitten by a rat? Where is the rat?” a doctor suddenly asked.
No one had initially asked about the rat.
“I guess the rat is still in the village,” another doctor said.
“The rat might bite more animals or human beings,” the first doctor said.
Everyone started to get anxious. Someone called the village secretary.
The village secretary immediately took action, but he gave up a moment later. It was impossible to target a small rat in a village.
The next morning, an announcement was made through a broadcast. The village secretary asked every household to set up rat traps and sticky rat board to get rid of the rats.
“Why was the broadcast on so early in the morning?” a villager asked.
“What’s wrong with rats? They are so common,” another villager said.
“I think we are asked to get rid of the rats for a reason,” an elderly villager said.
Meanwhile, Wang Yao hadn’t left Nanshan Hill. The little rabbit was still alive in the stone cage. It remained quiet and looked a bit sick.
“It worked!” Wang Yao was thrilled. Although he hadn’t slept the previous night, he felt energetic. Staying awake overnight was nothing to him.
Hmm? He looked up toward the village.
The village’s big speaker was located at the foot of the hill on the west side. It faced the village.
Rats are gonna be a big problem!
Rats were everywhere in the countryside. It was impossible to kill them all. They were not fussy eaters, but they were fast breeders. Someone once said that rats were the true survivors on Earth.
A crazy rat could go anywhere. It was too small to be noticed.
Soon, a second villager was bitten but not by a rat. Instead, he was bitten by a sheep that was normally very gentle.
The village doctor thought, This is bad!
Two people had been bitten in two consecutive days. This was not a good sign. Once a crack appeared on a dam, the dam would collapse sooner or later. No one could stop it.
Another person was isolated. The only thing was that the female villager was not cooperative when being taken away. She was crying and screaming like a mad woman. Fortunately, the sedative worked on her. The medical staff gave her two injections to temporarily keep her calm.
All the villagers were panicking. A few days ago, they weren’t panicking about anything. The moment two people were isolated, they felt the threat was real.
The news traveled fast.
“I heard our village will become a quarantine area. We can’t go out, and people can’t come in,” a middle-aged villager said.
“What can we do? Are we gonna get infected?” his wife asked.
“Who knows?” the middle-aged villager replied.
The panic felt by the villagers was like storm clouds in the sky; it accumulated quickly.
“Sis,” Chen Zhou said as he looked at the sky.
“What? Are you worried?” Chen Ying asked.
“Yes,” Chen Zhou said. “Did you hear that two people have been isolated?”
“Yeah, let’s go to see Dr. Wang in the afternoon,” Chen Ying said.
“OK,” Chen Zhou said.
Wang Yao went home for lunch at noon.
“Two people have been infected, and they are not both isolated,” Zhang Xiuying said. “The village is in a state of siege. A lot of armed policemen came to the village.”
Things have gotten out of control quickly! Wang Yao thought something like this might happen, but he didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.
“You and Dad don’t need to worry about it. You have me,” Wang Yao said with a smile.
At least he could guarantee that his family members would be exempt from any illnesses attacking.
“OK,” Zhang Xiuying said.
Actually, most of the villagers didn’t like going out anyway. They occasionally went out grocery shop or sell food from their farm. Short-term quarantine didn’t really have a big impact on their lives. However, the feeling of being isolated was not good. They felt like they were captured pigs and sheep losing their freedom.
“I don’t know when those doctors can come up with a way to cure the disease,” Zhang Xiuying said.
Chen Zhou said the same thing.
“Those doctors? They won’t,” Chen Ying said.
Those doctors had never come across such a disease. It was completely new to them, so they had to start from scratch. From theory to an effective medication was a long journey.
“Should I help them?” Wang Yao murmured.
“What did you say?” Zhang Xiuying asked as she heard Wang Yao talking to himself.
“Oh, nothing. Mom, can you buy several more rabbits for me?” Wang Yao asked.
“More rabbits? OK, I’ll get you a few,” Zhang Xiuying said.
Before long, Zhang Xiuying came back with several rabbits.
“Here you go,” Zhang Xiuying said.
Wang Yao went back to Nanshan Hill with the rabbits.
On his way to the hill, he collected wild dandelion and green bristle grass, which were everywhere on the hill. Soon, he had collected quite a few. He wanted to use them for further testing. He wanted to see if the decoction was still effective if he put wild dandelion and green bristle grass in it.
Chen Ying and Chen Zhou went to find Wang Yao at his clinic.
“Dr. Wang is not here,” Chen Ying said.
“Shall we go find him on the hill?” Chen Zhou asked.
“No, let’s wait here,” Chen Ying said. “Dr. Wang is probably busy right now.” She vaguely guessed what Wang Yao was doing.
San Xian went on a patrol on the hill. Da Xiao went out to look for food. Wang Yao was brewing a decoction in his cottage. The decoction was soon ready.
The color and taste are similar to the one I brewed last time.
He put some into his mouth. Similar taste. Let me try it.
He infected one rabbit infected and put it into the stone cage.
San Xian returned from patrolling. Woof! Woof! Woof! He walked around the stone cage excitedly. The rabbits were like his new pals.
“San Xian, they can’t play with you, and you can’t eat them,” Wang Yao said.
Woof! San Xian stopped in front of Wang Yao and looked at the rabbit in the stone cage.
“This is a different one,” Wang Yao said.
A man and a dog sat quietly in the herbal field. In a different stone cage, the infected but cured rabbit looked sleepy.
Meanwhile, in an isolated room of Lianshan People’s hospital, was the first infected patient.
“Multiple organ failure. He has lost consciousness,” a doctor said.
“None of the medications worked,” another doctor said.
Hmm! The doctors were at a loss. The speed of deterioration had exceeded their expectation. They couldn’t even stop the patient from getting worse.
“The other patient is also getting worse,” a nurse said.
Now, they were worried there would potentially be more people in the village getting infected.
“My advice is to forbid anyone in the village to go out,” a specialist said.
Actually, more than one specialists suggested this. The local government surely would listen to the advice.
The leaders of Lianshan local government made a quick decision. The village was to be completely and strictly isolated. The government sent many armed and unarmed policemen to the village.
There was only one way to leave or enter the village, which was surrounded by hills. They blocked the road exit. However, they couldn’t block the paths on the hills. The government had sent all the personnel they could, but they didn’t have enough staff. Plus, too many policemen would only make the villagers more panicked.
“What? They are not letting us out?” a villager complained.
“Why?” his wife asked.
People were not allowed to leave the village. It had become a huge cage that made all the villagers panic even more. It was officially a state of siege.
“Do you think we should escape?” a middle-aged villager asked his wife.
“Are you crazy? Where can we go? Everyone in the village had registered his or her name. Do you want to be a nationally wanted person?” his wife replied.
“What wanted person? Nonsense, we are not criminals,” the middle-aged man said.
“Then, stay here for now,” his wife said.
The rabbit inside the stone cage was unsettled.
“You’ve been given two bowls of decoctions. How come you are not getting better?” Wang Yao asked.
The rabbit had gotten better last time after taking two bowls of decoctions. Wang Yao gave it a third bowl of decoction. He stayed on the hill for another day.
His experiment failed this time. The rabbit in the cage went crazy for the whole morning. He couldn’t make it calm down at all.
Wang Yao gave up. He ended the rabbit’s life with his Qi. He then burned the rabbit’s body and used it as fertilizer.
He decided to do one more experiment. He did it in the evening but failed again. Both experiments for the day failed.
So, the wild dandelion and bristle grass won’t work, Wang Yao concluded.
Another villager was infected the next day. He started to get sick at home. His wife noticed there was something wrong with him and asked him to go to the hospital. He refused. He then became crazy, which really scared the hell of his family.
