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Pan Jun waited for a long while before he saw Wang Yao coming from Nanshan Hill. He quickly walked up to him.

“Hi, Master,” Pan Jun said.

“Hi, what brings you here?” Wang Yao asked.

“My colleagues in the Lianshan People’s Hospital have been talking about the village. I just came here to see if there is anything I can help with,” Pan Jun said.

He had heard a number of people talking about what had happened in Wang Family Village. He heard the disease coming from the village was highly contagious and life threatening, so he was really concerned. He initially was just going to call Wang Yao. Instead, he thought it would be better to come in person.

“Please come in.” Wang Yao invited Pan Jun into the clinic and made him a cup of tea. He was touched by his student’s action.

“Any news from your hospital?” Wang Yao asked.

“No news, just rumors,” Pan Jun said. “They talked about a breakout of a contagious disease in your village, which caused a lot of deaths. I heard the specialists from the city and province all came to the village, and the village had been closed. When I arrived, I saw armed police force at the entrance of the village.”

“Really!” Wang Yao didn’t know about the armed police force.

“Is the disease really bad? I heard it is caused by a vital bacteria with no record,” Pan Jun said.

“It is really bad,” Wang Yao said.

The village broadcast came on while they were talking.

“Those who haven’t had a health check, please proceed to the Village Committee as soon as possible.”

It then broadcasted the name of the villagers who hadn’t been checked.

Pan Jun didn’t stay for long. He volunteered to come to the village since no other doctors wanted to come. Therefore, his manager gave him big praise. He needed to do health checks for the villagers, so he couldn’t stay at Wang Yao’s clinic for too long.

Wang Yao started to work after Pan Jun left. He needed to find a herb or herbs to treat the disease. The herbs had to be able to replace miasma grass or detox grass. They had to be common herbs.

Barbed skullcap, sophora, gentian, honeysuckle…

Wang Yao made a list of common herbs that could reduce excessive heat energy and remove toxins in the body. He still had quite a few of them in the stock.

Wait! Wang Yao suddenly thought about something. I should go to the pits to have a look.

Wang Yao vaguely remembered there were several wild plants around the pit. Those plants had to have a resistance to the bacteria to survive in that kind of environment. Therefore, they could be used as herbs to treat the disease.

Yes! Wang Yao immediately took action.

He walked out of his clinic and headed west. He could see the doctors outside Chen Jiagui’s house from a distance.

It has been days, and they are still here. It seems they haven’t done anything to Chen Jiagui’s body.

He made a detour to Xishan Hill.

The pit was surrounded by a yellow line. Wang Yao sensed a strong sterile water smell. The pit was covered by thick limb powder. Footprints were everywhere near the pit.

It seems a lot of people have come here.

Wang Yao walked around the pit. He found several plants near the pit.

Are these dandelion and bristle grass?

They were two types of common plants. They were everywhere on the hill, including on the edge of the pit. They had just been squashed by the medical staff.

I should take them all with me.

Wang Yao carefully removed the plants from the soil. He planned to plant them on Nanshan Hill.

In a village household, a woman heard a scream.

“What is going on?” the woman asked.

“Don’t come here! I was just bitten by a rat!” A man was bleeding at his ankle.

He had spotted a rat in his house. He had no idea where the rat came from. It went up and down biting his furniture. It even bit his dog. He also ended up getting bitten by the crazy rat.

“Wash the blood off and put some povidone on it. I don’t want you to get infected,” his wife said.

She heard people bitten by rats could be infected by the disease, which would potentially lead to death.

“OK,” the man said.

He applied some povidone on his wound. Afterward, he didn’t pay much attention to it.

“I think you should go to the hospital,” his wife suggested.

“No need,” the man said.

“Why don’t you ever take my advice? Have you seen all those doctors coming to the village? They have done health checks on everyone and always wear protective clothes. What if you get infected? Chen Jiagui got infected and is dead now,” his wife said.

“OK! Stop talking about it. I’ll go to the hospital,” the man said.

He was stopped by an armed policeman before leaving the village.

“What is your name?” the policeman asked.

“Wang Yisheng,” the man said.

“Where are you heading to?” the policeman asked.

“The hospital,” Wang Yisheng said.

“Why do you need to go to the hospital?” The armed policeman was suddenly alarmed. His superior had asked them to pay extra attention to any sick villagers.

“I was bitten by a rat,” Wang Yisheng honestly said.

“Rat?” The policeman was surprised. He had never come across anyone bitten by a rat before.

“Wait a second,” the policeman said. He didn’t immediately let Wang Yisheng leave.

“I can’t even go to the hospital?” Wang Yisheng was not happy.

“I said wait a second!” The policeman sounded serious, which really scared Wang Yisheng off.

“OK,” Wang Yisheng said.

The policeman came back a moment later.

“Go over there!” He pointed at a direction. “Follow me.”

The policeman took Wang Yisheng to the Village Committee.

“Sir, I was checked yesterday,” Wang Yisheng said.

“This is not a routine check. They need to do a different test on you,” the policeman said.

“What’s wrong with him?” the doctor asked.

“He was bitten by a rat, so I brought him here,” the policeman said.

“Bitten by a rat? When?” The doctor arranged people to give Wang Yisheng a thorough check.

“About an hour ago,” Wang Yisheng said.

“He’s got a temperature, 100.9 degrees, heart beat is 82 per minute,” another doctor said. “Open your mouth, please.”

“Ah!” Wang Yisheng opened his mouth.

“His throat is swelling,” the doctor said. “Do a blood test.”

Wang Yisheng was quickly taken for a blood test. The hospital in the city had sent some equipment to the village to establish a small, local laboratory.

“I found the bacteria,” said the laboratory assistant, who was very experienced. He double-checked the results before reporting to the doctors considering the critical circumstances.

“You found the bacteria?” the doctor asked.

“What do you mean?” Wang Yisheng was surprised. He felt something bad was happening.

“I’ll report it to the senior officer immediately,” the policeman said.

“Please wait a second.” The doctor gave the policeman a weary look. He was worried Wang Yisheng would not be cooperative.

The doctors had some idea of how horrible the bacteria was. After all, some of them had seen Chen Jiagui’s body and exaggerated power of the bacteria. So, the doctors were very anxious. Wang Yisheng was the first infected person they identified after Chen Jiagui.

“We need to take extra caution when dealing with this,” the doctor said.

“I see,” the policeman said.

Extra caution meant that Wang Yisheng would be isolated.

Soon, Wang Yisheng was taken onto an ambulance and brought to Lianshan People’s Hospital. He was immediately isolated. He was cooperative throughout the process. At least, he appeared to be cooperative.

“Doctor, can you tell me what is wrong with me?” Wang Yisheng asked.

“You have a special condition. We need to take extra caution,” the hospital doctor said.

“Special condition? That means I have a weird disease?” Wang Yisheng was confused when he got off the ambulance. He knew his condition was serious. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been isolated.

I’m not sure how my wife will respond to this, Wang Yisheng thought.

His wife actually knew what was going on before he had arrived at the hospital. She called him right away.

“I’m fine. I just need to stay in the hospital for a while. You don’t need to come.” Wang Yisheng tried to hold back his tears.

After hanging up the phone, he couldn’t hold them in anymore. He wanted to cry. He was locked in a hospital room alone. He didn’t know whether he would get better. He had no one to rely on. He also couldn’t let his family know the truth. He didn’t want his family to worry about him. Besides, what could his family do? He was isolated, which meant his family had to see him through a window. It would be too upsetting for his family to see him in this circumstance.

In the village, Wang Yao also heard what happened to Wang Yisheng.