Chapter 21: Deadly Infection 6
Chu Yian carried one of the portions out and knocked on Lu Qingyuan’s door.
There was no answer from the opposite side.
“Thanks for today! I’ve left the noodles at your door. Come out and get them yourself.”
Chu Yian shouted from his doorway, then returned to her own room to slurp her own noodles.
She ate while watching the news.
As soon as she turned on the TV, there was a report about the infectious disease.
“The early symptoms of the infectious disease primarily include fever, cough, vomiting, and red rashes on the skin. Later stages of the infectious disease are mainly characterized by high fever, full-body convulsions and spasms, and the body secreting yellow mucus. Currently, Hospital resources can only accept severe patients. All mild patients are requested to self-isolate at home.”
“This new infectious disease outbreak, according to research, can spread through respiratory droplets, close intimate contact, and aerosols. During this recent period, all citizens are requested to reduce unnecessary outings, wash hands frequently, and ensure good ventilation…”
Chu Yian watched TV while slurping her noodles.
Suddenly, she noticed small red spots appearing on the news anchor’s neck, seemingly out of nowhere. The news abruptly cut to an advertisement. When it resumed two minutes later, a different anchor was presenting.
The young man’s eyes held a hint of panic as he somewhat unskillfully read the news script.
Game Day 6—
The promised supply delivery vehicles still hadn’t arrived, and now the residential area WeChat group was in an uproar.
“The Hospital won’t let us send things in, and we can’t buy medicine. Is the illness just going to get worse and worse if we keep delaying?”
“When will the supplies that the control promised us finally arrive? My family’s food has run out. When I tried to buy vegetables and rice the other day, I was turned back. Are they trying to starve my family to death?”
“Things are too expensive from the personal shoppers! Rice, oil, and salt have doubled in price.”
“Don’t even mention it. My friends said that the supermarkets outside have been looted. Not only is food hard to buy, but the hardest thing to get is masks. They’re impossible to find. They’re selling for 30 yuan each now, and you still can’t get them.”
“Does anyone have fever reducers? Can you sell me some? My child has a high fever at home, and the Hospital won’t let us in, and the fever won’t go down.”
“We also want to buy a few masks. Does anyone have any? We’ll pay the current market price.”
“…”
The group had already started exchanging supplies, but Chu Yian didn’t sell anything in it. She felt that flaunting her wealth might make her a target later on.
She had been keeping an eye on the main gate of the residential area downstairs. For a long time, only one vehicle would appear on the road. These were small vans, covered on all sides and top with cloth.
What was inside?
Daily necessities?
Unfortunately, not a single one delivered anything into their residential area.
Her unlucky neighbor, Lu Qingyuan, probably had nothing to eat again.
Chu Yian turned around and added an extra box of rice to the rice cooker. Fortunately, she had plenty of money at the time and hadn’t strictly prepared food for just one person for thirty days.
Today, she would eat white rice.
There were still two pounds of beef brisket in the refrigerator. She’d use a quarter of it to make tomato stewed beef brisket.
After cooking, she specifically took a larger bowl, filled it with a little more than half rice, then spooned half of the beef brisket on top. The red sauce seeped into the rice, emitting an alluring aroma, and paired with a crisp and spicy pickled mustard green, it was simply intoxicating.
The reason she made him a portion was because when she opened her door this morning, she saw an empty bowl placed at her doorstep.
Yesterday’s midday noodles had been eaten completely by him, and the bowl was even washed clean.
She carried the bowl to the opposite door and knocked hard, “I’ve left today’s meal at your door!”
As soon as she returned after delivering lunch, she suddenly heard a roaring crash.
Inside the residential area, a black car drove out of the underground parking lot and didn’t slow down as it approached the residential area gate. It accelerated, crashed through the gate, and sped straight out.
Two more cars followed behind, also crashing straight out.
Residents in the apartment building all climbed to their windows to look out. Chu Yian, of course, did the same. Downstairs in the residential area, there was a scene of chaos. The gatekeeper took a long time to get up from the ground.
“Oh my god, who was that?!”
“The ones who ran out were a few families from Buildings 1, 3, and 4. They all have people infected with the infectious disease at home, and I heard yellow fluid is coming out of them. They’re almost gone.”
“I heard the Hospital isn’t accepting new patients anymore. It’s useless for them to go.”
“Whether it’s useful or not is one thing; you can’t just wait to die at home. The news said ‘control, control’ four days ago, but how has it gotten worse and worse since then? I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Neighbors, I found this! (Website link)”
…Chu Yian was scrolling through the chat when she suddenly saw someone post a link in the group.
She opened it curiously. It was a two-minute video.
Inside, there was only a person dressed in black clothes, a black hat, and a black mask, blending in with the black background behind him. He began to speak, his voice clearly altered by a voice changer.
“During this infectious disease, do you really think you can be saved?”
“Do you know how much information they haven’t told you?”
“This infectious disease has no specific cure, and there are no successful recovery cases. If you get sick, just wait to die. Typically, from infection to death, there are only four or five days.”
“From high fever and cough, to the skin secreting yellow mucus. This is not just a common cold, but a failure of internal organs. When the skin can secrete yellow mucus, the patient’s internal organs have been completely melted and destroyed. To prevent this, you only need to cool down the inside of the body in the early stages.
Ibuprofen and acetaminophen and other fever reducers can alleviate symptoms, but only alleviate them.
They cannot cure.
When the medication runs out or the patient can no longer hold on, they will die.”
“This is not a regional epidemic, nor a national epidemic, but a global one. Even the deep pits specifically for deceased patients have been filled with bodies. This is nature’s punishment for humanity’s overpopulation and overdevelopment.”
“Wait to die, everyone!”
The man in the video grew increasingly agitated as he spoke, eventually even blurting out curses. If that weren’t enough, he then attached three large images.
First image: Countless infected patients collapsed in the Hospital and on nearby streets. Ambulances and hearses went in and out, and the Hospital was besieged by countless people. The numbness of medical staff, the fear of those seeking help, and the apathy of abandoned patients… formed a picture interwoven with death.
Second image: A deceased infectious disease patient. He was disemboweled, his internal organs soaked in mucus.
Third image: A pit larger than a football field. The pit was already piled high with bodies, and four forklifts around it pushed in newly arrived corpses. The nearest bodies had already decomposed, and flies were lingering and laying eggs. All of this, combined with the lingering twilight in the sky, created a scene of hell.
