Chapter 398: Running at Night

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Sometimes an eye contact or a movement could change a person’s destiny.

One night, two men from the village tried to escape. They followed the path on the hill. It was completely dark outside, so they couldn’t see properly. They were scared that people would find them, so they didn’t take a light torch.

About one hour after they had escaped, the person in charge of the CCTV found they had gone. He panicked and arranged people to hunt for the two escaped men immediately. The manhunt stirred up the whole village.

“What? Two people escaped?” the secretary said in shock.

Although he was anxious, he couldn’t do anything about it. He left the manhunt to the person in charge of CCTV.

Both local policemen and the armed police force participated in the manhunt. They searched all over the hills. It was as if they were looking for two dangerous criminals. They even used police dogs.

“Hey, where should we go?” one of the escaped men asked.

“I don’t know. Let’s get out of here first. We will probably die if we continue to stay in the village,” the other man said.

The two were just idle fellows in the village. They had a lot of ideas and were quite selfish.

With the assistance of police dogs, the manhunt soon had a direction

The two men moved slowly in the hill without a light torch.

Woof! Woof! Woof! They heard dog barking behind them.

“Dogs?” one of them asked.

“I see lights. They are coming for us,” the other man said.

“Let’s run,” one of the men said.

They sped up in a hurry toward the woods, like blind flies, without any destination.

“Be careful,” one of the men said.

“Ouch!” They both screamed.

In the middle of the night, the armed police force found the two escaped men, both of whom had passed out. They ran in a hurry in the hill without being able to see their surroundings. Eventually, they fell into a 65-foot ditch full of rocks.

One man’s head hit a rock, causing a big hole in his head. He twitched a little bit before he died. The other one was severely injured.

The next day, everyone in the village knew what happened to the two escaped men. The news travelled as fast as a rocket. The villagers became more panicked.

Because of this incident, someone from an unknown authority came to the secretary and blamed him for what had happened. The secretary didn’t say anything. He just listened.

“They seem don’t care about us anymore!” The villagers started to talk.

“How come a healthy person just dropped dead?” a middle-aged villager asked.

“Do you think he was beaten to death?” another villager guessed.

Without any explanation, the rumors started to flow. As a result, the villagers became more anxious. Soon another rumor appeared. The villagers started to believe anyone trying to escape would be beaten to death.

“Do you think this is possible?” Wang Mingbao asked while smoking.

“I don’t think so, but people here are really panicking.” Wang Yao was still studying the water grass taken out of the well.

He needed to do an animal experiment, so he found a dying sheep. Wang Yao had notified the secretary before he found a shabby empty courtyard to tie up the sheep. Then, he started the experiment.

Wang Yao’s experiment was simple. He fed the sheep the water grass and juice from the water grass.

“What are you doing?” Wang Mingbao asked.

“I think there might be an antidote in the water grass. I’m testing it on the sheep,” Wang Yao said.

Bar! Bar! The sheep barred weakly.

“Look at it. I think it would rather be dead,” Wang Mingbao said with a cigarette hanging from his mouth as he watched the sheep.

“You are not the sheep. How do you know what’s on its mind? I’m sure it doesn’t want to die,” Wang Yao said.

There was no obvious change after the sheep had taken the water grass.

“Let’s go back,” Wang Yao said.

…

Meanwhile, a dozen medical specialists were meeting in Shangjun to discuss how to deal with the spread of the contagious disease. With their effort, the spread of the disease was controlled. However, the specialists hadn’t found any effective medication to treat the disease. Plus, they had no idea where to start. The existing medication had a limited effect on biological toxins.

“I think we need to visit that village,” an old doctor said.

“Look for the origin of the toxins?” another doctor asked.

“Yes,” the old doctor said.

“I don’t think anyone has entered that tomb yet,” a doctor wearing glasses said.

“Not yet. One died and two were injured right after they opened the gate of the tomb. Then, this disease broke out. All the archaeologists are stuck in the village. They had to stop digging the tomb,” the old doctor said.

“I agree with Professor Zhang. We should go and have a look,” the doctor wearing glasses said.

“But, we have already obtained the sample of virus and analyzed it. What’s the point of going there in person?” another doctor challenged.

The specialists had two different suggestions.

“Well, I think we should go there.” At last, the person in charge of the meeting made the decision.

Since a decision had been made, they needed to report to their superior. Soon, they had the permit from their superior. Several specialists went to the village fully equipped.

…

“Did you notice the sheep looked more alert?” Wang Mingbao came back to the courtyard where the sheep was after having lunch with Han Jia. He had unexpectedly noticed some changes in the sheep.

“You are right. I noticed the change,” Wang Yao said.

“Do you know that some archaeologists who have been stuck here went to the secretary this morning. Apparently, they were not happy,” Wang Mingbao said.

“Why?” Wang Yao asked.

“Well, they said they were not treated nicely here. I guess they are just depressed,” Wang Mingbao said.

Wait! The tomb! It suddenly occurred to Wang Yao there were trees near the tomb.

“I think I saw trees on the hill,” Wang Yao said.

“Yeah, so what?” Wang Mingbao asked with confusion.

“Let’s go and take a look,” Wang Yao said. He stood up and walked toward the hill.

“Hey, you won’t give up, will you?” Wang Mingbao followed Wang Yao.

A big cave was dug in front of the gate of the tomb. The trees around the tomb had been cleared.

Normally, they wouldn’t be allowed to enter the isolation zone. However, the archaeologists were apparently in low mood. Plus, Wang Mingbao had offered them several cigarettes and said something nice. So, they let Wang Yao and Wang Mingbao enter the isolation zone.

“I remember there were trees on top of the tomb. The trees were still here when I dug the cave,” Wang Yao said.

“You are right. I remember the trees, too,” Wang Mingbao said.

“What happened to the trees?” Wang Yao murmured.

“Wait, let me ask them,” Wang Mingbao asked.

He came back shortly with the location of the trees. He and Wang Yao found the trees at the foot of the hill. It was autumn, so there were not many leaves left on the trees.

“What a shame,” Wang Yao said. “I need to get into the tomb.”

“No, you can’t go inside!” One of the archaeologist stopped Wang Yao. “It is very dangerous outside. And, if you damage anything inside, we will be in trouble.”

“That’s fine. I’ll take full responsibility for my behavior,” Wang Yao said.

“How?” the archaeologist asked.

“Hey, you talk too much!” Wang Mingbao started to become impatient.

“I won’t go inside. Can I just take a look at the corridor?” Wang Yao asked.

The archaeologist finally agreed.

After Wang Yao had reached the bottom of the cave, he opened the first gate of the tomb and saw the long corridor. There were strange looking statues standing on each side of the corridor. Further inside was another stone gate. He took a deep breath and sensed the unique stinky smell.

As Wang Yao and Wang Mingbao were at the gate of the tomb, the specialists from the city had arrived at the village. They put on the insulating clothing and were ready to enter the village.

“What are they doing here?” a young villager asked.

“I heard they are medical specialists from the province and the city. I guess they are coming into the village. See? They are putting on the insulting clothing,” a middle-aged villager said.

“They look like they are about to enter a nuclear radiation zone. Look at the clothes they put on! We only wear breathing masks,” the young villager said grumpily.

“They are coming now,” the middle-aged villager said.

The specialists entered the village. They asked the secretary to take them to the tomb.

“Who the hell are those people?” Wang Mingbao was surprised to see the specialists.

“Hello, it’s good you guys are here, too. These are the medical specialists from the town,” the secretary said.

“I can see that,” Wang Mingbao said with a cigarette in his mouth.

“And, they are?” The specialist could tell immediately that Wang Yao and Wang Mingbao didn’t belong to the village.

“Oh, this is Dr. Wang and Mr. Wang. They came here to see the sick kids,” the secretary said.

“Doctor? Which hospital are you from?” one of the specialists asked.

“I’m not local. I’m from Qi province,” Wang Yao said.

“I see.” The specialists walked around and took a close look at the cave. They didn’t find anything worth their attention. One reason was that they couldn’t get into the tomb. There was a corridor behind the first gate, and another gate at the end of the corridor.

“Secretary Gong, could you please gather your people, especially those sick kids you mentioned. We need to do a blood test on them,” the specialist in charge said.

“Why do they want to do a blood test on us again?” The villagers didn’t want to be cooperative with the specialists, even if the request was from important personnel like Secretary Gong.

The village was chaotic

“We need more blood from those kids,” the specialist in charge said.

The kids had similar symptoms, but were all cured. Therefore, the specialists took a close look at the kids.

“Dr. Wang, may I ask what medications you gave those kids?” the specialist in charge asked.

“Herbs,” Wang Yao said.

“Herbs?” All the specialists were in surprise.

“Can you tell us the formula?” one of the specialists asked.

“Well…” Wang Yao hesitated.

“This is the chief doctor of our hospital,” a middle-aged doctor said sternly. He could tell Wang Yao was hesitating.

“Hmmm…” Wang Yao just smiled.

He didn’t care about the chief doctor. The reason his herbs could cure the kids was because he used the Detox grass. All the other herbs just supported the Detox grass. Therefore, it wouldn’t be useful for the specialists from provincial hospital to know the formula.

“That’s fine. I’ll write it down,” he said.

Wang Yao took out a pen and wrote a formula on a piece of paper. He wrote the formula he used after he had no Detox grass left. This formula was also effective, just not as good as the one with Detox grass.

“Thank you,” the chief doctor said.

“I’m just trying to save those people,” Wang Yao said.

The specialists left with disappointment.

“Look at those snobby people. If I was you, I wouldn’t give them the formula,” Wang Mingbao said grumpily.