Chapter 59: Acute Disease (2/2)

“I have to spray insecticide every day at home, but it’s completely useless. I actually found a ‘stringed money’ about a meter long the other day while I was spring cleaning. What a scare! It took me so long to kill it.” He was obviously still feeling the aftershock.

“Stringed money?” Luo Yuan asked curiously. He had never heard that name before.

“It’s also called a house centipede. It’s similar to a regular centipede. You must have seen it before. Maybe your house has them too,” Huang Wei smirked.

As they were talking, a second insect flew by and Luo Yuan finally got a good look at it. “This looks like a mosquito.”

Huang Wei paled. “You can see that it’s a mosquito?”

“My vision has always been good. It’s a bit large, but I’m sure it’s a mosquito,” Luo Yuan said, his face completely serious. With his 13-point Dexterity, his eyes were like a high speed camera. The mosquito had been flying fast, but not fast enough to escape his eyes.

Luo Yuan could not believe it. Like all other insects, mosquitoes had also mutated, but their size was never this large. They were usually only about the size of a nail. Plus, it was easy to spot them, so most of them were killed on sight. This meant that mosquitoes had almost become extinct in Hedong City. Who would have known he’d see two of them that day, let alone that they’d be so much larger in size.

“What’s happening over there?” Huang Wei exclaimed.

A crowd had formed down the road. Between its gaps, a middle-aged woman could be vaguely seen having a seizure on the ground. Luo Yuan walked over briskly, a bad feeling bubbling up inside him.

He and Huang Wei squeezed through the crowd, Luo Yuan’s expression darkening when he saw the woman. She was swollen beyond human capacity. Her skin was almost translucent from expanding so much and she was foaming at the mouth – it was a frightening sight.

“What’s going on?” Huang Wei asked the bystanders in shock.

“You’ll have to ask him, I came later,” said someone, pointing to another man.

“Watch what you’re saying. She was just walking in front of me and then she fell down just like that and started convulsing. A lot of people saw it too,” a middle-aged man pleaded innocence, afraid he would get in trouble.

The woman’s breathing quickened and got harder as she panted like a wind box. Realizing that she was near death, Luo Yuan shouted towards the crowd, “Is anyone here a doctor?”

Seeing nobody come forward, a young man said hesitantly, “I haven’t gotten my medical degree, I can only perform some first aid.”

“Whatever, just look after her. I’ll go get my car and drive her to the hospital before it’s too late.”

“Alright!” the young man agreed.

Luo Yuan sprinted towards the residential area, trying to keep his speed as normal as possible. Then he got into his van and drove over.

“Coming through!” Luo Yuan squeezed through the crowd once again. When he got down from the van, he realized that the woman was lying motionless. The medical student stood aside forlornly as he saw Luo Yuan approach, “She’s dead,” he said, “There’s no heartbeat and she’s not breathing.”

“So fast? Did you find out what was wrong with her?” Luo Yuan was surprised.

The student shook his head, “Maybe some acute disease, but I’ve never read about such symptoms.”

“Man down!” someone exclaimed.

Someone in the crowd had fallen to the ground in a fit of spasms. At first, he was able to moan, but when his body started to swell, he lost his voice and foamed at the mouth with wide eyes.

The crowd buzzed, panic filling the atmosphere.

“It’s contagious, get away!” somebody advised before running away quickly.

The crowd dispersed at once as everyone’s expression darkened and turned scared. The medical student, who had touched the woman earlier, went pale as a sheet and ran away like crazy.