Chapter 56: The 1997 Hong Kong Bird Flu

  He recognized me, greeted me, and then seemed to suddenly remember something. He had already walked far away, but turned back and said to me: "Regarding your friend, Ruo Lan's blood vessel leeches, I sent the relevant test data to biologist Dr. Li, and his reply was that this parasitic leech was not discovered before 1997. However, in 1997, a strange thing happened in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province. A storm hit the area, and people saw that what fell from the sky first was not rainwater or hail, but tens of thousands of these parasitic leeches. At that time, no one knew why there were so many parasitic leeches falling from the sky, and this type of parasitic leech was a new form that had never been discovered before."

  In 1997? Again in 1997, this sensitive number makes me think of Ruo Lan once more as the sole survivor of that shocking plane crash in 1997.

  Are these parasitic leeches living in the blood vessels of Aoyue Lan related to that plane crash in 1997?

  After the doctor and I said goodbye, I wandered alone in the courtyard. The hospital building was brightly lit, like a cruise ship at sea, standing still in the dark night. There were several elderly people wearing hospital gowns taking a walk after dinner, their faces all had a calm and serene expression, perhaps they were suffering from serious illnesses or undergoing painful surgery, but they seemed to have let go, so they could face the pain with ease.

  I walked for a while and returned to the apartment. At the entrance of the first floor, an old couple sat on the stairs, with the white-haired old lady constantly crying and muttering some words that I couldn't understand. The old man kept scolding something.

  I thought the two elderly people had encountered some kind of trouble, so I walked up to them and asked with concern what had happened. The old lady cried while vigilantly looking at me, I thought she might think I was a swindler, so she completely ignored me.

  The old man's face was waxen yellow, his eyes were murky, and he said apologetically: "Thank you for your concern. The old lady is having a temper tantrum, don't mind her."

  "Don't be polite, old man. What's wrong with the old lady?"

  "Alas, it's all because of two unfilial sons. I'm having surgery tomorrow and they said they're busy with work and can't come back. Actually, I know they're busy with work, it's normal that they don't come back, whether they accompany me for the surgery or not doesn't have much impact on me, but as an old woman, I feel heartbroken, thinking that I shouldn't have given birth to them, they're too unfilial."

  The old lady cried and said: "Isn't it? You don't know how hard it is to be pregnant for ten months! Especially when I was pregnant with the second child, I almost died. Now they're all grown up, each has their own wife and children, but they've forgotten about me, their mother... Waaahhh... All I want is for them to come back and keep you company, what's wrong with that? In my day, giving birth to a char siu bao was easier than giving birth to these two unfilial sons. They don't have any conscience at all... Waaahhh... Maybe when we die, they won't even come to attend our funeral..."

  The old lady cried so sadly, with a heart-wrenching pain that made one feel distressed just by listening. However, this was someone else's private matter, and I had no power to help. I tried my best to tread lightly, quietly passing by them without disturbing them. As I walked up the stairs to the corner, I couldn't help but turn back for another glance: The old lady's sparse white hair revealed her red scalp. She buried her head in the old man's chest, still shaking all over like a wronged little girl seeking comfort.

  I couldn't bear to see such a sad scene, so I quickly ran up the stairs and reached the 4th floor in one breath. Qing Jiang definitely won't be back tonight as she's staying with her sister in the hospital room. I went back to my room, watched TV for a while, felt bored, and took out the notebook that Zhu Huiling had given me.

  This is the first time I opened this notebook, when I turned to the first page, I smelled a very strange smell, similar to the smell of burning mint leaves. I casually flipped through a few pages and saw that there were many strange lines drawn with a ballpoint pen, spiral lines, and some strange texts: no man's land, five coffins, yin yang harmony, Tongtian... anyway, I couldn't understand any of them.

  This notebook doesn't have any practical content at all, it's all just weird and unformed lines. The boss said that these were the route maps drawn by Zhu Huiling when he went on an adventure, but I think they're just his random scribbles when he was hallucinating.

  Because if it's a map, at the very least it should indicate east, south, west and north, indicate which province it is in, and indicate some rough symbols such as mountains and rivers. I quickly flipped to the last page and saw a big number "8" drawn on it, but couldn't see any mystery.

  I put the notebook aside with a wry smile, my eyes empty as I stared at the ceiling. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and I jumped off the bed excitedly, not even putting on my slippers before opening it. Qing Jiang had come to find me, I wonder what she wants this time?

  I opened the door, but it wasn't Qing Jiang I saw. Instead, it was Mr. Wu from Taiwan, his wife, and their two twin children. The twins had transformed into pale and sickly-looking versions of themselves, with faces as white as paper and dark circles under their eyes. They didn't seem to have any energy at all, looking more like corpses than living people.

  I really couldn't think of what Mr. Wu and his family would come to the town hospital from the Lei Gong Hotel, but I still invited them in and asked them to sit down. Their two children didn't say a word, slowly walked to the bedside, and fell onto the bed with a thud, panting heavily.

  "I asked doubtfully: 'Mr. Wu, I don't know what brings you here, is there something going on?'"

  Mr. Wu looked around my room as soon as I opened the door, seemingly searching for something. He apologized and said, "San Shi, I didn't mean to disturb you, but I had no choice. I wanted to ask if the Double-Faced Baby has come looking for you?"

  His question left me a bit bewildered, and I said: "I haven't seen it before, it's not familiar with me, why would it run several miles to come to this town hospital to find me? Are you looking for it? If you really want to find it, you should go look for Hongmei instead of me. It's more familiar with Hongmei."

  Mr. Wu was filled with guilt and said, "I know we've come to disturb you, but the reason we came looking for you is because Hongmei told me. She said that after you left, she saw the strange baby coming out of the grass pile, following you reluctantly. Later, when you got on the three-wheeled motorcycle, the strange baby also disappeared from view. So she was certain that it must have followed you to this hospital."

  I find it strange. Has the two-faced baby really come to this town hospital? But I didn't see it. "I really didn't see it," I said.

  Mr. Wu's wife, Mrs. Cai, cried and tightly grasped my hand, saying: "If you see it, please remember to notify us in time. We are now living in room 203. I have no way out, they are still so small, I don't want anything to happen to them, please understand the feelings of a mother..."

  I finally understood that they were so determined to find the two-faced baby because their two children had a strange illness, and only the two-faced baby could temporarily alleviate their symptoms.

  I said: "Do you want the freaks to treat your children? What's wrong with them?"

  "We also didn't know what disease it was, we spent a huge amount of money and went to many countries, but couldn't diagnose what they had. They were like vampires in horror movies, afraid of sunlight, pale-faced, and easily weak. At first, American doctors diagnosed them with porphyria, a congenital red blood cell disorder. But after further investigation, we found it wasn't that either. We went all over the country but couldn't find treatment. Later, we decided to try traditional Chinese medicine and came to the Leigong Mountains, where medicinal herbs are abundant. When we first stayed at the Leigong Hotel, we met Hongmei, who saw our two children and told me she had a way to cure their strange illness. She said there was a double-faced monster baby that grew up eating precious Chinese medicine in the Leigong Mountains, and its blood could cure all diseases in the world. We were desperate at the time, so we believed her words, with an attitude of 'even if it's just a dead horse, let's try to make it work'. Unexpectedly, after our two children drank just one drop of the double-faced monster baby's fresh blood, their condition immediately improved. This discovery made us overjoyed, but the double-faced monster baby only listened to Hongmei and Ahao, so we didn't dare force it to give more blood..."

  After hearing Mr. Wu's words, I finally knew the reason why Hongmei came to Leigong Inn to find Mr. Wu before, and why Mr. Wu chased Ah Hao with a knife. It turned out that there was such a complicated story behind it.

  I said, "I really haven't seen it, if it really comes to me, I will definitely tell you." In Mr. Wu's and my conversation about the story between them and the two-faced baby, there is a crucial piece of information hidden, unfortunately, because I only focus on the content of this story, or that I habitually only look at the surface of things, which leads me to overlook this important clue.

  After Mr. Wu left my room with the two children, I thought to myself that if the Double-Faced Baby really came to this town's hospital and didn't look for me, then who would it go looking for in the hospital? The first person I thought of was Qing Jiang's sister - Qing Cheng. Qing Cheng is the biological mother of the Double-Faced Baby, although I still don't know if they had ever met or recognized each other before. Since the Double-Faced Baby came to this hospital and didn't appear, the most likely person it would go looking for is Qing Cheng.