Sure enough, a few days later, one morning, when Xu Lai and her family went for their usual walk, they encountered several people carrying a man covered in yellow mud, rushing towards their building.

"Quick, quick! This person has been bitten by a giant red poisonous ant! Does anyone have any allergy medication?"

The Xu family's attention was immediately drawn to the words "giant red poisonous ants".

"I have some!"

After witnessing the power of the mutated red poisonous ants at Wangtai Mountain a few days ago, Xu Lai felt both sympathy for the man's bad luck and a strong desire to know what the consequences would be if someone were bitten by this venomous creature.

When the family rushed to the group, they saw that the skinny man being carried had his right leg swollen like a pig's trotter, and the exposed foot was bluish-purple.

Xu Lai looked up and saw that the man's face was deathly pale, and there was no sign of his breathing rising and falling.

This person is probably already dead!

Xu Lai put his right hand into his pocket, took out a small strip of anti-allergy fluratadine from his spatial storage, and handed it to the middle-aged woman next to him whose eyes were red with anxiety.

The woman took the medicine from Xu Lai's hand and, without even saying thank you, quickly plucked out a pill and stuffed it into the mouth of the unconscious man.

Unfortunately, no matter how many times they tried to open his mouth, the unconscious man wouldn't budge.

"What should I do? What should I do? My husband can't swallow it, what should I do?"

The woman, who had managed to control her emotions well the whole way, suddenly broke down and screamed.

"Auntie, wait a moment, I'll go get the car and take you to the hospital right away!"

Xu Lai also wanted to find out what was going on with the giant red poisonous ants, so she ran to a secluded spot on the other side of the residential area, took the van out of her spatial storage, quickly got in, and drove to the man who was on the verge of death.

Seeing this, the middle-aged woman quickly thanked Xu Lai several times. Before she could speak, the men who had been carrying the man immediately lifted him, who had been bitten by poisonous ants, into the car.

Because he was in a hurry, Xu Lai sped up the car along the way, and the journey that usually takes thirty minutes only took him a dozen minutes to get to the hospital.

Upon arriving at the hospital entrance, Xu Lai briefly explained the situation to the guards. The guards made a phone call, and within two minutes, doctors and nurses arrived with a stretcher and trolley.

Only fifteen minutes later, the doctor who had been treating the patient in the emergency room walked out with a regretful expression.

"I'm sorry, the patient couldn't be saved!"

Upon hearing this, the middle-aged woman standing next to Xu Lai burst into tears and rushed towards the emergency room.

"doctor……"

Xu Lai thought for a moment, then called out to the doctor who had been treating the patient, and told him about the person being bitten by red ants and about the giant red ants she had encountered a few days earlier in Wangtai Mountain.

Sure enough, the doctor's expression changed as soon as Xu Lai finished speaking.

"Mutant red poison ants?"

"Doctor, this is my guess. Each of those ants was about half the size of my thumb, and their saliva was not only highly poisonous but could also corrode the metal tools I was carrying. I've seen these red ants in documentaries before, and each one is only three to five millimeters long!"

"That means their size has increased by almost tenfold, from an average of three to five millimeters to three to five centimeters per animal. What caused these things to mutate to such a large size in such a short period of time?"

Xu Lai did not answer. She had specifically brought the man who had been bitten to death by red ants to the hospital in order to draw the hospital's attention to this problem.

"Okay, I'll report this matter of the red poison ants to my superiors today!"

After the doctor nodded to Xu Lai, he was called away by a nurse who rushed over.

Xu Lai, who was about to leave the hospital, thought for a moment and then walked to the emergency room to ask the aunt when she would return to Jinxiu Haoting.

As soon as she walked in, she saw the person in charge of the emergency room discussing with that woman the handling of her husband's body.

Since the onset of the torrential rains and floods, countless people in City C have died every day for various reasons.

Especially in the current extreme heat, if corpses are not dealt with in time, the decomposition will cause a major epidemic problem.

Therefore, the government stipulates that no matter where a body is found, it should be taken directly to the crematorium for cremation. Families who need the ashes can collect them from the crematorium, while those who do not need them will be disposed of centrally by the crematorium.

Even with this simplified process, crematoriums are still running at full capacity, 24/7.

"Then let the hospital make the arrangements, thank you!"

With her eyes swollen from crying, Meng Cuicui took one last look at her husband's body before gritting her teeth and speaking to the nurse in the emergency room.

My husband is gone, and there are two teenagers at home. If we take his body back, we'll have to call a car to take it to the crematorium, which will cost extra money.

In this world where survival is a struggle, every little bit saved increases her child's chances of survival.

She has to think about her two children.

Thinking of this, Meng Cuicui covered her mouth and rushed towards the door of the emergency room.

It must be heartbreaking for her to leave her husband's body in this cold, sterile emergency room and send him alone to the crematorium.

When they returned, Xu Lai still brought the aunt who had just lost her husband back to the community.

Along the way, she watched her aunt crying silently, and her own heart felt heavy.

What's wrong with our planet? Is this another mass extinction?

The next day, Xu Lai received a call from Chen Cheng, who said that the insecticide she requested was ready and that she should pick it up at the usual place.

Now she almost always drives a minivan when she goes out. Minivans are fast and have air conditioning, but they run on gasoline.

When she was stockpiling goods, she stockpiled ten 200-liter barrels of gasoline.

This can of gasoline contains 200 liters, which should be enough to power this van for about 4,000 kilometers.

This stuff diminishes with each use, so before Xu Lai went to get the insecticide, she took her family to the space and picked all the freshly harvested vegetables.

She wanted to exchange these fresh vegetables for gasoline from Chen Cheng.

With the insecticide in hand, Xu Lai instructed her family to spray it on the door and windows once every morning, noon, and evening.

"Second Uncle, Mom and Dad, Xiao Chao, we still need to replace the window screens with diamond mesh ones, and we need to seal the drains and toilet passages tightly to prevent those mutated poisonous insects from entering the house!"

Xu Lai looked at the window screen with two fist-sized holes and offered her advice to her family.

"Lai Lai is right. If these mutated red ants enter your home and bite someone, it could be fatal!"

Xu Jiangming was very supportive; his eldest granddaughter had a strong sense of crisis.