Chapter 1465: The Solution (Part 1) [Requesting Monthly Tickets]

Counting from birth, the young "Tan Qu" is approaching forty, but having died young, his mind and experience remain stuck at the year of his death; in reality, he is still a boy who has not yet come of age. No matter how mature he is, he will lose his composure when faced with a reality that can shatter his worldview.

Even those unfamiliar with him could hear the breakdown in his voice.

Yu Hai's expression changed, and he grabbed the other person's wrist first.

This forced the sword, which was half-drawn from its sheath, to stop in place.

Yu Hai said coldly, "Have you forgotten what I just said? Tan... Lezheng, aren't you the one who cherishes your life the most? When you encounter a problem or a setback, you always think of ending it all to break the deadlock? Do you think you're Li San Taizi who caused trouble in the sea?"

Is suicide addictive?

Upon hearing this, the young Tan Qu also became angry.

Driven by his inner fire, he flung Yu Hai away from his grasp, panting heavily as he broke down, saying, "What can I do? Tell me what else can I do? If you're really my best friend, you shouldn't have kept it from me! Yu Guilong, then tell me, am I a living person like you, or some unknown monster? I feel hungry when I see you, and I feel hungry when I see it too!"

Yu Hai was alive; what was pulled out of the water was a corpse.

How could a normal person possibly have an appetite for either of them?

At first, the young Tan Qu was able to use reason to suppress his thoughts and deceive himself by believing Yu Hai's words that he could control his illness even if it wasn't a strange disease. But when he was forced to confront the absurd reality, fear and panic took over completely.

He clearly realized that he had truly become a monster.

A monster that thinks about eating its own kind.

A dying animal's pleas escaped its throat.

What's wrong with me?

Looking at the young "Tan Qu," Yu Hai felt a pang of guilt, but what could he do now that the die was cast? Even if time could turn back and he could choose again, Yu Hai would still do it without hesitation, only this time he would definitely fill a whole bottle of "nectar." He certainly couldn't say these words aloud; even the best-tempered young "Tan Qu" wasn't a pushover.

"Okay, I'll tell you."

Yu Hai, as usual, told only half the story and concealed the other half.

The young man, Tan Qu, is stubborn. If he is not given an explanation now, he might actually try to commit suicide.

When a person wants to die, they can always die.

Yu Hai's confiscation of his sword was useless. No one stipulated that a scholar must use a sword to commit suicide. Some people could quietly break a table and stab themselves with a wooden rafter, or go for a walk in the garden, pick up a couple of stones, and swallow them. People who want to die don't care about the method or the pain of death.

Under the hopeful gaze of the boy, Yu Hai said, "You were framed and died a violent death in the Sacred Mountain and Sea. I brought your body out, intending to find a beautiful place to bury you, but I unexpectedly discovered that you were not quite dead yet. So I borrowed a dose of 'Jade Elixir' from the inner society of the Gods Society. This substance can stimulate your life force... I have been using the way of the literati to summon your soul all these years, and that's how you woke up."

The boy's eyes gradually turned blank.

Yu Hai said, "I was mentally prepared for your current state. I knew you would like to eat raw food, but I have the ability to provide for you and I believe you can control yourself. I haven't thought about anything else."

The first few sentences are a mix of truth and falsehood, but the last two sentences are the absolute truth.

Yu Hai genuinely had no idea that the "nectar" would turn a person into this state; the information he had gathered only mentioned the possibility of revitalizing a corpse. In his view, liking to eat raw food wasn't a problem, and being deprived of sunlight for years didn't matter either, as long as the person was alive.

The young Tan Qu slowly scrutinized Yu Hai with an inquisitive gaze.

Yu Hai felt a chill run down his spine and sighed, "You don't believe me?"

"I believe you, I'm just curious..." The boy, seemingly lost in thought, momentarily disregarded his emotional breakdown and asked a ridiculous question that had just occurred to him, "What exactly is our relationship?"

Yu Hai turned his head away: "Aren't we going to talk about best friends?"

The young man, Tan Qu, had eyes full of doubt.

Was he perhaps hiding something before he died?

Yu Hai, after all, was a seasoned veteran who had been in the world for three or four decades. Even if he hadn't eaten pork, he had seen pigs run. He belatedly realized what kind of crooked thoughts the young man had. He cursed the good-for-nothing from the North for corrupting a good family, and raised his hand to strike the young man on the forehead.

"Stop slandering my innocence."

If it weren't for the bad deeds of the North, he would have been married long ago.

Yu Hai gritted his teeth in shame and indignation: "Why don't you think about the fact that I'm the old man... I'm loyal and righteous, and I repay even the smallest kindness with the greatest gratitude. Back then, Zhai Huan saved my life, and didn't I work like a slave for his younger brother Zhai Le for more than ten years? You saved my life, so it's only normal for me to repay you with my life. All I have to do to support you is provide some raw food, but how much effort have I put into cleaning up Zhai Le's mess? Can you be more troublesome and annoying than Zhai Xiaofang?"

The young man, "Tan Qu," said awkwardly, "That's true."

Yu Hai: "..."

Forget it, why are you getting angry?

Back then, Qi Shan and Tan Qu were a duo: one wrote erotic novels, the other drew erotic picture books, with protagonists freely combined in male-female, male-male, and female-female combinations, without any taboos. Even if the boy in front of them had only lost his memories of his previous life and his mind wasn't damaged, it was perfectly normal for him to think in that direction.

Anyway, this isn't the first time he's been misunderstood.

It is said among the common people that the high-ranking and powerful Prime Minister Yu is indifferent to women and remains single to this day. Even when minor officials try to offer him sons and daughters, he is turned away. His daily life can be described as bland and uninteresting. He has no wife, concubines, children, or grandchildren. In contrast, Qi Yuanliang of Kangguo knew to raise a group of cats and adopt a daughter. Yu Hai is too plain and simple, much like a widower keeping his chastity.

Yu Hai was surprised when he first heard this and pointed at himself.

[A widower? Who? Me?]

Even more outrageous was that rumors spread from the bottom up to all the civil and military officials, and for a while, those people looked at him strangely.

Yu Hai, being a bit of a fool, went around asking around, wishing he could pay a fortune for a pair of ears he'd never heard of before—his character had changed from a widower to a pitiful widower who guarded his deceased husband's property and assisted his younger brother-in-law to fulfill his deceased husband's wishes, with an extra chapter containing an incestuous relationship between the uncle and sister-in-law.

Don't ask who your deceased husband was, and don't ask who your brother-in-law is.

Yu Hai immediately addressed the source of the rumors.

The Kang Kingdom's royal court in the north had a cultural department that employed a group of novelists who were so idle they were practically farting all day. They constantly churned out scripts popular with the common people, and many of the Kang Kingdom's opera repertoire was adapted from these. The most popular plays during that period were works of tales of incest between a widowed sister-in-law and her brother-in-law, Hai, who became his second wife. The story revolved around a wealthy family in the south, where the eldest son, Da Zhai, was poisoned by a business rival, and Hai assisted her brother-in-law, Er Zhai, in rebuilding the family's fortunes and retaliating against their enemies—a truly satisfying business revenge story.

The story spread among the people and eventually reached the state of Qu.

Anyone with a discerning eye can immediately tell who the prototype is.

Curious onlookers smacked their lips, wondering if the protagonist's real-life counterpart truly had those love-hate entanglements. Who doesn't love gossip?

Yu Hai: [...]

No matter how many times he shouted "For my peanuts!" it was no use.

I can't even imagine how many people knew about this gossip as it traveled from Kang to Qu. Yu Guilong's lifelong reputation was ruined in an instant.

Zhai Le frowned and asked who did this despicable thing.

The author of this story should be banned!

Yu Hai sneered repeatedly.

He could tell who provided the material just by looking at the story structure, and his hatred for that useless, sarcastic guy from the North intensified. There were several other versions of similar stories—how could Kangguo be so careless, not caring about copyright issues?

Yu Hai hated the boy "Tan Qu" more and more, and wanted him to wake up. One day, he would use this as leverage to make that good-for-nothing crawl at his feet.

The young "Tan Qu" has been kind to Yu Hai, and he does indeed have a strong desire to revive his benefactor. However, the fact that this desire has reached such a deep level is largely due to the useless catalyst from the North.

Who told that thing to disgust me every now and then?

He Yu Hai is Li Tianwang, and the young "Tan Qu" is the exquisite pagoda that can trap people, specifically to suppress "Good Big Son"!

I waved my hand, trying to stop thinking about those upsetting things.

"In short, you have to live."

The young man, Tan Qu, remained silent.

I still can't accept reality.

The neglected corpse struggled more fiercely, baring its teeth at the boy and revealing a sharp, blood-red maw. Annoyed, the boy instinctively slapped the corpse's head to the side. The force wasn't great, but the corpse seemed to have seen a ghost, emitting a sharp, explosive sound.

It let out two soft whimpers and curled up into a ball.

He visibly flinched twice.

"Go away, I'm in a bad mood."

The journey had taken too long, and it was already getting light. The three boys had no choice but to find a shady spot to hide. Yu Hai was also worried about leaving the boys behind to report to Zhai Le, so he sent a servant to inform the camp about the sick people appearing in the river.

It's good that the main camp knows this so they can prepare in advance.

He also needs to investigate the origin of the body.

Just then, the corpse, bound hand and foot by the servants, moved away from the boy "Tan Qu"—or more accurately, away from him.

Yu Hai exclaimed in surprise, "He can understand what you're saying?"

The boy also noticed this and tried giving instructions.

"squat."

The corpse struggled to squat down, lost its balance, and fell to the ground.

"rise."

The corpse stood up at about the same speed this time.

"Jump."

The corpse twitched awkwardly.

The young man, "Tan Qu," and Yu Hai exchanged a glance, both seeing a strange light in each other's eyes. Yu Hai was suddenly struck by a thunderous shock, countless thoughts swirling in his mind. His biggest thought was whether the young man, "Tan Qu," could communicate with the patients and even command them—to what extent? Could he make these corpses charge into battle? They felt no pain and would never retreat or flinch. The young man, however, hadn't considered these possibilities.

Where did you come from?

Do you remember what happened before you fell into the water?

After a moment of stunned silence, the young man, "Tan Qu," tried to communicate with the corpse, asking about its ancestral home and age, but to no avail. Then, as if possessed, he placed his hand on the corpse's skull, closed his eyes under Yu Hai's worried gaze, and calmed himself down until he heard a mournful wail.

Help me, help me, help me...

The increasingly clear cries for help made his heart tremble.

Just as he was about to respond, his wrist was suddenly grabbed.

A tremendous force pulled him backward, nearly causing him to lose his balance and fall.

"Guilong, what are you doing?"

Yu Hai retorted angrily, "I should be asking you what you're doing!"

The young man, "Tan Qu," snapped out of his daze and looked back at the corpse, stunned—the corpse's skin color was polarized, one side was slightly pale but still within the range of a normal person, while the other side was clearly grayish-blue, exuding an ominous aura, as were the pupils.

He lay on the ground, struggling and convulsing violently.

"Help, help me... help me..."

The eyes on the side with normal skin tone were filled with longing.

He seemed to be struggling to breathe, and said in a rough voice, "Help me..."

The cries for help overlapped with what he had vaguely heard, and the boy exclaimed with overjoyed joy, "He's still alive! He's still alive!"

Yu Hai wasn't as naive as him.

He said, "Things aren't that simple!"

The boy had no idea what had just happened.

"Are you planning to transfer the illness from him to yourself?"

The young man, "Tan Qu," was stunned: "Me?"

Kangguo, Medical Office.

The air was thick with the lingering smell of gunpowder, and everyone treaded carefully, afraid of igniting Dong Dao's anger. The imperial physician had just finished arguing with a physician, and neither of them was in a calm state.

The physicians of the medical profession proposed a risky treatment method.

She wanted to try smallpox vaccination.

This method was unexpectedly discovered in the Temple of Medicine; it was said to treat a disease called smallpox. The treatment process was very instructive! The medical practitioners wondered if they could try this approach, but Dong Dao immediately rejected it with a single sentence: "Impossible!"

"Why not?"

Dong Dao retorted irritably, "How can they be the same?"

Take that cook as an example. Just a tiny bit of contaminated water caused her to fall ill, which shows how toxic it was! The physician is trying to transfer the pathogen to himself. Can he really escape unscathed?

If the disease occurs, how much loss will the hospital suffer?

How many more people will die in the future without her treatment?

"I am a physician, unlike ordinary people!"

Dong Dao said, "That shouldn't be your risk! You don't even have a 30% chance of success, yet you're preparing to imitate Shennong tasting hundreds of herbs, aren't you afraid of being poisoned to death? What doctor is as disregarding life as you are? If you don't even value your own life, how can you value the lives of your patients?"

Such recklessness is utter madness!

Then, a physician from the medical community proposed a method to expel the toxins.

Expel the pathogen from the body.

"...The patient reacts to different people to varying degrees, and there seems to be abnormal flow in her meridians. I think...her suggestion just now is not without merit." We might as well try to draw out the source of the disease, and then use the power of words to stimulate her consciousness.

If we can awaken consciousness, things will be much easier.

Dong Dao rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming on.

I can't understand why these people all like to take unconventional approaches.

Before long, a series of hurried footsteps approached. The other person, still out of breath, said haltingly, "We analyzed that tank of water, and guess what we found? There's something alive in it!"

"Living creature?"

This special living organism was also found in the bodies of several patients.

These creatures cannot reproduce, but they can stimulate the parasite to burst forth with extremely strong vitality in a short period of time. Preliminary calculations suggest that this is equivalent to draining several years of life in an instant. The mortal body simply cannot withstand this, and the consciousness, out of self-preservation, retreats back into the sea of ​​consciousness.

When the mind is closed, the body is without its own master and is controlled by the source of the disease.

The human body relies on food to replenish the energy needed for its activities. Under the influence of pathogens, the body only has the instinct to eat, and it prefers raw, unprocessed food. Replenishing food allows the body to live longer; if it exceeds its survival limit and does not replenish, the body will die naturally.

"I suspect that these patients did not completely lose their heartbeat and pulse after the onset of the disease, but were forced to reduce their body temperature, heartbeat, breathing, and any physiological activities that would increase their energy expenditure were compressed. They were trying to prolong their lives as much as possible and wear down the pathogen."

Let's drag it out until one of us can't hold on any longer.

Clearly, the human body couldn't hold on any longer.

This pathogen is incredibly resilient.

"Listen, it's somewhat similar to the Gu worms used by the doctors in Jimo?"

However, these pathogens are far smaller than the Gu worms.

"We just received intelligence from the Lord, along with an original record of the disease's origin. It's said the developer's initial intention was to reverse life and death, to give the dying a new lease on life, or even to bring the dead back to life..." Someone pursuing immortality, even eternal life, somehow ended up creating this thing. I wonder which gods orchestrated this; there aren't any lunatics like this in the medical community.

(′‵)

Body: Let's see who dies first...