Task 3
District 5 had always been a chaotic place, and Shi Youchen had never questioned this. However, his previous understanding suddenly seemed extremely shallow after he was led to the village called "Aha".
Through the car window, he looked at the yellow sand that stretched almost all the way. There was very little green in this area. Only after driving through a "gate" made of yellow bricks, a few clumps of life appeared between the low and scattered bungalows.
Xiaowei led Shi Youchen into a brick house, the facilities inside resembling a clinic. "Sir, you can treat me here. The situation outside is unstable, and they'll bring me in." She pulled out a list and placed it on the table. "These are the villagers from Aiha Village who meet the application requirements."
Shi Youchen glanced at the list and saw only a few names. "From what I've heard, the situation isn't that optimistic." He pointed at the names printed on the list and asked Xiaowei, "Are you sure these are all there are?"
Since entering the village, the girl has not been as active as she was yesterday and this morning. She sighed and said, "Sir, the association has strict conditions for people to receive treatment. We just need to complete the task." She pulled open the curtain behind the two of them. There was a simple bed inside. Some commonly used instruments and medicines were placed on the wooden shelf beside the brick wall.
"This was originally the village clinic in Aiha Village. The association requisitioned it for your safety." Xiaowei turned on the fan and said helplessly, "Our mission is confidential. The villagers don't know your identity and just treat it as a normal government aid."
"I will accompany you throughout the whole process, please rest assured."
Looking at her unusually determined eyes, and thinking that there might be many villages like this one in the future, Shi Youchen no longer bothered with these red tapes and said, "Let's get started."
The wooden door was pushed open, and the crack between the door and the wall made a painful creaking sound. Two veiled men came in carrying a stretcher. If Shi Youchen remembered correctly, these two people got on the car halfway to Aiha Village. They seemed to be helpers assigned by the association.
The person lying on the stretcher was short, face down, with a tattered cloth covering their back, whitened from repeated use and scrubbing. The two men carried the stretcher to the bedside, carrying the prone person to the bed one at a time, then set them down. Then, speaking a few words to Xiaowei in a thick accent, they retreated.
Simultaneous interpretation headphones are very important supplies. In addition to Shi Youchen having the full right to use them during operations in Area 5, Xiaowei can also wear them when accompanying others on missions. However, the two people just now do not have this qualification, so the task of conveying information to the patients themselves or their families can only be handed over to Xiaowei, which saves Shi Youchen a lot of trouble.
"This child's name is Korra, he's 11 years old, and he's the youngest son of the village chief of Aiha Village. He's been infected with a strange disease for more than a month." Xiaowei compared the information on the list and said to Shi Youchen after confirming that it was correct.
The person lying on the hospital bed did not make any sound. Shi Youchen took the disposable gloves handed to him by Xiaowei and put them on, then lifted the rag used to cover himself.
Korra's skin was dark all over, except for a patch of white with a hint of red on her back. However, the red was not blood red, but a strange light red close to pink, a bit like new flesh.
Shi Youchen looked at the entire skin for a while, stretched out a finger and pointed at the back of his neck. A trace of weak energy was infused in and slowly flowed downwards, suddenly disappearing when it was about to reach the middle of the spine.
Even though it was only a tiny amount, Shi Youchen had never encountered such a situation where energy suddenly disappeared while moving within a living being. He then injected another stream of energy into Korra's body and smoothly extended it toward her spine. This time, the energy reached its destination intact.
The area on Korra's back was undergoing cell phagocytosis and regeneration activities that were invisible to the naked eye, but this basal cell proliferation and replenishment activity could be captured by tiny energies, and the result it fed back to Shi Youchen was that the virus infecting Korra was fighting against his □.
The ulcerated skin's inability to heal was a result of cellular resistance, which in turn exacerbated the infection. However, Shi Youchen lacked the ability to detoxify, so all he could do was heal Korra's back injury first to alleviate his pain, even though it would inevitably ulcerate again.
Shi Youchen asked Xiaowei to bring disinfectant and first simply cleaned the sticky flesh and the oozing blood and pus. Then, under her excited gaze, his palm emitted a white light and covered Korra's back.
This was Xiaowei's first time witnessing a superpower using energy. This was the power that could protect humanity, a miracle. When she came to her senses, tears had already welled up in her eyes, and her vision was blurry. After wiping away the tears with her sleeve, she saw Korra's intact back.
Shi Youchen removed his gloves and tossed them into the trash can, then ordered, "Let them in. Carry the person to the inner room for observation." Xiaowei's hands felt damp and hot. She nodded and went out to fetch help. The three people brought in were all young boys. They all had at least one ulcer on their bodies. As Shi Youchen carefully examined each person's internal condition, he found no other sudden energy loss like Korra's.
One of the boys not only had the surface skin of his left calf peeling off and pus oozing out, but also had his ring finger and middle finger on his left hand separated from the second joint. The muscle tissue at the joint seemed to have been corroded by sulfuric acid and turned into a semi-fluid state, so the village doctor was unable to suture him and naturally could not wait for the body to regenerate naturally.
After trying many times, Shi Youchen's supernatural power was still unable to heal the finger that was about to fall off, so he realized that this was probably caused by viral erosion.
"Go contact the child's family. I have something to discuss with them." Shi Youchen took off his gloves and said to Xiaowei in frustration.
"Okay!" Xiao Wei was there the whole time, and naturally saw the whole process of Shi Youchen using his ability to heal several people. This was the first example she had seen where Shi Youchen was helpless, so she hurried out to find someone and convey instructions.
"Ask the child's family to come over, and then you can bring the last person here first." Xiao Wei had just finished speaking when the two men exchanged glances. One of them left to fetch someone, while the remaining man, with an embarrassed look on his face, said, "The last person on the list died at home while we were notifying them to come and wait for the appointment."
"...Is that so." Xiaowei felt a little sad when she heard it, "Forget it, just consider it her fate." She remembered that she was an 8-year-old girl.
"Then wait until this person's family comes over to settle the matter. Then the mission in Aiha Village will be completed and we can prepare to go back to work." Xiao Wei looked up and squinted at the scorching sun overhead. "Sir, you've been sweating a lot. Go get some water."
"yes."
After completing the task, Xiaowei was about to return to the house. Just as she reached out to push the door, it swung open from the inside. Shi Youchen stood there with a calm expression, watching the figure disappear from the alley. He said, "I'm going to get some fresh air. Please look after the child inside." Before Xiaowei could stop him, he had already walked to the other end of the alley.
Xiaowei didn't dare to disobey but was also worried, so she had to remind him: "Then please come back as soon as possible, sir!" Before Shi Youchen's figure disappeared around the corner, she saw him waving.
...
The wooden door had very poor sound insulation. Perhaps because he had stayed in the house for too long, Shi Youchen suddenly felt dizzy after giving Xiaowei instructions, so he wanted to go out for some fresh air, and happened to hear the second half of the conversation between the two people outside the door.
There are so many children who died before they could receive treatment... I don't know how many of them there are in this land.
He walked out of the intersection of the alley where the clinic was located at a very fast pace. When he looked up, he saw a building not far away that was incompatible with the endless sand-yellow surroundings. The ivory white walls looked particularly pure, and five-colored prayer flags were fluttering on the top of the tower.
It's a temple.
This wasn't Shi Youchen's first time seeing a temple, but it was the first time he'd seen one standing in the wilderness, devoid of human habitation. Every temple he'd ever visited was packed with people coming to worship and pray, and the sounds lingering in his ears weren't filled with solemn scriptures, but rather the voices of people pouring out their desires.
This was the first place that truly made him feel sacred. It stood there, as if supporting the heaven and earth.
He was involuntarily attracted and moved closer to the place, but was tripped by something halfway forward.
Shi Youchen's gaze, which was staring straight ahead, finally shifted downwards, falling on the ground, on the figure curled up on the ground.
...
Xiaowei carefully checked the three people in the cubicle, confirming they had no adverse reactions, then stepped back, looking worriedly at the boy lying on the bed outside. "I wonder if Mr. Shi can help," she thought, figuring that both the person who had gone to notify the family and Shi Youchen would be back by now.
There were heavy footsteps outside. Xiaowei was delighted and hurried to open the door. She saw a person crawling on Shi Youchen's back. The shadows of the two merged into one, stretching longer and longer in the alley.
"Sir... what's this?" Xiao Wei looked worried, but she still closed the door first, then helped put the man on the stretcher. "Hmm..." After turning over, she saw the man's appearance clearly. He was a handsome young man.
Shi Youchen washed his hands in a nearby basin, wiping away the water droplets as he spoke, "He fainted outside the temple over there. I happened to see him and checked him out. He had no external injuries, so I brought him back." Xiaowei breathed a sigh of relief as she took the disinfectant. "That's good," she replied, then complained, "Please don't do this again. It's very dangerous!"
The person who had just committed the dangerous act remained silent. He checked the condition of the person on the bed and asked, "How are the three people in there?"
"Ah, nothing unusual."
“Where are the family members?”
"I've already notified them to go and call them, but they haven't come back yet."
There was a sound of hurried footsteps outside, and then they stopped in front of the door. "Sir, they're here," Xiao Wei said, peeking out through the hole in the door. "Let them in."
A woman wrapped in a veil walked in behind the veiled man. Her only exposed eyes stared at the boy on the hospital bed, her tone very anxious.
"Excuse me, how is my son?" The earphones conveyed the woman's words directly to Shi Youchen.
Shi Youchen said expressionlessly, "Burti, 15 years old, ill for over a week." The woman nodded hurriedly after Xiaowei's translation. "His left hand needs amputation, but there's no guarantee he won't be affected elsewhere in the future." Shi Youchen took a deep breath and concluded, "But if this continues, he'll definitely die."
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