Chapter 98

"Useless, Xu, don't bother with me anymore." Han Ying's voice was hoarse. As she spoke, she turned her face away, tears involuntarily streaming down her cheeks, as if she was afraid Xu Mo would see them, and quickly wiped them away.

"Don't talk nonsense!" Xu Mo scolded, carefully examining the red spots on her body. The red spots hadn't yet started to smell, but it wasn't hard to guess that in a few days, the blood would rot, the red spots would turn black and smelly, and then she would age and die.

"Xu, listen to me." Han Ying suddenly called out to him again.

Hearing the seriousness in her voice, Xu Mo quickly turned to look at her, "What do you want to say? You can say it later."

"No, I want to say it now." Han Ying was unusually stubborn.

Xu Mo said, "Oh," and had no choice but to say, "Go ahead."

Han Ying sat up straight, got out of bed, and stared at him blankly for a moment without speaking. Xu Mo felt a bit embarrassed by her gaze and urged, "What do you want to say?"

Han Ying suddenly reached out and touched his face, gently caressing it. The room was warm, but Xu Mo felt her hand was icy cold, probably due to the disease that had weakened her immune system.

Han Ying sighed and said sadly, "If I had met you a few years earlier, it would have been better." Her tone was filled with regret and remorse.

Xu Mo vaguely guessed what she meant, but he had suffered a great emotional setback and had spent the past two years living alone in the mountains, cleansing his mind. With his enhanced senses, it was as if a broad and smooth road had appeared in his life, guiding him toward a direction that no one had ever touched before. He no longer cared much about romantic relationships. So he pretended not to understand and smiled, "It's not too late for you to meet me now. I'll treat your illness first."

"No, listen to me." Han Ying held him back again and continued, "Don't take the past too seriously. Your ex-girlfriend..."

She seemed reluctant to say bad things about others and paused, then continued, "Not finding a job or something like that, what's the big deal? Your personality isn't very flexible, and you don't know how to adapt to the world. You're more like a hermit. There are some things you can't do alone. But if someone helps you wholeheartedly, and you do some business together, with your intelligence, you can live a good life, better than those people. I... I originally planned to go back and open a restaurant with you..."

As she spoke, she couldn't help but shed tears.

What she said was indeed true. If Xu Mo's girlfriend had been Han Ying instead of Li Qi, he wouldn't have fallen to such a low point. But on the other hand, if he hadn't fallen to such a low point, he wouldn't have achieved what he has today.

Xu Mo found her words somewhat like a farewell, which made him laugh, but he was also moved by her sincerity. What was even more remarkable was that every word she said hit the key points, pointing out his strengths and weaknesses with precision. Despite knowing him for a short time, she understood him deeply.

But then Han Ying said, "I can't do it anymore. With this strange disease, I'll age and die in a few days. You alone... the restaurant... I'm afraid... I'm afraid you can't manage it."

She seemed afraid that Xu Mo would be upset and spoke very tactfully, pausing before continuing, "Ding Jian gave you a business card, which I kept. After you leave here, you might as well call him and go to his friend's restaurant in Jingji. Your cooking is so delicious, even if... even if... you are a bit stubborn, the boss will appreciate your talent and make allowances for you."

She had spent a short time with Xu Mo and, apart from his personality, only knew that he was a good cook. She didn't know that Xu Mo had no intention of opening a restaurant this time.

Xu Mo opened his mouth to speak but was stopped by her. She grabbed his hand and continued, "Take the bank card I have. There's still some money in it. If you don't want to work for others, save it, and it will be enough... enough... The password is 581210. 58 is my birthday, and 1210 is the number of strokes in my name, which is easy to remember. Also, help take care of my parents..."

Seeing her stubbornness, Xu Mo knew that talking more would be useless. He nodded, thinking to himself, "I'll treat you first, and then you'll see."

He extended a finger and gently rubbed the red spots on her abdomen. The red spots were caused by blood accumulation, and the skin was very fragile. As he rubbed, they immediately burst, and blood flowed out.

The blood hadn't yet rotted but was close to it, containing a virus. Xu Mo put his finger to his mouth and licked the blood.

Han Ying was very anxious and tried to grab his finger, but it was too late. She exclaimed, "You'll kill yourself."

Xu Mo smiled and said, "I told you, you won't believe me now, but you'll see tomorrow."

They stayed there for another night. The next morning, Xu Mo woke up and first checked his body. He found that he hadn't been infected, but Han Ying's red spots had almost doubled in size.

Xu Mo was even more alarmed and worried, thinking, "How could this be?"

He paced back and forth in the room, trying to figure out the reason. Suddenly, he thought, "Could it be because of the static breathing? Over the past few years, I've almost made static breathing a habit. Could it be that my body's resistance is stronger than ordinary people's, so I can't be infected? But isn't this a virus? How could such a powerful virus not infect me? When did static breathing become so powerful?"

He felt something was off but couldn't figure out the reason. He thought, "I'll stop static breathing and try again."

He took another drop of blood from Han Ying and swallowed it, simultaneously stopping static breathing. He immediately shivered, as he had become accustomed to static breathing over the years. Without it, he felt cold.

The next morning, as soon as he opened his eyes, he felt dizzy and his body seemed heavier than usual. He lifted the blanket and looked at his abdomen, where he indeed found a red spot.

He was not alarmed but rather relieved, even feeling a sudden sense of relief. He closed his eyes and used his enhanced sense of touch to carefully feel inside his body.

After a while, he opened his eyes and muttered to himself, "Strange! It seems like there's really a worm. Although Li Helin is a bit of a scoundrel, he does have some medical knowledge. But he was still wrong."

What he called a worm wasn't really a worm, at least not a living one. It was a substance formed by a virus using the body's resources, just resembling a worm.

Its function, to be precise, was more like a seed or a magnet, existing in the blood in the lower abdomen, continuously absorbing the body's vitality.

At first, it was very slow, but as it absorbed more vitality, the body's immunity and resistance would rapidly decline. When it reached a certain level, the absorption rate would suddenly increase, leading to rapid aging and death.

Since the worm-like substance existed in the blood and absorbed vitality from the blood, and Xu Mo's static breathing primarily controlled blood circulation, the worm couldn't survive in his body. When he practiced static breathing, he couldn't be infected.

Now that he was infected, he could still easily drive it out by practicing static breathing. However, even if he did, it wouldn't help Han Ying at all.

But since he had found the cause, it was easier to solve. Besides static breathing, Xu Mo could also use medicine to drive it out. In an instant, he thought of several prescriptions, each of which could drive the worm out of his body.

He didn't rush to tell Han Ying the news and went to the pharmacy with enthusiasm.

When he entered the pharmacy and looked around, he was stunned. His face turned extremely difficult. In the south, in the wilderness, he had learned to taste various herbs, most of which were grass, not medicine. The pharmacy was full of medicine, not grass.

Even if the herbs were the same, he rarely knew their names when he tasted them in the south. It would be difficult to find the herbs he needed among so many medicine cabinets.

He basically didn't know the properties of these medicines. To find the ones he needed, he would have to taste them one by one, which would take a long time.

He could do it slowly, but Han Ying didn't have that much time. She would age and die in a few days.

He was anxious and stepped out of the door, immediately shivering. He knew it was because he wasn't practicing static breathing and his vitality was being absorbed, weakening his resistance.

He planned to find the herbs he needed in the wild, but where could he find them? Most plants in the north were different from those in the south, and even if they were the same, the heavy snow had buried them, making it impossible to find them.

He was at a loss and extremely frustrated. That night, he angrily returned to his room to sleep. Without static breathing, and with his vitality continuously being drained, his resistance decreased, and even though the room was warm, he couldn't sleep.

Thinking of Han Ying, he thought, "I'm in such a state, and her condition is much worse. She must be in even worse shape."

He went to Han Ying's room and found her in very poor condition, half-asleep, completely unaware of his presence. She was shivering under the blanket.

Xu Mo felt a pang of sympathy and climbed into bed, holding her in his arms. She felt like a block of ice. Han Ying made a faint sound, as if she sensed something, but she was too deeply asleep to wake up.

Xu Mo faintly smelled the weak, decaying odor from her body, which made him even more depressed.

The next morning, when Xu Mo woke up, Han Ying was still asleep, but the decaying odor from her body was even stronger. Xu Mo lifted the blanket and examined her body. Her red spots had turned black and were about to start rotting.

Xu Mo was extremely worried and went to the pharmacy, where he tasted a few herbs but found them useless. In his frustration, he couldn't help but let out a loud roar to the sky.

He blamed himself and was filled with anger, slapping himself hard on the face. He accidentally hit his nose, and blood started to flow.

Strangely, as the blood flowed, the various odors of the herbs in the room became clearer.

His sense of smell had somehow become more sensitive.

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