After eating, Cui Nan went back to work. Yu Heng took a peek. “That’s a beautiful drawing. When I get married someday, how about you design a ring for me, Brother Cui?”

Yu Aiguo chuckled from the side. “How old are you even? Already worrying about wedding rings?”

“Well, then you shouldn’t be worrying about grandsons,” Yu Heng shot back. “Who was it the other day holding Old Man Chen’s grandson and refusing to give him back?” Yu Aiguo was instantly speechless.

Cui Nan gave a small smile. “Talk to me when you’re actually getting married.” To him, Yu Heng still looked like a kid; marriage was a long way off.

“I’m heading out then. I’ll be back at six. Brother Cui, remember not to order takeout yourself.” Yu Heng picked up the lunch boxes and trash. Behind him, his father shouted, “Drive carefully!”

“I know!”

“That brat, certainly has a loud voice,” Yu Aiguo grumbled affectionately before picking up his medicine bag to drink.

…

By evening, the doctor checked Mrs. Yu and said, “If she doesn’t run a fever again between now and six tomorrow morning, she can be discharged. At her age, she needs maintenance; proper exercise and the right supplements are necessary. The temperature is high lately, so don’t blast the AC too much after she gets home. Keep it at a moderate setting…”

Mrs. Yu was delighted and hurried to pack her clothes. “I need to scald these clothes with hot water when I get home. Son, go to the supermarket later and buy some mosquito coils and floral water. The bugs lately are incredibly toxic! You didn’t see it when you brought your dad lunch, but the lumps on that child in the next bed suddenly got bigger. It looked terrifying. He kept crying that it was itchy and tried to scratch—how can anyone scratch that? It’s a tragedy.”

“Will do!” Yu Heng checked the time; it was only 8:00 PM. “I’ll go buy them now, then I can just bring them home tomorrow.”

“There’s a supermarket at the intersection. Just go there. Don’t drive this late at night.”

Yu Heng grabbed his wallet and headed out.

Even at eight at night, it was sweltering. High-temperature warnings were all over the TV. It was truly sinister.

The supermarket was quite crowded, likely people coming out to shop while it was slightly “cooler” at night. Everyone was well-informed these days; during the heatwave over the last two days, pharmacies had been cleaned out of herbal tea. Yu Heng had only managed to snag two packs. Today at the supermarket, people were fighting over mosquito coils and floral water as well.

With so many people, Yu Heng didn’t bother looking at brands. Relying on his height and long reach, he grabbed five boxes of coils from the top shelf and five bottles of floral water.

He strolled back toward the hospital, the heat so intense his undershirt was already soaked through.

“Huh?” Yu Heng stopped in his tracks. Under a streetlight, a cluster of flowers was blooming in a corner. He looked left and right. There had been a breakfast stall here during the day; he’d even bought fried dough sticks here this morning. The stall sat against the corner of the building—it was a clean, open spot where everything was visible. This massive cluster of bright red flowers looked like it had appeared out of thin air. Curious, Yu Heng drifted over and crouched down to look.

The bright red flowers were quite beautiful, about half a meter tall with rounded, curved leaves. The blooms were as large as basins, emitting a cloyingly sweet fragrance. He couldn’t resist taking a photo with his phone to show his mother later.

He had just stood up and walked a few paces when he heard a rustling sound. Looking back, he saw a string of small animals scurrying fast, leaving a trail of tiny footprints on the ground. In a few moments, they approached from a gutter near Yu Heng.

“Are those… mice?” Yu Heng followed them, intrigued. The animals looked very much like mice but were only about five centimeters long. Their whiskers, however, were as long as their bodies. Their heads were tiny, making their bodies look quite plump by comparison. Yu Heng’s approach only made the little mice pause for a second; their whiskers twitched in perfect synchronization before they continued toward the flower cluster.

Yu Heng felt the flowers’ scent grow even stronger. Once the little mice reached the cluster, they wasted no time surrounding the plants and devouring them. Before long, the cluster was chewed down until only a single central flower bud remained. The mice didn’t eat that; they simply rustled away in retreat.

He watched in amazement. He never expected mice to eat flowers. Growing up, he’d rarely even seen a mouse; he’d only read in primary school textbooks that they ate grain.

He didn’t expect the even more bizarre scene to follow. With a soft whoosh, a thin vine shot out from the base of the flower cluster. It quickly coiled around two lagging mice and dragged them down into the roots.

Yu Heng was stunned. This thing was a carnivorous plant? The soil churned for a moment, then went still. He watched without blinking as that single flower bud bloomed in an instant. Then, with that flower as the center, tiny sprouts began to poke through the ground.

“Son, why aren’t you back yet?”

“Coming right now.” Yu Heng hung up the phone, only then realizing he’d been standing there for half an hour. In that corner, the flower cluster had already regained its size. The crowded little buds were bustling with life. He felt a sudden chill. Eating mice? No matter how pretty a flower was, he couldn’t appreciate it now. After a thought, he sent the photo to a classmate who worked at a newspaper.

“For real?”

“I didn’t have time to film a video. Come see for yourself, I have to go back.”

“Alright! If it’s newsworthy, I won’t forget to pay you back for the tip!”

…

By midnight, Yu Heng still hadn’t fallen asleep. For one thing, sleeping on a cot in a ward wasn’t comfortable; for another, the child in the next bed wouldn’t stop moaning. The boy had been examined again. According to his mother, the doctor had prescribed new medicine and ointment, adding that if there was no improvement by tomorrow, they should go to the city hospital for a checkup. The child’s face was unrecognizable now, his whole body covered in bulging lumps. When the lumps were small, they had been a terrifying, dense cluster; now that they were large, there seemed to be pus sloshing inside. The skin was paper-thin, and after the ointment was applied, it looked even more revolting.

“Mommy, it itches… hic… it itches…”

“Good boy, go to sleep. It won’t itch once you’re asleep.”

“Eek!”

Yu Heng was drifting off when a sudden cry of shock jolted him awake.

“What happened?” he asked softly.

The woman next door was terrified, pointing at the child’s arm. “This lump burst on its own! What do I do? Will it scar? Ah!”

Yu Heng had just stood up to peek when the woman screamed again, this time a sharp, piercing sound that woke everyone else in the ward.

The burst lump leaked pus. The fluid, mixed with the ointment, was disgusting, but the most sickening part was a clump of things rolling out from the pus. A tiny mass kept rolling, soaking the bedsheet, and then spread out. They were clearly countless tiny insects—black ones, made even more prominent against the white sheets.

Yu Heng had good eyesight. In the dim light of the bedside lamp, he saw them with terrifying clarity. Instant goosebumps broke out all over his body.

“What is this?! Doctor! Doctor!!”

The woman was frantic but didn’t dare get near her own child because the pustules on the boy were bursting one after another. In no time, his body was covered in those tiny insects, crawling outward and burrowing everywhere.

Because of the screaming, someone turned on the lights in the ward.

Others who had crowded over to look were driven back in horror.

“Get a doctor, quick! Why are there so many bugs on this kid?”

Yu Heng saw it too. He was currently sitting between the two beds, and some tiny insects were already approaching his feet on the floor. He stomped down, leaving a small puddle of fluid on the ground. He scooped up his mother and headed straight for the exit.

Who knew if these bugs bit? If it ended up like that child, the mere thought was hair-raising.

Soon, the commotion in the ward drew attention, and the duty nurse arrived.

“Don’t panic! Everyone step back, don’t let them touch you!”

Only the child was left in the ward. The boy’s mother clung to the door, weeping.

Perhaps the floral water Yu Heng had sprayed near the door was effective; the insects turned away as soon as they crawled near the threshold.

A nurse brought a spray and doused the room. After a while, the insects stopped moving. The child was quickly rushed to emergency.

The crowd buzzed with hushed voices.

“My god, what is going on? How can a person hatch bugs like that?” “I heard the kid was bitten by some bug before and broke out in those lumps.” “…”

Yu Heng carried his mother to the nurse’s station to find a chair. Woken up so abruptly, Mrs. Yu felt dizzy and nauseated, so he went to get her a cup of warm water.

“Son, let’s just check out. My heart is racing,” Mrs. Yu said, a wave of fear hitting her as she thought of that child. “What if you get bitten by those bugs?” Her precious son—if he turned into that, her heart would break.

Yu Heng hesitated, but home really did seem safer right now.

“Then let’s go home.”

When he went to process the discharge, Yu Heng found he wasn’t alone. He didn’t even have to ask; everyone was whispering. It turned out there had been several similar incidents in other wards besides his mother’s.

“I saw it with my own eyes. That nurse was covered in lumps. It’s definitely contagious!”

“Is it from touching the bugs?”

“Oh, such a pretty young girl, that’s going to be hideous…”

…

It was after 1:00 AM when they reached home. Just as Yu Heng opened the door, before he could flip the switch, he heard Cui Nan’s voice in the darkness. “Why are you back in the middle of the night? Auntie Yu? Why are you out of the hospital?”

The lights came on. Cui Nan squinted as he rose from the sofa, looking startled to see Mrs. Yu.

“How is she?”

Mrs. Yu smiled. “Xiao Nan, thank you for looking after our old man! Why were you sleeping on the sofa? Go sleep in Yu Heng’s room, I’ll get you some fresh blankets.”

Cui Nan shook his head. “I’ll head home to sleep. Auntie Yu, you go get some rest.” He looked at Yu Heng with a questioning gaze.

Mrs. Yu was indeed exhausted and didn’t have the energy to say much more, so she went to bed. As voices drifted from the parents’ room, Yu Heng followed Cui Nan out the door and explained the situation in a few sentences.

“Brother Cui, you have to be careful. Watch yourself and stay away from dirty places. Here’s some mosquito coils and floral water, take some back with you.” He handed over two boxes of coils and a bottle of floral water.

After hearing the news, Cui Nan’s sleepiness vanished. He thought for a moment. “I got it. You go to sleep too. Keep your windows shut.”

Back inside, Yu Heng opened his computer to search. He did find related content on the local forum, but there were no photos. Many people were mocking the posts below: “No pics, no proof.” The original poster argued: “It’s not that I didn’t want to take a photo, I didn’t dare get close enough! Believe it or not.” Others accused them of “fishing” for clicks.

By the next day, the news officially reported it—even on the national channel. The explanation was a “new type of parasite.” They urged the public to stay away from areas with dense vegetation or lakes and to prepare for insect prevention and sterilization. They also stated there had been no deaths from this condition yet and that research was ongoing, hoping the public would remain calm and so on.

Even if it wasn’t fatal, it was enough to make anyone’s skin crawl.