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Karen Carpenter, a famous U.S. singer died of anorexia. It was such a shame that she was only 32 years old when she died.

Wang Yao had read a similar case in the Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases. However, the case described in the book was not as serious as this one. The patient in the book was a man. He vomited every time he smelled fish. Gradually, he developed anorexia. The treatment method was to keep him away from fish and prescribe him herbs to improve digestion. He finally fully recovered. However, he couldn’t eat fish often since his body was highly sensitive to seafood.

This patient didn’t want to eat at all.

Maybe I should just keep all the food from him.

Wang Yao’s eyes brightened. Sometimes people smelled the sea before eating.

“Sorry, I forgot to ask you if the smell of the food will make you uncomfortable or do you just dislike any food in general?” Wang Yao asked.

He thought about giving the patient some herbs to facilitate digestion. He thought hard and listed a few herbs, which could also be used as food. He wrote them down for the patient.

Wang Yao went home late in the afternoon. His parents had a guest. It was his youngest uncle from his mother’s side.

“Hello, Uncle,” Wang Yao said.

“Hello, Yao, finished working?” his uncle asked.

“Yes,” Wang Yao said.

“Did you have a lot of patients today?” his uncle asked.

“Not really,” Wang Yao said.

His uncle told Wang Yao and his parents the purpose of his visit during dinner after some casual chatting.

His uncle wanted to change houses. He wanted to buy a bigger house. Wang Yao was not sure how his uncle heard about the house swap business in the village or his relationship with Sun Yunsheng.

“The apartments are in a really good location and close to school,” his uncle said. “Can you ask if I can get a discount?”

“OK, I’ll ask for you,” Wang Yao said.

This was not a big deal for Wang Yao. As long as he asked, Sun Yunsheng would give him a building for free.

“I’ll call you,” Wang Yao said.

“Great, thanks,” his uncle said.

Wang Yao didn’t stay long after dinner.

“Drive safely!” Zhang Xiuying didn’t forget to remind her brother before he left. She also gave him two boxes of gifts, which they had been given by Wang Yao’s friends.

“OK. Don’t worry about me,” Zhang Xiuying’s brother said. “I’ll go to town tomorrow.”

“OK,” Zhang Xiuying said.

Wang Yao didn’t need to speak to Sun Yunsheng, who had arranged for his employees to stay in Lianshan town center and left Wang Yao a contact number.

Housing was a big thing anywhere in the world.

Wang Yao drove to Lianshan town center the next morning.

As expected, the construction of the apartments had finished. Some owners had started to decorate their new apartments. Wang Yao bumped into several people from his village.

“Hello, Yao.” One of them greeted Wang Yao.

“Hello, what are you doing here?” Wang Yao asked.

“I’m decorating the apartment,” the middle-aged villager said.

“All the paperwork has been completed?” Wang Yao asked.

“Yeah, people in town are really efficient,” the villager said with a smile.

“Oh, I see. I won’t bother you then,” Wang Yao said.

“That’s fine. When I’ve finished decorating the apartment, I’ll invite you and your parents here,” the villager said.

“OK,” Wang Yao said.

He bumped into a number of familiar faces.

The apartments were ready for people to move in. The footpath in the complex had also been built. The contractors were still planting trees, but it didn’t affect people moving into the new apartments.

Wang Yao went to speak to Sun Yunsheng’s assistant, whom he had met once.

“Hello, Mr. Wang.” The assistant remembered Wang Yao clearly. After all, Sun Yunsheng had asked him to satisfy all of Wang Yao’s requests, even he wanted to have the whole building.

“Hello, sorry to bother you again,” Wang Yao said.

“No problem, please come in.” The assistant invited Wang Yao into his office. He made him a cup of tea with the best tea leaves he had, which he only used to serve the most distinguished clients.

“So, is that it?” the assistant asked with surprise after learning what Wang Yao wanted.

“Yes, can you help me?” Wang Yao asked.

“Oh, of course,” the assistant immediately said.

It was easy. All Wang Yao had asked for was a discount on one apartment. It was piece of cake for him.

“Actually, you don’t need to come here in person,” the assistant said. “You can just give me a call. Here is my card.”

He handed a business card to Wang Yao although Wang Yao already had his number.

“OK, thank you,” Wang Yao said.

“You are welcome,” the assistant said.

He didn’t expect Wang Yao to be so polite.

After the meeting with Sun Yunsheng’s assistant, Wang Yao went to visit Wang Mingbao.

“Hey, you don’t need to stay at your clinic today?” Wang Mingbao slyly asked.

“I came here for some small business. Then, I thought about you,” Wang Yao said with a smile.

“Have some tea,” Wang Mingbao said.

“Thank you,” Wang Yao said.

“I just got back from Sun Yunsheng’s apartments and bumped into a lot of people from our village,” Wang Yao said.

“I’m not surprised. A lot of them came to buy decorative materials here,” said Wang Mingbao, who ran a decoration store. “They were too scared to continue to stay in the village.”

Those who came to buy materials in Wang Mingbao’s store often had a chat with him. A number of villagers had expressed their concerns or complained about the life in the village to Wang Mingbao. Some of them wished they could exchange their old house for two apartments. There always were greedy people around.

“How about you? Have you asked for one apartment?” Wang Mingbao asked.

The villagers could swap their old houses for new apartments, as well as purchase a new apartment with a discounted price. Considering Wang Yao’s close relationship with Sun Zhengrong and Sun Yunsheng, it would be easy for him to get whatever he wanted.

“No, I don’t want to live there,” Wang Yao said.

He had bought an apartment in Lianshan town center some time ago and never lived inside it.

“Do you need to go back for lunch?” Wang Mingbao asked.

“No,” Wang Yao said.

“Would you like to have lunch together?” Wang Mingbao asked.

“Sure,” Wang Yao said.

Wang Mingbao also invited a few other friends to lunch. Everyone asked Wang Yao about what had happened in his village.

…

In a Beijing laboratory, several people were focusing on something.

“What do you think?” Professor Wu asked.

“These insects did carry the vital bacteria,” a laboratory specialist in his 50s said. He was wearing glasses and was slightly overweight.

“Really?” Professor Wu was surprised.

“Where did you find these insects?” the laboratory specialist asked.

“Why do you ask?” Professor Wu asked.

“These are a different form of mole cricket. So far, I don’t have any record of these kind of insects,” the laboratory specialist said.

“And, you’ve never seen this before?” Professor Wu asked.

“Maybe you can find it somewhere else, but definitely not in the records. Where did you find them?” the laboratory specialist asked again.

“I didn’t find them. A friend of mine did. He found them in a big rock,” Professor Wu said.

“In a rock?” the laboratory specialist asked.

“Yes, the insects lived in a large rock. They emptied the whole rock, which looked like a honeycomb,” Professor Wu said.

“Gee!” The laboratory specialist frowned. “Mole crickets live in soil. I know they can dig holes in soil, but I never heard about them digging holes in a rock. This is unbelievable. Did he find anything else apart from these insects?”

“A mouse. You know mice and insects are often together,” Professor Wu said.

“That is strange. Mice eat mole crickets, so they wouldn’t live together. I can’t explain this,” the laboratory specialist said.

“You can look into that later. First, tell me how these insects got the bacteria in them?” Professor Wu asked.

“It’s hard to explain. It might be due to metamorphosis,” the laboratory specialist said.

“By the way, does mole cricket eat meat?” Professor Wu asked.

“No, they only eat plants,” the laboratory specialist said.

“These insects eat meat,” Professor Wu said.

“Really?” the laboratory specialist asked with shock. “Fetch me some meat!”

One of the other assistants quickly brought in a small piece meat. The laboratory specialist put the meat into the glass jar. The insect jumped on the meat and started to eat.

“They do eat meat,” the laboratory specialist said with surprise.

“Are you sure they are a type of mole cricket?” Professor Wu asked.

“You don’t believe me?” the laboratory specialist asked.

“Professor Lin, someone is on the phone for you,” one of the assistants said.

“Wait here. Don’t leave. Let’s have lunch together.” Professor Lin went out to take the phone call, leaving Professor Wu alone in the laboratory staring at the insects chewing on the piece of pork. It was like they hadn’t eaten for days.

“Mole cricket?” Professor Wu murmured.

Both the insects and the mouse carried bacteria. This was a serious issue.

Professor Lin came back a moment later. “Let’s go to my office.”

“OK,” Professor Wu agreed.

The two went to Professor Lin’s office and shut the door.

“The government officers are impressed by the way you handled the outbreak of that contagious disease in Lianshan,” Professor Lin said.

“I don’t need to impress them,” Professor Wu said.

“You haven’t changed, have you?” Professor Lin knew his old friend well. “Would you like to do something really significant this year?”

“What do you mean really significant? I just want to know why those so-called mole cricket had metamorphosis and find out where the bacteria is from,” Professor Wu said.