The Great Worm Lich

The Amazon rainforest in South America was the biggest tropical rainforest in the world. There were countless fatal animals and dangerous poisonous plants on this two million square mile moist and hot land with the largest freshwater river, the Amazon River. There were more than 20 million isolated natives lived there for generations. The Amazon River was their home, they survived by hunting in the jungle.

Apart from the tribes, a portion of the savages killed all kinds of animals, while all kinds of meat were edible to them. People usually called them cannibals. Due to the three ‘products’ in Amazon including the terrifying beasts, poisonous insects and cannibals, usually, only two kinds of people would go deep into the rainforest by foot. One was the real explorer, to them, the Amazon rainforest was the heaven god blessed them with. They would explore into it, knowing the risk like the water in a thirsty man’s hands and the food on the table for a famished man; The other kind of people were the animal and plant scientists. To them, the Amazon rainforest was like a natural biology museum, the heaven of knowledge.

Apart from the two kinds of people, others who would explore the Amazon rainforest by foot would either be an idiot, or a loony. For those who expected to conquer the entire rainforest that stretched thousands of kilometers by hiring a few tour guides were lunatics. Perhaps even Zhang Lisheng the Rank-3 Wizard dared not do something like this.

Zhang Lisheng was stunned for a moment. He commented on the two men who chose to explore Amazon instead of spending Christmas by the furnace during winter holiday just to prove that they were real men, “Hmm, they’re very brave…”

“Quit your sarcasm Lisheng. It was me who introduced Henrick to Henry, I’ll be guilty for the rest of my life if something happened,” Tina arrived at Trish’s mom’s ward as she spoke. She sighed and opened the door. The wards in public hospital were pretty much the same. Zhang Lisheng heard a loud scream as he followed behind Tina into the ward.

“I don’t want to hear any excuses and explanations from you, Mr. Nagout. I don’t want to hear any excuses and explanations! My wife has just gotten off the operation table, and she’s returning to the ward. I want to hear good news when she wakes up, understand? Good news. Alright, I’m going to hang up on you. You should go look for my son if you have the time to call me,” A middle-aged man who was at least two meters tall stood before the bed. He was so muscular that he looked like a polar bear, he had a square-shaped face. He pressed on the end call button hard.

The man was Trish’s father, Howick Steg. He was 45 this year, born in a strict Catholic military family in California. His grandfather was a brigadier general during World World II and awarded the National Defense Service Medal. His father and brothers were currently senior officers. Howick enrolled in the military when he was young and served the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which was one of the highest organization in American military.

He was the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s office administrative intern, administrative secretary III… executive secretary. He served for 12 years and after awarded with Lieutenant Colonel and loyalty medal, he quit with his great connection in military and politics. He then founded Blue Water Public Relations Agency in Washington and did political lobbying business.

Due to his unique working experience, he had the loyalty of a military man and sly like a politician. Born in Chaotic military family, he was friends with both hawks and doves politicians. Just like what Howick said before, “A wise politician would have sufficient political literacy, keeping an open attitude in all political matters. However, a politician isn’t a piece of plank no matter how wise he is…”

In the short two years, Blue Water Public Relations Agency went full force in Washington. He solved a few serious political crisis with his remarkable mediation technique. Eight years later, the agency miraculously developed into one of the best political lobbying agencies in America. He had clients from all over the world, from the powerful African politicians to the new world-class government.

Since his career took off, he began fading out of politics and lived a low-key life in New York. Howick who went deeper into politics successfully, naturally became the new idol of New York’s upper class. In a nutshell, Howick who was strong and high spirited with career, family, and love was going smooth sailing and thought nothing in life could ever knock him down, until his son Henry was born.

He had no idea how many times he had to clean up after his irresponsible son. Though Howick looked tough on the outside, he was feeling more and more helpless deep in his heart. The natives in Amazon did not need to keep any good ties with Washington. Howick’s people connection and power was a nothing to the savage land. The only thing that he could do was to find a rescue team through other ways. Heaven knew if that would help in anything at all.

The ward fell into silence as Howick screamed, Trish was the only one who was sobbing softly. Sheila consoled her by her side, there were two tall and skinny young men who looked similar standing beside them quietly. “I’m sorry Trish, I shouldn’t have let that damn Henrick…” Tina cried and walked to Trish feeling weak, she had lost count of how many times she had apologized.

“It’s not your fault, sis. I heard my dad’s fighting with the search team, I’m worried that Henry… Henry… He’s only 17… only 17…”

“Henry will be fine, Trish. Oh yea, see Lisheng is here to see you. He’s a jungle hunter, he’s very familiar with those tropical jungles. He told me that as long as they’re well-prepared, Amazon’s actually… actually not as scary as we think. Am I right, Lisheng?” Tina signaled Zhang Lisheng.

“Trish, what Tina said was right. To me, the tropical rainforest’s like a donut of four layers. Since your brother hired a native tour guide, it shouldn’t be dangerous,” Zhang Lisheng said and nodded.

Howick who loved his kids felt pain hearing Trish crying. He hated himself for throwing a tantrum and screaming which scared his daughter. Hearing what Zhang Lisheng said, he pretended to speak like he was interested, “Are you Trish’s friend too, young man? I heard that you know something about the rainforest, could you tell me more about the donut layers?” He was trying to distract Trish.

“Of course I can, sir. The layers in the rainforest were not as obvious as the layers in a donut, they were merged together. The first layer was the outer layer with the lowest ‘sweetness’. Using the Amazon River as the example, I’m speculating this area should be made up of most of the Amazon River basin… The fourth layer’s the core zone with the highest ‘sweetness’ including the middle part of Amazon River where a few native tribes live, but have yet to be discovered, the swamp in the west and also…” Zhang Lisheng said without stopping.

Listening to Zhang Lisheng talking, Howick’s expression turned serious gradually. As a top political broker, he could tell by instinct that this young man before him was not some boastful person. “Young man, it seems like you indeed have your own way of interpreting the rainforest.”

“I only know the habitats and data of all of the identified insects and reptiles in the world.”

“Uncle Howick, Lisheng had been living in a small mountain village in the ancient jungle in Sichuan China for over ten years. He’s a legit jungle hunter, he saved my life in a jungle before,” Tina added.

“So you were the young man who saved Tina. I heard Trish talking about you when we were eating, he told me that you have a giant centipede that hunts.”

Zhang Lisheng was stunned for a moment and said wearing a smile, “You must think that’s something ridiculous.”

“No, to a person who worked 12 years in the Joint Chiefs of Staff and lived in Africa temporarily for three months, that was nothing ridiculous,” Howick looked at Zhang Lisheng and extended his hand in an official way, “My name’s Howick Steg. Young man, I would be happy to meet you if we didn’t meet in such condition today.”

“My name’s Zhang Lisheng, Mr. Howick…” Zhang Lisheng shook Howick’s hand and said. The ward’s door was opened at that moment, a few care workers pushed a gurney with an unconscious, pale lady in. She had drip and heart rate monitor on her chest, there was a wooden blanket covering her naked upper body.

A doctor followed behind the gurney, “May I know which one is the patient’s family?”

“Doctor, I’m her husband. May I know how’s my wife now?” Howick let go of Zhang Lisheng’s hand and rushed to the doctor to ask.

“The surgery was very successful, the patient’s stable at the moment, but she mustn’t be stimulated…” The doctor began informing the patient’s condition to Howick. The care workers moved the pale lady onto the bed carefully and began fixing all sorts of medical monitoring equipment. Trish walked to her mom’s bed quickly and sobbed watching her unconscious mom. Her boyfriend and friends comforted her softly feeling the pain she was feeling.

Since everyone had their own role, Zhang Lisheng seized the opportunity to leave the ward that became crowded. Rekindling the friendship with Tina was great, but it was not worth it for him to put too much effort into it. For the next few days, Zhang Lisheng lived his life as usual and completed his first semester, since arriving in America.

He obtained Bs for seven subjects, it was neutral but considering that he was a transfer student and only attended half of the classes compared to the rest, his result was pretty remarkable. It was a winter holiday after the exam ended. The prom would come, after the winter holiday.