During these days, Shen Feng went out into the mountains during the day, trying to find a suitable entrance to kill the Corpse King, but he couldn't find one. He was immediately disheartened and gradually gave up this aimless revenge, planning to find a way to locate the Corpse King in the spring. Now that the zombies were all hiding underground, his heroics were useless.
The Corpse King's intelligence was quite high. Once it sensed something was wrong, it would abandon even an air vent and find a new location for it. The Taihang Mountains were vast and numerous, and Shen Feng didn't know where the western zombies' air vent was.
When he was idle, Shen Feng would also visit Chu Chaoyan in the hospital. Chu Chaoyan knitted a scarf for Shen Feng, which felt very warm around his neck. When he had nothing to do, he also liked to tell Chu Chaoyan jokes, with the aim of making her laugh and preventing her from being depressed by watching TV in the hospital room all day.
One day, Shen Feng arrived at the hospital and was telling Chu Chaoyan a joke: "One day, a bear and a little white rabbit went to the toilet together. Suddenly, the bear asked the little white rabbit: Do you shed fur? The little white rabbit said: No. Then the bear grabbed the little white rabbit and wiped its butt..."
Before Shen Feng could finish, Chu Chaoyan said displeasedly, "You've told this joke before. The rest is about the bear and the little gray rabbit going to eat. Can you be more serious and not fool me!"
Chu Chaoyan had been chatting and laughing with Shen Feng these days, and had already heard many of his jokes. Therefore, it became increasingly difficult for Shen Feng to fool her. If he told a joke once, Chu Chaoyan wouldn't buy it the second time.
Shen Feng shrugged helplessly and said, "A reporter went to Antarctica to interview penguins and asked the first penguin, what do you do every day? The penguin said: Eat, sleep, and beat Doudou..."
This joke wasn't finished either when Chu Chaoyan interrupted Shen Feng again: "You've told this one too. Isn't it just that the last one is Doudou?"
Shen Feng shook his head repeatedly and said seriously, "This one is absolutely not repeated. The hundredth penguin said, my name is Jue!"
Chu Chaoyan was not satisfied and pouted, saying, "You're still fooling me. You must tell a good joke that I haven't heard today, otherwise, you'll have to return the scarf to me, and let's see if you freeze to death this winter!"
Shen Feng smiled awkwardly and began to rack his brains for jokes. But as the saying goes, you only regret not having read enough when you need it. The drawback of having read little became apparent. Shen Feng thought and thought but couldn't recall any good jokes. He had spent most of his time playing games before, and now, when he needed to think of jokes, his mind was blank.
Seeing Shen Feng like this, Chu Chaoyan couldn't help but reach out and grab Shen Feng's scarf, saying, "Quick, quick, give me back my scarf. I'll give it back to you when you can make me laugh!"
It had to be said that in critical moments, when the survival instinct was at its peak, people's potential would erupt. It wasn't just the surge of adrenaline, but also the rapid functioning of the nervous system. Shen Feng actually thought of a joke and quickly began to tell it.
"A man found a little loli, extended his hand, and asked her, guess how many candies I have in my hand? If you guess correctly, I'll give you both candies," Shen Feng said quickly.
Seeing this, Chu Chaoyan listened to Shen Feng's story quietly.
"Then he heard the little loli say, I guess you have five candies in your hand! The man handed the two candies he had to the little loli. A few days later, the man saw the little loli again, reached out, and said: I owe you three candies from last time, and I'll give them to you today. The little loli shook her head and said, No, eating this candy makes my butt hurt." Shen Feng narrated.
When Chu Chaoyan heard this, her face immediately turned red. She reached out and patted Shen Feng's chest, saying coquettishly, "You're going to die! Who understands this kind of story!"
Seeing Chu Chaoyan's reaction, Shen Feng knew she clearly understood, so he smiled, grabbed Chu Chaoyan's slender wrist, and teased, "No rush, no rush. You'll understand naturally when your body recovers. You're smiling now, so you can't take the scarf back."
Just as Shen Feng and Chu Chaoyan were chatting and laughing, the hospital room door was suddenly pushed open, and two medical staff in protective clothing entered, holding thermometers.
Shen Feng turned his head and asked, "What are you doing? You're all geared up. Don't tell me you think we're both infected with the virus?"
At this moment, Shen Feng was very displeased. Someone had barged in and disturbed his and Chu Chaoyan's private time, which was unforgivable.
The medical staff quickly said, "Don't misunderstand. We're just here to check your temperature and distribute masks. From now on, Mr. Shen, please don't bring food into the hospital casually. From now on, the hospital will provide food for Miss Chu. You must also disinfect yourself every time you visit."
Shen Feng was confused. This scene didn't seem like a joke, so he quickly asked, "Has there been an outbreak of an infectious disease?"
The medical staff said in a low voice, "It's the plague! Starting this morning, hundreds of people have been sent to the hospital. After testing, it was found to be the plague, and traces of the plague have also been found in other places!"
Shen Feng was shocked when he heard this: "The plague has reappeared? Even in Yanjing? This is too exaggerated!"
In Shen Feng's opinion, Yanjing had always been very hygienic. Even after the battle more than a month ago, the zombie corpses had been transported by train from Tianjin and thrown into the sea. Logically, such a hygienic place should not breed bacteria, but the sudden outbreak of the plague was too strange! Especially in winter, when the temperature was so low, bacterial reproduction would also be affected.
The medical staff shook their heads and said, "We don't know about that. Anyway, after our tests, we confirmed it's the plague. We detected Bacillus anthracis on these people. This thing doesn't appear randomly."
Shen Feng looked at Chu Chaoyan worriedly, contemplating whether he should take Chu Chaoyan back to the base to care for her personally. If the hospital was full of patients, it was inevitable that she might get infected. Even superhumans were still human, and if they got sick, they would likely die. What Shen Feng was worried about was Chu Chaoyan's safety.
Chu Chaoyan understood Shen Feng's meaning, but she didn't think so: "It's safest in the hospital. I'll continue to recuperate here. As for you, you should protect yourself, as you've been traveling outside all the time."
Shen Feng thought about it and realized she was right. Staying in the hospital would provide the best treatment. Moreover, Chu Chaoyan still needed some time to recuperate. She had been severely injured before, and if she didn't recuperate properly now, she might develop chronic illnesses, which Shen Feng did not want to see. Therefore, it was better for her to stay in the hospital.
The medical staff gave Shen Feng a stack of masks and sprayed him with disinfectant. His temperature was normal, so they left the room.
Since the hospital discovered that some people were infected with the plague, the entire Yanjing became vigilant and began to investigate the source of the epidemic. If the source could not be cut off, the epidemic would continue to appear. They didn't know until they investigated that tens of thousands of people in Yanjing were infected with the plague. Since many people had survived the zombie virus, those who were healthy had survived. Now, with the appearance of the plague, young and strong people didn't feel much. At most, they had a fever and felt weak, thinking it was just a cold. However, after a closer examination, they discovered it was not a cold, but the plague!
Suddenly, the entire city of Yanjing was in a panic. Who would have thought that an epidemic would suddenly appear in the city? Outside, there were still tens of millions of zombies lurking, and now an epidemic had broken out within the city. In such a difficult situation, even an immortal would find it hard to handle.
This was the result after communication was restricted. If people in the city could access the internet smoothly, no matter what forum it was, it would have exploded! After all, under internal and external pressure, there would definitely be pessimistic people spreading negative remarks, and ordinary people, being ignorant, would follow suit. What was originally nothing would eventually become a huge uproar.
In fact, in the face of modern medicine, epidemics were not insurmountable monsters, and there were drugs to treat them. Since the advent of antibiotics, large-scale epidemics had become rare. Even smallpox had eventually been controlled by vaccines. Unless antibiotics became ineffective, epidemics could not take too many lives.
Although there were ways to deal with the epidemic, it still required time for treatment. The headquarters estimated that they would not have the opportunity or the energy to take the initiative before spring arrived!
"The zombies are really lucky to have escaped this calamity!" The strategists at headquarters felt very regretful. The sudden appearance of the epidemic had caused Yanjing to lose the opportunity to take the initiative. As a result, the combat time could only be postponed until spring. By then, the temperature would warm up, and the zombies would also come out of their burrows. At that time, it would be a desperate struggle between both sides.
However, when the investigators in Yanjing were checking the surveillance footage, they suddenly discovered something unusual at the reservoir in the north. It turned out that a few days ago, mutated zombies had thrown many zombie corpses into the reservoir under the cover of night! After the corpses fell into the water, they were quickly eaten by fish, but the water in the reservoir was also polluted!
The tap water in Yanjing mostly came from the reservoir in the north. Although it would be filtered and disinfected at the water treatment plant, the crucial point was that some special channels used recycled water. This water was directly used after simple filtration. Therefore, the plague entered Yanjing through the water source!
Now, the matter was finally clarified. It turned out that the plague in Yanjing did not appear out of nowhere, but was a poisoning by the zombie side!
"Damn zombies, spreading the plague into the city, how hateful!"
"This means that the zombies have the plague. What is bound to happen will eventually happen, and it cannot be avoided at all!"
"There's no other way. We can only issue a public announcement now, telling everyone to boil tap water before drinking it and to refrain from drinking raw water."
"We also need to transfer medicines from the south. It's hateful that trains are not running now, and roads are not open either, so we can only use air transport for medicines."
After extensive investigation, Yanjing confirmed that it was poisoning by the zombie side and hated the zombies to the bone. The Corpse King was too detestable. It was bad enough that it had the plague itself, but it also actively spread the plague to the human side. This was harming others without benefiting itself. If it had the ability, it should have come out for a direct fight, instead of hiding in its burrow and playing dirty tricks!
The fighting had to be halted. Yanjing needed to ensure the safety of its people, so medicines were mobilized from several major pharmaceutical provinces in the south, especially from the southwestern provinces, which had highly developed pharmaceutical industries and perfect antibiotic production. Sufficient medicines could be obtained from the southern provinces in a short period.
Shen Feng was very envious of such rapid mobilization capabilities, thinking, "As expected of the authorities, their ability to mobilize medicines is so powerful! I had to sneak to the south to buy medicine in Luzhou, or even make penicillin using crude methods if necessary. Now they can mobilize enough medicine with just a word. They are truly amazing."
When he was idle, Shen Feng missed his senior sister in Yuzhou. With communication restricted, Shen Feng could not easily contact his relatives thousands of miles away. As for the satellite phone he had, it could not be used casually except in emergencies, and it would be monitored when used. If he said anything private, others would know about it, so what was the point?
Shen Feng had finished reading all the comics he brought. The second read was also boring, so the thing Shen Feng did most was to space out. He would stand on the city wall, lean against the parapet, and look at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle, perfectly embodying his语文 teacher's saying, "An old ox looking at the sky, the more it looks, the fresher it becomes."
Fortunately, the often idle Ability Administration frequently sought out Shen Feng, especially Zhang Jue. Relying on his ability to fly, he would flap his wings and come to the city wall to find Shen Feng. He also often brought Shen Feng a few novels, which gave Shen Feng something to relieve his boredom.
Besides Zhang Jue, the people Shen Feng saw most often were Xiao Sheng and Jin Zijue. These two people would bring people to the city wall from time to time, carrying food and drinks with them. These were typical fair-weather friends. When they appeared, they would always bring wine and meat, because there was nothing else they could carry. Food in Yanjing had long been controlled, and it was already quite good to be able to get wine and meat.