Extreme germ phobia

Chapter 319 Roots
The next day, just as dawn was breaking, Ouyang opened his eyes.

Despite not falling asleep until midnight last night, despite feeling exhausted, and despite still lying in bed unable to sleep, he simply got up and went up to the deck.

The warships were now far from the storm, the sea was calm, and even the air felt much fresher.

As Ouyang gazed at the rising sun, his heart felt not calm, but rather chaotic.

"What are you thinking about?" Lu Wei's familiar voice came from behind.

Ou Yang turned around: "Why are you here?"

Lu Wei stood beside Ou Yang: "I heard from the sentry that you went up to the deck alone. I was worried that you might do something rash, so I came over to check on you."

"Get lost." Ouyang rolled his eyes. "Why are you so outspoken?"

"Haha, feeling better now?" Lu Wei asked with a smile.

Ou Yang shook his head: "It's even worse now."

Lu Wei took a deep breath of fresh air: "You seem to have something on your mind. Can you tell me about it?"

"What?" Ouyang glanced at him sideways. "Are you planning to give me a talking-to?"

"I guess so," Lu Wei nodded in agreement.

"Actually, it's nothing, it's just a little..." Ou Yang waved his hands wildly in the air, unable to think of an accurate description for a moment.

Lu Wei took the initiative to guide the conversation: "Is it about emotions, or about daily life?"

Ou Yang thought for a moment and said, "No, it's more like a psychological thing."

"You? And psychologically?" Lu Wei didn't believe it at all. "How could you possibly have psychological problems?"

Having made it out of Brown Bear City, it wasn't exactly a bloodbath, but it was pretty close. Having overcome so many obstacles, how could I possibly have psychological problems?
Ou Yang sighed: "Actually, it's nothing, it's just that I suddenly feel that people are just too greedy."

Lu Wei was completely baffled. What was all this about?
Ou Yang looked up at the sky: "When I was in the epidemic area, my biggest wish was to get out of there as soon as possible, as far away from the epidemic area as possible. I was living day to day, not knowing whether tomorrow or an accident would come first, and I didn't dare to think about going home. But after I really left and got on this ship, I started to think about when I could go back to China and when I could go home."

Lu Wei was speechless: "No, so after all this rambling, you just wanted to be home?"

"You don't want to?" Ouyang asked back.

Lu Wei sighed dejectedly: "How can I not miss it? I haven't taken a vacation in years. The last time I saw my parents was when they came to visit me at the military base."

His mood became even more depressed, and he rubbed the ground hard with the sole of his shoe: "It's a pity we came at the wrong time. In less than half a day, we boarded the ship and set off, crossing the ocean in one go to get here. I don't know when we'll meet again."

Ou Yang pursed his lips: "I only have one thought right now: to quickly conduct research and make a breakthrough. Once we can cure the phantom lung disease, we won't be far from going back."

"Yes, when we can get treatment, we won't be far from going back!" Lu Wei repeated wistfully.

The two of them fell silent.

Researching this subject is fraught with uncertainty. Perhaps we'll make a breakthrough tomorrow and completely resolve the pandemic in no time; or perhaps we won't find the right direction for years, or even decades, and the time to go home will remain indefinitely postponed.

After a long silence, Ouyang finally broke the silence: "Even if we can't find a cure, can't we at least get a vaccine?"

Lu Wei immediately shook his head: "What are you thinking? This is a fungus, not bacteria, let alone a virus. When have you ever heard of a fungal vaccine?"

Ouyang genuinely had no idea about this: "Isn't there a vaccine for fungi?" As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized something was off. He had heard of many vaccines, such as hepatitis A and B, rabies, plague, and influenza, which included both bacteria and viruses, but he had never heard of a fungal vaccine!
In Ouyang's mind, fungi are mushrooms, and mushrooms are fungi; he had never heard of using mushrooms to make vaccines.

Of course, although I've forgotten most of what I learned in high school biology class, I still remember that fungi are a huge family, and there are fungi that grow in places where mushrooms don't.

"Of course not!" Lu Wei said with certainty. "I overheard people in the research group talking about how the most troublesome thing about Pneumocystis is that it's a fungus. There have been studies on fungal vaccines before, but they've all remained in the research stage, and no practical one has been developed yet."

Ouyang suddenly realized: "No wonder!"

"What's the wonder?"

Ouyang's mood, which had been improving, plummeted again: "I always thought that the primary goal of the research was a vaccine. No wonder they were talking about stem cells and gene embedding. So that's where the root of the problem lies!"

“Even if a vaccine can be developed, it won’t be that easy. Take AIDS for example. It’s been known for over forty years, but has a vaccine been developed yet?” Lu Wei said with a sigh.

Ou Yang turned to look at Lu Wei: "At least with AIDS, we can still research vaccines, but Pneumocystis pneumonia doesn't even have the chance to be researched... Hey, after hearing what you said, I suddenly don't think AIDS is so scary anymore."

He had some understanding of AIDS.

The most terrifying thing about this disease is that there is no cure. Things are better now, with the ability to maintain a normal life using cocktail therapy. Before cocktail therapy is widely available, once infected, one can only wait to die. Moreover, because the virus destroys the patient's immune system, many microorganisms that would not infect normal people can infect the patient.

For example, the skin can be covered in mold, like a moldy orange.

Lu Wei nodded in agreement: "AIDS is indeed very scary, but compared to pneumococcus, it's nothing. In my hometown, there are only two Class A infectious diseases: plague and cholera. Class B is different; it includes AIDS, rabies, hepatitis, and 28 other diseases in total."

Ouyang was quite surprised: "You know about this?"

"You become like those you associate with," Lu Wei said. "But now that we have Phantom Pneumonia, no matter if it's Class A or Class B, all the infectious diseases in human history combined are no match for Phantom Pneumonia."

“Yes, none of them can compare to phantom lung disease,” Ou Yang repeated in a low voice. “Maybe in the future, we’ll have to set up a super category above the first-class category.”

Lu Wei suddenly glanced at his watch: "It's getting late, let's go back. Don't think too much about it. If you ask me, it's a good thing we can't go back."

Ou Yang looked at him in surprise: "How did it turn out to be a good thing?"

"The fact that we can't go back means our home is safe."

Ouyang thought about it and agreed; the same problem could lead to completely different results if viewed from a different angle.

Thinking about it this way, the frustration in my heart dissipated a lot: "Alright, go do your thing, I'm fine."

"Is it really okay?"

"It's really nothing," Ou Yang laughed. "I definitely won't jump down, so don't worry."

"Alright, I'll be going now." Lu Wei turned and left without the slightest hesitation.

Ouyang let out a long sigh of relief, put his hands in his pockets, and slowly walked back to his cabin.

Unexpectedly, they ran into Zhou Jimin on the way. Ou Yang greeted him politely, "Good morning, Professor!"

Zhou Jimin seemed to have something urgent to attend to, and he rushed past like a gust of wind, only nodding to Ou Yang in response.

Ou Yang didn't pay any attention and went back on his own.

(End of this chapter)