After the darkness!

To save money, Lin Yijue didn't take the bus anymore. Instead, he carried his small schoolbag and prepared to run home.

Hongpailou, like the school, is located in Xinniu District, but not in the district center, so it is not too far from his hometown, Jiudu District.

He had studied the map beforehand and figured that if he maintained a normal pace of five minutes and twenty seconds per kilometer, crossed the red-card street, turned right at the fourth alley, and continued straight ahead, he would be home in less than thirty minutes.

Along the way, Lin Yijue practiced his air strikes from time to time while running.

A straight punch followed by a hook, and occasionally an uppercut.

Occasionally, the sliding step technique is also used.

However, you can only skate forward. If you want to practice skating backward, you probably won't be able to get home until night.

I must say, jogging combined with air combat has a pretty good training effect.

The more he practiced, the better he became, and the more energetic he became in the game.

In just this short time, Yun Sheng's boxing proficiency increased to 92.8%.

It requires much more physical exertion than hitting a sandbag.

Lin Yijue originally planned to train his way back, but after running for less than ten minutes, he started panting heavily, with large drops of sweat pouring out.

A burning sensation converged from every muscle to the spine, and my lungs felt like they were about to explode.

At the same time, a buzzing sound appeared in my ears. At first, it was just a faint sound of flapping wings, with a very low pitch and a thin wisp of smoke. But it quickly began to change, mixed with a sharp sound like metal rubbing together, like someone scraping a rusty iron pot with their fingernail.

This is a strange disease taking hold, directly bypassing the fatigue level and reaching the level of being devoured by insects.

Lin Yijue shook his head, not too flustered.

After several tests, he was able to confirm that insect bites at this stage could be recovered with just ten minutes of rest.

After all, it only affects hearing, not vision.

If even his vision starts to be affected, he'll have no choice but to stay put and sleep.

Lin Yijue stopped and looked around.

Just a dozen meters ahead was a milk tea shop called "Sweet Whispers Time," with a dozen small, milky-white round tables set up in front of the shop.

It was surrounded by a light brown fence, covered with vines that bloomed with orange-red trumpet flowers.

From a distance, you can see many young men and women sitting there drinking milk tea and eating desserts.

Lin Yijue gritted his teeth and strode forward quickly.

There were two empty tables near the door, so he plopped down and leaned slightly on them.

Less than half a minute later, a shop assistant came over with the menu.

"Welcome! What would you like to drink?" The waitress, a woman in her thirties, smiled and bowed slightly.

Lin Yijue glanced at the menu handed to him and said, "I'll have a signature girly milk tea."

He ordered the cheapest must-try drink, which cost only 9 yuan.

Before the shop assistant could leave, she finished speaking and lay down on the table, gritting her teeth, waiting for the pain to subside.

Unbeknownst to him, as the pain slowly subsided, his mind gradually began to go blank.

I entered a state of being half asleep and half awake.

In this state, he could perceive the things around him and hear the shop assistant carrying milk tea past, saying "Please enjoy your drink." But when he wanted to say thank you, he found it difficult to get up.

It's a little hard to control the wandering of my thoughts.

"It's fine to just take a nap like this. Just a short nap, then I'll get up and go home. It'll only be ten minutes at most," Lin Yijue told himself.

Just then, he suddenly heard a very warm and magnetic voice in his ear.

"...Have some milk tea, a room temperature Strawberry Princess milk tea with 50% sugar. You've just been working too much overtime these past few days, you just need a rest. I'll ask for a day off for you tomorrow and take you to the botanical garden. We can soak up some sun there, walk barefoot in the mud, everything will be alright..."

"Oh, by the way, I also booked an appointment for you at the Second Military Region General Hospital this afternoon. We'll go see a doctor after we finish visiting the botanical garden. The doctors there are very skilled. Even if you don't have any illnesses, we're sure we can cure them!" the man said reassuringly.

"Amin, don't worry about me anymore. My illness is incurable. Have you forgotten how many times we've been to the hospital and how much money we've spent? But they all say I'm not sick..."

"But I don't even know if I'm sick or not?" a sobbing woman's voice choked as she answered.

"I really can't take it anymore, you know? My whole body aches, it hurts so much, it feels like it's on fire, even the slightest movement hurts terribly."

"And I also have tinnitus. It feels like countless people are talking around me. At first, it was just whispering, but now the voices are so loud they sound like screams and roars..." The woman cried as she spoke.

"And I'm so hungry, really so hungry, my stomach is cramping, but I don't want to eat anything, I only react to raw...raw meat, you know?"

"I feel nauseous just thinking about them, but when they're in front of me, I can't help but drool. I hate this feeling..." The girl's voice was very low, but by the end, she was clearly struggling to contain herself.

"Ah Ruan..." The man's voice was low and hoarse, with a slight, almost imperceptible tremor.

"Don't give up, okay? The General Hospital of the Military Region is different, Ruan, it's really different. Their equipment... is not the same as the ordinary hospitals we went to before."

He deliberately emphasized the second half of his sentence, as if he were trying to persuade her, but more like he was trying to persuade himself.

"Different? What could be different? Blood tests, X-rays, MRIs... I've had enough! The machines show everything is normal, but I..."

"I can feel it growing! It's not a virus, not bacteria... it's a... need! Like hunger, yet it devours all cooked food! A sound, not tinnitus... it's a call! Calling me to..." The girl's voice was shrill with despair.

"I...can't hold on until tomorrow. Those sounds...are getting louder. And this 'hunger'...is more terrifying than the pain...it's...distorting my senses..." The girl burst into tears.

"The hospital will definitely cure you, they will definitely cure you..." The boy's voice was low, as if he was comforting you, or as if he was praying.

The more Lin Yijue listened, the more familiar it seemed. The symptoms described by the other person were very similar to those of his own strange illness.

Just as I was about to get up, I faintly sensed that the two people beside me had made some kind of decision and quickly got up and left.

He watched from afar as a tall man in a dark gray polo shirt walked away with his arm around a petite girl in a green sweater.

The girl was still crying, while the man gently patted her back to comfort her.

Not long after, they hailed an electric tricycle, got on, and drove away.

The hospital couldn't find any results either.

"I only have an appetite for raw meat."

Lin Yijue felt a little scared, but after recalling that he had eaten two big bowls of rice at noon, he felt relieved.

No, that's not right. Thinking back carefully, his appetite does seem to have decreased. At noon, after finishing a bowl of rice, he actually had no appetite left.

I just habitually added another bowl.

Thinking of this, even though the pain in his body had almost subsided, his body was still trembling slightly, and his muscles felt a little numb.

"So they really do have the same disease, but the other person's is in its late stage, while his is in its early stage...?"

Lin Yijue's throat was a little dry, so he couldn't help but take a couple of sips of the milk tea on the table.