Infection (Part Two)

"Don't stop her! Find a way to make her vomit everything out! Hurry!" Mo Li shouted as he stared at the writhing worms in the vomit.

Hearing Mo Li's shout, Big Beard was stunned as well. But when he saw the pool of vomit Mo Li was staring at, his expression changed. Big Beard immediately helped the girl up from the floor, moved behind her, and wrapped both arms around her. He made one hand into a fist and placed the thumb side of it against the girl's abdomen below her rib cage and above her navel. Then he grabbed his fist with his other hand and rapidly thrust upward, compressing the girl's abdomen.

Mo Li recognized this as a first-aid technique called the Heimlich maneuver. It was usually used to rescue people who had food stuck in their windpipes. Since the girl's stomach was probably still in spasms from vomiting, this method could make her vomit again.

After trying several times, the girl finally started vomiting again. Those worms were still mixed in with her vomit, and there were so many of them that they could not possibly be counted.

Seeing the girl vomit so many worms, Mo Li's expression turned serious. He had never seen this kind of worm before, and judging by the sheer number she had vomited, there were probably still a large number of them inside her body. This situation was extremely dangerous.

The girl could barely vomit anything anymore. The last few mouthfuls were nothing but water. Forcing her to keep vomiting would cause serious harm to her body, so Big Beard let her lie down on the floor. Just as before, the girl clutched her stomach and curled up. The pain on her face made it obvious how much she was suffering.

Looking at the suffering girl, both Big Beard and Mo Li wore helpless expressions. They had no idea how to save her.

"Looks like there's something wrong with this meat." Mo Li sighed helplessly, then turned to look at the piece of meat the girl had thrown onto the floor.

But just after Mo Li finished speaking, Big Beard shook his head and said, "No! This meat is very fresh. The problem shouldn't be with the meat. Besides, I've eaten all the meat that's been delivered these past few days, and nothing happened to me."

Mo Li frowned when he heard Big Beard, then muttered in confusion, "If the problem isn't with the meat, then what is it?"

"I don't know! Princess has eaten the same things I have these past few days, and we drank the same water too. Why am I fine?" Big Beard looked somewhat agitated.

"Think carefully. Is there something she ate that you didn't?" Mo Li continued pressing him.

"Does it matter if we figure that out now? Even if we know, what can we do? We can't get out of here!" Big Beard finally exploded and shouted angrily at Mo Li.

Perhaps Big Beard had shouted too loudly, because he actually woke Wei Dengke from his coma. He seemed to have been sleeping in a daze and suddenly sat up, then stared blankly around him in panic. "What's going on? What's going on? Did something happen?"

Mo Li and Big Beard clearly had not expected Wei Dengke to sit up so suddenly. They both stared at him in astonishment. Wei Dengke seemed to have regained some of his senses as well. After looking at Mo Li and Big Beard, he scratched his head and asked, "Mo Li, where are we?"

"I don't know where we are either, but we were probably brought here and locked up by the Yeti." Mo Li answered bitterly.

Hearing Mo Li, Wei Dengke curled his lip. He then looked at Zhong Lichun, who was still unconscious beside him. Just then, the girl suddenly let out a scream, startling Wei Dengke, who had only just woken up.

Turning to look at the girl curled up on the floor with her stomach clutched in her hands, Wei Dengke asked in confusion, "Who is this girl? What happened to her?"

"She's the Princess you were looking for. She must have eaten something she shouldn't have and become infected with parasites." Mo Li answered.

As soon as he heard that this girl was the target of their mission, an excited expression immediately appeared on Wei Dengke's face. He climbed to his feet, but perhaps because he was still suffering from the aftereffects of the gas poisoning, he staggered several times after standing and nearly fell again. Fortunately, Mo Li was nearby and quickly caught him.

Wei Dengke vigorously shook his head, then looked at the girl again. "Mo Li, you said she's infected with parasites. What kind of parasite is it?"

"How would I know? Do I look like you? But there were those worms in her vomit just now. Take a look yourself." Mo Li curled his lip at Wei Dengke's question, then irritably pointed at the vomit on the floor.

Wei Dengke pushed Mo Li away, walked over to the vomit, and squatted down to study it carefully. Quite a few of the worms in the vomit had already died, while some of those still alive were barely moving. Wei Dengke did not seem bothered by the filth. He picked up one of the little bugs with his hand and brought it close to his eyes. The worm was about six or seven millimeters long, blackish gray all over, pointed at both ends and wide in the middle, with spiral-like wrinkles covering its body.

Wei Dengke frowned and pondered for a long time. Then, as if he had remembered something, he raised his other hand and slapped his forehead. "I know what this worm is. It's called a Hepatocurvospiral Worm, a parasite that likes to live in the human stomach and intestines."

"Huh? What spiral worm? How come I've never heard of it?" Mo Li's confusion only deepened when he heard Wei Dengke. He pressed him for an explanation.

"It's normal that you haven't heard of it. This worm didn't actually exist in our era. It was first discovered in fossils from the Permian Period. However, more than thirty years ago, biologists found living specimens of this worm in an ice sample during an expedition to Antarctica. But specimens of this worm are extremely rare. How did she become infected with this parasite here?" Wei Dengke explained.

"Since you know this worm, can you save Princess?" Big Beard immediately became excited when he heard Wei Dengke and asked anxiously.

"Treat it? Because this parasite was so rare, only a few experiments were ever conducted on it. Humans had never been infected before, so I don't know how to treat it either." Wei Dengke shook his head with an embarrassed expression.

"Didn't you come to rescue us? Princess is already like this, and you're telling me you can't do anything?" Big Beard was truly frantic this time. He rushed over, grabbed Wei Dengke by the neck, lifted him up, and roared furiously.

"Calm down, all of you! Our top priority is figuring out how to save Princess, not fighting among ourselves!" Seeing that Big Beard was about to attack, Mo Li hurried over, grabbed his arm, and tried to persuade him.